It would seem natural that all
governments would want to protect their people in times
of disaster, both natural and man-made (though not all
do). Contingencies may be set up for such events. The
United States is no exception. But as with all good
intentions the pathway to oblivion is only a short
change of course.
Very few citizens had ever heard of FEMA before
hurricanes Andrew & Katrina, most have no idea of its
origin, abilities, and true purpose. I will set a lot
of it out for you in these articles, but you must
follow the links and read the official government
documents for yourself.
This is not to add to your fear but to your
preparedness. As with most things governmental, citizen
vigilance is absolutely necessary.
For clarification: An executive order is a proclamation
by the President of the United States without the input
or action of the congress or senate.
It is the law.
It all started simply enough in 1962 with Executive
Order
EO 10990 ostensibly to re-establish the
National Safety Council: true purpose, to take over all
modes of transportation and control of highways and
seaport in case of an emergency.
That was followed by these:
EO 10995: allows the government to seize and
control the communication media.
EO 10997: allows the government to take over
all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and
minerals.
EO 10998: allows the government to take over
all food resources and farms.
EO 11000: allows the government to
mobilize civilians into work brigades under government
supervision.
EO 11001: allows the government to take over
all health, education and welfare functions.
EO 11002: designates the Postmaster
General to operate a national registration of all
persons.
EO 11003: allows the government to take over
all airports and aircraft, including commercial
aircraft.
EO 11004: allows the Housing and Finance
Authority to relocate communities, build new housing
with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and
establish new locations for populations.
EO 11005: allows the government to take over
railroads, inland waterways and public storage
facilities.
EO 11051: specifies the responsibility of
the Office of Emergency Planning and gives
authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect
in times of increased international tensions and
economic or financial crisis.
EO 11310: grants authority to the Department
of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive
Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish
judicial and legislative liaison, to control all
aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions,
and to advise and assist the President.
That is quite a list compiled by too many sources to
credit here, so I have set up links directly to US
government data bases for you to read them first hand.
EO 11049: assigns emergency preparedness
function to federal departments and agencies. All
together EO 11049 organized and codified 21 Executive
Orders, including those above, and 2 Defense
Mobilization Orders: VI-2, 1-12. These EOs & DMOs began
to accumulate in 1951. This order made them one law.
EO 11049 stated that this was for use in a national
emergency, but never defined what that was. At that
time everyone thought that it was about nuclear war,
but we have seen that FEMA gets involved in much more
than that.
EO 11921: allows the Federal Emergency
Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish
control over the mechanisms of production and
distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries,
credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial
institution in any undefined national emergency.
It also provides that
when a state of emergency is declared by the President,
Congress cannot review the action for six months.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has broad
powers in every aspect of the nation.
EO 11921: simply tightened the grips on the nation, if
ever used fully.
To date, U.S. courts have overturned only two executive
orders: the Truman order (integrating the armed
services) and a 1996 order issued by President Clinton
that attempted to prevent the US government from
contracting with organizations that had strike-breakers
on the payroll. Congress may overturn an executive
order by passing
legislation in conflict with it or by refusing to
approve funding to enforce it. In the former,
the president retains the power to veto such a
decision; however, the Congress may override a veto
with a two-thirds
majority to end an executive order. It has been
argued that a Congressional override of an executive
order is a nearly impossible event due to the
super-majority required and the fact that such a vote
leaves individual lawmakers very vulnerable to
political criticism. (From Wikipedia)
In theory, the President could issue executive orders
such as placing decenting legislators under house
arrest, or simply nullifying their votes through
political pressure.
As you can see there is much more to FEMA than meets
the eyes. I have made no conjectures or statements
that you can not verify by reading the original
documents.
Next time: What does all of this mean to you and me
today?
Be vigilant,
The Hammer
Original at: http://www.gather.com:80/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977625589