Bush Began ‘Shadow Government’ Hours After Sept. 11 Attacks

The Bush administration has activated Cold War-era plans for a “shadow government” consisting of 75 or more senior officials who live and work secretly outside Washington in case the capital is crippled by terrorist attack, a senior government official said Thursday night.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the operation has been in effect since the first hours after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but has evolved over time.

Originally designed to help the government withstand Cold War nuclear threats, the shadow government plan was activated out of heightened fears that the Al Qaeda terrorist network might obtain a portable nuclear weapon. U.S. intelligence has no specific knowledge of such a weapon, but the risk was great enough to warrant the activation of the plan, which dates to the Eisenhower administration, the official said.

Under the classified Continuity of Operations Plan, first reported by the Washington Post in today’s editions, 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.

The Post said the first rotations were made in late October or early November, a fact confirmed by a senior government official late Thursday.

Officials who are activated for the duty live and work underground 24 hours a day, away from their families, according to the Post report. The shadow government has sent home most of the first wave of deployed personnel, replacing them most commonly at 90-day intervals.

A government official said the groups usually number 70 to 150 people, depending on the level of threat detected by intelligence groups. He said President Bush does not foresee ever needing to activate the secret government operation but believed it was prudent to implement the long-standing plan in light of the gathering war on terrorism and persistent threats of attacks.

The team, drawn from every Cabinet department and some independent agencies, would seek to prevent the collapse of essential government functions in the event of a disabling blow to Washington, the official 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, the Post reported. Later, it would begin to reconstitute the government.

The government-in-waiting is an extension of a policy that has kept Vice President Dick Cheney in secure undisclosed locations away from Washington. Cheney has moved in and out of public view as threat levels have fluctuated.

As first in the line of succession to power behind Bush, he would need help running the government in a worst-case scenario.

“We take this issue extraordinarily seriously and are committed to doing as thorough a job as possible to ensure the ongoing operations of the federal government,” Joseph W. Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff, told the Post, though he declined to discuss details. “In the case of the use of a weapon of mass destruction, the federal government would be able to do its job and continue to provide key services and respond.”

According to the Post, the backup government consists generally of officials from top career ranks, from GS-14 and GS-15 to members of the Senior Executive Service. The White House is represented by a “senior-level presence,” one official said, but well below such Cabinet-ranked advisors as Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Many departments, including Justice and Treasury, have completed plans to delegate statutory powers to officials who would not normally exercise them, the Post said. Others do not need to make such legal transfers or are holding them in reserve.

The report said civilians deployed for the operation are not allowed to take their families and may not tell anyone where they are going or why.

The two sites of the shadow government make use of local geological features to render them highly secure, the Post said. They are well stocked with food, water, medicine and other supplies, and are capable of generating their own power.