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The So-Called "Intelligence
Bill," a/k/a Patriot Act 2.5; More on Social Security "Privatization" BY AL MARTIN (Dec. 13) The National Intelligence Bill, which started out as HR-10, a 243-page document, has been passed by the Senate as a 3,000-page act. The principal feature of the act will be to create a National Intelligence Czar. This bill was completed, after compromising with various pro-DoD factions in the House and Senate, principally led by Duncan Hunter and John Warner, who are the closest to the defense industry. The so-called National Intelligence Czar will not have jurisdiction over DoD or NSA intelligence budgets or any other intelligence budgets outside of the CIA. In fact, the office of the new National Intelligence Czar is specifically forbidden to act as a coordinating function between the CIA, the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency. The new National Intelligence Czar will not be entitled to receive highly classified information or briefings from Department of Defense or NSA. So what is the purpose of this bill? I like to call it Patriot Act 2.5 This so-called Intelligence bill is actually a joke on the American people. The only reason it got passed is because it's politically popular with the 9/11 crowd, which has been lulled into believing that the creation of a so-called National Intelligence Czar is going to solve all this country's problems when it comes to would-be terrorist attacks. People also believe that it is going to help secure our borders. It isn't. And, in fact, interestingly enough, this bill specifically reduces the CIA's budget for human intelligence resources. The hidden agenda, however, is not so hidden. The official statement that Porter Goss made when he first became CIA Director was that all CIA intelligence now has to fit White House political mandates. The problem with human intelligence is that the reality of human intelligence gets in the way of political expediency. This is why human intelligence in the CIA was virtually done away with by CIA Director Bill Casey in the 1980s. This was done so that the reality of human intelligence, which could not be disputed (since it was actually collected by the eyes and ears of people watching the events unfold) would not get in the way of political expediency. Interestingly enough, part of this bill is to allow the President of the United States to have "more direct access to a single intelligence office" instead of having to maintain Presidential liaison functions with DoD, NSA and CIA. Bush will now have the ability to go to one office, the National Intelligence Czar, to get so-called intelligence briefings and assessments that he, formerly, as President, had to go to the appropriate divisions of DoD, CIA, NSA, etc. This was always a cumbersome process. What this does is it makes the intelligence briefings and, more importantly, dissemination, come directly under White House control in a way that has never existed before. This bill creates a new White House capability to absolutely control any DoD, CIA, NSA, etc. briefing materials. The White House now has control over anything that winds up being publicly disseminated. Furthermore, the "Intelligence Czar," through his own office, does not have the ability to alter statements, public briefings, or congressional briefings behind closed doors of DoD, CIA or NSA. The President of the United States, though, acting through the new National Intelligence Czar's office, does have that ability and, furthermore, must now directly clear all dissemination of public information. The reason why the bill could pass and the reason why a political compromise could be worked out is because a new agency is being created that doesn't have any power to do anything. Not only does it not have any power to do anything, but it is a creation that actually diminishes the power of the CIA. The reason for all this is because it's politically popular. A White House ceremony in the Rose Garden when this bill gets signed next week with all the 9/11-survivor relatives holding pictures of their relatives that were killed will be a big press and photo opp. And people will pretend they are more "secure" now than they were before. That's what the political mandate is: to fool the people into thinking that this actually increases the security of the nation, when, more importantly, it makes it easier for the White House and the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate and manipulate information. In fact, the exact opposite is true. It actually decreases the security of the nation. Why is a National Intelligence Czar's office being created? It's being created as a political office. It has absolutely nothing to do with intelligence gathering, assessment, or collection. It is simply a public relations office. Secondly, it is an avenue wherein the President will be able to directly control public dissemination of information from the DoD, CIA, NSA, FBI, in a way that the President has not had the capability to do so in the past. Now all statements and all public disseminations, including all sensitive materials being submitted to congressional committees have to pass through the National Intelligence Czar's office - even though he has absolutely nothing to do with them. He cannot alter them, cannot recommend them, and he cannot even send them out. The only person he can send them to is the President of the United States. Basically the purpose of this is to have an intermediary controlled by the White House between all the different intelligence agencies. It's a discreet intermediary so that presidential liaison officers don't have to be seen riding back and forth in a limousine to the Pentagon or to Langley, Virginia, or to Fort Meade, Maryland, or anywhere else. It "confidentializes" and consolidates Presidential control of so-called "intelligence." It consolidates, but it also makes it quieter and more confidential. This will cut out all of the summaries that have to be done. This way, the President gets the raw intelligence data, which is then subject to, not intelligence review, but political review - by the President's own staff. His own staff will now be directly vetting the raw information instead of vetting what had previously been finished releases. This bill then takes away from the Department of Defense's intelligence operations, all of the CIA, all of the NSA, and CIA's counterintelligence their ability to independently put into the public domain any document, any press release, or any statement, or any other information. Thus it quashes any potential leaks from within the individual agencies, or individual agents or department heads that are pissed off about