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In War of the Worlds, Who's President?
July 02, 2009 4:17 PM
ABC News' Elizabeth Gorman reports:
It's the nightmare scenario.
The Continuity of
Government Commission released its report today, "The
Presidency," that includes an 8-page scenario in which the President,
his Cabinet, and most of the House and Senate, are all killed by an al Qaeda
operative at a State of the Union address, using the same methods as 9/11.
"The current system would be inadequate in the face of a catastrophic
attack that would kill or incapacitate multiple individuals in the line of succession,"
states the report.
President Bush's former
Homeland Security advisor, Frances Townsend, said that scenario is not
unfathomable, and "that our enemies understood" from public discussion
the debilitating effects an attack would have had during Obama's
January inauguration:
"Even out of government a year later I watch the inauguration with
pride, but holding my breath waiting for everybody to get off that dais,"
Townsend said. "Given that we didn't have Cabinet secretaries sworn in for
the new administration, given everybody in the governmental power structure was
there [at the inauguration], you can imagine."
The commission recommends swearing in the Cabinet nominees the day before
the Presidential inauguration, to prevent a gap in leadership after an attack,
and creating four to five new federal offices located outside Washington --
just in case.
"The idea is to have a backstop behind the key people in the line of
succession if the worse were to happen and we would have to turn to people
outside of Washington
In 2007, President Bush signed the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive that gave him special powers in case of a "catastrophic emergency" to ensure national continuity. Details are classified.
"The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government," the policy states.
And the National Continuity Coordinator, a position formally held by Townsend, oversees the plan "to promote interoperability of Federal Government continuity programs and procedures with State, local, territorial, and tribal governments, and private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure, as appropriate."
"President Obama inherited a far superior . . .by almost any standard
of anything else we understand about our allies around the world -- a far
superior system where his long term and not just his, but a legacy in terms of
the continuity of the Presidency that is much stronger than anything that
anybody would have contemplated," Townsend said.
July 2, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (12)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
There will always be enough elected representatives to pull together some assembly of order under such an unusual scenario. If any given handful do not have enough natural leadership to fill in the gaps, then we would already have a chronic emergency, one that could be exploited with a set of 'shadow' offices.
Posted by: MarkLeavenworth | Jul 2, 2009 5:56:30 PM
It seems simple enough, there must be protocol for people in key positions to be alternately excluded from attendance at major functions. They may all want to be there but duty comes before vanity or self-indulgence. They can watch safely online from an undisclosed location.
Posted by: iamwomaninMI | Jul 3, 2009 12:02:29 AM
Yes, we must be governed at all costs!
Posted by: marijuana patch baby | Jul 3, 2009 9:08:28 AM
Well... given the performance of our elected officials... I'm not sure this would be a bad scenario. Maybe it would give us the opportunity to give the government back to the people.
It's a horrible thought - this attack on US soil - but many fear that such an attack would be the result of bad decisions on the part of our current and former administrations.
Let's hope we can turn this country around without such a dramatic transition.
Posted by: Curious Universe | Jul 3, 2009 11:54:46 AM
Sounds like a scene out of Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor".
Posted by: ellsbells930 | Jul 3, 2009 12:51:45 PM
I'm afraid that I have to agree with Curious. This administration has scared the beegeezus out of me. The only thing they, inlcuding and especially the President, is interested in is POWER/MONEY. If health care becomes nationalized...GOD help us. If Obama doesn't stop trying to hold hands with terrorists and dictators, ours is a very scary and unstable future.
Posted by: Troubled Soul | Jul 3, 2009 2:50:30 PM
Nice pic of the World Trade Center. My friend and I were discussing 9/11 today and did you ever notice none of the debris was ever tested for the presence of an explosive? Where did they ship all that debris anyway?
Posted by: guesswhaturwrong | Jul 3, 2009 6:56:56 PM
Lets hope there is no more government afterward.
Posted by: guesswhaturwrong | Jul 3, 2009 6:58:04 PM
Sorry troubled soul but nationalized health care has been working very well in almost every eroupeian country for years. It pisses me off when people site this argument. Insurance companies pay out billions in bounuses to there boards for figureing out how notto pay out on there policies. Thats a fact. All the CEOs and boards from these companies make over 10 million a year. People with there policies frequently go into bankruptcy because they had to go to the hospital for an operation and find out that the insurnce companies will only pay for the room and board at the hopital and nothing else. They have thousands of lawyers that there sole purpose is to figure out legal means of denying benifits. These insurance companies lobby congress for millions to get them in there pockets to pass laws that help them and hurt the people of the US. If you are so stupid to listen to the insuance companies about why nationalization will hurt the american people knowning that they will lose billions if it happeneds the you are a moron. Can you at least see why this is a conflic of interests? Use your brain please. If it happeneds they lose money they are the ones telling you its bad for you. CANT YOU SEE THE STUPIDITY IN THAT!!!!
Posted by: mike | Jul 4, 2009 8:49:51 AM
MIKE IS 100% CORRECT! Two things pharmaceutical companies donot want:
Nationalized Health Care , and
Marijuana Legalization.
Both will hurt big business!
Posted by: The Conservative | Jul 4, 2009 1:28:55 PM
mike - nationalized health care has been working well in Europe? Then why did my neighbor's daughter-in-law have to wait six months to have her gall bladder removed? Why did the brother of a woman I used to work with not have his broken leg set because "it's okay if you walk with a limp because you don't stand at your job"? That sounds like it works real well & exactly the kind of healthcare I want
Posted by: ellsbells930 | Jul 5, 2009 10:09:04 AM
the rest of my post didn't post.. my last sentence was that it was sarcasm.
Posted by: ellsbells930 | Jul 5, 2009 10:09:46 AM
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