← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Faust
Thread ID: 3596 | Posts: 5 | Started: 2002-11-19
2002-11-19 13:59 | User Profile
Preserve Our Nation's Freedom: Stop the Homeland Security Department!
Status of the Homeland Security Department bill in Congress as of November 18th:
House: H.R. 5710 (Revised) Homeland Security Department Bill This newly revised Homeland Security Department Bill passed in the House by 299 to 121 on November 13th.
Senate: H.R. 5710 (Revised) Homeland Security Department Bill The Senate has been expected to pass this bill early in the week of November 18th. If it passes the exact same bill as the House, it can go immediately to President Bush for his signature without requiring a Conference Committee. However, Senate Democrats are now threatening to remove seven "Republican" provisions from the bill, which would require House members to be called back to Washington for a Conference Committee and a further vote, or otherwise, postpone final passage until the 108th Congress convenes in January. More importantly, articles in the New York Times and Washington Times on November 14th and 15th, respectively, have exposed a provision in the House version of Homeland Security for the government to create an intrusive "centralized grand database" which would give the government "total information awareness" of every American.* If the public outcry over this Orwellian database develops fast enough, Senators would have to amend the bill. This could also delay final consideration of HR 5710 until January.
Recommendation: Contact your senators and representative by email, phone, or fax, and ask them to oppose the creation of a Department of Homeland Security. Let them know that you are opposed to any restructuring of government that could hasten the establishment of a domestic police state. Tell them that you especially distrust the creation of this new mega-agency because it was first proposed by the Hart-Rudman Commission many months before 9-11. That commission was dominated by promoters of big government domestically and world government internationally.
Status: The Homeland Security Act of 2002 (H.R. 5005), a measure creating a new Department of Homeland Security, was passed in the House on July 26th on a 295-132 vote. If the Senate passes its bill to create a Homeland Security Dept. (S. 2452), then H.R. 5005 will be reconciled with the Senate?s bill in a conference committee and sent back for a final vote in the House and Senate. There is extraordinary pressure on Congress to expedite all of these steps and deliver a Homeland Security bill to President Bush before the symbolic September 11th anniversary.
Summary: A special TACTICS "Urgent Action Request" was sent to all Chapter Leaders on August 12th, asking that all members "Contact their non-Birch circle of friends, neighbors, co-workers etc. until they get a commitment from five to contact their U.S. senators and their representative in opposition to a Department of Homeland Security." If you have not already heard about this action request, please begin now to get five others to contact Congress in opposition to this new, federal, mega-agency. Refer contacts who have internet access to our Stop the Homeland Security Department! web page at www.jbs.org/congress/alerts/homeland.htm. This web page features the latest status of the Homeland Security bills in Congress, "Talking Points" regarding why Congress should vote no, links to further resources, such as "Rise of the Garrison State" from the July 15th issue of The New American, and links to "Contact Congress." Although this is strictly an uphill battle, we must contest the creation of this dangerous, new agency with the mind-set that we can stop it.
Talking Points Re: "Department of Homeland Security" (Opens in a new window.) Contact Congress
Bookmark this page
Sample Letter to Senators and Representatives
Dear Senator (or Representative):
Please vote against creating a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. I am opposed to any restructuring of the federal government that could hasten the establishment of a domestic police state. I especially distrust the creation of this new mega-agency because it was first proposed by the Hart-Rudman Commission months before 9/11. That commission was dominated by promoters of big government domestically and world government internationally.
Sincerely,
[Name & Address]
Resources:
The Action Is in the Reaction - THE NEW AMERICAN - October 7, 2002 The terrorist leaders and their sponsors are providing the pretext for the U.S. government to institute police-state measures.
What Can Be Done - THE NEW AMERICAN - October 7, 2002 The answer to terrorism lies not in granting Gestapo-like police powers to the federal government but in restoring legitimate internal security measures.
The Poison Fruit of September 11th - The John Birch Society - September 2002
Rise of the Garrison State - THE NEW AMERICAN - July 15, 2002
George W. - Master of Disguise - THE NEW AMERICAN - September 9, 2002
America Needs to Know - The John Birch Society - July 2002
The following links are to outside sources and will open in a separate window:
Special Interest Items Could Determine Homeland Security Bill's Future - Associated Press - Novermber 18, 2002
Big Brother's Dream - The Washington Times - November 15, 2002
Everyone's a Suspect - The New York Times - November 14, 2002 - Registration Required
Capital Hill Concerned About Role in Overseeing Security Department - Washington Post - July 17, 2002
White House "Department of Homeland Security" website - Whitehouse.gov
White House "National Strategy for Homeland Security" - Whitehouse.gov - July 16, 2002
House bill H.R. 5005 "Homeland Security Act of 2002"
Senate bill S. 2452 "National Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism Act of 2002"
url: [url=http://www.jbs.org/congress/alerts/homeland.htm]http://www.jbs.org/congress/alerts/homeland.htm[/url]
Contact Congress: [url=http://www.jbs.org/congress/cgcontact.htm]http://www.jbs.org/congress/cgcontact.htm[/url]
2002-11-21 14:52 | User Profile
Faust, and all other OD'ers, NOW I know we were always right about our government and what's in store for us dissenters. Itz coming for sure, and now I must agree with world renowned chess champion Bobby Fischer: "We must do away with the USA once and for all". Well Bobby, that's well under way, AMEN.
