MARCH 2002
"DRASTIC" CHANGES SEEN IN DOMESTIC MILITARY OPERATIONS
SECRECY NEWS - In the absence of clear guidelines and effective oversight, the U.S. military is becoming increasingly involved in domestic operations, including surveillance activities that blur the traditional distinction between foreign intelligence and domestic security. "Since September 11, 2001, the role of the military in domestic operations has changed drastically," according to the 2004 Operational Law Handbook of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps.
"Prior to September 11, military involvement in domestic operations was almost exclusively in the area of civil support operations. Post-September 11, the military's role has expanded to cover 'homeland defense' and/or 'homeland security' missions, somewhat undefined terms," the JAG Handbook stated.
ROBERT BLOCK AND GARY FIELDS, WALL STREET JOURNAL- In a little noticed side effect of the war on terrorism, the military is edging toward a sensitive area that has been off-limits to it historically: domestic intelligence gathering and law enforcement. Several recent incidents involving the military have raised concern among student and civil-rights groups. One was a visit last month by an Army intelligence agent to an official at the University of Texas law school in Austin. The agent demanded a videotape of a recent academic conference at the school so that he could identify what he described as "three Middle Eastern men" who had made "suspicious" remarks to Army lawyers at the seminar, according to the official, Susana Aleman, the dean of student affairs.
The Army, while not disputing that the visit took place, declined to comment, saying the incident is under investigation.
Last year, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the nation's primary source of global maritime intelligence, demanded access to the U.S. Customs Service's database on maritime trade, saying it needed information to thwart potential terrorist activity. Customs officials initially resisted the Navy's demands but eventually agreed to give naval intelligence much of what it wanted.....
In another sign of military interest in domestic information-gathering, the Defense Intelligence Agency's new antiterrorism task force is looking to share information with law-enforcement officials in California and New York City, according to an August 2003 General Accounting Office report.
||| STEVE BARNES, REUTERS - U.S. Marines will hunt mock combatants in a real city in a first-of-its-kind urban warfare exercise aimed at improving tactics in the U.S. war on terrorism and other dangerous overseas missions . . . "We're training to keep Marines alive while causing fewer civilian casualties," said Jenny Holbert, a Marine Corps public affairs officer based at Quantico, Virginia . . . "It's the first time we've done such training in real neighborhoods, with the tempo of a city - people walking dogs, going about their lives," Holbert said . . . Local police will accompany the troops as they move about, and city workers and officials will join in the role playing, including Mayor Pat Hays. "He wants to play a warlord," Holbert said. MORE
HANK, OAKLAND - When new Mayor of Oakland CA Jerry Brown took office in 1998, one of his first acts was to invite the Marine exercises called "Urban Warrior," recently rejected by the Park Service in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, to come to Oakland and practice their craft in a real city; on the waterfront, in the downtown area and on the site of the former Oak Knolls naval hospital. They entered the old Army base in hovercrafts, and planned on cordoning off one, then nine, then sixteen city blocks as they gained control of a real urban center. The exercise included a cadre of high tech corporations testing GPS gear. When they stormed the Naval Hospital, they encountered "protesters" wearing headscarves and other identifiable garb. Rumor has it that this was the largest casting call for people of color in the Bay area in years.JAN 2002
STEVE BRAWNER, CNS NEWS - About 300 U.S. Marine Corps troops have invaded the city of North Little Rock, Ark., as part of an experiment to test tactics and concepts in a real-world urban environment . . . Marines will test the "three-block" concept, developed several years ago, which envisions a situation where Marines perform a humanitarian mission on one block, quell tensions on the next and engage in combat on the next . . . Troops are also observing the reaction of civilians to determine which combination of uniform and time of day attracts the least amount of interest. One of the experiments, according to Maj. Chandler Hirsch, the senior Marine on the ground in North Little Rock, resulted in "a bunch of school kids waving at the Marines as they drove by in a school bus, indicating as we expected that Marines in uniform attract attention." Gen. Wesley Clarke, who headed the war in Kosovo and now lives in Arkansas, agreed the exercise is a positive thing. "I think it's important. I think it's great for the American people to see our armed forces at work," he said.
JUL 2001
MISSION CREEP
[This report confirms what the Review has been reporting for the past five years: that the military is slowly but steadily moving into areas of domestic activity from which it had been previously barred for good constitutional reasons. This military mission creep has been almost universally ignored by the corporate media, despite its impact on American democracy.]
ROBERT WINDREM, MSNBC: As Republicans gathered here last August to nominate George W. Bush for president, a drama played out in secret locations across the city as thousands of American soldiers stood poised for a catastrophic event. Along with a host of civilian emergency specialists, these specialized troops braced for a biological, chemical or nuclear terror attack on the GOP and its nominees the kind of attack that might force a declaration of martial law. No specific or credible threat ever surfaced in Philadelphia or in any of the dozen other U.S. cities hosting similarly high-profile events in the past five years. But the Philadelphia plan sheds light on a new domestic role for the military. Some argue that the role makes sense in light of the threat posed by modern terrorist groups. But a diverse coalition of civilian law enforcement agencies, civil rights advocates and libertarian groups worry about allowing the military to play so prominent a role on U.S. soil . . . In the mid-1990s, after the bombings of the World Trade Center and the federal building in Oklahoma City as well as a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system the [posse comitatus] law was amended to allow the attorney general to send armed troops into American cities in cases of catastrophic attacks . . . As the world's borders have become more porous, the definition of national security has expanded into many new areas: counter-terrorism, tracking drug traffickers and disaster preparedness. Secretary of State Colin Powell said recently he will add immigration to that list as well. The military's move into domestic law enforcement territory began with drug interdiction along the U.S. border during the Reagan administration, and expanded significantly during the Clinton years. Officials at several key civilian agencies from the FBI to the Public Health Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency say the military's growing role in preparing for a domestic terrorist attack is disconcerting. "We used to be the main people involved in this," said a domestic preparedness official with the Public Health Service who spoke only on condition of anonymity. "Now, there are fewer of us and more of them." Despite the Posse Comitatus Act and concerns about domestic mission creep, a doctrine known as "Garden Plot" exists in the Department of Defense that would allow the armed forces to step in to take control of civilian affairs following a catastrophic event if the president requested it. As with the military's posture abroad - the "Defense Condition" or "DEFCON" there is a step-by-step system for military involvement at home as well. It's known as Civilian Disorder Condition, or "CIDCON." This scenario is the last resort following the collapse of order at home. In this most dire of circumstances - possibly anarchy in the wake of a large-scale terrorist incident, for instance the "Garden Plot" doctrine gives the president the power to invoke martial law under The Insurrection Act. Here's how it would have worked last August in Philadelphia: Two military "Joint Task Force" units were available for quick deployment. One, called Joint Task Force-Civil Support, is based at Fort Monroe in Virginia. It is trained to coordinate countermeasures for terrorist attacks and would generally be deployed without weapons. The other unit, code-named "Task Force 250," is meant to go in fully equipped for battle. This unit, according to documents obtained by NBC News, is meant to restore civil order after major terrorist events. "Task Force 250" is more commonly known as the Army's 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, N.C. Even without a crisis, hundreds of servicemen were on hand in Philadelphia last summer, and more than 1,000 were on alert to move into the city if necessary. Command centers and alternate command centers - in case the primary headquarters was destroyed - were established. Among those stationed the center: More than 80 military bomb disposal teams, several Army biological advisory and assessment teams, four Department of Defense biological sampling vehicles and the Nuclear Emergency Search Team of the Department of Energy. The Navy even set up a facility for "use as a detainee processing center," the documents say, in case there were numerous arrests . . . According to the documents obtained by NBC, the plans for the presidential conventions said: "Use deadly force only with great selectivity and precision."[NOTE: there is no provision in the Constitution for martial law. The exercise of it by a president or the military would amount to a coup.]
