Monday, August 15, 2011

People with mental illnesses could be scattered to the streets, to homeless shelters

http://homelessjazzguitar.blogspot.com/


CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- For years, North Carolina has been warned to take better care of its mentally ill residents. This summer, federal officials have declared they're tired of waiting.Photobucket

Federal agencies that provide substantial funding for services to people with mental illness say that far too many of them are living in adult care homes, and the agencies are threatening to stop paying the bills. Last month, the federal Department of Justice stepped in, saying the state has violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by failing to provide housing for mentally ill people other than institutions such as mental hospitals and adult care homes.

The Justice Department says it will sue the state if it doesn't agree to find alternative housing.

The seemingly sudden standoff is a result of years of failed state mental health policy. And within months, it could force as many as 1,200 mentally ill people out of adult care homes. Those people live in 38 such homes that federal regulators say may be acting as mental institutions because more than half of their residents are there because of mental illnesses.

People with mental illnesses could be scattered to the streets, to homeless shelters and into emergency rooms as social workers and relatives scramble to find scarce beds in mental hospitals or in group homes.

Thousands more could join the exodus in years to come as the federal government forces the state to stop relying on adult care homes to house them.

State leaders are begging the feds for more time to sort through the crisis.

"It's the perfect storm," said Lanier Cansler, state secretary of health and human services. "We're trying to figure out how not to have a catastrophe here."

Cansler said he needs to meet with legislators when they reconvene in September to find money and get changes in the law to allow more flexibility in housing options.

Everyone is worried

Advocates for people with mental illness are worried that counties aren't prepared to care for those who are displaced. Relatives of some residents in adult care homes fear the return of an instability they have battled for years. Adult care facility operators are panicked that their businesses will be forced to close.

And politicians are blaming their counterparts across the aisle for letting down a fragile population.
No one seems to have a solution that can roll out as quickly as it's needed.

"This is the result of a decade of neglect," said Vicki Smith, executive director of Disability Rights North Carolina, which has pushed the federal government to pressure state officials. "It's all coming together right now, and it couldn't be a worse time."

The failure of reform

Federal law requires that states ensure these citizens get the care they need locally, in the least restrictive setting possible. The state must now challenge the federal government's findings or work furiously under federal supervision to create a community-based system of care.

This is a familiar story for North Carolina. In 2001, the state passed a broad reform bill aimed at providing more treatment in the community. But it forced county providers out of the business and turned the work over to for-profit companies, some of which charged far more and provided inferior care.

A News & Observer investigation and a resulting audit showed the state had wasted more than $400 million. And mental-health treatment deteriorated.

Now, the state is being forced to reconsider how it cares for the mentally ill. The most immediate issue involves the percentage of residents in adult care homes who are there because they are mentally ill.

Medicaid threatened

Under federal guidelines, Medicaid can't be used to fund institutions in which a majority of residents are ages 22 to 64 and are there because of mental illness. So far, the state has identified 38 facilities that may be in jeopardy; those homes are housing as many as 1,200 mentally ill residents aged 22 to 64.

The state will be visiting these residents and reviewing case files to determine whether they are there for a mental illness or some other medical issue. The feds will stop paying Medicaid to the residents at facilities found to be in violation, even for prescriptions and doctor visits.
And if the facilities don't get in line, they could lose all Medicaid funding, even for residents who are elderly and have other disabilities.

Ruin seen for some homes

Lou Wilson, a lobbyist for the North Carolina Associations of Long-Term Care Facilities, said this will be the financial ruin of many facilities.

"They don't know where to go and what to do," Wilson said. "They feel like they've taken care of these people when no one else would and that they've been good partners in North Carolina. They don't like the way the state is treating them now."

Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Wake County Republican, blamed Gov. Bev Perdue and other Democrats for letting the problem persist for years.

"It's fair to say these issues have been out there for years, and the Democrats have been in charge," said Dollar, who was chairman of the House appropriations committee that wrote the budget for the state Department of Health and Human Services.

"The governor kicked this can down the road, and the federal government won't let us get away with it much longer."

Perdue, however, had allocated $75 million in the budget she submitted to the Republican-controlled General Assembly this year to boost community based support, including housing, for the mentally ill. Legislators removed it from the budget as they tried to reconcile a $2.7 billion shortfall.

Decades of struggle

As politicians swapped blame, Jim Glenn of Charlotte drove each week to an adult care home in Mooresville to visit his 47-year-old son, oblivious to the brewing problem that could force his son back into the streets.

For more than two decades, Glenn, 73, had watched his son, James, struggle to find his place in the world.

James Glenn had his first break with reality in his mid-20s. Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

Ever since, the Glenns have been on a roller coaster. James spent time in psych wards. He lived on the streets and in jail cells.

A father's long struggle

Years ago, Jim Glenn found a place for his son in a group home near Charlotte, a smaller facility for people who need help but don't require 24-hour supervision. But James vanished.

It took a year before a retired FBI agent hired by Glenn located James in Utah. Police had found him sleeping in an empty classroom on a college campus and locked him up. James Glenn couldn't tell officers who he was and how he came to be there.

When Glenn got his son back home, he found a place for him in an adult care home, where aides are available around the clock. That was 15 years ago.
"These places fill a gap," Glenn said. "My son is a step above being in a mental hospital and a step below being able to be in normal society."

Thought worries were over

Aides give James Glenn his daily medicine and three meals a day. Glenn said he takes his son out to lunch once a week and brings him home for occasional weekend visits. He had stopped worrying about what would happen to his son when he dies.

Then, this summer, Glenn got a call from Amy Hart, administrator at Crown Colony, the adult care home where James lives. She called a meeting with relatives of her residents to warn them of the trouble stirring in Raleigh.

Both Crown Colony and another facility Hart runs, Hunters Village, are among the 38 adult care homes with substantial populations of mentally ill residents.

Hart didn't want the residents and their families to be caught flat-footed. She told them to call their legislators and urged them to get on waiting lists at group homes.

As a girl, more than 30 years ago, when her parents ran an adult care home, Hart remembers talking to residents who had been sent there after being discharged from mental hospitals. Over the years, their numbers grew. Some never left.

"We are their home," Hart said.

The state never asked for a count of residents with mental illnesses at these facilities.

If Hart's mentally ill residents are evicted, she said, she will be forced to cut her staff by half. Even with that she's not sure how long she can keep her doors open.

Not for the mentally ill?

Advocates for the mentally ill say that even though some facilities are well-run and clean, it's not the right place for people with mental illness. They receive no psychiatric care in the facility and no one is working to help them become more independent, said Smith of Disability Rights.

When Smith's group visited facilities across the state last year, it found many residents with mental illnesses desperate to go home. Smith's group said these residents are warehoused and often forgotten.

Now, state officials are being forced to see them, and find a place for them to go.

The state is asking Medicaid officials for more time to make the transition. Officials are coordinating with local mental health organizations and social workers to explore other placements. They know it will be difficult.

Glenn is just hoping it will all blow over and the state and feds will leave him and his son alone.

"They are playing poker with people's lives," he said. "They have no business."
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real2009 said on August 15, 2011 at 7:18 AM

@unbaised....you sure are showing your conservative point of view by blaming the Democratic party for all the ills we're facing in not only our state, but also our country. I guess it was a blessed event to go to war in Iraq during George W. Bush's administration...now, is he a democrat or a republican? What about deregulating our government that kept an watchful eye on big businesses such as ENRON and MCI whose CEOs stole their employees pentions and retirement money...whose bright idea was it to come up with NAFTA...it was under George H. Bush's administrations, sadly, Clinton had to sign it into law. And whose bright idea was it to give tax cuts to the wealthiest businesses and americans, oh yeah, George W Bush. Laisser-fair ideology doesn't work...not during the 1930s Great Depression, nor will it work now. In other words, you can't just blame one party over the other. We have to look at it as a failure to represent "we the people".

real2009 said on August 15, 2011 at 7:04 AM

@tra1999...I agree with you because this issue isn't a democratic nor a republican problem. All politicians need to stop playing the "blame game", and roll up their sleeves, and do something. They've been talking far too long and yes, we the people they're suppose to represent are being ignored. The only thing spending cuts created are not jobs as I've heard since Reagan's administration, it has only created "UNEMPLOYMENT". We can't blame Department of Social Services workers of ignoring the many ills facing our state. With no money coming to support these programs because of "spending cuts" , and the overwhelming case load on their desk, sadly, we the people are being overlooked.

princesspeaches said on August 15, 2011 at 5:46 AM

"Unbiased" we get just as many stupid decisions when Republicans are in office. You are doing no better than the idiot politicians, playing the blame game. They are all looking out for THEM. Not us. And they keep us blinded by making sure we keep playing that same stupid blame game, instead of realizing that AL politicians are failing this country. Failing the people they are supposed to be representing.

jestor said on August 15, 2011 at 4:38 AM

more visitors to the charlotte jail system. they should figure which is cheaper and safer for the public.

tra1999 said on August 15, 2011 at 4:34 AM

I am usually quiet about most situations however this makes me sick. I worked with the mentally ill for 9 years doing what they say we need more of (Community Based Services). Guess what in 2009 My job was no longer needed because there was no funding in medicaid for me to continue. That put me unemployed like the rest of North Carolina. Where are these people suppose to go they have already shut down parts of Broughton and the waiting list for group homes is like waiting on a kidney. I don't care if you are a republican or a democrat who cares this is just wrong. So now we are going to have hundreds of mentally unstable men and women living on the street with no way to get there meds or the ones that can't even remember to take there medication even if they can get it. We are going to have a serious problem on our hands that is going to effect every one not just the mentally ill. This is a crying shame and everyone needs to step up and say something.

