The Homeland Security Department and the Northern Command

The Homeland Security Department and
The Northern Command

Franklin Freeman
copyright © the author 2002, 2003
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updated 14 January 2003

The Department of Homeland Security

Inaugurated soon after the September 11 attacks in 2001, Homeland Security was originally just an Office under President Bush and his cabinet, and as such (Bush argued) not answerable to Congress. One reason for elevating it to department status is to bring it under Congressional oversight, a move which was (ostensibly at least) at first resisted by Bush. The Office has been headed throughout by Tom Ridge, the right-wing law-and-order man who will continue to head the new Department.

Legislation was passed in November 2002 to elevate the Office into a Department, following the Republican victory in the Congressional elections of that month. The Democrats did not wait for the new Republican-controlled Senate to begin sitting in January, but acceded to the legislation with very little change from its original formulation. (The convenient death of the liberal Senator Wellstone in an aircrash (he was replaced by an independent) may have something to do with it. ['Homeland Bill Gets Boost : 3 Key Senators Agree ...', Washington Post, 13 Nov. 02, p.A01])

Critics see the new department as a potential political police organization. In Germany the term 'homeland' (heimat) came to have an unfortunate association with Nazism. The current Bush administration took the term 'Homeland Security' from a 1997 Pentagon report. (Elizabeth Becker, 'Prickly Roots of "Homeland Security"', New York Times, 31 August 2002) ...

The Department will include the Orwellian "Office of Information Awareness", an entity designed to gather and co-ordinate all data about people. The Office will be headed by Admiral Poindexter, who was convicted, then pardoned, in connection with the Iran-Contra affair. The Office will doubtless ultimately aim to work with the "hi-tech" Total Information Awareness project (TIA), now being developed by a Pentagon team. These two together will represent the institutionalization of the surveillance powers of the "Patriot Act" (which is valid for four years, from November 2001). (It appears as a techno replacement for that other notorious scheme, the lately-demised Operation TIPS, banned from Homeland Security in spite of the US "Justice" Department's best efforts.)
(Reference: "US Hopes to Check Computers Globally', Washington Post, 12 Nov. 2002, p.A04.)

The Northern Command

The Northern Command (NORTHCOM, USNORTHCOM) became operational on 2 October 2002. It is a new division to the US military's Unified Command Plan, which was inaugurated in 1946, and revamped 1 October 2002 to cover the entire world surface for the first time. The USA is now covered by a military command for the first time. NORTHCOM also covers Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico. It says that it 'respects the sovereignty' of these nations.

NORTHCOM sees its primary mission as 'Homeland Defense'. It is evident from this that it must have strong links with the Homeland Security Department. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1876 prevents military forces intervening directly in civil matters in the USA. ...

References:-

Northern Command website

Unified Command Plan

'Division of the World into Commanderies' (on current website)

The Purge of the FBI TIA, "Patriot II" and the Terrorist Center