In Pa., Cheney's getaway is no longer a secret

[JoFerret]

SITE R, Pa. - Welcome to the undisclosed location.

Known familiarly to government insiders as the "underground Pentagon," this is where Vice President Cheney set up shop in the aftermath of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and where he sometimes is when his office is being secretive about Cheney's whereabouts.

The location is a highly secure complex of buildings inside Raven Rock Mountain near Blue Ridge Summit, Pa., close to the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line and about seven miles north of Camp David.
....

Still, there is great sensitivity about the compound, as emphasized to an uninvited reporter the other day who was inadvertently allowed to briefly enter a guardhouse.

....
There is not all that much to be seen.


<more>

....
There was zero cell phone service. Less than zero, as a phone seemed to turn itself off.

One of the heavily armed soldiers allowed a reporter to approach and identify himself. When an outside phone failed to work, the reporter was invited into the guardhouse to use the house phone.

Before long, one of the guards was chatting away about having seen the film Fahrenheit 9/11.

"There are so many people who haven't seen this stuff," the soldier said. "And this really opened their eyes."

<more>

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/9127313.htm

[rooboy]

1. "There are so many people who haven't seen this stuff," the soldier said.

watch your back, Dick.

[ixion]

2. Do things like this fit in the notion of "by the People, for the People?"

Not in my opinion. I understand (or am more tolerant of) the idea or need for secret bases and the like, but in a military context only, not a political one. When OUR political SERVANTS start hiding in undisclosed locations for much of they're period of service, we're not too many steps away from a full on 'shadow' government. That is, a government to which there is neither access nor accountability.

Come to think of it, maybe we're already there. :scared:

[luaneryder]

3. Apparently, dick is so

comfortable with the thought of being around or near the American people he is supposed to represent that he needs a secure hidey-hole. If this weren't so sad and angering it would be laughable. This man, and I hesitant to use the word human, is evil incarnate!

[mhr]

4. This Complex And Others Were Created For Continuity Of Government, COG

This is an outgrowth of the cold war and was initially approved by Eisenhower and greatly expanded by Reagan.

The idea was that in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviets, there needed to be an infrastructure for reconstituting the federal government.

There are many classified bases that serve this purpose.

[chelaque liberal]

6. Have other administrations used this infrastructure this way?

Is this the way our government has functioned since Eisenhower or is this specific to Bush/Cheney? It seems like a movie, Bourne Connection maybe?

[mhr]

10. I Suspect Exercises Are Run Regularly To Test The Infrastructure, However

Cheney is probably the first VP to actually use the infrastructure operationally.

I think this reflects the Republicans general paranoia and probably helps justify the huge costs associated with maintaining the system.

"How can we not fund COG when we are in a war. The Terra-ists are out to get us." yada, yada, yada

[Eloriel]

23. Nope -- the one you're thinking of is in West Virginia

NOT Pennsylvania. The West Virginia site is on the grounds of a fancy golf resort (never can remember the name, but my husband's convention was held there once -- I didn't care for the place or ANY of their golf resorts, for that matter). This one in PA is apparently new.

[stevedeshazer]

29. Oh, good

I wondered where he *really* was....

[Crachet2004]

5. They want to go back to the good old Cold War days, and rule by fear...

They need a Boogey-man...enter OBL. Problem for them is, hiding in a hole in the ground does'nt exactly inspire confidence among the people in our leadership-should'nt they be out there in the daylight trying to catch the terrorists? Kinda makes you wonder what enemy they are getting ready for...maybe, US?

If that is the case, they are screwed, because their Top SeKert hideouts are common knowledge to many people...exmilitary, construction workers-the bigger rhe facility, the more people it took to build it-etc...

The bigger the boy, the bigger the toy...does Dick Cheney have a sign hanging on the door of his hideout that says, 'nO gurlz Aloud'?

[Florida_Geek]

7. As a loyal member of the Royal Order of Gophers

I am pissed that Cheney is in my hole.

[Massacure]

8. Why don't cell phones work?

Are there just no cell towers in the area, or is it because of base jamming devices?

[radfringe]

12. it's the DEAD ZONE

probably combination of both - lack of cell towers and some jamming devices

in our drives through various parts of PA we hit the Dead Zones for cell phones

as far as radio stations go -- in these DEAD ZONES about all we can pick up on AM/FM are the GOD stations at which point we both yell "Thank God for cassettes!"

[Merlin]

16. Ahhh, Pennsylvania. Like Jimmy Carville says, it's...

Pittsburgh at one end, Philadelphia at the other. And Alabama in the middle.

[Ouabache]

18. Would cell phones and other high tech interfere with Cheneys pacemaker

?

Saw it in another thread.
You can't have a cell phone in a hospital, and Cheney needs lots of bionics to keep him going?

So how good of a job can he really do if a lot of the govt high tech security stuff would turn off his ticker? are they having to build special infrastructure that allows both the high-tech security and communications and doesn't interfere with Cheney's ticker, pace-maker bionics?

[riverwalker]

22. his pacemaker question

Cheney has what is called an ICD "Implanted Cardiac Defibrillator" it doesn't actually pace his heartbeat (although sometimes they do those too) but if it detects fibrillation (a quivering) it will zap him out of it. He is prone to fibrillation because his heart is stretched out and flabby (cardiomyopathy) from the damage of the previous 4 heart attacks.
I've wondered myself if all those high tech radio and electrical waves in the bunker would set off the ICD somehow and ZAP him unnecessarily thinking he was in fibrillation.
Kind of like a fly in those old bug zapper things.

