Current Event Archives 2

2 - 26

"In your most recent report, dated February 8, 2002, for positions as of February 5, 2002, the COT indicated that 4 or less traders held a net short position of 32,677 futures contracts or the equivalent of 163,385,000 ounces of silver. And this happened to be the smallest net short position held by these same 4 or less traders for the preceding month. Amazingly, 163 million ounces is more than all the known and verified silver bullion in the world. It is much more than any country can produce in a year. It does not appear possible for this concentrated short position to be a legitimate hedge at the current depressed price of silver. In fact, it appears to be the very reason silver price is depressed."Who's on the take in the "free market" manipulation?

The "Manipulators" are no the edge as the end of their scam nears"the prospective collapse of the $30 trillion, 712 to one leveraged derivatives pyramid of JPMorganChase described by Adam Hamilton at Gold Eagle. The five bullion banks recently referred to by Butler have interlocking directorships with corporations having trillions in assets. As Chapman noted in an editorial, a gold and silver breakout could bring down the financial system! "

As it was - so shall it will be again; as long as the private bankers and crooked politicans rule whats left of Americaa look back at the Emergency Banking Bill of March 9, l933, was illegally implemented by an Executive Order used by President Roosevelt in order to call in the domestic gold. As the bankers tried to shipped millions in gold out of the country.

There was no live video coverage of the World Trade Towers at the time the first plane hit because there was no reason for it. Nothing was known to be happening by the networks. Live coverage did not start until quite some time after the first plane had hit, showing the second impact. Video of the first impact supposedly taken by a bystander did not surface and become available for broadcast until long AFTER the second impact. The only way for Bush to have been telling the truth that he watched the first impact on TV is if he had a closed circuit feed, which of course proves foreknowledge.

After the NWO Corporate Elite finish stealing all they can from the American people,America's big companies start renouncing their corporate citizenship in favor of relocating off-shore to avoid paying taxes, leaving the people holding the bag thanks to the brought off crooked politicans and NWO Socialists.

2 - 25

More "Monkey Business" at the BLS. I guess that they figure this way they can screw the elderly and disabled outta their Social Security COLA's. These crooks at the BLS are really something else. If you think "hedonic deflators" are bad now, wait until this isimplemented.

When the courts & legal system under the fail, the "word of law under the "color of law" brings down a nation Oregon Judge Refuses Constitutional Oath - Arrests Challenging Citizens

"No one can use common sense or FBI crime statistics to argue against the Personal Protection Act," said Senate author Dave Zien (R-Wheaton)."The facts are on our side. These laws prevent crime."Wisconsin Moves Step Closer Legalizing Citizens To Carry Weapons

2 - 24

2 - 23

A Close above $354 in the price of Gold will bankrupt thederivatives.

Suggested reading on the government inflation lies: click here

2 - 22

ANTHRAX SUSPECT ID'dBut the FBI "dragging its feet" in pressing charges because the suspect is a former government scientist familiar with "secret activities that the government would not like to see disclosed to the public

2 - 21

Hundreds of Marines will raid Little Rock, Ark. next week for an "urban experiment" in terrorism response. They will post snipers, stop vehicles, patrol streets, search buildings and evacuate wounded, whose gear will help to signal that they have become casualties. Local residents will permit their homes to be searched. Next on the menu is Boise, Idaho. This is part of a conditioning process in anticipation of real occupation in the event of civil insurrection, not some terrorist attack. We get closer and closer.Marines To Practice Urban War In Little Rock

2 - 20

2 - 16

The US Government has been in financial trouble since 1932 Since the Socialists took over, Guess who keeps getting stuck with the bills

"Containment has failed", meaning Saddam is still selling oil and lowering world prices. 200,000 US troops to invade and conquer Iraq

Even the pretense of democracy is gone from US foreign policy. The US is simply replacing the governments of other nations with designated puppets. "Elections? We don't got to give those people no stinkin' elections!" US selects Saddam's successor for soon to be USA East

2 - 6

WHAT IS BUSH TRYING TO HIDE, HE'S STOPPING INVESTIGATIONS, PUTTING RECORDS OFF LIMITS. NOWBush & Cheney ask Daschle to limit Sept. 11 probes

2 - 5

PLAYING GOD - Global Warming, Chemtrails, floods, droughts, hurricanes, holes in the ozone layer, weapon of mass destruction = HAARPThink you had strange & bad weather in the past - just wait !

