BY JON CHRISTIAN RYTER

The Illegal Use of the Military
In A Law Enforcement Setting.

       In the aftermath of the American Civil War, during the period when bureaucratic opportunists–mostly little men with big dreams of self-enhancement–profited most, the United States Army served its Jacobin civilian masters in Washington by assuming absolute and dictatorial control over the surrendered Confederacy.

        In those former States the military, under the tight-fisted control of Jacobin Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, became the law unto themselves. They determined what the law was; they became the "police agency" which apprehended those who violated the laws they mandated; and they controlled the courts–and the judges–who sat in judgment of those accused of violating the laws of Reconstructionalism. They pronounced the sentences and carried them out. Hanging became the rule of the day for most of those found guilty of interfering with the bureaucratic carpetbaggers who were "building a new South."

        For a brief period, from 1865 to 1878, many American citizens learned first hand what it felt like to live under a totalitarian regime, and feel the oppressive strangulation of dictatorship. The experience was so frightening to Americans in the North as well as the South that Congress was forced to enact the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. [For those who may not know, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prevents the central government of the United States from using the U.S. military as an adjunct law enforcement agency.] Posse Comitatus was amended in 1981 to allow the U.S. military to "aid" law enforcement agencies in the war on drugs.

        Perhaps that is the reason the Clinton White House accused the Branch Davidians of drug crimes the day after the Waco massacre even though at that time the fact that the Clinton Justice Department had used a Delta Force team to storm Mount Carmel was not yet public knowledge. Publicly, the FBI and ATF displayed a vast arsenal of rifles supposedly retrieved from the smoldering ashes of Waco as a means of attempting to justify their brutal murder of 88 people, many of whom were small, innocent children whose only crime was that their parents believed David Koresh was the messiah. But, until Bill Clinton turned the White House into a brothel, stupidity had never been a capital offense in the United States.

        The ATF foolishly displayed this virtual arsenal during a televised press conference; and the CNN cameras panned row upon row of weaponry as the ATF spokesman remarked that the Davidians were planning terrorist activities in the United States–and they had the weapons needed to make good their threat. Of course, at that point there were no Davidians around to defend themselves from the accusation. However, the guns displayed before the burned out ashes of Mount Carmel spoke volumes. Only, the media wasn't listening, and the American people failed to notice. The guns, which the ATF and FBI claimed to have removed from the ashes of Waco, showed no signs that they had survived the blazing inferno that had completely consumed the compound in which they were theoretically found. Once again, the government lied to the American people.

        But even more chilling is the statement made by the President of the United States in the aftermath of Waco–and after it was learned that 17 small children had perished in the flames, but before the American people learned that the fire was started not by the Davidians in a bold suicide pact, but by tracer bullets fired into the compound by a Delta Force team in two armored personnel carriers that had escaped the vigilant eye of the media's telephoto lens which were preoccupied with the Sherman tank that was smashing into the front of the building, spraying what the Justice Department maintained was a harmless, non-flammable gas into the compound in order to force the Davidians outside where they could be arrested.

        William Jefferson Clinton, the President of the United States–a man who claimed to feel the pain of the American people--sat in the Oval Office and told the American people that the government could not be responsible for "...the fact that a bunch of fanatics decided to kill themselves," adding that "...there is, unfortunately, a rise in this sort of fanaticism across the world. And, we may have to confront it again."

        As America stood, numbed by the pictures of the fiery horror that destroyed 88 people because they held a religious view that most of us find to be repugnant at worst, the President of the United States told us to expect his administration to seek out and destroy other religious fanatics whose only crime was that they held a view that differed from the traditional religious views of most Americans.

        Since most "Christian" Americans are Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, or Pentecostals, few people heard the message behind those words. The Davidians were, after all, a cult. They didn't deserve to die, but...well... they were a cult. Their views were different. And Koresh was molesting children–that's what the media said. Well...if he wasn't molesting children, then he had several wives...and one or two of them were...well...very young. On that basis alone the deaths of the Davidians were justified by the Clinton Administration.

        Within a month or so, most of America forgot about David Koresh. And with Koresh, they also forgot about the Delta Force team that shot at Davidians who were attempting to escape from the fiery inferno that had engulfed Mount Carmel. The original version of "Rules of Engagement" clearly depicted tracer bullets going into the compound; and that video shows Davidians, who were attempting to escape the fire, being driven back into the flames by the Delta Force team in the rear of the building. But, soon the American people would forget that as well.

        And with it, Americans would forget the latest violation of Posse Comitatus by the Clinton Administration. The Clinton Administration, by Executive Order has further amended the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878–a legislative power he does not legally possess. Clinton expanded the use of the American military in civilian operations by including the "war on terrorism" along with the use of the military on the "war on drugs."

        Whatever his justification, Clinton is now using military troops with civilian law enforcement officers not only to wage the "war on drugs," but in preparation to wage a war on the civilian population of the United States in order to seize the 200 to 400 million small arms which are legally owned by Americans should the efforts of this administration somehow topple the 2nd Amendment, or otherwise breach it.

