WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- New challenges to homeland security are shifting the scope of the Pentagon's role in domestic affairs and it could challenge the historical and deeply rooted separation between U.S. soldiers and domestic law enforcement.
Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday heard testimony from military officials charged with protecting domestic infrastructure.
Before military witnesses gave an account of how their forces are operating in conjunction with domestic agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration, lawmakers raised the issue of whether the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 should be changed.
That law limits the circumstances under which military powers can enforce domestic laws and imposes prison penalties on anyone who improperly uses the regular military as a domestic enforcement agency.
The 6,000 National Guard troops who patrol 430 airports across the country are being used precisely because they are not covered by that act.
"This law needs to be looked at," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va. Warner raised a hypothetical example of a patrolling Air Force pilot who might be asked to intervene in a situation that is not terrorist in nature but a problem on a airplane "caused by drunks or a mentally disturbed person."
"This law really needs to be looked at," he said.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in an opening statement, asked pointedly: "Should the Posse Comitatus Act be revised? If so, do we want the armed forces enforcing the law as would be required in an insurrection? What impact would training our armed forces to make arrests, seize property and preserve evidence have on their capabilities and readiness to accomplish their warfighting mission?"
One witness, Thomas White, the interim executive agent for homeland security at the Department of Defense, said he felt Posse Comitatus, which was modified during the 1990s to sanction the use of U.S. troops in the war against drugs, is "fine the way it is. It supports a longstanding tradition of not using federal forces in law enforcement roles and we'd like to see it prevail."
At one point White said, "This is a free nation and we want to keep it that way." He said the DOD was studying the law and there "might be a need for minor amendments."
When asked directly if the military's domestic assignments would impinge on the nation's warfighting ability oversees, another witness, Marine Corp Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it "depends on what other things we embark on."
Pace stressed that military support from allies would lighten the Pentagon's overseas burdens but admitted the military may have to change its force structure to accommodate an expanded domestic role.
Lawmakers at one point asked White to clarify his command authority as an agent of the DOD working hand in hand with civilian authorities.
White said he makes recommendations to the Secretary of Defense but does not view himself as being a part of the chain of command.
"I do not exercise command authority," he said.
Warner asked White to define his relationship with the Homeland Defense Director Tom Ridge. Specifically, he asked how disagreements between White and Ridge would be resolved.
White said he has had productive meetings with Ridge and said any differences between them "would be resolved at the principals level, cabinet level or ultimately with the president himself."
One key point of cooperation between civil and defense forces is the Federal Aviation Administration.
Some lawmakers pressed the witnesses to explain why, on Sept. 11, it took the FAA 15 minutes to notify the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD about the first confirmed hi-jacking.
NORAD Commander Air Force Gen. Ralph Eberhart said he did not know, but suggested FAA officials could initially have thought the plane's shifting flight pattern was simply a deviation by the crew.
Eberhart said with heightened alert it "takes one minute from the time the FAA detects a discrepancy before they notify NORAD."
He said military officials maintain a hotline with the FAA.
Eberhart, in written testimony, said his command has increased its domestic alert posture from 20 aircraft standing on alert to more than 100 U.S. and Canadian aircraft. Twenty-six bases stand at high alert.
One lawmaker asked White if he had considered moving the U.S. Coast Guard from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Defense.
"There has been some thought on that," White said.