[knitter4democracy]

31. defibrillator

My husband told me all about those when Cheney had it put in. They are the same things you get zapped with if your heart stops, only a smaller version that fits inside. He laughed when the media described it as a mild jolt--he said it's more like Cheney will be on the floor, crying for his mama. Cell phones aren't allowed in hospitals because of the electronic medical record systems and some electronic testing equipment that use radio waves to communicate with computers. Cell phones can disrupt the signal. The defibrillator Cheney has is directly connected to his heart with electrodes, so a cell phone wouldn't bother it.

He does, if he's like all other patients with this device, wear a ring that will turn it off. Sometimes the thing goes off over and over again (when you are trying to actually die), and patients are given the ring to turn it off if they decide they do want to die. Of course, I've always wondered if they told Bush about the ring and if he managed to get another one so he could be even closer than one heartbeat away from the presidency.

[diamond14]

9. hide-away in Virginia (PHOTOS)......... your taxes at work......

St.reaguns spent a LOT of our taxes on these totally insane bunkers...they are everwhere....read about some of this insanity from
http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/nucwcost/photos.htm
The Brookings Institute: Atomic Audit, the Costs and Consequences of U.S.Nuclear Weapons since 1940.


Until recently the Federal Reserve Board operated a 140,000 square-foot (13,020 square-meter) radiation hardened facility inside Mount Pony just east of Culpeper, Virginia (near the intersection of State Routes 658 and 3). Dedicated on December 10, 1969, the 400 foot long (122 meter) bunker was built of steel-reinforced concrete one foot (30.5 centimeters) thick. Lead-lined shutters could be dropped to shield the windows of the semi-recessed facility, which is covered by 2-4 feet (0.6-1.2 meters) of dirt and surrounded by barbed-wire fences and a guard post.

Prior to July 1992, the bunker, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southwest of Washington, D.C., also served as a continuity of government facility. With a peacetime staff of 100, the site was designed to support an emergency staff of 540 for 30 days, but only 200 beds were provided in the men's and women's dormitories (to be shared on a "hot-bunk" basis by the staff working around the clock). A pre-planned menu of freeze-dried foods for the first 30 days of occupation was stored on site; private wells would provide uncontaminated water following an attack. Other noteworthy features of the facility were a cold storage area for maintaining bodies unable to be promptly buried (due to high radiation levels outside), an incinerator, indoor pistol range, and a helicopter landing pad.

[Merlin]

15. This is the Greenbrier Resort in WV. Probably the REAL "undisclosed loc"

It's a popular resort for business people, one which still has high tea at 4 in the pm and requires a sport coat to pass through the lobby.

Since WWII, the DOD has developed a massive underground facility here, able to withstand a nuke attack, and with all manner of conveniences.

I'm not buyin' the story at the lead of this thread. Bamford's book was vetted by the CIA. They would not have allowed him to disclose those details if the mountain site he mentions (which is near Camp David) were the place.

[Zynx]

27. No real harm in disclosing the place

None of these places can be damaged by less than a very *large* nuclear warhead. It would probably take one of the old Soviet 26 megaton "Satan" weapons burst on the ground to actually blow it apart and kill everyone inside.

Raven Rock may actually be harder to destroy than NORAD is.

[midnight armadillo]

26. One wonders....

Ok, let's imagine this: there's an apocalyptic nuclear exchange. The US and (minimum) all of its major cities and transportation systems are in ruins, along with most of North America and a significant chunk of Europe and Asia.

What, exactly, would the Federal Reserve be doing under these conditions? There'd be no more banking system!!

[oly]

11. Hearing of this commie paranoia brings back memories.

Some of the McCarthy crazies were busy building bunkers. I suppose that's better than the crazies out looking for the "traitors" within. Paranoia died down some, but Nixon/Reagan kept bringing it back. There are many folks all over the US who harbor this kind of thinking to this day. After 911, many of these folks had a brain edit -- all instances of "atheistic communists" were changed to "Islamic (make that Arab) terrorists" and there brains settled back into many more years of acceptance, I guess -- I don't know what too call it. It must be some feeling of collective paranoia brought on be extreme fear mongering. The boogie man never dies.

[Cocoa]

13. one of Cheney's guards likes F 911

isn't that a security risk, isn't Moore a Hezbollah symp?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. My brother and I happened upon this spot when we were

in our early twenties, bopping around the countryside for fun. We figured it was the "underground pentagon", and drove up funky little roads to get as close a view as we could. Of course, we couldn't get too close...

We often visit drive around the area, including the Camp David neck of the woods. My mom and I joke that we'd better be careful what we say about Dumbyass; because there are probably so many sophisticated listening devices employed between the two facilities, that you can't take a piss without it being heard!

[vetwife]

17. Welcome to the Secret Government

Guess they will find a new one huh ?

[cliss]

19. Is that why Cheatin Cheney's face

is pasty white, and his hair is snow-white? He just hides out from the light of day, conniving and involved in clandestine affairs.

[lumpy]

20. How many threats has Bush/Cheney

received, do you suppose? Former presidents and VPs receive threats in the thousands on a yearly basis.

[pa28]

21. More info on site R here

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/command-control.htm

[JPZenger]

24. Property Ownership Records

The Reagen Administration was obsessed with protecting property ownership records in the event of a nuclear attack. "Yes, who is the next of kin for the owners of this radioactive wasteland over here?" It just showed how perverted their priorities were.

[progressivebydesign]

25. All those jokes about Cheney and Groundhog's Day...

..hmmm... sounds just about right. He's running the country. Has since the squatter "took" office. That's why Bush can't dump him. It's like the marionette dumping the pupeteer! Bush would be just a mass of strings and wrinkled fabric without Cheney to animate him.

[skip fox]

28. It's all a pathetic cover story. The real undisclosed location is

the Hooters in Newark, NJ. (To quote Cheney himself: "Why? . . . Because my heart can take it."

[dave29]

30. Undisclosed Location = Oval Office

n/t