DIRECT TO GOVERNORS ASSOCIATIONS, US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, AFL-CIO, AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION

Dear Colleagues,

You have one shot at getting your own “public intelligence” agency, one that would be responsive to you as much as to the national security authorities. Congressman Simmons (R-CT-02), is leading the charge and has been told by the House Armed Services Committee that he will have a prime role in drafting that portion of the forthcoming legislation that addresses this recommendation. I urge you to express your support in all forms to Congressman Simmons, and to broadcast this to all your members, urging them in turn to communicate with their legislators, while your respective legislative liaisons represent your interests directly. Congressman Simmons has told me he hopes for no less than $125M per year being earmarked for this public intelligence endeavor,with both direct investments in each state, and free foreign affairs and trade and business risk information helpful to each states homeland defense as well as global trade position. Every single Congressional jurisdiction and district stand to benefit from this, I hope you will focus on this. There are no guarantees, but at FOC I hope for $3B total, with $30M per state directly for each state-owned CommunityAnalysisCenter, and some of the rest apportioned to centers of excellence across America. St.

OSS CEO URGES GOVERNORS, MAYORS, CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE, AND EDUCATORS TO SUPPORT THE OPEN SOURCE (INFORMATION) AGENCY BEING CONSIDERED BY CONGRESS

Washington, D.C., July 30/PRNEWSWIRE/ -- According to Robert David Steele Vivas, CEO of OSS.Net, Inc., former spy and author on intelligence reform, “As Congressional hearings on the 9-11 Commission Report begin, it is essential that Governors, Mayors, Chambers of Commerce and their business leader members (especially small business), as well as educators, pay close attention.

“In play, today and during the next two weeks, is the Open Source Agency recommended by the 9-11 Commission on page 413 within Chapter 13. Although the Commission did not provide commentary in the text, the Chairman and Vice-Chairman are expected to receive questions on this recommendation.

“’Open Source’ information is that information, in all languages and all mediums, which can be collected via legal and ethical means. The US Government spends $50B a year of your taxpayer dollars focusing on the 20% of the information that is NOT open source, i.e. that has to be stolen, and only $250M on the 80% that is not only relevant to national security and competitiveness, but that could be easily shared with state and local authorities, business leaders and their business or commercial intelligence specialists, and national academic organizations as well as non-profits.

“The Open Source Agency will significantly improve homeland security. Leading authorities on terrorism as well as weapons of mass destruction, such as Gordon Oehler, today staff director of the commission charged with studying weaknesses in intelligence about this threat, have stated publicly and repeatedly that open source information is 80% of the solution—yet the U.S. Intelligence Community continues to spend less than one half of one percent of its total budget on open sources. Clearly they cannot be entrusted with responsibility for the new Open Source Agency.

“The proposed Open Source Agency would in one stroke improve national security and public diplomacy as well as access to international trade and commerce, and also increase by a factor of at least 100, and more probably 1000, the amount of unclassified foreign intelligence that could be shared with the private sector.

“Congressional creation of the Open Source Agency will help America. Draft legislation and 20,000 pages of supporting documentation are posted to Please, weigh in on the Hill.”

SOURCE: OSS.NET

-0- 07/30/2004 /CONTACT: Robert David Steele Vivas 703-242-1700,

/Web site: and