FOX CHANNEL FIVE, WASHINGTON: Prince George's County [MD] parents get their chance to sound off about plans for a high school with a military theme tonight. Superintendent Iris Metts has until Saturday to sign a contract with the U.S. Army that would convert Forestville High School into an academy offering a service-based curriculum. Metts says she wants to hear from parents in the Forestville area before making a decision. The school has been plagued by poor academic performance in recent years. School officials are hoping uniforms, military drills and other specialized programs will boost student performance and encourage more graduates to attend college
JUNE 2001
WILLIAM M. ARKIN IN THE WASHINGTON POST: The American people are supposed to believe that Peruvian operations to stem the cocaine flow into the United States are innocuous, but we cannot know who the players are or what they are up to until disaster strikes. When the destroyer USS Cole met disaster in Yemen last October, or the Navy EP-3 was attacked off of Hainan island, we were similarly educated about underground activities of the U.S. military. In his election campaign, President Bush vowed to reduce the American military presence around the world. It's a particularly tough task when much of the "presence" isn't acknowledged or official. Taken individually, each country like Peru or a Yemen may have a justification for secrecy. But when one adds up all the all the Peru's and Yemen's, it becomes apparent that the U.S. military is increasingly everywhere and nowhere. At the same time Peru was in the headlines, there were press reports that the United States and Israel had conducted an unusual joint military exercise in the Negev desert. Jane's Defense Weekly called it Israel's "first" exercise with the U.S. Air Force. The Jerusalem Post called it a "marked boost in military cooperation." Neither assertion is true, but that is the problem of an underground military policy. It is hard to know exactly what is going on. In fact, the United States and Israel have a regular series of military exercises, going under the code names Juniper Stallion, Juniper Cobra, Noble Shirley, and other Juniper variations.
ELIZABETH BECKER, NY TIMES: The first comprehensive exercise about how the nation would contain foot-and-mouth disease showed that an outbreak could be stopped only with the combined strength of all federal disaster agencies, including the military, Agriculture Department officials have said. After decades of relying largely on state and local governments to help contain animal diseases, the Department of Agriculture asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a plan to combat this one as forcefully as if it threatened human lives, said Clifford Oliver, director of the Agriculture Department's office of crisis planning . . . The exercise confirmed fears that without the entire government working to contain it, the disease would spread like wildfire if it ever reached this country . . . The situation was played out like a military war game, with agency representatives acting out how they would react if foot-and-mouth broke out in Iowa. Participants said that the computer-generated model could not be controlled and that the disease spread to three states within 60 days, requiring 50,000 people to contain it . . . "You would see the National Guard called out to kill thousands of animals in the first days and deployed to control traffic and keep thousands of people out of the area," [a] participant said.
US MERCENARIES ACTIVE HERE, TOO
DANIEL FORBES, ALTERNET: Quoting a Government Accounting Office report, The Miami Herald noted that DynCorp "has been paid at least $270 million since 1991 to provide airplane and helicopter pilots and mechanics for the war on drugs in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Guatemala." Jason Vest reported in the Nation that DynCorp oversees a fleet of 46 helicopters and 23 airplanes from an Air Force base in Florida. The Nation obtained a copy of DynCorp's contract, which states that along with "fumigation and search-and-rescue," DynCorp's other responsibilities include "flying local troops in to destroy drug labs and coca or poppy fields." A nifty enabler, the guise of fighting drugs allows the U.S. to fly troops around in other countries' civil wars. This February DynCorp employees flew into the midst of a firefight to rescue Colombian police shot down by leftist guerillas. As to DynCorp's domestic drug-war boodle -- its five-year, $316 million contract helping the Department of Justice seize assets -- there's been little public notice of it outside National Defense magazine. DynCorp told the magazine that most of the 1,000 staffers involved in the program, funded through 2003, hold "'secret' clearances and have been involved in more than 60,000 seizures in the United States. Among other things, they provide 'criminal-intelligence collection and analysis, forensic support and asset identification and tracking.'" So this band of retired military honchos has 1,000 operatives with some sort of "secret" mojo, spying on the American public at the feds' behest and helping to hoover up vast sums of money in over 60,000 seizures . . . According to the Chicago Sun-Times, "In 80 percent of forfeitures, in fact, charges never are filed." The paper put the total value of assets seized since 1985 by all levels of government at more than $7 billion. It's easy, when safeguards we take for granted in criminal proceedings are reversed: current law presumes that the property is guilty, and owners have to spend time and money proving that "it" wasn't involved in a crime. MOREJANUARY 2000
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
ARMY TIMES 10/27/98: "Terrorism is escalating to the point that Americans soon may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection," says Defense Secretary William S. Cohen. The nation's defense chief told the Army Times he once considered the chilling specter of armored vehicles surrounding civilian hotels or government buildings to block out terrorists as strictly an overseas phenomenon. But no longer. "It could happen here," Cohen said he concluded after 8 months of studying threats under the Pentagon microscope.
DECEMBER 1999
ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Navy is planning a 61 percent increase in high school Junior ROTC units by 2005, but the expansion has nothing to do with military recruiting woes, a spokesman said Tuesday. The number of schools authorized to have Naval Junior ROTC will grow from 435 to 490 during the current budget year. The Navy plans to add 210 more units over the next five years, bringing the total to 700 . . . The Navy's plan is part of a military-wide expansion ordered by Congress. In July, the Army, which has programs at 1,370 high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, announced it would expand by 50 schools per year for the next five years, for a total of 1,620 high schools.
