######################################################################## ######################################################################## FREEDOM NETWORK NEWS ######################################################################## ######################################################################## Editor: Vincent H. Miller Assistant Editors: James R. Elwood, Tim Starr September/October 1994 ======================================================================== The International Society for Individual Liberty is an association of individuals and organizations dedicated to building a free and peaceful world, respect for individual rights and liberties, and an open and competitive economic system based on voluntary exchange and free trade. Members and affiliated organizations pursue this goal thorugh independent action, using their freely chosen strategies. The association exists to promote the exchange of information and ideas, to study diverse strategies and to fo ster fellowship. ======================================================================== ========== CONTENTS ========== * WE CAN SAVE AMERICA -- Editorial by Vince Miller * MARY RUWART THWARTS FDA * CUBANS: A LIBERTARIAN CONSTITUENCY? by Ralph Ortolano * BULLETIN BOARD * NEWS FROM ACROSS THE US * ZONING: THE NEW DICTATORSHIP by James Bovard * MASSIVE INCREASE IN GUN AND PROPERTY SEIZURES by Jarret Wollstein * THE "OMINOUS" CRIME BILL PASSES by Jarret Wollstein * PROTECTING YOUR PHONE, FAX & COMPUTER PRIVACY by Mike Ketcher * CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ISIL INTERNATIONAL REPORT SUPPLEMENT ==================================== %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% WE CAN SAVE AMERICA! Editorial by Vincent H. Miller %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% The onslaught of horrific events in America today is beginning to take on a surrealistic appearance -- like the plot line from a Stephen King novel. There are dark mutterings of imminent revolution, of possible military coups, of mass movements of foreign tanks and military materiel throughout the country, of fleets of mysterious unmarked black attack helicopters, of concentration camps being built for those who resist the new order. I take no great joy in reporting that one by one each of these stories is being confirmed as true. They are not, as one might have hoped, the domain of paranoid professional conspiracy theorists or National Enquirer hacks. Most people now sense that things have gone seriously awry. They are also beginning to realize that some drastic measures are going to have to be taken eventually. But what? Where do we go -- and are we prepared for what comes next? As we have editorialized in earlier versions of the "Freedom Network News" the world is on the verge of a major paradigm shift. Futurists John Naisbitt and Alvin Toffler in their books "Megatrends" and "The Third Wave" have correctly predicted the collapse of large, centralized institutions: big business, big labor, the nation state. Historical inertia is moving us inexorably toward a decentralist world -- one that libertarians would find to be most agreeable. But the forces of the old order are fighting desperately to preserve their crumbling institutions -- and are launching a formidable last stand. One gets the impression that they have seriously overplayed their hand -- and have exceeded the pain threshold for many Americans. A WAVE OF OUTRAGES AGAINST PEACEFUL CITIZENS ============================================ A string of occurrences over the past few weeks convinced me that I should pull no punches in this article: one was an ABC Television News item aired just a week ago which, against a background of a fleet of black attack helicopters, announced that the government had allocated $15 billion dollars for US military support (in troops and armor) for local police in "fighting crime" -- the "War on Drugs" in particular. This development made me think of fisherman Armin Schmidt, of Kasilof, Alaska and ho st have felt when police, without search warrants, and backed up by heavily-armed troops in a five-ton army truck outside his house, demanded "permission" to search his premises. When he asked to see a search warrant the brisk reply was: "You will be investigated!" This was a neighborhood sweep so there could have been no probable cause. As a matter of fact Schmidt, in the face of such massive intimidation, caved in and allowed troops to search his house. Nothing was found. Schmidt remarked : "I don't think they have a right to violate anyone's privacy . . . (and) I don't appreciate them or anyone else harassing me." In the same vein we discovered just today (Sept 26) that the National Guard is now permanently occupying 56 housing units in Puerto Rico. A government spokesman was quoted as saying that the reason was the War on Drugs: "It's a war - so we have to use the military," he remarked coldly. So much for the 3rd Amendment of the Constitution. The ABC News article and the Puerto Rican experience made it abundantly clear that these frightening and brazenly unconstitutional tactics are going to be "business as usual" (only more-so) in the brave new world of America in 1995. Another shocking occurrence was the news that federal government BATF teams have moved in on major American gun manufacturers such as Colt and Smith & Wesson, inventorying their entire stocks and in some cases impounding various weapons. Thousands of Colt AR-15 Sporter receivers that had not yet been imprinted with serial numbers were seized. It is looking as though the very worst nightmares of America's Founding Fathers have been become a day-to-day reality. So what are Americans doing in the face of such obscene attacks on the essence of the American repubican system? FLIGHT -- THE BRAIN DRAIN ACCELERATES ===================================== A recent issue of the International Harry Schultz Letter reports that six major financial newsletter editors (the only remaining free press in America, according to Schultz) are now in the process of fleeing the country. One editor expected that martial law could be imposed within 90 days, and most expect the situation to become bloody with the possibility of civil war erupting within 18 months or less. Many international financial experts no longer consider the US to be viable or safe place to do business -- as a matter of fact, according to Don McAlvany in his McAlvany Report, more people have moved out of the USA in the past 18 months than in the past 25 years combined. Don McAlvany is quoted in the HSL as saying that the brightest and best (not to mention the wealthiest) Americans are fleeing in droves -- to Hong Kong, East Europe, New Zealand, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and even Brazil. When we visited Prague two years ago, there were already well over 30,000 expatriot Americans living there. In the July issue of MONEY magazine in an article entitled "Escape from America" one American emigre remarked sadly, "I've finally been able to realize the American Dream -- but I had to move to New Zealand to do it." HUNKERING DOWN FOR A SIEGE ========================== The wholesale political assaults on American citizen's rights to self-defense under the "Ominous" Crime Bill are being met with anger, massive civil disobedience and a "full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes" attitude by a significant portion of the population. Sales of guns, particularly military-type hardware -- including the so-called "assault rifles" and pistols -- have been nothing short of phenomenal. Since October 1993, gun sales of all types have grown so quickly that the factories -- all of them -- are anywhere from 45,000 guns back-ordered for some of the smaller specialty companies, to over 178,000 for one major company alone. Orders for ammunition and reloading components are back-ordered until June of 1995. Dillon, a manufacturer of primers, a vital component in hand-loaded ammunition, is reported to be shipping a million a week, and one major manufacturer is reported to have back orders for over a billion primers. At one gun show a foreign manufacturer who went to sell 5 million 9mm bullets came away with orders for 97 million! At other shows it is not at all unusual to see people carrying out large 1000-round metal military ammunition boxes full of .223 and 9 mm cartridges in each hand -- and shopping-bags full of soon-to-be-illegal 30-round clips for assault rifles such as the American AR-15s and Colt "Sporters" and Ruger Mini-14s to Russian and Chinese AK-47s and SKSs. These people are not thinking of going out squirrel hunting. Even more interesting is the fact that most of these people aren't yahoos in pickup trucks either. These people represent mainstream America, folks -- and they are in an ugly mood. Jim Shults, exec. editor of "Modern Gun" magazine in a recent discussion with Congressional aides in Washington remarked, "Do you think that the people who are buying this stuff in such quantities are doing so to prepare for when these socialist laws go into effect, so that they can turn this stuff in?" The aides upon shocked reflection reluctantly gave him the answer: ". . .No!" It's unbelievable, but other main-stream sportsmen and gun magazines in their "Letters" columns are openly discussing making preparations for an armed insurrection. There has even been talk of divisions of loyalty in the police and military, and open declarations by military people that they would resign or join citizen militias if the U.S. government turns its guns on its own people. Pretty scary stuff. A few weeks ago I visited a group of disgruntled ranchers & local sheriffs in Northern California to cover possible developments of a sovereignty movement and/or citizen militia for this issue of the "Freedom Network News. This didn't lead very far, as the legalities were rather insurmountable. A San Francisco lawyer spoke on the legalities of forming militias. He warned that establishing any kind of hierarchical command structure is illegal and that militias would not be tolerated or recognized a legi-timate. Even so much as maintaining a communications network of armed citizens for mutual protection is verboten. I was told about the experience of one rancher who had held a meeting earlier in the year to form a militia. He was later arrested, had all his guns seized by a government swat team and was thrown in jail. Ominously, even as these matters were being discussed under an oak tree outside the ranch house, state and federal government heli copters flew directly overhead, casting a chill over the assemblage. Big brother was watching. I began to feel how much fear and seething hatred there is for state and Federal governments. I saw here among these farmers how the American dream has been completely devastated by Soviet-styled state and federal bureaucracies. One rancher related how since the New Deal there has been a de-facto collectivization of the farms with huge corporate agri-businesses monopolizing agriculture, getting government grants and immunity from regulations -- while small farmers were constantly harassed and fined and driven to ruin by dozens of alphabet-soup Federal and State agencies. WHAT CAN BE DONE TO AVERT DISASTER? =================================== Although we report on citizen militias and arms buildups by American citizens, the very last thing we want to see is a massive outbreak of violence in the U.S. -- even though the citizenry may be sorely provoked by Nazi-like tactics by the police and a military under the control of a criminal Congress. If violence or civil war breaks out it will be very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle. For now the weapons buildup resembles (at least to me) a micro version of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction). In the macro version of MAD no country dared use nuclear weapons for fear that massive retaliation would destroy them if they launched a "first strike." An American civil war arising out of a government "first strike" would certainly destroy the U.S. economy -- so the citizenry must remain heavily-armed to lessen the temptation for politicians to try something extremely stupid. Today an armed citizenry is the only thing that is keeping the government in line at all -- and they are desperately legislating a way that right as quickly as possible. George Washington referred to an armed citizenry as "Libery's teeth." There's a saying that a dog with no teeth gets kicked all day. A valid analogy. So beware, Americans. So what can be done? Truth is on our side and information is power. Inform your friends about these outrages. Protest police asset seizures and violations of constiutional rights. Tell your friends about ISIL and other organizations that are on the front lines of the battle for liberty. Get on radio talk shows and write letters to the editor. Don't let up for a minute. Buy and distribute ISIL's pamphlet series -- there are millions of these in circulation. A CONSTITUTIONAL BATTLE ======================= Happily the battle for freedom in America looks as though it will be a constitutional one. Already the Federal government is under heavy siege with state after state passing sovereignty resolutions (see US News section) and refusing to buckle under to federal tyranny. The Colorado state legislature has even discussed withholding federal taxes into an escrow account and holding them until the federal government shapes up. Many people are calling for a constitutional convention to redefine the division of powers between the federal government and the states. To this end author-novelist J. Neil Schulman ("Alongside Night", "The Rainbow Cadenza", "Stopping Power") has prepared a well-researched 20-page state secession initiative. It is a boilerplate document for secession with a "fill-in-the-blanks" format. One suggested provision, when a much stronger Bill o f Rights is drafted, calls for re-establishment of the contra is excellent and worthy of your attention. J. Neil Schulman P.O. Box 94, Long Beach, CA 90801-0094 Internet: softserv@genie.geis.com THE MERIDA STATEMENT ==================== To further examine peaceful consti-tutional solutions, ISIL has assembled some of the top legal minds and constitutional scholars from all over the world in M,rida, Mexico to work on developing the "Merida Statement." Even as you read this newsletter, they will be debating peaceful legal/constitutional solutions to the problems facing America and the world. NOTE: The next issue of "Freedom Network News" will include a full report of the Merida Conference and a draft of the finalized Merida Statement. It will also include a special report, with interviews of prominent Quebecers from the Quebec Bloc, on the future of Canada . (ISIL pres. Vince Miller will be visiting Ottawa, Canada after Merida). %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ISIL DIRECTOR MARY RUWART HELPS DEFEAT THE FDA; -- Delivers Address to United Nations Committee -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ISIL Director and senior research scientist Dr. Mary Ruwart was an expert pharmacological witness at the vitamin trial of Rodger Sless of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sless was arrested for the "crime" of selling the vitamin Gerovital without FDA approval. If convicted of the 15 federal counts against him, Sless could have spent the rest of his life in prison. Dr. Nancy Lord, ISIL member and 1992 Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential can-didate, was the defense attorney. Thanks to Dr. Ruwart's testimony and Dr. Lord's expert handling of the case, Sless is now free. He was acquitted of 11 counts, and the jury hung on the remaining 4 counts. In the last few months, Mary has appeared before many groups promoting libertarianism. In May she spoke on "Healing Our World" in Montreal before the International Institute of Integral Human Sciences, an NGO of the United Nations. She spoke on free-market health-care reform on Gene Burns' nationally-syndicated radio talk show. Mary also spoke at the Texas and Hawaii Libertarian Party conventions, the Natural Law Party convention in Michigan, and the Eris Society Conference in Colorado. She is also a speaker at ISIL's World Conference in Merida, M,xico in October. This is a normal schedule for Mary. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% CUBANS A LIBERTARIAN CONSTITUENCY by Raphael Ortolano %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Having recently returned from an "outreach mission" to the Cuban-American community of South Florida, I have some tremendously positive news to report! We have a deep well of potential support for individual liberty and libertarianism in this community. As personal witnesses to the evils of socialism and centralized power, many Cuban-Americans find themselves in natural agreement with the ideals of libertarianism. For some time, I have advocated that libertarians in the United States focus more of their outreach efforts toward immigrant groups, both politically (through the Libertarian Party) and educationally (through non-profit educational organizations like ISIL, Advocates for Self Government, the Future of Freedom Foundation, etc.). There is a definite constituency here -- particularly on the issue of immigration. Most of the political parties in the United States have declared a "war on immigrants". Libertarians are the only ones who have consistently advocated freedom of travel and immigration. On this issue libertarians are the only alternative voice. Most who oppose immigration do so on inherently socialist grounds. They argue that immigrants will consume too many social welfare resources (while avoiding a discussion of the immorality of such income-shifting programs). They argue that immigrants will change their "national culture" and that immigrants (and multiculturalism/ethnicity) are a threat to European/Christian values and culture. They argue that immigrants will deplete limited, non-renewabl e domestic resources which "belong" to native ns (a la the Sierra Club). None of these points of view values the individual as an entity worthy of respect in his or her own right. During my visit to South Florida, we realized many goals. First, we organized a local South Florida Chapter of ISIL as a regional contact and networking resource. Please contact John Kezany (305-378-9723) or Mike Kerner (305-741-4603) for more information about local ISIL activities in South Florida. Second, I met with representatives of several community and humanitarian organizations, such as the esteemed Jose Basulto of "Brothers To The Rescue" (Hermanos Al Rescate), Arturo Cobo of the "Cuban Refugee Transit House (Hogar de Transito para Refugiados de Cuba), and Arturo Rodriguez of "Rafter House" (Casa de Balseros). Prior to the recent change in United States immigration policy, these gentlemen and hundreds of volunteers form these and similar organizations had assisted over 90% of Cuban Refugees without any expenditure of taxpayer funds! In fact, they refuse to accept public funding of any sort (for the same reasons that Libertarians eschew public funding). Third, I met with the News Directors and Assignment Editors of virtually every Spanish-language media outlet in the Miami area, including radio, television and newspaper. I found that unlike the English-speaking media, there was a widespread interest in libertarian ideas. In the Spanish version of the "Miami Herald" (El Nuevo Herald) the Opinion editor is none other than Alvaro Vargas Llosa, the son of the famous Peruvian author and libertarian Mario Vargas Llosa. Virtually every editor/news director with whom I met was