She wrote, “Will Homeland Security Turn Into Homeland Spying?” less than a year after 9/11.

Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon were surprised to learn that the NSHS calls for a “plan for military support to civil authorities.” Military support, such as through the National Guard, is to include “technical support and assistance to law enforcement, assisting in the restoration of law and order, loaning specialized equipment, and assisting in consequence management.”

Those dangerous concepts remind us of the use of the military (including tanks) against civilians that resulted in the 1993 incineration of dozens of children at the Branch Davidian home near Waco, Texas. If U.S. troops are to defend us against terrorists, they should be used to prevent suspicious aliens from coming across our borders, not for police work against U.S. citizens.

Gen. Ralph E. Eberhart, the head of Bush’s newly established Northern Command for domestic security, said we should review the Posse Comitatus law “if we think it ties our hands.” But tying the hands of the military over civilians is what Posse Comitatus is supposed to do.

In 1998 the Clinton Administration proposed a federal regulation called Know Your Customer, which would have turned your friendly local banker into a snoop reporting to the federal database called FinCen any deviation from what the bank decided is your deposits/withdrawal profile. The American people responded with 300,000 angry e-mail criticisms and the regulation was withdrawn.

The Bush Administration’s proposed regulations to implement the USA Patriot Act passed last year are even more intrusive. Some people seem to think it’s acceptable to profile the bank accounts of law-abiding citizens but not acceptable to profile Middle Eastern Muslim aliens who might hijack an airplane.

Americans must not allow the 9/11 terrorists to turn America into a police state. The job of the Federal Government is to stop suspicious people at the border.