Posted on 12/17/2008 12:22:30 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
Top General: Large Military Presence at Inauguration By George Cahlink CongressNow Staff December 17, 2008, 12:12 p.m. Print.E-Mail.Reprints.Text Size.More than 10,000 active-duty military and National Guard personnel are expected to help with security or participate in next month’s presidential inauguration, a top military officer said Wednesday morning.
Air Force Gen. Victor Renuart, head of the Defense Department’s Northern Command, which oversees military support for homeland security, told the Defense Writers Group that about 7,500 active-duty military personnel and 4,000 National Guardsmen were due in town for the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.
Renuart said there have been no specific threats to the inauguration, but he called it “prudent” to have military forces available to deter or respond to a potential threat. Officials are anticipating more than 1 million people will descend on the city for the event.
Renuart would not provide a more specific breakdown, but he said some of those troops would be supporting federal law enforcement efforts and others would have a ceremonial role, such as walking in the parade or providing honor cordons. He stressed that the Secret Service has the lead role in providing inaugural security but said the military would be an “active participant.”
For example, the four-star general said the military will provide enhanced air-defense patrols over Washington during the festivities and will have chemical response teams available in the event of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack. He said the military has provided similar support for the national political conventions and Super Bowls.
Additionally, the Metropolitan Police Department is expected to have 8,000 personnel on duty, half of which will come from law enforcement agencies across the country. That’s 1,000 more officers than at President George W. Bush’s inauguration in 2005.
Other federal agencies, including the Secret Service and National Park Service, have yet to say how many personnel they will have on hand. All 1,600 Capitol Police officers also are expected to help out.
Red, my family and I are doing just that. The last place we want to be 20 Jan is within or near the Beltway (we live in nearby Alexandria, VA). We're taking a day-trip to somplace as far away as possible.
It’s a good weekend to go camping.
Put on your foil hat...this may be the staging for the overthrow of the government...eagles up. /sarc
I’d be better to have 10,000 to prevent inauguration w/o a birth certificate.
An Obama miracle. He created all these national guardsmen and women just for that one day and then poof, they’ll be gone in a flash.
But who is protecting our Military from the thousands of rabid America-hating Military-hating democrats?
Looks like the liberals are paranoids.
They should be but not for the reasons they think. The real reason is that paranoids are almost always engaged in activities that deserve punishment. It’s not that anyone is “after them”. It’s that deep down inside under the cover of their phony compassion they are loaded with evil intentions.
That was “Ice Cube”’s XXX movie.
Oh, for crying out loud! Is Obamessiah (or ‘Jesus Christ-incarnate,’ as the ‘RATS seem to think) so scared that they have to have 10,000 troops at his ‘coronation ceremony’????
The liberals are so paranoid. What’s next? The Secret Police??? Chinese-style “re-education through labor camps”? I really fear for America these next 4 years.
Well the Legislative, Judicial (based on SCOTUS actions) and Executive do not care what the little people think.
They need a big military prescience like the old USSR until O has his Hitler Youth in place.
The Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement.
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.
The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the 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 Coast Guard is exempt from the Act.
Uh oh. We're in for trouble.
Did I at least spell the name of the movie correctly?
I did this for Reagan's inauguration in 1984. There where thousands of us then (don't know the exact number).
I was a liaison NCO for the inauguration, and my job was to ensure there were enough E1’s through E4’s lining Pennsylvania Ave (every 3 feet, both sides!) between the Capitol and White House. However, most of us weren't used due to extreme cold weather and snow, so most of the outdoor activities were canceled.
Will harry reid complain that these visitors smell bad?
Would be/Could be a huge terrorist target on Jan 20...if not for GWB.
I will be no where near there that day but I have to admit, even though I wish Zer0 was not being sworn, I am glad to have a large military presence.
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