FEMA and Katrina: REX-84 Revisited

[Trillo]

(Bolding added by me. Note to moderators: this showed up on a Google News search. If it's not a source qualified for placement in LBN, my apologies, please move to appropriate forum.)

Regardless of all the corporate media hype, FEMA was not created to respond to natural disasters and help American citizens (in fact, it is an unconstitutional construct, created by Executive Order, and draws its "lawful" facade not from the American people, but the fact Executive Order 12148 was published in the Federal Registry). "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," writes Harry V. Martin. "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.'" In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a lot of criticism is focused on FEMA, but this is not the first time the agency has taken heat for "dropping the ball" after natural disasters. Martin writes:

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.
More...

This is a very interesting read considering all the "issues" with FEMA that have been noted here on DU.

[krkaufman]

1. Gotta wonder how much $$$ was spent building and fortifying...

... Cheney's undisclosed location.

[Lindacooks]

2. Yep, gotta keep the gov'munt going when the rest of the country

is destroyed! My God, will the fuckups never end? And I'll bet Cheney's bunker is lavish and stocked with cashmere throws, 30 year old port and whiskey, and warehouses of ice.

[leveymg]

3. "prevention of dissident groups from gaining access to U.S. opinion"

FEMA's original mission was ". . .prevention of dissident groups from gaining access to U.S. opinion, or a global audience in times of crisis"?!

Sounds like ECOMCON in Seven Days In May, a mechanism for seizing control of all electronic communications in the event that martial law is declared after a coup occurs.

This needs wider attention.

[Sven77]

4. Bush Approves $51.8B for Hurricane Relief

Bush Approves $51.8B for Hurricane Relief

Democrats also questioned the wisdom of funneling $50 billion in recovery funds through the
Federal Emergency Management Agency with questions swirling about whether it acted too slowly to help hurricane victims.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050909/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_washington

[ngGale]

5. FEMA has fraud written all over it....

starting with Brown in Florida, 2004.

[truthisfreedom]

6. FEMA: fraud, extortion, manipulation, anarchy

bushco makes billions off mayhem. that's what they want, and that's how they work.

[pinerow]

7. What I don't understand is how seemingly intelligent people

actually believe that "black" ops conspiracy...that rumor has been around much longer than than Fema and the FEDPA...this sort of thinking keeps us from confronting the very real issues of class and race...the 'bogeyman' is not gonna get you...we are the 'bogeymen' every time we elct these idiots to run this country...next thing you'll hear is that FEMA is a Masonic front and are really Knights Templar...sheesh

[Nihil]

8. What I don't understand is how seemingly intelligent people

actually believe that "freedom" conspiracy...that rumor has been around
much longer than than the current generation...this sort of thinking
keeps us from confronting the very real issues of class and race...the
'bogeyman' is not gonna get you...we are the 'bogeymen' every time we
elect these idiots to run this country...next thing you'll hear is that
both presidential candidates are in Skulls & Bones and are really ...
... ah ... oops ...

[Trillo]

10. Motive for LIES.

All a "black operations" or "black curtain" means is hidden budgetary items not subjected to public oversight. Spending 11/12 of its funding on budget-hidden projects provides a strong motivation for the head FEMA and DHS to LIE when asked why they didn't do their jobs.

[Sven77]

9. if you think these fools are "elected"

please visit blackboxvoting.com

fema amplifies the crisis, gets more power and more funding.

[peacetalksforall]

11. Is there NO oversight on FEMA and Homeland Security?

Money plus policy?

I'm about to explode about the article this morning about the Oklahoma church camp prison for evacuees. I haven't yet becaue I'm waiting to see if it is debunked. Seems unlikely.

Evacuees will be assigned to a Baptist Church camp site where they will be closely monitored and have absolutely no deviations from two meals a day and separation of families from men from women with tons of prison guards who all have their own satellite phone and brand new uniforms? FEMA has taken over the camp site by either eminent domain or a lease or something else for five months. Instead of being taken into homes and allowed to regain employment, schooling, their own churches - they are going to virtual prisons.

They are making prisoners of these victims and we are paying for it?

Where is Congress? Where is the Catholic CHurch? Where is the Lutehran Church? Where is the Buddhist Society? Where are the universities and school officials.

This is an absolute outrage.

[buzzsaw_23]

12. FEMA was not created to respond to natural disasters

and help American citizen. Look into Executive Order 12148 published in the Federal Registry.

The 'Doomsday Establishment'

The 'Doomsday Establishment' dates back to the day in 1949 when the Soviets detonated an atomic device. By the following year, the concept of 'Continuity of Gov-ernment' (COG) had taken hold, based on the logical premise that an enemy must know that a nuclear strike would leave our government sufficiently intact to retaliate and to continue to govern. To enable the highly classified 'COG' program, a number of agencies such as the federal Emergency Broadcast System were formed, later to be consolidated into FEMA. The day came when great concern was expressed over the layers of FEMA operations personnel which had been inserted between the president and, without exception, all other federal agencies.

It was in that postwar era that construction began on the top-secret luxury bunker beneath the Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia. Hollowed out of the Blue Ridge Moun-tains was the giant underworld at Mount Weather, built to house the president, his cabinet and the Supreme Court justices. Long gone is the day when President Eisenhower's motorcade, speeding towards this Strangelovian bunker, was stalled by a pig farmer's truck on a country road in Virginia. Mount Weather was barely the beginning. In fact, it is currently undergoing massive expansion. That and over 50 more subterranean installations are today under the cloak of FEMA.

<snip>

FEMA's duties and responsibilities have expanded geometrically over the years. The agency's name is now found on numerous mortgage documents, especially if land on a flood plain is involved. Flood insurance is a field which has been taken over by the agency. In 1992 FEMA funded the New England States Earthquake Consortium to-gether with insurance industry groups. In many instances where people were unable to qualify for low-interest loans or reconstruction assistance, free grants of public money were made by the agency. How better to build gratitude while providing disincentives to prepare? In the Midwest, FEMA launched a prototype Geographic Information System to mix commercial and custom software designed to map and analyze data.

<snip>

Today FEMA commands a vast communications network, technical equipment of near-Star Wars level, an extensive nationwide system of underground bunkers, hundreds of refurbished military installations, and easily activated control of a formidable military force both U.S. and foreign. The agency operates widely dispersed, newly constructed detention facilities which might be mistaken for hospitals. How curious that such activity has become common at closed military bases. Many include rail spurs in a time when there are no legitimate commodities with the bulk and weight which would justify rail hauling. In separate parts of the country, telephone-intercept vans capturing signals have been traced to FEMA. With computers programmed to lock in on certain words and phrases, recording devices are triggered.

http://www.totse.com/en/conspiracy/the_new_world_order/163636.html