2 - 4

What the FBI Doesn't Want You to See at Raise the Fist.comArticles about the raid on www.raisethefist.com:

COLUMBINE MASSACRE AND COVERUP Columbine High, Jefferson County, Colo.'s chief sheriff John Stone AGAIN reiterated his long-held belief that others were certainly involved in the shooting rampage on April 20.

2 - 3

"The more questions you pursue, it becomes more plausible that there's a different explanation: namely, that elements within the top U.S. military, intelligence and political leadership ñ which are closely intertwined ñ are complicit in what happened on September the 11th."Canadian TV Breaks 9-11 / CIA Complicity Story

2 - 2

Bush 'Axis Of Evil' Crumbles Under Scrutiny OPEN MOUTH INSERT FOOT !

Americans are not inclined these days to examine the evidence too closely, even if it were readily available. President Bush's State of the Union speech confirms what we have long maintained

2 - 1

WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO HIDE ?

WHAT IS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TRYING TOHIDE? WHO IS REALLY BEHIND THE ATTACKS ON THE WORLD TRADECENTER

"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on theIsraeli spy ring.

Unfortunately, most Americans do not know economic history. Worse, most Americans do not know what money is. Ask the average man what money is, and he will reach in his pocket and pull out some paper dollars. "I have money," he will say. Or, perhaps, a woman will wave her check book, showing that she has money. Indeed, they do have money, because the merchant down the street will take the man's paper dollars or the woman's check. Nevertheless, paper dollars are a poor form of money, which ultimately hurt, or even destroy, the unknowing. A Day of Reckoning

Monday, November 5th, 2001, Gold case starts today, will lack of evidence (do to 9-11) get the case tossed out?

Did Greenspan kill the 30 long bond because he lost control of the value of the dollar by printing Billions of worthless paper? *****************************************************

Send your industry to other nations; make yourself a nation of service workers; don't educate your childern and call fait paper money. And after years of social engineering you have the New America.

"Regarding job layoffs in the U.S.:

After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) He got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.

At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in.....AMERICA....." (http://www.aglesup.com) *****************************************************

The Real Lesson Of 9/11: A Disarmed Public Cannot Protect A Free Society

It seems like we have more so-called wars going on now than any nation has ever attempted to fight at one time, and no one has declared an official war on anyone else. At least, the Congress of the United States has not. How many Wars

For many Americans the events of September 11 have breathed new life into patriotism, but many in academia and the media remain hostile to America.The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (www.thefire.org) has intervened in recent instances where academic administrators intentionally stifled patriotic expression and retaliated against those who voiced support for our country.UN Socialists running the education in America ******************************************************

COMING SOON: AN EXTREME ASSAULT ON CIVIL LIBERTIES IN FLORIDA. In name of anti-terrorism, secret meetings, votes and witness detentions would be allowed under bills before Florida Senate

Government-required surveillance provisions in the newly passed antiterrorism bills could force banks to rob their customers of both financial privacy and convenience. But how will the provisions aid in curtailing terrorism?

Veronique de Rugy is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. Imagine a war -- a war in which only innocents are harmed and the enemy escapes. That's the war we are waging against money laundering. Money laundering laws sound appealing -- after all, who doesn't want to strip terrorists of their financial support? But the laws have to be effective and aimed at terrorists, rather than innocent people. ******************************************************

The Senate - in a vote of 98-1 - approved the legislation, which gives police the power to secretly search the homes of suspects, tap telephone conversations and track Internet use. Human rights and privacy advocates say the legislation goes too far. Who will be the suspects? **************************************************

House Passes Sweeping Anti-Terrorism Bill "These new and unchecked powers could be used against American citizens who are not under criminal investigation, our borders legally, and also against those whose First Amendment activities are deemed to be threats to National Security by the Attorney General." Who is the enemy **************************************************

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft says he will order U.S. law enforcement to immediately use broad new police powers contained in an anti-terrorism bill once it becomes law."History's judgment will be harsh ... if we fail to use every available resource to prevent future terrorist attacks," the attorney general said Thursday at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. " Our enemies now have new reason to fear." Wonder Who he considers the enemy? ******************************************************

