Sunday, October 28, 2012

Loose Tweets Sink Ships

Secret Service Sets up hotline for ‘suspicious’ Web Posts
 
RT.com
October 25, 2012
With less than two weeks to go before the US presidential election, the Secret Service is ramping up its intelligence-gathering efforts and asking Twitter users to report threatening tweets against politicians to a local field office.
Debates over the November 6 election are already raging on social media: Users exchanged around 6.5 million tweets during the third presidential debate on Monday, and a few of the messages contained death threats against President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
Another 21 million tweets were made during the previous vice presidential and two presidential debates.
The US Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting the president and top government officials, recently issued a statement on their Twitter account asking users to report threatening tweets: “To report a tweet that concerns you, call the nearest field office in your state.”
The Secret Service opened their twitter account over a year ago. The organization maintains no other social media accounts, which hints at Twitter’s importance and usefulness in intelligence-gathering.

Image from US Secret Service Twitter feeds

Politics, hate and death threats

The recent presidential debates ignited heated arguments on Twitter from supporters of both presidential candidates, with some making death threats against Obama and Romney:
“Don’t worry guys if Romney is elected as President I’ll take the fall for you all and assassinate him“, tweeted @kay_dizzle94.
“I would love to shoot romney with a shotgun [sic],” tweeted @jasg30.
“I have a 1 step plan: Kill Romney,” declared @KeshiaCheesman.
“Someone needs to assassinate Obama … like ASAP“, tweeted Alyssa Douglas.
“Ima hit president Obama with that Lee Harvey Oswald swag,” wrote Donte Jamar Sims.

Image from users’ Twitter feeds
Some of these threats are currently being investigated by the Secret Service.
Although Twitter cannot disclose users’ locations, the agency has “the means at [its] disposal” to locate Twitter users, Secret Service spokesperson Ed Donovan told the Los Angeles Times. The organization could, for example, issue a court-approved subpoena to an Internet service provider.
Sims, 21, from North Carolina was arrested in September and is accused of threatening to kill President Barack Obama in a series of Twitter messages, including one reading, “the Secret Service is gonna be defenseless once I aim the Assault Rifle at Barack’s Forehead.” He is currently in police custody.
And 25-year-old Jarvis Britton of Alabama was also arrested last month and charged with death threats against the president after an anonymous caller reported a tweet that said, “free speech? Really? Let’s test this! Let’s kill the president!”
Secret Service took action and interviewed Britton after they noticed other tweets on his feed referring to cyanide poisoning. Britton later sent out another tweet that read, “Let’s kill the president. F.E.A.R.” He was arrested shortly afterward.
He pleaded not guilty on October 16, but threats against the president are considered a felony in US, punishable by a fine and up to five years in prison. His fate remains unclear.
Intelligence agencies’ interest in social media is not a new phenomenon. The FBI and local police have for years regularly monitored and collected information on US citizens on Facebook and Twitter.
The FBI is reportedly attempting to create a system that would automatically monitor social media users. The bureau is attempting to build a network where ‘suspicious’ posts would be flagged and instantly reveal the user’s location to authorities.

US ‘Secret’ Drone Base and Ron Paul’s Foreign Policy

Daniel McAdams
Lew Rockwell Blog
Oct 28, 2012
The Washington Post yesterday detailed a secret — and not-so-secret — US base of operations in the Horn of Africa. It is from this massive, 500 acre base run by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), that virtually all the non-Afghan war drones are launched. It is the center of the US drone war against al-Qaeda (except for those al-Qaeda elements in Libya and Syria with which the US administration is allied — think of those as Eastasia).
Appropriately, the base, called Camp Lemonnier, is located on grounds used earlier by the French Foreign Legion — the non-French arm of the French military used to keep the French colonial empire in line. Apparently irony is completely lost on the US administration.
The entire article is well worth reading, chilling as it is. In it the teeth of the US empire are laid bare. And they are ugly. If one considers a recent study of the US drone wars by Stanford University and NYU, which demonstrates a catastrophic failure rate of the drones to hit intended targets (which means that most of the time they kill innocent civilians), one could conclude, using a non-loaded definition of the term, that Lemonnier is the largest terrorist base in the world.
As the Stanford University drone study (PDF) found:
“Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning. Their presence terrorizes men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves… from June 2004 through mid-September 2012, available data indicate that drone strikes killed 2,562–3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom 474-881 were civilians, including 176 children.”
Perhaps most fascinating about this excellent Washington Post investigative report, however, is the following paragraph:
“Other counterterrorism work at Lemonnier is more overt. All told, about 3,200 U.S. troops, civilians and contractors are assigned to the camp, where they train foreign militaries, gather intelligence and dole out humanitarian aid across East Africa as part of a campaign to prevent extremists from taking root.” (emphasis added)
Here we see the Ron Paul critique of US foreign policy plainly demonstrated: The US government does not just send in drones to kill people from Lemonnier — it also “doles out…aid” to those who obey!
Here is Ron Paul from three years ago (not that it matters, as he has been making this point for decades):
“I have often made the point that the way we treat our fellow countries around the world is we tell them what to do, and if they do it we give them money. If they don’t do it, we bomb them… If you want to promote our good values and our democratic process, you can’t antagonize the people by literally killing people over there, because if bombs were falling on this country, we wouldn’t be all that happy with that.”
Perhaps it is due to efficiency efforts, but in Lemonnier we see both under one roof: cash to those who do what they are told and drones for those who do not. But the answer, as Ron Paul repeatedly reminds us, is no aid and no drones. Period.

