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September 2000
from
TheSpectrumNews Website to know which way the wind blows" Bob Dylan
You start to pull on a thread and you never really know just where it might lead. This started out to be a simple, straightforward research investigation.
Then some closets were examined and a whole lot of skeletons fell out. And that was only for starters! But let me start at the beginning and not get ahead of my story. The journey you are about to take will lead you to many unforeseen and unforgettable places.
You will probably ask yourself - more than once - if this is even real. This story will lay forth a woven tapestry of such intricate design that you will marvel at the clever constructs of the "Shadow Government“. There‘s an old saying that applies to what they‘ve accomplished: "Do it right under their noses.“
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, has been tarred and feathered by many conspiracy theorists - and rightly so. Its highly questionable financial origins are outside the control of Congress, and there is a vast sea of bizarre history behind the scenes of this seemingly service-oriented, quasi-government agency.
Let us now begin a strange journey through the history of an agency which has evolved through many aliases on the way to finally being known as FEMA.
Few Americans - indeed, few Congressional reps - are aware of the existence of Mount Weather, a mysterious underground military base carved deep inside a mountain near the sleepy rural town of Bluemont, Virginia, just 46 miles from Washington DC.
Mount Weather - also known as the Western Virginia Office of Controlled Conflict Operations - is buried not just in hard granite, but in secrecy as well. In March of 1976, the Progressive Magazine published an astonishing article entitled "The Mysterious Mountain.“
The author, Richard Pollock, based his investigative report on Senate subcommittee hearings and upon "several off-the-record interviews with officials formerly associated with Mount Weather“.
His report and a 1991 article in TIME magazine entitled "Doomsday Hideaway“, supply a few compelling hints about what is going on underground. Ted Gup, writing for TIME, describes the base as follows: Mount Weather is a virtually self-contained facility.
Above ground, scattered across manicured lawns, are about a dozen buildings bristling with antennas and microwave relay systems.
An on-site sewage-treatment plant, with a 90,000 gallon-a-day capacity, and two tanks holding 250,000 gallons of water, could last some 200 people more than a month; underground ponds hold additional water supplies.
Not far from the installation‘s entry gate is a control tower plus a helicopter pad. The mountain‘s real secrets are not visible at ground level. The mountain‘s "real secrets“ are protected by warning signs, ten feet high chain link fences, razor wire and armed guards. Curious motorists and hikers on the Appalachian trail are relieved of their sketching pads and cameras and sent on their way. Security is tight.
The government has owned the site since 1903; it has seen service as an artillery range, a hobo farm during the Depression, and a National Weather Bureau Facility. In 1936, the U.S. Bureau of Mines took control and started digging. Mount Weather is virtually an underground city, according to former personnel interviewed by Pollock.
Buried deep inside the Earth, Mount Weather was equipped with such amenities as:
Mount Weather is the self-sustaining underground command center for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The facility is the operational center - the hub - of approximately 100 other Federal Relocation Centers, most of which are concentrated in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. Together this network of underground facilities constitutes the backbone of America‘s "Continuity of Government“ program.
In the event of nuclear war, declaration of martial law, or other national emergency, the President, his cabinet, and the rest of the Executive Branch would be "relocated“ to Mount Weather.
WHAT DOES CONGRESS KNOW ABOUT MOUNT WEATHER?
According to the Senate Subcommittee On Constitutional Rights hearings in 1975, Congress has almost no knowledge and no oversight - budgetary or otherwise - on Mount Weather.
Retired Air Force General Leslie W. Bray, in his testimony to the subcommittee said:
Apparently, this underground capital of the United States is a secret only to Congress and the US taxpayers who paid for it.
The Russians know about it, as reported in TIME:
The Russians attempted to buy real estate right next door, as a "country estate“ for their embassy folks, but that deal was dead-ended by the State Department.
Mount Weather‘s "Government-In-Waiting,“ Pollock‘s report, based on his interviews with former officials at Mount Weather, contains astounding information on the base‘s personnel.
The underground city contains a parallel government-in-waiting:
Nine federal departments are replicated within Mount Weather:
As well as at least five federal agencies:
The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Post Office, both private corporations, also have offices in Mount Weather.
