BUSH’S PUSH FOR MARTIAL LAW!!

TASKING OF US ARMY 3ID 1CB ON AMERICAN SOIL

UNDER NORTHCOM 1OCT08

AND THE FIGHT TO STOP ITS IMPLEMENTATION!!

EXCERPT FROM BUSH SIGNING STATEMENT:

The executive branch shall construe sections 914 and 1512 of the Act,
which purport to make consultation with specified Members of Congress a
precondition to the execution of the law, as calling for but not mandating
such consultation, as is consistent with the Constitution's provisions
concerning the separate powers of the Congress to legislate and the
President to execute the laws.

Leahy Concerned about NorthCom’s New Army Unit

By Matthew Rothschild (I don’t like this name whatsoever, and he thinks 911 Truth isn’t so he
sucks, but the article is fairly accurate!!) , October 7, 2008
http://www.progressive.org/mag/wx100708.html

Senator Patrick Leahy is concerned about the Pentagon’s decision to designate an Army unit to
Northern Command.
On October 1, the Pentagon, for the first time ever, dedicated an Army force specifically to
NorthCom, which is in charge of securing not some foreign region but the United States of
America.

The unit it assigned is the 3rd Infantry, First Brigade Combat Team, which has spent three of the
last five years in Iraq. It was one of the first units to get to Baghdad, and it was active in retaking
and patrolling Fallujah. One of its specialties is counterinsurgency.

This marks a change for NorthCom, which was established on October 1, 2002. Its website still
says it “has few permanently assigned forces,” and that “the command is assigned forces
whenever necessary to execute missions, as ordered by the President and the Secretary of
Defense.”

Leahy “asked for a briefing from his staff” on this development and “wants to monitor the
situation,” an aide to Leahy said.

Leahy was instrumental in getting Congress to repeal the “Insurrection Act Rider” in the 2006
defense appropriations bill. That rider had given the President sweeping power to use military
troops in ways contrary to the Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act. The rider authorized the
President to have troops patrol our streets in response to disasters, epidemics, and any “condition”
he might cite.

Leahy said last December that this rider “made it easier for the President to take over the Guard
and to declare martial law.” In a Senate statement on April 24, 2007, he cautioned against
inserting the military “into domestic situations.” As he put it: “One of the distinguishing
characteristics of the United States is that we do not use the military to patrol our communities
and neighborhoods.” A few months before that, he warned that we must ensure that “the military
is not used in a way that offends and endangers some of our most cherished values and liberties.”

The repeal of the rider was signed by Bush on January 28, though Amy Goodman reports that
“Bush attached a signing statement that he did not feel bound by the repeal.”

The roles the 1st Brigade Combat Team will take on at NorthCom are a bit unclear.

“They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control,” said the Army Times
when it first reported on it. These duties would be in addition to dealing with “potentially horrific
scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological,
nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.”

Soldiers in the unit “also will learn how to use ‘the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has
field,’ 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control
equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without
killing them,” the article noted.

Cloutier even bragged to the Army Times: “I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered.”

The Army Times has since issued a correction, stating that the “non-lethal crowd control
package” is “intended for use on deployments to the war zone, not in the U.S.”
NorthCom’s own press release of September 30 says, “This response force will not be called
upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance, or crowd control.”

The unit will have its regular weapons, however. It will store other weapons in “containers,” and
will have access to tanks, as Amy Goodman has reported and the Pentagon has confirmed.

The Army is taking a strong interest in this deployment.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey personally observed the combat team’s training exercise,
entitled “Vibrant Response,” which was held at Fort Stewart, Georgia, last month. According to
NorthCom’s public affairs department, Gen. Casey “pointed out that being part of the new force
requires a shift in thinking for soldiers who are accustomed to taking charge.”

One soldier in the exercise said he learned that the troops should “preposition containers and
equipment.”

NorthCom’s website, in a section on frequently asked questions about Joint Task Forces—Civil
Support, cites “DoD Directive 3025.1” as laying out the criteria for how the Pentagon will
respond in domestic situations.

That directive talks about “military support in dealing with the actual or anticipated consequences
of civil emergencies.” Those civil emergencies could be “arising during peace, war, or transition
to war.”

While it states that such support “does not include military support to local law enforcement,”
there is a provision in the directive for the military to take over functions of the civilian
government.

Military personnel “shall not perform any function of civil government unless absolutely
necessary on a temporary basis under conditions of Immediate Response. Any commander who is
directed, or undertakes, to perform such functions shall facilitate the reestablishment of civil
responsibility at the earliest possible time,” the document states.

