PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Clara Hickerson 323-556-5600 x 404
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Barr Says Civil Liberties, China and Government Coordination in the War on Terror Key Issues for Americans and Newly Formed Security Group

With the formation of the United States Security Council by former Congressman Bob Barr, the council participated in a poll conducted this past weekend to measure how concerned Americans are about national security and how much privacy Americans are willing to give up for that security.

Congressman Barr launched the U.S. Security Council to protect Americans from the loss of freedoms due to the attacks on American soil and to ensure that the proper laws are passed to protect Americans from foreign enemies and future terrorist acts.

Zogby International in conjunction with Associated Television News, and The John Tower Center at Southern Methodist University conducted a poll June 6th-10th of 1,012 adults with a margin of error of + 3.2 percent. The following questions were asked:

1. As part of the government's effort to combat terrorism, the federal government is developing a number of programs, such as the Total Information Awareness, or "TIA," that would collect personal information on all citizens from driver's licenses, credit cards, airline tickets, arrest reports, passports, visas, work permits, medical records and other sources.

The information would be stored, and then analyzed to try to profile terrorists or to predict terrorist activities. How much of your civil liberties are you prepared to give up in order to allow the government to try and protect the nation from future terrorist acts?

A lot- 20.9%
Some- 32.9%
A little- 22.5%
None- 20.9%
Not sure- 2.7%

"Note that the public, while split on the level of degree of how much of their civil liberties they would be willing to give up as part of the government's efforts to try to protect the nation from terrorist acts, still nearly half responded that they would surrender none or only a little of their civil liberties," Barr observed.

2. The U.S. recently arrested a Chinese double agent and charged her with illegally obtaining classified defense documents. Further, China has sold materials aimed at improving missile development in Iran and North Korea. With these revelations in mind, how would you rate Communist China's threat to our national security?

Grave threat- 23.9%
Somewhat serious- 57%
Not that serious- 14.4%
Not at all serious- 2.5%
Not sure- 2.1%

"The results show the public is greatly concerned about the threat posed to the United States by Communist China, with more than 80% of the public viewing that threat either gravely or serious indicating that Americans correctly perceive a threat posed our nation and that citizens are concerned with the degree their own liberties may be curtailed in an effort to protect us from terrorist acts," Barr commented.

3. How important do you think it is for the CIA and the FBI to coordinate their efforts to capture international crime bosses engaged in the sale of weapons of mass destruction?

Very important- 63.2%
Somewhat important- 12.5%
Not that important- 1.8%
Not important at all- 1.2%
Not sure- 1.2%

"As a former federal prosecutor and official with the CIA, and as someone who spent a great deal of time during eight years in the Congress investigating international crime and terrorism, I am keenly aware of the dangers posed by international crime and terrorism groups working together and separately, to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The investigation of this international aspect of our anti-terrorism effort, especially by the CIA and the FBI, to capture these international crime bosses, must be addressed and strengthened. I am heartened to see, as reflected in this poll, that a strong majority of the American people share this concern," stated Barr.

In addition, Barr added that this will be one of the issues addressed by the United States Security Council and these results reflect the focus of the future work of the United States Security Council, or USSC, according to Barr. "The United States Security Council will help focus the nation's attention on the true threat posed our nation, to assist in developing the best ways to address those threats while preserving our privacy and other civil liberties," Barr
concluded.