- In a not-so-cryptic "message" eventually intended
for all U.S. citizens -- but likely one very famous American in particular,
three armed U.S. Secret Service agents and a local sheriff employed psychological
intimidation to invade the privacy of retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer
Michael Moore, 49, of Goldston, North Carolina at his home on December
10, 2002...
- In another warning sign of what lies ahead for all Americans
regarding police-state abuse of power (thanks to sections of the post-September
11 "Patriot Act" approved by Congress and signed into law by
President Bush), U.S. Intelligence intercepted North Carolinian Michael
Moore's email -- likely believing it was written by independent film producer-icon
("Bowling for Columbine") and author ("Stupid White Men")
Michael Moore. In other words, they got the wrong Michael Moore.
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- The Michael Moore raided by the Secret Service last week
is a 20-year war veteran who put his life on the line for his country during
two separate tours of duty aboard the U.S.S. Paul Revere off the coast
of Vietnam in 1971 and 1972 -- one of which was a highly dangerous mine-sweeping
operation.
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- Finding a few controversial albeit First Amendment-protected
words in the Navy vet's email, the Intelligence agents apparently decided
to kill two birds with one stone:
-
- 1) Intimidate the former Vietnam veteran into allowing
them to violate his personal privacy by performing a search of his home
while knowing the story would reach the public -- thereby inculcating citizen
fear of government power, and 2) send a veiled "message" to fervent
presidential-critic and celebrity Michael Moore to let him know what lies
down the road for him should his high-profile and media-oriented presidential
disdain persist.
-
- There are no reports yet as to whether Michael Moore,
the film and book luminary, will join the Navy vet with his appellation
to promulgate a legal inquiry into how various sections of the Patriot
Act are abused by government officials in order to intimidate and distress
the citizenry. That may require the services of a constitutional attorney
as valiant as the two Moores will need to be.
-
- According to Moore -- the North Carolinian who served
in Vietnam, the Secret Service agents informed him that "they work
with the FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) jointly on national security
issues" -- all of which was exclusively reported yesterday via the
probingly perceptive questioning of Meria Heller during a live interview
on her Meria Heller Internet Show.
-
- One of the agents told Moore that they had "intercepted
his email written to an online friend expressing his outrage over the recent
election results and that he had called President Bush 'Satan -- the third
anti-Christ,' and a 'Communist Republican,' " among other soubriquets.
-
- In a special-report/email posted on Tom Flocco.com from
his online friend "BlackBear," the 20-year war veteran revealed
that the agents said that they "had to access my email to see if I
posed a national security risk to the President -- who I now call the 'Bush-Whacker.'
"
-
- The Secret Service agents and the local sheriff -- all
displaying side-arms -- wanted more, however -- a portent of police-state
prospects facing all Americans. They asked Michael Moore if they could
enter his home because they "wanted to ask him some questions and
fill out forms for about a half hour -- which turned into more than an
hour."
-
- Moore said "they asked me what kind of drugs I am
on, and where they could contact my ex-wife," adding that "they
also required that I sign a form permitting them to access all my medical
history in the San Diego and Raleigh-Durham Veteran's hospitals."
-
- "I was in shock and intimidated," he told us
in a phone interview last night, adding "I just cooperated in order
to get them out of my home as soon as possible."
-
- Curiously, the next series of questions became all the
more abusive to Moore as he began to realize that "if the agents were
already intercepting my email, they undoubtedly also had total prior access
to my military occupational specialty (MOS) records, and other personal
information not available to other citizens -- before they even entered
my home."
-
- "I was also upset when they asked for the names,
addresses, and phone numbers of all my family," the Navy vet continued:
"They wanted to know if I had a history of mental illness, what I
thought about assassinations, if I was going to Washington, DC to shoot
the President, when was the last time I was out-of-state, whether I had
sniper training in the military, what work I did in the Navy, and if I
had a grudge against the Navy, etc."
-
- His close friend, BlackBear, said "Here is a guy
who called me and asked if I would come to Goldston the first Saturday
in November when the tiny town hosted the First Annual Chatham County Veterans
Day Parade in which Mike Moore proudly donned his Chief Petty Officer's
uniform and marched in the parade, passing out miniature American flags
to the spectators."
-
- Moore was adamant when he told us "they point-blank
asked me if I was going to Washington to shoot the President -- after they
had already intercepted the email I wrote to my friend saying that 'under
no circumstances would I ever leave my house until the Democrats regained
control of the White House,' " adding "they knew I wasn't going
anywhere."