interested in obtaining more information about the libertarian movement. Others were interested in translating most of ISIL pamphlets and putting Spanish-speaking libertarians on the air. CUBAN-AMERICANS EXPRESS ANGER AND OUTRAGE OVER US GOVERNMENT POLICIES ===================================================================== The wrath of the Cuban-American community was immediate and passionate when the Clinton Administration abruptly changed over thirty years of precedent in virtually nullifying the Cuban Adjustment Act. Under the former long-standing policy, Cubans who arrived in the United States as refugees were "paroled" into the country and given legal immigrant status within a year. The result of this policy is that Miami, once a tattered old relic of the 1920's prosperity that slunk into disrepair, has arisen as one of the premier commercial centers of the Western Hemisphere. This incredible turnabout was due in no small part to the hard work done by Cuban exiles who were able to accomplish this feat due to the legal status they obtained as a result of the Adjustment Act. The Latin population of Dade County (which comprises greater metropolitan Miami) has a slightly higher per capita income than Americans as a whole. Likewise, they have a higher percentage of voter registration than the average American community or population group. When President Clinton announced that the United States would no longer allow Cuban refugees to obtain such legal status and that, in contravention of the United States' international treaty obligations, Cuban refugees would be forcibly returned to Cuba to waste away in concentration camps at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base without so much as the refugee hearing required by international law. Miami was suddenly awash in demonstrations. The tenor was not only one of outrage, but was so passionate tha ad the impression that anyone who admitted to being a Democrat would be lynched. Many expressed the obvious: "Why are they keeping my relatives in a federal jail (detention center) at enormous taxpayer expense when I have a home for them and can clothe and feed them myself ?" "Why do they say that immigrants are a drain on the economy when we built the economy in Miami?" "How can they say that immigrants cost the taxpayers money when our community assists over 90% of the 'rafters', with private, voluntary donations?" (Jose Basulto, Director of "Brothers To The Rescue", related that over 80% of their donations are personal contributions of $10 or less, and they DON'T accept public financing). In attending many of the nightly rallies, I found most participants to be genuinely interested in learning more about Libertarianism. In fact, in personally distributing over one thousand ISIL flyers and pamphlets, not once did I receive a negative comment. In most cases, the recipient would immediately scan the material for content, and in every case where one did so he/she expressed instant agreement. Rarely have I had such positive experiences, with friendly waves, handshakes, and "high fives." In many cases, a recipient would share the material with friends and relatives, and I would soon be barraged with requests for more pamphlets from the crowd. The interest in our message was so intense that, even when recipients did not read English, they would take our materials to relatives or friends to read and translate them on the spot. I can only imagine how much more successful would be our outreach efforts were we to translate more of our materials into Spanish. If ever there was a community interested in Libertarian philosophy, Miami's Cuban-American population is it. Many are people who have lived with socialist oppression, who have had their guns and property confiscated, who have lost their freedoms, and who risked their lives to regain that freedom in the United States. They intimately understand the ideals of Libertarianism, whether or not they associate them with any particular label. Not only does this portend well for domestic Libertarian outrea there is significant potential that the organized movement may spread to Cuba itself. (More on the latter in future FNNs). %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% BULLETIN BOARD %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% FUTURE OF FREEDOM FOUNDATION 5TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE ******************************************************* October 28 - 30, 1994 The Future of Freedom Foundation, founded in 1989 is celebrating it's 5th Anniversary with a conference entitled "Halting The Destruction of American Liberty". The dates are from October 28-30. Place: Renaissance Hotel, Herndon, Virginia. This event features a cornucopia of speakers, including F of F president Jacob (Bumper) Hornberger & VP Richard Ebeling, and others -- Doug Casey, Mark Skousen, Dominick T. Armentano, Ralph Raico, Sheldon Richman, Dr. Thomas Szasz, Doug Bandow, James Bovard and more. Registration fee is $225 if paid before Sept 30. For more information write or call: The Future of Freedom Foundation, 11350 Random Hills Road, Ste 800, Fairfax, VA 22030. Tel (703) 934-6101. Fax (703) 803-1480. REPUBLICAN LIBERTY CAUCUS CONFERENCE ************************************ To be held in Gatlinburg, Tennessee -- November 11-13, 1994 The Republican Liberty Caucus (a group dedicated to introducing libertarian ideas to the Republican party) will be holding a conference to discuss the future of the Republican Party (GOP). The location will be The River Terrace Resort in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The date November 11-13th. Hosts for this event are Michael & Brenda McCroskey - with co-hosts Roger MacBride, Clifford Thies, Mike Holmes and Eric Rittberg. For free convention information packet including hotel info, write to Brenda McCroskey, P.O. Box 1188, Gatlinburg, TN 37738 or call (615) 436-6288. Early Registration fee is $55.00 plus $20.00 for the banquet. FIRST ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF COUNTIES Special Meeting To Challenge Federal and State Authority Salt Lake City, Utah -- November 29 & 30, 1994 The National Country Response Center in conjunction with the National Federal Lands Conference is presenting a first annual "Conference of Counties" to discuss the constitutional means by which political power may be devolved away from State and Federal governments down to local county levels. Chairman Bill Misrasi in discussions with ISIL members has stated that: "We are witnessing a major move toward centralization of power, loss of freedom and an ever-increasing burden of laws, regulations, and debt - all in violation of the liberties provided by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution. We need citizen support and understanding of the needs in the communities and we feel it is imperative that the citizens and local leaders unde rstand their legal rights, powers and authority when it c dealing with the state and federal agencies. For more information call (800) 324-7016 (Salt Lake City, Utah). %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% FREEDOM NETWORK NEWS - US NEWS REPORT News From Across the U.S. "All the news the establishment media won't print" %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% NEW! CONSTITUTION PARTY ****************************** We have just been informed that a new political party, the Constitution Party, has been formed in the United States. The Constitution Party's founder, Aaron Russo, an ISIL member, is probably better known as a film producer ("The Rose" with Bette Midler and "Trading Places" with Eddie Murphy). In an early news release Russo is quoted as saying: "The battle is not left versus right, the true battle is the individual versus big government." The platform, as far as we can tell, appears to be 24-karat libertarian and indeed many of the founders are libertarians & hard money newsletter editors - plus a sprinkling of conservative radio talk show hosts. Some of the luminaries involved include: Dr. Ron Paul, Jim Blanchard, Doug Casey, Larry Dodge, Bob Prechter (of Elliott Wave fame), Dr. Jonathan Wright, Bill Benson and others. The question being asked now is: "why do we need another libertarian party?" Perplexed and occasionally somewhat miffed Libertarian Party activists have reported that they fear the Constitution Party will split the libertarian vote. Others, on the other hand, believe that Constitution may appeal to a different "patriot" type of constituency. Constitution Party spokesmen have criticized the libertarians for being a bunch of egg-head intellectuals and point to the inability of the LP to make major political gains over the past 20 years as being too much of an obstacle to overcome. More news in future FNN's. California ========== CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE PASSES SOVEREIGNTY RESOLUTION **************************************************** SACRAMENTO - State Senator Don Rogers (R. 17th District) reports that his Senate Joint Resolution (the Tenth Amendment Resolution) has easily passed with 44 out of 52 votes. In a news release Rogers is quoted as saying: "As the most populous state in the Union -- with nearly 12% of our Nation's population, this successful passage will send a strong message to the big-government, big-spenders in Washington that we the people are fed up . . ." He went on to say, "This is a significant victory for the rights of individual states and the people under the Tenth Amendment of our Federal Constitution." California now joins Colorado, Missouri, Hawaii, and Illinois in passing this measure. Oklahoma has passed the resolution in one house. The resolution has also been introduced in Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and seven other states -- Utah, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wyoming -- plan to introduce the resolution when their legislatures next convene. KILL A RAT, GO TO JAIL ********************** SACRAMENTO (August 29): Taung Ming-Lin, a Taiwanese immigrant farmer who had his $50,000 tractor seized by over-zealous government environmental officers because he ran over a rat while plowing his field, has become a cause celebre among farmers in the area. Government environmental bureaucrats alleged that the kangaroo rat which lived on his property was an endangered species, and that as a result Ming-Lin couldn't farm his land. A mob of over 1000 farmers demonstrated outside the state legislature in Sacramento in support of Ming-Ling, while expressing their outrage and fear of government eco-Nazis (they call them the "Green Gestapo"). Ming-Lin faces fines up to $300,000, seizure of assets, and jail for up to 18 months for his "crime." It appears that rats have more rights than humans in the brave new world of America in the 90s. Lin's lawyer remarked angrily: "To me this is outrageous conduct on the part of the government, to swoop in on him like this and seize his equipment. You're telling this man, who paid a million and a half dollars for his land, that he can't farm it. That's unconstitutional." At the demonstration one protester remarked angrily: "Even King George wouldn't have done this 200 years ago." (PBS News) Colorado ======== L. NEIL SMITH'S "PALLAS" WINS PROMETHEUS AWARD ********************************************** Science-fiction author L. Neil Smith earned the prestigious Prometheus Award for his latest novel, PALLAS, at the World Science Fiction Convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Since he could not be present to receive his award, it was accepted for him by his friend and fellow ISIL member, aspiring Canadian author David Thompson Anderson. PALLAS, which has been described as the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of the Sagebrush Rebellion, is Smith's 18th novel and his second to win the Prometheus Award -- the first being his first novel, "The Probability Broach" (Del Rey, 1980), scheduled to be reissued by Tor Books later this year. Some of his other works include "Henry Martyn" (Tor, 1989), "The Crystal Empire" (Tor, 1986), and "The Lando Calrissian Adventures", an omnibus edition of three "Star Wars" novels written in 1983 for Del Rey Books and LucasFilm, Ltd. The Prometheus Award is given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society to the year's best libertarian science-fiction novel. L. Neil Smith, 48, has been a Fort Collins, Colorado resident since 1964. He lives with his wife Cathy, their daughter Rylla, her cat Eris, and Sedrich, an African Grey parrot. He is the founder and principal spokesman for the Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus and editor of its online information service, Lever Action BBS at (303) 493-6674. In his spare time, L. Neil Smith shoots competitively (NRA Hunter's Pistol) at the High Plains Shooting Range in Weld County. He is presently at work on "Bretta Martyn", a sequel to his 1989 space pirate epic "Henry Martyn", and another "North American Confederacy" adventure, "The American Zone". Montana ======= MONTANA CITIZENS GEAR UP FOR SECESSION FROM US ********************************************** MISSOULA -- The Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA), a state-wide, political-action organization of gun owners, has announced plans for a constitutional amendment to repeal Article I of the Montana Constitution: the Compact with the United States. This action was precipitated by the passage of the so-called "Crime Bill" which contains a ban on many semi-automatic rifles (so-called "assault rifles"), a ban on all magazines which hold over ten rounds, and a de-facto firearm registration scheme. The announcement of this effort was timed to coincide with President Clinton's signing of the "Crime Bill" on September 13th. Advocates of this change have announced the idea early to give the people of Montana time to discuss, consider, and debate the idea. MSSA is calling upon leaders of other groups, concerned about federal incursions into states' and individual rights to participate in this effort. ISIL member and President of MSSA, Gary Marbut, announced, "When Montana agreed to become a state, there was a basic presumption that the people of Montana would always be protected from the federal government by the Bill of Rights. Congress has abrogated that presumption, and has thereby nullified Montana's contract with the other states. Therefore, we have no further moral or legal obligation to maintain the Compact with the United States." Marbut continued, "The contentions which existed between the thirteen original colonies and the English Crown, and which gave rise to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, now exist between Montana and the government of the United States. Congress has been warned by other states about its steady encroachment upon states' sovereignty, to no avail. Now, Montana will simply and peaceably opt out from under federal authority. We will be joined in this by many people, and other states, who love freedom, and who will no longer tolerate the spiralling federal assumption of authority over every person and every thing." Proponents of this constitutional change, and withdrawal from the federal union, intend to take this measure to the 1995 Legislature for placement on a ballot as a referendum. If the Legislature fails to act, proponents plan to place it before the people of Montana via the initiative process at the first available opportunity, which will begin in July of 1995. "Montanans are fed up with the federal government dictating to Montana and the people of Montana," Marbut added, "and we are through with Congress's increasing encroachment on the Bill of Rights. We have a thirst for freedom in Montana, and we simply will not subsist under the boot heel of federal tyranny. We choose to opt out." "The people have the right of governing themselves as a free sovereign, and independent state." Thus, the right of the people of Montana to separate themselves from the federal government has been reserved to the people in the Montana Constitution. "There is no doubt that this step is strong medicine," Marbut continued, "but this is a place in history that requires strong medicine. We do not suggest this step lightly (but) we will keep our freedom, even if it means going on our own, just as the nation-states of Eastern Europe have recently done. "Many people and organizations in Montana are likely to be attracted to this effort because of the ongoing increases in assumption of federal authority. The Montana Shooting Sports Association invites participation by all Montana organizations which are concerned about freedom of the people of Montana from the federal juggernaut." For more information contact: Montana Shooting Sports Association P.O. Box 4924, Missoula, MT 59806 (406) 549-1252 MONTANA STUDENTS DENIED DIPLOMAS OVER PRO-GUN PROTEST ***************************************************** MISSOULA -- Five Graduating seniors of Bozeman High School have had their diplomas withheld because they wore National Rifle Association (NRA) stickers on their commencement gowns protesting the anti-gun votes of the commencement speaker, U.S. Senator Max Baucus. Last fall, Baucus betrayed his long-term promises to the people of Montana by voting twice for major gun-control measures in the Senate. During the same period, Baucus twice asked the Bozeman High School senior class if he could be the commencement speaker at their graduation. Twice the senior class voted on his offer, and twice the class vote rejected the offer by a margin of about 200 to 10 votes. Despite this double rejection by the senior class, Baucus quietly cut a deal with the school administration to supersede student preference to become the commencement speaker. At the graduation ceremony, many students wore NRA stickers on their caps and gowns to protest the appearance of Baucus, and to protest Baucus's betrayal of his long-standing promises to Montana by voting for gun control. Five of the students wearing NRA stickers were informed that they would not be allowed to receive their diplomas until they presented written apologies to the school and Baucus for having violated an unwritten school policy, and for having offended Baucus. A state-wide, political-action organization of gun owners, the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA), has helped the students whose diplomas were withheld by school officials. MSSA president (and ISIL member) Gary S. Marbut, commented, "The reprehensible actions of Bozeman school officials are something you might expect from Mississippi in the 1950's if black students dared to show up for graduation. Apparently, the only way Baucus can get favorable mail from Montana nowadays is if school officials threaten to flunk students who don't write nice letters to Baucus. We expect that some heads will roll in the administration of the Bozeman High School be fore the dust settles on this issue." According to affected students, the decision to pull diplomas was actually made by Vice-Principal Bill Franks. School Principal Lou Gappmayer left town immediately after the incident for an extended vacation, and Franks could not be reached for comment. Students whose diplomas were pulled are being told that they must await the return of Gappmayer to obtain diplomas. Meanwhile, those students are unable to forward applications to selected universities, and the available space in chosen universities is being taken by students who have diplomas in hand. New Mexico ========== FEDS APPROVE PLAN TO POISON ALL FISH IN CREEK ********************************************* Westerners are again under attack from loony bureaucrats and wacko government environmentalists. In the Gila National