Heads Up



   A Weekly edition of News from around our country



		  March 28, 1997   #28



	  by:  Doug Fiedor    fiedor19@eos.net



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  Previous Editions at:  http://mmc.cns.net/headsup.html

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PROSECUTOR MISCONDUCT

	Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to 

decide whether prosecutors can be sued for making false 

statements when seeking arrest warrants. (Kalina v. 

Fletcher, 96-792)

	Seattle Prosecutor Lynne Kalina was sued 

by Rodney Fletcher, who was arrested in 1993 and charged 

with stealing computer equipment from a private school.

	Fletcher's lawsuit said that, in seeking 

the arrest warrant, the prosecutor improperly filed 

documents saying he had never been associated with the 

school and did not have permission to enter it.  The 

documents also said that someone identified Fletcher from 

a picture as the man who tried to sell computer equipment 

from the school.  Police also found Fletcher's 

fingerprints in the school.

	As it turns out, Fletcher had performed 

construction work inside the school months before the 

burglary, explaining the fingerprints.  And, as it turned 

out, police reports said witnesses did not, in fact, pick 

Fletcher's photograph out from a group of pictures.

	Therefore, the prosecutor lied to get the arrest warrant.

	Later, things were sorted out, and all 

charges were dropped.  Now comes Fletcher's action 

against the prosecutor.  He started suit against Kalina 

in federal court.  Fletcher's lawsuit said she violated 

his civil rights by filing statements she should have 

known were false.

	The prosecutor, of course, argues that 

she should be immune from such a lawsuit.  Kalina asked 

the judge to grant her full immunity and dismiss the 

lawsuit.  But the judge refused, saying the issue of 

granting her qualified immunity must be decided during a 

trial.

	The prosecutor appealed, of course.  

However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed 

with the District Court, saying prosecutors do not have 

absolute immunity when preparing statements in support of 

an arrest warrant.  Nonetheless, the appeals court ruled, 

Kalina still may avoid liability by showing at trial that 

her conduct did not violate a clearly established 

Constitutional right.

	Back in 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that 

prosecutors have full immunity from lawsuits over their 

actions in initiating and prosecuting a criminal case.  

But, that is only when they're acting as prosecutors.  In 

1991, the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors do not 

have full immunity when they perform investigative work.

	Fletcher's lawyers said that by acting as 

an investigator for the case, Kalina acted as a witness 

in filing the statement for securing an arrest warrant, 

and therefore she should not have full immunity.

	Indeed, this seems to be a good example of 

a prosecutor taking an active personal interest in 

investigating a crime.  And, unfortunately, that is 

common practice in many states.  It is also wrong.

	Prosecutors are not police.  Therefore, they 

have no business becoming involved in the investigatory 

process.  Rather, the prosecutor's office should be in a 

position to insure that all rights of all citizens are 

protected equally -- even, and especially, from the 

police.  This will not usually be done by a prosecutor 

personally involved, interacting with the police in the 

field, during a criminal investigation.

	This case will be well watched by 

prosecutors throughout the country, and we can expect 

many briefs to be filed in favor of complete 

prosecutorial immunity.  However, if the Supreme Court 

runs true to form, we expect Fletcher to prevail.



COLD WAR LOOMS AGAIN

	Interesting week for world leaders wasn't 

it.  It seems like they're all shaking hands and smiling 

at each other like a bunch of good buddies.  That's what 

we see in the news.  The problem is, the part that we are 

not being told is that some of them are preparing to stab 

America in the back at the same time.

	First, the administration gets rid of Hillary 

by sending her on an "extended" vacation -- almost as far 

away as they could possibly get her without using the 

space shuttle.  That freed up Slick for a little 

cavorting, and based on reports of his past proclivities, 

he shouldn't have any problems, even with the bad knee.

	Then they sent Gore off to China to thank 

the Communists for those millions of dollars in campaign 

contributions.  He was also supposed to talk about 

business and human rights, but his vocabulary is rather 

limited on those issues.  So, by his second day there, he 

reverted to his Ozone Head mode and started talking about 

environmental issues.  The Chinese leaders humored him 

for a while, let him watch a business agreement signing, 

and then sent him on his way to see the normal tourist 

attractions.

	Not a word was said about the eight million 

people in prison camps.  Not a word was said about the 

constant persecution of the Christians, or the Tibetans.  

And, certainly, not a word was said about the massive 

arms buildup in which China is now involved.

	Bill and Boris had a little vacation 

together, too.  They met in a strange town.  Without 

their wives.  Yeah, the Beavis and Buthead of world 

super powers had their own little night out in a town 

infamous for . . . err, how can we put this . . . 

