Domestic rapid deployment forces

This report is part of a continuing series by WorldNetDaily on the
militarization of federal government and America’s civilian sector.

A squad automatic weapons gunner participates in urban warrior training exercises at Camp Lejeune, NC.

Under the guise of preparedness for domestic terrorist attacks, the
U.S. military is training thousands of local police officers, national
guardsmen and other officials to respond to national emergencies under
centralized federal authority and control, according to plans revealed
by Defense Department sources.

In addition, U.S. military forces are stepping up training exercises
in American civilian population centers, prompting constitutional
concerns in some quarters.

The plans for military involvement in the civilian sector are a
direct result of the “Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of
1996,” which mandated the federal government to develop response
scenarios to domestic terrorist incidents involving nuclear, biological,
chemical and radiological weapons. The legislation designated the
Department of Defense as the lead agency in coordinating sweeping plans
involving the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the FBI, Department
of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of
Health and Human Services. Representatives of all these agencies meet
monthly as the Senior Interagency Coordination Group, or SICG.

The Defense Appropriations Act of 1997 added funding for the Pentagon
“to improve the capability of the federal, state and local emergency
response agencies.”

“The United States Army Chemical and Biological Defense Command leads
interagency training development and city visits,” H. Allen Holmes,
assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity
conflict, testified to the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the Senate
Armed Services Committee earlier this year. “Interagency teams
coordinate with fire, police, emergency medical and hazardous material
officials and tailor training to city requirements. Additionally, FEMA
has developed a terrorism annex to the Federal Response Plan to ensure
coordination across all agencies at all levels.”

In 1997, the Defense Department spent $30.5 million on the training
and civil response aspects of the program, Holmes reported. An
additional $10 million was dedicated to improving the U.S. Marine Corps
Chemical-Biological Incident Response Force. This year, Congress
allocated $50 million for the domestic preparedness program. Another $50
million is appropriated for the program in 1999.

The money is for training purposes only. However, the Defense
Department is lending equipment to state and local agencies, according
to Holmes.

The program calls for the National Guard to stand up 10 Rapid
Assessment and Initial Detection teams in selected cities across the
nation using 200 full-time active guardsmen and reservists. Members of
Army Guard and reserve chemical companies will be trained next year to
conduct searches for weapons of mass destruction.

The goal of the domestic preparedness program is to train 120 cities
by 2001 and to provide mechanism for every community in the nation to
“leverage federal expertise,” according to the Defense Department. The
interagency team has trained more than 10,000 “first responder trainers”
— drawn from firefighting, law enforcement, emergency medical
communities and emergency telephone operators and dispatchers — in 30
cities, according to Defense Secretary William Cohen. Another 25 cities
will receive training in the next year, he said.

“Our program is specifically designed so that the people we train
become trainers themselves,” Cohen said earlier this month in a report
to the Council on Foreign Relations titled “Security in a Grave New
World.” “This approach will greatly magnify our efforts to produce a
core of qualified first responders across the nation.”

FEMA has compiled a master inventory containing information on the
resources and capabilities of each agency involved in the program and
what is available to state and local officials in emergency situations.
However, the information on that inventory is not available to the
public or the press — only to federal and state emergency planners.
Undisclosed surplus military equipment is being made available to state
and local government agencies through this program.

Some civil liberties groups have pointed out that the intense,
coordinated rush to “fight terrorism” in America comes at an odd time —
given the government’s own figures reporting a 25-year low in such
attacks and incidents.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers points out, for
instance, that the overwhelming majority of law enforcement’s record
number of applications to eavesdrop on people through electronic
surveillance technology involves investigation into drug, racketeering
and gambling offenses — not terrorism. There was bipartisan support in
Congress for giving the executive branch of government vast new,
codified authority to plant wiretaps and electronic bugs and to
confiscate property as a result of investigations in this effort to
“combat terrorism.”

The 1996 law grants the president exclusive, unreviewable powers to
designate groups “terrorist organizations.” Under such powers, the
government could deport suspects — including permanent residents and
non-immigrants — based on “classified” or “secret evidence” under the
cloak of national security. Another provision of the legislation
requires banks to freeze assets of domestic groups and citizens deemed
agents of such “terrorist organizations.” There is no mechanism
established to challenge such decisions by banks.

In a development the Defense Department claims is unrelated to the
terrorism plans, more actual combat training is taking place in urban
centers. Earlier this month, Marines took part in such a training
exercise in Maryland. Last month, a special unit of U.S. Marines with
assault rifles conducted maneuvers in Birmingham, AL.

These exercises are part of a program called “Training in the Urban
Environment. ”

All of the operations, including the exact timing of the exercises,
were kept secret from the public, raising concerns about civil liberties
issues.

Similar exercises have been conducted recently in Chicago,
Jacksonville, FL, and other U.S. cities. The question on some minds is:
Who exactly are the Marines preparing to wage war with in America’s
urban environments?

The training is part of a certification program in “urban combat.”
The program includes missions, such as rescuing a pilot, which the
Marines might be called to perform in foreign countries such as Somalia,
military spokesmen say. Marine officials say the urban landscape adds a
new dimension to the training the Marines have already received.