Whereas the Defense Authorization Act passed by the
previous Congress in October 2006 enables the
President, upon his own declaration of a public
emergency, to seize control of National Guard units
and station troops anywhere in the country without the
consent of state or local authorities;
Whereas a former National Security Advisor, in
testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee this past February, described as a
"plausible scenario" the administration's using a
terrorist act within the United States as a pretext to
expand the scope of conflict for U.S. forces in the
Middle East;
Whereas the National Security and Homeland Security
Presidential Directive issued by the White House in
May declares that the occurrence of a "catastrophic
emergency" within the U.S. shall result in the
effective overturning of the constitutional system of
checks-and-balances and the concentration of
government power in the executive branch;
Whereas recent weeks have witnessed a series of
abortive terror incidents on both sides of the
Atlantic, apparently instigated at least in part by undercover operatives, and the reporting of which seems
intended to heighten public fears out of proportion to
the actual dangers posed to life and property;
Whereas the administration persists in asserting, without substantiation, a
link between armed groups in Iraq and the perpetrators
of the attacks of September 11, 2001;
Whereas this same administration resisted a truly
independent investigation of the 9/11 attacks, leading
to a 9/11 commission whose final report left numerous
questions wholly unexamined, and before which the
President and Vice President refused to submit sworn
testimony, or even to permit any recording of what
answers they did provide;
Whereas the prime beneficiaries of a sucessfully
executed terrorist act within the United States would
be the proponents of expanded war in the Middle East
and unchecked executive power at home;
Whereas history presents numerous examples of
governments manufacturing incidents to further agendas
of war and expanded executive power;
We call upon the United States Congress and the governments of the fifty states, in the
name of their constitutents, to advise the
administration that any terrorist incident within the
United States will be promptly, fully, and
independently investigated, with the constitutional
system of checks-and-balances and states rights
remaining fully in force; and further urge the repeal
of the provisions of the 2006 Defense Appropriations
Act which enable the President to deploy United States
forces anywhere in the country for domestic policing
purposes without the consent of state or local
authorities; and that the questions persisting
around the attacks of September 11, 2001 which
the 9/11 Commission left unexamined be made the subject of a full and independent investigation.