Shadow Government |
March 20, 2002
This is a transcript of a 1991 CNN "Special Assignment" in which the inner workings of the U.S. Secret Government's Dooms Day Plan was revealed. A plan which we are told was initiated on September 11, 2001 as a result of the World Trade Center 'attack'. The WTC 'attack' itself is being used to justify the current mass slaughter around the world by the U.S. Military. Video tape is available. See ordering information in Resources.
Being aware of the Zionist control over the media, I've wrestled with the question:
Why did the Zionist-controlled CNN expose the 'secrets' of the powerful NPO and its shadow government in 1991, which -- according to this documentary -- is so hidden, so insulated, so powerful that not even the U.S. Congress had knowledge of its existence, let alone oversight on its budget and activities? (A few of the CFR members in Congress did know).
Only the orchestrators of the Gulf War -- NOT the useful idiots who implemented it -- have full knowledge of the multi-purpose outcome of that particular 'peace mission'. However, some of their accomplishments are apparent:
1) Depopulation: Hundreds of thousands of men were killed outright. Of those who survived, tens of thousands have died of the Gulf War Illness after transferring the organisms to their wives and families. A majority have begotten deformed children. Various reports reveal that French troops from that 'peace mission' have not suffered the illness. French troops were not inoculated. Protocol No. 10 addresses that issue:
... it is indispensable to trouble in all countries the people's relations with their governments so as to utterly exhaust humanity with dissensions, hatred, struggle, envy and even by the use of torture; by starvation, BY THE INOCULATION OF DISEASES, by want, so that the goyim see no other issue than to take refuge in our complete sovereignty in money and in all else.
2) Testing the waters: They discovered that they can instill the spirit of war in the hearts and minds of Americans by the beating of war-drums, flying the U.S. military flag (I once thought of it as the 'American' flag) and talking about 'peace'. I questioned dozens of people - strangers, friends and associates - during the Gulf War asking if they knew why the U.S. was over there. They 'knew' only what they were told by the controlled media. Going to get that monster Saddam Hussein and free the people of Kuwait. They all tied yellow ribbons 'round the old oak tree and cheered the U.S. soldiers who went to Iraq to kill and die for the New World Order.
3) Establishing a permanent U.N. force (Americans mostly) in the area. The Kingdom on Earth - ZION - is intended to be established in Jerusalem, and it won't be Jesus Christ on that throne. Protocol No. 3 addresses that one:
When the hour strikes for our Sovereign Lord of all the World to be crowned it is these same hands [the mob] which will sweep away everything that might be a hindrance thereto.
Ever since that time [the French Revolution] we have been leading the peoples from one disenchantment to another, so that in the end they should turn also from us in favour of that King-Despot of the blood of Zion, whom we are preparing for the world.
And in Protocol No. 4:
However, it is probably all the same to the world who is its sovereign lord, whether the head of Catholicism or our despot of the blood of Zion! But to us, the Chosen People, it is very far from being a matter of indifference.
4) Set the stage for today's imminent war against Iraq: We should be clear that if they had wanted to take Saddam Hussein out in 1991, they would have done so. Over these past eleven years they've regularly bombed the innocent people in Iraq, enforced sanctions against them, depriving the people of medical supplies, food, and other items essential to their health and welfare; weakening and demoralizing the people of Iraq in preparations for the next round -- being planned today.
In 1998, they lied, claiming that Hussein had kicked the UN weapons inspectors out of the country, when in reality, it was the U.S. and the U.K. that withdrew the inspectors. They've utilized this to instill in the minds of Americans that Hussein is a terrible threat to world peace, and may even be planning a nuclear strike on the U.S.
That brings us back to the CNN Special Assignment in 1991 - which is transcribed below.
The final statements of the announcer along with graphic scenes of Saddam Hussein in full military dress in front of cheering crowds; nuclear explosions; the assertion that 'new fears replace the old' after the cold war... bring us to the present day.
Once again Saddam Hussein is the feared and dreaded 'enemy' in the Orwellian scenario being written, produced and directed by the UNSEEN HAND - the MASTERS OF ZION behind a SHADOW (U.S.) GOVERNMENT.
Federal, state and local elected officials are allowing it to happen; helping the plan along by passing the laws they are told to pass.
