Stephen F. Kislock, III – 1/28/07

This page was last updated on January 28, 2007.

Fourth Amendment trashed; Stephen F. Kislock, III; Beaver County Times; January 28, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“This is in regard to Tuesday’s article ‘Letter to the editor earns man a visit from the Secret Service:’”

[RWC] I didn’t read the exact article to which Mr. Kislock refers, but I read an article about the incident from the newspaper that published the letter.

“The U.S. government cannot find Osama bin Laden, but let a writer of letters to the editor say, ‘I think they hanged the wrong man’ - this is in reference to hanging of Saddam - and it’s knock, knock, guess who? Secret Service! The leader’s personal bodyguards are Johnnies on the spot. Does this sound like something from North Korea?”

[RWC] Based on the Express-Times article, Mr. Kislock omitted a couple of facts.

First, according to the article, “A couple of things caught the agency’s attention -- among them, calling Bush a maniac while making the reference to hanging.”

Second, “Two FBI agents from Allentown showed up at Tilli’s home last year under similar circumstances, he said. They were apparently worried about a letter he wrote advocating a civil war to unseat President Bush.”

Regarding the outcome of the visit, “Agents almost immediately decided Tilli was not a threat, said Bob Slama, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Philadelphia office. ‘The Secret Service has a great respect for an individual’s freedom of speech and we would be remiss if we didn’t do our duty and investigate when something comes to our attention,’ Slama said Friday. ‘We don’t have any way of knowing this individual unless we follow up and ask questions, and we did.’”

According to Mr. Tilli, “‘He (the agent) said they are good letters; they are interesting. He said keep writing but just don’t make no threats,’ Tilli said. ‘They said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We just had to check.’”

“The U.S. government is reading our e-mails, our personal postal mail, intercepting our phone calls and reading our bank statements. What happened to the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution?”

[RWC] If this weren’t a politically driven letter, Mr. Kislock would also be complaining about all the info we have to give on income tax forms, searches by U.S. Customs agents at the border, sobriety checkpoints, searches before we board airplanes, et cetera.

“Keep writing and publishing letters from those who dissent and want redress of grievance to the editor and wait for a visit from the guardians of the illustrious leader.”

[RWC] Maybe it’s just me, but when you write letters about hanging the President and advocating civil war, you shouldn’t be surprised to get a visit.

I myself made a call to the Secret Service in 2004 when I came across a posting on an Internet blog in which the author wished he could assassinate President Bush “and get away with it of course.” After I gave an agent the web link, I never heard anything more so I assume it was another case of some idiot shooting off his mouth.

“The U.S. government cannot find Osama bin Laden because it is watching and chasing U.S. citizens.”

[RWC] Sure.

1. Writer finds an agent -- from the Secret Service; James S. Young; The Express-Times; January 20, 2007.