Barack Hussein Obama's roots are now out of the closet. Will it make a difference? Possibly. By November 2nd? God willing.
WHO IS ‘A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY’?
America knows him a little better 20 months later. http://bit.ly/9YaV4A
All Posts (29503)
Sort by
What is Government? -
Government responsibility
is to protect people within the
area of governance from
injustice, to resolve disputes
between people within the
area of governance, and to
ensure general public
safety and well-being.
What is Politics?
Politics is abuse
of government powers. It promotespersonal advancement, and/or
favors certain group of people.
[privatizing government]
What must we do?
Government shall not indulge in politics.
Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino
said he would transform some New York prisons
into dormitories for welfare recipients,
At these dormitories, the people would work in state
-sponsored jobs, get employment training and
take lessons in “personal hygiene.”
Paladino, who is popular with many tea party
activists, is competing for the Republican
nomination with former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio.
The primary is Sept. 14. He first described
the idea in June at a meeting of The Journal
News of White Plains and spoke about it
again this week with The Associated Press.
“Instead of handing out the welfare
checks, we'll teach people how to
earn their check. We'll teach them
personal hygiene … the personal
things they don't get when they
come from dysfunctional homes."
Throughout his campaign, Paladino has said
New York's “Rich Menu” of social service
benefits encourages illegal immigrants
and needy people to live in the state. He
has promised a 20 percent reduction in
the state budget and a 10 percent income
tax cut if elected.
New York receives a federal block grant to
provide cash and other forms of welfare to
very low income residents. Federal law already
requires welfare recipients to do some form
of work to receive benefits, but Paladino believes
it is not an effective enough measure.
candidate-wants-to-turn-prisons-into-dorms-for-
welfare-recipients-30097/
[Teaching the less fortunate skills to take care
of themselves is excellent idea!
You won't see a Democrat mentoring citizens
like this, that's a guarantee. Because they are too busy
worrying about their own political careers
then to be concerned about citizens needs.
Goes to show "who we" need to be voting into office,
ain't a democrat]
establishment, Democratic and
Republican, liberal and conservative
are seeking to retaliate against those
who are exposing atrocities by the US
military in Afghanistan and Iraq, and
intimidate all critics of these wars of
aggression by American imperialism.
The most strident rhetoric has come from the ultra-right.
Republican Congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan,
a former FBI agent who sits on the House Intelligence
Committee, told a local radio station Monday that he
thought the death penalty would be appropriate
punishment for Manning if he is convicted on charges
of leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks.
Pfc. Manning, who worked at an Army intelligence facility
in Iraq, is now imprisoned at the Quantico, Virginia Marine
Corps base, awaiting trial on charges that he supplied
WikiLeaks with classified video of a US helicopter gunship
mowing down Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad neighborhood in
2007. Pentagon officials have also named Manning a “person
of interest” in the leak of 92,000 classified after-action reports
dating from 2004 to 2010 on operations in Afghanistan,
which document the killing of hundreds of Afghan civilians. …
Right-wing media pundits have called for a direct assault by
the US government on WikiLeaks. On Fox News Sunday,
commentator Liz Cheney, daughter of the former vice
-president, called on the Obama administration to shut
down the Internet-based organization, presumably through
the use of the Pentagon’s cyber warfare capability.
On Tuesday, in a column in the Washington Post, former
Bush White House aide Marc A. Thiessen, now a weekly
contributor to the newspaper, said the government should
kidnap and imprison Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks.
“WikiLeaks is not a news organization; it is a
criminal enterprise,” Thiessen declared. “Its reason
for existence is to obtain classified national security
information and disseminate it as widely as possible
—including to the United States’ enemies.” He argued
that there is ample precedent for using the powers of
“rendition” exercised by the CIA against those engaged
in “material support for terrorism”
“Assange is a non-US citizen operating outside the
territory of the United States,” he wrote. “This means
the government has a wide range of options for dealing
with him. It can employ not only law enforcement but
also intelligence and military assets to bring Assange
to justice and put his criminal syndicate out of business.”
Thiessen contended that if Iceland or Belgium refused to
extradite him, “the United States can arrest Assange on
their territory without their knowledge or approval.” Under
existing US law, he claimed, “we do not need permission
to apprehend Assange or his co-conspirators anywhere
in the world.”
Liberal Democrats have chimed in with their own
proposals to target Wikileaks. According to a report
Wednesday in the New York Times, two Senate
Democrats, Charles Schumer of New York and
Diane Feinstein of California, are drafting an amendment
to the “media shield” legislation now being considered in
Congress “to make clear that the bill’s protections
extend only to traditional news-gathering activities
and not to web sites that serve as a conduit for the
mass dissemination of secret documents.”
The bill was originally drafted in response to a series of
cases in which reporters were jailed for refusing to
disclose their sources to judges, prosecutors or plaintiffs
in lawsuits. In order to avoid WikiLeaks taking advantage
of such a shield law, Schumer and Feinstein want to
specifically exclude whistleblower sites.
The Times quoted Paul J. Boyle, senior vice president
for public policy at the Newspaper Association of
America, the industry trade group, endorsing such
a policy, which would reserve this type of First Amendment
protection for “traditional news organizations subject to
American law and having editorial controls and
experience in news judgment.” In other words,
such safeguards would be reserved to the corporate-
controlled media, run by people loyal to the
American ruling elite and the capitalist state.
