t showed up at the Press & Dakotan office Monday, brought in by oneof our employees. What she showed us was new — and yet, quite oldby now.

It was a letter she had received in the mail the other day. In verygeneral terms, the letter suggested that she had an outstanding debton her record, but if she paid a fraction of the amount, she couldmake the debt disappear. What she needed to do was contact thecompany that sent the letter to verify her account. This, no doubt,would have included providing the company with such information as

her Social Security number ...Need we go on? You probably know this story very well — you’ve probably

seen it or been targeted by it. And perhaps you may have even been suckedinto it.

It is a damnable fact that we live in a predatory age of scamming andscheming. While con artists have always been around in our society, theirscope has accelerated greatly and disturbingly in recent years, particularlywith the hyper-growth of the Internet and email.

Oh, email. We can honestly tell you that there practically isn’t a day thatgoes by when we don’t see an email that is out fishing (or phishing) for a nib-ble. The emails promise prizes or plea for help, or they tell us that our “ac-count” has been suspended or that our savings are threatened by huge finesunless we act fast, or that our computer security has been compromised andneeds a special update.

We’ve seen it so much that it becomes boring and irritating. You probablyknow the feeling.

In fact, it’s actually disturbing. These missives are from people who are try-ing to steal from you, who are trying to break into your secure life and injureyou. These are scurrilous hunters looking for prey, nothing more.

These are facts of life.We write this today as a reminder that is, unfortunately, applicable every

day, because it seems to happen every day. We often see police record items inwhich someone called in to report a suspicious email, phone call or letter. Thepolice take note but there is little they can really do.

The best advice to offer is the oldest: If you absolutely do not know thesources of such contacts, stay away from them. Ignore the bait. If it’s truly gen-uine, efforts will likely be made to make contact legitimately.

The employee who brought in the letter this week said she contacted theBetter Business Bureau (BBB), who told her that the “firm” who sent the letterhad a glowing “F” rating (the glow was probably from radioactivity) andshould be ignored. She was advised to go to the newspaper to publicize thescam. The problem we have is that we run into such scam reports so oftenthat we can’t keep up with them all. It’s frustrating to us as well as to the vic-tims, the police, the BBB and everyone else who endures these incidents.

Again, the best defense starts with you. Be on your guard. Don’t be intimi-dated and don’t be fooled. Be a vigorous skeptic when it comes to these pleas.It’s the safest way to go.

kmh

Wednesday, 6.19.13ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net

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OPINION | OUR VIEW

On Guard: ScamsAre Daily Danger

I

F RO M T H E B I B L E

YO U R L E T T E R S

By The Associated PressToday is Wednesday, June 19, the

170th day of 2013. There are 195 days leftin the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On June19, 1953, Julius Rosenberg, 35, and hiswife, Ethel, 37, convicted of conspiring topass U.S. atomic secrets to the SovietUnion, were executed at Sing Sing Prisonin Ossining, N.Y.

On this date: In 1862, Congresspassed, and President Abraham Lincolnsigned, a measure abolishing slavery inU.S. territories.

In 1865, Union troops commanded byMaj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived inGalveston, Texas, with news that the CivilWar was over, and that all remaining slavesin Texas were free.

In 1910, the first-ever Father’s Day wascelebrated in Spokane, Wash. (The idea forthe observance is credited to SonoraLouise Smart Dodd.)

In 1934, the Federal CommunicationsCommission was created; it replaced theFederal Radio Commission.

In 1938, four dozen people were killedwhen a railroad bridge in Montana col-lapsed, sending a train known as theOlympian hurtling into Custer Creek.

In 1952, the celebrity-panel game show“I’ve Got A Secret” made its debut on CBS-TV with Garry Moore as host.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy,speaking to Congress, criticized lawmak-ers for not acting on proposed civil rightslegislation and called for passage of a sin-gle omnibus bill, the Civil Rights Act of1963. Soviet cosmonaut ValentinaTereshkova returned to Earth after threedays as the first woman in space.

In 1972, Hurricane Agnes, blamed forat least 122 deaths, made landfall over theFlorida Panhandle.

