Sprat Issue 37 – US Troops Now Can Be Used Against Americans

By James Donahue

A lot of people don't yet know this, but the laws prohibiting the government to turn the U. S. military against American citizens have been erased from the books.

The Congress and former President George W. Bush slipped this treasonous act under the radar in 2006 with the passage of Bill H.R. 5122, known as the John Warner Defense Appropriations Act. This piece of legislation eliminates the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act that prohibited the use of the military against our own citizens. It gave the President the power to order Federal and State National Guard Troops to evoke Martial Law.

The act gives the President the authority to declare Martial Law under any condition he chooses. He can employ the armed forces and National Guard to restore public order and enforce the law at times of natural disaster, epidemic, terrorist attack or the breakout of "domestic violence."

The laws declare that the evoking of Martial Law "suspends all prior existing laws, functions, systems and programs of civil government, replacing them with a military system."

A lot of Americans who understood the legal ramificatiions got very concerned when former President Bill Clinton authorized the use of military tanks and arms when the FBI and ATF attacked the Branch Dividian Compound in Waco, Texas, in 1953. They felt Mr. Clinton and government authorities came dangerously close to vioilating the rules within the Posse Comitatus Act.

Now that Bush and Congress have conveniently erased this obstacle, under the fog of the mysterious 9-11 terrorist attack, the machinery is in place for any U. S. President and the military to turn on American citizens with extreme force if deemed necessary to keep order.

This act appears to be in direct conflict with the Second Amendment to the Constitution with reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

When this amendment was drafted in 1791, it was part of the Bill of Rights drafted and then made part of the Constitution by men who had not only been involved in framing the foundations of our government, but who still remembered the struggle of the American Revolution. Their concept of a "regulated militia" was that of citizens rights to strike down any force, including a government that turned against the people.

The secret adoption of Bill H.R. 5122 and George W. Bush's decision to sign it into law in 2006, in a sense, gave the President dictatorial powers for full control over the American people at his or her discretion. Thus the die is cast for Martial Law that could come down upon the nation at any time, and for whatever cause the President decides is necessary.

Yes, Mr. Sprat, Bill H.R. 5122 should be a ligitimate concern for all Americans.