THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT KNOWS

Then there is the issue of the “shadow government.” On March 1, 2002, well after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush announced that the American public needn't worry about the survival of vital federal government functions because a “shadow government” made up of unelected bureaucrats were working in underground bunkers stocked with supplies of food, water and electric generators to preserve the government. Many people found little consolation in the idea that while their cities might be devastated by biological, chemical or nuclear terrorism, the Agriculture Dept. and the IRS would still be there for them. Plans for COG, or Continuity of Government, have been in place since the beginning of the Cold War but were only revved up by the Bush Administration in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Actually, authors and commentators have spoken out about a shadow government that runs the country in secret for many years. Col. L. Fletcher Prouty called it the “Secret Team,” while Bill Moyers called it the “Secret Government.”

The shadow government made public by President Bush was only about the bureaucrats that would try to continue government services in the event of a massive attack or emergency. There was no mention of the shadow or parallel government that has operated since the signing of the National Security Act of 1947 and, according to a growing number of researchers, was behind the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.

The federal shadow government could well have been named the “Secret Government.” The Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert said he only had a vague idea of this sub-rosa government and he is third in line to assume the presidency.

Although, in the event of a crisis, reportedly some 100 senior government managers would escape to one of two secret East Coast underground destinations, according to the Washington Post, “only the executive branch is represented in the full-time shadow government.”

Following a catastrophic attack, these shadow bureaucrats would try to contain national disruption of food, water, transportation, energy and telecommunications, then move on to reconstitute the federal government. But this is all hush-hush. Participants cannot reveal the whereabouts of these underground retreats even to their own families, who are not allowed to join them.

And the shadow government has now been tied to the Homeland Security apparatus, which refused to reveal any details on its cost or budget.

This prompted a threat from former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle that he might issue a subpoena to former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in order to find out what all these secret preparations are costing the American taxpayer. Bush had even refused to allow Ridge to testify to the Congress about his plans and their costs. Ridge finally was allowed to send a written statement to a joint meeting of several committees.

Daschle said secrecy about the shadow government was so tight he had not learned about it until he read about it in the Washington Post. “We have not been informed at all about the role of the shadow government or its whereabouts or what particular responsibilities they have or when they would kick in,” groused Daschle.

The executive director of Judicial Watch, the group that criticized President Clinton so doggedly, stated, “This is a case of where left and right agree…True conservatives don't act this way.”

“We see an unprecedented secrecy in this White House that…we find very disturbing,” said Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch.

Michael Ventura of the Austin Chronicle wrote, “Without an active free press (especially the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times) our elected representatives in Congress would know virtually nothing of most of the major steps the Bush Administration has taken… If America means to you a republic governed according to a Constitution that carefully stipulates checks and balances among the White House, Congress, and the judiciary—a system in which none can overwhelm the others, and in which each is responsible to the others—then you no longer live in America.

“This is not some dire warning about the future. This has happened and is happening. A free press is noting the process step by step: braver members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, have voiced alarm and are attempting legal measures to exercise their constitutional duties (so far to no avail); watchdogs on the right and left agree on the urgency of the situation…while most citizens say and do nothing, giving tacit approval to a new (yes, new!) de facto system of government that recognizes no obligation to obey or enforce the letter or spirit of the Constitution.”

The Bush administration is packed with men and women who claim to be conservatives. But what is it they wish to conserve? It would appear not to be the conservation of a constitutional republic.

“[Conservative] does not describe the Bush Administration at all,” added Ventura. “They ignore Congress almost completely on crucial issues; they feel no obligation to inform American citizens of the White House's deliberations or even its policies, whether or not national security is at stake; they concentrate tremendous power among the very few. That is not conservatism. There is only one word that adequately describes the bent and preference of George W. Bush's White House: Totalitarianism.”