Rapture Watch

Marine Corps creates law enforcement battalions

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) -- The Marine Corps has created its first law enforcement battalions - a lean, specialized force of military police officers that it hopes can quickly deploy worldwide to help investigate crimes from terrorism to drug trafficking and train fledgling security forces in allied nations.

The Corps activated three such battalions last month. Each is made up of roughly 500 military police officers and dozens of dogs. The Marine Corps has had police battalions off and on since World War II but they were primarily focused on providing security, such as accompanying fuel convoys or guarding generals on visits to dangerous areas, said Maj. Jan Durham, commander of the 1st Law Enforcement Battalion at Camp Pendleton.

The idea behind the law enforcement battalions is to consolidate the military police and capitalize on their investigative skills and police training, he said. The new additions come as every branch in the military is trying to show its flexibility and resourcefulness amid defense cuts.

Marines have been increasingly taking on the role of a street cop along with their combat duties over the past decade in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they have been in charge of training both countries' security forces. Those skills now can be used as a permanent part of the Marine Corps, Durham said.

The war on terror has also taught troops the importance of learning how to gather intelligence, secure evidence and assist local authorities in building cases to take down criminal networks. Troops have gotten better at combing raid sites for clues to help them track insurgents.

They also have changed their approach, realizing that marching into towns to show force alienates communities. Instead, they are being taught to fan out with interpreters to strike up conversations with truck drivers, money exchangers, cellphone sellers and others. The rapport building can net valuable information that could even alert troops about potential attacks.

But no group of Marines is better at that kind of work than the Corps' military police, who graduate from academies just like civilian cops, Durham said. He said the image of military police patrolling base to ticket Marines for speeding or drinking has limited their use in the Corps. He hopes the creation of the battalions will change that, although analysts say only the future will tell whether the move is more than just a rebranding of what already existed within the Corps.

The battalions will be capable of helping control civil disturbances, handling detainees, carrying out forensic work, and using biometrics to identify suspects. Durham said they could assist local authorities in allied countries in securing crime scenes and building cases so criminals end up behind bars and not back out on the streets because of mistakes.

"Over the past 11 years of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, some lessons learned painfully, there has been a growing appreciation and a demand for, on the part of the warfighter, the unique skills and capabilities that MPs bring to the fight," Durham said. "We do enforce traffic laws and we do write reports and tickets, and that's good, but we do so much more than that."

Durham said the Marine Corps plans to show off its new battalions in Miami later this month at a conference put on by the Southern Command and that is expected to be attended by government officials from Central American countries, such as Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize.

Defense analyst Loren Thompson said the battalions make sense given the nature of today's global threats, which include powerful drug cartels and other criminal gangs that often mix with religious and political extremists, who use the profits to buy their weaponry.

"This is a smart idea because the biggest single problem the Marines have in dealing with low-intensity types of threats is that they basically are trained to kill people," he said. "It's good for the Marines to have skills that allow them to contain threats without creating casualties."

Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches law of war at Georgetown University, said Marines have already been doing this kind of work for years but now that it has been made more formal by the creation of the battalions, it could raise a host of questions, especially on the use of force. The law of war allows for fighters to use deadly force as a first resort, while police officers use it as a last resort.

If Marines are sent in to do law enforcement but are attacked, will they go back to being warfighters? And if so, what are the implications? Solis asked.

"Am I a Marine or a cop? Can I be both?" he said. "Cops apply human rights law and Marines apply the law of war. Now that it's blended, it makes it tougher for the young men and women who have to make the decision as to when deadly force is not appropriate."

Durham said that military police understand that better than any Marine since they are trained in both.

"They are very comfortable with the escalation of force," he said. "MPs get that. It's fundamental to what we do."

Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MARINES_LAW_ENFORCEMENT_BATTALION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-07-22-17-33-46

Tribulation at hand for sure!:o

Beware,beware!  Units created for allegedly urban law enforcement in external countries can quickly be utilised by a government intent on seizing civil power.  I am aware the the United States Marines have been re-tooling their ordnance to include weapons and ammunition capable of subduing large crowds.

When you couple the means with martial law legislation such as is now enshrined in the Homeland Security enactment I am mindful of a government currently determined to wipe out the Constitutional Right of American citizens to bear arms.

No government can satisfactorily impose dictatorial reform if they know that behind ever tree lurks a citizen with a gun and who is probably affialiated with an unregulated militia.

The United Nations wishes to force America to disarm its populace also. 'Hmmn...I wonder why?'

And as America declines economically and joblessness races out of control, it will shortly bring home tens of thousands of military personnel who will be discharged into an uncertain future.  Nothing worse than the spectre of large numbers of discharged, trained military personnel running around the landscape.  Particularly if they are jobless, frustrated, feeling let down and looking for a focus for their resentment.

Methinks El Presidente might need 20 such battalions rather than three.

I see more work for these new battalions at home rather than overseas.  Besides, no sovereign country would want to use American paramilitary police units in their own countries SO WHERE WILL THEY BE USED.   'You whistle....I'll point!'

Add this with the administration handing over our rights for guns to the UN on July 27th... its all lined up. Certainly time to be looking up.

In particular, the phrase, "can quickly deploy worldwide to help investigate crimes from terrorism to drug trafficking.." is quite telling.  Consider the DHS report earlier this year that highlighted American terrorists as being,

"fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”

-”anti-global”

-”suspicious of centralized federal authority”

-”reverent of individual liberty”

-”believe in conspiracy theories”

-”a belief that one’s personal and/or national “way of life” is under attack”

-”a belief in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism”

-”impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists)”

-”insert religion into the political sphere”

-”those who seek to politicize religion”

-”supported political movements for autonomy”

-”anti-abortion”

-”anti-Catholic”

-”anti-nuclear”

All of this should be a clear indication to Americans, and Christians in particular, that oppositional forces (i.e., Lucifer, under the guise of the NWO) are quickly assembling to oppose the forces of liberty, and the Church in particular, and they are being unleashed at a breathtaking speed.  NOW is the time for the Church to come out of this wicked system (Laodicean prosperity doctrine of demons) and to rise up, standing in the power and authority of her King Yeshua!  There should be no greater call to believers than this!

http://theintelhub.com/2012/02/08/according-to-a-new-dhs-report-if-you-love-individual-liberty-of-if-you-believe-in-conspiracy-theories-you-are-a-potential-terrorist/