something. It gives the White House not firmer control; it gives them absolute control and will virtually eliminate any possibility of leaks, and any possibility of any of the division heads or senior agents playing games to extract something out of the White House. The conclusion is that the White House is still maintaining this subterfuge against the American people, like they did with the Afghani invasion, like they did with creation of the Office of Homeland Security; that this new National Intelligence Czar's office isn't going to cost the taxpayers anything because supposedly "the savings that CIA and DoD and NSA are going to have will make up for any expenses." They're putting forth the same nonsense that they did with Office of Homeland Security. Remember what this Regime said in February of 2002 -- Oh, no, the Office of Homeland Security? That won't cost the American people a dime. Furthermore, it will actually reduce by $3 billion operational expenses of the CIA, DoD and others. And, of course, now, from not costing a dime, we've created the Department of Homeland Security which is an agency with a $39-billion budget, and the budgets of the agencies whose operating costs were supposed to be reduced have increase by $70 billion. This bill should be called -- "The National Intelligence Act, Un-Securing American Borders." As a follow-up to last week's story on Social Security so-called "reform" the Regime said they backed down from what they had said last week. Again, it shows you how disingenuous this Social Security fraud really is. Bush came out himself and said that there absolutely would not be any increase in FICA taxes to finance the conversion to a so-called Citizens Savings Accounts. He claimed that in order to finance the so-called gap, there wouldn't be any increase in FICA taxes. Furthermore, beyond that which the gradual plan already adopted in 1996, there would be no increase in benefit ages. Bush said that what the White House prefers and what it's going to jam down the throat of the Democrats is this concept of having the Social Security Administration issue between $1-3 trillion of bonds to finance the so-called gap. And how will this "gap" be paid for? It gets created by the issuance of bonds. The market for the bonds will supposedly be the same buyers as always -- foreign central banks and the same buyers that buy U.S. Treasuries. And here is how the scam would work. This is the scam that the Regime is proposing. It wouldn't be a direct U.S. Treasury paper issuance. The SSA (Social Security Administration) would be reclassified as a GSE (Government Sponsored Enterprise) like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. This would then give the Social Security Administration the ability to issue its own bonds, or its own paper, i.e. GSE paper, that the Social Security Administration would then be technically responsible for servicing. So here's the scam. The Regime already has returned to the dangerous Bushonian practice of counting the so-called FICA annual surplus payments, which are about $125 billion per annum, as general revenue in a desperate effort to make Bushonian budget deficits look better than they are. It must be remembered that the Social Security Administration has no other revenue streams to service this debt. The only possible, possible revenue streams that the Social Security Administration as a GSE could create, would be an increase in FICA taxes that would be directly subordinated to the repayment of this debt. Yet the Regime is saying -- Oh. No, absolutely not. There won't be any FICA taxes. But wait a minute. Now, let's fast-forward a year ahead, and the Social Security Administration says - Sorry. No more no more 15% FICA. Now it's 20%. And George Bush can say -- Oh, gee, that wasn't our decision. It wasn't the White House's decision. We didn't want any increase in FICA taxes. We didn't want any increase in benefit age. We didn't want any reduction in fixed benefits. That's the Social Security Administration's decision. If they did it any other way, if they didn't turn the SSA into a GSE and allowed the Treasury to try to float the paper, then, politically, the White House would have no out, when FICA taxes have to be raised and when benefit age has to be increased. The British government said last week, interestingly enough, that the administrator of the British National Social Security Fund, which is what it's called in Britain, announced that Britain has done a comprehensive study on the Social Security Reform Act that the Bush-Cheney Regime is proposing for the United States because the British government was considering a variety of options to try to close its own Social Security deficit. The British social security system figured out in its analysis of this Bushonian proposal of Social Security "privatization" that, in order to maintain fixed benefits at current rates, the age at which one could collect current maximum benefits, as at age 65, would have to be increased to age 93! Age 93 would be the only way fixed benefits could be maintained without have an increase in FICA taxes because the reduction in fixed benefits would create a surplus that would, in turn, service this multi-trillion-dollar new debt that's being created and sold. Therefore, the only way this Regime avoids a FICA revenue loss is by saying -- Oh, you don't want a FICA tax payment, Mr. Smith? Well, then, you've got to wait until you're 93 to get your $863 per month. But this 3,000 page National Intelligence Bill monster is really nothing more than an extension of Patriot Act, in that it dramatically increases Patriot Act powers. First of all, it dramatically weakens the so-called Media Shield Law under the First Amendment. It waters down confidentiality that now exists. Whatever story a journalist is going to write, if it is a matter of sedition or treason against the State or any other disloyal act, then the shield no longer applies. Furthermore, for the first time, it specifically authorizes the Attorney General of the United States to charge radio talk show hosts, television talk show hosts, or anyone in the media with a "public presence" (of course, that could be interpreted any way the Regime wants it interpreted) This these individuals can now be held responsible and, in fact, arrested and charged and incarcerated for telling the American people to rise up and take back their nation or to form citizen protest groups or advising U.S. citizens to publicly criticize government. In other words, and this refers to the overly strident and vocal radio talk show people - they aren't doing any of their listeners a favor by telling them "to rise up and take back their nation," or to form protest groups and to deluge your Congressmen