MIAMI HERALD http://www.herald.com/content/today/news/florida/digdocs/054271.htm
THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION HAS CREATED the first military command specifically designed for military operations in this country. Thinking we ought to find out more about this extraordinary intrusion of the military on civilian life, we checked out the US Joint Forces Command's public information web site. Here is what we found:
*** Warning! USE OF THIS SYSTEM CONSTITUTES A CONSENT TO MONITORING AT ALL TIMES. USE OF THIS OR ANY OTHER DEPT. OF DEFENSE INTEREST COMPUTER SYSTEM (DODICS) CONSTITUTES AN EXPRESS CONSENT TO MONITORING AT ALL TIMES. This DODICS and all related equipment are to be used for the communication, transmission, processing, and storage of official U.S. Government or other authorized information only. All DODICS are subject to monitoring at all times. If monitoring of any DODICS reveals possible violation of criminal statutes, all relevant information may be provided to law enforcement officials. The USJFCOM World Wide Web (WWW) Server is provided as a service to the Department of Defense for distribution of publicly available information .... After reading and understanding the foregoing statement, you may continue with the USJFCOM WWW Server or exit from this server (or document)***
We read but did not understand this document and so thought it was better to be on the safe side and exit the server before we got monitored. We did notice, however, that the command's motto is a rather ominous "The future is our area of responsibility."
JUST LIE BACK AND ENJOY IT
USA TODAY: Defense Secretary William Cohen established a new military command here Thursday that will direct troops and equipment in response to terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. The military must "deal with the threats we are most likely to face," Cohen said, brushing aside concerns about federal troops operating at home. "The American people should not be concerned about it. They should welcome it."
THE WAR AGAINST US
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: To prepare for potential wars in cities, the Marines stage a mock battle in downtown Columbia, S.C., attracting onlookers and protesters. A swarm of massive transport helicopters descended from clear blue skies, disgorging a group of rifle-toting marines, some by fast rope . . . The leathernecks are training for urban warfare, a phrase used by America's military to cover the gamut of potentially nasty operations in cities and countries around the world. For the past 15 years, marines on both coasts have "invaded" cities for a couple weeks to practice the art of urban operations.
WHEN THE TIME COMES
CNN: Changes in the Pentagon's command structure designed to give the military a supporting role in responding to domestic terrorist attacks or natural disasters is raising alarm among some civil libertarians. In Norfolk, Virginia, on Thursday, top military leaders, and their civilian superiors, unveiled a retooled U.S. Joint Forces Command, formerly the U.S. Atlantic Command. The new command will coordinate its efforts with federal law enforcement agencies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. However, Secretary of Defense William Cohen said "it is very clear (the command) is subordinate to civilian control."
Pentagon officials say the idea behind the change is to give a president options short of martial law to deal with domestic crises. "The reason that you want the Defense Department working now with the FBI, with the Justice Department, with FEMA is so we know how we will work when the time comes and we don't have to resort to extreme measures nobody wants in this country," said Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: To prepare for potential wars in cities, the Marines stage a mock battle in downtown Columbia, S.C., attracting onlookers and protesters. A swarm of massive transport helicopters descended from clear blue skies, disgorging a group of rifle-toting marines, some by fast rope . . . The leathernecks are training for urban warfare, a phrase used by America's military to cover the gamut of potentially nasty operations in cities and countries around the world. For the past 15 years, marines on both coasts have "invaded" cities for a couple weeks to practice the art of urban operations.
JULY 1999
LINDA DIEBEL TORONTO STAR: A United States military report advocates a joint command for American, Mexican and Canadian forces, in the same way the three countries are united under free trade. The report, by Lt.-Col. Joseph Nunez for the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., also suggested a North American peacekeeping force, headquartered in the U.S., with deputy commander positions rotating between Canada and Mexico .... The war college study is the first to publicly advocate the sensitive issue of integrated military command - a matter of sovereignty in Canada and Mexico, as well as countries throughout the hemisphere .... "A lot of the geographic considerations are a bit out-of- date and do not reflect current realities," Nunez, 43, a former West Point instructor, told The Star yesterday .... Asked whether he foresaw the joint command leading to an integrated armed force, with everyone marching under one flag, Nunez said: " ee it growing, with all of the change and integration of new ideas . . . what it achieves depends on the types of missions it is assigned."
JUNE 1999
CHESTER ATTACKED
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: CHESTER -- Acting under the cloak of darkness, 100 Army Special Operations troops descended on two vacant public-housing complexes in three training exercises that terrified nearby residents and surprised even the housing director. "It was just a special-operations training in an urban environment, practicing how they would look at a target building and how they would attack it," Army Special Operations spokesman Walter Sokalski said. He said the troops, based at Fort Bragg, N.C., used special-training ammunition that disintegrates on contact and small explosives designed to blow in doors. He said Chester residents "were at no time at risk" during the operations, The more than 20 other urban counter-terrorism exercises by the Army across the country since 1994 have provoked similar reactions. In March 1997, the city of Charlotte, N.C., evicted the Army after the first night of a would-be three-night stand after public outcry. Likewise, the Army cut short its stays in Houston and Pittsburgh when its activities, which typically involve fatigue-clad soldiers bearing arms and setting off minor charges, prompted fears.
STUDY FINDS LITTLE CHECK ON MARTIAL LAW
Virginia attorneys William Olson and Alan Woll, doing research for Gun Owners of America, have uncovered a number of laws in which Congress has given vast powers to the President to impose martial law. These laws, while clearly lacking a constitutional basis, could easily be used by anti-democratic administrations such as the current regime.
Here are some examples as reported by Sarah Foster for WorldNet Daily:
TITLE 10, U.S. CODE, SECTION 331: Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or its governor ... use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection.
TITLE 10, U.S. CODE, SECTION 332: Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State or Territory ... he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.
TITLE 10, U.S. CODE, SECTION 333: The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination or conspiracy, if it hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State ... or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws ...
1863 SUPREME RULING: The president can unilaterally decide whether an insurrection is in effect and determine how much force is necessary to suppress it. He can "brand as belligerents the inhabitants of any area in general insurrection."
Here are some examples of how these laws have already been used:
* In South Carolina in 1871, without declaring martial law, President Grant sent troops into nine counties of South Carolina to enforce a proclamation commanding the residents to give up their arms and ammunition.
* In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson deployed federal troops in Colorado to suppress a labor dispute. Wilson ordered the U.S. Army to disarm American citizens -- including state and local officials, sheriffs, the police and the National Guard; to arrest American citizens; to monitor the state judicial process and re-arrest (and hold in military custody) persons released by the state courts; and to deny writs of habeas corpus issued by state courts.
* Between 1807 and 1925, federal troops were used more than 100 times to quell domestic disturbances -- sometimes the presence of the troops alone was enough to discourage the participants.
Reports Olson, "We were surprised at how weak the Posse Comitatus Act is. There have been no prosecutions ever, and it doesn't apply to any branch of the armed forces except the Army and the Air Force. It doesn't have any implementing regulations, yet it has a huge exception -- that deployment of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus is a crime, 'except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.' That 'Constitution or Act of Congress' exception is so broad you can drive a truck through. The final thing that surprised us was that that the military doesn't need an order from the president to have control over civilians. I had always thought only the president could declare martial law, but apparently not. Apparently any commander can do it, can suspend all civil rights."
Explains GOA executive director Larry Pratt, "People can't expect President Clinton to sit there in front of a camera and say, 'Tonight I have declared martial law. You'll just find out about it when you try and get on the main highway and there's a humvee with a soldier who says, 'Turn back.' And when you ask why, he puts his gun into ready position and says, 'I'm only following orders. Please turn back.' You can challenge that. You can say they -- the commander or the soldier -- have no constitutional authority for this, and you may be correct. But you will be arguing on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence. They can simply do it. It will not be debated."
