Ron Paul - HR 1955 (Now S. 1959) An Attack on Internet Freedom

12-6-7

Note also - Ron Paul was one of only TWO Congressmen who voted against this second enormous attack on internet freedom and your rights in general.

House OKs Draconian 'Illegal Images' Sweeps In WiFi Bill
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9829759-38.html?tag=nefd.top

The House Vote was 409 to 2. Not one Democrat opposed the ludicrously-named 'SAFE Act.' Two Republicans did: Rep.
Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning presidential candidate from Texas, and Rep. Paul Broun from Georgia. The 'Congress' still refuses to read, honor and obey the Constitution. -ed


'Homegrown Terror' Act An Attack On Internet Freedom?
By Rep. Ron Paul

Before the US House of Representatives, December 5, 2007

I regret that I was unavoidably out of town on October 23, 2007, when a vote was taken on HR 1955, the Violent Radicalization & Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. Had I been able to vote, I would have voted against this misguided and dangerous piece of legislation. This legislation focuses the weight of the US government inward toward its own citizens under the guise of protecting us against "violent radicalization."

I would like to note that this legislation was brought to the floor for a vote under suspension of regular order. These so-called "suspension" bills are meant to be non-controversial, thereby negating the need for the more complete and open debate allowed under regular order. It is difficult for me to believe that none of my colleagues in Congress view HR 1955, with its troubling civil liberties implications, as "non-controversial."

There are many causes for concern in HR 1955. The legislation specifically singles out the Internet for "facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process" in the United States. Such language may well be the first step toward US government regulation of what we are allowed to access on the Internet. Are we, for our own good, to be subjected to the kind of governmental control of the Internet that we see in unfree societies? This bill certainly sets us on that course.

This seems to be an unwise and dangerous solution in search of a real problem. Previous acts of ideologically-motivated violence, though rare, have been resolved successfully using law enforcement techniques, existing laws against violence, and our court system. Even if there were a surge of "violent radicalization" ­ a claim for which there is no evidence ­ there is no reason to believe that our criminal justice system is so flawed and weak as to be incapable of trying and punishing those who perpetrate violent acts.

This legislation will set up a new government bureaucracy to monitor and further study the as-yet undemonstrated pressing problem of homegrown terrorism and radicalization. It will no doubt prove to be another bureaucracy that artificially inflates problems so as to guarantee its future existence and funding. But it may do so at great further expense to our civil liberties. What disturbs me most about this legislation is that it leaves the door wide open for the broadest definition of what constitutes "radicalization." Could otherwise nonviolent anti-tax, antiwar, or anti-abortion groups fall under the watchful eye of this new government commission? Assurances otherwise in this legislation are unconvincing.

In addition, this legislation will create a Department of Homeland Security-established university-based body to further study radicalization and to "contribute to the establishment of training, written materials, information, analytical assistance and professional resources to aid in combating violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism." I wonder whether this is really a legitimate role for institutes of higher learning in a free society.

Legislation such as this demands heavy-handed governmental action against American citizens where no crime has been committed. It is yet another attack on our Constitutionally- protected civil liberties. It is my sincere hope that we will reject such approaches to security, which will fail at their stated goal at a great cost to our way of life.

$1B In Military Equipment Missing In Iraq

Exclusive: Report Shows Vehicles, Machine Guns And More Meant For Iraqi Forces Unaccounted For

(CBS) This story was written and reported by Laura Strickler of the CBS News Investigative Unit.

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Tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, crates of machine guns and rocket propelled grenades are just a sampling of more than $1 billion in unaccounted for military equipment and services provided to the Iraqi security forces, according to a new report issued today by the Pentagon Inspector General and obtained exclusively by the CBS News investigative unit. Auditors for the Inspector General reviewed equipment contracts totaling $643 million but could only find an audit trail for $83 million.

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Inspector General Report 1.95 mb.

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The report details a massive failure in government procurement revealing little accountability for the billions of dollars spent purchasing military hardware for the Iraqi security forces. For example, according to the report, the military could not account for 12,712 out of 13,508 weapons, including pistols, assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.

The report comes on the same day that Army procurement officials will face tough questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding their procurement policies. One official, Claude Bolton, assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology has already announced his resignation on the heels of sharp criticism of army contracting. Bolton’s resignation is effective Jan. 2, 2008. The Army has significantly expanded its fraud investigations in recent months.

28 Women Miscarry After Receiving HPV Vaccine Gardasil; FDA Says No Reason to Re-Examine Approval

Thursday, December 06, 2007

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil is safe despite that 28 U.S. women who received the vaccination had miscarriages, CNSnews.com reports.

Clinical trials show the vaccine's miscarriage rate is consistent with that of women in the general population who were given placebos, and most of the miscarriages reported cannot directly be connected to Gardasil, the FDA said.

Click here to read the whole story at CNSnews.com.

A 24-year-old woman miscarried in May after being vaccinated with Gardasil and an investigator reported to the federal government that the miscarriage "may have been caused by Gardasil because the patient received the injection within 30 days of the pregnancy."

The vaccine is used to prevent the human papillomavirus — a sexually transmitted disease believed to be the cause of most cases of cervical cancer.

There have been 3,461 adverse reactions, including eight deaths, reported since the vaccine was approved for use in girls as young as 9 in June 2006. The FDA and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have concluded most side effects are minor and believe there is no reason to re-examine the drug's approval.
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Poster Comment.

So after only a year and a half since its approval somewhere around 600 days, there has been 3,461 adverse reactions, and 8 deaths!

My advice, do not take this "vaccine", and further I would tell anyone who tries to convince you to take it, to do the research and dont be an idiot. This is dangerous, and you don't need the FDA to figure that out!

