FC: Does military plane sniper-hunting violate Posse Comitatus?

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Oct 16 2002 - 06:53:57 PDT

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "FC: Reply to Schneier: No need for more federal "cybersecurity" laws"

    The Washington Post covers this in a front-page story today:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32138-2002Oct15.html
    
    Note what Eugene (someone I've known to be a reliable source) tells the Post:
    >    Under the terms of Posse Comitatus, the military can provide equipment
    >    and supplies, technical assistance and training to domestic law
    >    enforcement agencies, said Eugene R. Fidell, president of the National
    >    Institute of Military Justice.
    >    Fidell said the Pentagon assistance to the sniper investigation may go
    >    beyond that."I would have to say that active use in a search would raise a
    >    question," Fidell said.
    >    A U.S. District Court in New York held in 1961 that the use of an Air
    >    Force helicopter to search for an escaped prisoner was improper, he
    >    noted.
    
    Here's background on Posse Comitatus from our recent discussion:
    http://www.politechbot.com/p-04056.html
    
    -Declan
    
    ---
    
    From: "Ben" <bmwat_private>
    To: <declanat_private>
    Subject: More Posse Commitatus
    Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 22:37:53 -0400
    
    Just another weird/interesting story about the military pushing that 
    particular envelope. They're going to use spy planes to search for the sniper?
    
    <http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=5C1FF1D6-F362-4A34-B4F377F896A4DE5D>http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=5C1FF1D6-F362-4A34-B4F377F896A4DE5D
    
    
    
    
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
    You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
    To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
    This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
    Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/
    Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Oct 16 2002 - 07:30:37 PDT