The reason why so many Americans are buying guns and traveling less is because they no longer have confidence in their government's ability to protect them from their enemies. People rented the upper floors of the World Trade Center because they believed that their government would never permit terrorists to stage the kind of attack that took place on Sept. 11. Can the feds protect America? ******************************************************

Political Elites Are Treated Differently Than Ordinary American Citizens - Evidence Mounts That White House and Federal Agencies Are Covering Up Key Information ******************************************************

This is a summary report on those elements of that clandestine organizational network, (which we shall label the Shadow Government), which serves as a kind of "parallel government" to the official elected and appointed government of this country. It includes those element known to the author with sufficient certainty that they can be positively identified, and their known or reliably reported functions described. It is distinctly possible that there are other elements, (particularly in the realms of the "Black Budget" and "Special Operations",) which have eluded our study, and are not named here. **************************************************

"Few indeed have been the invasions upon essential liberties which have not been accompanied by please of urgent necessity advanced in good faith by responsible men" - Justice Frank Murphy

Time and chance have been unkind to the hopes of the Founding Fathers. They established the Constitution to "secure the Blessings of Liberty" to themselves and their posterity, intending their framework of freedom and government to endure through storm as well as sunshine. In the Name of Emergency **************************************************

Americans want those responsible for the WTC tragedy caught and punished. However, that doesn't mean that Americans should also be punished by suspending our constitutional rights. To the contrary, any infringement on America's Bill of Rights not only violates our heritage of freedom, it violates our Constitution and diminishes the brave American patriots who sacrificed their lives for our FREEDOM ****************************************************** http://www.antiwar.com/stromberg/s101901.html

October 19, 2001

Not Exactly World War II, But Close Enough

REACTION BY FORMULA

By now only a complete hermit could remain unaware of the events of September 11, 2001. A criminal attack by terrorists killed 5,000-6,000 Americans on American soil. No American likes that sort of thing, but there was bound to be some dispute over what to do about it.

The government immediately credited the atrocity to a fellow who is now a household word. They did this on the basis of "evidence" which they have not shared with the public. Tony Blair did pretend to share the "evidence" with Parliament. It soon developed that the case was a series of conjectures and hypotheses – unless there exists further evidence too important to be shared with the mere sovereign stooges – the "public," who are said to be the source of political power in the civilized Western democracies.

This might not be so important by itself. After all, there are many things which are not revealed for many, many years (if ever) to the sovereign people by those who rule in their name. But once the problem of dealing with the terrorist attack was said to require a "war" to be waged by a Homeric coalition of everyone who is for us, against everyone who is against us, we might have expected that various long-standing agendas would suddenly be found absolutely necessary for the success of the "war," or whatever it is.

Police and other agencies have never really liked the Bill of Rights, and under cover of the present emergency they have brought forth their entire wish-list for blowing holes through the first ten amendments. Congress passed a resolution, law, or something, so broad as to put the famous (German) Enabling Act of 1933 in the shade. The President was empowered to do whatever in his judgment he needs to do to accomplish whatever it is he needs to accomplish.

It was not exactly a declaration of war. That would require a well-defined enemy, as opposed to a sort of international John Doe warrant. No one knows if this is a "war," or on whom it was declared, if it was declared.

This is perfect. It restores as a normal state of affairs that lovable grey zone, intermediate between war and peace, about which George Orwell had a few things to say. The leftover Cold War ghouls in and out of the administration must be bubbling over with joy, mumbling "purity of essence." The Strangeloves are back – they never really left – but now they have a reason-for-being so vague and indefinable as to ensure their job security for the rest of the century, provided they can appear to be getting comprehensible results.

They have to do something, so they are bombing Afghanistan. I am not sure that this makes a whit safer. It certainly is a show, however. So much for the institutional reaction-by-formula in government.

MEDIA HEAVIES WEIGH IN

The brave, investigative, and critical Free Press chimed in, of course, as predictably as if they were actually on the government payroll. According to Dan, Tom, and Jim, the President grew several meters in stature just by virtue of having a crisis on his hands. Government was back!

Even better, assailed by their inner doubts about not being themselves as wonderful as The Greatest Generation, the gentlemen of the press did their best to proclaim the return of World War II. World War II, most readers will know, represents the highest-ever achievement of human civilization. I am not sure why that is so, but I take it on faith.