Forest area of Catron County, the feds have a hare-brained plan to poison all the trout living in Mineral Creek, Silver Creek, Copper Creek and others in order to replace them with Gila trout, an endangered species. After the poison, which removes oxygen from the water, is used no one will be able to go near the streams for five years! There would be no backpacking, hunting and certainly no more cattle grazing. Locals believe that the rationale for this bizarre action is to force people off their lands so the government can control it and allocate resources as it sees fit. The locals ask: After the streams are poisoned, what is going to happen to livestock, mountain lions, deer, elk, bears, and smaller animals? What will the poison do to the water table? They also claim that the Gila trout would die in the shallow creeks -- many of which dry up in the hot, dry summer months. In announcing this plan, the Feds tried to hide their intent in the fine print. If it had not been for an astute individual, the locals would not even have had a chance to respond to public hearings. As it is, the local populace is adamantly against this move, and have set up watchdog groups to monitor the Feds. The Feds, when asked about the size of their budget for this project said they did not know -- but one critic predicted that it is quite possible that such a project could cost as much at $10,000 per Gila trout they stock. The real issue, according to researcher Oren Tranbarger, is control. Many people now believe that there is a conspiracy by the Feds to first condemn and then steal the land that people have worked for several generations. The mood of the local people may be best summed up by a poster seen at Reserve. It says, "We eat every second environmentalist. The first one just left town in a hurry. " By Oren Tranbarger on Libernet Digest CATRON COUNTY MILITIA FORMING TO FIGHT FEDS ******************************************* "It's not clear how long it will be safe to be a U.S. Forest Service official in the ranching region" began an article in the "Albuquerque Tribune". Local ranchers, enraged over heavy-handed tactics by federal agents, are forming an armed militia as "a last resort" over public-lands issues in the Catron country area of New Mexico. In a scenario that began to look like Lexington and Concord circa 1775, rancher and livestock commission member Luther Broadus remarked "I want to be the first to sign up and join a militia -- it is the way to go for security and safety for our people." Commission Chairman Carl Livingston said a militia may form because citizens are getting tired of being tossed around and pushed to the limit by government regulations. Livingston went on to say, "We just want the Forest Service officials to know that we are prepared -- although violence would be a last resort." There was also some controversy in Catron county about a proposed resolution that would have made gun ownership mandatory for locals. However, they decided in favor of making it a voluntary option and passed a resolution that favored all citizens having the option to bear the "arms of their choice." Some ranchers expressed fear at taking such radical measures. "Look what they did to David Koresh" said entrepreneur Elena Johnson, alluding to the Waco massacre in which the BATF brutally murdered 96 men, women and children. A local government Forest Service ranger scoffed at the citizen militia plans, quipping caustically that the ranchers would have little chance if it came down to .30-30 Winchesters versus government Bradley armored personnel carriers or attack helicopters. Perhaps he should consult the Russians regarding their experience with Afghan tribesmen with their antique single-shot rifles -- Ed. CITIZENS OF CATRON COUNTY FIGHT FEDS TO STANDSTILL ************************************************** Over the past years there has been a unrelenting assault on the citizens of Catron Country by federal agents. Using bogus environmental laws in a callous attempt to morally disarm the citizenry, they have effectively put an end to logging, mining and grazing in this area of New Mexico -- effectively paralyzing the economy there. Then the citizens hired a new County Counsel who vowed to do battle with the US government on the Constitutional grounds that the county had the final say on all public lands in their county -- either Federal or State-owned. They told the Fish and Wildlife Service to take a hike with their "en-dangered" Mexican Owl plan and then advised the County Board of Supervisors to enact the US Constitution as a county ordinance. They then issued letters to all federal officials in the county telling them they were on notice, and that before they even dared to breathe in Catron County, they would have to seek permission from the members of the Board of Supervisors. Four Forest Service law-enforcement officials barged into the next County Supervisors meeting and threatened to arrest the whole board. The head Supervisor said, "If you do, I will convene a special grand jury on the spot and I'll have the sheriff arrest you." The Forest Service left empty-handed and beaten. The Forest Service then went back to their computer network, spreading the word that Catron County was in serious trouble. But, for the record, Catron County is doing just fine. This all happened about two years ago. Since then five other counties in New Mexico have joined the coalition of home-rule counties. So has every county in Utah, plus Clark and Siskiyou counties in Nevada. From Dalhard Daily Texan DEMOCRATS TRY TO MUSCLE OUT GREEN PARTY *************************************** New Mexico's new Green Party is delighted with the lawsuit that the Democrats have filed to get them off the ballot. At least it's giving the Greens more publicity than they could ever afford to buy. One state newspaper, in an editorial right after the Democratic Party filed the lawsuit, dubbed the Demos as "The Yellow Party". They didn't go so far as to color code Republicans though. Seen in Hobbs Flare (Aug 4, 94) SPEAKERS AT RALLY URGE STATE SOVEREIGNTY **************************************** ALBUQUERQUE (9/12/94): About 600 people attending a "Wake Up America" meeting were told to take a stand against the federal government and support state-sovereignty resolutions. "You are America, not those scoundrels and traitors in Squashington, D.C.," said Jeffery Baker, a Sarasota, Florida host of a daily Patriot Network television show. "If the founding fathers were around today, they'd say rope is the best investment you could make." State-sovereignty resolutions -- passed by the legislatures of Colorado, California, Missouri and Hawaii -- are declarations by each state that they retain all the rights not specifically granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution. "Folks, we've got to take our country back," said Charles Duke, a Republican state legislator who sponsored the successful Colorado Resolution for State Sovereignty. State-sovereignty resolutions, Duke said, make it clear that the "federal government is our agent. We (the states) created it and we can fire it, if we wish, if it does not cease and desist with its unconstitutional mandates." Duke and Baker urged those at the meeting to support legislators in the November general election who favor a New Mexico version of a sovereignty resolution. "Take back your state," Baker said. "We can put the fear of God into those people in Santa Fe." Ohio ==== OHIO GOVERNOR JOINS CONSTITUTIONAL WAR AGAINST FEDERAL TYRANNY ************************************************************** "Congress has bankrupted the federal government and now they are trying to bankrupt state and local governments" blasted Ohio Governor George Voinvich. With this battle cry, the Ohio 10th Amendment Resolution was introduced in the Ohio Legislature by Senator Grace Drake (R-Solon) and Mike Wise (R-Chagrin Falls), and will be re-introduced for the 121st session beginning in January and assigned to a committee at that time. As with other states, their resolution invokes 10th-Amendment powers as in these closing statements of the Ohio Resolution: -- "RESOLVED, That the State of Ohio hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution; and be it further -- "RESOLVED, That this Resolution serve as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately." POLICE LIEUTENANT DELIVERS ULTIMATUM TO JANET RENO ************************************************** The following is the finale of a speech given by Lieutenant Harry Thomas of the Cincinnati Police Department. It was subsequently published in a law-enforcement journal. "Pass your gun laws, I will not beg the government for a license to continue to be a handgun owner. I will not submit to being fingerprinted, or photographed, or interrogated like a criminal for claiming my birthright as a free American. I will not register a single gun that I own. I will not surrender a single gun that I own. I will not apply for an 'arsenal' license because I own more than 20 guns or more than a thousand rounds of ammunition. I will not attend mandatory safety training, nor will I submit to a test to prove that I'm fit to be a gun owner." "And Miss Reno, I have this to say to you: If you send your jack-booted baby-burning bushwhackers to confiscate my guns, pack them a lunch; it will be a damned long day. The Branch Davidians were amateurs; I'm a professional." "Patrick Henry, while addressing the Virginia House of Burgesses on March 23, 1775, put these concepts into words in a manner far better than I can ever hope to: 'Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!' " Washington DC ============= GUN OWNERS MARCH ON WASHINGTON ****************************** WASHINGTON - August 14: An estimated 20,000 angry gun owners converged at the Lincoln Memorial to express their concern over mounting attacks on their 2nd-Amendment rights. There was virtually no coverage of this event by the establishment media. This event was organized by the Committee of 1776 and drew gun owners from all over the United States. Speakers included ISIL member and radio-talk show personality Gene Burns, and Larry Pratt from Gun Owners of America. Groups represented were as varied as the National Rifle Association, law-enforcement associations and the Libertarian Party. While anti-Clinton sentiment ran high, a surprising number of gun owners at the Rally felt that the Republicans offered little or no hope for improvement. "George Bush sold us out," said one man, adding that, "all politicians are weasels." Drawing the most ire was Attorney General Janet Reno, whose name never failed to draw hisses and boos. Among the names she was called were "Nazi," "traitor," and "murderer" -- the latter in reference to her role in the Waco massacre. The gun owners were united in their determination to preserve their rights "at all costs." Virtually everyone one asked said if the government tried to confiscate their guns, they would resist. "We fought one Revolution because the British tried to take away our guns," said one Michigan man, waving a military-style rifle. "And if Clinton thinks he's gonna get my gun, he's wrong . . . dead wrong. The Second Amendment ain't about duck hunting. It's about our right as a free people to defend ourselves against tyranny." Seen in California Liberty (Sept 94 issue) ======================================================================== ON PATRIOTISM I do not go into rhapsodies about "my country," its rocks and rills, its super-highways and wooded hills . . . This whole world is almost unbearably beautiful; why should I love Oak Creek Canyon or California's beaches or Washington's Sea Island counties any more than the Bocca di Cattaro or Delphi or the Bosphorus? Because I, me, the great RWL, was born in Dakota Territory? The logic seems weak, somehow, don't you feel? My attachment to these United States is wholly, entirely, absolutely to the Revolution, the real world revolution, which men began here and which has - so to speak - a foothold on earth here. If reactionaries succeed in destroying the revolutionary structure of social and political human life here, I care no more about this continent than about any other. If I lived long enough I would find and join the revival of the Revolution whe rever it might be in Africa or Asia or Europe, the Arctic or Antartic. And let this country go with all the other regimes that collectivism has wrecked and eliminated since history began. So much for patriotism, mine. Rose Wilder Lane ======================================================================== ======================================================================== "If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." Winston Churchill ======================================================================== %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ZONING: THE NEW AMERICAN DICTATORSHIP by James Bovard %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Zoning law is increasingly turning local government officials into petty dictators over private landowners. Local governments across the nation have achieved a stranglehold over citizens' rights to build their own lives on their own lands. Modern zoning laws presume that no citizen has a right to control his own land - and that every citizen has a right to control his neighbor's land. The use of zoning laws began in the first years of the twentieth century and spread rapidly. In 1926, the Supreme Court upheld a Euclid, Ohio, zoning code that imposed stringent land-use controls (such as banning apartment houses in residential areas) that slashed the value of some land by 75%. The Supreme Court held that the zoning law was a justified exercise of the police power - in part because "very often the apartment house is a mere parasite, constructed in order to take advantage of the open spaces and attractive surroundings created by the residential character of the district." The Supreme Courts launched the equivalent of a legislative land rush - permitting tens of thousands of government officials to tyrannize landowners in their domain. Many of the first zoning codes were instituted to forcibly quarantine blacks. St. Louis adopted a zoning plan designed to expel a large portion of its black residents; a St. Louis commission complained in 1936 that "by such zoning we are deliberately planning to reduce our total population from 822,000 to 517,000 . . . Zoning of this sort is totally unsound and accomplishes nothing other than the deliberate creation of slums." Early zoning laws helped create many of the ghettos that would later provide a pretext for urban renewal programs and the bulldozing of American cities. The spread of zoning was fueled in part by federal demands that local governments impose extensive land-use controls as a condition for receiving lavish federal housing and development subsidies. Zoning laws have become far more invasive and restrictive in recent years. Floosmoor, Illinois, in an act of legislative snobbery, banned pick-up trucks from its streets - and even from private driveways. San Francisco zoners banned architecture offices from certain areas of the city where government planners believed rents were already too high. Wellesley, Massachusetts, passed a zoning law limiting homeowners to only two live-in servants. (The law sought to restrict the proliferation of group houses). Phoenix, Arizona, requires that new homes use Spanish tile roofs - an ornate touch that adds up to $6000 to new home prices. Coral Gables, Florida, requires Spanish-tile roofs on any children's playhouse in families' backyards. Zoners apparently feel entitled to transform humanity's habitat. Malibu, California enacted a new zoning code in 1993 that made up to 80 percent of the homes in the city nonconforming -- and required that nonconforming homes be torn down after twenty years. A zoning plan proposed in Houston in 1993 could have resulted in the forced shutdown of 128 businesses. (Voters defeated the plan). In June 1993, Fairfax County, Virginia, threatened to close down 30 large furniture and appliance stores because they disturbed the peace by violating an obscure zoning provision that prohibited stores located in warehouse districts from having more than 40 percent of their floor space devoted to retail sales. Some local governments use zoning to exercise dictatorial control over every square foot of land under their domain. Laguna Beach, California, prohibited a family from moving into their new home because city inspectors decreed that the owner had painted his house the wrong shade of white. A 1991 zoning ordinance allows the city of Camarillo, California "to abate any problem that diminishes property values," as the Los Angeles Times reported. Camarillo city manager William Little explained: "It's enough to cover virtually anything. But we are very judicious in what we go up against." Little's remark exemplifies how zoning to protect property values gives government officials almost unlimited power to restrict the use of property -- thereby defeating the whole notion of property rights. The essence of zoning is the shotgun behind the door -- the pending call on police to drag someone away in handcuffs and bulldoze their home. Zoning is not simply a question of bureaucrats and local politicians coming up with byzantine ordinances -- but of the full force of government waiting to fall on the head of anyone who violates one of the constantly changing local land-use decrees. In Laguna Beach, California, Al Maier, a retired Marine pilot, was jailed for six months largely because he had some old cars parked in the driveway of his house. Maier was also jailed for allowing a homeless family to live with him in a spare room free of charge. Frank Battaile, deputy city attorney for Laguna Beach, explained: "Mr. Maier is known for supposedly doing charitable things and being the Laguna Beach Santa Claus. But his neighbors complained about property values." In Skaneste the local government responded to one couple's zoning violations by sending in sheriff's deputies to drag out and jail the owner's wife and raze their $350,000 lakefront home. The Office of Code Enforcement in Alexandria, Virginia, sent certified letters to 22 homeowners in June 1993 threatening to condemn their properties unless they fixed chipping paint on their windowsil ls or door frames. Zoning forces average citizens to beg politicians and bureaucrats for permission to use their own property. Local governments in New York may be abject failures at preventing violent crime, but they have a good record in fighting garage conversions. Newsday printed the docket of an upcoming meeting of the Babylon, New York, Zoning Board of Appeals meeting of January 23, 1992. Among the items slated for public hearing: a person seeking permission to maintain an awning, a person seeking permission to maintain a front porch, a person seeking to "legalize an open porch on the rear of a house at 416 S. Eighth St.," a person seeking permission to install sliding glass doors, a person seeking "to legalize the conversion of a detached garage to a playroom and storage room at 212 S. Sixth St.," and a person seeking permission "to maintain a second kitchen for personal use at 132 Houston St." "Zoning uber alles" appears to be the motto of many local governments. New York City in 1985 gave a developer permission to build a 31-story apartment building. After the building was up, the city announced that its officials had misread their own zoning maps -- and demanded that 12 stories be slashed off the building. As a result of the city's ruling, the developer was forced to spend $1 million to pay for a 7000-pound robot to smash down