Allowing the military to operate domestically - the push is on

first, it was using the military as first-responders to domestic disasters... then it was possibly reviewing and negating the posse comitatus act... then, bush suggests using the military to quarantine avian flu victims... now, we have this...

As part of the expanding counterterrorism role being taken on by the Pentagon, Defense Intelligence Agency covert operatives need to be able to approach potential sources in the United States without identifying themselves as government agents, George Peirce, the DIA's general counsel, said yesterday. [...] "We are not asking for the moon," Peirce said.

i keep posting on these disturbing developments, the most recent being a diary i lifted from kos that captured my deep unease... undeniably, there's a push on by bushco to use the military as the prime responder in domestic situations... that means one thing and one thing only - martial law... with the military as domestic police and bush as police chief, we're gonna be even more screwed than we are now...

The legislative proposal has been controversial on Capitol Hill and has drawn criticism from groups concerned with privacy and civil liberties. The House's intelligence authorization bill, which passed in June, does not include the provision, which is similar to a proposal that was eliminated last year from the legislation.

[...]

"I'm pretty alarmed" by the proposal, said Timothy Edgar, the American Civil Liberties Union's national security policy counsel, saying it could conceivably be used by Pentagon intelligence officers "as a loophole to attend political or other meetings as part of an initial assessing contact."

[...]

In the interview, Peirce said the new authority "would not be used very often and only on an exceptional basis." He pointed out there are requirements in the Senate committee language that the intelligence sought be "significant" and that it "cannot be reasonably obtained by overt means." It also dictates that collecting the information may not be undertaken "for the purpose of acquiring information concerning the domestic activities of any U.S. person."

yeah, uh-huh... right... just trust us... s-u-u-ure... here's the key phrase: "covert operatives need to be able to approach potential sources in the United States without identifying themselves as government agents..." you can't have trust when you don't know what's going on in the first place...

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