Showing posts with label TSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TSA. Show all posts

Thursday, April 18, 2013

When Drills Go Live? Marathons – A Tale of 2 Cities and the Running of a Planned Mass Casualty Event

I don't know. You would think they would've been better prepared considering the extent of preparation: Marathons – A Tale of Two Cities and the Running of a Planned Mass Casualty Event




"At this point there are only two possibilities. Either the Boston bombing was a false-flag, or it was a real act of terror. Personally, I am leaning towards false-flag; we are just waiting to see who (other than Muslims) gets framed for it. But if this was a genuine act of terror, what it tells us is that DHS, TSA, FBI, CIA, the Fusion centers, are all a complete waste of taxpayer money. All the databases, all the warrantless scanning of our emails, social media, phone calls, all the crotch-grabbing, cameras, microphones, GPS tracking, naked scanners, were totally and completely useless. Even the bomb sniffing dogs, on site in Boston supposedly for a training incident, failed to sniff the bombs. From top to bottom, the entire security industrial complex laid a big fat egg on this one. They failed, simply and utterly. And therefore, there is no more justification for the people of the United States to put up with this erosion of our Constitutional rights. Simply on the basis of total incompetence, Boston justifies the firing of the Federal government." -- Mike Rivero

Links:

FBI/DHS DRILL Staged Boston Marathon Bombing? Nevada Governor 2014 David Lory VanDerBeek


URBAN APPLICATIONS OF REMOTE SENSING from December 1972.
Gives you an idea of the kind of technology they had over four decades ago. Imagine what they have now and tell me two kids could even imagine holding a city like Boston hostage.

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Friday, April 27, 2012

The New Inquisition?

In 1208 Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade, and for two decades the Catholic Church warred against, and eventually crushed the heretical Cathars, aka, the Albigensians. The Cathars believed in Christ; however, they saw the Church as corrupt and hypocritical, so they created their own society to worship God, apart from the Church, a big no no.

Anyway, after the bloody crusade, the Church tried to recruit the straggling Cathars into the Chruch  without success.  When that mission failed, Pope Gregory IX concluded that other tactics must be employed to eradicate those few remaining Cathars. Hence, the creation of the Inquisition, which was formally established in 1232.

Amongst the many interrogation techniques at the disposal of the inquisitors, included three forms of torture: the pulley, the rack and a technique that can only be called water-boarding. Yes, water-boarding is torture, despite what Bush says to the contrary.  Initially, Dominican priests set out to interrogate people, bringing many in front of tribunals.  These tribunals would mete out punishments, sometimes fatal, sometimes - and for the most part - not.

So, how did the Inquisition last so long? After all, it wasn't officially abolished until 1908, the last execution, 1826.  We know this because there are vast archives of meticulous documentation of this period on record at the Vatican - and throughout Europe - including revelations and first-person descriptions of torture that were opened to scholars for the first time in 1998 by then, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger; he was then prefect of the Congregation of the Defense of the Faith, the bureaucratic successor to the organization that oversaw the Inquisition.

Now, back to the question, how did the Inquisition last so long?  According to Cullen Murphy, author of God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World, the answer lies in its system of administration: a formal, hierarchical organization with many levels in which tasks, responsibilities, and authority are delegated among individuals, offices, or departments, held together by a central administration, designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner; in other words, an impersonal force dominating the lives of individuals, or in short, a bureaucracy.  Moreover, Murphy adds moral certainty to the equation.  A moral certainty so powerful that those in power believe they have the right to impose their view/belief on everyone for the so-called "greater good".

Here's the thing, bureaucracies operate on cruise control, and seldom, if ever, do they pull back. Bit by bit, they expand, and gain more control and more power. Today, the ingredients for a modern day inquisition are here as bureaucracies, information technology, and surveillance keep expanding, especially post 9/11. As far as the moral certainty goes, What with the Guantanamo Bay, water-boarding, the Patriot Act, the creation of Homeland Security, and under it, the TSA, which, for an unfortunate few, have produced circumstances reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition, and lastly, the "war on terror" providing the atmosphere of "moral certainty" the idea of a new Inquisition is not so far out.