Obama Urged Governors to Celebrate UN Day

Alex Newman
New American
Oct 28, 2012
President Obama issued a presidential proclamation for “United Nations Day” on October 24 praising the controversial global body while urging governors and officials in all 50 states to celebrate the occasion with “appropriate ceremonies.” The statement drew swift criticism from UN opponents and conservative activists, who argue that the U.S. government should instead withdraw from the scandal-plagued international outfit.
Despite of a series of recent set-backs and major controversies surrounding the institution, President Obama, an unabashed fan of the planetary body that critics refer to as the “dictators club,” praised the UN and the “ideals” it purportedly represents. On the 67th anniversary of the UN founding, Obama called on Americans and the world to continue working toward carrying the institution’s “vision” forward.
“Today, we commemorate United Nations Day by celebrating the founding ideals laid down in its Charter and reaffirming the commitments to peace building, human rights, and social progress that will guide us in the years to come,” he said in the proclamation, sounding oblivious to the UN’s well-documented true intentions. “Throughout its history, the United Nations Charter has reflected the belief that the world is more secure when the global community acts collectively.”
The president also painted the organization as a defender of “children,” the sick, and of course, global “peace,” claiming the UN “played an essential role” in making the planet a better place. “In today’s world, this mission remains as vital as it has ever been,” Obama alleged in the proclamation, adding that the U.S. government would continue working with its “global partners” to promote and realize the supposed aspirations of unspecified “people.”
But it was not enough for the president and other top federal officials to express unquestioning allegiance to the widely criticized global entity. “I urge the Governors of the 50 States, and the officials of all other areas under the flag of the United States, to observe United Nations Day with appropriate ceremonies and activities,” the presidential proclamation declared. It remains unclear whether any governors paid attention to the decree.
The Department of State, meanwhile, was busy urging regular citizens to get involved in the festivities, too. “Join us in commemorating UN Day by finding an event hosted by your local United Nations Association,” wrote State Department “Public Affairs Specialist” Ashli Ferguson Savoy, touting “robust U.S. support” for the UN while claiming that the institution somehow advanced American national interests.
Obama’s disgraced Ambassador the UN, Susan Rice, released a statement, too. Ironically, she praised the global body’s “mandate” purporting to authorize the administration’s lawless war that devastated Libya, as well as the brutal UN-led military operation to overthrow the Christian President of the Ivory Coast and install a Muslim central banker in his place.
“On this United Nations Day, we recognize the many benefits Americans derive every day from the United Nations,” claimed Rice, who is under growing pressure to resign after peddling a blatantly false narrative about the now-infamous attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Libya. “Sixty-seven years after ratification of the UN Charter, the United States under President Obama remains firmly committed to preserving and strengthening this important institution and the U.S.-UN relationship.”
Despite all of the platitudes about peace and “human rights,” strengthening the UN into what would eventually become a world government has actually been the plan all along. In fact, one of the key architects of the planetary body, Council on Foreign Relations luminary and former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, publicly admitted as much just five years after it was founded.
“The United Nations represents not a final stage in the development of world order, but only a primitive stage. Therefore its primary task is to create the conditions which will make possible a more highly developed organization,” he wrote in his 1950 book War or Peace. “I have never seen any proposal made for collective security with ‘teeth’ in it, or for ‘world government’ or for ‘world federation,’ which could not be carried out either by the United Nations or under the United Nations Charter.”
Last month, meanwhile, alarming leaked documents from a Justice Department program to train state and local law enforcement revealed that the federal government has been teaching police to equate bumper stickers opposing U.S. government membership in the UN with “terrorism.” However, despite Washington’s slavish adoration of the global institution, the most recent credible polls show that less than a third of Americans hold a favorable view of the UN.
Indeed, despite the incessant prodding by the executive branch on UN Day, not everybody was celebrating the occasion, which has long been the subject of intense controversy. “It has also been labeled ‘Alger Hiss Day,’ in recognition of the Soviet spy and State Department official who played a major role in founding the world body,” noted Cliff Kincaid with the non-profit group Accuracy In Media (AIM). “Don’t expect the major media to remind us of that fact.”
Other analysts ridiculed the proclamation, UN Day, and even the controversial institution itself. “Well, shoot,” wrote commentator Erika Johnsen with the conservative blog Hot Air in a sarcastic post about Obama’s proclamation. “I must’ve missed this newfound auspicious occasion in all of the election hullabaloo, and a darn shame it is, too — I do so regret not having taken a moment to observe the worldwide contributions of the marred-by-corruption, unfailingly progressive, global-carbon-tax-pushing, Israel-hatin’, moral-relativist international body.”
News of the pro-UN Day proclamation came on the heels of a growing national scandal over “elections monitors” affiliated with the international entity being deployed to observe U.S. voting and keep tabs on conservatives. Critics slammed the controversial scheme, with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott even threatening to prosecute any monitors who go within 100 feet of a polling place.
Meanwhile, the UN itself is currently embroiled in countless recent scandals. Among the most shocking: helping the barbaric communist dictatorship on mainland China perform forced abortions; handing sensitive U.S. technology to the regimes ruling North Korea and Iran; considering the mass-murdering genocidal tyrant in charge of Sudan for a seat on the so-called “Human Rights Council”; allowing UN troops to rape and murder innocent civilians around the world; and much more.
UN boss Ban Ki-moon, though, conveniently glossed over all of that in his own UN Day celebrations. He urged world citizens to help the institution expand its role as “a peacekeeper disarming fighters, a health worker distributing medicine, a relief team aiding refugees, a human rights expert helping deliver justice.”
After touting dubious UN “achievements” of questionable veracity, the Secretary General again emphasized that the global body needs more power. “We are living through a period of profound turmoil, transition and transformation,” he said. “Global and national institutions are being put to the test. With so much at stake, the United Nations must keep pace across the spectrum of its activities — peace, development, human rights, the rule of law, the empowerment of the world’s women and youth.”
While Democrats and especially Obama have been busy lavishing praise and U.S. taxpayer funds on the institution, the GOP has taken a much harsher tone — at least in its official party platform. The most recently adopted one blasts proposed UN taxes,Agenda 21, and even the “scandal-ridden” global entity itself.
In Congress, meanwhile, the would-be planetary regime has become increasingly controversial, and the movement to “Get U.S. Out” of the UN is slowly gaining steam with every passing election. If enough concerned citizens speak out, next October 24 could be a day just like any other.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Two Black Teens Kill 12 Year old White Girl for Her Bike

  • Last Updated: 8:17 AM, October 24, 2012
  • Posted: 2:03 AM, October 24, 2012
A New Jersey mom ratted out her teen sons for the murder of a 12-year-old girl after reading a Facebook posting hinting that one of them wanted to go on the lam, law-enforcement sources told The Post.
Justin Davidson’s mom saw his message “Might be moving :(” on Sunday and became suspicious.
She tipped cops that he might have been involved in the disappearance of their neighbor, Autumn Pasquale, in Clayton, NJ, the sources said.
Autumn was allegedly lured to meet Justin, 15, and his brother Dante Robinson, 17, at their home Saturday because they wanted parts from her beloved BMX bike.
HORROR IN NJ:Cops say Autumn Pasquale (above) was killed by Dante Robinson and his brother Justin Davidson. They were given up by their mom, suspicious over a Facebook message.
HORROR IN NJ: Cops say Autumn Pasquale (above) was killed by Dante Robinson and his brother Justin Davidson. They were given up by their mom, suspicious over a Facebook message.
Dante Robinson
Dante Robinson
Justin Davidson
Justin Davidson
The massive search for Autumn came to a tragic end Monday night when her body was found stuffed in a recycling bin at a vacant property near the boys’ house.
An autopsy found she had been strangled.
As family and friends held out hope that Autumn would be found alive, Justin communicated with her brother on Facebook to say he was glad police were using dogs in the search, NBC Philadelphia reported.
The two brothers were charged with murder, body disposal and tampering with evidence. Justin was also charged with luring.
When detectives searched the Robinson home, they found some of Autumn’s belongings and her bike, Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton said.
The boys’ father, Alonzo Robinson, told the Star-Ledger of Newark that his sons had been charged with bike theft before.
“I think someone wanted the girl’s bicycle,” Robinson said. “Maybe she wanted her bike and resisted, and one of them snatched her off a bike.”
The girl loved BMX bikes and famous riders, her Facebook page said.

