Shadow government

“WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly six months after the September 11 attacks, a backup government of federal agency officials is on standby at bunker locations outside Washington as a precaution against a catastrophic strike on the nation's capital, a senior official told CNN Friday.

The secretive operation is based on Cold War protocols and its guidelines and infrastructure are the subject of urgent review within the administration to bring "continuity of government" planning up to modern-day needs and capabilities, the federal official said.

Vice President Dick Cheney had been at "a secure and undisclosed" location for large portions of time since the terrorist strikes on New York and the Pentagon, precautions that were part of the bunker government procedures.

But while Cheney has resumed a schedule that is "almost normal," as the senior official put it, the bunker government of "several dozen, roughly 100" senior government workers remains in place, using two secure locations in the eastern United States that were constructed for such a contingency.

Because Bush has decided to leave the operation in place, agencies including the White House and top civilian Cabinet departments have rotated personnel involved, and are discussing ways to staff such a contingency operation under the assumption it will be in place indefinitely, this official said.

"We are learning a lot from just putting this in place, and we are adjusting to that," the official said.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, said Friday he can't say much about the plan.

"We have not been informed at all about the role of the shadow government or its whereabouts or what particular responsibilities they have and when they would kick in, but we look forward to work with the administration to get additional information on that."

He was asked if there was a similar plan for Congress. "I don't know if I'd call it a survival plan, but there is a plan that would be implemented were we to be in any jeopardy," Daschle said at a news conference Friday.

"Precautions have been taken and arrangements have been made to move the work of the Congress to another location. And that has been in place for some time and refined over time."

The lessons, according to this official, included a dramatic need to improve computer and other communications equipment and capabilities at the secure locations. Also, several departments are reviewing legal requirements to make sure those serving in the bunker government have the statutory or regulatory authority to carry out key government functions should contact with Washington somehow be severed.

The guidelines for such a precaution date back to Cold War preparations for the prospect of a devastating nuclear attack on the United States, and were last significantly revised in the Reagan administration.

Bush triggered the precautions in the hours after the September 11 strikes, and has left them in place because of continuing U.S. intelligence suggesting a possible threat.

This is your government in hiding. Hiding from responsibility of its foreign policy actions. They are the true targets of terrorists, but because they are hiding and inaccessible, they in effect make average US citizens targets and put us in danger and in peril. If the Bush administration were more responsible, innocent lives would not have been lost on 9/11.”

“Well finally, a thread on the damn SHADOW GOVERNMENT!

And not just some tattoed government number on an arm.

Or a sun flare.

Or whatever it meant.”

“Yeah, but it was a nice sun flare while it lasted.”

“So I wasn't the only one completely freaked out by this? Why hasn't this thing been dismantled and disbanded by now?”

“Only makes sense to have a shadow government. Heck, I got a spare tire in my car. Same concept.”

“Hey, I bought the spare tire on my car. Did I elect the shadow government?”

“Exactly.”

“We didn't elect the current one either for that matter.”

“Ouch! No fair being so truthful, Violin.”

“It keeps feeling less and less like a democracy, doesn't it?”

“My spare tire came as part of my car, not as a seperate option. Boy, somebody suckered you!

Just kidding.. you have a good point.”

“Sheesh Spock. Didn't you hear? 9/11 was Clinton's fault.”

“Hey, Artex, you callin' Cheney a spare tire?

Rewrite history now. Why wait? It's all Clinton's fault!”

“I think the only thing that's Clinton's fault is that stain on Monica Lewinski's dress.”

“9/11 is Reagan's fault.”

“Nope, 9/11 is Osama's fault.”

“Artex is extremely good at this game. Right on both counts! Impressive.”

“I think it comes from being an independent! ;-)”

“Let's hear it for independence.”

“Sometimes the world just flat out sucks!

Who to blame........?

8|”

“thebackpacker, I am afraid you are in violation of the Terms of Participation for this site.

