Some weeks back, GMD user vtpeace posted this diary, linking to a story detailing allegations that the California National Guard had been used to spy on American Peace activists, such as the Raging Grannies, in the state. California State Senator Joseph Dunn had taken up the cause, and according to the report:

Senator Dunn says one file shows at least ten other states engage in domestic spying.

Gail Sredanovic [of the Raging Grannies]: “It’s very dangerous. It sets a very dangerous precedent.”

Around the same time, Vermont’s own Senator Leahy managed to squeeze an admission out of the Department of Defense after Donald Rumsfeld had avoided any direct response on the matter before him in committee.

DOD did receive two reports from the Department of Homeland Security about protests against DOD recruiters by Vermont groups, which prompted reports that were entered on the TALON Reporting System, created in 2003 to document, share and analyze unfiltered information about suspicious incidents related to possible foreign terrorist threats to DOD.

The letter from Leahy was written in response to press reports that American Friends Service Committee protests had been spied on. The response seems to reduce the matter to something relatively trivial (I say relative just because it doesn’t involve lying to get us into war, or breaking laws on wiretapping). No one I know is satisfied or reassured that we have heard the whole truth, given that this administration routinely underplays (or outright denies) scandals that make them uncomfortable.

Adding these things together raises some obvious questions — potentially very uncomfortable ones for retiring VT National Guard Adjutant General and GOP candidate for Bernie Sanders House seat Martha Rainville, the current darling of the Vermont media. When I asked myself, I still found nothing conclusive, but the questions did suggest a clear course of action for the Vermont Legislature — one that could put Gen. Rainville on quite the hot seat, in a what-did-she-know-and-when-did-she-know-it sort of vein.

I was curious, so I called California Senator Dunn’s office. A helpful staffer reviewed the document in question, and found that Vermont was not on that particular list. However, New York was, bringing the issue literally right next door, and only increasing the questions. It may well be that the surveilling of Vermont Peace groups is as “passive” as it now sounds, and therefore completely circumvented Rainville. It may well be that she knew nothing of the DOD using the National Guard right next door to do so. But looking at the facts, a reasonable person could conclude that it may well be that she did. Frankly, I think Legislatures everywhere would want to be checking in with their Guard command on this issue, and it’s only a larger question in Vermont because the (former) Command is running for Congress — the very body which should have oversight over this sort of Bush Administration excess.

Which brings us back to the dynamics of the furor in California, and what it might mean for Vermont. As is fairly generally understood, the Military cannot be used against American civilians. It’s called the Posse Comitatus Act (1878), and it states that:

Whoever, 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 under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

What is not generally understood is that the National Guard is generally exempt from this law. What this means is that this type of Domestic spying — essentially using the National Guard as a tool for intelligence gathering — while frightening, seems to be technically legal. In California, Senator Dunn is moving with all deliberate speed to close the “Posse Comitatus loophole” at the State level, to insure this sort of abuse is clearly and unquestionably illegal, once and for all:

“Let us have that discussion,” he said. “Let us not say the National Guard can go willy-nilly in any direction they choose, which is what we have now. We need to close this loophole so that our military personnel do not engage in law enforcement. They are not designed for that activity, they should not be used for that activity. That should be left for domestic law enforcement agencies.”

So, given the outstanding questions about the nature of the Domestic spying known to have been carried out on Vermont’s soil, isn’t it appropriate that the Vermont Legislature take up similar legislation here, and as soon as possible?

I think it of little doubt that such a move would meet with almost universal approval from Vermont voters. This despite the fact that it was all the rage to discuss a further weakening of the act after the Katrina disaster.

Sure, there would have to be hearings held, and testimony taken.

Testimony that may — or may not — end up being very uncomfortable for a certain US House candidate who hopes to take up Bernie Sanders’ mantle…

All 13 counties of Vermont were represented yesterday in Montpelier at an all day training meeting convened by the DNC, Democratic National Committee.  Howard Dean opened the meeting and AGAIN, used his FIVE POINT MESSAGE which I’ve posted elsewhere on this blog.  Chairman Dean has added a SIXTH point to the original FIVE – that of Pension Security Retirement Security – whether that be Social Security or some other form of pension.  I’ll obtain his exact wording and re-post all six.  He asked me if I had them memorized yet, and I said I didnt although I had them in front of me on paper.  I told him I was working on memorizing them. Peter Welch dropped in on the session and gave a powerful, forceful stump speech.