-Caveat Lector-
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From: Steve Lilienthal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:
Subject: fcfnnn041102 Inside: J. Bradley Jansen's Commentary:
Task Force P
lan: Privacy and Security Can Go Together
Date sent: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 19:49:48 -0400
Free Congress Foundation's
Notable News Now
April 11, 2002
The Free Congress Commentary
Task Force Plan: Privacy and
Security Can Go Together
By J. Bradley Jansen
In the anti-terrorism debate, there has been a constant, yet false,
premise in the media that we must choose between privacy and security.
Many of us have protested that approach. Happily, a group of
prominent conservatives and libertarians have come together after
months of work to offer a constructive alternative to the failed
policies of the past.
Former U.S. Senator Mack Mattingly, chaired the Task Force on
Information Exchange and Financial Privacy put together by David
Burton of the Prosperity Institute. The Senior Advisors to the Task
Force included the Hon. Jack Kemp (former Republican Vice Presidential
candidate) and the Hon. Edwin Meese, III (former U.S. Attorney
General).
"Current U.S. policy on the sharing of financial information with
other nations fails to protect the security of the American people,
while damaging the financial privacy rights of individuals," explained
Mattingly. "Current safeguards are insufficient to prevent information
from being used by parties hostile to U.S. security interests, or for
inappropriate commercial, political, civil, tax or other purposes. An
international convention on this critical issue is long overdue."
Some of the other members of the Task Force included Veronique de Rugy
of the Cato Institute, Stephen Entin of the Institute for Research on
the Economics of Taxation, Jim Harper of Privacilla.org, Larry Hunter
of Empower America, Dan Mitchell of the Heritage Foundation, Andy
Quinlan of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, Richard Rahn of the
Discovery Institute, Sovleig Singleton of the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, Mark Warner (Hughes, Hubbard & Reed LLP) and the Hon. John
Yoder (Burch and Cronauer). I also contributed to the report.
It was an honor to work with such a distinguished group of experts,
and I am proud of the work we did. After months of research and
discussion, we released the Report on Financial Privacy, Law
Enforcement and Terrorism. In that report, we made a series of
recommendations that the U.S. should adopt:
¨ Better target money laundering laws to reduce the collection of
massive amounts of information on people whom the government has no
significant reason to suspect of unlawful activity, in order to focus
on those who are truly believed to be potential risks.
¨ Withdraw the proposed interest reporting regulation, which is
unnecessary to enforce U.S. tax law, and is likely to cause
substantial amounts of needed foreign capital to leave the U.S.
¨ Oppose the creation of a United Nations International Tax
Organization, which could result in private information on U.S.
nationals being provided to hostile and repressive governments, and
denial of other basic liberties.
¨ Oppose the OECD Harmful Tax Competition initiative, which would
unjustly punish small low tax countries for adopting the same policies
as the U.S. and would result in the unrestricted disclosure of private
financial and tax information to countries that may misuse such
information.
¨ Modify the U.S. Treasury's qualified intermediary (QI) rules that
unnecessarily discourage foreign investment into the U.S., are
excessively complex, and require information not needed to enforce
U.S. law.
¨ Reject the European Union's Savings Tax Directive that would violate
due-process and other legal protections and cause some capital flight
from the U.S.
The full text of the report is available on the Free Congress web
site, http://www.freecongress.org as are a number of statements on
related topics.
Should policy makers adopt the recommendations in this report, we can
better target our resources in such a way that we enhance both our
privacy and security. Most of us who participated wanted the group to
go further on various issues. Given that we were working as a group
and needed to put out a report that all of us could sign, the end
result is a moderate first step of what needs to be done to address
our security and privacy issues in the anti-terrorism debate. Let's
hope that the politicians have what it takes to go that far.
J. Bradley Jansen is deputy director of the Center for Technology
Policy at the Free Congress Foundation.
Mr. Jansen appeared recently on the television program "The Judicial
Watch Report" to discuss the report issued by the Task Force on
Information Exchange and Financial Privacy. The program will be
broadcast 9 to 10 PM ET on Monday, April 15 and Thursday, April 18 on
The Dish Network's Sky Angel Network Channel 9716.
Washington, D.C. viewers can watch it on Cable Channel 5 7 to 8 PM ET
on Sunday, April 14 and Tuesday April 16.
Viewers in Greenbelt, MD, Pittsburgh, PA, Augusta, GA, and Marion, IN
should check the following link for more information:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/tv.shtml
FCF News on Demand: Being Heard by More and More People!
This Wednesday:
Rep. Bob Barr (GA) expresses his belief that our civil liberties are
threatened as a result of new measures enacted post 9/11.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK) predicts that Secretary of State Colin Powell's
policy of appeasement will fail to achieve peace in the Middle East.
Be sure to visit www.fcfnewsondemand.org to hear commentaries and news
reports about issues important to you that are too often ignored by
the establishment radio networks. And be sure to let your local radio
stations and talk show hosts know about FCF News on Demand too.
For media inquiries, contact Steve Lilienthal
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Visit Our Website at http://www.FreeCongress.org
This publication is a service of the Free Congress Research and
Education Foundation, Inc. (FCF) and does not necessarily reflect the
views of the Free Congress Foundation nor is it an attempt to aid or
hinder the passage of any bill.
Free Congress Foundation · 717 Second Street, NE · Washington, DC
20002 · 202.546.3000 · Fax: 202.544.2819 Project Manager: Angela
Wheeler · Copyright Ó 2001 Free Congress Foundation - All Rights
Reserved.
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