Thursday, May 29, 2008

Ray Is Latest Celeb Accused of Ara-fashion

BY LUCHINA FISHER

May 29, 2008—

Is Rachael Ray, the talk-show host, cookbook author and magazine editor, a terrorist sympathizer?

Dunkin' Donuts, worried that its customers might think so, abruptly yanked an ad in which Ray wears a scarf that resembles a keffiyeh -- a traditional headdress worn by Arab men -- after conservative commentators became enraged by the ad and even threatened to boycott the company.

Ray, who signed on as the company's pitchwoman last March, will continue to appear in other ads and commercials.

The controversial ad, which appeared earlier this month on the doughnut chain's Web site to promote its iced coffee, came under fire nearly two weeks ago when pro-Jewish blogger Pam Geller posted it under the headline "Rachel [sic] Ray: Dunkin Donuts Jihad Tool."

"Have you seen Rachel [sic] Ray wearing the icon of Yasser Arafatbastard and the bloody Islamic jihad," Geller wrote. "This is part of the cultural jihad."

Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin took up the cause last week, when she wrote on her Web site michellemalkin.com: "The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities and left-wing icons."

After pulling the ad May 24, Dunkin' Donuts issued a statement from Margie Myers, senior vice president of communications for Dunkin' Brands: "In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by the stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, as of this past weekend, we are no longer using the online ad because the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee."

Ray's publicist Charlie Dougiello wrote in a e-mail, "This is a nonstory."

He confirmed that Ray was wearing a black and white scarf with a paisley floral design that was chosen by the stylist for the shoot and echoed Dunkin's statement. "Absolutely no symbolism was intended," he said. "However, given the possibility of misperception, Dunkin is no longer using the commercial."

Debbie Schlussel, a Detroit attorney who writes a daily column for her conservative Web site debbieschlussel.com., said, "I think they [Dunkin' Donuts] ought to be applauded for that."

But Laila Al-Qatami, spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League, a Washington-based civil rights and cultural organization, believes that this is all much ado about nothing. "I think Dunkin' Donuts jumped the gun," she said, adding that the scarf's mere resemblance to a keffiyeh makes the company's action seem "unreasonable."

Al-Qatami says the real keffiyeh has been worn for decades by Arab men to protect their heads from the heat. More recently, the black keffiyeh has become associated with the Palestinian people because of Arafat's frequent use of it.

Favored in the 1980s by supporters of the Palestinian cause, these days the keffiyeh is just as likely to make a fashion statement as a political one. Trendy clothing store Urban Outfitters initially sold keffiyeh-like scarves until Jewish customers protested, according to commentator Malkin, but reintroduced them with different colors in several global markets. Fashion house Balenciaga glamorized them on the runway.

When celebrities and public figures don them, however, they are likely to draw heat. Before Ray's recent keffiyeh kerfuffle, there was the racket over Ricky Martin. Three years ago, the pop singer wore a red keffiyeh to show support for Palestinian human rights, Al-Qatami said.

When he learned that it had been inscribed with the phrase "Jerusalem is ours" in Arabic, he apologized, saying, "I had no idea that the keffiyeh scarf presented to me contained language referring to Jerusalem, and I apologize to anyone who might think I was endorsing its message."

Other celebrities, such as Collin Farrell, Mary Kate Olsen and Kanye West, have been singled out by Malkin for wearing "hate couture."

Al-Qatami believes people like Malkin and Schlussel are overreacting. "It's just an article of clothing," she said. "It only carries that kind of symbolism for people like Debbie Schlussel, who are promoting fear of Arabs."

Schlussel, the Detroit attorney and blogger, disagrees. She compares the keffiyeh to the Ku Klux Klan's white hoods. "People need to realize it's not just clothing," she said. "It's come to symbolize the garb of terrorism."

Schlussel said it's no accident that in some pictures and videos of Islamic terrorists who have kidnapped and killed Americans, their faces are covered with a keffiyeh.

In February, she took John McCain's daughter Meghan to task when several pictures surfaced of her wearing keffiyehs. In one, her mother, Cindy, sits beside Meghan, who has the headscarf wrapped around her neck. "It didn't occur to her that her daughter shouldn't be wearing that," Schlussel said. "The possible future first lady doesn't see that?

"People need to be educated," she added. "I think they can't have an excuse these days when wearing that."

U.S. Bank Failures Loom

Alistair Barr
Daily Times
May 29, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO: By April, Gary Holloway was almost three years into retirement. He’d built a new home by a lake in Texas, bought a boat and was working on his golf game. While taking on some part-time work, Holloway also travelled for months across the US with his wife, from Seattle to Washington DC, catching up with old friends and family.

That life of leisure abruptly changed about six weeks ago when Holloway got a phone call from his former employer, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, or FDIC, which regulates US banks and insures deposits.

Earlier this year, the FDIC began trying to lure roughly 25 retirees like Holloway back to prepare for an increase in bank failures. It’s also hiring about 75 new staff. Holloway quickly went back to work. ANB Financial NA, a bank in Bentonville, Ark with $2.1 billion in assets and $1.8 billion in customer deposits, was failing and an expert like Holloway was needed to value the assets and find a stronger institution to take them on.

On May 9, life for ANB ended when the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, another bank regulator, announced that the lender was closing. Only three banks have failed so far in 2008. But that number is set to surge as the credit crunch slows economic growth and hammers some lenders that grew too fast during the recent real-estate boom, experts say.

Things may get worse before they get better: At least 150 banks will fail in the US during the next two to three years, according to a projection by Gerard Cassidy and his colleagues at RBC Capital Markets.

If the current economic slowdown deteriorates into a recession on the scale of those from the 1980s and early 1990’s, the number of failures will be much higher this time around — probably as high as 300 of them, by RBC’s reckoning. That’s a massive surge compared to the recent boom years of the credit and real estate markets. From the second half of 2004 through end of 2006 there were 10 consecutive quarters without a bank failure in the US — a record length of time, Cassidy notes.

Texas Ratio: Cassidy and his colleagues have developed an early-warning system for spotting future trouble at banks called the Texas Ratio. The ratio is calculated by dividing a bank’s non-performing loans, including those 90 days delinquent, by the company’s tangible equity capital plus money set aside for future loan losses. The number basically measures credit problems as a percentage of the capital a lender has available to deal with them.

Cassidy came up with the idea after covering Texas banks in the 1980s. Until the recession hit that decade, many banks in the state were considered some of the best in the country. But as problem assets climbed, that view was cruelly challenged, Cassidy recalls. Along with his colleagues, Cassidy applied the same ratio to commercial banks at the end of this year’s first quarter and found some disturbing trends.

UCBH Holdings Inc, a San Francisco-based bank, saw its Texas Ratio jump to 31% at the end of the first quarter from 4.7% in 2006, according to RBC. The Texas Ratio of Colonial BancGroup, based in Montgomery, Ala., jumped from 1.5% in 2006 to 25% at the end of March.Sterling Financial Corp., headquartered in Spokane, Wash., had a Texas ratio of 1.9% in 2006. It was nearly 24% at the end of the first quarter, RBC data show.

These banks are nowhere near RBC’s 100% critical threshold, and several lenders have raised new capital since the first quarter. For instance, National City Corp. topped RBC’s list with a Texas Ratio of 40% at the end of March, though the bank did raise $7 billion in new capital in April.

CD signs of stress: Other lenders are already in more dire straits. IndyMac Bancorp a large savings and loan institution and a leading mortgage lender, is one of Cassidy’s biggest concerns, with a whopping Texas Ratio around 140%.

IndyMac is currently offering the highest rates on one-year CDs, according to Bankrate.com. Others in the top 10 include Corus Bankshares, Imperial Capital Bancorp and GMAC bank.

When Countrywide Financial was struggling last year, its federal savings bank unit began offering some of the highest CD rates in the US to build deposits. Bank of America has since agreed to acquire Countrywide and it didn’t make it onto Bankrate.com’s list of top 10 CD rates this week.

Construction loan destruction: Construction and development, or C&D, loans made up 83% of the Chicago-based bank’s total loans at the end of 2007, according to RiskMetrics Group. This type of loans helps to pay for things like the building of real-estate development projects and the construction of office buildings.

Small and medium-sized banks found it difficult to compete with large lenders in the national markets for mortgages and other consumer loans. So many focused on C&D loans because this type of financing relies more on local, personal connections, said Zach Gast, financial sector analyst at RiskMetrics. As the real estate market boomed, C&D loans did too. A decade ago, bank holding companies had $60 billion of these loans. That number is now $480 billion, according to Gast, who also notes that C&D loans are almost never securitized, so they’re held on banks’ balance sheets.

