Statement may allow gov't to open mail

RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP
Friday, January 5, 2007

A signing statement attached to postal legislation by President Bush last month may have opened the way for the government to open mail without a warrant. The White House denies any change in policy.

The law requires government agents to get warrants to open first-class letters. But when he signed the postal reform act, Bush added a statement saying that his administration would construe that provision "in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances."

"The signing statement raises serious questions whether he is authorizing opening of mail contrary to the Constitution and to laws enacted by Congress," said Ann Beeson, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. "What is the purpose of the signing statement if it isn't that?"

Beeson said the group is planning to file a request for information on how this exception will be used and to ask whether it has already been used to open mail.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said there was nothing new in the signing statement.

In his daily briefing Snow said: "All this is saying is that there are provisions at law for — in exigent circumstances — for such inspections. It has been thus. This is not a change in law, this is not new."

Postal Vice President Tom Day added: "As has been the long-standing practice, first-class mail is protected from unreasonable search and seizure when in postal custody. Nothing in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act changes this protection. The president is not exerting any new authority."

Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine, who guided the measure through the Senate, called on Bush to clarify his intent.

The bill, Collins said, "does nothing to alter the protections of privacy and civil liberties provided by the Constitution and other federal laws."

"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and our federal criminal rules require prior judicial approval before domestic sealed mail can be searched," she said.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., criticized Bush's action.

"Every American wants foolproof protection against terrorism. But history has shown it can and should be done within the confines of the Constitution. This last-minute, irregular and unauthorized reinterpretation of a duly passed law is the exact type of maneuver that voters so resoundingly rejected in November," Schumer said.

The ACLU's Beeson noted that there has been an exception allowing postal inspectors to open items they believe might contain a bomb.

"His signing statement uses language that's broader than that exception," she said, and noted that Bush used the phrase "exigent circumstances."

"The question is what does that mean and why has he suddenly put this in writing if this isn't a change in policy," she said.

In addition to suspecting a bomb or getting a warrant, postal officials are allowed by law to open letters that can't be delivered as addressed — but only to determine if they can find a correct address or a return address.

Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, more than all other presidents combined, according to the American Bar Association.

Typically, presidents have used signing statements for such purposes as instructing executive agencies how to carry out new laws.

Bush's statements often reserve the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.

"That non-veto hamstrings Congress because Congress cannot respond to a signing statement," ABA President Michael Greco has said. The practice, he has added, "is harming the separation of powers."

The president's action was first reported by the New York Daily News.

The full signing statement said:

"The executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection.

wonders if there is such a thing as a non-influence-peddling lobbyist

but hey, you cant just report this without an inkling of fact.

A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively.

The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.

The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.

Subpoena showndown looms for Duke Cunningham inquiry

A showdown is coming between the Democratic House leadership and the Justice Department on what information can be subpoenaed in a federal investigation, according to a report in today's edition of Roll Call.

At issue, as explained in the article by Susan Davis, are "privileged documents" amassed by various House Committees "that fall under the constitutional Speech or Debate Clause, which provides protection to Members of Congress." The Counsel of the House of Representatives appears to have worked to block the release of the documents, which were gathered as part of the House's own investigation of ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham, the California Republican who pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting millions of dollars in bribes in the course of his work on the Appropriations Committee.

The dispute has been complicated by the change of power in the House, as the Justice Department's efforts began under Republican leadership. New Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) said "'he was open to cooperating as long as the investigation did not "step on the constitutional prerogatives of the House,'" according to Davis.

Although it is a Republican ex-Congressman and his former staff caught up in the federal investigation, Obey may seek to protect the institutions and traditions of Congress, and pointed to former Speaker Dennis Hastert's protection of Democratic Rep. William Jefferson as an example.

The full text of the article can be accessed by subscribers at the Roll Call website. An excerpt is provided below.