WORLDNET DAILY http://WorldNetDaily.com
THE WACO MASSACRE
APRIL 1999
"Normally, we go into a country that's in some fatal stage. We work with those
who are with us, and shoot those who are not. The part that's missing here is
that you can't shoot the Coastal Commission," -- Marine Col. Gary W. Anderson, describing the difficulties of staging a mock invasion of Oakland CA.
From the Anniston AL Star
THE GREEN Berets swooped in out of the darkness Friday night. Silent and deadly they drifted down from the heavens on their silk parachutes, hitting the ground and scurrying to set up the defensive perimeter around that most strategic of positions: Anniston Municipal Airport.
They fought bravely through the night, withstanding the jarring fake explosions and confusion of the darkness. They performed admirably and in the end captured the airport from a mythical enemy.
Do we all feel safer after the Army's weekend war game in our area? Not only do we not feel safer, we feel just a little bit mad about the whole affair.
A good many people in Oxford heard explosions around 8 p.m. Friday and looked out their windows to see paratroopers gliding to earth. And most of them were enduring it all in the dark. Alabama Power, you see, cut the power for about two hours that night. The power company was cooperating with the Army, which had requested the power outage around the airport so that no paratroopers would be hurt by the live electrical lines.
~~ The Army and Alabama Power have some apologizing and some explaining to do to this community. The Anniston Municipal Airport belongs to this community, it is not part of some vast federal government holding that the powers that be can do with as they please. If you're going to play soldiers in our yard, you ought to invite us to play. Or, take your guns and parachutes and go home.
Anniston, Alabama Star http://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/opinion_19990316_38...
Caption of a Marine poster
"The desert is a harsh environment, testing warriors and their armor, yet when the U.S. Marines fire and maneuver, they often find an armored friend -- the threatened desert tortoise -- already holding the high ground. The Marines, with the help of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are working to protect endangered species while maintaining military preparedness. One result: at Twenty Nine Palms, both armored threat and threatened armor are ready for the future. That's what happens when some of your best friends are Marines." [Sierra Club]
MARCH 1999
PARK SERVICE
ROUTS MARINESThe planned mock invasion of San Francisco's Presidio
parkland has been blocked by the National
Park Service. Speaking softly but carrying the big
stick of bureaucratic prerogative, NPS representative
Tracy Fortmann said, "We didn't feel we could
encourage them to proceed down the road of that being
a viable option."The Marines are looking for another spot in the soft
underbelly of San Francisco to stage Urban Warrior, an
exercise designed to include, reports Reuters "five
ships, 6,000 sailors and Marines, and four days of
simulated combat using aircraft --including
helicopters and F-18 bombers -- tens of thousands of
blank rounds of small-arms fire, and simulated
explosions."The exercise is part of the Pentagon's effort to get
Americans to accept the militarization of their
society. As Reuters put it without a hint of irony,
"Military officials say the drill in the shadow of the
Golden Gate Bridge will give the Marines important
practice in waging war in dense urban settings,
ranging from San Francisco to Sarajevo and Somalia."How did San Francisco become the enemy? A Marine
representative may have given a hint when he said,
"The whole purpose of this is to find relevancy of the
Corps in the 21st century.''COMING TO YOUR COMMUNITY SOON. . .
From a Marine news release about an exercise in Hebron Md:
"What: A platoon of Marines from the Infantry Officers Course will be conducting Military Operations in Urban Terrain in the training town of Hebron, Md. Sept. 3 and 4. The training evolution will include security patrols, searching for weapons, and trying to identify terrorists in the town.
"Why: The Marine Corps began focusing on future urban warfare with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab's Urban Warrior Experiment. It is projected that the wars of the future will be fought in populated cities that include terrorists mixed with non-combatants. The training Marines receive on base, though beneficiary, lacks realism. This training will provide the officers an opportunity to train as they fight, with a town they are unfamiliar with and an unknown enemy mixed in with the general public. . .
"Details: The Marines will land on a farm outside of the town on the Sept 3. They will patrol into town and set up a command post at the town hall. The Marines will then perform security patrols throughout the town and try to obtain information on terrorists known to be in the town. Several local residents will be a part of the training. . . .
CONTINENTAL COMMANDER
The Pentagon is asking President Clinton to name a military commander for the continental United States. The unprecedented move is part of the terrorism panic being fostered at various levels of government and another troublesome step in the increasing militarization of American life. This trend is eviscerating a century-old ban on military interference with domestic affairs embodied in the posse comitatus act. The 1/28 New York Times reported that "the plan calls for the military leader to be ready, if necessary, to do such things as order thousands of doctors, stretchers and emergency personnel quickly sent to stricken areas, much as American commanders abroad are now prepared to do."
The Times said that White House officials had reacted favorably. Says Gregory Nejeim, of the national ACLU: "The danger is in the inevitable expansion of that authority so the military gets involved in things like arresting people and investigating crimes." He added that soldiers are trained to kill, not to respect the nuances of law enforcement. "It's hard to believe that a soldier with a suspect in the sights of his M-1 tank is well positioned to protect that person's civil liberties."
Among those pushing the plan is a former Reagan administration official, Fred C. Ikle, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a well-known bunker for militarists and intelligence operatives not presently in the government.
The move comes at a time of increasing concern over preparations for martial law in the Y2K crisis by some National Guard units. For example, at a recent meeting designed to calm the fears of DC residents over Y2K, a number of black residents asked whether the government would be sending National Guard troops into their neighborhoods. A Senate staffer tried to reassure them that there were no plans for martial law, but a number in the audience hissed and booed.
The Constitution does not directly address the question of what should happen in the midst of a major national catastrophe. But neither does it give the slightest support to giving non-elected civilian or military officials plenary powers. The best guide is to be found in the Tenth Amendment which says that the powers of the federal government are those delegated to it by the states and the people. The states and the people have not delegated the power of martial law. Thus in a true crisis (such as a nuclear attack) the answer seems quite plain: the country should be run as a loose confederation of fifty states until a legitimate federal government could be re-established. In the interim, the highest officials in the land would be the governors.
While this seems to the conventional Washington mind a form of anarchy, centralization of power and assets is actually the enemy of a good defense. Ask any guerilla leader. We are in a Y2K and terrorism scare in no small part because generations of officials and establishment commentators who thought that centralizing everything from electric to politic power was a form of progress.
TPR has been one of the few publications reporting regularly on the military's domestic mission creep. Our archives are below]MISSION CREEP
http://prorev.com/mil.htm
http://prorev.com/mil2.htmABOUT THAT TERRORISM . . .
Before we destroy our democracy and live out the rest of our lives wearing anti-CBW protective clothing, couldn't we just try treating the Arabs decently for a change?
MARINES TO INVADE SF
As part of the military's growing show of domestic force, the Marines are planning a three day invasion of San Francisco, landing at the Presidio's Baker Beach complete with gunfire, hovercraft and various new war toys.