t he illegal floors of the building, floor by floor. In August, 1993, Seal Beach, California, ordered a homeowner to remove a six-foot dome atop his house -- even though the city Planning Department explicitly approved the house and dome design three years earlier. (The homeowner had built the dome so that his children could learn about astronomy). The city council ordered the destruction of the dome in part because it did not comply with zoning rules enacted after the dome's construction. The owner estimated that removing the dome would cost him $13,000). Citizens often bitterly resent zoning officials' intrusions. The American Planning Association, an organization largely consisting of government officials, offers helpful tips to government officials on how to intimidate average citizens: Ideally, inspectors should carry cameras at all times and make immediate photographic records of all alleged violations. Virtually all courts will admit properly documented photographic evidence. The other benefit of using a camera in inspection efforts is its intimition effect -- some citizens are more impressed by the formality of having their violations photographed than by the initial warning letter. Zoning advocates sometimes seem to glorify zoning's arbitrariness. Sylvia Lewis, editor of Planning magazine (published by the American Planning Association), observed in a 1991 article, "You can think of planning as a giant Monopoly game -- with the board representing all the land in town and the moves representing the rules of land-use law. But in real life, as opposed to the games, the rules are always changing..." Zoning rules are binding only on citizens, not on governments, who can make hundreds of thousands of exemptions, variances, or revisions to their master plans each year. And because zoning officials in most states effectively have absolute immunity against lawsuits from property owners, there is little to restrain their creativity. Several states have created master plans to restrict development. In 1973, the Oregon legislature enacted a land-use program to preserve the state's prime farmland. Subsequently, the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission proceeded to vastly expand the definition of "prime farmland" - originally estimated at three million acres statewide -- and eventually banned development on almost all of the state's twenty-five million rural acres. Bill Moshofsky, vice president of Oregonians in Action, a landowners' organization, complained, "The present policy of Oregon is being interpreted to outlaw a rural lifestyle." Oregonian Gary Eisler complained that, if he was denied a building permit for his forest land, the value of his property could fall by over 90%. Not only is land being locked into agricultural uses -- but farmers have been prohibited from building homes on their own farms, or even from having a mobile home parked on their farm to watch their cattle for more than thirty days out of every six months. In another case, the state Land Use Board of Appeals ruled that a woman's plan to plant seven acres of Christmas trees and to have two dairy cows on her thirteen acres was not a sufficient agricultural operation in order to permit the woman to build a house on her rural land. In Oregon, property rights depend on counts of cows and Christmas trees. Walter Betschart, who lives 30 miles west of Portland, Oregon, was jailed in 1986 for violating the state plan by leaving 300 autos stored on his land -- land that the state decreed must be used only for farming. The end result, Moshofsky complains, is that state government "is mandating higher densities in urban areas, making it more and more difficult to expand urban growth boundaries that have become Berlin walls around all cities in the state. So while rural living is being outlawed, more and more people are being crammed into cities, thereby increasing traffic congestion, using up green space, driving up the cost of land, and destroying the quality of life for many urban dwellers." Citizens may have a chance to turn the tide of overregulation. The Supreme Court, in a June 1994 decision, ruled that the town of Tigard, Oregon had gone too far in demanding that Florence Dolan effectively surrender ten percent of her land to the city in return for permission to expand her plumbing supply store. The Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, ruled that the city had gone too far in its demands. Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote fo r the court: "We see no reason why the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, as much a part of the Bill of Rights as the First Amendment or Fourth Amendment, should be relegated to the status of a poor relation in these comparable circumstances." While many conservatives hailed the decision as the dawn of a new era for property rights, government agencies could find ways to sabotage the clear intent of the court's decision - as they have sabotaged other pro-property rights decisions by the Supreme Court since 1987. Some restrictions on private land use are both necessary and beneficial. Zoning controls for public safety are rational and defensible; there is no need to allow the building of an ammunition plant next to an apartment building. Long before the advent of government zoning, American cities restricted development through the imposition of codes for fire prevention, building safety, and the abatement of public nuisances. As University of Chicago professor Richard Epstein, the nation's leading authority on property rights,wrote, "Zoning should be confined to the prevention of ordinary nuisances, or on limited occasion to overcoming certain collective-action problems, as with the placement of signs over public streets and sidewalks." But the current level of control has gone far beyond any reasonable concept of pubic safety. Government abuses of zoning laws were clearly foreseen back in 1926 by Supreme Court justice Willis Van Devanter. In his dissent to the Euclid decision, Van Devanter wrote, "The plain truth is that the true object of the ordinance in question is to place all property in a strait-jacket. The purpose to be accomplished is really to regulate the mode of living of persons who may hereafter inhabit [the community]." Yet, as a brief in that case declared, " That our cities should be made beautiful and orderly is, of course, in the highest degree desirable, but it is even more important that our people should remain free." There is hope. More and more Americans are realizing that zoning has been a false panacea for urban problems. Voters in Houston, Texas recently rejected the city government's proposal to impose a comprehensive zoning scheme -- thereby continuing Houston's claim as the only major city in the nation without zoning. Property-rights advocates are forming organizations and rallying around the country to block the rapacious appetities of local politicians and zoning commissions. The fact that excessive zoning has repeatedly been an issue before the Supreme Court in recent years shows that the issue is still alive -- and still ripe for friends of liberty to champion. ======================================================================== James Bovard is the author of Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (St. Martin's Press). Available from ISIL for $19.95 (less 10% member discount) + $3.00 shipping & handling. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% "IN THE NEXT 12 - 18 MONTHS YOU WILL WITNESS A HUNDREDFOLD INCREASE IN ASSET CONFISCATION AND NATIONWIDE GUN SEIZURES." Jarret Wollstein %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% "We are about to witness a massive increase in govern-ment assaults on our life, liberty, and property. . . ** A 100-fold increase in seizures of cars, homes, bank accounts, and businesses. ** Mandatory national ID cards. ** A new, electronically trackable currency. ** Nationwide, house-to-house gun confiscation raids." "The crisis libertarians have feared for 20 years is now upon us." ***************************************************************** 1. MASSIVE SEIZURE OF CARS, HOMES, BANK ACCOUNTS, AND BUSINESSES. ================================================================= According to the Financial Privacy Report, every week there are now about 5,000 seizures of the property of innocent Americans without trial - 250,000 seizures a year. In 80% of these seizures, no one is ever charged with a crime. It's outrageous! One American in a thousand is a confiscation victim in a given year. But you haven't seen anything yet! Now that the precedent is set . . . In the next 12 months that percentage could easily increase to one American in 100, and possibly as high as one in ten, with libertarians at the top of the list. All of us are in danger of having our homes, bank accounts, cars and businesses confiscated. Here's why: --> Seizure of homes and bank accounts for virtually any suspected crime, including misdemeanors. Under the Department of "Justice's" proposed "Forfeiture Act of 1994," government agents could confiscate anyone's bank accounts, home, or business based upon suspicion of nearly any criminal offense, including many misdemeanors like defacing a coin or transporting an illegal alien. --> Homes can be confiscated retroactively for errors or omissions on loan applications. In United States v. 403 1/2 Skyline Drive, Judge Tevrizian in Los Angeles ruled that under the 1989 Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement act (FIRREA), homes can be confiscated retroactively for virtually any misrepresentations on loan applications made through an FDIC-insured institution. Worried court clerks asked the defense attorney in this case, "Are they going through everyone's bank records?" Asset forfeiture defense attorney Brenda Grantland says . . . ============================================================= As in other in rem forfeiture proceedings, property may be forfeited with no more information that it takes to obtain a search warrant. . . . And like the drug forfeiture laws FIRREA is modeled after, paid informants stand to gain up to 25 percent of the forfeited assets, with the major portion of forfeiture proceeds going directly to the seizing agencies. It is entirely possible for the government to steal a family's inheritance through FIRREA. All the Justice Department need do is show probable cause to believe a deceased applicant knowingly made a false statement in the process of obtaining a loan. (FEAR Chronicles, July 1994, p. 13). Tens of millions of homes nationwide are now subject to confiscation without trial under this ruling. --> Cars can now be confiscated without trial for driving on an expired license. On August 30, 1994, the California legislature passed a bill that would "require illegal drivers to surrender their vehicles to the state when caught driving. An estimated 2 million of California 20 million motorists are driving illegally, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles." (Robert B. Gunnison, "Illegal Drivers Could Lose Cars Forever," San Francisco Chronicle, 8-31-94, p. A1.) _ --> Farms now subject to confiscation for violation of the Endangered Species Act. In Kern County, California, Taung Min Lin faces a $300,000 fine and imprisonment for accidentally running over an endangered kangaroo rat with his tractor. The US Fish and Wildlife Service also confiscated the $50,000 tractor, which Lin had recently purchased on credit from the Berchtold Equipment Co. Mr. Berchtold commented: "Our concern is not only the tractor we might lose. All of us are losing our rights. The government is doing whatever it wants to do to us. What people don't realize is that this could be their house if they happened to kill some endangered animal in their backyard. --> Businesses can be confiscated for employing illegal immigrants. Legislation now pending in California - which appears to be leading the nation in new confiscation laws - permitting the confiscation of any business which employs illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants make up some 10% of California's work force. Millions of businesses in California are at risk. 2. MANDATORY NATIONAL ID CARDS. =============================== In July, CBS News announced that Clinton is planning to issue an executive order in the near future requiring every citizen to be issued a mandatory federal ID card. The card will contain your name, address, Social Security number and other information on a magnetic strip. A later version of the card will also contain your photo and thumb print. The card would be required for any transaction "involving the federal government." Taken literally, that would mean you would need the card to open an account at an FDIC-insured bank, buy a home with a bank mortgage, or even to buy money orders or stamps at a post office. The July, 1989 issue of The Financial Privacy Report states: "A postal official, speaking in April at the CardTech/SecureTech Conference, a gathering of security experts, revealed that the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly working on developing a "US Card" for two years. In the words of Mitch Ratcliffe, one of the industry reporters covering the conference, this card would give the Postal Service a role in "virtually every legally-binding electronic transaction made by U.S. citizens." According to the August 1994 issue of the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, "The Postal Service has acknowledged that it is prepared to put more than 100 million of the cards in citizens' pockets within months of Administration approval. "Current technology would also enable the government to put a radio transponder in the ID card, enabling them to know where you (or at least your card) was 24 hours a day. The next step might be a micro-chip transponder - one sixth the size of a grain of rice - injected under your skin. An article appearing in the October 4, 1993 issue of the Washington Times states: "There is an identification system made by the Hughes Aircraft Company that, unlike your National Identity Card, you cannot lose. It's the syringe-implantable transponder. According to promotional literature, "it is an ingenious, safe, inexpensive, foolproof and permanent method of ... identification, using radio waves." A tiny microchip the size of a grain of rice is simply placed under the skin. It is so designed as to be injected simultaneously with a vaccination, or alone. 3. NEW ELECTRONICALLY TRACKABLE CURRENCY. ========================================= In July, the Treasury Department announced that it would be introducing a new currency "to combat counterfeiting." The new currency will be electronically trackable, and easily remotely detectable at airports and other public places. The new bills will come in pastel colors, contain magnetic strips and other tracking devices. The first denominations to be circulated will be $50 and $100 bills, with all other denominations ($20s, $10, $5s and $1s) to be replaced later. Supposedly, old currency would continue to circulate - for now. Former Congressman Ron Paul (R.- Texas) has previously stated about the new currency: "Customs agents will be able to locate cash hidden in your baggage, your purse, or on your person. "The bill itself would actually carry a record of every clearing house or bank it passed through. Perhaps even every store. "For many people, the only way they can survive financially and take care of their families is through the cash economy. A cashless society will make it that much easier for the government to squeeze the last dollar out of them. That's what the New Money is all about." (Ron Paul, "The new currency is a giant step towards undressing you financially," Financial Privacy Report, December 1991.) 4. GUN CONFISCATION RAIDS. ========================== Last year in Chicago, local police, FBI, and DEA agents conducted door-to-door, warrantless searches of welfare apartment buildings for illegal drugs and guns under "Operation Clean Sweep." Hundreds of homes were completely trashed, and anyone found with a gun (legal or illegal) was arrested and their children taken away. Similar raids were conducted last year in Cleveland under "Operation Achilles II". Warrantless gun confiscation raids have recently also been reported in Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, and Alaska. The raids in Alaska were supported by National Guard troops in armored personnel carriers in middle-class residential areas. (More details will be provided in future issues of FNN.) A June 30th Washington Post article gives this preview of things to come from San Juan, Puerto Rico: "Residents of 50 high-crime housing projects have awakened to the blasting of chopper blades and the crush of combat boots this past year, as pre-dawn raiding parties of police and National Guardsmen have turned their neighborhoods into occupied territories." FBI and DEA agents are now receiving military training and arms from our armed forces. ABC News - 9/7/94 reported that the military now has a $15-billion dollar budget to assist with civilian law enforcement. Military armament is being used against people suspected of using illegal drugs or possessing illegal guns. According to Tom Valentine's Radio Free America (Denver, CO), over a dozen jet fighter-bombers have been transferred from the Marine Corps to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. "WOULD YOU SHOOT GUN OWNERS?" ============================= Firearms Owners of America has published a survey given to U.S. soldiers at several military bases. Question/Scenario #46 reads: =========================== The U.S. government declares a ban on the possession, sale, transportation, and transfer of all non-sporting firearms. A thirty (30) day amnesty period is permitted for these firearms to be turned over to the local authorities. At the end of this period, a number of citizens groups refuse to turn over their firearms. Consider the following statement: "I would fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist confiscation of firearms banned by the U.S. government. Question #38 reads: ================== "It would make no difference to me to take orders from a U.N. company commander." Nationwide gun confiscation raids could now be launched at any time, with resistors risking death. SOME VICTORIES FOR OUR SIDE. ============================ Not everything is going smoothly for architects of the American police state: --> BRADY ACT BACKGROUND CHECK RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL. On May 28, mandatory background checks of gun purchasers required by the Brady Act were ruled unconstitutional by U.S. District Judge John Roll of Arizona. Judge Roll found the Act violated the 10th Amendment (state's rights). This decision and a similar one in Montana means that police are not required to perform background checks. However, Brady's five day waiting period and paperwork requirements are still in force. (Source: NRA Legislative Affairs Institute, 8-23-94.) --> GUN PROHIBITION LAWS DEFEATED: California Assembly Bill X125 - to allow police to set up roadblocks to search cars for firearms - was defeated in the Public Safety Committee 5 to 1. In Rhode Island, legislation requiring that loaded firearms kept in homes have trigger locks or be placed in locked containers was defeated by the Senate Judiciary Committee 10 to 6. --> HEALTH CARE "REFORM" ON HOLD IN CONGRESS. As we go to press, it looks unlikely that any health-care bill will be passed by Congress this fall or even before the next Congress is seated in 1995. IS THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS FINALLY WAKING UP? ============================================== Another