Those Who Say We Are Safer Are Wrong
In my humble opinion, Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, should not be allowed to offer lessons in civics at Mt. Ararat Middle School or any other school (Dec. 8, “Sen. Collins offers lesson in civics”).
Her recent and very important role, along with Senator Joseph Lieberman, D-Connecticut, in passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 proves that she knows little about either the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights. Included in this legislation is an internal passport system that should send chills up the backs of Americans accustomed to the freedom to travel by air, plane, rail, car or foot.
On December 7, Representative Ron Paul, R.-Texas, said the following regarding the internal passport provision found in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004:
“Those who are willing to allow the government to establish a Soviet-style internal passport system because they think it will make us safer are terribly mistaken. Subjecting every citizen to surveillance and screening points actually will make us less safe, not in the least because it will divert resources away from tracking and apprehending terrorists and deploy them against innocent Americans! Every conservative who believes in constitutional restraints on government should reject the authoritarian national ID and the nonsensical intelligence bill itself.”
Senator Robert Byrd, D.-West Virginia, said of this legislation: Congress acted like “... pygmies on the battlefield of history” rushing to judgment and passing a bad piece of legislation “... like whipped dogs in the face of political pressure.”
Next year, the Department of Homeland Security (another monstrous waste of money and resources) will begin issuing so-called “uniformity regulations” to the sovereign states of the Union requiring that all driver’s licenses and birth certificates meet some federal standards along with biometrics “security” provisions. Road-block checkpoints will then be set up and we, the people, for the first time since this Republic was birthed, just like the slaves in Stalinist Russia, will be required to “show your papers!”
Maine citizens also should know that both Senator Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Senator Collins are aware of, but unwilling to discuss, the hiring in 2003 by the Bush administration’s Department of Homeland Security, Office of Information Awareness, of two ex-KGB chiefs (secret police in the Soviet Union) by the names of General Alexander Karpov and General Yvgeny Primakov. Primakov was also Premier of Russia in the late nineties, is a close associate of Saddam Hussein, and was in Baghdad one month prior to the U.S. invasion, advising Hussein on how to deal with the United States!
Question: Why would the administration hire such infamous thugs and enemies of our country?
Answer: To assist in the development of an internal passport for Americans.
The information about Karpov and Primakov was given to me 18 months ago by two very credible, independent sources: a former covert intelligence agent in the United States and a well-known journalist/ author in England who served as economic adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Along with several other of the senators’ constituents, I have been asking both of them for a “yes” or “no” reply as to whether such hiring did take place. It has been 18 months since I initially wrote to Senator Snowe. There have been numerous follow-up letters and e-mails and two visits to her Portland office. It has been six months since I wrote to Senator Collins. Neither senator has responded to my requests. Their unwillingness to provide a simple “yes” or “no” answer can be interpreted in only one way. I leave it up to the reader to come to his or her own conclusion.
This article appeared in the January 13, 2005, issue of the Times Record.