A realistic view of World War II is not wanted, and I leave it to one side, before I start asking whether the righteous, even in that war, were really entitled to do literally anything that came into their minds in order to "win" it. I might mention Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and that would never do, what with Dan, Tom, and Jim reliving a different version of the One Good War.

THE HOME FRONT IS THE ONLY FRONT

A war against Nobody Specific may run into trouble. There is no scientific way to predict these things. Many in the press maintain that the crimes of September 11 were a surprise attack, just like Pearl Harbor. This isn't quite right. The Japanese, at least, attacked a legitimate military target. The surprise part was bad form, but the American press did not so judge things when Japan launched its surprise attack on the Russian navy at Port Arthur in 1904. That was held to have been very, very clever. No matter.

Neither of the two events should have been a complete "surprise" to anyone who paid attention to the news, either in 1941 or 2001. But many in the press have ordered us not to look at anything behind that curtain. Nothing before December 7, 1941 or September 11, 2001 has any bearing on the events of those days. To think every crime has its own historical background is to "justify" it, or so we are asked to believe. I quite agree. One mustn't go around making fine distinctions. There is a terrible danger of learning something.

No, indeed, far better to have ID numbers tattooed on our noses and do all that we are told by the responsible authorities. You remember the responsible authorities don't you – the people who didn't resign when they failed to defend actual citizens of the United States in their actual territory? It's hard to account for that. Maybe they were off defending large abstractions or special interests.

Let us therefore give these failures all the expansive powers they now say they need to do what they couldn't manage to do with the ample powers they already had. Further, let them rebuild and run the entire economy. They do so well in that area, too. Indeed, I can hardly think of anything they can't do, should they put their minds to it.

All that stands in the way is our somewhat tired tradition of republican liberty, constitutional law, and local self-government. But such things are the merest trifles in an emergency. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is quoted as saying that we may have to judge these things more along the lines of the international laws of war than in terms of that old 18th Century grocery list. And who is better placed than a Supreme Court Justice to make such a call?

We mustn't let 18th Century prejudices stand in our way, especially when those views were "antigovernment" delusions held by terrible white males, some of whom were doubtless slaveholders. Still, it does seem odd for a Justice to deliver such an opinion – odd, I mean to deliver it, but also odd to have it. If she does indeed hold such views, might that not bode ill for her ability to fairly adjudicate cases arising under the emergency legislation? And does publicizing such an opinion not perhaps go beyond the scandal about what Chief Justice Taney allegedly whispered to President-elect Buchanan in early 1857 about an upcoming case?

GIDDY MINDS AND REALLY FOREIGN QUARRELS

Only someone with a pessimistic view of political life could worry about giving people who want power all the power they want. William Henry Chamberlin was one such doubter. He wrote in December 1940 – a year before the famous surprise and the ensuing Good War – that "I am depressed by the many preliminary indications that an alleged antifascist crusade is far and away the most probable route to the establishment of some kind of fascism in America."1

Chamberlin compounded his sins by criticizing the strategic vision of some of the more ardent interventionists. He wrote:

"I am anticipating the day when the possession of Tibet and Afghanistan will be represented as vitally necessary to the security of Kansas and Nebraska. There is no logical end to this elastic conception of 'security' short of the conquest of the whole world."2

But, pessimistic as he was, Chamberlin could never have foreseen that, down the road, US policy-makers could manage to create a situation in which his example, meant to be farfetched and absurd, might seem plausible. But there I go again, speaking of causation, implying that one thing or another took place before September 11. We mustn't worry about that.

Far better to "invade the world" – as Murray Rothbard once put it – in order to feel secure. To do otherwise would be to revive such dusty old phantasms as an informed republican citizenry and an ancient constitution. Even worse, we might have to take a critical look at fifty years of foreign meddling. That might be quite enlightening, but we mustn't alarm the sort of people who confuse understanding with justification.

Notes: 1.William Henry Chamberlin, "War – Shortcut to Fascism," American Mercury, LI, 204 (December 1940), p. 392. 2.Ibid., p. 399. ******************************************************

The following 3 posts are from http://cryptome.org/

"Bottom Line for Anthrax Protection:

1. Environmental sampling needs to be made more accurate, using known techniques, and more widespread. Forensic testing of samples needs to be decentralized, so it can be done in a timely manner, and so the federal authorities are not overwhelmed. The federal government should pay the salaries of additional technicians in every state and possibly in large hospitals, who would be trained as forensic experts, and provide the materials and methodologies used by our federal experts at Fort Detrick, CDC and the FBI, among others.