ray of hope: The middle class is being badly hurt by out-of-control taxes, absurd regulations, and police confiscations. They've lost faith in government. I had direct evidence of this when my appearance on the Gene Burns radio program last June attacking the Clinton health-care plan brought in over 3,000 calls, faxes, and letters to ISIL - all except for 5 were favorable. The vast majority of Americans simply no longer trust the government or believe that government can solve social problems. Americans are also increasingly resisting police state tactics: When farmer Taung Lin was arrested in Kern, California for running over an endangered rat in his field, outraged neighbors staged a mile-long protest with their tractors and trucks. Parents are organizing throughout the country to defeat Outcome-Based-Education. Tax evasion is reportedly at an all-time high. And popular citizens militias are being formed in many states to physically resist gun confi scation as reported in the last issue. (Also see US News and World Report "The Rise of Citizen Militias" 8/15/94) ENORMOUS RESOURCES ARE AT OUR DISPOSAL. ====================================== First, the truth is on our side. When you convincingly document government depredations and the human tragedy they cause, most Americans are outraged. Second, there is an enormous undercurrent of seething discontent in America. A recent poll found that 91% of Americans don't believe that government can solve any social problems. Third, we already have the physical and organizational structure to create a peaceful libertarian revolution. America has more church groups, clubs, fraternal organizations, and cause groups than any country in the world. Hundreds of groups - like the NRA, independent Christians, home schoolers, alternative health practitioners, the computer underground, 28 million marijuana users, besieged small businessmen, and independent western ranchers - are our natural allies. We also have the best inexpensive mass-communications networks in human history. To be sure, major TV networks and newspapers are owned and operated by the statist establishment. But we have at our disposal thousands of local radio programs, community-access cable, computer bulletin boards, fax networks, desktop publishing systems, inexpensive printing presses, high-speed copiers, and VCRs and audio tape duplicators. TEN WAYS TO FIGHT BACK. ======================= We have the potential public support and the resources to reclaim America. What we lack is organization and time. To stop the total destruction of the U.S. Constitution and our Bill of Rights we must act very quickly and forcefully. Here are ten practical steps you can take immediately: 1. RESOLVE TO FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. You need to steel your mind for the struggle ahead. If you are not mentally prepared to fight for your liberty, you might as well give up now. We will be facing the hardest times any of us have ever known. Massive government surveillance, attacks on our homes, attempts to indoctrinate our children, and Americans spying on other Americans, have already begun. But people in other countries have survived far worse and triumphed. Prepare yourself mentally now. 2. MAKE A 100% COMMITMENT. During the first American Revolution, America's patriots pledged "their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor" to creating a free country. If we pledge any less, we have little change of winning. For starters, support libertarian and anti-state organizations in every way you can, with your time, money, and courage. 3. PRACTICE LIBERTY AND DECENCY. You can only hold the banner of individual liberty high if you are responsible, self-reliant, tolerant, and non-aggressive in your own life. It is vital for you to be scrupulously honest in all of your relationships, be financially responsible, well-informed, and kind toward others. 4. CONVINCE OTHERS. The biggest problem libertarians face is convincing others to believe what's really happening in America today. The major media carefully crafts reports giving the government view on everything from guns, raids to Waco. (According to Accuracy in Media, about 90% of national news comes either from government agencies, or consultants employed by government agencies.) What is actually happening in America today is so horrendous and so incredible, that the facts need no embellishment. Be prepared to prove what you say to others. Start clipping newspaper articles. Use respected sources like the New York Times and - one of my favorites - the Washington Times newspaper. Subscribe to publications like The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor and the Financial Privacy Report. They cost about $100 a year each and they're worth every penny. 5. BEFRIEND YOUR NEIGHBORS, form a circle of people you trust. With the government apparently preparing to confiscate massive amounts of property as well as all guns, your survival may depend upon your friends, and visa versa. 6. PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY. With out-of-control taxes and government confiscations, it is more important than ever that you protect yourself and your family. That means keeping your home address private, encrypting your computer files, having substantial savings, and putting your assets beyond the reach of police confiscation squads. This is also a good time to lay in a substantial supply of canned and freeze-dried food, potable water, gasoline, and an emergency generator. IMPORTANT! Get substantial liquid assets out of the US NOW - before the government makes overseas transfers illegal. Even in Nazi Germany, Jews with substantial assets abroad were able to get out. You can learn how to protect yourself by following the suggestions in books like Mike Ketcher's The Closing Door: The end of financial privacy in America and how to protect yourself (List price $68, ISIL price $45) and asset-forfeiture specialist Brenda Grantland's new book Your House Is Under Arrest (List price $75, ISIL price $55). 7. CREATE ENCRYPTED FAX AND PHONE NETWORKS. The Digital Telephony Bill - requiring that government wiretap technology be pre-installed in every phone company, is now pending in Congress. The only way you will be able to have any private communications in the future is if you get good encryption programs for your fax, phone, and computer. You should also consider setting up a quick response, encrypted network to alert neighbors and friends if you are attacked. Encryption so good even the CIA can't break is now available for computers, faxes, and digital cellular phones. (For calls, machines at both ends need encryption.) You can learn what's available from books like Ketcher's "How to Keep the IRS and other Snoops Out of Your Computer, Phone and Fax." (Available from ISIL in October for $35.) 8. BUY AS MANY GUNS AND AS MUCH AMMO AS YOU CAN AFFORD NOW, while they're still legal. Buy at gun shows and from individuals. Do not register your guns at your home address. 9. USE HUMOR. Once public officials become objects of ridicule, they're on the way out. You can fight smear tactics, but how can you fight laughter? Bill and Hillary certainly provide plenty of good material. 10. START BUILDING ALTERNATIVE INSTITUTIONS. All of our public institutions - schools, police, courts, etc. - are either collapsing or have been hopelessly corrupted. Promote home schooling or organize independent schools, organize neighborhood watches and patrols, create community arbitration services and courts. If we hope to build a new, free America, we must start now. LIBERTY OR DEATH **************** We are confronting a totally lawless and utterly ruthless state. Our political leaders have no respect for either the Constitution, your rights, or human life itself. As the murder of Randy Weaver, Don Scott, and the massacre in Waco have proven, if you get in the government's way, they will gladly burn your house to the ground - with you, your wife, and your children in it. And the popular media will anoint them as heroes. In the next 12-18 months you can expect massive confiscation of bank accounts, homes, cars, and businesses. All of the laws are in place. The Supreme Court will do little or nothing to stop it. A national ID card could be imposed by executive order. And registered firearms can easily be seized. (See Box "Black Helicopters In Our Skies . . . and Russian Troops on our Soil". CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN AMERICA? ******************************* Legal machinery already exists to imprison dissidents like us in concentration camps. Privacy expert Mark Nestmann writes: ==================================== "One of the top priorities for FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] is to identify potential "troublemakers;" i.e., anyone who might object to suspending the Constitution and imposing government by emergency. To meet this objective, a top-secret database of several hundred thousand suspect U.S. citizens to be arrested and detained in an emergency has been prepared." Once you are on FEMA's concentration camp list, you don't get off, EVER - and most of us are probably already on the list. There will be plenty of opportunity for Clinton to impose government by emergency. The U.S. has been in a declared state of national emergency since 1933 and every president since then, including Clinton, has issued their own declaration of national emergency. A declared national emergency authorizes the president to seize any property, conscript anyone for forced labor, and imprison anyone without trial. We must act now! =============== The time for academic debates is over. Discussing epistemology is not going to stop government thugs from kicking down your front door and seizing your car, children, wife, and home. But making a 100% commitment to liberty now, telling the truth about what is happening in America, and forming a common front with your friends and neighbors just might save your life and this country. As Benjamin Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." Liberty or death! %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 1994 "OMINOUS" CRIME BILL NOW LAW By Jarret Wollstein %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% --> Most semi-automatic guns banned --> Prison population to double, army bases to be converted into prisons. --> New police Multi-Jurisdictional Task Forces to be funded by seized property. --> President authorized to send in federal police to take over any area (from a city block to an entire state) he declares to be a drug or crime "emergency zone". Despite intense opposition from most Republicans and gun owners, the "Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994" has passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton on September 13, 1994. This law is a giant step toward creating an authoritarian America. Two provisions are particularly ominous: VIOLENT CRIME AND DRUG EMERGENCY AREAS. Section 90107 states, "If a major violent crime or drug-related emergency occurs throughout a State or a part of a State, the President may declare the State or part of a State to be a violent crime or drug emergency area and may take appropriate actions authorized by this section." Those "approprate actions" include sending in agents from "any Federal agency." The language of this Section is so broad, that it would seem to authorize sending in federalized National Guard, FBI agents, FEMA agents, or even army troops to take over a community upon unilateral declaration by the President. RURAL CRIME AND DRUG ENFORCEMENT TASK FORCE funded by seized property. Section 180102 states these task forces "(1) shall include representatives from (A) State and local law-enforcement agencies; (B) the office of the United States Attorney for the judicial district; and (C) the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the United States Marshals Service; and (2 ) may include representatives of other Federal law enforcement agencies, such as the United States Customs Service, United States Park Police, United States Forest Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and Bureau of Land Man-agement." This Section also states that "Assets seized as a result of investigations . . . shall be used, consistent with the guidelines on equitable sharing . . . primarily to enhance the operations of the task force and its participating State and local law-enforcement agencies." (emphasis added) NOTE: assets.are to be seized as a result of investigations, not upon conviction of any crime. Other parts of the act includes 60 new death penalties, $10 billion for funds for new federal prisons, and more horrors. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% PRIVACY DEFENDER Clinton Calls for Abolishing Our Phone, Fax, and Computer Privacy By Mike Ketcher %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% "My real objective is to get access to the contents of telephone calls" Louis J. Freeh, FBI Director Bill Clinton is awfully concerned about privacy when it comes to his personal files - particularly his old tax returns and anything relating to the Whitewater scandal. But when it comes to your privacy, it's a different matter. Clinton is trying to ram legislation through Congress that will virtually eliminate your telephone privacy. In typical Clinton-fashion, even the title of this law is a blatant lie. "The Digital Telephony Communications and Privacy Improvement Act of 1994" is designed to eliminate your telephone privacy. Police, IRS agents, the FBI, and even creative private criminals will easily be able to monitor your calls, finances and movements if this bill passes. In the words of Daniel Weitzner, senior staff councel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, this bill "lays the groundwork for turning America's communications networks into a nation-wide surveillance system, to be used by law enforcement with few technical or legal safeguards." The Digital Communications Telephony Bill has the full backing of Bill Clinton, who is pushing hard for it. It requires that all telephone companies re-engineer their equipment (at your expense) to conform to a data standard created by the National Security Agency (NSA) in consultation with the FBI. Once the monitoring equipment the Clinton administration wants is installed, virtually all communications - including your phone calls, cellular phones, faxes, e-mail, electronic banking, and computer bulletin boards - will rely upon the switching networks they want to front-load with wiretap technology. That means without any court order, the FBI will be able to monitor your phone conversations, faxes, and computer bulletin board calls, and trace your electronic banking t ransactions. What the FBI is not telling you is the capability they want: to monitor your communications without a court order, is no mere technological quick-fix. It's almost total repeal of your Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE ABLE TO TRACK YOUR CALLS AS YOU MAKE THEM WITHOUT A SEARCH WARRANT The Digital Communications Telephone Act requires telephone and interactive cable TV companies to provide the FBI's listening posts with "call setup information" whenever anyone they designate for surveillance makes a call. "Call setup information" includes any phone numbers you dial, such as calls you make to order cable TV service (like pay-per-view movies), and any connections you make to computer bulletin boards or electronic banking, which will soon be available from your home via telephone lines. As Daniel Weitzner comments: =========================== "With increasing use of telecommunications, this simple transaction information reveals almost as much about our private lives as would be learned if someone literally followed you around on the street, watching our every move." Even if the Digital Telephony bill is amended to require the FBI to get court approval to monitor our phone transactions, it won't be much of an impediment. Courts now quickly and routinely grant permission. And some federal agencies - including the IRS - already have the power to issue their own "administrative subpoenas" without any court's permission. Besides, how would we have any way of knowing or proving what goes on in the government's new permanent "monitoring facility?" That means the government could create a phone dossier of anyone in America they wanted to, even if they weren't suspected of any crime. Such a dossier could reveal who your friends are, where you bank, a love affair you would rather no one else know about - the possibilities for government harassment and intimidation are unlimited. THE GOVERNMENT WILL KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, EVERY TIME YOU MAKD A CELLULAR CALL. That also includes cellular phone calls. Current technology enables cellular calls to be localized to a single cell, which can be as small as a city block. Further, since cellular and mobile phones are really radio transmitters, every call you make on them can be monitored by anyone with a $300 altered scanner. We suspect police and law enforcement agencies are already extensively monitoring cellular calls and pursuing investigations or making arrests based on what they hear. One company produces a specialized scanner that it supposedly sells only to police departments. It allows them to monitor cellular calls much easier than those monitors sold by Radio Shack and other electronic retailers. OTHER THREATS TO YOUR TELEPHONE PRIVACY In addition to government wiretaps, there are two other major threats to your phone privacy you need to be concerned about: #1. ELECTRONIC BUGS. Miniature transmitters now easily fit in your phone, your walls, a book in your library - practically anywhere - and many are very hard to detect. They can be installed in a few seconds by government agents disguised as phone repairmen, "janitors" bribed by an ex-spouse, and business competitors posing as "salesmen." Today, anyone can buy tiny electronic monitoring devices. I bought one just as a curiosity a few years ago for about $15. It was smaller than my little finger. I placed it inside my house, went outside to a car, and tuned into it using the car's FM radio. I could hear everything that went on in the house, as if I was standing right there. Microphones and even fibre optic video surveillance cameras are readily available by mail order. Some are so small that they can be hidden in pens, pocket calculators, and even shirt buttons. #2. OTHER MONITORING OF YOUR CALLS. There are at least a dozen ways your phone can be used by government agents, criminals, or other snoops to monitor you - including, line taps, bugs, phone company taps, intercepts of microwave and satellite signals, and "infinity transmitters," which enable snoops to use your telephone to listen to nearby conversations, even when your phone is on the hook. There are many people both able and all-too-willing to tap your phone. In his book on industrial espionage, Friendly Spies, Peter Schweizer reports that . . . "In a recent study, federal law-en-forcement agents posing as business executives approached 115 private detectives to see whether they would be willing to do something as simple (and illegal) as tap the telephone line of a business competitor. One in three agreed to do so - no questions asked - for fees ranging from $30 to $5,000. Of the 67% who said no, 40% offered instead to train someone else to do it properly, or suggested do-it-yourself phone taps and explained how to install them." THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY FOR PROTECTING YOUR PHONE, FAX, AND CELLULAR PRIVACY. There are several products available