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The Obama DOJ’s warrantless demands for e-mails

April 20, 2010, 6:40 am
Filed under: 1984, 2-party system, 4th amendment, Barack Obama, Big Brother, bush = obama, civil liberties, civil rights, DOJ, FBI, George Bush, government crimes, left right paradigm, nanny state, obama, obama = bush, obama deception, orwell, Police State, search warrant, Surveillance, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap | Tags: obama fraud, obama lie

The Obama DOJ’s warrantless demands for e-mails

Salon
April 15, 2010

I want your emails.

A very significant case involving core privacy protections is now being litigated, where the Obama Justice Department is seeking to obtain from Yahoo “all emails” sent and received by multiple Yahoo email accounts, despite the fact that DOJ has never sought, let alone obtained, a search warrant, and despite there being no notice of any kind to the email account holders:

In a brief filed Tuesday afternoon, the coalition says a search warrant signed by a judge is necessary before the FBI or other police agencies can read the contents of Yahoo Mail messages — a position that puts those companies directly at odds with the Obama administration.

As part of a case conducted largely under seal and thus hidden from public view, the DOJ demanded these emails from Yahoo without any effort to demonstrate probable cause to believe the email user was involved in the commission of any crime, but instead merely based on the vague claim that there is “reasonable grounds to believe” the emails “are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.” If the DOJ position were accepted, Americans would have substantially less privacy protections in their email communications.

Federal law is crystal clear that a search warrant is required for the Government to obtain any emails that have been stored less than 180 days — one that requires a showing of probable cause and that the documents sought to be described with particularlity. In contrast to the nation’s largest telecoms’ eager cooperation with Bush’s illegal surveillance programs, Yahoo — to its credit — refused to turn over any such emails to the Government without a search warrant. As a result, the DOJ is now seeking a federal court Order compelling the company to comply with its demands, and a coalition of privacy groups and technology companies — led by EFF and including Google — have now filed a brief supporting Yahoo’s position. Both Yahoo and that coalition insist that federal law as well as the Fourth Amendment’s search and seizure protection bar the Obama DOJ from acquiring these emails without a search warrant.

Read Full Article Here

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Study: Youths sexually abused in juvenile prisons

January 8, 2010, 12:55 pm
Filed under: carolina, Child Abuse, DOJ, human rights, Indiana, maryland, prison industrial complex, prison system, rape, sexual abuse, Texas

Study: Youths sexually abused in juvenile prisons

USA Today
January 7, 2010

More than 12% of youths in juvenile prisons are sexually abused while in custody there, according to a Justice Department study out Thursday, and the vast majority of cases involve female staff and boys under their supervision.

In the worst facilities surveyed — in Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina and Texas — more than 30% of youths reported they had been sexually victimized. The study, the first of its kind, shows a rate of sexual assault more than seven times higher than that indicated by a 2008 Justice Department report that collected sexual abuse claims to juvenile facility administrators. It is also higher than a similar study of adult prisons because of the “very high rate of staff sexual misconduct,” said Allen Beck, who directed the survey for the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The survey of 9,198 youths ages 13 to 21 — all in custody by order of a juvenile court — included methods to eliminate interviews considered unreliable. The survey covered 195 facilities, at least one in each state. Approximately 26,550 juveniles — 91% of them boys — are held in more than 500 such facilities around the country.

The survey showed that 10.3% of youths reported the sexual contact was with staff, compared with 2.6% who reported sexual victimization by other youths. In nearly half the incidents with staff, youths reported having sexual contact as a result of force.

The study sets a wider definition of sexual contact than rape, Beck said. Nonetheless, “these are all things that in the outside world would be considered violent or, by definition in law, they are illegal,” he said.

Sexual victimization of youths in custody “is one of those hidden closets of the system,” said Bart Lubow, director of the juvenile justice and strategy group for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which advocates for children. The rates at the worst facilities are “so high they’re stunning,” he said. “I am, on the other hand, never surprised as people peel the layers of the youth corrections onion and expose more and more things that make you cry.”

Linda McFarlane of Just Detention International, an advocacy group focused on eliminating sexual abuse in prison, called the highest rates of abuse “shocking beyond belief.”

“The incredibly high rates of staff misconduct is shocking and disturbing,” McFarlane said. “We just need to do a better job with training and recruitment and hiring and supervision.”

The survey showed that gay youths reported higher levels of sexual abuse from other juveniles, and so did youths who had been abused before coming to the facility.

That makes the survey valuable for juvenile facilities other than the type covered in the survey, she said. “While we can’t say we know what’s happening in, say, the smaller group-home settings … we can look at the information in this report and use it to protect those (particularly vulnerable) kids.”

In Maryland, where 36% of youths surveyed at Backbone Mountain Youth Center said they had been victimized, the state Department of Juvenile Services said in a statement Thursday there will be an independent investigation by the state human resources and health agencies.

At Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in Indiana, which also had among the highest rates of abuse in the study, four female guards were suspended a month ago after a report of sexual abuse, said Edwin Buss, state corrections commissioner.

Indiana officials say their own surveys show a much lower rate of sexual victimization.

“We’re not denying that this happens,” said Amanda Copeland, executive director of research and technology for the state Corrections Department. “We would be foolish to say that it never happens. We’re just questioning the extent to which it’s being reported” by the Justice Department. But the survey “gives us something to work with. Whether we agree with the percentages or the ratings or not, we recognize that we have issues and we need to address them, and we’re taking steps to do so.”

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Second Man Detained on Flight 253

December 31, 2009, 1:04 pm
Filed under: Airport Security, Alex Jones, amsterdam, Censorship, Coverup, DOJ, False Flag, FBI, Flight 253, inside job, Kurt Haskell, LIHOP, media censorship, MIHOP, plane bomber, State Sponsored Terrorism, TSA, War On Terror | Tags: christmas bomber, surveillance footage, surveillance video, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab

EXCLUSIVE: FBI Silent On Plane Bomber’s Accomplice
Feds won’t even admit existence of Indian man arrested after discovery of possible second bomb

Prison Planet.com
December 30, 2009

Flight 253 eyewitness Kurt Haskell has astoundingly revealed how the FBI are deliberately hiding the existence of a second man who was arrested following the Christmas Day plane bombing incident after bomb-sniffing dogs detected a possible second explosive device in his luggage.

Appearing on The Alex Jones Show yesterday, Haskell related how after being allowed to disembark from the plane by officials, passengers were detained in customs with their carry-on luggage for six hours while they waited to be interrogated by the FBI.

Bomb sniffing dogs then detected a possible explosive device in the luggage of an Indian man around 30 years old before the man was arrested and led away to an interrogation room.

The probability that there was a bomb in the man’s luggage was all but confirmed when the FBI moved the passengers to another location. “You’re being moved,” the FBI told them, “it is not safe here. I’m sure you all saw what happened and can read between the lines and why you’re being moved.”

The identity of the second man has not been discussed by authorities or the media and Haskell’s description of his own interview with the FBI suggests that the feds are deliberately trying to bury the notion that the bomber had one or more accomplices.

The FBI was not pleased with Haskell when they conducted a follow-up interview yesterday in Michigan. They showed him close-up photographs of various people, including Mutallab, the accused bomber. “They kind of tried to trick me,” Haskell explained. The agents tried to pass off two photos of Mutallab as different people. Kurt asked the agents if they were attempting to impeach his story and smear him.

The Indian man was not included in the photographs. Neither was another Indian man who Haskell told the media had helped the bomber board the plane despite the fact that he had no passport. The sharp dressed Indian lied about the bomber’s circumstances, claiming he was a Sudanese refugee.

Haskell asked them why he was not shown a full body shot of the suspect. Haskell was eight rows back from the suspect. The FBI agents did not answer and were displeased with the question. He also asked the FBI agents if it would be more appropriate to bring the surveillance video from the Amsterdam airport instead of still photos. “I don’t think they liked that comment from me,” Haskell added. The FBI said they did not have the videotape. They also made a point to tell Haskell they were asking the questions and not him.

The agents showed Haskell a photograph of the man flagged by the bomb-sniffing dog and taken into custody in customs. “Isn’t this the man who had the bomb in his carry-on bag that you arrested in customs who you refuse to admit exists?” Haskell asked the agents. “They really didn’t like that comment from me and had no comment back to me but I said it sure looks like the man you refuse to admit exists.”

There has also been no official explanation as to the identity of another mysterious man seen calmly filming the entire flight, including the botched bombing attempt, with a video camera.

Haskell described the FBI’s handling of the aftermath of the incident as “a complete embarrassment, a total disorganizational mess that actually put us in more jeopardy than we were already in.”

Passengers were told to remain seated in the aircraft for 20 minutes after landing despite the fact security did not know at that point if there was an explosive on the plane or if the fire started by the suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab while on descent to the airport had spread under the floor in the cabin or to the fuel tanks in the wings.

Watch Haskell’s interview on The Alex Jones Show below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM2yiohmPEI

Officials Admit Second Man Detained As More Witnesses Emerge
But FBI STILL Denies a Second Suspect Was Arrested

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
December 30, 2009

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have admitted that a second man possibly carrying explosives was detained after last week’s aborted plane bombing attack, contradicting initial statements by the FBI that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was the only person arrested or charged in relation to Friday’s foiled attack.

As we reported yesterday, attorney and Flight 253 eyewitness Kurt Haskell said that he saw a well-dressed Indian man aid the accused bomber to board the plane despite the fact that he had no passport and was on a terror watch list. After the incident, while the passengers were being detained, Haskell witnessed an Indian man being handcuffed and led away after a bomb-sniffing dog had flagged up his luggage. The FBI then removed the other passengers from the area, strongly indicating that explosive materials had been found in the man’s bag.

Officials have now been forced to acknowledge that a second man was detained despite initial FBI denials after two more witnesses came forward to validate Haskell’s account.

“Daniel Huisinga of Fairview, Tenn., who was returning from an internship in Kenya for the holidays, says he also saw a man being taken away in handcuffs at the airport after a dog search. A third person, Roey Rosenblith, told The Huffington Post on Sunday that he saw a man in a suit being placed into handcuffs and escorted out, as well,” reports Michigan Live.

“Huisinga talked about seeing a man taken away at the airport during an interview Monday on MSNBC. He mentions it at about the 1:25 mark of the video below. The reporter appears to confuse Huisinga’s account with a man who was detained on a separate flight Sunday and deemed not to be a threat.”

Huisinga later told Michigan Live that the Indian man who was later detained by the FBI after dogs had detected something suspicious in his baggage was “wearing a nice suit,” raising questions as to whether this was the same man who helped Abdulmutallab board the plane. Huisinga was located about 20 feet from where the man was handcuffed.

Huisinga shared Haskell’s view that the passengers were moved because more explosives had been discovered, adding that agents told the passengers that they could not use their cell phones or computers. “We were kind of left to draw our own conclusions,” he said.

“It is unknown why the person was detained or whether the person will face any charges,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Ron Smith told MLive.com.

The FBI is still denying that a second person was detained in relation to the incident, raising suspicions as to whether the well-dressed Indian man is being protected by the authorities and for what reason.

“There’s a lot of stories out there, whether any of them are accurate or not, or they’re a little bit accurate and blown out of proportion,” FBI spokesman Bill Carter said. “But I’m not aware of anyone charged or arrested other than Abdulmutallab.”

MLive.com writers attempted to contact the U.S. Department of Justice for clarification, but their calls have not been returned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHyCSRyBzA0

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Obama Protecting Bush’s “Testicle Crusher” Attorney

December 10, 2009, 1:12 pm
Filed under: 2-party system, Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, bush, bush = obama, Child Abuse, child torture, civil liberties, civil rights, Detainees, DOJ, Extraordinary Rendition, Geneva Convention, George Bush, gitmo, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, human rights, interrogation, Iraq, john yoo, left right paradigm, nation building, obama, obama = bush, obama deception, obamas war, occupation, rendition, Torture, War Crimes, War On Terror

Obama Protecting Bush’s “Testicle Crusher” Attorney

San Francisco Chronicle
December 8, 2009

The Obama administration has asked an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former Bush administration attorney John Yoo of authorizing the torture of a terrorism suspect, saying federal law does not allow damage claims against lawyers who advise the president on national security issues.