Do not be fooled. Neither the president nor the vice-president is in control of this plan. The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion spell it out perfectly in Protocol No. 10:
"In the near future we shall establish the responsibility of presidents.
By that time we shall be in a position to disregard forms in carrying through matters for which our impersonal puppet will be responsible.
Independently of this we shall invest the president with the right of declaring a state of war.
We shall justify this last right on the ground that the president as chief of the whole army of the country must have it at his disposal...
... and no one outside ourselves will any longer direct the force of legislation."
We've inserted some names and affiliations throughout for further clarification along with a few lines from the Protocols where relevant. Members of the Council on Foreign Relations are indicated with the letters (CFR) and the Council for National Policy members are indicated by (CNP). The transcript is in black font. We have italicized to reflect the emphasis on words as spoken by the announcer and those interviewed.
-- Jackie --
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CNN -- SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
November 17, 1991
In the United States of America there is a hidden government about which YOU KNOW NOTHING.
Tom Golden,Chief of Counter Intelligence Strategic Defense Command: "It is highly classified and the largest program of it's kind that I had ever become involved in"
In the United States Federal Government there is a super-secret agency which controls this Shadow Government.
Its name is so secret it has never been made public before this broadcast. The Federal Agency directing the hidden government is so classified that most of the United States' elected officials are unaware of its existence.
William Arkin, Nuclear Weapons Expert: "If you go to members of Congress; if you go to key staffers on Armed Services or the Intelligence Committees and you ask them about the COG program, they often look at you with a blank face".
Tom Golden, Chief of Counter Intelligence; Strategic Defense Command: "That particular program -- not going into a lot of details -- was completely immune from oversight. There was no oversight. Period."
Within this hidden government program there are charges of fraud, abuse, cover-up which have never reached the public... until NOW.
Interview with 'Bob' (man in shadow): "The covering up there is mistakes, inefficiency, and protecting ones OWN position. The program was jeopardized."
And in the hidden government there is a secret plan which could make an unelected official -- outside the legal right of succession -- president of the United States.... IF a nuclear war begins.
'Bob': "These individuals have the right to appoint.... virtually APPOINT... a new government".
TONIGHT -- the results of CNN's Special Assignment -- a year-long investigation into ... the DOOMS DAY GOVERNMENT
This is all that you might ever see of some of the United States' most secret, most expensive and most important government programs.
Beyond these warning barriers there is a secret world only hinted at in the press. A world of spy satellites. Giant eavesdropping antennas. Secret weapons programs.
Yet further -- beyond the government barriers -- there is an even more hidden world... a world of secret programs about which virtually nothing is publicly known.
They're called Special Access or Black programs... because no light is allowed to shine in and reveal them -- to the world.
"Who and what is in a position to overthrow an invisible force? And this is precisely what our force is. Gentile masonry blindly serves as a screen for us and our objects but the plan of action of our force, even its very abiding-place, remains for the whole people an unknown mystery". Protocol No. 4
Of all the Black Programs almost none is blacker or more hidden than COG. Continuity of Government. It is our government's plan to make sure it survives a nuclear attack. It's nickname is -- the DOOMS DAY PROGRAM.
The secret Continuity of Government programs are managed by a super-secret agency know as the NPO -- or National Program Office.
Its name has never been made public before this report. Special Assignment began investigating COG and the NPO because of rumored abuses within these secret operations.
This secrecy was mandated by COG's awesome mission to ensure the survival of a civilian Constitutional government in the event of nuclear war. And to ensure that civilians can keep control over the U.S. military's retaliation to any attack. The basic Continuity of Government plan calls for the evacuation of key government officials to hidden bunkers scattered around the United States.
U.S. Representative, Lee Hamilton, Indiana (CFR): "The Continuity of Government program protects the political leadership of the United States".
In the event of a national emergency COG also provides support for a presidential successor if the president is killed. THIS part of the program -- also never reported on before now -- is called the Presidential Successor Support System. P.S.S.S. It is operated by the National Program Office.
The dooms day planning for U.S. leaders covers virtually every eventuality.
Congressman Hamilton: "How they get out of town... where they go.... what kind of communications equipment they have... how they can run the government. How they can function."
Mobility is central to the plan. Mobile command centers; convoys of huge trucks similar to this one would roam the countryside, hiding, dodging, heading eventually to secret protective sites.