"It's an exercise - don't call it war games," Lt. Col. Gary Schenkel, spokesman for the Marine Corps Fighting Laboratory at Quantico, Va., told the San Francisco Examiner. The "exercise" is called Operation Urban Warrior.
Schenkel said an environmental assessment of the exercise would begin soon. "Compared to a rock concert or a Fourth of July fireworks display, we'll be relatively unobtrusive."
"It's premature to say it's a go," said Greg Shine, chief of the Special Park Uses Group at the Presidio told the Examiner. Neighborhood groups have started to protest.
In recent years, the military has become increasingly bold in its domestic activities, many of which seemed designed to acclimate Americans to the militarization of their country.
THE MILITARIZATION OF AMERICA
http://prorev.com/mil.htmMIND WARS: "X-FILES" GETS IT RIGHT;
POST GETS IT WRONG
In "X-Files" one of the characters explains that "FEMA allows the White House to suspend constitutional government upon declaration of a national emergency. It allows creation of a non-elected government. Think about that, Agent Mulder." The Washington Post's federal column made fun of the claim, and quoted FEMA public affairs guidance about the movie that essentially paints those concerned with the agency's potential role as kooks. Says the FEMA spinhead: "it is not realistic to think that we can convince them otherwise and it is advisable not to enter into debate on the subject." FEMA suggests that officials can "emphatically state that FEMA does not have, never has had, nor will ever seek, the authority to suspend the Constitution."
This is just plain untrue. Not only have there been past plans for FEMA and the military to assume an extra-constitutional role, but a recent presidential directive suggest that it is still a possibility not far from the Clinton administration's thoughts. Presidential Decision Directive #63 on "critical infrastructure protection" specifically assigns FEMA the task of "continuity of government" services, the precise term used in previous plans for a anti-constitutional takeover in a time of crisis. Further, as with previous plans, the Clinton order is stunningly silent on any role in such an emergency for the legislative and judicial branches or for state and local government.
A recent article in the Army War College's journal Parameters, expresses what appears to be the dominant administration attitude on the matter:
"Strategic leaders can take solace in the lessons learned from military participation in domestic disaster relief, for the record indicates that legal niceties or strict construction of prohibited conduct will be a minor concern. The exigencies of the situation seem to overcome legal proscriptions arguably applicable to our soldiers' conduct. Pragmatism appears to prevail when American soldiers help their fellow citizens."
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The Navy and the Coast Guard are continuing to cover up the dumping of radioactive material from decommissioned nuclear subs into the Puget Sound. A group called SEARCH has discover traces of radioactive material in shellfish and other marine life at levels 50 times that permitted by government safety standards. About a year and a half ago, the Navy and the Coast Guard even arrested the scientist involved in the study for trespassing on "military property." The Coast Guard had seized the vessel carrying the scientist and towed it into restricted waters. A federal judge pointed out to the Coast Guard that Puget Sound was not "military property." Then last June the CG issued an emergency rule aimed solely at preventing further sampling of the bay and threatening to arrest the whistleblower again. The Government Accountability Project is representing the scientist.
Only two campuses have the guts to bar Pentagon recruiters and ROTC programs, a move that costs them significant federal funds. The two are the Washington College of Law at American University and William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, MN. In the past around a dozen schools have barred the military.
The Rome Laboratory spent forty years developing technologies for the military in the Cold War. Now the center in Rome NY is deep into coming up with high tech ways to fight the government's domestic wars. Its specialty is concealed weapons detection, covert tracking/tagging and advanced database design. Their own web site argues "Law enforcement and defense missions share similar concerns and strategies." When did citizens become an enemy?
Scripps Howard reports that the Marines are looking for some cities that will let themselves be practice targets of an invasion. One Marine official said that there are certain urban elements -- such as sewers and skyscrapers -- that could prove pivotal in battle and simply can't be replicated on a military installation. The Marine Commandant, General Charles Krulak, told reporter Lisa Hoffman that the exercises should come as close to reality as possible. Wrote Hoffman: "Plastic bullets which pack a powerful sting when they hit skin, might be used and civilians might be invited to participate."
April 1997
The Washington Post finally caught up with our story about mock military urban attacks. According to the Post, these attacks have taken place in at least 21 cities. Information obtained by TPR suggests that related activities may be planned for this year in eight cities, apparently to prepare for the possibility of nuclear or chemical terrorism.
The nation's capital is now under congressional colonial rule but its school system is in even worse trouble. It is being run by retired General Julius Becton, a right-wing buddy of Clarence Thomas and a man of no apparent competence in the field of education -- to name just one of his deficiencies. Becton has provided high-paying jobs for some of his old Army comrades, perhaps most notably one Herbert R. Tillery, who before he got his $90,000 a year job as the number two person in the school system's operations office, was in fact in charge of 124 counselors, vocational trainers, teachers and analysts. The only problem is all these people worked for Tillery while he was director of the Department of Defense's only maximum security prison. More recently Tillery was deputy director of the US Army Criminal Investigation Command. Almost his entire career has been spent in military police activities of one sort or another.
A stunning study reported in the academic journal Social Problems found that 89% of the over 500 police departments it surveyed had fully functioning special operations units trained and modeled on military principles. For all practical purposes, these units represent a military force whose target is American communities and citizens. Not only has the number of paramilitary police units soared but the level of their activity has exploded as well. Between 1980 and 1995, the number of incidents involving paramilitary units has quadrupled.
The study, conducted by Peter B. Kraska and Victor E. Kappeler of Eastern Kentucky University, was carefully designed to elicit the cooperation of police departments. Some police officers spoke with brutal frankness:
"We're into saturation patrols in hot spots. We do a lot of our work with the SWAT unit because we have bigger guns. We send out two, two-to-four men cars, we look for minor violations and do jump-outs either on people on the street or automobiles. After we jump-out the second car provides periphery cover with an ostentatious display of weaponry. We're sending a clear message: if the shootings don't stop, we'll shoot someone."
But are these units really going after the truly dangerous? Out of all 1995 incidents, civil disturbances and terrorist events amounted to one percent each, hostage situations 4% and barricaded persons, 13%. Conducting what the police call "high risk warrant work" (overwhelmingly drug raids) accounted for 76% of the paramilitary operations.
Here are some of the other facts the researchers uncovered:
- Many paramilitary units conduct between 200 to 700 warrant or drug raids a year. These are almost exclusively no-knock entries.
- A paramilitary unit in Chapel Hill NC conducted a crack raid of an entire block in a black neighborhood. Up to 100 persons were detained and searched, all of whom were black (whites were allowed to leave the neighborhood). There were no prosecutions.
- Some 20% of the units regularly patrol just as a display of force, often dressed in extreme military garb, including ninja type uniforms. Police in Fresno CA refer to their patrol area as the "war zone."
