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Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
Written by Frank Morales
Thursday, 26 October 2006
In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.
Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007"
(H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th,
2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a
"public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of
state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local
authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."
President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he
signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two
laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while
the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military
onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under
military law enforcement control is precise; the term is "martial law."
Section 1076 of the massive Authorization Act, which grants the Pentagon another
$500-plus-billion for its ill-advised adventures, is entitled, "Use of the Armed
Forces in Major Public Emergencies." Section 333, "Major public emergencies;
interference with State and Federal law" states that "the President may employ
the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore
public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a
natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist
attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United
States, the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to such an
extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable
of ("refuse" or "fail" in) maintaining public order, "in order to suppress, in
any State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or
conspiracy."
For the current President, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order"
means to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local
governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another
state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against
"disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced
vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.
The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of
protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other
"undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under
construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up
"immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border,
detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for
anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.
An article on "recent contract awards" in a recent issue of the slick, insider
"Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International" reported that
"global engineering and technical services powerhouse KBR [Kellog, Brown & Root]
announced in January 2006 that its Government and Infrastructure division was
awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the event of an
emergency." "With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five year term,"
the report notes, "the contract is to be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers," "for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to
augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) - in the event of an
emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid
development of new programs." The report points out that "KBR is the engineering
and construction subsidiary of Halliburton." (3) So, in addition to authorizing
another $532.8 billion for the Pentagon, including a $70-billion "supplemental
provision" which covers the cost of the ongoing, mad military maneuvers in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and other places, the new law, signed by the president in a private
White House ceremony, further collapses the historic divide between the police
and the military: a tell-tale sign of a rapidly consolidating police state in
America, all accomplished amidst ongoing U.S. imperial pretensions of global
domination, sold to an "emergency managed" and seemingly willfully gullible
public as a "global war on terrorism."
Make no mistake about it: the de-facto repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA)
is an ominous assault on American democratic tradition and jurisprudence. The
1878 Act, which reads, "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances
expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any
part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the
laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or
both," is the only U.S. criminal statute that outlaws military operations
directed against the American people under the cover of 'law enforcement.' As
such, it has been the best protection we've had against the power-hungry
intentions of an unscrupulous and reckless executive, an executive intent on
using force to enforce its will.
Unfortunately, this past week, the president dealt posse comitatus, along with
American democracy, a near fatal blow. Consequently, it will take an aroused
citizenry to undo the damage wrought by this horrendous act, part and parcel, as
we have seen, of a long train of abuses and outrages perpetrated by this
authoritarian administration.
Despite the unprecedented and shocking nature of this act, there has been no
outcry in the American media, and little reaction from our elected officials in
Congress. On September 19th, a lone Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) noted that
2007's Defense Authorization Act contained a "widely opposed provision to allow
the President more control over the National Guard [adopting] changes to the
Insurrection Act, which will make it easier for this or any future President to
use the military to restore domestic order WITHOUT the consent of the nation's
governors."
Senator Leahy went on to stress that, "we certainly do not need to make it
easier for Presidents to declare martial law. Invoking the Insurrection Act and
using the military for law enforcement activities goes against some of the
central tenets of our democracy. One can easily envision governors and mayors in
charge of an emergency having to constantly look over their shoulders while
someone who has never visited their communities gives the orders."
A few weeks later, on the 29th of September, Leahy entered into the
Congressional Record that he had "grave reservations about certain provisions of
the fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Bill Conference Report," the language
of which, he said, "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." This had been "slipped in," Leahy
said, "as a rider with little study," while "other congressional committees with
jurisdiction over these matters had no chance to comment, let alone hold
hearings on, these proposals."
In a telling bit of understatement, the Senator from Vermont noted that "the
implications of changing the (Posse Comitatus) Act are enormous". "There is good
reason," he said, "for the constructive friction in existing law when it comes
to martial law declarations. Using the military for law enforcement goes against
one of the founding tenets of our democracy. We fail our Constitution,
neglecting the rights of the States, when we make it easier for the President to
declare martial law and trample on local and state sovereignty."
Senator Leahy's final ruminations: "Since hearing word a couple of weeks ago
that this outcome was likely, I have wondered how Congress could have gotten to
this point. It seems the changes to the Insurrection Act have survived the
Conference because the Pentagon and the White House want it."
The historic and ominous re-writing of the Insurrection Act, accomplished in the
dead of night, which gives Bush the legal authority to declare martial law, is
now an accomplished fact.
The Pentagon, as one might expect, plays an even more direct role in martial law
operations. Title XIV of the new law, entitled, "Homeland Defense Technology
Transfer Legislative Provisions," authorizes "the Secretary of Defense to create
a Homeland Defense Technology Transfer Consortium to improve the effectiveness
of the Department of Defense (DOD) processes for identifying and deploying
relevant DOD technology to federal, State, and local first responders."
In other words, the law facilitates the "transfer" of the newest in so-called
"crowd control" technology and other weaponry designed to suppress dissent from
the Pentagon to local militarized police units. The new law builds on and
further codifies earlier "technology transfer" agreements, specifically the 1995
DOD-Justice Department memorandum of agreement achieved back during the
Clinton-Reno regime.(4)
It has become clear in recent months that a critical mass of the American people
have seen through the lies of the Bush administration; with the president's
polls at an historic low, growing resistance to the war Iraq, and the Democrats
likely to take back the Congress in mid-term elections, the Bush administration
is on the ropes. And so it is particularly worrying that President Bush has seen
fit, at this juncture to, in effect, declare himself dictator.
Source:
(1)
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/091906a.html and
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/092906b.html See also,
Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, "The Use of Federal Troops
for Disaster Assistance: Legal Issues," by Jennifer K. Elsea, Legislative
Attorney, August 14, 2006
(2)
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill+h109-5122
(3) Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, "Recent
Contract Awards", Summer 2006, Vol.12, No.2, pg.8; See also, Peter Dale Scott,
"Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps," New American Media,
January 31, 2006.
(4) "Technology Transfer from defense: Concealed Weapons Detection", National
Institute of Justice Journal, No 229, August, 1995, pp.42-43.
Photo source: http://sandiego.indymedia.org/images/2005/08/110478.jpg
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