Article

2013-05-17 Government

Pentagon Unilaterally Grants Itself Authority Over 'Civil Disturbances'

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Uncle Phester 2013-05-17 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 Translation:
When the fight to restore a Constitutional government begins, they'll use whatever troops they control to try to suppress it.

Posted by Orion 2013-05-17 00:13|| 2013-05-17 00:13|| Front Page Top

#2 This follows on the art some time back where we saw Marines training with riot control gear. Little bit before the election I think.

Posted by Skidmark 2013-05-17 01:55|| 2013-05-17 01:55|| Front Page Top

#3 Posse Comitatus, similar to private e-mail and cellie communications, a popular myth.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-05-17 03:58|| 2013-05-17 03:58|| Front Page Top

#4 Apparently, my original comment has filter problems, so I'll post by paragraph to isolate the issue.

The myth of Posse Comitatus is that it was intended to protect civil liberties. When the Donks got control of Congress after the Civil War and part of the fall out of the Hayes-Tilden election, the deal with the Southern states was to remove federal troops from the polling stations to strip blacks of their 15th Amendment rights. It would take nearly a hundred years and the Civil Rights and Voting Acts to fix that. Even then episodes would still invoke the use of federal troops to enforce basic Constitutional rights, be it Little Rock or Oxford.

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-05-17 08:13|| 2013-05-17 08:13|| Front Page Top

#5 Art I, Section 8 powers of Congress -
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union,
suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

Still on the books is The Insurrection Act of 1807. The entire text of the Posse Comitatus Act, as amended in 1956, is as follows:

18 U.S.C. § 1385 - Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus

"Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the 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".

Accordingly, actions taken under the Insurrection Act, as an "Act of Congress", have always been exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act.

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-05-17 08:14|| 2013-05-17 08:14|| Front Page Top

#6 For most of the first hundred years of the republic, the military performed constabulary duties in the territories. The original western territories, aka the Northwest Territories was administered by St.Clair who acted both as the civil and military authority. Although his military skills were somewhat lacking.
Andrew Jackson declared martial law in New Orleans in 1815 to organize the fight against the British incursion. The military would again initiate martial law again in the Hawaii territory following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
For those with memories, federal troops were deployed during the riots of 1968 and again in the LA riot of 1992. They are usually employed as backup first to local and state National Guard personnel and operations. Only upon failure of those elements are federal elements moved forward. So, they train and practice as for any contingency operation.

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-05-17 08:15|| 2013-05-17 08:15|| Front Page Top

#7 The key to all of it is 'will they follow orders'. They can co-opt senior officers, but the guts of the military are the middle grade officers and NCOs who come from the social strata that the ruling caste hates and fears. They can order, but will they follow?

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-05-17 08:16|| 2013-05-17 08:16|| Front Page Top

#8 They can order, but will they follow?

About 20% will, the rest won't. Going to be quite the donnybrook.

Posted by Secret Asian Man 2013-05-17 08:24|| 2013-05-17 08:24|| Front Page Top

#9 I personally don't fear the army. I fear the Cheka.

Because of the Cheka, freedom has ceased to exist in Russia.
-- George Seldes

Posted by Besoeker 2013-05-17 08:49|| 2013-05-17 08:49|| Front Page Top

#10 Diminish the military - drive out the quality guts of the forces through pay & benefit cuts, petty BS directives, and general demotivation. Build up the Homeland Security Forces through increased funding and power - forces answerable to the Party. Any sign of this all happening?

Posted by Glenmore 2013-05-17 09:07|| 2013-05-17 09:07|| Front Page Top

#11 Next you'll be telling me government tax departments will harass people leak private personal information to government enemies.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2013-05-17 10:29|| 2013-05-17 10:29|| Front Page Top

#12 Any sign of this all happening?

The bell curve remains in place. Some are a little faster, others will never make it. You can make cannon fodder in 60 to 90 days. Just watch the Youtubes from Libya and Syria for examples. It takes two years to make a decent soldier. It take four year to make a good solid soldier. It takes 8 to 12 years to make good solid NCOs and commissioned officers. There are a lot of prior service out there now and more going whose ramp up time to recover diminished skill sets is going to be a heck of a lot shorter than what can be trained in to the New Model services. One just had to sit back and watch the LAPD respond to a couple of their own getting 'offed' to watch how thin even the 'professionalism' is in many long established law enforcement organizations. They're a generation out from having enough to even try with any expectation of success. Then again, the Left has always been 'reality' challenged.

Remember till the Anbar Awakening in Iraq when it became in the local interest of the population to turn on the destructive behaviors of AQ, the entire might of the Coalition was stymied to accomplish the pacification and building process. Given the general thuggery of how the Left employs power and the tools they'd use [see op cit LA, Boston lockdown, etc], they're going to alienate the general population. They do not have enough manpower, and they've been squandering national resources with which to backup, to protect the infrastructure to provide basic services to their power bases in the urban areas. The government was overwhelmed just dealing with disruptions caused by Katrina and Sandy in urban areas. Multiply that by dozens of their blue based urban islands. They have a lot of takers to sustain.

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-05-17 11:03|| 2013-05-17 11:03|| Front Page Top

#13 Or it's all wishful thinking by a the LongIslandPress.

Posted by Shipman 2013-05-17 11:09|| 2013-05-17 11:09|| Front Page Top

#14 I've always felt the kind of fellow that makes a good soldier is the kind unlikely to be happy with tossing the constitution. Be that ATF or other more Police-like or within the military itself. The political ones might rise to the top for political reasons but they will be leading a bunch of straight shooters. And if you squeeze those folks out of the military they are still out there in civilian life iwth the same outlook.

Posted by rjschwarz 2013-05-17 15:09|| 2013-05-17 15:09|| Front Page Top

#15 So, Besoeker, instead of Iron Feliks we get Big Sis? A bit of a come down....

Posted by Otto Sherert3618 2013-05-17 15:52|| 2013-05-17 15:52|| Front Page Top

#16 And if you squeeze those folks out of the military they are still out there in civilian life iwth the same outlook... and all their accumulated training.

That last matters, I suspect, if it becomes a matter of putting uniformed training fodder up against retired, seasoned NCOs who've been joining together to play those massive online video game thingies for their own amusement, as OldSpook once mentioned he was wont to do. Apparently there are ways of recognizing strangers with similar skillz in such situations, and it's ever so much fun to wipe the floor with the youngsters who know not the real world applications,

Posted by trailing wife 2013-05-17 21:12|| 2013-05-17 21:12|| Front Page Top

22:30 DarthVader
21:59 trailing wife
21:12 trailing wife
20:21 mojo
19:30 Dale
19:25 Thing From Snowy Mountain
19:21 Thing From Snowy Mountain
19:18 Marilyn Lover of the Hatfields1778
19:16 USN,ret
19:10 swksvolFF
18:07 Secret Master
18:06 Shipman
18:04 Secret Master
17:53 Shipman
17:18 RandomJD
17:15 swksvolFF
16:43 GolfBravoUSMC
16:04 Procopius2k
15:54 Frank G
15:52 Otto Sherert3618
15:49 Mercutio
15:36 Pappy
15:31 Frank G
15:13 Alaska Paul