2. Methods which go from most highly sensitive to most highly specific need to be used, in the proper order, so potential anthrax cases can be identified and treated in a timely manner. This means that existing tests that take hours, not days, need to be the primary ones used.

3. All questionable materials must be tested using sensitive techniques. We do not yet know how to select those which can be ignored.

4. The public needs to be reassured that in fact, the government will address these incidents promptly and effectively, so that the public is not responsible for its own antibiotics and treatment strategies.

5. Biosensors in development need to be assessed now, and the best ones need to be put into mass production.

6. Pharmaceutical companies should increase production of a variety of antibiotics, and government stockpiles of these materials should increase.

7. Novel approaches to treatment should be investigated and prepared or obtained in advance. This might include antiserum, monoclonal antibodies, and other materials currently being developed. The utility of bronchoalveolar lavage in monkeys should be investigated. The sensitivity of nasal swab testing, sputum, urine and blood antigen tests, stains and cultures should be assessed in animal models immediately.

8. Information on safe methods for inactivating spores found in or on contaminated clothes, surfaces and other environmental materials should be provided to the public immediately.

9. Information on cheap masks, like those worn by lab techs working under hoods, that have high efficacy for anthrax, should be provided to the public. Production should be increased."

-- Meryl Nass, MD, Anthrax Business, October 15, 2001 ******************************************************

"I hope I'm wrong, but the recent spate of anthrax mail strikes me as a red herring intended to preoccupy us while a more dangerous attack is carried out.

The chance of anthrax being used for mass infection is negligible. But it does command extraordinary press and popular attention because Americans are inclined toward hypochondria. People who agonize about carpal tunnel syndrome, and who buckle to pharmaceutical company come-ons urging them to perceive shyness as 'social anxiety disorder' for which they should seek 'treatment', and who shovel Ritalin down their children's throats because they act like children, are an easy mark for distraction by a fatal bacterium which can arrive in their letter boxes."

-- Thomas Greene, Anthrax Biz: A Red Herring?, October 14, 2001 ******************************************************

"I am writing this after the fourth case of anthrax has been diagnosed in the United States. At this point, we don't know if this is 1) an extremely bizarre coincidence, 2) a terrorist attack gone bad, or 3) field tests for a terrorist attack to come. I am hoping for the first, and am worried about the third.

A few minutes of speculation should be enough to convince anyone that we cannot make the United States, let alone the world, safe from terrorism. It doesn't matter what draconian counterterrorism legislation we enact, or how many civil liberties we sacrifice. We cannot stop terrorism within a country. We cannot block it at the borders. We have always been at risk, and we always will be."

-- Bruce Schneier, Anthrax Biz: Fear is Good, October 14, 2001 *****************************************************

"The prudent perceive possible bad times and take precautions, the fool continues on and he and his family suffers the penalty." ******************************************************

A few thoughts about binladden

From - WND

After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured 1,000, President Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed five U.S. military personnel, Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel, Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 and injured 5,000, Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and injured 3 U.S.sailors, Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

Maybe if Clinton had kept his promise, an estimated 7,000 people would be alive today.

An interesting question: This question was raised on a Philly radio call-in show. Without casting stones, it is a legitimate question.There are two, both extremely wealthy. One develops relatively cheap software and gives hundreds of millions of dollars to charity. The other sponsors terrorism. That being the case, why is it that the US government has spent more money chasing down Bill Gates over the past ten years than Osama bin Laden?

It is a strange turn of events. Hillary gets $8 Million for her forthcoming memoir. Bill gets about $12 Million for his memoir. This from two people who have spent the past 8 years being unable to recall anything about past events!

Incredible! ********************************************************

Thanks to -

Date:Sun, 14 Oct 2001 09:28:48 -0200

From: "Fran and Russ Gardner"

When you think the U.S. isn't thought well of all over the world, read this editorial from a Romanian Newspaper.

FROM ROMANIA: RECOGNITION (AND ENVY) OF THE AMERICAN ETHOS AND ÉLAN!!