CIA admits destroying interrogation tapes

RadioNetherlands
Friday December 7, 2007

The CIA has admitted destroying video recordings of the interrogation of terrorist suspects. The US intelligence agency said the tapes were destroyed to protect the identities of undercover CIA agents and because they were no longer relevant to the investigations.

The New York Times reported the destruction of the tapes on Thursday and said the recordings showed interrogation techniques being used which human rights organisations regard as torture. The CIA describes the interrogation techniques used as "lawful, safe and effective".

The tapes, which date from 2002, showed the interrogation of a number of terrorist suspects, including alleged al-Qaeda commander Abu Zubaydah. They were destroyed in 2005, the year in which the CIA came under fire for running secret detention centres abroad.

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the US intelligence services were given greater powers regarding the detention and interrogation of terrorist suspects. There is now increasing support in Washington to have these powers revoked.

Cartel Heads Greenspan and Welch Confronted Over Grossly Concentrated Power

Fmr Fed Chair quiet on private Fed and secret shareholders; Fmr GE CEO disconnected from motives of war-profiteering or the conflicts of a military-industrial complex reinforced by propaganda

JonesReport.com | December 7, 2007

Members of We Are Change confronted former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan for a second time as well as the former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, about the very unbalanced axis of power ruling just behind the surface.

Greenspan had no comment about the secret shareholders of the Fed, which sources show include the Rockefellers and Rothschilds, nor its history of abuses (including its role in causing the Great Depression). Perhaps he has been shamed to silence when faced with members of the public ever since members of We Are Change "thanked" him for destroying the dollar.

Yet, there is no denying that the bank that admittedly serves the private shareholders and not the U.S. people wields unruly power. The central bank is deeply integrated with the global financial architecture-- which Tom Foti brings up in terms of the Swiss Bank of International Settlements-- and is undoubtedly manipulated at will (through control of money supply, interest rates and other critical variables) by the elite bankers and those who serve their agenda.

Similarly, behind General Electric sits enormously concentrated power. Ever since Bill Clinton passed the 1996 Telecommunications Act (enabling drastic consolidation), four media companies have owned and controlled nearly all of telecom. The fact that GE controls slices of the military-industrial complex and the media only makes the reinforcement of establishment values painfully obvious.

Yet, Welch, who was gracious enough to talk with reporters, denied that such an obvious conflict of interest exists. He seemed shocked, in fact, at the idea and vehemently shook his head, "No, no, no, no." He tried to explain that "defense is a very small piece of cheese," while putting forward that "NBC absolutely wants peace."

Welch was totally astounded at the fact that NBC, along with the rest of the MSM, have blacked out coverage of WTC 7's unexplainable collapse and refuse to cover the implications that the demolition apparent presents for 9/11 truth. As 9/11 was the pretext for a 'never ending war,' the relationship between a complicit media and support for a war is fairly obvious.

However, Jack Welch himself retired a curious four days before 9/11 and was no more connected to the attacks than Greenspan. He denied any knowledge of 'put options' prior to September 11, and rightly so, as there is no evidence (that has ever presented itself) to indicate that Welch had any prior knowledge or direct connections to the events.

But the point is that he had a very strange sense of disconnect from the mere idea that such behind the scenes manipulation and cooperation occurs at all-- that conflicts of interest and misconduct would even take place.

Yet, Welch is undoubtedly a knowing member of the establishment of power-- while he may or may not be in tune with the aims of the machine, there is no doubting his awareness of his firm's importance within that machine.

Jack Welch is well-known as a vocal defender of skyrocketing CEO compensation and believes people should stop complaining about the vast disparity between the salaries of the establishment's controllers and the rest of the world.

Also, it is interesting but intangible that Jack Welch has defined himself in recent years as a crisis manager with clearly laid out methods -- and an optimist who 'goes from the gut.' His OpEd piece 'The Five Stages of Crisis Management - Why Katrina will make us stronger.' clearly demonstrates that:

"One of the marks of good leadership is the ability to dispense with denial quickly and face into hard stuff with eyes open and fists raised. With particularly bad crises facing them, good leaders also define reality, set direction and inspire people to move forward. Just think of Giuliani after 9/11 or Churchill during World War II. Denial doesn't exactly come to mind--a forthright, calm, fierce boldness does."

(Here he compares leadership within a company and a country) "Companies typically go to extremes after a crisis. They throw up fortresses of rules, controls and procedures to fix what went wrong in the first place. In that way, they build a kind of immunity to the sickness that felled them."

The New York Times labeled George W. Bush's bold leadership after 9/11 as 'The Jack Welch War Plan' in an article from September 2002, stating that Bush "has always run the White House by the cardinal rules in their [CEOs Welch and Ken Lay] playbook... whether it is managing our money or managing a war."

"Now that we know that this model was a sham, with even Mr. Welch's General Electric under scrutiny for fiscal sleight of hand, you would think the Bush administration might revisit it. But instead it is following a discredited modus operandi more slavishly than ever, even as it prepares to fight a new war. ''There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence,'' said Mr. Welch in ''Jack: Straight From the Gut,'' his Bushian-titled memoir. ''Arrogance is a killer.'' Mr. Bush and the C.E.O.'s around him seem as oblivious to this maxim as the C.E.O. who coined it."

"But this administration no longer cooks the books merely on fiscal matters. Disinformation has become ubiquitous... It's when such dishonesty extends to the war on terrorism, though, that you appreciate just how much a killer arrogance can be. Even with little White House cooperation in its inquiry, this month's Congressional intelligence hearings presented a chilling portrait of the administration's efforts to cover up its pre-9/11 lassitude about terrorist threats."

The Times is right to use the word "oblivious"-- it aptly reflects the same attitude Mr. Welch demonstrated about the idea of "conflict of interests"-- as though the concept was completely abstract and bore no relationship to business as usual in the real world.

