Posted on 07/21/2002 9:38:40 AM PDT by GeneD
Edited on 07/19/2004 2:10:08 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Washington, July 21 (Bloomberg) -- The government should consider reversing a more than a century of tradition and law to give the military authority to make arrests and fire their weapons on U.S. soil in the event of a terrorist attack, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said.
(Excerpt) Read more at quote.bloomberg.com ...
This is no longer a citizen army, it is a "professional" army. I want no part of them enforcing the law...Never...
If Joe Biden -- or any Democrat for that matter -- is in favor of this kind of assault on our civil liberties, then it should be setting off alarms all over Conservative-dom.
This is probably the most dangerous period in American history. It is the turning point at which the government finally had the courage to admit that it is planning war on its own citizens. If anyone if naive enough to believe that this is about terrorism, don't buy a watch in New York City.
Any attempt to revise Posse Comitatus should be met with howls of rage and a quiet determination to resist at all costs. It means that "working within the system" just got to be a much narrower option.
Note to Mr. Ridge: The terrorists are OUTSIDE this country, and the military is not supposed to be deployed domestically. We already have a POLICE force. How can you leave our borders wide open to every swarthy bomb-thrower, then demand the right to march soldiers up and down our town square to "protect" us? Why not stop the rats before they get off the ship? Because you, sir, are a liar and a tool of tyrants.
This is frightening on an Orwellian scale.
Uh... No.
We are being sold down the river by republicans, with the aid of democrats that would never have dared pull this one off. The republican sheep better wake up and smell the gun powder. Ridge should be given the boot now.
The Gestapo moves closer to being every day and the citizens are asleep.
They already have the ability to detain until Law Enforcement arrives. And if the Law Enforcment officers think he/or she is a terrorist then he/or she could be transferred back to Military authority in order to go before a military tribunal.
Some of these Conservative politicians need to think before they speak......all that statement is going to do is piss off Liberals and Conservatives. Ridge screwed up saying something like that.....that in the end is a stupid solution to anything.
This would have been a good idea about 20 years ago .... now? Never happen.
America is dead .... the police state curtains are descending.
Its OK. You aren't using it anyway.
It won't. After all, it's just in the interest of keeping us safe. </sarcasm off>
I would add it is "dictatorial"...
The military should never be used for domestic law enforcement.
Just wait until the army consists of felons, illiterates, and foreigners.
They know that most of the American officers and senior enlisted men will support the US Constitution, so they will send them off to Timbuktu, while they bring in the Hessians.
Bush better refute this one real quick as it will be another nail in his re-election coffin. He better disown this bastard child real quick. Even better take Ridge to the woodshed or fire the man.
Reichstag Bump..
This says that you are not completely aginst using the military domestically.
Bush hasn't a clue. I doubt he has even read the US Constitution. He certainly holds no allegiance to it, based on his actions in office.
He is simply a puppet for the NWO tyrants.
You don't trust the military? this is "war" you know.. You bunch of liberal pansies. It's us or the enemy. Dubya can be trusted with these powers, he's our king! If you aren't a terrorist, then you have nothing to fear! We all have to give up some "liberties" to be safe you know!
(/Devils Advocate)
I am amazed at the short sightedness in the shadow of 9/11..
It's shocking.
Not against American citizens.. That's the difference.
It is because of that century-old "tradition" that the U.S. Coast Guard was never made a part of the DoD. The USCG is the only part of the US Armed Forces that has law enforcement powers in the US.
And it damn well better stay that way. Anything else is martial law.
Tie him up, put him in the wood shed, and then burn it down!
Old man Bush said it first and not enough people were listening. At the time, I wondered what he knew that I did not. Now I know. Our government is expanding in power and depth by leaps and bounds, all in the name of security. Beware, that is what Hitler promised his people as he guided their neck into the noose.
Border and coastal security is a legitimate use of the military, since it defends against foreign invasions. The military has been routinely used throughout American history for frontier security.
As to the Guard in the airports, most of us realized it for the joke that it was, and therefore opposed it.
LOL!
If tomorrow, Bush does not refute this idea, we will know full well that Ridge and his cohorts were acting with full freedom from Bush.
Sure enough.. It was like a mass advertisment for tyrants to come saying: "Hey, you wanna be the next Hitler? Just scare everyone silly for a few days.. Here, look at the way they reacted after the WTC attack!"
We are setting a bad, bad precedent that is going to come back to bite us eventually.
We are openly admitting that when FEDGOV screws up that we will respond not by taking them to task, but by rolling over and surrendering our "liberties" so they can have a second chance at keeping us "safe"
A whole bunch of people have lost their right to tease the French since 9/11, imo..
Instead of sealing our borders and expelling the real enemy, these morons are turning our country upside down to protect us from ourselves.
By the time these people are done with us, we'll all be broke and living in a quasi National Socialist state.
Because that is a function of our military, to protect our boarders from external threats. Which incidentally is not happening. And the military’s weapons should be pointed at everything on the outside of the boarder. There should be no police involvement in protecting our boarders; the police are for maintaining the peace internally.
” Or the Coast Guard in our ports?”
Again, because that is a function of the Coast Guard, to protect our seaboard and ports from external threats.
Or the National Guardsmen at the airports?
And I don’t necessarily support using troops to maintain our airports. It’s highest and best use, as a function, would seem to be getting the public accustom to having a military presence around them, particularly in light of the fact that they don’t have ammunition in their weapons.
The FBI is the tool to catch said terrorists.
LOL.
I'd say many Americans are making the French look bold as of late. It's embarassing.
Think about what you are saying! Do you think the police are equipped or adequately trained to protect our canals, power plants, reservoirs, nuclear power facilities, the power distribution grid, refineries, and dams? You will need the military to protect these if this war really takes hold as expected. Let's not make foolish decisions.
But I would bet money you wouldn't want this to slip by without reading it.
Bush doesn't "own" Biden- so how is he to disown Biden for advocating a weakening of Posse Comitatus?
Ridge merely says "it may come up as a part of a discussion. It does not mean that it will ever be used or that the discussion will conclude that it even should be used.'' "
There are two existing exceptions to Posse Commitatus, as I understand the law: Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Drugs.
The reason that Janet Reno conjured up non-existent evidence of a Meth Lab at Mount Carmel was specifically so that the miliary could be called in.
I don't think clinton had to waive the Posse Commitatus act, even if he had the power to do so (doubtful).
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