The major concern of those targeting WikiLeaks and
Private Manning is that the leaks of internal government
documents provide evidence to justify war crimes
prosecution of US government officials, past
and present. To save their own skins, they want
to criminalize the exposure of these atrocities,
rather than the atrocities themselves.
The language being employed in media and official
circles is dangerous and chilling. It makes clear that
nine years of uninterrupted military aggression have
provided the basis for major attacks on democratic
rights in the United States and the preparation of
more openly dictatorial forms of rule.
Launched on the basis of systematic lying, both about
the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the supposed danger of
“weapons of mass destruction,” these wars are
criminal in every sense of the word. Millions have
been killed, maimed or driven from their homes, and
more than five thousand Americans have died to
advance the interests of US imperialism in the oil
rich Persian Gulf and Central Asia.
Officials of the Bush and Obama administrations are
manifestly guilty of war crimes, ranging from launching
aggressive war—the core charge against the Nazis in
Nuremberg—to the systematic assassination of
opponents in both Iraq and Afghanistan. This last
practice, documented by WikiLeaks in the activities
of Army Task Force 373 in Afghanistan, is a full-scale
repetition of one of the principal horrors of the Vietnam
War, the CIA’s Phoenix Program, which murdered
20,000 suspected supporters of the Vietnamese
National Liberation Front.
After the Phoenix Program was exposed in the US media,
including the publication of the Pentagon Papers,
government-sponsored assassination became political
discredited and was officially outlawed—until the onset
of the “war on terror.” Now such methods are being
effectively legalized, as politicians of both parties,
backed by their media apologists, boast of their right
to “take out” opponents, using bombs, missiles or
direct hand-to-hand violence.
WikiLeaks and Private Manning are being targeted
because they have done what a cowardly and spineless
media has refused to do—tell the truth about the crimes
of American imperialism. Working people in the United
States and around the world must demand the
dropping of all threats and charges against WikiLeaks
an end to the government harassment and targeting of
whistleblowers, and the immediate release of
Private Bradley Manning.
- Patrick Martin
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/pers-a05.shtml
24 September 2010
Rally for Bradley Manning
By Ryan HarveyAt a rally Sunday, September 18, 2010, outside of the
gates of Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, Iraq veterans
spoke on behalf of a soldier imprisoned inside,
Pfc. Bradley Manning.
Manning has been held in solitary confinement at Quantico
for almost three months now, accused of being the source
of the “Collateral Murder” video which was released in April
by the online whistleblower web site WikiLeaks. The video
shows US forces firing 30 mm cannons from helicopter
gunships into a crowd in Baghdad, killing over a dozen
Iraqis, including two Reuters journalists, and seriously
wounding two children.
The government has intimated that Manning may also be
considered the source of the “Afghan War Diaries,” a series
of almost 100,000 documents pertaining to the Afghan war
published in July by WikiLeaks, which all together
constitute the largest leak in military history.
A former soldier from the ground unit that responded to the
helicopter shooting seen in the now-infamous video
described the incident as a typical moment in his 2007
deployment to Baghdad as part of the Surge. “It was by
no means abnormal,” said the former soldier, Josh Stieber
, who served 14 months in the New Baghdad neighborhood.
In a previous interview with me, Stieber and two other soldiers
from his unit, Bravo Company 2-16, detailed the paradox of
attempting to “win hearts and minds” while systematically
abusing people. “I think it illustrates why we shouldn’t put
soldiers in that situation” he said of the video.
“That’s what the war looks like,” he told the crowd Sunday,
while explaining that those who leak such information to the
public are doing a service to the country. “It’s important in order
to even have a conversation on [these wars] where soldiers are
supposedly fighting on behalf of the American public,” he added
, “for the American public to realize what kinds of situations
soldiers are being put into.”
accused-wikileaks-source-bradley-manning
.
[I believe it is time for politicians to quit meddling in
military matters! How are soldiers suppose to 'serve country'
when you politicians keep getting in the way?
This isn't about you politician(even though you THINK it is)
This situation is all the more reason to put military
General into the position of US President.]
Every once in a while you come across a story that
will make the hair on the back of your neck stand
on end as soon as you read the first couple of
paragraphs. Sadly, this is one of those stories.
Last week, business and technology journal
Fast Company reported that a U.S. company
named Global Rainmakers Inc. is embarking
on a grand techno-fascist project in Leon,
Mexico, where it will roll out iris-scanning
technology to create what it calls “the
most secure city in the world.”
When the million-plus residents of Leon go to
the bank, get on a bus or walk into a medical
clinic, their eyes will be scanned by machines
that can handle up to 50 people per minute in
motion, automatically entering the information
into a central database monitored by the
police.
Jeff Carter, the CDO of GRI, is enthusiastic.
“In the future, whether it’s entering your home,
opening your car, entering your workspace,
getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having
your medical records pulled up, everything will
come off that unique key that is your iris,” he told
Fast Company.
“Every person, place, and thing on this planet will
be connected (to the iris system) within the next
10 years,” he added.
To begin, GRI’s scanners are scheduled to be
installed in law enforcement facilities, security
check-points, police stations, and prisons.