To wit: Posts that demean a country, nation, religion, or particular group of people.
Creation of multiple off topic threads within a short time period.

Please limit your posts to those approved i.e. guns, dogs, jello and sophomoric haiku.”

“From what I understand the shadow Govt. is representive of the current situation ie. WH senate HOR..and last time I checked Bush won the electoral college..which if I remeber correctly is the way in which we elect our presidents...”

“We are all to blame for 9/11 !! And don't believe that that terrorist attack would not have happened if there was a different President. Because you would only be kidding yourself. All this finger pointing and whining that so many seem to do is pointless. As if policy makers hang out here listening to you gripe about this and that. Get involved if you care so much about your freedoms, think about the NRA.

This stuff is old news!”

“I think WS Davies just put "WH0RE" into the government. Appropriate acronym!! (lol)”

“I volunteer to be Secretary of the Interior if everyone below U.S. 10 is wiped out. The North Country Trail will get top priorty.”

“Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore
© John Prine

While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I tell her how good I feel.

Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took her up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.

Repeat Chorus:

Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...

But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.”

“Steamrunner, you have just violated the terms of participation. Please desist from posting any threads that might be construed as not following blindly any foreign or domestic policy that the W administration deems a patriotic response to 9/11. (Which is all of them.)”

“At the risk of being called a fear monger...

Is it so far out of the realm of possibility that a small nuclear device could be detinated close enough to the buildings that house our leaders? 9/11 seamed that far out too. But it wasn't? Let's just say for the hell of it, that something like this could happen and Congress, the Senate and/or the pres. is wiped out. What would the effects of this be? Look how much chaos was cause by just civies getting killed. Image 9/11 compounded by the death of our leaders. There would be a great political/leadership vaccuum that could be filled by nearly anyone. The only thing standing in there way would be the gun owners of this great nation. So won't ya please join the NRA today and help saveb our great nation? It's your duty, ya know?”

“I'm polishing my gun, right now, if you know what I mean.
What would be wrong with keeping Cheney in a location away from the president? Isn't the Secretary of State in line to assume power, also? It wouldn't be hard to keep Powell in a geographical location that is out of the range of a small nuclear device. I think that it is detrimental to tempt fate with a "shadow government". As with many things in life, you have to play the odds, and the odds that a terrorist organization could wipe out our complete chain of command at one time is very slim. This seems to be giving too much credence to these low-life terrorists. Let's try not to over-dramatize the situation. It doesn't help anyone.”

“Ouch, Dunadan, that hurt. I guess you're a non-John Prine fan with absolutely no sense of humor. Man, lighten up a little! geez!”

“LOL, Streamrunner! Saw John Prine in Kansas City. Light as a feather, here.”

“A dry wit doesn't always translate well in print.”

“What scares me is that this SHADOW GOVT is only a shadow of the Executive Branch, the other two are not a part of it. This is basicaly going to transfer power solely to the Executive branch should a tradgedy strike in Washington. Can we say Dictatorship? That government is not constitutional!”

“That's cool, Dunadan. I sure didn't see the wit earlier, Oops! Hey, is John still playing his older stuff live anymore? I haven't had a chance to see him live. (btw, I really don't know why the media has decided to help our government to appear in the least bit scared of these scumbags)”

“you got it, thinair.

And I counsider that John Prine song to be my anthem for the time being.”

“Briar Rabbit, it's conceivable that the attacks of 9/11 are solely attributable to Bush. Osama and terrorists look for weak spots to hit, and they knew that the time was perfect after Bush stole the election and that the American people did not have a lot of support or respect for the Bush leadership. Whether or not that's true, it's how Osama perceived the situation and decided it was an opportune time to attack. If Gore had won the election, the events of 9/11 might not have played out.

And this Bush Republican shadow government is further proof that the GOP is evil. Living and hiding in underground bunkers... not unlike the devil living in the underworld and hiding. At least Clinton was open and walked the streets of America freely and shaking hands with the people. The people loved Clinton as much as people love God. Clinton is closer to God, Bush closer to the devil.”

