Cheney Fear Mongering Again

[Gold9472]

Cheney won't rule out terror strike
"The enemy that struck on 9/11 is weakened and fractured, yet still lethal"

http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/30/stories/2006083020921800.htm

8/30/2006

Washington : Warning that another terror strike against the United States cannot be ruled out, Vice-President Dick Cheney has said the recent court ruling to end a terrorism-related telephone tapping programme was ``just dead-wrong.''
Terrorists had successfully carried out attacks in Mumbai, Casablanca, Jakarta, Mombassa, Bali, Riyadh, Baghdad, Istanbul, Madrid, London and Sharm el-Sheikh since the September, 11, 2001, attacks. "Here in the U.S., we have not had another 9/11," he said. "No one can guarantee that we won't be struck again."

"But to have come this far without another attack is no accident. We have been protected by sound policy decisions by President [George W. Bush], by decisive action at home and abroad, and by round-the-clock efforts [by] people in armed forces, law enforcement intelligence and Homeland Security," he told a convention of U.S. veterans of foreign wars on Monday.

"We have an urgent duty to learn who they are, what they are doing and to stop them before they can act. To this end, in the days following 9/11, the President authorised the National Security Agency to intercept a certain category of terrorist-linked international communications. On occasions you will hear this called a domestic surveillance programme. That's more than a misnomer; it is a flat-out falsehood," he said. "Parameters of the programme are fully consistent with the Constitution, the legal authority of the President and the civil liberties of the people."

"The enemy that struck on 9/11 is weakened and fractured, yet still lethal, still desperately trying to hit us again. They hate us, they hate our country, and they hate the liberties for which we stand," Mr. Cheney said. ``This is not a war we can win on the defensive. Either we are serious about this fight or we are not. And the enemies of America need to know we are serious and we will not let down our guard."

"The terrorists want to end all American and Western influence in the Middle East. Their goal in that region is to seize control of a country so they have a base from which to launch attacks and to wage war against governments that do not meet their demands.''

"The terrorists believe that by controlling one country, they will be able to target and overthrow other governments in the region and, ultimately, to establish a totalitarian empire that encompasses a region from Spain, across North Africa, to the Middle East and South Asia, all the way around to Indonesia.''

"They have made clear their ultimate ambitions: to arm themselves with chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons, to destroy Israel, to intimidate all Western countries and to cause mass death in the United States." — PTI

[beltman713]

Has anyone seen the Google Earth Sat photos of Cheney's home outside of Washington DC? They have been blurred so that his home cannot be seen. Local residents have said that they have heard blasting and all sorts of other strange goings on coming from the direction of his home.

I also just saw something yesterday about a lot of new construction going on at the old Cold War facility NW of Washington DC, that was built in the 1950s inside of a mountain, that was supposed to house the surviving Federal Government in the event of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

Makes on wonder what they are preparing for.

[Eckolaker]

Cheney reminds me of this old dude that lived around the corner from where I grew up.

He had this shack on his property and he was always in there late at night making all sorts of noise.

We used to harass him when we were younger. Ding-Dong-Ditch his house, feed his dog peanut butter and raw meet so we could toilet paper his house and shit. I remember one night he caught us and chased us for what seemed a mile in his car. All the while he was yelling out his window how he was going to kill us and feed us to his dog.

Also I should point out, he was old, he had glasses and white hair,he only wore a wife beater boxer shorts, dress socks, slippers, and some dirty beat ass robe.

[beltman713]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24386-2002Dec7?language=printer

Cheney's Home Sending Bad Vibrations
Construction Blasts Have D.C. Folks Shuddering, Speculating

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 8, 2002; Page A01

One man thought the noise was a sonic boom.

Another guessed he was hearing rolling thunder.

When a woman feared it was a bomb or an earthquake, she called the police. But they had no answers, either.

No one in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights neighborhood of Northwest Washington knows what is going on at the house of their neighbor, the vice president of the United States.

But one thing is certain: They're tired of the daily blasting at the Naval Observatory that has shaken houses, rattled windows and knocked mirrors off the walls.

"None of the neighbors object to any construction that is necessary in the Navy's view," said Nancy Nord, a community activist who lives on Observatory Circle. "What we do object to is that there is no sense of the magnitude, no warning about something so intrusive to our lives and no clear sense how long this is going to go or when it's going to stop."

The blasts, which last three to five seconds apiece, have been going off two or three times a day -- as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 11 p.m. -- for nearly two months, residents say. But neighbors have received so little information from government officials about the top-secret project that speculation is running wild.

The leading theory: A security bunker is being built for Vice President Cheney. The second most-popular guess: The government is digging tunnels to spy on nearby embassies. In third place: A helicopter hangar is under construction.

As the government roots out terrorists around the globe and gears up for a possible military confrontation with Iraq, nothing is out of the realm of possibility, neighbors say.

"After 9/11, when you hear a big blast for the first time, you wonder what is going on," said Iza Warner, who had a mirror fall off the wall of her home on Davis Street, a few blocks away from the construction site. Warner called the police after guests at a dinner party became frightened by the racket.

"One guest said, 'Oh, my God, what is going on -- an earthquake?' " Warner recalled. "She said it sounded just awful. I called the police, and they looked around but they couldn't tell us anything."

