Military and technology analyst Andy Lightbody talked about the mind-altering ‘zombie’ gun being developed by Russia and North Korea’s failed missile testing.
Andy Lightbody was the Military & Aerospace Editor for CBS Radio, the Gulf War Military
Analyst for Channel 11 –Multi Media Television–Los Angeles (Now FOX News), and a regular guest on numerous shows seen and heard on CNN, the BBC, NHK and other international network programs. He was Host and Executive Producer of the (26-week) top-rated television show, HIGH TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS for FNN (The Financial News Network). And, as the High Technology Editor, was contributing the daily, military, aerospace, defense and terrorism coverage to the over 60 national affiliates of the Business Radio Network.
Background
There are reports coming from Russia that the Russian military is creating a super weapon that has been dubbed the “zombie gun” due to its immobilizing effect on those who are targeted.
Critics fear that a weapon as powerful as this could be used not only against Russia’s enemies, but also against the civilian population, including dissidents by the end of the decade.
Sources in Moscow have stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin described the new super weapon, which uses electromagnetic radiation which is similar to radiation found in common household microwaves, as “entirely new instruments for achieving political and strategic goals.”
The source added that Putin feels the use of “such high-tech weapons systems will be comparable in effect to nuclear weapons, but will be more acceptable in terms of political and military ideology.”
The announcement by Russian defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov regarding the implementation of these new weapons, made quickly and without much attention given from local media outlets, were part of a plan that fulfilled a campaign pledge by Putin.
Serdyukov said: “The development of weaponry based on new physics principles — direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy weapons, genetic weapons, psychotropic weapons, and so on — is part of the state arms procurement program for 2011-2020.”
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) new director, Dr. Arati Prabhakar, will share her vision Oct. 22 at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) 2012 Naval Science and Technology Partnership Conference and ASNE Expo.
Prabhakar, who took the helm at DARPA on July 30, will take the podium at 11:30 a.m. on the event’s opening day in Crystal City, Va. Her participation underscores the importance of research partnerships to national security and the commitment to collaboration shared by DARPA, ONR and other Department of Defense research organizations.
”Technology is a critical lever for our national security in today’s complex world,” said DARPA Director Dr. Arati Prabhakar. ”At DARPA, along with our partners at ONR and the broad national research-and-development community, we aim to change what is possible with new technology.”
ONR and DARPA have partnered on a variety of research projects, including multiple endeavors to promote education in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
This year, the agencies teamed to co-sponsor the RevCon Challenge, a competition among college students to design connectors that more effectively conduct heat from radars and other military electronic systems. Based on the success of the competition, ONR and DARPA will host a second challenge in May.
Previously, the agencies also collaborated on the Second Language Learningprogram, which will reduce the time it takes for Sailors and Marines to learn other languages and cultures through virtual interaction with avatars.
Prabhakar is no stranger to interest areas shared by ONR, having first joined DARPA in 1986 as a program manager in advanced semiconductor technology and flexible manufacturing. She founded the agency’s microelectronics technology office before being appointed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton to lead theNational Institute of Standards and Technology.
She also has spent several years in the private sector, including a stint working with start-up companies and entrepreneurs in energy and efficiency technologies, consumer electronics components and semiconductor process and design technology.
Dr. Charles Wessner, director of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at theNational Academy of Sciences, also has been confirmed to speak at the conference. He and Prabhakar join a roster of heavy hitters for the conference that includes White House Office of Science & Technology Policy Director Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Sean Stackley, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mark Ferguson and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Amos, and others representing the domestic and international scientific community.
Focus areas at this year’s event include: autonomy and unmanned systems; assuring access to maritime battle space; expeditionary and irregular warfare; power projection and integrated defense; power and energy; warfighter performance; and total ownership cost.
Innovative Naval Prototypes (INPs) push the boundaries of our nation’s technical talent to deliver transformational warfighting capabilities to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. INPs reduce the acquisition risk of disruptive technologies and capabilities.Innovative Naval Prototypes explore high 6.2 and 6.3 technologies that can dramatically change the way naval forces fight. Programs in this category may be disruptive technologies which, for reasons of high risk or radical departure from established requirements and concepts of operation, are unlikely to survive without top leadership endorsement, and, unlike Future Naval Capabilities, are initially too high risk for a firm transition commitment from the acquisition community. INPs should be identified based on a balanced combination of naval need and technology exploitation. Investments should be planned with the critical mass needed to achieve a level of technology maturity suitable for transition in four to eight years.
Current INPs:
Autonomous Aerical Cargo/Utility System (AACUS): This Innovative Naval Prototype program explores advanced autonomous capabilities for reliable resupply/retrograde and, in the long term, casualty evacuation by an unmanned air vehicle under adverse conditions. Key features of AACUS include a vehicle autonomously avoiding obstacles while finding and landing at an unprepared landing site in dynamic conditions, with goal-directed supervisory control by a field operator with no special training.
Electromagnetic Railgun (EMRG): The Electromagnetic Railgun (EMRG) is a revolutionary long-range naval gun that will fire precision-guided hypervelocity projectiles to ranges greater than 200 nautical miles. Rather than gunpowder and rocket motors, the railgun will use electrical power to propel the projectiles. Its delivery of persistent, time-critical precision strikes without the use of propellants or explosive warheads will revolutionize warfighting capabilities from the sea.
Free Electron Laser (FEL): ONR is exploring the development of a laser capable of operating in a maritime environment and consistent with the Navy’s planned all-electric ship. The high average power infrared Free Electron Laser (FEL) provides intense beams of laser light that can be tuned to atmosphere-penetrating wavelengths.
Integrated Topside (InTop): The Integrated Topside (InTop) program provides an integrated, multi-function, multi-beam top-side aperture construct that has modular open radio frequency (RF) architecture, software defined functionality, synchronization, and optimization of RF functions for mission support electromagnetic interface mitigation.
Large Displacement Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (LDUUV): The LDUUV program will develop fully autonomous, long-endurance, land-launched unmanned undersea vehicles capable of operating near shore. It will extend and augment the current Navy platform capability. The LDUUV program will develop new air independent energy systems and core vehicle technologies to extend unmanned undersea vehicles endurance into months of operation time. Advanced autonomy and sensing will enable operation in the cluttered littoral environment.
Persistant Littoral Undersea Surveillance (PLUS): The Persistent Littoral Undersea Surveillance (PLUS) program provides effective, adaptive and persistent undersea surveillance of multiple quiet targets over large littoral areas.
Sea Base Enablers: The Transformable Craft (T-Craft) – one example of a Sea Base Enabler – is a vessel which can operate in multiple modes. It can self-deploy from an intermediate support base to the sea base and then be used as a high-speed connector from the sea base to the shore. It can transport wheeled and tracked vehicles and other heavy cargo through the surf zone and onto the beach, where it can discharge its cargo without the need for a port.
Tactical Satellite (TACSAT): With the Tactical Satellite (TACSAT), ONR is issuing in a new era of small, responsive and flexible satellites. the TACSAT program will demonstrate communication relay, electronic intelligence and maritime domain awareness capabilities – all of which will enable tactical radios to communicate theatre-wide and facilitate effective command and control of distributed assets.
Following recent developments where the FBI released documents recording supposed UFO crashes in the Roswell area this amazing footage allegedly showing a UFO crash survivor has been leaked onto the internet. The individual who released the footage has remained anonymous, reportedly for their own protection. The footage came to light on All News Web, a well known paranormal and UFO website. According to Michael Cohen, the renowned Australian ufologist and psychic, the humanoid alien visitor is from the Zeta Reticuli star system.
A former United States marine has described Queen Elizabeth II as a “mad woman”.
political analyst and former U.S. marine has described Queen Elizabeth II of Britain as a “mad woman” after her intervention in the case of Abu Hamza’s extradition.
Ken O’Keefe, said in an interview on a Press TV evening program, the British Queen holds a very powerful position in the world and is not just “a little old grandma”.
O’Keefe said, “I think any person with any kind of sanity and any kind of intuitive skills can simply take a look at the queen. There are plenty of pictures of her where you can see her for what she is, she is a mad woman. This is not a sane and healthy human being, this is a mad woman”.
The former US marine also mentioned that the Queen’s real estate holding is as much as a fifth of the world, while being the biggest land owner “on the planet”.
O’Keefe’s comments come after he was asked about the Queen’s recent involvement in the arrest and extradition of Muslim cleric, Abu Hamza al-Masri to the U.S. The Guardian reported on September 25 that Elizabeth II lobbied for Hamza’s arrest to be secured, and be extradited to the United States along with four other suspects over allegations of promoting terrorism.
Last week, British MP George Galloway denounced the state-run BBC’s apology for the queen’s comments being exposed regarding Hamza. Galloway insisted that it was the British Queen’s responsibility to make the apology for interfering in UK politics.
via PressTV.ir
There have been numerous videos that show a missile hitting WTC 2. The UFO or whatever it is is also seen in many of them.
UPDATE: Flight 175, according to pilotsfor911 truth, was a Boeing 767-222. The length was 159 ft. 2″. The object in this video was much shorter as can be seen by comparing it to the building face, approx. 208 ft.
Missile…..Definition:
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.
First of all, download or print these instructions. Keep them with your survival gear, if you have prepared one.
SCENARIO
Your government is displeased with the communication going on in your location and pulls the plug on your internet access, most likely by telling the major ISPs to turn off service.
This is what happened in Egypt Jan. 25, 2012 prompted by citizen protests, with sources estimating that the Egyptian government cut off approximately 88 percent of the country’s internet access. What do you do without internet? Step 1: Stop crying in the corner. Then start taking steps to reconnect with your network. Here’s a list of things you can do to keep the communication flowing.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES
MAKE YOUR NETWORK TANGIBLE
Print out your contact list, so your phone numbers aren’t stuck in the cloud. Some mail services like Gmail allow you to export your online contact list in formats that are more conducive to paper, such as CSV or Vcard, and offer step-by-step guides on how to do this.
BROADCAST ON THE RADIO
CB Radio:Short for “Citizens Band” radio, these two-way radios allow communication over short distances on 40 channels. You can pick one up for about $20 to $50 at Radio Shack, and no license is required to operate it.
Ham radio:To converse over these radios, also known as “amateur radios,” you have to obtain an operator’s license from the FCC. Luckily, other Wired How-To contributors have already explained exactly what you need to do to get one and use it like a pro. However, if the President declares a State of Emergency, use of the radio could be extremely restricted or prohibited.
GMRS:The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is a licensed land-mobile FM UHF radio service in the United States available for short-distance two-way communication. It is intended for use by an adult individual who possesses a valid GMRS license, as well as his or her immediate family members… They are more expensive than the walkie-talkies typically found in discount electronics stores, but are higher quality.
Family Radio Service:The Family Radio Service (FRS) is an improved walkie-talkie radio system authorized in the United States since 1996. This personal radio service uses channelized frequencies in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band. It does not suffer the interference effects found on citizens’ band (CB) at 27 MHz, or the 49 MHz band also used by cordless phones, toys, and baby monitors.
Micro-broadcasting:Micro-broadcasting is the process of broadcasting a message to a relatively small audience. This is not to be confused with low-power broadcasting. In radio terms, it is the use of low-power transmitters to broadcast a radio signal over the space of a neighborhood or small town. Similarly to pirate radio, micro-broadcasters generally operate without a license from the local regulation body, but sacrifice range in favor of using legal power limits.
Packet Radio Back to the ’90s: There do exist shortwave packet-radio modems. These are also excruciatingly slow, but may get your e-mail out. Like ham radio above it requires a ham radio license because they operate on ham radio frequencies.