Under this “Immediate Response” exception, local military commanders can even act without
prior approval from their superiors. “Imminently serious conditions resulting from any civil
emergency or attack may require immediate action by military commanders, or by responsible
officials of other DoD agencies, to save lives, prevent human suffering, or mitigate great property
damage,” it says. “When such conditions exist and time does not permit prior approval from
higher headquarters, local military commanders and responsible officials of other DoD
Components are authorized by this Directive, subject to any supplemental direction that may be
provide by their DoD Component, to take necessary action to respond to requests of civil
authorities.”

The Pentagon’s decision to dedicate the First Brigade Combat Team to NorthCom has raised
alarms, especially in the context of the current economic crisis. In Bush’s National Security
Presidential Directive 51, he lays out his authority in the event of a catastrophic emergency. In
such an emergency, “the President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for
ensuring constitutional government” and will coordinate with state, local, and tribal governments,
along with private sector owners of infrastructure.
NSPD 51 defines a 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 function.”

Notice the use of the word “or” above. In our current circumstances, it might be more relevant to
read the definition this way: “any incident . . . that results in extraordinary levels of . . . disruption
severely affecting the U.S. . . . economy.”

President Bush could declare a catastrophic emergency today. And he’d have the 3rd Infantry,
First Brigade Combat Team, well trained from its years patrolling Iraq, at his disposal here at
home.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Matthew Rothschild was on Democracy Now! on October 7 debating Army
Col. Michael Boatner, USNORTHCOM future operations division chief.

Addendum:

On the House floor, on October 1, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-California, 27th District, said the
following about the threats that were being issued over the bailout bill: “The only way they can
pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. That atmosphere is not justified.
Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday, the
sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and another
couple thousand the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial
law in America if we voted no.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061017-9.html

President's Statement on H.R. 5122, the "John Warner National Defense

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007"

Today, I have signed into law H.R. 5122, the "John Warner National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007" (the "Act"). The Act
authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its White House News
interests abroad, for military construction, for national security-related
energy programs, and for maritime security-related transportation programs.

Several provisions of the Act call for executive branch

officials to submit to the Congress recommendations for
legislation, or purport to regulate the manner in which the
President formulates recommendations to the Congress for
legislation. These provisions include sections 516(h),
575(g), 603(b), 705(d), 719(b), 721(e), 741(e), 813, 1008,
1016(d), 1035(b)(3), 1047(b), and 1102 of the Act, section
118(b)(4) of title 10, United States Code, as amended by
section 1031 of the Act, section 2773b of title 10 as
amended by section 1053 of the Act, and section 403 of the
Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2005 (Public Law 108-375) as amended by
section 403 of the Act. The executive branch shall construe these provisions in a manner consistent with the
President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to recommend for the
consideration of the Congress such measures as the President deems necessary and expedient.

The executive branch shall construe sections 914 and 1512 of the Act, which purport to make consultation
with specified Members of Congress a precondition to the execution of the law, as calling for but not
mandating such consultation, as is consistent with the Constitution's provisions concerning the separate
powers of the Congress to legislate and the President to execute the laws.

A number of provisions in the Act call for the executive branch to furnish information to the Congress or other
entities on various subjects. These provisions include sections 219, 313, 360, 1211, 1212, 1213, 1227,
1402, and 3116 of the Act, section 427 of title 10, United States Code, as amended by section 932 of the
Act, and section 1093 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005
(Public Law 108-375) as amended by section 1061 of the Act. The executive branch shall construe such
provisions in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold information the
disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, the deliberative processes of the
Executive, or the performance of the Executive's constitutional duties.

The executive branch shall construe as advisory section 1011(b)(2) of the Act, which purports to prohibit the
Secretary of the Navy from retiring a specified warship from operational status unless, among other things, a
treaty organization established by the U.S. and foreign nations gives formal notice that it does not desire to
maintain and operate that warship. If construed as mandatory rather than advisory, the provision would
impermissibly interfere with the President's constitutional authority to conduct the Nation's foreign affairs and
as Commander in Chief.

The executive branch shall construe section 1211, which purports to require the executive branch to
undertake certain consultations with foreign governments and follow certain steps in formulating and
executing U.S. foreign policy, in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authorities to
conduct the Nation's foreign affairs and to supervise the unitary executive branch.

As is consistent with the principle of statutory construction of giving effect to each of two statutes addressing
the same subject whenever they can co-exist, the executive branch shall construe section 130d of title 10,
as amended by section 1405 of the Act, which provides further protection against disclosure of certain
homeland security information in certain circumstances, as in addition to, and not in derogation of, the
broader protection against disclosure of information afforded by section 892 of the Homeland Security Act of
2002 and other law protecting broadly against disclosure of such information.

