Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Monday, July 22, 2002

Biden, D-Del., thinks the law that bans the military from exercising police powers within this country should be re-examined and "has to be amended."

But the Bush administration's director of homeland security, Tom Ridge, says it won't and shouldn't happen.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Biden said the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, passed in reaction to excesses in the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, needed to be changed to give police powers to be exercised within the U.S. to the military.

He explained that "we're not talking about general police power, changing the idea that you would have your local National Guard with arrest power like your local policeman." But "it's not very realistic" that members of the armed forces who have knowledge of weapons of mass destruction, and might be investigating the discovery of a terrorist weapon in the United States, would "not be able to exercise the same power a police officer would in dealing with that situation.

"Right now, when you call in the military, the military would not be able to shoot to kill, if they were approaching the weapon," nor could they arrest any suspects.

Biden said some lawmakers were likely to be more receptive to repealing the 1878 act now than they were before Sept. 11, the Washington Times reported.

In a series of TV interviews, however, the paper reported that Ridge expressed opposition to the idea. "There's been absolutely no discussion with regard to giving military authorities the ability to arrest in their support of civilian authorities," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Asked whether he believed the military should have the power to arrest U.S. citizens, he replied, "No."

Ridge said he could imagine, hypothetically, the secretaries of defense and homeland security broaching the possibility of changing the 1878 act at some future meeting. However, "That does not mean that it will ever be used or the discussion will conclude that it even should be used," he said.

"I think that generally goes against our instincts as a country to empower the military with the ability to arrest."

But Air Force Gen. Ralph E. Eberhardt, President Bush's choice to lead the military's new Northern Command, told the New York Times that he favors changing the law to give increased domestic powers to the military to protect the nation against terrorist attacks.

"We should always be reviewing things like Posse Comitatus and other laws if we think it ties our hands in protecting the American people," said Eberhardt, whose command's primary goal is domestic security.

Eberhardt's opinion is shared by other senior military officials and represents a "shift in thinking" at the Pentagon, which historically has resisted involvement in domestic law enforcement, the New York newspaper reported.

Congress gave federal troops wide law enforcement powers in the 11 former Confederate states after the Civil War, including the guarding of election polling places, arresting members of the Ku Klux Klan, halting the production of moonshine and the fomenting of labor strife. The Posse Comitatus Act was enacted in 1878 to eliminate military enforcement of the civil law, effectively ending Reconstruction.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration

Homeland/Civil Defense

War on Terrorism

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