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SFG(A) said,

Did someone say peace is the best defense? Ah, if only the world was as you see it through rose-colored lenses. We are truly fortunate, living in a great country.

The Rev says in reply,

If only America itself was as you see it through rose-colored glasses. Oftentimes, we are more a part of the problem than the solution - just ask our allies even, if you don't believe me?

Americans like to believe that once they go in and kill a lot of people, that the problem has been solved. Well, we have killed a lot of people in both Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention sacrificed a lot of American lives, and the problem is still there for the world and Americans to see. Perhaps there was another way to address the problem. Will you concede that?

Americans customarily see and define 'a problem' through the prism of American self-interest and denial; ergo, it's always the other guys fault. Also, Americans often overlook the law of 'cause and effect', or causation and response if you prefer. Iraq suffered at the hands of the U.S.A. for breaking laws as perceived from an American perspective. The rest of the world, including the U.N. had selected an alternate course in order to deal with Iraq.

Seeking peace through killing, hasn't gotten us anywhere, and when you have been reared in a 'industrial military complex', the one that too many Americans have been raised in, what other possible solution can there be?

However, There is an alternative method for we live in a multi-cultured world!

Our (America's) theme
Ought to be
To pursue different passions
For different people!

Someday, you and others like you might come to understand what I am saying, and then America will experience the likelihood of fewer of its sons and daughters (not to mention the rest of the world) being slaughtered in internecine conflicts!

Having said that, and if it were to occur as I have proposed - some of you who were 'born to fight and kill', might not have an army or navy to join up with in order to further your personal ambitions to kill somebody else, well, you can join the militias can't you?

And you may quote the Rev on that too -

Why do we act so surprised, when reading such crap from individuals who have absolutely no idea, knowledge or experience. Individuals crying for Special Operations intervention also think Memorial Day is nothing but a long weekend holiday of festivities. Hey, you have the right to bear arms, use it!

Don't you love listening to those loud mouths who today support FEMA's breakaway from HLS, when a few decades ago were screaming FEMA is a hidden shadow government organization.

What about that ole saying "screw up, move up" just ask Giuliani who screw up 9/11, or the mayor of New Orleans, who runs away before Katrina hits, then returns and fires how many people for leaving their posts? How many understood that in the mist of total chaos, a Coast Guard Admiral and his C2 elements stepped in to organize an already double disastrous situation? Where were all those certified emergency management leaders who think their all decision makers?

Bush, like his father; made many mistakes in the Middle East, however, first I blame those jet-eye knights who went on to become generals and have been running the US Army over the past 10 years. Congress flat out gave them a blank check and they opt for soft vehicles instead of tanks. I remember the congressional committee repeatedly asking a group of generals "are you sure that is all you want, no more?"

Sure Bush made mistakes, and yes, most foreigners today dislike Americans openly. Truth is they hated us since WWII. I would rather they hate us openly, than make fun of us as they did under the Clinton administration.

You think Bush is arrogant and egotistical, just wait until Ms. Hillary becomes president. I give her one major point, she has more balls than all the democrats/republicans put together - she has my vote!

The core problems didn't begin with this administration, they slowly started eating away 30-40-50 years ago and we have been paying a heavy price for the mistakes of McNamara, Kissinger and Haig only to mention a few.

Did someone say peace is the best defense? Ah, if only the world was as you see it through rose-colored lenses. We are truly fortunate, living in a great country. We should never forget the ultimate sacrifices made by the men and women in uniform who have given their lives and limbs so we can live free. History has repeatedly proven one grave point; no country that has not spilled blood has ever been truly free. Freedom, does come with a heavy price!

Maybe, Special Forces, not Special Operations should intervene; after all, don't you think we need to thin out the incompetent.

We all here seem to know what is happening
to one degree or another.
Get behind Ron Paul right now.(If you are not already)
Get donations to him, he needs money.
He is in the fight. Right on the front lines.

The best defense is peace!

The best defense is peace!

I have always believed that politics and the military made strange bedfellows. It would appear that the two have always been at odds one with the other, if nothing else.

After reading Lt. General Michael Delong's book, A General Speaks Out, and in consideration of today's topic, the military has its own ostensible set of internal politics. Doesn't it?

General Delong was once deputy commander of U.S. Central Command under General Tommy Franks.

The Rev has been naiive with respect to politics in the military - and the Rev is thankful for that epiphany!

Having said all of the above, the question remains, will any of what has taken place over the past 4 years years, or what NORCOM wants to do now - make any Americans, or the world for that matter any safer?

If American politicos and its foreign policy aren't turned into a new direction soon, all Americans should prepare to live (in the new American century), in Beirut, Anywhere U.S.A.!

So far, everything that I have witnessed or heard about it - suggests to me that with regard to the larger war, we are failing and running scared. Sorry Hillary, for we appear to be loosing the larger war! Henry Kissinger and others, are begrudgingly seeming to say the same of late, I have noted!

Flipping back a couple chapters in the old history book, there were these laws called the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were basically seen as an attempt to quell opposition to the administration of that time. Given today's atmosphere of lack of public accountability, the Patriot Act, all sorts of questions about the genesis of the Iraq war, a neverending taxpayer/consumer obligation to pay for whatever happens to strike this administrations' fancy, bluntly spoken, there's Something Rotten In Denmark, and a lot of people are rightly suspicious about any/all goings-on governmental that pertain to further breaks with past principle and practice, not the least of which were the Posse Comitatus Act
and the Insurrection Act.

