The Need for Security Does Not Equate to Paranoia

I recently saw a couple of episodes of Law and Order on the TV and they were about vigilantism and the war on terror. One episode was about a mentally ill boy who killed Muslims and the other was about the Freemen. The shows got me thinking, it is very important for a society in a time of War to preserve freedom because it is hard to win it back once it is offered away. After the London train bombings a Brazilian Boy was killed by the police in what may have been a terrible mistake. The pseudo intellectuals in the media are very good a pointing to the overt threats to freedom posed by those who are charged with protecting us but they rarely identify other threats.

Yesterday I woke up and since 9/11 my routine has changed. I am a securities analyst and now I have to check the various cable news outlets for terrorist events that will move markets. (Before 9/11 I never had to do that, today its standard operating procedure) After taking a shower with water that has been monitored by over a dozen government agencies, I walked down Park Avenue to the Subway Station. Before getting on the subway my bag was checked by the NYPD (a direct outcome from this summer's London Bombings). I got on the local train and did not transfer at 14st partly to avoid a subway station that is frequently cited as a high value target (an outcome of the Madrid bombings). After getting off the train on Wall Street, I walked past several rings of security. The security on Wall Street includes private guards with bomb sniffing dogs, police officers, truck bomb barriers and Swat Teams fully armed with M-4 assault rifles complete with grenade launchers (an outcome of 9/11). On my way into my office I have to pass several vehicle barriers (an outcome of the African Embassy Bombings). When I start work I have to make sure all my emails are saved and telephone conversations are recorded so that SEC can monitor my every move as a securities analyst (an outcome of the Enron failure which was instigated by the financial collapse following 9/11)

So as you can see, if you live in NYC and your are a middle class professional your civil rights are violated every day and cumulatively the cost is great. I think its high time for the media to stop insulting the intelligence of the American people and wake up am smell the coffee or in the New York Time's case Organic Herbal Tea. The US is offering rights to Aliens and Illegal aliens that you or I do not have and that is dangerous and wrong. Americans need to understand that every time an attack is successful our rights are taken away and yet the liberals fight for the very terrorists that are undermining our way of life.

Republican, democrats and the 9/11 commission have only agreed on one issue over the last four years. They all agree that, the 9/11 attacks were successful because the government lost track of the high jackers once they entered the US b/c the Justice Department unilateral decided that it was unconstitutional to track known terrorist operatives. Had the terrorist operatives been stopped in time you and I would have many more civil rights today.

International Terrorists Defined

One definition of an international terrorist is an irregular foriegn agent who plans on committing act of violence and sabotage.

Recently, someone suggested to me that terroists in Afganistan,Iraq and on the battelfield in the war on terror should be afforded the same rights as US citizens or even more rights. I say no to that Neo-revisionist Stalanist agenda. The Murders of my friends and family members do not deserve the same rights as Martin Luther King, Washington, John F Kennedy, Ronald Regan, FDR me or you.

The equal protection clause under the constitution was not meant to satisfy the Anti-American rantings of the radical left it was meant to protect Americans from injustice. Sure this country has erred when it comes to civil rights but let it be know, when injustices were found this country has always made things right and since the Republican preisdent Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and preserved the Union in 1863 more than a million Americans died supporting freedom while in Europe 125 million people died at the hand of the Stalanist and Nazi Socialists movements.

Perhaps another way to define a terrorist is as an irregular combatant that is in large part seeking to aviod the combatant classification under article 4 of the Geneva Convention.

Article 4

A. Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:

1. Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.

2. Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions:

(a) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates; (Terroroist are not responcible for their subordinates)

(b) That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance; (Terrorist do not wear uniforms or badges)

(c) That of carrying arms openly;(Terrorists hide their weapons)

(d) That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.(Terrorists violate this by primarily kidnapping and targeting civilians)

3. Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power. (Terrorist recognize allegence to movements not countries)

4. Persons who accompany the armed forces without actually being members thereof, such as civilian members of military aircraft crews, war correspondents, supply contractors, members of labour units or of services responsible for the welfare of the armed forces, provided that they have received authorization from the armed forces which they accompany, who shall provide them for that purpose with an identity card similar to the annexed model.(Terrorists target this group and wear no identity cards)

5. Members of crews, including masters, pilots and apprentices, of the merchant marine and the crews of civil aircraft of the Parties to the conflict, who do not benefit by more favourable treatment under any other provisions of international law. (We afford them Geneva rights)

6. Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war. (Terrorists do not respect the Genevia Convention nor do they carry arms openly, the exception being Al Sadr's militia which was informaly afforded Geneva rights)

B. The following shall likewise be treated as prisoners of war under the present Convention:

1. Persons belonging, or having belonged, to the armed forces of the occupied country, if the occupying Power considers it necessary by reason of such allegiance to intern them, even though it has originally liberated them while hostilities were going on outside the territory it occupies, in particular where such persons have made an unsuccessful attempt to rejoin the armed forces to which they belong and which are engaged in combat, or where they fail to comply with a summons made to them with a view to internment. (We released all Iraqi military prisoners except for the 52 card list, retained regime officials are afforded Geneva rights)

2. The persons belonging to one of the categories enumerated in the present Article, who have been received by neutral or non-belligerent Powers on their territory and whom these Powers are required to intern under international law, without prejudice to any more favourable treatment which these Powers may choose to give and with the exception of Articles 8, 10, 15, 30, fifth paragraph, 58-67, 92, 126 and, where diplomatic relations exist between the Parties to the conflict and the neutral or non-belligerent Power concerned, those Articles concerning the Protecting Power. Where such diplomatic relations exist, the Parties to a conflict on whom these persons depend shall be allowed to perform towards them the functions of a Protecting Power as provided in the present Convention, without prejudice to the functions which these Parties normally exercise in conformity with diplomatic and consular usage and treaties.(We are investigating abuses by Shite and Peshmerga Militias)

C. This Article shall in no way affect the status of medical personnel and chaplains as provided for in Article 33 of the present Convention.
Important Note About This Report

Open Letter to Harry Reid

Dear Senator Reid:

Recently you condemned the wire tapping of suspected terrorists communicating with know terrorists cohorts overseas. You compared the wiretaps to the Gestapo tactics used by Hitler to seize power. Mr. Senator you know as well as I do that Hitler was able to seize power because the Weimar Republic was unable to stop the onslaught of terrorism faced by Germany during the 1920-30's. During the post WWI period, Eastern European radical left wing organizations such as; the communist party, anarchists and Stalinists committed acts of terrorism such as bombings and arson almost on a daily basis. So when the Reichstag was burned Hitler was empowered by the angry mobs because the average German, after years of inaction, was feed up with being victimized by the radical left wing and foreign agents. In Germany, the lack of security and the systematic enforcement of double standards gave birth to Hitler and the Nazi party. Therefore the Nazi Party could not have seized power had Weimar Republic been more competent in addressing the terrorism of the radicals.

Today in America it is legal for the SEC to eavesdrop on thousands of phone calls and emails and I wonder why you and your liberal friends have not protested these clear violations of civil rights. In America today, SEC requires institutional trading firms to install listening equipment at their own expense. SEC ultimately uses these intelligence systems to enforce securities regulations without any warrant or any congressional oversight. While that may seem like a reasonable accommodation to make on the part of traders; giving the SEC’s unfettered access to spy on securities traders is a clear violation of civil rights and ultimately undermines freedom of every American. Moreover, the SEC requires the financial community to literally spend billions of dollars annually to maintain detailed records of trillions of electronic communications so that agency can conduct a "fishing expedition" whenever it wants on thousands of Americans in the United States.

Senator Reid, as you can see I strongly feel it’s not the governments role to be monitoring the hard won free speech of law abiding patriotic US citizens. But it sounds like you would afford a handful of foreign agents, in a time of war, more rights than average tax paying citizens. If you do feel so strongly on this issue, maybe its time for the Liberal Democrats in the Senate should shut down the SEC’s own spying program and put an end to the wiretapping of brokerage firms.

Senator Reid, are you and your friends at the New York Times trying to protect terrorists? You know the wiretaps as well as the Patriot Act have stopped terrorist attacks. Don’t the Liberals realize that you and your fringe left wing allies will take the blame if another attack occurs? And if the attack could have been prevented by the measured application of intelligence gathering tools wouldn’t the partisan inaction that enabled such an attack be the worst form of civil rights violation? Wouldn’t that be worse for Democracy, after all, the very Patriot act you bemoan was begot by 9/11. Post World War I German history tells us the answer is yes.

In God we trust,


Rich Tullo

CC. President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Sen. Hilary Clinton, Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Charles Schumer, Sen. Theodore Kennedy, Sen. Christopher Cox, Sen. Barbra Boxter, Rep Vito Fossella and Rep. Nancy Pelosi