        To prepare for this "war" American military units are training local law enforcement agencies to carry out what is termed "Military Operations in Urban Terrain" [MOUT]. When asked, the military replied that these exercises are put together to train not only the military but the local police agencies to handle urban terrorist situations.

        And, who are the urban terrorists?

        And, which urban centers are being targeted?

        MOUT exercises have been carried out in dozens of cities across the United States to date. Marines, Navy Seals, Special Forces and the 160th Special Ops Group [Delta Force], with FBI, ATF, DEA and FEMA personnel in tow, have launched mock invasions in Miami, Detroit, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Houston and other cities are targeted for mock invasions as well. Residents in those cities–and many times the mayors and city council members--awaken during the night as hundreds of military troops rappel from hovering helicopters as they fire automatic weapons and explode flash-bang smoke grenades at their "targeted" objective.

        While sources I have in both the military and the Justice Department have assured me that these midnight raids are joint Justice/DOD projects, Department of Defense spokesman Col. William Darley insists the exercises are not related to law enforcement missions and do not utilize civilian law enforcement personnel. The Executive Branch knows the mixing of civilian law enforcement and the military is a Posse Comitatus "no-no," so it is not likely that the military would admit it. However, one former Public Relations officer for the Marine Corps [who has asked to remain anonymous] did. He said that when he questioned the military's growing role with local law enforcement agencies across the United States he was told that the Marines [and the other branches of the service as well] were doing what they had to do in the post-Cold War world to "stay in business." "Adjustments needed to be made to maintain Congressional funding," he said. "If that means training troops for the United Nations, or teaching local police agencies military rules of engagement, so be it."

        Of course when a high ranking Washington police official was asked about that, he said: "The police don't have rules of engagement. They do have a 'use-of-force' policy. That is, they may use force only to neutralize a situation. They may use deadly force only to protect themselves or to save the lives of others."

        But the reality is, the military of the United States is at this time training the local police forces around the country to deal with urban terrorism in an urban terrain setting. What does that mean? It means "in your neighborhood." It means military-trained if not military-supported urban terrain military-type operations are being tested, for whatever reason, in many large cities and even in many smaller communities in the United States in a clear violation of Posse Comitatus.

        Apparently the Clinton Administration believes if it uses the most elite military units to train civilians to function as military units, but as long as they are not actually military units, he has not violated the actual context of the law even though the actions of these urban terrain units clearly violate the spirit of Posse Comitatus.

        Col. Darley, in a recent Insight on the News interview stated that these mock invasions are "...secret combat activities for very explicit purposes such as scenarios involving recovery of a weapon of mass destruction, incidents of terrorism and hostage rescue." Actually, the military is blueprinting their activity in a variety of key cities and creating "models" for an invasion of America–not by foreign troops, but by the government of the United States. But, according to Darley, that is not the case. "We conduct these large-scale exercises in the Southern States as make believe foreign countries. Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, could be Paris, Munich or any other built up area outside the United States."

        Give me a break.

        I wonder what our allies in Europe would think if someone told them we were "practicing" the invasion of Paris in Charlotte? Or the invasion of Munich in Houston? Or the invasion of Moscow in Pittsburgh? Perhaps the people on the streets of those cities might be concerned, but the leadership of those nations would not. I think they understand, better than we, what these exercises are conducted for. These exercises are being conducted to prepare both the military, the federal law enforcement agencies, and State and local police agencies to seize what I believe will shortly become "illegal weapons" from American citizens as the 2nd Amendment is abrogated and guns of any type are declared illegal. As in Europe, after a 90 to 120 day moratorium in which your legal weapons can be exchanged for cash, those caught with firearms of any type will be charged with felony possession.

        In 1994, 300 Marines at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center at Twenty-nine Palms, California were asked if they would fire on American citizens who refused or resisted the confiscation of firearms if banned by the United States government. 26% of those questioned said they would fire on American citizens. While I am shocked that 78 Marines said they would shoot American citizens if ordered to do so by their commanding officer, the government was shocked to learn that 212 Marines said they would refuse to obey that type of order.

        (NOTE: This sampling was done by Lt. Comdr. Guy Cunningham for the Marine Corp. It is my understanding that similar samplings were done on Army personnel as well, and that the results were about the same.) It is clear that the conclusion the U.S. government had to reach from this study is that if the United States government is planning to seize guns from American citizens, they needed someone other than the regular military troops to accomplish the task. It is likely that those in the MOUT units were culled from the ranks of the military–and, it is clear they will not hesitate to shoot Americans who resist their efforts to disarm them.

