Military discusses radical change in agency coordination

An internal analysis of military efforts to combat 21st-century threats suggests that the Pentagon coordinate with federal, state and local agencies involved in homeland security -- a proposal that conflicts with the 1878 law prohibiting the armed services from participating in police-type activity on U.S. soil.

"There's no dodging this issue and it has great implications for the executive branch in particular and our form of government in general," reads the document drafted by the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation, which is charged with changing the culture of the armed services to address traditional, catastrophic, disruptive and irregular types of warfare.

Conceding that its recommendation is "dramatic and sweeping, but also necessary," the transformation office said Congress may need to draft legislation to implement the change.

"Legislation may be required, but the effort will pay dividends by facilitating execution of the global war on terror and by protecting the citizens and interests of the U.S.," reads the 26-page document obtained by National Journal's Technology Daily.

The Posse Comitatus Act, drafted by a group of Southern lawmakers to end the practice of federal troops supervising elections after the Civil War, bans the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines from conducting arrests, searches, seizures and other domestic law-enforcement activities. But since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, lawmakers and military officials frequently have discussed the need to have active-duty military join domestic agencies to combat terrorist threats.

The force transformation proposal calls for the military to have "combined means" of close cooperation among federal agencies that would allow agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the CIA to share information with the Defense Department. "This must become regular, planned part of agency activity," reads the Pentagon document.

The Washington Post on Wednesday reported on a similar Pentagon proposal.

The force transformation office conducted the analysis in 2004 and recently presented it to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top military officials. In 2003, Rumsfeld required the office to study the armed services' abilities to face threats like terrorism or the ongoing insurgency in Iraq.

Other recommendations include concentrating resources on "camouflage, cover and concealment" of U.S. forces. The document said Pentagon officials tend to assume that the United States will remain ahead of adversaries in technology. But by 2020, the office predicted, cheap, deployable sensors and lasers will become commercially available.

"The advantage of the U.S. in this area will erode quickly," officials cautioned.

The transformation office also proposed that Congress allocate funding for civic assistance to the military. "Joint force commanders must be able to begin the process of civic assistance -- including major efforts such as the rebuilding of homes, school and public utilities -- even while forces under their command are still fighting," the document says.