Pentagon wants new command

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon will ask the White House for approval to set up a new four-star command to coordinate federal troops used to defend North America, part of an intensified effort to bolster homeland security, defense officials said.

The move was prompted by the domestic security demands placed on the military after the Sept. 11 attacks and the Bush administration's war on terrorism.

Although the Pentagon has regional commanders in chief, known as CINCs, who are responsible for Europe, the Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and South Asia, none exists for U.S. forces in the United States and Canada. The proposed change would give a single four-star officer authority over such domestic deployments as Air Force jets patrolling above U.S. cities, Navy ships running coastal checks and Army National Guard troops policing airports and border crossings.

Before September, military leaders had resisted the idea of a homeland CINC (pronounced "sink"), reflecting a traditional aversion to -- and legal limits on -- the use of federal armed forces for domestic law enforcement. Opposition also existed outside the Pentagon, with civil libertarians and right-wing militia groups warning against military forces encroaching on areas traditionally considered the responsibility of civilian emergency response, law enforcement and health agencies.

But in recent months, as military air, sea and land patrols pressed into action by the Pentagon have answered to several four-star commanders, the Defense Department's top military officers have come to accept the need for streamlining the chain of command.

Earlier opposition from such groups as the American Civil Liberties Union also has waned, although concerns persist about possible "mission creep" and the risk that military forces deployed around the country could threaten individual rights.

Many details for the new command structure have yet to be worked out, including where it would be located.

Responsibility for coordinating federal activities in homeland defense rests with Tom Ridge, who heads the White House's Office of Homeland Security, which was set up after the Sept. 11 attacks. While the new Pentagon command would doubtless have links to Ridge's office, it would formally fall in a separate chain of authority running from the president through the secretary of defense to those federal troops enlisted in the homeland effort.

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