MARTIAL LAW: The New York Times finally catches on

via Truth Out


Making Martial Law Easier
The New York Times | Editorial

Monday 19 February 2007

A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administration's behest that makes it easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law.

The provision, signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty. One is the doctrine that bars military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from engaging in law enforcement. Called posse comitatus, it was enshrined in law after the Civil War to preserve the line between civil government and the military. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides the major exemptions to posse comitatus. It essentially limits a president's use of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion, where a state is violating federal law or depriving people of constitutional rights.

The newly enacted provisions upset this careful balance. They shift the focus from making sure that federal laws are enforced to restoring public order. Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any "other condition."

Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough public airing. But these new presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate. The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in advance with the nation's governors.

There is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, and backed unanimously by the nation's governors, that would repeal the stealthy revisions. Congress should pass it. If changes of this kind are proposed in the future, they must get a full and open debate. -------

This happened in October. All the liberal blogs covered it. It took the hallowed NYT four months to catch on. The MSM isn't even trying anymore. The Bush Administration is dismantling our democracy, and they couldn't care less.

Think Bush would never try this? Remember all those troops brandishing weapons in New Orleans, supposedly to stop looters? They didn't stop looters. They stopped poor people from escaping into suburban areas. I read one account where some people who weren't allowed to leave had set up an encampment on a road, where troops harassed them and stole the cases of water they had managed to find.

Also note that disease outbreak is one of the provisions. We've already seen how many people can be affected by contaminated spinach from one plant. We've seen Congress stalled and mail disrupted by anthrax distributed by someone in the government who has never been arrested, in spite of the supposed priority given the "War on Terror." Why?

Go ahead and call me an alarmist - I just think people don't sneak around Congress in the middle of the night tryng to create the authority to do something they never intend to do. Ignore the possibility and go rent a movie. Have you seen Outbreak?