Civil libertarians have been concerned for years with the move toward greater use of the military in domestic operations by both President George W. Bush and now by President Barack Obama. The military continues to shift resources for prepare for large-scale domestic operations. Most recently, the Marines moved to create a battalion to allow the military to “be capable of helping control civil disturbances, handling detainees, carrying out forensic work, and using biometrics to identify suspects.” Now the Small Wars Journal, a respected publication closely followed in the U.S. military, has published an article entitled “Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A ‘Vision’ of the Future” by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army’s University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Jennifer Weber, a Civil War expert at the University of Kansas. It lays out not just the military but the legal basis for military operations to crush domestic insurrections in the United States.
The authors write how the military must be prepared to act against citizens when they received orders regarding domestic threats to the government. What is troubling is the lack of balance in the article and the general assumption of legality in the full spectrum of such operations. What is clear is that, again, Congress is allowing for such preparations without any serious discussion or review. The assumption of legality will soon become the acceptance of legality in domestic use of military forces.
The article lays out how the existing policies regarding “full spectrum” operations require the military to prepare for internal campaigns against our own citizens: “full spectrum operations in the coming two decades (US Army Training and Doctrine Command, The Army Operating Concept 2016 – 2028, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, dated 19 August 2010, p. iii. Hereafter cited as TD Pam 525-3-1. The Army defines full spectrum operations as the combination of offensive, defensive, and either stability operations overseas or civil support operations on U.S. soil).”
The underlying scenarios are set for as soon as 2016 if the economy does not improve and unrest grows. Focusing on a town called Darlington, the article explores an order to “Fix Darlington, but don’t destroy it!” The authors write “We cannot discount the agility of an external threat, the evolution of Al Qaeda for example, and its ability to take advantage of a ‘Darlington event’ within U.S. borders.”
The authors write “once it is put into play, Americans will expect the military to execute without pause and as professionally as if it were acting overseas.” The article takes on a chilling tone, telling its many military personnel readers that “the Army cannot disappoint the American people, especially in such a moment.”
The authors spend comparatively little time considering the constitutional and legal barriers to the operations. They details how “Federal forces continue to tighten the noose as troops seize and secure power and water stations, radio and TV stations, and hospitals.” Yet, legal limitations are treated as largely irrelevant.
I have no problem with provocative articles exploring scenarios. This are issues that we should be discussing. However, the tenor and one-sided analysis of the piece is rather chilling. What is even more chilling is the lack of national debate as the Obama Administration continues the expansion of the military into domestic law enforcement and operations. It is indeed a “vision for the future” — the question is whether this is the vision that most citizens have for their government and themselves.
Source: Wasington Times
When was Kent State? I’m trying to relate it timewise to the student uprising in Paris, 1968.
It is one of my sores, the few from there in the USA. Along with JFK, RFK and MLKjr.
Jill and Woosty.
Many say AQ is in Syria. And why not, the Sunnis want
to counter the Iranian Shia influence there since 1980’s, and the alleged coupling between SA and AQ seems accepted.
Note however that two days ago in NYT an OpEd done by a female “deserter” from the Alawites who penetrated Syria to Saqib from Turkey. She says that nothing she saw or heard indicated AQ in Syria, including reports from Homs. ?????
So glad to see folks uproared. Woosty asks Messpo what the lawyers are doing. Malisha asks what Congress is doing. And I guess JT ask us all what we are doing.
Note to all.
You remember of course: ….”the Obama Administration continues the expansion of the military into domestic law enforcement and operations.” from above by JT.
Well, the military has been taking intelligence and operational control effectively over the police since some time back. So the operational merger is quasi in operation. Of course, similar arrangements predate on the intelligence and op front from the assassination of JFK.
Then, it is alleged, one key Army reserve intelligence officer was also a key figure in the Dallas police department.
So what’s new is that the plans are national in scope.
Or are they not? They haven’t informed me yet.
Sleep well, your National Guard is…….!
Dredd,
This need exists because we express and project, to the world, that we are a nation with a philosophy of government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
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Once they wake up, it won’t be Kent State. It will be Ted Nugent.
Matt Johnson 1, August 13, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Dredd 1, August 13, 2012 at 9:56 am
…
Paul Ryan is from Janesville, Wisconsin. Don’t blame me. Maybe he’s already been prayed into heaven.
