The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
More Spying and More Lying
by Judge Andrew Napolitano
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. Col. Thorsness, Job Well Done Good and Faithful
Servant
By Mark Alexander: Col. Leo K. Thorsness (USAF Ret.) earned the Medal of Honor for actions over Vietnam on 19 April 1967. Two weeks later, he was shot down and captured, becoming a POW from 1967-1973. He departed this life Wednesday at age 85.
Col. Thorsness, a past president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, was a lifelong Patriot. He was a genuine hero, a humble conservative advocate for family, faith and freedom, and a strong supporter of our Medal of Honor Heritage Center in Chattanooga, where the first Medals were awarded to members of Andrew's Raiders for their actions in 1862.
There have been 3,515 Medals of Honor awarded since the first, for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty," most awarded posthumously. With Leo's passing, there are now 74 living recipients.
Col. Thorsness was the author of "Surviving Hell," a remarkable testament to all Vietnam POWs and the brutality of their incarceration. His years as a captive overlapped with those of several of my friends, including a mentor, Roger Ingvalson. Closer to home, Leo also wrote "Mike's Flag," the preface to our children's book, "I'm Your Flag So Please Treat Me Right." It should be mandatory reading for every American of any age:
What do you think of when you see a little American flag in front of a grave marker? Let me tell you a story about one little flag. As a fighter pilot on my 93rd mission over North Vietnam, my F-105 was hit by an air-to-air missile and my Electronic Warfare Officer Harold Johnson and I, were forced to eject. After unsuccessful rescue attempts, we were captured by enemy forces and imprisoned in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" for the next six years.
One day in our sixth year of imprisonment, a young Navy pilot named Mike Campbell found a piece of cloth in a gutter. After we collected some other small rags, he worked secretly at night to piece them together into a flag. He made red from ground-up roof tiles and blue from tiny amounts of ink, then used rice glue to paste the colors onto the rags. Using thread from his blanket and a homemade bamboo needle, he sewed the pieces together, adding white fragments for stars.
One morning he whispered from the back of our cell, "Hey gang, look here," and proudly held up that tattered American flag, waving it as if in a breeze. We all snapped to attention and saluted — with tears in our eyes.
A week later, the guards were searching our cells and found Mike's flag. That night they pulled him out of the cell and, for his simple gesture of patriotism, they tortured him. At daylight they pushed what was left of Mike back through the cell door.
Today, whenever I see our flag, I think of Mike and the morning he first waved that tattered emblem of our great nation. It was then, thousands of miles from home, imprisoned by a brutal enemy, that he courageously demonstrated the liberty it represents, and that is what I see in every American flag.
Leo is survived by his devoted wife and lifelong sweetheart, Gaylee, and their family. After Leo was shot down, DoD would not tell Gaylee for some time if he was alive or dead. She led the charge to ensure that the families of all POWs would never again be left in the dark about the fate of their loved ones. Col. Thorsness will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Clear skies and tailwinds, Colonel. ~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/digests/48906
https://patriotpost.us/digests/48906
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Feinstein Admits There’s No Russia
Trump Collusion Evidence
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Wolf Blitzer appeared to ambush Senator Dianne Feinstein during an interview on his program on CNN Fake News, with a question she wasn’t expecting... It was one in which a truthful answer would contradict the ongoing months-long lie, the Democrat claims behind the supposed Russian meddling in the US election. Feinstein would clearly have relished the opportunity to provide cover and assistance to her close friend, crooked liar-Hillary, but she couldn’t do it. She hadn’t the time nor the mental agility to cobble together a narrative that would make that possible. Blitzer said, “I know that you and some of your colleagues from the Senate Intelligence Committee drove over to Langley, Virginia, yesterday, to CIA headquarters and you were briefed. As Blitzer says, “Here’s the question,” Feinstein interjects, “This wasn’t the subject,” apparently a reference to the topic of their interview not being included in the discussions at the CIA or that the CIA trip wasn’t the topic she agreed to discuss on CNN... http://rickwells.us/visit-cia-headquarters-feinstein-admits-no-russia-trump-collusion-evidence/
Perfect 31-Second Illustration of
Why People Dislike Democrats
by M.J. Randolph
{truthrevolt.org} ~ On Thursday, the American Health Care Act was passed by House Republicans on their 216th "yes."... When that happened, the Democrats, statesmen that they are, decided to taunt their political opponents like a high school team might taunt their across-town rivals. "Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye," they sang as they waved goodbye. What, was "go start the bus" too puerile? What the Democrats were trying to say was that the Republicans are never going to get re-elected now. Americans are so wedded to liar-nObamacare that these Republicans have just guaranteed losses across the board. And the DC political class wonders why people hate them... http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/video-perfect-31-second-illustration-why-people-dislike-democrats
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Trump Kicks IRS, Political Thought Controllers
Out Of The Pulpits Of American Churches
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ President Trump’s signing of an executive order removing the threat of the loss of tax-exempt status from churches in the United States... if they address or express a position on political issues or candidates removes an intrusion into religious freedom that has no place in this nation, an unconstitutional restriction on what can be said from the pulpit. It’s a restriction that applies primarily to Christian churches in its enforcement, particularly over the last eight years when Christians were targeted by the Islamic-favoring and empowering liar-nObama regime. Imams weren’t threatened by the IRS but we know from the incident surrounding the targeting of conservatives for their views by Lois Lerner and her many accomplices that the same can’t be said for preachers, pastors, priests and probably rabbis... http://rickwells.us/president-trump-kicks-irs-political-thought-controllers-pulpits-american-churches/