colleen1948 said on August 14, 2011 at 9:53 PM

I worked this population for over 16 years

colleen1948 said on August 14, 2011 at 9:40 PM

As a person who worked closely (1.1) with these clients, it makes me angry that they continue to have their funds slowly taken away each year, and that also includes their health insurance. Then the state comes in and puts the blame on the everyone but where it needs to be put, and says they are tired of waiting... It is so difficult to find staff who truly dedicated to working with this population. There are even doctors who turn their back on these people as well. This population may have disabilities, but they can teach a person far more than those who actually work with them. Then you have many in society who constantly make fun of this population It is shameful!

unbiased said on August 14, 2011 at 4:22 PM

steepgap...Do you understand the political system? The party that hold the majority of seats makes the decisions because they have the most votes. That's why we get so many stupid decisions when Democrats are in office.

steepgap said on August 14, 2011 at 3:55 PM

Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Wake County Republican, blamed Gov. Bev Perdue and other Democrats for letting the problem persist for years. Does mean that when the democrats are the majority, that the republicans are just setting back to watch. Don't the republicans have any responsibilities when the democrats are in the majority. If that is the case why do we need to be paying all these republicans since they have no responsibilities. The same could be true if the parties were vice versa. It is everyone's responsibility and the fault lies with all of those who represent the people.

lisadiane said on August 14, 2011 at 2:24 PM

I don't understand how the "reform" passed in 2001 made things worse. THAT IS NOT REFORM!! And now, the bureaucrats are going to harm the people they are pretending to want to help! This is a perfect example of how, when the government takes over, or even gets involved, THINGS GET WORSE. Listen to those who have to deal with this...."leave us alone". This is awful, just awful. The mentally ill need security and consistency. The government is taking all that away. Just what the government does best! WHY are they meddling in something that is working for the people who need it???

allann_704 said on August 14, 2011 at 12:44 PM

Here's the real tragedy. There's a substantially good idea in "least restrictive settings"..but as interpretted and implemented by bureaucrats and under funded by legislators, the 'changes' are more about 'giving the appearance of doing something' - rather than do better for those with mental disabilities. No, adult homes are an especially wonderful idea - just the only one that worked for quite a while. Some are s#$%holes - because the state never invested enough in regulatory visits, and because state payments were cheap at best.


Saturday, August 13, 2011

Reply Re: GaryLarrabee - tribulations, etc

Senor Larrabee- I beseech you to avial yourselves of going to & visitating mine own WebSite, to wit: ,www.geocities.com/elijahradioprophet> and also as well to visit my moderaterated YahooGroup site "FreightTrainDomain" whereat you shall find resulting of years of studies, etc. and prehappenstances you shall encorperalise some of 'line-upon-line; precept upon precept' and revitilise your stagnagent sbyssymal biblicentrick oneyed mule type thought schisims which are aleading you down the primrose pathways to the "outside the gates' peoples described in Isaiah Chapter LXVI, last verse. Fetch thine eyes upon thisahere article fir your presumptions I adress the actual meanderings of that there 'Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition' down throughout history, to the which you can well ascertain that 'these things ain't been done in haste, nor without a prepondance of evil machinisations' by them who are in 'oppositition to Yahweh Elohim, eloi el Yisroil."










Although I am a Jewess, and my Torah studies are from

a Kabbalist-based perspective, I reguard some christer

apoclyptic writings to be inspired, mainly due to

their POWER over the PEOPLES of the WORLD. Hence my

Endorsement of this 'link-up' betwixt

Nazi/Hitler/Crowley/Illuminiti/and Wars, Wars, Wars

and RAMPENT anti-Semitism thinly veiled in the RECENT

LAWS and PRESEDENTIAL ORDERS signed by the GRANDSON of

a RABID NAZI COLLABERATOR, (Prescott Bush) who was

CALLED BEFORE the US CONGRESS to answer for

COLLABERATION with the ENEMY during the aftermath of

World War Two. Is it any 'wonderful' thing that Geo.

W. Bush is SETTING UP the Remanant of Israel as

'Scapegoats' for the September murders/atrocities in

New York/Washington DC?











SITE MENU



This very well-researched and christian-dogmaticlly

correct article bears out quite well my own 45+ years

of studies, and let me add, at the time of the DEATH

of 'ANTON LeVay', the founder of the 'church of Satan'

in San Francisco, I was caught up into a 'trance' by

my personal Guardian Angel (Miahael), and was in earnest

prayers and undergoing great agonies 'on the streets'

of San Francisco, spending much time in the courtyard

of Trinity Cathredial on Nob Hill, where I had many

visions and prophecies revealed unto me, and the

'Gargoyles' on the Cornerstones above me were

'anamated' and spoke unto me, becoming trhe

embodiments of the Four Arch Angels, Gabriel, Michael,

Uriel and Metanon-the Angel of Death, (Michael being

MY own Guardian Angel, introduced to me in a Vision in

1989,) and after this state of 'Spiritual

Trance-Altered Consciousness' left me (it lasted 72

hours) I became aware that Anton LeVey had DIED in the

Catholic Hospital at the EXACT TIME I was receiving

the FINAL PROPHECIES/ESCHATOLOGICAL REVELATIONS, St.

Lukes, I believe, the hospital at the corner of Army

Street & Valencia, address being 2001 Valencia Street, SF. Calif.,where my Wonderful Friend and

Doctor, Dr. Eun Joo Lee Justice, is on the staff. So,

I can reccomend the perusal of this article and

believe the comprehension of the 'historically

documented' facts cannot be gainsayed nor disproved.

REMEMBER: the Writer IS A BORNED-AGAIN Christian, and

his 'slant' is TOTALLY BIBLICAL. Joanna d'Arc-the ElijahRadioProphet.

+++As for being authorised and empowered by GOD MOST HIGH, the Elohim of Israel, you goyim and worshippers of that dead zealot bar Yosef, I commend unto you this SCRIPTURE from the HISTORICAL GOD-BREATHED SCRIPTURES, in the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter XXIX, Verse 29 it is EXPLICITLY and AUTHORATATIVLY

stated " The Secret [things belong] unto the LORD our God: but those [things which are] revealed [belong] UNTO US and to OUR CHILDREN FOR EVER, that DO ALL THE WORDS OF THIS LAW." Seeing as how YOU 'christerns' ARE NOT THE SEED-LINE of ABRAHAM, ISAAC & JACOB, you have NO ACCESS to the 'SECRET WISDOM' of Yahweh Elohim, and more importantly, the QUALIFIER is 'that WE SHALL KEEP ALL THE WORDS OF THIS LAW (Torah)" which YOU, heretics, deny and despise. DO YOU THINK YOUR 'revealations' are from the MOST HIGH GOD? and they are TRUE? I refer you now to 2nd. Chronicles Chapter XVIII, verses 18 through 22, I shall quote from 19ff..."And the LORD said, Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one spake, saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner. Then there came out a +spirit+ and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And [the spirit] said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the LORD said, Thou shalt entice [him], and THOU SHALT ALSO PREVAIL: go out, and do [even] so. NOW THEREFORE, BEHOLD, the LORD hath PUT A LYING SPIRIT in the MOUTH of these THY PROPHETS, and the LORD hath SPOKEN EVIL AGAINST THEE." You accusers of the Jews know not that YE ART THE "SATAN" YOU SO RAIL AGAINST!? For the LITERIAL TRANSLATION of the Hebrew Word SATAN is "ACCUSER or ENEMY of ISRAEL, the JEWS." You 'christers' fulfill the verses in the Apocalypse of Yochannan, Ch. 2, Vs. 9; " I know the BLASPHEMY of them which SAY they are Jews, and ARE NOT but the synogogue of Satan." You stand on Galatians 3:29 "if you be in christ, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." What scatological inanity, what rubbish! The Promises and Covenants of the MOST HIGH GOD are ETERNAL and WITHOUT REPENTANCE! There are TWO SURITIES in this Covenant, #1, YE MUST BE CIRCUMCISED, Ye and all your house, every Male that openeth the matrix, And Secondly,: YOU MUST KEEP THE WORDS OF THIS LAW, and SABBATH, throughout all your generations, I WILL BE BE WITH THEE AND THY SEED AFTER THEE throughout ALL generations for GOOD." Saith the Lord. In Malachi He saith, I AM the LORD, I change NOT; therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed!" Those who follow after apostates and heretics, Paulism, christernised cultic abominations are RECEIVING YOUR PROPHECIES from that there SAME "LYING SPIRIT" that God send out to DESTROY AHAB and JEZEBEL, servants of MALOCH and BAAL

and the 'holy' spirit that INSPIRES you to HATE GODS CHOSEN PEOPLE will inspire your heathen souls into hellfire and eternal damnation in wailing and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abrahan and the Jews all entered in, and you shut out.























Aleister Crowley: The Midnight Messenger

by Mike Culkin

"The future was darkening, we were nearing the

terrible catastrophe which was about to overwhelm

France. The abyss was at our feet; yet averting our

eyes, struck with a fatal blindness, we hurried from

fête to fête, from pleasure to pleasure. It was a kind

of frenzy which thrust us gaily on to our own

destruction. Alas! how can a storm be controlled when

one sees it not?





"Meanwhile, from time to time, some troubled or

observant minds tried to snatch us from this fatal

security. I have already said that the Comte de

St.-Germain had tried to unseal the eyes of their

Majesties, by making them perceive the approach of

danger; but M. de Maurepas, not wishing the salvation

of the country to come from anyone but himself, ousted

the thaumaturgist, and he re-appeared no more."





The year in which these events were taking place was

1788, and these words were later recorded in the diary

of Madame d'Adhémar, an intimate friend of

Marie-Antoinette. M. de Maurepas was an adviser to the

Queen, and was the one most accused by the Abbé

Barruel of leading the French Revolution.





