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Washington D.C. (Whiteout). For the second time in ten months, two US Senators have made a courageous and public showing against what they call, “alarming” and “secret” government abuse of power. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO) first took their warning directly to the American people on the floor of the US Senate. Now, they’re taking their fight directly to the door of US Attorney General Eric Holder. Last week, Eric Holder once again refused to disclose the Obama administration’s “secret interpretation” of the Patriot Act.

Senators Wyden & Udall take on Obama administration secrecy.

According to the letter sent to Attorney General Holder March 15, 2012, the two Senators insist:

“We believe most Americans would be stunned to learn the details of how these secret court opinions have interpreted Section 215 of the Patriot Act."

The joint letter by Democratic Senators Wyden and Udall goes straight to the point of their warning and legitimate fear for America’s future freedom:

“While the executive branch has worked hard to keep the government’s official interpretation of the Patriot Act secret from the American public it has, to its credit, provided this information in documents submitted to Congress. However, these documents are so highly classified that most members of Congress do not have any staff who are cleared to read them. As a result, we can state with confidence that most of our colleagues in the House and Senate are unfamiliar with these documents, and that many of them would be surprised and angry to learn how the Patriot Act has been interpreted in secret.”

What our readers just read in the above words is the desperate attempt by two patriotic Senators to warn the American people that something sinister has happened to their federal government. Readers will notice that in the entire 3-page letter to Attorney General Holder, the Senators never gave one example of the acts which would make the American people “surprised” and “angry”. That’s because they are forbidden by the same very laws from telling the American people. This public letter is as close as these panicked men can get to screaming the truth to an otherwise oblivious public and its representatives.

Ten months ago, these same two Democratic US Senators took on their own Democratic Party’s “new” platform, one that embraced the Bush doctrine and the dissolution of the US Constitution, rather than opposing it as candidate Barack Obama so often promised to do. Instead, the Obama Administration has taken its self-declared powers to levels never seen before in American history. For the first time ever, a US President ordered the assassinations of US citizens without charge, trial or conviction. Read the Whiteout Press article, ‘White House Assassinates Americans, Again’ for further details.

In May 2011, Senators Wyden and Udall spoke on the floor of the US Senate during final debate before Congress voted to extend the Patriot Act beyond its original scope and duration. In the Whiteout Press article covering the event, ‘Disturbing Revelations over Patriot Act Extension’, we wrote:

“I want to deliver a warning this afternoon” Senate Intelligence Committee member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced prior to Thursday’s vote to extend the three Patriot Act provisions, “When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry.” Fellow Intelligence Committee member Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) also sent a dire warning, “Americans would be alarmed if they knew how this law is being carried out.” The major problem, the Senators point out, is that there is an ever-increasing disconnect between how the Patriot Act is worded versus how the government is interpreting it."

As one can see, nothing has changed in the ten months since the Senators first began their quest to inform the people. If anything, the target of the current effort, Attorney General Eric Holder, is firmly entrenched in the Obama administration’s hip pocket and not likely to be receptive. Together, President Obama and Attorney General Holder have used ‘secret’ authorities to do a number of questionable things from assassinating American citizens to ‘stimulating’ the President’s campaign contributors to the Fast and Furious cover-up.

Still, Senators Wyden and Udall were able to use the process of alerting the Attorney General to possible treason within the federal government, to instead warn the American people.

America and International Law

Ironically, according to one paragraph in the Senators’ letter to the Attorney General, they provide the source for their information regarding secret interpretations of the Patriot Act. According to the letter:

“It is a matter of public record that section 215, which is a public statute, has been the subject of secret legal interpretations. The existence of these interpretations, which are contained in classified opinions issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, has been acknowledged on multiple occasions by the Justice Department and other executive branch officials.”

Internet site reference: http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q12012/senators-warn-americans-about-secret-government-policies617