Interview with 'Adam' (man in shadow): "The mobile aspect is to be able to move from certain designated locations to other areas that have been preselected for the survivability of the leadership."
To enable the leadership to govern for months after attack, the mobile centers and the protective bunkers -- similar to this one -- house vast communications systems and supplies.
'Adam': "Food, medicine, water purification, clothing.... what it needs to support a small city for six months, plus."
This confidential source -- who we call 'Adam' -- worked for the National Program Office.
This source -- we call HIM 'Bob' -- also worked for the NPO.
'Bob': "The organization of the structure is very complex; very far reaching."
'Bob' and 'Adam' insisted that we alter their names, faces and voices because they feared the government would retaliate against them for talking about the NPO's mission.
'Adam': "It ranges from the White House, to the presidency itself, down through all the active organizations which make our government function."
Ronald Reagan authorized the National Program Office when he signed a top secret Directive in 1982.
Oliver North (CNP) was one of the key officers responsible for the program's start-up. Under the NPO's direction, four agencies were charged with execution of the Dooms Day Plan.
The CIA {William Casey under Reagan; William H. Webster under G.H.W.Bush; James Woolsey and George J. Tenet under Clinton; George Tenet under G.W. Bush - ALL CFR}
The Departments of State {Alexander Haig and George Schultz under Reagan; James Baker under G.H.W. Bush; Warren Christopher and Madeline Albright under Clinton; Colin Powell under G.W. Bush. (ALL CFR)
Maybe this explains why, when Reagan was shot, Alexander Haig declared that he was "now in charge". He jumped the gun on that one.}
and Defense {Casper Weinberger under Reagan; Richard Cheney under G.H.W.Bush; Les Aspen and William Cohen under Clinton (ALL CFR); Donald Rumsfeld under G.H.W. Bush}
And the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Bruce Blair, Brookings Institute (Rockefeller funded): "An effort was being made to consolidate Continuity of Government Programs across several major departments of the government under one office which turned out later to be called the National Program Office."
Bruce Blair is the only person we found who would openly confirm the NPO's existence. He was hired by the program in 1985 but left before he received his duty clearances or worked on specific projects.
Blair: "As I understood it this office fell under the jurisdiction of the office of the Vice- President"
Then Vice-President George Bush was the first in charge. Today (1991) Vice- President Dan Quail heads the program. It is overseen DIRECTLY by the White House because of its fundamental mission -- to make sure that Constitutional government survives Armageddon. (VP Dick Cheney, CFR, oversees it now, which might explain his long absences.)
'Bob': "It's a necessity. Not just a good concept. It's a responsibility of the presidency of the United States to have something to ensure the people of this country that their system is going to continue."
'Bob'... and other sources believe deeply in the NPO's mission. But they fear its Dooms Day Plan simply won't work.
They say it is so hidden from normal government oversight; so insulated; so protected that problems don't come to light and malfunctions are not corrected.
They say that lack of oversight leads to fraud and abuse. Our investigation found those concerns to be justified. But our most disturbing finding is that the communications system at the heart of the program may be gravely flawed.
Sources tell CNN as much as $8 billion dollars has been spent on the NPO since 1982. Much of this on high-tech, nuclear-resistant communications gear. To build this post-nuclear communications system, the Federal Emergency Management Agency hired the Harris Corporation.
The CIA hired McDonnell Douglas.
Defense hired T.R.W.
The State Department used government equipment.
But incredibly, multiple sources say that the individual agency's systems were technically incompatible... In other words, they couldn't talk to each other.
'Adam': "Equipment didn't work. System A wouldn't integrate with system B; but system B was critical to interface with system C. And none of it interfaced. It was like, 'So what? We'll catch up with it later'. But later never came."
Our sources told us that the NPO's immunity from oversight allowed its problems to spiral so out-of-control that an outrageous fraud was perpetrated by the NPO on the very Senators and Congressmen who are authorizing taxpayer money to pay for the program.
It happened at a secret site near Great Falls Montana. Sources say that in late 1985 then Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neil and Senate Appropriations Chairman, Robert Byrd were among key officials who participated in the first major test of the new communications system.
NPO officials were afraid the system would fail in front of their powerful guests so they rigged the test. 'Bob' was an eye-witness:
'Bob': "At one point information was supposed to be sent out and even though lights were blinking and the wheels were turning, a message was being sent by pay phone about a block and a half from the site where the exercise was taking place."
