Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
December 29, 2011 Gary Johnson encourages supporters to vote for Ron Paul
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson ended his Republican presidential bid Wednesday, opting to run as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president. He is encouraging supporters, however, to vote for Texas Rep. Ron Paul in upcoming GOP primary elections.
Johnson told The Daily Caller that his supporters should vote for Paul in primaries, but support his own candidacy in the general election.
“Yeah,” he told TheDC when asked if he believes supporters should vote for Paul — with whom he shares many libertarian policy positions.
But, Johnson cautioned, “I’m believing that Ron Paul is not going to win the nomination, and that is the exciting part about this for me. I do think it is about an agenda and a message. I think Ron Paul’s a messenger. I think that I am. I think there are others.”
In a Wednesday statement announcing his Libertarian Party candidacy, Johnson noted, “While Ron Paul is a good man and a libertarian who I proudly endorsed for president in 2008, there is no guarantee he will be the Republican nominee.”
“You know the old adage, by the time you tell a person the tenth time, that’s just when they are first starting to listen,” Johnson explained, suggesting that he would build on the libertarian message that Paul has championed so loudly.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/28/gary-johnson-encourages-supporters-to-vote-for-ron-paul-in-gop-primaries/#ixzz1hxsz2tHm
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Iran Warns of Closing Strategic Oil Route SHUT DOWN
ran's navy chief is warning that his country can easily close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf if Western nations go ahead with sanctions, responding to Iran's nuclear program. (Dec. 28) AP
FBI organizes almost all terror plots
The Federal Bureau of Investigation employs upwards of 15,000 undercover agents today, ten times what they had on the roster back in 1975.
If you think that’s a few spies too many — spies earning as much as $100,000 per assignment — one doesn’t have to go too deep into their track record to see their accomplishments. Those agents are responsible for an overwhelming amount of terrorist stings that have stopped major domestic catastrophes in the vein of 9/11 from happening on American soil.
Another thing those agents are responsible for, however, is plotting those very schemes.
The FBI has in recent years used trained informants not just to snitch on suspected terrorists, but to set them up from the get-go. A recent report put together by Mother Jones and the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkley analyses some striking statistics about the role of FBI informants in terrorism cases that the Bureau has targeted in the decade since the September 11 attacks.
The report reveals that the FBI regularly infiltrates communities where they suspect terrorist-minded individuals to be engaging with others. Regardless of their intentions, agents are sent in to converse within the community, find suspects that could potentially carry out “lone wolf” attacks and then, more or less, encourage them to do so. By providing weaponry, funds and a plan, FBI-directed agents will encourage otherwise-unwilling participants to plot out terrorist attacks, only to bust them before any events fully materialize.
Additionally, one former high-level FBI officials speaking to Mother Jones says that, for every informant officially employed by the bureau, up to three unofficial agents are working undercover.
The FBI has used those informants to set-up and thus shut-down several of the more high profile would-be attacks in recent years. The report reveals that the Washington DC Metro bombing plot, the New York City subway plot, the attempt to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower and dozens more were all orchestrated by FBI agents. In fact, reads the report, only three of the more well-known terror plots of the last decade weren’t orchestrated by FBI-involved agents.
The report reveals that in many of the stings, important meetings between informants and the unknowing participants are left purposely unrecorded, as to avoid any entrapment charges that could cause the case to be dismissed. Perhaps the most high-profile of the FBI-proposed plots was the case of the Newburgh 4. Around an hour outside of New York City, an informant infiltrated a Muslim community and engaged four local men to carry out a series of attacks. Those men may have never actually carried out an attack, but once the informant offered them a plot and a pair of missiles, they agreed. Defense attorneys cried “entrapment,” but the men still were sentenced to 25 years apiece.
"The problem with the cases we're talking about is that defendants would not have done anything if not kicked in the ass by government agents," Martin Stolar tells Mother Jones. Stolar represented the suspect involved in a New York City bombing plot that was set-up by FBI agents. "They're creating crimes to solve crimes so they can claim a victory in the war on terror." For their part, the FBI says this method is a plan for "preemption," "prevention" and "disruption."
