War Preparations

No to U.S. Security Forces on Canadian Territory!

- Enver Villamizar -

Doing the bidding of the largest North American monopolies, the Harper government has been carrying on the annexation of Canada behind the backs of Canadians. Besides other things, it is establishing a new normal in which U.S. military and para-military agencies can wantonly violate Canada's sovereignty and operate on Canadian territory and in its waters.

Aspects of the integration of Canada's armed forces and other institutions with those of the United States are not approved by Parliament and escape any media inquiry into their significance. In fact, Parliament has thus far denied Canada's annexation altogether. The fact that U.S. forces can enter Canada under this or that pretext underscores the necessity for the working class and its allies to strengthen the Workers' Opposition so as to vest sovereignty in the people and stop nation-wrecking and the sellout of the nation.

2002 Security Cooperation Agreement

In 2002, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien established a Security Cooperation Agreement with the United States which "temporarily" permitted U.S. military forces to enter Canada in the case of a "terrorist attack" or "emergencies." The agreement re-affirmed the North American Aerospace Defence Command Agreement (NORAD) and established the "Bi-national Planning Group" headquartered at NORAD to work out how to establish a "coordinated" military command over North American territory, including maritime borders. This included command over domestic authorities, such as the Coast Guard or local and regional police, using the pretext of assisting these authorities in cases of "natural disasters" or other emergencies. The term "coordinated" is to give the impression that Canada is an equal "partner" in these arrangements. However, NORAD is always headed by an American general, effectively putting Canada under U.S. military command.

NORAD Command Over Canadian Territory
and Maritime Borders Made Permanent

In 2006 the Harper government made the NORAD Agreement permanent. The Agreement was historically signed for intervals of time, with renewal required. In addition to making it permanent, the 2006 Agreement formalized NORAD control over not only Canadian and U.S. aerospace but also "maritime operations," effectively putting NORAD in control of Canadian land, sea and air. In the case of the sea borders, the term maritime has two conceptions. It can mean: "of or relating to the sea or oceans," or "relating to sea navigation and shipping." The U.S. Military Dictionary defines maritime as "connected with the sea, especially in relation to seafaring commercial or military activity."

Integration of U.S. and Canadian Militaries Under U.S. Command

A recent example of the integration of U.S. and Canadian militaries was the North American Border Conference held in San Diego, California co-hosted by U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and Canada Command. According to USNORTHCOM, the conference focus was "on border security, joint and international activities, training and development opportunities, in addition to generating discussion of future activities that could affect North America."

USNORTHCOM was established by the Bush administration on October 1, 2002 for the U.S. military's "homeland defense efforts" and to coordinate the military's role with civil authorities. Canada Command was established on February 1, 2006 just before Stephen Harper took office. It is responsible for "domestic and continental" military operations. It also coordinates the military's role with civil and law enforcement authorities in Canada. The commander of USNORTHCOM is the commander of NORAD. This arrangement effectively puts the U.S. military in command of all North American military operations.

At the conference, Canadian military officials received briefings and tours including: the U.S. Navy's Third Fleet Headquarters, U.S. Coast Guard Station San Diego, the Port of Entry at Otay Mesa on the U.S.-Mexico border, and information on how U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials enforce the Mexican and Canadian borders. "They learned firsthand how the daily entrance and exit activities of Mexican and Canadian citizens are managed and concluded their tour with a drive in the security zone between Mexico and America," USNORTHCOM reported.

"With increased international and joint maritime operations, the inclusion of the Third Fleet mission and the Coast Guard's Eleventh District operations were crucial to the conference success," one U.S. military official said. "The Canadian Forces members from all services, interacting with their U.S. counterparts makes us more effective when our international operations take place," said Canadian Chief Warrant Officer Michel Ouellet. Indicating that U.S. Forces will enter Canada in the case of an "emergency," he added "it will also save critical time should a cross-border emergency occur." The 2012 conference will be held in Canada.

