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But on 19 January 2001, on the last day of the Clinton administration, the US Army promulgated a new and permanent Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program. It encapsulated its difference from the preceding, externally oriented, Army Survival, Recovery, and Reconstitution System (ASRRS) as follows [chapter 3- 1): Te. INOS sh. ALS .L 2L O41 Le LL a Ae the COG planning, promptly signed [as Secretary of Defense] the revised AR 500-3. Eight months later, on 9/11, Cheney and Rumsfeld implemented COG, a significant event of which we still know next to nothing. What we do know is that plans began almost immediately—as foreseen by COG planning in the 1980s—to implement warrantless surveillance and detention of large numbers of civilians, and that in January 2002 the Pentagon submitted a proposal for deploying troops on American streets. Then, in April 2002, Department of Defense officials implemented a plan for domestic US military operations by creating a new US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) for continental USA. In short, what were being implemented were the most prominent features of the COG planning which Oliver North had worked on in the 1980s. a. In 1985, the Chief of Staff of the Army established the Army Survival, Recovery, and Reconstitution System (ASRRS) to ensure the continuity of essential Army missions and functions. ASRRS doctrine was focused primarily on a response to the worst case 1980's threat of a massive nuclear laydown on CONUS [continental USA] as a result of a confrontation with the Soviet Union. b. The end of the Cold War and the breakup of the former Soviet Union significantly reduced the probability of a major nuclear attack on CONUS but the probability of other threats has increased. Army organizations must be prepared for any The effect wa contingency with a potential . for interruption of normal domestic civ operations. [Author's emphasis] To emphasize extreme me that Army continuity of planned fora operations planning is now focused on the full all- nuclear attacl hazards threat spectrum, the name "ASRRS" has been replaced by the nvre——————— generic title "Continuity of Operations (COOP) Program". Deep Events and Party Changes in the White House Like so many other significant The effect was to impose on steps since World War II towards le . a military—industrial state, the domestic civil society the Army's Regulation 500-3 surfaced in the last days of a extreme measures once departing administration (in this planned for a response to a case, the very last day). It is worth noticing that, ever since nuclear attack from abroad. the 1950s, dubious events—of the unpublic variety, which I call "deep events"—have marked the last months before a change of f Operations (COOP) party in the White House. These deep events have tended (a) to constrain the incoming President if the incomer is a Democrat or, alternatively, (b) to pave the he secret Continuity of | way for the incomer if he is a Republican... ‘ conducted secretly by Both the financial bail-out extorted from Congress and y and others through the __ the escalated preparations for martial law can be seen as aning was initially for transitional events of category (a). Whatever the at of a nuclear attack but —_ explanations for their timing, these events will constrain the Constitution, not just Barack Obama's freedom to make his own policies as ‘any "national security President. I fear, moreover, that they may have the ‘din President Reagan's consequence of easing the United States into unforeseen November 1988 as "any _ escalations of the war in Afghanistan. Alanntas militees: attaal The effect was to impose on domestic civil society the planned for a response to a nuclear attack from abroad. This document embodied the secret Continuity of Government (COG) planning conducted secretly by Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and others through the 1980s and 1990s. This planning was initially for continuity measures in the event of a nuclear attack but soon called for suspension of the Constitution, not just "after a nuclear war" but for any "national security emergency". This was defined in President Reagan's Executive Order 12656 of 18 November 1988 as "any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological emergency, or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States" [Preamble, Sn 101(a)]. The effect was to impose on domestic civil society the extreme measures once planned for a response to a nuclear attack from abroad. In like fashion, Army Regulation AR 500-3 clarified that it was a plan for "the execution of mission-essential functions without unacceptable interruption during a national security or domestic emergency". [Author's emphasis] Rumsfeld, who as a private citizen had helped author Intensive, Quiet Preparations for Martial Law Let us deal first with the preparations for martial law. On 30 September 2008, the Army Times announced the redeployment of an active US Army Brigade Combat Team from Iraq to America in a new mission that "may become a permanent part of the active Army": The 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys. Now they're training for the same mission—with a twist—at home. 12 ¢ NEXUS extreme measures once www.nexusmagazine.com FEBRUARY — MARCH 2009