Interviewer: So X-million dollars worth of communications equipment later we have to use a pay phone to make it work?
'Bob': "That's what happened. Millions of dollars worth of equipment failed to function correctly, and 25 or 50 cents worth of change in a pay telephone got the message through."
The test appeared to be a success, but the officials had been hood-winked, and money continued to flow into the program. Very few people knew about the scam, and because the program is so classified, there was no one they could tell.
Interviewer: We're aware that communications tests of this program were falsified. Can you comment on that?
Tom Golden: "I can't comment other than to say that I do believe that Congress was mislead by senior-level people in the program. In fact, I'm convinced of it."
It took the Pentagon a year to let Tom Golden talk to CNN about his work. We learned he had worked for the National Program Office at the time of the phony tests. He refused to confirm that or talk about anything classified.
Golden: "In this particular program... investigators for the most part were never permitted to have access, so they really couldn't conduct any type of a thorough investigation."
Sources tell CNN that as recently as last December -- five years after the phony test -- the different agencies involved in the COG network still couldn't communicate -- effectively rendering the crucial multi-billion dollar Presidential Successor Support System nearly useless.
'Bob': "The authority invested in some people within the program was abused. The end result is that the entire system becomes vulnerable --- when this country may need it at that most critical time... and that would be the time of a nuclear attack."
Interviewer: How does it make you feel?
'Bob': "Sad. Pathetic. And it makes a person very angry!".
The White House and the four agencies that are part of the NPO's plan refuse to speak with us about this story. There have been two secret Congressional investigations of problems in the NPO, but those committees wouldn't speak either. Nor would any of the other agencies looking into the program.
NEXT: A falsified test. Security problems. And a cover up in the Dooms Day Program.
Part II
COG - CONTINUITY OF GOVERNMENT --- Our Government's Dooms Day Plan to ensure the survival of the nation's leadership in the event of nuclear war.
NPO - the National Program Office - The vast agency which manages the most secret parts of this Dooms Day program. NPO is an operation so secret its name had never been revealed before Special Assignment reported on it and its greatly flawed communications system.
But the problems of the NPO and the Dooms Day Plan do not end there. Our investigation revealed that within the program --- more classified --- more insulated from normal government oversight than most other secret programs --- there were problems with contracts; breaches in security; and finally --- a cover up.
FIRST:: CONTRACT IRREGULARITIES --- CNN obtained 1988 correspondence between House Armed Services Committee Chairman, Les Aspen (CFR) and then-Secretary of the Army, John Marsh. In his letter, Aspen asked about a highly classified program involving the Army and a whistle blower who reported apparently illegal contracts --- and was retaliated against.(close up of the documents)
Concern about these particular abuses led to a Congressional review and four separate investigations by the Army. CNN learned that the highly classified program was indeed the super-secret National Program Office. The man who who blew the whistle -- intelligence veteran, Tom Golden.
Golden: "They can get away with things that they would not be able to get away with in any other situation."
Interviewer: This is the program run by the National Program Office?
Golden: "That's classified and I can't... I can't discuss that at all."
He spoke only about the problems of an un-named program.
Golden: "There were contract irregularities. Contracts had been awarded illegally."
Congressional investigators determined that several contracts were issued for work that should have been performed by the government itself. In fact, the investigation by Aspen's committee revealed that almost all of these Army contracts for the NPO were issued without competitive bidding.
Although this latter practice is legal, these sole-source contracts are discouraged under the law.
Beyond the contract irregularities, Special Assignment has uncovered another disturbing problem in the Dooms Day program. The fact that the National Program Office's extraordinary security was used to hide embarrassing problems. 'Bob' used to work inside the NPO.
'Bob': "In some instances security was used to cover up administrative, financial, operational mistakes -- to keep it in in-house; to keep it limited so it wouldn't injure careers."
In one of those cases of abuse in the Dooms Day program the NPO's top security officer allegedly attempted to cover-up a stunning security failure.
The attempted cover-up was of an embarrassing secret 1983 report. CNN was able to read part of the report which was written up after military intelligence reviewed security in NPO offices in Fort Watchuka (sp?), Arizona.... and found it lacking.
