Sen. Byrd on Bushco's post-9/11 "Shadow Government" (OMG!)

[Nordic]

Only hours after the September 11 attacks, the adminisration installed a "shadow government" of aboutt a hundred senior execuive branch officials to live and work secretly outside Washington at two East Coast locations, reportedly run from the White House. White House chief of staff Andrew Card directs the shadow government from the White House, where he is immune from giving testimony to Coongress (have we heard this before?). The shadow government is supposed to assume comomand of the government in case of a national emergency. Of course, this shadow government consists of one branch only, the executive branch.
This shadow government was created under the authority of the "continuity of operations" plans left over from the Cold War and execuive orders issued by President Ronald Reagan. However, the Congress has not sanctioned the shadow governent, nor were members of Congress even made aware of its existence until the story was leaked in March 2002. This shadow government has been described as an "indefinite precaution," which can mean anything. While a few newspaper stories appeared in March 2002, very little new information has been reported since then. The shadow government is presumed to continue its operation outside of Congressional oversight.

(end of clip)

Well, folks, this is the reason I bought this book, "Losing America" by Senator Byrd. To read about this.

This should scare the hell out of everybody.

We should demand to know more about this.

Byrd ends this chapter in the book with a poem written by Edwin Markham, an American poet and lecturer:

"I fear for Thee, My Country"

I fear the vermin that shall undermine
Senate and citadel and school and shrine --
The Worm of Greed, the fatted Worm of Ease,
And all the crawling progency of these --
The vermin that shall honeycomb the towers
And walls of State in unsuspecting hours.


It seems to me we're infested with vermin. It's infested the media to the point where nobody even knows.

[Guarionex]

1. not surprised...

the fascists will stop at nothing to steal this government.

[mandyky]

2. Glad you brought this up

I'd been meaning to start a thread about this for awhile now. Noone even talks about the shadow govt, anymore. Is there any recent news?

[shance]

3. The worm of Greed, the fatted worm of Ease

Sums up the American epidemic that I believe all of us have to confront in ourselves.

Great post.

[Radical Activist]

4. That's a good book too

One of the better criticisms of Bush that I read.

[Placebo]

5. bump

[Nordic]

6. here's the Wash Post article from 3/2002

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20584-2002Feb28?language=printer

(snip)
Civilian departments have had parallel continuity-of-government plans since the dawn of the nuclear age. But they never operated routinely, seldom exercised, and were permitted to atrophy with the end of the Cold War. Sept. 11 marked the first time, according to Bush administration officials, that the government activated such a plan.

Within hours of the synchronized attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, Military District of Washington helicopters lifted off with the first wave of evacuated officials.

Witnesses near one of the two evacuation sites reported an influx of single- and twin-rotor transport helicopters, escorted by F-16 fighters, and followed not long afterward by government buses.

According to officials with first-hand knowledge, the Bush administration conceived the move that morning as a temporary precaution, likely to last only days. But further assessment of terrorist risks persuaded the White House to remake the program as a permanent feature of "the new reality, based on what the threat looks like," a senior decisionmaker said.
(snip)

[dbt]

7. What's that smell like fish, oh baby?

Lemme see do I grok this. The same government that sat on its ass--and did NOT get interceptors into the air in time--while jets full of fuel were crashed into buildings suddenly got its shit together within hours and started evacuating officials?

The bu$h administration, which had been warned for weeks that the attacks were coming, and chose to do nothing, suddenly sprang into action with a PLAN?

Nope. Verily, I grok not.

:freak:
dbt

[Nordic]

8. Yes, and they had the 292-page Patriot Act ready to go 8 days later

That smell is getting hard to take .....

[theHandpuppet]

9. Kicking...

... for the evening crowd.

[Nordic]

10. seems like somebody would know something more about this

somewhere, somehow .....

:shrug:

Maybe not. Even Byrd admits he didn't know about it until 2002.

Scary stuff

[Sara Beverley]

11. They do, but they are afraid to talk.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Most of the time there is a shadow government running things. It's called "Congressional staffers."