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Turkey Finds Nasty Trump Present on Its
Border After Menacing US Troops
by John Falkenberg
{conservativetribune.com} ~ One of our own allies struck United States-backed forces in Syria with its force last week, resulting in “a significant number” of casualties... and possibly putting the safety of our own forces may be in jeopardy, as well. Turkish military forces conducted airstrikes in Northern Syria April 25, resulting in serious casualties among U.S.-supported Kurdish militants, according to CNS News. These Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units) fighters have been “integral in fighting ISIS,” according to Air Force Col. John Dorrian, the spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, who spoke to reporters after the Turkish attack...http://conservativetribune.com/turkey-border-menacing-us-troops/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_campaign=CTDailyEmail&utm_content=2017-05-05
VIDEO: http://www.mrctv.org/videos/us-says-turkey-conducted-unsafe-air-strikes-syria-killing-us-partners
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NK Defector Reveals KJU’s Losing Control of Media
by Davis
{conservativetribune.com} ~ The North Korean government, led by Kim Jong Un, is widely known to censor almost everything from the outside world, but one defector recently claimed that Kim’s control of information is weakening... the Washington Free Beacon reported. In an interview with the Free Beacon, Choi Jeong Hun, who runs the radio station Free North Korea Radio based in Seoul, South Korea, explained that more and more people in North Korea have been starting to get information from the outside world...http://conservativetribune.com/nk-defector-drops-bombshell/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_campaign=CTDailyEmail&utm_content=2017-05-05
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That section permits the NSA to capture communications between foreigners and Americans without a warrant from any court, even though the NSA has its own secret court that has granted well over 99 percent of applications for spying brought to it.
Yet the NSA has convinced the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that when it captures the communications of a foreigner and an American and those communications refer to a third person who is an American, Section 702 extends the authority for warrantless spying to that third person, as well. And it extends to any person whom the third person is talking about -- and so forth, out to the sixth level of communication.
If you do the math, this NSA-concocted, Section 702-generated, secret FISA court-approved logic permits warrantless spying on nearly everyone in the United States. So why did the NSA announce that it will pull back on the way it utilizes Section 702 as the basis for its mass spying?
Here is the back story.
FISA was written in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, which involved illegal domestic spying. The purpose of FISA was to insert the judiciary between the NSA and its targets so as to ensure that there would be a consistent legal basis for the spying. What was that basis?
The Supreme Court has long characterized domestic spying as surveillance, and it has characterized surveillance as either a "search" or a "seizure" of communications. The Fourth Amendment requires judicially issued warrants for all government searches and seizures, and it mandates that those search warrants be based on probable cause of wrongdoing on the part of the person whom the government wishes to surveil and that the warrants themselves specifically describe the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized.
Yet government lawyers, who have no opposition standing next to them when they appear in the FISA court, have convinced the court that the constitutional requirement of probable cause only applies to the government when it is engaging in law enforcement, not when it seeks intelligence data. So when the NSA asks the FISA court for authority to conduct surveillance, the FISA court complies, and it does so with warrants that do not specifically describe the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized. These warrants typically authorize spying by ZIP codes or area codes or street addresses or telecommunications companies' customer lists.
What the NSA does not tell the FISA court is that its requests for approvals are a sham. That's because the NSA relies on vague language in a 35-year-old executive order, known as EO 12333, as authority to conduct mass surveillance. That's surveillance of everyone -- and it does capture the content of every telephone conversation, as well as every keystroke on every computer and all fiber-optic data generated everywhere within, coming to and going from the United States.
This is not only profoundly unlawful but also profoundly deceptive. It is unlawful because it violates the Fourth Amendment. It is deceptive because Congress and the courts and the American people, perhaps even the president, think that the FISA court has been serving as a buffer for the voracious appetite of the NSA. In reality, the NSA, while dispatching lawyers to make sophisticated arguments to the FISA court, has gone behind the court's back by spying on everyone all the time.
In a memo from a now-former NSA director to his agents and vendors, leaked to the public, he advised capturing all data from everyone all the time. This produces information overload, as there is more data than can be analyzed; each year, it produces the equivalent of 27 times the contents of the Library of Congress. Therefore, safety -- as well as liberty -- is compromised.
The recent mass killings in Boston, San Bernardino and Orlando were all preceded by text messages and cellphone conversations between the killers and their confederates. The NSA had the digital versions of those texts and conversations, but it had not analyzed them until after the killings -- because it has and has had too much data to analyze in a critical and timely manner.
So, why did the NSA announce that it is pulling back from its customary uses of Section 702? To give the false impression to members of Congress that it follows the law. Section 702, the great subterfuge, expires at the end of this year, and the NSA, which has spied on Donald Trump since before he was president, fears the debate that will accompany the efforts to renew it -- hence its softening public tone.
