Military Expands Homeland Efforts
Pentagon to Share Data With Civilian Agencies
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 6, 2005; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/05/AR2005070501669.html
A new Pentagon strategy for securing the U.S. homeland calls for
expanded U.S. military activity not only in the air and sea -- where the
armed forces have historically guarded approaches to the country -- but
also on the ground and in other less traditional, potentially more
problematic areas such as intelligence sharing with civilian law enforcement.
The strategy is outlined in a 40-page document, approved last month,
that marks the Pentagon's first attempt since the attacks of Sept. 11,
2001, to present a comprehensive plan for defending the U.S. homeland.
The document argues that a more "active, layered" defense is needed and
says that U.S. forces must be ready to deal not just with a single
terrorist strike but also with "multiple, simultaneous" attacks involving
mass casualties.
The document does not ask for new legal authority to use military
forces on U.S. soil, but it raises the likelihood that U.S. combat troops
will take action in the event that civilian and National Guard forces are
overwhelmed. At the same time, the document stresses that primary
responsibility for domestic security continues to rest with civilian
agencies.
"The role of the military within domestic American society, both by law
and by history, has been carefully constrained, and there is nothing in
our strategy that would move away from that historic principle," said
Paul McHale, the Pentagon's assistant secretary for homeland defense.
Still, some of the provisions appear likely to draw concern from civil
liberties groups that have warned against a growing military
involvement in homeland missions and an erosion of long-established barriers to
military surveillance and combat operations in the United States.
The document acknowledges, for instance, plans to team military
intelligence analysts with civilian law enforcement to identify and track
suspected terrorists. It also recognizes an expanded role for the National
Guard in preparing to deal with the aftermath of terrorist attacks. And
it asserts the president's authority to deploy ground combat forces on
U.S. territory "to intercept and defeat threats."
"It's a mixed message," said Timothy H. Edgar, a national security
specialist with the American Civil Liberties Union. "I do see language in
the document acknowledging limits on military involvement, but that
seems at odds with other parts of the document. They seem to be trying to
have it both ways."
The document, titled "Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support,"
was signed June 24 by acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England
and is now a basis for organizing troops, developing weapons and
assigning missions. It was released late last week without the sort of formal
news conference or background briefing that often accompanies major
defense policy statements.
McHale, in an interview, said the new strategy represents a major shift
from a reactive mind-set that existed before the 2001 attacks. The
emphasis since, he said, has been on pressing U.S. defenses outward to spot
and eliminate threats before they reach U.S. territory.
"The strategy's implementation hinges on an active, layered defense in
depth that is designed to defeat the most dangerous challenges early,
at a safe distance, before they are allowed to mature," the document
says.
The assumption of the need to prepare for multiple, simultaneous
terrorist attacks, McHale explained, marks a change from previous planning
scenarios that had envisioned single strikes. The change is based on what
McHale called a "recurring pattern" of attacks around the world by al
Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
Under the new strategy, U.S. air and naval forces will continue to
improve efforts to scan and patrol approaches to the United States. Some of
the moves began immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks. But maritime
efforts have lagged airspace measures, and even U.S. air defenses will
require further improvementsto deal with potential attacks by low-flying
cruise missiles and pilotless aircraft, the document notes.
The strategy draws a distinction between the "lead" role that the
Pentagon intends to play in bolstering these long-established air and sea
missions and the "support" role still envisioned for U.S. land
operations.
Legal barriers to sending the armed forces into U.S. streets have
existed for more than a century under the Posse Comitatus Act. Enacted in
1878, the law was prompted by the perceived misuse of federal troops
after the Civil War to supervise elections in the former Confederate
states. Over the years, the law has come to reflect a more general reluctance
to involve the military in domestic law enforcement, although its
provisions have been amended from time to time to allow some exceptions,
including a military role in putting down insurrections, in assisting in
drug interdiction work, and in providing equipment, training and advice.
Along with civil liberties groups, many senior Pentagon officials have
tended to be wary of seeing troops operate on U.S. soil. Military
commanders argue that their personnel are not specifically trained in
domestic security, and they worry that homeland tasks could lead to serious
political problems.
Still, the Pentagon has established new administrative structures in
recent years in recognition of a growing military contribution to
homeland defense. It set up the Northern Command in 2002 to oversee military
operations in the United States. It created a new assistant secretary
for homeland defense. And it designated a one-star general on the Joint
Chiefs of Staff to work on the issue.
