ROSSOTTI SHUNS WE THE PEOPLE IN FAVOR OF NY TIMES
IRS ARROGANCE AND CORRUPTION STARTS AT THE TOP
MORE SHODDY JOURNALISM BY NY TIMES
ROSSOTTI RESPONDS TO WE THE PEOPLE

IRS Commissiioner Charles O. Rossotti lets it be known that he will only speak to the people through his mouthpiece - the New York Times. The Times again confirms its lapdog status and proves its priorities are to provide public relations for the IRS, ignore the pressing issues and grievances of the people, and misinform (or not inform) its readers about significant events taking place.

While hundreds of American citizens from all around the country stood outside IRS headquarters in Washington on a warm April day waiting for Commissioner Rossotti to speak to them, the Commish instead chose to sit in his office and chat with a reporter from the NY Times in an interview arranged to take place, by "coincidence," at precisely the time the marchers had scheduled for Rossotti to speak to them.

The citizens had come from at least forty states to participate in an "IRS Walk-Around" organized by We The People Foundation and led by its chairman, Bob Schulz, along with tax researcher Bill Benson, former IRS agents Joe Banister, Sherry Jackson and John Turner and employers Nick Jesson and Leonard Roberto. The group had gathered at the Jefferson Memorial at 9:00 a.m. to listen to remarks from Schulz and several other tax researchers and former IRS agents. Then they marched two abreast, stretching blocks long, from the memorial to the IRS headquarters near the White House. Commissioner Rossotti had been sent an invitation three weeks prior, advising him that the march would take place and respectfully asking him to come outside and speak to the marchers about their grievances, or to tell them when he or representative(s) from the IRS would be willing to attend a discussion in a public forum on the conclusions of numerous tax researchers who assert that the IRS lacks the legal authority to force individuals to pay the income tax. Specifically, the researchers assert 1) the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was illegally and fraudulently ratified in 1913, and 2) there is no law that requires most citizens to file returns and pay the income tax. The Foundation has been urging the IRS to explain publicly just where the researchers are in error and put the whole matter to rest. (Click to see the invitation.)

The marchers had twice circled the IRS compound chanting "SHOW ME THE LAW!" Their chant could easily be heard by any IRS employees in offices fronting the streets, so there could be no doubt that they knew what the marchers wanted. Rossotti's office faces the street.

The marchers then waited in silence for Rossotti to address them from the podium and portable speaker system that had been set up for him at the main door. After fifteen minutes, a security officer approached march leaders to say that the IRS people were waiting for a written invitation, so one was quickly drafted and carried inside by the officer, Lt. E. Roberts Jr. of the Federal Protective Service. Twenty minutes later he returned and said, "There is no one in the building who wants to speak to you."

Rossotti's actions reinforce some conclusions that one would already have drawn by now. First, he does not want to, and will not, address the questions, findings, and allegations of the tax researchers, and, indeed, cannot answer them. Second, his strategy is to ignore, try to divert attention away from, and counter the charges of fraudulent and unlawful operations of the IRS by trying to paint the tax honesty movement and tax researchers as "cheats" and making a standard bureaucratic complaint of needing more resources in order to expand enforcement operations -- in other words, trying to reverse the tables as to who's violating the law. Third, he's trying to increase the business that the government and IRS does with the company (AMS) he founded and ran and in which he is still the chief stockholder, all in violation of government ethics. Rossotti's corrupt conflict of interest has most recently been exposed and described by John Berlau in an article in the April 23 issue of "Insight," published by The Washington Times. Click here to read about this incredibly brazen corruption.

Corruption at the top is, not surprisingly, associated with corruption at lower levels. Rossotti's and the IRS's pattern of disregard for, and violations of, federal laws that govern their activities and duties demonstrate a deep systemic corruption, arrogance, and contempt for law. To read more details about complaints against Rossotti and the IRS, click here and read page two of the statement submitted by the Foundation to the Senate Finance Committee hearing on April 5th. 

At this point, the IRS's show of disrespect for the people is perfectly consistent with the conclusions by many tax researchers that the IRS and others in government have been perpetrating a monumental hoax upon U.S. citizens since early in the last century. And the agency is led by a man who has himself flagrantly violated ethical standards, the Federal Register Act, and Internal Revenue Code, including the 1998 restructuring and reform law, in addition to the U.S. Constitution.

About the NY Times...

The NY Times has shown once again that it is not going to report any objective news about the income tax subject. The reporter not only ignored the real story that was occurring right before his eyes - i.e., an organized march and demonstration by hundreds of citizens who had come to express their grievance to the government in a way that no one had ever done before -- but he even felt the need to falsify and fabricate information he presented in his story. There were far more than "a few protesters" gathered in front of the IRS building, and, furthermore, they were not tax protesters - they were there to appeal to their federal government officials to address legitimate and urgent questions that have been raised by bona fide and well-documented research into the Constitution, the tax code, and the behavior of the IRS. The citizens are, in fact, urging compliance with and obedience to the tax laws, especially by the IRS.