TELEPHONE:
Set up a phone tree:According to the American Association of University Women, a phone tree is “a prearranged, pyramid-shaped system for activating a group of people by telephone” that can “spread a brief message quickly and efficiently to a large number of people.” Dig out that contact list you printed out to spread the message down your pyramid of contacts.
Enable Twitter via SMS:Though the thought of unleashing the Twitter fire hose in your text message inbox may seem horrifying, it would be better than not being able to connect to the outside world at all. The Twitter website has full instructions on how to redirect tweets to your phone.
Call to Tweet: A small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company Google acquired recently, made this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to the Twitter account, speak2tweet.
FAX:
If you need to quickly send and receive documents with lengthy or complex instructions, phone conversations may result in misunderstandings, and delivering the doc by foot would take forever. Brush the dust off that bulky old machine, establish a connection by phone first with the recipient to make sure his machine is hooked up, then fax away.
You may not need a fax machine to send or receive faxes if your computer has a dial-up fax application.
NON-VIRTUAL BULLETIN BOARD
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the virtual world that we forget about resources available in the real world. Physical bulletin boards have been used for centuries to disseminate information and don’t require electricity to function. If you are fortunate enough to be getting information from some other source why not share it with your friends and neighbors with your own bulletin board? Cork, magnetic and marker bulletin boards are as close as your nearest dime store and can be mounted just about anywhere. And if push comes to shove you can easily make your own with scrap wood lying around the house.
Getting back online – While it might be relatively easy for a government to cut connections by leveraging the major ISPs, there are some places they wouldn’t get to so readily, like privately-owned networks and independent ISPs.
FIND THE PRIVATELY RUN ISPs
In densely populated areas, especially in central business districts and city suburbs there are multiple home WiFi networks overlapping each other, some secure, some not. If there is no internet, open up your WiFi by removing password protection: If enough people do this it’s feasible to create a totally private WiFi service outside government control covering the CBD, and you can use applications that run Bonjour (iChat on Mac for example) to communicate with others on the open network and send and receive documents. **needs more clarification
If you are a private ISP, it’s your time to shine. Consider allowing open access to your Wi-Fi routers to facilitate communication of people around you until the grid is back online.
RETURN TO DIAL-UP
According to an article in the BBC about old tech’s role in the Egyptian protests, “Dial-up modems are one of the most popular routes for Egyptians to get back online. Long lists of international numbers that connect to dial-up modems are circulating in Egypt thanks to net activists We Re-Build, Telecomix and others.”
Dial-up can be slow. Often, there is a lightweight mobile version of a site that you can load from your desktop browser quickly despite the limitations of dial-up. Examples: mobile.twitter.com, m.facebook.com, m.gmail.com.
AD-HOC NETWORKING
Most wireless routers, PCs, laptops, and even some ultramobile devices like cellphones have the ability to become part of an “ad hoc” network, where different “nodes” (all of the devices on the network) share the responsibility of transmitting data with one another. These networks can become quite large, and are often very easy to set up. If used properly by a tech-savvy person, such networks can be used to host temporary websites and chat rooms. There are many internet tutorials on the internet for ad hoc networking, so feel free to Google some.
Apple computers tend to have very accessible ad hoc functionality built in, including a pre-installed chat client (iChat) that will automatically set up an ad hoc “Rendezvous” chatroom among anybody on the network, without the need for an external service like AIM or Skype. Ad hoc network-hosting functionality is built in to the Wi-Fi menu.
Windows computers have several third-party ad hoc chat applications available (such as Trillian) and setting up an ad hoc Wi-Fi network is almost as simple as on a Mac.
Linux operating systems, of course, have plenty of third-party apps available, and most distros have ad hoc network-creation support built in.
BUILD LARGE BRIDGED WIRELESS NETWORK
Using popular wireless access point devices like a Linksys WRT54G, you can create a huge wireless bridged network — effectively creating a Local Area Network (LAN), or a private Internet that can be utilized by all users within range using a Wi-Fi enabled device.
You can also link multiple devices together wirelessly, extending the range of your network. Most access points will cover a 100 meter area and if your wireless device is built to support the 802.11n wireless standard, you will get almost a 500 meter coverage area for each access point.
To build a wireless bridge, check out the dd-wrt wiki, and learn how to configure Linksys WRT54G as a wireless client using this Anandtech thread.
NINTENDO DS
A used DS family device can be purchased inexpensively. In addition to wi-fi, the DS supports its own wireless protocols. Using Pictochat, it is possible to chat with nearby DS users without having any DS games. Unfortunately, the range is quite short.
Some games, such as the fourth generation Pokemon games, support mail items. Thus you can send your message under the guise of just playing a game. Mail items can be sent through the Internet if you can get on the net and you and your partner(s) have each other’s friend codes.
The original DS and the DS Lite do support the Opera web browser, but finding the game card and memory pack may be very difficult. Starting with the DSi, Opera is downloadable.
INTRANET
Your computer has the ability to set up your own INTRANET. This was done BEFORE the internet was popularized in two ways: Your computer dialed up other computers and sent them the contents of a message board, or local people people dialed into your computer. A nationwide system can be set up this way with a central location sending to many cities then each city sending out the info locally.
BECOME UNTRACEABLE
If you’re going to post government secrets on your work-around site, you may want to set up an untraceable account. Really, you only need a mail drop, an assumed name, a prepaid credit card you can get at many stores to set up service.
GET SATELLITE ACCESS
You can have very, very slow internet if you have something similar to an Iridium phone, which would allow you to do dial up at 2400 baud, which at least gives you e-mail. This will also work when your government has shut down GSM and telephone access, and will work pretty much anywhere on the planet. If you’re in the right place, get yourself KA-SAT access which is satellite broadband and will not be routed through any internet exchange that certain local governments may monitor or block (unless that government is part of EU or er … Uncle Sam.
BACK TO BASICS
Make some noise: Have an air horn or other loud instrument handy. It may just come down to being able to alert people in your local geographic area, who would otherwise be unaware of an emergency. You may also want to learn a bit about Morse code and have a cheat sheet available.
The cannabinoid compounds naturally found in many varieties of cannabis, also known more commonly as marijuana, may help children with autism spectrum disorders experience dramatic behavioral improvements, and potentially even full recovery from their symptoms. These are the findings of a new study published in the journal Nature Communications that help reinforce the growing body of evidence which shows that medicinal cannabinoids hold incredible potential in both treating and potentially curing chronic illness.
Daniele Piomelli from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and her colleague Olivier Manzoni from Inserm, a French research agency, observed that marijuana cannabinoids are very closely related to the endocannabinoid transmitters naturally found in the brain that facilitate the transport of electrical signals between neurons. Known as 2-AG, these transmitters are responsible for regulating a whole host of important bodily processes, which include things like telling the body when it is hungry or when it is experiencing pain.
Children with autism spectrum disorders; however, including those who developed these disorders as a result of Fragile X syndrome, which is said to be the most commonly-known genetic cause of autism, often have poorly or non-functioning 2-AG, which necessitates chronic synaptic failure in the brain. Many children with Fragile X-induced autism end up becoming mentally disabled as a result of this synaptic failure, and have trouble developing basic motor skills like walking and talking, or learning how to behave in various social situations.
But taking marijuana cannabinoids, which as we pointed out in an earlier article are not psychoactive in the same way that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is (http://www.naturalnews.com/035759_cannabis_juicing_health.html), can help effectively block the enzymes that inhibit the proper function of 2-AG. In essence, marijuana cannabinoids essentially restore synaptic communication by feeding an ailing body the cannabinoids it lacks, which are absolutely vital for proper cell function and communication.
“Endocannabinoid compounds are created naturally in the body and share a similar chemical structure with THC … (and) are distinctive because they link with protein molecule receptors — called cannabinoid receptors — on the surface of cells,” explains the UCI report. “Because the body’s natural cannabinoids control a variety of factors — such as pain, mood and appetite — they’re attractive targets for drug discovery and development.”
Can non-psychoactive cannabinoid compounds actually cure chronic illness?
Though the researchers were quick to deny that cannabinoids hold any potential at actually curing autism, which more than likely was a politically-motivated denial rather than a factual admission, other research and actual case studies suggest that cannabinoid compounds are, indeed, powerful enough to mitigate many or all of the symptoms associated with autism, as well as many other diseases.
“Sam’s Story,” for instance, explains how one young boy with severe autism symptoms experienced dramatic improvements as a result of his parents giving him medical cannabis (http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/SamsStory.htm). Another young boy named Joey has also responded incredibly well to treatments with medical cannabis which, unlike pharmaceutical drugs, does not elicit any harmful side effects. (http://abcnews.go.com)
The group Cannabis International has also been conducting extensive research into medical marijuana, and particularly the non-psychoactive cannabinoid compounds found abundantly in many cannabis strains that have exhibited powerful benefits in treating autoimmune disorders, chronic inflammatory conditions, cellular and neurological dysfunction, and cancer, among others: http://www.naturalnews.com/035759_cannabis_juicing_health.html
A school district in Texas came under fire earlier this year when it announced that it would require students to wear microchip-embedded ID cards at all times. Now students who refuse to be monitored say they are feeling the repercussions.
Since October 1, students at John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School in San Antonia, Texas have been asked to attend class clasping onto photo ID cards equipped with radio-frequency identification chips to keep track of each and every pupil’s personal location. Educators insist that the endeavor is being rolled out in Texas to relax the rampant truancy rates devastating the state’s school and the subsequent funding they are failing to receive as a result, and pending the program’s success the RFID chips could soon come to 112 schools in all and affect nearly 100,000 students.
Some pupils say they are already seeing the impact, though, and it’s not one they are very anxious to experience. Students who refuse to walk the schoolhouse halls with a location-sensitive sensor in their pocket or around their neck are being tormented by instructors and being barred from participating in certain school-wide functions, with some saying they are even being turned away from common areas like cafeterias and libraries.
Andrea Hernandez, a sophomore at John Jay, says educators have ignored her pleas to have her privacy respected and have told her she can’t participate in school elections if she doesn’t submit to the tracking program.
To Salon, Hernandez says subjecting herself to constant monitoring by way of wearing a RFID chip is comparable to clothing herself in the “mark of the beast.” When she reached out to WND.com to reveal the school’s response, though, she told them that she was threatened with exclusion from picking a homecoming king and queen for not adhering to the rules.
“I had a teacher tell me I would not be allowed to vote because I did not have the proper voter ID,” Hernandez told WND. “I had my old student ID card which they originally told us would be good for the entire four years we were in school. He said I needed the new ID with the chip in order to vote.”
Even after Hernandez politely refused to wear an RFID chip, Deputy Superintendent Ray Galindo offered a statement that suggests that both the student’s religious and civil liberty-anchored arguments will only allow her some leeway for so long.
“We are simply asking your daughter to wear an ID badge as every other student and adult on the Jay campus is asked to do,” Galindo wrote to the girl’s parents, WND reports. If she is allowed to forego the tracking now, he continued, it could only be a matter of time before the school signs off on making location-monitoring mandatory and the repercussions will be more than just revoking voting rights for homecoming contests.
“I urge you to accept this solution so that your child’s instructional program will not be affected. As we discussed, there will be consequences for refusal to wear an ID card as we begin to move forward with full implementation,” Galindo continued.
The girl’s father, Steve Hernandez, tells WND that the school has been somewhat willing to work with the daughter’s demands, but insists that her family “would have to agree to stop criticizing the program” and start publically supporting it.
“I told him that was unacceptable because it would imply an endorsement of the district’s policy and my daughter and I should not have to give up our constitutional rights to speak out against a program that we feel is wrong,” Mr. Hernandez responded.
