Pentagon to provide domestic surveillance

The WaPo posts an article on a new Pentagon approach to homeland security in which they envision US military taking a much more active role inside the US, especially in surveillance operations. On the other hand they want to the National Guard to "retain its overseas combat missions, concerned that a sole focus on civil support would undermine the Guard's ability to serve as a strategic reserve and to fight in future wars." I have to ask why? Wouldn't it make as much sense to keep National Guard inside the nation and keep the armed forces outside to protect our borders?

Most worrisome however, given how this administration deals with domestic dissent, is "it asserts the president's authority to deploy ground combat forces on U.S. territory 'to intercept and defeat threats.'" It stinks of preparation to declare martial law in America. A concern given more urgency with Mr. Death Squad himself, Negroponte at the helm of the newly consolidated US Intelligence agency.

Once again, it's a so-called conservative think tank that sums up my concerns.

"The move toward a domestic intelligence capability by the military is troubling," said Gene Healy, a senior editor at the Cato Institute, a nonprofit libertarian policy research group in Washington.

"The last time the military got heavily involved in domestic surveillance, during the Vietnam War era, military intelligence kept thousands of files on Americans guilty of nothing more than opposing the war," Healy said. "I don't think we want to go down that road again."

I find myself agreeing with Cato more often than not these days. I wonder if I'm becoming a Libertarian.