Such rapid loan growth usually creates trouble later. Indeed, delinquencies represented 7.1% of total C&D loans at the end of the first quarter, up from 0.9% at the end of 2005, Gast said. Colonial BancGroup had 37% of its loans in C&D loans at the end of last year, while Sterling Financial had 33% and UCBH had 20%. East West Bancorp a rival to UCBH, is also exposed, with 25% of total loans in C&D assets at the end of 2007, RiskMetrics data show.

Regulators: Where were regulators when these banks built up such large exposures? That’s a question RBC’s Cassidy has been asking himself, noting that “they dropped the ball in a big way.” Officials at the FDIC declined to comment.

Efforts by the Securities and Exchange Commission to make sure banks report accurate earnings may have made the situation worse, Cassidy says. Bank regulators try to encourage institutions to build reserves in good times, so they’re ready for downturns. But the SEC has been worried that banks might use reserves to smooth reported earnings, so it advised some lenders that they couldn’t set aside reserves if they weren’t experiencing commensurate credit losses, Cassidy explained.

Crisis redux? The FDIC had highlighted 76 banks that it considered troubled at the end of 2007. That’s up from 50 at the end of 2006, which was the lowest level for at least 25 years. Once identified by regulators, troubled banks are often required to limit or halt loan growth and shrink their balance sheets by selling some assets, Cassidy said. Resolution and receivership specialists at the FDIC, like Gary Holloway, value troubled banks’ assets as quickly as possible and try to find a stronger bank to absorb the weaker entity through an acquisition.

The current crisis hasn’t reached the scale of the savings and loan crisis. In 1990, more than 1,500 banks were on the FDIC’s troubled watch list, out of a total of roughly 15,000. More than 1,000 banks failed in 1988 and 1989, FDIC data show. But it’s possible for such comparisons to understate the scope of the coming wave of insolvencies.

Cops & Customs Agents Caught Drug Smuggling

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, May 29, 2008




Following last September’s crash of a Gulfstream jet used by the CIA for torture flights that contained 4 tonnes of cocaine, more customs officials and cops have been caught in drug smuggling and drug dealing rackets.

Customs supervisor Walter Golembiowski and officer John Ajello face narcotics, bribery and conspiracy charges after they were arrested for helping smuggle drugs and contraband through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

"The investigation has led to the indictment and prosecution of more than 20 people — “from distributors to overseas sources of supply” — and the seizure of more than 600 pounds of imported hashish and other drugs from the United States and France," according to a CNN report.

Meanwhile in Texas, Cameron County Constable Saul Ochoa was arrested by the FBI yesterday morning for possession and distribution of marijuana.

Ochoa’s brother is Justice of the Peace Benny Ochoa III of Port Isabel and his cousin is Port Isabel Police Chief Joel Ochoa.

"The grand jury charged Ochoa with possessing five to 10 pounds of marijuana on four different days in May with the intent to distribute. Each of the four counts carries a maximum five years in prison and $250,000 fine," according to a Brownsville Herald report.

While reports of customs agents and cops dealing drugs are almost routine, the real head of the hydra has always been CIA involvement in smuggling drugs that end up on America’s streets, a symbiotic process that also helps finance wars and terrorist groups to do the bidding of the U.S. government around the world.

The corporate media will report on lesser drug smuggling scandals involving cops and customs agents, but when it comes to the gargantuan sprawling CIA drug smuggling racket, the silence is deafening.

In September 2007, a Florida based Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA was forced to crash land in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula after it ran out of fuel.

After accident investigators arrived on the scene they discovered a cargo of nearly 4 tonnes of cocaine.

Journalists discovered that the same Gulstream jet had been used in at least three CIA "rendition" trips to Guantanamo Bay between 2003 and 2005.

Kevin Booth’s underground hit documentary American Drug War features footage of former DEA head Robert Bonner admitting that the CIA was involved in cocaine smuggling operations.

Former DEA agent Cele Castillo, who has appeared on The Alex Jones Show many times, personally witnessed CIA drug smuggling operations funneled through terrorists that were also involved in kidnappings and the training of death squads on behalf of the U.S. government.

Investigative reporter Gary Webb was instrumental in exposing CIA cocaine trafficking operations before his alleged suicide in 2004. In the You Tube clip below, Webb traces the history of Agency involvement in drug smuggling and its links to financing wars in central America.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

S&P: US home prices tumble a record 14.1 pct in 1Q

AP

NEW YORK - U.S. home prices dropped at the sharpest rate in two decades during the first quarter, a closely watched index showed Tuesday, a somber indication that the housing slump continues to deepen.

Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller said its national home price index fell 14.1 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, the lowest since its inception in 1988. The quarterly index covers all nine U.S. Census divisions.

Prices nationwide are at levels not seen since the third quarter of 2004, according to Maureen Maitland, a S&P vice president. However, the index is still up 60 percent versus 2000.

Two narrower indices set record declines in March versus the previous year. The 20-city index tumbled 14.4 percent, the lowest since that index was started in 2001. The 10-city index plunged 15.3 percent, a record in its 20-year history.

"There are very few silver linings that one can see in the data. Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path," said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee.

Nineteen of the 20 metro areas reported annual declines, with 15 of them posting record lows. Six metro areas lost more than 20 percent.

Las Vegas had the worst performance in March, falling 25.9 percent from a year earlier, followed by Miami and Phoenix. Only Charlotte, N.C., stayed above water, gaining less than 1 percent over the previous year.

Last week, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said home prices fell 3.1 percent in the first quarter, the largest drop in its 17-year history and only the second quarter of price declines recorded.

The OFHEO index is narrower in scope and is calculated using mortgages of $417,000 or less that are bought or backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. That excludes properties bought with some of the riskier types of home loans.

(This version CORRECTS that 20-city and 10-city metro area figures are for March sted 1st quarter) )

San Antonio Cops Force Blood Tests on Drivers

Trueveo
May 27, 2008

U.S. Economy: The Worst is Yet to Come

Mark Weisbrot
The Huffington Post
May 28, 2008

Since the U.S. economy showed positive growth for the last quarter, some commentators in the business press are saying that we are not necessarily going to have a recession, or that if there is one it will be mild. This is a bit like the proverbial story of the man who jumped out of a window 60 floors up, and then said “so far, so good,” as he passed the 30th floor.

The United States accumulated a massive, $8 trillion housing bubble during the decade from 1996-2006. Only about 40 percent of that bubble has now deflated. House prices are still falling at a 20 percent annual rate (over the last quarter). This means that the worst is yet to come, including another wave of mortgage defaults and write-downs. Even homeowners who are not in trouble will borrow increasingly less against their homes, reducing their spending.

President Bush says we are not in a recession. One commonly-used definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of declining output (GDP). The first quarter of 2008 came in at 0.6 percent, although it would have been negative if not for inventory accumulation. So by this definition we cannot say with certainty that the recession has started, although it could well have started this quarter. Of course, for most Americans it has felt like a recession hit some time ago, with real wages flat since the end of 2002, and household income not growing for most of the six-and-a-half year economic expansion.

The National Bureau of Economic Research will eventually decide on the official onset of the recession, but even its definition is arbitrary. All the indicators of a serious recession are swirling around us. The economy has lost jobs for four months in a row, which has never happened without a recession. Consumer confidence has dropped to a 28 year low - a level not seen since Jimmy Carter was president. Home foreclosure filings are up 65 percent over last year. And now commercial real estate prices are heading south, dropping 6.2 percent in the first quarter.

With oil prices hitting record highs, and the Fed beginning to worry more about inflation, more restrictive lending practices and other fallout from the credit crunch, the near-term economic future looks even dimmer.

Some look to exports to lead the recovery, but these are only 11 percent of GDP, and consumption is about 70 percent. Still, the fall in the dollar over the last six years is helping - making our exports more competitive and reducing the subsidy that we have been giving to imports for many years. In a sign of how economic illiteracy prevails in the United States, most people (thanks largely to what they hear and read in the media) see the dollar’s decline as bad economic news.

We are facing the prospect of millions losing their homes, their jobs, their retirement savings, their health insurance, and their livelihoods.

This serious economic situation greatly raises the stakes of the 2008 election. What will the government do to help the victims of economic mismanagement, to provide health insurance, and to restart the economy? Is it really more important to spend billions each week on the occupation of Iraq?

So far the government hasn’t done much. The stimulus package now taking effect, at about one percent of GDP and much of it likely to be saved, is quite small. The major legislation that Congress is considering for the housing crisis would mainly bail out lenders and investors while doing little for most underwater homeowners.

The voice of the people has yet to be heard on these questions in the halls of power. It had better get a lot louder, soon.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Oil price spike has wide economic impact

Continued surge could spark 'something worse than a mild recession'
By John W. Schoen
Senior Producer
MSNBC
updated 6:17 p.m. ET May 22, 2008

As dire forecasts about runaway oil prices become reality, it’s impossible to know how much higher they’ll go. But the impact of the price surge already is being widely felt. And if prices go much higher, the damage to the U.S. economy will be deeper and wider than the fallout from the run-up so far.

