NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9618

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: National Guard & Drug War
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/** justice.usa: 416.0 **/
** Topic: National Guard & Drug War: Expose' **
** Written  8:46 am  Dec 24, 1992 by esterling in cdp:justice.usa **
From "JUSTICIA", the newsletter of Judicial Process Commission,
Inc., 121 N. Fitzhugh Street, Rochester, New York  14614 (716)
325- 7727, Clare Regan, Editor

From December 1992 issue of JUSTICIA, page 1

       NATIONAL GUARD INVOLVEMENT IN THE DRUG WAR
              by Ed Vaughn

"Our Commander-in-Chief has declared war on drugs.  Our mission as
America's National Guard in this war is clear: make America drug-
free in as short a time as possible using any means necessary no
matter what the cots."  Lt. Gen. John B. Conway, Chief, National
Guard Bureau (Spoken at the 1991 National Guard Association
Conference)

National Guard Goals for the 90's:
-Goal #3:  A steadily increasing role in the War on Drugs -
involving a rapid expansion of National Guard support  of local,
State and Federal law enforcement agencies in the interdiction and
eradication of illegal drugs.  (Posted at all National Guard
armories and bases)

To begin this paper, it is best to answer the question, "Why is
the National Guard so involved in the War on Drugs?"  The answer
to this question goes far beyond the obvious fact that with the
end of the Cold War, America's military has needed something to do
with all the money and material that our Government supplies it
with.  The answer lies in legality.  As Army Chief of Staff Gen.
Gordon R.  Sullivan said in a speech to the 1991 National Guard
Association:

     "You (the National Guard) represent us in uniform in ways
     that the active forces cannot unless central laws are
     changed.  You are part of a Total Army dedicated to
     protecting our values and our way of life."

The "law" that General Sullivan refers to is a law called the
Posse Comitatus Act of 1879.  This law was designed to protect
Americans against abuse by their own military by dictating that
federal troops could not enter private land or dwellings, and
could not detain or search civilians.  The key to the National
Guard's involvement in the drug war is the word "federal"
contained in the Posse Comitatus law by hiding behind the state
missions given it by the National Guard Bureau.  The national
Guard has, since 1912, had a two-tiered mission to serve both the
State and Federal Governments.

Under Public Law 100-456 passed by Congress in 1988 authorizing an
"enhanced role" in drug interdiction and surveillance by the
National Guard, Guardsmen can work under Title 32 of the United
States Code in an "Active Duty for Special Work" status.  This
means that while the soldier's paycheck and other benefits such as
medical care and retirement come from the Federal Government, he
or she is working for the state governor and is not under federal
control.  The Guard members involved in counternarcotics
operations are therefore not bound by the Posse Comitas Act.

Guardsmen in Title 32 status can undertake vehicle searches,
searches of buildings, and can enter private property without any
sort of search warrant or any other legal permission.  The only
authorization a Guardsman on Active Duty for Special Work status
needs to search anything is the permission of his or her immediate
commander, i.e. the officer in charge of the group at the time.
(National Guard Regulation 584-3, Section II, page 6)

As of this writing, both the National Guard Association and the
department of Defense are lobbying Congress to repeal the Posse
Comitas Act of 1879.  The Act has already been diluted in a major
way.  It used to be that an individual Guardsman on Active Duty
for Special Work status was restricted to 179 days of such duty in
a single year.  As part of Public Law 100-456, this restriction
was lifted, allowing Guardsmen to make a permanent assignment out
of drug interdiction.  As of today, the average time a drug-
interdicting Guard member has been serving on active duty is a
whopping two years and eight months, nearly as long as the average
Active Army enlistment (National Guard personnel statistics,
January 1992).

Why are Guardsmen opting to go on active duty?  The main reason is
money.  Ninety percent of the over 7,000 Guard members across the
country serving on active duty for drug interdiction were in
civilian law enforcement before they went on active duty (National
Guard Almanac, 1991).  These people were earning an average of
$24,000 per year, the average salary of a police officer in the
United States (U.S. Dept. of Labor).  When a Guard member goes on
interdiction duty he or she is paid as if they were at war.