By reversing the poor attendance figures, the Northside Independent School District is expected to collect upwards of $2 million in state funding, with the program itself costing around one-quarter of that to roll out and another $136,005 annually to keep it up and running. The savings the school stands to make in the long run won’t necessarily negate the other damages that could arise: Heather Fazio, of Texans for Accountable Government tells WND that for $30 she filed a Freedom of Information Act request and received the names and addresses of every student in the school district.
“Using this information along with an RFID reader means a predator could use this information to determine if the student is at home and then track them wherever they go. These chips are always broadcasting so anyone with a reader can track them anywhere,” she says.
Kirsten Bokenkamp of the ACLU told the San Antonio Express-News earlier this year that her organization was expecting to challenge the board’s decision this to roll out the tracking system, but the school has since gone ahead anyway. Steve Hernandez tells WND that he approached the ACLU for possible representation in his daughter’s case, but Rebecca Robertson of a local branch of the organization said, “the ACLU of Texas will not be able to represent you or your daughter in this matter,” saying his daughter’s case in particular fails to meet the criteria they use to pick and choose civil liberties cases to take on.
Rejoice, paranoid security fanatics! There’s finally a version of Android that enables your obsessive need to lock and control each and every file on your mobile device. There’s just one catch: you’ve got to trust the National Security Agency to use it. The NSA has released its security-enhanced version of Android, named SE Android… because G-men have slightly less imagination than your average sea sponge. You can download the source code now and compile it on any operating system you want, so long as you want to compile it on Fedora Linux. Other operating systems should work, but haven’t been tested.
To build SE Android, you’ll need to download and compile the latest code from the Android Open Source Project, then applying the custom SE Android code on top of it. So what do the extra bells and whistles do? Basically every single file and folder that Android has access to can be locked down tight, with considerable encryption and put in place to protect them. Network securityis enhanced on both WiFi and mobile networks, and the already considerable app permission system is enhanced with multi-level security.
Currently SE Android is only intended for emulators and the Nexus S, and son’t expect much support if you intend to expand its horizons. The project wiki assumes that you’re already familiar and comfortable with building Android from source, and know your way around Linux/Unix-based systems. Tin foil hats are sold separately.
A French farmer who can no longer perform his routine farming duties because of permanent pesticide injuries has had his day in court, literally, and the perpetrator of his injuries found guilty of chemical poisoning. The French court in Lyon ruled that Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller formula, which contains the active ingredient alachlor, caused Paul Francois to develop lifelong neurological damage that manifests as persistent memory loss, headaches, and stuttering during speech.
Reports indicate that the 47-year-old farmer sued Monsanto back in 2004 after inhaling the Lasso product while cleaning his sprayer tank equipment. Not long after, Francois began experiencing lasting symptoms that prevented him from working, which he says were directly linked to exposure to the chemical. Since Lasso’s packaging did not bear adequate warnings about the dangers of exposure, Francois alleged at the time that Monsanto was essentially negligent in providing adequate protection for its customers.
To the surprise of many, the French court agreed with the claims and evidence presented before it, declaring earlier this year that “Monsanto is responsible for Paul Francois’ suffering after he inhaled the Lasso product … and must entirely compensate him.” The court is said to be seeking expert opinion on how to gauge Francois’ losses in order to determine precisely how much Monsanto will be required to compensate him in the case.
“It is a historic decision in so far as it is the first time that a (pesticide) maker is found guilty of such a poisoning,” said Francois Lafforgue, Paul Francois’ lawyer, to Reuters earlier in the year.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), exposure to alachlor can cause damage to the liver, kidneys, spleen, and eyes, and may lead to the development of anemia and even cancer. The EPA apparently views alachlor as so dangerous, in fact, that the agency has set the maximum contaminant level goals (MCLG) for alachlor to zero in order to “prevent potential health problems.” (http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/alachlor.cfm)
In 2007, France officially banned Lasso from use in the country in accordance with a European Union (EU) directive enacted in 2006 prohibiting the chemical from further use on crops in any member countries. But despite all the evidence proving that alachlor can disrupt hormonal balance, induce reproductive or developmental problems, and cause cancer, the chemical is still being used on conventional crops throughout the U.S. to this very day. (http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_ChemReg.jsp?Rec_Id=PC35160)
“I am alive today, but part of the farming population is going to be sacrificed and is going to die because of (alachlor),” added Francois to Reuters.
The Supreme Court refused to hear a case on Tuesday that holds telecom companies accountable for letting the National Security Agency spy on unknowing Americans without a warrant. Dating back to 2006 when the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation first filed the class-action lawsuit, the case accuses AT&T of providing the NSA with customers’ personal information — phone calls, emails and web browsing history — without seeking a court order. Verizon and Sprint are also mentioned. The plaintiff, former AT&T technician Mark Klein, even provided internal documentation that showed evidence of the NSA surveilling Americans’ Internet traffic from a secret room in San Francisco. That case, Hepting v. AT&T, has now been thrown out, and the Supreme Court didn’t even comment on why.
This sound very important! After all, doesn’t the Constitution protect American citizens from being spied on by their government without their knowledge or consent? Well, yes and no. Warrantless wiretapping sounds invasive and terrible, sure, but it’s actually technically legal under a 2008 law that retroactively granted immunity to all of the telecom companies that were spying on Americans at the government’s behest. Unsurprisingly, the practice can be traced back to President George W. Bush’s anti-terrorism program following the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Once things calmed down and people actually started suing the government for eavesdropping on everyday Americans, Congress passed the FISA Amendements Act. (FISA stands for the original law, the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act.) That law is currently up for renewal in Congress.
As Wired points out, neither the Bush administration nor the Obama administration has confirmed or denied allegations of warrantless wiretapping. They’ve both argued that the surveillance program is a state secret and any sort of disclosure would endanger national security. The EFF doesn’t buy this argument. “The government still claims that this massive program of surveillance of Americans is a state secret, but after eleven years and multiple Congressional reports, public admissions and media coverage, the only place that this program hasn’t been seriously considered is in the courts — to determine whether it’s legal or constitutional,” said Cindy Cohn, the EFF’s legal director. “We look forward to rectifying that.”
Indeed, Heptig v. AT&T is not the civil liberties advocates’ last hope at gaining some clarity on the warrantless wiretapping issue. In a separate case, the EFF sued the government directly, rather than going after the telecom companies. The case was tossed out by a district court judge only to be picked up by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where Judge Margaret McKeown ruled that the EFF’s arguments “are not abstract, generalized grievances and instead meet the constitutional standing requirement of concrete injury.”
That case will be heard in December. Until then, be careful what you say on the phone. You know who is listening.
Former New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald’s new book, published last week, provides yet more details about how the the NSA’s unconstitutional warrantless wiretapping program came about, and confirms that even top Bush Administration lawyers felt there was a “strong argument” that the program violated the law. “Officials might be slammed for violating the Fourth Amendment as a result of having listened in on calls to people inside the country and collecting so much personal data,” Eichenwald wrote, and “in the future, others may question the legality” of their actions.
Yet even today, eleven years later, the government continues to claim that no court can judge the program’s legality. In the next month, the government will argue—in EFF’s case in federal district court and ACLU’s case in the Supreme Court—that courts must dismiss the legal challenges without ever coming to a ruling on the merits.
Eichenwald’s book, 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars, describes how the NSA’s illegal program—what he calls “the most dramatic expansion of NSA’s power and authority in the agency’s 49 year history”— was devised just days after 9/11 to disregard requirements in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Instead of getting individualized warrants to monitor Americans communicating overseas, the Bush administration unilaterally gave the NSA the power to sweep up millions of emails and phone calls into a database for analysis without court approval:
Connections between a suspect e-mail address and others—accounts that both sent and received messages there, whether in the United States or not—would be examined. At that point, a more detailed level of analysis would be applied creating something of a ripple effect. The suspect e-mail address would lead to a second, the second to the accounts it contacted.
In other words, the NSA was given the green light to warrantlessly spy of Americans communications on American soil—a power that was illegal under FISA. And the government—instead of finding probable cause for surveillance like the Constitution requires—started using a burden of proof akin to the game Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon.
Eichenwald’s reporting, focused on the immediate aftermath of 9/11, unfortunately overlooks the NSA’s longstanding desire to live “on the network” reflected in its presentations to the incoming Bush Administration officials in December, 2000. The idea that the NSA only came up with this idea after 9/11 isn’t really accurate.1 But regardless, Eichenwald’s reporting makes clear that Bush administration officials were terrified that this program would become public.
Of course, after several years, much of the NSA’s program did become public when the New York Times exposed its existence in their 2005 Pulitzer Prize winning investigation. Virtually every major news organization in the US subsequently reported on the NSA and its mass spying programs, which led to congressional investigations and a multitude of lawsuits—two which will be argued in the coming month.
In EFF’s lawsuit, in addition to a mountain of public information including many governmental admissions, the court will see evidence from AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein showing blueprints and photographs of the NSA’s secret room in AT&T’s facility in San Francisco. Three more NSA whistleblowers, including William Binney a former high ranking official involved with the program during its infancy, also submitted affidavits laying out how the NSA illegally spied on Americans in the aftermath of 9/11.
Despite this all of this, the government recently filed a motion in the Northern District of California invoking the controversial “state secrets” privilege. Essentially, the government argues that—even if all of the allegations are true—the case should be dismissed entirely because admitting or denying any fact would potentially endanger national security, even in the face of the government’s own craftily wordsmithed “denials” before Congress and elsewhere.
In the ACLU’s case going before the Supreme Court this term, a group of journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists has sued over surveillance conducted after the passage of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA). The FAA was passed in 2008 and formalized some of the admitted portions of NSA’s program, allowing emails and phone calls to and from from overseas to continue to be acquired without a warrant. The government only needs one general court order to target large groups of people—even entire countries—communicating to Americans for an entire year.
The plaintiffs, given that their professions, regularly talk to people who are almost certainly spied on. They argue that surveillance of them without warrants renders the statute unconstitutional. But the government contends the case must be dismissed on “standing” grounds because the plaintiffs can’t prove with certainty they have been surveilled, because, in a perfectly circular argument, the government won’t “admit” they have been surveilled, as if public admissions by the government is the only way to prove illegal wiretapping.
As the ACLU writes, “The government theory of standing would render real injuries nonjusticiable and insulate the government’s surveillance activities from meaningful judicial review.” The same can be said of the ‘state secrets’ privilege in EFF’s case. The government is contending they can use government secrecy as a sword to terminate judicial accountability. It doesn’t matter how much evidence is in the public domain, just by telling the Court that the information implicates “national security,” they can wall off entire subject matters from judicial oversight, effectively hiding illegality, unconstitutionality along with embarrassing or overreaching acts by NSA spooks and others.
Eichenwald is just the latest in a long line of journalists to discuss and organize details about the NSA’s unconstitutional program. At this point the American people are well aware of the NSA’s actions – only the courts have been kept in the dark. And if the courts go along with blinding themselves, the government will have been given a license to violate the law and constitution long into the future.
The truth really is much stranger than fiction, especially when it comes to the open and admitted future plans of major biotechnology companies. One such case involves a biotech company known as ProdiGene, the officials from which actually faced jail time back in 2002 for contaminating the traditional food supply with ‘biopharmaceutical’ crops that were growing pharmaceuticals and vaccine components associated with AIDS, diabetes, and diarrhea.
Contaminating 500,000 bushels of soy with their biopharmaceutical corn that contained pharmaceutical and vaccine components associated with deadly diseases, the company was slapped with a minor $500,000 fine by the USDA (the same government organization that gives Monsanto’s crops special speed approval and ignores the company’s blatant disregard for its regulations). As it turns out, the pharmaceutical crops were actually mixed in with traditional crops and unknowing farmers had already been planted for human consumption. The USDA claims, however, that the crops were confiscated.
