The Conscience of Abe’s Turn freedom of speech, defense, and life

Brian Wilson on his radio show at WSPD yesterday talked with Jim Bovard about a recent Washington Post article about sending U.S. troops to the U.S. “The U.S. military,” according to the Post, “expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe.”

Domestic emergency deployment may be “just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority,” or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU’s National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of “a creeping militarization” of homeland security.  read more »

At first, I didn’t know what to do with this blog post. It’s about the Sea-Smurfs. That is, about CCMRF teams (pronounced “C Smurf”), which stands for “CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force.” And as everyone knows, CBRNE clearly and obviously refers to “Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or high-yield Explosive.” And as you can probably figure out by now, this has something to do with the military.

Benjamin Friedman posted on the Cato Institute’s blog an article asking “Should We Fear Sea-Smurfs?” That’s kind of hard to answer if you don’t know what they are. I’ve read the article, and I’m still not sure I know what they are. Maybe no one knows. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Briefly, a CCMRF is a team of soldiers trained to perform police duties. Just what we need to make our police forces more civil, huh? But will they be unleashed on the unsuspecting American public?

Sea-smurfs can then do tasks short of law enforcement, including cleaning up after attacks. If terrorist attacks qualify as an insurrection, troops could perform law enforcement tasks in their aftermath. That might explain why the Sea-Smurfs received law enforcement training, but the Army denies that the training was related to domestic duties. It is good that the ACLU is trying to figure what exactly is intended.

Even if this mission is legal, however, it does not make it wise. Homeland defense activities like storms and terrorist attacks are the job of local and state authorities, and in extreme cases, the National Guard. Historically, these forces have been sufficient.

-TimK