"discreet" night life for the discriminating gentleman.

	In between the cavorting, they talked about 

world leader things like NATO, bombs and other people's 

countries.

	Now for the juicy news Americans didn't hear 

about:

	At the very same time Ozone Head was 

hobnobbing with the Communists in China, the Red Chinese 

had some of their top echelon people in Russia.  And, at 

the very same time Slick and Boris were promising not to 

bomb each other's country, the Chinese and Russians were 

still busy talking shop in the Kremlin.

	Russia and China are busy arming China to 

the teeth.  Russia and China are also busy setting up 

both strategic and tactical defenses against the United 

States.  You see, their plan is to create their own spear 

of influence -- their whole side of the globe -- and cut 

the United States out!  They are even arming India as a 

back up country.

	China gets Hong Kong back in three months.  

And, of course, it wants Taiwan too.  Japan is nearby 

too. . . .

	What does Russia get out of this?  Power, 

eventually.  Badly needed money, right now.

	We're helping both countries do this, by the 

way.  We've given Billions of dollars in aid and comfort 

to Russia.  Their economy is still in the pits, but 

they've got the money to do arms research.  The Chinese 

are giving Russia the money to re-tool for arms 

production.

	And look at China.  We are probably their 

largest trading partner.  And, because the balance of 

trade is so grossly in their favor, they now have 

billions of our dollars available to spend on arms.  

Worse, we are also selling them the technology necessary 

to fight us!

	Has anybody in Washington noticed?  If they 

have, this is the first thing they have been able to keep 

quiet about in quite a few years.  Of course, there's 

another scenario that fits the situation nicely.  But, 

even "Heads Up" is not prepared to postulate that 

possibility -- yet.



ANOTHER COMMISSION

	Walter Mondale is making news again.  Well, 

he's trying to, anyway.  Slick Willie appointed Mondale 

and "former" Senator Nancy Kassebaum (Baker) to a 

committee, commission, or whatever, to look into the 

campaign finance problem.

	Anyone find it interesting that Slick would 

charge two of the very liberals who created the problem 

in the first place with investigating it?  Yeah, they're 

both liberals, both out-of-work politicians, and neither 

(and this ought to tell you a story right here!) ever 

bothered to move back "home" after leaving office.

	"Two decades after Congress reformed 

campaign finance, the laws it passed have been 

overwhelmed by a flood of money -- $2 billion in the 

last election," Kassebaum and Mondale wrote in a New 

York Times op-ed piece last Sunday.

	"With every election, the problem has grown 

worse.  These laws are now riddled with loopholes and 

legal mumbo jumbo that average Americans rightly consider 

outrageous." . . .

	"Perhaps the greatest obstacle to reform is 

the loss of faith among voters that anything constructive 

can come from new laws and new standards.  The existing 

campaign finance system dismays people from all walks of 

life and all political perspectives.  People know that 

elected officials cannot adequately represent them if 

they are constantly in thrall to special interests."

	Yup!  The laws were written by politicians 

for politicians.  That's why there are enough loopholes 

in campaign finance laws to allow just about any 

interpretation the politicians wish.  One only need 

compare the wording of any law restricting federal 

politicians to that restricting the actions of citizens 

to notice the difference.

	They "fixed" everything in their favor.  

That is, they fixed almost all of the campaign finance 

laws to favor the incumbent in Washington.  Anyone 

surprised at that?

	Let's face it, as long as they're going to 

continue calling special interest campaign contributions 

from groups outside of their districts "free speech," 

this problem will never be resolved.  Let them get their 

"free speech" from the people who elect them -- back 

home, in their districts.

	If all campaign contributions have to come 

from registered voters in their district, some of these 

Lords and Ladies of the Hill will have to talk with their 

constituents every so often.  Otherwise, no campaign 

funds.

	And, if there were a spending cap placed on 

all elections -- say, $1.00 per vote cast for that office 

in the last election -- incumbents would not have such an 

overwhelming advantage over challengers.

	But, constituents and challengers do not 

make the law.  Incumbents do.  And, incumbents are not 

going to overturn that gravy train.  Therefore, don't 

look for much of anything to happen.



LOSS OF LOYALTY

	The nation's Chief Fabricator of the Truth 

was caught playing fast and loose with the facts again 

this week.  Nothing new there, to be sure -- and we 

wouldn't bore you with "ordinary" mis-truths anyway.  

This one's better than that.  Much better.