        Today, the military continues its war-games charade while insisting it is practicing for urban warfare in our cities and towns only because they "...are running out of training areas" is pure bunk. They are practicing in this terrain because they know it is precisely–and exactly–this terrain they will be fighting in should the utopians be successful in their efforts to outlaw the private ownership of guns either through some piece of legislation that violates the Constitution but is upheld in federal court as a "needed abrogation of personal rights" under the 9th Amendment due to the "national emergency in effect at this time..." or when someone discovers that the Senate somehow ...accidentally...ratified the UN's global gun ban treaty when it somehow ...accidentally...inserted in some innocuous piece of legislation that nobody thought to read before passing. Indignantly, the gun rights people will immediately challenge the "new law" before the Supreme Court, only to discover that international treaties supersede the Constitution of the United States.

        As Col. Darley defended the practice of urban terrain "war games," he insisted that the military arranges the exercises "...well in advance with the local officials, police and fire departments, and we do our best to go door-to-door notifying residents that there will be loud noises and so on."

        According to Charlotte mayor Patrick McCrory Darley doesn't know what he's talking about. He said "...nobody notified his residents about the exercises...they...misled us." They weren't up- front about the extent of the exercise. "...I had people calling me at home and I could barely hear them for the noise in the background. We literally had residents that were so frightened they were ready to pull out their guns. If an accident had happened I would have had a tough time living with myself because I didn't ask enough questions...Even my own police department and city manager were caught off guard...It took a few minutes before we realized this was the 'small exercise' the Army had planned. There were between 15 and 20 helicopters hovering above condominium buildings shooting automatic weapons. The noise was incredible."

        Today, a Delta Force team could rappel down from helicopters over Charlotte, North Carolina and begin shooting "domestic terrorists" [i.e., radical Christian right wingers as defined by the Clinton Justice Department] and Charlotte would go about its business as best it could in the din of gunfire believing what was happening was just another urban terrain warfare exercise.

        It is not clear if Mayor McCrory asked the Army why so much secrecy was needed if, in fact, the army was practicing urban tactics for use in a foreign city outside the United States as they declared they were.

        Steven Barry, a retired Army Special Forces veteran could tell him. In the November 8 Insight on the News interview cited above, Barry told Insight reporter Kelly O'Meara "...[t]he official story put out by the Army is that they're running out of training areas...They never inform the public about what they are doing and, contrary to what is said, the gunfire residents are hearing is real. Delta Force doesn't train with blanks. They rely on bullet traps set up weeks ahead of time to avoid outside penetration of the gunfire. The reason the exercises are secret is because it's Delta Force. They operate outside the hierarchy of command and get their orders from the top. They've been called the president's army for a long time, and they don't move without his blessing."

        Clearly, Delta Force operates today just like Adolph Hitler's SA brown shirts functioned early in the rise of National Socialism, and later, as the SS worked when Hitler assumed power.

       From the mass of Executive Orders and Presidential Decision Directives–in particular PDD-39 which gives supra authority to FEMA in the event of a national emergency, Bill Clinton also has his Gestapo-in-the-making.

        But, like all despots, Bill Clinton cannot achieve what it appears he is attempting to do without the help of the military. The Delta Force team is not enough, even though they, like the Navy Seals and Army Special Forces, are trained to be killing machines.

        Georgia Congressman Bob Barr has been watching both the growing use of Delta Force to handle "urban terrorist threats," and because the use of this elite fighting unit in a civilian setting violates both the letter and spirit of Posse Comitatus, the militarization of civilian law enforcement agencies to be used in conjunction with Delta Force–or even by itself after being trained in urban warfare by the military.

        Barr warned that this is a "...slippery slope."

        "There isn't a more fundamental issue in our society than keeping civilian law enforcement separate from the military. The line was completely blurred at Waco, and because Posse Comitatus has never been prosecuted, [the use of the Delta Force by the Justice Department and the Clinton White House to end the siege at Waco] will be one of the most areas of the...hearings on Waco."

        Pictured at the beginning of this article is a photo of a masked ATF agent. Many questions have been asked by a good many Americans why American law enforcement officers performing lawful and legal duties, would need to wear a mask. The answer is found in a recently enacted Department of Defense authorization bill. A rule in this bill allows the Secretary of Defense to withhold the names or identities of any member of the armed forces assigned to a "sensitive unit." Delta Force falls under this category. Any member of one of these teams, whether a member of Delta Force or any law enforcement agency assigned to, or working in conjunction with the Delta Force team, is likewise shielded by this rule.

        When asked about the need for American law enforcement officers to be masked, Col. Darley said the legislation was intended to protect the service member and his or her family from security risks associated with being identified by terrorists, or in having his or her photograph plastered all over the Internet. Steve Barry, the Special Forces veteran, said: "The law looks to specifically protect Delta Force. They're trying to shortstop things like Waco and situations in the future where special forces are used."

        And, you can almost bet that those "situations" will likely all violate Posse Comitatus since the Delta Force itself, answering directly to the President of the United States not as the military's commander-in-chief but as its chief law enforcement officer, violates the tenets of that legislation based entirely on the fact that a supra military unit exists in the United States.

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