-Caveat Lector- http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-424290.php Army Times August 03, 2001 Military control possible if America faced bioterrorism attack Associated Press CHICAGO — In an America that guards its civil liberties, police can't just shut down cities, make mass arrests and quarantine thousands of people. Or can they? Current and former federal officials said Friday that if there is a terrorist attack with biological weapons, private rights would quickly be swamped by the need to protect the public. State borders could close, vaccines could be rationed or commandeered, the Army could even take over cities within weeks of a deadly attack, an American Bar Association panel predicted. "To an extent, people are going to do what needs to be done and worry about the legal niceties later," said Suzanne Spaulding, a former top lawyer for the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee. The ABA panel, part of the annual meeting of the 400,000-lawyer organization, played out an imaginary terrorist campaign to infect Americans with the plague — from the first tips by an FBI informant in New Mexico to closure of the Minnesota borders and riots in Cincinnati. Along the way came word that a rogue Russian scientist and the Iraqi military were involved. Eventually, the FBI, CIA, National Centers for Disease Control, the White House, Pentagon and governors of several states were also involved — each with broader power than many people knew they had, participants said. Under the hypothetical scenario, law enforcement could do little when a would-be terrorist showed up at a Santa Fe emergency room with a case of the plague. The investigation intensified, and the FBI got much broader authority, when several people died of the plague after attending a concert in Minneapolis. Political pressure intensified, with a demand from 20 senators of the opposite political party from the president that the White House declare a national state of emergency. Then came word that the terrorists planned another attack during a street festival in Cincinnati. Under this scenario, the FBI could go to a special court for permission to investigate foreigners, but could not begin stopping everyone in downtown Cincinnati resembling a tipster's description of a suspected terrorist, said Eugene Bowman, deputy general counsel for the FBI. Nor could the FBI order the downtown area cordoned off and every building searched, Bowman said. Agents would need warrants based on better specifics than those offered in the hypothetical terrorist attack. But local police could do what the FBI couldn't, so long as it was based on the need to protect public health, said Terry O'Brien, legal consultant to a national notification network tracking infectious diseases. "The idea is to prevent the epidemic," not to catch and punish a wrongdoer, O'Brien said. The president could declare martial law and federalize state National Guards, said Michael Wermuth, head of a group advising the government on how well it is preparing for nuclear, chemical or biological terrorism. The attorney general and the defense secretary could also invoke a federal law that lets them call in soldiers to keep order if police or other law enforcement could not, Wermuth said. "The military can be engaged directly in arrests, search and seizure and intelligence collection for law enforcement purposes," Wermuth said. "There's very raw authority to use the military to do any number of things that (look) like law enforcement, or to assist public health authorities by (enforcing) quarantines." The government also would have the legal power to force people to be immunized, although as a practical matter it would probably prove impossible, O'Brien said. "What are you going to do, go into somebody's home and tie them up?" On the other hand, the government could take control of vaccine supplies, even if it meant overriding state governors bent on hoarding their in-state stockpiles, the panelists said. The hypothetical exercise ended short of the president declaring nationwide martial law, and without the arrest or trial of the terrorists. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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