-Caveat Lector-
-----Original Message-----
From: Das GOAT
To: Roads End
Cc: E Mael0; JusB; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 10:36:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Subject: Worry NOW, While You're Still Able
Commandos in the Streets?
By William M. Arkin
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10364.htm
09/21/05 "Washington Post" -- -- Today, somewhere in the DC
metropolitan area, the military is conducting a highly classified
Granite Shadow "demonstration."
Granite Shadow is yet another new Top Secret and compartmented
operation related to the military's extra-legal powers regarding
weapons of mass destruction. It allows for emergency military
operations in the United States without civilian supervision or control.
A spokesman at the Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region
(JFHQ-NCR) confirmed the existence of Granite Shadow to me yesterday,
but all he would say is that Granite Shadow is the unclassified name
for a classified plan.
That classified plan, I believe, after extensive research and after
making a couple of assumptions, is CONPLAN 0400, formally titled
Counter-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Concept Plan
(CONPLAN) 0400 is a long-standing contingency plan of the Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) that serves as the umbrella for
military efforts to counter the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
It has extensively been updated and revised since 9/11.
The CJCS plan lays out national policy and priorities for dealing with
WMD threats in peacetime and crisis -- from far away offensive strikes
and special operations against foreign WMD infrastructure and
capabilities, to missile defenses and "consequence management" at home
if offensive efforts fail.
All of the military planning incorporates the technical capabilities
of the intelligence agencies and non-military organizations such as the
national laboratories of the Department of Energy. And finally, CONPLAN
0400 directs regional combatant commanders to customize
counter-proliferation plans for each of their own areas of operations.
When that "area of operations" is the United States, things become
particularly sensitive.
That's where Granite Shadow comes in. U.S. Northern Command
(NORTHCOM), the military's new homeland security command, is preparing
its draft version of CONPLAN 0400 for military operations in the United
States, and the resulting Granite Shadow plan has been classified above
Top Secret by adding a Special Category (SPECAT) compartment
restricting access.
The sensitivities, according to military sources, include deployment
of "special mission units" (the so-called Delta Force, SEAL teams,
Rangers, and other special units of Joint Special Operations Command)
in Washington, DC and other domestic hot spots. NORTHCOM has worked
closely with U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), as well as the
secret branches of non-military agencies and departments to enforce
"unity of command" over any post 9/11 efforts.
Further, Granite Shadow posits domestic military operations, including
intelligence collection and surveillance, unique rules of engagement
regarding the use of lethal force, the use of experimental non-lethal
weapons, and federal and military control of incident locations that
are highly controversial and might border on the illegal.
Granite Shadow is the twin to Power Geyser, a program I first revealed
to The New York Times in January. The JFHQ spokesman confirms that
Granite Shadow and Power Geyser are two different unclassified names
for two different classified plans.
In the case of Power Geyser, the classified plan is CJCS CONPLAN 0300,
whose entire title is classified. According the military documents, the
unclassified title is "Counter-Terrorism Special Operations Support to
Civil Agencies in the event of a domestic incident." It is another Top
Secret/SPECAT plan directing the same special mission units to provide
weapons of mass destruction recovery and "render safe" in either a
terrorist incident or in the case of a stolen (or lost) nuclear weapon.
Render safe refers to the ability of explosive ordnance disposal
experts to isolate and disarm any type of biological, chemical, nuclear
or radiological weapon.
The obvious question is why there is a need for two plans. My guess is
that Power Geyser and CONPLAN 0300 refers to operations in support of a
civil agency "lead" (most likely the Attorney General for a WMD attack)
while Granite Shadow and CONPLAN 0400 lays out contingencies where the
military is in the lead. I'll wait to be corrected by someone in the
know.
Both plans seem to live behind a veil of extraordinary secrecy because
military forces operating under them have already been given a series
of ''special authorities'' by the President and the secretary of
defense. These special authorities include, presumably, military roles
in civilian law enforcement and abrogation of State's powers in a
declared or perceived emergency.
In January, when The New York Times reported on the Power Geyser name
from my Code Names website, the Pentagon argued that "It would be
irresponsible . to comment on any classified program that may or may
not exist."
I can't see how the Defense Department can continue this line of
argument post-Katrina. We see the human cost of a system of contingency
planning done in complete secret, with a lack of any debate as to what
should be the federal government's priorities, emphasis, and rules.
As the Granite Shadow commandos and their federal brethren go through
their paces today, some inside the system will lament that I have
"compromised" their work. But the very fact that nothing in my writing
damages the Granite Shadow effort should demonstrate that we can have a
discussion of contingency planning priorities in the United States, and
debate extraordinary special authorities granted to those in uniform,
without compromising the details of the plans themselves.
There's still time. The full-scale exercise of Granite Shadow's
capabilities and procedures doesn't start until April 2006.
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