One source off Capitol Hill said the San Diego U.S. attorney’s office had been working with the House Counsel’s office for about a year to negotiate a hand-over of committee documents. The source said the negotiations apparently had hit a wall, forcing the Justice Department to drop subpoenas last month. “The situation has stepped up significantly,” the source said.

The subpoena requests could trigger a series of legal maneuvers as the House seeks to protect what likely are a number of privileged documents that fall under the constitutional Speech or Debate Clause, which provides protection to Members of Congress.

Aides to both Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Friday that the House’s legal response was still unclear. If the House opts to fight the subpoenas in federal court, it could take months — if not longer — to resolve the issue.

The potential court battle could further postpone a broad investigation into Cunningham’s illegal activities while he served on both the Appropriations and Intelligence panels. Cunningham pleaded guilty in 2005 to accepting more than $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for favors. He currently is serving an eight-year prison sentence.

The Speech or Debate Clause (found in Article I, Section 6, Clause 1) is a clause in the United States Constitution which states that members of both Houses of Congress
“ ...shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony, and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their attendance at the Session of their Respective Houses, and in going to and from the same, and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place. ”

Its intended purpose is to prevent a President or other officials of the Executive branch from having members arrested on a pretext to prevent them from voting a certain way or otherwise taking actions with which he or she might disagree.

Full Steam Ahead For "The Invasion" & The American Union
Government funded drug running cartels, secret illegal social security programs and Pesos for Pizzas. What happened to the United States of America?

Infowars.net | January 8, 2007
Steve Watson & Alex Jones

Recent disturbing incidents on the US/Mexico border, coupled with mainstream news reports concerning government aiding of illegal immigration serves to once again remind US citizens that the sovereign borders are systematically being broken down and the country is being quietly amalgamated into a Pan American Union.

Last week it was reported that a U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun by a team of armed Mexicans Wednesday night along Arizona's border with Mexico, somewhere along the 120 mile section of the border between Nogales and Lukeville, an area known for being a drug corridor.

The guard were forced to flee as troops are not allowed to apprehend illegal entrants and do not carry armed weapons.

"We don't know if this was a matter of somebody coming up accidentally on the individuals, coming up intentionally on the individuals, or some sort of a diversion?" said Rob Daniels, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. "We just don't know and that's why everything's got to be looked into."

Imagine if muslims or Arabs were caught shooting at national guard and overrunning them, we would never hear the end of it. This incident however, is the latest in a long line of stories that barely reach the footnotes of the local nightly news.

In late 2005 there were dozens of American citizens kidnapped over the Texas border and taken down to Mexico and held. This was kept very quiet. There was a huge stand off, some were killed. 800+ US citizens were killed on the Texas border in 2005, hundreds more were killed in 2006.

There are over a million illegal aliens, conservatively, in Houston alone. There have been multiple car bombings there, and in Dallas, which have quietly been attributed to illegals and forgotten about.

We have previously covered multiple instances of armed Mexican troops straying over the borders and even firing at and killing federal officers .

Last month CNS news reported that Texas sheriffs and lawmakers are routinely threatened, fired upon and overrun by US TRAINED gun-toting members of the Mexican military, crossing regularly into U.S. territory, where they are partnering with drug cartels and criminal gangs to protect sophisticated smuggling operations.

We have also exposed how illegal immigration is being used by drug commando organizations such as Los Zetas (pictured) to gain unrestricted passage into the US.

Former DEA agents have come forth declaring that such groups, admittedly trained by the US Government are being used as front groups for CIA and government controlled narcotics operations. To shut down illegal immigration and strengthen the borders would go some way to prevent such lucrative activities, therefore it's a government no-no.

The open plan to merge the US with Mexico and Canada and create a Pan American Union has long been a Globalist brainchild but its very real and prescient implementation on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations has finally also been reported on by mainstream news outlets.

The Union is the globalist cabal's meal ticket towards raping an entire continent of its resources and sovereign capabilities. Strengthening the borders is not on the Agenda here, the American Union is all about DISSOLVING the borders.