Such lawsuits ask courts to second-guess presidential decisions and pose “the risk of deterring full and frank advice regarding the military’s detention and treatment of those determined to be enemies during an armed conflict,” Justice Department lawyers said Thursday in arguments to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Other sanctions are available for government lawyers who commit misconduct, the department said. It noted that its Office of Professional Responsibility has been investigating Yoo’s advice to former President George W. Bush since 2004 and has the power to recommend professional discipline or even criminal prosecution.

The office has not made its conclusions public. However, The Chronicle and other media reported in May that the office will recommend that Yoo be referred to the bar association for possible discipline, but that he not be prosecuted.

Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, worked for the Justice Department from 2001 to 2003. He was the author of a 2002 memo that said rough treatment of captives amounts to torture only if it causes the same level of pain as “organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death.” The memo also said the president may have the power to authorize torture of enemy combatants.

Read Full Article Here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt1-eWU2Ii0

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Obama will bypass Congress to detain suspects indefinitely

John Byrne
Raw Story
September 24, 2009

President Barack Obama has quietly decided to bypass Congress and allow the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects without charges.

The move, which was controversial when the idea was first floated in The Washington Post in May, has sparked serious concern among civil liberties advocates. Such a decision allows the president to unilaterally hold “combatants” without habeas corpus — a legal term literally meaning “you shall have the body” — which forces prosecutors to charge a suspect with a crime to justify the suspect’s detention.

Obama’s decision was buried on page A 23 of The New York Times’ New York edition on Thursday. It didn’t appear on that page in the national edition. (Meanwhile, the front page was graced with the story, “Richest Russian’s Newest Toy: An N.B.A. Team.”)

Rather than seek approval from Congress to hold some 50 Guantanamo detainees indefinitely, the administration has decided that it has the authority to hold the prisoners under broad-ranging legislation passed in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001. Former President George W. Bush frequently invoked this legislation as the justification for controversial legal actions — including the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program.

“The administration will continue to hold the detainees without bringing them to trial based on the power it says it has under the Congressional resolution passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, authorizing the president to use force against forces of Al Qaeda and the Taliban,” the Times‘ Peter Baker writes. “In concluding that it does not need specific permission from Congress to hold detainees without charges, the Obama administration is adopting one of the arguments advanced by the Bush administration in years of debates about detention policies.”

Constitutional scholar and Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald discussed the policy in a column in May. He warned that the ability for a president to “preventively” detain suspects could mushroom into broader, potentially abusive activity.

“It does not merely allow the U.S. Government to imprison people alleged to have committed Terrorist acts yet who are unable to be convicted in a civilian court proceeding,” Greenwald wrote. “That class is merely a subset, perhaps a small subset, of who the Government can detain. Far more significant, ‘preventive detention’ allows indefinite imprisonment not based on proven crimes or past violations of law, but of those deemed generally ‘dangerous’ by the Government for various reasons (such as, as Obama put it yesterday, they ‘expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden’ or ‘otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans’). That’s what ‘preventive’ means: imprisoning people because the Government claims they are likely to engage in violent acts in the future because they are alleged to be ‘combatants.’”

“Once known, the details of the proposal could — and likely will — make this even more extreme by extending the ‘preventive detention’ power beyond a handful of Guantanamo detainees to anyone, anywhere in the world, alleged to be a ‘combatant,’” Greenwald continues. “After all, once you accept the rationale on which this proposal is based — namely, that the U.S. Government must, in order to keep us safe, preventively detain “dangerous” people even when they can’t prove they violated any laws — there’s no coherent reason whatsoever to limit that power to people already at Guantanamo, as opposed to indefinitely imprisoning with no trials all allegedly ‘dangerous’ combatants, whether located in Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Western countries and even the U.S.”

The Obama Administration appears to have embraced “preventive detention” in part because of problems with how Guantanamo prisoners’ cases — and incarceration — were handled under President Bush. Military prosecutors have said that numerous cases could not be brought successfully in civilian courts because evidence was obtained in ways that wouldn’t be admissible on US soil. The Bush Administration originally sought to try numerous detainees in military tribunals, but the Supreme Court ruled that at least some have the rights to challenge their detention in US courts.

Baker notes that Obama’s decision to hold suspects without charges doesn’t propose as broad an executive authority claimed by President Bush.

“Obama’s advisers are not embracing the more disputed Bush contention that the president has inherent power under the Constitution to detain terrorism suspects indefinitely regardless of Congress,” Baker writes.

In a statement to Baker, the Justice Department said, “The administration would rely on authority already provided by Congress [and] is not currently seeking additional authorization.”

“The position conveyed by the Justice Department in the meeting last week broke no new ground and was entirely consistent with information previously provided by the Justice Department to the Senate Armed Services Committee,” the statement added.

Roughly 50 detainees of the more than 200 still held at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are thought to be affected by the decision.

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Florida Candidate For Mayor Wants Youth Spy Force

Florida Candidate For Mayor Wants 1,000-Strong Youth Spy Force
Falconer proposes swarms of citizen informers casing neighborhoods looking for suspicious behavior

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
August 26, 2009

A frontrunner to become Mayor of Orange County Florida proposes to combat crime in the area by creating a 1,000 person strong spy force who would cruise around neighborhoods on bikes reporting suspicious behavior to uniformed supervisors, a creepy program with dark undertones of the Hitler Youth program of 1930’s Nazi Germany.

Matthew Falconer, who professes to be a Libertarian, has been handing out a business card to potential voters outlining his platform.

On the back of the card, Falconer outlines his intention to, “Improve public safety by putting 1,000 additional observers on patrol in your neighborhood.”

Falconer’s website provides more detail as to what exactly this new program will entail.

My solution is to innovate. I call for the implementation of my “COPs” program (Citizen Observers). This program will put 1000 young people on bicycles with radios patrolling our neighborhoods keeping our citizens safe. My mission is to prevent crime and move away from the responsive method of public safety in Orange County. The observers will ride through specific areas, seek out criminal behavior, and report events to a uniformed supervisor. They will also talk with residents to find out who is committing the crimes in the area and attempt to gather information to solve existing crimes.

Falconer’s website states that the “public safety personnel” will receive just $10 dollars an hour, meaning the cost of the entire program will amount to no more than $2.5 million dollars a year.

Falconer’s intention to “move away from the responsive method to public safety” and instead have poorly trained amateur teenage spies watching their neighbors and actively seeking out suspicious behavior with seemingly little accountability whatsoever sets a dangerous precedent. Even if the program has genuine intentions behind it, the potential for members of the 1,000 strong spy force to abuse their power to settle scores with neighbors they don’t like is clearly a possibility, which is exactly what has happened historically when citizens are afforded the power to inform on each other.

Falconer’s proposal is clearly anti-American and unconstitutional. Though some may argue that vigilantes are a good thing in an age of growing corruption and police brutality, the fact is that vigilantes are traditionally responsive to crime and act as watchmen, they do not spy on the innocent and actively seek out potential criminal behavior, as Falconer’s program outlines.

Fears about the creation of an East German-style Stasi outfit that would keep an eye on Americans were raised in July of last year when President Barack Obama, during a speech on the campaign trail, promised a “national civilian security force” that would be just as powerful as the U.S. military.

As we have documented, informant programs that encourage Americans to spy on each other are already in operation across the country in a number of different guises.

The legacy of training Americans to spy on each other in the name of “safety” has its origins in Operation TIPS, which was supposedly nixed by Congress, a DOJ, FBI, DHS and FEMA coordinated program that would have recruited one in twenty-four Americans as domestic informants, a higher percentage than was used by the Stasi in Communist East Germany.

Government funding was cut after an outcry but private funding continues and the same program was introduced under a number of sub-divisions including AmeriCorps, SecureCorps and the Highway Watch program.

Similar programs being run bother privately and under government auspices are increasingly beginning to mirror the citizen denunciation campaigns that became prominent in Nazi Germany.

One common misconception about Nazi Germany was that the police state was solely a creation of the authorities and that the citizens were merely victims. On the contrary, Gestapo files show that 80% of all Gestapo investigations were started in response to information provided from denunciations by “ordinary” Germans.

“There were relatively few secret police, and most were just processing the information coming in. I had found a shocking fact. It wasn’t the secret police who were doing this wide-scale surveillance and hiding on every street corner. It was the ordinary German people who were informing on their neighbors,” wrote Robert Gellately of Florida State University.

You Tube user Austin White makes his feelings about Falconer’s proposal clear in the clip below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8YRPl3RPM

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Nazi-Style Campaign Urges Americans to Report Each Other

August 9, 2009, 12:53 pm
Filed under: 1984, 1st amendment, 2nd Amendment, americorps, anti gun, Big Brother, CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, Communism, Concentration Camps, Conditioning, Control Grid, Denver, DHS, Dictatorship, DOJ, domestic terror, domestic terrorism, Empire, Fascism, FBI, FEMA, firefighters, free speech, Germany, gestapo, Gun Control, Hitler, Homeland Security, intimidation, nanny state, Nazi, nazi germany, orwell, paramedics, Police State, securecorps, socialism, Spy, stasi, stasi tactics, Surveillance, Total Information Awareness, US Constitution, utility workers, War On Terror, youth brigades | Tags: Operation Bright Eyes, Operation TIPS, Terrorism Liaison Officers, TLO, wetip

Nazi-Style Campaign Urges Americans to Report Each Other
WeTip program offers cash rewards for anonymous tips about guns, child abuse and suspicious behavior

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
August 6, 2009

A privately-run informant program operating nationwide encourages Americans to anonymously turn each other in to the authorities for cash rewards in a chilling echo of the Nazi “denunciations” of 1930’s Germany, where neighbors would grass their neighbors up to the local Gestapo officer over petty issues.

The WeTip organization takes anonymous tips online or via toll free phone lines and carries the creepy slogan “For A Safer America!”.

The group forwards tips given by the public to law enforcement authorities across the country, with no jurisdictional borders.

An Orwellian poster being plastered up across American towns and cities as part of a campaign run by the organization reads, “ILLEGAL ACTIVITY IS NOT TOLERATED” and advises citizens to “turn them in” and receive a reward of up to $1000. Things to “turn them in” for include drug dealing and theft, but more vague examples such as “threats and intimidation” as well as “weapons” and “gang activity” are listed, as is “child abuse”.

Is the presence of a “weapon” in and of itself evidence of a crime in a country where citizens have the legal right to own firearms? Will your neighbor be turning you in if he sees you loading your car with a rifle on your way to the shooting range? What about “child abuse”? Will your friendly local spy be informing the authorities when he sees you disciplining your child?

What else constitutes suspicious activity? According to law enforcement and Homeland Security guidelines, suspicious behavior includes owning guns, being politically active, and having bumper stickers on your car.

The WeTip organization also offers a training institute for schools, businesses and government employees, presumably providing skills courses on how to become an expert domestic spy, just like in Communist East Germany.

WeTip also claims in its promotional material that it has been endorsed by both Bush presidents, as well as Bill Clinton and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Deliciously ironic therefore it is that Arnie starred in the 1987 movie The Running Man, a futuristic portrayal of a wacky dictatorship where citizens are reminded by huge TV screens placed on street corners that they can “earn a double bonus for reporting on a family member!”

As America sinks into a military police state, it begins to parallel more and more aspects of Nazi Germany, especially in the context of citizens being turned against each other, which in turn creates a climate of fear and the constraining sense that one is always being watched.

Gellately discovered that the people who informed on their neighbors were motivated primarily by banal factors – “greed, jealousy, and petty differences,” and not by a genuine concern about crime or insecurity.

Gellately “found cases of partners in business turning in associates to gain full ownership; jealous boyfriends informing on rival suitors; neighbors betraying entire families who chronically left shared bathrooms unclean or who occupied desirable apartments.”

“And then there were those who informed because for the first time in their lives someone in authority would listen to them and value what they said.”

Gellately emphasizes the fact that the Germans who sicked the authorities on their neighbors knew very well what the consequences for the victims would be – families torn apart, torture and internment in concentration camps, and ultimately in many cases death – but they still did it with few qualms because the rewards of financial bounties and mere convenience were deemed more important to them.

As we have covered before, the WeTip program is by no means the only initiative that is training Americans to become amateur domestic spies.