Russia: Syria rebels have US-made weapons

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20055271

A senior Russian general has said Syrian rebels now have anti-aircraft weapons, including US-made Stingers.
Gen Nikolai Makarov was quoted by the Interfax news service as saying the origin of the surface-to-air missiles should be "cleared up".
Russia is the biggest supplier of arms to its Syrian government ally.
Aerial bombardment of rebel-held towns continued on Wednesday, as the UN's Syria envoy prepared to brief the Security Council on ceasefire efforts.
Lakhdar Brahimi has been trying to arrange a ceasefire between rebels and government forces over the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which begins on Friday.
Weapon supplies
"We have reliable information that Syrian militants have foreign portable anti-aircraft missile systems, including those made in the USA... it should be cleared up who delivered them," Gen Makarov told journalists in Russia.
There have been earlier unconfirmed reports of the Syrian opposition having shoulder-mounted missiles, but the West has been reluctant to openly arm the rebels.
In August, Syrian rebels said they had shot down a fighter jet near the border with Iraq.
Syrian warplanes have stepped up their bombardments of rebel-dominated areas in recent months, particularly in the north of the country. Deadly air raids are now daily events in towns around the city of Aleppo.
Recent footage has emerged of Syrian opposition fighters using old Soviet SA-7 heat-seeking missiles, which can destroy a plane flying at up to 14,000ft.
US-made Stinger missiles are shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft weapons designed to target low-flying planes and helicopters.
A US decision to supply them to the mujahideen in Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight the Russians proved to be a turning point in the war.
The UN says that more than 18,000 people have died so far in the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's government, which began in March 2011, but activists and opposition groups put the figure closer to 30,000.

White House told of militant claim two hours after Libya attack: emails


WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:11pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.
The brief emails also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington.
U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the Benghazi assault, which President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials ultimately acknowledged was a "terrorist" attack carried out by militants with suspected links to al Qaeda affiliates or sympathizers.
Administration spokesmen, including White House spokesman Jay Carney, citing an unclassified assessment prepared by the CIA, maintained for days that the attacks likely were a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim film.
While officials did mention the possible involvement of "extremists," they did not lay blame on any specific militant groups or possible links to al Qaeda or its affiliates until intelligence officials publicly alleged that on September 28.
There were indications that extremists with possible al Qaeda connections were involved, but also evidence that the attacks could have erupted spontaneously, they said, adding that government experts wanted to be cautious about pointing fingers prematurely.
U.S. intelligence officials have emphasized since shortly after the attack that early intelligence reporting about the attack was mixed.
Spokesmen for the White House and State Department had no immediate response to requests for comments on the emails.
MISSIVES FROM LIBYA
The records obtained by Reuters consist of three emails dispatched by the State Department's Operations Center to multiple government offices, including addresses at the White House, Pentagon, intelligence community and FBI, on the afternoon of September 11.
The first email, timed at 4:05 p.m. Washington time - or 10:05 p.m. Benghazi time, 20-30 minutes after the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission allegedly began - carried the subject line "U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack" and the notation "SBU", meaning "Sensitive But Unclassified."
The text said the State Department's regional security office had reported that the diplomatic mission in Benghazi was "under attack. Embassy in Tripoli reports approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well."
The message continued: "Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four ... personnel are in the compound safe haven. The 17th of February militia is providing security support."
A second email, headed "Update 1: U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi" and timed 4:54 p.m. Washington time, said that the Embassy in Tripoli had reported that "the firing at the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi had stopped and the compound had been cleared." It said a "response team" was at the site attempting to locate missing personnel.
A third email, also marked SBU and sent at 6:07 p.m. Washington time, carried the subject line: "Update 2: Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack."
The message reported: "Embassy Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli."
While some information identifying recipients of this message was redacted from copies of the messages obtained by Reuters, a government source said that one of the addresses to which the message was sent was the White House Situation Room, the president's secure command post.
Other addressees included intelligence and military units as well as one used by the FBI command center, the source said.
It was not known what other messages were received by agencies in Washington from Libya that day about who might have been behind the attacks.
Intelligence experts caution that initial reports from the scene of any attack or disaster are often inaccurate.
By the morning of September 12, the day after the Benghazi attack, Reuters reported that there were indications that members of both Ansar al-Sharia, a militia based in the Benghazi area, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African affiliate of al Qaeda's faltering central command, may have been involved in organizing the attacks.
One U.S. intelligence official said that during the first classified briefing about Benghazi given to members of Congress, officials "carefully laid out the full range of sparsely available information, relying on the best analysis available at the time."
The official added, however, that the initial analysis of the attack that was presented to legislators was mixed.
"Briefers said extremists were involved in attacks that appeared spontaneous, there may have been a variety of motivating factors, and possible links to groups such as (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar al-Sharia) were being looked at closely," the official said.

Mom Found ‘Guilty’ By Court After Refusing TSA Pat Down On Daughter

Woman put on probation for standing up to security theater procedures
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
Oct 24, 2012

A woman who stood up to TSA screeners and refused to allow them to grope her or her 14 year old daughter has been found guilty of “disorderly conduct” and sentenced to one year of probation by a court in Tennessee.

Back in July 2011, Andrea Fornella Abbott of Clarksville, was arrested by Nashville airport authorities for expressing outrage at the TSA procedures.
A police report stated that Abbott would not allow her daughter to be “touched inappropriately” or have her “crotch grabbed”. Abbott also refused to submit to a full body scan, saying that she did not want her or her daughters’ naked bodies revealed by the scanner.
The report noted that she attempted to take cell phone video of the incident but was prevented from doing so by the TSA screeners.
When police were called to the scene, Abbott reportedly cursed at them and referred to the TSA screeners as pedophiles, leading to her arrest.
The Associated Press reports that the prosecution argued that Abbott’s behavior “prevented others from carrying out their lawful activities,” and held up two security lines for thirty minutes.
“You can speak your mind, but you can’t do it in an illegal manner,’ said Assistant District Attorney Megan King, adding “What the defendant did was a crime.”
The defense argued that Abbot was exercising her right to free speech. “Telling a police officer your opinion, even in strong language, to me that’s a First Amendment right,” Abbot’s attorney Brent Horst told reporters.
Abbott herself admitted that she may have cursed at police officers, but considered the exchange to be a “normal conversation” regarding the inappropriate nature of pat-downs on children.
Horst presented surveillance video of the incident, and claimed that Abbot was the one being yelled at by police. Although the video had no audio, it showed that other passengers were walking around Abbot and the police officers, and that security lines were still moving.