Oil prices have doubled in the past year and have shot up nearly 50 percent since January to a record $135 a barrel. Much of the rise appears to be driven by speculators betting that tight supplies — or outright shortages — will push prices even higher.

Consumers — already hit with rising prices and flat wages — are being stretched further. As the Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer driving season, gasoline prices are at record levels, reaching a national average above $3.83 a gallon. Some analysts predict the average will break past $4 as early as next week. In some parts of the country, prices are already closing in on $5.

“We're already in a mild recession,” said Lakshman Achuthan, an economist at the Economic Cycle Research Institute. “I think if we go towards $150 (a barrel), we start talking about something worse than a mild recession.”

The surge in oil prices is hitting some parts of the economy harder than others. Companies that use lots of oil have already been hurt; the recent surge will only make matters worse.

Airlines have been struggling to make a profit, even as they cut jobs and flights. American Airlines became the latest to announce it was tightening its belt another notch, saying Thursday that it plans to shrink capacity by as much as 12 percent and cut thousands of jobs.

To offset the rapid rise in jet fuel prices, the airline also said it plans to start charging passengers $15 to check the first bag of luggage for each passenger. United Airlines said it’s considering a similar move. The carriers already charge $25 for a second bag.

“(Higher oil prices are) going to send some smaller airlines into bankruptcy," said Nick van den Brul, an airline analyst at the French investment bank, Exane BNP.

Surging gasoline prices are further dampening sales at U.S. carmakers, whose product lines are more heavily oriented toward higher-profit, lower-mileage trucks and SUVs than their foreign competitors.

Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it’s cutting production by 15 percent in the second quarter of this year and another 15 to 20 percent in the third quarter. Ford now says it won’t hit its target of getting back in the black by next year and may have to lay off more workers and close more plants.

Some parts of the economy will hold up relatively well; companies and regions that produce oil will do better. Oil companies are enjoying a spike in profits because production costs have not risen nearly as rapidly as market prices. Those higher profits could help boost local economies in regions where oil and natural gas are produced.

But those benefits will be more than offset by the negative effects of the surge in energy costs. Higher oil prices have already begun to spill over into higher costs for a variety of products and services, including food prices.

The threat of higher inflation makes life even more complicated for policymakers at the Federal Reserve, who have been slashing rates for nearly a year to try to offset the fallout from the housing slump and turmoil in the credit markets.

The surge in oil prices could force the Fed to reverse course and begin raising rates — before the benefits of those rate cuts have had time to take hold. Minutes of the Fed's April policy meeting, released Wednesday, indicated that the central bank could start raising rates in the fall.

The biggest concern is the potential impact on consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. Consumers have already been hit by the slump in housing prices — eliminating the equity "piggy bank" that many homeowners tapped as prices were rising. Home prices fell 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with last year, according to data released Thursday by the government’s Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

Another widely followed reading, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, has shown even larger declines for major U.S. metropolitan areas.

Rising gasoline prices are one more burden on consumers. Economists estimate that every additional penny at the pump takes roughly $1 billion out of overall spending. Taxpayers getting rebate checks designed to revive spending and get the economy moving again have already spent much of that bonus to gas up their vehicles.

So far, there seems to be enough oil and gasoline to go around: Refineries are still adequately supplied with crude, and gas stations aren’t running out of fuel.

Prices are surging as traders see an increased risk of that happening. But that so-called panic buying could quickly reverse, sending oil prices sharply lower.

“This is all about psychology, and we are not very good at oil companies about forecasting the psychology of prices," Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of global giant Royal Dutch/Shell, said on CNBC Thursday. “So we'd better prepare ourselves for more volatility because if this is psychology, it can change very quickly.”

The spike in oil prices also has brought calls for government action, despite the limited short-term impact those responses could have. The Department of Energy has suspended purchases of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

But Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Thursday he did not support the idea of selling oil from the reserves to try to drive down oil prices.

The petroleum reserve "is meant to deal with ... the physical interruption of the flow of oil to our country. We don't have that issue today," Bodman told a House hearing.

The last such move came in September 2005, when the U.S. released millions of barrels of oil from its reserves as part of a coordinated effort by the International Energy Agency to head off possible shortages. But the amount conrolled by the United States is a relative drop in the global barrel and would likely have little impact on market prices.

The price surge has also revived debate on U.S. energy policy. Some longer-term proposals that have failed to win the support of the majority in Congress, like opening up new areas of the U.S. for oil drilling, may now get another look.

“We have to expand domestic exploration, we have to add additional new refineries, we have to add nuclear power into our electricity grid portfolio, we have give rewards for conserving energy and have to continue to invest in research and development,” Rep. Adam Putnam, R- Fla., said Thursday. “We have to have an ‘all of the above’ energy policy.”

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24778287/page/2/

Uncle Sam Wants Thugs And Illegal Aliens

Ethan Allen
Intel Strike Network
May 22, 2008

In the eyes of the military, it’s a simple numbers game. But the recruitment process for America’s armed forces is changing, and so is the look, feel, and policy of the military itself.

According to national statistics, felony waivers for recruits have been doubling almost every year for the past several years. Military.com reports:

“The number of felony waivers granted by the Army grew from 411 in 2003 to 901 in 2006, according to the Pentagon, or about one in 10 of the moral waivers approved that year. Other misdemeanors - from petty theft or writing a bad check to some assaults - jumped from about 2,700 to more than 6,000 in 2006, representing more than three-quarters of moral waivers granted by the Army. Army and Defense Department officials defended the waiver program as a way to admit young people who had made a mistake but overcome past behavior.”

Felony waivers consist of the worst elements, but there are also ‘conduct waivers’ for recruits who have had small issues on their records such as traffic tickets and minor drug offenses. Conduct waivers for Army recruits rose from 8,129 in fiscal 2006 to 10,258 in fiscal 2007. For Marine Corps recruits, they increased from 16,969 to 17,413.

“In particular, the Army accepted more than double the number of applicants with convictions for felony crimes such as burglary, grand larceny and aggravated assault, rising from 249 to 511, while the corresponding number for the Marines increased by two-thirds, from 208 to 350. The vast majority of such convictions stem from juvenile offenses. Most involved theft, but a handful involved sexual assault and terrorist threats, and there were three cases of involuntary manslaughter.”

The changing face of the military and increased use of felony waivers is even angering gays, who have already felt scorned for years because of the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.

Not only are recruits with felony waivers being signed up with the military, they’re also promoted faster.

“The Army study compared the performance of soldiers who came in with conduct waivers against those who did not during the years 2003-2006. In that time, 276,231 recruits enlisted in the Army with no prior military service. Of those 6.5 percent, or nearly 18,000 had waivers.

In a comparison of both groups the study found that soldiers who had received waivers for bad behavior:

– Had a higher desertion rate (4.26 percent vs. 3.59 percent).

– Had a higher misconduct rate (5.95 percent vs. 3.55 percent).

– Had a higher rate of appearances before courts-martial (1 percent vs. 0.71 percent).

– Had a higher dropout rate for alcohol rehabilitation failure (0.27 percent vs. 0.12 percent).

But they also:

– Were more likely to re-enlist (28.48 percent vs. 26.76 percent).

– Got promoted faster to sergeant (after 34.7 months vs. 39 months).

– Had a lower rate of dismissal for personality disorders (0.93 percent vs. 1.12 percent).”

But this is all old hat. Felony waivers, while on the rise, have been used for years. It’s just a matter of changing times, right? We used to hold our military to a higher moral standard, not only because of the deadly weapons of war the tax payer funds, but also because we send these boys and girls across the world to set an example to others as to how Americans behave.

But another aspect of the changing military, and one harder to justify, is the use of illegal aliens in the different branches of the armed forces. Recruiters have been caught trying to enlist illegal aliens, but of course official military policy is to deny that illegal immigrants are targeted, because as of right now it’s against policy to do so.

“There are currently about 37,500 foreign nationals from over 200 countries serving in the active duty forces and reserves . Seventy-one have died in Iraq and three in Afghanistan. The law currently provides for expediting the citizenship applications of U.S. service personnel, who become eligible to apply the first day they enlist. The presence of non-citizens in the U.S. armed forces dates back to the 18th century—“more than 660,000 military veterans became citizens through naturalization between 1862 and 2000,” according to a report by the nonprofit CNA Corporation.”

This ‘use but deny’ policy strategy has been brought to light more so in the past year, especially with the DREAM ACT which was introduced in 2007 as part of the Amnesty Bill.

“The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, is part of the stalled package of proposals that many in Congress are seeking to resurrect. The proposal, applicable to an estimated 750,000 undocumented residents of military age, stipulates that those who arrived in the United States before age 16, graduated from high school, and meet other qualifications could immediately enter the path to citizenship in exchange for at least two years’ service in the armed forces.”