In english, what that all translates out to is checks and balances on high-handed, indiscriminate free-style law enforcement, and the ways that it sure seems like someone is planning to use blanket bypass authority to get around all the checks and balances. Hell hath no fury like an oil company scorned? Hmmm....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurrection_Act

The burden of sorting out What's Really Going On, Here unfortunately falls to Congress, which, god willing, is composited of reasonably honest people with a healthy dose of cynicism and a highly critical eye toward spending bills. Fiduciary oversight is part of their collective responsibility as representatives of the public, in order that whatever does go on in the name of the American People remains at least loosely accountable to same. This is where you get into public transparency, and dear old CSPAN, and, if needed, impeachment.

Currently, if the newspapers are to be believed, our country's running about a half-trillion annual deficit. The pentagon seems to absorb more and more dollars every year, which is really interesting since we don't seem to be fighting either the germans, the russians, or the japanese anymore, the question on a lot of people's minds is 'where DOES all that money go, anyway'? Then, you could get into ring-kissing, influence peddling, political skulduggery, power games and so forth, but what it all boils out to is that again, something's rotten in denmark, and it smells an awful lot like moldy socks, Big Oil, the pentagon air force boeing lady, stuff like that, billions of dollars 'lost'(?), the numbers don't add up, all hush-hush about anything to do with spending, in one word you can call it corruption. They can keep their duct tape and plastic sheeting, I'd like to see the ledger books. I think fraud doesn't even begin to cover it anymore,
and if we're willing to sit idly by and accept disingenuous practices in government, then in one way we kind of deserve what we get, but in another way, it also speaks to the need for MUCH more citizen involvement to prevent a lot of the perhaps accidental(perhaps NOT) largesse that's been practiced on behalf of the taxpayer for decades, now, without one really strong voice in opposition to all of that. When Congress has been bought out, the sky's the limit...

The only thing that marks this administration as different is that they've been a lot more blatant in some of their practices than in previous years, no big alterations, just exponential increases in the amount of monies flying around. Bluntly spoken, when you govern the Denver Mint, you own the country, if not outright, then indirectly through economic influence, and I don't see the word 'independence' in there anywhere, do you? Didn't think so. In short, We, the People, are now confonted with a runaway franchise that sort of bears some vague
titulary resemblence to what we started out with, but there the resemblance ends,
replaced with America, INC., LLC, Unlimited, and if Cheney gets his way, just add 'Global' there at the end instead of 'Intl.' . To wit, a runaway franchise that's still just barely Brand America, that feels as though it owes no explanation to anyone, hubris personified.
Thus, we have now witnessed what in my opinion is the first elective expeditionary resource war of choice of the 21st century, with no heed paid to the words of MG Smedley Butler, who proclaimed that "War is a racket".
Ah, but if you're getting PAID by the racketeers, hmmmm....and thus is corruption perpetuated.

Moral of the story? When Congress is in session, and Bush is signing things,
keep an eye on the door, and a hand on your wallet, and your Congressman on speed-dial...or, face just being one of Bernanke's little people, 'consumers' with no real voice or representation in Washington, prey for loan sharks and real estate moguls, grease for the economic wheels and so forth...somehow, I think the Founding Fathers had a little bit different idea in mind than data-tracked consumer-bots, economic pigeonholing, and a runaway government with blanket authority, no public accountability, and greed-driven descendants of former nazi collaborators in charge, who seem juuust a little bit too willing to make common cause with foreign royalty by true american standards, not to put TOO fine a point on it, but thus it stands, in my view anyway. Further, and thus I'll end my rant,as long as Exxon is in the white house, democracy's in the outhouse.

For those so inclined, here's a great website:
http://www.impeachbush.org

Odysseus, what exactly is 'continuity of government'? Does that mean that they will make sure the government is allowed to continue doing what it's doing even if the people don't want it to?

These sheople that right in about how we who are informed are into conspiracy or what have you, well they are in denial, afraid to admit to themselves as to what is really going down, just don't believe it, and I could go on and on. I run into these "goalongtogetalong" types all the time and this is the action that is helping these United States to fall much faster and harder than intended. The Global Elite are loving it. When one encounters these folks one needs to move on to those that are interested in becoming informed and realize awareness is one step in the right direction. So keep on man I love your piece today. We need some real journalists out there as there are not many in the so called mainstream no mas!

Adios~

James

sbe@moment.net

retarded_redneck, I'll see your eight years in the military and raise you my twenty (and still going). If a terror cell were to get beyond the planning stages and set up a MASCAL event that crossed multiple jurisdictions, whose responsibility would it be to deal with it?

The National Guard?

Nope.

They aren't federal troops unless the president calls them to active federal service. By then, it would be too late to do anything effective, especially if coordination between multiple commands and states were required. The same goes for any military organization not specifically tasked with the homeland security mission. The fact is that a SPECOPS contingency unit equipped and trained for quick reactions is a good idea.

If you really believed that this were a fascist state, the last thing that you'd be doing is crowing about it on the internet, where your IP address could be gotten easily. Real dictatorships jail bloggers. Spare me your pontificating and think.

