5 August 2009

Honorable Senator Warner:

Honorable Senator Webb:

Honorable Representative Wittman:

I am writing to you in response to the 4 August 2009 posting on the official U. S. Government website www.whitehouse.gov titled “Facts are Stubborn Things” by Macon Phillips (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/).  Within the text of this website is the official government solicitation for the citizens of this country to report on their fellow citizens if they were to discover anything “fishy” being said in casual conversation or in e-mails.  Citizens were asked to provide this information to an official U. S. Government e-mail address, specifically flag@whitehouse.gov, in an effort to “help” the Obama administration keep track of disinformation surrounding H. R. 3200.

My first thought on this issue questioned whether the website has been properly configured to store personal information of American citizens in accordance with U. S. law.  This task

1. was directed by a government official (Linda Douglass, Communications Director for the White House’s Health Reform Office),
2. is posted on an official government website (www.whitehouse.gov),
3. directs American citizens to act in an official government capacity,
4. captures information about fellow American citizens,
5. provides that information to an official government e-mail address (flag@whitehouse.gov),
6. stores the information about that American citizen on an official government server (www.whitehouse.gov), and
7. processes that information as part of an official government purpose.

I am unsure of all of the requirements for the safe storage and handling of this kind of information in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 but it is my impression that this may not have been accounted for and therefore this activity may be highly illegal.

My second thought on this issue questioned whether the government officials that will process this information will do so in accordance with the U. S. military’s intelligence oversight requirements, the requirements as specified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation or those requirements as specified by local law enforcement.  Clearly Ms. Douglass is a government official and has tasked her fellow American citizens to surreptitiously collect information where she intends to derive some utility from this information – all classic indicators of domestic espionage by an intelligence operative – therefore this information must be properly safeguarded in accordance with applicable U. S. laws.  My concern is that her official government capacity as Communications Director for the White House’s Health Reform Office does not fall under the umbrella of the military, the FBI or local law enforcement and thus she may not be aware of the applicable regulations concerning this type of activity.

My final thought on this issue questioned the wisdom of this official government request by any member of the Obama administration in light of the other governments that have similarly conducted this type of activity.  The Marxist-Leninist Soviets, the Communist Chinese and the Nationalist Socialists under Adolph Hitler’s Nazi rule all similarly tasked their citizens with conducting domestic espionage against their fellow citizens and to report that information to official government members.  These totalitarian governments are not the kinds of systems that America should even remotely emulate given that we are a Republic with a Constitution that not only protects our right to privacy but also our First Amendment right to free speech.

Your task, as my elected representative, is to conduct an investigation in order to determine if boundaries have been crossed regarding this issue.  There is no reason that applicable laws should ever be disregarded in the name of preventing disinformation about any political issue.  Our country was founded on the principle of public discourse and I ask that you take steps to preserve that principle.

Very sincerely,

James Hull