The authorities in Leon are set to automatically
“enrol” convicted criminals, scanning their irises
and entering them into the
database for future use.
The next phase will see scanners placed in
mass transit, medical centres and banks with
the expectation that they will be used by everyone
else. The technology is meant to have both
governmental and commercial uses (for example,
personalized advertising or billboards that actively
track who looks at them), so if residents of Leon want a
glimpse into the future, they can rent Minority
Report DVDs. Carter seems undisturbed by all this.
“If you’ve been convicted of a crime, in essence,
this will act as a digital scarlet letter,” he said.
“If you’re a known shoplifter, for example, you
won’t be able to go into a store without being
flagged. Forothers, boarding a plane will be impossible.”
Law-abiding citizens will have the option to opt-in,
although Carter hopes that they will be incentivized
to do so by the government and by private companies.
“When you get masses of people opting-in, opting
out does not help,” he said.
“Opting out actually puts more of a flag on you than
just being part of the system. We believe everyone
will opt-in.”
Lest anyone think that Carter and his colleagues
are just misguided scientists who do not understand
the implications of what they are selling, the CEO of
Global Rainmakers Hector Hoyos dispels that myth
rather nicely.
“September 11 had a huge impact on my life — it
made me move to New York and do what I’m doing
today,” he told the Hispanic Engineer & Information
Technology magazine in an interview just days before
GRI’s project in Leon was announced. “This is one thing
I’ve based my life’s work on: identifying the needle in the
haystack. I’ve been working to develop the technology,
product, and solutions to enable the identification of the
bad guys and hopefully rid the world of them. My
purpose is to be able to weed out anyone who wants
to harm us or our way
of life.”
Who is a criminal or a threat? What would “ridding
the world of them” entail? That’s up to the Mexican
authorities and the good people at GRI, for now.
But, if GRI and the authorities in Leon are successful,
then they will create the authoritarian’s wet dream, a
system that will track individuals from the moment
that they enter the public square and follow
and monitor them all day long, with Big Brother
looking for patterns and transgressions while
marketing companies assault the senses with
personalized ads.
No matter what our politicians and newspaper
columnists say, our way of life or how we enjoy
our freedoms are not threatened by bad census
forms, boatfuls of Tamil refugees, or by an Islamic
cultural centre within a few blocks of the former
World Trade Center in New York.
Instead, the meaningful threats come from
the nexus of paranoia and centralized control,
and truly Orwellian technologies, always put
in place in the name of the public good.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/eyes+have+techno+fascists/3430783/story.html#ixzz0xgSpdE4H
SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian spy agencies may have
helped trace the movements of WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange, whose whistleblowing website published
tens of thousands of secret US military files, reports
said on Friday.
Attorney General Robert McClelland said Australia
cooperated on security matters with international
bodies, but refused to say whether authorities had
shared information about the Australian-born
Assange.
“It’s not the sort of thing that I would comment on
, but again, we do cooperate with respect to a
number of matters internationally,” he said in
comments reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.
WikiLeaks in June released close to 77,000 files
from the US military about the Afghan war, some
of which alleged that Pakistani spies met the Taliban
and that deaths of innocent civilians by foreign forces
were covered up. The documents also included names
of some Afghan informants, prompting claims that the
leaks have endangered lives.
Assange has denied that the release of the confidential
documents had jeopardised the safety of people, telling
an audience in London on Thursday that the site aimed
to protect people.
“We do not have a goal of innocent people being harmed.
We have precisely the opposite goal,” he said at
London’s City University.
The 39-year-old, who has applied for a permit to live in
Sweden, has claimed that he is a victim of a “smear
campaign” aimed at discrediting his website over the
release of the secret US documents.
WikiLeaks is expected to reveal another 15,000
files shortly.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article
/ALeqM5iJw-RBk449rShHIOaMmNR7WBty2g
?docId=CNG.0c3a53ff7267f11501a5b3dbd9567dbf.1f1
[Leaders do the right thing whereas
followers cover it up]
by Stephan Lendman June 14 2010
More than ever under Obama, we live in a secret
society, in which whistleblowers and journalists ar
targeted for doing their job – why Helen Thomas,
unfairly pilloried by the pro-Israeli chorus, last July
said his administration was “controlling the press,
during a White House Robert Gibbs briefing, then
afterward added:
“It’s shocking. It’s really shocking….What the
hell do they think we are, puppets? They’re
supposed to stay out of our business. They
are our public servants. We pay them.”
On April 16, journalist John Cole wrote:
“The message is clear – you torture people
and then destroy the evidence, and you get
off without so much as a sternly worded
letter. If you are a whistle blower outlining
criminal behavior by the government, you
get prosecuted.”
In fact, it’s worse. Under Bush, torture was official
policy. It remains so under Obama who absolved
CIA torturers, despite unequivocal evidence
of their guilt. But leaking it risks criminal
prosecution for revealing state secrets
and endangering national security.
On June 7, New York Times writer Elisabeth
Bumiller headlined,“Army Leak Suspect Is
Turned In, by Ex-Hacker,” explaining that
US Army intelligence analyst Specialist
Bradley Manning told Adrian Lamo that he
leaked the following materials to WikiLeaks:
– “260,000 classified United States diplomatic
cables and video of a (US) airstrike in
Afghanistan that killed 97 civilians last year
,” and an “explosive (39 minute) video of an
American helicopter attack in Baghdad that
left 12 people dead, including two employees
of the Reuters news agency.” Manning called
it “collateral murder,” a crime he felt
obliged to expose.