The article also said that the protesters outside IRS headquarters were complaining about automatic withholding by employers and were little noticed. This is another falsification. The citizens in the group did not mention automatic withholding, which is only one aspect among the dozens of questions and allegations that need to be addressed. The group was demanding that someone show them the law that requires most citizens to file returns and pay the income tax. As for the comment about being "little noticed," we would say that among the items of that day's "news that's fit to print" was the remarkable event of a sizable number of people traveling to Washington at considerable personal expense to stand before the nation's Number One Bully and challenge it or him to come out and talk. While agents in the building videotaped the marchers, the marchers, in turn, aimed their video cameras at the agents doing the taping. If this extraordinary milestone in the history of the tax honesty movement gained little notice, it was because the newspaper often regarded as America's most prestigious chose to downplay and falsely report the event.

The NY Times might have noted a certain irony in that while Commissioner Rossotti was "reflecting" on how he should have been pressing for stronger enforcement against non-filers, Mr. Bill Benson, former tax fraud investigator, researcher, and author of "The Law That Never Was," stood outside with microphone in hand loudly announcing that he had not filed in fifteen years, and proclaiming to Rossotti, "Here I am -- come and get me!"

One should keep in mind some background information in order to help understand underlying motives. Remember that the 16th Amendment (the income tax amendment) and the Federal Reserve System were approved in the same year (1913) and were created by the same people representing the same interests for the same purposes. One of the primary goals of the Federal Reserve System was and has been to keep the big New York financial institutions in a commanding position in control of the nation's money. For example, the New York branch of the Federal Reserve has veto power over all the other branches. The door revolves easily between and among the Treasury Department, the big New York financial institutions, and the Fed itself. The NY Times is mindful that it must not disappoint the powerful New York financial forces by allowing objective journalism to intrude into its reporting on a subject to which those forces would be extremely sensitive. Remember that the income tax is integral to the Federal Reserve System as a means to help control the inflation that is inherent in the Fed's process of creating money out of thin air, and to directly pay the national debt to the private banking cartel that comprises the Federal Reserve System. Far from being objective, the Times is actually aggressively acting in collusion with the IRS and the Fed as their PR agent in protecting the income tax against "threats" from the growing number of U.S. citizens who want the truth to be revealed.

Remember that the Times tried to pre-empt the Foundation's February 17th meeting in Arlington by reporting ham-fisted comments by IRS officials a few days prior to the meeting. Their interview of Rossotti during the walk-around was clearly designed and intended to blunt or offset the effect of the marchers. The Times is not playing the role of passive observer of the events, but is trying to thwart them.

We note that the author of the Times article was David Stout, not David Cay Johnston, who has written the previous articles over the past six months. You'll recall that we mentioned to our readers that Johnston told us after the Senate Finance Committee hearing on April 5th that his position now was that the IRS and Congress were not properly handling the issues raised by the tax researchers and We The People Foundation, and, specifically, that they should address the questions and allegations, defeat them, and clear up the whole matter once and for all. He was saying to his government contacts, in other words, just about what we have been saying -- show us the law. We had an e-mail from the Times chief legal counsel shortly after we reported what Johnston had said to us. Mr. Adam Liptak was at pains to "interpret" what Johnston actually meant as something a little different from what we thought we heard. In any event, we can't help but wonder if the Times thought it might be a good idea to put a fresh reporter on the case -- one who had not yet had time to be exposed to the arguments and questions raised by the tax researchers -- i.e., one who was not yet confused by the facts. Perhaps the Times was worried that our information and questions were just beginning to exert a bad influence on their reporter.

This incident has taught us -- or, rather, reminded us -- that the IRS is not going to discuss the issues and the NY Times is not going to expose its readers to the issues. The IRS has only one response, and that is the exercise of heavy-handed enforcement, no matter what the question. Commissioner Rossotti has, in fact, given We The People his answer. He gave it to the People on April 9th. His answer was, in effect, "Drop dead! I'm giving dictation to my secretary."

To view a copy of David Stout's story covering his April 9th interview with Rossotti, which appeared in the Times on April 16th, click here. (Adobe Acrobat).

The New York Times thinks his answer is appropriate, especially since the Times essentially demanded that kind of response in its several articles and editorials over the past six months, which by the way resulted in a Pulitzer Prize on April 16th for David Cay Johnston for "investigative journalism." What do you think about that folks?