| CCMRF Troops Inside US -NorthCom Denies Role CCMRF Troops inside US -NorthCom Denies Role In a barely noticed development last week, the Army stationed an active unit inside the United States. The Infantry Divisions 1st Brigade Team is back from Iraq, now training for domestic operations under the control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The unit will serve as an on-call federal response for large-scale emergencies and disasters. Its being called the Consequence Management Response Force, CCMRF, or sea-smurf for short. Its the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to USNORTHCOM, which was itself formed in October 2002 to provide command and control of Department of Defense homeland defense efforts. An initial news report in the Army Times newspaper last month noted, in addition to emergency response, the force may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control. The Army Times has since appended a clarification, and a September 30th press release from the Northern Command states: This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance or crowd control." When Democracy Now! spoke to Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Goodpaster, a public affairs officer for NORTHCOM, she said the force would have weapons stored in containers on site, as well as access to tanks, but the decision to use weapons would be made at a far higher level, perhaps by Secretary of Defense, SECDEF. Well, Im joined now by two guests. Army Colonel Michael Boatner is future operations division chief of USNORTHCOM. He joins me on the phone from Colorado Springs. Were also joined from Madison, Wisconsin by journalist and editor of The Progressive magazine, Matthew Rothschild. Tags: CCMRF Troops inside US NorthCom Role DemocracyNow Amy Goodman Matthew Rothschild USNORTHCOM Army Colonel Michael Boatner |