Were secret military spy planes used to find wannabe Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad? No way, the White House says.

Benjamin C. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, tells The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder that "the actions described simply did not take place."

Not that the RC-12 signals intelligence aircraft couldn't have been used. The planes "were tasked to help the F.B.I. intercept cell phone communications of the Beltway sniper suspects in 2002," Ambinder notes. "RC-12s were also in the air over Salt Lake City during the Olympics."

The Posse Comitatus Act forbids the U.S. military from operating on American soil. But the law has all sorts of caveats. The military can help law enforcement stop drug-runners. The armed services can be called in if there's a potential nuclear, chemical, or biological "weapon of mass destruction.” And none of the restrictions apply to the Coast Guard or the National Guard.

In 2008, the Mississippi Air National Guard began training pilots and sensor operators to man an expanded fleet of RC-12s.

[Photo: via Defense Industry Daily]

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