After receiving the fine and some press coverage on the subject, ProdiGene decided not to apologize but to expand their mission. The company, in combination with estimates by Dow AgroSciences, stated that they sought to reach $200 billion in biopharmaceutical crops within 10 years (as of 2004). Furthermore, they estimated that 10% of the corn in the United States will be biopharmaceutical in nature.
In other words, it could contain hidden nano-scale vaccinations, antibiotics, anti-depressants, or any form of pharmaceutical drug. One California based company has even created a spermicidal corn to be used as a mass contraceptive. In an AlterNet piece covering the issue entitled ‘Spermicidal Breakfast Cereal’, author Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero asks:
What would happen if contraceptive corn or antibiotic wheat accidentally made it to the supermarket? Nobody knows, but that isn’t stopping agribusiness from pursuing these crops.
Vaccines, Drugs, Sterilizations to be Fused into Nation’s Dinner?
The existence of such technology brings the fight against GMOs to an entirely new level. Outside of the known effects such as recent links to tumors, DNA damage, and other complications, GMO crops on your dinner table could soon contain pharmaceutical drugs like statins in an effort of ‘mass medicating’ the public. Such an effort would likely be used in conjunction with others to fight against those who choose to opt out of vaccinations, delivering the vaccine through the food supply.
It may sound absurd, and it is, but is not a new notion. Researchers previously designed a method in which mosquitoes could be ‘flying vaccine carriers’ to inject large numbers of individuals with vaccinations without their knowledge of consent. As one spokesman for a major ecology organization explained:
“One single mistake from a biotechnology company and we’ll be having someone else’s prescription medicine for breakfast in our cereal,” explained Larry Bohlen from Friends of the Earth, an international ecology organization.
The information ties in with the recent news revealing that Monsanto now owns a monumental ‘gene silencing’ technology for pharmaceutical use in humans. The king biotechnology company even forged a recent alliance with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to get the initiative started. After all, Monsanto would not lose an opportunity to conquer a large portion of the massive $200 billion biopharmaceutical crop market.
Other corporations are looking to get a chunk too, with the molecularfarming.com website acting a hub for farmers willing to lease their land for biopharmaceutical experiments across the globe. Touting a net worth of $80 billion in the coming years, investors are continually looking to get their hands on biopharmaceutical growing operations to churn out drug-containing GMO crops for mass consumption — and mass profits. So far, they’ve garnered contracts as far as Zimbabwe to continue their operations.
Just like regular GMOs, DDT, and cigarettes, experts are concerned that the real effects of biopharmaceutical growth may not be recognized until decades later.
“What will have to happen before the Department of Agriculture takes seriously the fact that millions of people almost ended up consuming experimental drugs and chemicals?” asks Brandon Keim, of the Council for Responsible Genetics in reference to the ProdiGene scandal. “A few sensational deaths? Maybe an increase in debilitating disorders which will only be noticeable some decades later, when it’s already too late?”
If the public grows more aware of GMO dangers with the grassroots support and potential passing of Prop 37, however, biopharmaceutical farms may never see mainstream success.
A law professor at Notre Dame leads a lonely campaign to stop the targeted killings in Pakistan and elsewhere, insisting they violate international law.
Notre Dame law professor Mary Ellen O’Connell is a leading critic of the U.S. targeted-killing program against Al Qaeda militants. (Los Angeles Times, Ken Dilanian / October 9, 2012)
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame law professor Mary Ellen O’Connell was in her office last month when Imran Khan, a former cricket star who could be Pakistan’s next prime minister, phoned to ask for help.
Pakistanis are furious about the CIA‘s covert campaign of drone missile strikes, Khan told her. Was she aware that the CIA often doesn’t know who it is killing?
“Yes, of all Americans, I think I have a pretty good handle on the facts,” she replied, recounting the call.
O’Connell, a fierce critic of America’s drone attacks outside a war zone, insists the targeted killings are illegal under international law.
“We wouldn’t accept or want a world in which Russia or China or Iran is claiming authority to kill alleged enemies of the state based on secret evidence of the executive branch alone,” O’Connell said. “And yet that’s the authority we’re asserting.”
O’Connell, 54, has led a lonely campaign to stop the drones since she wrote a paper branding the first CIA drone strike, in 2002, as unlawful. She rejected claims by the George W. Bush administration that the attack, which killed several Al Qaeda militants and a U.S. citizen, was a legitimate act of self-defense in the war on terrorism.
Since then, President Obama has sharply increased drone attacks, and O’Connell has jousted with government officials, debated other academics and outlined her critique in scholarly publications.
“Her views are definitely taken seriously,” said Sean Murphy, a former State Department lawyer who argues the drone strikes are permitted under the law. “She’s on the leading edge of this argument.”
She remains in a small minority of U.S. legal scholars, but her views are gaining currency as targeted killings continue.
A report issued last month by researchers at the law schools of New York University and Stanford University argued that many U.S. drone strikes appear unlawful because they don’t meet the strict legal test for killing outside a war zone — to stop an imminent threat to life when no other means is available.
In June, Christof Heyns, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, told a conference in Geneva that “double tap” drone strikes, in which a second missile is fired at people coming to aid the wounded, could constitute a war crime. Pakistan claims several such attacks have occurred in its tribal areas.
O’Connell and her intellectual allies agree the United States is fighting a lawful war in Afghanistan because it gave shelter to terrorists who attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001. But they argue that killing militants in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia is not a legitimate part of that conflict, and thus violates laws of war intended to protect noncombatants.
If the U.S. government has a case against an Al Qaeda militant in Yemen or Somalia, they argue, it must try to arrest him and give him a chance to surrender unless lives are in immediate danger.
That view strikes O’Connell’s many critics as a naive reading of international law that fails to account for modern stateless terrorists. But the U.S. government held a similar view until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
U.S. officials criticized Israel for killing Palestinian militants on the West Bank in the 1990s, for example, and CIA officials believed they lacked the authority to kill Osama bin Laden even after he was indicted for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.
National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment for this article, but he noted that White House counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan publicly explained the administration’s view on targeted killings in April.
“As a matter of international law, the United States is in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces, in response to the 9/11 attacks, and we may also use force consistent with our inherent right of national self-defense,” Brennan said.
Under Obama, the United States has launched 284 drone missile strikes in Pakistan and 49 in Yemen, according to independent groups that track reported attacks. That’s up from 46 in Pakistan and one in Yemen under Bush. Strikes have also been reported in Somalia.
So-called high-value targets typically are named on a classified “kill list,” which is reviewed by lawyers from the White House, the CIA, the Pentagon and other agencies. Many others are killed in “signature strikes” that target unidentified militants based on activities deemed suspicious.
In September, Obama sought to explain who gets targeted and why.
“It has to be a threat that is serious and not speculative,” Obama told CNN. “It has to be a situation in which we can’t capture the individual before they move forward on some sort of operational plot against the United States.”
O’Connell and other critics say no evidence suggests that all those killed met Obama’s standard. Drone strikes have killed up to 3,000 people, according to the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington.
O’Connell sees her effort as an exercise in moral suasion, similar to the public outcry that erupted after news reports detailed how the CIA had used waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques against several Al Qaeda detainees after Sept. 11.
A trim woman with brown hair, O’Connell isn’t a pacifist. Her husband is a former Army interrogator who served in the first Gulf War. They met while she was working for the Defense Department, teaching soldiers about international law.
O’Connell praises the Navy SEAL mission that killed Bin Laden, and supports using drones to target enemy fighters in Afghanistan. “I do think drones can be a more accurate weapon, and I’m all in favor of saving our troops’ lives,” she said.
Benjamin Wittes, a Brookings Institution fellow who supports the drone strikes, put O’Connell on the defensive in a debate two years ago by challenging her to take her position to its logical conclusion — as he put it, “that President Obama is a serial killer.”
She fumbled her response. But upon reflection, she sees some parallels to the abortion debate. One can believe, as she does strongly, that abortion is deeply immoral, without labeling women who have abortions as murderers.
“I feel the same way about targeted killing,” she said. “I understand that Americans don’t … see it, but we want the practice to end. I don’t think President Obama should go to jail for it.”
The carved alabaster vessel (shown from two sides) found in the burial chamber caused the archaeologists to conclude the tomb was that of Lady K’abel. (El Peru Waka Regional Archaeological Project)
Archaeologists say they’ve discovered what could be the tomb of one of the greatest Mayan rulers, the seventh-century warrior queen Lady K’abel.
The tomb was revealed during digging at the ancient Maya city of El Perú-Waka’ in the rain forest of northern Guatemala. Alongside the body, excavators found a white jar shaped like a conch shell with the head and arm of a woman carved at the opening. The artifact had four hieroglyphs that suggest it belonged to K’abel.
“Nothing is ever proven in archaeology because we’re working with circumstantial evidence. But in our case we have a carved stone alabaster jar that is named K’abel’s possession,” David Freidel, an archaeologist working on the site, explained in a video. Freidel, of Washington University in St. Louis, said the find is “as close to a smoking gun” as you get in archaeology.
The plazas, palaces, temple pyramids and residences of El Perú-Waka’ belong to the Classic Maya civilization (A.D. 200-900). K’abel was part of a royal family and carried the title “Kaloomte’,” which translates to “Supreme Warrior,” meaning she had even higher in authority than her king husband, K’inich Bahlam, according to Freidel and his excavation team. She was the military governor of the Wak kingdom for her family, the imperial house of the Snake King.
Ceramic vessels found in the burial chamber and carvings on a stela (stone slab) outside of it also indicate the tomb belongs to K’abel, as does a large red spiny oyster shell found on the lower torso of the remains, the researchers said.
“Late Classic queens at Waka’, including K’abel, regularly wore such a shell as a girdle ornament in their stela portraits while kings did not,” the researchers wrote in a report on the finds.
An examination of the remains indicated the buried person was a “mature individual,” the researchers wrote. But the bones were too deteriorated for scientists to determine whether they belonged to a male or female.
Excavations have been underway at El Perú-Waka’ since 2003. The K’abel find has not yet appeared in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
U.S. military guards move a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on March 30, 2010. In a motion unsealed last week, the government doubled down on its position that detainees’ observations and experiences of their time in U.S. custody are classified. (Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images)
In a motion unsealed last week, the government proposed new ground rules for classified information in the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others charged with planning the 9/11 attacks.
The new order says the accused can’t talk about their “observations and experiences” of being held by the CIA, including “the enhanced interrogation techniques that were applied to the Accused” — that is, waterboarding and other abuse.
As we reported earlier this year, the government maintains that many details of the CIA’s detention program are still classified, despite widespread disclosures and an official acknowledgement by President George W. Bush in 2006. “Due to these individuals’ exposure to classified sources, methods, or activities of the United States,” an order filed in April read, anything the men say is “presumed to contain information classified as TOP SECRET / SCI.”
That sentence would have required defense attorneys to get the approval of a security officer to disclose even mundane information such as a date of birth, if it came from the defendant.
The new protective order — which is pending a judge’s approval — eliminates the line that all statements by the accused are presumed classified. In proposing the change, the government wrote it intended to “alleviate defense concerns” about the burden that presumptive classification added to their interactions with their clients. The government’s new motion says that attorneys would only need a review of information “they know or have a reason to know is classified.”
But when it comes to the CIA’s detention program, the new order states explicitly that “the term ‘information’ shall include without limitation observations and experiences of the Accused.”
A Pentagon spokesman did not return requests for comment about the new order.