The clock reads one minute to midnight
sun going down on the union
you will either march lock step with the dictator or be jailed or killed off
the days are numbered like a thief in the night it comes upon us
America today is a dictatorship
a Banana Republic
from electronic voting machines and rigged elections to cheney and bush declaring they are above the law or the building of concentration camps for americans on american soil
and all Americans can do about it is turn the other cheek
the forefathers of America spit on this generation you are not worthy of being called AMericans
is there a real American left among you
so few and far between that they are lost in the sea of apathy
while the greenback crumbles and the dictator looks upon you with disdain
lock step you are marhing like the NAzis
and it will be up to the rest of the world the distastefull task to put yet another nazi regime down
your freedom is gone forever the most precious gift bestowed on you by the founding fathers it was trashed and not a peep out of the sheep
thats what is disturbing the fact that this generation was too busy [playing nintendo to even notice their freedoms snatched from them
its all over now baby blue
there is a hard rain a gonna fall

I think that the Bush people are watching way too many epiosdes of 24.I also think that Cheney fantasies that he is Jack Bauer.Absolute power corrupts absolutely.I do not have the answers as to how we deal with this but look what happened when the FBI & the CiA went over the line back in th 1970's.If North Com goes over the line who will hold them accountable? The rpad to hell is paved with good intentions.We are facing a formible foe-religious fantatics who use terror as a way of expressing their point of view-but why do we also have to go to extremes? I am not saying that we should just roll along but surely there must be a
better way to deal with possible & unfortunately future attacks w/o subverting our system to a dictatorship?

The oath the military starts out with "...to protect and defend the Constitution of the UNited Sates against enemies foreign and domestic..."

NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, says to conduct anything other than that. SpecOps has nothing to do with Civil Support

Bukko in Australia:

CRS Report to Congress RS22674 of 8 Jun 2007 provides Congressionally requested background and analysis on PD51. Here's a link of the short 5-page report for your reading enjoyment.

(www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RS22674.pdf)

Apparently, the authority of the President to ensure continuity of government operations is nothing new; PD51 and its previous versions can trace their lineage directly as far back as President Eisenhower to 1955. What is new in this latest revision is that the responsibility for coordinating a national government continuity of operations effort has been taken from FEMA (we all saw how well that organization did in coordinating government efforts in a catastrophe during Katrina!) and moved higher up in the government food chain to FEMA's ultimate boss in the White House. Probably not a bad idea considering how much leadership and horsepower will be required to recover government operations should DC be nuked. Besides what else should the President, or his/her successor, be doing if not being directly involved in such efforts?

Given your mistrust of the current occupant of that office, I understand your concern with PD51. That said, it just might be what it appears to be - the government beaurocracy revising its plans and paperwork, something it's been doing for this particular piece of paper since 1955 and will most likely continue to do for the next 50 years.

As for the "loopholes" in the wording; granted, PD51 is not cyrstal clear and unambiguous. I'm no lawyer so I could be way off base here, but I suspect its at least as clear (if not clearer and unambiguous) than most laws and directives currently on the books. Why else would we have so many lawyers making such a good living interpreting them for us? :)

Cheer my friend.

Bukko in Australia,

Good luck, my friend. See you in 686 days.

i have not made a comment on here before but i feel compelled to speak and sent some issues straight
Posse Comitatus states that "NO federal troops maybe use on domestic soil for any purpose of control" period end of subject
"national guard" are federal troops
all these northcom and spec ops and the exec order are unconstitutional
how do i know
because i spent 8 years in the military so all you loud mouth cowards talking trash while hiding behind your computer shut the hell up
there is only one reason why a government would want to be able to use it's military forces domestically

to fight it's citizens

we are living in a police state
yes i dare say it the beginning of a fascist regime
i fought for this country i have taken two bullets a bomb and if that wasnt bad enough i had cancer from the DU munitions been in remission for 9 months
if anyone can speak its me all you people talk about your rights
how can you have rights you never earned anything they were gifts and all you do is spit on them
your nothing more than cowards you talk and talk but you DO NOTHING
you say this is bad and that is bad but you do nothing
something is about to happen things just dont feel right i did the best i could for all of you but now your on your own
im leaving and what you get is exactly what you will deserve
it sounds harsh and callous but all of you have hurt me too bad
i still love my country i always will
but i hate and distrust my government and my fellow citizens are just sheep waiting to be slaughtered

little willy,

just to note that any national security state easily transforms into a regime of internal enemies...we seem to be following the historical pattern though with (surprisingly?) little active dissent.

little willy,

just to note that national any security state easily transforms into a regime of internal enemies...

I appreciate your analysis of the Warner Act and PD 51, Frank, and I'll check the Wiki link when my brain recovers from the midnight shift I just completed. I'll also follow the progress of Leahy's legislation. Thank goodness for the Internet -- one can keep track of matters from half a world away.

The key is the "nuance" you noted. (And the word "comity" in PD 51. It doesn't say the other branches have a flat-out RIGHT to be co-equal in an emergency. It says the president will, in the spirit of friendship, let them in on the game if he bloody well feels like it.)

I've gotta go with the track record of the Cheney government, and the record shows them to be lying, thieving, power-grabbing bastards. There are loopholes in that nuance big enough to drive an up-armoured Humvee through. Yes, it grants the powers to the Office of the President, not Cmdr. Chimpy in particular, but HE'S still in office. There's no guarantee that he or one of his minions won't cling to it like a metastasising tumour.

Pardon me a minute while I adjust my tinfoil hat, but I don't trust them to let go of power. They've worked so hard to grab every bit of it, after all. Unlike other commenters, and my own wife, I don't believe these weasels created the 9/11 attacks. But if there's a nuclear explosion, say near where I used to live, in the middle of San Francisco Bay (conveniently vapourising 2 million blacks, gays and liberals), that would galvanise the country into such terror that they'd not be bothered about those dictatorial emergency powers.