Mexican citizen groups have also claimed that US recruiters have been seen near the border on enlistment drives.

“According to Prensa Latina on Friday in Culiacan, the capital of the northern state Sinaloa, civil activist Ildefonso Ortiz Cabrera told reporters that US military officers use young men of Latin American origin to recruit for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Then there’s this news report from Los Angeles that shows immigrants, some of which are admitted illegals, confessing to being approached by US recruiters. There’s also footage taken showing immigrant recruits training at the facility, which has grounds beside a mall in LA. When the reporters are discovered by Marine officials, the immigrant recruits are shown running inside the complex to hide from the reporters’ cameras.

It’s easy to see tyranny in motion when the United States military openly hires felons, and goes against its own policy to also hire illegal aliens in return for citizenship and goodies. The British Empire used foreign mercenaries for over 200 years in their reign. Is this the example we want to follow? Uncle Sam used to look for the best and brightest, the few and the proud. Now the Army is scraping the bottom of the barrel to fill replacement slots, that is until it can automate the whole thing and shut out all humans in return for robots and space based weapon platforms. When the entire military is made of chrome and metal and terminator robots are manning death camps, the days of hired thugs and illegal aliens will seem like a wonderful trip down memory lane, as will be the idea of our once free Republic.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Report: CIA Pushed Torture Envelope

Justice Department Says FBI Warned Spy Agency, Military, That Their Tactics Were "Borderline Torture"

CBSNEWs 5-20-2008

A Justice Department report released Tuesday, May 20, 2008, found that the CIA and military ignored repeated warnings from the FBI that their interrogation techniques were tantamount to torture. (CBS/AP)

(CBS/AP) CIA and military interrogators bucked repeated warnings from the FBI that methods used to question terror suspects were in some cases "borderline torture" and potentially illegal, the Justice Department's internal watchdog reported Tuesday.

Prosecutors stopped far short of pursuing charges against interrogators, however, after concluding that the Pentagon was ultimately responsible for policing the treatment of al Qaeda detainees who were being held in military prisons.

More than three years in the making, the audit issued by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine generally praises how the FBI handled terror interrogations following the Sept. 11 terror attacks through 2004.

When al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah was captured - six months after 9/11 - the FBI took first crack at his interrogation. But, when the CIA concluded agents were merely getting "throwaway information" - the spies took over - using what one FBI official later called, "borderline torture," reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr.

Agents pulled out as FBI headquarters ordered them not to take part. But, Tuesday's report from the Justice Department's Inspector General makes it clear, FBI agents for several years witnessed wide-ranging abuses at three military lockups in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

Agents repeatedly asked FBI headquarters for guidance, but didn't get it, as prisoners at Gitmo were threatened with growling dogs, had their thumbs twisted back and heads wrapped in duct tape.

While the Inspector General's report "...found no instances in which an FBI agent participated in clear detainee abuse..." it blamed the FBI for failing to give clear instructions to its agents in the field.

The split, pitting the FBI against the CIA and Pentagon, came to a head over the treatment of the so-called 20th hijacker Muhammad al-Qahtani. Qahtani is accused by the government of attempting to enter the United States in August 2001 to be a muscle hijacker on one of the planes used in the 9/11 attacks. He was turned away at the Orlando airport and not allowed entry into the country.

Fine's report raises troubling questions about CIA and Pentagon interrogators whose use of snarling dogs, short shackles, mocking of the Quran and other abuses of detainees overseas appear to have overstepped what U.S. courts would allow in collecting evidence.

At the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, FBI agents in 2002 openly clashed with military interrogators bent on "aggressively" interrogating al-Qahtani by confronting him with agitated dogs and keeping him awake for continuous 20-hour interviews daily.

"The plan was to keep him up until he broke," the FBI agent told superiors, the Justice Department report said.

FBI officials complained to the White House after learning that military interrogators forced al Qahtani to "perform dog tricks," "be nude in front of a female," and wear "women's underwear on his head".

Al-Qahtani's attorney, Gitanjali Gutierrez with the Center for Constitutional Rights, says that Qahtani recently attempted suicide in his cell at Guantanamo Bay because of his conditions.

"The tactics that were used against and the impact, the pain and suffering it caused him and the damage that it caused him does rise to a level of torture," Gutierrez told CBS News.

The treatment of al-Qahtani recently forced the government to drop the charges against him, because had the Pentagon proceeded with his military tribunal, all of the evidence of his treatment would be made public.

For at least part of the time covered by Fine's investigation, the CIA and Pentagon were working under Justice Department guidance that their interrogation methods were legal. However, FBI agents recognized as early as 2002 that they would not be allowed to use those methods to interview prisoners in the United States.

FBI agents are explicitly banned from using brutality, physical violence, intimidation or other means of causing duress when interviewing suspects. Instead, the FBI generally tries to build a rapport with suspects to get information.

"Beyond any doubt, what they are doing (and I don't know the extent of it) would be unlawful were these enemy prisoners of war," one agent wrote back to FBI headquarters in a document cited in the Justice report.

Fine's investigators found no evidence that FBI agents witnessed or were otherwise personally aware of cases where terror suspects were subjected to waterboarding, a particularly harsh interrogation tactic that critics call a form of torture. The CIA has acknowledged waterboarding Zubaydah, in part out of concern that he had information that could prevent another imminent attack.

Such tactics "have been employed only when traditional means of questioning - things like rapport-building - were ineffective," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said Tuesday.

In al-Qahtani's case, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said no evidence of torture has ever surfaced after extensive internal reviews. Al-Qahtani, designated as an additional hijacker for the 2001 attacks, was forced to wear a bra, dance with another man and behave like a dog while at Guantanamo Bay, according to a 2005 Pentagon report.

Whitman also said he was unaware of any Pentagon actions that would have delayed the Justice report. Fine's audit, however, describes seven months of foot-dragging and negotiating by the Pentagon over how much information in the report should be classified or otherwise shielded from public review. The 438-page report issued Tuesday is only sparsely blacked-out.

The report surveyed over 1,000 agents, interviews with hundreds of other witnesses and a review of more than a half-million documents. It concluded FBI agents in nearly all cases refused to participate in harsh interrogations and left the room when they were ongoing.

Agents also were fairly vigilant about reporting their concerns to their superiors, the report shows.

At Guantanamo Bay, two FBI agents "had concerns not only about the proposed techniques but also about the glee with which the would-be (military) participants discussed their respective roles in carrying out these techniques, and the utter lack of sophistication and circus-like atmosphere within this interrogation strategy session," the report found.

Still, the FBI did not emerge unscathed in the report.

Auditors found that agents in a few cases did not always report the harsh tactics and in a few cases remained throughout the interrogations. Fine's office blamed the lapses on unclear guidance from FBI headquarters on how agents should confront interrogators who were working under rules dictated by the CIA or Pentagon.

In August 2002, FBI Director Robert Mueller ordered agents to withdraw from interrogations during which coercive or extreme methods were used to get information from detainees. But identifying or defining coercive behavior proved difficult for FBI agents who also wanted to get information from terror suspects, and who were assured by their counterparts that the methods were "approved at the highest levels," the report found.

Critics said senior FBI and Justice Department officials should have done more to stop the abusive interrogations.

"While I take comfort in knowing that, for the most part, FBI field agents followed the agency's policies regarding interrogations, I find it very disturbing that many senior FBI and DOJ officials failed to take strong action after identifying interrogation abuses," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a statement.

Mueller said his agents will continue to be trained and fully aware of FBI policy against participating in coercive interrogations.

India finds pesticides in colas

By Jyotsna Singh
BBC correspondent in Delhi

Indian MPs have upheld the findings of an environment group which reported that Coca-Cola and Pepsi drinks contained pesticide residues.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said last August that its investigations revealed the drinks contained harmful residues and posed a health risk.

The report led to a massive row with both Pepsico and Coca-Cola strenuously rejecting the allegations.

A public outcry led the government to form a parliamentary committee to examine the report.

The 15-member committee, which included MPs from both the government and the opposition, said the CSE findings on the presence of pesticide residues were correct.

"The committee has appreciated the whistle blowing act of CSE in alerting the nation to an issue with major implications to food safety, policy formulation regulatory framework and human and environmental health," it said.

The committee has asked the government to set higher safety-standards for soft drinks.

Victory for environmentalists

The Vice President for Coca-Cola in India, Sanjiv Gupta, said the company was still reading the report.

But he said his company would comply with "whatever new standards the government decides to bring".

CSE director Sunita Narain told the BBC she was very pleased with the report.

"It endorses our agenda that the issue of public health care and food safety is central to the country."

Cola ban

Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have always maintained their drinks were absolutely safe.

But the parliamentary committee said it "felt that claims made by the Cola companies in their advertisement tantamount to misleading the public as their products do contain pesticides which have ill effect on human health in the long run". the report said

The CSE in its report had alleged that pesticides in the drinks could cause cancer and birth defects.

