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September 14, 2008 at 17:27:53

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Why Cueing in Congress and their Aides can Save America

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By Kathryn Smith (about the author)     Page 1 of 4 page(s)

opednews.com     Permalink

For OpEdNews: Kathryn Smith - Writer

A few days ago, I called my US Representative’s office and spoke with an Aide specializing in FEMA matters. I told her of the wide-spread concerns I have been reading about the FEMA camps and how red alert the concern levels really are. Given those fears, I told her I wanted to cue her in and also to find out more about the FEMA camps. What could she tell me about them?

Nothing. She had never heard of them.

HUH??? A FEMA Aide who knows nothing about the FEMA camps? Well she should know in her position, shouldn’t she?



Not necessarily. And that she didn’t know neither raised my suspicions that she might be bluffing me/brushing me off, nor did it surprise me or put me off, even a little bit. Here’s why:

The ACLU’s website is crammed to the brim with examples of “state secrets” being invoked by the Bush Administration, strictly when a civil liberties violation or torture case needs to be covered up. They play the “emergency” card all the time, referring to “national security” as excuse to withhold all kinds of information. More detailed examples about this later.

Then of course, there are the gag orders in the National Security Letters portion of the Patriot Act. These gags, accompanied by five-year jail sentences for telling even one’s Significant Other about receiving such an FBI subpoena for private records, with even attorneys being gagged, assure such secrecy that even Congress can’t know the amount of abuse which is happening.

You can see some statistics here (including the fact that only ONE terrorist has been caught to date using NSL’s): http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nationalsecurityletters/29069leg20070319.html

Not to mention, of course, the blacked out press and the dumbed-down people.

No wonder the Aide told me “I learn the most from the constituents who call in”. So with her consent and her assurance that she would make time to read them, I emailed her some links. That is, about the FEMA camps, showing video footage and quoting the text of the Executive Orders to clearly build a fact-based case instead of what she could dismiss as a paranoid rant.
http://74.125.95.104/search?q=cache:izj-sCZ9-VcJ:www.knowthelies.com/?q=node/61+aclu+fema+camps&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us

The FEMA Aide promised to research the FEMA camps and get back to me, and was more than good for her word. She called me four hours later, leaving a message about her web-based research and of her call to the Legislative Aide in DC. The next day, she also updated me that she had spoken with the Legislative Aide, who told her that the “Conspiracy theory” “bears no grounds for concern” and that because he had said so, all was certainly okay.

So now was my chance to let her know. And I did:

In fact, this same Legislative Aide, whose job is to cue the Senators and Representatives in to legislative facts and statistical details, had himself “talked” to me by email, saying that the thought-targeting Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act “merely studies terrorism” and asked me what my concerns could possibly be about this bill.

Given that Legislative Aides are lying in this way, saying word-for-word exactly what the higher-ups in the government tell them to, no wonder our Congress is voting for such freedom-usurping legislation. THEY MAY NOT KNOW WHAT THE HECK THEY ARE VOTING FOR! They are simply taking the word of the Legislative Aides for granted, just as this Aide in the Representative’s office did too.

Could this explain the “betrayal” we Americans rightfully feel from our Congress? At least, in part?

So I told the Aide that this particular Legislative Aide had misrepresented the facts to me before, adding that I had studied the text of the bill to which he had referred in our previous conversation and that I was concerned that the Representative herself would be misled by this highly unethical man. Again with the Aide’s assurance that she wanted to read them, I sent more links to prove my point, being careful to reference highly credible sources such as the conservative attorney Bruce Fein, who was formerly a US Attorney.

Gag orders. Press black-out. Lying Legislative Aides. “State secrets” and “national security” invocations. No time to read bills because of always being on the road or in Congressional meetings….how can Congress possibly be aware of the amount of abuses which are occurring? How can their Aides know?

That’s where we citizens come in. We must cue them in, and (very importantly) in the most fact-based way.

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This quote summarizes the nature of my concerns and the content of personal experiences which stir my activism: "Necessity is the plea for every infringement on human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves". --Paul (more...)
 

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The American Civil Liberties Union and the Making of Modern Liberalism, 1930-1960
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Save America by Archie on Monday, Sep 15, 2008 at 2:08:14 PM

 
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