Shadow government remains on alert in remote locations

Since Sept. 11, high-level career federal employees have taken rotating assignments at two remote bunkers to ensure the continuity of government operations in the event of another terrorist attack.

The parallel government operates at two locations in Virginia and Pennsylvania. The people in the bunkers have the job of managing the country's food, water, and energy supplies, as well as transportation needs, medical and health emergencies, communications networks, and civilian peacekeeping during any catastrophic incident that disables federal operations in Washington.

Reconstructing the constitutional government after destruction or maiming of the capital would also be the task of the staff and officials assigned to the bunkers.

"You have to have people there who really know the functions of government," explained one administration official.

The Bush administration has assigned 75 to 100 senior civil servants and some political appointees to staff the bunker locations on a rotation basis, pulling shifts of about 90 days, indefinitely.

In general, the administration's continuity-of-government plans envision three phases: activation and relocation within 12 hours; operation of the alternative facilities after about 12 hours, until a threat to governance ends; and the reconstitution of government, followed by normal federal operations.

As a result of the new emphasis being placed on continuity operations, the Bush administration is making improvements to the remote facilities and their technology.

One Washington consultant who spoke with a Bush appointee while the official was tucked away doing his time in one of the secure locations said the administration contact described "a lot of people who looked like they had been there for 30 years and were so happy to have company!"

All funding for and operations of the remote locations are considered classified.

"Unfortunately, we're not commenting ... for reasons of national security," said Federal Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Deborah Garrett. FEMA coordinates continuity of government efforts, primarily through its National Preparedness Directorate.

During the Clinton administration, under FEMA's direction, the 1950s-vintage shadow-government bunkers were updated with computers, videoconferencing and improved telecommunications, new paint, and daybeds to replace sleeping cots, said former FEMA Director James Lee Witt in an interview.

"It was like doom and gloom in there. We redid the entire thing," Witt said, recalling one of the bunker locations, which was equipped with manual Underwood typewriters.

"We replaced the water," he added. "There was still the water [President] Johnson had put in there, bottled water in glass bottles from Mountain Valley water, from Hot Springs, Ark.... It was unreal."