The report triggered demonstrations in India against the companies and a number of bans on the sales of their drinks.

Parliament banned its cafeterias from serving Pepsi and Coke while the defence ministry issued a circular ordering its clubs to stop selling the drinks.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/3458365.stm

Published: 2004/02/04 13:34:32 GMT

Monday, May 19, 2008

Iran busts CIA terror network

Tehran Times
May 18, 2008

TEHRAN - The Intelligence Ministry on Saturday released details of the detection and dismantling of a terrorist network affiliated to the United States.

In a coordinated operation on May 7, Iranian intelligence agents arrested the terrorist network’s members, who were identified in Fars, Khuzestan, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, and Tehran provinces, the Intelligence Ministry announcement said.

The group’s plans were devised in the U.S., according to the announcement, which added that they had planned to carry out a number of acts such as bombing scientific, educational, and religious centers, shooting people, and making public places in various cities insecure.

One of the terrorists was killed in the operation, but the rest are in detention, the Intelligence Ministry said, adding that the group’s main objective was to create fear among the people.

The United States Central Intelligence Agency comprehensively supported the terrorist group by arming it, training its members, and sponsoring its inhumane activities in Iran, the Intelligence Ministry stated.

The terrorists had maps, films, pictures, and sketches of important and sensitive sites in various cities in their possession when they were arrested.

They also had a large number of weapons and ammunition and a great deal of highly explosive chemicals and cyanide.

The blast at a religious center in Shiraz last month was carried out by this group, and it also had plans to carry out similar attacks on the Tehran International Book Fair, the Russian Consulate in Gilan Province, oil pipelines in southern Iran, and other targets, the communiqué stated.

Thirteen people were killed and over 190 others wounded in a bombing carried out on April 12 at the Rahpuyan-e Vessal religious center, which is part of the Seyyed-ul-Shohada Mosque complex, located in a residential area of Shiraz.

Iran Busts CIA-Backed Terror Group

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Monday, May 19, 2008









The Iranian Intelligence Ministry busted a CIA-backed terror group that was planning to bomb scientific, educational, and religious centers, and carry out assassinations, according to a report in the Tehran Times. The arrests come weeks after Ret. Gen. Thomas McInerney urged the U.S. to carry out terror bombings in Iran.

"The Intelligence Ministry on Saturday released details of the detection and dismantling of a terrorist network affiliated to the United States," reports the newspaper.

"The United States Central Intelligence Agency comprehensively supported the terrorist group by arming it, training its members, and sponsoring its inhumane activities in Iran, the Intelligence Ministry stated."

The attack on a religious center in Shiraz last month which killed thirteen people and wounded 190 was blamed on the same group and according to the report, "it also had plans to carry out similar attacks on the Tehran International Book Fair, the Russian Consulate in Gilan Province, oil pipelines in southern Iran, and other targets."

While it’s obviously naive to take a report out of Iranian state-controlled media at face value, top Neo-Cons have been calling for the US to back terror groups in Iran and other reports clearly indicate that this program has already been in place for years.

On Friday we reported on the comments of Ret. Gen. Thomas McInerney, who in a Fox News appearance publicly called for the U.S. government to support groups like MEK (Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization), which is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization, and carry out deadly bombings in Iran.

"Here’s what I would suggest to you. Number one, we take the National Council for Resistance to Iran off the terrorist list that the Clinton Administration put them on as well as the Mujahedin-e Khalq at the Camp Ashraf in Iraq," said McInerney.

"Then I would start a tit-for-tat strategy which I wrote up in the Wall Street Journal a year ago: For every EFP that goes off and kills Americans, two go off in Iran. No questions asked. People don’t have to know how it was done. It’s a covert action. They become the most unlucky country in the world," he added.

Last November, Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade openly called for US support for acts of terrorism, such as car bombings, in Tehran. Colonel David Hunt, who has over 29 years of military experience including extensive operational experience in Special Operations, Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Operations, agreed with Kilmeade, stating "absolutely" in response to Kilmead’s question about whether cars should start blowing up in Tehran.

The U.S. government is already funding MEK and the group has been linked with numerous bombings inside Iran over the course of the last few years. The organization has also killed U.S. troops and civilians since the 70’s.

According to Global Security.org, "In the early 1970s, angered by U.S. support for the pro-Western shah, MEK members killed several U.S. soldiers and civilians working on defense projects in Iran. MEK members also supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days."

In addition - British SAS have been caught training insurgents in Iraq to carry out hi-tech bombings that are later blamed on Iran.

Another Iranian-based terror group that the Bush administration is already funding as a means of regime change in Iran is Jundullah - a Sunni Al-Qaeda terrorist group formerly headed by the alleged mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

"The CIA is giving arms-length support, supplying money and weapons, to an Iranian militant group, Jundullah, which has conducted raids into Iran from bases in Pakistan," the London Telegraph reported last year.

The group has been blamed for a number of bombings inside Iran aimed at destabilizing Ahmadinejad’s government and is also active in Pakistan, having been fingered for its involvement in attacks on police stations and car bombings at the Pakistan-US Cultural Center in 2004.

As award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported back in 2004, U.S. intelligence and Israel’s Mossad are busy at work stirring up trouble in Iran in preparation for an attack on that country. In early 2005, the Guardian reported that “American special forces have been on the ground inside Iran scouting for US air strike targets for suspected nuclear weapons sites."

Virginia Cops Taser Autistic Man for Arguing

Williamsburg News
May 18, 2008

JAMES CITY - James City County police officers used a Taser gun on a 24-year-old autistic Williamsburg man Thursday after police said he became unruly with employees at Wilson’s Leather at the Prime Outlets-Williamsburg shopping mall.

Police responded to the store on Richmond Road around 2 p.m. after employees reported that the man had become argumentative during a dispute over a returned item, according to police spokesman Mike Spearman.

The man, whom Spearman called “large in stature,” became combative with police and refused to leave the store. Officers incapacitated him with a single shot from the Taser, placed him under arrest and charged him with trespassing and resisting arrest, both Class 1 misdemeanors.

Police only learned the man suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, after he had been placed under arrest, Spearman said.

Read entire article

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

JPMorgan Chase CEO: Recession Just Beginning

Money News
May 13, 2008

NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive said Monday that while the crisis in the credit markets appears to be three-quarters over, he believes a U.S. recession is just beginning.

“Even if the capital markets crisis resolves, it does not mean that this country will not go into a bad recession,” said CEO James Dimon, whose bank saw its first-quarter profit fall by half due to the recent collapse of the U.S. mortgage market. “The recession just started.”

“We don’t know if it’s going to be mild or severe,” he continued, speaking at a conference in New York hosted by Swiss bank UBS AG. “We’re thinking there’s a third of a chance that it’s going to be pretty bad … closer to the 1982 recession than the very mild recessions we had in 2001 and 1990.”

Also incomplete is JPMorgan’s acquisition of Bear Stearns Cos., the toppling investment bank that JPMorgan offered to buy in March.

Read entire article

Face Scanners To Catch Underage Drinkers

Daily Mail
May 13, 2008

Underage drinkers who attempt to buy alcohol may be thwarted by the technology that police use to identify suspected criminals.

A supermarket chain is introducing face recognition cameras to prevent staff mistakenly selling cigarettes and alcohol to under-18s.

The biometric technology is being piloted by Budgens at one of its London branches.

If successful, it could be rolled out across the country to create a database of youngsters who try to buy alcohol.

The system alerts a cashier if it ‘recognises’ someone who has previously been unable to prove they are 18.

It is believed to be the first time a British retailer has used the technology in this way.

The software takes measurements between key points on the face to make a template of a person’s features that is stored as a “token”.

Customers’ images are monitored and relayed to a control centre to be compared with under-18s already on record.

Future options include other retailers linking the scheme to their shops to create a giant database.

Read entire article

Chicago Suburb Hosts “Disaster” Drill

Daily Herald
May 13, 2008

Suburban firefighters, police officers and other emergency workers gathered today with hundreds of volunteers at the Sears Centre arena in Hoffman Estates to test how efficient the area’s emergency plan is when it comes to distributing antibiotics to combat threats such as anthrax.

More than 20 emergency departments were on hand for the drill, where volunteer victims were given scripted roles. Some of the volunteers were to get microchips like those attached to the shoes of marathon runners to time how long it takes them to go through the lines. Event sponsors were hoping for as many as 3,000 volunteers.

Emergency personnel, under the watch of the Cook County and Illinois departments of public health, were to hand out pill bottles.

Though the exercise will last only a few hours, the full-scale emergency plan’s goal is to be able to distribute medicines to a population of 50,000 to 100,000 within a 72-hour window. The thinking is that under real threat, a family member could go through the screening and bring pills home to relatives.