While there is certainly no reason to believe Jack Welch had prior knowledge of 9/11, it is fitting that a man who The Times suggests may have inspired the tone of leadership, character and conduct in the 'War on Terror' also raised up the monstrous conglomerate that GE become under his lead.

His firm all too well fits into Bush's war-- as it manufactures both the arms and propaganda of warfare-- and certainly stands to profit from a state of war meant to go on without end. The era since 9/11 has been one of a rashly dishonest leadership acting to bleed out the last vestiges of freedom and allow society's controllers to seize upon its holdings, the people and property of the U.S.

Prince Philip's top aide to be quizzed over 'murder' claims at Diana inquest

UK Daily Mail
Friday December 7, 2007

The Duke of Edinburgh's top aide is to appear at the inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, next week, it has been announced.

Private secretary Brigadier Sir Miles Hunt-Davis is certain to be asked about Harrods tycoon Mohamed al Fayed's claim that the Duke ordered Diana's "murder" in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

The Princess's close friend Rosa Monkton and her stepmother Raine, Countess Spencer, are also listed to give evidence as the inquest enters its 11th week.

In a key few days of evidence Alberto Repossi - the jeweller at the centre of claims that Dodi Fayed had bought an an engagement ring for the Princess - and MP Nicholas Soames, whom Diana allegedly "feared", will also be called.

Others listed include Philippe Doucin, a barman who says he sold drinks to driver Henri Paul at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on the night of the crash, and Dr Arnaud Derossi, who co-ordinated the medical response at the scene of the tragedy in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in the early hours of August 31, 1997.

Mohamed al Fayed, whose son Dodi was killed in the crash with Diana and Henri Paul, is convinced the couple were murdered in an MI6 plot which he believes was ordered by the Duke of Edinburgh.

He believes the couple were poised to announce their engagement when they died and that Diana was pregnant with Dodi's child.

Sir Miles is likely to be asked about the whereabouts of correspondence between the Duke and the Princess, which her former butler Paul Burrell claims existed - part of a box of correspondence dubbed the "crown jewels".

Full article here.

Another Shooter With A History Of Anti-depressant Use

Killer is latest in long line of young men with history of psychiatric drugs treatment for depression and ADHD.

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Thursday, Dec 6, 2007

Robert Hawkins, the 19 year old who killed himself and eight other people with an assault rifle last night in Omaha, Nebraska had a history of treatment with psychiatric drugs for depression and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and was on prozac according to press reports.

Of course the headlines will once again focus on how evil and dangerous guns are, how the second amendment should be reevaluated and will once again ignore the fact that this young man was subject to dangerous brain altering chemicals for a number of years prior to this tragic incident.

Hawkins is the latest in a long line of shooters all of which were on prescribed antidepressants before they suddenly snapped and decided to kill as many people as they could before taking their own lives.

Investigators believe that Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech murderer, had been taking anti-depressant medication at some point before the shootings last April, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, as well as 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, the Oregon killer who gunned down his parents and classmates, were all on psychotropic drugs.

Jeff Weise, the Red Lake High School killer was on prozac, "Unabomber" Ted Kaczinski, Michael McDermott, John Hinckley, Jr., Byran Uyesugi, Mark David Chapman and Charles Carl Roberts IV, the Amish school killer, were all on SSRI psychotropic drugs.

Antidepressant drugs have never been tested on children nor approved by the FDA for use on children, however, Scientific studies proving that prozac encourages suicidal tendencies in young people are voluminous and span back nearly a decade.

In 2005, it was revealed that Eli Lilly had full knowledge of a 1200% increase in suicide risk for takers of their Prozac. This evidence came in the wake of findings published in the British Medical Journal a year previously.

In 2006 a report was published outlining the fact that anti-depressant drug Paxil doubles the risk of violent behavior. Another study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry revealed that teens taking antidepressant drugs are more likely to commit suicide.

However, prescriptions of antidepressants and other mind-altering drugs among schoolchildren has more than quadrupled in that time, while use of behaviour-altering drugs, including Ritalin, for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Modafinil, for daytime sleepiness, has soared ten-fold.

It is a well known fact among the makers of these drugs that they are directly linked to behavioural disturbances including agitation, panic attacks and extreme aggression, yet their use is so commonplace that they have now even found their way into our drinking water.

Since these deadly drugs are prevalent in almost all mass shooting incidents, where is the call to ban prozac? Where is the investigation into these drugs and the big pharma corporations that are pushing them and gaining record profits? Why is the knee-jerk reaction always to attack the 2nd Amendment rights of Americans to self-defense, a right that was exercised in January 2002 when students subdued a shooter at another Virginia university before he could kill more than three people because they were allowed guns on campus?

Mountain Dew Ad Campaign Portends Fascist Future

Kurt Nimmo
TruthNews
Friday December 7, 2007

In a marketing strategy certainly in tune with the times, Mountain Dew envisions the not unlikely concept of a future fascist police state. An earlier Mountain Dew advert featured a hapless window puppeteer raided by a SWAT team in New York. Does Mountain Dew and PepsiCo know something the rest of us don’t?

Baer Suggests Saudis Could Stage Terror In America to Instigate Iran Attack

CIA veteran also has questions about why alleged masterminds were being protected before 9/11

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Friday, December 7, 2007

Former CIA veteran Robert Baer has suggested that a withdrawal from the possibility of striking Iran could be reversed if a terror attack was to take place in America - and he fingered America's ally Saudi Arabia as the most likely perpetrator of any such attack. Baer also questioned why the U.S. and its allies continue to protect individuals who consorted with the alleged mastermind of 9/11 before the attacks.

Baer was labeled "perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East” by Seymour Hersh and his astounding career formed the script for the Academy Award winning motion picture Syriana.

Baer served as a clandestine CIA officer in Madras and New Delhi, India; in Beirut, Lebanon; in Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and in Salah al-Din in Kurdish northern Iraq. While in Iraq, Baer tried to persuade the Clinton administration to back a coup to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

During a June 2006 radio interview, Baer said that the evidence points to 9/11 having an inside job aspect.