The American Civil Liberties Union, news organizations, and James Connell, a lawyer representing one of the defendants, have challenged the government’s authority to declare something presumptively classified, and to extend classification to a detainee’s own statements. The ACLU filed a motion this spring arguing that the government forcibly “exposed” the detainees to this classified information, and that therefore the detainees couldn’t be bound to a non-disclosure agreement.
The group also argues that because the CIA program is now outlawed and has been so widely discussed, there is no compelling national security need to keep the details secret. The ACLU and media groups oppose the 40-second delay the government has imposed on broadcasting case proceedings. The government says the delay simply allows the commission to censor classified information. (That’s how the arraignments proceeded in May.)
The defense lawyer Connell said that in terms of the attorney-client relationship, the new proposal was an “important start.” But as far as public access goes, the ACLU’s lead lawyer on the case, Hina Shamsi, says that the new order “makes explicit what the government is seeking to do — prevent the public from hearing from the defendant’s own mouths their experiences of CIA torture.”
The judge presiding over the military commission, Army Col. James Pohl, would have to accept the government’s proposal for it to go into effect in the case. Pohl approved a similar protective order last year in the case of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, who was allegedly behind the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole. (That order has also been challenged by news organizations).
Hearings on the public access issue and Connell’s opposition to presumptive classification are scheduled for next week. Originally intended for August, they were postponed due to Hurricane Isaac.
NEW YORK – As a student at Harvard Law School, then-bachelor Barack Obama’s practice of wearing a gold band on his wedding-ring finger puzzled his colleagues.
Now, newly published photographs of Obama from the 1980s show that the ring Obama wore on his wedding-ring finger as an unmarried student is the same ring Michelle Robinson put on his finger at the couple’s wedding ceremony in 1992.
Moreover, according to Arabic-language and Islamic experts, the ring Obama has been wearing for more than 30 years is adorned with the first part of the Islamic declaration of faith, the Shahada: “There is no God except Allah.”
Sincere recitation of the Shahada is the sole requirement for becoming a Muslim, as it expresses a person’s rejection of all other gods
Egyptian-born Islamic scholar Mark A. Gabriel, Ph.D., examined photographs of Obama’s ring at WND’s request and concluded that the first half of the Shahada is inscribed on it.
“There can be no doubt that someone wearing the inscription ‘There is no god except Allah’ has a very close connection to Islamic beliefs, the Islamic religion and Islamic society to which this statement is so strongly attached,” Gabriel told WND.
“Dreams from My Real Father” producer Joel Gilbert, an Arabic speaker and an expert on the Middle East, was the first to conclude that Obama’s ring, reportedly from Indonesia, bore an Islamic inscription.
Photographs published last week by the New Yorker from Obama’s time at Occidental College, taken by fellows students, indicate that the ring Obama wore three decades ago is the one he is wearing in the White House.
Barack Obama
As WND reported in July, previously published photos have shown Obama wearing a gold band on his wedding-ring finger continuously from 1981 at Occidental, through graduation at Columbia in 1983, in a visit to Africa in 1988 and during his time at Harvard from 1988 to 1991. But none, until now, have displayed the ring with enough detail to identify it as the one he currently is wearing.
WND reported a satirical edition of the Harvard Law Review published by students in 1990 contains a mock Dewers Scotch profile advertisement poking fun at Obama. Among a list of Obama’s “Latest Accomplishments” is: “Deflecting Persistent Questioning About Ring On Left Hand.”
The comment suggests the ring was a subject of student curiosity at the time and that Obama was not forthcoming with an explanation.
He still has not explained why he wore the band on his wedding-ring finger before he married Michelle.
Declaration
Gabriel, born to Muslim parents in Upper Egypt, grew up immersed in Islamic culture. He memorized the Quran at age of 12 and graduated in 1990 with a Masters degree from the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the preeminent Sunni Muslim institution of learning.
He explained that on Obama’s ring, the declaration “There is no god except Allah” (La Ilaha Illallah) is inscribed in two sections, one above the other.
On the upper section, “There is no god” is written in Arabic letters, from right to left: Lam, Alif, Alif, Lam, Ha.
On the lower section is “except god,” written in Arabic letters from right to left: Alif, Lam, Alif, Alif, Lam, Lam, Ha.
In the lower section, the word “Allah” is written partially on top of the word “except,” noted Gabriel, the author of “Islam and Terrorism” and “Journey Inside the Mind of an Islamic Terrorist.”
It is common in Islamic art and Arabic calligraphy, especially when expressing Quranic messages on jewelry, to artfully place letters on top of each other to fit them into the allotted space.
The exhibit below shows how the Arabic inscription fits over the two parts of the Obama ring.
“There is no God except Allah” overlaid on Obama ring
‘First-rate accent’
In an interview during the 2008 presidential campaign, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof questioned Obama about his Islamic education in Indonesia, where he lived from 1967 to 1971.
After acknowledging that he once got in trouble for making faces during Quran study classes in his elementary school, Obama recited for Kristoff the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, the Adhan.
The prayer incorporates the Shahada, the expression of Islamic faith, with each line repeated twice:
Allah is supreme! Allah is supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet
Kristof noted Obama recited the prayer in Arabic “with a first-rate accent.”
“In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as ‘one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset,’” Kristoff wrote.
Gabriel told WND that a person wearing a ring with “There is no God except Allah” demonstrates the significance of Islam in his life.
“Christians never use the statement,” he pointed out. “By wearing the Shahada on jewelry, a person communicates that Allah is in control of all circumstances. Allah controls you; Allah is the one and only one.”
Obama, who attended Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for two decades, has repeatedly insisted he is a Christian.
Obama’s hand in a White House photo
‘Blessed statement in Islam’
Gabriel emphasized the importance of the Shahada in the profession of faith in Islam.
“Muslims recite the Shahada when they wake up in the morning and before they go to sleep at night,” he said. “It is repeated five times every day in the call to prayer in every mosque. A single honest recitation of the Shahada in Arabic is all that is required for a person to convert to Islam.”
Gabriel believes it would be impossible for Obama not to be aware of what is written on the ring, calling it a “blessed statement in Islam.”
“By wearing this religious statement on one’s hand, it connects the person to Islam,” he said. “It is worn in hopes that Allah’s protections would be with the person, in hopes of gaining favor with Allah.”
He affirmed that Muslim men do wear gold rings, despite prohibitions in Islamic law.
“Though Islamic law prohibits the wearing of gold jewelry by men, it is a widely accepted custom, even in strictly Muslim countries,” he said. “The wearing of gold rings is even more acceptable when it contains a religious message, such as ‘There is no god except Allah.’”
He noted there is also widespread acceptance of men wearing gold jewelry in non-Arab Islamic societies such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Pakistan, where Muslims generally understand that Muslims are subject to strong influences of local non-Arab cultures.
“Therefore, even though technically prohibited, a Muslim man wearing a gold ring is not looked down upon, especially if the jewelry reflects a love of Islam and a connection to Islamic society,” he said. “An even greater level of acceptance is for businessmen who deal with infidels, because such a person would be regarded as a person of influence.”
“Now we have a new context for what Obama meant when he told the Islamic audience in Cairo that he has ‘known Islam on three continents,” Gilbert said. “He also told the Cairo audience that he considered it part of his responsibility as president of the United States ‘to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.’ All religious Muslims are by definition required to defend Islam.”
Gilbert’s most recent documentary films on the Middle East are “Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam” and “Atomic Jihad: Ahmadinejad’s Coming War and Obama’s Politics of Defeat”
Obama in Cairo, Egypt, June 4, 2009
Obama in Cairo, Egypt, June 4, 2009, close-up
The Occidental ring
The photographs published last week by New Yorker magazine indicate Obama was wearing the ring at Occidental College.
One photo shows Obama sitting alongside Occidental roommate Hasan Chandoo in 1981, apparently waiting for a meal to be served.
Barack Obama and roommate Hasan Chandoo at Occidental College in 1981
Obama’s extended left hand clearly shows the ring, as seen below.
The second of the recently released photos shows Obama reaching for a book from an Occidental College library shelf.
Barack Obama in Occidental College library in 1981
A close-up of the library photo can be seen below.
Detail of Barack Obama ring in Occidental College library in 1981
In the above photo, the ring’s design can be seen, including a series of parallel bars that distinguish its outer circumference.
In the story, Jodi Kantor described its “intricate gold design,” noting it came from Barack Obama’s boyhood home of Indonesia and was not traditional, like Michelle’s.
Kantor wrote:
Just before the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. pronounced Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson man and wife on the evening of Oct. 3, 1992, he held their wedding rings – signifying their new, enduring bonds – before the guests at Trinity United Church of Christ. Michelle’s was traditional, but Barack’s was an intricate gold design from Indonesia, where he had lived as a boy.
There was no mention in the article that Obama already had been wearing the ring for more than a decade.
The photos of the ring from the 1980s can be compared with more recent photos, such as the ones published by the Huffington Post in 2010 in an article by Anya Strzemien, “Obama’s ‘Intricate’ Indonesian Wedding Band: A CLOSE-UP,” seen here.
Obama wedding ring, Huffington Post, March 18, 2010
Obama wedding ring, Huffington Post, March 18, 2010
Kim Bildsoe Lassen, a Danish journalist from the Public Service TV station Danmarks Radio interviewed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shortly before he was to arrive in Copenhagen for the COP15 summit. English subtitles not part of original broadcast. Full transcript in English provided below. This is likely to change how you feel about Iran.
http://youtu.be/8z81GVHI1_I
http://youtu.be/5aJli5XcOVI
http://youtu.be/TCLSpaUmUdk
http://youtu.be/15NwDX7fEhQ
Transcript of YouTube video 1
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: First of all Mr. President, thank you very much for taking your time, and letting us coming here to your office, and speak to you about the world and important matters.
And eh, if we can begin with exactly how you look at the world.
Now let’s say that the world is a little sick, you are the doctor, what do you think should be done?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: You have asked a very difficult question. I think that is the basis of all other questions. How do we look at the world?
I think the world is very beautiful, God created a beautiful world. He created mankind to live beautiful lives. He would want people to love each other. That they would create brotherhood and justice among themselves. God has not created mankind to be unjust towards each other. To injure each others rights. To humiliate each other. To commit terror, to engage in actions which destroy the security and identity of others. God wants people to create a beautiful world.
We don’t think this objective has been reached. For several reasons. We can look at the situation in the world. There is distrust. There is war and occupation. There is the desire to conquer. Some feel they are better than others. And they want to have more rights than others. They don’t respect others. They create wars. They send their armies and occupy territory of others. They are not even compassionate towards the environment. You can see what problems there are with the climate.
We think it can be helped. The conditions for this are to recreate justice and respect for others.
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: But when you say that it, maybe obvious for me that you are talking about America. What do you think should be done today about America?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: We think the government of the USA should change for the better. Everywhere where there are problems the US is present. Why is that?
America has a geographical territory. They have to live in their own territory. Who says America should rule the world? Can you tell us what they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan? Do you know how many have been killed? Hundreds of thousands. Every one of them was a human being, with families and big wishes.
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: but the Danish government and the Danish soldiers are also in Afghanistan, do you also think we are making a great mistake?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Of course! The situation has not become any better since NATO went into Afghanistan. Do you think that the situation is better than seven years ago? Every day people die! It is not important who is being killed.
Afghanis, Danes, Americans or English. The importance is that people are being killed. The security situation has not improved. The narcotics situation has not improved either. Terrorism is not under control either. On the contrary, it has spread to Pakistan. Don’t you think this strategy has been wrong? We think it has been wrong. There are No military solutions for the human problems..