“9/11 happened. It was Osama's fault, nobody elses. Blame him and nobody else. To do otherwise is speculation and a waste of time.”

“I agree with Artex on this one. Let's try to concentrate on the immediate perpetrators. Speculation comes second to that.
Thinair. Thankyou for pointing that out. Why has that point not been debated in the media?
Streamrunner, he finished with "Illegal Smile" and everyone sang along. You should try to see him, cause he ain't gettin' no younger.”

“Could "they" have dusted off the Greenbrier Retreat in eastern West Virginia as a hiding place for the "Shadow Guv"?

Then there is Fort Ritchie near Thurmont, Maryland.

Those are both underground hidey-holes that the government built for Cold War use.

Osama, are you listening?”

“Published on Saturday, March 2, 2002 by Common Dreams
Save the Really Important People
by Nancy Snow

Last weekend I was at a political event in Malibu where a woman named Paradise asked a member of Congress to do what he could to protect the dolphins and whales that are becoming casualties to U.S. Navy sonar radar tests. I have a strong feeling that Paradise is going to have to add “Save the Humans” to the list of grievances. Today we have learned what many expected for so long; there is a shadow government of really important people that the federal government has tapped to be the sole survivors in case something very bad (think nuclear) hits the U.S. capital.
Are you starting to get a very strong impression that we are living in a two-tiered society, one for the executive level that knows when to cash in its shares of Enron stock or enter the Cheney bunkers and the other for us poor souls holding useless stock and standing outside the bunkers? The insiders, those high-ranking officials who are part of the underground government “would try to contain disruptions of the nation’s food and water supplies, transportation links, energy and telecommunications networks, public health and civil order. Later it would begin to reconstitute the government” (Washington Post, 3/1). In case there is a run on survivor space, the Post “agreed to a White House request not to name any of those deployed or identify the two principal locations of the shadow government.” This is definitely not another Blue Light special. How many people are we talking about with all that responsibility to run the country the day after disaster? Roughly the size of our U.S. Senate, although in this case the representation for the shadow government is from the executive branch only, not the Congress or the judiciary. (Sorry, Rep. Barbara Lee.)

The shadow government activation, a classified “Continuity of Operations Plan” going back to the “nuclear is fun” days of I Love Lucy and I Like Ike, came within hours of the September 11th attacks. Originally executed “on the fly” and envisioned to be a temporary response to terrorist risks, it was then made a permanent feature of the “new reality” as some call the post 9-11 era. By the time Bush created the Office of Homeland Security (Executive Order 13228) one day after beginning to bomb Afghanistan, the new Director Tom Ridge was asked to “review plans and preparations for ensuring the continuity of the Federal Government in the event of a terrorist attack that threatens the safety and security of the United States Government or its leadership.” Leadership seems to have a decided advantage.

Those called up for bunker service must not tell their families what they are doing or where they are going other than to say they are going on a “business trip.” We’ve all heard that one before. In this case, rotation begins at 90-day intervals, so one would be hard pressed to envision a weekend fling in Palm Springs.

Feeling left out of the contingency plan? Seek solace in Walter Lippmann’s The Phantom Public: “The actual governing is made up of a multitude of arrangements on specific questions by particular individuals. These rarely become visible to the private citizen. Government, in the long intervals between elections, is carried on by politicians, officeholders, and influential men who make settlements with other politicians, officeholders, and influential men. The mass of people see these settlements, judge them, and affect them only now and then…Nor in any exact and literal sense are those who conduct the daily business of government accountable after the fact to the great mass of voters. They are accountable only, except in spectacular cases, to the other politicians, officeholders and influential men directly interested in the particular act. Modern society is not visible to anybody, nor intelligible continuously and as a whole.”