Potential signs of modern day Inquisition:

2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)- particularly noteworthy are sections 1031 and 1032, which allow the president to use U.S. military forces to indefinitely detain American citizens who are merely suspected of having involvement with a terrorist organization. Indefinite military detention without charge or trial.

A former high-ranking NSA official, who spent more than three decades within the spy agency asserted that more than 20 trillion of American citizens' communications have been intercepted -- mostly without a warrant or judicial review of any kind.

NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center  - $2 billion in taxpayer dollars are going toward spying on American citizens without warrant or court approval.

House of Representatives Passes Privacy-Busting Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)


New Call for Internal DOJ Investigation of FBI’s Targeting of Religious and Ethnic Groups for Intel Gathering

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Monday, December 05, 2011

1033 Program: Putting Battlefield-Grade Weaponry in the Hands of Cops

If you have any doubt as to whether "our" government views its citizenry as its greatest enemy, or that the U.S. is/will become a “combat zone”, consider - in addition to all the recently created legislation and executive orders designed to target American citizens - the 1033 program. What is that? Well, it  "permits the Secretary of Defense to transfer, without charge, excess U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) personal property (supplies and equipment) to state and local law enforcement agencies (LEAs)." In 2011 alone, the Pentagon gave over $500 million of military gear to LEAs.

Thanks to it, cops in Cobb County, Ga. - one of the wealthiest and most educated counties in the U.S. - now have an amphibious tank. The sheriff of Richland County, S.C., proudly acquired a machine-gun-equipped armored personnel carrier that he nicknamed "The Peacemaker."

This comes on top of grants from the Department of Homeland Security that enable police departments to buy vehicles such as "BearCats" - 16,000-pound bulletproof trucks equipped with battering rams, gun ports, tear-gas dispensers and radiation detectors. To date, more than 500 of these tanklike vehicles have been sold by Lenco, its Massachusetts-based manufacturer, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel.
So, it's not enough that we have the liberty-crushing Patriot Act, the grandma-and-child-molesting TSA, the gestapo DHS, and bill after bill that practically encourages military action within the borders of our own nation; we also have the Pentagon transforming our "protect and serve" police into intimidating Rambo-like soldiers.

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

In the Name of National Security Emerges the Bizarre Orwellian Police State That Is the U.S.

Occupy Wall Street protesters in Phoenix
Never mind that there are well over 2 million Americans in jail, mostly for non-violent "offenses".

Never mind that the US has the world's highest incarceration rate, surpassing Russia and China, and the world's largest prison population.

Never mind that with less than 5% of the world's population, the US now has one-third of the world's prisoners.

Never mind that there are six times as many Americans behind bars as are imprisoned in the 12 countries making up the entire European Union, even though those countries have 100 million more citizens than the US.

Never mind the countless impossible-to-follow laws and regulations.

If those aren't enough to constitute a police state, in the name of national security, there are no legal limits as to what the state can do: warrantless searches and wiretapping, national ID cards, free speech zones, frisking of children, militarized police departments, the ability of the federal government to declare individuals, whether or not they are citizens, to be official enemies with whom the United States is at war, the legal power to confiscate anything and everything that you own, etc. In other words, the state can do anything it wants with impunity.

So, in the spirit of the United States Police State, the TSA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - the third largest Cabinet department with over 200,000 employees after the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs - that exercises authority over the safety and security of the traveling public in the US is trying to expand its horizons beyond the airport.  The Visible Intermodal Prevention Response (VIPR) team, which is a division of the TSA, comprised of federal air marshals, surface transportation security inspectors, transportation security officers, behavior detection officers and explosives detection canine teams were conducting random searches on Tennessee highways.

