Laurel Clergy Association
15720 Riding Stable Road
Laurel, Maryland 20707
October 4, 2007
The Honorable Frank Wolf
{transmitted electronically and by hard copy}
241 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Congressman Wolf,
I am making you our first call for help to prevent a potential disaster for our nation. I was an eyewitness to your courageous stand in the past to oppose state sponsored gambling here in Maryland, and we need your help now more than ever.
I am the president of a regional association of pastors in the Laurel, Maryland area. I am also a 1978 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. Many members of the military and an even greater number of men and women who work in classified roles for the intelligence community are members of the church I lead.
To get immediately to the point, allow me to quote from a resolution just passed by our Association (attached):
Whereas the proposed Laurel Park site for a casino is immediately adjacent to one of the nations most secure locations whose employees guard the nations most sensitive intelligence information – and given that there are readily documented cases of compulsive gambling resulting in the unlawful release of highly sensitive classified materials . . . We particularly call on the Governor, Senate President, and Speaker of the House of Delegates, and all our elected leaders to eliminate our community, including the Laurel Park racetrack, from consideration as a possible venue for this destructive industry.
It is the intention of the Governor of Maryland and the President of the Maryland Senate to place state owned slot machines in a casino almost immediately adjacent to the Main Gate of the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade. One short story exposes the danger of this proposal. The Telegraph in London reported,
“Top-secret Cruise missile information ended up in a second-hand shop after a Royal Navy rating sold Ministry of Defence computers to fund his gambling habit, a court martial was told. . . . Chief Petty Officer Paul Crookes, a weapons engineer, was interrogated and confessed to selling agency computers and other equipment to pay off his casino debts. Among the items were three laptops which contained sensitive files marked "Top Secret - for UK/USA eyes only".
What happened in the UK could happen in Laurel. While no great damage resulted from the case cited above, the next time we might not be so fortunate. The briefest of internet searches will produce many other examples of military members getting into serious trouble as a result of gambling addiction. It seems to us the height of folly to place a casino in this sensitive location when many other more viable options are available to the Governor. As you well know and the major study commissioned by Congress affirms, the number of pathological gamblers in an area expands dramatically after the introduction of nearby casino gambling. Besides NSA, BRAC is bringing thousands of other new or relocated national defense related jobs to Fort Meade. Thousands of contractors performing highly classified tasks in support of the war on terror are all located in buildings within a mile or two of the proposed casino site. Do we really want our NSA employees, including many young soldiers, sailors, and marines, driving by a casino where they will be enticed to sample what has often been termed “the crack cocaine of gambling addiction” – a.k.a. video lottery terminals?
Can you in any way assist us in encouraging the Maryland legislature to place our national security interests ahead of their desire to impose casino gaming on our community? I do not know if there currently exists any Federal legislation on this point, but I can only hope that the Governor and Maryland General Assembly would pay close attention to those who control the overwhelmingly most important economic influence in our region.
Please contact me at any time with any advice you might have to share with us.
Very Respectfully,
Kevin McGhee
President, Laurel Clergy Association
Senior Pastor, Bethany Community Church
www.BethanyLaurel.org
301-549-1200
Cc:
The Honorable Mike McConnell,
Director of National Intelligence
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Washington, DC 20511
Lieutenant General Keith B. Alexander, USA
Director, National Security Agency
Ft. George G. Meade, MD 20755
Colonel Kenneth O. McCreedy
Installation Commander
Ft. George G. Meade, MD 20755
The Honorable Roscoe Bartlett
2412 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-2006
The Honorable Michael Busch
Speaker, Maryland House of Delegates
Annapolis, Maryland 21411
The Honorable Peter Franchot
Comptroller of Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland 21411
The Honorable Craig Moe
Mayor, The City of Laurel
8103 Sandy Spring Road
Laurel, Maryland 20707
The Laurel Clergy Association and various members of the local media . . .