The report also reveals that, of the 500-plus prosecutions of terrorism-related cases they analyzed, nearly half of them involved the use of informants, many of whom worked for the FBI in exchange for money or to work off criminal charges. Of the 158 prosecutions carried out, 49 defendants participated in plots that agent provocateurs arranged on behalf of the FBI.
Experts note that the chance of winning a terrorism-related trial, entrapment or not, is near impossible. "The plots people are accused of being part of — attacking subway systems or trying to bomb a building — are so frightening that they can overwhelm a jury," David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor, tells Mother Jones. Since 9/11, almost two-thirds of the cases linked to terrorism have ended with guilty pleas. “They don't say, 'I've been entrapped,' or, 'I was immature,’” a retired FBI official remarks.
RT American East Coast Read more here
If you think that’s a few spies too many — spies earning as much as $100,000 per assignment — one doesn’t have to go too deep into their track record to see their accomplishments. Those agents are responsible for an overwhelming amount of terrorist stings that have stopped major domestic catastrophes in the vein of 9/11 from happening on American soil.
Another thing those agents are responsible for, however, is plotting those very schemes.
The FBI has in recent years used trained informants not just to snitch on suspected terrorists, but to set them up from the get-go. A recent report put together by Mother Jones and the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkley analyses some striking statistics about the role of FBI informants in terrorism cases that the Bureau has targeted in the decade since the September 11 attacks.
The report reveals that the FBI regularly infiltrates communities where they suspect terrorist-minded individuals to be engaging with others. Regardless of their intentions, agents are sent in to converse within the community, find suspects that could potentially carry out “lone wolf” attacks and then, more or less, encourage them to do so. By providing weaponry, funds and a plan, FBI-directed agents will encourage otherwise-unwilling participants to plot out terrorist attacks, only to bust them before any events fully materialize.
Additionally, one former high-level FBI officials speaking to Mother Jones says that, for every informant officially employed by the bureau, up to three unofficial agents are working undercover.
The FBI has used those informants to set-up and thus shut-down several of the more high profile would-be attacks in recent years. The report reveals that the Washington DC Metro bombing plot, the New York City subway plot, the attempt to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower and dozens more were all orchestrated by FBI agents. In fact, reads the report, only three of the more well-known terror plots of the last decade weren’t orchestrated by FBI-involved agents.
The report reveals that in many of the stings, important meetings between informants and the unknowing participants are left purposely unrecorded, as to avoid any entrapment charges that could cause the case to be dismissed. Perhaps the most high-profile of the FBI-proposed plots was the case of the Newburgh 4. Around an hour outside of New York City, an informant infiltrated a Muslim community and engaged four local men to carry out a series of attacks. Those men may have never actually carried out an attack, but once the informant offered them a plot and a pair of missiles, they agreed. Defense attorneys cried “entrapment,” but the men still were sentenced to 25 years apiece.
"The problem with the cases we're talking about is that defendants would not have done anything if not kicked in the ass by government agents," Martin Stolar tells Mother Jones. Stolar represented the suspect involved in a New York City bombing plot that was set-up by FBI agents. "They're creating crimes to solve crimes so they can claim a victory in the war on terror." For their part, the FBI says this method is a plan for "preemption," "prevention" and "disruption."
The report also reveals that, of the 500-plus prosecutions of terrorism-related cases they analyzed, nearly half of them involved the use of informants, many of whom worked for the FBI in exchange for money or to work off criminal charges. Of the 158 prosecutions carried out, 49 defendants participated in plots that agent provocateurs arranged on behalf of the FBI.
Experts note that the chance of winning a terrorism-related trial, entrapment or not, is near impossible. "The plots people are accused of being part of — attacking subway systems or trying to bomb a building — are so frightening that they can overwhelm a jury," David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor, tells Mother Jones. Since 9/11, almost two-thirds of the cases linked to terrorism have ended with guilty pleas. “They don't say, 'I've been entrapped,' or, 'I was immature,’” a retired FBI official remarks.