Earlier this year, the TSA was temporarily kicked out of Amtrak stations when it screened passengers coming off a train, including patting down a 9-year-old boy.
"I see 1st, 4th, and 5th amendments as a privilege that is a public safety issue," -- TSA head John Pistole, Congressional Quarterly, 2010



Links:

The US Is Fast Becoming a Third World Police State

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Sunday, October 02, 2011

First Six Amendments Assume Government is Corrupt.

Driving along today, I started fiddling around with the radio stations when I came across this guy explaining what his law professor (Professor Cloud, I think) had explained to him: that the first six amendments are a unified body of logic, based on the assumption that government is bad.

You must also assume that government is your enemy.  That's right, assume that the government will trample your rights, target certain political and religious minorities, and come after you without probable cause (especially when they employ Rape-a-scan to gate rape you and your 6-year old at airports).
“The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”
by Thomas Jefferson
Thus, the first six amendments were created.  So, the First amendment  guarantees free speech, free assembly, free religious expression, and freedom to petition.

However, what's to stop governments from coming after people who partake in these freedoms?  Nothing.

Hence, the creation of the second amendment: the right to bear arms. Why? To protect you from officials who overstep their boundaries.

But what happens when the police force show up at your door? The army? And, rest assured, they will if you dare to pull a gun on a fed. So, that's where the third amendment comes in, as it guarantees that the government will not house troops in your home or private property without your consent.

Nevertheless, who remembers the third amendment, right? No one.

That's where the 4th amendment comes in. So, when the government forgets the third amendment, and sends out the troops to invade your house, the 4th says they cannot go through your stuff. Uhm, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if they kick your door down, they will go through your stuff.

Hence, the creation of the 5th amendment. Anyone who watches the boob tube remembers this one, because of the often recited phrase: "I plead the 5th."  The 5th also guarantees Americans the right to trial by Grand Jury.

Nevertheless, even if that indictment is obtained, the 6th amendment guarantees you the right to a judgement by a fully informed petit jury. Not only does this jury judge the individual facts, but can also judge the law, itself.

The bottom line is that even legally obtained power can, and more than likely will (to some degree) abuse that power and show utter disregard for constituted law and order.

Links:

Freedom Law
Self-help law clinic and law library.

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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Wipe That Anxious Look Off Your Face Granny, or it's the Body Liquefaction Chamber For You!

The airports may be adding a new type of scanner to their Orwellian "security" system, because porno scans and random feel-ups may not be invasive enough.  Now, they want to play Santa Claus, and use their emotion detector to see if you've been naughty or nice. 

A recent article, "New Emotion Detector Can See When We're Lying," reveals a new technology which is a system of video cameras that are connected to "a high-resolution thermal imaging sensor and a suite of algorithms."

Okay, what happened to innocent until proven guilty? Why should law-abiding, innocent people be subjected to the Spanish Inquisition in an airport of all places? Even Torquemada had the good sense to avoid airports.

Links:

Forget Cremation, Body Liquefaction Launches In Florida Funeral Home As Part of Green Movement

The Anderson-McQueen funeral home in St Petersburg is on the vanguard of what promises to be a less toxic day of disposing our remains, by installing a machine that works by dissolving the body in heated alkaline water.

The United Kindom’s BBC news said that the chamber, building by Resomation Ltd of Scotland, is expected to be used for the first time in a few weeks. The company expects to legislative or regulatory permission to use and sell the machines throughout the U.S., Canada and in Europe. Price information was not available

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Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Who Intentionally Breached the Levees? As If We Don't Know.

With all the concern over terrorism, one would think Homeland Security would be hysterically assigning a TSA agent to every home, public and private restroom, tollbooth, automobile, etc. within a 1000 mile radious of the Missouri River. But, no. Not a peep from our terror mongers.

