From: freemanaz@aol.com (unknown)
To: azpeace@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [azpeace] Homeland Security Legislation
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 20:54:38 EST


November 13, 2002 at 9:52 a.m. ET


Should U.S. House members vote on sweeping legislation before they
even read it?

The U.S. House is scheduled to vote on a revised version of legislation
creating the Department of Homeland Security by 2:00 p.m. ET today.  
The time now is just before 10:00 a.m ET and the revised text is not 
available to read and we've been told the revised text might not be 
available for awhile.

The only information available is a Congressional Quarterly summary. 
So House members will have to rely only on a summary to decide their
vote on the biggest reorganization of the federal government since the 
Department of Defense was created in 1947.  But we have been alerted
to expect important changes in this revised Homeland Security bill.

For example, The New York Times recently reported about the Pentagon's
plan to create a computer system that "will provide intelligence
analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information
from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking
transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant" of 
American citizens.
"Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of 
Americans," Nov. 9, 2002, by John Markhoff
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/09/politics/09COMP.html

Is this new system included in the revised Homeland Security legislation?
We don't know and when we asked -- nobody will talk about it.

Should your U.S. representative vote on any legislation, let alone
legislation as sweeping as Homeland Security, before he reads it?  We say
no.  In the remaining few hours left, please urge your representative to
withhold his vote until he reads the text of the bill.  To send your
message, go to 
http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=912081&type=CO

Kent Snyder
The Liberty Committee
http://www.thelibertycommittee.org

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