“It’s clear from the video … she wasn’t preventing anything,” Horst said. In closing arguments the attorney stated “Since 9/11, we’re losing a lot of freedom, and we have to draw the line somewhere,” before praising Abbot for standing on principle.
As we have documented, people who opt out of body scanners or those who simply fail to display the proper level of obedience to TSA screeners are routinely subjected to punishment by means of invasive grope downs or other forms of retaliation.
Journalists who are critical of the TSA have also been singled out for retribution.
The TSA is also operating bizarre obedience training programs, including the ridiculous “all stop” policy where travelers are ordered to freeze on the spot for no reason whatsoever. Again, the TSA has admitted that travelers are not mandated to comply with these bizarre displays of security theater.
The TSA has characterized people who do not fully comply with airport screening procedures, no matter how bizarre or invasive, as “domestic extremists.”
The verdict in Andrea Fornella Abbott’s case sets a dangerous precedent along the lines of First amendment rights not being applicable at security checkpoints. The verdict essentially paves the way for criminally punishing anyone who questions TSA procedures, no matter how bizarre they are.

37 Facts About How Cruel This Economy Has Been To Millions Of Desperate American Families

Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse
Oct 24, 2012
Have you ever laid in bed awake at night with a knot in your stomach because you didn’t know how your family was possibly going to make it through the next month financially?  Have you ever felt the desperation of not being able to provide the basic necessities for your family even though you tried as hard as you could?  All over America tonight, there are millions of desperate families that are being ripped apart by this economy.  There aren’t nearly enough jobs, and millions of Americans that actually do have jobs aren’t making enough to even provide the basics for their families.  When you have tried everything that you can think of and nothing works, it can be absolutely soul crushing.  Today, one of my regular readers explained that he was not going to be online for a while because his power had been turned off.  He has been out of work for quite a while, and eventually the money runs out.  Have you ever been there?  If you have ever experienced that moment, you know that it stays with you for the rest of your life.  If you are single that is bad enough, but when you have to look into the eyes of your children and explain to them why there won’t be any dinner tonight or why they have to move into a homeless shelter it can feel like someone has driven a stake into your heart.  In this article you will find a lot of very shocking economic statistics.  But please remember that behind each statistic are the tragic stories of millions of desperately hurting American families.
Over the past decade, things have steadily gotten worse for American families no matter what our politicians have tried.  Poverty and government dependence continue to rise.  The cost of living continues to go up and incomes continue to go down.  It is truly frightening to think about what this country is going to look like if current trends continue.
The following are 37 facts that show how cruel this economy has been to millions of desperate American families…
1. One recent survey discovered that 40 percent of all Americans have $500 or less in savings.
2. A different recent survey found that 28 percent of all Americans do not have a single penny saved for emergencies.
3. In the United States today, there are close to 10 million households that do not have a single bank account.  That number has increased by about a million since 2009.
4. Family homelessness in the Washington D.C. region (one of the wealthiest regions in the entire country) has risen 23 percent since the last recession began.
5. The number of Americans living in poverty has increased by about 6 million over the past four years.
6. Median household income has fallen for four years in a row.  Overall, it has declined by more than $4000 over the past four years.
7. 62 percent of middle class Americans say that they have had to reduce household spending over the past year.
8. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of middle class Americans say that it is more difficult to maintain a middle class standard of living today than it was 10 years ago.
9. In the United States today, 77 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck at least some of the time.
10. In the United States today, more than 41 percent of all working age Americans are not working.
11. Since January 2009, the “labor force” in the United States has increased by 827,000, but “those not in the labor force” has increased by 8,208,000.  This is how they have gotten the unemployment numbers to “come down”.
12. Sadly, 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were mid-wage jobs, but 58 percent of the jobs created since then have been low wage jobs.
13. Today, about one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the federal poverty level.
14. Right now, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.
15. At this point, less than 25 percent of all jobs in the United States are “good jobs”, and that number continues to shrink.
16. There are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing.  That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.
17. According to USA Today, many Americans have actually seen their water bills triple over the past 12 years.
18. Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
19. In 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance.  Today, only 55.1 percent are covered by employment-based health insurance.
20. Health insurance premiums rose faster than the overall rate of inflation in 2011 and that is happening once againin 2012.  In fact, it has been happening for a very long time.
21. According to one recent survey, approximately 10 percent of all employers in the United States plan to drop health coverage when key provisions of the new health care law kick in less than two years from now.
22. Back in 1983, the bottom 95 percent of all income earners had 62 cents of debt for every dollar that they earned.  By 2007, that figure had soared to $1.48.
23. Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.
24. Total consumer debt in the United States has risen by 1700 percent since 1971.
25. Recently it was announced that total student loan debt in the United States has passed the one trillion dollar mark.
26. According to one recent survey, approximately one-third of all Americans are not paying their bills on time at this point.
27. Right now, approximately 25 million American adults are living at home with their parents.
28. The percentage of Americans that find that they are able to retire when they reach retirement age continues to decline.  According to one new survey, 70 percent of middle class Americans plan to work during retirement and 30 percent plan to work until they are at least 80 years old.
29. The U.S. economy lost more than 220,000 small businesses during the recent recession.
30. In 2010, the number of jobs created at new businesses in the United States was less than half of what it was back in the year 2000.
31. Back in 2007, 19.2 percent of all American families had a net worth of zero or less than zero.  By 2010, that figure had soared to 32.5 percent.
32. Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either “low income” or impoverished.
33. In the United States today, somewhere around 100 million Americans are considered to be either “poor” or “near poor”.
34. In October 2008, 30.8 million Americans were on food stamps.  Today, 46.7 million Americans are on food stamps.
35. Approximately one-fourth of all children in the United States are enrolled in the food stamp program.
36. Right now, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.  And that does not even count Social Security or Medicare.
37. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives financial assistance from the federal government.  Back in 1983, that number was less than 30 percent.
What makes all of this even more frightening is that many homeless shelters and food banks around the nation are so overloaded at this point that they are already over capacity.  Just consider this example…
When Janice Coe, a homeless advocate in Loudoun County, learned through her prayer group that a young woman was sleeping in the New Carrollton Metro station with a toddler and a 2-month-old, she sprang into action.
Coe contacted the young woman and arranged for her to take the train to Virginia, where she put the little family up in a Comfort Suites hotel. Then Coe began calling shelters to see who could take them.
Despite several phone calls, she came up empty. Coe was shocked to learn that many of the local shelters that cater to families were full, including Good Shepherd Alliance, where Coe was once director of social services.
“I don’t know why nobody will take this girl in,” Coe said. “The baby still had a hospital bracelet on her wrist.”
Keep in mind that Loudoun Country is smack dab in the middle of one of the wealthiest areas of Virginia.
So if things are that bad in the wealthy areas, exactly how bad are things getting in many of the poorer areas?
Unfortunately, things continue to get worse for this economy.  DuPont has just announced plans to eliminate 1,500 jobs.  There are more major layoff announcements almost every single day.  So how bad will things get when ourcrumbling economic system finally collapses?  When kind of chaos will be unleashed all over the nation when millions upon millions of Americans finally lose all hope?
In the introduction to this article, I mentioned that one of my regular readers has had his lights turned off.  The following is how he described his situation…
No gas, no water, no electricity at my house. Couldn’t pay the bills. I’m broke. Desperately searching for any means of income, or at least enough cash to get the juice (electricity) restored.
Typing this missive in a dark house using the battery on my laptop. Feels like I’m camping out at home. Hope to get this situation fixed tomorrow… somehow. Needless to say, I *…. hate this.
I was ready for this, but it is still a major league inconvenience. For those of you who DO have power, etc. – and are not ready… oh brother. You need to get ready. Seriously, you do. Because what I’m going through is just an inconvenience. It may someday be a normal occurence. Ugh. (expletives deleted)
Hopefully a way can be found to get his situation turned around, but the truth is that there are tens of millions of other similar stories out there in America today.
What about you?  What are things like in your neck of the woods?  Please feel free to share your thoughts below…