No one seems all that concerned as they celebrate July 4th, glued to their televisions watching the Casey Anthony trial (I thought the courts closed down for July 4th, no?). Yet, some strange individual or entity is supposedly, blowing up the levee(s) in Pottawattamie County. That's right, officials said they received calls from people wanting to know why levees were being blown up. One caller claimed to have witnessed the explosion of the Vanmann No. 30 levee.

"Pottawattamie County officials said no government entity had anything to do with the detonation, and they did not have advance notice from the people responsible for the breach....The general stressed that he has not yet made the ultimate decision on activating the Birds Point-New Madird Floodway".



Now, here's the thing.  The Wall Street Journal reported, on April 30, of this year that the appeals court granted permision to the Army Corp of Engineers to explode levees, rejecting a request from the Missouri attorney general to stop the process.

And, apparently, the Army Corp of Engineers does not have to give notice. Some of these families, like that of Donald Brothers' family, dating back to 1865, will lose their homes and farmland, and lilihood. It's not as if they purchased these homes, knowing what was in store.

Intentional breaching of the Bird's Point Levee on May 2, 2011



Looks like damage control to me. On behalf of whom? Well, aside from the federal government, insurance companies, for one.

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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

TSA: Conditioning Americans to Accept the Unlimited Power of Government.

Training the young
The often arbitrary, high-handed manner of the gestapo the TSA is gradually expanding into every area of American life regardless of whether that area falls under their jurisdiction.  Their special brand of sexual assault, and cancer-causing porno scans are branching off to political rallies, train stations, bus depots, public buildings, Disney World, sporting events, street corners, and even  local prom nights.

Even if you prefer or an administrative regime, to a constitutional republic, you have to admit, the claim that groping teenage girls at a highschool prom falls under the jurisdiction of a federal transportation agency is a long-assed stretch.

What is the purpose, here? Well, as part of something called the VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) program, the TSA has one role, and that is to condition and train Americans to understand and accept that the government has unlimited power.  They can search you, grope you, molest you, terrorize you any damned time they want, all under the pretense of national security. 

So, if these warrant-less, generalized, often violent searches conducted by sociopathic uniformed goons, acting on behalf of government does not set off your  fascism alarm, then maybe the gestapo's TSA's Nazi-like disdain for our more vulnerable citizens, just might.

After listening to Sibel Edmonds, in an interview with Naomi Klein, on The Boiling Frog, tell her airport story of what happened to her mother, who, during the Khomeini regime, was made to disrobe during her menstrual cycle, by the Iranian version of the TSA, who then proceeded to shred  her mother's pad,  before her family could board the plane to leave Iran, there is no doubt that we're not only on the path to becoming a police state, we're there.   I mean, what's the difference between what happened to Sibel's mother during the time of the and the 95-year old woman who had to remove her adult diaper, and the countless other TSA horror stories?

The trappings of Nazi Germany continue to echo, increasingly louder, as we progress through second  decade of the 21st century.  An open society like ours does not shut down overnight. It's a slow process that gradually desensitizes citizens to the point that they don't even notice the water starting to boil.

The four-year renewal of the Patriot Act , hastily signed into law at the same time the nation was cheering the murder of Osama Bin Laden should be enough to scare anyone. However, just in case, here are a few more: the  "See Something Say Something Act", reminiscent of WWII, where the Nazis policed everyone through a network of citizen spies, and everyone lived in fear that they might be turned in by neighbors, friends, and even family;   the indoctrination of children;  the creation of federal goon squads;  the constant use of propaganda;  the Nazi-esque rhetoric such "Homeland Security", "Patriot Act", etc; the continuous growth of the  surveillance state; the repression and intimidation of activists and patriots; the demonization of who knows how many innocent people;  the ongoing destruction of the rule of law and civil liberties;   the loss of the freedom to travel without the fear of assault...and the list goes on...
Fascism: "A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." [Robert O. Paxton, "The Anatomy of Fascism," 2004]

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

What is it About Florida and Texas?