Subject: Editorial from a Romanian newspaper

An ode to America

Why are Americans so united? They don't resemble one another even if you paint them! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. Some of them are nearly extinct, others are incompatible with one another, and in matters of religious beliefs, not even God can count how many they are.

Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about. The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand. After the first moments of panic, they raised the flag on the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a minister or the president was passing. On every occasion they started singing their traditional song: "God Bless America!".

Silent as a rock, I watched the charity concert broadcast on Saturday once, twice, three times, on different TV channels. There were Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stalone, James Wood, and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together. The American's solidarity spirit turned them into a choir. Actually, choir is not the word. What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American soul. What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton, nor Colin Powell could say without facing the risk of stumbling over words and sounds, was being heard in a great and unmistakable way in this charity concert.

I don't know how it happened that all this obsessive singing of America didn't sound croaky, nationalist, or ostentatious! It made you green with envy because you weren't able to sing for your country without running the risk of being considered chauvinist, ridiculous, or suspected of who-knows-what mean interests.

I watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who fought with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that would have killed other hundreds or thousands of people. How on earth were they able to bow before a fellow human?

Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit which nothing can buy.

What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases which risk of sounding like commonplaces. I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion.

Only freedom can work such miracles!

Big Brother getting BIGGER

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=006C77

FBI's 'Carnivore' Might Target Wireless Text

By Robert O'Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, August 24, 2001; Page E01

Federal law enforcement authorities may soon expand the use of a controversial FBI monitoring system to capture e-mail and other text messages sent through wireless telephone carriers, as well as messages from their Internet service providers, according to a telecommunications industry group.

The FBI has been using the system, called Carnivore, for two years, subject to court authorization, to tap into Internet communications, identify e-mail writers online or record the contents of messages. It does so by capturing "packets" of information containing those details.

Civil liberties advocates and some lawmakers have expressed concerns because the system could scan private communication about legal activities of others besides those under investigation. The Justice Department is reviewing the system's impact on privacy.

Now the the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association is warning that authorities could use Carnivore as soon as October to examine messages such as those sent by cellular telephones and other handheld devices. That's because the industry has been unable to come up with a way to give law enforcement agencies the ability to monitor digital communications as they can the more easily captured analog messages, as required by a 1994 law.

In an Aug. 15 letter to the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Altschul, the association's senior vice president and general counsel, said its members can't meet the Sept. 30 deadline for the technology.

"If the industry is not provided the guidance and time to develop solutions for packet surveillance that intercept only the target's communications, it seems probable that Carnivore, which intercepts all communications in the pathway without the affirmative intervention of the carrier, will be widely implemented," Altschul wrote.

Altschul said in an interview that the FBI has told industry officials it would use Carnivore in the absence of another system. "It could well be a huge expansion of the use of Carnivore," he said.

The FBI said in a prepared statement yesterday: "We have never proposed or planned to have Carnivore used as a solution for . . . compliance." A spokesman said Internet service providers are now so adept at meeting the technical demands of approved surveillance of suspects' Internet traffic that the FBI has used Carnivore only twice this year.

The spokesman declined to say whether the FBI would use Carnivore -- now known in the agency as DCS1000 -- to capture communications handled by telephone carriers.

Privacy advocates agreed with Altschul that the industry's technical problems could mean an expansion of Carnivore use. David Sobel, general counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the FBI has not demonstrated that it can narrowly target the system. That raises the prospect that it will collect information from many people's communications while searching for a suspect's communications.

"It opens the door to the collection of communications of people who aren't even named in [court] orders," Sobel said.

Law enforcement agencies use two legal methods to collect information about suspects' communications. Under federal "pen register" procedures, authorities need only say that call information is relevant to an investigation to get court permission to obtain the origin or destination of electronic communication to and from a suspect. Those rules do not allow authorities to capture the content of communication.

But Sobel and Altschul said Carnivore cannot separate address information from the content of a message in a packet, and so authorities must be trusted to weed out data they are not allowed by law to have.

The standard is much higher to obtain the content of e-mail or telephone calls. It requires authorities to show probable cause that a crime has been committed and secure a court order signed by a judge.

In 1998, federal authorities used the pen register procedures more than 7,300 times to obtain phone logs. That same year, federal and state authorities received 1,329 court orders to capture the content of communications.

