Army Unit to Deploy in October for Domestic Operations
Beginning in October, the Army plans to station an active unit inside the United States for the first time to serve as an on-call federal response in times of emergency. The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent thirty-five of the last sixty months in Iraq, but now the unit is training for domestic operations. The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The soldiers are learning to use so-called nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.
Let's not forget that in the late 60s regular Army units, for example the 82nd Airborne, were deployed to control protests against the Viet Nam war. I do not believe they received any special training in 'non-lethal' violence.
ReplyDeletejust though wondering what protests are scheduled for near future? not against iraq war i think. what will people be out in the street about? (election fraud, currency crash, bank failures, bad weather?)
ReplyDeleteI expect you were just asking ruminatively, but right here and now UFPJ and a congery of other even more overtly Democratic Party aligned 'movement' groups called for local rallies today (Thu. 9/25)against the bailout. Since their party seems to have caved already, won't be a happy party. I believe, one soldeir will be assigned to each local rally.
ReplyDeleteStopWarOnIran.org, who don't even have the courtesy to provide an 'About Us' link and page, but are redolent of whatever-became-of-the-WWP, are pushing a NYC rally on Saturday. I doubt this one's worth immediately repressing either.