The team conducting the review discovered that documents that should have been classified had been thrown in the trash. Security experts told CNN that if Soviet spies had retrieved the discarded documents they could have learned enough about the Dooms Day program to defeat it.
Beyond the security lapse, itself, is the fact that the report revealing these embarrassing lapses was apparently ordered destroyed. It happened this way:
A copy of the report detailing the security lapses was sent to the senior NPO official at Fort Watchucka, then Colonel Eugene Renzi. The aide who sent the report wrote this accompanying memo that calls the report -- "a bomb", and says "the entire program has been compromised". He further warns, "If this gets out the program is dead".
Most shocking: the memo says the NPO Security Director, John Hartford had ordered all copies be destroyed -- in other words, cover up the evidence of security failures in the Dooms Day plan.
At least one copy of the report and the accompanying memo survived. It's the one we read. But our sources say virtually all other copies of the report were destroyed, and apparently the cover-up worked. The report was not passed on to top program directors.
Our sources fear that the problems and abuses of the Dooms Day program have weakened it; and they also fear that if nuclear war comes the program simply won't work.
Bob: "We would field this system thinking it was secure and it would not be. In covering up errors, mistakes, inefficiency and protecting one's own position, the program was jeopardized -- was placed in jeopardy."
Many of the sources familiar with the Dooms Day program blame its problems on inadequate government oversight.
Golden: "It was basically exempt from any oversight... and I think that really caused the problems to occur. There was no one looking from the outside".
Our year-long investigation suggests that the problems within the Dooms Day program are also found in other top-secret, special access programs.
The number of these hidden, protected programs exploded during the 1980's. In the last ten years the budget for secret has grown 800%. Now more than one/tenth of the Pentagon's annual budget is spent on it. That's about thirty-six billion dollars a year. {that would compute to an annual defense budget THEN of three-hundred sixty billion dollars}
By law, Congress oversees the special access or -- black budget -- and has watched with alarm as the number of programs has swollen. A selected few members and investigators actually probe inside the operations of secret programs. Although they keep silent about the classified details, they can be harsh critics.
Rep. Lee Hamilton (CFR) "The more secret a program is, the more the potential for abuse"
Lee Hamilton is the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Dave McCurdy is the current chairman.
Dave McCurdy, U.S. Representative - Oklahoma (CFR): "I don't think there's any question that there needs to be, ah.. more oversight in special access programs. Ah... there... it has been the tendency over the past decade to place programs in there in order to just limit access from... for either political or managerial reasons."
Frank Conahan scrutinizes black programs for Congress. He also says they are susceptible to abuse.
Frank Conahan, General Accounting Office: "I find cases where information is classified and I can find no reason for that piece of information to be classified except that it is a criticism of the program".
"Our triumph has been rendered easier by the fact that in our relations with the men whom we wanted we have always worked upon the most sensitive chords of the human mind, upon the cash account, upon the cupidity, upon the insatiability for material needs of man..." Protocol No. 1
Bruce Fein, Lawyer: "It's very difficult to give credence to the allegations that somehow a covert or a black-code program is more susceptible to abuse than other kinds of programs."
On the other side of the black program debate --- conservative legal scholar, Bruce Fein. He argues that National Security justifies strict secrecy.
Fein: "Without any direct oversight of some operations there may be some abuse. But you have to also ask of the trade off --- because without secrecy, many programs essential to the security of the United States won't occur at all."
In CNN's year-long investigation, most of the people we talked to familiar with secret programs like the National Program Office.
Those people who work in these programs and those charged with watching over them argue that in our open society there needs to be a better balance between secret things and oversight. A middle ground where security is not compromised -- where fraud, waste and abuse are exposed, not hidden away or covered up.
The argument is old. National Security verses the rights of citizens to know how well their money is being spent.
NEXT - Two who challenged the powerful Dooms Day program and paid the price.
Part III
In Washington, and other hidden sights around the nation there is a world so secret insiders call it -- black -- because no light shines in to reveal what is hidden there. A world of super-secret defense and intelligence programs.
Black Programs. Hundreds of thousands of people work in this shadowy world - pass their lives in black programs.
They say they are inside the bubble. They almost never talk with outsiders or journalists. Or investigators. Because Black Program regulations forbid it.
