Ahrcanum

I love my country.  What I am becomming wary of, is its deterioration and potential reliance on some invisible power.  The Brigade Homeland Tour is beginning today or perhaps later this week.  No matter the date the US Army is on hand and available to assist with any “civil unrest” as quoted by the www.armytimes.com .  Are we talking about civil unrest as in Hurricane Katrina, a terrorist attack, bank failures, weakening economies, elections?   Just who gets to decide when to activate consequence management teams that requires more than the local police or National Guard?   

Ah, but what about the Posse Comitatus Act?  The Posse Comitatus statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized.  Authorized by whom?   You may remember, that The Posse Comitatus Act is often mentioned when it appears that the Department of Defense is treading on thin water or interfering in domestic disturbances. 

With little fan fair from the media, the Army has been authorized and ready, having just completed  a mission rehearsal in mid September at Fort Stewart.  The Army is now on active duty and ready to protect Americans on American Soil. 

US Army announced “that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) will be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command (NORTHCOM), as an on-call federal response force for natural or man made emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.  These soldiers will also learn how to use non-lethal weapons designed to “subdue unruly or dangerous individuals” without killing them.”  Gee, I feel better already.  OMG- these troops just finished a tour in Iraq, we’re talking some bad ass mother f’ers here.  

Was it the Patriot Act, the John Warner Defense Appropriation Act, DOD, etc.,  that allowed for the obvious and blatant disregard of the Posse Comitatus Act??  Near as I can tell, President Bush Signed H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 into Law where by under 18 U.S.C.983 ” the Attorney General may request that the Secretary of Defense provide emergency assistance if civilian law enforcement is inadequate to address certain types of threat involving the release of nuclear materials, such as potential use of a nuclear or radiological weapon.  Such assistance may be by any personnel under the authority of the Department of Defense, provided such assistance does not adversely affect U.S. military preparedness. ” So there we have it, the Attorney General and “any personnel under the DOD” gets to decide when things are haywire enough to require the Army to intervene.  Presently, Attorney General Michael Mukasey is busy appointing a prosecutor to investigate whether his predecessor Alberto Gonzales and others involved in the firings of nine US attorneys broke the law.   I guess we are safe.  (BTW-just when did having a job with the Federal Government preclude one from getting fired??}   

Oh Wait….what about the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Program Integration, DUSD (PI)???  “DUSD (PI) also takes every measure to ensure the most effective use of Total Force structure and its allocation among the components of the DoD and Active and Reserve units. ”  TOTAL FORCE STRUCTURE.  Aw, crap. 

So many commissions from the investigation of steroid use in baseball, to the 9-11 Commission, to who shot Kennedy, to if Clinton inhaled., etc.  The truth is that the US Army has been commissioned to active duty on home soil and the President of the USA is circumventing the Posse Comitatus Act, for better or worse.

Ahrcanum.

http://www.dhra.mil/website/fieldActivity/fieldActivity.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

 http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/09/posse-comitatus-on-merits.html