The reason I am making this reference to the Count of

Saint-Germain is that I want to place him and Aleister

Crowley within the same class of adepts who by their

mere presence energise the elemental forces of war and

chaos. It transpired that Saint-Germain's warnings to

the French Royal Court were totally vindicated, but

his timing and mysteriousness meant that the whole

course of events could not be averted. It was too late

to avert the inevitable. These adepts have virtually

self-realised personalities. Crowley perceived his

role of energising war when he wrote that the

prophetic events contained in The Book of the Law

could only be put into action by its publication.

Thus, a series of violent and bloody conflicts came

into effect after this powerful grimoire was

published. This is the "word-sword" principle: words

spoken or published which give effect to outcomes or

consequences.





Saint-Germain was a high level adept of the secret

societies. He was believed to have died in 1784, but

he faked his death, since both Masonic and Catholic

sources place him at the Wilhelmsbad conference held

on 15 February, 1785. This conference was held in an

attempt to bring about a conciliation between the

various sects of the Rosicrucians, the Necromantists,

the Cabalists, the Illuminati and the Humanitarians.

In attendance were such (il)luminaries as Cagliostro,

St. Martin, Mesmer and Weishaupt.





Saint-Germain was a member of the Paris Chapter of the

Knights Templar. He was the Obermohr [supreme magus]

of many mystic brotherhoods, where he was worshipped

as a superior being. His memory was not forgotten, and

by the end of the nineteenth century, hierophants of

the secret schools looked upon Saint-Germain with

profound gratitude. His influence had helped to open

the way for humanism and republicanism (which in this

author's opinion is a respectable name for organised

crime), movements which "flowered" in the twentieth

century.





Gnostic forces were progressing in the ascendancy

during the nineteenth century, and into this milieu

was Edward Alexander Crowley born; he later took the

name Aleister. He was born on 12 October, 1875.

According to Kenneth Grant, head of an OTO breakaway

sect, the Typhonian Tradition, Crowley first became

aware of the existence of spiritual powers in 1898

when he read The Cloud upon the Sanctuary by Karl von

Eckartshausen. Crowley was 22 at the time and set out

to contact the hidden Order which the book describes.

His efforts led to his initiation into the Hermetic

Order of the Golden Dawn on 18 November, 1898. He

assumed the magical name Perdurabo (I shall endure).





In August, 1903, Crowley married Rose Kelly, his

'scarlet woman,' whom he had met in Paris. They

proceeded on an extended honeymoon, and whilst in Sri

Lanka, they went trekking through the jungle. Whilst

standing on the shores of a lake, Crowley decided to

shoot enough furry bats to make himself a waistcoat.

One bat landed on Rose, and Crowley had some trouble

detaching its claws. That night, Crowley was awakened

by the noise of a squealing bat. He then saw Rose,

completely naked, clinging with her arms and legs to

the wooden frame that supported the mosquito net. As

he pulled her down, she bit and spat and squealed, and

she had to be shaken into wakefulness. Crowley noted

that it was the finest case of obsession that he had

ever had the "good fortune" to observe.





When Rose later discovered she was pregnant, they

decided to return home to England. En-route they went

to Cairo, where they took a flat. (Incidentally, Rose

went on to have a daughter who was named Night my

Athatour Hecate Sappho Jesabel Lilith, and who died in

tragic circumstances. Rose died an alcoholic).





In Cairo, Crowley proceeded to dress in Persian garb,

pretending to be an oriental prince, Chioi Khan (being

Hebrew for the Beast). Crowley's mother, a strict

Plymouth Brethren, had believed her son to be the

beast ( number 666 ( of Revelation 13:18.





In Cairo, Crowley attempted a series of invocations to

summon up elementals or demons. Rose sank into a

curious state of mind in which she kept repeating:

"You have offended Horus." It was Rose who in fact

introduced Crowley to the elemental, Aiwass. Through

Rose, Aiwass told Crowley that he was to go into his

workroom at precisely midday on 8, 9 and 10 April,

1904 and write down what he heard for the next hour.

The message began: "Had! the manifestation of Nuit."

And thus The Book of the Law came into existence. It

is also known as "Liber AL vel Legis" (meaning

'divinely revealed Book of the Law') or Liber AL for

short. Whilst The Book of the Law was received in

1904, it would not be published until 1913, just nine

months before the 'Balkan War' (later to be called

World War One).





According to Crowley, " 'The Law of Thelema' [ie,

Liber AL], revealed in Cairo in 1904, has come to

replace the outworn creeds, the local codes; to help

the peoples of the world march on to a new era of

peace and happiness." Thus Crowley becomes a medium

and 'false prophet' within the context of James 4:5:

"They are from the world; therefore they speak from

the world's viewpoint; and the world listens to them."







Crowley preached the New Aeon of Horus, the "new era

of peace and happiness," but the path to this "new

era" would necessarily be bathed in blood. A moment's

reflection on the course of the twentieth century

confirms that the revolutionary and violent prophecies

contained within The Book of the Law have been

fulfilled, and there are other events yet to occur.





Forerunner to Crowley





Crowley did not just appear out-of-the-blue. The

groundwork had been laid for millennia, for his creed

is Gnosticism. Essentially, a Gnostic is one who seeks

illumination, and sets out to become a divine being;

basically, an alchemical transmutation of evil into

good achieved through the exercise of one's own will.

Christians believe that this transmutation can only

occur through the grace of God as may be extended to

an individual; no amount of self-will can achieve this

transmutation of one's spirit.





Gnostic leaders are spiritualist mediums who take

counsel and direction from spirits or "Invisible

Masters." The ideals of Gnostics are utopian, and the

ends justify the means. Crowley was a Gnostic master,

as was a forerunner of his, Adam Weishaupt. Many

readers have more than likely 'completed' Conspiracy

Theory 101, and are familiar with Herr Weishaupt. For

those who may not know of him, some background

follows.





Weishaupt was born in Catholic-dominated southern

Germany on 6 February, 1748. He was Jesuit-educated

and attained a very influential university position.

In accordance with the "needs of his period" (Kenneth

Grant), he reawakened the Order of the Illuminati.

Weishaupt's occult activities culminated in the French

Revolution, and this spark ruptured the course of

history.





Shortly after the French Revolution, the Marquis de

Luchet said, "This society [Illuminati] aims at

governing the world. Its object is universal

domination." He called the Illuminati "a subterranean

fire smouldering eternally and breaking forth

periodically in violent and devastating explosions."





Weishaupt wrote the following to a fellow Illuminatus:

"We must consider how we can begin to work under

another form. If only the aim is achieved, it does not

matter under what cover it takes place, and cover is

always necessary. For in concealment lies a great part

of our strength. For this reason we must cover

ourselves with the name of another society. The lodges

that are under Freemasonry are in the meantime the

most suitable cloak for our high purpose, because the

world is already accustomed to expect nothing great

from them which merits attention. As in the spiritual

Orders of the Roman Church, religion was, alas! only a

pretence, so must our Order also in a nobler way try

to conceal itself behind a learned society or

something of the kind."





On 26 December, 1993, no less an organ of the fourth

estate, "The Economist" published the following under

the heading, "The Good Network Guide": "Beyond all

these networks lies the mother of all networks, the

Order of the Illuminati, known to some as the True

Rulers of the World. Its age will remain uncertain

until the story of the last days of Atlantis is better

known. Though this secret body has hovered unseen over

all history, its most public flowering was in the

Enlightenment. Adam Weishaupt, a former Jesuit ( who

provided much of the inspiration for Shelley's

Frankenstein ( revealed its purpose and system of

mutual surveillance to the world on May 1st 1776.

Since then the order has taken a keen interest in

another newborn of that year. It is significant that

many American presidents have been Illuminati; and the

Illuminati symbol of the eye in the pyramid still

graces the dollar bill.





"The conspiracy is immense and terrifying, stretching

from Hassan-i-Sabbah, 11th-century Assassin, to Ian

Fleming (who caricatured the order as "SPECTRE"). It

is the network of those who run networks. Given its

power, you should assume that anyone writing about the

order must be either lying or part of a conspiracy to

confound you. In wondering about the Illuminati,

merely remember this. You have never arrived." (Note

the motto of the Assassins: "Nothing is true.

Everything is permitted").





Angelo Roncalli who was to become Pope John XXIII, and

who convened Vatican 2, is reputed to have been a

member of the Illuminati. The Illuminist eye in the

pyramid was used on his papal cross. He is also

reputed to have met with Crowley. It was Vatican 2

which led to the Catholic church seizing the

world-wide ecumenical agenda and which authorised the

idolatrous elevation of Mary to goddess status.





After the French Revolution, the Order of the

Illuminati disappeared. In 1904, an Austrian Adept

named Karl Kellner repeated Weishaupt's feat, and

re-established the Illuminati through a sect known as

Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). Crowley took over

leadership of OTO in 1922. The spirit guides of the

Gnostics had clearly directed that the Illuminati once

again step into the public realm but, in this

instance, through OTO.





The Book of the Law





Crowley is not an aberration. He is part of an

historical process which has yet to reach its climax.

The ruling spirits of this world relayed the primary

plank of their program to Crowley, and this is

contained in The Book of the Law. For human beings,

the real struggle is not against each other, but

against the evil cosmic powers which govern this dark

age. Crowley was their medium, but on several

occasions as he wrote down The Book of the Law, Aiwass

chastised Crowley for being concerned about what he

was writing.





As part of my own spiritual journey as a Christian, I

eventually found myself looking into Crowley. It took

sometime before I recognised that The Book of the Law

was such an important work. I am not writing this

article to make the facts fit in with my world-view.

What I found is that The Book of the Law has been

fulfilled to a large degree, and that its contents tie

in strongly with the Revelation. Just as Jesus sent

his angel to reveal future events to John, so did

Satan send a spirit being, Aiwass, to Crowley. Both

works are eschatological (the doctrine of last or

final things).