that will help you protect your privacy when you use a phone - either cellular or land-line - or a fax machine. There are two important statements that apply, generally, to these products: FIRST, they will give you varying levels of security, but there are no products currently available that will protect you 100% against a concerted attack by a government, organized crime syndicate, or a large multinational corporation. Big organizations like these can afford the latest and most effective means of interception and decryption. However, these products will certainly protect against casual eavesdroppers - and some may even protect you against medium-level attacks by government agents. Federal agencies, at all levels, simply don't have the resources to spy on everybody. Unless they really have it in for somebody, they generally focus their efforts only where they will get the biggest payoff. In other words, it may not be worthwhile for a government agency to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours just to find out that you fudged a little on your income taxes - or whatever. If you regularly encrypt your communications using these methods, your secrets are likely to remain secrets, unless the IRS - or whoever is after you - is pursuing an extremely intensive and relentless assault. SECOND, if you are using telephones or fax machines, such as those mentioned, that scramble or encrypt, you will usually need to have a product from the same manufacturer to decrypt that message. In other words, an encrypted fax sent through a fax device made by Cycomm cannot be decrypted by a fax device made by Jones Futurex - or any other manufacturer, for that matter. So these devices can usually only be used in communicating with those who have a device made by the same manufacturer. The only exception to this is that sometimes the over-the-air portion of cellular calls can be scrambled and descrambled through a central network, as I'll explain later, and in that case you wouldn't need to have a compatible descrambler on the other end. FOUR WAYS TO PRACTICE "SAFE FAX" Faxes are not very private - and the problem is not so much interception from outside sources. Rather the big problem is that faxes you are sending or receiving can easily fall into the wrong hands. A fax sent to your office could be seen by secretaries and other co-workers, clients who may drop into your office and happen to see whatever fax has just come in, or janitors working late at night, who might see any faxes that have come in during the off hours. FIRST, consider using an outside service, like a copy shop, to send and receive your sensitive faxes. Many will do this for a nominal fee - anywhere from 50 to $3.00 a page. This can have a lot of practical applications. If you want to fax a certain party - say your Swiss bank - and you suspect someone is monitoring your faxes, or you just don't want a record of having sent a fax to Switzerland on your telephone bill, this is a great way to protect yourself. Or, if you want to receive a fax, but don't want your co-workers reading it - again this might be a good solution. Of course, you should keep in mind that the clerk working for the copy shop might read your fax. But he's unlikely to be as interested in it - or to be able to use the information against you -as someone who knows you. SECOND, make sure that you and employees of your firm are aware of the dangers of misdirected faxes. For example, at one large, publicly-traded corporation, a secretary was sending a fax regarding a pending merger. The fax machine she was using had several different telephone numbers programmed in, so that all she had to do was press one button, and the fax would be sent automatically to that particular number. She pressed the wrong number. The fax went to the editorial office of the Wall Street Journal, which promptly published a story about the pending merger, thus killing the deal. Attorneys have found that confidentiality with their clients has been compromised when the wrong party received a certain fax. Whenever you send a fax - especially regarding sensitive matters - always make sure you've dialed correctly. Alert your employees to the dangers of misdirected faxes and instruct them to make sure they are always dialing the correct number. You may even want to develop a company policy about whether or not fax machines should even be used for sending or receiving sensitive information. It might be better to use some other method to convey such information, e.g. private courier. THIRD, place your fax machine in a secure area of the office. For example, one company I recently visited had its fax machine out near the entrance to the office. In fact, it's in the waiting area, where anybody - a supplier, client, or delivery-man - could see whatever faxes had come in. This may be fine for this company - maybe they don't need to be careful about their security. But if your company is concerned about security, it might be a good idea to put your fax machine in a part of the office that is not normally accessible to unauthorized persons. FOURTH, for a higher level of security, send faxes that are encrypted. Since faxes are sent over telephone lines, they can be intercepted as easily as phone calls can. If you're concerned about this possibility, then you should look into fax encryption. FAX MACHINES THAT ENCRYPT YOUR MESSAGES There are several companies that offer devices you can connect to your fax machine or software you can install in your computer, that will help you secure your faxes from eavesdroppers, misdirected dialing, and unauthorized reading. AT&T Secure Communications Systems offers a couple of methods of securing your fax communications. First are the AT&T Surety Facsimile Devices 3700 and 3710. These are simple to install - you just plug them in to your fax machine and the phone jack. The only differences between the two models are that the 3710 costs about $500 more and offers an electronic mailbox. An electronic mailbox is intended to safeguard messages intended for your eyes only. Rather than sitting in the tray of your fax machine, your messages are stored electronically until you're ready to retrieve them. You retrieve them by punching in a Personal Identification Number (PIN). Unfortunately, only faxes that have come through another AT&T Surety Device can be stored in your electronic mailbox. Messages coming from a fax machine that is not equipped wit h such a device will be printed out just like any other fax. These devices sell for $1,995 for the model 3700 and $2,495 for the model 3710. AT&T also offers another fax privacy product - AT&T Surety Data Facsimile Software. This is a Windows program designed to keep others from reading your sensitive faxes. For example, say you're on a business trip staying in a hotel, and you don't want nosy desk clerks reading the faxes that come from your home office. Using this software, the fax can be sent from your office to the hotel. It will come out in a coded grid that tightly compresses the data. You use a handheld scanner to scan this image into your own laptop computer - and the software transforms the grid back into text. The technology also allows you to send and receive information that conventional faxes can't handle - color photos, graphics, executable computer files, sound, and video. THE MAIN DRAWBACKS OF THE TECHNOLOGY: ===================================== First, both the sender and recipient of the fax will need to have the AT&T software. Also, while it will protect against casual snoops, anyone who has the software could also decode the fax. There is a password protection, but the password is a short one which will provide only low-level protection. The price of the AT&T Surity Data Facsimile Software is $150. Cycomm Corporation, which also offers a voice-scrambling system, sells the PrivaFax TFS-200 Facsimile Scramble, a device which can be easily attached to any fax machine. It automatically scrambles the document transmission with another PrivaFax-equipped machine. At $985, this is the least expensive of the add-on fax devices. It is also the most portable, having the smallest size and lightest weight. However, the level of security it provides is probably lowest of all the add-on devices discussed. Jones Futurex, which manufactures a full line of hardware and software data encryption products for use with IBM personal computers and compatibles, also has several fax-encryption devices, the JFX Safe Vault, Models 300 and 400. The Model 400 uses a much weaker encryption algorithm, so that the machine can be exported. Under U.S. regulations, products containing strong encryption cannot be sold abroad. If you're buying the product in the U.S., then you should consider the Model 300. It offers 20 fax mailboxes, or "vaults," which can be assigned to different individuals or departments. Documents can be sent into a "vault" from either a fax machine or another safe, simply by adding the desired vault number, at the end of the dialing sequence. Recipients can retrieve their messages by entering a PIN. Prices for the Model 300 range from $1,195 to $2,695, depending on how many megabytes of memory you want (1-4) or whether or not you want the mailboxing option. HOW SECURE IS THE ENCRYPTION OR SCRAMBLING USED BY THESE FAX DEVICES? ==================================================================== How secure are your faxes when you use these devices? Both the top-of-the-line AT&T and the Jones Futurex products use the Data Encryption Standard (DES). This is widely considered to be quite secure - it is the standard of encryption used by the international banking system. Cycomm's PrivaFax is less secure - it doesn't even use encryption. It uses scrambling, which is considered much easier to crack. If you're only interested in protecting your faxes against lower-level assaults, then it should serve your purposes. However, if you're concerned about attacks by governments, multinational corporations, or other sophisticated snoops, then you're better off with the AT&T or the Jones Futurex products. HOW TO HAVE RELATIVELY SECURE TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS ====================================================== You can secure your telephone conversations - particularly your vulnerable cellular conversations - from casual eavesdroppers. However, there is nothing available commercially that will protect you from well-placed wiretaps, either legal or illegal. If you have any reason to suspect you're being tapped, don't say anything over the telephone that you wouldn't want your adversaries to hear. That's the only real way to protect yourself. With cellular, there are several networks available to scramble the over-the-air portion of the call. They generally work like this: you place a call on a toll-free access number on your cellular phone. A device connected to your phone scrambles the message, which is sent to a central network. There it is descrambled and then sent to the recipient, which can be either a land-line or another cellular-phone. Eavesdroppers to the on-the-air portion of the call might only hear a chirping sound. My experience in listening to a call that has been scrambled and then descrambled through one of these networks is that there is some distortion, but the voice you hear is clearly recognizable and understandable. There are three systems that provide scrambling and encryption capability for cellular phones. There are minor variations in costs, compatibilities with various brands of cellular phones, and availability in different areas of the country. In some places the service is available through your local carrier and there's no need to dial an 800 number for access. AT&T offers the AT&T Cellular Privacy System. This system does not operate through a toll-free number. You attach an AT&T Cellular Telephone Privacy Module 9200 to your cellular phone. This has an estimated retail price of $400 to $500, at the discretion of the carrier. The module scrambles the over-the-air signal, then it's descrambled through a unit at the cellular carrier. The charges are set by the carrier and may vary from a flat monthly rate (probably around $15) to a per minute charge. Currently, the system is availably only in the Chicago area, through Ameritech, although it probably will soon be available in other areas. AT&T offers a couple of other telephone-privacy products. One is the Surity 9300 Transportable Cellular Telephone, which sells for $1695. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with other brands and models of transportable phones, although that is in development. Thus, you will need another AT&T 9300 - or a phone equipped with the AT&T 3600 - to talk in the encrypted mode. The AT&T 3600 is an encryption device that can be attached to either a cellular telephone or a land-line phone. It too, is only compatible with the AT&T 9300 or with a phone equipped with another AT&T 3600. You can talk to other brands of cellular or land-line phones, using the 9600 or the 3600, but your conversation will not be encrypted. It costs $1,195. You should be aware that these AT&T products contain the "Clipper Chip," and for that reason I do not recommend them. The Clipper chip is a computer chip that allows government agents to eavesdrop on encrypted voice and data communications. The device leaves a decryption "key" in the government's pocket. Supposedly, the key would be "escrowed" and government agents would be unable to get it without "proper authorization." But wh o knows? The chip was developed in secret and critical aspects of it are classified and beyond public review. Cycomm offers the Cellular Privacy Unit (CPU), which can be connected to most major brands of cellular phones. The firm's products can be used with the SafeCall Secure Privacy Network, which is accessed through an 800 number. You can talk to anyone in the world and have the cellular part of your conversation scrambled. The cost: $759 to $999 for the CPU, depending on the type. SafeCall charges an initial sign-up fee of $25, a monthly fee of $15 (which includes 10 minutes of network usage free), and a per-minute charge of 75 to 95 for domestic calls. This per-minute charge includes domestic long-distance charges. This is over and above your cellular carrier's charges for air-time. International calls are billed at AT&T rates. In a few parts of the country - New England and Southern California right now - SafeCall is available through local cellular carriers. There's no need to dial an 800 number - to secure a call, you would just press *SAFE on your telephone. Of course, you would still need to buy the CPU. In New England, you can rent the CPU for $25 a month. Cycomm also offers a Line Privacy Unit, which can scramble and descramble land-line calls on your office switchboard. It costs $1,149, and it can only scramble and descramble other Cycomm products. They also have a Telephone Privacy Unit, which attaches to a single conventional phone, such as a home phone. For more information, call either Cycomm or SafeCall. Secure-Net is another firm offering scrambling. It's Voice Privacy Unit sells for $450 or $24.95 per month, and it will work with most major brands of cellular phones. Again, to call you would attach the unit to your phone and dial an 800 number. Domestic calls are billed at 75 per minute, although their goal is to get the price below 50. Unfortunately, they do not offer international calling, except to Canada and Mexico. HOW TO CONTACT THE FIRMS MENTIONED IN THIS ISSUE ================================================ AT&T Surity Communications Products, Customer Service Center, P.O. Box 20046, Greensboro, NC 27420. Phone: 1-800-243-7883 or 1-900-279-3411. Cycomm Corporation, 12150 Monument Dr., Suite 340, Fairfax, VA 22033. 1-800-FOR-PRIV (367-7748) or 1-703-352-4741 Jones Futurex, Inc., 3715 Atherton Rd., Rocklin, CA 95765. 1-916-632-3456 or 1-800-251-5112. SafeCall, Inc., One International Place, Suite 325, Boston, MA 02110. 1-800-222-2395 or 1-617-330-8890 Secure-Net, 6855 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91605. 1-800-775-0000, ext. 102 or 1-818-760-8567. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% A WOMAN'S CHOICE - There are 6.2 million more women in the United States than men. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that our chances of finding a good husband for life isn't very good. I would like to encourage an idea - plural marriage - two women married to one responsible man. Plural marriage is not an open, group, or multi-lateral "marriage". With plural marriage the husband's relationship is traditional with each woman. It's not for those who rate sex as their number one value in marriage. It's for those interested in family. There is no other principle of marriage that offers as much security, freedom, choice, commitment, and stability as plural marriage. Plural marriage is true woman's liberation. For sure, plural marriage isn't for everyone. But I for one have decided that plural marriage is the preferable alternative to a life alone or being attached to a left-over who is single. If you wou ld like free information about plural marriage send a SASE to: It's A Woman's Choice, POB 1854, Minden, NV 89423. ABAPA FREER: 1993 sampler describes 20 areas (most in/near Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire) having fewer taxes & restrictions, more tolerance, various cultures & climates & many libertarians. Plus practical tips for living freer most anywhere; and unedited discussions. 48 pages (most shrunk). $1, cash preferred. POB 759-SIL, Veneta, OR 97487 ADVERTISING SALES PEOPLE NEEDED: If you have successfully sold radio or TV advertising, bowling scores, yellow pages or other print advertising; if you would like to earn 50K to 75K a year; if you can travel, you may be the person we are looking for. Call Mrs. Sullivan 1-800-782-5000 AGENTS WANTED to sell mortgage reduction program which saves homeowners $50,000 or more in mortgage interest, reduces a 30-year mortgage to 20 years, builds home equity 2-3 times faster and can be transferred to future mortgages. No previous experience or license required. Call 800-365-7550, extension 70021, to have a free information package sent. ARE WASHINGTON POLITICIANS PLOTTING TO STEAL YOUR RETIREMENT FUNDS? Statements made by top-level officials of the Clinton administration suggest that private pension funds may soon be raided by the government. For more information must send a stamped addressed envelope to Retirement Information Package, P.O. Box 1201, Skyland, NC 28776. ASSOCIATION OF LIBERTARIAN FEMINISTS, send SASE for literature list. Topics include libertarianism and feminism, government is women's enemy, the right to abortion, free speech and pornography, historical libertarian feminists. Writers include Joan Kennedy Taylor and Sharon Presley. Membership/newsletter sub, $10/year. ALF, Box 20252-S, London Terrace PO, New York, NY 10011 ATTENTION FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS: Excellent legal protection plan. Offer pre-paid legal coverage to your clients. Inexpensive individual and group plans - premiums only $16-$25/month. Widely used as part of employee-benefit programs for businesses, banks and government agencies. 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Join DATA BANK now and enjoy earnings from completing questionnaires at home. FREE color brochure. Members in over 30 countries. Great libertarian income. Write: R. MacNeill, 174 Rutledge St., Ste. 212, Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada B4A 1Y6, or: David Morgan, 17-C, P.O. Box 2996, Riyadh 11461, Saudi Arabia. Tel/Fax 966-1-241-1961, ext. 2173. CLAUSTROPHOBIA, a philosophical libertarian journal. Published monthly. $10/year ($20/overseas), $1 sample. 