GEORGE W. BUSH

THE WHITE HOUSE,

October 17, 2006.

The Warner Act: A Martial Law Enabling Act

http://dennisloo.blogspot.com/2007/02/warner-act-martial-law-enabling-act.html
I'm reposting an excellent article by Frank Morales that was written in October
2006 about the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007. This act was
passed by Congress in October and signed by Bush the same day he signed the
Military Commissions Act of 2006. The Warner Act, however, was signed in a
private ceremony and hardly anyone has even heard about it. When I speak to
groups most of the time no one raises their hand when I ask if anyone knows
about this law.

In effect, the Warner Act enables martial law. It overrides the Posse Comitatus
Act that dates from the civil war and that prohibits the use of military forces in
domestic affairs. The Warner Act allows the President to take control over the
National Guard units over the objections of state governors and use the guard to
conduct roundups, mass detentions and anything else that might be justified by
him upon his declaration of a "public emergency." The legislation specifies that
should the President deem it necessary to declare a public emergency that he
must consult with a select group of Congress members to tell them why he is
doing this and what he is doing. In Bush's signing statement he declares in
essence that he reserves the right not to consult with anyone:

"The executive branch shall construe sections 914 and 1512 of the Act, which
purport to make consultation with specified Members of Congress a precondition
to the execution of the law, as calling for but not mandating such consultation, as
is consistent with the Constitution's provisions concerning the separate powers of
the Congress to legislate and the President to execute the laws."

In other words, he can declare martial law and not tell anyone why he's doing it
or what he's doing. There is a word for this: dictatorship. Yet, in spite of this
outrageous law and his outrageous signing statement, the media have been silent
on this. We, the people, however, cannot be silent in the face of these moves
towards a fascist state.

"Bush Moves Towards Martial Law"

by Frank Morales
October 26, 2006

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which,
according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the
President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection
Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the
United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along
with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict
prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one
cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007"
(H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th,
2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public
emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-
based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local
authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he
signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two
laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad,
while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the
military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area
under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is "martial law."

Section 1076 of the massive Authorization Act, which grants the Pentagon
another $500-plus-billion for its ill-advised adventures, is entitled, "Use of the
Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies." Section 333, "Major public
emergencies; interference with State and Federal law" states that "the President
may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to
restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of
a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist
attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United
States, the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to such an
extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of
("refuse" or "fail" in) maintaining public order, "in order to suppress, in any
State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy."
For the current President, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order"
means to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local
governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another state;
conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against
"disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced
vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.

The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters,
so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for
detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by
Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration
emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention
camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone
who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.

An article on "recent contract awards" in a recent issue of the slick, insider

"Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International" reported that
"global engineering and technical services powerhouse KBR [Kellog, Brown &
Root] announced in January 2006 that its Government and Infrastructure
division was awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract
to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the
event of an emergency." "With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five
year term," the report notes, "the contract is to be executed by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers," "for establishing temporary detention and processing
capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) -
in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the
rapid development of new programs." The report points out that "KBR is the
engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton." (3) So, in addition to
authorizing another $532.8 billion for the Pentagon, including a $70-billion
"supplemental provision" which covers the cost of the ongoing, mad military
maneuvers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places, the new law, signed by the
president in a private White House ceremony, further collapses the historic
divide between the police and the military: a tell-tale sign of a rapidly
consolidating police state in America, all accomplished amidst ongoing U.S.
imperial pretensions of global domination, sold to an "emergency managed" and
seemingly willfully gullible public as a "global war on terrorism."

Make no mistake about it: the de-facto repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) is
an ominous assault on American democratic tradition and jurisprudence. The
1878 Act, which reads, "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances
expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any
part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the
laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or
both," is the only U.S. criminal statute that outlaws military operations directed
against the American people under the cover of 'law enforcement.' As such, it has
been the best protection we've had against the power-hungry intentions of an
unscrupulous and reckless executive, an executive intent on using force to
enforce its will.

Unfortunately, this past week, the president dealt posse comitatus, along with
American democracy, a near fatal blow. Consequently, it will take an aroused
citizenry to undo the damage wrought by this horrendous act, part and parcel, as
we have seen, of a long train of abuses and outrages perpetrated by this
authoritarian administration.

