Gangsters, troops shoot it out in Rio's slums
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/03/09/brazil.army.reut/index.html?section=cnn_world
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) -- Gangsters attacked Brazilian
troops in the slums of Rio de Janeiro with grenades and gunfire
overnight, the latest salvo in a six-day military operation to find
stolen weapons that residents say has made life intolerable.
Middle-class and wealthy Rio residents, ironically the
main market for the traffickers, have welcomed the operation.
But human rights activists and some academics have questioned
the use of the army in an anti-crime role in a country that
lived under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.
"This is happening at a delicate moment," Maria Celina D'Araujo
of the Getulio Vargas Foundation think-tank said in Folha de S.Paulo
newspaper.
"On one hand, the people want the military as an arm of a
democratic state. On the other hand they want security because
of the actions of drug traffickers," she said.
D'Araujo said the United States had put pressure on Latin American
armies to get more involved in crime operations -- a role some,
including Brazil, are reluctant to take on because of the bitter
legacy of military rule.
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Bush military bird flu role slammed:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/05/bush.reax/
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A call by President George W. Bush for
Congress to give him the power to use the military in law enforcement
roles in the event of a bird flu pandemic has been criticized as akin to
introducing martial law.
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 bans the military from participating in
police-type activity on U.S. soil.
Bush began discussing the possibility of changing the law banning
the military from participating in police-type activity last month, in the
aftermath of the government's sluggish response to civil unrest
following Hurricane Katrina.
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