400 N. High St. #137, Columbus, OH 43215. For sample copy, send 29-cent stamp. Also looking for contributors. DISCOUNT LONG DISTANCE! NASOAQ company offers rates 20%-40% less than the Big Three! Calling cards with no surcharge! Explosive business growth. We need bright, energetic reps in California, Central & South Oregon, Central & South Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada & Honolulu, Hawaii. Work from home, set your own hours. For discount calls & info write: AC, Suite 245, 1800 Market St., San Francisco 94102. For job info call (415) 921-8004 DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF DUAL NATIONALITY and obtain ultimate privacy for yourself and your assets. Learn how to avoid taxes, wars, currency controls and red tape. Also hundreds of other explosive facts and insights are revealed to make you richer and more powerful. Yes, I would like to receive a free brochure and privacy newsletter that reveals all! Write to: Scope, Box No. 4338, 62 Murray Road, Waterlooville, PO8 9JL Great Britain. Tel: 44 705 592255 Fax: 44 705 591975. EDEN PRESS, famed as the publisher of The Paper Trip, has just published How To Legally Hide Your Money in Switzerland, a 29-page report revealing the very latest status of banking and financial possibilities in Switzerland. Included are methods of establishing private accounts and contracts that are strictly Swiss, unbeholden to any U.S. authorities. The author, Adam Starchild, is an internationally- recognized expert on bank havens and banking privacy. The report is available for $13 from Eden Press, Box 8410, Fountain Valley, CA 92728. EUROPEAN SMART DRUGS: Piracetam, Hydergine, Vinpocetine, Oxiracetam, Minaprine, Deprenyl and other nootropics are available to Americans by mail order, for personal use. The Nootropic News includes: medical reviews, newsletter, book reviews, and the Directory of Mail-Order Suppliers. This updated directory includes the addresses, phone and fax numbers of 15+ overseas mail-order suppliers. Current prices for the nootropics are listed. As we are not affiliated with any suppliers, our information is objective and non-promotional. Send $8 for this info packet to: Nootropic News, Box 177, Camarillo, CA 93011. EXTROPY: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought is a high-IQ publication with deep thoughts on futurist topics: Transhumanist philosophy, physical immortality, intelligence augmentation, artificial life intelligence/persons, nanotechnology, spontaneous order, cryptoanarchy, free communities, human-computer integration, self-transformation, ultimate limits of physics, Hans Moravec, articles, reviews. $4.50 for sample of #10; $13.50 for 3 issues sub. ($15 Canada; $22 overseas) from Extropy Institute, P.O. Box 57306, Los Angeles, CA 90057-0306. 213-484-6383 more@usc.edu. FED UP WITH BEING A GOVERNMENT SERIAL NUMBER? Clinton wants to stick you with an ID card! Your right to drive - to vote! - in jeopardy. We can and must fight back. The Anumeralist, published bimonthly, $5/year. Sample $1.00. Box 2084, Norristown, Pennsylvania 19404. CASH ONLY. Banks demand SS numbers. For An Atheist-freethinker capitalist country that will be offshore! then write: Atheista Co. 5719 Coral Lk. Dr., Margate FLA 33063. (send $1.00 or S.A.S.E.) FREE MONEY - FREE BANKING. Money demystified. Learn why debts keep growing, why the federal budget can't be balanced, how private initiative can create a rational alternative exchange system. Order Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis by Thomas Greco: $6.50 + $1.50 p & h to: Greco, Box 42663, Dept. I, Tucson, Arizona 85733 USA. FREE COPY OF EXPAT WORLD (The Expatriate's Newsletter) for those living or travelling abroad (unique travel info, secret bank account, 6% Mastercard, 2nd legal passport etc.) $2.00 postage to: C. Nawrocki, Agent for Expat World, Skr. P.-8, 86-170 Nowe, Poland. FLY FROM AUSTIN, Texas to ISIL Mrida conference in a Mooney 201; pilot or student pilot may log instruction/P.I.C.; share expenses; call Bill Kelsey, CFI, (512) 276-7828. FREE PAMPHLET-CATALOG: "The Elegant New Age Of Romanticism". Send 3 stamps: Integrity Imprints, POB 61, Felton, PA 17322. ``I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.'' Help us create a real-life Galt's Gulch, based on the principles of Randian Objectivism. Write: Galt's Gulch, P.O. Box 73203, Fairbanks, AK 99707. INDEPENDENT THINKING REVIEW. "Impressive new journal" - Andrea Rich, Laissez-Faire Books. "Valuable resource" - Peter Breggin, M.D. Articles, book reviews, other resources for independent and critical thinking. Topics include authority, the media, religion, psychology. Writers include Robert Anton Wilson, Joan Kennedy Taylor, Sharon Presley. Subscription, $18/year (quarterly). Free sample. Resources for Independent Thinking, 4067 Hardwick, #129(s), Lakewood, CA 90712. INVENTORS -- SAVE HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS. Do your own patent search at no cost. It's easy and it's educational. Searching gives you ideas. The method has been available for decades. Buy the Guide to Patent Searches. Usually $19.95 + S&H but only $15.00 for ISIL members, CoralSystems Co., 79 Commonwealth Ave., Massapequa, N.Y. 11758. CSC will answer your letter if you have questions. LEARN HOW DIFFERENT YOU ARE! The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator proves we libertarians are different! How do others perceive and mis-perceive you? What can you do about it? Complete indicator and personality feedback session only $150. Full no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. Doug Thorburn, (818) 360-0985 or P.O. Box 7301, Van Nuys, CA 91409 LIBERTARIAN ATTORNEY, male 35, married, interested in correspondence with Czechs concerning the development of free societies. I am also interested in firearms, Aikido and epiphyllum cactus cultivation. I am considering international migration for my self and family. Please write to: Blake Ashley, 7818 Stewart & Gray Rd., Apt 209, Downey, California, USA 90241. LIBERTARIAN LODGING. Send to list your place. Inexpensive lodging here and everywhere? Send SASE for information: LP Lodging, Route 5, Box 183, Joplin, MO 64804 LIBERTARIAN REPUBLICANS. Subscribe to Republican Liberty! Covers campaigns, elections, elected libertarians, Weld, Zimmer, duPont, & Pinkerton. $10.00 a year -- Trial Subscription. Five issues (8-12 pages) plus bulletins. Write RLC, 1717 Apalachee Pkwy. #434, Tallahassee, FL 32301 LIBERTARIAN SCREEN PRINTER in Florida would like to make contact with anyone who could give me information of the state of the commercial repro-graphics and sign-making industry in East Europe and Russia. Screen printing in particular. Ken Wise, 1209 E. Cayuga, Tampa, FL 33603 USA. LIBERTARIANS WANTED TO LIVE IN FORT COLLINS, COLORADO. For information send $1.00 and SASE to: Mary Margaret Glennie, FREEDOM NOW, 1317 Lakewood Dr., Fort Collins, Colorado 80521 USA. LITHUANIAN FREE MARKET FOUNDATION is a recently-established organization promoting the ideas of liberty and capitalism in Lithuania. Being genuine libertarians, we do not ask for your help and support. Just loan a sum of money to us - the interest rate per annum is 20-30 per cent. For more details call us: Tel/Fax: (370-2) 624218. LIVING FREE NEWSLETTER promotes self-liberation, practical methods to increase personal freedom, and has provided a forum for freedom-seekers, libertarians, survivalists, anarchists, outlaws, since 1979. Lively, unique. $8.00 for 6 issues, $12.00 overseas, sample $1.00, overseas $2.00, USA funds only. Jim Stumm, Box 29F, Hiler Branch, Buffalo, New York 14223, USA. MALE LIBERTARIAN, 25 years old, MSc degree in Business Administration,studying for my CMA degree, currently employed as a planner at an information systems department, wants to start a living in Texas. Sick of living in a collectivist society such as Holland. Who is willing to employ me? Open to any arrangement. Available August 1994. Adrian Struijk, Lijsterbesplein 8, 2563 KZ, Den Haag, Netherlands. MY BODY HAS ABANDONED ME but my brain has not. Seeking thinking libertarians for light, friendly mental sparring (use it or lose it). Some subjects are boring but none are taboo. Mathematics and professional sports make good sleep aids. Philosophy, skepticism, the sciences and history are candy for the soul. All letters will be answered. Alice Jukes, 107 Morning Glory Drive, Fredericksburg, Texas 78624 USA NOW UNREDUCED PRINT in The (Libertarian) Connection, open-forum magazine since 1968. Subscribers may insert two pages/issue free, unedited. Lots of stimulating conversation. Eight issues (year) $20. 101 South Whiting, #700J, Alexandria, VA 22304. OPEN RELATIONSHIPS, Group Marriage, intimate friendship, multi-lateral marriage. Sound interesting? Touchpoint is a discreet contact service for those who wish to develop long-term emotionally as well as sexually-intimate, non-monogamous relationships. SASE for details. Current issue $4.00. Touchpoint, P.O. Box 408-FN2, Chloride, AZ 86431 PANARCHY. Government by choice, not chance. People-oriented Government, not government-oriented people. Idea whose time has come. Investigate a political system offering both freedom and security. Ultimate Libertarian Newsletter, $8/year or $3 for sample. Checks to LeGrand E. Day, Editor, Panarchy Dialectic, Box 353F, Reseda, California 91333, USA. PRIVACY BOOKS FOR THE 90's! Over 300 unique books explore all aspects of privacy, financial independence, credit repair & cash income opportunities. Also how to be working in 48 hours. College degrees by mail. Legal name change. How to find missing persons. Self protection. Independent business opportunities. Financial privacy. Asset protection. Offshore banking. Legal foreign passports & more! Eden Press, Box 8410, Fountain Valley, CA 92728 PROFIT FROM FREEDOM TECHNOLOGY! Protect your assets, lower taxes, help fight government waste and oppression. How often do you read the paper and say, "Enough is enough!" Here's your chance to actually do something about it. Send L.S.A.S.E.: Tim Boyens, 4865-201 NW 36th St., Miami, FL 33166. For information about other exceptional money-making opportunities, place 2 stamps on your L.S.A.S.E. RESTORE THE BILL OF RIGHTS WITH FULLY INFORMED JURIES. When you serve on a jury, vote your conscience. You cannot be punished for your verdict. Call 1-800-''TEL-JURY'' for recorded message. SALON. This is the zine that explains libertarianism to artists and art to libertarians. Become a more nowledgeable and discerning private-sector consumer of art while having a hell of a good time. It's kind of like going to a party with a bunch of interesting, amusing and intelligent people, with stacks of original art work and other goodies thrown in. Send S.A.S.E. for a handful of sample pages, or $5 for an issue or $20 for a year, payable to Pat Hartman. SALON: A Journal of Aesthetics, 305 West Magnolia, Ste. 386, Fort Collins, CO 80521. SELL AMERICAN. $100,000+ per year possible helping "Bring Our Money Home Again!" Learn insider secrets of earning huge profits in your own homebased exporting business from a self-made millionaire with over 30 years experience. Write for free Sell American report from Phlander Company, Dept. 70197, P.O. Box 5385, Cleveland, TN 37320-5385 SLIPPERY WHEN WET. Limericks, limerence, & lusty literature; photos, feminism & frivolity; cartoons & crusty commentary: A quarterly magazine of sex and fun for folks of all orientations. Whole Earth Review says:... new breed of sex zine, appealng to almost anyone who is curious or open ... fiction ranges from hot to hilarious ... Factsheet Five says: You cannot be disappointed with [Slippery When Wet]! $19.50 for four issues or $7 for one issue; statement of legal age required. P.O. Box 3101, Berkeley, CA 94703. STANCZYK has been published since 1986. It is the oldest Polish journal edited by Polish defenders of laissez-faire capitalism. We have been looking for people, organizations, foundations, ready to give us any help in publishing our journal. The contact with the editorial board is: STANCZYK, ul. St. Pietaka 9, 51-140, Wroclaw, Poland. TAX HAVENS are one of the most important subjects for an international entrepreneur or investor, yet few understand and use them properly. One group discounts them as hiding holes for dirty money, which is not a legitimate use for tax havens. Others think they are only for banking money after you have made it. Not true either. Tax havens are a very complex subject, but the hours you spend studying their use will probably pay you more per hour than the hours you spend directly earning an income - an unfortunate commentary on the confiscatory taxation policies of most governments. For the best detailed information on tax havens, order The Tax Haven Report by Adam Starchild, from Scope International Ltd., 62 Murray Road, Waterlooville, Hants., PO8 9JL, United Kingdom. The price is $125 , including airmail postage worldwide, ($100 if you want it by slower surface mail) and they accept Visa or MasterCard. Just stop and think for a moment how much faster your money can grow if you are not paying out an average of 40% to a taxing government somewhere. TERRA LIBRA! Freedom-boggling breakthrough! Free and enrich yourself with Freedom Technology. Personal Power beats bureaucrats. Free Details. ZENO Press, Box 170-I, Sedalia, CO 80135 THE VOLUNTARYIST, edited and published by Carl Watner since 1982. The only pure free-market newsletter to eschew electoral politics and violent revolution. $18 for 6 issues/yearly (add $5 overseas). For Table of Contents and sample copy send $5 or $1 per sample issue. Box 1275, Gramling SC 29348 WEST COAST LIBERTARIAN: Canada's premier Libertarian publication. Read the News from the North. 6 issues (1 year): $15; U.S. send $15US; Overseas l$20 or 25 IRC's (International Reply Coupons). Sample: $2 or 3 IRC's. Greater Vancouver Libertarian Association, 922 Cloverley St., North Vancouver, British Columbia, V7L 1N3 Canada. THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIREARMS: Reality and the Right to Arms ? Philosophical foundation of the right to arms. Liberal and conservative movements incompatible with the right to arms. Right to bear nukes? Rebellion? Civil disobedience? Gun Control Mentality. Irrationality of Gun Control. Why pro-gun organizations are powerless. Why the right to arms will be lost and what is required to win it back. Extensive bibliography, index, 190+pp. 30-day money back guarantee! Send $17.95 + $2.00 S & H to: Broad Reach Publishing, P.O. Box 145, Dept ISIL, Evanston, WY 82931. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SLAVERY CLAUSE in the original Declaration of Independence? WHO wrote the first draft? Provocative new book, A Personal Declaration of Independence, explains this and more. $10 postpaid/moneyback. Free personal declaration with/without order. ZENO Press, Box 170-I, Sedalia, CO 80135. WRITING THE BOOK THAT'LL MAKE CONVERTS OUT OF CRITICS! Both an excellent defense of libertarianism and refutation of welfare status quo. Unfortunately, I'm unemployed and broke. Nonetheless, I've never taken any welfare or unemployment checks. Really, whatever you can spare. Thank you. Barry Loberfeld, 12 Wichard Blvd., Commack, NY 11725 YOU CAN HAVE FINANCIAL FREEDOM but you have to earn it! Let us show you how to earn $500,000 or more with on-going residuals by sharing with others the Terra Libra Total Freedom Portfolio. Request the free Terra Libra marketing information package from DKS Publishing, Dept. D261-7, Box 465, Fellsmere, FL 32948. Your Ticket to unlimited discount travel. Full-service travel agency, guaranteed lowest available airfare, up to 60% savings on hotels. Before you book elsewhere call toll free to see what you can save. 1-800-966-CLUB and refer to Discount Travel Number 12639. Option (no obligation) to join travel club and earn referral commissions. ********************************************************************** PEN PAL SECTION ********************************************************************** There is no charge for Pen Pal Ads for ISIL members. Be sure to inform us when you would like your ad removed or changed. BOY (16) PUPIL of Mathematic grammer school interested in computers, basketball and music would like to correspond with boys and girls of his age. Please send answer to the address: Radmilo Macic, Ozrenska 13,11000, Belgrade, Serbia. AN 18-YEAR-0LD BOY FROM ESTONIA is waiting for all kinds of letter from all over the world. Interested in libertarianism, computers, business, politics, and many other things. Address: Yri Kaljundi, P.O. Box 68, Tallinn, EE0900, Estonia. COLLEGE LIBERTARIANS seeking contact with other students interested in joining our new Student Individualist Network (SIN) and writing for and/or distributing our monthly classical liberal/libertarian/ anarchist/objectivist paper. All correspondence should be sent to: Brian Taylor & Justin Weinberg, Editors: Guillotine, EMO, Binghamton University, P.O. Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902 or E-mail c/o Mike Darcey BB09769BingSuns.cc Binghamton.edu. RETIRED PROFESSIONAL MAN seeks challenging excuse to travel anywhere here or abroad. Invite me to stay at your place a couple of days. Let's discuss Libertarian ideas and see if there are any examples of them in action to videotape in your town. My photo, phone, and full particulars from Charles Yale, Box 27198, Las Vegas, NV 89126 I WOULD LIKE TO CORRESPOND with libertarians in Hungary, Poland, Russia, Peru and Argentina. Write: Robert A. Markley, 2515 E. Thomas Rd., Ste 16-742, Phoenix, Arizona 85016 USA. I AM A MAN, 29 YEARS OLD and single. I am interested in free markets and free societies. I like travelling, meeting people of all races, religions and political understanding. I also like keeping artifacts. I would like to make contact with any libertarians in any part of the United States of America. Nkadi Azuh, 111 Road, Block 5, Flat 2, Festac Town, Lagos, Nigeria. A YOUNG ADULT, BUSINESS ORIENTED. Would love to hear from sociable open-minded persons from the U.S.A. and all around the world. I promise to reply to all correspondents. Shina Oluyemi, P.O. Box 4975, Shomolu, Lagos, Nigeria. I AM 31. I am married and have two children. I am an economist dealing with marketing but I am also interested in free markets and societies. My hobbies are: psychology, astronomy, home computers (Especially Titan) and I also keep some exotic species of fish. Boguslaw B. Kolata, UL. Trzech Diamentow 36/27, 43-300 Bielsko-Biata, Poland. I LOVE WRITING AND MUSIC. I'm interested in science, particularly biology; and art, especially speculative fiction. Animated films and stand-up comedians rock my world. All letters will get some kind of reply. Altairn Edwards, 8155 Jamacha Rd., San Diego, CA 92114. LIBERTARIAN MALE, 33, interested in Free Market and Environmental Economics wishes to exchange ideas with other independent minds, preferably single, free-thinking female libertarians. Europeans please write. Scott, P.O. Box 41, Oakton, Virginia 22124, USA. LIBERTARIANS IN NETHERLANDS, especially Amsterdam, wanted for correspondence and friendship. Please write: Raymond Kiely, 4981 Springhill Dr., Pensacola, FL 32503, USA SINGLE, CHRISTIAN would like to correspond with other Christians. Also interested in love songs and would like to find out other people's love songs. Ken Miller, RD4 Box 11 Curtis Dr., Vernon, NJ 07462 ======================================================================= ISIL Classified ads are a great way to reach the world liberty community. Rates are only 10 per word. Minimum ad $5.00. For display ad rates write ISIL for rate sheet at: 1800 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA Fax (415) 864-7506 ======================================================================== ######################################################################### ######################################################################### FREEDOM NETWORK NEWS - INTERNATIONAL REPORT ######################################################################### ######################################################################### Argentina ======== ARGENTINA PLANS ACROSS-THE-BOARD PRIVATIZATION ********************************************** BUENOS AIRES - The Argentine government, searching for ways to balance its budget, intends to sell off all state-run enterprises in a sweeping privatization plan that will begin with the sale of three nuclear-power plants. After details are worked out, said Domingo Cavallo, economy minister, the government plans to sell off the state-owned Bahia Blanca petrochemical group, the national mint, the postal service and the country's main airports before the end of 1995. Dr. Cavallo added that the aim was "to transfer to the private sector all business activities" previously carried out by the federal government during the next 18 months. From The Wall Street Journal 9/1/94 p.A8 Canada ====== "GIMME TAX SHELTER" NEW ROCK HIT? ********************************* TORONTO - The Rolling Stones, about to embark on a $100 million North American tour, decided recently to practice in Toronto, Canada - beyond the grasping tentacles of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. According to Jim Monaco, director of media relations with Concert Productions International, a prolonged stay in the United States would have placed their worldwide income in danger. "The tour would most likely push their visit to the United States over 183 days this year, qualifying them as residents rather that visitors and making their worldwide income taxable." At that point they would be paying taxes in America - as well as in their place of residence. "Their tax bracket would be amazing," Monaco quipped. Singer Mick Jagger and the band had already spent some time in Los Angeles mixing their latest album, "Voodoo Lounge." BLATANT ACTS OF STATE CENSORSHIP SHOCKS CANADIAN ************************************************ The following was written by Susan Riggs, a Canadian citizen living in Ontario. She wrote this for the Detroit Free Press. An open letter to my American neighbors: ======================================== Like you, I woke up today, got dressed and settled down to a steaming brew and the morning newspaper before heading out to work. Unlike you, I read that dozens of my fellow citizens were arrested for carrying copies of the Buffalo News. The newspaper contained information about a trial here that the powers-that-be did not want us to read. It is that simple. It is now 11:15 p.m. Minutes ago, I turned on the Buffalo television station, hoping to see on my TV what could not reach us through the newspapers. I am now looking at a blank screen. We received about 10 seconds of the trial controversy, and suddenly my screen went blank. A message appeared on the screen explaining that because of the contravention of a ban, the station was prohibiting broadcast of the news. Along with the sign was a high-pitched whistle that sounded like the air-raid sirens the Britons used during World War II. As I sit here alone, I realize that my blood is running cold at the sound of that whistle. This could never happen here. Not in Canada. You must wonder about a country that would deny its own citizens the freedom to read. As a Canadian, I have done a lot of hard thinking about it. I guess the powers have their reasons for the ban. Censorship always has its reasons, but, believe me, when you are on the receiving end of government censorship, no reason amounts to a hill of beans - and that is why I am writing to you. It is my hope that you will read the Canadian story and, as your famous columnist Ann Landers says, "wake up and smell the coffee" -- while you still have a newspaper to read along with it. Czech Republic ============== WORDS OF WISDOM FROM VACLAV KLAUS ********************************* PRAGUE - Czech Republic Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus in a recent Forbes Magazine article recounted the following experience: "I was recently at a rally of 3,000 people in Opava, a northern Moravian town. A man asked me: 'When can we expect the same level of agricultural subsidies as those of Western Europe?' If there were just 3,000 people, and not the journalists in the front row, the answer would have been quite dramatic. But because journalists were there I had to answer in the prime minister's [gentle] way. I hesitated, and then I answered: "The level of subsidies for Czech farmers will be at the level of EU farmers' subsidies when EU countries understand the irrationality of their subsidies and when they decrease them to the level of the Czech Republic." Forbes, June 20, 1994 England ======= PHILOSOPHER KARL POPPER DIES AT THE AGE OF 92 ********************************************* The philosopher Sir Karl Popper has died, aged 92, in a Surrey hospital. He died in the Mayday Hospital in Croydon after a long illness. He became world-famous through publication of works such as The Open Society and Its Enemies, in which he sought to rebut Marxism, Fascism and other authoritarian ideologies. He questioned the idea of inexorable laws of human history, believing history to be influenced by the growth of knowledge, which is unpredictable. His books attacking Marxism had a strong influence on Margaret Thatcher as prime minister of Britain - and he was admired by other world leaders past and present. Ian Geldard, London, U.K. Germany ======= GERMANY TO PRIVATIZE POSTAL SERVICE *********************************** Germany is privatizing its government postal monopoly. The Deutsche Bundespost Telekom is being converted into joint-stock companies. The government will not buy any new shares, but will not sell any of its own before the year 2000. Hong Kong ========= TOP HONG KONG JUDGES DECLARE SUPPORT OF MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION ************************************************************** On July 31 the South China Sunday Morning Post reported that two Hong Kong judges expressed their support for marijuana legalization. One High Court judge, Justice Godfrey, said the ban made no sense while alcohol and tobacco were legal. Justice Kaplan, 52, also of the High Court, said the use of cannabis was commonplace and there was no proof it led users to more dangerous drugs. He went on to say: "I am in favor of its decriminalization. Otherwise, good citizens find themselves on the wrong side of the law and are alienated." "I am not satisified that cannabis leads people to take more dangerous drugs, and recent reserach indicates that it is no more harmful than tobacco. It is certainly less addictive." More than 50 federal judges in the United States have also expressed their opposition to the "war on drugs" and are refusing to hear any more drug cases. Submitted by Don Meyer/California Italy ===== ADAM SMITH SOCIETY FORMED IN ITALY ********************************** We have just received news from Maria Pia Paganelli of Milano that the Adam Smith Society was founded in Italy late last year. The society has been formed to promote classical liberalism through activities in economic, political, and cultural areas. They report that conferences, lectures and seminars have been organized - especially on antitrust, privatization and financial markets. The organization has reportedly established links with the Adam Smith Institute (London, UK), the Institute of Economic Affairs (London, UK), the Atlas Foundation and the Heritage Foundation in the US, the Centro Luigi Einaudi (Torino, Italy) and now with ISIL. The Adam Smith Society Via Cornaggia, 10 Attn: Maria Pia Paganelli 20123 Milano, Italy Norway ======= MAJOR SPLIT IN NORWEGIAN PROGRESS PARTY *************************************** OSLO -- The Fremskrittspartiet (Norwegian Progress Party) has now formally split, with four of the ten elected MPs leaving the party to form the Free Democratic Party. The youth wing, FpU, reportedly arranged an special meeting on July 2, in which three-quarters of the delegates voted in favor of disbanding this student organization in protest over party policies. This decision was not unsurprisingly overruled by Carl I. Hagen, chairman of the Party's National Board. A more pliable executive was reportedly installed. At this point all the libertarians, classical liberals and many "moderates" left the party, leaving behind a collection of what correspondent Jon Henrik Gilhuus describes as "Christian moralists, social democrats and conservative-Neander-thals." "You wouldn't buy a used car from any of these guys," Gilhuus remarked bitterly. He went on to say: "This development is of course sad, especially so since our international projects, for example, were going so well." The summer youth camp in which classical-liberal themes were debated and which was attended by numerous ISIL members, has been cancelled - although it is hoped that the new Free Democrats will have the resources and see fit to revive it. Russia ====== POWER OUTAGE THREATENED RUSSIAN MISSILE SYSTEM ********************************************** MOSCOW: Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces almost lost control over the nation's nuclear missiles yesterday when power was cut to its Moscow command center -- possibly because the light bill hadn't been paid, according to press reports from Moscow. The Russian ITAR-Tass news agency said spokesmen for the Strategic Rocket Forces told its reporter that the loss of power threatened national security. However, duty officers were able to switch to a backup power system without incident when the lights went out, and later told the Russian news agency "the combat-readiness of the Strategic Rocket Forces has not been affected and remains as before at the proper level." A spokesman for the electric utility servicing Moscow told the Associated Press that power to the facility had been cut, but declined to explain why. Power later was restored, AP said, noting that the utility frequently cuts power to customers who do not pay their bills. Posted to Libernet Digest by Johan Opitz South Africa =========== POST-ELECTION REPORT An Atmosphere of Cautious Optimism ********************************************************************** JOHANNESBURG: ISIL Advisory Board member Leon Louw remarked that it is difficult to know whether to join the post-election euphoria in South Africa. A colored relative of Louw's was quoted as saying that at Mandela's inauguration he felt as if he was at a wedding where no one thinks the marriage will last, but where no one says so, and they all celebrate together anyway. The election, as we reported in the past FNN, was a fiasco in which electoral fraud with massive ballot-box stuffing and computer schenenegans was the order of the day. Returns in some areas reflected vote totals three times the number of actual voters. The newly formed libertarian Federal Party, headed by Frances Kendall voiced no post-election bitterness, even though they were most likely sidelined by back room deals that reapportioned votes from "fringe parties" to the status quo parties. They reportedly did not want to be perceived as a poor losers. There would after all be other elections, and the party did make a good showing considering the fact that it had only been formed a few months before the elections. Louw criticized the complicity of foreign observers, who were supposed to be watchdogs of the election. "What message does it send the ANC and future governments if the free world condones such a fiasco?" he asked. At a dinner meeting with observers from France, Frances Kendall asked one parliamentary observer how he would feel if such an election were held in France. The committee members said that, of course, it would be scrapped and rerun. "Why, then, do you you condone it here?" The group leader shrugged and said, "This is Africa." One of the factors in the near-universal condoning of this shambles, locally and abroad, seems to have been pure racism. Blacks, especially ANC blacks, are simply not expected to do things properly. It is reminiscent of Lord Milner's view nearly one hundred years ago that blacks could aspire to some level of civilization, but never to the level attained by whites. He obviously had not had the benefit of observing such white manifestations of civilization as Hitler, Stalin and Ceaucescu. FRANCES KENDALL CREATES POSITIVE IMAGE ************************************** On the positive side, the Federal Party's performance and the quality of their candidates and positions was first-rate. Even Winnie Mandela and the late ANC former President's son Dali Tambo remarked that the party created a tremendously positive campaign. Many people said that Frances Kendall was the most articulate leader, and the one most able to explain complex issues in ways that everyone could understand. She is now, more than ever, a nationally-recognized figure. Kendall, incidentally, has just been appointed, along with another libertarian (Theresa Griessel) to a seat on the Transitional Metropolitan Council for Johannesburg and environs. She will be promoting her ideals of limited government and selling her fellow members on the virtues of privatization. PEACEFUL RECONCILIATION A PLEASANT SURPRISE =========================================== Of particular interest is the degree of reconciliation experienced following the elections. Louw reports that the most remarkable event was when Mandela went from his inauguration to an international soccer match. There was a largely black crowd of nearly 100,000. The two national anthems were played. As part of nation- building, the former white Afrikaner anthem, Die Stem, and what was the black liberation anthem, Nkosi Sikelel i Afrika, h ave been made joint national anthems. Some blacks booed Die Stem when it was played, but Mandela rebuked them firmly. He urged that they go away and learn the to sing the words - in Afrikaans. In this, he appeared to have the support of most of the crowd. Louw concluded that among most whites, particularly business people, there is an extraordinary sense of optimism. However, there is still a wait-and-see attitude amongst investors as if they were saying "We'll believe it when we see it." He went on to say, "I don't expect the ANC to make things worse. On the contrary, I expect many improvements, with growth averaging around 3% over the next four years. My concern is that the ANC, in trying to appease everyone, may be too conservative. It may not take sufficiently dramatic steps to bring about short-term material benefits for blacks. What we are urging it to do is to sweep away all the remaining restrictive laws adopted by whites over the decades to protect them from black advancement. The trouble is that there are already enough blacks on the inside, such as the new labor aristocracy, and thousands of black business owners, to lobby the ANC to keep the system as it is. Turkey ======= YOUNG TURKS CHALLENGE BANKRUPT STATUS QUO ***************************************** ISTANBUL -- The Liberal Democracy Movement, with a membership of 6,000 has arisen in Turkey. They assert that their goal is to build a tolerant alternative to the militarism, crude nationalism and gross abuses of human rights that have become too common in today's Turkey. At a typical meeting of the Liberal Democracy Movement there were 200 people in attendance. They represent the best and brightest of Turkey's young middle class which includes many women, young owners of successful businesses, economists, professors and managers who were determined to get beyond party politics and overcome the ideological bankruptcy of the Turkish state. All wanted to find a way out of a system lost in a devil's triangle of Islamists' nostalgia for the old Ottoman Empire, resurgent Kurdish radicals and Turkish nationalist secularists. The NDM with their charismatic leader Cem Boyner, the rich son of a family of a textile manufacturer and his wife Umit, is the only audible Turkish voice demanding liberalization. "We need a Turkish perestroika - we have to decide if we want to be in the first league of countries or not." Cem Boyner told a spellbound audience of 500 civil leaders in the deeply conservative eastern provincial town of Tokat, where only 17 years ago politicians bringing progressive ideas were met with a hail of stones. Happily, open public debate of issues has become a reality due to a proliferation of private TV networks created by the enlightened economic policies of the late prime minister Turgut Ozal. Seen in THE INDEPENDENT (London, England) in a report by Hugh Pope. United States ============= THE DOLLAR IS FALLING ********************* People outside the U.S. have long held dollars as a stable form of savings, but now that the dollar is being re-designed, they are afraid that they will not be able to redeem their holdings in the future. So, starting on the streets, the dollars are being dumped - exchanged for other currencies (or other valuables), and then they work their way through the banking system. In order for the dollars to come home, the US Treasury has to provide other currencies with which to redeem them. Most of these reserves, it is hoped, are on hand. But there is no gurantee that this is true, and it is just as likely that the Treasury will instantly "create" the money it needs to buy even more of the very currencies against which the dollar is falling. After all, at the level of central banks, these transfers are not a matter of bales of paper crossing the ocean in ships and planes. It's all done electronically. But computerized funds transfers are eventually subject to the same laws of reality as the exchange of cattle for gold. The books must balance in the chambers of Tokyo as they do on the streets of Kiev. As the US Government lends itself more money to buy hard currencies with which to redee m dollars, the resulting inflation will be felt, and, of course the dollar will fall all the faster abroad. What started this calamity? The usual effects of socialism are always at play. However, the most recent event was the announcement that the dollar will be redesigned to prevent counterfeiting. The "new money" dollars will be different from the dollars now being held by productive people in less-stable countries. Therefore those people have begun exchanging their holdings. The fall of the dollar relative to the yen, mark, etc., is the result of this. By Michael E. Marotta on Libernet Digest WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE FREE PRESS IN AMERICA? ********************************************* With precious few excepetions the national media in the US, far from being the guard dogs of liberty, seem to have become the lap-dogs of tyrants. On a 60 Minutes show last year it was revealed that up to 90% of the news for major network TV comes from government or quasi-governmental sources. Programming seems to be scrupulously cleansed of any real news content, and even worse it indulges in subtle indoctrination and open "politically correct" propaganda. If you agree with our assessment that the major media are looking more like Pravda every day you are not alone. Recent Gallup polls show that only 29% of the people have any confidence in newspapers (vs. 51% in 1975). TV reporting is even lower, with credibility figures plummeting from 46% in 1973 to an incredible low of 11% in 1994.