We've been investigating one of the most secret of all the Black Programs. It's at the heart of a plan called Continuity of Government. A plan to protect the United States leadership in case of a nuclear attack or other national security emergencies.
From deep within this program, in the White House managed, National Program Office, which runs its most secret parts, people came forward to talk to us. Some risked prosecution but they were concerned about abuses of the power given to black programs.
Two people who talked to us had already challenged the powerful National Program Office and suffered the consequences. Because in Black Programs, whistle blowers come forward at their own peril.
'Bob': "They're always at risk that if they're inside the bubble and they determine there is a problem, fraud, waste, abuse, whatever.... that if they go outside of the bubble they can be prosecuted for violation of the security regulations."
Tom Golden blew the whistle on two Black Programs.
Golden: "There were good reasons to have the programs, but I think sometimes they're abused by the people in the programs simply because they can".
In 1983 Golden risked his career to report wrongdoings in a secret military unit code named "Yellow Fruit". The result: court marshals, prison terms for army intelligence officials, a review of all Army Intelligence programs. John Marsh, then Secretary of the Army conducted it.
John Marsh, Secretary of the Army 1981-1989: "I became very impressed with Tom and really had a great deal of respect for him and for what he did, and what I thought individually was a very courageous decision that he took".
In the aftermath of that decision, Golden returned to the anonymity of the Black World. He refused to tell us where or what the job involved. But CNN learned that in 1984 he went to work for the super secret NPO, the National Program Office, whose crucial mission is planning for the survival of the United States Government after a nuclear attack.
Golden: "It was a very large program and the most highly classified program that I had ever personally heard of or ever worked in".
In 1987 Golden was approached by Congressional investigators about reported abuses within the program.
Golden: "I either had to lie or tell the truth. There was no option of not saying anything".
Golden told the investigators what he knew.
Golden: "Contracts had been awarded illegally. There were other problems involving a conflict of interest with a senior level member of the program".
Once again, Golden's decision to cooperate with investigators had serious consequences. The illegal contracts were canceled and a Brigadier General was reprimanded. But this time government retaliation against Golden was swift.
Golden: "There were at least four investigations that were conducted on myself that I'm aware of. There could have been more".
Federal agents went door to door in his Arizona neighborhood, telling Golden's neighbors they were investigating allegations of drinking and other personal behaviour.
Golden: "It leads people to believe that you're in trouble, and it damages your credibility, it damages your standing in the intelligence community. It really boils down to a smear campaign."
And then-- the government abolished his job.
Golden: "It cost myself and my family three years of living in absolute hell. My family paid a high price." (Voice breaks with emotion)
Interviewer: Would you do it again?
(Pause.....) "Probably".
In a review of the case both the House Arms Services Committee and the Army Inspector General's Office concluded that Tom Golden HAD been retaliated against.
Golden: "The Army couldn't even stop what was going on."
Interviewer: So clearly then, it was somebody higher than the Army?
Golden: "Ah.... it was a program that the Army did not have jurisdiction over."
Tom Golden has survived his long struggle with the super-secret National Program Office. Survived the investigations and the harassment.
But Fred Westerman is not surviving his challenge to the giant Dooms Day Program. It has cost him his work, his savings, and his reputation. Westerman was a twenty-year veteran military intelligence agent who retired to start a security company.
Fred Westerman, former Military Intelligence Officer: "I provided a series of security services to the government. I provided services to the Corps of Engineers on a... classified contract which I cannot go into detail".
Although Westerman refused to talk about anything classified, CNN learned that his contract involved setting up hidden storage facilities for the super-secret NPO.
Two years later, in 1987, his contract was canceled. Westerman says it was because he tried to point out security problems and other irregularities in the Dooms Day Program.
To recover his costs, Westerman is suing the government. Once again, retaliation was swift.
In November, 1988, the Justice Department began a criminal investigation of him for allegedly trying to defraud the government on his contract. Once Westerman was under criminal investigation, his own law suit was frozen. And last year when federal investigators told his new boss Westerman was about to be indicted, he lost his job on another classified program and he lost his security clearances as well.
Today, he cannot find work in his profession. He is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
David Mann; Security Consultant: "I think what's happening to him, particularly, is that the federal attorneys and who ever's driving them to do their job are attempting to... to ruin the man... ah... through legal means".
