U.S. says it will send soldiers to help guard borders

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Soldiers will be sent to U.S. borders to work with the other federal agencies that guard the frontiers, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace did not say what kinds of soldiers will be sent or what they will do. He said such operations eventually will be overseen by a new military commander for operations protecting the United States.

President Bush called for strengthening the nation’s border defenses in his State of the Union address Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he would present plans for the new commander to President Bush next week. The commander would direct the nation’s air, land and sea defenses against attacks on the United States from terrorists or other enemies.

Rumsfeld said the military would not stay on the borders very long.

"When the general says some forces are going to be assigned to the borders, it’s going to be for a brief period," Rumsfeld said.

Both spoke Thursday to students at the National Defense University, the government’s graduate school for military officers and executive branch officials.

The new commander for homeland security will need to coordinate actions with other government agencies such as the civilian Office of Homeland Security created by President Bush, Pace said.

The commander will also have to decide what the military should do inside the United States and how to do it, Pace said.

Even the location of the new commander’s offices has not been determined. The commander probably would want to be near Washington, D.C., but not too near, in case of another terrorist attack on the nation’s capital.

"So whoever this new (commander) is going to be come 1 October, he is going to be very busy just figuring out what questions to answer and then determining how to go about answering them," Pace said.

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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