U.S. Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons

- Jason Leopold, Truthout, July 27, 2011 -

The United States Air Force has been training young missile officers about the morals and ethics of launching nuclear weapons by citing passages from the New Testament and commentary from a former member of the Nazi Party, according to newly released documents.

The mandatory Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare session, which includes a discussion on St. Augustine's "Christian Just War Theory," is led by Air Force chaplains and takes place during a missile officer's first week in training at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The "Christian Just War Theory" has been touted by Rep. Ron Paul, a 2012 presidential candidate, during campaign stops.

St. Augustine's "Qualifications for Just War," according to the way it is cited in a 43-page PowerPoint presentation, are: "to avenge or to avert evil; to protect the innocent and restore moral social order (just cause)" and "to restore moral order; not expand power, not for pride or revenge (just intent)."

The Air Force documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and provided to Truthout by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a civil rights organization. MRFF President Mikey Weinstein said more than 30 Air Force officers, a majority of whom describe themselves as practicing Protestants and Roman Catholics, have contacted his group over the past week in hopes of enlisting him to work with the Air Force to have the Christian-themed teachings removed from the nuclear weapons ethics training session. [Full disclosure: Weinstein is a member of Truthout's Board of Advisers.]

Included with the PowerPoint presentation are more than 500 pages of other documents pertaining to a missile officer's first week of training. After missile officers complete their training they are sent to one of three Air Force bases to guard the country's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) arsenal and, if called upon to do so by the president, launch their nuclear-armed Minuteman IIIs.

One of the slides used to explain to missile officers the moral justification for launching nuclear weapons quotes Wernher Von Braun, a former member of the Nazi Party and SS officer who used Jews imprisoned in concentration camps to help build the V-2 rocket.

"We knew that we had created a new means of warfare and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision [emphasis in document] more than anything else," Von Braun said upon surrendering to American forces in May 1945. "We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured." [emphasis in document]

Von Braun was part of a top-secret military program known as "Operation Paperclip," which recruited Nazi scientists after World War II who "were secretly brought to the United States, without State Department review and approval; their service for [Adolf] Hitler's Third Reich, [Nazi Party] and SS memberships as well as the classification of many as war criminals or security threats also disqualified them from officially obtaining visas," according to the Operation Paperclip web site.

Von Braun and about 500 or so other Nazi scientists who were part of the classified program worked on guided missile and ballistic missile technology at military installations in New Mexico, Alabama and Texas.

Ethical Questions

The Air Force has been citing Christian teachings in its missile officer training materials for at least a decade. One Air Force officer currently on active duty, who spoke to Truthout on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media, said he was trained as a missile officer in 2001 and vividly recalls how the chaplain leading the training session on the ethics of launching nuclear weapons said, "the American Catholic Church and their leadership says it's ok in their eyes to launch nukes."

The 381st Training Group and 392nd Training Squadron are responsible for training every Air Force Space and Missile Officer. Several emails and phone calls left for spokespeople at Vandenberg Air Force Base, where the squadron is based, were not returned. The PowerPoint identifies Chaplain Capt. Shin Soh as leading the nuclear ethics presentation.

One of the ethical questions contained in the PowerPoint presented to missile officers asks: "Can you imagine a set of circumstances that would warrant a nuclear launch from the US, knowing that it would kill thousands of non-combatants?"

Another question trainees are confronted with asks: "Can we train physically, emotionally and spiritually for a job we hope we never have to do?"

To help officers answer these ethical queries, the PowerPoint presentation cites numerous examples of characters from the New and Old Testament fighting "just" wars. For example, "Abraham organized an army to rescue Lot," God motivated "judges (Samson, Deborah, Barak) to fight and deliver Israel from foreign oppressors," and "David is a warrior who is also a 'man after God's own heart.'"

Also included in the PowerPoint presentation is a slide containing a passage from the Book of Revelation that attempts to explain how Jesus Christ, as the "mighty warrior," believed war to be "just."