Tweets Reveal Obama Supporters Fueled by ‘Racial Hatred’

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 23, 2012
Not content with making violent death threats and promising riots if Obama loses, Obama voters have flooded Twitter with racist slurs targeting Mitt Romney and his supporters, an irony given the fact that those who have drawn attention to the death threats being made against Romney have been accused of “race-baiting”.

Chris Matthews followed up last night’s debate by claiming that Romney supporters were fueled by “racial hatred,”yet even a cursory scan of Twitter shows the opposite to be true – Obama supporters are driven by racial hatred, and they’re not afraid of showing it.
When Infowars first highlighted the deluge of violent comments being made by Obama supporters last week, Obama front group Think Progress responded by accusing Infowars and the Drudge Report of “race-baiting” merely for reposting the comments because the majority of Twitter users who made them were black.
Think Progress has been noticeably silent on the issue since the Secret Service confirmed that it was aware of the threats. As we highlighted in two separate articles earlier today, the calls for violence and rioting by Obama supporters continue to pour in.
While Infowars has attempted to steer clear of the race issue, a cursory search of Twitter shows that Obama supporters have been less restrained. Both black and white Obama supporters are spewing racial hatred targeting Mitt Romney and his supporters.
In the aftermath of last night’s foreign policy debate, Twitter users flooded the social network with derogatory ethnic slurs against Romney labeling him a “cracker” or “cracka,” which is a pejorative term to describe a white person, as well as a “honky.”
A black Twitter user actually tried to discourage other users from making racist slurs against Romney when he wrote, “How y’all call Romney a racist, but y’all call him a white cracker all day? Another black Twitter user echoed the sentiment when he tweeted, “Romney is getting called “white” this & “cracker” that left & right by black twitter but let a white person say “black” anything about Obama.” Another user remarked, “The same ppl that are upset the President is referred to as a “n” are the same ppl that are the first in line to call Romney a cracker.”
However, that did little to stop the deluge of racist and often violent taunts aimed at Romney and his supporters.
These tweets clearly illustrate that the likes of Chris Matthews and Think Progress are siding with the real racists – Obama supporters who are openly spouting racial slurs to express their disdain for Mitt Romney and his supporters.
We are non-partisan and support neither candidate, but when Matthews is allowed to go on air and demonize virtually half the population of the country as being racists simply because they don’t support Obama, we will not hesitate to call him out on it.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Stay away from black web gear


ATF Raider with black web gear, circa 1990s..



FBI Raid party with black web gear.


Another more recent FBI raid party, again with black webgear.

It was the first line that got my attention, and approval: "Web Harness and/or Load-Bearing Vest NOT BLACK." I had the same rule when I ran the 1st Alabama Cavalry. Black is more easily discerned, even at night. More importantly, black is the color of the federal raid parties. Or at least it was back then. Nowadays, I note that they have a new color scheme. These images are from an ATF raid party in Shreveport this week.







Note that they still have some black items from their old outfits, but have changed the overall color scheme.

Identification friend or foe still being one of the single most important things on any battlefield, stay away from adopting your probable opponent's color scheme.

Samuel Whittemore: A Dangerous Old Man Goes to War One Last Time

The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.  - Robert A. Heinlein

When eighty-year old farmer Samuel Whittemore, a veteran of the French Indian War, saw the approaching Regulars on April 19, 1775, he left his plow and, to the astonishment of his family, strapped on his prized dueling pistols and a captured French sword, grabbed his musket, and stepped out to make war one last time.  Whittemore ambushed the column at close range, firing first with his musket, and then drawing his dueling pistols.  He fired a total of five shots, killing three regulars and wounding another before being overrun.  He then drew his sword and attacked.  He was shot in the face at close range and bayoneted thirteen times and left for dead.   When his grieving family came to collect his body, they were amazed to find him still alive and attempting to reload his musket for a parting shot at the now distant column.

Whittemore said he fought because he wanted his children to live without being subject to a distant King.  Some have questioned his tactics, but never his resolve.  Perhaps he felt he was just too old to "run and gun" with the others and chose to make his shots count, at close range.  Or, perhaps, at the ripe old age of eighty, he had decided "today is a good day to die."  Despite his grievous wounds, he survived and lived another eighteen years, dying of natural causes at the age of ninety-eight.

At Bunker (Breed's) Hill, another "dangerous old man" was overheard saying a prayer before the Regulars made their first charge.  Was the old man asking God to keep him safe in the coming battle?   No.  He was down on his knees thanking God for preserving him long enough so that he could fight that day.  That is the spirit of a free man who understands the big picture - that none of us gets out of here alive, and what counts most is whether we leave our children free.

Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops


ACLU seeks information on Michigan program that allows cops to download information from smart phones belonging to stopped motorists.

CelleBrite
The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program.

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.

"Law enforcement officers are known, on occasion, to encourage citizens to cooperate if they have nothing to hide," ACLU staff attorney Mark P. Fancher wrote. "No less should be expected of law enforcement, and the Michigan State Police should be willing to assuage concerns that these powerful extraction devices are being used illegally by honoring our requests for cooperation and disclosure."

A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

"Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities. "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps."

The ACLU is concerned that these powerful capabilities are being quietly used to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

"With certain exceptions that do not apply here, a search cannot occur without a warrant in which a judicial officer determines that there is probable cause to believe that the search will yield evidence of criminal activity," Fancher wrote. "A device that allows immediate, surreptitious intrusion into private data creates enormous risks that troopers will ignore these requirements to the detriment of the constitutional rights of persons whose cell phones are searched."