[End of part 1 of 4]
Transcript of video 2 (Ahmadinejad only)
Humane solutions are needed.
It can be resolved without loss of human life.
We have not said that they should be destroyed When have we said that America and Denmark should be destroyed? We have said that NATOpolicies in Afghanistan are wrong.
And these policies have ledto a situation which is worse.
And these policies should be reconsidered There are humane solutions.
Why use a military solution? Why kill people? What we are saying is in the interests of Denmark and America It is in NATO’s interest.
Let me tell you one more thing.
NATO doesn’t know our area.
We also don’t know Denmark’s internal situation.
Is it you or us who has the best solutions to Denmarks problems? You don’t know the area, and therefore make the wrong decicions.
And your wrong decisions cause loss of human life.
Which is the worst that can happen.
If the US and NATO had the correct historical information They would not have gone into Afghanistan During the last 100 yearsAfghanistan has been occupied three times. A hundred years ago, the British occupied the country.
A hundred years ago, England was a world empire.
England’s power was greaterthan the power of the US today.
Its power was even greater than NATO’s power today.
Could Britain stay in Afghanistan and be victorious? They left Afghanistan humiliated But they hurt the Afghan people Many of their soldiers were killed 35 years ago, the Russians came to Afghanistan.
Where is the Soviet Union today? Where is the Soviet Union today? Did the Soviet Army gain victory? How can NATO believe, they can be victorious in Afghanistan? Historical experience says they will fail! And the last seven years have also shown that it ends with failure.
Now Iran tells them that they are making a mistake.
Should they thank, or attack Iran for that? We don’t need their gratitude.
We think they should act differently.
Short edited version Transcript Part 1:(Kim Bildsoe Lassen only transcribed partly)
Kim Bildsoe Lassen:
I would like to ask you a very forward frank question…
Would you like to have a nuclear bomb?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad What do you think yourself?
Do you think a bomb is a good thing?
Would you like Denmark to have one?
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: I don’t know but I know…
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad You are a person, and I am a person, we are having a dialogue now.
We think atomic bombs are a bad thing.
What are atomic bombs used for?
To kill others..
We are against killing other people.
Kim Bildsøe Lassen: But somebody would also say it’s also for security…
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad We have enemies, but we don’t need atomic bombs.
There are two reasons for this.
The first has to do with the atomic bomb.
We think it is the most inhuman weapon in history.
Because they kill many people.
It is not meant for defense, but for attack.
So the first reason is the bomb itself.
Our religion causes us to be against the atomic bomb.
That’s why we say the world must be disarmed.
The bombs of the nuclear powers are at this moment a threat to mankind.
But there is also another reason, which is secondary
Today, is there anybody who can use the bomb?
And if they use it, will it then give them the upper hand?
Can bombs save anybody?
Could the a-bomb save the Soviet Union?
So you can tell me, the whole world, and all viewers in Denmark and Europe
(subtitles missing?)
(subtitles missing?)
Today the atomic bomb has lost its purpose.
Those who think the a-bomb gives power, are politically retarded.
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: So you can say to me, to all the people in Denmark and in Europe watching, that you will never engage in creating an atomic bomb? You can just say no.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad I gave you a clear answer to your question.
I want you to be aware of to whom you’re talking.
We speak clearly and direct.
I want it to be completely clear.
Kim Bildsøe Lassen: I Know, I just want to be very clear
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad It was not directed at you, but at all the viewers.
Whatever we do, we have the courage to say it.
We said we would begin enriching Uranium, and we did.
We said we would start a production, and we did..
We said we didn’t fear resolutions, and we didn’t.
We said we didn’t accept unjust resolutions, and we didn’t.
And we said we would build 10 new enrichment plants and we will also do that.
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: There has been since your reelection.. demonstrations in the streets..
End transcript part 1
Transcript part 2:
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: Since you have been reelected there have been demonstrators in the streets. Some have called them also lately, for traitors, that they don’t understand Iran.
Do you think that the young people on the street demonstrating, making trouble will some say, that they are traitors?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: We should keep things apart from each other.
The elections in Iran, are very free.
It is the highest imaginable degree of freedom.
We don’t have a party based system.
It is a free government. Very close to the people.
We had a very high turnout at the elections.
85% that’s unique.
Then there were some who came with protests.
That’s very natural.
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: Do you think that young people in Iran today have the freedom to express their opinions? That as you see it that there is the freedom for the young people, for the people who want to express their meaning [opinions] in Iran today that is fair and just?
And the people that are saying, we have, we are being pressed by the police, by the secret police, that they are wrong?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: I said the law rules in Iran.
Wouldn’t the police in Denmark interfere when somebody crosses the street when the lights are red?
Wouldn’t the police do that?
The police must maintain peace and order.
But the police acts inside the boundaries of the law,
And the Courts keep an eye in the police.
Everybody must uphold the law. Protests also have to happen inside the boundaries of the law. You have probably seen the demonstrations in Copenhagen the day before yesterday.
Kim Bildsøe Lassen: (Nods)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Why did the police take action against the demonstrators?
Mace [tear gas], batons, why did the police do that?
That’s because there is law and order in Denmark.
People are free to protest, but they have to respect the law, they have to.
What happened in Copenhagen, also was what happened in Teheran.
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: Now you go to Denmark, and you go as President Ahmadinejad, I think a lot of people in Denmark only know you as that, and maybe if you could tell a little bit about the man Ahmadinejad.
What are the things that you enjoy most in life?
I know that you are a religious man, but beside that, where do you find your energy and where do you find your inspiration?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Can you tell me why you are here?
Why did you travel so far?
You must have had a tough trip; you have been 5 to 6 hours in the air.
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: To get to know you better.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: You probably have good intentions.
I think that if one loves people, being tired doesn’t mean anything.’
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: I’m sorry if I’m being trivial, but I’m also wondering, are you sort of a person who likes to come home late, and watch a film with your family or take a walk with your wife and your kids..
How do you find pleasure beside working and saving the world?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Yes, I do all of these things. I have a warm family.
We talk every evening.. we also watch films, but not every evening.
We read books and speak with each other.
We go out for walks and visit our relatives and friends.
We practice sports,
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: Do you have a favorite film?
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: I normally watch Iranian films
Kim Bildsoe Lassen: Mr. President thank you very much, we look forward to seeing you in Denmark, and wish you a pleasant trip to Denmark and we, I guess I look forward to see you. Thank you very much.
Michael Jarlner (Danish journalist sitting next to Lassen): Yes, thank you for meeting us.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Inshallah, and greet the Danish people from me.
Thank you, thank you very much..
End of transcript part 2.
I am not a Muslim, but if I were I would swear Ahmadinejad is the new Mahdi….
After this interview there can be absolutely no more doubt anymore about the peaceful intentions of the gentle Iranian president, who will be honoring us all by his coming visit to the Copenhagen Climate Hoax Summit.
In the conversation about the event with another journalist, Kim Bildoe Lassen said that he had never seen such pitch black eyes. Eyes he said, which certainly would have the ability to frighten some people.
How do you make matters worse for an elusive intelligence company that has been forced to scramble for explanations about their ownership of an intricate, widespread surveillance program? Just ask Cubic, whose troubles only begin with TrapWire.
Days after the international intelligence gathering surveillance system called TrapWire was unraveled by RT, an ongoing investigation into any and all entities with ties to the technology has unturned an ever-increasing toll of creepy truths. In only the latest installment of the quickly snowballing TrapWire saga, a company that shares several of the same board members as the secret spy system has been linked to a program called Tartan, which aims to track down alleged anarchists by specifically singling out Occupy Wall Street protesters and the publically funded media — all with the aid of federal agents.
Tartan, a product of the Ntrepid Corporation, “exposes and quantifies key influencers and hidden connections in social networks using mathematical algorithms for objective, un-biased output,” its website claims. “Our analysts, mathematicians and computer scientists are continually exploring new quantification, mining and visualization techniques in order to better analyze social networks.” In order to prove as such, their official website links to the executive summary of a case study dated this year that examines social network connections among so-called anarchists, supposedly locating hidden ties within an underground movement that was anchored on political activists and even the Public Broadcasting Station [.pdf].
“Tartan was used to reveal a hidden network of relationships among anarchist leaders of seemingly unrelated movements,” the website claims. “The study exposed the affiliations within this network that facilitate the viral spread of violent and illegal tactics to the broader protest movement in the United States.”
Tartan is advertised on their site as a must-have application for the national security sector, politicians and federal law enforcement, and makes a case by claiming that “an amorphous network of anarchist and protest groups,” made up of Occupy Oakland, PBS, Citizen Radio, Crimethinc and others, relies on “influential leaders,” “modern technology” and “illegal tactics” to spread a message of anarchy across America.
“The organizers of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy DC have built Occupy networks through online communication with anarchists actively participating in the movements’ founding,” the executive summary reads. On the chart that accompanies their claim, the group lists several political activism groups and broadcast networks within a ring of alleged anarchy, which also includes an unnamed FBI informant.
Although emails uncovered in a hack last year waged at Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, suggested that Occupy groups had been under private surveillance, the latest discovery of publically available information implies that the extent to which the monitoring of political activists on American soil occurred may have extended what was previously imagined.
Things don’t end there, though. While the TrapWire tale is still only just beginning, the Ntrepid Corporation made headlines last year after it was discovered by the Guardian that the company was orchestrating an “online persona management” program, a clever propaganda mill that was touted as a means “to influence regional and international audiences to achieve U.S. Central Command strategic objectives,” according, at least, to the Inspector General of the US Defense Department [.pdf]. The investigation eventually revealed that the US Central Command awarded Ntrepid $2.76 million worth of taxpayer dollars to create phony Internet “sock puppets” to propagate US support.
One year later, the merits of Tartan’s analytics are now being brought into question, but so are the rest of the company’s ties. A trove of research accumulated by RT, Project PM founder Barrett Brown, PrivacySOS.org and independent researchers Justin Ferguson and Asher Wolf, among others, has linked Tartan with an even more unsettling operation.
Margaret A. Lee of Northern Virginia is listed on several websites as serving on the Ntrepid board of directors as secretary, a position she held alongside Director Richard Helms, CFO Wesley R Husted and President Michael Martinka. And although several parties are going to great lengths to deny the ties, a paper trail directly links Lee and company to Abraxas — and thus Cubic — and, of course, TrapWire, the very surveillance system that is believed to be blanketing the United States.
According to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, TrapWire Inc. was registered to Margaret A Lee on March 7, 2009. Other publically available information reveals that, at least at one point, Wesley Husted served as chief financial officer for TrapWire, Inc., where Richard H Helms held the title of CEO.
Various sources have since claimed that Helms, a former CIA agent that once ran the agency’s European division, has severed ties with TrapWire, yet the other connections remain intact.
In RT’s earlier research in the TrapWire case, it was revealed that TrapWire’s parent company, Cubic Corporation, acquired an online identity masking tool called Anonymzer in a 2010 merger, and also controls the fare card system at some of the biggest public transportation systems in the world. According to the latest findings, Cubic’s control extends beyond just that, though. Under their Ntrepid branch, Cubic controlled an operation that spied on political activists with FBI informants and attempted to link them to crimes across America.
Whether or not the TrapWire system was implemented in such operations is unclear, and Cubic continues to maintain that they are not involved with the surveillance network.
Last week, Cubic Corporation issued a press release claiming, “Abraxas Corporation then and now has no affiliation with Abraxas Applications now known as Trapwire, Inc.”
“Abraxas Corp., a risk-mitigation technology company, has spun out a software business to focus on selling a new product,” the article reads. “The spinoff – called Abraxas Applications – will sell TrapWire, which predicts attacks on critical infrastructure by analyzing security reports and video surveillance.”