- Such tactics are not limited to big cities. In fact, more and more smaller towns have their own paramilitary units. For example: "One mid-west police department that serves a community of 75,000 people patrols in full tactical gear using a military armored personnel carrier (termed a 'Peace keeper' as their transport vehicle." Says the commander, "we stop anything that moves." Another town's paramilitary commander told the researchers, "When the soldiers ride in you should see those blacks scatter."
- Some of these police departments admit to using "community policing" funds for these military operations. In fact, 63% of those responding to a question on the matter agreed that the paramilitary units "play an important role in community policing strategies." One "self proclaimed community policing chief" said: "It's going to come to the point that the only people that are going to be able to deal with these problems are highly trained tactical teams with proper equipment to go into a neighborhood and clear the neighborhood and hold it; allowing community policing and problem oriented policing officers to come in and start turning the neighborhood around."
February 1997
We will protect your purchasing power -- Budget director Franklin Raines to a meeting of high-level Pentagon officials.
When it comes to the information aspects related to national security and the modern military battlefield, the media and other sources of open information are major players. . . They are used by the combatants for perception management, propaganda, message-sending, and other signal purposes. The information environment the media creates, imposes, or disposes can make or break a war effort. Substantial sophisticated account must be taken for the role the media will play in the battlefield information spectrum. -- Vice Admiral William Studeman, former Director of the NSA in a speech to the National Defense University, May 1995
Former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger has written a book in which he sees possible war with Mexico as drug cartels cause exploding immigration to the US. He says we should be prepared to invade and install our own regime there.
How powerful is the Pentagon? Well, Defense Weekly reports that the Clinton administration plans to hold "careful negotiations" with the Pentagon each year to reach desired budget goals. And the Weekly Standard contains an article by two leading think-tankers who call for "negotiating a new civil-military compact that preserves traditional military culture while updating it." Apparently, being Commander-in-Chief isn't what it used to be.
Mission creep: the Pentagon targets America (cont'd)
In peacetime, the National Guard is supposed to be under the control of the governors, but ever since the Reagan administration the Pentagon has been steadily undermining the state militias through a variety of stratagems. Most recently these include:
- An active duty Air Force officer has been put in charge of a National Guard unit for the first time in history. Said Major General Donald Shepperd, director of the Air National Guard, "Undoubtedly this will be controversial. Some people will think it's denying an opportunity to a Guard member. I expect to get letters telling me it's the wrong thing to do. But I think it's the right think to due." Having an active duty officer take over the Air Guard wing was a "natural evolution."
- We're told that several active duty special operations units have been quietly integrated into National Guard units. Special Ops is in charge of low intensity warfare and psychological operations. According to a report in the Tampa Tribune, Special Ops -- comprised of 46,000 personnel from all three services -- averages 280 missions a week in 137 countries. Does this mean the Pentagon is planning low intensity or psychological operations against American citizens?
There are other disturbing signs that the line between the military and civilian life is being increasingly blurred. For example, the FBI's deputy chief for domestic terrorism is an active duty colonel, John Jeff Ellis, despite the century-old posse comitatus act's prohibition on regular military taking part in domestic terrorism.
And in the DC school system, now under the plenary control of right-wing General Julius Becton, some students are being required to enroll in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. The Washington Post has failed to report this astonishing fact despite stories in a local weekly, The City Paper, and on a local public radio station. Reporter Julianne Welby discovered that JROTC was mandatory at two DC schools and at five other schools around the nation in what may be a Pentagon test project. Instructors were even "invited" into elementary schools, with at least two having established drilling practices for young children. At two junior highs, JROTC counts towards "community service" requirements.
Activist John Judge, who has followed the rise of JROTC in the nation's schools, says that it "is viewed by an unsuspecting public as a solution for 'at risk' youth to provide 'discipline.'" Yet at one high school, some 20% of incoming freshmen were dumped immediately from the program for drug use or criminal records. Says Judge: "Thus the most troubled youth were excluded at the beginning. . .Whatever motivation or discipline these drills provide, they don't keep the students enrolled, and the vast majority drop out after the first year, leaving only 10% by the senior year still in the program." Further, the career-path provided by JROTC is a dead end for the 55% of all enrollees who join the military after graduation. Almost all are enlisted recruits, the O in JROTC notwithstanding. Recent discharged black males are twice as unemployed and four times as homeless as those who don't enlist [More info: Washington Peace Center at 202-234-2000 or John Judge at CHOICES, 202-466-1631]
The General Accounting Office has found that the alleged results of so-called "smart bombs" used during the Gulf War were "overstated, misleading, inconsistent with the best available data or unverifiable." 9/96
From a speech by Al Gore to the Veterans of Foreign Wars last August: "Let's remember a very important fact. This is the president, who said firmly and clearly no to those who called for a decline in military spending at the turn of the century. ~ It is the Republican defense budget, not President Clinton's, that drops in the next century. President Clinton's budget, which is also there for you to see, does not. It increases."
MILITARY INVADES PITTSBURGH: Two hundred troops and nine helicopters invaded Pittsburgh the night of June 3 in what was later described as a routine training exercise but sure fooled a lot of the city's residents. They flooded 911, talk shows and local media with worried calls. A similar exercise for the next night was canceled while the Army tried to figure out to pretend it was invading an American city "without causing disruption." The exercise, which got banner treatment in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, included helicopters flying as low as five hundred feet, the use of unarmed explosives and barricaded streets. People who called 911 were given the official explanation. If they weren't satisfied they were referred to a Pentagon office where a representative claimed, "Nobody anticipated there to be that type of reaction from the community."
One firefighter awoke thinking he was in the middle of an air raid. Another resident thought his house was falling down. Complained one elderly woman of a helicopter, "If I had been up on my third floor, I could have touched it with a broom handle." Said a local councilman, "I'd like to know who the enemy is."
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that one talk show host said he came away from the incident with a new awareness of just how frightened the public is about the possibility of a military takeover or revolution. "That's the word that kept coming up repeatedly -- revolution. I was making light of it, but I got serious later on as I recognized the depth of the concern. Fifty percent of the callers were genuinely convinced that some kind of military attack was under way."
The exercise appears to be part of an attempt to acclimatize citizens to an increasing military presence in civilian life.
LOW INTENSITY WARFARE: The Pentagon's low intensity warfare and psychological operations certainly keep the special operations forces busy. According to a recent report in the Tampa Tribune, the Special Operations Forces -- comprised of 46,000 personnel from all three services -- averaged 280 missions a week last year in 137 countries. No one the Pentagon budget is so large. We've never had 137 enemies before.
The Pentagon's manual on "domestic support operations" gives a chilling view of how the military sees its role in a post-Cold War America. Says the manual: "Today, along with a shift from a forward deployed to a force projection strategy, is a new awareness of the benefits of military assistance to improve the nation's physical and social infrastructure." The role the military sees for itself is extraordinarily broad including disaster assistance, environmental missions, law enforcement, and community assistance. In a section that may have been lifted from a guide to the Vietname village pacification program, the Army notes that "domestic support operations provide excellent opportunities for soldiers to interface with the civilian community and demonstrate traditional Army values such as teamwork, success-oriented attitude, and patriotism. These demonstrations provide positive examples of values that can benefit the community and also promote a favorable view of the army to the civilian population."
