May 31, 2022 - Epoch Times
13:31
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| Good evening. | |
| This man here is George W. Bush, and according to newly released White House documents from the year 2004, it turns out that the George W. Bush administration was conducting a classified review of the president's secret emergency powers, which they believe granted the president access to not only limit the travel of Americans' passports, but also it gave the president access to a kill switch which could turn off Internet access to all or most Americans. | |
| Now, to be specific, these previously secret documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Brennan Center for Justice, which is an organization that's sort of a hybrid between a think tank and a left-wing activist center that's housed in the New York University Law School. | |
| Regardless, they filed a Freedom of Information Act request against the George W. Bush Presidential Library, which eventually turned over 500 pages worth of documents. | |
| And according to the Brennan Center, quote, the released records shed troubling new light on the powers that modern presidents claim they possess in moments of crisis. | |
| Powers that appear to lack oversight from Congress, the courts, or the public. | |
| Now before we dive into what this trench of documents actually said, let me back up for a moment and set the stage for you to give you some background on what these documents actually mean. | |
| About 70 years ago, when we were in the middle of the Cold War and there was a real genuine fear of a Soviet nuclear strike, the executive branch of the government, meaning the office of the president, they created a collection of pre-planned emergency actions, something that they called PEDS, which stands for Presidential Emergency Action Documents. | |
| Essentially, these were a collection of different executive orders, different proclamations, as well as messages to Congress that were prepared in advance in anticipation of a range of different possible emergency scenarios. | |
| The thinking here is that these documents can be ready to sign and go into effect the very moment that an emergency strikes. | |
| Now, initially, the first iteration of these PEDS documents was created during the Eisenhower administration as a part of their plan to ensure continuity of government in case of a nuclear attack. | |
| However, since Eisenhower, these PEDS, well, they have expanded for use in many other emergency situations as well, wherein the normal operations of government are somehow impaired. | |
| In fact, one recent government document, they described these PEDS rather succinctly by saying that, quote, We're good to go. | |
| Meaning that even though federal law requires the executive branch of government to report even the most sensitive, the most covert military and intelligence operations to at least some members of Congress, there's actually no such disclosure requirement for these PED documents. | |
| And to this day, there's no evidence that these documents have ever been shared with the relevant congressional committees. | |
| Meaning that they are, in every sense of the word, top secret. | |
| However, even though they are secret, and even though we don't know what any of them actually say, over the last several years there have been a number of unclassified or sometimes declassified documents which sort of tangentially make reference to these pede documents, and therefore they shed a bit of light as to what they actually say. | |
| And because of these different releases over the years, we currently know that there were 56 peds in effect as of 2017, up from 48 a couple of decades earlier. | |
| And then furthermore, even though at this very moment we don't know what these P documents say, we don't know what scenarios they are supposed to protect against, as well as what authority they grant the president, we do know about some of the powers that they gave the president in the past, such as authorizing the detention of alien enemies and other dangerous persons within the United States, | |
| suspending the writ of habeas corpus, meaning the suspension against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment by presidential order, We're good to | |
| go. | |
| And it contains things like agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices, and things like that. | |
| It's published every weekday except on federal holidays. | |
| And so, as you can see, these Presidential Emergency Action Documents, these peds, are rather broad in what they've allowed in the past. | |
| However, as broad as they are, according to these newly released records from the Bush administration, they show that the administration of George W. Bush was conducting a holistic analysis to see whether they can be even broader in the 21st century. | |
| Specifically, these documents were the result of a review that the Bush administration conducted on the current PEDs that were in place back in the year 2004. | |
| And according to one of the letters that was included in this treasure trove of documents, it showed that one Bush-era official said that in light of 9-11, updating the PEDs was, quote, An urgent and compelling security effort, especially in light of ongoing threats. | |
| And that is exactly what they did. | |
| They reviewed the existing P documents that were in place in order to update them for the modern world. | |
