ENDGAME is the policy executed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its sub-agencies, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Office of Detention and Removal (DRO), that is part of a sweeping 10-year plan (2002-2012) to: 1) apprehend, 2) incarcerate (detain), 3) "process"—(investigate and question), and 4) remove all removable aliens or potential terrorists. The order of apprehension to removal is literal, as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under DHS shifted the traditionally two-pronged approach of 1)investigation, 2)detention-removal to a one-pronged approach in 2000: detention-first and "process" the person while incarcerated. (p. 2-7 of ENDGAME document)

This is especially troubling, as the detention-removal prong was originally set up for aliens who had committed crimes. According to ICE, the investigation prong was discarded in 2000 because incarcerating first "reduce[s] potential demand for detention space, save[s] money,"increase[s] public safety, reduce[s] the potential for future crimes, and enhance[s] the welfare of our society." (2-7)

In 2000, 2004, and most recently on January 22, 2006, DHS awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) a contingency contract from DHS. The 2006 contract gave KBR $385 million "to establish temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S.,or to support the rapid development of new programs."

Two weeks later, on Feb. 6, 2006, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, "announced that the Fiscal Year 2007 federal budget would allocate over $400 million to add 6,700 additional detention beds. This $400 million allocation is more than a four-fold increase over the FY 2006 budget, which provided only $90 million for the same purpose." The contract accomodates "up to 20,000 refugees from environmental and political disasters. A future expansion in 2008 calls for another 20,000 beds."

Four hundred million dollars and 40,000+ beds is certainly a bizarre way to save money and improve efficiency, no? Further, the contingency in the contract provides that KBR gets paid well before an "immigrant emergency" happens, and funds KBR even if an emergency doesn't occur. Representative Henry A. Waxman, (D-CA), called the contract "worrisome."

"With Halliburton's ever expanding track record of overcharging, it's hard to believe that the administration has decided to entrust Halliburton with even more taxpayer dollars," Mr. Waxman said. "With each new contract, the need for real oversight grows."

If KBR building enough detention centers by the end of this year to incarcerate 20,000+ people, and another 20,000 by 2008, isn’t enough to give one pause, the spokespeople should:

"A spokesman for the [Army Corps of Engineers, who issued the bid], Clayton Church, said that the centers could be at unused military sites or temporary structures and that each one would hold up to 5,000 people." He also claimed the reason for the centers were to "feed, house, and protect" the immigrants.

(Perhaps the 30 bases that Rumsfeld decommissioned just weeks after the 9-11 attacks are what they have in mind.)

A spokeswoman for ICE, Jamie Zuieback, said:

"KBR would build the centers only in an emergency like the one when thousands of Cubans floated on rafts to the United States."

She emphasized that the centers might never be built if such an emergency did not arise.

"It's the type of contract that could be used in some kind of mass migration" Ms. Zuieback said.

Mass migration into the United States? The same United States that deports "potential terrorists" to Guantanamo and other far flung renditions? Sorry, I don’t buy it. I believe ENDGAME's program "is designed to house additional detainees who have not been convicted of crimes."

Attorney Ahilan Arulanantham with the ACLU of Southern California told AlterNet":

"Obviously, if the government's intentions are to care for refugees displaced by a natural disaster, we have no problem with that. But with the numbers of detentions, which have exploded since 1996 and more so after Sept. 11 -- and remember after 9/11, the government detained over 1,000 people in New York City, none of whom were linked to terrorist activity -- based on stories like these, we fear that their program could victimize people fleeing persecution or calamity, the very people that the program is designed to help."

BACKGROUND:

Not surprisingly, the original highly classified version of ENDGAME began during the Reagan administration, and was called "Continuity of Government" or COG. The planners included Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld when Cheney was a congressman for Wyoming and Rumsfeld was former defense secretary under Gerald Ford, and CEO of G.D. Serle, a pharmaceutical company.