In 1973, the rock musical “The RockyHorror Show” premiered in London (it waslater adapted into the movie “The RockyHorror Picture Show”).

In 1986, University of Maryland basket-ball star Len Bias, the first draft pick of theBoston Celtics, suffered a fatal cocaine-in-duced seizure. Artificial heart recipientMurray P. Haydon died in Louisville, Ky.,after 16 months on the manmade pump.

In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court struckdown a Louisiana law requiring any publicschool teaching the theory of evolution toteach creation science as well.

In 1999, author Stephen King was se-riously injured when he was struck by avan driven by Bryan Smith in North Lovell,Maine. Britain’s Prince Edward marriedcommoner Sophie Rhys-Jones in Windsor,England.

Ten years ago: The FBI put cosmeticsheir Andrew Luster aboard a plane in Mex-ico and flew him back to California, fivemonths after he’d been convicted in absen-tia of drugging and raping three women.Federal authorities said Iyman Faris, anOhio truck driver who met Osama binLaden and admitted plots against trainsand the Brooklyn Bridge, had pleadedguilty to felony charges. (Faris was latersentenced to 20 years in prison.) The U.S.Air Force dropped manslaughter and ag-gravated assault charges against twofighter pilots who’d mistakenly bombedCanadian soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002.(One pilot was later found guilty of derelic-tion of duty and reprimanded.)

Five years ago: President George W.Bush surveyed the aftermath of devastat-ing floods during a quick tour of the Mid-west, assuring residents and rescuers alikethat he was listening to their concerns andunderstood their exhaustion. DemocratBarack Obama announced he would by-pass public financing for the presidentialelection, even though Republican John Mc-Cain was accepting it.

One year ago: Egypt’s Hosni Mubarakwas moved out of prison to a military hos-pital after the 84-year-old ousted leader re-portedly suffered a stroke and his conditionrapidly deteriorated. The Southern BaptistConvention voted to elect its first African-American president, Rev. Fred Luter Jr.Actor Victor Spinetti, 82, died in London.

Today’s Birthdays: Pop singer TommyDeVito (The Four Seasons) is 85. ActressGena Rowlands is 83. Singer Spanky Mc-Farlane (Spanky and Our Gang) is 71.Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi(soo chee) is 68. Actress Phylicia Rashadis 65. Rock singer Ann Wilson (Heart) is63. Musician Larry Dunn is 60. ActressKathleen Turner is 59. Country singer DougStone is 57. Singer Mark DeBarge is 54.Singer-dancer Paula Abdul is 51. ActorAndy Lauer is 50. Rock singer-musicianBrian Vander Ark (Verve Pipe) is 49. Ac-tress Mia Sara is 46. Rock musician Brian“Head” Welch is 43. Actor Jean Dujardin is41. Actress Robin Tunney is 41. ActorBumper Robinson is 39. Actress PoppyMontgomery is 38. Alt-country singer-mu-sician Scott Avett (The Avett Brothers) is37. Actor Ryan Hurst is 37. Actress ZoeSaldana is 35. Actress Lauren Lee Smithis 33. Actor Paul Dano is 29. Actor AtticusShaffer is 15.

Thought for Today: “Free thinkers aregenerally those who never think at all.” —Laurence Sterne, English author (1713-1768).

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BY ROBERT B. REICHTribune Media Services

There are two great centers of unaccountablepower in the American political-economicsystem today — places where decisionsthat significantly affect large numbers ofAmericans are made in secret, and areunchecked either by effective democraticoversight or by market competition.

One goes by the name of the “intelli-gence community,” and its epicenter is theNational Security Agency within the De-fense Department. If we trusted that it rea-sonably balanced its snooping onAmericans with our nation’s securityneeds, and that our elected representativeseffectively oversaw that balance, therewould be little cause for concern. We wouldnot worry that the information so gatheredmight be misused to harass individuals,thereby chilling free speech or democraticdebate, or that some future government might use itto intimidate critics and opponents. We would feelconfident, in other words, that despite the scale andsecrecy of the operation, our privacy, civil libertiesand democracy were nonetheless adequately pro-tected.