I don't think BuSShCo was behind the last attack. I DO think they'll be behind the next. I could be a barking paranoid, but we all have to place our bets in life. I'm betting on the worst, which is why I buggered out of the country. I hope I'm wrong, but I've got a relatively safe seat from which to watch the action. See you in 686 days -- maybe...

NORTHCOM should be ABOLISHED!!!!
Ya, we need a response team for a Nuke attack but we need not this Soviet style KBG sh*#T!
I've just finished reading THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO by Aleksander I Solzhenitsyn... It's clearly shows where all these "preperations" are leading too.....
Ron Paul is our only hope! Hit the streets with your local Ron Paul Meetup group! Fight now while you can because as soon as they have controll over the internet the show will be over and we will never have America back again.....

Please take action and donate $$$$ to the Ron Paul Campian!

God Bless, Paul Revere II

NORTHCOM should be ABOLISHED!!!!
Ya, we need a response team for a Nuke attack but we need not this Soviet style KBG sh*#T!
I've just finished reading THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO by Aleksander I Solzhenitsyn... It's clearly shows where all these "preperations" are leading too.....
Ron Paul is our only hope! Hit the streets with your local Ron Paul Meetup group! Fight now while you can because as soon as they have controll over the internet the show will be over and we will never have America back again.....

Please take action and donate $$$$ to the Ron Paul Campian!

God Bless, Paul Revere II

When are the majority of the American people going to wake up and realize that the real target of the "War on Terror" is not terrorists, but US, the American people, and our already shredded Constitution? This article is only one more piece of evidence in an accumulating mass of evidence of that fact, beginning with the false flag attacks by elements of our own government on the people of the United States, on 9-11.

One commentator here seems to think that American troops, under the current circumstances, couldn't be relied upon to enforce an American dictatorship even when ordered to do so; that American troops wouldn't fire on Americans. On the contrary, American troops have done precisely that many times during our history, particularly during the Civil War. Indeed, it could be argued that what we are now engaged in in this country IS a civil war, even though most people haven't yet recognized it as such! We are now an occupied country, as surely as Iraq is occupied, by a hostile, tyrannical government bent on accruing absolute power to itself which it never intends to relinquish, and that will stop at nothing to accomplish that goal.

if and when anything happens to trigger the over-zealous, over-trained morons into action, they will fall all over themselves trying to figure out just what their mission is, just how to handle it, just who is really in charge, if all the paperwork is in correct order and if they have the o.k. from oberfurher chertoff. just think of the aftermath of katrina. you will be laughing at the keystone feds. but, it will be real and there will be more fingers pointed than anyone can imagine.

america's best and brightest, when in action, always good for a laugh.

I can not believe what I'm reading. Can no one else see that this whole war on terror is simply a sham to put fear into the hearts of the weak hearted for eventual total control thereof? This is exactly what Hitler did, as a matter of fact it is nearly a carbon copy. The worlds two biggest terrorists are George Bush and Dick Chaney. They have gutted the Constitution, thrown out the Bill of Rights, and scared most of you sh**less whereas you can't even remember history or see what's happening currently. They have turned a country that actually did nothing to the U.S. into a radioactive nightmare responsible for over 300,000 G.I.'s that currently suffer medical disabilities, that have unnaturally high rates of cancer and whose children are being born with birth defects at a never before seen rate.

Where are all these terrorists that these Special Operation troops are supposed to protect us from? If terrorism is such a concern why are our southern borders wide open and why does the so called government of this country not do something about it other than prosecute our border patrol officers that try to stop the entry of illegal immigrants?

Ask yourself why the last two groups of "terrorists" each consisted of a group of idiots with no money and less common sense AND and F.B.I. informant telling them how to get things done? Both of these alledged plans were so unbelievably stupid they wouldn't have worked anyway.

Quit acting like a bunch of sheep, open you eyes and look beyond the obvious and you will see who the real terrorists are. Hopefully you will see before they declare marshall law because after that this is going to be a completely different country, more similar to Russia under Stalin than "The Land of the Free".

It is good that there is some planning. However, few plans ever survive contact with the enemy. Perhaps when a nuke incident occurs, there will be some parts of the government that aren't running around like headless chickens.

Bukko in Australia writes:

"BuSSh and the Rethugs have already disemboweled the Posse Comitatus Act. It happened in the John Warner 2007 Defense Authorization Act, passed in the waning days of the Repiglican 109th Congress. It gives the president power to take control of National Guard troops, and send them anywhere inside the U.S. he wants, to follow his orders, in case of a national emergency."

Actually the language of the Warner Act is much more nuanced than you suggest. Under the Act, the Presidential authority is expanded so that he/she may additionally deploy troops as a police force during a natural disaster, epidemic, serious public health emergency, terrorist attack, or other condition, when the President determines that the authorities of the state are incapable of maintaining public order (e.g., immediately following Hurricane Katrina). The bill also modified Sec. 334 of the Insurrection Act and expands President authority to order the dispersal of either insurgents or "those obstructing the enforcement of the laws."

Under the amended Act, the President is required to notify Congress of the determination to exercise this expanded authority as soon as practicable after the determination and every 14 days thereafter during the duration of the exercise of the authority.

For a complete analysis of the implications of the Warner Act (which essentially modifies the Insurrection Act of 1807) Wikipedia provides an excellent analysis of thoese revisions, including a side-by-side comparison of "old" versus "new" language, and flow chart illustrating differences in application.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurrection_Act_)

Also note that on February 7, 2007, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) introduced legislation that would revert the Insurrection Act to its previous state. Sen. Leahy argues that the modifications to the law make it unnecessarily easy to assert federal authority over national guard elements without the consent of governors, and that the changes removed a "useful friction" that existed between the Insurrection Act and the Posse Comitatus Act. I personally agree with Senator Leahy.