| And according to these 500 pages of records, it appears that there were three main areas of focus. | |
| The first is in regards to controlling communications, or more specifically, controlling the Internet. | |
| Because, you see, at least one of the secret P documents that was under review by the Bush administration was designed to implement the emergency authorities contained in Section 706 of the Communications Act. | |
| That was when, well, it was added during World War II, and it was placed in there by Congress, granting the President the authority to shut down or to even seize control, quote, "of any facility or station for wire communication upon proclamation that there exists a state or threat of war involving the United States." Now, at the time that Section 706 was written, it was applied to things like telephone calls as well as telegrams. | |
| However, in today's world, a president who's willing to, let's say, test the limits of presidential authority might interpret the words wire communication in that particular provision to also include the Internet, meaning that the president can claim to possess a kill switch over all of our electronic communications. | |
| Which, according to these notes, appears to be exactly what the Bush administration was thinking. | |
| Up on screen, you can see some of the internal notes for yourself. | |
| And as you can see, the words, quote, suspend or amend the rules and regulations are highlighted. | |
| And on the side there, you can see that the administration thought that this provision was very broad. | |
| And then furthermore, in a separate note, you can also see it up on screen, the official wrote that Section 706 was, quote, broader than common carriers in FCC, which is the Federal Communications Commission, jurisdiction. | |
| Meaning, in plain English, that the Bush administration believed that their ability to regulate wire communications goes beyond just what was within the jurisdiction of the FCC. And therefore, they can regulate, or even turn off, our internet access if there was some kind of an emergency. | |
| And then secondly, besides controlling communications, these newly released records, they also reveal the fact that the Bush administration was also examining another presidential emergency action document, another PED, pertaining to the suspension of habeas corpus. | |
| Specifically, one of the records specified that a document under the Justice Department's jurisdiction was, quote, still being revised by the OLC, which is the Office of Legal Counsel, in light of recent Supreme Court opinion. | |
| Now, as you can see, that note was written on June 30th of 2008, and so if we look at the Supreme Court rulings during that period of time, we find that this note is very likely in reference to the landmark decision in the case Boumedian v. | |
| Bush, which recognized that Guantanamo Bay prisoners have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in court. | |
| Meaning that the note from the Bush documents strongly suggests that the early Cold War pede purporting to the suspension of habeas corpus was still somehow in effect during the Bush administration. | |
| Although, frankly, we don't know whether the Supreme Court decision changed anything or not, we only know that there was some PEAD which suspends habeas corpus, and it was still, in fact, in effect during the Bush administration. | |
| And then thirdly, another one of the records which came out of this document dump, it showed that there is a PEAD in place which allows the president to limit Americans' right to travel, specifically by restricting the use of U.S. passports. | |
| As you can see up on screen for yourself, one Bush administration official, he made a point to highlight this provision in their notes, quote, A passport may not be designated as restricted for travel to or for use in any country other than a country with which the United States is at war, where armed hostilities are in progress, or where there is imminent danger to the public health or the physical safety of United States travelers. | |
| Now, notice how broad these emergency possibilities are, ranging from limiting travel with enemies of war all the way to limited travel due to danger of public health. | |
| Now, of course, this Bush-era meeting took place in 2004, but with the last three years of COVID, well, these emergency authorities definitely can be seen in a new light. | |
| Also, it's worth noting that all the released documents relate primarily to civil agencies. | |
| There's almost no mention in these documents that the role that the military has in times of crisis. | |
| And according to Mr. | |
| William Arkin, who is an expert on presidential emergency action documents, he's an expert on PEDS, and he suggested in an interview with the Brennan Center that the military aspect could have been discussed at a higher level of classification, with the implication being that the most daring claims to presidential authority may have been discussed in secret and will not be revealed to common plebs like with the implication being that the most daring claims to presidential authority may Also, very noticeably missing from these George Bush records is any evidence that his administration communicated, much less collaborated with Congress during their review. | |
| And as we mentioned earlier, historically, presidents have kept their PEDS secret, not only from the American people, but also from lawmakers as well. | |
