WHAT IS MT.WEATHER?

Tue, 10 Dec 1996 00:09:48 -0500 (EST)
Source: Francisco Lopez

   What is Mt. Weather?
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   By Patricia Neill
   Matrix Editor
   (PSCP Wanda@aol.com)
   
   Few Americans--indeed, few Congressional reps--are aware of the
   existence of Mount Weather, a mysterious underground military base
   carved deep inside a mountain near the sleepy rural town of Bluemont,
   Virginia, just 46 miles from Washington DC. Mount Weather--also known
   as the Western Virginia Office of Controlled Conflict Operations--is
   buried not just in hard granite, but in secrecy as well.
   
   In March, 1976, The Progressive Magazine published an astonishing
   article entitled "The Mysterious Mountain." The author, Richard
   Pollock, based his investigative report on Senate subcommittee
   hearings and upon "several off-the-record interviews with officials
   formerly associated with Mount Weather." His report, and a 1991
   article in Time Magazine entitled "Doomsday Hideaway", supply a few
   compelling hints about what is going on underground.
   
   Ted Gup, writing for Time, describes the base as follows: "Mount
   Weather is a virtually self-contained facility. Aboveground, scattered
   across manicured lawns, are about a dozen buildings bristling with
   antennas and microwave relay systems. An on-site sewage-treatment
   plant, with a 90,000 gal.-a-day capacity, and two tanks holding
   250,000 gal. of water could last some 200 people more than a month;
   underground ponds hold additional water supplies. Not far from the
   installation's entry gate are a control tower and a helicopter pad.
   The mountain's real secrets are not visible at ground level."
   
   The mountain's "real secrets" are protected by warning signs, 10
   foot-high chain link fences, razor wire, and armed guards. Curious
   motorists and hikers on the Appalachian trail are relieved of their
   sketching pads and cameras and sent on their way. Security is tight.
   
   The government has owned the site since 1903; it has seen service as
   an artillery range, a hobo farm during the Depression, and a National
   Weather Bureau Facility. In 1936, the U.S. Bureau of Mines took
   control and started digging.
   
   Mount Weather is virtually an underground city, according to former
   personnel interviewed by Pollock. Buried deep inside the earth, Mount
   Weather was equipped with such amenities as:
   

--private apartments and dormitories
--streets and sidewalks
--cafeterias and hospitals
--a water purification system, power plant and general office buildings
--a small lake fed by fresh water from underground springs
--its own mass transit system
--a TV communication system

   
   
   Mount Weather is the self-sustaining underground command center for
   the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The facility is the
   operational center--the hub--of approximately 100 other Federal
   Relocation Centers, most of which are concentrated in Pennsylvania,
   West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. Together this
   network of underground facilities constitutes the backbone of
   America's "Continuity of Government" program. In the event of nuclear
   war, declaration of martial law, or other national emergency, the
   President, his cabinet and the rest of the Executive Branch would be
   "relocated" to Mount Weather.
   
   What Does Congress Know about Mount Weather?
   
   According to the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights hearings
   in 1975, Congress has almost no knowledge and no oversight--budgetary
   or otherwise--on Mount Weather. Retired Air Force General Leslie W.
   Bray, in his testimony to the subcommittee, said "I am not at liberty
   to describe precisely what is the role and the mission and the
   capability that we have at Mount Weather, or at any other precise
   location."
   
   Apparently, this underground capital of the United States is a secret
   only to Congress and the US taxpayers who paid for it. The Russians
   know about it, as reported in Time: "Few in the U.S. government will
   speak of it, though it is assumed that all along the Soviets have
   known both its precise location and its mission (unlike the Congress,
   since Bray wouldn't tell); defense experts take it as a given that the
   site is on the Kremlin's targeting maps." The Russians attempted to
   buy real estate right next door, as a "country estate" for their
   embassy folks, but that deal was dead-ended by the State Department.