An official at the Federal Communications Commission declined to discuss Altschul's letter but said the agency intends to decide soon whether it will extend the deadline for meeting the law's requirement.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54155-2001Aug23?language=printer ---------------------------------

http://capitalismmagazine.com/2001/august/ww_tethered.htm

Democracy gives an aura of legitimacy to acts that would otherwise be deemed tyranny. Citizens Tethered to a Democratic Leash Called Tyranny

By Walter Williams (August 26, 2001)

[CAPITALISM MAGAZINE.COM] Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, "No one is as hopelessly enslaved as the person who thinks he's free." That captures the essence of "Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State," written by Sheldon Richman, a senior fellow at the Fairfax, Va., based Future of Freedom Foundation.

We just celebrated the 225th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. We listened to speeches about the liberties bequeathed by our Founders. But according to Sheldon's convincing, compellingly marshaled evidence, we're not as free as we think. Yes, we can think of ourselves as free, but only relative to the rest of the world. In terms of the Founders' vision of freedom, we're little more than serfs.

You say: "What do you mean, Williams? I'm free!" Richman would ask you: Are you in charge of the amount of money you set aside for retirement and at what age you'll retire? No, the government mandates that you join its retirement program. If you insist on being left alone and don't obey, you'll go to jail or otherwise suffer at the hands of government. What's more, when government changes Social Security rules, unlike a private retirement plan, you can't sue for breach of contract.

Richman asks: Is it you who decides when your child will go to school and for how many weeks and study what? No, it's government that not only makes these decisions, it also attacks and undermines values taught at home. What if you think your child is capable of having a job at age 12, as I was? No dice. The government determines the age at which one can work, and for how long and at what pay.

Suppose you want to save money. Your money and privacy is subject to a web of regulatory offices, including the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve System and the Securities and Exchange Commission. If you make deposits or withdrawals of $5,000 or more, your bank must report it to the government. If you attempt to stop government's prying eyes by making deposits and withdrawals just below the reporting threshold, you face fines and imprisonment for "structuring."

You own land, but you don't control it. You might have purchased land as an investment, only to find that when you retire and are ready to build or sell it, you can't. It might have been designated a wetland (swamp) by environmental authorities or declared a habitat for an endangered bird, rat or insect, whose rights the government deems more important than yours.

Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" has a chapter titled, "What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear." He said citizens of modern democracies faced a despotism of a different character, which "would be more widespread and milder; it would degrade men rather than torment them." De Tocqueville went on to say, "I do not expect for their leaders to be tyrants, but rather schoolmasters." He adds, "It only tries to keep them in perpetual childhood." It does so by providing security and necessities, assuming responsibility for their concerns, managing their work, and more, "It gladly works for their happiness but wants to be the sole agent and judge of it."

Democracy gives an aura of legitimacy to acts that would otherwise be deemed tyranny. That is precisely why the Framers gave us a Constitution that sought to protect us against the abuses of majorities. That's what our Bill of Rights is all about, those congressional shalt-nots. It's just too bad that Congress, acting on the will of the majority, have abrogated those protections. "Tethered Citizens" is an excellent, informative and easily read 150-page book that would have been much shorter had Richman chosen to list our remaining liberties.

COPYRIGHT 2001 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. ***********

http://www.ajtoogood.com/column/general/baldwin/0824-2601.htm

Many Appear Ready To Accept Police State

By Chuck Baldwin

Toogood Reports [Weekender, August 24-26, 2001; 12:01 a.m. EST]

URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/

Most Americans no doubt think of themselves as law-abiding, G-d-fearing people. However, when obedience to human law violates a man's inner conscience, the only moral alternative left him is faithfulness to his conscience. In fact, resistance to tyrannical laws forms the foundation of our heritage.

Where would America be without the exploits of the brave men at Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and Lexington Green? Our history is immersed in a river of resistance to unjust laws. It appears, however, that many Americans today have forgotten Ben Franklin's maxim, "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to G-d." Current events suggest that they are more than willing to embrace a dictatorial police state.