RT American East Coast Read more here
Monday, December 26, 2011
NYPD: The Praetorian Guard Paid To Guard Wall St. Banks
Last summer while protesting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York an NYPD officer said something interesting to me. “Some people want to get their moneys worth.” The “white shirt” NYPD ranking officer was referring to the unusually high NYPD presence around the Federal Reserve Bank that day. He went on to say that the heavy police presence was in response to an internet posting (of mine) calling for a “flash mob” to protest the fed. Watch the video below to see the exchange at 1:50.
A month later the NY Daily News reported that the NYPD had started a “social networking task force” to monitor the internet for criminal activity and protests.
This week NYC Mayor Bloomberg was quoted as saying “I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world.” during a speech at MIT.
Recently I learned that the officers comment about “getting their moneys worth” referred to a program called “Paid Detail Unit” implemented by Mayor Guiliani in 1998.
Pam Martens of Counterpunch.com reported recently:
The corporations pay an average of $37 an hour (no medical, no pension benefit, no overtime pay) for a member of the NYPD, with gun, handcuffs and the ability to arrest. The officer is indemnified by the taxpayer, not the corporation.
The Neo-Praetorian Guard
When the infamously mismanaged Wall Street firm, Lehman Brothers, collapsed on September 15, 2008, its bankruptcy filings in 2009 showed it owed money to 21 members of the NYPD’s Paid Detail Unit.
Other Wall Street firms that are known to have used the Paid Detail include Goldman Sachs, the World Financial Center complex which houses financial firms, and the New York Stock Exchange.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Barney Frank and Ron Paul Introduce Marijuana Legalization Bill
Representatives Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced a bill Thursday that would end federal prohibition of marijuana production, distribution and possession.
The unlikely pair teamed up to support the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, which would leave it up to states to make their own laws regarding the drug and, if enacted, would redefine the federal government's War on Drugs, which turned 40 last week.
"The legislation ... focuses federal law enforcement on violent criminals and organized crime instead of marijuana offenders, and saves taxpayer money," said Bill Piper, Director of National Affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.
Washington would only be charged with ensuring that marijuana doesn't illegally enter the country or cross state lines where it has been made or kept illegal.
Proponents of the bill say it's the first of its kind to be considered at the federal level, and liken it to the 18th Amendment, which repealed alcohol prohibition and gave states regulatory authority. They also point to increased tax revenue from the legal sale of marijuana, as well as the high cost of imprisoning people for possession.
Barney Frank is optimistic the bill is a step in the right direction. It's also a gutsy move for a Republican presidential candidate to make, but Ron Paul has long supported legalization, which is also popular among his enthusiastic base. read more
The unlikely pair teamed up to support the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, which would leave it up to states to make their own laws regarding the drug and, if enacted, would redefine the federal government's War on Drugs, which turned 40 last week.
"The legislation ... focuses federal law enforcement on violent criminals and organized crime instead of marijuana offenders, and saves taxpayer money," said Bill Piper, Director of National Affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.
Washington would only be charged with ensuring that marijuana doesn't illegally enter the country or cross state lines where it has been made or kept illegal.
Proponents of the bill say it's the first of its kind to be considered at the federal level, and liken it to the 18th Amendment, which repealed alcohol prohibition and gave states regulatory authority. They also point to increased tax revenue from the legal sale of marijuana, as well as the high cost of imprisoning people for possession.
Barney Frank is optimistic the bill is a step in the right direction. It's also a gutsy move for a Republican presidential candidate to make, but Ron Paul has long supported legalization, which is also popular among his enthusiastic base. read more
Friday, December 23, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Dictator Kim Jong Il Dies
Kim, 70, died on Dec. 17 of a heart attack brought on by mental and physical strain while on a domestic train trip, the official Korean Central News Agency said. Kim probably had a stroke in August 2008 and may have also contracted pancreatic cancer, according to South Korean news reports.
The son of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder, Kim was a chain-smoking recluse who ruled for 17 years after coming to power in July 1994 and resisted opening up to the outside world in order to protect his regime. The likely succession of his little-known third son, Jong Un, threatens to trigger a dangerous period for the Korean peninsula, where 1.7 million troops from the two Koreas and the U.S. square off every day.
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