20th Annaversary of the fairytale of Big Lies

[Peter Lemkin]

Why did Eisenhower add private corporate managers to U.S. armed forces and law enforcement as a replacement for a constitutionally elected government? He may well have been concerned about anti-democratic groups then spreading within the U.S. armed forces and police, especially after the Supreme Court decision in 1954 to enforce school desegregation nationwide. Some of these right-wing cliques had actually established contact with post-war fascist residues in Europe.
Dwight Eisenhower [Source: whitehouse.gov]
But it did not take long for Eisenhower’s emergency alternative (soon to become known to those in the know as the “Doomsday Project”) to become anti-democratic as well. A dangerous feature of the Doomsday Project was that in it there was no real separation of powers: Those who were planning for post-attack structures, like Frank Stanton, were also charged with implementing them. From the standpoint of preserving American democracy, this would prove to be a fatal weakness.
Frank Stanton, former CBS President, was one of six people designated by President Eisenhower in the 1950s to run the U.S. government in the face of a nuclear crisis. [Source: wikipedia.org]
Under both Republicans and Democrats in the 1970s—a decade of assassinations, massive anti-war protests, and black militancy—the powers of the Doomsday Project continued, without interruption, to grow. For example, both Nixon and Ford expanded the development of plans to establish government control in the event of any (as opposed to post-nuclear) “national emergency.”[34]
Financial expert Howard J. Ruff commented that, since the enactment of Executive Order 11490 in 1969, “The only thing standing between us and a dictatorship is the good character of the President and the lack of a crisis severe enough that the public would stand still for it.”[35]
Lyndon Johnson, in a suit, standing beside a large sign which reads: “Site of the Nation’s First Federal Underground Center, Denton, Texas.” Opened in February 1964, this center ultimately became known as the “FEMA Region VI Federal Regional Center”. It was the first protected underground federal regional emergency operating center built in the nation. [Source: texashistory.unt.edu]
Samuel Huntington [Source: contemporarythinkers.org]
In that troubled era, among the many establishment figures warning that America was becoming ungovernable was Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington, who co-wrote (for David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission, of which he was a member) a book arguing that America’s problems stemmed “from an excess of democracy.”[36]
Huntington then joined the Carter administration as a consultant to National Security Adviser (and former Trilateral Commission Director) Zbigniew Brzezinski.[37] Together the two were responsible for the creation in 1979 of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In addition to its high-profile public functions, FEMA inherited the secret function of sustaining and enhancing the Doomsday Project (or COG).[38]
Jimmy Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski [Source: ft.com]
Under Reagan, FEMA’s public role of disaster relief

…was neglected and starved of resources, while the [secret function] flourished. FEMA set up a “Civil Security Division” with a training center for over 1,000 civilian police to handle riots and political disturbances (not disaster relief). A file was gathered on U.S. left-wing activists, and internment camps were planned. One national training exercise [REX 84] envisioned incarcerating 100,000 “national security threats.” [39]

In particular,

…a small division of FEMA, the National Preparedness Division (NPD), was charged with developing a classified computer and telecommunications network to insure [sic] the continuity of the government in the event of a nuclear attack.[40]

This network, known in house as the Doomsday Network, mushroomed; at a cost of billions, it became a global secret communications network from which those administering FEMA’s legitimate functions were excluded.
Thus, for example, in 2005, when FEMA’s civilian administrators were struggling to restore communications after Hurricane Katrina, the resources of the Doomsday Network, which would have been of vital use, were unavailable (and probably unknown) to them in their lawful activity.[41]
New Orleans residents plead for assistance from FEMA that was not forthcoming during 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. [Source: gradesaver.com]
But when Oliver North was engaged in unlawful arms sales to Iran, the Doomsday Network (known then as Flashboard) was available to him, as a necessary way to avoid bureaucratic review.[42]
North’s manic overreach with FEMA’s secret powers aroused widespread resentment inside Washington, and soon led to leaks. In July 1987 Alfonso Chardy reported in the Miami Herald that North’s and FEMA’s plans envisaged

…suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, emergency appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and declaration of martial law during a national crisis.[43]

That Chardy’s claims were not unfounded was confirmed during the Iran-Contra hearings, when Congressman Jack Brooks (D-Tex.) asked North if he was involved in “plans for continuity of government … a contingency plan … that would suspend the American constitution.” The Democratic Committee Chairman, saying that “that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area,” directed North not to answer. The New York Times transcribed the hearing. But did not consider that the possible suspension of the U.S. Constitution was worthy of a news story.[44]
Oliver North testifying in Iran-Contra hearings. [Source: Britannica.com]