@squinney,
Squinney, here is a follow up.
"MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: Well, this gets to what Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont was so concerned about, that with NORTHCOM and with perhaps this unit"and I want to call Senator Leahy’s office today and ask him about this"you have the usurpation of the governor’s role, of the National Guard’s role, and it’s given straight to the Pentagon in some of these instances. And that’s very alarming. And that was alarming to almost every governor, if not every governor, in the country, when Bush tried to do that and around about the Posse Comitatus Act. So, I think these are real concerns.
AMY GOODMAN: Matt Rothschild, the Democratic and Republican conventions were quite amazing displays of force at every level, from the local police on to the state troopers to, well, in the Republican convention, right onto troops just back from Iraq in their Army fatigues. Did this surprise you?
MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: It did. It surprised me also that NORTHCOM itself was involved in intelligence sharing with local police officers in St. Paul. I mean, what in the world is NORTHCOM doing looking at what some of the protesters are involved in? And you had infiltration up there, too. But what we have going on in this country is we have infiltration and spying that goes on, not only at the"well, all the way from the campus police, practically, Amy, up to the Pentagon and the National Security Agency. We’re becoming a police state here.
AMY GOODMAN: Colonel Michael Boatner, a tall order here, could you respond?
COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: Well, that’s incorrect. We did not participate in any intelligence collection. We were up there in support of the US Secret Service. We provided some explosive ordnance disposal support of the event. But I’d like to go back and say that, again, in terms of"
AMY GOODMAN: Could you explain what their"explain again what was their role there?
COL. MICHAEL BOATNER: They were just doing routine screens and scans of the area in advance of this kind of a vulnerable event. It’s pretty standard support to a national special security event."
Complete interview here.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/7/us_army_denies_unit_will_be