Additionally, the National Guard has been building small "civil support
teams" to provide emergency assistance in the wake of a chemical,
biological, nuclear or high-explosive attack. By the end of 2007, 55 of the
22-person teams are due -- at least one for each state and U.S.
territory.
The new strategy notes that the Guard "is particularly well suited for
civil support missions" because it is "forward deployed in 3,200
communities," exercises routinely with local law enforcement and is
accustomed to dealing with communities in times of crisis. Indeed, Guard leaders
have welcomed an expanded homeland security role.
But they have also argued for allowing the Guard to retain its overseas
combat missions, concerned that a sole focus on civil support would
undermine the Guard's ability to serve as a strategic reserve and to fight
in future wars.
The new strategy calls for the development of larger sets of "modular
reaction forces" to be staffed by the Guard for dealing with the
aftermath of mass-casualty attacks. Officials said the composition of these
forces is under discussion as part of this year's Quadrennial Defense
Review, a Pentagon-wide reassessment of missions, weapons and forces.
But the homeland defense strategy also explicitly rejects the idea of
dedicating these additional Guard forces to the civil support mission,
saying they will remain "dual mission in nature."
In the area of intelligence, the strategy speaks of developing "a
cadre" of Pentagon terrorism specialists and of deploying "a number of them"
to "interagency centers" for homeland defense and counterterrorism -- a
reference to new teaming arrangements with the FBI and other domestic
law enforcement agencies. The document notes that this represents a
significant departure from the Cold War when Pentagon analysts worked
mostly with the State Department and the intelligence community to combat
the Soviet Union.
"The move toward a domestic intelligence capability by the military is
troubling," said Gene Healy, a senior editor at the Cato Institute, a
nonprofit libertarian policy research group in Washington.
"The last time the military got heavily involved in domestic
surveillance, during the Vietnam War era, military intelligence kept thousands of
files on Americans guilty of nothing more than opposing the war," Healy
said. "I don't think we want to go down that road again."
Do you get the feeling that war is ready to break out all over the world, with us in the middle???
granny
Shortcut to:
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?
id=b594df09-e19a-4a54-8128-b47efad034cf
Hezbollah's Palestinian outreach program
Michael Burrows
National Post
July 6, 2005
Many issues were hashed over during the recent Iranian election
campaign
-- including the country's faltering economy, its isolation on the
world
stage and the growing number of young voters disillusioned with the
revolution that brought the Mullahs to power in 1979.
But among the carefully vetted candidates, one subject remained tabboo:
Iran's ongoing efforts to sabotage peace efforts between Israel and the
Palestinians.
It has long been known in intelligence circles that Iran's terrorist
proxy in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah, has been training Palestinian
terror groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyr's
Brigades. For years, Yasser Arafat looked the other way at the
infiltration of Hezbollah agents. But now that the PA is headed by
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinians themselves are complaining about
Hezbollah's presence in the West Bank and Gaza.
Since Israel's strategic withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah
has been robbed of its primary adversary and, therefore, its raison
d'etre. Israel's withdrawal to an internationally-recognized border has
also frustrated Hezbollah's masters in Tehran -- who delighted in
fighting a war by proxy against the hated "Zionist Entity."
And so, on instructions from Iran, Hezbollah started a recruiting
campaign, targeting Palestinian militants soon after the outbreak of
the
second Intifada in September, 2000. The first public evidence of Iran's
involvement came to light in January of 2002, when Israeli special
forces executed "Operation Noah's Ark," capturing a 4,000-ton
weapons-laden freighter en route to Gaza from Iran. The Iranian- and
Russian-made weapons on board included Katyusha rockets with a
20-kilometre range, anti-tank missiles, mortars, mines, sniper rifles,
ammunition and more than two tons of high explosives. The interdiction
provided the smoking gun proving Iran's involvement in Palestinian
terror.
Hezbollah's terrorist operations master, and the man tasked with
undermining the nascent peace efforts, is Imad Mughniyah, also known as
Hajj amongst his followers. Mughniyeh, a Lebanese Shiite who first
earned his terrorist spurs as a member of Yasser Arafat's Force 17,
founded Hezbollah as a rival to the Syrian-backed Amal Militia after
the
Palestinians quit Beirut in 1982.
