The Posse Comitatus Act (18 USC 1385) provides that “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse Comitatus [Latin for "power of the county"] or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined … or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” The PCA generally prohibits federal military personnel from interdicting vehicles, vessels and aircraft; conducting surveillance, searches, pursuit and seizures; or making arrests on behalf of civilian law enforcement authorities. The PCA applies to all of the federal uniformed services by statute or DOD policy. It does not apply to the U.S. Coast Guard.
After some more history of the Act, Arkin continues:
The problem here is that Donald Rumsfeld and his ever growing Industry of Military Complexes devoted to homeland security and counter-terrorism seem to be intentionally bad mouthing Posse Comitatus and connecting it to Katrina in order to earn themselves greater operational flexibility in the United States.
How so?
Even before Katrina, contingency planners at the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), the military's new homeland security command in Colorado Springs, were given marching orders by Rumsfeld to plan for the worst possible contingency domestically. The resulting plan, currently in draft and called CONPLAN 2002 (watch this space), is predicated on a scenario in which the Defense Department would have to take "the lead" from the Department of Homeland Security, civil agencies, and the States, that is, to act without civil authority.
I think we call that martial law.