But the NSA has so much power, and oversight ofit is so thin, that we have every reason to be con-cerned. The fact that its technological reach is vast,its resources almost limitless and its operationsshrouded in secrecy make it difficult for a handful ofelected representatives to effectively monitor even atiny fraction of what it does. And every new revela-tion of its clandestine “requests” for companies tohand over information about our personal lives andcommunications further undermines our trust. To thecontrary, the NSA seems to be literally out of control.

The second center of unaccountable power goesby the name of Wall Street and is centered in thelargest banks there. If we trusted that market forceskept them in check and that they did not exercise in-ordinate influence over Congress and the executivebranch, we would have no basis for concern. Wewouldn’t worry that the Street’s financial powerwould be misused to fix markets, profit from insider

information or make irresponsible bets that imperiledthe rest of us. We could be confident that despite thesize and scope of the giant banks, our economy andeveryone who depends on it were nonetheless ade-

quately protected. But those banks are now so large (much

larger than they were when they almostmelted down five years ago), have such amonopolistic grip on our financial systemand exercise so much power over Washing-ton that we have cause for concern. Thefact that not a single Wall Street executivehas been held legally accountable for theexcesses that almost brought the economyto its knees five years ago and continues toburden millions of Americans, that even theattorney general confesses the biggestbanks are “too big to jail,” that the bigbanks continue to make irresponsible bets(such as those resulting in JPMorganChase’s $6 billion “London Whale” loss)and that the Street has effectively eviscer-

ated much of the Dodd-Frank legislation intended torein in its excesses and avoid another meltdown andbailout all offer evidence that the Street is still dan-gerously out of control.

It is rare in these harshly partisan times for the po-litical left and right to agree on much of anything. Butthe reason, I think, both are worried about the en-croachments of the NSA on the privacy and civil liber-ties of Americans, as well as the depredations of “toobig to fail or jail” Wall Street banks on our economy, isfundamentally the same: It is this toxic combinationof inordinate power and lack of accountability thatrenders both of them dangerous, threatening ourbasic values and institutions.

That neither Republicans nor Democrats havedone much of anything to effectively rein in these twocenters of unaccountable power suggests that if thereis ever to be a viable third party in America, it will beborn of the ill-fated consequences.

Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, isprofessor of public policy at the University of Califor-nia at Berkeley and the author of “Beyond Outrage,”now available in paperback. He blogs atwww.robertreich.org.

Unaccountable Power InAmerica: Two Centers

Robert

REICH

BY TRUDY RUBIN© 2013, The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Obama administration’s policy on Syria is astrategic disaster that undercuts its entire foreign pol-icy from the Middle East to Asia. If you think I’m exag-gerating, read on.

Bashar al-Assad — whose exit President Obama hasdemanded for more than a year — is poised to crushthe Syrian rebellion, using money, weapons, and man-power provided by Russia, Iran, and the Lebanese ter-rorist group Hezbollah. Washington claims to supportmoderate rebel fighters, but so far it has delivered onlyfood rations and medical kits — no help againstAssad’s missiles and bombs.

After months of debate, White House officials finallyannounced last week that they will send military aid tothe rebels (supposedly because Assad used chemicalweapons). But the announcement only made the ad-ministration look feckless: The aid will include smallarms and ammo, but not the heavy weapons requiredto stall Assad.

Antiaircraft weapons, crucial for holding off Assad’sair assaults, aren’t even being considered. This plan istoo little, too late.

Meanwhile, the White House “strategy” for Syria —based on the hope that Moscow would push Assad torelinquish power at peace talks in Geneva — has col-lapsed. Why would Assad (or Russian leader VladimirPutin) bend when victory is in sight?

Obama doesn’t seem to grasp that Syria has be-come a strategic contest that the whole world is watch-ing — one that involves core U.S. security interests.The president’s indecision on Syria has signaled toRussia, Iran, and Hezbollah (not to mention China andthe Taliban) that they can ignore Obama’s tough talk. Ithas also strained relations with Arab allies who fearIran and want to see its hold on Syria broken.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who has long been out fronton Syria, spoke last week with Gen. Salim Idris, the mili-tary leader of the Syrian opposition, who urged Amer-ica to send antitank and antiaircraft weapons toprevent rebel strongholds from falling.