Federal police abuse at Waco, Texas; Ruby Ridge, Idaho; and now at Klamath Basin, Oregon, reveal a lethargic population willing to overlook practically any injustice. To be sure, there was (and is) much resistance from local parties directly involved. To the vast population at large, however, there is nothing but complete indifference. To them, those who resist federal abuse are simply lawbreakers (or kooks) who deserve neither sympathy nor respect. It matters not if they go to jail, lose their farms, or burn to death. Had this generation been around back in 1775, America would still be a Crown colony today; and Washington, Henry and Revere would be regarded as ignoble traitors. Fortunately, the generation of 1775 understood the difference between lawful authority and tyranny. The Father of the American Revolution, Sam Adams, said,

"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; second, to liberty; third, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are the evident branches of the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature. All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another…"

It should seem obvious to everyone that, for the past 40 plus years, numerous departments and agencies of our federal government have taken upon themselves the cloak of a conqueror and have repeatedly violated "the first law of nature." Unfortunately, this generation (unlike that of 1775) does not have a Washington or Adams to oppose them. Not only that, it appears that the vast majority of Americans today welcome additional federal encroachment into their lives.

Sam Adams reportedly told some British sympathizers, "If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." I wonder what he would say to us? **********

http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=215024

Correctional population reaches new high

Sunday, 26 August 2001 17:48 (ET)

Correctional population reaches new high

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- The nation's "correction population" consisting of those behind bars, on probation or on parole reached a new high last year, according to a Justice Department report released Sunday.

One out of every 32 adults in the United States was behind bars, on probation or released on parole.

The correctional population grew by 117,400 in 2000, to 6.5 million men and women. The total represents 3.1 percent of the U.S. adult population.

The study by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said as of Dec. 31, there were 3,839,532 men and women on probation, 725,527 on parole, 1,312,354 in prison and 621,149 in local jails. However, the 2 percent increase last year was half the average annual increase of 4 percent since 1990.

During the past decade, the total correctional population increased 49 percent, the study said. There were 2.1 million more men and women under correctional supervision in 2000 than in 1990.

The states with the largest percentages of their adult populations under correctional supervision were Georgia, 6.8 percent; Texas, 5.0 percent; and Idaho, 4.9 percent. The states with the smallest percentages of their populations under supervision were West Virginia, New Hampshire and North Dakota, all with 0.9 percent.

Almost a third of the correctional population was made up of people in a prison or a jail. More than half of the correctional populations in Mississippi, 58 percent; Virginia, 56 percent; and the federal system, 56 percent; were incarcerated.

Minnesota, with 9 percent; and Vermont, with 11; had the lowest percentage of correctional population behind bars.

By Dec. 31, the number of adults under community supervision as probationers or parolees reached almost 4.6 million, up from 3.2 million on

Dec. 31, 1990.

Among probationers -- criminal offenders sentenced to a period of correctional supervision in the community -- 52 percent had been convicted of a felony, 46 percent of a misdemeanor and 2 percent of other infractions. Twenty-four percent were on probation for driving while intoxicated and 18 percent for a drug law violation.

Sixteen states reported less than 1 percent of their adult populations on probation.

Three states had increases of at least 10 percent in their probation populations during 2000: Mississippi, up 13 percent; South Dakota, up 11; and Oklahoma, up 10 percent. Eight states and the District of Columbia reported a decline in probation populations, led by South Carolina, down 12 percent; Missouri, down 5; and Kansas, down 5.

The Justice Department study said almost all adults on parole -- a period of conditional supervision following a prison term -- had been convicted of a felony, at 97 percent. More than half of people entering parole during 2000 had received a mandatory release from prison because of a sentencing statute or good-time provisions; 37 percent entered parole because of a parole board decision, down from 59 percent in 1990.

Parole population gains of 10 percent or more were reported in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Connecticut and Arkansas led with a 22 percent increase each, followed by Vermont and Oklahoma, both up 20 percent. Nineteen states reported a decline in their parole population during 2000, led by Kansas, down 35 percent, and North Dakota and North Carolina, both down 24 percent.

Women made up 22 percent of adult probationers in 2000, up from 18 percent in 1990, and 12 percent of all parolees, up from 8 percent in 1990.

By Dec. 31, more than a third of probationers and more than 2 out of 5 adults on parole were black. Nearly two-thirds of probationers and more than half of parolees were white. People of other races accounted for about 2 percent of probationers and 1 percent of parolees.

Hispanics comprised 16 percent of the probation population and 21 percent of the parole population.

The department study data is available at opj.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ppus00.htm.3

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved. -------------------------------