LIBERTARIAN PARTY NEWS RELEASE:

American Government is
Out of Control.... White House and Corrupt Two-Party System Destroy Balance between Security and Liberty

(Washington, D.C.) USA Today reported this week that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly collecting the phone records of tens of millions of innocent Americans, and compiling them into a federal database. This discovery was preceded by the recent leak of domestic spying abuses along with the abuses that have stemmed from powers granted by the Patriot Act.

"The fear of terrorism was used to create this database shortly after September 11th, just as it was used to pass the Patriot Act and ignore the rule of law with increased domestic spying," stated Michael Dixon, chairman of the Libertarian Party. "However, our history proves that these programs will be abused regardless of the intended purpose. We witnessed this with the Clinton administration and its use of FBI files for political purposes. More recently, the Patriot Act has been used against business owners in Nevada rather than al-Qaeda."

This database, it is assumed, will be used to analyze the calling patterns of Americans to determine possible terrorist suspects, even though its establishment comes at the expense of the privacy of millions of innocent American citizens.

It is clear that the NSA’s domestic spying program, a program that should not legally exist, is far larger than originally anticipated. USA Today reported that, in order to develop this program, the government agency used private phone records provided by three major companies, AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and Bellsouth Corp.

Notably, one major carrier, Qwest Communications, did not provide the information demanded by the government, citing concerns over privacy. Despite repeated demands and harassment, Qwest remained loyal to its customers and America, failing to cave in to bureaucratic pressure.

“Under the Bush Administration, the federal government has demonstrated that it has no respect for the inherent rights of Americans, and neither Republican nor Democratic politicians have done a thing to stop this madness despite repeated abuses,” Dixon stated. “This country needs a change and the leaders within the Libertarian Party are working to make that happen.”

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BIG kudos to Qwest Communications for resisting the pressure government put on them to reveal their customers' personal, private phone records.

Mike

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1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
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1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
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1985 300TD
270,000 miles
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1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

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