You also write: "See also the recent Presidential Directive 51, which basically allows BuSSh to take control of the national government if there is an "emergency" as he sees it."

Presidential Directive 51 updates the Presidential Decision Directive 67 of October 21, 1998 ("Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of Government Operations") signed by President Reagan and, as reported by the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902719.html), essentially shifts responsibility for planning, coordinating and executing plans to assure an enduring Constitutional government in the event of catastrophic emergency from FEMA to the office of the President (Note: Not to G.W. Bush, but rather to the Office of the Presidency and his or her successors).

As defined in the Order, an Enduring Constitutional Government "means a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government, coordinated by the President, as a matter of comity with respect to the legislative and judicial branches and with proper respect for the constitutional separation of powers among the branches, to preserve the constitutional framework under which the Nation is governed and the capability of all three branches of government to execute constitutional responsibilities and provide for orderly succession, appropriate transition of leadership, and interoperability and support of the National Essential Functions during a catastrophic emergency." A catastrophic emergency "means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

I sorry. I just don't read in those words the Bush power grab you suggest. That said, I'm glad you're skeptical of a strong central government's intent. That skepticism is an enduring trait of free people everywhere.

So the thieves, murderers, torturers and child rapists that the U.S. vomited onto the Iraqi people are about to be inflicted on the Americans, seems about right to me.

Clean you Barretts and keep your powder dry.

"Stop throwing the consitution in my face! It's just a Goddamn piece of paper." George W. Bush 12/2005

Quis: I think what you wrote is going to be the latest amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Or rather, the amendment that replaces all the other ones...

Early Warning
'Special Operations Prepared for Domestic Missions'
... and when they come for you, no one will speak up.

If history is any guide, (see COINTELPRO etc) domestic "special ops" will concern themselves mostly with infiltrating and disrupting domestic political groups. We already know that Homeland Security spends a great proportion of its time and energy monitoring Quakers, vegans etc. Based on the track record, one could reasonably assume that NORTHCOM will primarily target grassroots antiwar organizers for their "black ops."

You peoples are traitors! Your rulers are doing this for your own good. Shut your pie holes and do what you are told.

Without popular support all these attempts to control everything and everyone are doomed to the failure they richly deserve. The neocon dream to control the world is unraveling. God help the Jews if the rednecks catch on to what really happened. Anyone with DSL can see the anomalies in 911 that make it a black ops USA/CIA military /industrial strke. Even a half baked investigation of 911 would find the unanswerable questions. Like the funerial JFK greeting in the Dallas news, the obvoius nature of the 911 anomalies is designed to warn off any seekers powerful enough to extract the truth of how 911 was affected and allowed to suceed AND BY WHOM.

Umm, Frank, sorry to burst your bubble mate, but BuSSh and the Rethugs have already disemboweled the Posse Comitatus Act. It happened in the John Warner 2007 Defense Authorization Act, passed in the waning days of the Repiglican 109th Congress. It gives the president power to take control of National Guard troops, and send them anywhere inside the U.S. he wants, to follow his orders, in case of a national emergency. What that "emergency" is is up to the president. Google "Bush posse comitatus" for a better read on the specifics of the Warner Act than I can repeat here.

See also the recent Presidential Directive 51, which basically allows BuSSh to take control of the national government if there is an "emergency" as he sees it. That's why the NORTHCOM stuff that Arkin mentions seems so ominous.

I'd like to think that I'm being a tinfoil-hat conspiracy nutter. But language like what's in these acts does not write itself. Especially when it's phrased subtly and slipped in surreptitiously. People put it there for a reason. And given the track record of constitutional abuses by the Bush Crime Family, I shudder to think what the reason is.

Hawk58 writes: "The 19th century Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, which restrict the domestic use of military force, are relics of another age and may no longer be appropriate."

I have to strenuously disagree on your assessment of the utility of Posse Comitatus Act. By drawning a line in the sand on the use, and restrictions, of federal military forces in domestic situations, Posse Comitatus remains a crucial check on potentially blatant and creeping federal erosion of each State's autonomy - and by extension, individual liberties and rights.

Even if you are correct in your characterization of the terrorist threat, law enforcement and civil first responders - vice military force - remains the preferred avenue of not only the majority of State and local government agencies but also DoD at large (notwithstanding NORTHCOM's past excuberance to push the limits of the the "supporting" role our military traditionally plays).

I would be greatly surprised if the vast majority of current uniformed leadership in our military would be comfortable with the military taking on a covert, active, anti-terrorist role on home soil. Such a position runs counter to the oath they swore to "protect and defend the Constitution" (whereby I mean the rights and liberties afforded within). Until Posse Comitatus is repealed by Congress (which I see as highly unlikely), any active, self-initiated, covert SPECOPS on US soil almost certainly be illegal - and those uniformed members tasked to participate would have an obligation to disobey any orders from higher authority which mandated such operations. In this regard, I trust the American fighting men and women to do the right thing - else they truly would have become a mercenary force; rather than the institution I've loved and embraced for the past 27 years.

Come on Hawk! The "gravity of the threat" we face. Compare how many Americans have died from terrorist attacks in the past decade to how many have died from addiction to smoking or alcohol. Compare how many people die in automobile accidents every year to the number of deaths from a terrorist attack.