What they do at Mt. Weather
      Date: 
                    Tue, 10 Dec 1996 00:13:57 -0500 (EST)
     From: 
                    Francisco Lopez 


   
   What Do They Do At Mount Weather?
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   1) Collect Data on American Citizens
   
   The Senate Subcommittee in 1975 learned that the "facility held
   dossiers on at least 100,000 Americans. [Senator] John Tunney later
   alleged that the Mount Weather computers can obtain millions of pieces
   of additional information on the personal lives of American citizens
   simply by tapping the data stored at any of the other ninety-six
   Federal Relocation Centers."
   
   The subcommittee concluded that Mount Weather's databases "operate
   with few, if any, safeguards or guidelines."
   
   2) Store Necessary Information
   
   The Progressive article detailed that "General Bray gave Tunney's
   subcommittee a list of the categories of files maintained at Mount
   Weather: military installations, government facilities,
   communications, transportation, energy and power, agriculture,
   manufacturing, wholesale and retail services, manpower, financial,
   medical and educational institutions, sanitary facilities, population,
   housing shelter, and stockpiles." This massive database fits cleanly
   into Mount Weather's ultimate purpose as the command center in the
   event of a national emergency.
   
   3) Play War Games
   
   This is the main daily activity of the approximately 240 people who
   work at Mount Weather. The games are intended to train the Mount
   Weather bureaucracy to managing a wide range of problems associated
   with both war and domestic political crises.
   
   Decisions are made in the "Situation Room," the base's nerve center,
   located in the core of Mount Weather. The Situation Room is the
   archetypal war room, with "charts, maps and whatever visuals may be
   needed" and "batteries of communications equipment connecting Mount
   Weather with the White House and 'Raven Rock'--the underground
   Pentagon sixty miles north of Washington--as well as with almost every
   US military unit stationed around the globe," according to the
   Progressive article. "All internal communications are conducted by
   closed-circuit color television ... senior officers and 'Cabinet
   members' have two consoles recessed in the walls of their office."
   
   Descriptions of the war games read a bit like a Ian Fleming novel.
   Every year there is a system-wide alert that "includes all military
   and civilian-run underground installations." The real, aboveground
   President and his Cabinet members are "relocated" to Mount Weather to
   observe the simulation. Post-mortems are conducted and the margins for
   error are calculated after the games. All the data is studied and
   documented.
   
   4) Civil Crisis Management
   
   Mount Weather personnel study more than war scenarios. Domestic
   "crises" are also tracked and watched, and there have been times when
   Mount Weather almost swung into action, as Pollock reported:
   "Officials who were at Mount Weather during the 1960s say the complex
   was actually prepared to assume certain governmental powers at the
   time of the 1961 Cuban missile crisis and the assassination of
   President Kennedy in 1963. The installation used the tools of its
   'Civil Crisis Management' program on a standby basis during the 1967
   and 1968 urban riots and during a number of national antiwar
   demonstrations, the sources said."
   
   In its 1974 Annual Report, the Federal Preparedness Agency stated that
   "Studies conducted at Mount Weather involve the control and management
   of domestic political unrest where there are material shortages (such
   as food riots) or in strike situations where the FPA determines that
   there are industrial disruptions and other domestic resource crises."
   
   The Mount Weather facility uses a vast array of resources to
   continually monitor the American people. According to Daniel J.
   Cronin, former assistant director for the FPA, Reconnaissance
   satellites, local and state police intelligence reports, and Federal
   law enforcement agencies are just a few of the resources available to
   the FPA [now FEMA] for information gathering. "We try to monitor
   situations and get to them before they become emergencies," Cronin
   said. "No expense is spared in the monitoring program."
   
   5) Maintain and Update the "Survivors List"
   
   Using all the data generated by the war games and domestic crisis
   scenarios, the facility continually maintains and updates a list of
   names and addresses of people deemed to be "vital" to the survival of
   the nation, or who can "assist essential and non-interruptible
   services." In the 1976 article, the "survivors list" contained 6,500
   names, but even that was deemed to be low.


Who pays for all this happening in Mt. Weather?
      Date: 
                    Tue, 10 Dec 1996 00:16:00 -0500 (EST)
     From: 
                    Francisco Lopez 


   
   Who Pays for All This, and How Much?
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   At the same time tens of millions of dollars were being spent on
   maintaining and upgrading the complex to protect several hundred
   designated officials in the event of nuclear attack, the US government
   drastically reduced its emphasis on war preparedness for US citizens.
   A 1989 FEMA brochure entitled "Are You Prepared?" suggests that
   citizens construct makeshift fallout shelters using use furniture,
   books, and other common household items.
   
