-Caveat Lector-
Clinton News Network-October 7, 1999
Expanded domestic use of U.S. military raising civil liberty
concerns
>From Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Changes in the Pentagon's command structure
designed to give the military a supporting role in responding to
domestic terrorist attacks or natural disasters is raising alarm
among some civil libertarians.
In Norfolk, Virginia, on Thursday, top military leaders, and
their civilian superiors, unveiled a retooled U.S. Joint Forces
Command, formerly the U.S. Atlantic Command.
The new command will coordinate its efforts with federal law
enforcement agencies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
However, Secretary of Defense William Cohen said "it is very
clear (the command) is subordinate to civilian control."
Pentagon officials say the idea behind the change is to give a
president options short of martial law to deal with domestic
crises.
"The reason that you want the Defense Department working now with
the FBI, with the Justice Department, with FEMA is so we know how
we will work when the time comes and we don't have to resort to
extreme measures nobody wants in this country," said Deputy
Defense Secretary John Hamre.
Also, a defense bill signed this week by President Bill Clinton
contains a little-noticed provision that expands the authority of
the military to assist law enforcement authorities in case of
chemical or biological attacks.
The Pentagon argues that only the military has the field
hospitals, helicopters and special chemical and biological
equipment that would be vital in the aftermath of a major gas or
germ attack.
"I should think the taxpayers would be upset if they thought we
weren't preparing to help out the citizens in case of a
catastrophic event," said Adm. Harold Gehman, who heads up the
U.S. Joint Forces Command.
But the specter of armored military vehicles and armed troops on
the streets of American cities has its critics.
"If the plan were simply to carry cots, to deliver supplies, to
rescue people, we would be talking about a plan that included, as
a feature, no armored vehicles and no armed soldiers," says
Gregory Nojeim, legislative counsel for the American Civil
Liberties Union. "I haven't heard a peep about that from the
Pentagon."
Critics point to the disastrous siege of the Branch Davidian
compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993 -- in which military officials
were called in to assist the FBI and the ATF -- as evidence that
the military is already too involved in law enforcement.
"At Waco, there were dozens of Bradley fighting vehicles, there
were tanks and there were soldiers," said Nojeim.
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