-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 31, 2007 12:39:15 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Cheney/Bush's C.O.G. Plan Based on Assumption Washington
DC Is "Ground Zero"
"Work Outside D.C.'s Fallout Zone"
The exodus of federal agencies from Washington is occurring with
next to no public discussion. No one has yet argued the case for
whether it's really necessary to send agencies that far. "Where's
the public debate, the elected officials' oversight? This level of
dispersal didn't happen even at the height of the Cold War. We
need open dialogue about what the real threats might be and why
this dispersal is necessary."
By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post, December 26, 2006; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/25/
AR2006122500637.html
Winchester and its neighbors along Interstate 81 in Virginia's
Shenandoah Valley have much to recommend themselves to potential
employers, including a low cost of living, access to a major
highway and views of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains.
More recently, though, the area has been successfully trumpeting
another attribute: It is just outside the "blast zone."
In a little-noticed migration with implications for both greater
Washington and the valley, several federal agencies, including the
FBI, are relocating operations to the I-81 corridor. Helping drive
the shift is the government's emphasis on security in a post-Sept.
11 world, which turns Winchester's location 75 miles from
Washington into a geographic ideal. It is far enough from the
capital to escape the fallout of a nuclear explosion -- a distance
often estimated at 50 miles -- but still close enough so that
employees can get to the District relatively easily when they need to.
"There's a certain distance they need to be out from the strike
zone -- and Winchester is outside of that," said Jim Deskins,
economic redevelopment chief for the 26,000-person city.
The moves represent a level of dispersal even beyond other recently
announced federal moves, including the military's planned
relocation of 22,000 jobs from the District and inner suburbs to
Fort Belvoir in southern Fairfax County and the FBI's relocation of
its Northern Virginia field office from Tysons Corner to Manassas.
Local officials and planners have criticized those moves, saying
they will worsen sprawl and traffic congestion by moving jobs away
from downtown and mass transit.
Whether the moves to the I-81 corridor raise similar concerns is a
matter of debate. Federal officials argue that the valley is not
only more secure, it's preferable for planning and budget reasons.
The cost of land and labor are lower in the valley, and with
workers moving into the fringes of Northern Virginia and even West
Virginia in search of affordable homes, moving operations to a
place such as Winchester could mean shorter commutes for many.
That, in turn, could mean lower turnover and a more productive
workforce.
Leading the shift is the FBI, which chose Winchester over other
towns of similar distance from the District as the site for a big
centralized archive that by 2009 will employ at least 1,200 people,
many of them now working in Washington and Baltimore. Some
employees already are working in a temporary facility outside
Winchester, a nondescript building that used to hold a printing
firm and is now studded with security cameras and bollards.
FEMA has chosen a farm just outside town for an operations center
that will employ 700 people. Local officials say this would include
positions moved from Mount Weather, the government's hilltop
emergency center on the border of Loudoun and Clarke counties, so
that that facility could be devoted to national security instead of
natural disasters.
Real estate brokers working in Winchester say that FEMA is looking
for additional space for its accounting department and that the
Department of Homeland Security is looking for space around
Harrisonburg, farther south along I-81. Activity is also picking up
north along the corridor. Outside Martinsburg, W.Va., the Coast
Guard is building a new National Maritime Center, a 200-person
office now in Arlington. In Washington County, Md., near
Hagerstown, the government is redeveloping the vacant Fort Ritchie
to house unnamed intelligence agencies.
Advocates of "smart growth" say relocating the jobs to the valley
may not worsen sprawl and traffic in the D.C. metro area, but they
argue that it will cause sprawl within the Shenandoah Valley,
particularly since the new facilities are being built outside town,
on and around the apple orchards that used to surround Winchester.
They warn that the growth could threaten the rolling Piedmont that
acts as a buffer between development in Northern Virginia and the
I-81 corridor.
Of most concern, the advocates say, is that the federal dispersal
is occurring with next to no public discussion. No one has yet made
a case for whether it's really necessary to send agencies that far,
said Stewart Schwartz, director of the D.C.-based Coalition for
Smarter Growth. If it is simply a matter of finding more affordable
land, agencies could expand in Prince George's County, where there
is much available room adjacent to Metro stations, he said.
"Where's the public debate, the elected officials' oversight? This
level of dispersal didn't even happen at the height of the Cold
War," Schwartz said. "We ought to have an open dialogue about what
the real threats might be and whether this dispersal is necessary."
-----------------
http://newssophisticate.blogspot.com/
BushCo ordered 100 officials away from the Capitol to undisclosed
bunkers to ensure the survival of the US government after 9/11.
Here are a few exerpts:
Execution of the classified "Continuity of Operations Plan"
resulted ... from heightened fears that the al Qaeda terrorist
network might somehow obtain a portable nuclear weapon, according
to three officials with firsthand knowledge.