and Senators with letters threatening citizen action, or to advise citizens of their rights to form a so-called citizen grand jury. Those who do this in an age of omnibus search warrants, indictments, acts of grand jury proceedings, secret arrest warrants, secret detentions, secret trials, secret incarceration are not doing the people any favors. In fact, this Regime and this National Intelligence Act is a preemptory step and an interim step between Patriot II and Patriot III. It is giving the Bush-Cheney Regime defacto Patriot III powers before Patriot III is even formed as a bill yet, and before all of Patriot II is yet in law. Specifically this National Intelligence Bill is going to allow the Regime to start to make examples of radio announcers and writers who suggest that the people continue to rise up or protest or this notion of taking back their government or attempting to find out the truth or disseminating the truth. A friend told me -- Just send somebody to a cell for 3 months and you'll see how much they want to know the truth anymore. And he's right. Because I've been through that routine. In the post-Iran/Contra environment, when I became a liability and when people like me (I wasn't the only one put through that routine) or people that knew too much and people that were not dealt with in the conventional manner because they weren't high enough on the ladder to receive their briefcase, but they were high enough on the ladder not to receive a bullet or some other untimely end, wherein their demise would be listed as having occurred under clouded circumstances, as some 500 of us were. People like me wound up in a limbo land of having a magic line in the sand. And every time we crossed that line by telling people too much truth, we went through what was called at the time by the FBI and the CIA the "standard 45-day punishment sessions." This meant that suddenly you would be arrested for unspecified federal charges of a security nature, which means you could be held for 45 days without charge. So I would be held for 45 days under a false name. I would be moved in the middle of the night to hell-hole county jails that nobody ever heard of (I didn't even know some of them were actual jails or not; some of these were so remote), denied access to a telephone, denied any ability to contact my attorney, and denied any ability to send out a piece of mail. Then when my attorney or when members of the media, or even when members of Congress led by Congressman Bill Alexander went looking for me, and actually pressured then-Attorney Generals Richard Thornburgh and, subsequently, William Barr, only then were my whereabouts revealed and only on the very same day I was due to be released to avoid having people with cameras showing up. This was under the guise of National Security Law. But now that we have Patriot Act, the punishment sessions are much more sinister. The game had always been played before, for those who knew too much and those who might say too much, that you knew what the routine was. You were going to get a punishment session if you told the American people too much truth in your radio broadcasts or in the books you wrote. And that was the way it worked. That's the way you figured out where the boundaries were that you are not to step over. But everyone understood the rules of the game and the way it worked. Now, in the post-Patriot Act environment, where a citizen can be now held indefinitely and automatically under false name-no manipulation of documents is necessary-where a citizen can be tried secretly, can be prevented any access to an attorney, and can automatically be kept away from any communications capability whatsoever post-incarceration. In other words, no one in the world knows where that citizen is except for a small group of people in Washington that want that citizen there. This completely changes the nature of punishment sessions. The refurbishment of CILFs (Civilian Inmate Labor Fcilities) which has occurred under this Regime and the new authority to use CILFs now ensures that we have gone beyond what is now punishment to dissuade people from telling the truth or to dissuade people from telling other people, in the media, for instance, to stand up for their rights or form protest groups. Now we're going into an environment where it's not just a 45-day punishment session or being moved around to hell-hole county jails. This is something where you could wind up in a CILF or some other designated holding facility or detention facility. They can't call it a prison; it has to be called a "detention facility." You can become now a "detainee," not a "prisoner." This is internally, on U.S. soil. That's >what Patriot II is all about. That's what the Internal Deportation Act is all about, what General Primakov called the establishment of an "American gulag." It is now possible for an American citizen who knows too much, who speaks too much, or who criticizes the regime publicly, to be held internally in a designated secret detention facility forever. So if you hear strident talk radio hosts telling you to "rise up and break the shackles" you should be aware of the consequences. (Also note how long those talk radio people stay on the air). Radio talk show hosts and citizens who call radio talk shows and say, "How do we take back our government? Let's rise up. I got a gun. Let's protest. I'm going to form a protest group."-must and should be aware of the environment that we are now in. They should understand this new era of Bushonian State Security and the new powers the Regime now has. Remember they play for keeps. * AL MARTIN is an independent economic-political analyst with 25 years of experience as a trader on NYMEX, CME, CBOT and CFTC. As a former contributor to the Presidential Council of Economic Advisors, Al Martin is considered to be a source of independent analysis for financially sophisticated and market savvy investors. After working as a broker on Wall Street, Al Martin was involved in the so-called "Iran Contra" Affair as a fundraiser for the Bush Cabal from the covert side of government aka the US Shadow Government. His memoir, "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider," ( http://www.almartinraw.com ) provides an unprecedented look at the frauds of the Bush Cabal during the Iran Contra era. His weekly column, "Behind the Scenes in the Beltway," is published weekly on Al Martin Raw.com, which also publishes a bimonthly newsletter called "Whistleblower Gazette." Al Martin's new website "Insider Intelligence" ( http://www.insiderintelligence.com ) will provide a long term macro-view of world markets and how they are affected by backroom realpolitik.
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