Lamo told the military, saying “I outed Brad
Manning as an alleged leaker out of duty.
I would never (and have never) outed an
Ordinary Decent Criminal. There’s a
difference.” He didn’t explain or how any
criminal can be decent.
On June 7, the military command in Iraq
arrested Manning, saying in Pentagon
boilerplate:
“The Department of Defense takes
the management of classified
information very seriously because
it affects our national security, the
lives of our soldiers, and our
operations abroad.”
So far, Manning is uncharged and is being
held in Kuwait pending further action.
On June 6 in wired.com, Kevin Poulsen
and Kim Zetter broke the story in
their article headlined, “US Intelligence
Analyst Arrested in WikiLeaks
Video Probe,” explaining:
The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division
arrested Manning after Lamo outed him.
The State Department said
it wasn’t aware of the arrest.The
FBI had no comment, then later the
Defense Department confirmed his
arrest for allegedly leaking classified
information. According to army
spokesman Gary Tallman:
“If you have a security clearance
and wittingly or unwittingly
provide classified information to
anyone who doesn’t have security
clearance or a need to know, you
have violated security regulations
and potentially the law.”
Manning said:
“Everywhere there’s a US post, there’s
a diplomatic scandal that will be
revealed. It’s open diplomacy. World-wide
anarchy in CSV format. It’s
Climategate with a global scope, and
breathtaking depth. It’s beautiful
and horrifying. (The documents
describe) almost criminal political back
dealings. (They belong) in the public
domain, and not on some server
stored in a dark corner in Washington
, DC. (Our government is involved
in) incredible things, awful things.”
He exposed cold-blooded murder of
innocent civilians and reporters, the
perpetrators laughing on video like it
was a game – the public unaware
that Pentagon rules-of-engagement
(ROEs) target Iraqi and Afghan
civilians as well as alleged
combatants.
On June 11, New York Times writer Scott
Shane headlined, “Obama Takes a Hard
Line Against Leaks to Press,” saying:
“In 17 months in office, President Obama
has already outdone every previous president
in pursuing leak prosecutions,” citing actions
against Thomas A. Drake (discussed below),
and Times columnist James Risen, subpoenaed
(by Bush and Obama) to disclose his sources
for his book, “State of War: The Secret History
of the CIA and the Bush Administration.”
Lucy Dalglish, executive director for Reporters
Committee for Freedom, explained:
“The message they are sending to everyone
is ‘You leak to the media, we will get you.’
As far as I can tell there is absolutely no
difference (between Bush and Obama),
and (he) seems to be paying more
attention to it. This is going to get nasty.”
Attorney General Eric Holder approved the
subpoena, his Justice Department spokesman
, Matthew Miller, saying: “As a general matter,
we have consistently said that leaks of classified
information are something we take extremely seriously.”
Risen’s lawyer, Joel Kurtzberg, explained that the
subpoena relates to his report about covert CIA
measures to subvert Iran’s alleged nuclear
weapons program. “We will be fighting to quash”
it, he said. “Jim is the highest calibre of reporter
and adhered to the highest standards of his
profession. And he intends to honor the promise
of confidentiality he made to (his) source or
sources.”
Risen’s publisher, Simon and Schuster, is handling
the matter, but a Times statement said:
“Our view, however, is that confidential sources
are vital in getting information to the public,
and a subpoena issued more than four years
after the book was published hardly seems to
be important enough to outweigh the protection
an author needs to have.”
First brought in 2006 by Bush Attorney General
Michael Mukasey, the grand jury session expired
without resolution. Holder will impanel a new
one. Risen faces possible prosecution and jail time
for honoring his confidentiality commitment, what no
reporter should ever violate.
WikiLeaks – What It Is, How It Operates
Calling itself “the intelligence agency of the people,”
WikiLeaks says it’s “a multi-jurisdictional public service
designed to protect whistleblower, journalist and
activists who have sensitive materials to
communicate to the public” that has a right to know.
Only when they’re told “the true plans and behavior
of their governments” can they decide whether or
not they deserve support, or as
Jack Kennedy said on April 27, 1961:
“The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free
and open society; and we are as a people inherently
and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret
oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago
that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted
concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers,
which are cited to justify it.”
WikiLeaks believes that “Principled leaking has changed
the course of history for the better; it can alter the course
of history in the present; it can lead us to a better future.”
It can expose abuses of power by “rel(ying) upon the power
of overt fact to enable and empower citizens to bring feared
and corrupt governments and corporations to
justice,” and help make nominal democracies real ones.
Secrecy and Targeting Whistleblowers and Journalists
Under Obama
More than ever under Obama, we live in a secret society,
in which whistleblowers and journalists are targeted for
doing their job – why Helen Thomas, unfairly pilloried
by the pro-Israeli chorus, last July said his administration
was “controlling the press,” during a White House Robert
Gibbs briefing, then afterward added:
“It’s shocking. It’s really shocking….What the hell do
they think we are, puppets? They’re supposed to stay
out of our business. They are our public servants.