	This time the actions don't just point to 

lying, cheating and other types of dishonesty in high 

places.  This time they include an out and out lack of 

loyalty, mistrust, disobedience in high places, and 

probably a good amount of high level dereliction of duty 

and obstruction of justice.  Oh yeah, just for good 

measure, add a little espionage, too.  We've got 

everything in the mix here but sex -- so far.

	It all started when Slick Willie's personal 

legal-eagle Charles F.C. Ruff (White House Counsel #5) 

wrote "a top secret" letter to the Department of Justice 

seeking whatever counterintelligence information they had 

on Beijing's attempt to influence American politics 

through campaign contributions.  His excuse was that they 

needed the information for a briefing of Secretary of 

State Madeleine Albright, who was soon leaving for China.

	Ruff wrote, "We seek information only 

concerning the activities of officials and nationals of 

the Peoples Republic of China and wish only to obtain 

sufficient information to enable the National Security 

Council to formulate an appropriate policy with respect 

to allegations regarding those activities."

	In other words, he wanted all of the "core 

information" about the case.  The White House already 

knew about all of the local players -- they are all 

"friends of Bill."  What Ruff wanted was the really deep 

intelligence background of the case.

	Well folks, it's not often that the investigatees 

have the cajones to demand information from the 

investigators during an investigation.  But in this case 

Slick is the president, which outranks the Department of 

Justice in the normal pecking order, and Ruff is Slick's 

taxpayer paid mouthpiece.  So, they gave it a try.

	Janet Reno, and friend of Hillary and 

deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick, being the good 

team players they are, prepared a packet of information 

to send on over to the White House.

	Then, someone thought that maybe they ought 

to run this by FBI Director Louis Freeh, who was out of 

town at the time.  Well, as could be expected, FBI Louie 

was less than pleased!  He knew that whatever went to the 

White House would squelch the FBI's investigation.  Heck, 

he could even get fired if they thought he was getting 

too close to anyone in the administration.

	Freeh's position was to not give any 

information concerning Chinese influence buying to anyone 

in the executive branch or Congress.  He knew damn well 

that whatever information was passed on would leak.  And 

he also knew that the FBI would then be criticized for 

sharing information with the president's staff.

	Therefore, they watered-down the information 

for the White House.  As the Washington Post reported: 

"After preparing several versions of a response, several 

officials described the result as a 'plain vanilla' 

report that contained little information beyond accounts 

already described in news articles on the suspected 

influence scheme by the Chinese."

	Whew!  So, Louie Freeh, who works for Janet 

Reno, who works for Slick Willie and the Misses, refused 

to give his bosses any information.  And that, even after 

Janet Reno was considering passing along the information.

	Talk about tensions between the White House 

and the Justice Department . . . it don't get a lot 

better than this, folks!  Not since Nixon fired a few 

lawyers, anyway.

	So, where does the big lie come in?

	Wednesday evening, Slick Willie was on the 

news complaining that the White House might not have all 

the information they need to properly conduct foreign 

policy.  And, of course, he mumbled something about 

"significant national security issues" being involved, 

because he is now out of the loop for any information 

concerning Chinese influence purchasing.

	Then he did a very strange thing for any 

public personality on camera.  He placed his arms across 

his chest and held himself very tightly.  At the same 

time he said that he had full confidence in the Justice 

Department and the FBI. . . .

	Uh huh.  Sure he does, folks.  Sure he does!

	It looks like the end for this administration.  

Not only do they no longer have the trust or respect of 

the American people, they no longer have the trust or 

respect of the people in their own administration!



EPA'S LOSS IS OUR GAIN

	A while back, the EPA ordered that Virginia 

and 12 northeastern states adopt California's program to 

curb automobile pollution by using specially equipped 

cleaner conventional cars and phasing in electric cars.  

Virginia said no, and protested in court.

	Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 

District of Columbia upheld Virginia's challenge.  The 

court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency 

overstepped its authority.  EPA cannot require a 

particular measure to be part of a state's plan to meet 

federal air quality standards.

	EPA called it a "narrow, technical ruling."  

We call it a beginning.

	There is no Constitutional authority for 

EPA to even exist.  Therefore, everything they do is 

without Constitutional authority.  It's about time for 

states to begin exerting their State's Rights and put a 

halt to these over-burdening regulatory agencies.

	A while back, Colorado State Senator Charles 

Duke started a Tenth Amendment campaign.  Some states 

(about twenty) passed Tenth Amendment resolutions in 

protest of the overreaching hand of the federal 

government.  Another fifteen or so states are still 

necessary to make it effective.

