National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive

I heard a little snippet about the "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" the other day. It sounded scary.

So like all scary things that I only know a little bit about, I took it to Google.

I usually get more hits than I know what to do with. Normally, no matter how obscure the search, i have to sort through the wealth of results to find the ones that are useful. So I was a little surprised that when i did a google news search, I only received 5 hits. One of the hits was the actually directive itself on Whitehouse.gov.

I'll put the links along with a couple quotes from each article, below, and you can do your own research.

In short, on May 9^th the President signed an executive order. That means it didn't go through congress, and that no one else had to approve it. The order essentially says that in case of an emergency the President will assume the powers (the executive order itself uses the term “coordinate”) of the executive, judiciary and legislative branches.

The term “emergency” is defined as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”

Which is vague enough that it could be anything from a terrorist attack, to the outbreak of a virus, to a hurricane.

From what I can gather the “state of emergency” will last at least 30 days, or until the emergency is declared over..... by the President.

That worries me a little bit.

What worries me the most is that no one seems to be talking about it.

Is it really harmless and I'm worried about nothing?

Or is this something that is flying beneath the radar but that we need to start looking at?

I don't know, but here's my effort to at least get the word out a little.

Here are the articles that I found.

Bush grants presidency extraordinary powers
Directive for emergencies apparently gives authority without congressional oversight

“The "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" was signed May 9.”

“The directive establishes under the office of the president a new national continuity coordinator whose job is to make plans for "National Essential Functions" of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president's directives in the event of a national emergency.

"Catastrophic emergency" is loosely defined as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

“Corsi says the president can assume the power to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over. “

“The directive also makes no reference to Congress and its language appears to negate any requirement that the president submit to Congress a determination that a national emergency exists.

It suggests instead that the powers of the directive can be implemented without any congressional approval or oversight.”

Bush makes power grab

“President Bush, without so much as issuing a press statement, on May 9 signed a directive that granted near dictatorial powers to the office of the president in the event of a national emergency declared by the president. “

When the president determines a catastrophic emergency has occurred, the president can take over all government functions and direct all private sector activities to ensure we will emerge from the emergency with an "enduring constitutional government."

Translated into layman's terms, when the president determines a national emergency has occurred, the president can declare to the office of the presidency powers usually assumed by dictators to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.”

New presidential directive gives Bush dictatorial power

National Security & Homeland Security Presidential Directive establishes "National Continuity Policy"

“The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007 declares that in the event of a "catastrophic event", George W. Bush can become what is best described as "a dictator"

“This directive, completely unnoticed by the media, and given no scrutiny by Congress, literally gives the White House unprecedented dictatorial power over the government and the country, bypassing the US Congress and obliterating the separation of powers. The directive also placed the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of domestic "security".”

“The directive defines a “Catastrophic Emergency” as the following.

"Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions;

So what does this mean? This is entirely subjective and doesn’t provide any real concrete definition of what such an emergency would entail. Assuming that it means a disaster on the scale of the 9/11 attacks or Katrina, there is no question that the United States at some point in time will experience an emergency on par with either of those events. When one of those events takes place, the President will be a dictator in charge of ensuring a working constitutional government.”

National Continuity Implementation Plan: great idea but compromising timescales?

“The Directive slipped out relatively unnoticed by the mainstream media, yet it has important and positive implications for the future resiliency of public sector operations in the United States. “

(here's the directive itself on the whitehouse homepage)

National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51

HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-20