David Mann served with Fred Westerman and has known him for twenty-five years. Like Westerman, most of his life, was in military intelligence.
Mann: "It's a type of modern McCarthyism if you will. And... it's, ah... federal attorneys attempting to... to badger him and attempting to create some court case out of smoke and mirrors or whatever".
Westerman: "What assets I did have either been sold off or have been mortgaged to the hilt, and quite honestly, I am in financial disrepair. I am unemployable in the profession that I know best!"
For three years, Fred Westerman has been caught in an intelligence twilight zone. Unable to clear his name; unable to resolve his legal cases.
Today he is still wired in the Justice Department's investigation, caught, like Tom Golden, in a seemingly unwinnable struggle with the powerful, secret National Program Office.
The law limits the rights of any individual suing a classified program or being investigated by one. On occasions, national security comes before individual rights. Particularly when the classified program is one like the NPO that involves the presidency and the survival of our government.
The cases of Tom Golden and Fred Westerman presents a question: When are the rights of U.S. citizens less important than national security? And how can we ensure that the words "National Security" will not - as we reported earlier - be used against individuals who try to report fraud and wrong doing in a secret programs?
NEXT: A secret Dooms Day Plan which could make an unelected official, outside the legal line of succession, president of the United States.
Part IV
(Opens showing scenes of President Kennedy's assassination with long pauses in narration for effect)
The assassination of a president. Perhaps the most traumatic blow that can strike the people of the United States and... their government.
(Following narration shows scenes of Kennedy's funeral with funereal music underlaid)
In the agony and uncertainty of national upheaval... nothing is more vital to the continuity of the United States Government than the provision that, if a president should die, a Constitutionally designated successor is ready to take power.
The Constitution of the United States and other supporting laws clearly spell out the line of presidential succession, so that no matter what happens there will always be a continuity in leadership.
If a president is killed, the vice-president succeeds him. He would be followed by Congressional officers: the Speaker of the House and the President Pro-Tem of the Senate. Next would come the cabinet secretaries.
(music ends)
But in our year-long investigation, Special Assignment has learned that the National Program Office, the hidden bureaucracy that manages the most secret parts of these Continuity of Government plans, has created another top-secret succession plan which is completely unknown to the people of the United States. And known to only a few in government.
To guarantee Continuity of Government in the event of nuclear war, this plan expands the list of presidential successors. Multiple sources have told CNN that in certain narrowly defined circumstances an individual not in the legal line of succession -- or even in government -- could become president, despite the fact that the American people have had no role in selecting that person.
The hidden government plan is the result of four decades of nuclear escalation. Four decades of threats and counter threats.
In the 1980's Continuity of Government planners were haunted by a grim possibility. The nuclear wartime scenario called DECAPITATION. A surprise nuclear strike on Washington that kills most of the country's leaders. Chopping the head off the Government. Leaving no one prepared to take over the presidency. (This language is strangely similar to Zionist/ Talmudic terminology)
To reduce the possibility of DECAPITATION, the National Program Office was directed to create a new program to assure the continuity of government. It was known as the Presidential Successor Support System – or – P S cubed.
The NPO specifically designed a new presidential successor program to ensure that there will be enough experienced leaders ready to take over key jobs in the Executive Branch after a nuclear war.
So additional successors beyond those provided for by the Constitution and by U. S. laws, were added to the list of potential presidents.
The Presidential Successor Support Systems' rationale: that to protect the United States' unique Constitutional form of government from the ultimate threat, it is necessary to have this alternate system of succession. But ironically, the new system as it is now operating, could dramatically alter the established rules of succession.
Man in shadow - 'Ralph': "The program itself would suspend that natural succession and these individuals would have the right to appoint... virtually appoint a new government."
'Ralph' is a source who knows the details of much of the NPO succession plan. He and our other sources, knowledgeable about the NPO, like 'Bob' would talk on camera only if their names, faces and voices were changed.
Bob: "In some cases it may be necessary to even go outside of the active current government to bring in that expertise in a period of crisis."
So in the event of nuclear war it's hypothetically possible that someone who's outside of government could become a cabinet officer, vice-president, or event president?
Ralph: "Hypothetically speaking, it could happen anywhere in the chain of government. Yes! It most certainly could!"
The Presidential Successor Support System – a SECRET GOVERNMENT IN WAITING IF A NUCLEAR WAR COMES.