The Book of the Law says that the god of war and

vengeance, Ra-Hoor-Khu-It (Horus), is now positioned

on his seat of power. His human incarnation will

occur, and he will be in the form of a child, the

False Prophet or Antichrist. He is the offspring of

the union of Hadit (Satan) and Nuit (Babylon). This

union and its "fruit" is referred to in Revelation

chapter 13. The Book of the Law tells us that Satan is

the coiled serpent, and he is about to spring.

Christians will be put to death. Through war and

chaos, the goddess (Nuit/Babylon) will be placed in a

position to be worshipped, and her offspring, the

child, will be mightier than all the kings of the

earth, although one of these rich "kings" will finance

him.





There are three underlying principles in The Book of

the Law for Thelemites (Thelema is Greek for

determination through choice; inclination to desire,

pleasure, will) to live by:





1. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.







2. Love is the law, love under will.





3. Every man and every woman is a star.





A curious feature of Gnosticism is that in the early

stages of the Gnostic quest, one is driven by terrible

despair, and simultaneously, a powerful upsurge of

love. In the utopian quest for self-perfection, a

'good' person in the world's eyes is one who is

seemingly self-realised and self-reliant. That person

develops the will to be the master of his/her world,

even though many other persons may lose in the

process. To become a selfish 'superman' is the Gnostic

goal, and those who are not so capable or who do not

share this ideal are meant only to serve and be used.

Sin is no longer a restriction on one's will to

fulfill the most powerful desires. Nietzsche longed

for 'the fair beast' (die blonde Bestie) ( the strong,

beautiful beast which shall rule the world, and act in

all things according to its will.





W.B. Yeats, the Irish poet and contemporary of Crowley

in the Order of the Golden Dawn, wrote about the

Gnostic utopia thus: "...an aristocratic civilisation

in its most completed form, every detail of life

hierarchical, every great man's door crowded at dawn

by petitioners, great wealth everywhere in few men's

hands, all dependent on a few, up to the Emperor

himself, who is a God dependent on a greater God and

everywhere, in Court, in the family, an inequality

made law."





The Book of the Law in the Context of the 20th Century







Satan through Aiwass declares that Christianity is

dead, and that Crowley is to be the prophet of the

neo-pagan system which would emerge. Moral values and

compassion as exercised would be relative to the

exigencies of the times. The neo-pagan emergence would

birth on an altar of moral enfeeblement and blood

sacrifice. The strong of will would take control of

the world.





The most dramatic instance of human sacrifice occurred

under the Nazis in World War II. The German lyric poet

and essayist, Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) prophetically

wrote of a time when Germany would go berserk:





"Some day there will awake that fighting folly found

among the ancient Germans, the folly that fights

neither to kill nor to conquer, but simply to fight.

Christianity has ( and that is its fairest merit (

somewhat mitigated that brutal German lust for battle.

But it could not destroy it: and once the taming

talisman, the Cross, is broken, the savagery of the

old battlers will flare up again, the insane Berserk

rage of which Nordic bards have so much to say and

sing. The talisman is brittle. The day will come when

it will pitiably collapse. Then the old stone gods

will rise from forgotten rubble and rub the dust of a

thousand years from their eyes; and Thor will leap up

and with his giant hammer start smashing Gothic

cathedrals..."





The gods did indeed awaken. According to Trevor

Ravenscroft in "The Spear of Destiny," every year from

1926 to 1942, the Germans sent out parties which

contacted Tibetan initiates, the intention being to

gain their psychic help and deep alliance with the

devilish forces which rule this world. A Tibetan

colony was established in Germany in 1929, and the

monks were known in Germany as "The Society of Green

Men," because of their links with the Green Dragon

Society of Japan.





In Berlin, Hitler met regularly with the leader of the

Tibetan community who was a very gifted and accurate

clairvoyant. Himmler shared Hitler's interest in the

occult, and set up the Nazi Occult Bureau. This

incorporated into one organisation the Thule group,

the Vril Society and the German branch of OTO

(Crowley's magical order).





Between 1936 and 1939, Crowley paid a number of visits

to Germany. It is known that a woman called Martha

Kunzel repeatedly urged on Hitler the wisdom of

adopting The Book of the Law as his guide. Hitler

rejected this, as he wanted Mein Kampf to be the holy

book of Germany. By the time the war had broken out,

Crowley had become strongly anti-Hitler, and said that

"Britain would knock Hitler for six" (an analogy from

cricket: the worst thing a batsman can do to a bowler

is hit the ball clear out of the field, and thus score

six runs). The German branch of OTO had by the time of

the war been banned and most of its members were in

concentration camps.





Hermann Rauschning, governor of Danzig, had been very

close to Hitler, and recorded many of their

conversations which were published in a book called

Hitler Speaks. Rauschning openly acknowledged Hitler's

obsession with the occult, and found that very often

Hitler was paraphrasing or expressing an idea from The

Book of the Law ( often word for word.





"I will tell you a secret," Hitler told Rauschning, "I

am founding an order. It is from there that the second

stage will emerge ( the stage of the Man-God, when Man

will be the measure and centre of the world. The

Man-God, that splendid being, will be an object of

worship. But there are other stages about which I am

not permitted to speak."





"Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the

world! for your time is nigh at hand" (The Book of the

Law 3:71) The "pillars of the world" are the powerful

and greedy emotions of people, and the twin warriors

are the spirits that would cause the two world wars

energised by the compliance and sinfulness of the

"pillars of the world." Hitler knew exactly what he

was about, and fulfilled his pre-destined role. The

cornerstone of Novus Ordo Seclorum was laid.





Jack Parsons and the Babalon Working





By the time World War II came to an atomic end in

1945, the earth had been literally soaked in blood.

The warrior god, Horus, had erupted, and the world

convulsed in a continuous fit of war and genocide.

Verse 3:46 of The Book of the Law had come to pass: "I

am the warrior Lord of the Forties: the Eighties cower

before me, & are abased. I will bring you victory &

joy; I will be at your arms in battle & ye shall

delight to slay. Success is your proof; courage is

your armour; go on, go on, in my strength; & ye shall

turn not back for any!"





Crowley's time on earth came to an end on the evening

of 1 December, 1947 when he succumbed to myocardial

degeneration and chronic bronchitis. The prankster was

dead, long live the prankster!





Crowley had come from an English world which was

traditional and very conservative. Throughout his

life, he loved to play the prankster. On one such

occasion, he walked into a lift and urinated in the

corner, and then declared that the lift had become a

sacred place. But at heart, he does seem to be very

English. The new wave Americans, the bohemian Jack

Parsons and the brash L. Ron Hubbard, were not bound

by English strictures; they were very much action men.







When Parsons and Hubbard performed the Babalon Working

in January, 1946, Crowley was resentful and branded

them "louts," even though he had developed the Working

and mentored Parsons (in correspondence to Crowley,

Parsons used the salutation, "Most Beloved Father").

Crowley was so incensed at the Working being performed

that he cabled his US office on 22 May: "Suspect Ron

playing confidence trick ( Jack Parsons weak fool (

obvious victim prowling swindlers."





Jack Parsons was a very gifted scientist and chemist,

and founded a company which was to become Jet

Propulsion Laboratories (JPL), which in its modern day

guise has merged with NASA (JPL.NASA). To this day,

people at NASA are reputed to refer to JPL as Jack

Parsons' Laboratory. He was also an Illuminatus and

had deep occult interests, and is reputed to have been

a descendent of a Hell-Fire Club founder. When he

first encountered Crowley's writings he intuitively

understood Thelema. He joined the Los Angeles OTO

Lodge in 1939, and rapidly rose to prominence.





In April, 1945, Parsons was introduced to L. Ron

Hubbard. Enter the prankster! Crowley biographer

Kenneth Grant refers to Crowley as "a confidence

trickster who had wormed his way into the OTO on the

pretence of being interested in Magick." Despite the

resentment shown to Hubbard by OTO leaders (including

Crowley), L. Ron was able to call Crowley "my very

good friend" in a 1952 speech. Perhaps this was the

prankster talking.





Hubbard's relationship to Parsons is basically similar

to Edward Kelley's relationship to Dr. John Dee, the

English alchemist and Elizabethan court astrologer.

Kelley was also a prankster and scryer (gazer into

crystal balls), and Dee fell completely under his

spell. Dee wanted to access the crystal ball, but was

not gifted in this regard. Kelley became Dee's scryer.







Parsons was also an alchemist, but needed a "magical

partner," and Hubbard became that partner. Parsons had

written to Crowley: "Although he [Hubbard] has no

formal training in Magick, he has an extraordinary

amount of experience and understanding in the field.

From some of his experiences I deduced that he was in

direct touch with some higher intelligence, possibly

his Guardian Angel. He describes his Angel as a

beautiful winged woman with red hair whom he calls the

Empress and who has guided him through his life, and

saved him many times..."





The Babalon Working is an invocation ritual developed

in conjunction with Crowley. A series of rituals and

invocations were undertaken by Parsons commencing on 4

January, 1946. A short time after the process began,

Parsons and Hubbard went out into the Mojave Desert

for four days. The Babalon Working ritual is outlined

in Parsons' book Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword. By 18

January, Parsons announced to Hubbard, "It is done."

Parsons had successfully opened an inter-dimensional

doorway. He invoked the goddess and paved the way for

the present-day passion for drugs, UFOs and

divination. Parsons wrote "Liber 49" which he

maintained was the fourth and final chapter of The

Book of the Law.





According to the woman who embodied the invoked

goddess, Marjorie Cameron, and who came to Parsons

shortly after the completion of the Babalon Working,

Parsons set in motion the second part of a great force

which was divided into three. Aleister Crowley began

the first, and the third would be the work of the boy

child embodiment of Horus, the False Prophet or

Antichrist (Revelation 13:1 .





