Commander in Chief gets ready for Martial Law

When Kellog Brown Root, (KBR), the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co. (HAL : NYSE) announced the award of a 5 year $385 million contract (an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) ) from the US Department of Homeland Security to supports its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the "event of an emergency" a lot of heads got scratched.

This unique and novel contract placed on 24th January 2006 with immediate effect , is to provide temporary detention and processing capabilities in the event of an "emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S"... or as KBR mysteriously said .." to support the rapid development of new programs" (?).

Now Signs of the Times has a facsinating piece "Bush Moves Toward Martial Law" by
Frank Morales which may have identified another piece in crazy jigsaw of Dubya's assualt on the Constitution.

According to to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the President has signed off legislation which will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law .

Historically The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), has placed strict prohibitions on federal military involvement in domestic law enforcement.

Now in a private signing ceremony in the Oval Office on October 17th, 2006 the President wiped his ass on the Constitution one more time and stuck his John Hancock on Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

On the same day ,but more publicly he signed off the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which allows , amongst many other crimes, the ability of the US to hold people anywhere in the world, and torture them.

Senator Leahy first struck out on September 19th, about this Constitution wrecking and bricklaying the wall around the supporters of freedom and democracy, noting that 2007's Defense Authorization Act contained a "widely opposed provision to allow the President more control over the National Guard [adopting] changes to the Insurrection Act, which will make it easier for this or any future President to use the military to restore domestic order WITHOUT the consent of the nation's governors."

Ten days later , Senator Leahy entered into the Congressional Record that he had "grave reservations about certain provisions of the fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Bill Conference Report," the language of which, he said, "subverts solid, longstanding posse comitatus statutes that limit the military's involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it easier for the President to declare martial law." This had been "slipped in," Leahy said, "as a rider with little study," while "other congressional committees with jurisdiction over these matters had no chance to comment, let alone hold hearings on, these proposals."

In a telling bit of understatement, the Senator from Vermont noted that "the implications of changing the (Posse Comitatus) Act are enormous". "There is good reason," he said, "for the constructive friction in existing law when it comes to martial law declarations. Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy. We fail our Constitution, neglecting the rights of the States, when we make it easier for the President to declare martial law and trample on local and state sovereignty."

..But it's been done. The elected Guardians of democracy have been sleepwalkin'.