WASHINGTON, March 1 (UPI) -- Key federal government managers are working and living in secret locations to ensure the continuity of vital government services in case of a catastrophic terrorist attack on the U.S. capital, President Bush said Friday.
The senior managers -- mainly GS-14s and GS-15s and Senior Executive Service personnel -- would be responsible for ensuring continuation of vital services such as transportation, food and water, communications, law and order and health care.
"We take the continuity of government very seriously because our nation was under attack," Bush told reporters during a trip to Iowa. "And I still take the threats we receive from al Qaida killers and terrorists very seriously.
"I have an obligation as the president, and my administration has an obligation, to the American people to provide and put measures in place that if somebody is successful in attacking Washington, D.C., there is an ongoing government."
The Cold War Doomsday plans, called continuity of operations or continuity of government, were implemented in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed by Muslim extremists who hijacked airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Contingency plans for catastrophe date back to at least the administration of President Eisenhower, when the chance of nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union became a real fact of life in a bipolar world. And they were updated periodically, the last time during the administration of the president's father, George H.W. Bush.
Sept. 11 and the changing nature of a catastrophic attack, have given Doomsday preparations new life. Instead of putting the contingency operation back on the shelf as Sept. 11 slipped into the past, President Bush is keeping the fallback apparatus up and running.
Under the plan, between 75 and 100 key senior managers of federal government agencies and programs reportedly serve 100-day rotations in secret hideaways on the East Coast. During that time, not even their families are allowed to know where they are or what they are doing.
Congress' emergency plans have remained dormant following short-term activation on Sept. 11. The military maintains fall-back procedures to preserve command and control using Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and the headquarters of the U.S. Space Command, burrowed into Cheyenne Mountain, near Colorado Springs, Colo.
On Sept. 11, Bush, who was out of Washington, was sequestered at Offutt, while Vice President Dick Cheney, who was in the White House, was unceremoniously ushered by the Secret Service into an underground bunker. The White House was believed the target of at least one of the four planes that were hijacked that day.
Since then, Bush and Cheney have only appeared together once -- at the president's State of the Union address. Under rules of succession, Cheney would take over the government in case of Bush's death or incapacitation. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., is third in line, followed by the Senate's president pro tempore.
The administration has in recent weeks expressed concerns over a scenario in which a terrorist group such as al Qaida links up with a state that produces weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States or its interests.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card is said to be in charge of the continuity measures, but was not immediately available for comment.
Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the Office of Homeland Security, said, "The executive order that created the Office of Homeland Security mentioned that the office has a role in the continuity of government. That's all I'm going to say on the matter."
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, director of Homeland Security, is said to share authority with Card on the plan's operation.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said Friday that Congress had not been consulted by the White House on implementation of emergency procedures.
"I've been asked about the so-called shadow government, and I really can't say much about it, because we have not been informed at all about the role of the shadow government or its whereabouts or what particular responsibilities they have and when they would kick in," he said. "But we look forward to working with the administration to get additional information on that."