One of the largest cable TV companies in the United States, Bright House, is training its employees to look for suspicious behavior and report it to police under the guise of a neighborhood watch initiative called Operation Bright Eyes.

In July last year we reported on how hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as “Terrorism Liaison Officers” in Colorado, Arizona and California to watch for “suspicious activity” which is later fed into a secret government database.

Also last year, a New York Times feature article heartily celebrated the fact that an increasing number of Americans are becoming informants and turning in their neighbors and family members to the authorities in return for cash rewards. In a piece about a new program run by Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers, citing gas prices, foreclosure rates and runaway food price inflation, The Times lauds the fact that citizens are reporting on each other, ensuring “a substantial increase in Crime Stopper-related arrests and recovered property, as callers turn in neighbors, grandchildren or former boyfriends in exchange for a little cash.”

As the Recession Ready America blog points out in relation to the WeTip program and its offer of $1,000 for turning people in, in an environment of recession and unemployment, the temptation to inform on people for minor indiscretions would be too tempting for many to resist, creating a gargantuan backlog of petty offenses reported by people with no criminal detective skills whatsoever, leading to harassment of innocent people and ensuring that more real crimes go unsolved.

We invite our readers to use the WeTip “Submit a Tip” form to remind the crypto-Nazis behind this program that this is America, not Germany in the 1930’s. Building strong communities is all about establishing strong bonds and friendships with your neighbors, not grassing them up to the authorities for a quick buck.

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Homeland Security Orders Mandatory Quarantines

April 30, 2009, 4:23 pm
Filed under: 1st amendment, Australia, avian flu shot, BATF, BATFE, big pharma, Bio Weapons, biological warfare, bird flu, Chicago, coast guard, Concentration Camp, deadly vaccinations, deadly vaccines, defense department, detention, DHS, Dictatorship, Dissent, DoD, DOJ, Empire, Eugenics, Executive Order, Fascism, FBI, FEMA, Fema Camps, flu shot, flu vaccine, free speech, Genocide, George Bush, H.R. 645, h1n1, h1n1 clinic, h1n1 vaccine, h5n1, health and environment, HHS, Homeland Security, Human Experiments, Indianapolis, influenza, influenza vaccine, innoculation, involuntary quarantine, mandatory detention, mandatory quarantine, mandatory vaccinations, mass graves, medical Experiments, medical industrial complex, Mexico, Military, Military Industrial Complex, MSNBC, Nazi, neocons, New World Order, New York, North Carolina, NWO, Pandemic Influenza, pandemic virus, Pentagon, Population Control, Propaganda, Protest, State Sponsored Terrorism, swine flu, swine flu vaccine, u.s. soldiers, US Constitution, us customs, US Marshal, us military, vaccinations, Vaccine, vaccine virus, virus, virus pandemic | Tags: Executive Order 13375, spanish flu, spanish flu epidemic, spanish influenza, swine influenza

Homeland Security Orders Mandatory Quarantines – A Pretext For FEMA Camps & Forced Vaccinations

NoWorldSystem.com
April 30, 2009

U.S. Department of Homeland Security has warned healthcare providers that BATFE, FBI, and U.S. Marshals will be called to impose mandatory quarantines in the event of a pandemic swine flu outbreak.

According to CBSNews.com, DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the “swine flu memo” which says: “The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines.”

Bush in his Executive Order 13375 that anyone violating a quarantine order will be punished with a 1 year term in prison and a $250,000 fine. The executive order also states the federal quarantine authority is only limited to “novel” strains of influenza such as this current one.

In 2005 the Bush admin released the National Strategy For Pandemic Influenza which states the U.S. government will impose “quarantines” and “limitations on gatherings”. [Source]

In McGaw’s “swine flu memo” also stated that: “U.S. Customs and Coast Guard Officers assist in the enforcement of quarantine orders. Other DOJ law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals, FBI, and BATFE may also enforce quarantines. Military personnel are not authorized to engage in enforcement.” [Source]

But in a different document by the DoD states that the Pentagon will by all means assist in “quarantining groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic” and aid in “efforts to restore and maintain order.” [Source]

This is already going on, in North Carolina officials are already involuntarily isolating suspected hybrid swine flu patients. [Source]

MSNBC.com is giving the assumption that quarantines are a normal event that Americans should be comfortable with. [Source] In reality this was the only case of “involuntary quarantines” in the U.S. in 45 years. The article falsely states that quarantines will only be handled by state/local authorities, Bush’s Executive Order specifically states a federal response.

The Australian government is not far from implementing the same mandatory quarantines to combat the hybrid swine flu. Health Minister Nicola Roxon has sought sweeping new “quarantine powers” for health officials in case the outbreak worsens. Measures including “making sure that people are isolated, perhaps detained, if they don’t cooperate and are showing symptoms of disease.” [Source]

All of these mandatory detention moves make it more clear that FEMA concentration camps will be the facilities that hold these infected victims of bio-weaponized flu like this current hybrid strain. Could this outbreak be the pretext to soften the public’s view of detentions, so the Government can easily make the move to shut down dissent in the United States?

In January 2009 a bill was introduced in congress to authorize Homeland Security to set up a network of FEMA camps used to house citizens in the event of a national emergency (in this case a pandemic). The National Emergency Centers Act (HR 645) mandates the establishment of “national emergency centers” to be located on military installations for the purpose of providing “temporary housing, medical and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster,”. [Source] HR 645 also stated that the FEMA camps can be used to “meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security,”

In February 2009 an Indianapolis county municipal official in the vicinity of Chicago was asked by FEMA and Homeland Security to: “put together a plan to vaccinate every person in the county within 48 hours.” as part of a Hazard Mitigation Plan to deal with a pandemic influenza outbreak. [Source]:

In April 4, 2007 The State of New York Division of Cemetaries sent out a “mass fatality form” to all New York cemeteries so the division can collect data on their abilities to deal with a pandemic influenza outbreak. Cemeterians were asked the following: “Should a prolonged mass fatality disaster of pandemic flu occour in your community would your cemetery be able to provide temporary or permanent number of disaster or flu deaths in additional to your current burial services?”

Cemetery owners were also asked to fill out the capacity of their facilities, the proximity to roads, train lines and airfields. The division also requested data to calculate the number of acres that could be made available for “950 graves per acre”. [Source] This is very ominous as New York is the only one of 18 states to have over 50 people infected from the swine flu virus.

The state of Colorado issued an Executive Order in 2000 asserting authority to bury victims in mass graves and/ or cremate bodies under emergency situation (like a pandemic flu outbreak). [Source] Rocky Mountain News reported February 8, 2003 that: “The state of Colorado could seize antibiotics, cremate disease-ridden corpses and, under extreme circumstances, dig mass graves.”

Deadly Vaccine News Archive

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Abramoff gets 4 years in jail

September 20, 2008, 11:41 am
Filed under: 2008 Election, Congress, Department of justice, DOJ, FBI, florida, House, jack abramoff, John McCain, lobbyist, neocons, scandal, Senate, White House | Tags: corruption, corruption scandal

Abramoff gets 4 years in jail

AP
September 5, 2008

Jack Abramoff, the once powerful lobbyist at the heart of a far-reaching political corruption scandal, was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday by a judge who said the case had shattered the public’s confidence in government.

Abramoff, who fought back tears as he declared himself a broken man, appeared crestfallen as the judge handed down a sentence lengthier than prosecutors had sought.

Over the past three years, Abramoff has come to symbolize corruption and the secret deals cut between lobbyists and politicians in back rooms or on golf courses or private jets. The scandal shook Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to Capitol Hill and contributed to the Republicans’ loss of Congress in 2006.

“I come before you as a broken man,” Abramoff said at his sentencing before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. “I’m not the same man who happily and arrogantly engaged in a lifestyle of political and business corruption.”

He added later that, “My name is the butt of a joke, the source of a laugh and the title of a scandal.”

Already two years into a prison term from a separate case in Florida, Abramoff, 49, will have spent about six years in prison by the time he is released, far longer than he and his attorneys expected for a man who became the key FBI witness in his own corruption case.

With Abramoff’s help, the Justice Department has won corruption convictions against former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and several top Capitol Hill aides.

Because of that cooperation, prosecutors were reserved in their comments to the court. Rather than regaling the court with a summary of the misdeeds and the seriousness of the corruption, the Justice Department said little in court while urging leniency.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell portrayed Abramoff as a conflicted man. Yes, he corrupted politicians with golf junkets, expensive meals and luxury seats at sporting events. But he also donated millions of dollars to charity, and his good deeds were catalogued in hundreds of letters from friends.

“How can we be talking about the same person?” Lowell said. “But that’s the record: A modern-day ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.'”

Although Abramoff expressed remorse Thursday, he also has spent his time in prison cooperating with a book that portrays him much differently: as a victim of Washington politics.

The book, set for publication later this month and obtained by The Associated Press, says Abramoff was pressured to plead guilty. The book blames The Washington Post and Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee whose Senate committee investigated Abramoff, for making him the fall guy.

“I never expected that I would have to go to prison,” Abramoff says in the book, “until it became clear that the media could not allow this play to close without the hanging of the villain.”

In “The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff,” Boston journalist Gary Chafetz portrays Abramoff as an innocent man who excelled in an already corrupt system and was undone by biased prosecutors, reporters and political enemies.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

That theory was nowhere to be found in court Thursday. Wearing green prison pants and a brown T-shirt, Abramoff wept as his attorney discussed his family’s suffering. He seemed shocked when Huvelle handed down her sentence, looking at his wife and children and shaking his head.

Huvelle could have sent Abramoff to prison for 11 years for conspiring to defraud the U.S., corrupting public officials and defrauding his clients, but she but showed leniency because of his work with the FBI. She rejected, however, proposals to reduce the sentence even further by giving Abramoff credit for the time he already has spent in prison on a fraudulent casino deal in Florida.

Abramoff could appeal the sentence because Justice Department infighting is partly responsible for the lengthy prison term. Prosecutors in Washington had hoped to combine the casino case and the corruption case into one plea deal. But Florida prosecutors refused to give up their piece, as did Washington prosecutors, so the deal was split in two.

Huvelle seemed perplexed by that decision, even as prosecutor Mary Butler asked her to treat the two cases as one. Neither Lowell nor the Justice Department spoke after court.

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U.S. Jailers allowed inmates to rape teenager

August 30, 2008, 6:15 pm
Filed under: Child Abuse, civil liberties, civil rights, Department of justice, DOJ, human rights, kentucky, Oppression, police brutality, Police State, rape, sexual abuse | Tags: Grant County, Kentucky Detention Center, sexual assault, Shawn Freeman, Shawn Sydnor, Wesley Lanham

US Jailers Allow Inmates to Gang Rape 18 Year Old Brought in on Speeding Charges
Former Grant County, Kentucky Detention Center Officers Found Guilty of Civil Rights Violations in Teenager Rape Case

Comtex
August 15, 2008

A Kentucky jury convicted Wesley Lanham and Shawn Freeman, both former deputy jailers, on federal civil rights, conspiracy and obstruction charges, the Justice Department announced today. The defendants, former deputies at the Grant County Detention Center, were found guilty of conspiring to violate the civil rights of a teenage traffic offender when they arranged for him to be raped by inmates. The jury convicted the defendants on all charges and specifically found that the defendants were responsible for the aggravated sexual assault carried out by the inmates.

The defendants face up to life in prison when they are sentenced on Dec. 8, 2008.

The case stemmed from an incident that occurred on Valentine’s Day in 2003, when the defendants, along with their supervisor, former Sergeant Shawn Sydnor, taunted an 18-year-old high school student who had been brought to the detention center on a speeding charge. The deputies teased the teenager about his physical appearance and told him that he would make a good “girlfriend” for the other inmates. The defendants then solicited a group of convicted felons housed in a general population cell to scare the teenager. After eliciting an agreement from the inmates, the officers left the teenager in the cell where he was sexually assaulted by the other inmates.

