"Wings Over Buffalo": John Yoo and Dick Cheney's hilarious sequel to "Canadian Bacon"
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"Wings Over Buffalo": John Yoo and Dick Cheney's hilarious sequel to "Canadian Bacon"
The idea of American troops invading Canada -- as satired by the late John Candy and his offensive-line mate director Michael Moore in the film "Canadian Bacon" -- was a concept too silly even for good satire. But sending our fighting men and women into the streets of Buffalo, that idea made perfect sense!
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally prohibits the military from law enforcement activities within the United States. If armed officers are going to knock on Americans’ doors, or arrest them in the streets, they should answer to civilian authorities.
Despite this bedrock principle, The Times’s Mark Mazzetti and David Johnston reported last week, top Bush administration officials, including (no surprise) Vice President Dick Cheney, argued that the president had the authority to use the military to round up a suspected terrorist cell known as the Lackawanna Six.
Mr. Cheney and others cited a legal memorandum co-written by John C. Yoo (author of the infamous torture memo), which made the baseless claim that the military can go after accused Al Qaeda terrorists on United States soil because it would be a matter of national security, not law enforcement.
I was off for a couple of days when this story first broke, but I come back to it because...I just don't get it. Did Cheney and his posse really think that the FBI and local law enforcement weren't up to the task of arresting these six suspects? (Because clearly, they were.) If not that, what broader point were they trying to make in seeking to use the military for this unconstitutional purpose?
Maybe Yoo will "make sense" of it all in his next Inquirer column. Whatever their goal was, America is a better place because this did not happen.
I think the point here is why go to such extraordinary means when the FBI could do the job? Remember one of the complaints in the Declaration of Independence was this: "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power." This was affirmed by the Posse Comitatus Act. Why do something that is contrary to both law and tradition, at the very least in spirit, when a good and competent civil authority exists? That's what is troubling here. Or do we now count the FBI in with the black helicopters and the trilateralists and the New World Order,etc. There was no logical reason to even consider it - except a desire to exercise unnecssary power for its own sake. And that should bother everyone. Can you imagine the conservative outcry if Obama or Biden proposed the same thing? Soldiers making standard arrests? Why not just cut out the pretence and go right to martial law, everywhere, 24/7? Just remember - first they came for...we know how that story ends.— what is truth?
chasing & mxlplk - read my post it starts with "IF" military service is an important part of being President/V.P. LJL wants to bring military service of the President and VP to the table then Bush/Cheney look like John Wayne in the Sands of Iwo Jima when compared to Obama/Biden. Obama/Biden have absolutely ZERO military experience - does that mean we can take no military action for the next 4 years.— bird11
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"Right Will, totally baseless. NOT." . . . You might also recall the Coal Wars of southern WV in the twenties. I think it was Coolidge who sent the doughboys down there on behalf of the coal barons. Hoover dispatched MacArthur to clear out the bonus marchers (Vets of of WW1) from DC who then took it upon himself to evict by firing squad. As appalling as each of these abuses of military power were, they at least involved a miltary mission on the pretext of insurrection, and not basic federal law enforcement.- Comment removed.
- Yeah, I know bryanc. Ain't it wild? That's what makes it so interesting. You can do what you want, and make up your own rules. Why be a servant to the law, when you can be it's master?— bird11
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- Highlights of the report include: • An intelligence report received in May 2001 indicating that al Qaeda was trying to send operatives to the United States through Canada to carry out an attack using explosives. That information had been passed on to intelligence and law enforcement agencies. • An allegation that al Qaeda had been considering ways to hijack American planes to win the release of operatives who had been arrested in 1998 and 1999. • An allegation that bin Laden was set on striking the United States as early as 1997 and through early 2001. • Intelligence suggesting that suspected al Qaeda operatives were traveling to and from the United States, were U.S. citizens, and may have had a support network in the country. • A report that at least 70 FBI investigations were under way in 2001 regarding possible al Qaeda cells/terrorist-related operations in the United States. BOY DON'T KNOW HOW WE MISSED THOSE PLANES HITTING THE WTC WITH ACTIONABLE INTELL LIKE THIS. IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD BEEN ABLE TO GET THEIR HANDS ON BIN LADEN WHEN HE "was set on striking the United States as early as 1997 and through early 2001."— bird11
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- last time you had a feeling I had to kill a guy, and I hate that... It looks bad on my report.— bird11
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