One of the problems the Army admits may come up as it tries to introduce teamwork, success orientation and patriotism into civilian American culture is the matter of legitimacy. The manual addresses this question straight on:
Legitimacy derives from the perception that using military force is a legal, effective and appropriate means of exercising authority for reasonable purposes. However the issue of legitimacy demands caution and critical judgment. The Army must be aware of the legitimate interest prerogatives and authority of the various levels of civil government and act accordingly.
General Barry McCaffrey, the former head of SOUTHCOM who is now drug czar, testified before Congress last year that "we have been structuring SOUTHCOM so we can remain engaged with the Americas throughout the next century." Speaking before the Senate Arms Services Committee in February 1995, McCaffrey, however, gave this dour view of the drug war:
A multi-year effort involving substantial resources, and enormous energy and creativity by supporting US government agencies and regional governments has not had the effect we desired. Coca growing and the subsequent production and trafficking of coca derivatives for the US and world markets have not diminished. . . . Street price and availability of cocaine in the United States have not been demonstrably affected by the US interagency involvement (to include DOD's) in the counter drug effort. As long as there is a domestic demand, some entrepreneur will find a way to meet it. The US demand for cocaine is steady and profits to be made are stupendous. The price of a kilo of cocaine on the streets in the United States is about two hundred times greater than the price of the coca leaves required to make a kilo of cocaine. . . .Much more has to be done before campesinos, traffickers, and the others involved in this business can be forced by reward and punishment into other economic activity.
The military's involvement in the war at home is no more efficient. For example, NORMAL reports that in 1994 the Georgia National Guard flew 24,000 flight crew hours in missions over the whole state, resulting in a total haul of 6000 stalks of marijuana. The taxpayer cost of this pot hunting was $12 million. Nationally the Guard has been blowing about $250 million annually on marijuana eradication with less than ten percent of the country's pot crop being destroyed in the process.
The National Guard isn't just looking for pot fields, either. According to Jan 14 story in the Ogdensburg NY Journal, Guard helicopters are using heat sensors to spy on people's houses. "When a helicopter flies over a house and points sensors at a particular residents, investigators can tell how many people are in the residence and if there is an unusual heat source or light that shouldn't be there." The paper doesn't explain what heat sources and lights are violations of federal law or justify a warrantless search.
In addition, reports Oklahoma's McCurtain Daily Gazette, local residents of another Guard-occupied community complained of helicopters flying too low over poultry houses and terrorizing chickens during their most vulnerable period for smothering, other choppers hovering over bathing-suit clad women in swimming pools, guardsmen starting fights with patrons of local nightspots, picking up local teenage girls in their humvees and harassing local residents driving on logging roads. Some women also claimed that the guardsmen offered them pot in return for sex. Complained one resident, "They parade around and try to entice the little girls into getting into [their] vehicles with them. I've seen them like that at Wal-Mart and Sonic and different places. I think it's pitiful." One guardsman-driven humvee ran a stop sign, killing two and injuring five. Among the injured were two teenage girls.
The Air Force now has 56 lieutenant colonels for every flying command job traditionally manned by a lieutenant colonel. One Pentagon memo pleaded for the brass to "place colonels in meaningful jobs, created by you," adding that "we have a lot of dedicated hard working colonels that need jobs."
While the Style section of the Washington Post -- in response to a critique in TPR -- heaped praise on the idea of generals taking charge in domestic America, the Post's news section doesn't seem quite as confident. One week after the Style piece and two weeks after TPR was quoted extensively in a Post column, a front page story on the military in the drug war even recognized the existence of the posse comitatus act, which bars military involvement in law enforcement. Referring to the military's role in the drug war, one of Reagan's assistant defense secretaries, Lawrence Korb, was quoted as saying, "It should [have been] a stopgap, but it's been institutionalized."
The story reported, incidentally, that the military's counter-drug operation -- Joint Task Force 6 -- has an annual budget of $24 million. Last spring its Green Beret unit conducted 37 missions in civilian America.
Meanwhile, the Air Force Times reports that the Air National Guard is expanding its anti-drug activities, including the use of C-26 reconnaissance planes. The planes cost $3 million each and nearly a million bucks a year to operate. They are being used to take photos of suspected drug hideouts, marijuana fields, and for transporting witnesses and evidence. They can also be used to provide "airborne command and control for drug raids or stakeouts."
November 1996
Review pokes; Post squeals Just one week after your editor's views on the increasing militarization of America were featured in a column by Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, that paper responded with a major paen to "Generals in Command on the Home Front." The subhead ran: "In need of discipline, order, honor, polish? Civil institutions find old soliders pass muster."
The Post momentarily put aside such arduous tasks as defending the CIA and offered a multi-column Style section rebuttal to the notion that there was something wrong with the proliferation of generals in domestic affairs complete with a handsome foot-high photo of Genral Patton pointing his baton in an appropriately imperious fashion.
Although quoting one critic of militarization near the end of the article, the overall tone of the piece was, at best, that these flag officers will shape the country up and, at worse, that they are part of yet another cute social trend for a wise-ass journalist to have some fun with. The idea that democracy might be in peril as a product of the trend was just a jump page after-thought.
Here are some quotes:
From writer Marc Fisher: "A retired general is spit-and-polish. Order and discipline. Expectations and results. Retired general. Two words with such Taoist balance. At once at ease and in charge. Calm yet powerful. Benign yet can-do."
From General Don Scott, deputy librarian of the Library of Congress: "We're proven. We know how to take orders, we know how to do more with less. Society wants more order and more structure."
Charles Moskos, a sociologist who studies the military: "Making the trains run on time is not to be pooh-poohed. In a world of crumbling instituations, the military stands out for its cohesion."
Fisher ends his piece with a quote from a retired general: "Let those in uniform fight the cold and hot wars. Let those who have retired fight the domestic war." Fisher is so enthralled by this that he forgets to ask the general just when and why the American people became the enemy.
Columnist Milloy, one of the last progressive writers at the Post, became interested in my article on militarization after a de facto junta selected by GOP congressional leaders to run DC had named General Julius Becton as school czar and wiped out most of the powers of the elected school board.
Becton got the same sort of fawning treatment from the media (including national publications) that General Barry McCaffrey received when he took over as head of federal anti-drug programs. And as with McCaffrey, there was plenty of the Becton story that didn't come out. Such as the fact that when he was Reagan's head of the Federal Emergency Managment Agency, FEMA concoted an outragous $1.5 billion plan for 600 bomb shelters to be built for state and local officials. The rest of the population was meant to rely on "voluntary self-help programs and emergency public information" such as low cost radiation detectors and instructional materials. States and localities that failed to cooperate in the plan could lose federal funds for non-nuclear disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. Not surprisingly, the plan was laughed out of existence.