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Yes I know of his elitist background, a Plutocrat of Plutocrats, born on the block he still lives on, with family members living on the block or near, as that link I provided points out.
The American populace is not only unaware that the power that governs them is not a “democracy” except as veneer, they are also unaware of the world at large:
(The Failure of Applied American Epistemology). Another savvy fellow points out the real core of these powers that be (who will win the election if they need to through means and methods I will not discuss here) as follows:
(Noam Chomsky @Tom Dispatch). This post of JT shows that they are tiring of the charade of U.S. democracy, and are already prepared to use other methods and means.
It is a matter of when.
Very disturbing article.
The grammar is also just as disturbing, but for different reasons.
I also heard that al Qaeda is moving into select Board of Elections in select states right here in the Homeland to implement voter fraud and that every citizen worth his/her salt must be prepared to open their homes to the troops who will need to be quartered amongst the people in order to root out the al Qaeda plotters who will be poised to act during the 2016 presidential election by sending hordes of fraudulent voters to the polls and thus stealing the election from the rightfully anointed republican/democratic candidate.
Hand to heart.
Mike S.,
I was in college when the Kent State massacre went down. Our school closed down early because of the unrest that was made worse by the Kent State murders.
Dredd 1, August 13, 2012 at 9:56 am
It is also unfortunately related to Romney and Ryan emerging from a battleship, because their Ayn Rand philosophy will cause an uprising if implemented.
One cannot fully understand Ryan and this election unless they understand Ayn Rand:
In a 2005 speech to a group of Rand devotees called the Atlas Society, Ryan said that Rand was required reading for his office staff and interns. “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” he told the group.
(Ayn Rand: Patron Saint of The Plutocracy). She was so clueless that she called a psychopath “Superman”, “the perfect man”, and the ideal Amercian man.
That man, unbeknownst to fans, as psychopaths tend to be, cut off the legs of a young child he kidnapped, also robbed, pillaged, and murdered multiple times.
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Paul Ryan is from Janesville, Wisconsin. Don’t blame me. Maybe he’s already been prayed into heaven.
Philip SZ: Judicial power is being misused to wreck small lives and to commit the small injustices; the executive power will do the big stuff; legislative power has no effect because of the other two. Legislative “power” in fact makes things worse by writing laws we all imagine have effect; laws have no effect until interpreted (by the courts — out of existence) and enforced (HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!).
That is, there was already a law against murder in Florida on 2/26/2012. So damn what?
“Wootsy”
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careful! every time you make a typo…the errorists win! (it’s Woosty… 😉 )
As a retired military officer (AF) I find this very disturbing, and frankly outrageous. I used to think that the military would refuse to be a part of such a thing, but sadly I can no longer say that.
I still hope for some brave souls in senior leadership that would refuse to carry out such unconstitutional operations, or a revolt among the junior officer ranks, maybe. Hey, a guy can hope, right?
Wootsy, no, this very post shows the govt. trying to implant the idea that al Qaeda will be in the US and that is why we will need the military to “protect us”. Further, I guess you haven’t seen the newz about al Qaeda moving into Syria? It’s in Yemen, that’s why Obama said we have to use drones there even without any declaration of war!
From the article in SWJ:
“The authors write “We cannot discount the agility of an external threat, the evolution of Al Qaeda for example, and its ability to take advantage of
a ‘Darlington event’ within U.S. borders.” Of course, this idea is ridiculous to anyone who is allowed access to facts, but that would not be most of our citizens. Propaganda is very effective when it permeates a society and shuts out reality or access to reality. It’s why people think Iran is going to attack the US mainland and needs to be bombed.
The scary thing is that the military is the most trusted institution in the US. If you see just what happened to Bradley Manning for example, that his torture was approved at very high levels in the military, you will wonder how this can be. Propaganda has a way of erasing the truth and replacing it with ideas that don’t make sense.
The legislative and judicial branches much reassert their power. Currently, the executive branch is using the perpetual wars to run roughshod over civil liberties in room 641A, lack of habeas corpus for enemy combatants and the extablishment of kill lists to include US citizens. They (the Obama administration) claim the executions can occur anywhere, including on US soil. Frightening.
