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Bush calls for pentagon control over domestic crisis Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Pentagon mulls wider domestic crisis-response role
16 Sep 2005 21:10:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's call for a wider military role in handling domestic disasters prompted the Pentagon on Friday to examine what more it can do, but some experts worried about a policy that might subordinate civilian authorities to the armed forces.
One necessary step is a reassessment by Congress of "archaic laws" barring federal troops from domestic policing duties, said Lawrence Di Rita, chief Pentagon spokesman.
In a speech to the nation from New Orleans on Thursday, Bush said Hurricane Katrina's destruction along the U.S. Gulf Coast had left the response system at every level of government overwhelmed and poorly coordinated.
"It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces -- the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice," Bush said.
Appearing with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Bush did not provide details about the broader military role, and said he did not want to prejudge the findings of a congressional probe into the widely criticized response to Katrina.
Bush said Congress should consider that storms of a certain intensity "will require an overwhelming response by government that can only be provided by, say, the United States military, through Northcom (U.S. Northern Command) because of its ability to muster logistics and supplies so quickly."
The Pentagon created Northern Command in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to defend the U.S. homeland.
"And this storm will give us an opportunity to review all different types of circumstances to make sure that the president has the capacity to react," Bush said, citing as another example a pandemic such as an outbreak of avian flu.
RE-EXAMINE LAWS
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has directed Pentagon officials to study the issue of a broader military role and prepare recommendations to Bush, Di Rita said.
"We're going to take a look at the entire scope of our responsibilities in the Department of Defense and determine what is it that we can or should be doing better, differently, more of, less of," Di Rita said.
Di Rita said two 19th-century laws should be re-examined.
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prohibits federal military personnel from acting in a domestic law enforcement capacity. The Insurrection Act, dating to the first year of the Civil War in 1861, permits a president to use federal troops to enforce federal laws in times of domestic rebellion.
Cato Institute defense analyst Ted Carpenter said extreme caution should be exercised before dismantling laws limiting the role of the military in domestic affairs.
"We don't want as a routine matter American active-duty military forces patrolling the streets of American cities," Carpenter said.
"It sets a very bad precedent. It tends to subordinate local and state civilian authority to military authority. It creates a very unhealthy atmosphere that some particularly assertive president could use for less-than-noble purposes at some point in the future."
"It is a slippery slope and it is a slope we don't want to be on," added Center for Defense Information analyst Winslow Wheeler.
The looting and violence that gripped flooded New Orleans highlighted the need for keeping order following disasters. Part-time National Guard soldiers, under the command of state governors, can perform law enforcement duties, while federal troops cannot. And military leaders face concerns that if they federalize a military response, it might seem like an occupying force within U.S. borders.
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