   Officially, Mount Weather (and its budget) does not exist. FEMA
   refuses to answer inquiries about the facility; as FEMA spokesman Bob
   Blair told Time magazine, "I'll be glad to tell you all about it, but
   I'd have to kill you afterward."
   
   We don't know how much Mount Weather has cost over the years, but of
   course, American taxpayers bear this burden as well. A Christian
   Science Monitor article entitled "Study Reveals US Has Spent $4
   Trillion on Nukes Since '45" reports that "The government devoted at
   least $12 billion to civil defense projects to protect the population
   from nuclear attack. But billions of dollars more were secretly spent
   on vast underground complexes from which civilian and military
   officials would run the government during a nuclear war."
   
   Mount Weather - 1. What is Mt. Weather? - 2. Gov't-in-Waiting? - 3.
   Mt. Weather Activity -
   4. Mt. Weather's Budget - 5. Ultimate Purpose? - 6. Russia's Mt.
   Weather? - 7. Sources
   
   Home-Contacts-Top-Matrix-Nebula-Enigma-Dossier


Mt. Weather's Russian Twin
      Date: 
                    Tue, 10 Dec 1996 00:20:20 -0500 (EST)
     From: 
                    Francisco Lopez 


   
   Mount Weather's Russian Twin
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   By Patricia Neill
   Matrix Editor
   (PSCP Wanda@aol.com)
   
   On April 16, 1996, the New York Times reported on a mysterious
   military base being constructed in Russia: "In a secret project
   reminiscent of the chilliest days of the Cold War, Russia is building
   a mammoth underground military complex in the Ural Mountains, Western
   officials and Russian witnesses say. Hidden inside Yamantau mountain
   in the Beloretsk area of the southern Urals, the project involved the
   creation of a huge complex, served by a railroad, a highway, and
   thousands of workers."
   
   The New York Times article quotes Russian officials describing the
   underground compound variously as a mining site, a repository for
   Russian treasures, a food storage area, and a bunker for Russia's
   leaders in case of nuclear war.
   
   It would seem that the Russian Parliament knows as little about
   Russian underground bases as the Congress knows about Mount Weather in
   the United States. "The (Russian) Defense Ministry declined to say
   whether Parliament has been informed about the details of the project,
   like its purpose and cost, saying only that it receives necessary
   military information," according to the New York Times.
   
   "We can't say with confidence what the purpose is, and the Russians
   are not very interested in having us go in there," a senior American
   official said in Washington. "It is being built on a huge scale and
   involves a major investment of resources. The investments are being
   made at a time when the Russians are complaining they do not have the
   resources to do things pertaining to arms control."
   
   Where's the Money Coming From?
   
   The construction of the vast underground complex in Russia may very
   well become a cause of concern to the Clinton Administration. The
   issue of ultimate purpose for the complex, whether defensive (as with
   Mount Weather) or offensive (such as an underground weapons factory)
   is not the only issue Mr. Clinton has to worry about.
   
   The real cause for concern is that the US is currently sending
   hundreds of millions of dollars to Russia, supposedly to help that
   country dismantle old nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the Russian
   parliament has been complaining to Yeltsin that it cannot pay $250
   million in back wages owed to its workers at the same time that it is
   spending money to comply with new strategic arms reduction treaties.
   
   Aviation Week and Space Technology reported that "It seems the nearly
   $30 billion a year spent on intelligence hasn't answered the question
   of what the Russians are up to at Yamantau Mountain in the Urals. The
   huge underground complex being built there has been the object of U.S.
   interest since 1992. 'We don't know exactly what it is,' says Ashton
   Carter, the Pentagon's international security mogul. The facility is
   not operational, and the Russians have offered 'nonspecific
   reassurances' that it poses no threat to the U.S."
   
   U.S. law states that the Administration must certify to Congress that
   any money sent to Russia is used to disarm its nuclear weapons.
   However, is that the case? If the Russian parliament is complaining of
   a shortage of funds for nuclear disarmament, then how can Russia
   afford to build the Yamantau complex?
   
