by Father John Corapi

I have fond memories of the 4th of July going back to when I was probably only four or five years old. We remember the parades, the picnics or barbecues, and the happy gathering of families. During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain actually took place on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the resolution of independence previously put forth by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. After debate and revision Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4th.

Of note is the letter John Adams, one of only two Founding Fathers who went on to become president, wrote to his wife Abigail:

"…This day ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever more." (Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society)

Like so many of the Founding Fathers, Adams recognized that the day of deliverance came from the providential hand of almighty God. I am not sure about large numbers of duplicitous politicians and other so-called public servants today, whether elected or appointed.

Freedom is a great thing, and we do well to celebrate it on the 4th of July. That being said, it’s something rooted in truth, and apart from the truth there can be no authentic freedom.

"If you continue in my word [truth] you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32)

An individual, a country, or a world that does not remain rooted in objective truth cannot ultimately live in freedom.  Some highlights of this reality:

1731: Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude [true happiness].

1733:  The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes…

One of the most common errors of all time is to confuse freedom and license. Today, frequently under the specious pretext freedom, mankind acts in a manner that is really license. We are not morally free to do whatever we choose to do.  Only when rooted in truth and acting in objective truth can we hope to be free.  No one has the moral right to do evil.  No one has the moral right to choose to take an innocent life or to engage in actions that are out of accord with right reason or any objective standards of morality we have ever known.

The inevitable consequence of abusing freedom is losing freedom. Soon, if we do not alter our present course, the United States will no longer be the home of the brave and the land of the free. Loss of personal freedoms, one at a time, is already well underway.  One day we shall awake from our moral slumber and find that we have become slaves.

We must live in truth and act in truth if we are to remain free. Abuse it and I assure you we shall lose it! Wake up America! God is not a disinterested spectator.  Let’s thank God for our freedom, but let’s not sit by idly while the forces of darkness divorce freedom from truth. For, as Jesus says, “The man who sins is the slave of sin.” (John 8:34)

I’ll leave you with the motto of the United States Army Special Forces on this 4th of July: 
De oppresso liber! (To free the oppressed)

Indeed, Jesus came to set the captives free. Let’s do our part for our country and our world that we might all remain free in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

By Anonymous

A single picture doesn't do justice for Medal of Honor Winner - Ed Freeman

You're a 19-year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 to 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

by Oliver North

Washington, DC – According to the U.S. Government, I am an extremist. I am a Christian – and meet regularly with other Christians to study God’s word. My faith convinces me the prophesies in the Holy Bible are true. I believe in the sanctity of human life, oppose abortion and want to preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman. I am a veteran with skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. I own several firearms, frequently shoot them, buy ammunition and consider efforts to infringe on my 2nd Amendment rights to be wrong and unconstitutional. I fervently support the sovereignty of the United States, am deeply concerned about our economy, increasingly higher taxes, illegal immigration, soaring unemployment, and actions by our government that will bury my children beneath a mountain of debt.

Apparently, all this makes me a “rightwing extremist.” At least that’s what it says in the April 7, 2009 “Assessment” issued by the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The nine-page report, titled, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” is full of warnings about American citizens who share any of my background or subscribe to the beliefs above. It is one of the most alarming documents produced by our government that I have ever read.

Evidently neither you nor I were ever supposed to read this “Assessment.” At the bottom of the cover page is a warning that it is “not to be released to the public, the media, or other personnel who do not have a valid need-to-know.” We’re Americans. We have a need to know what’s going on in our government – especially in an administration that promised to be “transparent.” A full copy of the report is posted at www.freedomalliance.org.

The “Assessment” purports to alert law enforcement officials that “rightwing extremists” – the term is used more than 35 times – are intent on exploiting Americans who have strongly held beliefs on everything from Christian faith to rising unemployment, U.S. sovereignty and the 2nd Amendment. It vilifies those of us in these categories by references to neo-Nazis, racists, militias, white-supremacists, and other “hate groups.” Notably, the report includes a warning that Rightwing Extremism “may include groups or individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

Though the report proffers a passing reference to the 1st Amendment, it is replete with bias against conservative thought, writing and communications.  On page 3, law enforcement authorities are warned, “Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived (emphasis added) loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures.”

This is a frightening acknowledgement that political speech is being monitored in America.  It is also wrong.  It’s not “perception.” It is fact.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the manufacturing and construction sectors have lost 161,000 jobs and 126,000 jobs, respectively, in the last month alone.

