So I'm admittedly conspiracy minded when it comes to this administration, but with that said, I read something just now that makes my blood chill.
Seems that there has been a plan since the Regan administration to maintain a distributed "shadow" government that would set itself up in the event of a "decapacitating" attack on Washington, i.e., a nuclear attack.
Follow me to the flip and I'll tell you how I think this plan is being reworked to provide the mechanism to end democracy in the United States . . .
In the past, the responsibility for this entity fell with FEMA, and then it was moved to the Department of Homeland Security. Yeah, I know, but the notion was that somebody had to administer things if the executive and legislative branches of government suddenly ceased to exist.
But this White House, the very same one that presided over the death of habeas corpus, the very same one that started a war based on lies and deception, the very same one that has never seen a power grab it wouldn't take, has just taken that responsibility for themselves. By executive order, the Commander Guy has moved that responsibility to the executive branch.
In other words, if situation were to occur that were to meet the definition of a "catastrophic emergency" that allowed the continuity plan to be invoked, the White House would be in charge. For the record, the new order, NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51 and HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-20, defines "Catastrophic Emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions"
Given this administration and their ways, I think we've just seen the reveal of the lever that could well be used to end democracy in the United States.
I understand why a department like Homeland Security would distribute the capability to administer the US Government outside of the Beltway to forestall complete chaos in the event of a decapacitating attack on Washington, DC -- that's easy.
What I don't get is why the Executive thinks they should run the program -- after all, are they not more at risk than any other branch of government? And why set the threshold so low that the triggering event can be anything that causes "disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions"? This administration has been sinister enough in it's contempt for the Constitution that I'm not inclined to offer any benefit of the doubt . . .
Imagine this scenario . . . another PDB is ignored, a "terrorist" organization detonates a small nuclear weapon in DC, and next thing you know President Cheney reports from an undisclosed location that he's in charge of the government under the continuity plan . . . wham, there it is, instant transformation from democracy to self-sustaining dictatorship.
But it doesn't even have to be that severe; by the definition of "Catastrophic Emergency" used in the directive, the 9/11 attack could have met that threshold; Katrina could have met that threshold, etc, etc, etc . . .
Yeah, I know that it's outrageous, but who could have predicted how totally outrageous this administration would turn out to actually be?
Thanks for reading,
~j
Update:
I see poster Maaark has already diaried this subject, but seeing the intent of the two diaries is somewhat different I'm going to leave this up for now.