Not only does a 2007 report in the Washington Business Journal insist that the companies are practically one in the same, though, but a 2006 article in the same paper reveals that Abraxas had just acquired software maker Dauntless. Researchers at Darkernet have since linked Lee, Husted and Helms to the Abraxas Dauntless Board of Directors as well.
Justin Ferguson, the researcher who first exposed TrapWire two weeks ago, has noted that Lee, Helms and Husted were listed on Abraxas Dauntless’ filings with Virginia as recently as December 2011. They also are all present on the TrapWire filings dated September 2011 and the latest annual filing made with the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations on behalf of Ntrepid.
Nevertheless, in a conversation this week with Project PM’s Barrett Brown, Cubic Corp. Communication Director Tim Hall dismisses this tie again.
“There is no connection at all with Abraxas Applications and Trapwire and or Ntrepid,” Hall allegedly insists, according to audio uploaded to YouTube.
Brown, on his part, says he has obtained Cubic’s 2010 tax filings that show that Ntrepd, like Abraxas, is “wholly owned” by Cubic.
Other trademark information publically available online says that the Abraxas Corporation first filed to claim the name TrapWire in 2004 and was granted a license for such in January of 2007.
TrapWire Training Courses Reveal Possible Purpose for its Creation
Although certain people reportedly playing key roles in the web-like leadership structure of TrapWire deny their involvement with the massive surveillance system, there is evidence that the engine driving this global company runs on the ambition of a common core of officers and directors.
Given the potential flood of legal challenges to its constitutionality, the corporation believed to be behind TrapWire is heading for higher ground, denying any association with the surveillance technology.
In a statement published on its website on August 13, Cubic Corporation attempted to sever the ties binding it to TrapWire. “Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB) acquired Abraxas Corporation on December 20, 2010. Abraxas Corporation then and now has no affiliation with Abraxas Applications now known as Trapwire, Inc. Erroneous reports have linked the company with Trapwire, Inc.,” the company insisted.
Despite such denials, many are rightly worried about any corporate connection — no matter how tenuous — between Cubic and TrapWire given the former’s access to the personal data of Americans through its other corporate interests. The synergy of such access with a massive surveillance apparatus could threaten the privacy of millions, as well as the freedom from unwarranted searches and seizures protected by the Fourth Amendment.
As for the scope and significance of TrapWire, the size of it cannot be exaggerated.
TrapWire is a massive and technologically advanced surveillance system that has the capacity to keep nearly the entire population of this country under the watchful eye of government 24 hours a day. Using this network of cameras and other surveillance tools, the federal government is rapidly constructing an impenetrable, inescapable theater of surveillance, most of which is going unnoticed by Americans and unreported by the mainstream media.
Unlike other elements of the central government’s cybersurveillance program, word about TrapWire was not leaked by Obama administration insiders. The details of this nearly unbelievable surveillance scheme were made public by WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group founded by Julian Assange. The TrapWire story percolated from the millions of e-mails from the Austin, Texas-based private intelligence-gathering firm Stratfor, published this year by WikiLeaks. Covering correspondence from mid-2004 to 2011, these documents expose Stratfor’s “web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods.”
This coterie of Stratfor co-conspirators is apparently angry about the leaks, considering that the WikiLeaks servers have been under near-constant Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks since the TrapWire revelations began attracting the notice of alternative journalists. Some outlets report that the cyberattacks are being carried out by agents of the American intelligence community determined to prevent the full depth of this scandal from being explored by reporters.
Exactly what is TrapWire? According to one description of the program, from Russia Today:
Former senior intelligence officials have created a detailed surveillance system more accurate than modern facial recognition technology — and have installed it across the US under the radar of most Americans, according to emails hacked by Anonymous.
Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot, then encrypted and instantaneously delivered to a fortified central database center at an undisclosed location to be aggregated with other intelligence.
Although many of the details remain undisclosed, it is known that the infrastructure of TrapWire was designed and deployed by Abraxas, an intelligence contractor based in northern Virginia headed and run by dozens of former American surveillance officers. As one article described it: “The employee roster at Abraxas reads like a who’s who of agents once with the Pentagon, CIA and other government entities according to their public LinkedIn profiles, and the corporation’s ties are assumed to go deeper than even documented.”
The network is believed to be immense. An article published by transparency advocacy group Public Intelligence claims that Stratfor e-mails suggest that TrapWire is in use by the U.S. Secret Service, the British security service MI5, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as counterterrorism divisions in both the Los Angeles and New York Police Departments and the LA fusion center. The e-mails also suggest that TrapWire is in use at military bases around the country. A July 2011 e-mail from a “Burton” to others at Stratfor describes how the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and Pentagon have all begun using TrapWire and are “on the system now.” Burton described the Navy as the “next on the list.”
A survey of WikiLeaks e-mails containing information about TrapWire reveals another facet of this ever-expanding tool for tracking and targeting individuals.
The first course listed in the darkernet article is called the Surveillance Awareness Workshop. This class is reportedly “designed to instruct network and security personnel to use and navigate the TrapWire software system to familiarize themselves with the indicators of surveillance, terrorist surveillance methodologies, facility vulnerabilities, and the identification of probable surveillance zones that exist within each facility.”
The goal is that those with their fingers on the buttons and eyes on the consoles will learn to “view their facility the same way as would a terrorist, and then to be alert to the indicators of pre-attack surveillance.”
Pre-attack is a statist way of saying “guilty until proven innocent.” These agents — typically law enforcement or federal intelligence officers — reportedly will learn to spot suspicious behavior that points to the target’s propensity for participation in illegal activities.
This sort of advance profiling is eerily similar to the philosophy undergirding the signature strike that is becoming the go-to tactic in the Obama administration’s drone war.
A signature strike is not a strike on a particular suspect, but rather an attack on a person or group of people demonstrating behavior that is typical of those who might be associated with terror.
Perhaps the TrapWire “pre-attack surveillance” and the drone war “signature strike” are just two identifiable examples of a wider, more insidious government movement toward a society where one can be found guilty in advance of any crime based solely on one’s likelihood to act unlawfully and then be summarily executed based on that probability alone.
The second class offered by the makers of TrapWire according to the Internet investigation is designed along similar lines. It is called the Terrorist Pre-Attack Operations Course (TPOC).
Darkernet reports that participation in TPOC “will enhance overall security awareness and improve participants’ understanding of terrorist and criminal pre-attack surveillance and intelligence collection operations.”
Once again, the watchers are taught to better understand “terrorists” and what behavior they display just prior to the commission of a crime.
Unlike actual laws, these technologies and the courses improving their capabilities in the hands of users do not offer definitions of “terrorist” or “criminal.” One is left to one’s own understanding, it would seem, in the matter of conceiving of who is and is not a terrorist.
Today, the typical target might be a Muslim seen frequenting a subway station, for example. However, as the gulf separating the rulers and the ruled widens, perhaps a future TrapWire operator will target a gun-owner or attendant at a rally opposing a government policy as a potential threat and will initiate the requisite “intelligence collection operations.” The end result of those operations may be indefinite detention or death by Hellfire missile.
Finally, the last class listed in the darkernet article is called the Deception Detection and Eliciting Responses (DDER) course. This class will “teach students to detect deception and elicit responses in individuals including those which have been identified by TrapWire as having been engaged in suspicious behavior.”
So, once the target’s image pops up on one of the myriad cameras tracking the movements of every citizen (all are targets and potential terrorists, apparently) and the intelligence officers are called in to begin building a dossier on the target, the responding agents will use their newly-acquired interrogation skills to get the truth out of the target. “We have ways of making you talk,” in other words.
Given the aversion of the wizards running the surveillance state to allowing the curtain to be pulled back exposing the incredible extent of its domestic surveillance activities, it is more likely than not that TrapWire’s use in the tracking of Americans is wider and more institutional than most of us would like to believe.
A link to a complete listing of all TrapWire courses and the associated material is found here.
The ranking Republican on a Senate panel on Wednesday accused the Department of Homeland Security of hiding embarrassing information about its so-called “fusion” intelligence sharing centers, charging that the program has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars while contributing little to the country’s counterterrorism efforts.
In a 107-page report released late Tuesday, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said that Homeland Security has spent up to $1.4 billion funding fusion centers — in effect, regional intelligence sharing centers– that have produced “useless” reports while at the same time collecting information on the innocent activities of American Muslims that may have violated a federal privacy
The fusion centers, created under President George W. Bush and expanded under President Barack Obama, consist of special teams of federal , state and local officials collecting and analyzing intelligence on suspicious activities throughout the country. They have been hailed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano as “one of the centerpieces” of the nation’s counterterrorism efforts.
But Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the panel, charged Wednesday that Homeland Security had tried to bury evidence of problems at the centers.
“Unfortunately, DHS has resisted oversight of these centers,” he said. “The Department opted not to inform Congress or the public of serious problems plaguing its fusion centers and broader intelligence efforts. When this subcommittee requested documents that would help it identify these issues, the department initially resisted turning them over, arguing that they were protected by privilege, too sensitive to share, were protected by confidentiality agreements, or did not exist at all. The American people deserve better. I hope this report will help generate the reforms that will help keep our country safe.”
A spokesman for Homeland Security said in a statement to NBC News Tuesday that the Senate report was “out of date, inaccurate and misleading.” Matt Chandler, a spokesman for Napolitano, said the Senate panel “refused to review relevant data, including important intelligence information pertinent to their findings.” Another Homeland Security official, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said the department has made improvements to the fusion centers and that the skills of officials working in them are “evolving and maturing.”
The American Civil Liberties Union also issued a statement saying the report underscores problems that it and other civil liberity groups have been flagging for years. “The ACLU warned back in 2007 that fusion centers posed grave threats to Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, and that they needed clear guidelines and independent oversight,” said Michael German, ACLU senior policy counsel. “This report is a good first step, and we call upon Congress to hold public hearings to investigate fusion centers and their ongoing abuses.”
In addition to the value of much of the fusion centers’ work, the Senate panel found evidence of what it called “troubling” reports by some centers that may have violated the civil liberties and privacy of U.S. citizens. The evidence cited in the report could fuel a continuing controversy over claims that the FBI and some local police departments, notably New York City’s, have spied on American Muslims without a justifiable law enforcement reason for doing so. Among the examples in the report:
One fusion center drafted a report on a list of reading suggestions prepared by a Muslim community group, titled “Ten Book Recommendations for Every Muslim.” The report noted that four of the authors were listed in a terrorism database, but a Homeland Security reviewer in Washington chastised the fusion center, saying, “We cannot report on books and other writings” simply because the authors are in a terrorism database. “The writings themselves are protected by the First Amendment unless you can establish that something in the writing indicates planning or advocates violent or other criminal activity.”
A fusion center in California prepared a report about a speaker at a Muslim center in Santa Cruz who was giving a daylong motivational talk—and a lecture on “positive parenting.” No link to terrorism was alleged.
Another fusion center drafted a report on a U.S. citizen speaking at a local mosque that speculated that — since the speaker had been listed in a terrorism data base — he may have been attempting “to conduct fundraising and recruiting” for a foreign terrorist group.
“The number of things that scare me about this report are almost too many to write into this (form),” a Homeland Security reviewer wrote after analyzing the report. The reviewer noted that “the nature of this event is constitutionally protected activity (public speaking, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion.)”
The Senate panel found 40 reports — including the three listed above — that were drafted at fusion centers by Homeland Security officials, then later “nixed” by officials in Washington after reviewers “raised concerns the documents potentially endangered the civil liberties or legal privacy protections of the U.S. persons they mentioned.”