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Joe Biden’s pro-RIAA, pro-FBI tech voting record

August 30, 2008, 3:13 pm
Filed under: 1984, 1st amendment, 2-party system, 4th amendment, ACLU, Airport Security, apple, army, Barack Obama, biden, Big Brother, biometrics, Bush Sr., CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, Congress, copyright, Department of justice, Dianne Feinstein, DOJ, EFF, FBI, FCC, fingerprints, FISA, free speech, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, House, Iraq, joe biden, John McCain, left right paradigm, Microsoft, Military, nanny state, nation building, neocons, Neolibs, net neutrality, NSA, obama, occupation, OKC bombing, orwell, Patriot Act, Police State, Posse Comitatus, privacy rights, RIAA, Robert Gates, Ron Paul, Russ Feingold, Senate, Spy, Surveillance, tax, Taxpayers, telecoms, TSA, US Constitution, verison, war on drugs, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap, White House | Tags: Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, Comprehensive Counter-Terrorism Act, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Digital Telephony law, Drano bomb, drug paraphernalia, ebay, Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, Improvised Munitions Handbook, kazaa, marijuana, news corp., Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995, p2p, Perform Act, pgp, rave act, Senate Foreign Relations committee, tommy chong, Violent Crime Control Act, XM, Yahoo!, zfone

Joe Biden’s pro-RIAA, pro-FBI tech voting record

CNET
August 23, 2008

By choosing Joe Biden as their vice presidential candidate, the Democrats have selected a politician with a mixed record on technology who has spent most of his Senate career allied with the FBI and copyright holders, who ranks toward the bottom of CNET’s Technology Voters’ Guide, and whose anti-privacy legislation was actually responsible for the creation of PGP.

That’s probably okay with Barack Obama: Biden likely got the nod because of his foreign policy knowledge. The Delaware politician is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee who voted for the war in Iraq, and is reasonably well-known nationally after his presidential campaigns in 1988 and 2008.

Copyright
But back to the Delaware senator’s tech record. After taking over the Foreign Relations committee, Biden became a staunch ally of Hollywood and the recording industry in their efforts to expand copyright law. He sponsored a bill in 2002 that would have make it a federal felony to trick certain types of devices into playing unauthorized music or executing unapproved computer programs. Biden’s bill was backed by content companies including News Corp. but eventually died after Verizon, Microsoft, Apple, eBay, and Yahoo lobbied against it.

A few months later, Biden signed a letter that urged the Justice Department “to prosecute individuals who intentionally allow mass copying from their computer over peer-to-peer networks.” Critics of this approach said that the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, and not taxpayers, should pay for their own lawsuits.

Last year, Biden sponsored an RIAA-backed bill called the Perform Act aimed at restricting Americans’ ability to record and play back individual songs from satellite and Internet radio services. (The RIAA sued XM Satellite Radio over precisely this point.)

All of which meant that nobody in Washington was surprised when Biden was one of only four U.S. senators invited to a champagne reception in celebration of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act hosted by the MPAA’s Jack Valenti, the RIAA, and the Business Software Alliance. (Photos are here.)

Now, it’s true that few Americans will cast their votes in November based on what the vice presidential candidate thinks of copyright law. But these pro-copyright views don’t exactly jibe with what Obama has promised; he’s pledged to “update and reform our copyright and patent systems to promote civic discourse, innovation and investment while ensuring that intellectual property owners are fairly treated.” These are code words for taking a more pro-EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) than pro-MPAA approach.

Unfortunately, Biden has steadfastly refused to answer questions on the topic. We asked him 10 tech-related questions, including whether he’d support rewriting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as part of our 2008 Technology Voters’ guide. Biden would not answer (we did hear back from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Ron Paul).

In our 2006 Technology Voters’ Guide, which ranked Senate votes from July 1998 through May 2005, Biden received a mere 37.5 percent score because of his support for Internet filters in schools and libraries and occasional support for Internet taxes.

Privacy, the FBI, and PGP
On privacy, Biden’s record is hardly stellar. In the 1990s, Biden was chairman of the Judiciary Committee and introduced a bill called the Comprehensive Counter-Terrorism Act, which the EFF says he was “persuaded” to do by the FBI. A second Biden bill was called the Violent Crime Control Act. Both were staunchly anti-encryption, with this identical language:

It is the sense of Congress that providers of electronic communications services and manufacturers of electronic communications service equipment shall ensure that communications systems permit the government to obtain the plain text contents of voice, data, and other communications when appropriately authorized by law.

Translated, that means turn over your encryption keys. The book Electronic Privacy Papers describes Biden’s bill as representing the FBI’s visible effort to restrict encryption technology, which was taking place in concert with the National Security Agency’s parallel, but less visible efforts. (Biden was no foe of the NSA. He once described now-retired NSA director Bobby Ray Inman as the “single most competent man in the government.”)

Biden’s bill — and the threat of encryption being outlawed — is what spurred Phil Zimmermann to write PGP, thereby kicking off a historic debate about export controls, national security, and privacy. Zimmermann, who’s now busy developing Zfone, says it was Biden’s legislation “that led me to publish PGP electronically for free that year, shortly before the measure was defeated after vigorous protest by civil libertarians and industry groups.”

While neither of Biden’s pair of bills became law, they did foreshadow the FBI’s pro-wiretapping, anti-encryption legislative strategy that followed — and demonstrated that the Delaware senator was willing to be a reliable ally of law enforcement on the topic. (They also previewed the FBI’s legislative proposal later that decade for banning encryption products such as SSH or PGP without government backdoors, which was approved by one House of Representatives committee but never came to a vote in the Senate.)

“Joe Biden made his second attempt to introduce such legislation” in the form of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which was also known as the Digital Telephony law, according to an account in Wired magazine. Biden at the time was chairman of the relevant committee; he co-sponsored the Senate version and dutifully secured a successful floor vote on it less than two months after it was introduced. CALEA became law in October 1994, and is still bedeviling privacy advocates: the FBI recently managed to extend its requirements to Internet service providers.

CALEA represented one step in the FBI and NSA’s attempts to restrict encryption without backdoors. In a top-secret memo to members of President George H.W. Bush’s administration including Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and CIA director Robert Gates, one White House official wrote: “Justice should go ahead now to seek a legislative fix to the digital telephony problem, and all parties should prepare to follow through on the encryption problem in about a year. Success with digital telephony will lock in one major objective; we will have a beachhead we can exploit for the encryption fix; and the encryption access options can be developed more thoroughly in the meantime.”

There’s another reason why Biden’s legislative tactics in the CALEA scrum amount to more than a mere a footnote in Internet history. They’re what led to the creation of the Center for Democracy and Technology — and the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s simultaneous implosion and soul-searching.

EFF staffers Jerry Berman and Danny Weitzner chose to work with Biden on cutting a deal and altering the bill in hopes of obtaining privacy concessions. It may have helped, but it also left the EFF in the uncomfortable position of leaving its imprimatur on Biden’s FBI-backed wiretapping law universally loathed by privacy advocates. The debacle ended with internal turmoil, Berman and Weitzner leaving the group and taking their corporate backers to form CDT, and a chastened EFF that quietly packed its bags and moved to its current home in San Francisco. (Weitzner, who was responsible for a censorship controversy last year, became a formal Obama campaign surrogate.)

“Anti-terror” legislation
The next year, months before the Oklahoma City bombing took place, Biden introduced another bill called the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995. It previewed the 2001 Patriot Act by allowing secret evidence to be used in prosecutions, expanding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and wiretap laws, creating a new federal crime of “terrorism” that could be invoked based on political beliefs, permitting the U.S. military to be used in civilian law enforcement, and allowing permanent detection of non-U.S. citizens without judicial review. The Center for National Security Studies said the bill would erode “constitutional and statutory due process protections” and would “authorize the Justice Department to pick and choose crimes to investigate and prosecute based on political beliefs and associations.”

Biden himself draws parallels between his 1995 bill and its 2001 cousin. “I drafted a terrorism bill after the Oklahoma City bombing. And the bill John Ashcroft sent up was my bill,” he said when the Patriot Act was being debated, according to the New Republic, which described him as “the Democratic Party’s de facto spokesman on the war against terrorism.”

Biden’s chronology is not accurate: the bombing took place in April 1995 and his bill had been introduced in February 1995. But it’s true that Biden’s proposal probably helped to lay the groundwork for the Bush administration’s Patriot Act.

In 1996, Biden voted to keep intact an ostensibly anti-illegal immigration bill that outlined what the Real ID Act would become almost a decade later. The bill would create a national worker identification registry; Biden voted to kill an Abraham-Feingold amendment that would have replaced the registry with stronger enforcement. According to an analysis by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the underlying bill would have required “states to place Social Security numbers on drivers licenses and to obtain fingerprints or some other form of biometric identification for licenses.”

Along with most of his colleagues in the Congress — including Sen. John McCain but not Rep. Ron Paul — Biden voted for the Patriot Act and the Real ID Act (which was part of a larger spending bill). Obama voted for the bill containing the Real ID Act, but wasn’t in the U.S. Senate in 2001 when the original Patriot Act vote took place.

Patriot Act
In the Senate debate over the Patriot Act in October 2001, Biden once again allied himself closely with the FBI. The Justice Department favorably quotes Biden on its Web site as saying: “The FBI could get a wiretap to investigate the mafia, but they could not get one to investigate terrorists. To put it bluntly, that was crazy! What’s good for the mob should be good for terrorists.”

The problem is that Biden’s claim was simply false — which he should have known after a decade of experience lending his name to wiretapping bills on behalf of the FBI. As CDT explains in a rebuttal to Biden: “The Justice Department had the ability to use wiretaps, including roving taps, in criminal investigations of terrorism, just as in other criminal investigations, long before the Patriot Act.”

But Biden’s views had become markedly less FBI-friendly by April 2007, six years later. By then, the debate over wiretapping had become sharply partisan, pitting Democrats seeking to embarrass President Bush against Republicans aiming to defend the administration at nearly any cost. In addition, Biden had announced his presidential candidacy three months earlier and was courting liberal activists dismayed by the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping.

That month, Biden slammed the “president’s illegal wiretapping program that allows intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on the conversations of Americans without a judge’s approval or congressional authorization or oversight.” He took aim at Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for allowing the FBI to “flagrantly misuse National Security Letters” — even though it was the Patriot Act that greatly expanded their use without also expanding internal safeguards and oversight as well.

Biden did vote against a FISA bill with retroactive immunity for any telecommunications provider that illegally opened its network to the National Security Agency; Obama didn’t. Both agreed to renew the Patriot Act in March 2006, a move that pro-privacy Democrats including Ron Wyden and Russ Feingold opposed. The ACLU said the renewal “fails to correct the most flawed provisions” of the original Patriot Act. (Biden does do well on the ACLU’s congressional scorecard.)

“Baby-food bombs”
The ACLU also had been at odds with Biden over his efforts to censor bomb-making information on the Internet. One day after a bomb in Saudi Arabia killed several U.S. servicemen and virtually flattened a military base, Biden pushed to make posting bomb-making information on the Internet a felony, punishable by up to 20 years in jail, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

“I think most Americans would be absolutely shocked if they knew what kind of bone-chilling information is making its way over the Internet,” he told the Senate. “You can access detailed, explicit instructions on how to make and detonate pipe bombs, light-bulb bombs, and even — if you can believe it — baby-food bombs.”

Biden didn’t get exactly what he wanted — at least not right away. His proposal was swapped in the final law for one requiring the attorney general to investigate “the extent to which the First Amendment protects such material and its private and commercial distribution.” The report was duly produced, concluding that the proposal “can withstand constitutional muster in most, if not all, of its possible applications, if such legislation is slightly modified.”

It was. Biden and co-sponsor Dianne Feinstein introduced their bill again the following year. Biden pitched it as an anti-terror measure, saying in a floor debate that numerous terrorists “have been found in possession of bomb-making manuals and Internet bomb-making information.” He added: “What is even worse is that some of these instructions are geared toward kids. They tell kids that all the ingredients they need are right in their parents’ kitchen or laundry cabinets.”

Biden’s proposal became law in 1997. It didn’t amount to much: four years after its enactment, there had been only one conviction. And instead of being used to snare a dangerous member of Al Qaeda, the law was used to lock up a 20-year old anarchist Webmaster who was sentenced to one year in prison for posting information about Molotov cocktails and “Drano bombs” on his Web site, Raisethefist.com.