Elaborating on this during an appearance on The Alex Jones Show yesterday, Baer pointed out that the alleged masterminds behind 9/11 were all being protected by the U.S. government and its allies before the attacks.

"There were several Americans that could have grabbed Khalid Sheik Mohammed in 1996 when he was in Dohar who are now working for that government (Qatar), there's been no explanation of how he got away....there's been no explanation of why these American officials went to work for the same man - the Minister of the Interior, including Rudy Giuliani, he has an enormous amount of contracts with Dohar today with the same guy who protected Khalid Sheik Mohammed," said Baer.

"I'd like to know what are those connections and why is the Minister of the Interior still in power, he's given us no explanation of why he tipped off Khalid Sheik Mohammed in 1996," he added.

Baer also agreed that questions need to be answered about the Pakistani financier of the alleged hijackers, ISI chief Mahmoud Ahmad, visiting top U.S. government and intelligence officials in the week before and during 9/11.

Speaking about recent developments, Baer said that the Bush administration had "blown their credibility" by talking about world war three with Iran in October six weeks before the National Intelligence Estimate emerged saying Iran was a benign power.

Asked if some element of the Neo-Con camp could stage or provocateur an event to reverse the current climate of withdrawal from an attack on Iran, Baer said, "Yeah, the only way you're gonna get back in the game is to reimpose the draft," conceding that the only way to grease the skids for hitting Iran would be another terror attack.

Asked who would launch that terror attack, Baer said, "Well, use your imagination, whose interests is it in? It's in Saudi Arabia's interests for instance - who's gonna protect them against Iran unless there's an attack in this country?"

Click here to listen to the MP3 interview.

Hearing Impaired Man Tased by Police

Eyewitness News 12
December 12, 2007
Donnell Williams had just gotten out of the bath tub, wearing only a towel around his waist, when he turned the corner to see guns pointing right at him.

“I ain’t never been so scared,” says Williams.

Police forced entry into Williams home while responding to a shooting, but it turned out to be a false call. They had no idea at the time the call wasn’t real and that Williams is hearing impaired. Without his hearing aid he is basically deaf.

“I kept going to my ear yelling that I was scared. I can’t hear! I can’t hear!”

Officers were worried about their own safety because at the time it appeared Williams was refusing to obey their commands to show his hands. That’s when they shot him with a Taser.

Deputy Chief Robert Lee of the Wichita Police Department says, “This one occurred on the worst of calls, that being a shooting. The first few minutes getting control of the scene are very, very important.”

Once the facts were all sorted out, officers repeatedly apologized to Williams. Police wish it never happened, but with the information they had at the time, their choices were limited.

“Do I wish there would have been some way they were notified in advance this gentleman was hearing impaired? I certainly do. No one is happy with the way it worked out,” says Lee.

Williams was not hurt in the incident. Police say the shooting call came from a cell phone but they still don’t know who made it or why.

The case is being reviewed by the department.

House prices seen falling 30 pct

Reuters | December 6, 2007
Julie Haviv

Housing markets from Punta Gorda, Florida, to Stockton, California, will crash and suffer price drops of more than 30 percent before the housing crisis is over, a report from Moody's Economy.com said on Thursday.

On a national level, the housing market recession will continue through early 2009, said the report, co-authored by Mark Zandi, chief economist, and Celia Chen, director of housing economics.

The report paints a worsening picture of the hard-hit housing sector, which is in the midst of its worst downturn since World War II.

While activity will stabilize in 2009, it will not be until 2010 before a measurable improvement in sales, construction and pricing will emerge, the report said.

House prices are forecast to fall 13 percent from their peak through early 2009. After accounting for incentives home sellers are offering buyers, effective declines peak-to-trough will total well over 15 percent, the report said.

Punta Gorda, Florida, and Stockton, California, are the hardest hit markets in the U.S., with price declines from peak-to-trough forecast at 35.3 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively.

"This is the most severe housing recession since the post-World War II period," Zandi told Reuters.

Full article here.

GUNMAN KILLS CHRISTMAS SHOPPERS

Worst Mass Slaying In Nebraska History Claims 9

KETV | December 5, 2007

OMAHA, Neb. -- The worst mass slaying in Nebraska history claimed the lives of five men and three women, plus the shooter.

ABC News has confirmed with two sources that the gun used at Westroads Mall was an SKS-style assault rifle with two magazines taped together found at the scene. ABC reported that taping magazines together is a technique that allows the shooter to reload more quickly.

That may be why witnesses heard so many shots when Robert A. Hawkins, 20, opened fire on Wednesday afternoon.

Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren confirmed the rifle style, but would not confirm the magazine detail.

The woman Hawkins was staying with said she thinks he stole the weapon from his stepfather.

Outside of Hawkins' mother's home, Omaha police and a crew from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were serving a search warrant in La Vista just before 10 p.m. It is believed the gun Hawkins used was stolen from the home. Agents searched trash cans and entered the split-level home through the basement. A K9 dog was also used.

Warren said the shooting appears to be random and without provocation. Warren said officers believe Hawkins acted alone, and that the entire incident took just a few minutes.

Warren said it may be impossible to come up with an explanation for Hawkins' actions, but he believes the act was premeditated.

Omaha police said nine people were dead, including the alleged shooter. Five more were injured, two critically, police said.

Creighton University Medical Center said it had three victims and two were fatalities. The dead were a man and a woman, and no further details were released.

The Nebraska Medical Center said it has three gunshot victims, all wounded but alive. Paul Vaultus, at NMC, said a 61-year-old man was shot in the chest and was in surgery before 3:45 p.m. A 34-year-old man had a wound and was in fair condition. A 55-year-old man had cuts to the face.