| And without any congressional oversight, well, There doesn't really exist a constitutional check on the executive branch, at least in this respect. | |
| Meaning that there remains the very real possibility that modern peds, just like their historical predecessors, sacrifice Americans' constitutional rights as well as the rule of law in general in the name of emergency planning. | |
| And you and me won't know anything about what these sacrifices are until they're invoked and perhaps were shipped off to some kind of internment camp. | |
| If you'd like to go through these George W. Bush documents for yourself, I will throw a link to all of them down into the description box below this video so you can check them out for yourself. | |
| And also, I would love to know your thoughts about them. | |
| Do you think that the way these peds exist makes sense because it gives the president the authority to deal with an emergency? | |
| Or do you think that their secretive nature is unnecessary and that instead, at least Congress and maybe even the American people should know about their details? | |
| Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. | |
| I'll be reading through them over the next day or so. | |
| And also, while you're making your way down there to leave a comment, maybe take a quick detour as well to smash, smash, smash that like button so the YouTube algorithm will share this video out to ever more people. | |
| Now, sorry, what's this? | |
| Of course it's secure, because we use the Secure app, which is the sponsor of today's episode, as well as an awesome email and message service provider that actually cares about your privacy. | |
| Now listen, it's no big secret that our data is being mined and remined all the time. | |
| In fact, there was a recent study that was published in the year 2020, which found that 155 million Americans, likely including you and me, have suffered some form of data breach. | |
| And frankly, that's only what's publicly known. | |
| However, all those past problems with privacy issues and data mining, well, that can be an issue of the past because moving forward, you can use the Secure app, which both your messages, your emails, and your phone calls can remain private. | |
| That's because they have their servers and their data centers located in Switzerland instead of in the US or China or Russia. | |
| And why does that matter? | |
| Because Switzerland has the strictest data privacy laws in the entire world, and they are not subject to the intrusive laws. | |
| Now, what I love the most about the secure app is that they don't collect my data. | |
| They don't mine my data. | |
| They don't mine the data and phone numbers of my friends and family. | |
| Everything is private. | |
| And best of all, at least in my opinion, this does not work with your big tech email provider just because it is not secure. | |
| And so check it out. | |
| You can head on over to secure.com. | |
| And if you use promo code Roland, you can get 25% off. | |
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| It only starts with $5 for the messenger and $10 for the email and messenger combo. | |
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| And now, as I mentioned on our previous program, last week we published an exclusive super spicy episode of Facts Matter over on Epic TV detailing how, unbeknownst to almost all Americans, there are quite literally thousands of food items on our store shelves that are made using nanotechnology ingredients. | |
| Here's a trailer. | |
| Right now, unbeknownst to almost all Americans, thousands of the food items on our store shelves actually contain within them ingredients that are made using nanotechnology. | |
| And the reason they do this is because over the past 30 years or so, scientists have discovered that by adding these tiny little components, they were able to make our food more colorful, brighter, creamier, crunchier, and they were even able to keep it fresher for longer. | |
| However, according to more and more consumer protection groups, as well as different health experts, There appears to be a catch, which is that while these nanoparticles can provide a myriad of benefits, they might come at a price. | |
| And that price is our health, which might be getting compromised without our even knowing it. | |
| Because while countries like Canada, France, and the EU in general are banning these foods, well here in America, the FDA not only allows them, but even further, at this very moment, companies are not even required to list these nanoparticles on their ingredients label, meaning that you don't even know that you're ingesting them. | |
| Let's go through it all together. | |
| If you'd like to watch that entire exclusive episode, you can do so over on Epic TV, which is our awesome no-censorship video platform. | |
| I'll throw a link. | |
| It'll be right there at the very top of the description box. | |
| I hope you check it out, because not only is that episode awesome, but there's a plethora of other great content on Epic TV as well. | |
| And also, by subscribing, you are directly supporting all the journalism that we do here at The Epic Times. | |
| Again, the link will be right there at the very top of the description box. | |
| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman, from The Epic Times. |
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