Monday, April 18, 2011

Obama Pushes Chinese-Style Internet ID System

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 18, 2011

A new program being touted by the Obama administration as a solution to online identity theft actually increases the risk of identity theft while providing the government with a national ID system through the backdoor, paving the way for a world wide web in which users will need government permission to access the Internet.
The so-called “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace,” created by NIST under the auspices of the U.S. Commerce Department, purports to offer an “identity ecosystem” under which Americans will be able to protect their information not with passwords but with a “single credential” stored on a smart card, a cell phone, a keychain fob or some other kind of gadget. This will then be used to access a myriad of data, including tax returns, health information, bank accounts and more, amounting to a passport for your entire life.
Companies like Siemens developed credit card-sized gadgets years ago that enable fingerprints to be used to approve online transactions and the technology is already well established. A series of workshops are planned for June to September during which the government will nail down specifics with companies who are on board with the project and pilot projects will be launched next year.
The program bears more than a passing resemblance to a 2007 proposal by China that threatened to force bloggers to register their real identities and personal details via a single centralized ID system as a means for the Communist government to control information and punish dissenters.
That idea was scrapped for being too draconian, but the Obama administration is pushing ahead with its own Internet ID system in pursuit of a wider cybersecurity agenda that Senator Joe Lieberman has publicly stated is aimed at mimicking Chinese-style censorship of the world wide web, casting doubt on assertions in the government PR video for the program embedded above that claim, “there is no central database tracking your actions”.
The irony of the fact that the program will be managed by a government that has routinely stolen and lost personal information (including that related to personal health data) through both malevolence and incompetence is not addressed in the propaganda video. Remember cash for clunkers? This is the same government that openly admitted it had seized control of data on Americans’ computers who used the cars.gov website.
Although the program will initially be voluntary, its widespread adoption by numerous internet hub giants will eventually make its use necessary for conducting any kind of transaction, creating profiles or engaging in any interactive process on the web.
Moreover, should there be a major cyber attack that cripples the web and leaves sensitive information vulnerable, the Obama administration would have all the political capital it needs to turn the “voluntary” program into a compulsory requirement for anyone who wishes to use the Internet. Given the fact that the Stuxnet worm attack was admittedly launched by the United States and Israel, the culprits are likely to be closer to home than we think.
“Although the White House is describing the NSTIC plan as “voluntary,” federal agencies could begin to require it for IRS e-filing, applying for Social Security or veterans’ benefits, renewing passports online, requesting federal licenses (including ham radio and pilot’s licenses), and so on. Then obtaining one of these ID would become all but mandatory for most Americans,” writes CNet’s Declan McCullagh.
“Taken to its logical conclusion, the program, “Could become the virtual equivalent of a national ID card,” he adds.
Despite government assurances that the “conspiracy theory set” are wrong in highlighting privacy concerns, critics have labeled the plan an effort to impose a national ID card via the backdoor.
Writing for Network World, Mark Gibbs slammed the proposal as, “A totally ridiculous idea. A great example of rampant, over-reaching, ignorant, and ill-conceived political foolishness.”
Gibbs highlights the fact that both the IRS and Homeland Security have recently been caught abusing and mismanaging online identity systems.
“In short, the government, at the heart of its most sensitive public and administrative services, is incompetent on a biblical scale. And now they propose to provide what is, in essence, the management of a single sign-on system that would impact tens of millions of its citizens,” he writes.
In addition, the centralized nature of the system will not protect identity theft, the entire raison d’être behind the program, but will instead make identity theft far more prevalent and easier for criminals.
“It remains unclear whether the White House proposal will solve this problem or create new problems,” said Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, warning that if the system was compromised it would be like losing your whole wallet, not just your keys or credit card. “There is the real risk that consolidated identity schemes will lead to ‘hyper’ identity theft.”

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

CERN admits black hole ripped in space-time by Large Hadron Collider

by Rich Bowden - Apr 1 2009, 04:03

Inside the ATLAS solenoid cryostat. Image: Copyright/CERN.
Inside the ATLAS solenoid cryostat. Image: Copyright/CERN.

A spokesperson for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) has confirmed the fears of many in the scientific world after revealing that the reason for the sudden closure of the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most expensive physics experiment, was not due to "technical problems" as previously stated, but because its controversial particle collisions have sensationally rendered a "tiny black hole" in the fabric of space.

"I can confirm that, yes, the first stages of the experiment resulted in the appearance of a miniscule black hole," said the spokesperson to gathered reporters on Monday. "The black hole is being kept under quarantine and our scientists have been monitoring its progression," he explained.
Situated deep underground on the French-Swiss border, the $10 billion USD Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had been opposed by many scientists who warned of the related dangers of the massive particle collision experiment.
The huge, ring-shaped LHC has been designed to give scientists an opportunity to re-create and study the origins of the universe and to end the search for the elusive Higgs Boson or 'God particle'.
Many had bitterly said the consequences could be as extreme as the Earth being sucked into the black hole the LHC collisions may create as a side effect of the experiment. Others claimed time travellers with more sophisticated technology than ours could make use of the hole to invade the Earth and enslave mankind.
The particle physics experiment began with great fanfare on September 10, 2008, only to be mysteriously closed down nine days later. An announcement by CERN blamed mechanical failure between two superconducting magnets, a reason deemed strange at the time by scientists and theorists not involved in the experiment.
After confirming the incredible real reason for the closure of the LHC, the CERN spokesperson went on to placate reporters present by saying that his organization did not, at this stage, see any danger to the Earth's existence.
However, when asked by reporters at CERN headquarters how the agency kept a black hole under quarantine, the spokesperson admitted, "With great difficulty ladies and gentlemen, with great difficulty."

Al-Qaeda 100% Pentagon Run

Alex Jones & Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
March 31, 2011
In a special video address, Alex Jones terms the al Qaeda intelligence operation a ‘Swiss army knife’ for destabilization. Simply put, it is a tool to foment crisis that allows the globalists to offer up a solution in variable contexts.
Today, ‘freelancers‘ in Libya; yesterday, terrorists in the ‘War on Terror.’ Before that, allies against Serbia; in the 80s, Freedom Fighters. The shadowy enemy supposedly run by Osama bin Laden and top jihadists like Anwar al-Awlaki is really an extension of U.S. foreign policy and the Pentagon. Al Qaeda shifts across the geopolitical chessboard at the will of its masters in the allied-international intelligence ring. It is perhaps government’s greatest hoax… but the tactic is one of the oldest tricks in the book for any power-seeking State.

For the average person who has lived through the phony ‘War on Terror’, a post-9/11 age of fear that has swirled around the persona of bin Laden, it may be quite confusing to now read headlines like Libya: the West and al-Qaeda on the same side. Indeed, the rebel forces trying to topple Gaddafi admittedly include more than 1,000 al Qaeda soldiers while enjoying total backing– weapons, planes, funding and forces– from the U.S., Britain, NATO and other allies. The CIA and British SAS forces that are now “officially” entering Libya as ground support were covertly operating at least a month ago.
Alex expanded on his Russia Today rant where he covered this topic.

However, the Pentagon-run al Qaeda hoax has deeper history than can be covered in just a few minutes of airtime.