How many of us actually feel threatened in our everyday lives? Americans--notwithstanding the murderous attacks on 9-11--are still flying all over the world in ever increasing numbers. New York City, Washington, Seattle and Los Angeles are all experiencing robust growth in their tourist industries. Why? Because the American people feel instictively that the war on terror has been hyped beyond all recognition by the Bush administration and its ideological allies who are emotionally and financially invested in this so-called war on terror.

There will be terrorist attacks in the future whether there is a war on terror or not. Our job as citizens is not to be ruled by fear and anger, not to give up who we are, but to act in rational ways to such destructive behaviours, to devise preventive strategies and most importantly, to reason out what motivates suicide bombers and change whatever it is that impels those behaviours.

What we are doing at present is simply guaranteeing a healthy supply of terrorists for the future--which is probably deliberate on the part of the people who are presently leading us.

I think I logged in here too early. The main reason I read the comments to Arkin's posts is to get a laugh at the froth-mouth reich-wingers who spew their hatred because he once used the word "mercenary" in connection with the sainted troops. But they haven't wormed their way out of the woodwork yet! I'll check back in after a few more hours.

But here's a thought for you neo-fascists -- Suppose it was the eeeeeeevil CLINTON doing this?!? Wouldn't that be scary? But it's just George BuSSh doing it, and we all know how well everything he does turns out. Go back to sleep, righties...

It seems to me that those who like to talk about the "threat" in ominous global, WWIII terms are invested in this war on terror. When specifically did thisd global conspiracy begin? Who and where are its leaders. Assuming they even have anywhere near a capacity to pull off a global conspiracy of this nature, what are their plans after they succeed? Does anyone out there really believe that a loose-knit, ragtag, decentralized group like those who attacked on 9-11 would have the power necessary to maintain control of every society on earth?

Look. This entire notion of a war on terror is silly. Like it or not, sooner or later we are going to have to face up to the reality that terrorism is no different than any other motivation for those who want to do violence or harm to other members of society. We have a system of laws against all manner of criminal behaviours. Using military power against terrorists, declaring war on terror is like declaring war on poverty, suicide, drugs or smoking. The success only comes when you discover the underlying motivations and address them.

If we think we are going to achieve some sort of WWII-like miltary triump over terrorists, we are kidding ourselves. It is like saying we are going to sic the US Military on murderers throughout the world. First, we declare war on murder. Then we decide that all murderers are operating under a centralized group of global conspirators who murder for ideological reasons. Then, everytime a murder occurs, we switch on our little color coded alert system to warn the public about the global murder conspiracy and what they can do to protect themselves.

Its all perfectly silly. But, it keeps the Military Industrial Complex a highly profitable venture.

Mr. Arkin,

Your rhetorical tone belies the gravity of the threat we face.

In February 1998, Usama bin Ladin issued a fatwa "Declaration of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders". In it, his intentions are clearly articulated: "To kill Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able, in any country where this is possible, until the Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem] and the Haram Mosque [in Mecca] are freed from their grip and until their armies, shattered and broken-winged, depart from all the lands of Islam, incapable of threatening any Muslim."

Al Quada is a net centric nodal enemy prosecuting operations on a non-linear battlefield. There are no front lines or safe rear areas in this conflict. There are no strictures against civilian deaths.

In July 2005, the homeland security council identified assessed threats in "National Planning Scenarios" to assist federal, state and local emergency response. These scenarios may also be used to also develop necessary preemptive capabilities.

The 19th century Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, which restrict the domestic use of military force, are relics of another age and may no longer be appropriate.

The need for CONUS SOF is threat driven, and NORTHCOM is properly executing their duty to be prepared for contingencies.

Mr. Arkin,

Your rhetorical tone belies the gravity of the threat we face.

In February 1998, Usama bin Ladin issued a fatwa "Declaration of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders". In it, his intentions are clearly articulated: "To kill Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able, in any country where this is possible, until the Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem] and the Haram Mosque [in Mecca] are freed from their grip and until their armies, shattered and broken-winged, depart from all the lands of Islam, incapable of threatening any Muslim."

Al Quada is a net centric nodal enemy prosecuting operations on a non-linear battlefield. There are no front lines or safe rear areas in this conflict. There are no strictures against civilian deaths.

In July 2005, the homeland security council identified assessed threats in "National Planning Scenarios" to assist federal, state and local emergency response. These scenarios may also be used to also develop necessary preemptive capabilities.

The 19th century Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, which restrict the domestic use of military force, are relics of another age and may no longer be appropriate.

The need for CONUS SOF is threat driven, and NORTHCOM is properly executing their duty to be prepared for contingencies.

The elites in this country can have their illusions, but if there is a (manufactured) catastrophe big enough to warrant Bush the Bonehead's takeover, the stock market will collapse, and the financial motivation and wherewithal with it. OK, maybe this is wishful thinking, but special ops cannot hold the entire US, that is just flat out preposterous. You need a major standing army, and ours has been bled to death, and will be in no mood to march on their homeland when they come back. I understand that the power elites might wish this to happen, but I see no logistical way that this could be possible, and, like I said, it would turn the economy instantly on its ass, and that would raise hell from the wealthy and Bush amd Cheney would be walking a plank within days. Sorry, tools, dont dream you can do this. I'm scared of the possiblity as well, but, remember, dictatorships need COMPULSORY military service, and all the softies who aren't fighting wont show up, and all the hardened guys would rather march on the Pentagon than their own hometowns. No fricking way. It would be up to the police, and agood number of them would not go for this, although many would. But the govt declaring war on its citizens means the gloves would come off and the weapons come out and the manners go bye bye in a very big way.

The Final Presidential Executive Order

A fictional case study about how a future terrorist attack against the US and the Bush administration response elects Ron Paul as President.

Learn what could happen when the United States is hit by another terrorist attack by Islamic extremists that creates an extreme response by Washington in The Final Presidential Executive Order at http://www.swissconfederationinstitute.org/swisspreserve14.htm

This is from a new free online book, "The Swiss Preserve Solution" & the excess reaction results in the election of Ron Paul as President, not in 2008 but in 2012.

For uncensored news please bookmark:

www.wsws.org
www.takingaimradio.info
otherside123.blogspot.com
www.onlinejournal.com
www.globalresearch.ca

The secret government of Dick Cheney: US vice president claims to be outside the law

By Patrick Martin
23 June 2007

The office of Vice President Dick Cheney has refused to comply with an executive order issued by President George Bush four years ago, requiring all executive branch offices to cooperate in regular reviews of their security procedures for handling documents.

After the security office of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), charged with conducting the review, pressed the issue, Cheney and his aides tried to have the office abolished and sought to gag officials of the National Archives by barring them from appealing the dispute to the Department of Justice.

Even more extraordinary than the fact of this conflict within the executive branch--made public Thursday with the release of documents by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform--is the constitutional rationale advanced by the vice president.

According to Cheney, the office of the vice president is not "an entity within the executive branch," as specified in the language of the executive order, because the vice president serves constitutionally as the presiding officer of the US Senate, with a tie-breaking vote, and therefore has legislative power as well.

The sophistry of this argument is plain: in case after case over the past seven years, Cheney has invoked "executive privilege" or similar doctrines to shield his office from congressional investigations and Freedom of Information Act requests from the media and liberal pressure groups.

The most famous case involved the energy task force, formed in the initial weeks of the administration, and engaged, among other activities, in poring over maps of the oil fields in Iraq and the concessions awarded to non-US oil companies--all subsequently canceled after the US invasion.

Cheney refused to release any information about his energy task force after a request was filed by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, citing the necessity for complete confidentiality in internal executive branch deliberations. He rejected similar requests from the media and environmental groups, filed under the Freedom of Information Act, and this position was upheld by a right-wing judicial panel.

But after rebuffing Congress's request for information, on the grounds his office is part of the executive branch, Cheney in now refusing to comply with a similar request for information from an executive branch agency, on the grounds that he is really part of Congress!

What underlies this apparent Catch 22 is a sinister political logic: Vice President Cheney is not to be held accountable to anyone--not Congress, not the executive branch--a position so unprecedented in US political history that reporters at a White House press briefing Friday were compelled to ask whether Cheney had now set himself up as a "fourth branch of government."

The vice president's office has long been the focal point of the Bush administration's drive to utilize the 9/11 terrorist attacks as the pretext for establishing the framework for a police state in America. In the weeks after 9/11, Cheney virtually disappeared from public view, conducting his activities at an "undisclosed secure location," which turned out to be the headquarters of what became know as the "shadow government."

Under the program, officially described as an exercise in "continuity of government," supposedly a precaution against a terrorist nuclear strike on Washington DC, dozens of top executive branch officials were designated for redeployment to bunkers in the Appalachian Mountains from which they would direct government operations without reference to the legislative or judicial branch, which were excluded from the effort. (See the WSWS editorial board statement, "The shadow of dictatorship: Bush established secret government after September 11".)

For the rest of this article please go to:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jun2007/chen-j23.shtml

Thee is no doubt that the US of today is a far cry from evn 50 years ago.
I say 50 as that is when the begining of the power blocs so necessary to rebuld the political system into our present form began.
Eisenhower gave the first real warnings but even he was in favor of our overseas domination by the military, just not under Corporate and Financial domination, as he understood the true political nature of Facism.
There is no way to halt the advancement of the corporate, it is tied into all the political/financial sectors as well, and while our overseas advantures will continue to fund the wealth of our leadeship the country itself will be relagated into a more controlled society.
There is no way you can divorce the states from Federal actions, they are one and the same as the true governance is dictated by that Military Industrial from DC.
the majority of Americans seem to not recognize what is happening and those who do don't see any harm within it.

Breaking news!!!!!

For uncensored news please bookmark:

www.wsws.org
www.takingaimradio.info
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www.onlinejournal.com
www.globalresearch.ca

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5853

The Unitary King George
Homeland Security Presidential Directive: an Unconstitutional Bombshell

by Prof. Marjorie Cohn

Global Research, June 1, 2007

As the nation focused on whether Congress would exercise its constitutional duty to cut funding for the war, Bush quietly issued an unconstitutional bombshell that went virtually unnoticed by the corporate media.

The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007, would place all governmental power in the hands of the President and effectively abolish the checks and balances in the Constitution.

If a "catastrophic emergency" - which could include a terrorist attack or a natural disaster - occurs, Bush's new directive says: "The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government."

What about the other two co-equal branches of government? The directive throws them a bone by speaking of a "cooperative effort" among the three branches, "coordinated by the President, as a matter of comity with respect to the legislative and judicial branches and with proper respect for the constitutional separation of powers." The Vice-President would help to implement the plans.

"Comity," however, means courtesy, and the President would decide what kind of respect for the other two branches of government would be "proper." This Presidential Directive is a blatant power grab by Bush to institutionalize "the unitary executive."

A seemingly innocuous phrase, the unitary executive theory actually represents a radical, ultra rightwing interpretation of the powers of the presidency. Championed by the conservative Federalist Society, the unitary executive doctrine gathers all power in the hands of the President and insulates him from any oversight by the congressional or judicial branches.