Fred Wilson, 61, was out of surgery at 10 p.m. and in critical condition. He is the customer service manager for Von Maur, according to NMC. He is a retired teacher that taught English at St. Albert Catholic High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He also taught in Shenandoah and Clear Lake, Iowa.

Dr. Bob Muelleman said Wilson had serious injuries to his chest wall and upper extremity trauma. Muelleman described the wound as one from a high-powered rifle.

A shooting victim said he feels "exceedingly lucky" to have lived through a terrifying scene that played out at Westroads Mall on Wednesday.

Jeff Schaffart was shopping for a dress for his daughter to see Santa on Wednesday night. The child, 2, was not with him, but his wife was. He said he was shot from behind in the finger and the arm. Just before he realized he was hit, Schaffart said, he heard something.

"I heard gunshots. I initially thought they were some kind of balloons popping or construction. Then I heard people starting to panic, and they said, 'Get down. Get down,'" Schaffart said.

He said he went through a women's restroom as his wife hid nearby. Schaffart said he realized he'd been shot when he saw blood on his arm.

"There was a woman there with her baby and we basically stayed there for, I believe, a couple minutes. It sounded like the shots had subsided. I went to find my wife. She wouldn't come out the area she was hiding in," Schaffart said.

Schaffart guessed that he may have heard six to 10 shots.

Schaffart is an attorney with Koley-Jessen in Omaha.

Alberta Government Admits NAFTA Superhighway

Lee Rogers
Rogue Government
December 5, 2007

Alberta’s government web site admits to the existence of a NAFTA superhighway. While establishment media hacks continue to deny plans for a continental highway, it is curious that a government web site would openly admit to the existence of it. It is also curious how these liars can get away with calling presidential candidate Ron Paul a conspiracy theorist for citing readily available information. One of the driving forces behind the formation of a NAFTA superhighway is NASCO a non profit organization dedicated to expanding our current highway infrastructure so goods can be more easily traded within the coming North American Union.

What’s funny about NASCO’s web site is that they deny the existence of a continental superhighway but openly admit to it at the same time. Take for example the following taken from their myth vs fact section.

MYTH: NASCO is spearheading the creation of a NAFTA Superhighway?

FACT: Founded in 1994, NASCO is a nonprofit organization that is working to bring together the public and private sectors along a common corridor. The organization is striving to:

1) solve critical infrastructure problems in innovative ways;

2) maximize the efficient use of our existing resources;

3) better utilize critical diminishing funding for transportation infrastructure; and,

4) employ technology along our existing infrastructure to improve security.

How is it a myth if the goal of this organization is to expand and make improvements on I-35 which is referred to by the Alberta government as the NAFTA superhighway? Why is it that they have a logo that represents the flags of Mexico, Canada and the U.S.? This is a clear cut case of double think. They deny the existence of a NAFTA superhighway, but admit openly that they are doing all sorts of things to ensure that I-35 is improved upon to be used as the NAFTA superhighway.

Here they openly admit that existing highway infrastructure is to be used as the NAFTA superhighway. Below is an excerpt.

“NAFTA Superhighway” - As of late, there has been much media attention given to the “new, proposed NAFTA Superhighway”. NASCO and the cities, counties, states and provinces along our existing Interstate Highways 35/29/94 (the NASCO Corridor) have been referring to I-35 as the ‘NAFTA Superhighway’ for many years, as I-35 already carries a substantial amount of international trade with Mexico, the United States and Canada. There are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway - it exists today as I-35.

The bottom line is that a NAFTA superhighway will be formed by making improvements to existing highway infrastructure. Technically, there is no new NAFTA superhighway because the NAFTA superhighway will be built around what is already there. NASCO admits this openly on their web site, and the Alberta government actually states that I-35 is the NAFTA superhighway. The continued denial of a NAFTA superhighway by establishment media hacks proves that they are not journalists, but instead are bought and paid for propagandists who are too lazy to do basic research.

Bolton Takes to Factor, Promises Neocon Objection to NIE

Kurt Nimmo TruthNews December 5, 2007

Not unlike cockroaches scurrying when a light is flipped on, the neocons are scurrying to recover from the blow delivered by the “intelligence services” after they reported there is no reason to bomb Iranian school children and grandmothers back to the Paleolithic.

Of course, the latest NIE didn’t stop Bush from characterizing Iran as an imminent threat. “Iran was, is and will be dangerous,” declared Bush. “All options are on the table,” in other words Iran may still be bombed, no matter the rationale no longer exists, not that such a thing matters to neocons, infamous for launching mass murder campaign predicated on lies and dissimulation.

But it is not simply the scheduled bombing campaign. It is the U.S.-brokered sanctions as well.

“China for one says that the new information about Iran has altered the situation. Beijing now doubts whether new sanctions against Iran are still necessary,” reports Radio Netherlands Worldwide. No doubt Russia and others will soon chime in. It looks bleak for the warmongers in Israel and the perfidious neocons.

Israel, however, continues to consider Iran a real danger. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has doubts about the judgment of the US intelligence services. Barak agrees that Iran suspended its arms program “for some time” but he thinks that “Iran is probably continuing its program of fabricating a nuclear bomb.”

Never mind Israel’s 200 or so nukes. But then the Israelis are not Persian or Arab. Israel would never nuke Tehran or Damascus at the drop of a hat, would they?

Google “Samson Option.”

“The threatening of wild, irrational violence, in response to political pressure, has been an Israeli impulse from the very earliest days,” writes David Hirst. “Israel will remain at least as likely a candidate as Iran, and a far more enduring one, for the role of ‘nuclear-crazy’ state.” In his book on the Samson Option, Seymour Hersh quotes an Israeli government official who declared: “You Americans screwed us” for not supporting Israel in its 1956 war with Egypt. “We can still remember the smell of Auschwitz and Treblinka. Next time we’ll take all of you with us.”