CRIMESTOP: CREATE THE ENEMY, FOOL THE PUBLIC


Reagan meets with Taliban, herads them as freedom fighters, likened unto America's Founding Fathers
As we cover some of the highlights of al Qaeda’s duplicitous history, consider these conflicting statements from two U.S. Presidents about the Taliban / al Qaeda (albeit from different points in time):
“They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”
– George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, September 20, 2001
“These (Taliban) gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s Founding Fathers.”
— Ronald Wilson Reagan in 1985 while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White House lawn.
1984: The Art of DoublethinkThe answer to the contradiction is learning to embrace the deception as truth, whenever the State says to do so, just as Winston Smith finally “learns” in 1984– when he is compelled to find that 2+2=5. His torturer, O’Brien, tells him ‘You are a slow learner, Winston.’
‘How can I help it?’ [Winston] blubbered. ‘How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.’
‘Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.’
Karl Rove, a key architect of the Bush Administration, known glowingly as “Bush’s Brain”, chastised reporters in 2002 who tried to appeal to the “reality-based community” in the face of a President who, according to Ron Suskind of the NY Times expressed to high level members of Congress, aides and the like that he didn’t need the facts:
The aide [Rove] said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. [Rove] cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
Unbeknownst to the media at that time, Rove was operating on behalf of a government that was not only arrogant, but had taken a page directly out of George Orwell’s 1984. America’s enemy Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda were remarkably like Emmanuel Goldstein, arch-villain of Oceania in 1984. Goldstein [or bin Laden] was “commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State.” An enemy that couldn’t be found, killed or slowed from influencing new conspirators at every turn. “Somewhere or other,” Orwell wrote, “he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies.”
“Goldstein was delivering his usual venomous attack upon the doctrines of the Party — an attack so exaggerated and perverse that a child should have been able to see through it, and yet just plausible enough to fill one with an alarmed feeling that other people, less level-headed than oneself, might be taken in by it… Goldstein produced fear and anger automatically. He was an object of hatred more constant than either Eurasia or Eastasia, since when Oceania was at war with one of these Powers it was generally at peace with the other. But what was strange was that although Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody… his influence never seemed to grow less.”
In 1984, it was rumored that Goldstein, whereabouts unknown, might even be taking refuge somewhere within their own superstate itself; consequently, “a day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police.” In contemporary America, the Department of Homeland Security now takes that possibility as its directive, screening and searching ordinary people everywhere in search of shadowy al Qaeda or “homegrown terrorists.” Just as in 1984, children were trained to be spies to rat out suspicious adults.
Is Bin Laden Dead?Behind the hoax contrived to control party members and maintain power, Winston’s torturer and member of the inner-party, O’Brien, confessed that he had personally taken part in writing Goldstein’s outlawed book– a lie to serve the State. It was necessary for the controlling party to create a living myth that portrayed Goldstein as a classic, evasive “external enemy“. The utility of the external enemy has been noted by many, including the Club of Rome, who wrote in 1991 that “Humans only truly unite when faced with a powerful external enemy…At this time a new enemy must be found, one either real or invented for the purpose.” Henry Kissinger likewise quipped at Bilderberg in 1991 that the United Nations might seize upon an “outside threat from beyond” to unite the peoples of the world.
Thus, the steady diet of propaganda, including the two-minutes hate that daily featured new installments of Goldstein’s crimes and heresies. In 1984, Goldstein was:
“almost on a level with Big Brother himself, and then had engaged in counter-revolutionary activities, had been condemned to death, and had mysteriously escaped and disappeared. The programmes of the Two Minutes Hate varied from day to day, but there was none in which Goldstein was not the principal figure. He was the primal traitor.”
O’Brien proclaimed during Winston’s torturous re-education sessions that: “Goldstein and his heresies will live for ever. Every day, at every moment, they will be defeated, discredited, ridiculed, spat upon and yet they will always survive.” Bin Laden has been patently the same archetypal enemy– despite being wanted dead or alive (Bush, Sept. 18, 2001), armies can’t find him [TIME 2002] after a decade.
Admittedly fake bin Laden videos
Admittedly fake videos with bad look-alikes and audio recordings supposedly sent by bin Laden surfaced routinely just before elections (Tom Ridge later admitted that terror threats were elevated to help Bush’s re-election bid) or when the American people needed a reminder of the threat of terror. Prior to the admissions, analysts correctly suspected that al Qaeda video logos matched the signature of the CIA-linked Intel Center, revealing an unholy connection at the source of the video-taped threats. Despite the fact that bin Laden had reportedly died and had been in the hospital on kidney dialysis in 2001, Osama bin Laden remained a nearly-omnipotent villain in Bush Administration communiques. His survival as the external enemy, like Goldstein, was almost guaranteed because it empowered the State’s official fairytale and enabled action on wide-ranging controversial policies with little scrutiny. Ultimately, in 1984, Goldstein is of no material relevance; his real purpose is to induce submission to the party-led Oligarchical Collectivist State.


DOUBLETHINK: AL QAEDA THE ALLY, AL QAEDA THE ENEMY


Al Qaeda Hoax: Pentagon-staged terrorThe real Osama bin Laden is a Western-trained CIA asset with the declassified code-name “Tim Osman.” He was chosen to lead the Mujahideen / Taliban in Afghanistan, in part, because his wealthy family has been a long-term business partner to key families in the West, including the Bush family (Carlyle Group). In fact, George H. W. Bush, the father, had been meeting with one of Osama bin Laden’s brothers on the morning of 9/11. The real Mujahideen has been used for a variety of Western-backed political purposes, namely upheaval and regional-destabilization.
Back in 1979, al Qaeda, in the form of the Mujahideen / Taliban, were America’s secret weapon in Operation Cyclone. It was geopolitical strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, then National Security Advisor under Carter, who schemed to draw the Soviet Union into a trap that might bleed them dry. [Declassified documents authorizing action A / B]
Brzezinski gave an interview to France’s Le Nouvel Observateur in 1998, unapologetic about their covert aid the Mujahadeen six months before the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Here is a segment of that interview:
Q: You don’t regret anything today?
Brzezinski: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic [integrisme], having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
Brzezinski: Nonsense!

During the Reagan years, they were Freedom Fighters, public heroes heralding the possibility for democracy to spread overseas in resistance to Communism. Reagan even dedicated the launch of the space shuttle Columbia to the Afghans, in the name of the ‘highest aspirations of freedom.’ In 1985, Ronald Reagan said the men in the Taliban’s ranks were “the moral equivalents of America’s Founding Fathers.” These men were supported openly for a decade as the Soviets met ‘their Vietnam’ in Afghanistan.

