Posted on 03/03/2002 5:23:28 AM PST by Recovering_Democrat
I've heard it all. The U.S. government has had a "shadow" government contingency plan for 40 or 50 years, and Tom Daschle is just now expressing his ignorance about the concept. Is he really this stupid, or is he lying? Either way it's unacceptable to have such a man making policy decisions for our nation. My friends on FR who have Fox News Sunday say Tom Daschle today expressed concern about not knowing about the "shadow" government President Bush is beefing up in case of a nuclear attack on Washington DC.
Isn't this clown the Senate majority leader and a former INTELLIGENCE officer? Wouldn't you think someone who supposedly has all these resources would know about a basic backup to our government that has been in place since the mid-1950s????
I would think that being aware of these plans would be a responsilbility of the Majority Leader of the Senate. It must be embarrassing for Daschle to go on national television and admit that he has been negligent in his duties. No wonder other Senators don't look to him for leadership.
I suspect most of the other Senators know about the plan, so it might be that all the other Senators just wanted to keep Daschle in the dark. Kind of like those Doonesberry cartoons where all the employees play jokes on the boss because he is such a clueless idiot.
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New York -- In October, an intelligence alert went out to a small number of government agencies, including the Energy Department's top-secret Nuclear Emergency Search Team, based in Nevada. The report said that terrorists were thought to have obtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon from the Russian arsenal, and planned to smuggle it into New York City, a special TIME magazine investigation reveals.
Publishing sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT, the next cover story of TIME will headline: "Can We Stop the Next 9/11?"
The report hits newsstands Monday, March 4th. MORE
The source: a mercurial agent code-named DRAGONFIRE, who intelligence officials believed was of "undetermined" reliability, TIME reports. But DRAGONFIRE'S claim tracked with a report from a Russian general who believed his forces were missing a 10-kiloton device.
That made the DRAGONFIRE report alarming. So did this: detonated in lower Manhattan, a 10-kiloton bomb would kill some 100,000 civilians and irradiate 700,000 more, flattening everything in a half-mile diameter.
Counterterrorist investigators went on their highest state of alert, TIME reports. "It was brutal," a U.S. official told TIME.
It was also highly classified and closely guarded. MORE
Under the aegis of the White Houses Counterterrorism Security Group, part of the National Security Council, the suspected nuke was kept secret so as not to panic the people of New York. Senior FBI officials were not in the loop. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani says he was never told about the threat. In the end, the investigators found nothing, and concluded that DRAGONFIRE'S information was false. But few of them slept better.
Counterterrorism experts and government officials interviewed by TIME say that for all the relative calm since Sept. 11, Americas luck will probably run out again, sooner or later. "It's going to be worse, and a lot of people are going to die," warns one U.S. counterterrorism official. "I don't think there's a damn thing we're going to be able to do about it."
The DRUDGE REPORT has been briefed on other revelations coming from TIME's investigation:
The Coast Guard is arming itself against a possible terrorist attempt to destroy a major U.S. coastal city by detonating a tanker loaded with liquified natural gas.
The Administration has recalled old CIA hands with experience in Central Asia. Says an Administration official: "You ended up going back to retirees because the bench was so light on Afghanistan. Were still trying to get up to speed."
This week, Tom Ridges office plans to announce a new color-coded alert system to warn local law enforcement and the public about threats within U.S. borders, sources tell TIME.
While there is a genuine debate inside the government about whether Osama bin Laden is still alive, there is far less argument about what will happen after Washington is able to confirm that he is dead. A U.S. official told TIME last week that it is widely presumed that al-Qaeda sleeper cells will take retaliatory action once the terrorist leader is killed or proven dead.
"We're as vulnerable today as we were on 9/10 or 9/12," says presidential counselor Karen Hughes. "We just know more."
Developing...
What makes you think the "shadow government" is not the elected government? They are the same people. They just go to work at a different location.
We need both. But we don't need both at the same time. Or can anybody suggest a reasonable and patriotic and lawful and benign reason why this "shadow" government ought to be operating NOW -- absent any attack that renders the usual government inoperable?
Do you back up your computer hard drive after it crashes?
