Information Awareness Office (headed by Iran-contra felon) to wed government and commercial snooping, by William Safire

The Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military as a national police force, might be a thing of the past too.

http://www.wxii12.com/news/1783826/detail.html

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Senator May Boost Military Role In Domestic Policing
Warner Likely To Assume Lead In Armed Services Committee

WASHINGTON -- The military's role in homeland defense may get a boost from the man likely to head the Armed Services Committee.

U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said he would hold hearings to review the 19th century Posse Comitatus law, which restricts the U.S. military's involvement in domestic law enforcement.
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And the House passed the bill enabling the establishment of the Committee for State Security, or, as it is known in Russian, the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, which is long for KGB. Unfortunately, there won't be any money to investigate 9-11, and the $1.2 billion for rail commuter security is gone. There's funding for Texas A&M, and Eli Lilly gets legal protection. Finally, if your company has relocated abroad to beat taxes, you can still cash in.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ty_21&printer=1

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It also has vaguely worded language that would make Texas A&M University eligible for federal homeland security research — a provision inserted by Rep. Tom DeLay (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, whose district is nearby.

The bill would allow commercial airline pilots to carry guns in cockpits, and give airports a one-year delay in the Dec. 31 deadline to install explosive detection systems to screen all checked baggage. It would also let the new agency sign contracts with U.S. companies that have relocated abroad.

Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., sought to add language dropped from the bill that would have established an independent commission to investigate why U.S. authorities failed to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks.
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I saw a story on this last night on CNN, this is pretty scary. Its like T.I.P.S. on steriods.

Again, I'm surprised there isn't more public outcry about this. Do people just not know how close we're moving to the Soviet system? Why are Republicans going for this? Where are the Libertarians, the Greens, and other parties who would be against this kind of massive consolidation of government power? Poindexter's aim would make some of the worst Stalinists and KGBers blush with envy!

[quote] Again, I'm surprised there isn't more public outcry about this.

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I'm not. Look at the media climate in which we now live. "Debate" is completely stage-managed. Investigative journalism is dead. Dissenting opinions in the mainstream media are completely marginalized, never to reach the masses. The bottom line is all-important, & fear-mongering is much better for ratings than quibbling over civil liberties. Gee, there was more outcry in the media over "ebonics", or more recently, the suspended ruling on the pledge of allegiance (both emotional, but entirely symbolic issues), than over what has become an alarming pattern of evisceration of privacy & civil liberties. But undeniably, it is the right that sets the terms of debate in the American media today. There will be no outcry on anything unless the right-wing manufactures it.

[ November 22, 2002: Message edited by: Billy ]

Brought to you by the party of "less government!"

Apparently this doesn't include personal dossier access! But that logo looks very "Minority Report"...

Information Awareness Office site

[ November 20, 2002: Message edited by: Bill W ]