Don Allen All FEMA part 71010 Feb 92 001200 AREAHUMAN VIA QEcho 2.66a +gt;+gt;+gt;+gt;+gt;

Don Allen All FEMA part 7/1010 Feb 92  00:12:00 AREA:HUMAN
 VIA: QEcho 2.66a


>>>>>>======FEMA part 7============================================>>>>>




    Going Off Budget
       Although some of the powers which Bush assumed in order to conduct
    the Gulf War were taken openly, they received little public discussion
    or reporting by the media.
       In October, when the winds of the Gulf War were merely a breeze,
    Bush used his executive emergency powers to extend his budget
    authority.  This action made the 1991 fiscal budget agreement between
    Congress and the President one of the first U.S. casualties of the
    war.  While on one hand the deal froze arms spending through 1996, it
    also allowed Bush to put the cost of the Gulf War "off budget."  Thus,
    using its emergency powers, the Bush administration could:


       * incur a deficit which exceeds congressional budget authority;


       * prevent Congress from raising a point of order over the
         excessive spending;[12]


       * waive the requirement that the Secretary of Defense submit
         estimates to Congress prior to deployment of a major defense
         acquisition system;


       * and exempt the Pentagon from congressional restrictions on
         hiring private contractors.[13]


       While there is no published evidence on which powers Bush actually
    invoked, the administration was able to push through the 1990 Omnibus
    Reconciliation Act.  This legislation put a cap on domestic spending,
    created a record $300 billion deficit, and undermined the Gramm-
    Rudman-Hollings Act intended to reduce the federal deficit.  Although
    Congress agreed to pay for the war through supplemental appropriations
    and approved a $42.2 billion supplemental bill and a $4.8 billion
    companion "dire emergency supplemental appropriation,"[14] it
    specified that the supplemental budget should not be used to finance
    costs the Pentagon would normally experience.[15]
       Lawrence Korb, a Pentagon official in the Reagan administration,
    believes that the Pentagon has already violated the spirit of the 1990
    Omnibus Reconciliation Act.  It switched funding for the Patriot,
    Tomahawk, Hellfire and HARM missiles from its regular budget to the
    supplemental budget;  added normal wear and tear of equipment to
    supplemental appropriations;  and made supplemental requests which
    ignore a planned 25% reduction in the armed forces by 1995.[16]


    The Cost In Liberty Lost
       Under emergency circumstances, using 50 USC sec. 1811, the
    President could direct the Attorney General to authorize electronic
    surveillance of aliens and American citizens in order to obtain
    foreign intelligence information without a court order.[17]  No
    Executive Order has been published which activates emergency powers to
    wiretap or to engage in counter-terrorist activity.  Nonetheless,
    there is substantial evidence that such activities have taken place.
    According to the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, the
    FBI launched an anti-terrorist campaign which included a broad sweep
    of Arab-Americans.  Starting in August, the FBI questioned, detained,
    and harassed Arab-Americans in California, New York, Ohio,
    Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Colorado.[18]
       A CIA agent asked the University of Connecticut for a list of all
    foreign students at the institution, along with their country of
    origin, major field of study, and the names of their academic
    advisers.  He was particularly interested in students from the Middle
    East and explained that the Agency intended to open a file on each of
    the students.  Anti-war groups have also reported several break-ins of
    their offices and many suspected electronic surveillance of their
    telephones.[19]


    Pool of Disinformation
       Emergency powers to control the means of communications in the U.S.
    in the name of national security were never formally declared.  There
    was no need for Bush to do so since most of the media voluntarily and
    even eagerly cooperated in their own censorship.  Reporters covering
    the Coalition forces in the Gulf region operated under restrictions
    imposed by the U.S. military.  They were, among other things, barred
    from traveling without a military escort, limited in their forays into
    the field to small escorted groups called "pools," and required to
    submit all reports and film to military censors for clearance.  Some
    reporters complained that the rules limited their ability to gather
    information independently, thereby obstructing informed and objective
    reporting.[20]
       Three Pentagon press officials in the Gulf region admitted to James
    LeMoyne of the "New York Times" that they spent significant time
    analyzing reporters' stories in order to shape the coverage in the
    Pentagon's favor.  In the early days of the deployment, Pentagon press
    officers warned reporters who asked hard questions that they were seen
    as "anti-military" and that their requests for interviews with senior
    commanders and visits to the field were in jeopardy.  The military
    often staged events solely for the cameras and would stop televised
    interviews in progress when it did not like what was being portrayed.
       Although filed soon after the beginning of the war, a lawsuit
    challenging the constitutionality of press restrictions was not heard
    until after the war ended.  It was then dismissed when the judge ruled
    that since the war had ended, the issues raised had become moot.  The
    legal status of the restrictions--initially tested during the U.S.
    invasions of Grenada and Panama--remains unsettled.


>>>>>====Continued in FEMA part 8=====================================>>>>>


Don

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