‘Kill Switch And Detentions’: Bush-Era FOIA Docs Reveal Government Plans For Apocalyptic Events – IOTW Report

‘Kill Switch And Detentions’: Bush-Era FOIA Docs Reveal Government Plans For Apocalyptic Events

Zero Hedge: Previously classified files obtained by the Brennan Center for Justice reveal that the 2004 George W. Bush administration conducted a holistic review of the president’s emergency powers, with the goal of modernizing a set of secret plans for continuity-of-government in a nuclear war.

The George W. Bush Presidential Library turned over 500 out of 6,000 pages of the documents, known as “presidential emergency action documents” (PEADs), which “shed troub­ling new light on the powers that modern pres­id­ents claim they possess in moments of crisis,” according to the Brennan Center, which obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

PEADs were created during the cold war, when the chance of a Soviet nuclear strike was at its peak. Early drafts reportedly rested on broad interpretations of executive powers. According to official reports from the 1960s, various PEADs authorized the president to enact measures such as suspending habeas corpus, to detain “dangerous persons” within the country, to censor news media, and to prevent international travel.

In light if 9/11, one Bush administration official viewed updating the PEADs an “urgent and compel­ling secur­ity effort, espe­cially in light of ongo­ing threats.”

While the Brennan Center was unable to obtain more recent PEADs, the documents show “some of the most disturbing aspects of early-Cold War emergency action documents” were maintained at least throughout 2008.

Here are the specific findings via the Brennan Center:

Controlling commu­nic­a­tions

At least one of the docu­ments under review was designed to imple­ment the emer­gency author­it­ies contained in Section 706 of the Commu­nic­a­tions Act. During World War II, Congress gran­ted the pres­id­ent author­ity to shut down or seize control of “any facil­ity or station for wire commu­nic­a­tion” upon proclam­a­tion “that there exists a state or threat of war involving the United States.”

This fright­en­ingly expans­ive language was, at the time, hemmed in by Amer­ic­ans’ limited use of tele­phone calls and tele­grams. Today, however, a pres­id­ent will­ing to test the limits of his or her author­ity might inter­pret “wire commu­nic­a­tions” to encom­pass the inter­net — and there­fore claim a “kill switch” over vast swaths of elec­tronic commu­nic­a­tion.

And indeed, Bush admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials repeatedly high­lighted the stat­ute’s flex­ib­il­ity: it was “very broad,” as one offi­cial in the National Secur­ity Coun­cil scribbled, and it exten­ded “broader than common carri­ers in FCC [Federal Commu­nic­a­tions Commis­sion] juris[diction].” MORE

15 Comments on ‘Kill Switch And Detentions’: Bush-Era FOIA Docs Reveal Government Plans For Apocalyptic Events

  1. I wonder if the Brennan Center will ever document the full-on fascist tactics of the Biden Administration with his emergency powers overreach involving Covid?

    Yes, there were some knee jerk authoritarians working for Bush, but they were pikers compared to the stuff going on now; sicking the feds on concerned parents, weaponizing all branches of federal L.E’s, creating a dis-information bureau within the DHS, funneling boatloads of “covid relief” money to all the blue governors, subverting the entire election process.

    I can just see Dick Cheney in his rocking chair lamenting,”Shit, why didn’t we think that?”

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  2. After reading that, all I can hear now is GWB’s maniacal, pig-like laughter.

    But seriously, think back. Was GW smart enough to think up all that stuff? I doubt it. It all sounds like Daddy Bush.

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  3. Get prepared. Joe Biden’s coming for the most powerful hand gun round ever. The 9 mil. There’s absolutely no need for anything that powerful. That’s a direct quote by the way. Although if he could eliminate ammo for the most popular hand gun cartridge ever it would be a big step towards disarming America.

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  4. Their idea of banning ANY size ammo is nothing more than the beginning of the end.

    Don’t touch my 2nd Amendment rights and I won’t shoot your ass for infringement.

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  5. jellybean

    I think it’s the beginning of a Civil War. There are states that have declared themselves 2A Sanctuary states. There are also counties within Blue States that have done the same. Like most of Northern California. We don’t pay any attention to Gavin Newsoms description of an AR. And none of the above are going to comply with Captain Brain Deads gun laws. Now what?

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  6. Do we trust the federal government AT ALL anymore? I don’t think so. It’s going to take YEARS and YEARS of non-swamp presidencies and a non-swamp Congress to ferret out the leftists infiltrating our government.

    McCarthy warned us. And he was 100 percent right.

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  7. So, basically, it was a document giving DC filth permission to overthrow the US Constitution whenever they claim an “existential threat” exists. Now you know why these evil fucks are hyperventilating over 1/6 and the bullshit Russian actions in Ukraine. They’re just looking for an excuse that enough of the country will by to warrant total obliteration of our rights forever. Because nothing is “temporary” to these assholes if it benefits them.

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