U.S. intelligence has no specific knowledge of such a weapon, they
said, but the risk is thought great enough to justify the shadow
government's disruption and expense.
Known internally as the COG, for "continuity of government," the
administration-in-waiting is an unannounced complement to the
acknowledged absence of Vice President Cheney from Washington for
much of the past five months. Cheney's survival ensures
constitutional succession, one official said, but "he can't run the
country by himself."
With a core group of federal managers alongside him, Cheney -- or
President Bush, if available -- has the means to give effect to his
orders. Many departments, including Justice and Treasury, have
completed plans to delegate statutory powers to officials who would
not normally exercise them. Others do not need to make such legal
transfers, or are holding them in reserve.
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.
What was missing, until Sept. 11, was an invulnerable group of
managers with the expertise and resources to administer these
programs in a national emergency.
The day after bombing began in Afghanistan, Bush created the Office
of Homeland Security with Executive Order 13228. Among the
responsibilities he gave it was to "review plans and preparations
for ensuring the continuity of the Federal Government in the event
of a terrorist attack that threatens the safety and security of the
United States Government or its leadership."
In another relevent article in May 2007, "Bush changes Continuity
Plan" indicates the 'plan' is still under way and is being revised
due to increased 'chatter'. Some exerpts read.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/
AR2007050902719.html
... designated National Security Presidential Directive 51 and
Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20.
President Bush issued a formal national security directive
yesterday ordering agencies to prepare contingency plans for a
surprise, "decapitating" attack on the federal government, and
assigned responsibility for coordinating such plans to the White
House.
Other former Bush administration officials said the directive
formalizes a shift of authority away from the Department of
Homeland Security to the White House. The new directive gives the
job of coordinating policy to the president's assistant for
homeland security and counterterrorism -- Frances Fragos Townsend
[But] Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff <soon to be U.S.
Attorney General?> will continue to coordinate operations and
activities.
Shadow Government Is at Work in Secret
After Attacks, Bush Ordered 100 Officials to Bunkers
Away From Capital to Ensure Federal Survival
By Barton Gellman and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post, March 1, 2002; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20584-2002Feb28?
language=printer
President Bush has dispatched a shadow government of about 100
senior civilian managers to live and work secretly outside
Washington, activating for the first time long-standing plans to
ensure survival of federal rule after catastrophic attack on the
nation's capital.
Execution of the classified "Continuity of Operations Plan"
resulted not from the Cold War threat of intercontinental missiles,
the scenario rehearsed for decades, but from heightened fears that
the al Qaeda terrorist network might somehow obtain a portable
nuclear weapon, according to three officials with firsthand
knowledge. U.S. intelligence has no specific knowledge of such a
weapon, they said, but the risk is thought great enough to justify
the shadow government's disruption and expense.
Deployed "on the fly" in the first hours of turmoil on Sept. 11,
one participant said, the shadow government has evolved into an
indefinite precaution. For that reason, the high-ranking officials
representing their departments have begun rotating in and out of
the assignment at one of two fortified locations along the East
Coast. Rotation is among several changes made in late October or
early November, sources said, to the standing directive Bush
inherited from a line of presidents reaching back to Dwight D.
Eisenhower.
Officials who are activated for what some of them call "bunker
duty" live and work underground 24 hours a day, away from their
families. As it settles in for the long haul, the shadow
government has sent home most of the first wave of deployed
personnel, replacing them most commonly at 90-day intervals.
The civilian cadre present in the bunkers usually numbers 70 to
150, and "fluctuates based on intelligence" about terrorist
threats, according to a senior official involved in managing the
program. It draws from every Cabinet department and some
independent agencies. Its first mission, in the event of a
disabling blow to Washington, would be to prevent collapse of
essential government functions.
Assuming command of regional federal offices, officials said, the
underground government would try to contain disruptions of the
nation's food and water supplies, transportation links, energy and
telecommunications networks, public health and civil order. Later
it would begin to reconstitute the government.
Known internally as the COG, for "continuity of government," the
administration-in-waiting is an unannounced complement to the
acknowledged absence of Vice President Cheney from Washington for
much of the pastfive months. Cheney's survival ensures
constitutional succession, one official said, but "he can't run the
country by himself." With a core group of federal managers
alongside him, Cheney -- or President Bush, if available -- has the
means to give effect to his orders.
While the damage of other terrorist weapons is potentially
horrific, officials said, only an atomic device could threaten the
nation's fundamental capacity to govern itself. Without an
invulnerable backup command structure outside Washington, one
official said, a nuclear detonation in the nation's capital "would
be 'game over.' "
"We take this issue extraordinarily seriously, and are committed to
doing as thorough a job as possible to ensure the ongoing
operations of the federal government," said Joseph W. Hagin, White
House deputy chief of staff, who declined to discuss details. "In
the case of the use of a weapon of mass destruction, the federal
government would be able to do its job and continue to provide key
services and respond."
