FEMA – The Secret Government

2005-05-24

Richard Moore

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From: "Westaway" <•••@••.•••>
To: "Westaway" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: FEMA - The Secret Government
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 10:59:07 -0700

http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon6.html

FEMA - The Secret Government

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.
-- 

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