While the public’s eyes are riveted on the progression of coronavirus numbers, a profound reorganization of the executive is taking place, giving primacy to senior health officials over policy. In the shadows, bankers and soldiers are agitating in the hope of confiscating power for their own benefit.

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The primacy of administrative logic over political logic

Many governments in industrialized countries decided to respond to the Covid-19 epidemic by confining their populations. This strategy does not stem from medicine, which has never practised isolation of healthy people, but from good management of medical resources to prevent a massive influx of sick people so as not to clog hospitals. Few industrialized countries, such as Sweden, have rejected this administrative approach to the epidemic. They have opted for a medical approach and therefore do not practise generalised containment.

The first lesson of the current period is therefore that in developed countries, administrative logic is now superior to medical experience. Yet even without medical expertise, I have no doubt that millennia of medical experience can be more effective against a disease than bureaucratic recipes. Incidentally, if we continue to observe the current phenomenon, we can see that, at the moment, Sweden has 10 deaths per million inhabitants, while Italy mourns 166 per million. Of course, this is only the beginning of the epidemic and these two countries are very different. However, Italy will probably have to deal with a second and then a third wave of infection, while Sweden will have acquired group immunity and will be protected from it.

The primacy of senior health officials over the elected representatives of the people

This being said, the widespread containment of capital goods not only disrupts the economy, but also modes of government. Almost everywhere, we see the word of politicians fading in the face of that of senior health officials, who are supposed to be more effective than they are. This makes sense because the decision to contain is purely administrative. We have collectively agreed to fight for our hospitals and to prevent disease, not to fight it.

Unfortunately, everyone can see that, contrary to appearances, we have not become more efficient. For example, the Member States of the European Union have not been able to provide the necessary medical equipment and medicines in good time. This is the fault of the usual rules. For example: economic globalisation has resulted in there being only one manufacturer of artificial respirators, and it is Chinese. Tendering procedures take several months before they are available and policies are no longer in place to override these procedures. Only the United States has been able to solve this problem immediately through company requisitions.

France, which during the Second World War, under Philippe Pétain, experienced an administrative dictatorship known as the “French State”, has already experienced a political takeover by senior civil servants over the past three decades. We then spoke of ENArchie. Identically and without her being aware of it, she deprived politicians of the knowledge of the administration that the accumulation of local and national mandates conferred on them. From now on, elected officials are less well informed than senior civil servants and have all the trouble in the world to control them. Just as senior health officials suddenly find themselves vested with an authority that does not normally belong to them, so bankers and the military aspire to the same promotion at the expense of politicians.

Bankers lurking in the shadows

The former Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance), then British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, published an op-ed in the Financial Times [1] In it, he argues for using the fear of Covid-19 to achieve what failed during the financial crisis of 2008. At the time, he had failed to create a global financial government and had to settle for mere consultation with the G20. It would be possible today, he continued, to create a global health government. And to consider which powers should be associated with the permanent members of the Security Council.

There is no reason to believe that this global government would be more successful than national governments. The only thing that is certain is that it would escape any form of democratic control. This project is no more likely to succeed than that of the world financial government. Gordon Brown was also a staunch supporter of keeping the United Kingdom in the European Union. Again, he lost.

The deep US state lurks in the shadows

Historically, in all crises, attempts are made to use the argument of “urgency” to change Power without the public having time to think, and often this is successful. On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared a “state of public health emergency of international concern”. The next day, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper secretly signed a Warning Order stating that NorthCom was to stand ready for possible application of the new “Continuity of Government” rules. These rules are classified Above-Top Secret, meaning that communication is restricted to persons with the highest level of clearance and with a Special Access Program (SAP).

It should be remembered that the principle of “continuity of government” was forged at the beginning of the Cold War. It was designed to protect the United States in the event of a nuclear war against the Soviet Union and the death or incapacity of the President, Vice President, and Speaker of the House of Representatives. According to a written directive from President Dwight Eisenhower, a replacement military government was to provide immediate continuity of command during the war until democratic procedures were restored [2].

This replacement government was never requested, except on September 11, 2001, by the National Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, Richard Clarke [3] However, if the country was undergoing a terrible attack, neither the President, the Vice-President nor the Speaker of the House of Representatives had died or been prevented from doing so, which led me to conclude that it was a coup d’état. In any case, President George Bush Jr. regained his prerogatives the same day in the evening and no explanation was ever given of what happened during the ten hours of suspension of his authority [4].

According to the best Pentagon expert, William Arkin, in Newsweek [5], there are now seven separate plans:

- Rescue & Evacuation of the Occupants of the Executive Mansion (RESEM) to protect the President, the Vice President and their families.

- Joint Emergency Evacuation Plan (JEEP) to protect the Secretary of Defense and key military leaders.

- Atlas Plan to protect members of Congress and the Supreme Court.

- Octagon, about which nothing is known.

- Freejack, also unknown.

- Zodiac, still unknown.

- Granite Shadow, which provides for the deployment of special units in Washington and stipulates the conditions for the use of force and the passage of places under military authority [6].

Note that RESEM is intended to protect the president and vice-president, but can only be applied once they are dead or incapacitated.

In any event, the implementation of these seven plans would be the responsibility of the United States Military Command for North America (NorthCom) under the responsibility of an illustrious unknown, General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy.

It should be remembered that under US law, this man is required to become the dictator of the United States only in the event of the death or incapacity of the three principal elected officials of the federal state, but in practice, his predecessor, General Ralph Eberhart, has sometimes exercised this power without this condition being met. Eberhart, now 73 years old, is the head of the major US military avionics companies.

General O’Shaughnessy told the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 13 that NorthCom was preparing for the worst. To this end, it liaises on a daily basis with the ten other US Central Commands for the World [7]. NorthCom has authority not only over the United States, but also over Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas. Under international agreements, it can, on its own initiative, deploy US troops to these three countries.

In 2016, President Barack Obama signed the top-secret Presidential Policy Directive 40 on “National Continuity Policy”. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate signed Federal Continuity Directive 1 two days before President Donald Trump took office, specifying some of the details at lower levels. They’ve thought of everything, and are prepared for the worst. The outbreak provides them with the motive to act. So the questions asked by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian about a possible deliberate release of the virus by the US military make sense.

Notes

[1] “End the dog-eat-dog mentality to tackle the crisis”, Gordon Brown, Financial Times (UK), Voltaire Network, March 26, 2020.

[2] Continuity of Government: Current Federal Arrangements and the Future, Harold C. Relyea, Congresionnal Research Service, August 5, 2005.

[3] Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror, Richard Clarke, Free Press (2004).

[4] A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies, James Bamfort, Anchor Books (2005).

[5] “Exclusive: Inside The Military’s Top Secret Plans If Coronavirus Cripples the Government”, William M. Arkin, Newsweek, March 18, 2020.

[6] “Top Secret Pentagon Operation “Granite Shadow” revealed. Today in DC: Commandos in the Streets?”, William Arkin, Washington Post, September 25, 2005.

[7] Hearing to receive testimony on United States Northern Command and United States Strategic Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal year 2021 and the future years Defense Program, Senate Committe on Armed Service, February 13, 2020.

Courtesy Thierry Meyssan; Translation Roger Lagassé

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