The Washington Post agreed to a White House request not to name any
of those deployed or identify the two principal locations of the
shadow government.
Only the executive branch is represented <by Dick Cheney?> in the
full-time shadow administration. The other branches of
constitutional government, Congress and the judiciary, have
separate continuity plans but do not maintain a 24-hour presence in
fortified facilities.
The military chain of command has long maintained redundant centers
of communication and control, hardened against thermonuclear blast
and operating around the clock. The headquarters of U.S. Space
Command, for example, is burrowed into Cheyenne Mountain near
Colorado Springs, Colo., and the U.S. Strategic Command staffs a
comparable facility under Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
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.
Few Cabinet-rank principals or their immediate deputies left
Washington on Sept. 11, and none remained at the bunkers. Those who
form the backup government come generally from the top career
ranks, from GS-14 and GS-15 to members of the Senior Executive
Service. The White House is represented by a "senior-level
presence," one official said, but well below such Cabinet-ranked
advisers as Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Many departments, including Justice and Treasury, have completed
plans to delegate statutory powers to officials who would not
normally exercise them. Others do not need to make such legal
transfers, or are holding them in reserve.
Deployed civilians are not permitted to take their families, and
under penalty of prosecution they may not tell anyone where they
are going or why. "They're on a 'business trip,' that's all," said
one official involved in the effort.
The two sites of the shadow government make use of local geological
features to render them highly secure. They are well stocked with
food, water, medicine and other consumable supplies, and are
capable of generating their own power.
But with their first significant operational use, the facilities
are showing their age. Top managers arrived at one of them to find
computers "several generations" behind those now in use, incapable
of connecting to current government databases. There were far too
few phone lines. Not many work areas had secure audio and video
links to the rest of government. Officials said [Andrew] Card, who
runs the program from the White House, has been obliged to order
substantial upgrades.
The modern era of continuity planning began under President Ronald
Reagan.
On Sept. 16, 1985, Reagan signed National Security Decision
Directive 188, "Government Coordination for National Security
Emergency Preparedness," which assigned responsibility for
continuity planning to an interagency panel from Defense, Treasury,
Justice and the Office of Management and Budget. He signed
additional directives, including Executive Order 12472, for more
detailed aspects of the planning.
In Executive Order 12656, signed Nov. 18, 1988, Reagan ordered
every Cabinet department to define in detail the "defense and
civilian needs" that would be "essential to our national survival"
in case of a nuclear attack on Washington. Included among them were
legal instruments for "succession to office and emergency
delegation of authority."
The military services put these directives in place long before
their civilian counterparts. The Air Force, for example, relies on
Air Force Instruction 10-208, revised most recently in September 2000.
Civilian agencies gradually developed contingency plans in
comparable detail. The Agriculture Department, for example, has
plans to ensure continued farm production, food processing, storage
and distribution; emergency provision of seed, feed, water,
fertilizer and equipment to farmers; and use of Commodity Credit
Corp. inventories of food and fiber resources.
What was missing, until Sept. 11, was an invulnerable group of
managers with the expertise and resources to administer these
programs in a national emergency.
Last Oct. 8, the day after bombing began in Afghanistan, Bush
created the Office of Homeland Security with Executive Order
13228. Among the responsibilities he gave its first director,
former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, was to "review plans and
preparations for ensuring the continuity of the Federal Government
in the event of a terrorist attack that threatens the safety and
security of the United States Government or its leadership."
Staff researcher Mary Lou White contributed to this report.
--------------------
Bush Changes Continuity Plan
Administration, Not DHS, Would Run Shadow Government
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post, May 10, 2007; Page A12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/
AR2007050902719.html
President Bush issued a formal national security directive
yesterday ordering agencies to prepare contingency plans for a
surprise, "decapitating" attack on the federal government, and
assigned responsibility for coordinating such plans to the White
House.
The prospect of a nuclear bomb being detonated in Washington
without warning, whether smuggled in by terrorists or a foreign
government, has been cited by many security analysts as a rising
concern since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The order makes explicit that the focus of federal worst-case
planning involves a covert nuclear attack against the nation's
capital, in contrast with Cold War assumptions that a long-range
strike would be preceded by a notice of minutes or hours as
missiles were fueled and launched.
"As a result of the asymmetric threat environment, adequate warning
of potential emergencies that could pose a significant risk to the
homeland might not be available, and therefore all continuity
planning shall be based on the assumption that no such warning will
be received," states the 72-paragraph order. It is designated
National Security Presidential Directive 51 and Homeland Security
Presidential Directive 20.
The statement added, "Emphasis will be placed upon geographic
dispersion of leadership, staff, and infrastructure in order to
increase survivability and maintain uninterrupted Government
Functions."
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