Thus far, the federal government's only response to the residents has been a three-page letter that the observatory's superintendent, David W. Gillard, sent to the advisory neighborhood commissioner, Rosalyn P. Doggett, on Nov. 20.

The blasting could last eight more months, Gillard said in the letter, but the Navy has attempted to limit noise by silencing backup alerts on trucks and removing most diesel-powered electric generators from the construction site.

He did not disclose the nature of the project, however.

"Due to its sensitive nature in support of national security and homeland defense, project specific information is classified and cannot be released," Gillard wrote. "In addition, please understand we are severely constrained by operation requirements to perform this project on a highly accelerated schedule; therefore, it will not be possible to limit construction activities to the daytime as you request."

Doggett said the letter raised as many questions as it answered. "I got back an information sheet that I thought was just not pertinent," she said. "They do not have to tell us exactly what is happening, but they do need to minimize the impact."

The matter has alarmed D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who said she has asked Deputy Mayor Margret Nedelkoff Kellems to press White House officials to work out a resolution.

"If the federal government is not being a good neighbor, we'll elevate the issue to a level where something can be done," Patterson said. "We want to know what we can know about what they're up to and if they are able to be a bit more responsive."

The Naval Observatory, which opened at 3450 Massachusetts Ave. in 1893, houses many of the Navy's precious instruments used for measuring time and astronomy. The house on its grounds was designated as the vice president's residence in 1974.

If residents' speculation is accurate and construction workers are digging deep into the ground, the project would be going through about 35 feet of common sand and gravel, according to federal officials at the U.S. Geological Survey. Anything beyond that depth would hit tonalite, an intrusive igneous rock similar to granite and common to this area.

Phyllis Bonanno said her 89-year-old mother, who lives with her on Observatory Circle, is "quite upset when the boom goes off."

"Everybody appreciates that there's always national security issues," Bonanno said. "On the other hand, this is a neighborhood. We're owed the courtesy of an explanation."

To Davis Street resident Joe Rieser, the noise is "quite remarkable. It's like thunder -- it rolls. The windows rattle. It's not something I'm used to. I'm concerned whether there are cracks in my house."

Navy spokeswoman Cate Mueller described the work as "infrastructure and utility upgrades." She said that officials are continually monitoring the project and have not discovered any physical damage to buildings on observatory grounds. The vibrations from the blasts are below regulatory standards for construction in the city, she added.

"If people came to us with damage, we would work with them on the claim," Mueller said. "Some neighbors are concerned. We take that seriously. We're doing what we can to make things better."

Longtime residents said they have never heard such sounds coming from the Naval Observatory. Because they live in the nation's capital, however, many say they are resigned to living in a secretive world.

"Yeah, I'd like to know more," said Carol Hindle, who lives on Davis Street. "But I do not trust that what I hear would be the whole truth. This is Washington, after all."

And because it's Washington, the situation also is laced with political humor.

"I just got back from Connecticut," said Warner. "When I mentioned this to my nephew, he said maybe [Cheney] is drilling for oil."

[beltman713]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Weather

Mount Weather

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/MountWeatherFEMA.jpg

The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is a U.S. government facility located in Bluemont, Virginia. It houses operations and training facilities above ground for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and contains an underground facility designed to house key components of the American government in the case of nuclear warfare or other calamity (1).

Like its companion facility, Raven Rock, near Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, not much hard information is known about Mount Weather, and many of the stories about its operation are conflicting and vague. Some say the mountain contains an entire city, while others say it is just a simple military base. [citation needed] The U.S. government has revealed little about Mount Weather to date, although it has acknowledged its basic existence and stated purpose.

The underground base is allegedly located inside the hollowed-out mountain and can purportedly withstand a nuclear blast. It is a central part of the American Continuity of Operations Plan, and some have suggested the base contains facilities and quarters for the Congress and White House, ready to be used in an emergency. This suspicion was largely confirmed during the September 11, 2001 attacks when a line of government cars and limousines with police escort were seen heading from Washington D.C. to Mount Weather (1).

The site gained wider public recognition when The Washington Post mentioned the government facility while reporting on the December 1, 1974 crash into Mount Weather of Flight 514, a TWA Boeing 727. [citation needed]

It has been suggested that Vice President Dick Cheney has been at Mount Weather from time to time since the September 11, 2001 attacks, as it is the quintessential "secure undisclosed location," [citation needed] though he was known to have taken shelter at the "Raven Rock" installation in the days immidately following the attacks (1). Since September 11, 2001 both Mount Weather and Raven Rock have seen a dramatic increase in staffing and support, particularly Raven Rock, which was largely mothballed prior to the attacks (1).

As of 2006, FEMA has 673 civilian employees assigned to Mount Weather, most of them in the Operations and Maintenance, Emergency Services, or Information Technology departments.

A similar facility was long maintained at the Greenbrier Resort. This facility came to public light in the early 1990's and has since been converted into a convention center, and Cold War museum, though it could still operate as a nuclear shelter in an emergency. It is believed that Mount Weather has largely assumed the functions of the facility at the Greenbrier since that shelter was decommissioned (1).