As Kurt Nimmo writes:
Osama bin Laden ran MAK (Maktab al-Khidamat), an organization created by Pakistan’s ISI at the behest of the CIA. It funneled money, weapons, and internationally recruited fighters into the war created in part by Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Osama was closely tied to the Afghan warlord and ISI stooge Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who ran drugs for the CIA. In the 1980s, emissaries from the United States met with Osama. The CIA paid Osama to train the militant group Abu Sayyaf and others at his CIA-built camps in Afghanistan. In New York, Osama’s MAK operated the CIA-connected al-Kifah Refugee Center that was involved in the 1993 WTC bombing. The U.S. government would later call the al-Kifah charity the “precursor organization to al-Qaeda.”
The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center was exposed as another cruel hoax. In 1993, the F.B.I. became, at best, dangerous enablers as they undertook a “sting” operation to allegedly prove the culpability of the suspects. Even Wikipedia admits that harmless powder was swapped with real bomb material. F.B.I. informant Emad Salem became alarmed at the introduction of real explosives and recorded his conversations with the F.B.I. proving they enabled and allowed the bombing to go forward that killed 4 people.
Simultaneously, by the late 80s and early 90s, al-Qaeda, under U.S. orders, “migrated to Bosnia, hoping to assist their Islamic brethren in a struggle against Serbian [and for a time] Croatian forces.” Al Qaeda was still a U.S. and Saudi-backed ally circa 1999 that backed the Albanian KLA in terrorist acts in the war-torn Yugoslavian region, even up to the time of NATO’s bombings, despite growing concerns about terrorism, including the impact of the 1993 WTC bombing. See also: Mega Oil and Mujahidin from the Balkans to the Caucasus
Shamed Enron bosses gave millions to Bin Laden & Taliban

Click for larger image: Enron hired CIA employees to work its pipeline scheme with the Taliban

With Serbia / former Yugoslavia still fresh in the public mind but the Pentagon-al Qaeda connection largely in the shadows, the USS Cole was bombed in October 2000 in a Yemeni port. The act of terror against the United States would be blamed on Osama bin Laden, rogue heir to the wealthy family known for their business with big Western players (like the Carlyle Group, etc.).
The 9/11 attacks hit. It was instantly blamed on Osama bin Laden. Endless contradictions to the official government account emerged over the coming hours, days, weeks and years for now almost a decade, without any sign of accountability or truth in the officialdom anywhere in sight. In addition to gross contradictions to the laws of physics in the collapses of WTC towers 1, 2 and 7, details came forward about how the accused hijackers were trained at U.S. bases, lived with FBI informants, were given VISAS and let past borders despite being on the watchlists; the hijackers were identified by U.S. intelligence agencies [Able Danger, et. al.], but their warnings were ignored (and much, much more: prior knowledge, warnings, drills, etc., etc., etc.).
While rallying the public behind a war in Afghanistan, and soon in Iraq as well, the Bush Administration clandestinely let members of the bin Laden family quietly fly out of the United States, even while all other flights were grounded. It would be revealed in articles about the “Airlift of Evil,” that U.S. forces also covertly exported Taliban forces from Afghanistan to Pakistan; meanwhile, U.S. soldiers where geared up to search in caves and rugged terrain for a shadowy enemy in the “graveyard of empires“; as of 2011, the deadline for leaving Afghanistan continues to roll back.
As noted earlier, embarrassing leaks emerged casting doubt on the validity of al Qaeda’s jihad against America, as the Bush Administration continued to hype the threat of terror without pause. Controversial measures, including the Constitution-shredding Patriot Act, warrantless-wiretaps of U.S. citizens, torture (Obama refused to investigate the crimes of the Bush Admin.) and indefinite detention and other devastating attacks on the “hated freedoms” of Americans continued seamlessly under Barack Obama.
Terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki dined with Pentagon months after 9/11Nearly every major terror plot uncovered domestically has, in fact, turned out to be a contrivance by the FBI where it sets-up a sting and encourages its patsies to carry out an attack. The “close calls” on American soil since 9/11 have largely been connected to Anwar al-Awlaki, who it was revealed, dined with Pentagon brass in the months after 9/11. The Underwear Bomber who tried to blow-up a Detroit-bound plane was given VISA clearance by the State Dept. despite being on the watchlist; witnesses Kurt & Lori Haskell watched Abdulmutallab being helped on the plane by a “sharp-dressed man” who was most likely an intelligence agent. They also witnessed other suspect/patsies who were never mentioned in the mainstream media. The key questions their verified account raises may never be addressed, as the accused Abdulmutallab is attempting to represent himself in court. Hoaxes and inconsistencies have been raised around the cases of the Foot Hood shooter, the Times Square bomber and many, many others. Even Geraldo Rivera of Fox News has noted that the FBI’s pattern of sting operations are ‘bogus’.
Homeland Security took on a greater role, imposing absurd and unpopular TSA body scanners and groping pat-downs on travelers. DHS has further rolled out checkpoints [in the name of catching al Qaeda, of course], mobile x-ray vans on public streets & highways (including pedestrians), on trains, buses and boats, as well as at sport stadiums, hotels and shopping malls and beyond.
In 2011, George Orwell’s “War is Peace” mantra is upgraded once again, as the Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama expands war into Libya under the Orwellian-guise of a “humanitarian crisis,” imposing a no-fly zone (which immediately gave way to full scale bombings and then ground forces). Americans, Westerners and the world at-large must scratch their heads once again as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan not only continue, but the West finds an unlikely ally against Col. Gaddafi in rebels made up of al Qaeda forces. The Lie has not stopped, as Western intelligence continues to wield one of its most powerful client-weapons– the al Qaeda hoax, invariably friend or foe, as the situation demands. In classic doublethink, the same week the public learns its anti-Gaddafi allies include al Qaeda, over-the-top, grandiose threats are made by mail claiming that al Qaeda has some 160 nuclear bombs buried at strategic locations across the United States; if there’s any truth at all to the claim, you can be certain the nuclear material was delivered via Western intelligence.


FURTHER RESEARCH:


FULL TEXT: George Orwell’s 1984 & Animal Farm (html and pdf) or by chapter
Libyan Rebel Leader Admits Links To “Al Qaeda” Fighters
Libyan Rebel Leader Admits Connection to CIA al-Qaeda Asset in Iraq
9/11 Mastermind Invited to Pentagon
Al Qaeda Leader Dined at the Pentagon Just Months After 9/11
Contrived Propaganda Tapes Reveal War On Terror Fraud
Al-Qaeda Is A Front Group For The US Military-Industrial Complex
Bin Laden is wanted: dead or alive, says Bush
TIME: Why Can’t We Find Bin Laden?
Al-Zarqawi Video Is A Pentagon Propaganda Psy-Op
11 Reasons Why The Threat From Al-Qaeda is Not Real
Who is behind “Al Qaeda in Iraq”? Pentagon acknowledges fabricating a “Zarqawi Legend”
Dining with the enemy: Al Qaeda leader linked to 9/11 hijackers ‘was invited to the Pentagon for lunch after attacks’
State Department Admits: Detroit Christmas Bomber Was Deliberately Allowed to Keep US Entry Visa, Board His Flight
Everything About Nidal Malik Hasan Screams “Patsy”
Bombshell Eyewitness Revelations: Confirmed FBI Cover-Up Of Flight 253 Attack
Geraldo Schools O’Reilly: Recent Domestic Terror Plots ‘Bogus’