We pay them.”
In a July 1, 2009 interview with CNSNews.com, she said
even Nixon didn’t exert press control like Obama, saying
: “Nixon didn’t try to do that. They couldn’t control (the media).
They didn’t try….I’m not saying there has never been managed
news before, but this is carried to (a) fare-thee-well for town
halls the press conferences. It’s blatant. They don’t give a
damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their
heads in shame.”
In February 2009, the Free Flow of Information Act was
introduced in the House and Senate. In March, the lower
body passed it overwhelmingly, after which it stalled in
Senate Committee.
At the time, the Obama administration weakened it in
opposition to strong congressional support – on the
pretext of national security considerations over the
public’s right to know, to let prosecutors judicially force
reporters and whistleblowers to reveal their sources.
Though the bill never passed, the administration uses
it to prevent exposure of information it wants suppressed,
more aggressively than any of his predecessors, another
measure of a man promising change.
Thomas Drake was an Obama administration target,
a former National Security Agency (NSA) “senior executive
,” indicted on April 15, 2010, on multiple charges of “willful
retention of classified information, obstruction of justice and
making false statements,” according to Assistant Attorney
General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.
The 10-count indictment alleges he gave Baltimore Sun
reporter Sibohan Gorman classified NSA documents about
the agency. In fact, she wrote about waste and mismanagement
in its “Trailblazer” project (a program analyzing data on
computer networks), and illegal spying activities,
saying on May 18, 2006 in her article headlined,
“NSA Killed System That Sifted Phone Data Legally” that:
“Once President Bush gave the go-ahead for the NSA
to secretly gather and analyze domestic phone records
– an authorization that carried no stipulations about identity
protection – agency officials regarded the encryption as an
unnecessary step and rejected it.”
Her stories, however, focused mainly on the Trailblazer
$1.2 billion initiative that one insider called “the biggest
boondoggle going on now in the intelligence community,
” what the public had every right to know.
Drake’s leaks exposed illegal NSA spying, its enormous
amount of waste and fraud, and the formation of a
public/private national security/surveillance state,
incentivizing profiteers to hype fear for
their own bottom-line self-interest.
As a candidate, Obama promised transparency,
accountability, and reform of extremist Bush policies
As president, he usurped unchecked surveillance
powers including warrantless wiretapping, accessing
personal records, monitoring financial transactions,
and tracking emails, Internet and cell phone use to gather
secret evidence for prosecutions. He also claims Justice
Department immunity from illegal spying suits, an
interpretation no member of Congress or administration
ever made, not even Bush or his Republican allies.
As a result, his national security state targets activists
political dissidents, anti-war protestors, Muslims, Latino
immigrants, lawyers who defend them, whistleblowers,
journalists who expose federal crimes, corruption, and
excesses who won’t disclose their sources, and WikiLeaks
, cited in a 2008 Pentagon report as a major US security
threat, important to shut down by deterring, discouraging
or prosecuting its sources. More on that below.
At a time of extreme government secrecy, lawlessness
and betrayal of the public trust, exposes and public debate
more than ever are vital – whistleblowers, WikiLeaks, and
courageous reporters essential to an open
society, one endangered without them.
WikiLeaks March 15, 2010 Release: “US Intelligence
planned to destroy WikiLeaks”
The group’s founder, Julian Assange, described a
32-page February 2008 counterintelligence
investigation “to fatally marginalize the organization
.” However, after two years, without
success, at least so far.
It called WikiLeaks “a potential force protection,
counterintelligence, operational security (OPSEC)
and information security (INFOSEC) threat
to the US Army, (jeopardizing) DoD personnel,
equipment, facilities, or installations. Such information
(could help) foreign intelligence and
security services (FISS), foreign military forces,
foreign insurgents, and foreign terrorist groups
(by providing them) information (they could
use to attack) US force(s), both within the United
States and abroad” – typical Pentagon boilerplate
to hype threats and deter whistleblowers
from exposing government crimes and excesses
what the public has every right to know.
In response, WikiLeaks said protecting the identity
of leakers takes high priority. It operates “to expose
unethical practices, illegal behavior, and wrongdoing
within corrupt (government agencies and) corporations
(as well as) oppressive regimes” abroad, some in
collusion with Washington.
The goal – expose wrongdoing, demand accountability
and support democratic principles in a free and open
society – what governments are supposed to do, but
when they don’t organizations like WikiLeaks exhibit
the highest form of patriotism, to be lauded, not spied
on, pilloried, or destroyed.
Among its many accusations, DOD claimed
WikiLeaks:
– has possible DOD moles giving it sensitive or
classified information;
– uses its site to post fabricated and manipulated
information;
– has 2,000 pages of leaked army documents
with information about US and coalition forces in
Iraq and Afghanistan, including on the kinds and
numbers of equipment assigned to
US Central Command;
– Julian Assange wrote and co-authored articles
, based on leaked information, “to facilitate action
by the US Congress to force the withdrawal of
US troops by cutting off funding for the war(s);”
– leaked information “could aid enemy forces in
planning terrorist attacks, (choose) the most
effective type and emplacement of improvised
explosive devices (IEDs)” and use other ways
to target US military units, convoys, and bases;
– data published is misinterpreted, manipulated
misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda;
– a November 9, 2007 report said US forces “had
almost certainly violated the Chemical Weapons
Convention (CWC),” and has 2,386 low grade
chemical weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan;
– the same report charged DOD with illegal white
phosphorous use in the 2004 Fallujah attack;
– the Bush administration was accused of torture
and denying ICRC representatives access to
Guantanamo detainees;
– details were provided on DOD’s use of asymmetric
tactics, techniques, and procedures in the April
2004 Fallujah assault; and
– many other accusations and concerns were listed
, including whether foreign organizations….foreign
military services, foreign insurgents, or terrorist
groups provide funding or material support to
Wikileaks.org.”
