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                                                            "Horton Hears A Who" - Dr. Seuss

Special Note: for Residents of KC, Mo. If you wish to support “The Resolution
Expressing The Commitment of the City of Kansas City to the Preservation of
Civil Rights and Liberties”; please call your Council Person @ 816 513 1368
and voice your support TODAY!!!   On Feb 5th this resolution will be formally
presented to the City Council. The Council meeting will be held at 3:00pm.
Thursday, 2/05/04 at the Council Chambers (26 floor, City Hall), 12 & Oak.
We invite you to show your support by being there. We are optimistic that the
resolution will pass but encourage you to attend the council meeting and invite
others to also be there.

Let’s stand with the 3 states and 133 other towns and counties that have
passed similar resolutions expressing concern about the impact of the Patriot
Act on our Civil Liberties! Thanks.

I said last time I would show you why complacency is dangerous. Why even
the average guy or gal needs to be aware of the changes that are occurring in
our laws. These new laws are robbing us of our right to privacy, our freedoms
and civil liberties.   Don’t buy into AG Ashcroft’s mantra:   “If you are doing
nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.”

Let me start with the story of Alex. Alex is a very close friend of mine and I
know the story is true because I was around and saw how it happened. This
will give you some idea what CAN and did happen to an average person; a
person who was doing nothing wrong. And all of this took place under the
watchful eyes of our protective government.

Alex was working for a private non-profit agency. We will call this agency
“Crop”. Crop was established by and is entirely subsidized by the Federal
Health & Human Services Agency in Washington. After almost 7 years, Alex
had moved to a pretty responsible position and felt pretty secure. One day a
group of Federal Investigators from the Inspector General’s office showed up
and seized virtually all of the records from Crop’s 14 person office. Laptop
computers were confiscated, records were downloaded from all of the
computers in the office. Search warrants were issued to search employees’
homes, including Alex’s. Material was confiscated from homes. There was
never a reason given for this intrusion. There was never an explanation of
“What’s next” given to anyone in the office. There was no guidance offered as
to how employees were to function without computers or records.
Occasionally, Alex would receive calls from an IG investigator, asking for
clarification of information contained in the records that were being analyzed.
This went on for about a month.

Then one day Alex received a call from the investigator indicating they were
finished and he would not be calling Alex anymore.   Alex’s laptop computer
was returned. Later that day Crop’s Board of Directors showed up to
announce that this office was now closed. Alex and several other higher
ranking employees were terminated. The clerical people were also
terminated; but were told they could apply for similar jobs at another Crop
office in another town if they wished. Alex was informed there would be no
severance pay, or pay for accumulated vacation. Only Cobra benefits would
be offered.   A few days later a letter arrived instructing Alex; not to ever speak
to any current or previous employee or anyone associated with Crop. Crop’s
actions were never explained. There were never any charges filed.

Alex was also advised to engage legal counsel. The only thing Alex’s lawyer
could get out of the Crop lawyer was that Alex should not push for severance
or Vacation pay or talk to anyone. When Alex’s lawyer asked “Or?” the reply
he received was “Who knows; maybe there will be subpoenas issued.” Alex
suspects this was all done to get rid of a couple of the board members, and
restructure the board.

I told this story so that as you “read on”; it might temper your natural tendency
to think “Ah this can’t happen to me” or “This stuff happens in Russia, that sort
of thing doesn’t happen here”.

Getting to know You.
Under the current administration and since 9/11 the government has been
hard at work developing systems to “capture terrorists”. Massive databases
are being built today to keep track of just about everything we do. Some of
these databases are:

MATRIX – Multistate Anti TeRrorism Information eXchange. Matrix has been
touted to be capable of: “instantly finding the name and address of every
brown-haired owner of a red Ford pickup truck in a 20-mile radius of a
suspicious event.” 1 This system ultimately will link, information from all local,
state, and national law enforcement agencies. Not only will it include criminal
information, but it will include any computerized information about anyone
living within the US.   Phil Ramer, Special Agent in charge of statewide
intelligence said: “It’s scary. It could be abused. I mean I can call up
everything about you, your pictures and pictures of your neighbors. Our
biggest problem now is everybody [agencies] who hears about it wants it.” 1

A system similar to Matrix called TIA “Terrorism (Total) information Awareness”
was in the developmental stages when it was stopped by Congress. Congress
considered the possible invasion of privacy and said “NO”. They would not
fund it. The Administration was certainly not going to be deterred by
Congress! So the Justice Department threw in $4 million, Homeland Security
added $8 million and brother Jeb donated $1.6 million for Florida to have
Seisent Inc. of Boca Raton develop Matrix for use nationwide. The program
itself was donated by a Hank Asher, who incidentally has been named as a
former drug smuggler!

Because of changes to law under the Patriot Act the Implications of this system
are magnified greatly. Ultimately police from Portland, Maine to Portland,
Oregon will be able to view you, your purchases, what you read, your parking
ticket and various bits of who you are instantly. This information will be shared
with the FBI, NSA, CIA, INS, Secret Service and Department of Defense.
Previously, the CIA was banned from gathering information on citizens within
the US: Not any more!

CAPPS II – “Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System”. “CAPPS II
will allow TSA (Transportation Security Administration) to access personal
information about you that is available from government and commercial
databases. They will use this information to "tag" you according to how much
of a threat you appear to pose to the safety of those aboard an airplane”. 2
Passengers will be classified into categories : Green = Ok to board, Yellow =
investigate further (most protestors fall into this category), or Red = detain
and hold for further investigation. Capps II will no doubt tap into Matrix to
determine your color code in the future.