Nope, no crazy people here.

In order to set things back on the neocon track, former “ambassador” to the United Nation — never confirmed by Congress, probably because they realized he was insane and dangerous — John Bolton now dedicates his life to “a congressional witch-hunt into the intelligence community” in the wake of the latest NIE. In the meantime, “VoteVets is calling for an congressional investigation into the Bush administration for warning of a false Iran threat despite knowing the key findings of the NIE,” according to Think Progress.

Finally, Bolton marched out on the stage at Fox to tell fellow warmonger and psycho case Bill O’Reilly that the NIE is irrelevant. Instead, what matters is the “public judgment… namely that Iran continues to enrich uranium.” Of course it does and John knows why, although he is not telling the public — under the NPT, signed by Iran (not signed by Israel), they have all the right in the world to enrich uranium.

Bolton complains that “policy bias have crept into this so-called intelligence analysis,” a rip roaring side-splitter considering the entire invasion of Iraq and the subsequent mass murder of over a million Iraqis was predicated on neocon “policy bias,” otherwise known as lies and outrageous fabrication of the most devious and injurious sort.

In effect, Bolton is informing us that the neocons will slog through the flak created by the latest NIE and remain faithful to their mass murder agenda.

In a bit more perfect world, concerned citizens would be visiting the neocon foundations and making citizen arrests. In the far less than perfect world we now have, the neocons are allowed to get on Fox News and CNN and twist and distort and furiously attempt to get their serial murder juggernaut back on the tracks.

Dobbs And Goodman Clash During Firey Immigration Debate

CNN host slams Democracy Now anchor for implying Minutemen are responsible for killing illegal immigrants

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, December 5, 2007

CNN host Lou Dobbs, who has gained widespread notoriety for his scathing condemnation of the Bush administration's open border policy and the push for a North American Union, slammed Amy Goodman during an immigration debate on Democracy Now yesterday for implying that the Minutemen are responsible for killing illegal immigrants on the border.

Dobbs and Goodman clashed numerous times during the hour long segment on a whole host of issues, notably when Goodman attempted to smear Dobbs by linking him with individuals that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ADL castigated as belonging to hate groups. Dobbs responded by pointing out that the SPLC and the ADL are both advocacy groups that favor open borders.

Goodman later attempted to trip Dobbs up by playing a clip of him discussing the North American Union, an ad hominem swipe at suggesting such an agenda was non-existent. Dobbs calmly retorted by detailing the factual progression of the NAU, to which Goodman had no comeback.

The climax came at the very end when Goodman implied, with no evidence to back up such an absurd claim, that the Minutemen border patrol group were responsible for killing illegal immigrants attempting to enter America.

Dobbs slammed Goodman and asked her to cite one example of violence involving the Minutemen, to which she was mute, before asking why she was seemingly unconcerned about Mexican drug runners that shoot at and kill American border patrol agents as well as Mexican and American citizens on a routine basis.

Watch the video.

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TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN: Are you concerned with, among others, one of the founders of the Minutemen being found with a gun, patrolling the border; issues like these? This is of concern, when there are so many immigrants who are found in the desert dead, not clear why they die.

LOU DOBBS: Oh, are you implying that the Minutemen are killing them?

AMY GOODMAN: No. But just—

LOU DOBBS: Then why would you say such a thing?

AMY GOODMAN: My question is—

LOU DOBBS: That’s terrible, Amy. I mean, good Lord!

AMY GOODMAN: My question is, when—

LOU DOBBS: Let’s answer one question: has there ever been a single incident of violence recorded on the part of the Minutemen on the border?

AMY GOODMAN: I believe—wasn’t there—

LOU DOBBS: There has never been.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m not—haven’t there been cases of immigrants who come over the border, who have been chased, who have been shot at, who have been beaten?

LOU DOBBS: That would be an incident of violence. That would be an incident of violence, wouldn’t it? To my knowledge, there has never been an incident of violence on the part of the Minutemen.

AMY GOODMAN: But the idea of armed men on the border—

LOU DOBBS: Oh, come on!

AMY GOODMAN: —not authorized by the United States?

LOU DOBBS: Does it bother you that there are armed drug cartel members firing on law enforcement officers on the border, killing Mexican citizens, US citizens?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Absolutely.

LOU DOBBS: Does any of this bother you?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Absolutely does, yes.

LOU DOBBS: I would hope to heck it bothers you. Why would the Minutemen even be under discussion by comparison to that issue?

Parts 1-6 of the debate are embedded below.

COMMENT

Democracy Now often promotes the concept of free speech. I have watched numerous shows regarding this issue on the site. Yet when it comes to a dissenting political view Democracy now is all to ready to jump the gun and give it derogatory labels in an attempt at censorship.

Democracy Now apparently stands for control of speech, more then free speech. Control of those that would offer the dissenting view. If this is what democracy has become, I want no part of it. Remember the concept, I may not agree with you, but I will support your right? Where did that idea of free speech go?

Amy Goodman should be so critical of her own shows. A recent show had a guest from Southern Poverty Law Center on along with Lou Dobbs. While criticizing Lou Dobbs, Amy failed to note that SPLC has the actions of the two border partrol agents Ramos and Compean as an example of a hate crime.

Ramos and Compen shot a Mexican native transporting large quanities of illicit drugs into the U.S. They were convicted of crimes regarding the shooting and given prison terms. Members of both sides of the aisle in Congress has asked Bush to pardon them. A court has said the case went to far. Yet SPLC blames the out cry against the injustice on "right wing misinformation campaign".

The case is available on the internet, and most readers find it a miscarrige of justice rather then a 'hate crime'. Most do not take the time to read it.

Further cases of SPLC's unjustified labeling exist.

Iris scans let law enforcement keep eye on criminals

Wendy Koch
USA Today
Wednesday, December 5, 2007

A growing number of sheriff's departments are using iris scans to identify sex offenders, runaways, abducted children and wandering Alzheimer's patients.

