Democracy Now! March 5, 2002

Program Title:
Democracy Now! March 5, 2002
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0450.112
Description: 

COG : acronym for Continuity of Government--a shadow government secretly outside Washington : Secret programs past and present: a look at COINTELPRO : FRED HAMPTON JR., whose father Fred Hampton was assassinated by the Chicago police in 1969. Fred Hampton Jr was just released from prison after serving 9 years for what he says are trumped up charges.

9:01-9:06 HEADLINES 9:06-9:07 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:07-9:20 THE US FORMS A SHADOW GOVERNMENT OF A HUNDRED, LIVING AND WORKING SECRETLY OUTSIDE WASHINGTON IN SEVERAL UNDISCLOSED LOCATIONS This is an excerpt of an article that appeared in the Washington Post on Friday: President Bush has dispatched a shadow government of about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work secretly outside Washington, activating for the first time long-standing plans to ensure survival of federal rule after catastrophic attack on the nation's capital. Execution of the classified "Continuity of Operations Plan" resulted not from the Cold War threat of intercontinental missiles, the scenario rehearsed for decades, but from heightened fears that the al Qaeda terrorist network might somehow obtain a portable nuclear weapon, according to three officials with firsthand knowledge. U.S. intelligence has no specific knowledge of such a weapon, they said, but the risk is thought great enough to justify the shadow government's disruption and expense. Deployed "on the fly" in the first hours of turmoil on Sept. 11, one participant said, the shadow government has evolved into an indefinite precaution. For that reason, the high-ranking officials representing their departments have begun rotating in and out of the assignment at one of two fortified locations along the East Coast. Rotation is among several changes made in late October or early November, sources said, to the standing directive Bush inherited from a line of presidents reaching back to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Officials who are activated for what some of them call "bunker duty" live and work underground 24 hours a day, away from their families. As it settles in for the long haul, the shadow government has sent home most of the first wave of deployed personnel, replacing them most commonly at 90-day intervals. The civilian cadre present in the bunkers usually numbers 70 to 150, and "fluctuates based on intelligence" about terrorist threats, according to a senior official involved in managing the program. It draws from every Cabinet department and some independent agencies. Its first mission, in the event of a disabling blow to Washington, would be to prevent collapse of essential government functions. Assuming command of regional federal offices, officials said, the underground government would try to contain disruptions of the nation's food and water supplies, transportation links, energy and telecommunications networks, public health and civil order. Later it would begin to reconstitute the government. Known internally as the COG, for "continuity of government," the administration-in-waiting is an unannounced complement to the acknowledged absence of Vice President Cheney from Washington for much of the pastfive months. Cheney's survival ensures constitutional succession, one official said, but "he can't run the country by himself." With a core group of federal managers alongside him, Cheney -- or President Bush, if available -- has the means to give effect to his orders. GUEST: CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON, professor of communications at American University in Washington DC. He is author of Blowback and War Crimes of the Deutche Bank and the Dresner Bank, among other books. 9:20-9:21 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:21-9:40 FROM COINTELPRO TO THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT: AS FRED HAMPTON JR. IS RELEASED FROM 9 YEARS OF PRISON, A LOOK BACK AT THE ASSASSINATION OF FRED HAMPTON In a moment we are going to hear from Fred Hampton Jr., who was recently released from prison in Illinois where he served 9 years on charges of aggravated arson following the nationwide protests in 1992 after the acquittal of the LA police officers who beat Rodney King. Fred Hampton Jr. is the son of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton who was assassinated on December 4, 1969 in a COINTELPRO operation in Chicago. We begin this part of the program by going to some rare archival footage of Fred Hampton shortly before his assassination. His words are then followed by his wife describing his killing. Here is Fred Hampton speaking in the late 1960s. A group of Hip Hop activists has just kicked off a nationwide tour aimed at educating young people on issues effecting Black and Latino communitiesthe prison industrial complex, police brutality and the struggles to free political prisoners. The tour is called Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win and it features Fred Hampton Jr. whose father was assassinated on December 4, 1969 in Chicago as part of the FBIs COINTELPRO operations. Fred Hampton Jr. was a community organizer working with the National Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement. Following the Simi Valley verdict in 1992 which acquitted 4 white police officers of the beating of Rodney King, rebellions broke out across the US. The corporate media called them riots. Fred Hampton Jr. was arrested on charges of aggravated arson, convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison. An international campaign to free Hampton was launched and on September 14, 2001, he was freed from prison. Now he is touring the country with hip hop artist Mutulu Olugabala from the rap group Dead Prez and Rosa Clemente. She is co-host and producer of Pacifica station WBAIs Where We Live program. She was recently named by Red Eye magazine as one of the 50 top Hip-Hop activists to look out for in 2002. TAPE: FRED HAMPTON, DEBORAH JOHNSON GUEST: FRED HAMPTON JR., political activist and poet. He was just released from prison after serving nearly 10 years. He had been sentenced to 18 years in prison. He is the son of Fred Hampton who was assassinated in an FBI COINTELPRO operation in Chicago on December 4, 1969. GUEST: MUTULU OLUGABALA, hip hop artist with the rap group Dead Prez. GUEST: ROSA CLEMENTE, co-host and producer of Pacifica station WBAIs Where We Live program. She was recently named by Red Eye magazine as one of the 50 top Hip-Hop activists to look out for in 2002 9:40-9:41 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:41-9:58 DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN: POLITICAL PRISONER FRED HAMPTON JR. JOINS A NATIONAL HIP HOP TOUR TO EDUCATE ABOUT THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND POLICE BRUTALITY GUEST: FRED HAMPTON JR., political activist and poet. He was just released from prison after serving nearly 10 years. He had been sentenced to 18 years in prison. He is the son of Fred Hampton who was assassinated in an FBI COINTELPRO operation in Chicago on December 4, 1969. GUEST: MUTULU OLUGABALA, hip hop artist with the rap group Dead Prez. GUEST: ROSA CLEMENTE, co-host and producer of Pacifica station WBAIs Where We Live program. She was recently named by Red Eye magazine as one of the 50 top Hip-Hop activists to look out for in 2002 MUSIC: 6 - BLESSED BE THAT CITY written and sung by US attorney General John Ashcroft. 20 - DONT EXPLAIN by Underground Railroad from the Shame The Devil compilation CD Books Not Bars Hip-Hop tells the truth about the prison industrial complex www.booksnotbars.org / www.freedomfighters.ws 40 FREE FRED HAMPTON MEDLEY from THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON video documentary End CONSIDER THE GARDEN by Garrnet Silk From The Ultimate Garrnet Silk Collection CD 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS

Date Recorded on: 
March 5, 2002
Date Broadcast on: 
March 5, 2002
Item duration: 
59 min.
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Distributor: 
WPFW; Amy Goodman, host. March 5, 2002
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