Below is an example of the earnings of these soldiers.  The rate
of pay used is that for an E-4, the most common rank in the Army,
one which an enlisted man typically reaches after four years of
Guard service and that of a Captain, a rank a Guard officer
typically reaches after four years of service.

     Monthly E-4 Base Pay               $ 1250 Basic Quarters
     Allowance              450 Hazardous Duty Pay
     500 Combat Pay                            400 Subsistence Pay
     300 Total Monthly Pay                    2900 Total Yearly
     Pay                    34800

Also, remember that only the base pay is taxable.  In other words,
out of that $34,800 per year, only $15,000 is subject to any
income of Social Security taxes.  Also, Guard members on Title 32
duty are eligible for all active duty benefits, including full
medical and dental care for the Guardsman and his family,
non-contributory 20- year retirement, and exchange and commissary
privileges.

Higher ranking people, of course, make even more.  The average
rank of an Army helicopter pilot or leader of a hemp chopping team
of 12 soldiers, called a squad, is 0-3, or Captain.  When a Guard
Captain goes on active duty to spot pot patches from the air or to
lead a squad of soldiers on harvesting missions, here's what he or
she gets paid by Uncle Sam for the job:  (This pay is based on
four years' service, average for a Captain.)

     Monthly O-3 Base Pay               $ 2250 Basic Quarters
     Allowance              500 Hazardous Duty Pay
     500 Combat Pay                            400 Flight Pay
     450 Subsistence Pay                       300 Total Monthly
     Pay                    4400 Total Yearly Pay
     52800

Only $7,000 of that ius taxable.  You can see that there are
people that have enormous incentive to keep the War on Drugs going
full tilt.

Another side of this monetary situation is that of military
contractors.  These private companies have much to gain from
continued escalation in military spending.  Everyone from the
builders of military helicopters to the manufacturers of infrared
night vision equipment have a large stake in the War on Drugs.
Let me share with you some of the prices of some major pieces of
drug interdiction equipment to illustrate just what sort of
financial stake these companies have in the drug war.

Cessna Citation interceptor jet              $678,000 UH-60 Black
Hawk helicopter              247,000 UH-43 Apache helicopter
127,000 Litton individual night vision
  goggles                             6,000 Litton aircraft night
vision
  system                            247,000 General Motors Wheeled
Light
 Armored Vehicle                         785,000

Obviously, these companies, such as Litton Microwave Instruments
and General Motors, want the Government to order as many of these
items as it can find uses for. (Source for prices: Actual military
logistics lists.)

National Guard activities in drug interdiction have been steadily
increasing since 1983, when the California Guard supported the
state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP.  CAMP set
the precedent for the Guard activities that continue today.  As of
October 1992, counterdrug Guardsmen on active duty numbered about
7000.  As of August 1992, 19,495 National Guard-assisted arrests
were made this year, almost three times as many as for the entire
of 1991.  Also, figures indicate that 529,756 pounds of marijuana
were seized by the Guard as of the end of August 1992.  The total
for the entire year of 1991 was 183,281 pounds.

How did the Guard accomplish this marvelous achievement?  Simple.
Guardsmen have searched 120,000 cars so far in 1992, as opposed to
only 45,000 in all of 1991.  Also, Guardsmen have entered 1,230
privately owned buildings so far in 1992, compared to only 436 in
all of 1991.  Guardsmen, as of October 1992, have made 6,537
uninvited intrusions onto private property as opposed to about
2,500 in all of 1991. (Source: Department of Defense statistics.)

The number of Guardsmen on drug interdiction active duty during
any given month has increased from about 300 in 1988 to the
present 7,000.  In 1989, the first year that Congress actually
earmarked funding for National Guard counterdrug activities, $40
million was budgeted.  In Fiscal Year 1992, that budget was $295
million, which amounts to 27 percent of all non-capital Guard
spending.  For FY 1993, Guard counterdrug budget estimates are
running about $420 million.

"America is caught up in the most pervasive drug epidemic in
history.  An epidermic that transcends the health, economy, and
general well being of our nation.  The rapid growth of this drug
scourge has shown that military force must be used to change the
attitudes and activities of Americans who are dealing and using
drugs.  The National Guard is America's legally feasible attitude-
change agent."  Col. Richard R. Browning, III, Chief, Drug Demand
Reduction Section, National Guard Bureau.