The genius of the Fourth Amendment is that it serves as a two-edged sword. By requiring probable cause before judges can issue warrants to agents for surveillance, the amendment both protects the privacy of those uninvolved in wrongdoing by leaving them alone and compels federal agents to focus their appetite for intelligence and their need for evidence on only those they legitimately feel may have done wrong.
In the meantime, Trump knows that he has been the victim of overzealous and unlawful surveillance, and we can expect during the debate over renewal of Section 702 that he will have a more sober and constitutional view of all this than his predecessors.
More Spying and More Lying
by Judge Andrew Napolitano
{townhall.com} ~ Late last week, President Donald Trump told CBS News that domestic surveillance of American citizens should be the "No. 1" topic of inquiry until we can find out "what the hell is going on" with it. Also late last week, the National Security Agency -- the federal government's 60,000-person-strong domestic spying agency -- announced that it would voluntarily hold back on its more aggressive uses of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
{townhall.com} ~ Late last week, President Donald Trump told CBS News that domestic surveillance of American citizens should be the "No. 1" topic of inquiry until we can find out "what the hell is going on" with it. Also late last week, the National Security Agency -- the federal government's 60,000-person-strong domestic spying agency -- announced that it would voluntarily hold back on its more aggressive uses of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
That section permits the NSA to capture communications between foreigners and Americans without a warrant from any court, even though the NSA has its own secret court that has granted well over 99 percent of applications for spying brought to it.
Yet the NSA has convinced the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that when it captures the communications of a foreigner and an American and those communications refer to a third person who is an American, Section 702 extends the authority for warrantless spying to that third person, as well. And it extends to any person whom the third person is talking about -- and so forth, out to the sixth level of communication.
If you do the math, this NSA-concocted, Section 702-generated, secret FISA court-approved logic permits warrantless spying on nearly everyone in the United States. So why did the NSA announce that it will pull back on the way it utilizes Section 702 as the basis for its mass spying?
Here is the back story.
FISA was written in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, which involved illegal domestic spying. The purpose of FISA was to insert the judiciary between the NSA and its targets so as to ensure that there would be a consistent legal basis for the spying. What was that basis?
The Supreme Court has long characterized domestic spying as surveillance, and it has characterized surveillance as either a "search" or a "seizure" of communications. The Fourth Amendment requires judicially issued warrants for all government searches and seizures, and it mandates that those search warrants be based on probable cause of wrongdoing on the part of the person whom the government wishes to surveil and that the warrants themselves specifically describe the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized.
Yet government lawyers, who have no opposition standing next to them when they appear in the FISA court, have convinced the court that the constitutional requirement of probable cause only applies to the government when it is engaging in law enforcement, not when it seeks intelligence data. So when the NSA asks the FISA court for authority to conduct surveillance, the FISA court complies, and it does so with warrants that do not specifically describe the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized. These warrants typically authorize spying by ZIP codes or area codes or street addresses or telecommunications companies' customer lists.
What the NSA does not tell the FISA court is that its requests for approvals are a sham. That's because the NSA relies on vague language in a 35-year-old executive order, known as EO 12333, as authority to conduct mass surveillance. That's surveillance of everyone -- and it does capture the content of every telephone conversation, as well as every keystroke on every computer and all fiber-optic data generated everywhere within, coming to and going from the United States.
This is not only profoundly unlawful but also profoundly deceptive. It is unlawful because it violates the Fourth Amendment. It is deceptive because Congress and the courts and the American people, perhaps even the president, think that the FISA court has been serving as a buffer for the voracious appetite of the NSA. In reality, the NSA, while dispatching lawyers to make sophisticated arguments to the FISA court, has gone behind the court's back by spying on everyone all the time.
In a memo from a now-former NSA director to his agents and vendors, leaked to the public, he advised capturing all data from everyone all the time. This produces information overload, as there is more data than can be analyzed; each year, it produces the equivalent of 27 times the contents of the Library of Congress. Therefore, safety -- as well as liberty -- is compromised.
The recent mass killings in Boston, San Bernardino and Orlando were all preceded by text messages and cellphone conversations between the killers and their confederates. The NSA had the digital versions of those texts and conversations, but it had not analyzed them until after the killings -- because it has and has had too much data to analyze in a critical and timely manner.
So, why did the NSA announce that it is pulling back from its customary uses of Section 702? To give the false impression to members of Congress that it follows the law. Section 702, the great subterfuge, expires at the end of this year, and the NSA, which has spied on Donald Trump since before he was president, fears the debate that will accompany the efforts to renew it -- hence its softening public tone.
The genius of the Fourth Amendment is that it serves as a two-edged sword. By requiring probable cause before judges can issue warrants to agents for surveillance, the amendment both protects the privacy of those uninvolved in wrongdoing by leaving them alone and compels federal agents to focus their appetite for intelligence and their need for evidence on only those they legitimately feel may have done wrong.
In the meantime, Trump knows that he has been the victim of overzealous and unlawful surveillance, and we can expect during the debate over renewal of Section 702 that he will have a more sober and constitutional view of all this than his predecessors.
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