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    Are Some Members of Congress Waking Up?

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    Catherine J. Frompovich, Contributor
    Activist Post

    December 12, 2012, The Wall Street Journal [WSJ] published “U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens”, which The Washington Post Group’s Slate highlighted December 13th. Apparently these articles captured the attention of two U.S. Congressmen who sit on the same House of Representative committees, Judiciary and Oversight & Government Reform.

    Plaudits must go to the Honorable Jason Chaffetz of Utah and the Honorable Trey Gowdy of South Carolina for their December 17, 2012 letter to Attorney General of the United States Eric H Holder, Jr. regarding Holder’s purported granting of new powers to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) to store dossiers on U.S. citizens who are not suspected of any criminal activity.

    So, is that what the National Security Agency’s (NSA) almost $2 Billion, million-plus-square-foot storage center in Bluffdale, Utah, is all about?

    In their letter to AG Holder, the Congressmen say,

    The WSJ goes on to report the new rules allow the NCTC to keep data about innocent United States citizens for up to five years and to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. Previously, both were prohibited.

    Furthermore, they express,

    …we are concerned such sweeping, fundamental changes would be made to existing policy without public input and Congressional approval.

    And they ask AG Holder four very specific questions, each of which has a few sub-questions, which they request to be answered by 5PM January 31, 2013.  The prime questions query:

    1. Does the Justice Department believe the NCTC, or any other government agency, has the power/legal authority to keep data about citizens who are not suspected of a crime?
    2. Does the Justice Department believe the NCTC, or any other government agency, has the power/legal authority to analyze government databases for suspicious patterns of behavior?
    3. Does the Justice Department believe it has the power to change the rules governing who NCTC has the power/legal authority to store data on and how data may be used without approval from Congress?
    4. The Privacy Act of 1974 bars the federal government from sharing data for any purpose other than the reason for which the data was initially collected, unless the sharing meets a specific exception contained in the Act.
    One has to wonder whether AG Holder will answer the Congressmen’s letter in view of the fact that President Obama granted Holder executive privilege over “Fast and Furious” documents, and Holder may expect the same ‘perk’ about his granting new powers to the NCTC.  If that would be the case, and Holder refuses to answer, invoking executive privilege, perhaps, it’s time to consider impeachment proceedings against both the president and the attorney general, who are not above the law of the land nor the U.S. Constitution.
    Furthermore, members of Congress ought to look into all the Presidential Executive Orders (PEOs) that seemingly grant one-man-rule to presidents.  PEOs are not granted to presidents under the U.S. Constitution nor within the supposed “checks and balances” system under which the United States government is supposed to operate. PEOs should be prohibited from being issued by presidents as they, in essence, grant dictatorial powers to a one-man rule regime, which presidents have gifted themselves with that privilege!  If some members of Congress don’t like what’s happened with the NCTC new powers, boy will they get a surprise when PEOs are invoked and kick in!
    In addition to the two Congressmen’s apparent dismay about what’s going on in the granting of new or special powers to government agencies without congressional and public input, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a Factsheet addressing their concerns about what’s going on with

    The new NCTC Guidelines sweeping away decades-long protections by allowing the military and intelligence agencies to target innocent Americans for collection.

    The ACLU in its Factsheet made a statement I think every American citizen can support:
                It’s wrong to let NCTC treat Americans as potential terrorists without evidence
                and without oversight.  Holding private information about innocent people in
                intelligence databases for five years without any suspicion of wrongdoing creates
                an unacceptable risk to Americans’ privacy through error or abuse.
    Citizens have to know about and applaud what Congressmen Chaffetz and Gowdy and the ACLU have said and done.  Finally, someone is paying attention to congressional oversight!  However, I wonder what they would have to say about the following issues that no one seems to be taking seriously, and which I hope The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post or Slate will investigate and blow wide open:
    §  The “Voice of God” mind control program run by the CIA
    §  The alleged release of what’s been called the “Katrina virus”
    §  Chemtrails in the sky, weather control and geoengineering
    §  HAARP and its role in geoengineering and possible earthquakes
    If you agree with the two members of Congress, may I suggest that you contact your members of Congress and ask that they follow suit and do their job of oversight.

     

    Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies.

    Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.

    Catherine’s latest book, A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.

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