Delta Force (39 page)

To be effective, training for urban warfare needs to be realistic, and the need for interagency is not limited to dealing with local police departments. Federal agencies need closer coordination as well,
¹²
particularly the State Department. Too often Delta Force is in place and ready to move—and left sweltering in hangars or in barracks while the necessary political arrangements are made.

At some point, faced with today's wars and the mandate for joint operations, Colonel Beckwith would be considering the issue of
posse comitatus
.

Posse comitatus
simply means using federal military forces for law enforcement inside the United States.
¹³
As with many of our basic constitutional rights,
posse comitatus
was a reaction to a known evil rather than a statement of universal natural law. Before the Revolutionary War, British troops slaughtered civilians with impunity in the colonies. British military tribunals often summarily acquitted them.

The first laws against using our own military inside the United States was enacted in 1878. Today's law prohibits using the military in domestic law enforcement unless specifically authorized by Congress or the Constitution and does not allow for military intervention based solely on actions by the secretary of defense or an executive order from the president.

The prohibition on
posse comitatus
is not absolute. The law allows military and civilian cooperation, and every year Congress etches out further exceptions. For instance, training and education between the military and domestic law enforcement is exempt from the prohibition on
posse comitatus
. This law allows the military to teach local law enforcement agencies how to purchase surplus military equipment, provides for division of expenses, and grants a broad degree of cooperation as long as the military doesn't try to enforce the law.
¹⁴
In counterdrug operations, military units can feed information and intelligence to domestic law enforcement operations as long as the military remains uninvolved in the arrest and prosecution.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons—indeed, all weapons of mass destruction—has given rise to an even more chilling exception to
posse comitatus
. When weapons of mass destruction are involved, and the attorney general and the secretary of defense agree that an emergency situation exists, the military may operate freely in the United States.
¹⁵
Thus not only does the legal underpinning for operations inside the United States exist, but some reports indicate that detailed contingency plans for operations exist.
¹⁶
In the end, as Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen said, Americans may have to choose between civil liberties and more intrusive means of protection.
¹⁷

These measures are all steps in the right direction, but are clearly no substitute for what is needed: a comprehensive plan marrying military capabilities to local and other federal agency capabilities with intelligence consolidated at every level and expertise available immediately to deal with terrorism. In the days of jointness, shouldn't teams that deploy inside the U.S. in response to hostage situations include every unit that trains
for it? Where does jointness end and
posse comitatus
begin? As the lines blur between civilian and soldier, peace and war, terrorism and war, it would seem increasingly probable that the role of the U.S. military within the United States should be reconsidered.

Would Colonel Beckwith have favored such integration?

Perhaps. Certainly he was highly critical of the FBI's operation to subdue the Branch Davidians.
¹⁸
Operating with a lack of real intelligence, the failure to provide for evacuation of casualties, and the lack of a definable end state were all weaknesses that he identified, and planning deficiencies that he would not have tolerated in a Delta Force operation.

Certainly, there is danger in removing some of the restraints that prevent military operations inside the United States. Conspiracy groups and the paranoid are already seeing mysterious black helicopters at every turn, citing warnings about America becoming an Orwellian 1984 culture.

But given the proliferation of threats, is there really any choice?

The longer an organization is established, the more it will tend to institutionalize. Traditions and history solidify into standard practice, and opportunities for more effective use of a force may be overlooked.

Every organization needs renegades, leaders, and innovators capable of thinking outside the box. Looking back over the evolution of Special Forces in the American military, Col. “Chargin' Charlie” Beckwith was exactly the sort of man needed to put together Delta Force, one capable of thinking outside the box, broadened by his experience with the British SAS, yet with the political savvy to understand and use his own monolithic Army establishment to bring Delta Force into existence. In light of what's happened since
Delta Force
was first published, he was a prophet.

There's a need for Delta Force in today's military, and an
even more urgent requirement for the
next
Delta Force. With operational tempos at an all-time high, maneuver warfare and the specialized skills of units like Delta Force are the most effective way to combat warfare bleeding into all phases of life.

If there were a Delta Force, mind you.

Special Military Terms and Acronyms

¹
Oddly enough, it does recruit. USARMYPERSCOM's web page contains the following notice: “The U.S. Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment—Delta (1stSFOD-D) plans and conducts a broad range of special operations across the operational continuum. Delta is organized for the conduct of missions requiring rapid response with surgical applications of a wide variety of unique skills, while maintaining the lowest possible profile of U.S. involvement.”