-
- "They literally raped my mind -- psychologically,"
he said.
-
- But the intimidation didn't stop there. The soldier with
a well-known name added, "They wrote down information from my military
Retiree's I.D., my driver's license, and my vehicle license plate number."
(Information they already possessed before they even made the decision
to pay Michael Moore a visit.)
-
- In another abuse of his rights against unwanted search
without a warrant, Moore revealed that "the local Sheriff (who accompanied
the agents into his home) and one other agent wandered throughout my house
while I was being interviewed by one of the other Secret Service agents
in my dining room."
-
- One wonders whether legislators would even do anything
about such abuse of power -- given the current state of affairs.
-
- "Feeling that I had been psychologically raped by
these government agents, I was also intimidated into allowing them to take
four Polaroid pictures of me, after they asked me not to go to Washington,
DC in the future."
-
- The strange irony of this disturbing, Patriot Act-enabled
incident is that Michael Moore the celebrity is very likely the real person
to which the Secret Service, FBI, and NSA was issuing a warning.
-
- Many Americans already know that taxpayer-funded echelon
satellites regularly monitor phone calls, movements, and electronic communications
of American citizens on "the list" of dissenting individuals
who protest the loss of individual rights and freedoms which have accompanied
the current administration -- even patriotic, law-abiding, military veterans
who have faithfully served their country, government "chicken-hawks"
notwithstanding.
-
- The real question is whether the two Michael Moores will
test the abuse of power in a court of law.
-
- Abuse of power used to be an impeachable offense. And
if a Vietnam vet like Michael Moore had Secret Service agents visit him,
question him, and search his home when they already had access to the very
information they were requiring from him in his home, is it likely that
other far more out-spoken individuals like 9/11 victim-family activists
Kristen Breitweiser, Ellen Mariani, and Stephen Push are being monitored
too.
-
- And what about other Americans, famous or not, who are
critical of the loss of their individual freedoms in verbal interviews
and written stories, or when they communicate with one another in what
used to be personal emails -- or when they make what used to be personal
phone calls?
-
- The only difference with Breitweiser, Mariani, and Push
is that government agencies will not violate them personally in their homes
like Michael Moore. That would be too damaging politically -- given their
high profile. Theirs will be a more subtle and clandestine administration-sponsored
scrutiny, thanks to a secret court in Baltimore.
-
- More reasonably, they can expect that their phone calls
and emails are being quietly monitored since these brave Americans -- like
celebrity Moore and his film ventures -- are in the vanguard of those who
could do the most political harm to certain government officials.
-
- By exposing corruption through the art of film-making,
pressing for the testimony of high-ranking officials, or demonstrating
for subpoenas of suppressed yet crucial FBI, CIA and presidential briefing
documents, these individuals are a real threat to uncover the truth of
9/11's events and its unanswered questions.
-
- For just like the famous Michael Moore with his movies
and books, and Michael Moore the war veteran from North Carolina, these
9/11 victim-family members are also protesting in their own way.
-
- They are expressing dissent about the current congressional
cover-up of the events of September 11 and the efforts of the administration
to appoint "independent" investigators who will sabotage their
private or legal efforts to unlock the unanswered secrets to the 9/11 questions.
-
- Asked how he would handle the same situation if Secret
Service agents ever knock on his door again: "I would never let them
into my home again without a valid, notarized search warrant issued by
a judge; and if I am forced to let them in, I will have a camera ready
at the door to take their picture, just like they took mine," replied
Moore.
-
- "What kind of democracy is this in our 'so-called'
great nation when we cannot even write an email message without the fear
of our government intercepting it and then being violently raped through
an intense personal interrogation," Moore added, as the interview
concluded.
-
- While we will wait with anticipation to hear the reaction
to this story by the OTHER Michael Moore, we can envision another inimitable,
unique tour d' force film-production complete with hovering helicopters,
secret agents, listening devises, home searches, surveillance cameras,
and neighbors spying on one another -- all part of the new Bush Administration
Americana and secrecy with which we are becoming acquainted.
-
- Tragic? Yes. Unavoidable? Of course not. You see, the
rest of the world is watching to see whether the Breitweisers, Marianis,
Pushes, and Moores of America have the endurance to keep fighting back
and pressing on. It won't be easy -- given the "oil-soaked, energy-grabbing,
spy-riddled monopoly press" (to coin a Sherman Skolnick phrase) --
who are providing cover for much of the corruption and abuse of power which
never reaches the sensibilities of Joe Six-pack. They will need help from
other patriots.
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All rights reserved.
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