The U.S. Defense Department will create a new command to defend the United States and help civilian authorities respond to terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction, Pentagon officials said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 6).

The new Northern Command will place a four-star general in charge of protecting U.S. territory — the first military position to focus on defending the United States from internal threats.  The Northern Command is scheduled to begin operating on Oct. 1, and U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to nominate Air Force Gen. Ralph Eberhart as the first commander.

The command will be responsible for the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, portions of the Caribbean and waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for 500 miles from shore.  The command’s headquarters will probably be at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the new command is designed primarily to unify current military functions in North America rather than to increase responsibilities.  U.S. law restricts the military’s involvement within the United States (Esther Schrader, Los Angeles Times, April 18).

“No new missions or roles are being created here for the Department of Defense in creation of this new command,” said Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers (Thomas Ricks, Washington Post, April 18).

Responding to Terrorist Attack

One of the main goals behind the command’s creation is increasing coordination of military support following terrorist attacks, particularly involving weapons of mass destruction and natural disasters, officials said.

In most cases, civilian authorities are responsible for leading response efforts and the military would usually play only a supportive role.  Officials expect the new command to ease communication and coordination between civil authorities and the military and among military responders.

“Probably if you looked back at how the (Defense) Department responded to needs up in New York after the World Trade Center, you might find that, while not confusion, there was not good unity of effort in that case,” Myers said (Schrader, Los Angeles Times).

The command will also take over “the Joint Task Force for Civil Support that currently resides in Joint Forces Command, that is responsible to civil authorities for chemical or biological, radiological, nuclear, major conventional explosives events,” Myers said.  The new plan “takes that and moves it under North Command.”

“The Joint Forces Command will no longer have responsibilities for homeland defense.  Northern Command will take up those responsibilities, leaving the Joint Forces Command free to focus on its exceedingly important to help transform our military,” Rumsfeld said.

Supporting Civilian Authorities

Rumsfeld and Myers emphasized that civil authorities will remain in charge of most efforts to respond to domestic crises, and the military would offer only assistance.

“We have said all along — and this should not be misunderstood — there is no change to the roles or mission of the Department of Defense, which means we are in support of civil authorities,” Myers said, adding that the person in charge of responding to a WMD attack on the United States would be a state or federal civilian authority.

“In this new organizational arrangement, we will have a four-star military person who will be the Northern commander, who will be responsible for being ready to function ins a supporting role and assist all of the other elements of the federal government, as well as the state and local governments, to see that those assets and those capabilities that are distinctive and unique to the Department of Defense are in fact promptly put into play to be of assistance to deal with that crisis in City X, if and when that occurs,” Rumsfeld said.

“Today we have at least three entities responsible for the sort of things the secretary was talking about … We’re going to have one entity … That’s why we say unity of focus, unity of command,” Myers added.

“What’s different is, we have a focused capability and competence in the Northern Command that will be prepared, trained, exercised and equipped to do those kinds of things in a supporting role,” Rumsfeld said.

“We had lots of troops in Salt Lake City.  We did not take over the state … There were civil authorities in that region that asked for our assistance.  That assistance was offered up, and it was done in coordination with them in a supporting role,” he added (see GSN, Feb. 26).

The northern commander, however, would not take orders from a state or local civilian leader, such as a state governor.  The commander would only take orders from the president or defense secretary, Rumsfeld said.

The military, however, would be the first responder if terrorists struck the District of Columbia with a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon, Rumsfeld said.  The military is also in charge of defending U.S. shores.

Canada Opts Out

The Northern Command will also be responsible for coordinating military relations with Canada and Mexico (Ricks, Washington Post).

Canada, however, has decided for now to remain outside the U.S. Northern Command structure (see GSN, Jan. 30).  Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said yesterday that Canada will maintain responsibility for its own defense.

“The defense of Canada will be assured by the Canadian government and not by the American government,” he said.

Canada could join the command structure later, however.  The country is studying options for Canadian defense cooperation with the U.S. military, Canadian officials said.

“We have made it clear to them [the Americans] that once they have announced their plan, which they have done today, we will study it and determine to what extent we wish or whether it would be good for Canada to participate,” said Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham.

U.S. officials have advocated Canadian participation in North American defense, according to the Globe and Mail.

Some Canadian politicians criticized the decision to opt out of the U.S. defense structure, saying the United States would probably act to defend the entire North American continent without Canadian input.  Canada could better promote its interests by participating in a joint command where it would have a voice, said Canadian Member of Parliament Leon Benoit.

If Canada does not join the command, the United States would have to ask for assistance from Canada in certain situations, the Globe and Mail reported.  For example, U.S. officials would have to ask Canada to send its own forces to intercept a ship that U.S. officials suspect of carrying a weapon of mass destruction in Canadian waters.  If Canada joins the Northern Command, however, the command’s leaders could send Canadian ships to intercept the vessel without directly asking the Canadian government.

The United States has said its forces would not enter Canadian territory without Canadian permission (Jeff Sallot, Globe and Mail, April 18).

Other Changes

Northern Command’s commander will now also be the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the organization responsible for flying air patrols over North America, Rumsfeld said.

The Pentagon has not yet decided if Northern Command will be in charge of any future national missile defense system, Rumsfeld said.

“The missile defense issue has been left for the future since we’re not in the deployment mode.  In terms of technologies that could be developed, they would be more departmentwide, and they might very well be at the request or the instance of a Northern Command commander,” he said.

The Pentagon is also considering merging Space Command and Strategic Command and plans to complete a study on the subject later this year, Myers said (Federal News Service transcript, April 17).  The Strategic Command oversees U.S. strategic nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, Defense officials have expanded the European Command to include responsibility for Russia.  During the Cold War, no single command was in charge of the Soviet Union, because officials believed the entire U.S. military needed to deal with the Soviet threat, according to the Washington Post.

The Pentagon also placed Antarctica under the umbrella of the Pacific Command to better coordinate rescue and supply missions on the southern continent (Ricks, Washington Post).

Other military commands include the Southern Command, which covers South America, and the Central Command, which covers the Middle East and Central Asia (Schrader, Los Angeles Times).

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