A quiet coup

Two recent items, taken together, suggest to me there is a fundamental and serious reorientation of power going on within the federal government.

Several people have commented on the astonishing revelation by former Army intelligence analyst William Arkin that there exists "a small group of super-secret commandos," as Sunday's New York Times put it, whose task it is to carry out "anti-terrorism" commando operations inside the US.

Taking advantage of provisions in federal law that allow for the military to offer cooperation to local law enforcement in cases of "high-risk events" and emergencies, the program, called Power Geyser, was most recently involved in security for Shrub's coronation. Here's what matters, though:

Mr. Arkin, in the online supplement to his book (codenames.org/documents.html), says the contingency plan, called JCS Conplan 0300-97, calls for "special-mission units in extra-legal missions to combat terrorism in the United States" based on top-secret orders that are managed by the military's Joint Staff and coordinated with the military's Special Operations Command and Northern Command, which is the lead military headquarters for domestic defense. ... [emphasis added]

Three senior Defense Department and Bush administration officials confirmed the existence of the plan and mission, but disputed Mr. Arkin's characterization of the mission as "extra-legal."

One of the officials said the units operated in the United States under "special authority" from either the president or the secretary of defense.

Same old, same old: It's legal 'cause the president says it is. But aside from that, note well: It's being said that the secretary of defense also has the power to authorize actions under "special authority" to expand the mission and activities of the military inside the US.

If it seems doubtful to you (as it does to me) that the president can just ignore law and custom under a doctrine of "special authority," the idea that such powers also reside in an unelected official should be beyond the pale. But in practice, it seems the pale has been moved much further out.

And still further: Also on Sunday, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon

has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad....

The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld's written order to end his "near total dependence on CIA" for what is known as human intelligence. Designed to operate without detection and under the defense secretary's direct control, the Strategic Support Branch deploys small teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists alongside newly empowered special operations forces. ...

Perhaps the most significant shift is the Defense Department's bid to conduct surreptitious missions, in friendly and unfriendly states, when conventional war is a distant or unlikely prospect - activities that have traditionally been the province of the CIA's Directorate of Operations.

Thus the unit, which apparently has been in operation for two years "in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places [officials] declined to name," involves a major expansion of the military's role in foreign intelligence and covert activity, independent of and in many ways in competition with the CIA - and also, apparently, independent of the new position of national intelligence director, the creation of which Rumsfeld resisted until he got language that he interprets as maintaining his freedom of action.

So under, and due to the efforts of, Donald Rumplestiltskin, the military has expanded its power and areas of operation both internally and externally, spread both inward and outward, along with, it would appear, the "special authority" of the secretary of defense to engage in clandestine and covert military operations here, there, and everywhere. No more troubling themselves about the Posse Comitatus act, no more hassles with those icky reporting-to-Congress requirements, no more having to play second fiddle to silly civilian agencies; the personal "special authority" of the secretary of defense can sweep all that aside.

A Rumsfeld coup, a silent coup that is seeing an increasing military influence on both foreign policy and domestic federal law enforcement and therefore placing Rummy on top of the White House in-fighters, lording it over the "risk averse" CIA. So he gets a boost to his political and ideological agenda and we get what, commando raids on libraries that carry "Fahrenheit 911" DVDs?

The reason the Constitution makes the president the commander-in-chief of the armed forces is to insure that the ultimate authority over the military will be in the hands of a civilian. It was intended to be a check on the power of the military, a power the authors understood was dangerous to a free nation. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow for the possibility of an administration that wants to use that very Constitutional authority to expand that power rather than control it.

Footnote: Arkin's book, Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operation in the 9/11 World, is available both at Amazon and Powell's.