Readers familiar with Revelation may wonder if

Crowley's Babalon is the same as Babylon of

Revelation. The answer is yes. Babalon is the secret

name of Nuit, the goddess revealed in chapter one of

The Book of the Law. Babylon the goddess is revealed

throughout Revelation as the provider of material

wealth. The Babalon spelling was adopted because of

its qabalistic numerical significance. Kenneth Grant

records the attributes of Babalon as being

"death-dealing and vampiric."





Jack Parsons wrote in The Book of Babalon (January 4 -

March, 4, 1946): I have "been engaged in the study and

practise of Magick for seven years, and in the

supervision and operation of an occult lodge for four

years, having been initiated into the Sanctuary of

Gnosis by the Beast 666, Fra. 132 and Fra. Saturnis.

At this time I decided upon a Magical operation

designed to obtain the assistance of an elemental

mate...I decided to use the Enochian Tablets obtained

[from spirit guides] by Dr. Dee and Edward

Kelley...During the period of January 19 to February

27 [1946] I invoked the Goddess BABALON with the aid

of my magical partner [Hubbard], as was proper to one

of my grade."





On March 2, 1946, Hubbard had channelled the message:

"She [Babalon] is the flame of life, power of

darkness, she destroys with a glance, she may take thy

soul. She feeds upon the death of men...She shall

absorb thee, and thou shalt become a living flame

before she incarnates."





Parsons continued with his magickal operations for the

remainder of the forties, and in 1949 wrote in The

Manifesto of the Antichrist:





Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. I,

BELARION, ANTICHRIST, in the year 1949 of the rule of

the Black Brotherhood called Christianity, do make my

Manifesto to all men. And I, THE ANTICHRIST, come

among you, saying: An end to the pretence, and lying

hypocrisy of Christianity. An end to the servile

virtues, and superstitious restrictions. An end to the

slave morality. An end to prudery and shame, to guilt

and sin, for these are of the only evil the sun, that

is fear. An end to all authority that is not based on

courage and manhood, to the authority of lying

priests, conniving judges, blackmailing police, and an

end to the servile flattery and cajolery of mods (sic

- would appear to refer to dilettantes), the

coronations of mediocrities, the ascension of dolts.

An end to restriction and inhibition, for I, THE

ANTICHRIST, am come among you preaching the Word of

the BEAST 666, which is, "There is no law beyond Do

what thou wilt."

And I, BELARION, ANTICHRIST, do lift up my voice and

prophecy, and I say: I shall bring all men to the law

of the BEAST 666, and in His law I shall conquer the

world. And within seven years of this time, BABALON,

THE SCARLET WOMAN HILARION will manifest among ye, and

bring this my work to its fruition. An end to

conscription, compulsion, regimentation, and the

tyranny of false laws. And within nine years a nation

shall accept the Law of the BEAST 666 in my name, and

that nation will be the first nation of earth. And all

who accept me the ANTICHRIST and the law of the BEAST

666, shall be accursed and their joy shall be a

thousandfold greater than the false joys of the false

saints. And in my name BELARION shall they work

miracles, and confound our enemies, and none shall

stand before us.

Therefore I, THE ANTICHRIST call upon all the Chosen

and elect and upon all men, come forth now in the name

of Liberty, that we may end forever the tyranny of the

Black Brotherhood.

Witness my hand and seal on this [...] day of [...]

1949, that is the year of BABALON 4066.

Love is the law, love under will.

Belarion, Antichrist

Analysis by a Master of the Temple

of the Critical Nodes in the Experience of his

Material Vehicle





Parsons died on 17 June, 1952 in a laboratory

explosion as a result of dropping a phial of fulminate

of mercury. However, there is suspicion that his death

was faked, for without legal precedent, his next of

kin (Marjorie Cameron) was not consulted in order to

identify the body, nor was she allowed to see him in

the ambulance or hospital. Other oddities about his

death have been noted.





In 1972, the Parsons Crater was named on the dark side

of the moon in honour of Parsons (for services to

rocketry). Hubbard went on to become the founder of

the Church (sic) of Scientology, and, in 1972, Kenneth

Grant wrote that he was "still at large, having grown

wealthy and famous by the misuse of the secret

knowledge which he had wormed out of Parsons."





Let's Get Philosophical for a Moment





At the heart of The Book of the Law is the

instruction: Do what thou wilt. Under "Law," this is a

conscious development of one's personal will to power.

Nietzsche's message of the superman is that, on the

will to power theory, values are mutable. Thus one's

own values prevail, rather than conforming to the

values of the collective which endeavour to pursue

peace and harmony. When the question of basic values

is open in society, the essential victory has been

won.





Identifying with the conscious will to power, one

wants to set the terms, insisting on the principle, "I

will not serve." Satan thought much the same thing: "I

will climb to the sky; higher than the stars of God I

will set my throne. I will sit in the mount of

assembly, on the summit of Zaphon [the abode of the

gods]: I will mount the back of a cloud ( I will match

the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13,14).





Satan is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and

his lie to humans is to "eat" from him in order to

become a divine being. The Book of the Law says that

every man and every woman is a star (1:3). The

"sovereign power" of thought is a real and actual

fact: if I "will" to kick up my foot, so it is done.

If I am powerful enough, and I will order the dropping

of an atomic bomb on civilians, so it is done. If

technology is but a tool of people, then surely it is

controlled by will.





Through development of the conscious will, we are in

the process of strengthening the ego. As created human

beings, the realm of ego consciousness and the

spiritual and psychic realm are indissolubly united

with the body. As the ego grows stronger, it detaches

itself more and more from the body.





In the individual will to power, one's ego detaches

from the collective ego. It is a struggle and a

creative act. Such an act brings on a sense of

loneliness; it also introduces suffering, toil,

trouble, evil, sickness and death into a person's life

as soon as this separation is perceived by the ego.

When Adam and Eve made their decision to will to power

rather than will to God's will, God told Adam: "Cursed

be the ground because of you; by toil shall you eat of

it all the days of your life: Thorns and thistles

shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be

grasses of the field; By the seat of your brow shall

you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground (

for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to

dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:17-19).





To be the outsider or revolutionary is to be isolated

and alone. The individual is pitted against the world,

and becomes part of a higher, different unity. To

become a "star" and will to power is to have knowledge

of good and evil and is accounted sin, and one is

expelled from paradise. To Gnostics, this feeling of

privation becomes the driving force of the world

process. The way of salvation lies in heightening

consciousness with the will to become 'Sons of God'.

Jesus Christ says that such transmutation can only

occur if a person is spiritually reborn from above

(John 3:3- through repentance the regenerative work

of the Holy Spirit.





Where does God fit into all this?





The Crowley/Gnostic self-hood process fits in with the

prophesied progression of the human race. In this

Present Age wherein God's grace to be spiritually

reborn has been extended to non-Jews, the majority of

people will remain cold of heart and will grow in sin.

Paul says people will be self-loving, money-loving,

brutal, hateful of good, plus a number of other

unpleasant attributes (2 Timothy 3:2-5).





The message of The Book of the Law is eschatological.

Revelation is also eschatological. The Present Age

will not last much longer, for the Christian heritage

is being expunged, and the fig tree (Holy Land) has

blossomed. Thelemites believe that this age will be

followed by the 2,000 year reign of Horus. Christians

say the Present Age will be followed by the 1,000 year

reign of Jesus Christ on Earth, to be followed by the

last judgement. Thelemites now say "Abrahadabra"

(meaning Father-Satan-Father); Christians say "Amen!

Come Lord Jesus."


CROOKID Social Security plan


> >
> >
> > Subject: Social Security
> >
> > Non believers, Check it out...It's 100
> percent true.....
> >
> > Q: Which party took Social Security from an
> independent fund and put it in
> > the general fund so that Congress could spend
> it?
> > A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the
> Democratic-controlled House and Senate.
> >
> > Q: Which party put a tax on Social Security?
>
> > A: The Democratic party.
> >
> > Q: Which party increased the tax on Social
> Security?
> > A: The Democratic Party with Al Gore casting
> the deciding vote.
> >
> > Q Which party decided to give money to
> immigrants?
> > A: That's right, immigrants moved into this
> country at 65 and got SSI
> > Social
> > Security.
> > The Democratic Party gave that to them
> although they never paid a dime
> > into it
> >
> > Then, after doing all this, the
> Democrats turn around and tell you
> > the
> > Republicans want to take your Social
> Security.
> >
> > And the worst part about it is, you
> believe it!
> >
> > Pass it on please!
> >
> >
> > SOCIAL SECURITY: (This is worth the read.
> It's short and to the point.)
> > Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions
> during election years. Our
> > Senators and Congressmen do not pay into
> Social Security and, of course,
> > they do not collect from it. Social Security
> benefits were not suitable for
> > persons of their rare elevation in society.
> > They felt they should have a special plan for
> themselves. Many years ago
> > they voted in their own benefit plan. In
> more recent years, no congress
> > person has felt the need to change it. After
> all, it is a great plan. For
> > all practical purposes their plan works like
> this:
> > When they retire, they continue to draw the
> same pay until they die, except
> > it may increase from time to time for cost of
> living adjustments.
> > For example, former Senator Byrd and
> Congressman White and their wives may
> > expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven
> Million, Eight-Hundred
> > Thousand),
> > with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during
> the last years of their lives.
> > This is calculated on an average life span
> for each.
> > Their cost for this excellent plan is $00.00.
> Nada. Zilch.
> > This little perk they voted for themselves is
> free to them. You and I pick
> > up the tab for this plan.
> > The funds for this fine retirement plan come
> directly from the General
> > Funds--our tax dollars at work!
> > >From our own Social Security Plan, which
> you and I pay (or have paid)
> > into--every payday until we retire (which
> amount is matched by our
> > employer)--we can expect to get an average
> $1,000 per month after
> > retirement. Or, in other words, we would have
> to collect our average of
> > $1,000. monthly benefits for 68 years and one
> (l) month to equal Bradley's
> > benefits!
> > Social Security could be very good if only
> one small change were made. And
> > that change would be to jerk the Golden
> Fleece Retirement Plan from under
> > the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into
> the Social Security plan with
> > the rest of us and then watch how fast they
> would fix it.
> > If enough people receive this, maybe a seed
> of awareness will be planted
> > and
> > maybe good changes will evolve.
> >
> > How many people can YOU send this to?
> >
> >

FAT BOY thinks BAD TINGS

net (John Bernays)
To: cmw@mediawatch.org
CC: frog sings at my window
Subject: Salim Muwakkil article: Drug War/Black Community

A friend of mine brought a copy of CMW back from the Rainbow Gathering, I caould not go, due to having 6 wonderful Dogs (which MUST be pampered,) and work commitments. (How awful for a 53 year old Hippie to admit!)