   Are the Russians building an underground city akin to Mount Weather
   with American taxpayer's money? Could American funds be subsidizing a
   Russian weapons factory? Hopefully Congress will get a firm answer to
   these questions before authorizing further funding to Russian military
   projects.


What is Mt. Weather's Ultimate Purpose?
      Date: 
                    Tue, 10 Dec 1996 00:17:56 -0500 (EST)
     From: 
                    Francisco Lopez 


   
   What is Mount Weather's Ultimate Purpose?
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   We have seen that Mount Weather contains an unelected, parallel
   "government-in-waiting" ready to take control of the United States
   upon word from the President or his successor. The facility contains a
   massive database of information on U.S. citizens which is operated
   with no safeguards or accountability. Ostensibly, this expensive hub
   of America's network of sub-terran bases was designed to preserve our
   form of government during a nuclear holocaust.
   
   But Mount Weather is not simply a Cold War holdover. Information on
   command and control strategies during national emergencies have
   largely been withheld from the American public. Executive Order 11051,
   signed by President Kennedy on October 2, 1962, states that "national
   preparedness must be achieved... as may be required to deal with
   increases in international tension with limited war, or with general
   war including attack upon the United States."
   
   However, Executive Order 11490, drafted by Gen. George A Lincoln
   (former director for the Office of Emergency Preparedness, the FPA's
   predecessor) and signed by President Nixon in October 1969, tells a
   different story. EO 11490, which superceded Kennedy's EO 11051,
   begins, "Whereas our national security is dependent upon our ability
   to assure continuity of government, at every level, in any national
   emergency type situation that might conceivably confront the
   nation..."
   
   As researcher William Cooper points out, Nixon's order makes no
   reference to "war," "imminent attack," or "general war." These
   quantifiers are replaced by an extremely vague "national emergency
   type situation" that "might conceivably" interfere with the workings
   of the national power structure. Furthermore, there is no publicly
   known Executive Order outlining the restoration of the Constitution
   after a national emergency has ended. Unless the parallel government
   at Mount Weather does not decide out of the goodness of its heart to
   return power to Constitutional authority, the United States could
   experience an honest-to-God coup d'etat posing as a national
   emergency.
   
   Like the enigmatic Area 51 in Nevada, the Federal government wants to
   keep the Mount Weather facility buried in secrecy. Public awareness of
   this place and its purpose would raise serious questions about who
   holds the reins of power in this country. The Constitution states that
   those reins lie in the hands of the people, but the very existence of
   Mount Weather indicates an entirely different reality. As long as
   Mount Weather exists, these questions will remain.




                    Mt. Weather Article's Bibliography and Sources
      Date: 
                    Tue, 10 Dec 1996 00:22:34 -0500 (EST)
     From: 
                    Francisco Lopez 


   
   Sources
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Books
     * "Underground Bases and Tunnels: What is the Government Trying to
       Hide?" by Richard Sauder, Ph.D (Available from Adventure Press, PO
       Box 74, Kempton Illinois 60946, tel 815-253-6390, $15.95, plus $2
       s/h).
     * "Behold a Pale Horse", by William Milton Cooper, 1991. (Available
       from Light Technology Publishing, P.O. Box 1495, Sedona, Arizona
       86336. ISBN 0-929385-22-5.)
       
   
   
   Magazines
     * The Progressive, "The Mysterious Mountain," by Richard Pollock,
       March 1976, pages 12-16.
     * Time, "Doomsday Hideaway," by Ted Gup, December 9, 1991, pp.
       26-29.
     * Aviation Week and Space Technology, "Deep Subject" April 29, 1996.
       
   
   
   Newspapers
     * The New York Times, "Russia Builds Mammoth Underground Complex in
       Urals" by Michael R. Gordon, 16 April 1996.
     * Christian Science Monitor, "Study Reveals US Has Spent $4 Trillion
       on Nukes Since '45," July 12, 1995.
     * Glasgow Herald, "Bashful Bunker Reveals its Secrets," May 22,
       1995.


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