[Jack]

I blogged about this back in October with a quote from the Times-Standard:

A recent report in The Army Times — “Army Unit to Deploy in October for Domestic Operations” discussed a new military unit that is now stationed in the United States of America. The report stated that the 1st Brigade Combat Team would be deployed within the country and would work with civil authorities to “put down civil unrest.” On the surface this may seem benign, but this mission marks the first time an active military unit has assigned to NorthCom, the joint command established in 2002 to control federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate with civil authorities. The commander of this unit, Col. Roger Cloutier, also said that his troops will be trained to use nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them. This is another first; the first time a nonlethal package has been fielded the Army, according to Cloutier. Why does that make me uneasy? The package includes equipment to raise a hasty road block, spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and beanbag bullets. The Army’s new “dwell-time” mission will be part of a force that includes elements from other military branches and dedicated National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support teams. It doesn’t stop there. There will be Air Force engineer and medical units, the Marine Corps Chemical, Biological Initial Reaction Force, a Navy weather team and members of the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. According to an Army Times interview, Col. Louis Vogler, one of the chiefs of NorthCom future operations, said, “Right now, the response force requirement will be an enduring mission.” Very little has been said to the general public about this whole affair. I’d wager most Americans aren’t aware of this new strike force within our country. Are we closer to internal collapse than any of us realize? Why does the federal government feel the need for such a unit within our borders?

Jeber’s » Post Topic » Are we preparing for martial law?

If these reports aren't troubling enough there's also this one:

An appropriations bill signed by President Bush last week allows the controversial National Applications Office to begin operating a stringently limited version of a program that would turn military spy satellites on the US, sharing imagery with other federal, state, and local government agencies. The government’s own watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office, has warned in an unpublished report that the more expansive program in the offing lacks adequate safeguards to protect privacy and civil liberties. For now, the law restricts the NAO to “activities substantially similar” to those carried out by the Civil Applications Committee, an interagency coordinating body formed in 1976 to give civilian agencies access to military satellites for scientific and disaster preparedness purposes, such as “monitoring volcanic activity, environmental and geological changes, hurricanes, and floods.” But as a draft charter for the Office makes clear, officials at the Department of Homeland Security hope to branch out from these traditional applications, providing assistance and information to domestic law enforcement agencies. That doesn’t sit well with some members of Congess, who in a sharply worded letter earlier this year expressed concerns that the NAO “raises major issues under the Posse Comitatus Act” barring the military from performing law enforcement duties, and worried the program could be used to “gather domestic intelligence outside the rigorous protections of the law—and, ultimately, to share this intelligence with local law enforcement outside of constitutional parameters.” Among the questions raised about the proposed program is whether it runs afoul of the Reconstruction Era statute that makes it a crime to use the armed forces to “execute the laws” within US borders. Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, believes the new initiative to be “a prima facie violation of the Posse Comitatus Act—this is about using a military asset to do domestic law enforcement.” If law enforcement or immigration agencies need spy satellites, he argues, they should ask Congress to buy them some, rather than using the powerful eyes in the sky operated by the National Reconaissance Office for foreign-intelligence agencies not bound by domestic privacy constraints. “The military should never be used against the citizenry,” he argues. “Even if we’re talking about shooting pictures of people instead of shooting people, the principle remains the same.”

Jeber’s » Post Topic » New surveillance program will turn military satellites on US

If your classmates are unconcerned about these sorts of things then I fear for the future of our republic. Their apathy is tantamount to tacit approval for acts that may very well violate U.S. law. I'm sure the OJ story is juicier (sorry), but it hardly impacts the future of our nation like these stories do.