So there you have it. We finally have come to understand the need for this shadow government. It is the insiders who make decisions and gain entry into the bunker because they know better than the rest of us the true gravity of the situation and can act responsibly to rebuild after a crisis. The outsider, according to Lippmann, “is necessarily ignorant, usually irrelevant and often meddlesome, because he is trying to navigate the ship from dry land.” Or in this case, with covered face under the desk.

There is a silver lining in the mushroom cloud. For us Baby Boomer outsiders, we can take some comfort in the great equalizer that only superpowers exhibit. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “virtually every person in the United States since 1951 has been exposed to radioactive fallout” (New York Times, 3/1). That means insiders and outsiders, unless there is some top-secret nuclear sunscreen we don’t know about.

Nancy Snow holds a Ph.D. in international relations from American University, Washington, D.C. At the rate the real news is going, she may switch careers to political satire. Reach her at www.snowmachine.com”

“So I guess the Shadow Government guys have "hit the mattresses".......

Of course you know, this means WAR!!!”

“so when do we get to vote for the shadow president? I mean this is a democratic government right?”

“The United States is not a democratic government, it is a republic. A democratic form of government is one in which the people decide issues directly (i.e. in the form of town halls or direct votes). A republic is one in which the people elect representatives who make policy decisions.

Now, the rest of the story behind this "shadow" government. Shortly after the WTC bombings, intelligence sources reported that a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon had been obtained from the Russian arsenal and was being smuggled into New York. The report is now believed to have been false, BUT intelligence experts believe another attack is probable.

If detonated in Manhattan, the 10-kiloton nuclear weapon is large enough to flatten an area 1/2 mile in diameter, kill 100,000 and irradiate 700,000 more. Think what this would do in Washington and this "shadow" government becomes a necessity from a disaster recovery perspective.

Think about it another way--if a nuclear bomb was detonated in Washington while President Bush was addressing a joint session of Congress and all were killed, what mayhem would result if such planning did not take place?

I applaud the executive branch for this planning. Both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court should do the same.”

“Thinair's point was a good one. So the question that begs to be answered is, since there are THREE branches of government, has the Executive Branch also created a shadow Congress and a shadow Judicial Branch? Did he create a shadow Office of Homeland Security? A shadow office of the GAO, so they can continue their work of finding out why GW longs to return government operations to the "good ol' days" of the secretive Nixon White House?

moooooooHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Maybe they should let the runner up (loser) of the last election pres? I can see Gore helping out the Talitubbies now in finding a bomb! LOL!”

“Nigal, they are letting the runner-up in the popular vote play pres if you want to play that game. Hee Haww!

Hiking mood, how will this shadow government achieve a system of checks and balances, as is supposed to happen constitutionally between the executive, legislative and judicial branches?”

“I think it is the responsibility of those branches to do their own planning. Since we have a government based on a system of checks and balances, the executive branch should not bear responsibility for deciding who is in the "shadow" Supreme Court or the "shadow" Congress? I would not want President Bush to decide that any more than I would want Presidents Clinton or _______ (insert name).”

“"Nigal, they are letting the runner-up in the popular vote play pres if you want to play that game. Hee Haww!"

I've said it before and I'll say it again...Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die! Die liberal! Die!


What'd we do if Seattle got nuked? Do we have a bunch of "shadow Yuppies" in place? Hardy harhar, ey?”

“Hiking mood, I guess the ship is sinking and it's every Branch for itself?

Nigal, there's no way in hell they'd nuke Seattle, what with Bill Gates being on the Tri-Lateral Commission and all.

BTW, "yuppie" is sooooo 90's. We now prefer to thought of as a monoculture: affluent, childless, in an office-type profession, educated yet decidedly non-intellectual, "culturally aware" yet relentlessly middlebrow, "active in the community" yet devoutly pro-business, a devout attender of high-volume, high-priced restaurants, and a strong supporter of "diversity" just as long as everybody looks and behaves identically bland. Yer jes' jealous!”

“One thing that is certain, there won't be anything shadowy about the martial law our shadow government will declare.”