Carnivore - An FBI system, using special computers that can tap into an IP’s
(internet provider) activities. It can download all incoming and outgoing activity
for one individual… or all people on that IP network. That includes your email,
websites visited, web logs etc.   "It's the electronic equivalent of listening to
everybody's phone calls to see if it's the phone call you should be monitoring.
You develop a tremendous amount of information," said Mark Rasch, a former
federal prosecutor   3     The FBI named the system "Carnivore" because it
has the ability to get at the "meat" of interesting or suspicious communications.
“Interesting and suspicious”; hmm, wonder what that means?

These are some of the data gathering efforts underway today so that your
government can “get to know you better.” All of this just to track terrorists? I
think not! But wait: “get to know you better”; are you the terrorist? Maybe in
the eyes of the Attorney General we all may be!

THE PATRIOT ACT.- “Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism.” What is the Patriot Act? Well, Todd Graves, the US
attorney for the Western Division has stated: “It’s not much of a change; we
had all the laws in effect to do these things we can do under the Patriot Act,
only it sort of codifies them.” Well now! It took a 342 page Bill passed by both
houses of Congress to codify the laws that were already on the books? Hmm,
that seems interesting and suspicious; what does that mean?

Please don’t be fooled by the name. The Providing Appropriate Tools
Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act is not really designed to
catch terrorists, although it can help in that endeavor. The Patriot Act is
designed to look at anybody and anything that might be in some way related
to some sort of suspected “crime”.   The most prominent “catches” under the
Patriot Act thus far have been a Las Vegas strip club owner and Rush
Limbaugh!   I don’t have a problem with a strip club owner getting nabbed; but
I think they went too far and they have trampled on Rush’s rights.   4

I would love to give you a 2 minute synopsis of the Patriot Act, but that’s
impossible. The smallest “Sketch” of the Act, that I have found is 4 pages long
and doesn’t discuss many of its provisions. Additionally, it does not consider
recently passed legislation that serve to increase the power of the Act. I will
instead pick out some of the provisions and outline how they might affect
YOU! If you wish to question my “interpretations and characterizations”, here’
s a website where you can view and ponder the Act in all it’s glory! http://www.
epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html

The Patriot Act provides access to much personal information about us. Much
of this information used to be considered private: purchases we make, books
we read, places we go, financial, & banking transactions and student
information, etc. The FBI can search our records, emails, what websites we
look at, groups we belong to or support. They can go into churches, libraries,
stores, our homes, in search of information, often without getting a search
warrant. The FBI only need hand itself a letter indicating that your information
may in some way tie to some sort of terrorist or “criminal” act. There is no
need to “trouble” a judge and show probable cause. 5 These will be secret
searches. The person turning over the information to the FBI may be
restrained from saying anything to anybody about the search, including you. If
they break their silence they face prosecution for “hampering an investigation”.

There are other provisions of this bill too complicated to cover in detail here:
Secret Courts - Where the defendant will be tried but not allowed to know the
charges. Thus the defendant can’t rebut the charges or defend him/herself.
The defendant may be jailed or deported having never known why. This may
apply to non citizens and citizens alike. Guilt by Association – This is the
practice that ruined many people in the ‘50s during the McCarthy hearings. If
someone in a group you belong to supports a terrorist organization, your
group and you could be labeled terrorists. No More Attorney Client Privilege -
Law enforcement may now secretly listen in when attorneys and clients are
conferring. Secret Detention of Aliens - Aliens may now be detained without
the authorities notifying their family of their whereabouts or even admitting
they have been detained. This, of course, precludes their representation by
counsel.   There are many, many more provisions of the Act that are similar to
the four I just mentioned! I think you get the picture.

It is as if the government is amassing an infinite amount of data (Matrix, Capps
II, Carnivore and already existing data) and sharing it with an infinite number of
law officers (Local, State, FBI, CIA, NSA, INA, Secret Service and Department
of Defense). And Attorney General Ashcroft, with the Patriot Act clutched in his
hand is saying; “Ok, let’s go find them evildoers”.

As a prominent talk show host asked one day “Would you be comfortable
having an FBI Agent look through your purchases at the local hardware store
and find; you purchased, two weeks ago, some wire and a timer (for your patio
lights); some lead pipe last week (to drive in the ground to straighten that
leaning tree) and some nails and fertilizer today? All that Agent sees is; you
bought wire, a timer, lead pipe, fertilizer and some nails. “Hey is this lady
building a bomb?”

This much information in the hands of this many people is very dangerous.
Even if the data is correct, how might it be interpreted? Most of the people
who are privy to your “your life” will probably treat it with respect. Mistakes are
made though. All people have their own agendas that are tainted and fed by
their own biases, insecurities, flaws and aspirations. Because they wear a
badge doesn’t stop them from acting within their agenda; it just gives them
power to pursue it and renders you powerless to resist. The Patriot Act with it’
s secretive processes and ambiguous language is bad and dangerous law.
You should contact your Senators and Representatives to voice your
objections to the Patriot Act and other legislation that is serving only to
jeopardize your right to privacy, your freedom and your civil liberties!

Now is the time for all whos who have blood that is red, To come to
the aid of their country!" he said. "We’ve GOT to make noises in
greater amounts!

                 So, open you mouth lad! For every voice counts!"

Take Care

Paul






						So, open you mouth lad! For every voice counts!"

							Encroaching on Civil Liberties