In a November 2000 speech to the Federalist Society, then Judge Samuel Alito said the Constitution "makes the president the head of the executive branch, but it does more than that. The president has not just some executive powers, but the executive power -- the whole thing."

These "unitarians" claim that all federal agencies, even those constitutionally created by Congress, are beholden to the Chief Executive, that is, the President. This means that Bush could disband agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Reserve Board, etc., if they weren't to his liking.

Indeed, Bush signed an executive order stating that each federal agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee. Consumer advocates were concerned that this directive was aimed at weakening the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The unitary executive dogma represents audacious presidential overreaching into the constitutional province of the other two branches of government.

This doctrine took shape within the Bush administration shortly after 9/11. On September 25, 2001, former deputy assistant attorney general John Yoo used the words "unitary executive" in a memo he wrote for the White House: "The centralization of authority in the president alone is particularly crucial in matters of national defense, war, and foreign policy, where a unitary executive can evaluate threats, consider policy choices, and mobilize national resources with a speed and energy that is far superior to any other branch." Six weeks later, Bush began using that phrase in his signing statements.

As of December 22, 2006, Bush had used the words "unitary executive" 145 times in his signing statements and executive orders. Yoo, one of the chief architects of Bush's doctrine of unfettered executive power, wrote memoranda advising Bush that because he was commander in chief, he could make war any time he thought there was a threat, and he didn't have to comply with the Geneva Conventions.

In a 2005 debate with Notre Dame professor Doug Cassel, Yoo argued there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering that a young child of a suspect in custody be tortured, even by crushing the child's testicles.

The unitary executive theory has already cropped up in Supreme Court opinions. In his lone dissent in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Justice Clarence Thomas cited "the structural advantages of a unitary Executive." He disagreed with the Court that due process demands an American citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant be given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention before a neutral decision maker. Thomas wrote, "Congress, to be sure, has a substantial and essential role in both foreign affairs and national security. But it is crucial to recognize that judicial interference in these domains destroys the purpose of vesting primary responsibility in a unitary Executive."

Justice Thomas's theory fails to recognize why our Constitution provides for three co-equal branches of government.

In 1926, Justice Louis Brandeis explained the constitutional role of the separation of powers. He wrote, "The doctrine of the separation of powers was adopted by the convention of 1787 not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power. The purpose was not to avoid friction, but, by means of the inevitable friction incident to the distribution of the governmental powers among three departments, to save the people from autocracy."

Eighty years later, noted conservative Grover Norquist, describing the unitary executive theory, echoed Brandeis's sentiment. Norquist said, "you don't have a constitution; you have a king."

One wonders what Bush & Co. are setting up with the new Presidential Directive. What if, heaven forbid, some sort of catastrophic event were to occur just before the 2008 election? Bush could use this directive to suspend the election. This administration has gone to great lengths to remain in Iraq . It has built huge permanent military bases and pushed to privatize Iraq 's oil. Bush and Cheney may be unwilling to relinquish power to a successor administration.

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and president of the National Lawyers Guild. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, will be published in July. See http://www.marjoriecohn.com.

what's left of our constitutional government is mostly window dressing, and we live in an entirely different sort of country. "national security state" is as good as any name for it. definitely NOT what the founders envisioned -- more like what they hoped to prevent. i supposed we just need to shut up and accept the small "adjustments" our leaders are forced to impose on our oh-so-vulnerable "open" societies, being as they are so under siege by the islamofascists. there can be no step too extreme if it protects our pathetic, sissified asses.

I agree with Arkin that NORTHCOM requires special, enduring and focused oversight to ensure that posse comitatus lines are not crossed.

However, in fulfilling the tradional jounalists' role in providing some of this 'oversight', he has mischaracterized the Washington Examiner reporting on this issue.

As I read the Examiner article, it appears that NORTHCOM is actually reconsidering what may have been an ill-advised decision made by a previous NORTHCOM Commander to have a special ops planning cell ... and is not asking permission to have one.

Here is the appropriate excerpt from that article:

"A spokeswoman for NorthCom this week issued a statement to The Examiner saying, 'This capability resides in every other geographical combatant command and would allow the commander of U.S. Northern Command to deploy these unique capabilities for homeland defense and civil support operations.'

The request was approved six months ago by the then-commander of NorthCom, Adm. Timothy Keating, who has since moved to U.S. Pacific Command.

But now, the new NorthCom commander, Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, is reviewing Keating's decision.

On Wednesday, Lt. Col. John Cornelio, a NorthCom spokesman, told The Examiner:

"U.S. Northern Command is currently reassessing our requirement for special operations forces to accomplish our homeland defense and civil support missions. While the initial request for a small element of SOF staff for planning and command and control purposes was requested under the previous commander, the new commander ... has not made a decision on this issue."

Granted, Arkin is writing a blog, and as such is not subject to the traditional standards and editorial review of a legitimate mainstream news report. Still, I often find myself wishing he would caveat his speculation as such, rather than allowing his readers to misinterpret his musings as authoritative reporting.

We already have first reponders at the local and state level, and the military can be brought in when necessary. Many of the larger police departments have bomb disposal experts, and, unless things have changed, the Air Force has E.O.D. people attached to the Ammunition area (Bomb Dump). I should imagine the other services have similar arrangements. We already have local police and the F.B.I. involved in counter espionage. I think these idiots are again trying to get around the Constitution and the Rule of Law. This sounds like something that came out of the Vice-Presidents' office.