Pentagon to Track American Consumer Purchases
Thursday, November 21, 2002 By Major Garrett
WASHINGTON ââ¬â A massive database that the government will use to monitor every purchase made by every American citizen is a necessary tool in the war on terror, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Edward Aldridge, undersecretary of Acquisitions and Technology, told reporters that the Pentagon is developing a prototype database to seek "patterns indicative of terrorist activity." Aldridge said the database would collect and use software to analyze consumer purchases in hopes of catching terrorists before it's too late.
"The bottom line is this is an important research project to determine the feasibility of using certain transactions and events to discover and respond to terrorists before they act," he said.
Aldridge said the database, which he called another "tool" in the war on terror, would look for telltale signs of suspicious consumer behavior.
Examples he cited were: sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air or rail travel, rental car transactions and purchases of firearms, chemicals or agents that could be used to produce biological or chemical weapons.
It would also combine consumer information with visa records, passports, arrest records or reports of suspicious activity given to law enforcement or intelligence services.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is home to the Pentagon's brightest thinkers -- the ones who built the Internet. DARPA will be in charge of trying to make the system work technically.
Rear Adm. John Poindexter, former national security adviser to President Reagan, is developing the database under the Total Information Awareness Program. Poindexter was convicted on five counts of misleading Congress and making false statements during the Iran-Contra investigation. Those convictions were later overturned, but critics note that his is a dubious resume for someone entrusted with so sensitive a task.
Aldridge said Poindexter will only "develop the tool, he will not be exercising the tool." He said Poindexter brought the database idea to the Pentagon and persuaded Aldridge and others to pursue it.
"John has a real passion for this project," Aldridge said.
TIAF's office logo is now one eye scanning the globe. The translation of the Latin motto: knowledge is power. Some say, possibly too much power. "What this is talking about is making us a nation of suspects and I am sorry, the United States citizens should not have to live in fear of their own government and that is exactly what this is going to turn out to be," said Chuck Pena, senior defense policy analyst at the Cato Institute.
Pena and others say the database is an even greater violation of privacy rights than Attorney General John Ashcroft's nixed proposal to turn postal workers and delivery men into government tipsters. No matter what protections Congress requires, Pena fears a database big enough and nimble enough to track the entire nation's spending habits is ripe for abuse.
"I don't think once you put something like this in place, you can ever create enough checks and balances and oversight," Pena said.
But proponents say big business already has access to most of this data, but don't do anything with it to fight terrorism.
"I find it somewhat counter intuitive that people are not concerned that telemarketers and insurance companies can acquire this data but feel tremendous trepidation if a government ventures into this arena. To me it just smacks of paranoia," said David Rivkin, an attorney for Baker & Hostetler LLP.
The database is not yet ready and Aldridge said it will not be available for several years. Fake consumer data will be used in development of the database, he said.
When it's ready, Aldridge said individual privacy rights will be protected. But he could not explain how the data would be accessed. In some cases, specific warrants would give law enforcement agencies access, he said. But in other cases the database might flag suspicious activity absent a specific request or warrant, and that suspicious activity could well be relayed to law enforcement or intelligence agencies.
"I don't know what the scope of this is going to be," Aldridge said. "We are in a war on terrorism. We are trying to find out if this technology can work."
[url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70992,00.html]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70992,00.html[/url]
2002-11-21 16:23 | User Profile
Poindexter...
What an appropriate name for this nerd. No wait, I won't insult nerds with the comparison.
I guess it's long past time for a return to the barter system.
2002-11-21 21:22 | User Profile
I notice with some alarm that there has been no co-ordinated grass-roots or even campus-lefty campaign to stop this Orwellian nightmare, which has become reality this week with frightening ease, and I can't help but wonder if that citizen-outrage (what there is of it) was diverted to protest the heavy-handed saber rattling towards Iraq....or should I say manipulated in that direction.
After all, any modern, efficient state [this is not praise] may or may not seek wars of conquest but would absolutely require such sweeping internal security powers to monitor/control their own (ever-more factional and disgruntled) citizenry.
Any resemblance between 21st-century America™ and the former pre-Zionist republic of the United States of America is unintentional and purely coincidental.
2002-11-21 21:29 | User Profile
MadScienceType:
The name is: [url=http://www.webaccess.net/~comminc/Mattoid.html]Mattoid[/url]
SARTRE :ph34r: