U.S. Army Brigade On Call for
Domestic Emergencies
Bush attached a signing statement to the NDAA stating
he would not abide by posse comitatus
By John Fisher
New American, October 12, 2008
go to original
See Article I.2
Self-Exemption from Laws Upon Signing
| |
US Soldiers now at the ready to patrol
U.S. streets.
Source: United States
Army Central
|
The president now has an active-duty Army unit here
in the United States to use at his beck and call.
The unit will serve as an on-call federal response
force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters,
including terrorist attacks. But some people warn
that this action establishes a standing army that
could be used for executive abuse of power —
and even to enforce martial law.
Beginning the first of October for 12 months, the
1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) will be under the day-to-day
control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component
of Northern Command. According to the Army Times,
"Helping 'people at home' may become a permanent
part of the active Army." Although units were
called up during Hurricane Katrina, this will be the
first time an active-duty army unit will serve full-time
in the United States.
Based out of Fort Stewart, Georgia, the brigade is
training for a variety of Homeland Security tasks.
"They may be called upon to help with civil unrest
and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific
scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response
to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or
high-yield explosive, or CBRNE," states the Army
Times. The John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act
of 2006 has been interpreted to establish this full-time
active-duty unit. The act allowed the president to
use the military in major public emergencies.
The Defense Authorization Act contravened the Posse
Comitatus Act, Title 18 of the U.S. Code (USC), Section
1385, which prohibits the "willful" use
of any part of the Army or Air Force as "a posse
comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws" except
"in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized
by the Constitution or Act of Congress." The
intent of the Posse Comitatus Act was to prevent the
use of the military to enforce police-state powers.
One of the few legislators to complain about the
act at the time of its passage was Senator Patrick
J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who warned that the measure virtually
invites the White House to declare federal martial
law. It "subverts solid, longstanding posse
comitatus statutes that limit the military's
involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it
easier for the President to declare martial law,"
he said in remarks appearing in the Congressional
Record on September 29, 2006.
On December 1 of that year, Jeff Stein, Congressional
Quarterly national security editor, described
the potential abuses of the Defense Authorization
Act, which made the permanent posting of active-duty
soldiers possible. The act "has a provocative
provision called 'Use of the Armed Forces in Major
Public Emergencies,'" which "seems to be
about giving the federal government a far stronger
hand in coordinating responses to [Hurricane] Katrina-like
disasters," wrote Stein. "But on closer
inspection, its language also alters the two-centuries-old
Insurrection Act, which Congress passed in 1807 to
limit the president's power to deploy troops within
the United States ... 'to suppress, in a State, any
insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination,
or conspiracy.'" "But the amended law takes
the cuffs off" and "critics say it's a formula
for executive branch mischief," Stein wrote,
as "the new language adds 'natural disaster,
epidemic, or other serious public health emergency,
terrorist attack or incident' to the list of conditions
permitting the President to take over local authority
- particularly 'if domestic violence has occurred
to such an extent that the constituted authorities
of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining
public order.'"
A standing army contravenes the original meaning
of the Second Amendment, which instead guaranteed
"a well regulated Militia" which it deemed
is "necessary to the security of a free State."
During the floor debate over the Second Amendment,
Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, a signer of
the Declaration of Independence, and later vice president
of the United States from 1813-1814, spoke out: "What,
Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the
establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty....
Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and
liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy
the militia, in order to raise an army upon their
ruins."
The John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2006,
named for the longtime chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, was signed by President Bush on
October 17, 2006. The part undermining the Posse Comitatus
Act was subsequently repealed in the Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2008, but President Bush attached
a signing statement to the latter act saying that
he did not feel bound by the change. "Provisions
of the Act ... purport to impose requirements that
could inhibit the President's ability to carry out
his constitutional obligations to take care that the
laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security,
to supervise the executive branch, and to execute
his authority as Commander in Chief. The executive
branch shall construe such provisions in a manner
consistent with the constitutional authority of the
President," he said in his January 28, 2008 signing
statement.
