Military response team getting prepared for U.S. civil Ebola UPDATE

UPDATE: Of course you do have the authority. I am just being silly. Funny that you should raise te question. Did you ask Eric?

“We actually do have the legal authorities to do this,” a Pentagon spokesman said on Monday, one day after U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the U.S. military to form an “expeditionary Ebola support team.”

“This isn’t going to violate Posse Comitatus,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 says the Army (and later, the Air Force) may not be used to “execute the laws” of the United States.

“This is nothing more than potential support, and I stress ‘potential support,’ to civilian medical authorities — if and only if they ask for that,” Kirby said. “But there’s no violation of posse comitatus. The Northern Command commander has the authorities that he needs to get this team ready to go.” More at  CNS

Why a military response team? Why the Department of Defense? I guess we know the answer. No tin foil required. Answer is given in  the post,”What is the purpose of FEMA camps?”which follows. Martial law already commenced.

 Martial Law declared in Connecticut over Ebola, Civil Rights suspended indefintely

 Washington Examiner:

An United States-based emergency Ebola response team is being prepped, the Department of Defense said Sunday.

In response to a request by the Department of Health and Human Services, a 30-person team will be ready to “response quickly, effectively, and safely” should more Ebola cases arise inside the U.S., according to a Pentagon press release.

“Secretary [Chuck] Hagel today ordered his Northern Command Commander, Gen. Chuck Jacoby, to prepare and train a 30-person expeditionary medical support team that could, if required, provide short-notice assistance to civilian medical professionals in the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in statement.

The team of 20 critical care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious disease and five trainers in infectious disease protocols will be sent to Fort Sam Houston in Texas for up to seven days of training provided by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Once training is completed, the team will remain in a “prepare to deploy” status for up to 30 days, according to the Defense Department.

The team will not be sent to West Africa or elsewhere overseas, as it is meant only to deal with domestic Ebola-related issues.

I encourage everyone to look at the Heritage Foundation link regarding Model State Emergency Health Powers Act.. The Heritage link is not from the tin foil crowd as well. Here we go:

“Quarantine is used to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill. These people may have been exposed to a disease and do not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms,” states the CDC.

Quarantine can also help limit the spread of communicable disease. More at Heritage Foundation

Just what is the purpose of FEMA camps?

December 7, 2011  Internment Camp Services Bid Arrives After NDAA

KBR’s call for FEMA camp service bids arrives soon after the Senate overwhelmingly passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which permits the military to detain and interrogate supposed domestic terror suspects in violation of the Fourth Amendment and Posse Comitatus.

Section 1031 of the NDAA bill declares the whole of the United States as a “battlefield” and allows American citizens to be arrested on U.S. soil and incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay.

A number of civil liberties groups have come out in strong opposition to the legislation, most notably the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), the nation’s oldest and largest Asian American civil and human rights organization.

In a letter addressed to Congress, S. Floyd Mori, the national director of JACL, said the NDAA is the first time that Congress has scaled back on the protections provided by the Non-Detention Act of 1971. Mori said the legislation, if enacted and put into use, would be reminiscent of the unconstitutional indefinite detention of Japanese Americans during World War II.

National Emergency Centers Act

In 2009, the National Emergency Centers Act or HR 645 was introduced in Congress. It mandates the establishment of “national emergency centers” to be located on military installations for the purpose of providing “temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster,” according to the bill.

In addition to emergencies, the legislation is designed to “meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security,” an open ended mandate which many fear could mean the forced detention of American citizens in the event of widespread rioting after a national emergency or total economic collapse, as Paul Joseph Watson noted in January of 2009. Full Story at Prison PLanet

“As always, their safety and security will remain foremost on his mind,” Kirby said of Hagel.