I read with interest the articles RE: the Drug Wars, the inequality of sentencing of Negro felons, and the "True Story" Behind...the Drug War.

Those reporters were, obviously, not Journalists, in the Classical sense, nor did they present a factual account, in either report.

Had I not been incarerated in 2 different State Prison Systems, (California & Oklahoma) in excess of 5 years, and WITNESSED the nature of those Negros also there, and heard with my own ears their daily conversations, and paid attention to their Reading Matter, and been a respected CONVICT in both systems, by Blacks & Whites both (such respect is gained by swift violent self defence when you are initially "tested" upon entering the System,) I would not be able to write this. I do NOT wish to demean nor deride either report- I was a victum of Drug Wars, sentenced to 5 years for sales/distribution of less than .12 gram of methamphetimine, which I actually did not SELL, but gave to a "narc" posing as a Prostitute. .12 gram, street value, in San Francisco, in 1987, was worth $10.00. For this, I was in San Quentin, Folsom, Atascadero State Criminal Insane Hospital (18 months) andCMC, where the Manson people are.

The "secret" reason that Negroes are given Very Harsh sentences for Drug crimes is not their race. It is that they are KNOWN to have committed EXTREMELY VIOLENT HENIOUS Crimes that CANNOT be prosecuted, due to TERRORISTIC supression of witnesses. These are Crips, Bloods, Grnstra Possies, et al. And, they are not reticent or ashamed to describe, in gory detail, the murders, tortures, arson, kidnappings, etc. to their 'homies.' Or to me. The only viable method the (corrupt, but trying...) DA, Judges & Police can take these violent killers off the streets is by sentencing them to MAX on Drug Convictions.

It is a sorry state of affairs that this is done, but it is anologious to the Final imprisonment of Chicago's inFamous Al Capone, mass murderer, terrorist, extortioner, gangster, convicted for INCOME TAX EVASION!

The new Cocaine/crack Black Culture EMULATES, WORSHIPS and GOES far beyond the Gangster Syndicate blood baths of Chicago's 1920's, introduced into the present "Negro Drug Cartel" is a violent hatred of Whites. Absolute, Total, without reservation HATRED, in the same sense that Jew haters HATE us Jews, and they cannot be reasoned with. Certain "prophets" of a Negro Armegeddon to annihilate ALL whites are thriving NOW, in America. I listened to a ralley in Detroit, in 2000, while traveling through to Toronto. I heard it over & over again in Prison, both Oklahoma & California, (although I admit, when I was doing time in Oklahoma, 1993-1996, most of the Black Folks there were,themselves, repelled and opposed to this retoric.) As if to establish and give authority to my ideas, my Therapist at the Community Counselling Center, a very open-minded, liberal, caring Phd. who specialises in working with Young People, while in NTC on vacation last month, was SPIT UPON, and VERBALLY attacked, she & her travelling companion had sat on a Park Bench in Greenwich Village and witnessed a Public Preaching of these White Annihilators. After about 45 minutes, they rose to leave when they where spat on, abused with filthy language that offended me (who, with 5 years in Maximum Security prisons & 25+ years a Freight Train Rider/ Folk Singer/ Oral Tradition tall tale & Folk Say collector, thought I had heard it ALL!)

The SAD aspect of this, is the avalability of HARD CORE VICIOUS "RAP" nonMusic, these past ten years, EXTREMELY violent, and that MORE & MORE Intelligent Young Blacks are ACCEPTING and EMBRACING the "BLACK NIHILATIONIST ARMAGEDDON" dogma. Peer pressue, the systemetic conditioning of hearing Violent anti-White Rap nonMusic, now reaching the age of 18-24, they are EASILY swayed by the HATERS.

Music has been my LIFE, as well as Amatuer Radio, Short Wave Listening, Study of Comparative Religion, and UNCONTROLLED, CONSUMPTIVE READING! I have a 3 bedrrom house, a guest cottage, all STACKED with BOOKS, books, BOOKS, and vintage Radio Equipment. I am a Graduate of Baylor University, 1958, Music Major, I excelled in Classical Violin, under Maestro Leno Bartolli, yet in 1960, hearing Bobby Zimmermann (Dylan), Woody Guthrie, Ledbelly, reading Threasury of American Folk Lore (Dodson-Norman Okla, 1932) from my earliest age, I abandoned the Violin and took up the Guitar & Harmonica.
This short AUTOBIO is to attempt to show you that I am not a right-wing nut, no, no, no, I was at the Chicago SDS rally, against the Facisim of MARE DALEY, I married a Wonderful Mexican Girl from Racine, Wisconsin, in 1969, have 2 children & 5 grandchildren.

I am not offering any solutations, either. The solution is already in action. In a very short time, (MUCH shorter than you think!!!) people who dissent will be personia non gratis, you, noam chomsky, myself, we will NOT have a VEHICLE to disseminate our ideas= IDEAS ARE WEAPONS, UNTIL WE GAIN ALL THE WEAPONS, THEN WE BECOME THE TOTAL ARBATORS OF ALL IDEAS. I personally am making a visit with other Rainbow & Aware friends to establish a place of safety in Belieze, or perhaps Costa Rica.

Be certain of one thing. The 're-education/rehibilation" of "deviate thinkers" is in the plans, covertly laid out in WILLIAM CLINTON's Exec. Orders, and the American Patroit Act/Homeland Security Bill.

Oh, in the article :the True Story Behind...the Drug War," by Liane Casten, she blythely fails to give coverage to the most telling part= the CLINTON/ BARRY SEALS/ Geo. Bush/ Mena, Arkansas $35,000,000 PER WEEK influx of COCAINE, which was TOTALLY under William & Hillory CLINTON's control. A State Agency, ADFCO, was ESPECIALLY created, BY HILLOER at the ROSE LAW FIRM, to LAUNDER the Clinton Take. There were MURDER after MURDER here in Arkansas of people who tried to speak out, or were capable of speaking out. A reign of TERROR prevailed upon ALL Arkansas during this period, I LEFT MY HOME and MOVED TO SAN FRANCISCO permanately in 1984, did not come back home here until Sept. 2000. Many of those MURDERED by the CLINTONS and their DRUG CARTEL were PERSONAL FRIENDS, so I am not WILLING to give ear to the SYNCOPHANTS who still try to discredit these things...THEY WERE NOT HERE! A former Girlfriend, who I dated in the 1960's after first moving up here, was the MOTHER of one of the TWO BOYS MURDERED on the Railroad Tracks.

The COVERT reason why AL GORE was NOT allowed to obtain the PRESEDENCY was that the POSITION was PREORDAINED TO PASS TO THE YOUNGER BUSH as a REWARD for 'faithful service" in the DRUG IMPORT BUSINESS, and as well due to the BLOOD-LINE of the AMERICAN RULING ELITE which has been entrenched since FRD. It was common knowledge here in Hot Springs, in the 1960's, (and there were documents extent then to establish) that William Jefferson Blythe (who changed his name to Clinton,) was the ILLEGITIMATE BASTARD OFFSPRING of former Arkansas Governor and Notoious Pedophile & whoremonger WINTHROP ROCKEFELLER, exiled here to Arkansas by the Rockefeller Clan due to gross sexual malfeasance and scandalous behaviour in the "Civilised World."

Americas Secret Courts, Laws on Survelliance


Inside America's Secret Court: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court
by Patrick S. Poole

Introduction

In a highly restricted room inside the Department of Justice Building
in Washington D.C. resides a federal court that meets in complete
secrecy. Even though the rulings this secret court issues may result
in criminal charges, convictions and prison sentences for US
citizens, their writs and rulings are permanently sealed from review
by those accused of crimes and from any substantive civilian review.
This is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which
considers surveillance and physical search orders from the Department
of Justice and US intelligence agencies. During the 20-year tenure of
the FISC the court has received over 10,000 applications for covert
surveillance and physical searches. To date, not a single application
has been denied.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)<1> was passed in
1978, during the days of increased terrorist activity against
American citizens around the world. The Cold War and American
involvement in the Middle East raised fears both about increased
spying on US government, military and business facilities and
personnel and about terrorists planning attacks in the US and against
Americans overseas. In this atmosphere, federal law enforcement and
intelligence administrators requested Congress to increase
surveillance powers to combat these growing trends. The FISA statute
was also a regulative response to the allegations of domestic spying
by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies during the 1960s
and 70s.

However, with the FISA legislation passed, the process was cloaked in
absolute secrecy. While few Americans are even aware of the court's
existence, the FISC routinely hears applications for surveillance and
physical searches from federal law enforcement and intelligence
agencies. The FISA court issues more surveillance and physical
search orders than the entire federal judiciary combined.

Many constitutional scholars and civil liberty advocates note that
the overly broad powers of the FISA statute and court authority are
in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment protections against
unreasonable searches and general warrants. With such a powerful
weapon against citizens' Constitutional liberties, many opponents of
the court argue that Congress should conduct extensive oversight of
the court. But congressional oversight of the FISA court is virtually
non-existent.