Despite the unprecedented and shocking nature of this act, there has been no
outcry in the American media, and little reaction from our elected officials in
Congress. On September 19th, a lone Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) noted
that 2007's Defense Authorization Act contained a "widely opposed provision to
allow the President more control over the National Guard [adopting] changes to
the Insurrection Act, which will make it easier for this or any future President to
use the military to restore domestic order WITHOUT the consent of the nation's
governors."

Senator Leahy went on to stress that, "we certainly do not need to make it easier
for Presidents to declare martial law. Invoking the Insurrection Act and using the
military for law enforcement activities goes against some of the central tenets of
our democracy. One can easily envision governors and mayors in charge of an
emergency having to constantly look over their shoulders while someone who has
never visited their communities gives the orders."

A few weeks later, on the 29th of September, Leahy entered into the
Congressional Record that he had "grave reservations about certain provisions of
the fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Bill Conference Report," the language
of which, he said, "subverts solid, longstanding posse comitatus statutes that
limit the military's involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it easier for
the President to declare martial law." This had been "slipped in," Leahy said, "as a
rider with little study," while "other congressional committees with jurisdiction
over these matters had no chance to comment, let alone hold hearings on, these
proposals."

In a telling bit of understatement, the Senator from Vermont noted that "the
implications of changing the (Posse Comitatus) Act are enormous". "There is
good reason," he said, "for the constructive friction in existing law when it comes
to martial law declarations. Using the military for law enforcement goes against
one of the founding tenets of our democracy. We fail our Constitution, neglecting
the rights of the States, when we make it easier for the President to declare
martial law and trample on local and state sovereignty."

Senator Leahy's final ruminations: "Since hearing word a couple of weeks ago
that this outcome was likely, I have wondered how Congress could have gotten to
this point. It seems the changes to the Insurrection Act have survived the
Conference because the Pentagon and the White House want it."

The historic and ominous re-writing of the Insurrection Act, accomplished in the
dead of night, which gives Bush the legal authority to declare martial law, is now
an accomplished fact.
The Pentagon, as one might expect, plays an even more direct role in martial law
operations. Title XIV of the new law, entitled, "Homeland Defense Technology
Transfer Legislative Provisions," authorizes "the Secretary of Defense to create a
Homeland Defense Technology Transfer Consortium to improve the effectiveness
of the Department of Defense (DOD) processes for identifying and deploying
relevant DOD technology to federal, State, and local first responders."

In other words, the law facilitates the "transfer" of the newest in so-called "crowd
control" technology and other weaponry designed to suppress dissent from the
Pentagon to local militarized police units. The new law builds on and further
codifies earlier "technology transfer" agreements, specifically the 1995 DOD-
Justice Department memorandum of agreement achieved back during the
Clinton-Reno regime.(4)

It has become clear in recent months that a critical mass of the American people
have seen through the lies of the Bush administration; with the president's polls
at an historic low, growing resistance to the war Iraq, and the Democrats likely to
take back the Congress in mid-term elections, the Bush administration is on the
ropes. And so it is particularly worrying that President Bush has seen fit, at this
juncture to, in effect, declare himself dictator.

Source:
(1) http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/091906a.html and
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/092906b.html See also, Congressional
Research Service Report for Congress, "The Use of Federal Troops for Disaster
Assistance: Legal Issues," by Jennifer K. Elsea, Legislative Attorney, August 14,
2006

(2) http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill+h109-5122

(3) Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, "Recent

Contract Awards", Summer 2006, Vol.12, No.2, pg.8; See also, Peter Dale Scott,
"Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps," New American
Media, January 31, 2006.

(4) "Technology Transfer from defense: Concealed Weapons Detection", National

Institute of Justice Journal, No 229, August, 1995, pp.42-43.

Secret Bush Administration Plan to Suspend US Constitution

"Continuity of Government" (COG) Provisions activated in 2001

by Tom Burghardt

Global Research, October 6, 2008

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10473

Ten months before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved an updated version of
the U.S. Army's secret operational Continuity of Government (COG)
plans.

A draft document published by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks

entitled, "Army Regulation 500-3, Emergency Employment of Army
and Other Resources. Army Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program,"
dated 19 January 2001, spells out changes in Army doctrine.

Issued by Headquarters, Department of the Army and signed off by

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Secretary of the Army,
the document is affixed with a warning: "Destruction Notice: Destroy
by any method that will prevent disclosure of contents or
reconstruction of the document." The restricted document as published
by Wikileaks states:

History. This regulation is a revision of the original regulation that

was effective on 10 July 1989. Since that time, no changes have been
published to amend the original.