The following table, taken from the National Guard Almanac, shows
the rapid growth of National Guard Activities in Drug interdiction
and eradication.  Fiscal Year              Participating
No. of Guard
            Jurisdictions  *              Missions
1983                   4                        4 1984
14                       14 1985                  20
209 1986                  21                      222 1987
25                      376 1988                  32
456 1989                  53                     1811 1990
54                     5155 1991                  54
5815

*50 states plus Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and American
Samoa

According to the National Guard newspaper, "On Guard," sixteen
different counterdrug missions have been approved for the Guard,
including reconnaissance, ground radar support, vehicle
inspection, marijuana detection, marijuana eradication, drug lab
detection, film processing, and weapons support.  This "weapons
support" includes everything from the M16A2 automatic rifles and 9
mm semi- automatic Beretta pistols that individual drug
eradicating soldiers are armed with and have authority to use
against civilians with a mere word from their commanding officer,
to the Hawk missile radar and OV/ID infra-red detection equipment
used so often now.

The Active Army is also lending large amounts of support to the
drug war while barely skirting the bounds of the posse Comitatus
Act.  In fact, drug interdiction has been adopted as one of the
Active Army's major missions for the 1990s.  In a publication
issued by the Army Chief of Staff in January 1990, the Army's two
strategic roles of utmost importance are as follows:
-  Maintain combat-ready ground forces in the Continental United
States for deployment worldwide.
-Participate in disaster relief, emergency assistance,
interdiction of illegal drug traffic and eradication of
domestically produced illegal drugs.

In an Active Army publication titled "Tomorrow's Missions," Lt.
Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, the Army Chief of Staff for operations
and Plans, asserts that in the Army of the 90's, "military forces
are required to provide domestic nation assistance such as
internal peacekeeping and anti-drug operations and support of
civil authorities to maintain stability in a rapidly changing
America.:

"We can look forward to the day when our Congress repeals the
Posse Comitatus Act and allow the Army to lend its full strength
toward making America drug-free."
- Stephen M. Duncan, Assistant Secretary of Defense (Spoken at the
1991 conference of the Association of the United States Army)

The Active Army is supporting the drug war in a number of indirect
ways.  The following facts come from "Soldiers" magazine, the
taxpayer-financed official magazine of the U.S. Army, distributed
monthly to about a million Active and Reserve soldiers and Army
Guardsmen and civilians.

-The U.S. Army Military Police School at Fort McClellan, Alabama
is providing, free of charge, training in advanced police
techniques and military aggression tactics to any law enforcement
organization or member thereof who requests it due to drug
problems in his jurisdiction.  In fact, the most often requested
course is the Field Tactical Police Operations course, which is
designed for law enforcement personnel involved in marijuana
eradication programs.  Some of the subjects offered in this course
include courses in shotgun and submachine gun usage, night drug
raids, and land navigation.

-A Large Active Army unit based at Headquarters, Forces Command in
Fort McPherson, GA arranges drug interdiction logistical and
command support for civilian law enforcement agencies.  This unit,
Joint Task Force Six, is one of three task forces organized to
help fight the drug war.  These three task forces are manned by a
total of 2,600 Active Army personnel and about 400 Army
civilians.

-The Active Army operates the National Interagency Counterdrug
Institute, a school at Camp San Luis Obispo, CA, which is staffed
by soldiers who train civilian anti-drug law enforcement personnel
in drug eradication and interdiction and also teaches civilian
agencies how best to make use of military assets in support of
counterdrug operations.  The Active Army is able to get under the
Posse Comitatus Act in operating this school by staffing it with
California Guardsmen and because Camp San Luis Obispo is owned by
the Guard.

The paper attempts to effectively portray the rapidly escalating
role of America's military in the War on Drugs.  While it
certainly does not cover all that could be possibly covered, the
obvious aggression against the American people and the military's
ruthless attack on individual freedom in the name of perpetuating
their bureaucracy is well documented.  Also, this paper is a very
effective synopsis of what I know about the Guard's escalating
role int he War on Drugs.

(Ed Vaughan is a former member of the military who is deeply
concerned about the use of the military in the drug war.)
** End of text from cdp:justice.usa **