THE BIRTH OF FEMA If FEMA has a predecessor document, it must be Executive Order 11490 signed by Richard M. Nixon on Oct. 28, 1969. In consolidating emergency functions, this massive 40-page fiat dealt with 21 executive orders and two Defense Mobilization Orders. The document describes, in part, proposals to develop plans and procedures for the provision of logistical support to members of foreign forces, their employees and dependents as may be present in the United States under terms of bilateral or multilateral agreements which authorize such support in the event of a national emergency... Further declarations found in Nixons 11490 cover labor conscription and control of the money supply. In evidence is Department of the Army Memorandum marked 1994 ATKO-KM, dated July 1994 and issued out of Fort Monroe, Va.: SUBJECT: Draft Army Regulation on Civilian Inmate Labor Program. It specifically calls for comments on procedures to establish civilian prison camps on installations. Obviously, some people do not believe the Posse Comitatus Act (delegating authority to county governments in the late 1800s) carries any weight or will be around much longer. Those who think it cant happen here should restudy recent American history. During World War II, tens of thousands of our citizens, primarily Japanese-Americans, were interned in deplorable conditions while their property was legally stolen from them. Based on Executive Order 3066 signed in December 1941, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, concentration camps were hastily built in the western deserts as these people, most native-born, were herded together. Japanese-Americans not on the West Coast were relatively untouched. Yet during the entire war, there occurred not a single documented instance of spying or sabotage by Americans of Japanese ancestry. It is interesting that Executive Order 11490 was not issued as a White House press release, nor was it printed in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. Due to reasons of workability, a cloak of secrecy was not feasible. However, this was not a document which was supposed to be readily accessible. Zbigniew Brzezinski, cofounder of the Trilateral Commission and National Security Council Advisor to President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s, wrote the master plan together with NSC staffer Samuel Huntington. Four years earlier in Kyoto, Japan, Huntington had delivered a disturbing paper advocating the end to democracy and its replacement with a crisis management form of government. President Carters Executive Order 12148, dated July 20, 1979, retroactively made effective July 15, gave FEMA life. That fiat revoked 13 previously issued Executive Orders, amended 19 others, and cited as authority 13 federal statutes. It should be noted that the great bulk of executive orders deal with matters outside the operations of the executive branch. These presidential edicts become law when published in the Federal Register. It has been the style of some presidents to cite specific legislation as their authority to issue certain executive orders. As de facto legislation without debate and oversight, they are quite unconstitutional. Yet, they stand completely unchallenged by Congress and the high court, the two supposedly countervailing branches of government. Moreover, much of the enabling legislation is plainly unconstitutional and should have no force of law. The reality is that the most marvelous legal document ever to spring from the mind of man, our U.S. Constitution, has been rendered nearly inoperative. Fully realizing that a legitimate bill to establish FEMA would never survive the legislative process given agency turf battles and serious concerns of a handful of congressmen Carter created the monster with a stroke of his pen. During the 1980s when FEMA was assembling the cumbersome regulations for which bureaucrats are famous, a standard complaint was that FEMA doesnt listen. After an unsuccessful appeal of a costly restriction, Janet Queen of the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona commented, A lot of technical data has been given. Theres been no answer as to why that information has been discredited. They have only stated it was not accepted. A consensus was building that the only thing FEMA was not much good was at focusing on its primary mandate. Performance had improved by 1993 when FEMA dealt with flooding across the Midwest. The agency was lauded for moving swiftly, without waiting for guidance from the state or Washington. The reason cited: the director, James Lee Witt, native of Wildcat Hollow and 14 years the Director for Emergency Services for the State of Arkansas, was the sole political appointee. FEMAs duties and responsibilities have expanded geometrically over the years. The agencys name is now found on numerous mortgage documents, especially if land on a flood plain is involved. Flood insurance is a field which has been taken over by the agency. In 1992 FEMA funded the New England States Earthquake Consortium together with insurance industry groups. In many instances where people were unable to qualify for low-interest loans or reconstruction assistance, free grants of public money were made by the agency. How better to build gratitude while providing disincentives to prepare? In the Midwest, FEMA launched a prototype Geographic Information System to mix commercial and custom software designed to map and analyze data. FEMA is no stranger to the art and science of relocating people, whether or not they want to go. In 1983, a chemical compound thought to cause cancer, dioxin, was found in soil in and around the community of Times Beach, Mo. FEMA engineered a federal buyout and removal of the towns 2,400 residents. But what is the true nature of this seemingly all-purpose agency, which has been given responsibility to save us from quakes, refugee situations, toxic spills, excess rain, home heating emergencies, forest fires, urban riots and the like? This parallel government, as some have termed it, makes no public disclosures and operates largely off budget. Executive Order 12148 authorizes a president or his designate, the director of FEMA, to assume virtually unlimited powers in the event of a civil emergency, defined as any accidental, natural, man-caused, or wartime emergency or threat thereof, which causes or may cause substantial injury or harm to the population or substantial damage to or loss of property. Translated, it means FEMA can intervene at will. Although the director of FEMA was originally subject to oversight by the secretary of defense and the National Security Council, such was not the case for long. One day in the early 1980s, a colleague of this writer attended a joint meeting on the bottom of a five-level deep FEMA installation near Battle Creek, Mich. As the regional director lectured, a USAF colonel half-dozed. But when the speaker explained that in the event of a major civil emergency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff would report to the director of FEMA, the full bird instantly came to life. Eyes shining like those of an eagle, he nearly came out of his chair. By January 1994, when a major quake hit California, the agency had undergone a sweeping reorganization for greater efficiency. After the 750-bed Jewish Home for the Aging of Greater Los Angeles was destroyed (total injuries: one broken hip), FEMA supplied 70 percent of rebuilding costs. At $8 billion the disaster relief package was the largest in history. In San Francisco, the American Conservatory Theater was in shambles; FEMA contributed $9.3 million of the $21.5 million needed to rebuild. The agency then pledged 90 percent of repair costs to communities damaged by the Northridge Earthquake, plus another $44 million to rebuild the states Palo Alto campus in Northern California. Media lapdogs attributed these successes to the sensitivity of FEMA Director James Lee Witt. In February 1996, Bill Clinton elevated the directors position to cabinet status. The genie had emerged from the smoked-glass bottle.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 23:21:15 +0000
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