MR. FLEISCHER: If he was, it's inadvertent.
Q When you say he's been talked to, are you saying he has been --
MR. FLEISCHER: About coming down.
Q Has he been briefed on the shadow government, or has his people been briefed on the shadow government?
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me say this on the topic of who exactly has been briefed, because I'm not going to give you the specific names or titles of the people who have been briefed.
As I indicated, going back to the Cold War there has been a well- known plan, a well-established plan for continuity of government and continuity of operations of the government. This is nothing new. These are not new government employees, these are people who currently work for the government, who, in order to assure continuity of government and continuity of operations, things such as sending out Social Security checks in the event that there was an attack on Washington, should be in place to make sure that the continuity of the operations and the continuity of the government can be maintained. I think the American people would think something was remiss if the United States government did not take every appropriate step to ensure those continuity operations.
In that capacity, and it's part of something that's top secret, and so therefore I'm not going to get into it in great length, the appropriate people were informed of these plans. Now, as I indicated earlier this morning, the president is confident that when members of Congress have a chance to pause, to think, and to talk to each other, they will recognize that this administration informed the Congress properly and informed the Congress appropriately.
Q So they're lying? Are they lying when they say they were not informed?
MR. FLEISCHER: Helen, I can only say that there's a lot of information, and very often it just takes a few days for people to put it all together and realize what they have.
Q The staffs didn't tell them?
MR. FLEISCHER: John?
Q If the appropriate people were informed, I would make the logical leap to assume that that would be Speaker Hastert and Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Byrd. But his office claims that no one in their office was informed of the shadow government. I have heard that the secretary of the Senate and the sergeant at arms were informed of a, quote, "secret location," but not the existence of a shadow government. So where is the disconnect here?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well again, this somehow notion of a "shadow government," that's a misnomer. As I indicated --
Q Well, a bunch of people operating -- whatever label you want to put on it. A bunch of people operating in a secret bunker -- that information, to my knowledge, was not made clear to anyone who was in the line of succession on the Democratic side.
Q But --
Q One more. Do these concerns that the leaders of Congress are raising indicate to you a breakdown in communication -- that whatever you said wasn't understood and that the White House, therefore, needs to work on making sure that the legislative branch is informed of these kinds of activities in a way that they get?
MR. FLEISCHER: Obviously, there was an additional meeting today where information was reiterated. And I'm certain that as people return to the Hill and have the appropriate conversations with the appropriate people, it will become clear to them, and they will have that opportunity. They will hear from their people.
Q Ari, did everyone get the same information? Ari, there's some suggestions that, from what we understand from officials, is that those in the direct line of succession had a more detailed understanding of what was going on, including the fact that there were officials working at undisclosed locations to maintain continuation of government, while others simply knew that there was a location but not the details of what was happening there.
MR. FLEISCHER: "People were appropriately informed" is how I'm going to leave it.
Helen Thomas, scion of the left-wing intellectual elite, doesn't know the meaning of the word "REITERATED"???
That would be funny, if it weren't so frightening.