	Not only do we need to complete that Tenth 

Amendment campaign, we also need to start another for the 

Ninth Amendment.  And, then yet another for property 

rights.  And so on, and so on, and so on. . . .

	Cause, this ain't how it was supposed to be, 

folks!  As someone wrote a couple years ago, today's 

federal government is little more than a sick parody of 

that which was intended by the Founding Fathers.



MILITARY-CIVILIAN ACTIVITIES

	by: "The Sergeant"

	I rarely go onto Ft. Knox since I retired 

from the Army.  But, on my last sortie onto the post, I 

noticed some interesting changes.

	Construction has been ongoing there for 

quite a while, but I had not paid much attention before.  

Conversations with a few other 'old' retirees about the 

situation, however, increased the relevance and piqued my 

interest.

	The old Post Stockade has been virtually 

rebuilt and has been upgraded to a "Regional Correctional 

Facility."  That is what the new sign in the front says.  

It used to be the "Post Confinement Facility" or PCF for 

short.

	It has recently gone through one hell of a 

metamorphosis.  I hadn't paid attention to the stockade 

so much because, at the same time that upgrade was going 

on, the post TMP (Transportation Motor Pool) was in the 

process of being demolished and turned into a huge platt 

of asphalt behind an eight foot chain link fence.  For 

all the world, the TMP now looks like a humongous staging 

area.  For most of us, this destruction of the TMP 

diverted our attention from the construction at the PCF.

	As I noticed the new sign in front of the 

newly remodeled and freshly fenced and concertinaed 

(razor wire) "Regional Corrections Facility," I also 

noticed something else:  A tenfold increase in the 

vehicles parked around the facility, both military and 

POV's (privately owned vehicles).

	This increased activity is of some puzzlement 

and consternation to many of us who have been here for 

a long time for a couple of reasons; 

	1) The primary 'hard-core' troops, the 

194th Brigade, moved to Texas about 4-5 years ago and 

Ft Knox has become the Army's Recruiting Command.

	2) Recruiters are not 'hard-core' types.  That is, 

they're slick salesmen who would, ordinarily, not risk 

their position by breaking any laws.  Given that the 

number of troops needed to form a Recruiting Command 

is considerably less than those forming an Armor Brigade, 

why is a tremendously downsized installation suddenly 

expending huge sums of money for a "REGIONAL" 

correctional facility?

	There is very little prisoner activity in 

the facility at present.  Having worked in the Kentucky 

State Prison system, I tend to watch the yard and listen 

for sound from the buildings.  Effectively, there is NO 

activity.

	It is no secret that a new 'Urban Warfare 

Training Center' is to be constructed on Ft. Knox and, 

with the recent razing of one of the oldest housing areas 

on Ft. Knox, Prichard Place, speculation is that the 

construction on this facility has already begun.  

Although the uninitiated who depend on the government for 

their livelihood welcome this, a number of us are very 

leery about the need and/or reason for such a facility.

	Note:  "The Sergeant" was a career Army NCO.



ACCC REPORT

	Last week in "Heads Up," the fledgling 

American Constitutional Campaign Committee (ACCC) called 

for a national boycott on all products produced in 

Communist China.  The response, according to Lance Crowe, 

the group's chairman, was "fantastic.  It was very 

positive from everyone."

	Major groups, as well as individual citizens, 

wrote for more information on both the boycott and ACCC.  

In fact, we got the impression that the group at ACCC was 

rather overwhelmed with e-mail messages for a few days.  

Lance says that they are trying to answer everyone, but 

they are only running two computers at this time.

	We also understand that both the ACCC press 

release and the two pieces from "Heads Up" received quite 

a lot of radio air time around the country.  Readers have 

already sent us a few transcripts, and others were 

promised.

	It's working folks!  Americans are starting 

to realize that we must do something . . . and the only 

action legally available to us as citizens is to boycott 

all Red Chinese products.

	This does not include products originating in 

Taiwan or Hong Kong (yet), of course.  It's "The Peoples 

Republic of China" -- which is neither a republic nor 

operated for the people -- that are the Communists buying 

influence in Washington.

	So please, read those labels before you buy.  Let's show 

the Commies that the American people can and will make 

themselves heard.

	The recently formed American Constitutional 

Campaign Committee is a national organization dedicated 

to the resurgence of a Constitutional form of government, 

as intended by the nation's Founding Fathers.  The 

organization can be contacted by e-mail at:  

ACCC@mindspring.com  or by snail-mail at: American 

Constitutional Campaign Committee  5300 Scottsville 

Road,  P.O. Box 51851,  Bowling Green, KY  42102-6851.



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