Despite being scrapped, however, the Senate report concluded that “these reports should not have been drafted at all.” It also noted that the reports were stored at Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a year or more after they had been canceled —a potential violation of the U.S. Privacy Act, which prohibits federal agencies from storing information on U.S. citizens’ First Amendment-protected activities if there is no valid reason to do so.
The report said the retention of these reports also appears to contradict Homeland Security’s own guidelines, which state that once a determination is made that a document should not be retained, “The U.S person identifying information is to be destroyed immediately.”
The investigation was led by the Republican staff of the subcommittee but the report was approved by chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich and Coburn. It stated that much basic information about the fusion centers – including exactly how much they cost the federal government — was difficult to obtain. Although the fusion centers are overseen by Homeland Security, they are funded primarily through grants to local governments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Although Homeland Security “was unable to provide an accurate tally,” the panel estimated the federal dollars spent on the centers between 2003 and 2011 at between $289 million and $1.4 billion.
The panel’s criticism of the fusion centers was shared in part by Michael Leiter, the former director of the National National Counter-Terrorism Center and now an NBC News analyst. “Since 9/11, the growth of state and local fusion centers has been exponential and regrettably in many instances it has produced an ill-planned mishmash rather than a true national system that is well-integrated with existing organizations like the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces,” Leiter wrote in an email when asked about the report.
In its response to the Senate panel , Homeland Security said that the canceled reports could still be retained “for administrative purposes such as audit and oversight.”
The report cited multiple examples of what it called fusion center reports that had little if any value to counterterrorism efforts.
One fusion center report cited described how a certain model car had folding rear seats to the trunk, a feature that it said could be useful to human traffickers. This prompted a Homeland Security reviewer to note that such folding rear seats are “featured on MANY different makes and model of vehicles” and “there is nothing of any intelligence value in this report.”
Another fusion center report, entitled “Possible Drug Smuggling Activity,” recounted the experiences of two state wildlife officials who spotted a pair of men in a bass boat “operating suspiciously” in the body of water off the U.S.-Mexico border. The report noted that the fishermen “avoided eye contact” and that their boat appeared to be low in the water, “as if it were laden with cargo” with high winds and choppy waters.
“The fact that some guys were hanging out in a boat where people normally do not fish MIGHT be an indicator of something abnormal, but does not reach the threshold of something we should be reporting,” a Homeland Security reviewer wrote, according to the Senate panel. “I … think that this should never have been nominated for production, nor passed through three reviews.”
In the Homeland Security Department’s response, spokesman Matt Chandler said the Senate subcommittee “refused to review relevant data, including important intelligence information pertinent to their findings.”
The senior Homeland Security official who spoke to NBC News said that, while the Senate panel reviewed fusion center reports from 2009 and 2010, a more recent June 2011 case in Seattle shows that a fusion center played a key role in helping to thwart a terrorist plot against a local U.S. military processing center.
Chandler added: “The (Senate) report fundamentally misunderstands the role of the federal government in supporting fusion centers and overlooks the significant benefits of this relationship to both state and local law enforcement and the federal government. Among other benefits, fusion centers play a key role by receiving classified and unclassified information from the federal government and assessing its local implications, helping law enforcement on the frontlines better protect their communities from all threats, whether it is terrorism or other criminal activities.”
[Intro:]
This one is dedicated to the suit-wearing arms dealers
To the champagne-sipping depleted uranium droppers[Hook:]
Keep your hand on your gun
Don’t you trust anyone
Keep your hand on your gun
Don’t you trust anyone
[Verse 1:]
First in my scope is BAE Systems
Specialize in killing people from a distance
Power is a drug and they feed the addiction
Immediate deletion of people’s existence
Who says what is and what isn’t legitimate resistance
To push these buttons you don’t need a brave heart
State of the art darts leave more than your face scarred
You might impress an A&R with your fake bars
Cause you probably think Rolls Royce only make cars
This is for the colonizers turned bomb-providers
Take this beef all the way back to Oppenheimer
They call it warfare but your wars aren’t fair
If they were there’d be suicide bombers in Arms Fairs
On a scam for the funds, they will mangle your son
If you try to speak out they will stamp on your tongue
To your land they will come till you stand up as one
It’s begun
[Hook:]
Keep your hand on your gun
Don’t you trust anyone
Keep your hand on your gun
Don’t you trust anyone
[Verse 2:]
Next in my scope is Lockheed Martin
They will tell you when the bombs need blastin’
Don’t think, just listen to the songs, keep dancin’
Do they really want us to have our own brains
Who do you think is really running Guantanamo Bay
And it might be sensitive but I’ll mention it
Who do you think has got us filling out the censuses
Who do you think is handing out the sentences
This ain’t the BBC so there’s no censorship
Heard of many mercenaries gettin’ with the clever pimp
Not a gun seller but none’s better than Erik Prince
Make money off many things, mainly it’s crime
This one is dedicated to the Raytheon 9
On a scam for the funds, they will mangle your son
If you try to speak out they will stamp on your tongue
To your land they will come till you stand up as one
It’s begun
[Hook:]
Keep your hand on your gun
Don’t you trust anyone
Keep your hand on your gun
Don’t you trust anyone
In news that is likely to surprise absolutely no one, Tim Pawlenty — who recently stepped down as Mitt Romney’s campaign co-chair in order to pursue a career as a lobbyist for the banking industry– has announced that the best way to prevent further apocalyptic financial meltdowns from occuring is to allow banks to “voluntarily” regulate themselves. (Just as a quick reminder, The Daily Dolt is not a satire website. This is an actual thing that Tim Pawlenty actually said, out loud, to other human beings who were alive during the 2008 Wall Street crisis.)
Pawlenty, the former Republican governor of Minnesota and unsuccessful presidential candidate, announced last week that he was stepping down as co-chairman of the Romney campaign in order to head the Financial Services Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents some of the largest financial services companies in the country. In his first press conference since announcing his new role, Pawlenty asked banks to “voluntarily” stop doing “stupid things”:
[Pawlenty] said he was asked while interviewing for the Roundtable job about how financial institutions can regain the public’s trust.
“I said, ‘Stop doing stupid things,’” Pawlenty said while sitting in the Roundtable’s Washington offices.
“These are large organizations with tens of thousands of employees in many cases. There is always going to be some individual doing something that’s off track. That’s human nature. But the obligation and the opportunity of the organizations is to put controls in place and a culture in place that minimizes the likelihood of that, but does it voluntarily.”
Pawlenty is not alone in his scorn for financial regulation. Mitt Romney has previously said he would “like to repeal [the] Dodd-Frank [law],” which was enacted to prevent another financial crisis like the one that occurred in 2008. “The extent of regulation in the banking industry has become extraordinarily burdensome following Dodd-Frank,” Romney told a roundtable of 18 businessmen last year at the ironically named restaurant, The Common Man.
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Hey, speaking of capitalism, remember that thing you’ve totally been meaning to buy on Amazon recently? How about you go do that now?Because then we make money, which will allow us to quit our day job to write for the Dolt full-time, which means more political fart jokes for everyone, which in turn is good for you. See? It’s the Circle of Capitalism. Aww, Tim Pawlenty would be so proud of all of us right now.
As we move forward
Anytime you come closer to something
Your vision should get clearer
Am I right?
[K-Rino]
You are a tool and the hidden hand is using you
Please don’t be delusional
The rulers of this world practice confusing me
The people and the Priest and the Imam’s
Have been jammed by government scams
Mind systematically programmed
Blatant black hatred and racism
The way they laced the whole world and nation with traces of Satanism
Misplaces of paganism
The Founding Fathers enslaving
And tensions were no different then Bushes and Reagan’s vision
1776 they took action
This Illuminati took form and was spawn from a Colombian faction
Just flip your one dollar bill over
And if you want me to expose the true code of deception, I will show ya
We live in a designed wicked system
The number 13 is consistent in Masonic symbolism
It represents transformation, 12 completes the cycle
So 13 is rebirth and regeneration
The meanings of this symbol are strategically hid
On the left side you see a 13 layered pyramid
Over that, sits the The All-Seeing Eye where the light shines
A sign of the Devil watching over you at all times
With the words “Annuit cptis”
13 letters meaning “He has favored our undertakings”
Will you accept this?
Or will you learn the science and ignore ’em
Under the pyramid you see “Novus ordo seclorum”
Translated: “New Order of the World, or the New World Order”
Authors and Satanic fathers of mass slaughter
The Eagle that you see on the right
Sits below 13 stars with a shield that has 13 stripes
And an Olive branch in its claws with 13 leaves
Which is suppose to be in its talon to represent peace
But peace was always on a decrease
His other claw holds 13 arrows of war set to be released
And the letters at the bottom of the pyramid are fixed
With the Roman Numerals that equal 1776
The United States of America exists
In a deep devilish abyss with truth and paganism mixed
Every President that ever lived was foul
They gather at Bohemian Grove where they bow down before the Owl
See the Owl is wise and sees through the darkest of night
And there’s a small one on the dollar near the one on the top right
It ain’t hard to understand this government was never for us
The Eagle was based off the Egyptian god Horus
The 13 colonies grew into wicked sovereignty
And made no apology for the obvious idolatry
Subconsciously we follow the ways of the BEAST
And pay homage to pagan gods when we say the days of the week
Like Sunday, they worship the Sun
Monday, is Moon’s Day
Tr the god of war was worshipped on Tuesday
Odin the Chief god is who Wednesday is named for
Thursday is Thor’s Day, god of thunder, the mighty Thor
Friday was named after Frigga notice the pattern
Saturday is the Roman god of agriculture Saturn
Frigga was the goddess of love the wife of Odin
The polytheistic theology needed decoding
The rituals like trips across the sand this man takes
The skull and bones fraternity, the secret handshakes
But understand he receives only 33 degrees
He secretly believes in Lucifer and other deities
Many powerful and rich people are controlled by these
They even hold the soul of several of your favorite emcees
Politicians thinning lies, tongues whittled with thorns
And use hand gestures shaped in the form of Devil horns
You don’t feel the city home cuz you don’t know what it entails
Satan tampers with stem cells and sprays chemtrails
The so-called holidays are hypocrisy
Established to use religious doctrines to commit annual robbery
Christmas split in half is Christ Mas
The so-called birth of Jesus where every home has glowing lights cast
Christ the anointed One, mass the birth celebration
But Jesus’ birth was kept secret due to the situation
The King initiated a death plot
Cuz a Messiah was prophesied to rule so Jesus’ murder was authorized
No one knows the actual date
That’s why sometimes you see ‘Xmas’
X means unknown but ignorance affects us
A fraud that was purposely flawed
December 25th is the birthday of the wicked ruler Nimrod
This whole disguise is part of Satan’s universal wise
A Holy Prophet’s life being pimped and commercialized
Traditions like lights on trees
Rooted in the Nicaea Council in 325 AD by Constantine
These matters would decreed
The concept of a virgin birth was actually conceived and then agreed
With graven images in the temple
The fish on your car is called Oannes, a Babylonian symbol
It’s visibly contradictory, telling your children lies
You need to make them study Santa Clause’s sick history
But yet we go wherever Satan leads us
The falsehoods we practice in his name ain’t got nothing to do with Jesus
city of El Perú-Waka’ in the rain forest of northern Guatemala. Alongside the body, excavators found a white jar shaped like a conch shell with the head and arm of a woman carved at the opening. The artifact had four hieroglyphs that suggest it belonged to K’abel.
Because then we make money, which will allow us to quit our day job to write for the Dolt full-time, which means more political fart jokes for everyone, which in turn is good for you. See? It’s the Circle of Capitalism. Aww, Tim Pawlenty would be so proud of all of us right now. 