Mughniyeh is responsible for a long list of suicide bombings,
hijackings
and attacks that have cost hundreds of lives, including the bombings
that destroyed a U.S. Marine base and Embassy in Beirut, killing some
300 people. Lacking Osama bin Laden's enormous ego and propensity for
home-made video productions, Mughniyeh has avoided the limelight and
has
no aspirations to appear on Al-Jazeera or CNN.
Mughniyeh is successful because he prefers to pull the strings from the
shadows of Beirut, Damascus and Tehran. He does not venture from these
terrorist sanctuaries because, like bin Laden, he has a place on the
FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list, as well as a US$5-million price on
his head.
The links between Hezbollah, Iran and the Palestinian terror groups are
based on multiple layers of covert contacts that wind back to the
Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and Pasdaran, the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Both these organizations are tasked with providing material support to
terrorist organizations dedicated to fighting Israel, the United States
and other supposed agents of western imperialism. These shadowy
elements
maintain a presence in most of Iran's embassies worldwide and recently
gained media attention in Canada for their involvement in the murder of
photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. According to sources in the Israel
Security Agency, about 50 squads of six to eight gunmen in the West
Bank, most of them affiliated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, are
directly funded by Hezbollah via Iran.
But Iran's violent, self-serving plans for the Palestinians may be in
jeopardy. According to an Agence France-Presse report, Mr. Abbas has
dispatched a top aide to Lebanon for talks with Hezbollah's leaders.
Abdelfatah Hamayel, who served as a cabinet minister under Abbas during
his time as Palestinian Authority prime minister in 2003, was expected
to urge the Shiite militia to stop funding attacks.
The dispatch of Mr Hamayel is based on the real fear in the Palestinian
camp that Iran will radicalize the conflict with Israel to the point of
no return. Hezbollah is already widely admired amongst the general
Palestinian population. The resulting loss of whatever tenuous control
Mr. Abbas's secular administration possesses will be dealt a fatal
blow,
and the already muted voices of moderation amongst his followers will
be
drowned out for good.
For their part, Western leaders must recognize the significance in the
PA's change of policy and support Mr. Abbas's efforts to prevent Tehran
and its terrorist proxies from derailing the peace negotiations.
Palestinian leaders may sometimes look the other way at terrorism, but
they are at least constrained by the knowledge that they will live with
the consequences. Iran's leaders suffer no such constraints: Their only
interest is bloodshed. And given the result of last week's election,
there seems little chance that will soon change.
C National Post 2005
Copyright C 2005 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest Global
Communications Corp. All rights reserved.
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Saudi terror suspect has 2 jailed brothers
Jul. 6, 2005 at 8:52AM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20050706-081449-4067r.htm
The two brothers of a Saudi named on a list of 36 terror suspects
reportedly are being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and in a Saudi
jail.
The Daily al-Watan quoted a security source as saying Youssef,
the younger brother of Saad Mohammed Mubarak al-Jabiri, is detained at
Guatanamo, and his older brother, Abdullah, is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia
on terrorist charges.
The source also said Jabiri's sister was married to Abdullah
Ghamidi, an al-Qaida operative who was killed by Saudi police in a clash in
western Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
He said Jabiri traveled to Afghanistan to join the resistance
against Soviet occupation in the early 1980s when he was 15. He returned
home shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and
stayed with his father in Riyadh before vanishing again.
Another history on Al-Zarqawi, This is different from the others and also shows his passport number.
http://www.pwhce.org/zarqawi.html
On July the 6th, I posted in message 3108 of this thread the article:
Military expands Homeland Efforts
It covers several things and should be read by all, included are the multiple attacks that we are to expect and the warning that our military will be used on the streets of America.
I have heard on the radio talk shows, several say that we will be hit in America, not later than 90 days, and it will be multiple strikes.
Keep in mind that this was posted before the London Attack on 7-7, so is before and not after their strike.
below is a small part of the article, which should be linked below......
The assumption of the need to prepare for multiple, simultaneous
terrorist attacks, McHale explained, marks a change from previous
planning
scenarios that had envisioned single strikes. The change is based on
what
McHale called a "recurring pattern" of attacks around the world by al
Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
Under the new strategy, U.S. air and naval forces will continue to
improve efforts to scan and patrol approaches to the United States.
Some of
the moves began immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks. But maritime
efforts have lagged airspace measures, and even U.S. air defenses
will
require further improvementsto deal with potential attacks by
low-flying
cruise missiles and pilotless aircraft, the document notes.
The strategy draws a distinction between the "lead"