Even though the scheme was front-page news in the Washington Post when it occurred, the Post failed to tell readers about it in its glowing coverage of Becton. Nor did it mention that Becton had testified on behalf of Clarence Thomas' appointment to the Supreme Court, expressing support for Thomas' views on affirmative action and the like.
Finally, in neither its praise of Becton nor its defense of the generic general did the Post point out that what generals are trained for is to kill, defeat and control people in whatever order seems most practical at the mnoment.
To read the article that got the Washington Post so upset The game plan
Discussion of military policy has all but disappeared from the media and public debate despite Cold War level Pentagon budgets and a growing intrusion of the military into civilian life. One place military policy is still being discussed vigorously, however, is within the military itself and in the think tanks that support it. Among the roles these planners see for America's military:
-- Defense against the rising power of Asia, and particularly China. Although China's economy is a fraction of that of the US and although all those Asian economies outside of the British Commonwealth do not yet equal American GDP, these countries are growing rapidly and, in the case of some like Japan, exploding.
-- Serving as enforcers for American multinationals through overt and covert actions and with psychological operations. Increasing numbers of countries would essentially be colonized by multinationals with the Pentagon's assistance.
-- Using experience gained in the occupation of various third world countries against dissent and alienated minorities at home. This is already occurring in the guise of the war on drugs.
On this last point, a remarkable article by military historian and strategist Martin van Creveld in the Los Angeles Times last July 30 gives the flavor of what's in store. Van Creveld argued that "the military systems built up over the past decades are proving useless in the face of the greatest security threat of the next century: terrorism." The reason: these forces "have discovered that their weapons are too cumbersome and their organization too complex for anti-terrorist and anti-guerrilla actions." But what van Creveld sees as hope, others may find extraordinarily chilling:
"In many countries, militaries originally designed for interstate warfare are already taking an active part in the struggle against internal opponents. Others are preparing to take the same road. In France on July 14, police unit joined the army in marching down the Champs Elysees for the first time. In the peaceful Netherlands, the Marechausee, or riot police, now forms the fourth service besides army, navy and air force. . .
"As the 20th century draws to an end, it is time that military commanders and the policy makers to whom they report wake up to the new realities. In today's world the main threat to many states, including specifically the US, no longer comes from other countries. Either we make the necessary changes, or what is commonly known as the modern world will lose all sense of security and dwell in perpetual fear."
[ ]
The Pentagon's low intensity warfare and psychological operations certainly keep the special operations forces busy. According to a recent report in the Tampa Tribune, the Special Operations Forces -- comprised of 46,000 personnel from all three services -- averaged 280 missions a week last year in 137 countries. No one the Pentagon budget is so large. We've never had 137 enemies before.
The Pentagon's manual on "domestic support operations" gives a chilling view of how the military sees its role in a post-Cold War America. Says the manual: "Today, along with a shift from a forward deployed to a force projection strategy, is a new awareness of the benefits of military assistance to improve the nation's physical and social infrastructure." The role the military sees for itself is extraordinarily broad including disaster assistance, environmental missions, law enforcement, and community assistance. In a section that may have been lifted from a guide to the Vietname village pacification program, the Army notes that "domestic support operations provide excellent opportunities for soldiers to interface with the civilian community and demonstrate traditional Army values such as teamwork, success-oriented attitude, and patriotism. These demonstrations provide positive examples of values that can benefit the community and also promote a favorable view of the army to the civilian population."
One of the problems the Army admits may come up as it tries to introduce teamwork, success orientation and patriotism into civilian American culture is the matter of legitimacy. The manual addresses this question straight on:
Legitimacy derives from the perception that using military force is a legal, effective and appropriate means of exercising authority for reasonable purposes. However the issue of legitimacy demands caution and critical judgment. The Army must be aware of the legitimate interest prerogatives and authority of the various levels of civil government and act accordingly.
General Barry McCaffrey, the former head of SOUTHCOM who is now drug czar, testified before Congress last year that "we have been structuring SOUTHCOM so we can remain engaged with the Americas throughout the next century." Speaking before the Senate Arms Services Committee in February 1995, McCaffrey, however, gave this dour view of the drug war:
A multi-year effort involving substantial resources, and enormous energy and creativity by supporting US government agencies and regional governments has not had the effect we desired. Coca growing and the subsequent production and trafficking of coca derivatives for the US and world markets have not diminished. . . . Street price and availability of cocaine in the United States have not been demonstrably affected by the US interagency involvement (to include DOD's) in the counter drug effort. As long as there is a domestic demand, some entrepreneur will find a way to meet it. The US demand for cocaine is steady and profits to be made are stupendous. The price of a kilo of cocaine on the streets in the United States is about two hundred times greater than the price of the coca leaves required to make a kilo of cocaine. . . .Much more has to be done before campesinos, traffickers, and the others involved in this business can be forced by reward and punishment into other economic activity.
The military's involvement in the war at home is no more efficient. For example, NORMAL reports that in 1994 the Georgia National Guard flew 24,000 flight crew hours in missions over the whole state, resulting in a total haul of 6000 stalks of marijuana. The taxpayer cost of this pot hunting was $12 million. Nationally the Guard has been blowing about $250 million annually on marijuana eradication with less than ten percent of the country's pot crop being destroyed in the process.
The National Guard isn't just looking for pot fields, either. According to Jan 14 story in the Ogdensburg NY Journal, Guard helicopters are using heat sensors to spy on people's houses. "When a helicopter flies over a house and points sensors at a particular residents, investigators can tell how many people are in the residence and if there is an unusual heat source or light that shouldn't be there." The paper doesn't explain what heat sources and lights are violations of federal law or justify a warrantless search.
In addition, reports Oklahoma's McCurtain Daily Gazette, local residents of another Guard-occupied community complained of helicopters flying too low over poultry houses and terrorizing chickens during their most vulnerable period for smothering, other choppers hovering over bathing-suit clad women in swimming pools, guardsmen starting fights with patrons of local nightspots, picking up local teenage girls in their humvees and harassing local residents driving on logging roads. Some women also claimed that the guardsmen offered them pot in return for sex. Complained one resident, "They parade around and try to entice the little girls into getting into [their] vehicles with them. I've seen them like that at Wal-Mart and Sonic and different places. I think it's pitiful." One guardsman-driven humvee ran a stop sign, killing two and injuring five. Among the injured were two teenage girls.
The Air Force now has 56 lieutenant colonels for every flying command job traditionally manned by a lieutenant colonel. One Pentagon memo pleaded for the brass to "place colonels in meaningful jobs, created by you," adding that "we have a lot of dedicated hard working colonels that need jobs."
From a speech by US Army Major Ralph Peters of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence: The current goal of our intelligence community is not informing the president or subordinate decision-makers, nor is it guarding the republic with knowledge. Our real goal in the intelligence community is self-preservation -- and self perpetuation. Loathsomely bureaucratic, we camouflage our mediocrity and insufficiency by hiding behind absurdly inflated classifications . . . If the American people ever learned how much slop and drivel is disguised by imposing classifications and caveats, they would have our heads -- and we would deserve our fates.
