Posse Comitatus on the Ropes: Northcom Responds to North Dakota Flooding

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports:

Northern Command is providing help in the disaster response to flooding in North Dakota, the command said Thursday in a press release.

The command will stage at the Grand Forks Air Force Base to aid the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

NorthCom will help distribute supplies and coordinate the relief effort.

A defense coordinating officer dispatched by NorthCom will act as the liaison between FEMA and NorthCom, relaying capabilities available to FEMA and coordinating movement of active-duty personnel and equipment to assist should the need arise.

NorthCom is based at Peterson Air Force Base.

[efoods]Apparently sending the military out in response to natural disasters is so common place now the corporate media does not bother to report on it.

Section 1076 of the John Warner Defense Appropriation Act essentially nullified Posse Comitatus, as Sen. Patrick Leahy argued at the time. The bill states the armed forces will be used to: “Restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States.”

The the John Warner Defense Appropriation Act was subsequently repealed in its entirety.

However, you wouldn’t know it if you live in North Dakota.

This article was posted: Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 11:04 am

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