-Caveat Lector-
FEMA's X File: "Not for the Outside World"
by Jon Elliston
Dossier Editor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Are you familiar with FEMA? What the Federal Emergency Management
Agency's real power is?" So asks scientist Dr. Al Kurtzweil, a character in
X-Files: Fight the Future, who issues an impassioned plea to Special
Agent Fox Mulder to wake up and smell the conspiracy coffee.
The long-awaited movie is here, projecting the paranoia and intrigue of the
smash TV show onto the big screen. Some officials in Washington are not
pleased. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which
plays a role in various conspiracy theories about secret plans for martial
law in the United States, disseminated a public affairs guidance on how to
respond to allegations voiced in the movie.
The fact that FEMA was compelled to craft a response raises some
curious questions for both fans and political researchers. The X-Files is
famous for venturing into shadowy realms, but when all is said and done,
this is just a fun flick, right? So why did FEMA take the unusual public
relations measure? As Dossier tracked down the details, we learned that
the agency can be mighty touchy -- and suspiciously secretive -- about its
alleged role in plans for preserving order in the unlikely event of a federal
declaration of martial law.
FEMA's more routine tasks are meant to provide relief and renewal to
communities struck by natural disasters. When hurricanes ravage or wild-
fires consume, FEMA is supposed to help pick up the pieces, distribute
aid, construct emergency dwellings, and generally get people back on their
feet. Sounds safe so far... but then there's the hidden chapter in the FEMA
saga.
It was in the early 1980s, during the first years of the Reagan
administration, that FEMA delved into questionable areas that tainted the
agency with suspicions that linger to this day. President Reagan had
selected an old crony, Louis Giuffrida, to serve as FEMA director. During
the protest movements of the Vietnam War era, Reagan was serving as
governor of California. When searching for methods to contain the rising
tide of dissent, Reagan turned to Giuffrida, a former National Guard officer
with a penchant for population control. The state government concocted
and sometimes implemented draconian anti-subversive plans.
With this team in power in Washington, it was only a matter of time before
federal policy began to feel the tug of totalitarianism. Giuffrida established
strict order at FEMA and then set about establishing a predominant role for
the agency in the event of national upheaval. In October 1984, journalist
Jack Anderson dropped a bombshell in one of his columns. He had
discovered that FEMA officials had drafted "standby legislation" to present
to Congress if the United States was faced with domestic upheaval or a
state of total war (presumably against the Soviet Union). The proposal,
according to Anderson, would strip away the principles of democratic
government; it would "suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights,
effectively eliminate private property, abolish free enterprise, and generally
clamp Americans in a totalitarian vise."
Suddenly FEMA wasn't Mr. Nice Guy any more. Additional press reports
heightened the concerns of the growing number of FEMA-watchers. It
became public knowledge that FEMA administered "continuity of
government" facilities such as the one beneath Virginia's Mount Weather, a
massive underground complex that would shelter national leaders in the
event that life above ground should become too hazardous. In 1987, the
Miami Herald reported that Lt. Col. Oliver North, the Reagan White House
aide who stood at the center of the Iran-Contra scandal, had worked with
FEMA on top-secret projects such as military exercises designed to test
the government's capacity to round up refugees and rabble-rousers.
Giuffrida stepped down from the position of "emergency czar" in 1985, but
the controversies about FEMA's apparent lust for power have still not
abated. The extent of FEMA's involvement with contingency plans for
martial law is still not known, but one thing is clear: FEMA, acting alone,
does not have the power to overturn Constitutional government in the
United States, and Americans would not easily forfeit their system of
government to FEMA-rule.
Whatever the real threat of emergency planning agencies, concerns about
FEMA's potential for power-grabbing are more widespread than ever, due
in part to The X-Files. The TV show and the movie have often alluded to the
kevlar skeleton in FEMA's closet. In Fight the Future, Kurtzweil spells it out:
"FEMA allows the White House to suspend constitutional government upon
declaration of a national emergency. It allows creation of a non-elected
national government. Think about that, Agent Mulder!"
FEMA, for one, is thinking about that. On June 24, 1998, Al Kamen of the
Washington Post reported that Maurice Goodman, FEMA's Director of
Communications, recently