The only information required by FISA to be provided to congressional
oversight committees is the number of surveillance orders approved
each calendar year and brief semi-annual reports. The entire 1997
report on the FISC's activity totaled two paragraphs. But what those
brief annual reports do chronicle is the exponential rate of growth
of surveillance orders issued by the FISC.

Recent criminal cases proceeding from evidence gathered by FISA
surveillance orders have raised many questions regarding the
constitutionality of FISA searches and surveillance and the
assumption of enormous powers by federal law enforcement and
intelligence agencies. Defense attorneys for those charged for crimes
with evidence gathered under a FISA order maintain that the FISA
court stands as a "court of last resort" for zealous prosecutors
unable to obtain a criminal indictment from other federal courts.
Some of the orders approved by the FISC have proven to be
government "fishing expeditions" aimed at circumventing citizen's
Fourth Amendment protections against unwarranted searches.

Origins of the Court

With the collapse of the Nixon Administration following the Watergate
scandal, the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations
with Respect to Intelligence Activities (otherwise known as the
Church Committee) discovered that the federal government had been
engaged in widespread domestic surveillance for several decades. In
response, several members of Congress set about to devise a plan to
limit the surveillance power of federal law enforcement and
intelligence agencies. In the wake of the subsequent public outrage
and out of fear warrantless surveillance would be outlawed
altogether, President Ford supported the FISA bill to limit
the "inherent authority" of the President to conduct warrantless
surveillance in the interest of national security.

Prior to that time, most presidents claimed to have implicit
constitutional authority to approve warrantless surveillance for
national security purposes under the executive branch's
Constitutional power to conduct foreign policy. But that power had
been used by government agencies to justify domestic spying against
law-abiding anti-war demonstrators and many of the leaders of the
civil rights movement of the late 1960s despite First and Fourth
Amendment protections prohibiting such activity.

The FISA bill was a product of closed-door negotiations lasting
several months between legislators and the Justice Department.
Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), who had attempted to regulate the
power of warrantless surveillance in four different sessions,
sponsored the FISA legislation. The FISC concept was a compromise
between legislators who wanted the FBI and National Security Agency
(NSA), the only two agencies affected by the FISA statute, to follow
the standard procedure for obtaining a court order required in
criminal investigations and legislators. The federal agencies
believed that they should be completely unfettered in conducting
their foreign intelligence surveillance work inside US borders.
Hence, the FISC was born.<2>

FISA was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy
Carter on October 25, 1978. Executive Order 12139,<3> signed by
President Carter several months later, officially chartered the FISC.
The legislation established an authorization procedure for the FISC
to issue surveillance orders without probable cause. It also set up
a "minimization" procedure for communications by US citizens
inadvertently intercepted by the agencies. With the passage of FISA,
the NSA was bound for the first time to a process of judicial review
before initiating domestic surveillance operations.

The FISC

The court consists of seven federal judges chosen from the federal
district courts by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; each
serves a non-renewable seven-year term. Membership of the court is
staggered so that a new member is brought in each year. Members are
chosen from different federal districts, however, at least one member
must come from a district court in the Washington D.C. area. Judge
Royce Lamberth, who is a member of the US District Court for
Washington DC, currently serves as the FISC Chief Judge.

A separate FISC Appeals Court composed of three members hears the
case for applications denied by the lower level of the court. To
date, the appeals court has never heard a case. The last resort that
the FISA statute provides for any surveillance application rejected
by the FISC Appeals Court is an appeal directly to the Supreme Court.

The FISC court conducts all of its hearings in a secret windowless
courtroom, sealed from the public by cipher-locked doors on the top
floor of the Department of Justice. It considers surveillance and
physical search applications that have been reviewed and forwarded by
the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, which is the Department
of Justice's section that deals with foreign intelligence matters.<4>

All applications forwarded to the FISC must be reviewed and approved
by the Attorney General. If the FISC judge considering the
application believes that the request meets the standards of the FISA
statute, electronic surveillance can be approved for up to ninety
days for US citizens or a year for foreign nationals. The court also
hears requests for extensions, which are routinely granted.

The initial authorization of the court included only the power to
approve wiretapping and surveillance. After Janet Reno approved a
warrantless physical search of CIA spy Aldrich Ames' Arlington,
Virginia home in October 1993, the Department of Justice made a
request to Congress that the authority of FISC be expanded to include
physical searches. Congress obliged by including authorization for an
expansion of FISC powers in the Intelligence Authorization Act of
1995.

President Clinton implemented the new powers through Executive Order
12949.<5> Apart from giving the FISC physical search powers, the
executive order also authorized the Attorney General "to approve
physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign
intelligence information for periods up to one year, if the Attorney
General makes the certifications required by [FISA]."<6>

This expansion also included the power for evidence gathered in FISA
surveillance and searches to be used in criminal proceedings.
However, all information regarding the order and any evidence
obtained under the order are permanently sealed and classified "top
secret." The effect of this provision has been that US citizens are
being charged with crimes in federal court and not allowed to review
the evidence against them, nor are their attorneys permitted to see
the warrants that authorized the search.

The FISA statute requires the Attorney General to submit a report
each year to the Administrative Office of the US Courts, the Speaker
of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the
Senate detailing the number of applications from the FBI and NSA
requesting surveillance/and or physical searches, the number of
orders approved and the number of applications modified or denied by
the FISC.<7> Table I displays the number of orders approved by the
FISC for each year since FISA was signed into law. To date, the
government enjoys a perfect record in regards to application
approvals, for no request has ever been rejected by the court.





Table I. FISA Surveillance and Physical Search Orders 1979-1997<8>


1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988
199 319 431 473 549 635 587 573 512 534
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
546 595 593 484 509 576 697 839 749
As the above table shows, the sparing use of the court's authority in
the last few years of the Carter Administration is contrasted with
the increase of FISC orders during the Reagan Administration. It may
be reasonable to assume that this trend was a direct result of
terrorist activity targeting American citizens abroad during this
period of time. A slight decline in the number of court orders occurs
in 1987, mirroring a decrease in terrorist activity after the US
bombing of Tripoli, Libya in 1986. A general stabilization occurs in
the remainder of the Reagan Administration and throughout the Bush
Administration, which included the Persian Gulf War period.

However, a sharp increase in FISC orders has occurred since the
ascendance of the Clinton Administration, with no apparent return to
1980s levels. This frightening increase in the use of the FISC by the
present administration is compounded by the fact that in recent years
the FISC has approved more applications than the whole of the entire
federal judiciary. In 1996, the FISC approved 839 applications, while
all federal judges combined approved only 538 requests. During 1997,
federal judges approved 569 surveillance and search requests to
investigate criminal activity, while the FISC approved 749
applications for investigations without any criminal predicate.<9>

Constitutional Concerns

The intent behind the passage of the FISA legislation was to impose
limits and a review process upon warrantless surveillance and
searches conducted for "national security" purposes in light of the
numerous abuses by federal agencies against US citizens. But the
politicization and present use of the FISA process has resulted in
the erosion of numerous Constitutional rights and basic legal
procedures that have their roots in free societies dating back to the
Magna Carta.

Circumventing the Bill of Rights

The most troubling aspect of FISA surveillance and searches is that
they circumvent explicit Constitutional guarantees expressed in the
First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution. The
First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech and to peaceable
assembly. However, under the FISA statute, a US citizen may be
subject to a FISC surveillance order for political statements and
views that are determined to be unpopular – yet legal – by unelected
government officials in violation of the First Amendment.

In addition, physical searches without reasonable cause are
specifically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
shall not be violated and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable
cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

But the expansion of the FISC by the Congress and the Clinton
Administration through the Intelligence Appropriation Act of 1995 and
Executive Order 12949 permits black bag fishing expeditions – without
cause. FISC physical search orders authorized by these legislative
and executive actions allow government agents to scour a suspect's
home, papers and effects indiscriminately and without reasonable
cause.

It is hard to imagine that our Constitution's framers, carrying with
them the fresh reminders of intrusive searches conducted by British
military and governmental personnel for British "national security"
interests, would have approved the activities allowed by FISA when
they ratified the Bill of Rights with its explicit prohibitions of
unreasonable, indiscriminate searches.

The Fifth Amendment right not to be compelled to act as a witness
against oneself is significantly harmed when those under surveillance
have full expectation of privacy in their conversations and personal
communications but subsequently have their conversations recorded and
analyzed by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. FISC orders
may be (and typically are) enacted without cause, and yet these
wrongfully acquired surveillances may be used in criminal trials.

This is one dimension to the "Catch-22" problem discussed earlier. If
surveillance is conducted with cause and criminal prosecution result,
the government should be required to meet the same Title III
surveillance requirements imposed upon all other law enforcement
efforts conducted on the federal, state and local level in order to
present that evidence in a criminal trial.

A final direct Constitutional concern is that a citizen's Sixth
Amendment rights to confront accusers, to review evidence against
him, and to legal counsel are frequently violated. In all of the
criminal trials involving FISC orders, evidence is sealed from review
from both the accused and their legal counsel. This is heightened
further by the requirement to keep this evidence from the view of
juries. In the case of Richard Johnson, the judge instructed the jury
that evidence against Johnson existed, and yet would not be presented
for "national security" reasons, requiring the jury to rely on
the "testimony" of the judge. This prevented Johnson's attorneys from
challenging evidence that was not available to them but was testified
to by the judge himself.

Evolution from Counterintelligence to Criminal Investigations

The stated intent and purpose of the FISC was to add oversight to
intelligence agency and law enforcement spying against US citizens
and to subject that spying to minimization procedures. It was
designed to conduct counterintelligence, not to gather evidence for
use in criminal trials. Any shift from using evidence for
intelligence purposes to criminal indictments raises serious
concerns, particularly when the evidence is being used against an
American citizen.