Notice how al Qaeda keeps growing larger every day, moving in to all the places the US powers want under their thumb? ~Jill
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Jill this is just the opposite of the newscast the other day….are you hearing or reading different?
It’s getting moonbatty here! Nurse Ratchet, it’s time for meds music.
BE PREPARED – BE PREPARED
THE NWO 10 COMMANDMENTS: ( just do as you are told )
1) HAND OVER YOUR GUNS ( sit back and leave the shooting to us )
2) TAKE YOUR INJECTIONS ( or get school entry refusals )
3) SIGN-UP ON FACEBOOK ( make it easy on us )
4) BUY A SMART-PHONE ( get hooked- literally )
5) TAKE YOUR FLUORIDE ( or we will force it in your water )
6) EAT MONSANTO PRODUCE ( and get sick )
7) DO NOT DISTURB POLICE IN ( they are on duty )
ACTION BY PHOTOGRAPHING
8) ACCEPT FRISKS AT AIRPORT ( TSA is only doing their job )
9) DO NOT SLIP A TONGUE AND ( it can and will be used against you )
EXPRESS YOUR THOUGHTS
10) DO NOT BELIEVE IN AMEND- ( they are for the elite only )
MENTS
No way, America becoming a totalitarian police state? Say it ain’t say so, I’m no big Alex Jones fan, and don’t subscribe to many conspiracy theories, but the warning signs have all been there since 9/11. Global military hegemony, & police state at home. With the Patriot Act, Military Comissions Act, NDAA, never mind Obama’s executive order on complete control of the economy in case of “emergency”. When the dollar collapses, or war breaks out with Iran, the US is going to get locked down faster than the Germans under Hitler, or the Russians under Stalin.
It’s sad to watch what was the most amazing experiment with liberty turned into the Orwellian place it has become.
I’m sure all the good work they are doing at the ACLU will get Manning freed, Obama won’t detain Americans without charges or trial, they don’t secretly rendition prisoners still, and they don’t assassinate American’s anymore do they? Well if only you could spy on the govt the way it claims to be able to do to you, we might get some truth out of Big Brother that was just a pacifier for the land of the Un-free, home of the slaves.
I will say that I don’t expect the American Public to be subjects of tyrrany, so if we have a situation where our own government attacks our citizens as the Syrian Government is currently doing, the public has a natural right to eject our government by force if necessary. A murderous government has no legitimacy.
Here’s a vision of the present that is part and parcel of a govt. who sees its citizens as “the enemy”. It also shows the public/private fascism of the financial/military/industrial complex. It is released by wikileaks. Their site has been shut down for over a week. Go to wikileaks on twitter to get updates: “Anyone who takes a photograph at high-risk locations is logged as a suspected terrorist on a vast network of secret spy cameras linked to
the U.S. Government, according to leaked emails.
People pointing cameras in New York are regarded as suspicious and the facial recognition images of them from the civilian CCTV are fed into a data centre run by U.S. firm Abraxas.
The system then connects with hundreds of other cameras in a bid to pinpoint potential terrorist activity, it is claimed.
Details of the system emerged from emails released by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. The issue has caused outrage among privacy campaigners amid fears that it could be abused.”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187602/U-S-Government-secretly-spying-using-civilian-security-cameras-say-Wikileaks.html#ixzz23ROzSbrl
US powers are not concerned with the safety or welfare of US citizens. They are concerned with power and wealth. Even those who want to believe still have a choice to make. That choice is to break faith with the rule of law for one’s supposed safety. History is littered with bodies when the people of a society decide to break faith with fundamental human rights in exchange for “safety”.
As far as I’m concerned it’s all been here since the National Guard was ordered by the government onto the Kent State Campus and issued live ammunition resulting in the deaths of students who were doing nothing more than walking to class.
Once the government and the guardsmen got a free pass for that, I knew we were all phucked.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s all been here since the National Guard was ordered by the government onto the Kent State Campus and issued live ammunition resulting in the deaths of students who were doing nothing more than walking to class.”
Blouise,
I couldn’t agree more.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/13/sikh-temple-shooting-returns-attention-to-military-s-white-power-problem.html Talk about scary….