Pollock writes that the "cabinet members“ are apparently appointed by the White House and serve an indefinite term, but that information cannot be confirmed, raising the further question of who holds the reins on this "back-up government“.
Furthermore, appointed Mount Weather officials hold their positions through several elected administrations, transcending the time their appointers spend in office. Unlike other presidential nominees, these appointments are made without the public advice or consent of the Senate. Is there an alternative President and Vice President as well? If so, who appoints them?
Pollock says only this:
What Do They Do At Mount Weather?
WHO PAYS FOR ALL THIS AND HOW MUCH?
At the same time tens of millions of dollars were being spent on maintaining and upgrading the complex to protect several hundred designated officials in the event of nuclear attack, the US government drastically reduced its emphasis on war preparedness for US citizens.
A 1989 FEMA brochure entitled, "Are You Prepared?“ suggests that citizens construct makeshift fallout shelters using used furniture, books, and other common household items. Officially, Mount Weather (and its budget) does not exist.
FEMA refuses to answer inquiries about the facility; as FEMA spokesman Bob Blair told TIME magazine:
We don‘t know how much Mount Weather has cost over the years, but of course, American taxpayers bear this burden as well.
A Christian Science Monitor article entitled,
WHAT IS MOUNT WEATHER’S ULTIMATE PURPOSE?
The facility contains a massive database of information on U.S. citizens which is operated with no safeguards or accountability. Ostensibly, this expensive hub of America‘s network of subterranean bases was designed to preserve our form of government during a nuclear holocaust.
However, Mount Weather is not simply a Cold War holdover. Information on command and control strategies during national emergencies have largely been withheld from the American public.
Executive Order 11051, signed by President Kennedy on October 2, 1962, states that
However, Executive Order 11490, drafted by Gen. George A. Lincoln (former director for the Office of Emergency Preparedness, the FPA‘s predecessor) and signed by President Nixon in October 1969, tells a different story.
EO 11490, which superseded Kennedy‘s EO 11051, begins:
As researcher William Cooper points out,
With that said, let‘s turn to a classic gem of good research which continues this theme of documenting the machinery in place that skirts our Constitution. See if you don‘t begin to sense that "entirely different reality“ than what we are led to believe is the case.
Mount Weather is only one part of this vast equation.
FEMA - THE SECRET GOVERNMENT by Harry V. Martin with research assistance from David Caul (Free America and Harry V. Martin, 1995)
Some people have referred to it as the "secret government“ of the United States. It is not an elected body; it does not involve itself in public disclosures; and it even has a quasi-secret budget in the billions of dollars.
This government organization has more power than the President of the United States or the Congress; it has the power to suspend laws, move entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant, and hold them without trial; it can seize property, food supplies, transportation systems, and can suspend the Constitution. Not only is it the most powerful entity in the United States, but it was not even created under constitutional law by the Congress.
It was a product of a Presidential Executive Order. No, it is not the U.S. military, nor the Central Intelligence Agency; they are subject to Congress. The organization is called FEMA which stands for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Originally conceived in the Richard Nixon Administration, it was refined by President Jimmy Carter and given teeth in the Ronald Reagan and George Bush Administrations.
FEMA had one original concept when it was created: to assure the survivability of the United States government in the event of a nuclear attack on this nation.
It was also provided with the task of being a federal coordinating body during times of domestic disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Its awesome powers grow under the tutelage of people like Lt. Col. Oliver North and General Richard Secord, the architects on the Iran-Contra scandal and the looting of America‘s savings and loan institutions.
FEMA has even been given control of the State Defense Forces, a rag-tag, often considered neo-Nazi, civilian army that will substitute for the National Guard if the Guard is called to duty overseas.
THE MOST POWERFUL ORGANIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Though it may be the most powerful organization in the United States, few people know it even exists; however, it has crept into our private lives.
Even mortgage papers contain FEMA‘s name in small print if the property in question is near a flood plain.
FEMA was deeply involved in the Los Angeles riots and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some of the black helicopter traffic reported throughout the United States, (mainly in the West: California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado) are flown by FEMA personnel.
FEMA has been given responsibility for many new disasters, including urban forest fires, home heating emergencies, refugee situations, urban riots, and emergency planning for nuclear and toxic incidents. In the West, it works in conjunction with the Sixth Army.