As a Washington Post article recently pointed out, "The reason the
FISA standard is constitutional is that the government is supposed to
use FISA surveillance not for criminal investigations but for
counterintelligence probes pursued under the president's authority to
conduct foreign policy."<10> And yet the use of FISA evidence
against US citizens in criminal trials is growing rapidly. To date,
over 90 criminal cases have resulted from evidence gathered under a
FISC order.<11>

The attractiveness for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to
use the FISC to gather evidence for criminal trials is readily
apparent: No reasonable cause or Title III requirements are needed to
file an application for surveillance; evidence obtained cannot be
reviewed or challenged by the defense; and if no evidence can be
obtained, the secrecy of the FISA process prohibits the one subject
to surveillance from ever knowing about – let alone challenging – the
appropriateness of the court's order.

And yet entire criminal investigations are being conducted under FISC
orders. With the enormous power that the FISA process grants to the
government to circumvent explicit constitutional protections in a
criminal trial, the use of evidence gathered under a FISC order
should be heavily regulated by Congress and the courts or the
establishment of a requirement that evidence gathered for criminal
trials under an FISC orders must be forced to meet the Title III
minimization standards.

No Adversarial Advocate

With the constitutional right to a jury and adequate legal counsel
effectively neutered by the secrecy requirements of the FISC, the
adversarial aspect on behalf of the accused is all but eliminated.

The initial court proceedings prior to the approval of an order by
the FISC also lack any adversarial element. When the Office of
Intelligence Policy and Review presents an application before the
FISC, the FISC justices should rigorously review the application in
light of citizen's unambiguous Constitutional guarantees. Instead,
the court is little more than a rubberstamp for federal agencies.

Even if the court intended to review these applications with a
careful eye on the Constitution, the secrecy element allows the FBI
and the NSA to control what information is presented to the court for
their consideration. With the government holding not only the
proverbial cards but also owning the casino, the introduction of an
adversarial citizen's advocate into the FISC proceedings is a needed
measure to ensure that the executive agencies and the court itself
are always reminded that their power is extra-constitutional and
inherently prone to abuse.

No Congressional Oversight

Congressional oversight of the FISC to date has been lax to say the
least. Last year the FISC presiding judge, DC District Court Justice
Royce Lamberth, delivered a speech to the American Bar Association's
Standing Committee on Law and National Security – the first time that
a sitting FISC judge has spoken publicly on the workings of the
FISC.<12> When addressing questions following his speech, he was
asked what oversight Congress gave the court, he
responded, "Apparently, in the past there has been none. We provide
an annual report on some numbers and so on that the Administrative
Office of the US Courts provides to Congress." There appears to be
little oversight from congressional intelligence committees as well:

I was asked by the chief counsel of the Senate Intelligence to come
up in December (1996) and meet with the staff in preparation for
possible oversight hearings, and I did volunteer to appear, and I was
told at the time this was the first time a judge had ever appeared,
apparently since right about the [time of the] creation of the court.
I think the first chief judge might have gone up for an oversight
hearing a year or so into the court, and I think that no other judge
on the court has ever gone up until I'm going in – I think it was
either November or December.<13>
Pressed further about his thoughts on congressional oversight, he
later said that "How we decide cases…there's a separation of powers
problem about judges appearing before Congress and being questioned
before Congress, so there are some limits."<14>
For the presiding judge of America's most secret court, who is
empowered to circumvent explicit Constitutional protections under the
cloak of complete secrecy, to infer that the special nature of this
court does not merit some greater degree of oversight by elected
officials should be disconcerting to every American citizen.

Defining "National Security"

One of the major defenses for the FISC is the ambiguous use of the
term "national security." Some have argued that the protection that
the FISC provides from terrorists and foreign spies is in the best
interest of national security. But would most Americans agree that
the use of a top secret court to gain economic information and data
for political party contributors – a current policy of the Clinton
Administration and the present practice of the FISC [ed: detailed in
a Free Congress Foundation Special Report on the FISC]– be
categorically in the best interests of national security? Historic
precedent would indicate that it would not.

But further, should citizens be required to exchange their
constitutional freedoms and protections in deference to an expansion
of government power for the interests of "national security?"<15> As
Benjamin Franklin once said, "They that can give up essential liberty
to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety."

Some of America's most eminent jurists have also warned against
pitting alleged "national security interests" against the
Constitution. As the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan said
in the Brown v. Glines decision, "The concept of military necessity
is seductively broad, and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they
invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always
a temptation to invoke security `necessities' to justify an
encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the military-
security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism: its
very gravity counsels that courts be cautious when military necessity
is invoked by the Government to justify a trespass on First Amendment
rights."<16>

The Rubberstamp Court

Those actively involved with the court deny the accusation that the
FISC has turned into a rubberstamp court. Judge Lamberth, the current
chief judge of the FISC, in his comments to the American Bar
Association last year said, "… I bristle at the suggestion in some
quarters that we're rubber stamps for the government because no
applications have been formally denied in recent years. Some have
been revised. Some have been withdrawn and resubmitted with
additional information, and the process is, in fact, working."<17>

The agencies that rely on the FISC are also protective of their
perfect record before the FISC. As the current head of the Justice
Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review recently
wrote, "Given these rigorous standards and multiple layers of
scrutiny, it's not right to conclude that the government's track
record in getting FISA applications approved means that the FISA
court is a rubber stamp."<18>

And yet the fact remains that FISC has been nothing but a rubberstamp
court. Despite the claims of these FISC insiders that the court is
independent and objective, the only application that the FISC has
rejected in their entire history was done at the request of the FBI
and the NSA – the applicants – to demonstrate in 1981 that the FISC
had no power to issue physical searches.<19> Congress and President
Clinton eventually granted that power in 1995 after the Aldrich Ames
fiasco, however.

In the 10,000+ applications that the FISC has considered, it has
enthusiastically approved the methodology and argumentation of the
government in every single case. Even their colleagues on the federal
bench muster up the courage once or twice a year to deny a government
application for Title III wiretap applications. But the FISC has
never seen fit to once in twenty years to oppose the virtual torrent
of applications requesting surveillance and black-bag jobs against US
citizens without any probable cause. This makes the protestations of
Judge Lamberth and the FBI ring hollow, indeed.

Conclusion

An inherent vulnerability of free and democratic societies is that
they are subject to a greater degree of terrorism and espionage
activity because of the freedoms and liberties enjoyed by the
citizenry. The bridle on government power allows for the criminal and
counterintelligence elements to maneuver around the hue of
constitutional protections. But the hallmark of free societies is
that deference is given to the citizens, not the government.

The statist political philosophy that justifies the existence of an
organization like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has
been tested and tried on the crucible of history. It was the threat
of such a process that led the constitutional Framers to enact the
Bill of Rights to prevent the government from using such a judicial
vehicle against the public. The numerous protections articulated in
the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were expressly designed to
prevent the gross judicial abuses of the British government Star
Chamber under King George the Third – abuses and powers eerily
similar to those currently granted by Congress and the Presidency to
the FISC.

No free society has ever been able to survive the rapid expansion of
government power seen in our current political atmosphere. Nor has a
government that has whet its appetite on unbridled power been able to
satiate its hunger for more – more power, more taxes, more
subservient citizens. This pattern of secret power – once its
effectiveness has been proven – quickly finds replication, as can be
seen in the 1995 establishment of another secret court by Congress
and the Clinton administration – the Alien Terrorist Removal Court.

Free societies hang in a precarious balance. Very little is actually
needed to tip the societal scales in favor of anarchy or tyranny. The
present political course of our country seems to indicate that our
future will be the latter. The operation of the FISC is merely a
symptom of the larger statist infection that has reached pandemic
levels in our political system. Twenty years of experience with the
FISC has demonstrated that what began as a restraint upon unlimited
search and surveillance powers has fallen prey to the same philosophy
and practice that has continued the erosion of our liberties. The
FISC has become a political weapon against the citizenry, and for the
safety and protection of our country its reign must be overthrown.

Endnotes

1) 50 USC Sec. 1801, et. seq.

2) James Bamford, The Puzzle Palace: A Report on America's Most
Secret Agency, Penguin Books, 1983, pp. 462-465.

3) 44 FR 30311; May 25, 1979.

4) Jim McGee and Brian Duffy, "Someone to Watch Over Us," Washington
Post Magazine, June 23, 1996, p. W09.

5) Executive Order 12949, 60 FR 8169, Feb. 13, 1995.

6) Ibid., Section 1.

7) 50 USC Sec. 1807.

8) Based on the Annual Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Reports
to Congress, 1979-1997.

9) Table 7, "Summary Report on Authorized Intercepts Granted Pursuant
to 18 U.S.C. 2519 for Calendar Years 1987 – 1997," 1997 Wiretap
Report, Administrative Office of the US Courts and the 1996 and 1997
Annual Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Report to Congress.

10) Benjamin Wittes, "The Catch-22 Law," Washington Post, April 21,
1998, page A21.

11) Fran Fragos Townsend, "Limits on Counterespionage," Washington
Post, May 27, 1998, p. A17. Ms. Fragos Townsend is currently the
Director of the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy
and Review that reviews and forwards all surveillance applications to
the FISC.

12) The speech and the question/answer session were reprinted in
their entirety: Intelligence on the FISA Court, Legal Times, April
14, 1997, pp. 18-20.

13) Ibid., p. 20.

14) Ibid.

15) Timothy Maier, "Snooping on Allies Embarrasses U.S.," Insight
Magazine, October 20, 1997.

16) 444 U.S. 348 (1980).

17) Intelligence on the FISA Court, p. 18.

18) Limits on Counterespionage, p. A17.

19) Americo R. Cinquegrana, The Walls (and Wires) Have Ears: The
Background and First Ten Years of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act of 1978, 137 U. Pa. L. Rev. 793, 823.