More than 2,100 departments in 27 states are taking digital pictures of eyes and storing the information in databases that can be searched later to identify a missing person or someone who uses a fake name, says Sean Mullin, president of BI{+2} Technologies, which sells the devices.

"It's evolving quickly," he says. Most of the sheriffs are doing voluntary iris scans of senior citizens and children.

At least 10 metro areas are doing scans of criminals to identify them should another crime occur or to be sure the right inmate is released.

"This is the wave of the future. This will become as common as fingerprinting," says Sheriff Greg Solano of Santa Fe County, N.M. Last month, his department began scanning the irises of convicted sex offenders. He says the level of detail and central database can make matches within seconds, compared with weeks for fingerprints and months for DNA.

Iris recognition technology has been used by airports to expedite security checks of low-risk travelers and by the government to track possible terrorists. When a patent expired last year, other companies rushed in to expand its uses.

The widening use of iris recognition concerns privacy advocates. Some advocates for children say it could give parents a false sense of security.

"It's part of the growing surveillance society. We're going to be identified and tracked everywhere we go," says Barry Steinhardt, technology program director at the American Civil Liberties Union.

FULL STORY: CLICK HERE

Italy politician urges Nazi policies for immigrants

Philip Pullella
Reuters
Wednesday, December 5, 2007

ROME (Reuters) - A local politician has shocked Italians, and Jews in particular, by proposing that immigrants be treated with the same severity the Nazis used when they occupied the country.

Giorgio Bettio, a city councilor in the northern city of Treviso, said during a council meeting earlier this week: "With immigrants, we should use the same system the SS used, punish 10 of them for every slight against one of our citizens."

His comments revived memories of the 1944 Ardeatine Caves massacre, when Hitler ordered that 10 Italians be executed for each of the 33 German soldiers killed in a partisan attack against occupying forces on a Rome street.

mmigration has been a burning issue in the rich northern Veneto region where Treviso is located. Tensions have flared regularly between residents and immigrants, some of them seeking work in the area's factories and fields.

Bettio, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League, was roundly condemned by politicians and editorialists.

"Even if he was drunk or his brain short-circuited ... he must be condemned without appeal," Il Giornale, a conservative newspaper which normally supports the Northern League, said in a front-page editorial on Wednesday.

Bettio told Reuters by telephone that he was "agitated and mad" when he made the remarks because an Asian immigrant had threatened his mother.

"I certainly made a mistake in citing the SS," Bettio said, adding that he believed "the whole thing has been blown out of proportion" by national politicians and the media.

Riccardo Pacifici, a leader of Rome's Jewish community, which lost some 75 members in the 1944 massacre, said Bettio should resign. "It's one thing to call for immigration controls ... but this is intolerable, truly squalid," he told Reuters.

While parliamentarians accused Bettio of fomenting racism and asked that the government formally censure him, the episode again put the spotlight on Italy's immigration problems.

Many Italians, worried by rises in crime rates and unemployment, have called for crackdowns on immigrants.

Social Affairs Minister Paolo Ferrero said the Northern League was using immigrants as scapegoats for social problems "just as the Nazis used Jews as scapegoats for all the social problems of their era".

FULL STORY: CLICK HERE

Texas To Track Emergency Evacuees Using RFID

Ann Shibler
JBS
Wednesday December 5, 2007

The Texas Governor's Division of Emergency Management (GDEM) announced a contract with AT&T to build the Texas Special Needs Evacuation Tracking System. The system will use a variety of radio-frequency identification (RFID), wireless and mobile data technologies to continuously monitor and track all evacuees.

Follow this link to the original source: "AT&T To Deliver Country's First Statewide Citizen-Evacuation Management System"

"Oh, grandmother, what big ears you have!" said Little Red Riding Hood.

"The better to hear you with, my child," replied the Big Bad Wolf.

"But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!" she exclaimed.

"The better to see you with, my dear," he responded.

"But, grandmother, what large hands you have!"

"The better to hug you with."

"Oh, but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!"

"The better to eat you with, my dear!"

Reminiscent of the Big Bad Wolf in the Brothers Grimm's Little Red Riding Hood, comes this newest trick from the Texas Governor's Division of Emergency Management (GDEM). AT&T is going to furnish the wireless network and hardware support for the new emergency tracking system that will, according to AT&T, "provide real-time information on evacuees," in order to "better support the evacuees and their families during a crisis."

The tracking system was developed and tested in 2006 and 2007 in simulations. It is supposed to help "safely" (an all-encompassing term of fake compassion and concern) evacuate citizens in the event of man-made or natural disasters. Citizens are to present themselves at a registration site and don a radio-frequency identification (RFID) wristband. The wristband is to be scanned by a wireless device when citizens calmly board state-contracted buses to be sent to locations decided by the state. The bus itself will be equipped with a GPS system so that it, too, along with all the passengers can be monitored and tracked.

At destination's end, the system will "update evacuee profiles and provide real-time information." We are told that this is for the express purpose of enabling state employees to "respond to inquiries from the public about the safety of evacuated family members and to reunite families that have been separated during a large-scale disaster." But what does the phrase "update evacuee profiles," mean exactly?

Jack Colley, chief of the Texas Governor's Division of Emergency Management said, "We wanted to enhance our existing emergency evacuation planning strategy with a new system for tracking and locating evacuees," which is probably a pretty truthful statement. In keeping with the ever-present "safety" concerns Colley continued: "We are confident that the statewide emergency-evacuation tracking system will not only help save lives and effectively ascertain the location of the displaced citizens … The RFID solution will improve the GDEM's command and control management of large-scale disasters."

