Reprinted below is a front-page article that appeared in the Jan. 31, 2000, issue of the Militant. The socialist newsweekly was one of the few newspapers at the time that reported the establishment under the Clinton White House of a "homeland defense command." On October 1 of this year, the U.S. Northern Command officially began operations at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.

BY GREG MCCARTAN  
The Clinton administration has begun to set up a military command for inside the United States. Operations for the Joint Task Force Civil Support have been established in the Joint Forces Command, which supervises more than half of the U.S. military.

Brig. Gen. Bruce Lawlor is in charge of the unit. He is third in the chain of command from the president. According to reports in the big business media, Lawlor was chosen to appease civil rights concerns posed by giving the military the formal go-ahead for domestic operations, which would include secret police and other branches of the armed forces. "He can talk to civilians," said John Hamre, deputy secretary of defense.

U.S. defense secretary William Cohen said that openly using a name such as the "homeland defense command" and formally appointing a commander in chief for operations inside the United States may have been "premature." But, he added, "Who are you going to turn to when there is a catastrophic event?"

A New York Times article entitled, "Military Terrorism Operation Has a Civilian Focus," said that the military operations "would bring order to the expected chaos and panic that would follow a terrorist attack."

Clinton also proposed an additional $280 million on computer security to fight "cyber-terrorism," according to the Wall Street Journal. The "education president" said most of the funds would go for college scholarships for students who agree to work for the government as computer security specialists.

The head of the National Security Council’s counterterrorism unit, Richard Clarke, said the additional funds are needed because several unnamed "foreign governments are believed to have developed ‘offensive information warfare units,’" the Journal reported.  
 
 
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