 16 Jan 2003 @ 11:57, by spiritseek
[FYI only - this is not 'inspirational' material but it might be
revelatory. It doesn't say what 'might' be - it talks about what IS.
What IS isn't always uplifting. angus]
[link]
By Harry V. Martin with research assistance from David Caul
Copyright FreeAmerica 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. But 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, but 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. FEMA has only spent about
6 percent 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:
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of
transportation and control of highways and seaports.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the
communication media.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical
power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to take over all food
resources and farms.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into
work brigades under government supervision.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over all health,
education and welfare functions.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a
national registration of all persons.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and
aircraft, including commercial aircraft.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to
relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate
areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 allows the government to take over railroads,
inland waterways and public storage facilities.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of
Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders
into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or
financial crisis.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to
enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial
support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all
aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and
assist the President.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal
departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders
issued over a fifteen year period.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to
develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and
distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of
money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency.
It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the
President, Congress cannot review the action for six months.
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 "new
frontier in the protection of individual and governmental leaders from
assassination, and of civil and military installations from sabotage
and/or attack, as well as prevention of dissident groups from gaining
access to U.S. opinion, or a global audience in times of crisis."
FEMA's powers were consolidated by President Carter to incorporate:
the National Security Act of 1947, which allows for the strategic
relocation of industries, services, government and other essential
economic activities, and to rationalize the requirements for manpower,
resources and production facilities;
the 1950 Defense Production Act, which gives the President sweeping
powers over all aspects of the economy;
the Act of August 29, 1916, which authorizes the Secretary of the Army,
in time of war, to take possession of any transportation system for
transporting troops, material, or any other purpose related to the
emergency; and
the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which enables the
President to seize the property of a foreign country or national.
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, "...The eye of the political storm
hovered over the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA became a
convenient target for criticism." 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 time 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 Bills, 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. But 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 insisted 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 threat of imminent nuclear war, rioting in several U.S.
cites simultaneously, a series of national disasters that affect
widespread danger to the populous, massive terrorist attacks, a
depression in which tens of millions are unemployed and without financial
resources, or a major environmental disaster.
THREE TIMES FEMA STOOD BY READY FOR EMERGENCY
In April 1984, President Reagan signed Presidential Director 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
legally be 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 nuclear war, violent and widespread internal dissent, or
national opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad. 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 see 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. Diana Raynolds, program director of
the Edward R. Murrow Center, summed up the dangers of FEMA today and the
public reaction to Martial Law in a drug crisis: "It was James Madison's
worst nightmare that a righteous faction would someday be strong enough
to sweep away the Constitutional restraints designed by the framers to
prevent the tyranny of centralized power, excessive privilege, an
arbitrary governmental authority over the individual. These restraints,
the balancing and checking of powers among branches and layers of
government, and the civil guarantees, would be the first casualties in a
drug-induced national security state with Reagan's Civil Emergency
Preparedness unleashed. Nevertheless, there would be those who would
welcome NSC (National Security Council) into the drug fray, believing
that increasing state police powers to emergency levels is the only way
left to fight American's enemy within. In the short run, a national
security state would probably be a relief to those whose personal
security and quality of life has been diminished by drugs or drug related
crime. And, as the general public watches the progression of
institutional chaos and social decay, they too may be willing to pay the
ultimate price, one drug free America for 200 years of democracy."
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 the society today, economic collapse, civil unrest, drug problems,
terrorist attacks, and protests against American intervention in a
foreign country. All these premises exist, it could only be a matter of
time in which 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.
other FEMA info sites/sources:
[link]
http://www.cam.net.uk/home/nimmann/peace/power.htm
[link]
http://www.davidicke.net/emagazine/vol7/fema.html
[link]
and there are many more if you search Google
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