Commentary______________________________________________________________________________01.15.02

Office of Homeland Security: America's New Nazi SS

On October 8th, 2001, President Bush signed an Executive Order establishing the Office of Homeland Security and the Homeland Security Council. Under Section 3, the Order states that the office shall work with executive departments and agencies, state and local governments and private entities to facilitate collection of information pertaining to so-called "terrorist" threats or activities within the United States.
On October 26th, 2001, President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act into Law as enacte d and passed by a majority vote in Congress. This new Law gives sweeping new powers to both domestic law enforcement and intellegence agencies eliminating the constitutional checks and balances that local, state and federal agencies were previously prevented from abusing. These checks and balances were put into place after previous mis-use of surveillance powers in the past, including the 1974 revelation that the FBI and foreign intellegence agencies had illegally spied on over 10,000 U.S. citizens, including the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Among the new powers these laws and directives enact, include; increased funding for a technical support center within the FBI, authority to intercept and monitor wire, oral and electronic communications, enhanced domestic surveillance procedures, increased coordination and sharing of information and strategy with state and local law enforcement, and indefinate detention and incarceration of foreign nationals suspected of posing a "threat" to the United States.
In addition, a highly controversial option has emerged to monitor and control the populace of the United States: the National ID Card. This type of illegal surveillance is the indicia of a totalitarian police state. If enacted, it will operate as an efficient watchdog to stifle and eventually destroy any modicum of privacy, freedom and/or dissent. Having to show "papers" to governmental functionaries was bad precedent enough in years past, most would even argue "disasterous". In the computer era, an interlinked governmental database will contain one's life history, as well as exposing your identity, for example, when boarding a plane. It may even define your right to drive a car, get and maintain a job, enter an ER room, open or close a bank account, cash a check, buy a gun, or access government benefits such as SSI or Medicaid. Current efforts are now being put in motion to make all state driver's licenses into de-facto National ID Cards, complete with universal ID barcodes, biometric scanners and fingerprint identification features.
Coordinated, orchestrated and managed from the Executive Offices of the Bush Administration, The Office of Homeland Security has now truely become America's New Nazi SS Headquarters. Bolstered by fascist/police state law and legistation such as the USA Patriot Act and forthcoming National Id Card legistlation, these currents clearly threaten the privacy and security of Americans and our hard-won and greatly cherished and treasured constitutional civil liberties.
Will the people of the United States allow this "4th Reich" to emerge and arise unchallenged in the months and years ahead?