Martial Law
And The Advent Of The Supreme Executive
By Mike Whitney
07 October, 2005
ICH
On
Tuesday, President Bush warned the nation that outbreaks of Bird Flu
may require massive quarantines enforced by the US Military. He said
that the military would be better able "to prevent people from
coming in to get exposed to the flu", although he failed to explain
why that task couldn't be carried out by the National Guard. Bush's
comments echoed the same themes we've heard repeatedly since Hurricane
Katrina, that the president needs the power to deploy troops within
the country at his own discretion and without any legal restrictions.
It is a conspicuous attempt to militarize the country and declare martial
law, although the media has scrupulously avoided the obvious conclusions.
Bush now claims
that he will need to deploy the military following a terrorist attack,
a national disaster, or after the outbreak of a flu-epidemic. "Sending
in the troops" has seemingly replaced "tax-cuts" as the
one-size-fits-all answer for every question asked of any member of the
hard-right administration.
"I am concerned
about avian flu" Bush opined. "I'm concerned about what an
avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world. If
we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine
that part of the country?
And who best to
be able to affect a quarantine?
One option is the
use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put
it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have..
I think the president ought to have all options on the table to understand
what the consequences are -- all assets on the table, not options --
assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant."
Even before Katrina,
Donald Rumsfeld had repeatedly expressed interest in using the military
domestically. According to many reports the delay in getting relief
to the victims of the hurricane was the result of a power-struggle between
the administration and local officials (Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin)
over who would control the operation. The administration was determined
from the onset to federalize the effort and put the Pentagon in charge.
This caused a 3 day holdup in the federal response to the tragedy. The
choice was made to withhold aid until the governor capitulated. It is
impossible to calculate the number of lives that may have been lost
by this decision.
The main obstacle
to Bush's militarization-scheme is the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.
The Act bans the military from participating in policing activities
on US soil. It does not, however, prevent the military from helping
out in national disasters. This is what is so troubling about Bush's
request to change the law; it shows a clear intention to assert military
authority wherever the troops are deployed. It is clearly not an attempt
simply to help out.
A careful look at
New Orleans shows the danger of this. The military presence has been
used to establish order and to set the precedent for future deployments.
Blackwater mercenaries are not really part of the relief effort at all,
but are employed to harass and intimidate the locals and to protect
private property. One of their many functions was to force the evacuation
of local homeowners and to strip them of their legally registered firearms;
a clear violation of the 2nd amendment. Their presence is intended to
soften the attitudes of citizens to seeing military personnel on their
streets and to help them adjust the effects of a transformed America.
Dr. Irwin Redlener,
associate Dean of Columbia University's School of Public Health for
Disaster Preparedness, told the Associated Press that giving the military
a law enforcement role would be an "extraordinarily Draconian measure"
that would be unnecessary for the distribution of vaccines.
"The translation
of this is martial law in the United States," said Redlener.
"Gene Healy,
a senior editor at the conservative Cato Institute, said Bush would
risk undermining 'a fundamental principle of American law' by tinkering
with the act, which does not hinder the military's ability to respond
to a crisis."
"What it does
is set a high bar for the use of federal troops in a policing role.
That reflects America's traditional distrust of using standing armies
to enforce order at home, a distrust that's well-justified." The
use of the military "can result in serious damage to American life
and liberty," Healy added. (CNN)
The intention to
use the military in a "policing role" creates a permanent
state of martial law that can't be fully grasped out of context. In
the last few months the administration has made a number of dramatic
changes to the system which have upset the critical balance between
the co-equal parts of government. Just three months ago, Bush issued
an executive order that created the National Security Service (NSS);
a branch of the FBI that now works entirely under his authority. It
is America's first secret police; no different than the East German
Stasi or the Soviet Union's KGB. It operates completely beyond congressional
oversight and is answerable to the president alone. It is Bush's personal
Gestapo.
Also, less than
a month ago the 4th Circuit Court ruled that the president had the power
to declare any American citizen an "enemy combatant" and summarily
rescind all of his human and civil rights; including even the right
to know the reason for which he is being he imprisoned. The ruling confers
absolute authority on the president and ends of any meaningful notion
of "inalienable rights".
Also, just last
week the Senate Intelligence Committee "approved legislation that
allows Pentagon Intelligence operatives to collect information from
US citizens without revealing their status as government spies."
The Pentagon may now conduct clandestine investigations of American
citizens without the traditional safeguards that are applied to FBI.
In effect, the legislation revokes the fundamental guarantees of privacy
under the 4th amendment and "green-lights" the Pentagon to
operate covertly against American citizens whether they are legitimate
terrorist suspects or simply political enemies.
In another shocking
development, President Bush said he will veto the upcoming Pentagon
budget of $435 Billion if the bill contains any provision that limits
the "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners".
The President's action implies that he has the right to torture and
abuse according to his own judgment, a clear violation of the Geneva
Conventions, the 1996 Treaty on Torture and the 8th amendment.
And, finally, the
revised version of Patriot Act is quickly moving through the Congress.
The new edition eviscerates the last feeble strands of the 4th amendment
and paves the way for "administrative subpoenas", which allow
law enforcement to carry out searches without judicial oversight.
This is the context
in which we should evaluate the push to use the military in domestic
affairs. Every change that has taken place within the government has
been designed for one purpose alone; to increase the power of the president.
If the congress chooses to overturn the Posse Comitatus Act, they will
have removed the last bit of rickety scaffolding that protects the country
from becoming a de facto military dictatorship. The power to deploy
troops within the nation is the power to use the military against American
citizens. It transforms the "people's army" into a direct
threat to the democracy it is supposed to serve.
This is the essential
vision of the globalists who currently control all the levers of state-power
in Washington. They've now articulated their intention to use any conceivable
national tragedy to achieve their objective of colonizing America through
force of arms and establishing the supreme authority of the president.