VLVL2 (15): A Weirdness Here

Wed May 12 16:28:54 CDT 2004

   "There was a weirdness here that Hector recognized,
like right before a big drug bust, yes, but even more
like the weeks running up to the Bay of Pigs in '61. 
Was Reagan about to invade Nicaragua at last, getting
the home front all nailed down, ready to process folks
by the tens of thousands into detention, arm local
'Defense Forces,' fire everybody in the Army and then
deputize them in order to get around teh Posse
Comitatus Act?  Copies of these contingency plans had
been circulating all summer, it wasn't much of a
secret.[...]  Could it be that some silly-ass
national-emergency exercise was finally coming true? 
As if the Tube were suddenly to stop showing pictures
and instead announce, 'From now on, I'm watching
you.'" (VL, Ch. 15, p. 340)

"getting the home front all nailed down"

>From David Thoreen, "The President's Emergency War
Powers and the Erosion of Civil Liberties in Pynchon's
Vineland," Oklahoma City University Law Review, Vol.
24, No. 3 (Fall 1999), pp. 761-98 ...

Brock's unwillingness to wait for authorization for
PREP foreshadows the climax of executive
aggrandizement as it is presented in the novel,
Reagan's approval of National Security Decision
Directive (NSDD) #52, authorizing Rex 84. Ben Bradlee
explains that the exercise:

was predicated on [Reagan's] declaration of a state of
national emergency concurrent with a mythical U.S.
military invasion (code-named "Operation Night Train")
of an unspecified Central American Country, presumably
Nicaragua. While the FEMA exercise was in progress the
Pentagon staged its first annual military exercise
involving U.S. troops in Honduras--blurring, for some,
the distinction between exercise and the real thing.

     But what if? What if NSDD #52 were not predicated
on, but accompanied by, a declaration of a state of
national emergency? And what if the already blurry
military activities in Honduras were accompanied by a
not so mythical invasion of Nicaragua? As Pynchon
illustrates it, the United States was one auto-pen
signature away from martial law. 
     An affidavit filed in a Miami court by a lawyer
named Daniel Sheehan makes more detailed allegations
about Rex-84, allegations which dovetail remarkably
with the details referred to in Hector's extended
recognition scene ... (789-91)

http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/thoreen24.htm

>From Ben Bradlee, Jr.  Guts and Glory: The Rise and
Fall of Oliver North (NY: Donald I. Fine, 1988) ...

The affidavit says Rex-84 Bravo was designed to test
FEMA's readiness to assume authority over Department
of Defense personnel, all fifty-state National Guard
forces and a number of "State Defense Force" units
which were to be created by state legislative
enactments. FEMA would "deputize" all DOD and state
National Guard personnel so as to avoid violating the
federal Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids using any
military forces for domestic law enforcement. Then,
the affidavit continued, the exercise was also
designed to test FEMA's ability to carry out a twofold
mission: 
    The first was to find and take into custody some
400,000 undocumented Central American aliens
throughout the United States and to intern them in ten
military bases around the nation. The second was the
distribution by FEMA to the state-created Defense
Forces of hundreds of tons of small arms and
ammunition, ostensibly for use by the law enforcement
"deputies" in keeping the peace during the president's
declared state of national emergency. (p. 133-4)

http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/thoreen24.htm#124

And see as well ...

Thoreen, David.  "The Fourth Amendment and Other
   Modern Inconveniences: Undeclared War, Organized
   Labor, and the Abrogation of Civil Rights in
   Vineland."  Thomas Pynchon: Reading from the
   Margins.  Ed. Niran Abbas.  Madison, NJ:
   Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2002.  215-33.

"the Posse Comitatus Act"

"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385): A Reconstruction
Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air
Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly
authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use
of military for civilian law enforcement also applies
to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were
enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying
permissible military assistance to civilian law
enforcement agencies--including the Coast
Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the
United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications
emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g.,
use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence,
tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally
prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in
law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and
arrests)....

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/comrel/factfile/Factcards/PosseComitatus.html

TITLE 18, PART I, CHAPTER 67 

Sec. 1385. - Use of Army and Air Force as posse
comitatus 

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 or otherwise to execute
the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned
not more than two years, or both 

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1385.html

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=18&sec=1385

Peter Cassidy notes that "Legislative changes in 1983
and 1989 helped bring military and police institutions
together, formally and legally. Amendments to the
Posse Comitatus Act allowed the military to provide
information, materiel, transport, and training to aid
domestic drug interdiction efforts."

http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/thoreen24.htm#123

"'From now on, I'm watching you'"

http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/

http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a438.asp

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