By Frank Morales

There was a time when Pentagon strategists actually believed that their "military doctrine lacks the connection between military operations in urban terrain and domestic civil disturbance." (1). Not any more. For at least the past decade, US military planners have placed major emphasis on rationalizing a domestic role for the Pentagon, formulating the doctrine and training regimen required for the execution of new missions within America, missions subsumed under the notion of so-called "operations other than war" (OOTW)(2) During this period, "tactics, techniques and procedures" regarding the suppression of urban protest have proliferated, missions which fall within the OOTW sphere. Utilized primarily in "civil disturbance operations" which target "non-combatants", so-called "non-lethal weapons" production, which is booming, is itself a testament to this ominous symbiosis which has occurred between the Pentagon and local police forces in the machinations of repressing dissent within America. 

Witness the recent massive February 15th peace protest in New York City, which drew nearly a quarter million people. Despite having been denied a permit to exercise their right of free speech, freedom of movement and assembly, they did just that, sending a powerful message to the war makers that their days are numbered. And yet, despite the overwhelmingly peaceful nature of the assembly, the NYPD, according to numerous reports, carried out military-style operations on the streets, dividing, dispersing, detaining and brutalizing protesters, even preventing people from getting to the protest sight. Apparently, they've learned their lessons well, insofar as much of the behavior of the police that day, their tactics on the street, derive from what has become standard military training of National Guard and police entities in the area of "civil disturbance suppression." Since the Reagan era, continual "civil disturbance" training has become a regular feature of "operations other than war" training of troops, the guard and local police.

United States Army Field Manual 19-15, entitled Civil Disturbances, issued in 1985, is designed to equip soldiers with the "tactics, techniques and procedures" necessary to suppress dissent. The manual states that "crowd control formations may be employed to disperse, contain, or block a crowd. When employed to disperse a crowd, they are particularly effective in urban areas because they enable the control force to split a crowd into smaller segments." Sound familiar? It goes on to state that "if the crowd refuses to move, the control force may have to employ other techniques, such as riot control agents or apprehensions…" Further, "crowd control formations also may be used for more than just dispersal operations. If the decision is made to apprehend crowd members, the crowd control formation may be used as a blocking formation." 

The Army "civil disturbance" manual, correlated to present day realities, also makes the point that "civil disturbances include acts of terrorism", which "may be organized by disaffected groups", who hope to "embarrass the government", and who may in fact "demonstrate as a cover for terrorism." (3) The sophistry involved in turning a peace rally into a pro-al Qaeda rally is precisely the logic that is operative within Pentagon driven civil disturbance planning. In other words, rather than protest being the occasion of "terrorism", in fact, the "war on terrorism" is the cover for the war on dissent. Meanwhile, the war on dissent, fought in the streets of America, within a domestic law enforcement context, is increasingly being directed by Pentagon "operations other than war" and "urban operations" specialists, giving further fuel to the militarization of law enforcement in America. This process, occurring domestically, is linked directly (shared training and doctrine) to global Pentagon "peacekeeping" operations designed to counter popular "non-combatant" and "civilian" resistance to pox americana.(4)

For some time, "civil disturbance suppression" training on the part of the military has occurred so to speak in the underground, quietly, covertly, in the bowels of the Pentagon Incorporated, in the shadow of the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 US criminal statute which bars the military from domestic law enforcement. And yet, despite the presumed tradition of an American prohibition of military operations within America; given the manufactured "war on terrorism", it has emerged above ground, as plain as the heavily armed National Guard soldiers stationed throughout Manhattan the week of the peace protest. Sanctioned with the institutionalization of a domestic "Northern Military Command", the setting up of extra-judicial "military tribunals", the persecution and imprisonment of "unlawful combatants", the militarized repression of dissent, along with a broader militarization of law enforcement, is coming of age. 

US militarism has come a long way since April 22, 1968 (only a few weeks after the murder of MLK) when the Directorate for Civil Disturbance Planning and Operations, based in the Office of the Army Chief of Staff, was established in the basement of the Pentagon. Referred to as "the domestic war room", it grew out of the Army Task Force active within the Kerner Commission, a "blue ribbon" panel which ostensibly studied the roots of "civil disorder." At the time, it recommended, among other things, that the Army step up it's CD training and intelligence collection, along with the use of "non-lethal weapons" for "civil disturbance operations." 

Recently, the Center for Law and Military Operations (CLAMO) published the legal rationale for these "above ground" developments. Entitled, Domestic Operational Law Handbook for Judge Advocates, (5) published in August 2001 (prior to 911), the document is according to it's authors at the Center for Law and Military Operations, "the first publication of it's kind", which offers a "greater understanding of the legal issues" involved in "domestic support operations." Timely. Chapter 4 of the Handbook (30pgs.) covers "military assistance for civil disturbances." 

