FEMA’s Dark History
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter created Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to merge the natural disaster responsibilities previously handled by more than 100 federal agencies. Among the agencies FEMA absorbed are the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, the National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program, the Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration activities from HUD. Civil defense responsibilities were also transferred to the new agency from the Defense Department’s Defense Civil Preparedness Agency. [“FEMA History”]
However, President Reagan and his administration had other plans for FEMA than worrying about natural disasters. The idea was that FEMA could handle and focus on “national security” issues — things like “flaming hippies, militant minorities, and draft-dodging radicals of the sixties and early seventies.” [”The Disaster Agency” (The 70 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time, 1998)] Reagan appointed as head of FEMA General Louis Giuffrida, who had served as Reagan’s terrorist advisor while he was governor of California.
During Guiffrida’s reign of FEMA, signs were posted everywhere warning FEMA employees that “Security is everything.” Every phone number dialed in the building was recorded and personal phone calls were denied — in fact, employees were told that even calling home to say you’d be late for dinner would result in a fine or even termination. FEMA-sponsored conferences focused on the possibility of radical environmentalists teaming up with terrorists and targetting nuclear power plants.
Government scientists advised FEMA on mob control techniques such as “injecting terrorists with stimulants and tranquilizers to manipulate their actions in times of crisis, or zapping them with microwaves to alter their perceptions.” [”The Disaster Agency” (The 70 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time, 1998)]
And here’s a blast from the past: Colonel Oliver North served as the White House Security Council liason to FEMA. Reportedly he collaborated with Giuffrida in drawing up secret wartime contingency plans, which may have included a scheme to steamroll right over the Bill of Rights.
In 1984, FEMA tested it’s wartime crisis strategy in conjuction with Pentagon maneuvers. Their “readiness exercise” was code named Rex-84. FEMA’s part of the simulation had to do with an international crisis set off by a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua which resulted in a swarm of refugees coming in over the Mexican border into the U.s. According to an article in Penthouse (August 1985), during the exercise FEMA would simulate rounding up some 400,000 fictional “aliens” in a six-hour period and detaining them in military camps thoughout the U.S. FEMA justified the detention camps by suggesting that terrorist moles could be among the refugees. However, according to one of the co-authors of that Penthouse article, the terrain of the Mexican border made such a huge influx of hundreds of thousands of people highly unlikely.
If that’s the case, who exactly was FEMA interested in rounding up?
Some critics believe that Rex-84 was actually a simulation to practice rounding up Americans in large numbers — probably those “flaming hippies, militant minorities, and draft-dodging radicals of the 60’s and early 70’s, not to mention possible protestors of a controversial government invasion of Central America. Not a far leap in logic when you consider the fact that in 1970, Giuffrida had written a paper devising a hypothetical plan to detain black radicals in detention camps.
But wait! There’s more!
A heavily censored FEMA memo obtained by the Miami Herald described the Alpha Two phase of the exercise, as a test of “emergency legislation, assumption of emergency powers…etc.” In other words: martial law. [”The Disaster Agency” (The 70 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time, 1998)]
In fact, prior to the Rex-84 simulations, the Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff put together a document, called the Defense Resources Act, which gave the military the authority to proclaim martial law in times of crisis and take over local policing and even run the courts despite The Posse Comitatus Act which forbids the military from operating in the United States. The document gave the President near-dictorial powers, including the authority to censor communications, ban antigovernment strikes, nationalize industry, seize privat property for “the national defense,” and authorize loyalty oaths to the state. The plan was to shelve the Defense Resources Act document until a time of crisis and present it to a distracted Congress for speedy approval. This would lead to a presidential executive order putting FEMA in charge of all government agencies.
FEMA’s powergrab was cut short shortly after the REx-84 drills when Attorney General William French Smith became alarmed enough to contact Robert McFarlane. Smith warned that FEMA was attempting to annoint itself “emergency czar” with a broad definition of crisis, which included routine domestic law emergencies.
Thus ended FEMA’s plans for the presidential executive order to allow FEMA to control the United States.
And I know what some of you are thinking…it’s got a familiar ring to it, even if you didn’t know about FEMA’s dark past…the Patriot Act was pushed through a distracted Congress for speedy approval, wasn’t it? Protestors, peaceful or not, are being targeted for investigation. The government appears to be focused more on military disasters than natural ones…it just seems a little surreal deja vu, in my humble conspiratorial opinion.
tags: FEMA, Conspiracy Theories, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan
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on September 8, 2005 at 11:00 am
Tamara said:
Eek, I had no idea. I’m afraid to send this to my husband, he is already so angry at so many things (all justifiably).
Then again, he probably already knows about it!
on September 8, 2005 at 11:54 pm
Martian said:
Great post. Thanks for the information. You know, lately I keep thinking about the X-Files movie. Remember when one character says to Mulder that FEMA is the shadow government?
on September 9, 2005 at 8:54 am
n. mallory said:
The nifty thing about the early years of X-Files is that there was some truth scattered in the conspiracy stuff, but that’s what makes conspiracy stuff good.
on December 1, 2005 at 2:52 pm
A Journey To The End Of Time » Blog Archive » FEMA: A Reality Check said:
[…] The Naked Truth gets into the time machine, and dials it up to three decades earlier to 1974 when U.S. President Jimmy Carter created FEMA “to merge the natural disaster responsibilities previously handled by more than 100 federal agencies.” […]
on February 27, 2006 at 3:50 pm
The Naked Truth » Blog Archive » Holy Deja Crap! American Detention Centers? said:
[…] Some critics believe that Rex-84 was actually a simulation to practice rounding up Americans in large numbers — probably those “flaming hippies, militant minorities, and draft-dodging radicals of the 60’s and early 70’s, not to mention possible protestors of a controversial government invasion of Central America. Not a far leap in logic when you consider the fact that in 1970, Giuffrida had written a paper devising a hypothetical plan to detain black radicals in detention camps. [“FEMA’s Dark History”] […]
on April 21, 2007 at 7:31 am
Jay said:
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew devastated parts of the Miami area and the response by FEMA appeared very inadequate. After that debacle, FEMA was said to be fundamentally remade into an agency that, as recently as last year’s hurricane season, drew praise for its efficiency and fast action.
What happened? I believe and agree that FEMA is an agency for military deployment and there to control those citizens that wake up and decide not to take the Governemt sleeping pills anymore!