Nowhere in any of the information on the nascent system provided by GDEM is the question of citizens' rights addressed. As we saw in the Katrina tragedy in New Orleans, citizens were summarily stripped of their rights in the wake of the disaster. Guns were confiscated, contrary to the Second Amendment. Subsequently, people gathered in the Superdome and elsewhere were prevented from leaving while, conversely, help from the Salvation Army and others was prevented from reaching those in need. It is this sort of statist incompetence and authoritarian heartlessness that makes one wonder what the GDEM's new tracking system will really be used for. Additional "command and control" measures would only serve, most likely, as a further means of controlling victims, rather than as a means for helping disaster victims.

AT&T — in conjunction with other assorted tech companies they are partnering with — is only too happy to further police state tactics with their project management, engineering, staging and technical information, and products. Chris Hill, vice president of government solutions for AT&T's wireless unit said, "The statewide emergency-evacuation tracking system is an innovative new custom solution that enhances our already robust portfolio of mobility solutions." Used by AT&T in their press release a couple of times, the phrase "mobility solutions" seems to mean moving people while under constant surveillance. Apparently anything is permissible in order to turn a profit these days.

The moral of this tale is: "Beware of the big bad wolf."

Ex-Italian President: Intel Agencies Know 9/11 An Inside Job

Man who set up Operation Gladio tells Italy's largest newspaper attacks were run by CIA, Mossad

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Former Italian President and the man who revealed the existence of Operation Gladio Francesco Cossiga has gone public on 9/11, telling Italy's most respected newspaper that the attacks were run by the CIA and Mossad and that this was common knowledge amongst global intelligence agencies.

Cossiga was elected President of the Italian Senate in July 1983 before winning a landslide 1985 election to become President of the country in 1985.

Cossiga gained respect from opposition parties as one of a rare breed - an honest politician - and led the country for seven years until April 1992.

Cossiga's tendency to be outspoken upset the Italian political establishment and he was forced to resign after revealing the existence of, and his part in setting up, Operation Gladio - a rogue intelligence network under NATO auspices that carried out bombings across Europe in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

Gladio's specialty was to carry out what they coined "false flag operations," terror attacks that were blamed on their domestic and geopolitical opposition.

Cossiga's revelations contributed to an Italian parliamentary investigation of Gladio in 2000, during which evidence was unearthed that the attacks were being overseen by the U.S. intelligence apparatus.

In March 2001, Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra stated, in sworn testimony, "You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force ... the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security."

Cossiga's new revelations appeared last week in Italy's oldest and most widely read newspaper, Corriere della Sera. Below appears a rough translation.

"[Bin Laden supposedly confessed] to the Qaeda September [attack] to the two towers in New York [claiming to be] the author of the attack of the 11, while all the [intelligence services] of America and Europe ... now know well that the disastrous attack has been planned and realized from the CIA American and the Mossad with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic Countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part ... in Iraq [and] Afghanistan."

Cossiga first expressed his doubts about 9/11 in 2001, and is quoted in Webster Tarpley's book as stating that "The mastermind of the attack must have been a “sophisticated mind, provided with ample means not only to recruit fanatic kamikazes, but also highly specialized personnel. I add one thing: it could not be accomplished without infiltrations in the radar and flight security personnel.”

Coming from a widely respected former head of state, Cossiga's assertion that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and that this is common knowledge amongst global intelligence agencies is highly unlikely to be mentioned by any establishment media outlets, because like the hundreds of other sober ex-government, military, air force professionals, allied to hundreds more professors and intellectuals - he can't be sidelined as a crackpot conspiracy theorist.

Young Pakistanis: Bin Laden Is A CIA Creation

Good Morning America gets more than it bargained for in a feature on young people in Pakistan

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, Dec 4, 2007

An ABC news piece that ran yesterday morning attracted attention after four Pakistanis who were being interviewed about the attitudes and life of young people in Pakistan declared Osama Bin Laden to be a creation of western intelligence and stressed that Islamic extremist attitudes towards the west were virtually non existent in their country before 9/11.

ABC have since pulled the video footage from their website, but an industrious prisonplanet forum member grabbed the footage and uploaded it to youtube.

"Who is Osama Bin Laden?" One girl asked Chris Cuomo, "He's just a character created by America" she concluded.

Another of the young people, all in their twenties picked up the conversation stating "I would say that 98% of Pakistanis would follow along the same lines, they believe that Osama is basically a CIA agent who is working under cover to put over a bad image of Islam."

Here is the footage interspersed with other evidence to back up the claims of the four young Pakistanis:

After looking shocked and surprised, Cuomo attempted to rescue the interview by suggesting that many people within Pakistan do indeed support the ideals of bin Laden.

Not according to a a third young Pakistani who was quick to correct the ABC host stating "To be quite honest that is a very marginalised section of Pakistan. The Islamic extremism that you find did not really exist in Pakistan pre 9/11 or pre the Musharraf government.

Of course this is not groundbreaking information, it is basic common knowledge. Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are direct creations of western intelligence as we have thoroughly documented. Al Qaeda itself was a joint CIA/ISI intelligence database of mujahudeen fighters they had recruited in the late 70s and eighties to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

People in Pakistan in particular are very well informed on this reality due to the fact that the ISI is deeply involved with such CIA activities. Bin Laden even had an ISI Running Officer, who also worked closely with the Taliban in Afghanistan who were heavily sponsored by ISI operatives before 9/11.

The head of the ISI at the time, General Mahmoud Ahmad was, according to the FBI and as confirmed by various news reports at the time, a principle financier of the 19 alleged 9/11 hijackers.

But the reaction of the ABC reporter and doubtless millions of watching Americans speaks volumes about the ingrained falsehoods that have shaped our world over the last six years.

Related: Turkish Intelligence: Al-Qaeda a U.S. Covert Operation

Related: (CIA-run) Pakistan helped al-Qaeda set up shop in Afghanistan: US documents

Related: Prisonplanet Google search / Bin Laden CIA