"Under it U.S. officials furtively carried out detailed planning exercises for keeping the federal government running during and after a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The program called for setting aside the legal rules for presidential succession in some circumstances, in favor of a secret procedure for putting in place a new "President" and his staff. The idea was to concentrate on speed, to preserve "continuity of government," and to avoid cumbersome procedures; the speaker of the House, the president pro tempore of the Senate, and the rest of Congress would play a greatly diminished role."

"COG proposals included vastly expanded detention capabilities, warrantless eavesdropping and detention, and preparations for greater use of martial law. These men planned for suspension of the Constitution, not just after nuclear attack, but for any "national security emergency," which they defined in Executive Order 12656 of 1988 as: 'Any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States.'"

COG was made official in 2002 as a Commission, and is "an American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution project, funded by the Carnegie, Hewlett, Packard, and MacArthur Foundations." President Jimmy Carter is the honorary chairman and Lloyd Cutler and Alan Simpson are the commission's co-chairs; its members include Newt Gingrich, Leon Panetta, Jamie Gorelick, and other notables. On the website, the introduction describes its reason for existence:

"September 11th raised the possibility that foreign enemies might seriously disrupt the filling of vacancies in Congress, presidential succession, and achieving a quorum for the Court so much so that our basic institutions might not function in a normal constitutional manner."

According to the Washington Post and the 9-11 Commission Report, Vice President Cheney implemented a COG plan in the form of a "shadow government" by the new name of "Continuity of Operations Plan" (COP) immediately after 9-11, which dispatched "100 senior civilian managers to live and work secretly outside Washington, activating for the first time long-standing plans to ensure survival of federal rule after catastrophic attack on the nation's capital." The extent of their operation has never been reported. (Also reported on CBS News and CNN.)

Although I don’t agree with his platform, Rep. Ron Paul has this to say about COG and its Commision:

The "Continuity of Government Commission" (COGC), spearheaded by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute, recently issued proposals for the operation of Congress following a catastrophic terrorist attack. Specifically, COGC advocates a constitutional amendment calling for the appointment of individuals to the House of Representatives to fill the seats of dead or incapacitated members, a first in American history. An examination of the proposal reveals that it is both unnecessary and dangerous.

Note that COGC is "self-commissioned," its members being neither elected nor appointed by any government body. The biographies of the commissioners demonstrate that COGC is made up mostly of professional lobbyists. Of course COGC is well-intentioned, but the nation should know exactly who is trying to substitute their wisdom for that of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and other framers of the Constitution. I think most Americans would prefer that proposals to amend the Constitution come from elected lawmakers or grassroots efforts, not from think tanks and lobbyists.

One reading the COGC proposal cannot help but sense the familiar Washington conceit at work, a conceit that sees America as totally dependent on the workings of Capitol Hill. It is simply unthinkable to many in Washington that the American people might survive a period in which Congress did not pass any new laws. But the truth is that the federal state is not America. The American people have always been remarkably resilient in the face of emergencies, and individual states are far more equipped to deal with emergencies and fill congressional vacancies than COGC imagines.

In summary, ENDGAME is the second phase of a Reagan-era program, COG, furthered by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to thwart the constitutional process of succession in case of an national emergency or disaster. ENDGAME is now aligned with the immigration arm of government, and also terrorism. It's goal, or "endgame" is to round up and detain "all" deportable aliens or "potential terrorists" before 2012, some 12 million is a conservative estimate. A heady feat, but well on its way with a $400 million contingency contract awarded to Halliburton's subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown, and Root by the Department of Homeland Security.

If it weren't for everything we've been through these last six years, I wouldn't believe these programs were legitimate. Unfortunately, they are. This isn't the America I know, this is fascism.

I plan on doing another diary, a Part II, in the next week or two, which will detail current ICE abuses and immigration issues. This walk has become a marathon, and I don't want to abscond anyone else's material. BTW, I searched the terms, "ENDGAME" "Detention Centers" "COG" and "KBR" and didn't come up with any diaries on these subjects. Apologies if I repeated anyone's material.

A final note: I tried to keep personal commentary to a minimum (hard!) to let the facts speak for themselves.

Thanks for reading,
RC