DOD concluded that successfully identifying,
prosecuting, and terminating the employment of
leakers “would damage and potentially destroy”
WikiLeaks’ operation and deter others from supplying
information. It also stressed “the need for strong
counterintelligence, antiterrorism, force protection
, information assurance, INFOSEC, and OPSEC
programs to train Army personnel” on ways to
prevent leaks and report “suspicious activities.”
Julian Assange is a man with a mission – total
transparency. WikiLeaks is a vital resource by
providing key information on how governments and
corporations betray the public interest. Given
America’s tradition of war crimes, corruption
and other abuses of power, no wonder DOD is
concerned, thankfully so far without success,
or according to WikiLeaks:
Its activities are “the strongest way we have of
generating the true democracy and good
governance on which all mankind’s dreams
depend,” and may have a chance to achieve
from their work and others like them – grassroots
activism, power and determination, the only way
change ever comes, never from the top down,
a lesson to internalize, remember, and
act on.
A Final Note
On June 10, Daily Beast writer Philip Shenon
headlined, “Pentagon Manhunt,” saying:
“Anxious that WikiLeaks may be on the verge
of publishing a batch of secret State Department
cables, investigators are desperately searching
for founder Julian Assange.”
In early June, he was scheduled to speak at
New York’s Personal Democracy Forum, but
was advised against it for his safety. Instead,
he appeared via Skype from Australia.
Interviewed about Assange, famed whistleblower
Daniel Ellsberg believes he could be in danger,
saying:
“I happen to have been the target of a White
House hit squad myself. On May 3, 1972, a dozen
CIA assets from the Bay of Pigs, Cuban emigres,
were brought up from Miami with orders to
‘incapacitate me totally.’ ”
Ellsberg asked if that meant to kill him, and was
told “It means to incapacitate you totally.
But you have to understand these guys never
use the word ‘kill.’ ”
Is Assange now in danger? “Absolutely. On
the same basis, I was….Obama is now
proclaiming rights of life and death, being
judge, jury, and executioner of Americans
without due process” at home or abroad,
besides non-citizens anywhere as well,
the rule of law be damned. “No president
has ever claimed that and possibly no one
since John the First.”
Ellsberg’s advice to Assange:
“Stay out of the US. Otherwise, keep doing
what he is doing. It’s pretty valuable….He is
serving our democracy and serving our rule of law
precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations
which are not laws in most cases, in this country.
He is doing very good work for our democracy,”
something Obama, like his predecessors, works
daily to subvert.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can
be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with
distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio
News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network
Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays
and Sundays at noon. All programs are
archived for easy listening.
[I can say something about this article. I have
experienced similar situation before. I used
to live in South Dakota. I challenged
in 2000 about subordinates being trained
mercenary tactics. As if police are warriors
fighting in battle front. Because they are not.
Police are police. Warrior belongs to soldier.
End result? I was royally blackballed.
Police were given the go ahead to frame me.
Prosecute me, teach me a lesson.
Conviction 'would have been' to punish me
for exposing public corruption.
This is under Democrat administration
not republican administration.
What is this talk that politicians are calling
themselves 'change agents?' Politicians are
not qualified to be change agents. being that
they are 'special interest' motivated.
Change agent status belongs to whistle blowers.
You know people who have courage to do the
right thing because it is the right thing to do.]
TELL YOUR LOVED ONES WHAT THEY MEAN TO YOU
HAVE A PARTY
We read here,"’If you're the ruling party, this is not the sort of thing you want to have happening two weeks before an election,’ said Andrew Biggs, a former deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration and now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.” He was speaking to the no cost of living increases for those on Social Security, for the second year.
The Nevada Senate race is interesting. Everyone knows that Senator Harry Reid is responsible for runaway government spending, and that government entitlements are the number one reason. Opponent Sharon Angle calls for privatizing Social Security. The election could go either way. Angle would have been a cinch to win had she been less specific about the way to cut spending. Angle is the Tea Party pick, not the Republican Party pick. In any event, whether or not Reid wins, the Republicans are going to regain control. But beware! Remember George Bush and "compassionate conservatives."
We are looking at a repeat performance. In the 1994 election, the Republicans won control. What happens after the 2010 election, when the Republicans get serious about balancing the budget at the expense of government entitlements? If I know Republicans, in the face of the Democrats’ blistering personal attacks, say what you want, but Republicans wimp out every time. They fear losing the election. Where does that leave the Tea Party? Remember the Alamo.