It goes on to say that there are "many examples of believers [who] engaged in wars in Old Testament" in a "righteous way" and notes there is "no pacifistic sentiment in mainstream Jewish history."

The Air Force has been mired in numerous religious scandals over the past decade and has been sued for allowing widespread proselytization at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

The PowerPoint documents' blatant use of religious imagery and its numerous citations of the Bible seem to be yet another violation of the First Amendment establishing a wall of separation between church and state and Clause 3, Article 6 of the Constitution, which specifically prohibits a "religious test."

Weinstein, a graduate of the Air Force Academy and a former Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG), said a section of the PowerPoint presentation that has been cited by MRFF clients as being at the top of the list of "unconstitutional outrages" is the one "which wretchedly asserts that war is both ethical and part of 'the natural order' of man's existence on earth."

"Astonishingly, the training presentation grotesquely attempts to justify that unconscionable concept of 'war is good because Jesus says it is' by specifically textually referencing allegedly supportive bible passages from the New Testament Books of Luke, Acts, Hebrews, Timothy and, finally even Revelation," said Weinstein, a former White House counsel during the Reagan administration. "If this repugnant nuclear missile training is not Constitutionally violative of both the 'no religious test' mandate of the Constitution and the First Amendment's No Establishment Clause then those bedrock legal principles simply do not exist."

"Jesus Loves Nukes"

Former Air Force Capt. Damon Bosetti, 27, who attended missile officer training in 2006 and was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, said he and his colleagues used to call the religious section of the ethics training the "Jesus loves nukes speech."

"What I went through in 2006 didn't have that level of inappropriateness in it, but it was still strongly religious," he said of the PowerPoint presentation the Air Force now uses for training missile officers.

Bosetti, who is represented by MRFF, said he believes the intent of quoting Bible passages was to make officers feel "comfortable" about launching nuclear weapons and signing a legal document stating they had "no moral qualms" about "turning the key" if ordered to do so.

The legal document from the Department of the Air Force, Air Education and Training Command, which was also released under the FOIA, states, in part, "I will perform duties involving the operation of nuclear-armed ICBMs and will launch them if lawfully ordered to do so by the President of the United States or his lawful successor." [emphasis in document]

Bosetti, an officer who left active duty in the Air Force last year, said officers were immediately presented with the three-page document to sign after the end of the training session on nuclear ethics.

"I think the average American would be and should be very disturbed to know that people go through training where the Air Force quotes the Bible," Bosetti said. "This type of teaching sets a dangerous precedent because no one above you is objecting. It shifts the group definition of acceptable behavior more and more off track."

A senior Air Force Space and Missile officer who reviewed the materials, said the teachings are "an outrage of the highest order."

"No way in hell should this have been presented as a mandatory briefing to ALL in the basic missiles class," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It presumes ALL missile officers are religious and specifically in need of CHRISTIAN justification for their service.

"If they wanted to help people with their spiritual/religious/secular justification for serving as missile officers, then they should've said something like 'for those of you with religious concerns about missile duty, we've arranged the following times to chat with chaplains from your particular faith group. For those with secular concerns about the morality of missile duty, we'll have a discussion moderated by a professor [and/or] counselor, a noted ethicist, too. If you're already good with your role and duty as a missile officer, then you're welcome to hit the golf course or gym.'"

The senior Air Force officer added that the commander of the training squadron "that approved this, along with the Training Group Commander at Vandenberg, should be fired instantly for allowing it."

Weinstein said the combination of citing fundamentalist Christianity and a Nazi scientist as a way of explaining to missile officers why launching nuclear weapons is ethical is a new low for the Air Force.

"Leave it to the United States Air Force to find a way to dictate the 'ethical' value of nuclear war and its inevitable role in the 'natural order' of humanity's existence, to its missile launch officer trainees by merging unadulterated, fundamentalist Christian end times Armageddon doctrines with the tortured 'people who are guided by the bible' endorsements of a former, leading Nazi SS official," Weinstein said.

July 30, 2011 Bulletin • Return to Index • Write to: editor@cpcml.ca