Summary. This regulation on the Army Continuity of Operations

(COOP) Program has been revised to update Army COOP policy and
extend the requirement for all-hazards COOP planning to all Army
organizations. Classified information contained in the 1989 version of
this AR has been removed and placed in a classified HQDA Operations
Plan (OPLAN).

Applicability. This regulation applies to the Active Army, the U.S.

Army Reserve (USAR), and when federalized to the Army
National Guard (ARNG). In the event of conflict between this
regulation and approved OSD or JCS publications, the provisions of the
latter will apply. ("Army Regulation 500-3, Emergency Employment of
Army and Other Resources. Army Continuity of Operations (COOP)
Program," 19 January 2001, p. 3) [emphasis added]

"All-hazards COOP planning" is described as the means by which "the

Army remains capable of continuing mission-essential operations
during any situation, including military attack, terrorist activities, and
natural or man-made disasters." While the Army stresses the updates
described in AR 500-3 relate to chemical, biological, nuclear attacks,
"natural disasters" and "technical or man-made disasters or
accidents," current Army doctrine is also heavily weighted towards
contingency planning for "civil disturbances."

Two national "civil disturbance" plans, Garden Plot and Cable Splicer
have been operational since the 1960s. Researcher Frank Morales has
detailed how,

Under the heading of "civil disturbance planning," the U.S. military is

training troops and police to suppress democratic opposition in
America. The master plan, Department of Defense Civil Disturbance
Plan 55-2, is code-named, "Operation Garden Plot". Originated in
1968, the "operational plan" has been updated over the last three
decades, most recently in 1991, and was activated during the Los
Angeles "riots" of 1992, and more than likely during the recent anti-
WTO "Battle in Seattle." ...

Equipped with flexible "military operations in urban terrain" and

"operations other than war" doctrine, lethal and "less-than-lethal"
high-tech weaponry, US "armed forces" and "elite" militarized police
units are being trained to eradicate "disorder", "disturbance" and "civil
disobedience" in America. Further, it may very well be that
police/military "civil disturbance" planning is the animating force and
the overarching logic behind the incredible nationwide growth of police
paramilitary units, a growth which coincidentally mirrors rising levels
of police violence directed at the American people, particularly "non-
white" poor and working people. (Frank Morales, "U.S. Military Civil
Disturbance Planning: The War at Home," in Police State America, ed.
Tom Burghardt, Toronto/Montreal: Arm The Spirit/Solidarity, 2002, P.
59)

AR 500-3 should be viewed in this context. Plans for Continuity of

Government have been in place since the 1950s. Originally conceived
during the Cold War when fears of a nuclear strike envisaged by
atomic war-gamers at the RAND Corporation, believed that an
immobilization of government functions and a breakdown of civilian
rule would follow a nuclear attack. But from their inception, COG
planning has been shrouded in secrecy.

In addition to constructing nuclear-proof underground facilities where

the civilian leadership could escape a decapitation strike, other COG
provisions included a series of executive orders designating which
officials would assume Cabinet-level posts and other Executive Branch
positions. Officials so designated would constitute a "shadow
government" should office holders be killed in an attack "or otherwise
incapacitated."

However, when these and other Pentagon "civil disturbance" plans

surfaced in the 1980s during the Iran-Contra hearings, they were
roundly criticized by members of Congress, civil liberties groups and
the media before disappearing once again, down Orwell's "memory
hole." The inherent dangers implicit in such plans are that unelected
Executive Branch officers could assume the Presidency and other
appointed offices subject neither to congressional scrutiny nor judicial
oversight.

Exercising sweeping emergency powers buried within Presidential

Decision Directives (PDDs), unelected officials could suspend the
Constitution, declare martial law and create an Executive Branch
dictatorship that rests solely on the power of the U.S. military.

Most troubling, Executive Branch officials under secret rules of a COG

regime could suppress and usurp the lawful powers of Congress and
the Judicial Branch (by force of arms if deemed necessary) as a means
of ensuring "cooperation" under a "unitary executive."

As we have seen, the "unitary executive" theory has been a salient

feature of Bushist rule since the December 2000 judicial coup d'état,
when the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore decision handed a contested
election to George W. Bush by stopping the vote count in Florida.
Since assuming office, the administration has ruthlessly wielded
executive power in order to achieve their antidemocratic agenda: from
the looting of the economy through "deregulation," massive deficit
spending and tax cuts for their corporate "clients," to waging a
preemptive war of conquest in Iraq, the "unitary executive" has
systematically shredded America's constitutional system of checks and
balances.

