Free Republic

With the president's suggestion that the military should play a bigger role in future major emergencies, he has set in motion a cascade of policy shifts that, if reaching fruition, may shake the Pentagon to its foundation and recast the lines both between the states and the federal government, and between civil and military domestic jurisdictions. It might not be too portentous to say that many serious people may see such a policy shift as having constitutional implications. On its face, the rightness of the idea seems obvious. In extreme emergencies, state and local governments are not up to the...

The Posse Comitatus Act is a federal law of the United States (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed in 1878, after the end of Reconstruction, and was intended to prohibit Federal troops from supervising elections in former Confederate states. It generally prohibits Federal military personnel and units of the United States National Guard under Federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The original act only referred to the Army, but the Air Force was added in 1956 and the Navy and Marine Corps have been included...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Are YOU one of the MILLIONS of AMERICANS who are... seeing your community destroyed by drugs brought into this country across our open borders? angry that the absurd immigration policies which contributed to the attacks of September 11 and the DC sniper have still not been corrected? tired of hearing the mantra that illegal aliens only take jobs Americans won't do?

MY NOTE: THIS IS A LONG REPORT. BUT IT WILL GIVE YOU A VERY GOOD IDEA OF HOW THE MILITARY OPERATES, THE PROBLEMS FACED AND THE RESULTS UNDER THE POSSE COMITATUS ACT ON UNITED STATES SOIL. REMEMBER THIS WAS JUST A RIOT. ---------------------------------------------------COMBAT IN CITIES:THE LA RIOTS AND OPERATION RIO Mr. William W. Mendel Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS. July 1996 "They are . . . the post-modern equivalent of jungles and mountains--citadels of the dispossessed and irreconcilable. A military unprepared for urban operations across a broad spectrum is unprepared for tomorrow."1 Ralph Peters "Our Soldiers, Their Cities"...

<p>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.</p>

Until yesterday senior Pentagon officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, had denied repeatedly that they planned to ask Congress to overturn, or bypass, the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, a fundamental piece of legislation that sharply restricts the military’s ability to participate in domestic law enforcement. But now the Administration argues for a “thorough review” of the law — an initiative that will add to the problems that the strategy faces in Congress.

Plan won't violate law, Rumsfeld says 2002-04-18By Robert Burns� AP Military Writer WASHINGTON -- The creation of a military command whose sole mission is to defend American territory will not erode legal limits on using federal troops inside U.S. borders, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday. Rumsfeld announced a series of changes to the military's command structure, the most important of which is the establishment in October of a Northern Command, probably with headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., to centralize the military's role in defense of the United States. The main impetus was the Sept. 11 attacks,...