MIAC Committe Hearing Recap

I was unaware there were other twitterers at the hearing, but there were.

JayAnger did a good job posting updates on the hearing and filled in a few things I did not touch on and confirms other things I said.

http://twitter.com/JayAnger

My testimony is what he lists as C4L. Catherine Bleish is actually with the Liberty Restoration Project, he listed her as with the C4L also by mistake.

It turns out she was tweeting too!

http://twitter.com/Cathosaurus

And the Chairman got off a few tweets himself!

http://twitter.com/RepBobDixon

The next thing for me to do is upload the videos we took. I'll let you all know where they are when I find a home for them.

Okay, I'm home now, had something to eat, and have poured myself a beer. Time for a recap of the day.

I'll begin by saying I'm very pleased with how everything went. Every speaker was given as much time as they needed to give testimony. The Chairman, Rep Dixon, did a great job running the hearing.

Amica, one of the first things I did was talk with Dixon's legislative assistant and asked him about your letter. He is the one that sent it to the rest of the committee.

The first speaker was a guy with the Illinois State Police who gave a presentation on STIC, Statewide Terrorism & Intelligence Center. He gave some testimony that bothered a couple of the members of the committee and they asked him so good questions. His testimony lasted a long time, but not nearly as long as someone to come later. Overall the committee did aa good job questioning him.

Rep Guest asked him what happens when they pull over an illegal emigrant. He said they do not check their status and do not consider it a crime. Rep. Guest pointed out how stupid this is when the potential for terrorists to enter the country illegally is so high and the supposed top priority for the fusion centers is to prevent terrorism.

Next was a woman who is the state chair of the Constituion party. She read a letter by Chuck Baldwin, answered a question or two and was done.

Next was a spokesman for the Missouri Libertarian party who put some pretty pointed and heated questions to the committee. His testimony did not last long.

Then came the guy who many thought was there to filibuster the hearing. Some former US attorney name Fagan. This guy went on for over an hour and a half. He loves the Patriot Act. He thinks the fusion centers need more authority. He said he did not see a problem with the MIAC militia report other than the fact it became public. He went on and on about gathering intelligence on people who are not breaking laws because they might break laws in the future.

It was torture listening to this guy who has no concern for the constitution or individual liberties. When he finally stopped talking and they began questioning him, it was a thing of beauty.

He got reamed! But the guy was unapologetic. He kept to his rhetoric, which included constantly repeating he was there on his own behalf and not for any agency he works for or had worked for. He had talked so much he really dug himself some holes.

Rep Funderburk led of the questioning hammering him on his assertion that its okay to surveil someone who is not guilty of a crime. This really got to Funderburk and he was livid. He made it clear that he did not agree with that at all, and continued to hammer the guy.

Others ask him other questions including Rep. Schoeller who after listening to his answers told him he was basically glossing over the questions instead of answering them.

This guy may have gone in thinking he'd get them to just go away and leave MIAC alone, but it had the opposite effect. It also gave those of us testifying behind him more to talk about.

After he was finally done, there were a couple of other people giving testimony before me. They made some good points and answered some questions.

Rep. Jones asked several individual people giving testimony why people were so worried about government profiling now when minorities have been profiled for decades.

When it was finally my turn, I started by leaving my prepared notes and commented on some of the previous testimony. The point of the hearing was not to rehash the militia report, but to discuss oversight of the agency that created it.

I touched on a few things right away like that fact that VA has HB1007 that would deny FOI requests of the VA fusion Center. Thanks for that one Amica.

Then I countered previous testimony claiming only those engaged in suspicious activity were under surveillance. I quoted from the leaked report about the FBI surveillance of the Tea Parties. They had not heard that and i could tell that surprised some of them.

I stated that I assume I am under surveillance and I conduct myself as if I am. I know that myself and others have been in the past.

I also discussed the NLE 09 which they were unaware of. I pointed out there was no assurance that info gather in MO is not being used right now as part of the exercise. I also pointed out the international and private involvement and how problematic that is.

I went over some portions of the Federal regualtions concerning Criminal Intelligence Systems Operating Policies. (again, thanks Amica).

They all had that chapter of the federal regulations in their packet, so my pointing out sections and why they are important should be helpful to them.

I quoted from the Missouri and US constitutions, pointing out that Missouri is a free and independent state and that the people of this state have the inherent, sole, and exclusive right to regulate the internal government and the police thereof.

I answered some questions from a few of them. Again Funderburk was the most vocal in his support of the constitution and disgust at the earlier testimony.

After my testimony were other speakers including Catherine Bleisch who testified at the previous committee hearing and came armed with a massive stack of documents she obtained through FOI requests. She pointed out that none of the documents show any work by the MIAC on terrorism. She also had an internal law enforcement memo that notified police about an End the Fed rally she organized and warned to be on the lookout for people coming in from out of town. It included a screenshot of her website promoting the event.

Robyn Hamlin gave testimony basically stating that MIAC and others including many elected officials are guilty of treason for not upholding their oaths to the constitution.

There were a few others that gave supporting testimony.

It was after 5:30pm then the hearing ended. Overall I am very pleased at how it went. I believe the members of the committee "get it" and will do what it takes to preserve personal privacy and liberty, at least where MIAC is concerned.

I hope this reinvigorated attitude towards defending liberty and the constitution carries over to all of their legislative work.

The hearing just concluded. About 4 1/2 hours of testimony.

I'm heading home. Updates to follow.

I just finished my testimony. It went great. They are getting it.

I'll expand on my comments later. We've been filming segments as memory card space allows and downloading it to my laptop. I'll post them someplace later.

Overall this committee may do the right thing. Some of them were pretty upset at government testimony they heard.