Posted on 10/15/2002 9:01:09 PM PDT by hoosierskypilot
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has approved deployment of an Army intelligence plane to aid federal and local law enforcement in the hunt for the Washington-area sniper, who claimed his latest victim, an FBI analyst, as she loaded her car at a Virginia mall Monday night.
NBC’s JIM MIKLASZEWSKI reported that the aircraft is the Airborne Reconnaissance Low, a DeHavilland DHC-7 equipped with advanced electronic and imagery sensors, including infrared.
The aircraft are based at Fort Bliss, Texas, and have been used primarily in the drug war in Latin America.
Authorities had considered using a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle but decided to have military pilots fly reconnaissance, a defense official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. A main objective is to improve communication among investigators.
The help will be provided in a way meant to comply with the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that bans the military from domestic law enforcement. That means the military will relay data to law enforcement officials and will not decide on its own what targets to watch, the official said.
The Pentagon’s participation also could involve a system of sensors that could detect flashes of gunfire on the ground, the official said.
A U.S. intelligence official said intelligence agencies were not aware of any foreign connection to the snipers. “If we knew of any such links, we would inform the appropriate local authorities,” the official told NBC’s Robert Windrem.
Oct. 15 — The random nature of the sniper attacks has changed the pattern of lives and routines in the Washington area. NBC’s Robert Hager reports.
But without hard evidence about motive, investigators were hesitant to rule out any possibility, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
This help will be provided in a way designed to subvert the Posse Comitatus Act, set a precedent and continue undermining the Constitution.
The person(s) committing these murders deserve to die, but we shouldn't allow them to kill our God given rights.
Will that allow it to 'see' the shot on cloudy/rainy days?
The Pentagon's participation also could involve a system of sensors that could detect flashes of gunfire on the ground, the official said.
But... but... I thought Waco already demonstrated that this is an unreliable method for detecting muzzle flashes. The cops are going to be chasing "glints of sunlight"! </sarcasm>
Kill 9 civilians? You get the regular cops. Kill a single FBI agent? You get military hardware and personell. See, the little people aren't that important.
There's always a danger with someone abusing the intent of a Federal power. The whole Clinton administration was a complete study in this type of pathology. But there's times when you need the technology and superior equipment of the military when solving terrorism - and if this ain't terrorism, I don't know what is. And some indications are that this might be right down the alley of good ol' fashioned battle with an official enemy, except on our civilian streets.
There's no reason to believe that this is the no-turning-back signal point where the military takes over surveillance and law enforcement, any more than when the National Guard came out during the LA riots - a very welcome presence. I just wish they'd thought ahead and brought bullets the first time they arrived - but that's another story.
So you think the military should have been called in when "Son of Sam" was doing his thang? How about when there's a serial rapist? Is that terrorism too?
How do we know that this hasn't happened, that they haven't "informed appropriate local authorities"? The official did not say that they would have notified the public.
The person(s) committing these murders deserve to die, but we shouldn't allow them to kill our God given rights.
So, the Constitution did not exist before 1878?
God did not exist before 1878?
If you lived next door to an Army base and you drove home to find a street gang killing your mother and raping your wife and daughter, you would not cell phone the Army base for help because God has decreed that the U.S. Army cannot help when American citizems are being slaughtered on American soil?
By that logic, if an al Qaeda piloted suicide plane is flying over Maryland to crash into the U.S. Capitol Building, we can not call on the U.S. Air Force for help? We need to call Chief Moose to send up the Moose Air Force?
Americans are dying in the Washington, D.C, area.
How many more Americans are you willing to allow to die to satisfy your version of "Political Correctness"?
It's not worth arguing this point with somebody who believes it's OK to use the military to bomb an aspirin factory to distract the public from personal felonies.
If they are going to use the high-tech military hardware, why not keep it a secret from the perp? Seems that the less the perp knows - the better. Sheeesh.
I agree. Especially since the CIA apparently discovered RoundUp in the area and claimed that such flimsy evidence was proof that the factory was producing chemical weapons.
I would never discuss anything with anyone who believed that Clinton was justified in bombing Sudan (who incidentally offered Clinton one Osama bin Laden's extradition in 1996). I was here on that day displaying outrage with many FReepers who have since been banned.
So you were saying?
The Clinton administration is a case study in abuse of Federal power and the Constitution, as are most administrations since Independence and notably the Civil War. Please realize that my family includes European, African and American Indian components.
But there's times when you need the technology and superior equipment of the military when solving terrorism - and if this ain't terrorism, I don't know what is. And some indications are that this might be right down the alley of good ol' fashioned battle with an official enemy, except on our civilian streets.
Terrorists are criminals, not nations attacking the U.S. and declaring War on them is just like declaring War on Poverty or War on Drugs. Wars that will never end that serve only to grow the state and reduce our freedom.
There's no reason to believe that this is the no-turning-back signal point where the military takes over surveillance and law enforcement,
This is a signal that the government is once again trying to expand power and subvert the law. This must not stand.
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