What evidence do Daschle (and others) have that both are operating SIMULTANEOUSLY? (answer: none)
Once upon a time this country was ruled by George III.
Enter: George II.
Or is it Kaiser George.
Do you have some reason to believe that the so-called "shadow government" is operating now? If so, you might want to let the rest of the world in on it.
HEY! Are you implying he ever had any intelligence?
Seriously, he had a note from his mother and missed that meeting.
Saint Patrick's Day at "Maguire's Hill Irish Fest" BUMP!
I'm not Irish, but the people who carry me home are.
But frankly, I'm getting utterly annoyed with him. You know, research consistently shows that we are all connected by no more than 6 people and usually only 3 or so to anyone else on the planet.
The implications of this for Dashunwhole could be as follows. . . .
I'm to the point where I'm wanting to try and contact folk in where is it--South Dakota? Whoever the idiots are who keep voting him in. . . and begin some gentle persuasion and consciousness raising against the selfish traitor.
How many FReepers are there now? 800,000? or is it 80,000? In any case, if even 20% of us [the usual % that gets things done] were to contact as many as we could who might know someone in Dasheadfullofholes' home state, we could certainly have an impact.
HOW ABOUT IT? AT LEAST EMAIL THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW IN HIS HOMESTATE AND DRAW THEM OUT on why they voted for him. . . . if they didn't, why their neighbors or co-workers voted for him. Then come back to FR and let's brainstorm fool proof responses to persuade people away from the turkey. November is coming soon but we have enough time if we care enough about our country to bother.
Think of all your shirt-tail relatives and school friends who might be living in that State now. . . former co-workers. . . .denominational church and other associations. SHRILLERY AND BILLDO AREN'T THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN NETWORK!!!
I really think it's worth some earnest effort in behalf of the country. Even if someone else takes his place, they can't be as irritating or as stupid . . . well, I suppose they can . . . but at least a pretty dangerous idiotmouth would be defeated by the people!
Now, should mention that I'm not exactly well-read, nor am I capable to critique most speech, but I doubt there are many 8th graders who don't know the difference in the singular and plural of this term--and punk Daschle should know, too. And my, my, how he beamed with Snow bought up the subject of would Daschle run for president--what a pi$$y little creep this guy is.
And I still maintain that since too many Democrats cannot be trusted, for a variety of reasons, Daschle's comment that "someone" in Congress should know about the "shadow govt", I ageee with him; some probably do, but my guess is it would be Republicans, and with good reason, since you can't trust the Dems.
....this just in from the military office of dis-information!
Little Tommy Dashole is Lying!!!
Sunday, Mar. 3, 2002 1:23 p.m. EST Daschle Caught in 'Secret Government' Fib
Senate plurality leader Tom Daschle was caught fibbing Sunday morning about whether or not he knew of the so-called shadow government doomsday plan reactivated by the Bush administration in the wake of the 9-11 attacks.
The diminutive Democrat first complained to "Fox News Sunday" that he and his congressional colleagues had been kept totally in the dark about secret installations housing unidentified U.S. officials who have been designated to insure government continuity in the event of a devastating domestic attack.
"None of us knew about the secret government. Not knowing things as basic as that is a pretty profound illustration of the chasm that exists sometimes [between Congress and the Bush administration] with information," Daschle told FNS's Tony Snow.
But a moment later Daschle was forced to admit that he actually visited one of the installations he claimed to know nothing about.
SNOW: The so-called secret government - you've actually been to the site [since] Sept. 11, right?
DASCHLE: Well, I don't know if that's the site. I mean ...
SNOW: I'm told it is. So now you know. (end of excerpt)
In fact, as noted here yesterday, the Bush doomsday contingency plan has been public knowledge for the last four months, having been reported in October by the Cleveland Plain Dealer and U.S. News & World Report.
Bush's "secret" shadow government was also the subject of congressional hearings, the testimony from which has long been available on the Office of Management and Budget's Web site.
Apparently the Senate plurality leader was so focused on his 2004 presidential ambitions he missed the news.
I love how he is calling it the shadow government, as if to hint that something is awry and illegal in the Bush administration. These are called "contingency plans" or "disaster recovery" in the business world. Its irresponsible NOT to have them.
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