Today there are over 10,000 hits on Google for the phrase, in quotes, “Drano bomb.” One is a video that lists the necessary ingredients and shows some self-described rednecks blowing up small plastic bottles in their yard. Then there’s the U.S. Army’s Improvised Munitions Handbook with instructions on making far more deadly compounds, including methyl nitrate dynamite, mortars, grenades, and C-4 plastic explosive — which free speech activists placed online as an in-your-face response to the Biden-Feinstein bill.

Peer-to-peer networks
Since then, Biden has switched from complaining about Internet baby-food bombs to taking aim at peer-to-peer networks. He held one Foreign Relations committee hearing in February 2002 titled “Theft of American Intellectual Property” and invited executives from the Justice Department, RIAA, MPAA, and Microsoft to speak. Not one Internet company, P2P network, or consumer group was invited to testify.

Afterwards, Sharman Networks (which distributes Kazaa) wrote a letter to Biden complaining about “one-sided and unsubstantiated attacks” on P2P networks. It said: “We are deeply offended by the gratuitous accusations made against Kazaa by witnesses before the committee, including ludicrous attempts to associate an extremely beneficial, next-generation software program with organized criminal gangs and even terrorist organizations.”

Biden returned to the business of targeting P2P networks this year. In April, he proposed spending $1 billion in U.S. tax dollars so police can monitor peer-to-peer networks for illegal activity. He made that suggestion after a Wyoming cop demonstrated a proof-of-concept program called “Operation Fairplay” at a hearing before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.

A month later, the Senate Judiciary committee approved a Biden-sponsored bill that would spend over $1 billion on policing illegal Internet activity, mostly child pornography. It has the dubious virtue of being at least partially redundant: One section would “prohibit the broadcast of live images of child abuse,” even though the Justice Department has experienced no problems in securing guilty pleas for underage Webcamming. (The bill has not been voted on by the full Senate.)

Online sales of Robitussin
Around the same time, Biden introduced his self-described Biden Crime Bill of 2007. One section expands electronic surveillance law to permit police wiretaps in “crimes dangerous to the life, limb, and well-being of minor children.” Another takes aim at Internet-based telemedicine and online pharmacies, saying that physicians must have conducted “at least one in-person medical evaluation of the patient” to prescribe medicine.

Another prohibits selling a product containing dextromethorphan — including Robitussin, Sucrets, Dayquil, and Vicks — “to an individual under the age of 18 years, including any such sale using the Internet.” It gives the Justice Department six months to come up with regulations, which include when retailers should be fined for shipping cough suppressants to children. (Biden is a longtime drug warrior; he authored the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act that the Bush administration used to shut down benefit concerts.)

Net neutrality
On Net neutrality, Biden has sounded skeptical. In 2006, he indicated that no preemptive laws were necessary because if violations do happen, such a public outcry will develop that “the chairman will be required to hold this meeting in this largest room in the Capitol, and there will be lines wandering all the way down to the White House.” Obama, on the other hand, has been a strong supporter of handing pre-emptive regulatory authority to the Federal Communications Commission.

Tommy Chong: Biden ’authored the bill that put me in jail’

KXMB
August 24, 2008

It turns out that Obama’s new running mate is one of the leading crusaders in the war on drugs. Which isn’t something that’s likely to sit well with Obama’s base of young, college-aged supporters

Earlier this week, in an interview with the Washington Post, Tommy Chong was asked what the average citizen can do to further the cause of decriminalization. “Check out the people you’re voting for,” Chong replied. “For instance, Joseph Biden comes off as a liberal Democrat, but he’s the one who authored the bill that put me in jail. He wrote the law against shipping drug paraphernalia through the mail – which could be anything from a pipe to a clip or cigarette papers.”

Barack Obama’s V.P. selection Sen. Joe Biden also spnsored the Rave Act, which targets music events where drug use is allegedly prevalent.

Read Full Article Here

Experts: Many Americans Lost Homes Due to a Bill Championed by Biden
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5670703&page=1

Barack Obama: The Next PRESIDENT Is Joe Biden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RElChQ6g2Io

VP Choice Biden Unpopular in Iraq: He’s creator of the idea of dividing Iraq
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnLN96984.html

Biden’s Bill: The Patriot Act
http://www.tnr.com/columnist..582-b6ec-444834c9df73&k=93697

Biden called for unilateral Iraq invasion – in 1998
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5492

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Senators: FBI rules could target innocent people

August 26, 2008, 5:04 pm
Filed under: 1984, 1st amendment, 4th amendment, arlen specter, Big Brother, bill of rights, Control Grid, Department of justice, DOJ, FBI, free speech, mukasey, orwell, Patrick Leahy, privacy rights, racial profiling, Racism, Senate, stasi, stasi tactics, Surveillance, US Constitution, War On Terror | Tags: Dick Durbin, edward m. kennedy, Russ Feingold, sheldon whitehouse

Senators: FBI rules could target innocent people

AP
August 20, 2008

Proposed rules to help the FBI catch terrorists could lead to innocent Americans being spied upon by government agents or informants “all without any basis for suspicion,” a group of Democratic senators said Wednesday.

The rules, known as the attorney general guidelines, have not been approved or even publicly released yet, but four Democrats joined a growing chorus of lawmakers raising concerns after being briefed on what the guidelines say.

Among their fears: Americans could be targeted in part based on their race, ethnicity or religion — or free speech activities protected by the Constitution.

“As you know, attorney general guidelines were first implemented in the wake of the FBI abuses of the 1960s and 1970s, and serve as one of the most important bulwarks against future abuses,” the senators said in a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

The four Democrats — Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island — indicated they remained concerned even after assurances from officials during the Justice Department briefings.

The lawmakers asked Mukasey to hold off finalizing the rules to allow a public review.

“Given the importance of these guidelines, providing a period of time for public comment would be a reasonable and responsible way to move forward and achieve the best possible end result,” the Democrats wrote.

Earlier this week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the panel’s top Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, also called for delaying the guidelines.

Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the department will review the requests. Citing remarks earlier by Mukasey about the new rules, the spokesman said an investigation would not be opened based solely on a person’s race, ethnicity or religion.

“The guidelines will require all activities to have a valid purpose,” Roehrkasse said, adding that the rules will “include robust and effective oversight measures.”

The guidelines are expected to be finalized next week. They do not require congressional approval.

First reported last month by The Associated Press, the rules are intended to update policies governing investigations as the FBI shifts from a traditional crime-fighting agency to one whose top priority is protecting the United States from terrorist attacks.

Currently, the FBI must have evidence or allegations of wrongdoing before opening an investigation of U.S. citizens or legal residents from other countries. As described by some law enforcement officials, the new policy would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the rules, said factors that could trigger an inquiry would include travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity and access to weapons or military training, along with the person’s race or ethnicity.

Following their briefings, the four Democrats said the guidelines would:

_Let the FBI use “a variety of intrusive investigative techniques” with no evidence of possible wrongdoing. The techniques could include: long-term FBI surveillance, interviewing neighbors and work-mates, recruiting informants and searching commercial databases for information on people “all without any basis for suspicion.”

“We are particularly concerned that the draft guidelines might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities,” the senators wrote.

_Allow the government to collect foreign intelligence information inside the United States without current legal protections for U.S. citizens or legal residents. The senators noted that the broad term “foreign intelligence” would cover any information relating to the activities of a foreign government, organization or person.

_Allow the information gathered to be broadly shared among government agencies. “We have serious questions about the scope of information sharing as it relates to U.S. persons who are under no suspicion of wrongdoing,” the senators wrote.

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Government to Share Info on Americans With Police

August 17, 2008, 7:04 pm
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, Big Brother, Control Grid, data mining, Department of justice, DHS, DOJ, Executive Order, FBI, George Bush, Homeland Security, nanny state, neocons, NSA, Oppression, Police State, privacy rights, Spy, Surveillance, US Constitution, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap

Government to Share Info on Americans With Police

Washington Post
August 16, 2008

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

The proposed changes would revise the federal government’s rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation’s 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.

Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.

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Bush’s Political Enemies Put on No-Fly List

August 17, 2008, 5:00 pm
Filed under: 2004 election, Airport Security, al-qaeda, Child Abuse, CNN, Congress, Department of justice, DHS, Dictatorship, DOJ, Empire, FBI, George Bush, Homeland Security, House, Karl Rove, Media, michael chertoff, national guard, neocons, Senate, TSA, War On Terror | Tags: drew griffin, jim moore

Bush’s Political Enemies Put on No-Fly List

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np5s2y-OPzE

7-Year Old Put On Terror Watch List
http://www.news.com.au/adelai..0,22606,24147755-5006301,00.html

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Handwriting Analysis Fails to Link Ivins to Anthrax Letters

August 8, 2008, 2:19 pm
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 Mysteries, 9/11 Truth, anthrax, Bio Weapons, biochemicals, Biological Attack, biological warfare, Department of justice, DOJ, False Flag, FBI, Fort Detrick, inside job, lone nut, Military, State Sponsored Terrorism, War On Terror | Tags: handwriting analysis, polygraph

Handwriting Analysis Fails to Link Ivins to Anthrax Letters

World Net Daily
August 7, 2008

Casting further doubt on the FBI’s anthrax case, accused government scientist Bruce Ivins passed two polygraph tests and a handwriting analysis comparing samples of his handwriting to writing contained in the anthrax letters, U.S. officials familiar with the investigation say.

The Justice Department yesterday closed the case, announcing the late “Dr. Ivins was the only person responsible for these attacks.”

Ivins passed the first polygraph to satisfy a security requirement prior to working with the FBI as part of a team of scientists at the Fort Detrick, Md., lab who originally helped analyze the anthrax letters. He passed a second exam after he became a suspect.

WND has learned that the FBI was so frustrated with the exam results that last October authorities asked a judge for permission to search Ivins’ home and vehicles specifically for evidence of any materials, such as books, that would have helped him “defeat a polygraph.”

Also, officials confirm that FBI handwriting analysts were unable to conclusively match samples of Ivins’ handwriting with the writing on the anthrax envelopes and letters, which sounded as if they were written by jihadist accomplices of the 9/11 hijackers. The crude notes declared: “DEATH TO AMERICA. DEATH TO ISRAEL. ALLAH IS GREAT.”

Investigators also failed to uncover other critical evidence linking Ivins directly to the letters. For instance:

No textile fibers were found in his office, residence or vehicles matching fibers found on the scotch tape used to seal the envelopes;
No pens were found matching the ink used to address the envelopes;
Samples of his hair failed to match hair follicles found inside the Princeton, N.J., mailbox used to mail the letters.

Also, no souvenirs of the crime, such as newspaper clippings, were found in his possession as commonly seen in serial murder cases.

What’s more, the FBI could not place Ivins at the crime scene with evidence, such as gas station or other receipts, at the time the letters were mailed in September and October 2001.

While acknowledging the circumstantial nature of their case against Ivins, prosecutors argue they’re confident they would have been able to prove his guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt” in court.

They say they used new forensic technology to narrow the deadly spores used in the attacks down to a batch stored in Ivins’ lab. However, they concede that more than 100 other people – including some Arab-American scientists – had access to the batch and that the virulent Ames strain was found elsewhere.

Read Full Article Here

Should ABC News reveal its anonymous sources?
http://bloggasm.com/should-abc-news-reveal-its-anonymous-sources-2

DOJ: Ivins Alone Caused Anthrax Attack
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2..t=As8JxOsHyuberdeQck6d0oOWwvIE

Questions about the Anthrax Suspect and His Interactions with Mental Health Professionals
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.c..s-about-anthrax-suspect-and-his.html

The Real “Anthrax Killer” Caught on Security Camera
http://noworldsystem.com/2008..r-caught-on-security-camera/

Army Scientist Accused of Anthrax ’Commits Suicide’
http://noworldsystem.com/2008/..%e2%80%99commits-suicide%e2%80%99/

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The Real “Anthrax Killer” Caught on Security Camera

August 5, 2008, 2:47 pm
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 Mysteries, 9/11 Truth, aids, al-qaeda, anthrax, army, Bio Weapons, biochemicals, Biological Attack, biological attack military, biological warfare, Department of justice, DOJ, False Flag, FBI, Fort Detrick, inside job, Israel, jews, lone nut, man made diseases, maryland, Military, Mossad, muslim, neocons, Patriot Act, Propaganda, Racism, State Sponsored Terrorism, Surveillance, us army, USAMRIID, virginia, War On Terror, White House, Zionism | Tags: chris murray, Cipro, Dr. Ayaad Assaad, Dr. Marian Rippy, dr. philip zack, Dr. Steven Hatfill, FAS, federation of american scientists, hanta virus, Lt. Col. Michael Langford, Lt. Col. Philip Zack, Marian Rippy, michael fury, Michael Langford, mike rivero, Paul F. Kemp, philip zack, Steven Hatfill, Subpoena, Thomas M. DeGonia, tom daschle, United States Army Medical Research Institute

The Real “Anthrax Killer” Caught on Security Camera
Surveillance tape shows Dr. Philip Zack entering Fort Detrick laboratory containing the Anthrax spores after he was fired for racist attacks on an Egyptian co-worker.

Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
February 22, 2002

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAYMd3RjFBk

Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ chemical and biological weapons program, says the US government has “a strong hunch” about who is behind the anthrax letters, but is “dragging its feet” in the investigation because the chief suspect is a former government scientist with knowledge of “secret activities that the government would not like to see disclosed.” Rosenberg has written a very interesting analysis of the anthrax attacks that leads to one and only one ineluctable conclusion: that the chief culprit was not some Arab terrorist, associated with Al Qaeda or similar groups, but an American, a former US government employee – one who, furthermore, is a middle-aged “insider” in the biodefense field, with a doctoral degree, who probably worked in the USAMRIID laboratory, at Fort Detrick, Maryland, still has access – and had some dispute with a government agency.

Furthermore, given the information compiled by Rosenberg, and with the aid of Google.com, anyone with computer access can identify by name the person or persons in possession of the key to unlocking the mystery of the anthrax attack.

The strain of weaponized anthrax used in the attacks narrows the search for the perpetrator(s) down to a few US labs: but law enforcement agencies have yet to issue a single subpoena for employee records at the four labs with a history of working with this strain. We know about the anthrax letters, of course, and the several hoax letters, but a major clue in this investigation is an anonymous letter, sent before the anthrax hysteria, in late September, to the military police at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, accusing a US government bio-engineer, Egyptian-born Dr. Ayaad Assaad, of being behind a bio-terrorist plot. The letter-writer revealed a detailed knowledge of Dr. Assaad’s life and work at USAMRIID, including details of his personal life that only someone who worked with him could have possibly known: indeed, the poison-pen author claimed to have formerly worked with Dr. Assaad.

While FBI spokesman Chris Murray confirmed that Assaad was not under suspicion, he also stated to reporters that the FBI is not trying to find out who sent the anonymous hate-letter – which the FBI won’t show to Assaad. The odd timing of the letter – sent after the anthrax letters were mailed, but before their deadly contents were known – doesn’t even have them mildly curious.

Rosenberg believes that the poison-pen missive was written by the real perpetrator of the anthrax attacks, who sought to ride the wave of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim hysteria that swept the nation after 9/11. This also fits the pattern of masquerade that characterizes the anthrax letters to NBC, Daschle, Leahy, et al, with their anti-Israel, pro-Muslim slogans neatly printed in block letters. Indeed, the one thread that seems to run throughout this story is anti-Arab animus, as the astonishing – and truly frightening – story of what happened at Ft. Detrick in the early 1990s makes all too clear….

Things were turning up missing at USAMRIID, and Lt. Col. Michael Langford was baffled. He suspected that someone was tampering with records, perhaps in order to conduct unauthorized research. He told a lab technician to “make a list of everything that was missing,” and ” it turned out that there was quite a bit of stuff that was unaccounted for,” 27 sets of specimens, including anthrax, hanta virus, simian AIDS virus “and two that were labeled ’unknown’ – an Army euphemism for classified research whose subject was secret,” as this chilling Hartford Courant story by Jack Dolan and Dave Altimari puts it. One set of specimens has since been found: the rest are still missing….

An investigation was launched that exposed the shockingly lax security measures at the lab, and raised the possibility that some specimens may never have been entered in lab records. Also uncovered was a tape from a surveillance camera showing the entry of an unauthorized person into the lab, at 8:40, on January 23, 1992, let in by Dr. Marian Rippy, lab pathologist. The night visitor was Lt. Col. Philip Zack, a former employee who had left as a result of a dispute with the lab over his alleged harassment of Dr. Assaad. The Courant reports:

“Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991, after a controversy over allegations of unprofessional behavior by Zack, Rippy, [lab technician Charles] Brown and others who worked in the pathology division. They had formed a clique that was accused of harassing the Egyptian-born Assaad, who later sued the Army, claiming discrimination.”

Read Full Article Here

Attorneys for Bruce Ivins Respond to Client’s Suicide

The Wall Street Jounal
August 1, 2008

Earlier today, we noted the suicide of Bruce Ivins, a biodefense researcher who the DOJ was close to filing criminal charges against. Ivins, 62, was a leading military anthrax researcher who worked for the past 18 years at the government’s biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Ivins had reportedly been told of the impending prosecution. For their part, the prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty against Ivins.

This afternoon, Ivins’ attorneys at Venable, Paul F. Kemp and Thomas M. DeGonia, released the following statement:

“For more than a year, we have been privileged to represent Dr. Bruce Ivins during the investigation of the anthrax deaths of September and October of 2001. For six years, Dr. Ivins fully cooperated with that investigation, assisting the government in every way that was asked of him. He was a world-renowned and highly decorated scientist who served his country for over 33 years with the Department of the Army. We are saddened by his death, and disappointed that we will not have the opportunity to defend his good name and reputation in a court of law. We assert his innocence in these killings, and would have established that at trial. The relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo takes its toll in different ways on different people, as has already been seen in this investigation. In Dr. Ivins’ case, it led to his untimely death. . . .”

Army Scientist Bruce E. Ivins Accused of Anthrax ’Commits Suicide’
http://noworldsystem.com/2008/08/0..%80%99commits-suicide%e2%80%99/

Scientists Question FBI Probe On Anthrax
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-..008080201632.html?nav=hcmodule

FBI was told to blame Anthrax scare on Al Qaeda by White House officials
http://www.nydailynews.com/n..s_told_to_blame_anthrax_scare_on_a.html

Washington Post Scrubs Own Story Questioning Case Against ’Anthrax Killer’
http://www.democraticunderground…_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3725177

Mounting questions over US anthrax probe and scientist’s alleged suicide
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/anth-a04.shtml

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Iraqi detainees put in wooden crates

August 4, 2008, 1:28 pm
Filed under: 9/11, ACLU, Baghdad, Britain, Centcom, CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, Department of justice, Detainee, Dick Cheney, DOJ, Europe, european union, Extraordinary Rendition, federal crime, FOIA, Geneva Convention, Habeas Corpus, human rights, Impeach, interrogation, Iraq, john ashcroft, london, Mi5, Military, Nancy Pelosi, nation building, occupation, rendition, Torture, Troops, United Kingdom, War Crimes, War On Terror, waterboarding, White House | Tags: diego garcia, indian ocean, island of diego garcia, prisoner boxes, wooden crates

Iraqi detainees put in wooden crates

The Memory Hole
July 23, 2008

In Iraq, some prisoners/detainees are kept in wooden crates known as “prisoner boxes,” so I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the US Central Command asking for the following:

“Vanity Fair (Feb 2005 issue) has reported the existence of wood “prisoner boxes” being used by the US military in facilities in and around Baghdad. They are used to hold individual prisoners and detainees.

“I hereby request all photographs of these boxes, including empty boxes as well as boxes holding prisoners and detainees.”

Around nine and a half months later, CentCom responded by sending the three photographs on this page.

See Full Resolution Images

Another Secret Terror War Prison Found

Huffington Post
August 1, 2008

The existence of a secret, CIA-run prison on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean has long been a leaky secret in the “War on Terror,” and recent revelations in TIME — based on disclosures by a “senior American official,” who was “a frequent participant in White House Situation Room meetings” after the 9/11 attacks, and who reported that “a CIA counter-terrorism official twice said that a high-value prisoner or prisoners were being interrogated on the island” — will come as no surprise to those who have been studying the story closely.

The news will, however, be an embarrassment to the US government, which has persistently denied claims that it operated a secret “War on Terror” prison on Diego Garcia, and will be a source of even more consternation to the British government, which is more closely bound than its law-shredding Transatlantic neighbor to international laws and treaties preventing any kind of involvement whatsoever in kidnapping, “extraordinary rendition” and the practice of torture.

Read Full Article Here

2002 DOJ Memos OKed Torture
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/..6my6QSyHcMGDyb_qe2WwvIE

ACLU: Memos authorized CIA torture
http://rawstory.com//news/2008/A..horized_CIA_torture_0724.html

Former Gitmo Prosecutor Says Trials Rigged
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/2008/07/former-gitmo-prosecutor-says-t.html

MI5 Outsourced Torture
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/15/humanrights.civilliberties

`Terrorist’ Loses 60 Pounds on Cheney Torture Diet
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/new..8&sid=as7YVr4Wamak&refer=home

Why Pelosi won’t impeach: She knew about the torture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w88NXHsgi08

Ashcroft: Waterboarding ‘Consistently’ Seen As Legal, Refuses To Say Use On U.S. Troops Is ‘Unacceptable’
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/17/ashcroft-torture/

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White House caught providing ’talking points’ to Fox News

August 2, 2008, 3:47 pm
Filed under: Afghanistan, Alberto Gonzales, brainwashing, Chris Matthews, Conditioning, Department of justice, DOJ, Fox News, Hardball, Iraq, Keith Olbermann, Media, Media Fear, MSNBC, nation building, neocons, occupation, Propaganda, Psyops, Scott Mcclellan, War On Terror, White House | Tags: talking points

White House caught violating anti-propaganda laws, provided ’talking points’ to Fox News

Blue Tidalwave
July 29, 2008

Last week former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan appeared on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” and said the White House distributed “talking points” to friendly Fox journalists.

McClellan’s confirmation of an operation inside the White House of providing comprehensive talking points to Fox News and other Conservative talk show personalities to manipulate the media and control the message regarding the Iraq War and the “war on terror” is a violation of anti-propaganda laws. By law the government sources must be disclosed by the reporting news outlets.

Yesterday a report prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general and its internal ethics office found that a few aides to Alberto Gonzales and White House officials were actively involved in hiring decisions for non political positions at the DOJ. Being a loyal Republican was the main criteria for being hired, not education or experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7SzFzXpQHY

Read Full Article Here

Olbermann admits White House gave him talking points in 2004

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huIIMBx7SHo

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Judiciary Committee approves contempt charge for Karl Rove

August 1, 2008, 2:35 pm
Filed under: Congress, Department of justice, Dictatorship, DOJ, Empire, federal crime, judiciary committee, Karl Rove, Media, MSNBC, Nancy Pelosi, scandal, Valerie Plame, War Crimes, White House | Tags: contempt, linda sanchez, pelosi, Subpoena

Judiciary Committee approves contempt charge for Karl Rove

Raw Story
July 30, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92acw7K9E3s

The House Judiciary Committee has voted 20-14 to approve a contempt of Congress resolution against former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for his failure to appear after a Congressional subpoena.

Voting along party lines Wednesday morning, the committee said Rove broke the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats.

The committee decision is a recommendation. It remains unclear whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will allow a final vote.

Rove has denied any involvement with Justice Department decisions, and the White House has said Congress has no authority to compel testimony from current and former advisers.

Yesterday afternoon, a coalition of groups including CREDO Mobile, People For the American Way, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, The Nation, Campaign for America’s Future, and Progress Now, delivered a petition calling for Rove’s contempt to Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA).

“I think it’s ridiculous that Karl Rove thinks that he doesn’t have to follow the law,” Sanchez said in a release. “Nobody in this country should be above the law.”

Excerpts from the markup memo of the resolution sent to reporters follows. Rove was overseas at the time of the hearing and alleged that the trip had been planned in advance.