In its “Key Findings” the DHS manuscript boldly charges “rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues” and warns that “The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.”

Under the heading “Disgruntled Military Veterans” the report alleges, “rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists – including lone wolves or small terrorist cells – to carry out violence.” These unsubstantiated claims are followed by reminders that Timothy McVeigh – the 1995 Oklahoma City bomber – was a military veteran.  Omitted is any reference to the fact that Mr. McVeigh was simply one of more than 40 million law abiding veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Thirteen lines after this egregious, unconscionable slander against those of us who are military combat veterans, DHS makes the stunning charge that, “lone wolves and small terrorist cells embracing violent rightwing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States.”

According to this DHS “Assessment,” the most dangerous threat we face here at home isn’t from radical imams preaching violence in U.S. mosques and madrassas, Islamists recruiting in our prisons, Somali terrorists enticing young immigrants to become suicide bombers or Hamas, Hezbollah or al Qaeda operatives plotting mass murder.  No, according to DHS, the real threat comes from what our government labels “rightwing extremist ideology.”

Mr. Obama should publicly disavow this report and fire the officials responsible for issuing it. Those who prepare his remarks for the occasion should insert in the teleprompter, Senator Barry Goldwater’s words on the subject: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”

by Porter J. Goss, former CIA Director

Since leaving my post as CIA director almost three years ago, I have remained largely silent on the public stage.  I am speaking out now because I feel our government has crossed the red line between properly protecting our national security and trying to gain partisan political advantage.  We can't have a secret intelligence service if we keep giving away all the secrets.  Americans have to decide now.

A disturbing epidemic of amnesia seems to be plaguing my former colleagues on Capitol Hill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the committees charged with overseeing our nation's intelligence services had no higher priority than stopping al-Qaida.

In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA's "High Value Terrorist Program," including the development of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and what those techniques were.  This was not a onetime briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers.

Today, I am slack jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as "waterboarding" were never mentioned.  It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.  In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience.

Let me be clear. It is my recollection that:

The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high value terrorists.  We understood what the CIA was doing.  We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.
We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.

On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaida.

I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues.  They did not vote to stop authorizing CIA funding.  And for those who now reveal filed "memorandums for the record" suggesting concern, real concern should have been expressed immediately to the committee chairs, the briefers, the House speaker or minority leader, the CIA director or the president's national security adviser and not quietly filed away in case the day came when the political winds shifted.  And shifted they have.

Circuses are not new in Washington, and I can see preparations being made for tents from the Capitol straight down Pennsylvania Avenue. The CIA has been pulled into the center ring before. The result this time will be the same: a hollowed out service of diminished capabilities.  After Sept. 11, the general outcry was, "Why don't we have better overseas capabilities?" I fear that in the years to come this refrain will be heard again: once a threat or God forbid, another successful attack captures our attention and sends the pendulum swinging back. There is only one person who can shut down this dangerous show: President Obama.

Unfortunately, much of the damage to our capabilities has already been done. It is certainly not trust that is fostered when intelligence officers are told one day "I have your back" only to learn a day later that a knife is being held to it.  After the events of this week, morale at the CIA has been shaken to its foundation.

We must not forget: Our intelligence allies overseas view our inability to maintain secrecy as a reason to question our worthiness as a partner. These allies have been vital in almost every capture of a terrorist.  The suggestion that we are safer now because information about interrogation techniques is in the public domain conjures up images of unicorns and fairy dust.  We have given our enemy invaluable information about the rules by which we operate.  The terrorists captured by the CIA perfected the act of beheading innocents using dull knives.  Khalid Sheik Mohammed boasted of the tactic of placing explosives high enough in a building to ensure that innocents trapped above would die if they tried to escape through windows. There is simply no comparison between our professionalism and their brutality.

Our enemies do not subscribe to the rules of the Marquis of Queensbury. "Name, rank and serial number" does not apply to nonstate actors but is, regrettably, the only question this administration wants us to ask.  Instead of taking risks, our intelligence officers will soon resort to wordsmithing cables to headquarters while opportunities to neutralize brutal radicals are lost. The days of fortress America are gone. We are the world's superpower. We can sit on our hands or we can become engaged to improve global human conditions. The bottom line is that we cannot succeed unless we have good intelligence. Trading security for partisan political popularity will ensure that our secrets are not secret and that our intelligence is destined to fail us.