The Tea Party got its name from the Boston Tea Party—rebels against the King’s tax. In 1933, Roosevelt told the American people government had a duty to keep us from starving. He gave us the New Deal—the King’s tax. The Supreme Court turned the New Deal down, stating that it did not pass constitutional muster.
Keeping the American people from starving involves property. Whose property? Justice Brandeis, a Roosevelt appointee to the Supreme Court, said property is only the means, claiming the Court had made the mistake of making the means the end. Brandeis’ statement was in direct opposition of the principles and values established in America’s Constitution. Remember that America’s Supreme Court passed judgment on white people owning black people—blacks as no different than cows and mules. Over and over, it has been proven that the Supreme Court’s integrity is no better than politicians’ integrity. Roosevelt’s New Deal did not pass the test of reason fundamental to the law. Democrats used strong arm tactics to force New Deal law on America. The Court capitulated.
Roosevelt sold the American people on a lawless walk down a garden path, to the current dead end. It is government’s duty to provide an environment of equal opportunity. Therefore, it is up to the Tea Party to turn America around and head us back to the beginning of Roosevelt’s, and now Obama’s lawless, unconstitutional walk. After the election, the Tea Party’s work continues. First and foremost, every worker has the right to exist on the fruits of his own labor, which means that any and every law resembling Roosevelt’s New Deal must be totally phased out—no compromises. The Higher Law, background of American constitutional law, cannot be compromised without dire results.
Got me ten feet off the ground
And I'm hearing what you say
But I just can't make a sound
You tell me that you need me
Then you go and cut me down, but wait
You tell me that you're sorry
Didn't think I'd turn around and say
That it's too late to apologize, it's too late
I said it's too late to apologize, it's too late. -- Apologize, OneRepublic
Barack Obama is a petty little man whose grandiose sense of self importance has always far outstripped his abilities and accomplishments. Putting a man such as that in the most important job on the planet is like taking a five year old off an airplane ride at a carnival and putting him at the control of a jet airplane in mid-flight.
Obama, who was so far over his head that he couldn't see the surface from day one, took over the country at a crucial time and then boldly strode forth and made the situation dramatically worse. His whole presidency, from start to finish, has been the living embodiment of that famous Talleyrand quote:
They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.
The rest of America, however, has learned quite a bit about Obama, which is why his approval rating has fallen like a stockbroker on Black Friday. At this point, not only should Barack Obama change course, he should apologize for what he's done wrong:
1) For lying to the American people: Calling a politician a liar is a bit like accusing a fish of being fond of water, but even amongst politicians, Barack Obama is a particularly hamfisted and prolific liar. Obama's strategy is simple: He promises everything to everybody and then points the finger elsewhere when people are inevitably disappointed. This has led to some jaw dropping whoppers than would even make Bill Clinton say, "Wow, that guy is a shameless liar."
A Stormfront member posted a very disturbing letterfrom
a Roman Catholic pastor at a Pennsylvania church. The
letterinforms parishioners that the pastor is terminating
two White members ofthe Catholic school's staff effective
the end of the 2008-9 school yearbecause they do not
meet some of the new critieria he has suddenlydecided is
necessary for occupants of the two positions.
Amongthe criteria is a requirement that those workers be
fluent in bothEnglish and Spanish. The pastor, Father
Vincent Welsh, is concernedabout declining enrollment,
and wants to induce the encroaching mestizopopulation
, renowned for their fecundity, to enroll their kids in his
Catholic school to increase enrollment, as well as tuition revenue.
The church is Saint Francis of Assisi Parish. The school is
Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic School. Both are located in
Norristown, Pennsylvania.
[This is America! English is the native tongue! Staff should not be
fired because they do not speak Spanish. What is this country coming too?]
Thursday, April 15, 2010
A Jewish middle school teacher in Oregon who announced
his intention"to dismantle and demolish the Tea Party" on
his "Crash the Tea Party"Web site is under investigation
by his state's Teacher Standards &Practices Commission.
To continue reading click here:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/15/oregon-probes-teacher-determined-demolish-tea-party
Counties in Red are Republican / Counties in Blue are Democrat
Interesting Statistics
From Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law,
St. Paul, Minnesota, points out facts of 2008 Presidential election:
Number of States won by:
From Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law,
St. Paul, Minnesota, points out facts of 2008 Presidential election:
Number of States won by:
Democrats: 19 / Won by Republicans: 29
Square miles of land won by:
Democrats: 580,000 / Republicans: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by:
Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1
Professor Olson adds,"In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican
won by Republicans was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens
of the country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens
living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of
government welfare.
Professor Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between
the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of
democracy , with some forty percent of the nation's population already
having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.
http://tarobb.blogspot.com
Columbus Day, the day Columbus brought European corruption to America, the Canadians celebrate this day as one to give thanks. Why? I’ll try to answer my question.
One hundred-seventeen years after Columbus arrived, not to mention what took place with the arrival of Cortez and the Catholic invasion of Mexico—just look at south of the border even today; it is appalling—in the interim of this southern fiasco, in 1609, England’s King James established Jamestown in what is now Virginia. The occupants of Jamestown had little more than the people who begin civilization 5,000 years earlier. It is of vital interest today of what happened to make a 5,000 year leap in 500 years. It is of vital interest of what the Declaration of Independence, America’s adamant departure from European corruption on July 4, 1776, meant.