Read entire article

Endgame: Hundreds Arrested in Iowa Immigration Raid, Fairgrounds Used as Federal “Holding Facility”

Cryptogon
May 13, 2008

UPDATE #1: Largest Single Site Raid Ever:

Customs and law enforcement agents worked through the night processing the detainees, said Claude Arnold, the ICE special agent in charge of the operation. Detainees were “administratively arrested” but have not yet been criminally charged, he said.

Detainees who are charged with aggravated identity theft, unlawful use of a Social Security number or other offenses will be given lawyers and sent to appearances in one of three makeshift courtrooms at the detainee center in Waterloo, Arnold said.

The set-up includes three courtrooms – two in trailers and one in an existing room. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office said the court proceedings would be open within space constraints.

Video footage shot by federal agents showed a large “intake area” in McElroy Auditorium with folding chairs and tables. The footage, which did not show any detainees, included images of a kitchen, break room, restroom and shower facilities used by detainees.

Arnold would not disclose how many people were involved in Monday’s effort, citing security concerns.

— End Update —

This is almost certainly a Department of Homeland Security ENDGAME operation.

I hosted the document on Cryptogon:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
ENDGAME
Office of Detention and
Removal Strategic Plan, 2003 - 2012
Detention and Removal Strategy for a Secure Homeland

Via: The Gazette:

More than 300 people here have already been arrested in what is being called the largest operation of its kind in Iowa, federal officials said this afternoon.

At 10 a.m., Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered Agriprocessors, Inc., as part of an ongoing investigation and to execute criminal search warrants for aggravated identify theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and other crimes, as well as a civil search warrant to find people living illegally in the United States.

At a 2 p.m. news conference in Cedar Rapids, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said most of the arrests so far are for administrative immigration violations, although more information about the identities and jobs of those arrests are not being released at this time.

Those arrested are being held in Estel Hall at the National Cattle Congress grounds in Waterloo, until at least Wednesday night, he said. Estel Hall, also known as Cedar Valley Expo, serves as the grounds’ merchant showroom.

The Agriprocessors raid has already netted the largest number of arrests carried out at a single location, Counts said. He would not say whether other companies or locations will be involved in the raid.

“I can only talk about today,” Counts said. “We can’t comment on any future investigations or activities.”

Investigation into activity at Agriprocessors began in October 2007, said Matt Dummermuth, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. Officials would not answer more in-depth questions on the background of the raid or how it is being carried out.

ICE agents are asking detainees “several times” if they have medical, child care or other humanitarian needs, said Claude Arnold, ICE Special Agent in Charge. The interviews will help determine if those arrested will be detained or conditionally released on humanitarian grounds.

So far, 44 people have been released under supervision, mostly because they are the primary caregivers of children who have no other responsible adult to care for them.

Counts said the Department of Human Services was contacted before the raid began to provide services to families. A 24-hour information hot line at 1-866-341-3858 was established for family members to check on the status of the detainees.

An official update on the raid is expected at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Counts said 63 pages of the search warrants used in the raid have been released to explain more about the basis of the investigation, and government video of the inside of the holding facility is expected to be distributed.

Related: U.S. Immigration Raids Are About to Get Ugly

Related: U.S. STRATEGIC PLAN TO DETAIN AND REMOVE ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS AND “POTENTIAL TERRORISTS”

Revisionist History: How Spin Works, with Dana Perino

Scott Creighton
American Everyman
May 13, 2008





In a recent video, found on 911Blogger, here, a young journalism student asks White House Spokesperson Dana Perino, some questions about the seriously flawed 9/11 Commission.

If you go watch the short film, you will see that the film-maker backs up the young man’s claims with clips of cited MSM news reports lifted from CNN and the New York Times, as well as others.

But that isn’t why I call your attention to this piece.

At around 1:20 in the video, Dana skillfully disregards this young man’s query by suggesting he is simply being taken in by “spin” and then at around 2:40, she definitively states that he should remember that the country hasn’t been attacked since 9/11 and the no-one has died since as a result of “terrorism”. Perino’s obvious lie is becoming common knowledge in America.

If you read “Violent Islamist Extremism, The Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat: a report by The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs” (that’s right HR 1955 is alive and well and operating, quietly, as we speak (headed by none other than Joe Lieberman, no less)), you will see that they too seem to have misplaced a little information on the track record of this current administration when they list three (now discredited) “homegrown terrorist “plots and plans” as reasons that we must remain vigilant and even step up the efforts to thwart “the extremists”.

What was Perinos and the Committees obvious lie?

The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its FBI case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two DemocraticU.S. Senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others. The crime remains unsolved.” From Wiki, here.

Now why is it that Perino wouldn’t consider this “an attack”, or that the Committee wouldn’t think to list it as a case of “homegrown terrorism”?

By definition terrorism is inflicting harm or the threat of harm onto a population to affect change either socially, politically, of economically through the use of fear. All the targets of these attacks were of one political party or media members that seemed, at the time, to support them. So, it would seem that the perpetrator of the attacks had a political goal in mind.

The Patriot Act was on the table and waiting to be voted on. It was shuffled in just days after 9/11 and had been written well before any planes hit their targets. Perhaps they don’t mention this terrorist attack because of this reason. It seems a little fishy, now doesn’t it?

or maybe they don’t mention it because of this:

‘The DNA sequence of the anthrax sent through the US mail in 2001 has been revealed and confirms suspicions that the bacteria originally came from a US military laboratory.

The new work also shows that substantial genetic differences can emerge in two samples of an anthrax culture separated for only three years. This means the attacker’s anthrax was not separated from its ancestors at USAMRIID for many generations. ” Wiki.

I am sure there are many reasons why Dana lies with impunity. That doesn’t surprise me. But what does surprise me is that if you read the letter written to Dana by one of the producers on the 9/11 Blogger site, you will see that he agrees with her (and thanks God) that there haven’t been any attacks since 9/11.

It is true, we have not been attacked since September 11th, 2001, and thank God for that.”

No, young man, that isn’t true.

This case, as yet unsolved, is being placed in the WTC7 file labeled “unmentionable”. And now, even the critics and those that question the events of that day, are starting to forget the course of events as they actually played out.

And that is exactly what Perino’s bosses want. No discussion of the more delicate facts of what happened to bring us to this totalitarian state.

And as you can plainly see, it’s working.

If you run a site, or blog regularly at one, please feel free to put this up, or just do your own article on the the anthrax attacks of 2001 and the suspicious collapse of building 7. We cannot let this dishonest administration continue to redefine history any longer.

Nothing good will come of it. Of that I am sure.

Survey: Americans Are Strongly Opposed to the North American Union

Barbara L. Minton
Natural News
May 13, 2008

Americans are catching on to the North American Union scheme and voicing their opposition. The right wing grassroots organization, American Policy Center (APC), has just concluded a survey of one million American households. The survey, titled "Do Americans Support a North American Union" asked a series of questions concerning the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC). Included with the survey was a four-page report prepared by APC entitled "NAU Fact Sheet", providing details about the SPP, the TTC, as well as an explanation of how these programs are being implemented without public scrutiny in meetings held behind closed doors, like the one just completed in New Orleans.

The chosen households represented no specific political ideological positions. They were from a wide variety of American households living in the direct path of the proposed Trans Texas/NAFTA Corridor, running from Mexico to Canada across the midsection of the U.S. — learn more at (http://www.naturalnews.com/023058.html) and (http://www.naturalnews.com/022974.html) .

The survey questions were:

1. Have you heard of the Security and Prosperity Partnership? 58 % of those responding said they did Not know about the SPP.

2. Do you think private corporations should have the power to enforce trade policy that may adversely affect our national sovereignty and independence? This question related directly to the establishment of public/private partnerships between private corporations and government, granting no-compete clauses and comprehensive development agreements which provide guarantees by government to the corporations as investment returns. The TTC is not a free enterprise, but is government sanctioned monopolies. As this question was explained by the APC, 95% of respondents Opposed such policy.

3. Chapter 11 of the NAFTA agreement states that disputes over NAFTA-related issues will be heard in NAFTA courts superseding U.S. local, state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court. Question three asked, Do you think this would be a threat to U.S. sovereignty? 91% of respondents said Yes.

4. The SPP calls for expanding the U.S. security perimeter to include the borders of Canada and Mexico. Question 4 asked, Do you think it would strengthen U.S. security to expand our borders to the outer borders of Canada and Mexico? 87% of respondents answered No.

5. Do you think it will strengthen U.S. Border security to allow trucks from Mexico and Canada to travel, free of inspection, up a corridor which has been built and is controlled by foreign corporations into the heartland of the United States? Texas Department of Transportation has already signed a 50-year agreement with a Spanish company named Cintra to build the TTC. In September of 2007, the Bush Administration started a pilot project to allow Mexican trucks to cross the U.S. border without inspections and be free to travel inside the United States. The Senate has also passed the omnibus spending bill that "was clearly written and designed to put the breaks on the current pilot program", according to Senator Byron Dorgan. Yet the Bush Administration, under the leadership of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, continues the program, now in violation of federal law. 95% of respondents to this survey Opposed the Mexican truck project.

