Background: the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three to four
thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of October 1. Their
stated mission is the form of crowd control they practiced in Iraq, subduing
"unruly individuals," and the management of a national emergency. I am in
Seattle and heard from the brother of one of the soldiers that they are engaged
in exercises now. Amy Goodman reported that an Army spokesperson confirmed that they will have access to lethal and non
lethal crowd control technologies and tanks.
George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus, thus making it legal for
military to patrol the U.S. He has also legally established that in the "War on
Terror," the U.S. is at war around the globe and thus the whole world is a
battlefield. Thus the U.S. is also a battlefield.
He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection Act to give him far broader
powers in the event of a loosely defined "insurrection" or many other
"conditions" he has the power to identify. The Constitution allows the
suspension of habeas corpus -- habeas corpus prevents us from being seized by
the state and held without trial -- in the event of an "insurrection." With his
own army force now, his power to call a group of protesters or angry voters
"insurgents" staging an "insurrection" is strengthened.
U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman of California said to Congress, captured on C-Span and
viewable on YouTube,
that individual members of the House were threatened with martial law within a
week if they did not pass the bailout bill:

"The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and
sustaining a panic atmosphere. … Many of us were told in private conversations
that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the
market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and a couple of
thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told that there would
be martial law in America if we voted no."

If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not delusional, I ask you to consider
that if they are willing to threaten martial law now, it is foolish to assume
they will never use that threat again. It is also foolish to trust in an orderly
election process to resolve this threat. And why deploy the First Brigade? One
thing the deployment accomplishes is to put teeth into such a threat.
I interviewed Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and patriot
David Antoon for clarification:
"If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could
stop him?"
"Nothing. Their only recourse is to cut off funding. The Congress would be at
the mercy of military leaders to go to them and ask them not to obey illegal
orders."