FEMA was created in a series of Executive Orders. A Presidential Executive Order, whether constitutional or not, becomes law simply by its publication in the Federal Registry. Congress is by-passed. Executive Order Number 12148 created the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is to interface with the Department of Defense for civil defense planning and funding; an "emergency czar“ was appointed at that time.
FEMA has only spent about 6% of its budget on national emergencies, the bulk of their funding has been used for the construction of secret underground facilities to assure continuity of government in case of a major emergency, foreign or domestic.
Executive Order Number 12656 appointed the National Security Council as the principal body that should consider emergency powers. This allows the government to increase domestic intelligence and surveillance of U.S. citizens and would restrict the freedom of movement within the United States and grant the government the right to isolate large groups of civilians.
The National Guard could be federalized to seal all borders and take control of U.S. air space and all ports of entry. Here are just a few Executive Orders associated with FEMA that would suspend the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.
These Executive Orders have been on record for nearly 30 years and could be enacted by the stroke of a Presidential pen:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has broad powers in every aspect of the nation.
General Frank Salzedo, chief of FEMA‘s Civil Security Division, stated in a 1983 conference that he saw FEMA‘s role as a,
FEMA‘s powers were consolidated by Ex-President Carter to incorporate:
These powers were transferred to FEMA in a sweeping consolidation in 1979.
HURRICANE ANDREW FOCUSED ATTENTION ON FEMA
FEMA‘s deceptive role really did not come to light with much of the public until hurricane Andrew smashed into the U.S. mainland.
As Russell R. Dynes, director of the Disaster Research Center of the University of Delaware wrote in The World and I:
Because FEMA was accused of dropping the ball in Florida, the media and Congress commenced to study this agency.
What came out of the critical look was that FEMA was spending 12 times more for "black operations“ than for disaster relief. It spent $1.3 billion building secret bunkers throughout the United States in anticipation of government disruption by foreign or domestic upheaval. Yet, fewer than 20 members of Congress - only members with top security clearance - know of the $1.3 billion expenditure by FEMA for non-natural disaster situations.
These few Congressional leaders state that FEMA has a "black curtain“ around its operations. FEMA has worked on National Security programs since 1979, and its predecessor, the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency, has secretly spent millions of dollars before being merged into FEMA by President Carter in 1979.
FEMA has developed 300 sophisticated mobile units that are capable of sustaining themselves for a month. The vehicles are located in five areas of the United States. They have tremendous communication systems and each contains a generator that would provide power to 120 homes each but have never been used for disaster relief.
FEMA‘s enormous powers can be triggered easily. In any form of domestic or foreign problem, perceived and not always actual, emergency powers can be enacted.
The President of the United States now has broader powers to declare martial law, which activates FEMA‘s extraordinary powers. Martial law can be declared during times of increased tension overseas, economic problems within the United States, such as a depression, civil unrest, such as demonstrations or scenes like the Los Angeles riots, and in a drug crisis.
These Presidential powers have increased with successive crime bills, particularly the 1991 and 1993 Crime Bill, which increase the power to suspend the rights guaranteed under the Constitution and to seize property of those suspected of being drug dealers, to individuals who participate in a public protest or demonstration.
Under emergency plans already in existence, the power exists to suspend the Constitution and turn over the reigns of government to FEMA and appointing military commanders to run state and local governments. FEMA then would have the right to order the detention of anyone whom there is reasonable ground to believe will engage in, or probably conspire with others to engage in, acts of espionage or sabotage.
The plan also authorized the establishment of concentration camps for detaining the accused, but no trial. Three times since 1984, FEMA stood on the threshold of taking control of the nation: once under President Reagan in 1984 and twice under President Bush in 1990 and 1992.
However, under those three scenarios, there was not a sufficient crisis to warrant risking martial law. Most experts on the subject of FEMA and martial law insist that a crisis has to appear dangerous enough for the people of the United States before they would tolerate or accept complete government takeover.
The typical crisis needed would be:
THREE TIMES FEMA STOOD BY READY FOR EMERGENCY
In April 1984, President Reagan signed Presidential Directive Number 54 that allowed FEMA to engage in a secret national "readiness exercise“ under the code name of REX 84.