Let's face it, even by contemporary US standards, both Florida and Texas have a ruthless and callous record on human rights issues. To start with, both states lead the nation, in numbers of people on death row; in numbers of people executed, and in numbers of innocent people, wrongly convicted. Add to that list: abuse of power by TSA agents, and Taser happy police.

Could it be the influence of the Bush Brothers? After all, the Bush family is notoriously known for its historic abuse of power. However, Texas and Florida were not exactly panaceas for humanitarians before the Bush brothers assumed leadership.

Anyway, once again, the state of Florida provides a shining example for all. Meg McClain spoke out about TSA abuse and "random" selection and the almighty TSA agents from Hell called in twelve police officers, and seven TSA agents; handcuffed her to a chair; gave her a 30-minute lecture on terrorism, and ripped up her plane ticket! Then, this poor girl, who couldn't even put on her shoes, was escorted out of the airport by 19 thugs security officials.



Harmless 18-year old man Tased for jogging naked. 

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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Why Must the Entire American Muslim Population Pay for the Acts of a Few?

Last week, George Fulton, an Englishman who moved to Pakistan with his Pakistani wife in 2002, and then became a prominent TV personality there, moved back to the UK because of what he called the "spreading cancer of extremism and intolerance" in Pakistan. He claims "this is no longer a political problem or an economic problem, this is now a cultural problem".   Really? Is this guy some kind of expert? Why is NPR casting him in the spotlight right after the Islamic radicalization-hearing? Could the timing be more perfect?

Now, it's very possible Pakistani citizens are getting fired up. After all, over the last five years, American unmanned drones have killed more than 2,000 people in their country.  In 2010 alone, there were 929 casualties according to a study conducted by the Conflict Monitoring Center(CMC).    You see, drone aircraft, which lacks the human discernment and judgment to differentiate between the innocent and the dangerous, is designed to identify enemies as anyone who is armed, and then, once identified, automatically launch missiles.  Well, it just so happens that  civilians in the tribal areas, traditionally carry weapons and munitions.  The Brookings Institute estimated that for every terrorist killed, there are ten civilians who lose their lives. However, you will not find this out from US and Pakistan officials.  They report the opposite.  These officials "deliberately overlook civilian deaths that outnumber the killings of militants in CIA drone attacks."

"Our research observed that intelligence officials of US and Pakistan deliberately overlook civilian fatalities and relay only censored accounts to Western media organisations. However, study reports suggest that the civilian casualties generally outnumber the killings of militants in drone attacks"
Isn't it bad enough that we're murdering innocent civilians in their own country?  Do we have to put all American Muslims on trial as radical terrorist sympathizers "bent on a “stealth jihad” to usurp the Constitution and impose Islamic law on the land"?

As Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, one of two Muslim members in Congress, who broke down while "delivering a tribute to a young Muslim-American who lost his life in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - and whose reputation was later maligned due to his faith," at the radicalization hearing, said on Real Time, to Bill Maher, "You used the Irish example. I don't think you investigate the Irish, you investigate the IRA, perhaps. You investigate broke down in tears while delivering an emotional tribute to a young Muslim-American who lost his life in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - and whose reputation was later maligned due to his faith.the mafia, not the Italians..."

Nevertheless, Rep. Peter King, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, who considers comparisons to McCarthy, a "badge of honor", acting on behalf of the real terrorists DHS, continues on his witch hunt.

Links: 

Peter King's 'Islamic Radicalization' Hearings Fan Paranoid Fantasies


U.S. apology for Afghan deaths "not enough"


Nato 'kills cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai'


10 of the Most Outrageous TSA Horror Stories

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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Two Attorneys Spill the Beans on the Underwear Bomber.



Kurt Haskell, an attorney who was a passenger on flight 253, and another local attorney, said they witnessed the underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, without a visa and passport whisked past security and onto NW Airlines flight 253, by a well-dressed American (could tell by his accent).  Supposedly, Mutallab was escorted on the plane, at the request of "an unnamed US intelligence agency."
 
The Detroit news article was removed from web.

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