²
Not only do you need a range of forces to bring to bear, but the composition and structure of those forces must continually
evolve. War, by its very nature, is chaotic. One of the biggest dangers that military planners face is an almost blinding compulsion, supported and fueled by political structures, to fight the last war.

There are several approaches to planning for military forces. The first is simply to build every possible force to combat every possible threat. The second is to attempt to project what threats the nation will face in the coming years and plan the force structure to combat those. Finally, the planner can rank possible threats by degree of harm to the nation—with one end of the scale encompassing weapons of mass destruction targeted at the United States and the other end low-intensity conflicts in countries that have no political interest for the United States—and juxtapose that list with the probability of that particular event occurring.

³
Wright, R.,
Los Angeles Times
, July 29, 1996. “Despite Gains, Halting Terrorist Elusive.” The author was quoting Jeff Beatty, former FBI, CIA, and Delta Force specialist on counterterrorism, citing figures in a Department of Justice publication.

⁴
Waller, D.
The Commandos
 (New York: Dell Publishing, 1994), 247.

⁵
Ibid
., 233–35.

⁶
Ibid
., 249.

⁷
Builder, C.,
The Masks of War
 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).

⁸
Peters, R. “The New Warrior Class” (1994).
Parameters
, Summer 1994, p. 16. A brilliant and profoundly disturbing article on the proliferation of warrior classes in the world.

⁹
RAND Arroyo Center, Army Research Division,
Combat in Cities. http://www.rand.org/organization/ard/research.sums/cities.html

¹⁰
Priest, D.
Los Angeles Times
, April 27, 1997, p. A-22. “Secret Anti-Terrorist Exercises Terrorize Citizens.”

¹¹
Ibid
.

¹²
Some sources have claimed that Delta Force has been involved in a number of hostage situations within the U.S., including the Branch Davidian assault and counterterrorism planning for the Atlanta Olympics. A. Pine.
Los Angeles Times
, August 27, 1993, p. A-10. “Delta Force Reportedly to Hunt Aidid” (summarizing previous Delta Force operations as background for Delta presence in Somalia).

¹³
18 U.S. Code section 1385. “Whosoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” 18 U.S. Code § 1385. Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus; 10 U.S. Code § 375. Restriction on direct participation by military personnel.

The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to ensure that any activity (including the provision of any equipment or facility or the assignment or detail of any personnel) under this chapter does not include or permit direct participation by a member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps in a search, seizure, arrest, or other similar activity unless participation in such activity by such member is otherwise authorized by law.

¹⁴
10 U.S. Code § 380. Enhancement of cooperation with civilian law enforcement officials.

a. The Secretary of Defense, in cooperation with the Attorney General, shall conduct an annual briefing of law enforcement
personnel of each State (including law enforcement personnel of the political subdivisions of each State) regarding information, training, technical support, and equipment and facilities available to civilian law enforcement personnel from the Department of Defense.

b. Each briefing conducted under subsection (a) shall include the following:

1. An explanation of the procedures for civilian law enforcement officials.

A. to obtain information, equipment, training, expert advice, and other personnel support under this chapter; and

B. to obtain surplus military equipment.

2. A description of the types of information, equipment and facilities, and training and advice available to civilian law enforcement officials from the Department of Defense.

3. A current, comprehensive list of military equipment which is suitable for law enforcement officials from the Department of Defense or available as surplus property from the Administrator of General Services.

c. The Attorney General and the Administrator of General Services shall:

1. establish or designate an appropriate office or offices to maintain the list described in subsection (b)(3) and to furnish information to civilian law enforcement officials on the availability of surplus military equipment; and

2. make available to civilian law enforcement personnel nationwide, tollfree telephone communication with such office or offices.

¹⁵
18 U.S. Code section 831(e)(1)
http://terminalfrost. cimplement.com/document/posse.html;
The Attorney General may also request assistance from the Secretary of Defense…. Notwithstanding section 1385 of this title the Secretary of Defense
may…provide such assistance to the Attorney General if—(A) an emergency situation exists (as jointly determined by the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense in their discretion); and (B) the provision of such assistance will not adversely affect the military preparedness of the United States (as determined by the Secretary of Defense in such Secretary's discretion).

¹⁶
Macko, S. Emergency News Network Daily Report, August 27, 1996: “The Threat of Chemical and Biological Attack.
www. emergency. com/chembio3.htm

¹⁷
The Times of the Ark-La-Tex
, September 15, 1997.
www.inetvs.com/gpni/970917b.html

¹⁸
Sahagun, L.
Los Angeles Times
, March 4, 1993, p. A-16. “Experts Criticize Tactics Used by Federal Officials in Assault.”