Unfortunately, ninety-nine percent of the American people would say “so what” to the fact that the zodiac gave the birth of America the sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer to humanity. I venture to say that few, if any Christians connect “in earth as in heaven” in the Lord’s Prayer with the Age of Aquarius.
Three Persian astrologers, the Magi, followed the Star of Bethlehem to the birthplace of the Christ-child. It’s in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Christians, it appears, have selective understanding, the same as all religions.
We are told religion is a thing separate from the law—separation of the church and state, that is. Poppycock! The governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, a Roman, asked Jesus if he believed he was king of the Jews. Jesus said his kingdom was in heaven. Is heaven and earth separate? Not according to Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. He said “in earth as it is in heaven.” Separation of earth with heaven has to be accomplished to make the authoritative answer work, which is what was done. Pontius Pilate washed his hands of this Jewish problem. Jesus had to go. He was a serious threat to the powers that be.
In quantum physics, the study of the microcosmic, a dimension of the universe that is not yet physical in the sense that we know the physical, classical physics says it doesn’t relate to our world. Let us spin this idea in the opposite direction. The ancient sages of India believed that so is the microcosmic, so is the macrocosmic. Therefore, “in earth as it is in heaven.” You can’t divide the universe for convenience’s sake. This is not part of our teaching. Still, to make a 5,000 year leap in a tenth the time—how do you figure it?
Carl Jung coined the word synchronistic. Wikipedia: the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner. I’ve spent years going over the events in my life. There are too many coincidences to say they are not synchronistically connected.
“In earth as it is in heaven,” the ancient Mayan calendar is based synchronistic happenings. Richard Tarnas places September 11, 2001, as significant in the earth and heaven relationship. In Cosmos and Pysche, Tarnas goes into great detail on why he believes there is consistency between the outer planetary alignments and the archetypal patterns of human history. He spent 30 years studying the alignments of the outer planets. By the way, Saturn and Pluto went into unfavorable alignment in November 2008. That’s bad news. Obama was elected in November 2008.
The thing that impresses me the most, though, is quantum physics discoveries, which brings religion, the law, and science together into one mold. In a few words, in Even Harris Walker’s The Physics of Consciousness, under “A God for Tomorrow,” “But it is with the advent of quantum theory that we have discovered proof that we exist as something more than pieces of matter. In the development of quantum theory, the observer emerges as a co-equal in the found of creation.” “And God said, Let us make man in our image” (Gen. 1:26).
“Consciousness, the substance of this newfound reality,” states Walker, “that defines the observer,” does it not have fundamental existence? Giving thanks for Columbus’ discovery of America is in the quantum mind we each possess—the basic reality for our existence as a free people. We are now being put to the test: independence or one and all for the collective good. Who has a good word to say about the collective good? Based on past experience, is it something to be thankful for? Pray tell us why.
2010-10-11 21:24
MENTOR, Ohio — Teachers and administrators
confronting the issue of four bullied students who
died by their own hands must get involved to end
bullying, an attorney for grieving
families said Monday. Some of the student deaths followed
bullying that was "incessant, it was constant, and the teachers
and the administrators for whatever reason took a hands-off
, laissez-faire approach and didn't get involved and stop this
at its inception," Ken Myers said on NBC's "Today" show.
Families of victims told the NBC show there is a frightening
pattern of bullying-related suicides in the district.
"They were little terrorists," Janis Mohat, whose son Eric
shot himself in 2007, said on "Today." "They flicked his
ear, they pushed him into lockers, they called him gay,
fag. The bullies went up to him and said, 'Why don't you
go home and shoot yourself? It's not like anyone
would care.'"
The Associated Press reported in detail Friday about the
deaths of four Mentor High School students between 2006
and 2008. Three were suicides, one an overdose of a
ntidepressants. All four students had been bullied.
The district would not comment for the story.
Mentor Superintendent Jacqueline Hoynes said in a
statement posted on the district's website over the
weekend that the strategy to combat bullying includes
having elementary school students pledge to stand
up to bullies and report them to adults.
"Our anti-bullying programs have been in place before
the state mandated anti-bullying programs and policies
," the statement said.
Anti-bullying committees were set up in each school
building to identify the causes and deal with potential
victims, bystanders and adults, the statement said.
"Throughout the schools, the seriousness of bullying is
highlighted in class meetings, rules-reviews, parent
nights, motivational speakers, and in visible reminders
up and down the hallways," the statement said.
Myers said the district had seemed to take a hands-off
approach to bullying.
"They can have assemblies and all sorts of lessons that
they teach the kids, but probably the most important part
is what the teachers and administrators are doing when
they see this sort of thing happening," Myers said.
Two families are suing the suburban Cleveland district, claiming
their children were bullied to death and the school did nothing
to stop it. Hoynes said in the statement she had been advised
by the school attorney to remain silent on the lawsuits.
"But, I want to reassure the Mentor students, families, and staff
we will continue to address the mental health needs of our
students and anti-bullying initiatives in our schools," her statement said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
[My belief, teachers who fail to intervene when a child is being
vicitimized is just as guilty as the victimzer. There is no excuse.
Same goes for anybody else, fail to step in when someone is
being victimized? Your guilty of supporting a bully. You too need
to be charged with a felony. Aiding and abetting]