The publication of the JAG Handbook at this time, coupled with the very existence of the Northern Command, reveals Pentagon charting of a legal framework for operations within America, to carry out, as a "force multiplier", an undeclared class war against the American people, or more specifically, those Americans who resist the tyranny of the present arrangement. The Northern Command, a domestic military command based at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, set up this past October, (in the planning stage for years) is tasked, which is unique among all the "commands", with the mission of "assisting law enforcement" 

In addition, the issuance of the JAG Handbook reflects the Bush administration's current attempt to repeal the Posse Comitatus Act, the one and only law (criminal statute) which bars the military from "enforcing the laws." They hope to abolish any and all restrictions on the military executing operations here on the homefront, operations centered around suppressing dissent. From their point of view "as the use of federal forces to quell civil disturbances is expressly authorized by statute (Insurrection Act), the proscriptions of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) are inapplicable." And while "the Founding fathers' hesitancy to raise a standing army and their desire to render the military subordinate to civilian authority" is "rooted in the Constitution", the Pentagon's lawyers would have us recognize that "exceptions to the restrictions on employment of federal armed forces to assist state and local civil authorities are also grounded in the Constitution, which provides the basis for federal legislation allowing military assistance for civil disturbances." The results of Bush's "review" of Posse Comitatus are due any day now. 

CLAMO's "domestic operational law handbook" specifies that "the Department of Defense Civil Disturbance Plan, named 'GARDEN PLOT,' provides guidance and direction for planning, coordinating, and executing military operations during domestic civil disturbances." Operation Garden Plot, (6) a roughly 200-page civil disturbance suppression plan, set up in 1968 by the military/corporate directorship, continually re-evaluated and updated, is a work in progress. According to the CLAMO handbook, Garden Plot is the Rosetta Stone for conducting "civil disturbance operations throughout the United States." According to the legal eagles, the mission of Garden Plot is to disperse "unauthorized assemblages" by providing "wide latitude to a commander to use federal forces to assist civil law enforcement in 'restoring' law and order", and to do so rapidly, via the US Army Forces Command "alert force requirements and response standards", issued in 2000, geared to suppressing dissent. (7)

Wide latitude is precisely what we witnessed in regards to the NYC peace protest. First the denial of a permit, earlier precedents, the Million Youth March (September 5, 1998) in Brooklyn, then the gratuitous violence, the police "formations", batons, pepper spray, and riot wear, barricades as weapons, detentions, abused horses, etc., designed to intimidate on one side, and to provoke a response on the other, justifying greater force and the usual targeting of "violent protesters" etc. Such is the patho-logic of the provocateur state. A week before the peace rally, flunky NYC politicians declare an "orange alert", supposedly due to some mysterious intelligence nugget gathered by our crack running CIA which was later chalked up to a non-existent rumor, benefiting only the duct tape class, but allowing for the stationing of heavily armed troops on subway platforms only days before the protest action. 

In fact, this pseudo-alert was meant only to cover the real alert, which was about the massive popular force for peace that was about to hit town. From Garden Plot right on down to the 2001 JAG Handbook, "prescribed levels of preparedness for a civil disturbance control mission" have been in effect. The levels are referred to as CIDCON, or Civil Disturbance Condition. Again, according to the JAG Handbook (who took it verbatim from Garden Plot) "CIDCONS are required levels of preparedness that must be attained by units designated for civil disturbance operations. CIDCON's are a means of measuring that preparedness. CIDCON 5 is the normal state of preparedness, which can be sustained indefinitely. CIDCON 1 is the state of preparedness at which the unit deploys…CIDCON 1 attained as the H Hour occurs." H Hour? And though they are not color coded, they represent, in total, the on-going "permanent war" of counterinsurgency, "sustained indefinitely" within America, being waged against the American people.

According to the February 23 Boston Phoenix report on the protest, the police blockaded "more than 10 blocks surrounding the protest's stage site, barely letting even media with legitimate, police-issued press passes through", charging in full riot gear "after relatively friendly protesters exercising their constitutional right to congregate." Cutting off access to the protest sight, mis-directing people, telling people to "go home, the protest is over", a myriad of actions founded on the denial of a permit to march were executed to prevent the protest from happening. It's quite likely that thousands never made it to the stage area. And that was the goal of the police action: to pre-empt our ability to assemble, let alone march, in order to express our dissent. 