6. Would you support efforts to replace the U.S. dollar with a common North American currency some call the "Amero"? Though denied by the Bush Administration, there has been much discussion about the creation of a North American currency that would mimic the Euro. In an October, 2007 appearance on the Larry King Show on CNN, former Mexican President Fox answered in the affirmative when King asked about the creation of a united currency. 92% of respondents said they would Not support such a common North American currency.

7. Do you believe there should be public hearings and debate on this policy before it is allowed to move forward? So far, there has been no congressional legislation, hearings, or oversight concerning the establishment or operation of the SPP. No federal money has been officially allocated by Congress. No official authority has been provided for the creation of the SPP. 95% of respondents answered Yes, there should be debate and discussion with public participation. Americans believe it is wrong to make such significant national policy changes without debate and discussion.

8. Should the Bush Administration be allowed to move forward with its plans to create a "North American Community" without Congressional approval? Again, the American people have shown they understand that it is Congress which should decide such policy as this. They responded with a resounding 97% No to this question.

9. Do you believe the United States should be "harmonized" or merged into a union with Mexico and Canada? The words most often used by the Administration concerning the SPP are "harmonize" and "integrate". The U.S. is a representative Republic; Mexico is a socialist government; and Canada is part of the British Crown. There are no grounds for "harmonization" unless drastic changes are made to the U.S. judicial and financial systems. 88% said No to harmonization with Mexico and Canada.

10. Respondents were asked to provide comments and thoughts on the SPP. The word most often used was "treason". Another said, "I want no part of the social health care of Canada and I do not want to incorporate Mexico’s turmoil and poverty into our United States.". Many others said, "I want secure borders, not easy traffic between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. And another bluntly said, "Bush’s actions formulate a horrifying destruction of our proud nation". Many others used even stronger language. Once Americans learn about the SPP, they are clearly opposed.

In the face of this overwhelming opposition, on April 21-22, in yet another closed door meeting in New Orleans, President Bush and heads of state from Mexico and Canada continued to deny the SPP is anything more than a "dialogue" among the three nations.

Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center, sees it differently. "As the Texas Department of Transportation signs an agreement with the Spanish company Cintra, containing no-compete clauses and guaranteed returns; as the Kansas City council loans $2.5 million to build the inland truck port called KC Smart Port; as the twenty SPP working groups continue to write policy; as the Mexican trucks roll over our borders; as high level meetings go on –- the Bush Administration dares to deny that Anything is happening. Why? The responses to APC’s survey show why. When Americans understand the truth, they say No in resounding numbers." Concludes De Weese, "Clearly the American people are overwhelmingly opposed to the harmonization of North America. We just want our country –- strong, independent and secure."

Complete Media Lockdown On Athens Bilderberg Meeting?

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, May 13, 2008

A sole report from a small greek media outlet indicates that the annual Bilderberg meeting took place undetected over the weekend in Athens, Greece amidst a complete media lockdown.

However, veteran Bilderberg investigator Jim Tucker has suggested this report may be a ruse to deflect attention away from the group who could actually be meeting this coming weekend.

The alleged meeting could also have been a pre-conference steering session.

The articlefrom Patris.gr, (rough translation here) also carried a small picture (opposite) of some members of the elite group flanked by security. One of the men appears to be former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a long time Bilderberger.

The report states:

In Greece (in a Vouliagmeni hotel), is currently happening, according to information, the world Congress of secret Club "Bilderberg", which is brought proapofasj’zej for the chances of world, but also this is where Prime Ministers are nominated. It should be stressed, that according to the infamy that circulates round the club Bilderberg, they play for some reason, the role of an ‘informal world government’.

Jim Tucker has told Infowars that he has not yet received 100% confirmation from his sources regarding the situation with the 2008 Bilderberg Group meeting.

Though not unheard of, Bilderberg usually convene at the end of May into early June. The 2005 meeting in Germany was in early May but every other meeting in the last ten years has been later in the month of May or in early June.

Another Bilderberg investigator Tony Gosling of www.Bilderberg.org, explained how difficult it has been to pin down the elite power brokers this year:

This year was the most difficult ever to discover where and when Bilderberg is met. Intelligence gathered indicated the 2008 conference would take place in Greece on one of the first two weekends in May. We failed to positively identify the date and location before this year’s ‘private’ meeting of the Nazi-founded (Prince Bernhard) handful of people who control most of the money in the world.

Not since the early 1990s has the group’s meeting gone completely undetected in some form.

Speculation suggested that this years meeting would be held in Lisbon, Portugal to coincide with the impending ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the new name for essentially the same EU Constitution that was previously rejected by European voters.

Others predicted that the meeting would be held somewhere within the US to coincide with a recent meeting of the Trilateral Commission, the private organization, established by David Rockefeller, of which many Bilderbergers are also members.

The alleged location of the past weekend’s meeting, if it indeed did take place, in Vouliagmeni near Athens, would mean a repeat of the 1993 meeting which took place in the same area.

We are still awaiting confirmation of the actual hotel involved, however it is likely that it would have been The Nafsika Astir Palace (pictured), which was used by the group in 1993.

From www.hotelsofgreece.com:

The Nafsika Astir Palace is hidden from view, except from the sea, being built along the pine-dotted cliffside. Thus the reception area is on ground level and the rooms, each with its own spacious and secluded veranda facing the bay, stretch down to the Olympic-size swimming pool and private beach at sea level. It has 163 rooms including the Presidential Suite, one Executive Suite and 8 Junior Suites and also houses the Business Center and the largest conference room of the resort. It is considered ideal for gala dinners and theme parties, which can be held by the pool or in one of the two restaurants.

In 2006 Alex Jones traveled to Ottawa, Canada after gaining intelligence that the Bilderberg meeting would take place there. Jones and his team were detained by Canadian immigration on orders of the Bilderberg Group for a 15 hour nightmare of interrogation, accusations and threats of arrests in anticipation of the conference.

However, Jones made it to the Brookestreet Hotel in Ottawa, met up with Jim Tucker and Daniel Estulin, author of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group, and captured footage that would later appear in his seminal film Endgame.

It was mainly due to the efforts of the three activists combined that elements of the Canadian media produced a rash of reports about the Ottawa meeting.

Media moguls who attend Bilderberg, such as Washington Post CEO and Chairman Donald E. Graham, swear an oath of secrecy and fulfil a promise each year to omit any coverage of Bilderberg from their news outlets.

2007 saw the elite confab head to Istanbul in Turkey under an increased media lockdown.

Insiders at Istanbul revealed that the Bilderberg agenda for 2007/2008 included a hiking of oil prices towards the $200 mark, something that seemed unbelievable at the time but is now predicted to happen by analysts and corporate heads before the end of the year.

The fact that the group has managed to evade detection this year indicates they have ratcheted up the secrecy level even more in response to recent exposure they have received at the hands of Jones, Tucker and Estulin.

The Ordinary Face of Everyday Evil

Pro Libertate
May 13, 2008


Ordinary evil


Havin’ a good time, guys? SWAT operators wearing Nazi-style bucket-head helmets enjoy a mirthful moment on the YZF Ranch as child "protection" workers prepare to kidnap the FLDS community’s children.

What stuck in the minds of these men who had become murderers was simply the notion of being involved in something historic, grandiose, unique ("a great task that occurs once in two thousand years"), which must therefore be difficult to bear. This was important, because the murderers were not sadists or killers by nature; on the contrary, a systematic effort was made to weed out all those who derived physical pleasure from what they did….



Ordinary evil




Hence the problem was how to overcome not so much their conscience as the animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering. The trick used by Himmler — who apparently was rather strongly afflicted by these instinctive reactions himself — was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, in directing them toward the self. So that instead of saying: What horrible things I did to people!, the murderers would be able to say: What horrible things I had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!

Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil


Ordinary evil


The unremarkable face of unspeakable evil: A Sheriff’s Deputy stands ready to use whatever force may be required to compel an FLDS mother to surrender her children to the State.

Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends… [I]n periods when millions are slaughtered, when torture is practiced, starvation enforced, oppression made a policy, as at present over a large part of the world, and as it has often been in the past, it must be at the behest of very many good people, and even by their direct action, for what they consider a worthy object.

Isabel Patterson, “The Humanitarian With the Guillotine,” from The God of the Machine, 1943

Terry Secrest, a 54-year-old social worker from Austin, Texas, is having a hard time sleeping at night. Many of her professional associates share that affliction, and for the same reason: Like Secrest, they have been assigned or have volunteered to work with mothers from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) whose children have been stolen from them at gunpoint.



