Documents obtained by The Washington Post indicate that the Pentagon is evaluating plans to set up a task force of National Guard soldiers who could respond to riots, violence, and unrest in American cities.
The report says Alabama is included in the tentative plans as the host of one of two planned bases for a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force.”
The Washington Post reported that documents it obtained are marked “predecisional.”
National Guard officials developed the documents, which were time-stamped as recent as last July and early August.
A Pentagon spokeswoman told the publication that it would not comment on “leaked documents.”
The idea, according to the documents obtained by the Washington Post, is to set up a rotation of Army and Air Force National Guard soldiers from multiple states, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The troops would be on standby for deployment from two bases – one in Alabama and one in Arizona, the Post reported. There would be 300 troops at each of the two bases.
The report follows President Trump’s announcement Monday that he had placed the police in Washington, D.C., under federal control and and deployed the National Guard “to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, D.C.”
Some of the 800 National Guard members deployed by Trump began arriving on Tuesday, to take over the city’s police department and reduce crime in what the president called — without substantiation — a lawless city, according to The Associated Press.
Alabama U.S. Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville have spoken out on social media in favor of Trump’s actions in Washington.
“Our nation’s capital should represent the best of America. Sadly, the seat of our government has rapidly deteriorated due to radical left-wing policies,” Britt posted on Sunday.
“Mayor Bowser has failed D.C.,” Tuberville posted on Monday.
Tuberville also thanked Trump “for deploying the National Guard and for working to restore our capital to the shining jewel of America.”
The Washington Post report also said the the National Guard tested the concept when it put 600 troops on alert in Arizona and Alabama on alert before the 2020 election to respond to possible unrest in cities.
AL.com has asked Gov. Kay Ivey’s office for any information about the Washington Post report and will update the story if that becomes available.
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