The Bush administration put COG plans into operation for the first time
in U.S. history in the hours directly following the September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks. They have never been rescinded.

Their implementation involves a rotating staff of 75-150 senior

government officials and others from every Cabinet department in two
"secure, undisclosed locations" on the East Coast. However, key
congressional representatives have been kept out of the loop and
House and Senate leaders have said they were not informed the
"shadow government" had "gone live."

So secretive are Bush administration plans that Peter DeFazio (D-OR),

a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, was denied
access in 2007 to the classified version of the COG plans contained in
top secret Presidential Decision Directive annexes. This too, is
unprecedented.

While the Bush administration admitted that COG was activated in

2001, their disclosure came only after The Washington Post broke
the story based on confidential administration sources troubled by the
scope of the program and its secretive implementation.

Since the late 1980s, Rumsfeld was a habitué of COG exercises along
with Vice President Dick Cheney. Indeed early COG drills had been
organized by the right-wing Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS). As investigative journalist Andrew Cockburn revealed
in his definitive political biography of the former Defense Secretary:

This highly secret program was known as Project 908, and among the
individuals earmarked to take power when disaster struck was Donald
Rumsfeld. ... There, for several days, he would be immured in artificial
caverns, staring at electronic displays streaming data of disaster and
confusion, sleeping on cots and subsisting on the most austere rations.
...
Insofar as the COG games gave the illusion of reality, they taught
Rumsfeld and his fellow players some dangerous lessons, particularly
when the fall of the Soviet Union induced some changes in the usual
scenarios. Although the exercises continued, still budgeted at over
$200 million in the Clinton era, the vanished Soviets were now
customarily replaced by terrorists. The terrorism envisaged however,
was almost always state-sponsored. ...

There were other changes, too. In earlier times the specialists selected
to run the "shadow government" had been drawn from across the
political spectrum, Democrats and Republicans alike. But now, down in
the bunkers, Rumsfeld found himself in politically congenial company,
the players' roster being filled almost exclusively with Republican
hawks. (Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic
Legacy, New York: Scribner, 2007, pp. 85-86, 88)

As researcher Peter Dale Scott revealed, in early 2006 the Department

of Homeland Security awarded a $385 million contract to a Halliburton
subsidiary, KBR, to provide "temporary detention and processing
facilities." Scott wrote,

The contract--announced Jan. 24 by the engineering and construction

firm KBR--calls for preparing for "an emergency influx of immigrants,
or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of
other emergencies, such as "a natural disaster." The release offered
no details about where Halliburton was to build these facilities, or
when. ...

After 9/11, new martial law plans began to surface similar to those of
FEMA in the 1980s. In January 2002 the Pentagon submitted a
proposal for deploying troops on American streets. One month later
John Brinkerhoff, the author of the 1982 FEMA memo, published an
article arguing for the legality of using U.S. troops for purposes of
domestic security. (Peter Dale Scott, "Homeland Security Contracts for
Vast New Detention Camps," Pacific News Service, February 8, 2006)

The DHS contract to KBR had been preceded by the April 2002
creation of the Pentagon's Northern Command (NORTHCOM),
specifically empowered by the Bush administration for domestic U.S.
military operations in direct violation of Posse Comitatus prohibitions
forbidding the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. At the
time, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld called NORTHCOM's launch "the
most sweeping set of changes since the unified command system was
set up in 1946."

Sweeping indeed! Last month Army Times reported that the Army's
"3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team [BCT] has spent 35
of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping
restore essential services and escorting supply convoys. Now they're
training for the same mission--with a twist--at home." According to
Army Times,

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-
day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of
Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or
manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks. ...

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been
given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command
established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal
homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil
authorities. ...

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or
to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning
and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or
high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack. ...

The 1st BCT's soldiers also will learn how to use "the first ever
nonlethal package that the Army has fielded," 1st BCT commander
Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control
equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or
dangerous individuals without killing them.

"It's a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they're

fielding. They've been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first
time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded,
and because of this mission we're undertaking we were the first to get
it."

The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike

strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons;
and, beanbag bullets. (Gina Cavallaro, "Brigade Homeland Tours Start
Oct. 1," Army Times, September 8, 2008)
While senior Pentagon brass have downplayed the significance of
deploying a BCT that has taken part in aggressive occupation duties to
suppress the Iraqi people's resistance, Col. Lou Vogler, NORTHCOM's
chief of future operations said in an interview that the military "will
integrate with law enforcement to understand the situation and make
sure we're aware of any threats." An article published by the Army
News Service disclosed,

During the exercise, commanders and staff of the force will train,
rehearse and exercise--from academic classes to making decisions and
executing orders--all to help prepare them for the mission they will
assume on Oct. 1, said Vogler.