Another nifty move on the part of the police planners was to suspend service on the #6 subway line, which would have required some kind of order from somewhere. All in all it was plain to see that the NYPD, in behest of the bosses, had a plan, a plan to prevent the demonstration from happening. Kind of reminds me of a recent (Jan.03) Center for Army Lessons Learned issuance based on their experiences in Kosovo, entitled, Preventing Civil Disturbance: Tactics, Techniques and Procedures,(8) which deals with crowd control, "high risk rallies" and the like. It's clear, and sustained legal and political pressure will surely reveal, that the NYPD's Disorder Control Unit, headed up by Deputy Inspector Thomas Graham, is a recipient of this kind of military largess in the form of Pentagon expertise in the science of counterinsurgency and the suppression of dissent. 

The Disorder Control Unit, according to the NYPD, "conducts comprehensive reviews of the department's plans for responding to civil disorders", "develops training programs", and implements "coordinated mobilizations." The unit "is critical to the development of new tactical strategies", to the "improvement of current equipment" and "identifying the need for new equipment as technology develops", all in all to ensure that the NYPD is "adequately prepared and trained to meet every level of disorder - effectively, efficiently, and professionally." 

This past September, Graham, in his "professional" capacity as "Commanding Officer of the NYPD Civil Disorder Unit" spoke at a "counterterrorism symposuim" (9) at the Radisson Resort in Cape Canaveral which was "restricted to law enforcement, government and security professionals." Besides Graham, Jason McClendon, US Air Force Antiterrorism Officer spoke on the subject of "community anti-terrorism initiatives" designed to "assist local communities fight terrorism" via "joint efforts of law enforcement and the community." Rounding out the presentation was US Ranger (Ret.) Col. D. Dickerson, Special Forces, 519th Intelligence Battalion, CDR. (Ret.) "Bo" Bosiljevac. Ranger, Navy Seal and Miami Police Department, and Thomas Hill, US Marine Corps Force Recon.

It's likely that Graham picked up some useful tidbits at the symposium. His bio notes that "he has over 28 years experience" in the area of "disorder control", and is the NYPD's "expert on disorder control operations." As such, "he tests the department's ability to respond to actual incidents by conducting no-notice mobilization exercises", "supervises the response and assessment" of protests, and "evaluates new tactical equipment and less lethal weapons." 

In this regard, he's probably aware of the Pentagon's recently field-tested electromagnetic pulse weapon designed for crowd control, a glowing "crowd dispersal" methodology effectuated by the heating up of people's skin to 130 degrees (10), or maybe Southwest Research Institute's "generalized model of crowd control behavior for law enforcement training applications." (11) The Institute "has developed a computer-based training system for the US Marine Corps Fighting Laboratory" which "has evoked interest from the law enforcement community in adapting the same technology to meet their needs." And finally, he'd be wise to check out the Institute's "Commander's Interactive Training System which is designed to train platoon commanders in civil disorder management and tactics." Why? Cause he's gonna need it!

1. Daniel D. Curtner, The Potential for Internal Warfare in the United States, Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1995.

2. See Frank Morales, Operations Other Than War: Los Angeles, 1992, in Police State America, ed.Tom Burghardt, Arm The Spirit, 2002. Contact: http://www.kersplebedeb.com

3. United States Army Field Manual 19-15, Civil Disturbances, Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington, DC, November 25, 1985. http://www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/19-15/toc.htm

4. See News From The Front, Task Force Eagle's Staff Coordination, Synchronizing the Response to Civil Disorders, US Army, 1996, which deals with the "Counter-Demonstration Workgroup" in regards to "contested sections of Bosnia-Herzegovina." http://call.army.mil/products/nftf/novdec96/sec2.htm

5. Center for Law and Military Operations, Domestic Operational Law Handbook for Judge Advocates, 15 April 2001, http://www.jagnet.army.mil/clamo/publications

6. See Frank Morales, re: "Operation Garden Plot", US Military Civil Disturbance Planning: The War at Home, http://www.cryptome.org/garden-plot.htm

7. Department of the Army, Headquarters, United States Army Forces Command, FORSCOM Regulation 525-5, Alert Force Requirements and Response Standards, 15 June 2000, which "provides the latest guidance in establishing rapid response forces", including Appendix D "Civil Disturbance (GARDEN PLOT) Training Requirements."

8. Center for Army Lessons Learned, Preventing Civil Disturbance, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures, 2003, http://call.army.mil/Products/TRNGQTR/TQ1-03/jackson.htm

9. Counterterrorism Symposium, Radisson Resort, Cape Canaveral, September 16-17, 2002, http://www.aphf.org/iacsp.htm

10. See Frank Morales, Pentagon Fielding Electromagnetic Crowd Dispersal Weapon, (2001) in Police State America. 

11. Southwest Research Institute, A Generalized Model of Crowd Behavior for Law Enforcement Training Applications, 1998.