Read Full Article Here

Turd Blossom runs from questions of contempt charge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPCzXdASNaQ

White House Aides Can Be Supoenaed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080731/ap_on_go..JcgnmYSjQCF2wPIE

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DOJ lawyer says lunatics running the country

July 28, 2008, 10:59 am
Filed under: Abu Ghraib, Department of justice, Detainee, Dick Cheney, Dictatorship, DOJ, Empire, Extraordinary Rendition, George Bush, Guantanamo, intimidation, neocons, rendition, Torture, White House

DOJ lawyer says lunatics running the country

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DstuXsPKqeU

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4 arrested for attempting citizens arrest on Karl Rove

July 26, 2008, 2:16 pm
Filed under: ABC, Afghanistan, afghanistan deaths, CIA, citizen's arrest, CNN, Department of justice, Dictatorship, Dissent, DOJ, Empire, federal crime, George Bush, House, House Subcommittee, Iowa, Iraq, iraq deaths, judiciary committee, Karl Rove, Media, MSNBC, nation building, neocons, occupation, Protest, scandal, Troops, Valerie Plame, War Crimes | Tags: contempt, roy sekoff, Subpoena

4 arrested for attempting citizens arrest on Karl Rove

Iowa Politics
July 25, 2008

Four Iowans were arrested today while attempting to make a Citizens’ Arrest of Karl Rove in Des Moines, Iowa. Citing Iowa Code provisions for making Citizen’s Arrests as well as citing Federal Statute violations they claimed Rove had violated, the four were stopped at the gate of the Wakonda Country Club in Des Moines where Rove was scheduled to speak at a Republican Fundraiser.

The four arrested were retired Methodist minister and Peace and Justice Advocate, Rev. Chet Guinn, 80, as well as three Des Moines Catholic Workers, Edward Bloomer, 61, Kirk Brown, 25, and Mona Shaw, 57. All four were cited for trespassing and released.

The four maintained that they were acting within the guidelines of Iowa Code that obligate private citizens to make such an arrest if they believe a felony has been committed and turn Rove over to police officials to bring Rove before a judge for formal indictment. By law, a federal judge should consider the charges and determine if an indictment should be made.

Brown and Shaw made a similar attempt last March when Rove spoke at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Brown and Shaw were arrested and released without charges following that attempt. Deaths in the Middle East since the March attempt number in the thousands including, 151 more US troops have been killed in Iraq, and 284 killed in Afghanistan as well as far more citizens of those two nations.

Rove remains unindicted and recently refused to cooperate with a Congressional subpoena in the Valerie Plame leak investigation. Despite mounting evidence of Rove’s wrongdoing concerning leading the U.S. to war as well as other actions, Congress and the U.S. judicial system remain reluctant to bring charges against either Rove or the Bush administration. Recent evidence includes Articles of Impeachment that will again be presented by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich tomorrow. Vincent Bugliosi’s new book “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder” carefully lays out a case against Bush and his administration for war crimes and felony murder. Bugliosi was prosecutor for the Charles Manson Family murders and author of the book “Helter Skelter,” which dealt with that crime.

To date there have been 4125 US Military deaths in Iraq, 896 in Afghanistan, 66,775 casualties (wounded as well as those removed for other injuries and illnesses), and more than 200,000 Iraqi and Afghani citizens killed and many, many more wounded.

Karl Rove should be in jail for contempt

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BWQ5ZMnz25I

Rove refuses subpoena, leaves country
http://noworldsystem.com/2008/..es-subpoena-leaves-country/

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McCain Fundraiser Funded Columbian Terrorist Organization

July 4, 2008, 1:59 pm
Filed under: 2008 Election, colombia, Department of justice, DOJ, GOP, John McCain, Military, Military Industrial Complex, neocons, Nicaragua, War On Terror | Tags: daniel ortega, thad cochran, united self-defense of colombia

McCain Fundraiser Funded Columbian Terrorist Organization

Nico Pitney
Huffington Post
July 2, 2008

The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for Sen. John McCain oversaw the payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group that is today designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati businessman, was CEO of Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the company’s board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University’s National Security Archive as an “illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country’s most notorious civilian massacres.”

Following a Justice Department indictment last year, Chiquita admitted to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita’s payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001.

According to the Justice Department, the payments “were reviewed and approved by senior executives” of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September 2000 “that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization.”

Late last week, Lindner co-hosted a $25,000-per-person fundraiser for McCain and the Republican Party in the wealthy Indian Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. The event raised about $2 million; Lindner also serves on McCain’s Ohio Victory Team.

Read Full Article Here

GOP senator: McCain roughed up Nicaraguan

Washington Times
July 2, 2008

One of John McCain’s Republican colleagues says he saw the presumed GOP presidential nominee roughly grab an associate of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and lift him out of his chair during a diplomatic mission to the Central American nation in 1987.

A former McCain aide who was along on the mission said he doesn’t recall an incident like the one described by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.

Cochran said he saw McCain, who has a reputation for being hot tempered, rough up an Ortega associate during a trip to Nicaragua led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas.

Read Full Article Here

McCain wants much larger U.S. military
http://www.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKN0119815920080702

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Justice Department Considers Letting FBI Target Muslims

July 4, 2008, 12:13 pm
Filed under: 9/11, Congress, Department of justice, DHS, DOJ, FBI, George Bush, Homeland Security, racial profiling, War On Terror | Tags: muslim

Justice Department Considers Letting FBI Target Muslims

AP
July 3, 2008

The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.

Law enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do exactly what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: root out terrorists before they strike.

Although President Bush has disavowed targeting suspects based on their race or ethnicity, the new rules would allow the FBI to consider those factors among a number of traits that could trigger a national security investigation.

Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons — like evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated — to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.

Read Full Article Here

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Utility Workers Hired As Stasi Informants

July 4, 2008, 11:56 am
Filed under: 1984, 4th amendment, abc news, ACLU, Arizona, Big Brother, California, CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, colorado, Communism, Control Grid, Denver, Department of justice, DHS, Dictatorship, DOJ, Empire, Fascism, FBI, firefighters, florida, Germany, Hitler, Homeland Security, nanny state, Nazi, paramedics, Police State, stasi, stasi tactics, Surveillance, US Constitution, utility workers, war on drugs, War On Terror, WW2 | Tags: Terrorism Liaison Officers, TLO

Utility Workers Hired As Stasi Informants In Colorado, California, Arizona

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
July 2, 2008

Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as “Terrorism Liaison Officers” in Colorado, Arizona and California to watch for “suspicious activity” which is later fed into a secret government database.

According to a Denver Post report, “It’s a tactic intended to feed better data into terrorism early-warning systems and uncover intelligence that could help fight anti-U.S. forces. But the vague nature of the TLOs’ mission, and their focus on reporting both legal and illegal activity, has generated objections from privacy advocates and civil libertarians.

“Suspicious activity” is broadly defined in TLO training as behavior that could lead to terrorism: taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements or notes, espousing extremist beliefs or conversing in code, according to a draft Department of Justice/Major Cities Chiefs Association document.”

“We don’t snoop into private citizens’ lives. We aren’t living in a communist state,” claims Lt. Tony Lopez, commander of Denver’s intelligence unit – but the program bears close parallels to the East German Stasi system, which at its height employed one informant for every seven citizens.

Democracy Now interviewed the Denver Post writer and an ACLU representative about the program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU-xsQ3Xepw

It is also reminiscent of the supposedly canned 2002 Operation TIPS program, which would have turned 4 per cent of Americans into informants under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department.

TIPS lived on in other guises, such as the Highway Watch program, a $19 billion dollar Homeland Security-run project which trains truckers to watch for suspicious activity on America’s highways.

More recently, ABC News reported that “The FBI is taking cues from the CIA to recruit thousands of covert informants in the United States as part of a sprawling effort…..to aid with criminal investigations.”

Since authorities now define mundane activities like buying baby formula, beer, wearing Levi jeans, carrying identifying documents like a drivers license and traveling with women or children or mentioning the U.S. constitution as the behavior of potential terrorists, the bounty for the American Stasi to turn in political dissidents is sure to be too tempting to resist.

Indeed, last month Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers and the New York Times heartily celebrated the fact that an increasing number of Americans are becoming informants and turning in their neighbors and family members to the authorities in return for cash rewards.

Citing gas prices, foreclosure rates and runaway food price inflation, The Times lauded the fact that citizens are reporting on each other, ensuring “a substantial increase in Crime Stopper-related arrests and recovered property, as callers turn in neighbors, grandchildren or former boyfriends in exchange for a little cash.”

As any budding dictator will tell you, the creation of an informant society where individuals self-regulate their behavior in fear of being turned in by a citizen spy is one of the key stepping stones to tyranny. To have the media celebrate the fact that people are reporting on their neighbors and grandchildren puts the icing on the cake.

Terror watch uses local eyes
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_9732641

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U.S. Media Blackout On Bilderberg 2008

June 7, 2008, 12:43 pm
Filed under: 2008 Election, Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, Alex Jones, Barack Obama, bernanke, bilderberg, Britain, Chicago, Condoleezza Rice, Coup, Daniel Estulin, David Rockefeller, Department of justice, Dianne Feinstein, DOJ, eric schmidt, Europe, european union, False Flag, fannie mae, Federal Reserve, George Bush, global elite, global government, Globalism, google, Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton, International Bankers, Internet 2, Iran, Iraq, jim johnson, jim tucker, logan act, Media, media blackout, military strike, New World Order, obama, Pakistan, paul wolfowitz, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, queen beatrix, Richard Perle, Rick Perry, Robert Zoellick, Russia, secret meetings, Secret Societies, spain, Taxpayers, Tehran, United Kingdom, virginia, War On Terror, Washington D.C., World Bank, ww4 | Tags: ipod, marriott

U.S. Media Blackout On Bilderberg 2008
Condi Rice, Ben Bernanke, Head of Google and many others in attendance

Lee Rogers
Rogue Government
June 6, 2008

The 2008 Bilderberg Meeting is now in full swing at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia, USA but you wouldn’t know it from the media blackout of this event by virtually all mainstream media outlets in the United States. Each year, Bilderberg hosts some of the most powerful people in North America and Europe where these individuals set and shape policies for the world. The 2008 Bilderberg Meeting is slated to run from June 5th through June 8th. Since 1954, Bilderberg has met in secrecy primarily thanks to the intentional lack of media attention paid to it. One would think that an event where over 100 of the most high profile and powerful people from North America and Europe are meeting would receive a great deal of mainstream media attention, but there is virtually none. As a result of the media blackout, only independent journalists and alternative researchers have been covering this event on a year to year basis. Due to a greater amount of attention being paid to this event, a press release on the Bilderberg Meeting was issued from a group that identified themselves as the American Friends of Bilderberg. The press release provides spin on how wonderful Bilderberg is and even provides a contact number that can be used to obtain a list of attendees. The Logan Act states that it is illegal for those holding public office in the United States to attend secret meetings like Bilderberg where policy is set. Regardless, that has not stopped people like Rick Perry from attending the 2007 Bilderberg Meeting as the sitting Texas governor. Jim Tucker, who has covered the Bilderberg meeting for over 30 years, has accurately made future predictions based upon information he has received from moles within Bilderberg. There is no doubt that policy is set at this meeting and quite frankly if you think that some of the most powerful people in the world are getting together just for laughs, you are sorely mistaken.

Below is taken directly from the press release on the Bilderberg Meeting issued by the American Friends of Bilderberg which provides positive spin for the Bilderberg Meeting.

The 56th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Chantilly, Virginia, USA 5 – 8 June 2008. The Conference will deal mainly with a nuclear free world, cyber terrorism, Africa, Russia, finance, protectionism, US-EU relations, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Islam and Iran. Approximately 140 participants will attend, of whom about two-thirds come from Europe and the balance from North America. About one-third is from government and politics, and two-thirds are from finance, industry, labor, education and communications. The meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion.

Bilderberg takes its name from the hotel in Holland, where the first meeting took place in May 1954. That pioneering meeting grew out of the concern expressed by leading citizens on both sides of the Atlantic that Western Europe and North America were not working together as closely as they should on common problems of critical importance. It was felt that regular, off-the-record discussions would help create a better understanding of the complex forces and major trends affecting Western nations in the difficult post-war period. The Cold War has now ended. But in practically all respects, there are more, not fewer, common problems – from trade to jobs, from monetary policy to investment, from ecological challenges to the task of promoting international security. It is hard to think of any major issue in either Europe or North America whose unilateral solution would not have repercussions for the other. Thus the concept of a European-American forum has not been overtaken by time. The dialogue between these two regions is still – even increasingly – critical. What is unique about Bilderberg as a forum, is the broad cross-section of leading citizens that are assembled for nearly three days of informal and off-the-record discussion about topics of current concern especially in the fields of foreign affairs and the international economy; the strong feeling among participants that in view of the differing attitudes and experiences of the Western nations, there remains a clear need to further develop an understanding in which these concerns can be accommodated; the privacy of the meetings, which has no purpose other than to allow participants to speak their minds openly and freely. In short, Bilderberg is a small, flexible, informal and off-the-record international forum in which different viewpoints can be expressed and mutual understanding enhanced.