The framework on which the American Union is being pegged is the NAFTA Super Highway, a four football-fields-wide leviathan that stretches from southern Mexico through the US up to Montreal Canada. Toll roads are to be placed upon existing roads in Security Prosperity Partnership agreements that bypasses Congress, agreements between the bureaucracies of the US and Mexican governments, to raise capital to build the Super highway that will go South of Texas and into Mexico.

Coupled with Bush's blanket amnesty program , which the Democrats in congress are set to approve this week as their first order of business, the Pan American Union is the final jigsaw piece for the total dismantling of America as we know it.

We have also seen in the past how "immigration control efforts" such as Real ID , boosting troops on the borders and building fences are simply smoke and mirrors behind which lie methods of control, outrageous elitist profiteering and the destruction of freedom.

The truth is that immigration is too profitable for the elite, both in the US and in Mexico, to put a stop to it. In late December 2005, Mexican President Vicente Fox hired a GOP lobbying firm to sweeten political sentiment in the US towards Mexicans and the immigration issue.

The Mexican government is now even giving illegals hand-held satellite navigation devices in order to facilitate their safe journey across the desert.

In light of all this it is also disturbing to read that the US government has been SECRETLY paving the way for the funneling of billions of Social Security funds to illegal Mexican immigrants. As a result of lawsuits, the U.S. government last week released the actual U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement , an understanding signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004.

This is not the first time the Bush administration has moved to aid the benefits of Mexicans illegally working working in the US. In 2005, the New York Times reported that the Bush administration had initiated a program to start paying hospitals and doctors for providing emergency care to illegal immigrants. Members of Congress from border states had sought the money, totaling $1 Billion. They said treatment of illegal immigrants imposed a huge financial burden on many hospitals, which are required to provide emergency care to patients who need it, regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay. The administration had previously abandoned a proposal that would have required many hospitals to ask patients if they were U.S. citizens or legal immigrants.

Add to this previous mainstream reports of banks and lenders opening their doors to illegal immigrants, facilitated by government agencies, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. As reported in the Wall Street Journal , the FDIC is encouraging banks to lend and invest in undeserved markets regardless of customers' immigration status.

The US armed forces has also seen an influx of foreign troops, an average of 20% of ground troops in Iraq are now non citizens, this is set to rise to 50% over the next year with foreign recruitment stations facilitating the supply.

Think about this, non-US citizens wearing the uniform of American soldiers, stationed at home and abroad.

Today the Dallas Morning News reported that patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos. What kind of twilight zone have we entered here? Yeah forget the dollar, it's basically dead now anyway - lets just use the Peso as the national currency.

Social Security, roads, military, intelligence gathering, regulations, federal agencies - all within the US, Canada and Mexico are being merged into one system at the cost of national sovereignty and the common law.

We are talking about an advanced empire state with a class based multicultural chowder bowl for a population, something has to give somewhere. The Soviet Union and The former Yugoslavia are telling examples of what happens when many cultures are played off against one another and asked to coexist within one country. Most recently this cultural phenomenon has been evident in France which seems to be on the same track of self-destruction with its massive non-assimilating 2nd generation Muslim population.

This cultural rift is already overwhelmingly evident in the US. We have previously covered the Nightmare Racism and Open Call for Revolution from groups such as the Atzlan reconquista movement, MEChA and La Raza who call their American based radio stations "the Invasion". Such groups have no desire to respect US culture and wish for nothing more than the US to be broken up . Of course these groups are minority movements, yet their reach evidently becomes increasingly appealing to proud Mexicans when the President tells them they can come to the US and do awful jobs because they are less worthy than Americans.

Social, political and economic forces are pulling America apart and driving her toward a bloody conflict that may fracture the nation into several different countries. Bush's rhetoric of allowing a legal force of underling workers that will do the dirty work for America sounds like a direct avocation of a creation of a massive underclass of illegal, Third World, uneducated and poor slaves.

This only serves to benefit one section of society, the elite.