CNN Special Assignment has learned the names of a number of former government officials, who – sources tell us – have, at one time or another been part of the NPO's P S cubed Program. In the event of disaster, one of them could become president.
Howard Baker - (CFR); the former Senator and White House Chief of Staff, never before in the line of succession.
Richard Helms - (CFR) former Director of the CIA, never before in the line of succession.
Jeanne Kirkpatrick - (CFR) the former Ambassador to the United Nations, never before in the line of succession until called on by the NPO.
James Schlesinger (CFR) former Secretary of Defense, in the line of succession but before the NPO was set up.
Dick Cheney - (CFR - Secretary of Defense under George H.W.Bush; U.S. Congressman,Wyoming; present Vice-President who today, according to this report, oversees G.W.Bush's 'Shadow Government')
Edwin Meese ; (CNP - former Attorney General; presidential counselor; long-time member Council for National Policy)
Tip O'Neil (former Speaker of the House) and
Dick Thornburg - (CFR - former Attorney General; former Governor of Pennsylvania)
All (the last three named)have been in the line of succession by virtue of their offices, but our sources say the NPO gave them additional responsibilities under the new system.
None of these officials have talked to us on the record about their role in the NPO's plan but some insiders defend the alternate plan of succession.
Bob: "Remember, we're talking about the final circumstances. I don't think there would be any option to that. How can we predict who will survive? It can't be done. So we have to go on the premise that we have enough alternate, knowledgeable people in enough locations to do the job".
On the other side of the debate critics say that the hidden government plan is so extreme that ironically it violates the very Constitution it is designed to protect.
One high-level government official familiar with the plans told us when you compare this plan with the Constitution, the two don't match up. This same official says the plan could put the American system of checks and balances in the deep freeze.
Directly or indirectly, the checks and balances between Congress and the White House.... in fact all the laws of the United States are based on the U.S. Constitution.
Today Constitutional scholars and students of nuclear war debate whether a document written more than a hundred years before the existence of electricity can address the new scientific and technical realities.
William Arkin: "Is there such a tension between the rapidity of a nuclear war.... between the fact that a nuclear war could happen in thirty minutes and the way in which our government is structured and our Constitution is written that makes the two -- um -- at odds forever?"
William Arkin is a leading authority on nuclear command and control issues as well as Continuity of Government -- COG -- programs.
(we lost approximately 60 seconds of this tape at this point. Regretfully, instead of rewinding at one point we hit the record button)
William Van Alsyne, Duke University School: "... can provide too short a list."
It is the secrecy of the NPO's new succession plan which makes this vulnerable and unworkable says Van Alsyne, because if one of the successors outside of government did become president, no one would believe it.
Van Alsyne: "Obviously what's wrong with it is that if no one knows in advance what the line of succession is meant to be, then almost by hypothesis no one would have any reason to believe that those who claim to be exercising that authority in fact possess it."
TODAY, the Russia of history is making the likelihood of a Dooms Day Plan ever being activated, and the likelihood of the alternate successors becoming president... more remote.
(shots of Soviet Union; statue of Lenin; the Berlin wall being dismantled; people cheering)
The great Cold War struggle is finally ended. And the future of earth seems safer.
But planning for the unexpected continues as new fears replace the old.
(live shots of Saddam Hussein)
Fears of nuclear proliferation. . .
(nuclear explosion; mushroom cloud)
Of terrorists obtaining the bomb. . .
Of continuing instability in the Soviet Union.
ALL, are reasons why programs like those run by the National Program Office will continue. And continue to try and hide their activities behind a veil of secrecy.
In our examination of the Dooms Day Program, we've shown how - in the name of national security - the National Program Office, the classified program with a legitimate mission over-stepped its authority, committed fraud, covered up abuses, avoided oversight and retaliated against people who challenged its power.
It's a particularly egregious example of abuse of the public trust. But it's not the only one. The problems discovered in the National Program Office helped launch a Congressional drive to exercise effective oversight over Black Programs. But our examination indicates that until there are stronger checks and balances on this Secret World, abuses will continue.
(another nuclear explosion)
I'm David Lewis. CNN "Special Assignment"
"But if we give the nations of the world a breathing space the moment we long for is hardly likely ever to arrive." Protocol No. 10.