No where in the press release does it explain why many alternative researchers and independent journalists have been harassed and in many cases threatened in their attempts to cover this meeting. In fact, for many decades there were consistent denials of Bilderberg’s existence so it is quite amazing that they have finally decided to make an official recognition of the meeting. Not only that, but if the meeting really is just an informal discussion to allow its participants to speak openly and freely, than there shouldn’t be any need for threats, harassment and decades of secrecy. The meeting has been kept secret for many years because it is quite obvious that the participants do not want sunlight shone on the meeting’s agenda. This press release is nothing more than a smoke screen to make the average person believe that this is a legitimate meeting when it is not. All of of these very powerful people would not be meeting once a year if there wasn’t a real specific purpose for them to do so.

According to the official list of Bilderberg attendees, there is no doubt that this is the who’s who of elites in the Western world. The list includes the likes of banking and oil tycoon David Rockefeller, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Zoellick, CEO of the Washington Post Donald Graham, Richard Perle, the Queen of Spain and many other incredibly powerful and well known people. Often times the list of Bilderberg attendees does not actually include everyone who makes an appearance.

There is also speculation that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama met at the Bilderberg Meeting yesterday. Jim Johnson the former Fannie Mae CEO and 2008 Bilderberg attendee is one of the individuals tasked to choose Obama’s running mate so an appearance at Bilderberg by Obama and Clinton makes perfect sense. Despite that, the media has been running a story saying that Clinton and Obama met at Senator Dianne Feinstein’s house which flies in the face of logic. There is a distinct possibility that this story is actually cover so Obama and Clinton could briefly attend Bilderberg and possibly work out a deal. Of course, we will probably never know the entire truth. Despite that, both Clinton and Obama were in the Washington DC area yesterday, and Obama’s campaign actually misdirected the press core that follows him. While Obama stayed in the Washington DC area, the media was told to fly out to Chicago only to find out Obama did not fly out with them. Needless to say, the press was not very happy about this. But either way, why all the secrecy if Clinton and Obama are just meeting at Feinstein’s house? The more likely answer is that the secrecy and misdirection was required to conceal the fact that they were actually going to Bilderberg to work something out. If the media tracked down Clinton or Obama to the Bilderberg Meeting, the chances of the mainstream media covering Bilderberg would increase substantially. Currently, several protesters have gathered outside of the Westfields Marriott expressing disgust at the secretive and conspiratorial agenda that these elites have to destroy United States sovereignty and form a centralized world government. There is little doubt that the Bilderberg Meeting would quickly turn into a media circus if mainstream media outlets tracked Obama back to this location.

It remains to be seen what sort of agenda the Bilderberg Group will decide to push forward throughout the next year, but we should find out bits and pieces over the next few weeks and months. The lack of mainstream media coverage of this event is simply incredible especially considering that the American Friends of Bilderberg issued a press release on the meeting. This is more evidence that the mainstream media is run by a bunch of fascist hacks. When over 100 of the most powerful people in the world meet in one location it should be front page news. Instead, the corporate controlled media prefers to focus in on tabloid news stories covering the antics of celebrities and other rubbish. The fact that there has been almost no media coverage of this event in the United States is evidence as to how bought and paid for the corporate controlled media in the United States actually is. Be sure to continue to check out the alternative media for coverage on this very important yearly meeting of the global elite. Simply put, it doesn’t look as if the corporate controlled media has the balls to cover Bilderberg so the alternative media has to do their job for them.

Inside the Bilderberg Hotel

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5mHq4sToXS8

Department of Justice ordered 125 ipods for Bilderberg Group
Your tax dollars at work…

Infowars
June 5, 2008

Infowars has received an anonymous email reporting that the Department of Justice has placed an order for a large number of ipods with “Bilderberg 2008″ engraved on the back and shipping to Chantilly, Virginia, at American tax payer expense. According to the source, the DOJ is “freaking out” because the order will arrive late.

Of course, it should probably come as no surprise a gaggle of global elitists, meeting in secret outside of the District of Criminals to plot their one world agenda, would get engraved iPod freebies. It is, however, yet another indication that a Bilderberg coterie indeed exists and is meeting in Chantilly, Virginia this week. Thanks to Alex Jones, Jim Tucker, Daniel Estulin and others, we have a better understanding of the Bilderberg agenda, never mind the concerted effort of the corporate media to characterize the Bilderbergers as a harmless association of politicians and business types.

Read Full Article Here

Jim Tucker On the Scene at This Year’s Bilderberg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYm0X_-Clck

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Cheney: ’Damn right’ I back Bush use of waterboarding

February 9, 2008, 5:57 am
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 hijackers, 9/11 Truth, Abu Zubaydah, CIA, CNN, Congress, CPAC, Department of justice, Detainee, Dick Cheney, DOJ, Extraordinary Rendition, George Bush, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Impeach, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Michael Mukasey, neocons, Torture, War Crimes, War On Terror, waterboarding, White House, Wolf Blitzer

Cheney: ‘Damn right’ I back Bush use of waterboarding

Raw Story
February 7, 2008

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w2aNncCkSgY

The controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding was a hot topic in a House Judiciary Committee hearing today, at which Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the Justice Department would not investigate the legality of the actions of U.S. interrogators on terror detainees.

CNN’s Situation Room reports that Vice President Dick Cheney, an ardent defender of U.S. tactics in the war on terror, was “defiant” about the use of waterboarding on suspects in an appearance today at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

Cheney said that he supported President Bush’s national security decisions, which included the approval of waterboarding along with other harsh interrogation tactics. “I’ve been proud to stand by [Bush], by the decisions he’s made,” said Cheney, who then asked aloud, “Would I support those decisions today?”

“You’re damn right I would,” he answered himself, to loud cheers.

CIA Chief: We Waterboarded

ABC News
February 5, 2008

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HnI-mu_l9AQ

CIA director Michael Hayden confirmed in an open session of Congress Tuesday his agency’s use of an interrogation technique many consider torture — a technique at the center of a national debate on the treatment of U.S. detainees in the war on terror and in the war in Iraq. In acknowledging that CIA officers and contractors used waterboarding on three “high-value” detainees, Hayden revealed information nearly identical to that shared by a former CIA officer last December with ABC News, which prompted the CIA to request a criminal prosecution. Until Hayden’s comments before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today, no senior U.S. intelligence official had publicly acknowledged the technique. Hayden, who prohibited the practice of waterboarding by CIA agents in 2006, confirmed that his agency waterboarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim Nashiri, in efforts to compel the men to talk. He told senators the agency believed at the time “that additional catastrophic attacks were imminent.” The men told CIA interrogators things that “led to reliable information,” Hayden told reporters after the hearing.

Read Full Article Here

White House Defends Torture Use
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080206/ap..nZq_.f1ms0NUE

Waterboarding is legal, White House says
http://www.latimes..-na-torture7feb07,0,1028317.story

Bush administration acknowledges and defends use of torture technique
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/tort-f07.shtml

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Neocons: 2nd Amendment Has Restrictions

January 18, 2008, 12:33 pm
Filed under: 2nd Amendment, anti gun, Antonin Scalia, Bill Kristol, DOJ, George Bush, Gun Control, neocons, Neolibs, paul clement, paul wolfowitz, supreme court, US Constitution, Washington D.C.

Neocons: 2nd Amendment Has Restrictions

Kurt Nimmo
Truth News
January 15, 2008

Fbiiraqisbein_mn

In Bushzarro world, up is down, black is white, and the Second Amendment permits the government to make firearm possession illegal.

“Since ‘unrestricted’ private ownership of guns clearly threatens the public safety, the 2nd Amendment can be interpreted to allow a variety of gun restrictions, according to the Bush administration,” reports . “The argument was delivered by U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the ongoing arguments over the legality of a District of Columbia ban on handguns in homes, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.”

Clement was an understudy of the neocon Laurence H. Silberman, a federal judge appointed co-chair of the Iraq Intelligence Commission — the official excuse making body designated to minimize the impact of neocon lies about Iraq — and the reactionary Supreme Antonin Scalia, a member of the Federalist Society, a fascist club aligned with the American Enterprise Institute, the CIA asset Richard Mellon Scaife, and a smattering of neocons, including Bill Kristol, the latest edition to the “liberal” New York Times. “Clement clerked for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and worked as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism and Property Rights. He joined the Department of Justice in 2001 and moved into his current position in 2005.”

“Clement is the Bush administration’s chief lawyer before the court, and submitted the arguments in the case that is to determine whether the D.C. limit is constitutional. He said the 2nd Amendment, ‘protects an individual right to possess firearms, including for private purposes unrelated to militia operations,’ and noted the D.C. ban probably goes too far,” WorldNetDaily continues.

However, Clement argues that nothing “in the 2nd Amendment properly understood… calls for invalidation of the numerous federal laws regulating firearms.” In other words, according to Clement and the neocons, you have a right to possess firearms under the Constitution while at the same time the government has the right to make possession of firearms illegal. In Bushzarro world, up is down, black is white, and Orwellian doublethink – the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously – rules the day.

It should come as no surprise the neocons are gun-grabbers while at the same time claiming to be conservatives. “Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” the neocon sock puppet Bush told Republican Congressional leaders back in 2005 when some of them complained about the USA Patriot Act. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

Neocon guru Leo Strauss “abhorred liberal democracy,” not the modern version of lefty liberalism, but classic liberalism, i.e., natural rights of the sort at the bedrock of the Constitution. He engendered this hatred of individual rights in his followers, including Allan Bloom, Henry Jaffa, Irving Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, and many others, a handful now at the very pinnacle of power and pulling Bush’s strings. Strauss’ vision was of “a hierarchical society based on natural inequalities and welded together with the fanatical devotion state religion engenders,” writes Michael Doliner.

Strauss’s political program is designed to counter the ills of liberalism. He believed in, and proposed, a state religion as a way of reviving absolutes, countering free thought, and enforcing a cohesive unity. Strauss argued against a society containing a multiplicity of coexisting religions and goals, which would break the society apart. He thought that ordinary people should not be exposed to reason. To rely on reason is to look into the abyss, for reason provided no comforting absolutes to shield one against the blank sky. Strauss opposed not reason itself, but reason stripped of its secrecy. Reason is for the few, not the many. The Enlightenment, the exposing of reason, was the beginning of the disaster. A reliance on reason, as opposed to religion, produced “modernity” which is nothing more than nihilism made political.

Jeffrey Steinberg expands on this:

The hallmark of Strauss’ approach to philosophy was his hatred of the modern world, his belief in a totalitarian system, run by “philosophers,” who rejected all universal principles of natural law, but saw their mission as absolute rulers, who lied and deceived a foolish “populist” mass, and used both religion and politics as a means of disseminating myths that kept the general population in clueless servitude. For Strauss and all of his protégés (Strauss personally had 100 Ph.D. students, and the “Straussians” now dominate most university political science and philosophy departments), the greatest object of hatred was the United States itself, which they viewed as nothing better than a weak, pathetic replay of “liberal democratic” Weimar Germany.

It stands to reason, then, that the hated, resented, and feared masses should be stripped of all rights, including the bedrock right promised by the Second Amendment, as they may eventually come to their senses, abandon Faux News and propaganda catapulted, storm the castle, and bring the warmongering and liberty hating protégés of Strauss to justice.

As Hitler, Mao, and Stalin realized — in fact as all dictators and tyrants understand — in order to run roughshod over the people and enslave them, you have to disarm them first and foremost.

It is the job of U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement to begin this process.

Public ‘threatened’ by private-firearms ownership
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59674

Bush Administration Backs Gun Control
http://noworldsystem.com/..tration-backs-gun-control/

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