VERSUS
Hmmmmmmmmmmm........
Posted on 12/09/2003 3:34:13 PM PST by Jason_b
Gold-Dealers conscripted to spy on you?
Alex Wallenwein
Email: awallenwein@houston.rr.com
December 9, 2003
Just forget about buying and owning gold and other precious metals in privacy, as you have been able to do until now.
A new intelligence spending bill (HB 2417) has reportedly just passed Congress and is awaiting the President's signature by this coming Saturday, December 13, 2003. Tucked inside that bill is a provision that allows the FBI to serve so-called "national security letters" on a broader range of "financial institutions." National security letters require these institutions to reveal their customers' private financial as well as general information, including "tangible things."
It's no news that banks have been conscripted to spy on you. Everyone knows that by now. But this recent measure redefines "financial institutions," [a term] that was previously limited to banks, credit unions, and savings and loan organizations. Now the definition also includes brokers and dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, investment bankers, operators of credit-card systems, insurance companies, dealers in precious metals, stones, or jewels, licensed senders of money, telegraph companies, airplane and boat dealers, Realtors and estate closings, and the U.S. Post Office.
By this change, Congress has surreptitiously expanded the scope of businesses upon which so-called "national security letters" can be served by the FBI in order to obtain financial records without any prior court order, without even the slim judicial supervision that was previously provided by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in such matters.
There was virtually no debate on this part of the bill, despite a letter sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee by the ACLU requesting more time and due consideration of this provision..
Private investors throughout the United States had better get up on their hind legs and demand that the President NOT sign this bill as passed - or just lie down forever and wait for their government's jack-booted minions and tank tracks to roll right over them.
What this administration - and this Congress - (collectively called your" elected leaders") have done to your constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights unde the excuse of the 9-11 tragedy makes even avowed enemies of freedom like Bill Clinton and Franklin D. Roosevelt pale with envy.
This was supposed to be the administration that ran on a conservative platform aiming to reduce government. What we got was a neocon-drive toward ever greater invasion of every single part of our lives in the name of "national security" - or whatever it is that goes under today's Nazi-like nomenclature of "homeland defense." Why not just call it "fatherland defense" and be straight up about it?
Under the Orwellian misnomer of an Act that goes by the name of the "USA-PATRIOT" Act, our rubber-stamp Congress has already previously given the administration carte blanche to create a national database that will record every single citizen's and resident's credit card transaction, no matter whether you're buying a pound of butter at your local grocery store, or a birthday present for uncle Freddie in Idaho.
One controversial provision of that Act, the so-called "TIPS" program, was trying to give legal sanction to your neighbors, your milk man, phone repair guy, or cab driver to spy on you and report any "suspicious activity" or item (not defined, no judicial oversight) they happen to see in your home or in your possession to your benevolent rulers - for PAY!
And now this.
Your own preferred gold dealer, no matter how liberty-oriented or meticulously conscious of your financial privacy he may be by his own convictions, can now be conscripted to supply your government with every last detail of financial information he has about you.
Do you buy gold and just store it at home? You must be a gold "hoarder," someone who intends to undermine the great American paper-fed economy. Do you buy gold and transfer it to an offshore digital gold currency provider? You must be a terrorist sympathizer who is trying to launder money or transfer it without "official oversight." After all, "if you are an upstanding citizen, you have nothing to hide, do you??"
Are you buying expensive jewelry for your wife for Christmas? Your government wants to know every last detail about it.
Meanwhile, illegal immigrants are swamping our national borders to the South and the North, and this administration does nothing - except maybe undermine citizens' efforts to police their own borders in an attempt to fill the gaping security void left by this government. Muslim terrorists are amassing in Paraguay, preparing to strike "the Homeland." We hear nothing about it from our leaders.
What are our Congressmen and women thinking? Probably not much. They probably don't even read these outrageous provisions that are being sneaked into appropriations bills on an almost daily basis - provisions that are never even debated on the floor. Congressman Ron Paul has repeatedly pointed these things out. He has warned of the draconian provisions of the "Patriot" Act, only for the entire Congress to pass it virtually unanimously. I think his was the only dissenting vote.
Our politicians don't read the Constitution anymore. Left-liberals restrict their reading to the first amendment's free speech and establishment clauses, and self-described right-conservatives only read the second amendment. The rest of it appears to be superfluous verbiage to them.
That makes it incumbent upon you, the citizens of this country, including investors, to read, study, understand, and know the whole enchilada, including its foundational history - or you will end up living in the "People's Republic of the Americas" before you blink. If that's how it turns out to be, you will have only yourself to blame.
If you want your gold dealer to be your government's unwilling spy on you, please do nothing. Just ignore this article, return to your daily activities, and wait until you are contacted to receive your government mandated, implanted ID chip (just recently brought to market by a company named "Applied Digital Solutions" by the way).
And for your personal safety, you may wish to stop accessing the web sites where you have just read this article. Your personal Internet browsing habits are already being scrutinized. They may reveal that you have an "anti-administration" bias. And you know what that means:
You are suspect!
Never mind the actual terrorists. They are real, their threat is real, but they are just the official reason for instituting these attacks on your Liberty. Not coincidentally, the White House keeps blocking even Congressional investigations into the causes of 9-11.
This concerns not only precious metals investors.
It concerns car buyers, US Postal Service customers, bank customers, Western Union customers, credit card users, people who take out insurance on anything, boat owners, stock and mutual fund investors - and anyone who has the gall to voice their personal political opinions, no matter whether considered "left" or "right" - and practically everyone who breathes air and ingests food on a more or less regular basis.
If you do feel it is incumbent upon you to do something about this, please contact www.millionsofamericans.com. This is the correct link. I have tested it. The last one was unfortunately misspelled and did not work.
Contact "Millions of Americans.com" and encourage its founder, Bruce Eberle, to prepare and launch a petition drive to dissuade President Bush from signing that atrocious bill into law in its present form. You can send an e-mail to Mr. Eberle from this page: Go to the link "Write Us" in the top navigation bar.
Forward this piece via electronic Internet messaging systems (called e*m*a*i*l) to every one you know and their brother. You do not need to ask my permission for reproducing this article in any or/offline forum, as long as it is complete, without any changes, subtractions, or additions. You may, however, change the title to address it to your particular constituency. Just make it attention-grabbing.
This must not stand!
Got gall?
Alex Wallenwein Email: awallenwein@houston.rr.com
No. I advocate diversity in suppliers. Same with groceries, gasoline, other commodities. For reasons of personal security and privacy. Privacy protects against criminal as well as other intrusions.
Add sex & drugs to your list..
No, but I am aware that the ideologue fringers all bleat the same whiney song:
"There is no difference between the Democrats and Republicans since both parties refuse to ..." (and here you can substitute any crackpot idea):
Can you pay your real estate taxes with venison steaks?
VERSUS
Hmmmmmmmmmmm........
Yes. After taking Hamilton's approach, we just kept going in that direction, 'ab absurdum,' as the Romans would say. Hamilton would disavow any credit for our grotesque distortion of his "approach."
If it comes to another attack and it all falls apart, guess which one people will be desperate for? A lot of people may have guns, but I don't know many with much ammo. :))
(just kidding).
Bingo. And may I also add how warm and fuzzy I feel about having federal agents at every airport in the country, at the ready to strip search me every time I travel.
The silence from the right about the intrusion on our liberties has been deafening. Why are we not outraged that a citizen can be jailed indefinitely without the rights to attorney ot trial? The constitution is more than just the second amendment, folks. Just because a Republican is in charge does not mean it won't get trampled on.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.