"It's an opportunity for network building in an unprecedented

assignment of forces," said [Marine Corps Lt. Col.] Shores. "DOD
always had allocated contingency sourced forces--but this is
precedent-setting network building with the forces that we ultimately
will go out and execute with. It's an opportunity to get to know our
forces, to see them in execution, to mission-orient them and be that
much better--to be that much more responsive."

One goal of the exercise is to exercise with partners from the civilian
agencies they would support. To that end, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and other interagency representatives
are participating to ensure integration with civilian consequence
managers who would lead a response, said Vogler.

"The overall federal response builds on the local and state response in
accordance with the incident command system and existing plans and
processes that are out there," said Vogler. "The response force would
supplement local efforts." ("Consequence Management Response Force
to join Army Northern Command," Army News Service, September 15,
2008)

Vogler and Shores were discussing an exercise code-named Vibrant

Response, that took place September 8-19 at Fort Stewart in Georgia.
Three brigades form the core of NORTHCOM's Consequence
Management Response Force: the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Army
Division; the 1st Medical Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas, and the 82nd
Combat Aviation Brigade, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. All three units
participated in Vibrant Response.

As researcher and analyst Michel Chossudovsky comments:

The BCT is an army combat unit designed to confront an enemy within
a war theater.

With US forces overstretched in Iraq, why would the Pentagon decide

to undertake this redeployment within the USA, barely one month
before the presidential elections?

The new mission of the 1st Brigade on US soil is to participate in

"defense" efforts as well as provide "support to civilian authorities".

What is significant in this redeployment of a US infantry unit is the

presumption that North America could, in the case of a national
emergency, constitute a "war theater" thereby justifying the
deployment of combat units.

The new skills to be imparted consist in training 1st BCT in repressing

civil unrest, a task normally assumed by civilian law enforcement.

What we are dealing with is a militarization of civilian police activities

in derogation of the Posse Comitatus Act. ("Pre-election Militarization
of the North American Homeland. US Combat Troops in Iraq
repatriated to 'help with civil unrest'," Global Research, September 26,
2008)

One scenario envisaged by Chossudovsky is that "civil unrest resulting

from from the financial meltdown is a distinct possibility, given the
broad impacts of financial collapse on lifelong savings, pension funds,
homeownership, etc."

One might reasonably inquire, what "precedent-setting network" does

the Army have in mind that would "ensure integration" with "civilian
agencies" such as FEMA (a branch of Homeland Security)? As the
World Socialist Web Site reports:

It is noteworthy that the deployment of US combat troops "as an on-

call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and
disasters"--in the words of the Army Times--coincides with the
eruption of the greatest economic emergency and financial disaster
since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Justified as a response to terrorist threats, the real source of the

growing preparations for the use of US military force within America's
borders lies not in the events of September 11, 2001 or the danger
that they will be repeated. Rather, the domestic mobilization of the
armed forces is a response by the US ruling establishment to the
growing threat to political stability. (Bill Van Auken, "Army deploys
combat unit in U.S. for possible civil unrest," World Socialist Web Site,
25 September 2008)

As the 2001 COOP planning document describes, a host of on-going

Army plans and exercises have been revised by the Bush
administration. In addition to Vibrant Response discussed above, they
include: Plan EXCALIBUR, a COG Army training exercise; ADOBE,
described by investigative journalist William M. Arkin as a "FEMA
continuity of government special access program designation." Arkin
describes special access programs or SAPs as,

Classified research and development, acquisition program, operation,

intelligence activity, or plan that is so sensitive or critical that the
value of the information warrants enhanced protection beyond that
normally provided for access to Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret
information. (William M. Arkin, Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military
Plans, Programs, and Operations in the 9/11 World, Hanover, NH:
Steerforth Press, 2005, p. 598)

The impetus for revising Army COOP was, according to AR 500-3

primarily because,

The end of the Cold War and the breakup of the former Soviet Union
significantly reduced the probability of a major nuclear attack on
CONUS but the probability of other threats has increased. Army
organizations must be prepared for any contingency with a potential
for interruption of normal operations. To emphasize that Army
continuity of operations planning is now focused on the full all-hazards
threat spectrum, the name "ASRRS" has been replaced by the more
generic title "Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program." (p. 13)