The exercise was to test FEMA‘s readiness to assume military authority in the event of a "State of Domestic National Emergency“ concurrent with the launching of a direct United States military operation in Central America. The plan called for the deputation of U.S. military and National Guard units so that they could be legally used for domestic law enforcement. These units would be assigned to conduct sweeps and take into custody an estimated 400,000 undocumented Central American immigrants in the United States.
The immigrants would be interned at 10 detention centers to be set up at military bases throughout the country.
REX 84 was so highly guarded that special metal security doors were placed on the fifth floor of the FEMA building in Washington, D.C. Even long-standing employees of the Civil Defense of the Federal Executive Department possessing the highest possible security clearances were not being allowed through the newly installed metal security doors. Only personnel wearing a special red Christian cross or crucifix lapel pin were allowed into the premises.
Lt. Col. North was responsible for drawing up the emergency plan, which U.S. Attorney General William French Smith opposed vehemently.
The plan called for the suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over to FEMA, appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments, and the declaration of martial law. The Presidential Executive Orders to support such a plan were already in place.
The plan also advocated the rounding up and transfer to "assembly centers or relocation camps“ of a least 21 million American Negroes in the event of massive rioting or disorder, not unlike the rounding up of the Jews in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The second known time that FEMA stood by was in 1990 when Desert Storm was enacted.
Prior to President Bush‘s invasion of Iraq, FEMA began to draft new legislation to increase its already formidable powers.
One of the elements incorporated into the plan was to set up operations within any state or locality without the prior permission of local or state authorities. Such prior permission has always been required in the past. Much of the mechanism being set into place was in anticipation of the economic collapse of the Western World. The war with Iraq may have been conceived as a ploy to boost the bankrupt economy, but it only pushed the West into deeper recession.
The third scenario for FEMA came with the Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King brutality verdict. Had the rioting spread to other cities, FEMA would have been empowered to step in. As it was, major rioting only occurred in the Los Angeles area, thus preventing a pretext for a FEMA response.
On July 5, 1987, the Miami Herald published reports on FEMA‘s new goals.
The goal was to suspend the Constitution in the event of a national crisis, such as:
Lt. Col. North was the architect. National Security Directive Number 52, issued in August 1982, pertains to the "Use Of National Guard Troops To Quell Disturbances.“
The crux of the problem is that FEMA has the power to turn the United States into a police state in time of a real crisis or a manufactured crisis. Lt. Col. North virtually established the apparatus for dictatorship.
Only the criticism of the Attorney General prevented the plans from being adopted. But intelligence reports indicate that FEMA has a folder with 22 Executive Orders for the President to sign in case of an emergency. It is believed those Executive Orders contain the framework of North‘s concepts, delayed by criticism but never truly abandoned.
The crisis, as the
government now sees it, is civil unrest. For generations, the
government was concerned with nuclear war, but the violent and
disruptive demonstrations that surrounded the Vietnam War era
prompted President Nixon to change the direction of emergency powers
from war time to times of domestic unrest.
The first targets in any FEMA emergency would be Hispanics and Blacks; the FEMA orders call for them to be rounded up and detained.
Tax protesters, demonstrators against government military intervention outside U.S. borders, and people who maintain weapons in their homes are also targets.
Operation Trojan Horse is a program designed to learn the identity of potential opponents to martial law. The program lures potential protesters into public forums, conducted by a "hero“ of the people who advocates survival training. The list of names gathered at such meetings and rallies are computerized and then targeted in case of an emergency.
The most shining example of America to the world has been its peaceful transition of government from one administration to another. Despite crises of great magnitude, the United States has maintained its freedom and liberty. This nation now stands on the threshold of rule by non-elected people asserting non-constitutional powers. Even Congress cannot review a martial law action until six months after it has been declared.
For the first time in American history, the reigns of government would not be transferred from one elected element to another, but the Constitution, itself, can be suspended.
The scenarios established to trigger FEMA into action are generally found in:
All these premises exist; it could only be a matter of time before one of these triggers the entire emergency necessary to bring FEMA into action.
And then it may be too late, because under the FEMA plan, there is no contingency by which constitutional power is restored. These Executive Orders are serious business as far as they effectively override the constitutional base of the American way of life.
It is important to examine these a bit further since they are what gives FEMA its formidable authority to act above our usual legislative scrutiny.
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