Ordinary evil


Terry Secrest


Mrs. Secrest and her colleagues and, from all indications, essentially decent people. The same is probably true of the hundreds of people mobilized by the State of Texas to carry out this scheme of mass child abduction under the color of "compassionate" care.

Stipulating that all of us are fallen, flawed, sinful people, it’s still true that, as Isabel Patterson pointed out decades ago, there just aren’t that many genuinely wretched and vicious people in the world (in proportionate terms, of course).

It’s likely that nearly every individual involved in the seizure of the FLDS children — from those who passed along what was, in all likelihood, known to be a bogus phone call from a "victim" of domestic abuse at the FYZ ranch, to the overgrown adolescents in SWAT regalia a who participated in the paramilitary assault on the religious community, to the CPS workers who used threats, lies, manipulation, and finally brute force to steal more than 400 children from mothers who loved them — believed himself or herself to be animated by the purest motives on behalf of a worthy object.

And yet, at least some of them are now suffering long-deferred misgivings about their actions.


Ordinary evil

"Experts" — ah, yes, those emissaries from some transcendent realm — "say many of those professionals [working with FLDS mothers and children] may be suffering from secondary traumatic stress, a condition that affects people working with victims of trauma," reports the Austin American-Statesman. "Symptoms include anxiety, sleeplessness, nightmares and intrusive thoughts."

One source of this unexpected emotional turmoil is found in the fact that while social workers generally can offer at least a plausible explanation for the seizure of children from their homes, in this case "they didn’t know the details of the investigation or what led up to the mass removals," explains Vicki Hansen, executive director of the Texas chapter for the National Association of Social Workers.

"These workers are used to going into homes where things are really bad and feeling good about moving children from risk and danger," Hansen continues. "This situation is completely different. To look at the mothers and children, you would see love and affection and bonds, plus children who appear to be in good physical condition. It was wrenching to pull children away from their mothers."

Not surprisingly, at least some of the FLDS mothers are "showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as having flashbacks of the raid on their ranch," as well as increasing anxiety over the prospect of never seeing their children again.

For the suffering of the mothers — entirely understandable, given the criminal violence inflicted on their families — there is little official sympathy. Most of it has been directed, Himmler-style, at those who committed that criminal violence, or who have been required to clean up the mess once the deed was done.

This spectacle of inverted sympathy is both familiar and disgusting. It must be said, however, that beneath the emotional contrivances there is an elemental truth — the irrepressible human conscience. At least some of those involved in this massive crime are suffering because the capacity to identify good and evil has yet to be seared from their souls.



Ordinary evil


Handiwork of the "rescuers": A ruined safe, its contents seized by the armed "law enforcement" officers who raided the FLDS religious community, lies discarded on the floor. Elsewhere kids’ rooms were ransacked and their private possessions rifled by the raiders. Odd, isn’t it, how often "law enforcement" actions resemble acts of routine criminal thuggery?


Once this is understood, the key question becomes: Why didn’t anybody do something to stop this crime, before it was consummated?

Of the hundreds, or thousands, of people implicated in this crime, there must be at least a few dozen as decent as Mrs. Secrest appears to be. Why were they silent?

What might have happened if only one of the many people called upon to executive the raid on YFZ ranch have said, "I’m sorry — but this just isn’t right"? Granted, there were probably many others willing to take the place of anybody who suffered a sudden attack of conscience. Still, under the right circumstances, the refusal to carry out patently illegal orders can become contagious. Unfortunately, although Mrs. Secrest and some other social workers display all the symptoms of coming down with a painful case of decent shame, the people who ordered and carried out the raid and abduction seem to have developed an immunity.

There is at least one other group of people who tried to do something to stop the criminal assault on the FLDS mothers and children while it was in progress — and the treatment they received reveals a great deal about the mechanisms of organized evil that carried out this abominable act.

After the FLDS children were seized at gunpoint from their eccentric but loving mothers, they were confined — imprisoned, really — in temporary shelters under the control of the Texas Department of Child Protective Services. Employees of the Hill Country Community Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center (MHMR) were assigned to help the CPS see to the needs of the abducted children and their mothers.

As medical professionals bound by an exacting ethical code, the MHMR personnel understood their task to be to look out for the best interests of the children as individuals. The CPS officials, by way of contrast, work for the State, which meant that their prime directive was to uphold the interests of that monstrosity. If in doing so their actions were to the benefit of the children and mothers of YFZ ranch, so much the better; if not, those under CPS control would simply have to suffer in the interests of the "greater good" — as defined by the State, naturally.

These conflicting visions resulted in predictable tensions between the humanitarians of the MHMR, and the collectivists from the CPS, and those tensions were resolved in predictable fashion: The State officials first forced the mental health workers to sign non-disclosure agreements, and then threatened to have the state’s hired thugs arrest any medical professionals accused of "interfering" with the CPS officials.

Oh my stars and garters! Who would ever want to "interfere" with the CPS — that cadre of self-sacrificing public servants, pure of motive and overflowing with supernal compassion?

At least nine of the MHMR employees assigned to help CPS care for the FLDS children, that’s who.

They described the needless and illegal seizure of the FLDS children as an atrocity, and the treatment of the children in CPS custody as an exercise in gratuitous cruelty.

Notes the Houston Chronicle: "All nine reports [from MHMR staffers] expressed varying degrees of anger toward the state’s child welfare agency for removing the children from their communit, separating them from their mothers or for the way CPS workers conducted themselves at the shelter."

"I have worked in Domestic Violence/Sexual Abuse programming for over 20 years and have never seen women and children treated this poorly, not to mention their civil rights being disregarded in this manner," wrote one MHMR worker. Others described how CPS employees routinely and deliberately lied to the mothers in order to make it easier to consummate the plan to kidnap the children. Several of the mental health professionals reported that CPS denied the mothers access to legal counsel.

Anybody familiar with conditions in a day-care center knows how they quickly become incubators for sickness. So it’s not surprising that cramming several hundred children (even exceptionally clean and healthy children) into a makeshift shelter in a sports stadium resulted in an outbreak of chicken pox and upper respiratory infections.

It’s tempting to think that this demonstrates the "good enough for government work" ineptitude of Texas CPS — but some MHMR workers believe that the CPS deliberately created these conditions as a form of low-intensity biological warfare: "The more uncomfortable [the children were]," one mental health professional wrote in disgust, "the more CPS thought they would talk" about the abuse they had supposedly suffered.

Had a parent deliberately exposed his children to highly communicable childhood diseases as a psychological manipulation tactic, the children would be seized from him and he would probably wind up in prison. But the Texas CPS saw nothing amiss in torturing other people’s children — having just recently nursed three of my children through severe bouts of the chicken pox, I think the word "torture" applies here — and they wouldn’t countenance any criticism of their methods. One report pointed out that "The entire MH support staff was `fired’ the second week; we were sent home due to being `too compassionate.’"

Referring to the reports from MHMR staff, submitted anonymously because of the non-disclosure agreement, hospital board chairman John Kite remarked: "We were literally astounded at what they told us. They are trampling all over human decency and those people’s civil rights…. We should not just sit here and watch it happen."

To the considerable credit of the MHMR staffers, they were more than merely passive witnesses to acts of surpassing viciousness. But unless something is done, very soon, to return these children to their mothers and punish those responsible for conceiving and carrying out this crime, the outrage expressed by Mr. Kite and the anonymous whistle-blowers will quickly dissipate without leaving so much as a stain on the drab, gray edifice of the official child "protection" bureaucracy.

When one thinks of it, the official color of collectivist evil is not Marxist red or fascist black; it is bureaucratic gray. Evil makes plentiful use of banners drenched in red or saturated in black, of course. But its real work is carried out within the warrens of official bureaucracy, with the eager help of normal, upstanding people who crave the safe anonymity of cooperation, and don’t have the courage to make themselves conspicuous by naming officially approved evil for what it is.


Ordinary evil


A symbol of obvious evil — But it was the phlegmatic evil of Senator Palpatine, not the flamboyant evil of Darth Maul, that was the real Menace.

Our conditioned expectations of evil lead us to look for the lurid and obvious, rather than the mundane and unexceptional. We are taught to expect evil to come in the guise of the Bizarre Outsider — a visibly deranged dictator with an odd haircut, or people from a socially isolated sect who wear funny clothes and eschew popular culture.

But wrapping our expectations about evil in such convenient packaging can be deadly. Yes, there are times when Evil gives us due notice by following the accepted blueprint, and incarnating itself in the frothing tyrant or the dead-eyed cult leader.

But a figure of that sort is a mere catalyst for the evil that coalesces out of the collective efforts of common people — many of whom are otherwise decent people who believe in the principle of absolution through mass conformity. It’s because we expect that Evil will always materialize as a leering apparition that we become blind to the ordinary face of everyday evil.

Photos courtesy of captivefldschildren.org