“If the U.S. is not prepared to provide more robustassistance,” Casey said, “I fear that the moderate oppo-sition forces will be defeated.” That would emboldenIran and Hezbollah to act more aggressively through-out the region, undercutting core U.S. security interestsand threatening Israel. “The time for U.S. action is over-due,” Casey insisted, rightly. “Assad must go, but thiswill not happen without decisive leadership from theUnited States.”

Yet, two years and 93,000 Syrian deaths later,Obama’s advisers still dither, treating the conflict as alocal matter, not a wider strategic threat. No doubt theoptions are daunting, and, at this late date, the chancesslimmer than ever for a stable Syria. But the adminis-tration’s reluctance is based on refutable myths.

Myth One: The lesson of Iraq is that we shouldn’tget involved in another Mideast conflict.

Reality: The cases are critically different. We in-vaded and occupied Iraq. In Syria, no one is calling forboots on the ground. The opposition is fractured, butincludes militias headed by former army officers ormoderate Muslim civilians. The CIA spent a year vet-ting rebel commanders and had identified several re-sponsible ones by last fall. But Obama rejectedproposals from David Petraeus and Hillary Clinton toarm them.

Myth Two: Arming rebels would undercut peaceprospects.

Reality: The only hope for serious peace talks lies inconvincing Assad and his backers in Moscow that hemight lose.

Myth Three: If we send arms to the rebels, they mayfall into al-Qaida’s hands.

Reality: Jihadi groups linked to al-Qaeda alreadyhave plenty of weapons, provided by wealthy GulfArabs. It’s the more moderate commanders who areshort of weapons. Indeed, U.S. policy has undercut themoderates and enabled jihadis to become the mostprominent rebels, even though their numbers are rela-tively small.

Myth Four: It’s time to let someone else do it.Reality: Outsourcing the arming of rebels to Qatar

and Saudi Arabia led to the results we most feared.Lacking strong U.S. oversight, the Gulf states armedtheir favorite militias, often hard-line Islamists. Theyalso ignored U.S. pleas to unify the militias into a co-herent force. Meanwhile, the Europeans and Turks re-main reluctant to help unless Obama takes the lead.

Myth Five: Arming the rebels will fuel a sectarianwar between Shiites and Sunnis.

Reality: Helped by Iran and Hezbollah, Assad is pro-voking sectarian slaughter to convince Syrians thatthey need a dictator. The longer this war goes on, thegreater the bloodshed. It has already spread beyondSyria’s borders, with dangerous implications for the en-tire Middle East.

Myth Six: We can afford to stay uninvolved and letthe Syrians sort it out themselves.

Reality: Syria has already become a proxy war, withIran and Moscow testing Obama’s willingness to defendU.S. interests. A swift delivery of antiaircraft and anti-tank weapons to vetted rebel commanders would makeAssad’s allies think twice about the dangerous gamethey are playing. And it would counter the growingglobal perception that Obama has abandoned Amer-ica’s historic leadership role.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-boardmember for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Readers maywrite to her at: Philadelphia Inquirer, P.O. Box 8263,Philadelphia, Pa. 19101, or by email attrubin@phillynews.com.

All Eyes Are Now On The U.S.

Normandy’s HeroesFernande Colette Bitsos, Yankton

Majestic Normandie (Nor-mandy) and the beaches and cliffswhere Americans landed in 1944 —the peaceful and well kept Ameri-can cemeteries.

So much suffering, so manygone, so many tears. Let us notever forget those brave warriorsand their sacrifices to rid us ofNazism and Fascism.

Normandy keeps them in itsheart. may God Bless them for Eter-nity.

Share your thoughts with us. Write to the PRESS & DAKOTAN on a topic ofthe day or in response to an editorial or story. Write us at: Letters, 319 Wal-nut, Yankton, SD 57078, drop off at 319 Walnut in Yankton, fax to 665-1721or email to views@yankton.net.

S P E A K O U T !