Towards this end, the Rumsfeld-era document states that the Army's
new "mission-critical" functions will be restructured so that, "Army
COOP plans must ensure that the Army remains capable of continuing
mission-essential operations during any situation, including military
attack, terrorist activities, and natural or man-made disasters." (p. 13)
The Army, following various contingencies analyzed in the document
will "coordinate with mission-essential external organizations and
agencies." (p. 14)

So sensitive are the political ramifications of these plans that under the
heading, 3-12 Operational Security (OPSEC), the Army avers,
a. The success of COOP planning relies on denying access by
unauthorized parties to information on COOP plans, procedures,
capabilities and facilities.

b. Overhead imagery, signals intelligence, human sources, and

exploitation of open literature during peacetime are threat capabilities
used to gain knowledge of Army emergency plans, command and
control systems, and facilities.

c. See Appendix B, Security Classification Guide, for guidance on the

level of classification of COOP-related information. (COOP, op. cit., p.
20)

Appendix A of AR 500-3 lists relevant references for changes included

in the COOP planning document. These include:

Section I

Required Publications

HQDA Operations Plan EXCALIBUR, 30 April 1999 (Being Revised)

HQDA Continuity of Operations Plan (cited in para 1-4.f)

Section II

Related Publications a related publication is merely a source of

additional information. The user does not have to read it to
understand this publication.

Executive Order 12656

National Security Emergency Preparedness (NSEP), 18 November

1988

DoD Directive (Dodd) 2000.12

DoD Antiterrorism/Force Protection (AT/FP) Program, 13 April 1999

CJCSM 3410.01
Continuity of Operations Plan for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff (COOP-CJCS), 1 March 1999

Executive Order 12787

Prescribing the Order of Succession of Officers to Act as Secretary of

Defense, 31 December 1991

DoDD 3020.26

Continuity of Operations (COOP) Policy and Planning, 26 May 1995

DoD 3020.26P

Continuity of Operations Plan, 21 June 2000 (Classified SECRET)

DoDD 3020.36

Assignment of National Security Emergency Preparedness (NSEP)

Responsibilities to DoD Components, 2 November 1988

DoDD 3025.15

Military Support to Civil Authorities (MSCA), 18 February 1997

The Federal Response Plan, April 1999

Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 67, (Top Secret) Enduring

Constitutional Government (ECG) and Continuity of Government
(COG) Operations, Oct 21, 1998

Federal Preparedness Circular 65, Federal Executive Branch

Continuity of Operations, (COOP), July 26, 1999

As Peter Dale Scott reported in CounterPunch, apparently members of

Congress are considered "unauthorized parties" to be denied access
"to information on COOP plans, procedures, capabilities and facilities."
Congressman DeFazio had been denied access to the classified
annexes of National Security and Homeland Security Presidential
Directive (NSPD 51/HSPD 20) Scott wrote,

NSPD 51 contains "classified Continuity Annexes" which shall "be

protected from unauthorized disclosure." Congressman DeFazio twice
requested to see these Annexes, the second time in a letter cosigned
by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson
and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Carney. It was
these requests that the White House denied. ...

DeFazio's inability to get access to the NSPD Annexes is less than

reassuring. If members of the Homeland Security Committee cannot
enforce their right to read secret plans of the Executive Branch, then
the systems of checks and balances established by the U.S.
Constitution would seem to be failing.

To put it another way, if the White House is successful in frustrating

DeFazio, then Continuity of Government planning has arguably already
superseded the Constitution as a higher authority. (Peter Dale Scott,
"The Showdown," CounterPunch, March 31, 2008)

With the stunning revelations published by Wikileaks, it is abundantly

clear that top Bush administration officials were busily revising
Continuity of Government plans, including "civil disturbance"
contingencies for suspending the Constitution and imposing martial
law, long before the 9/11 attacks.

Since that fatal and tragic day seven long years ago, we have been
told repeatedly by the government and their media sycophants that
9/11 was the day "when everything changed."

We now know thanks to Wikileaks, that as with the invasion and

occupation of Iraq, the unprecedented and lawless surveillance of
Americans, the illegal detention and torture of prisoners of war, that
Bush administration assertions are no more than a pack of murderous
lies.

One fact is abundantly clear from the mass of conflicting evidence and
assertions made by proponents of various theories surrounding the
9/11 events: AR 500-3 demonstrates that from the very first moments
after being installed in office, the Bush regime was involved in a
"controlled demolition" of the U.S. Constitution.
Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San
Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action
Quarterly, Love & Rage and Antifa Forum, he is the editor of Police
State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed
by AK Press.

Tom Burghardt is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles

by Tom Burghardt