Army Brig. General Mark Martins, the government’s lead prosecutor on war crimes, insisted that his office was not using classification to cover up any embarrassing episodes, stating that there are “important narrow occasions” where the government may classify information “to protect national security interests.”  Still, the motion has already attracted negative attention from critics of the Pentagon court, which uses the motto “Fairness – Transparency – Justice.”  Yale law professor Eugene Fidell likened the motion to playing charades in the dark.  Even before news of the classified motion was released, a defense attorney filed a motion in May opposing any closure of future motions against al-Nashiri.

Military hearings at Guantanamo have been criticized for some time due to concerns over secrecy and the legitimacy of hearings against detainees, and this news will only add fuel to the fire.  The government is seeking the death penalty against al-Nashiri, and anything less than full disclosure of the government’s case against him leads to serious questions regarding the fairness of military trials against detainees.  In fact, Professor Fidell was quoted as saying,

“We’re supposed to be talking about the rule of law. You can have an all-star team of justices – Cardozo, Brandeis, Holmes, John Marshall, Stevens, Brennan, take your pick – and if they’re working in a closet you can forget about it in terms of public confidence in the administration of justice.”

The timing of this news was poor for the government in light of the recent leak of information regarding the NSA’s surveillance scandal.  With public concern regarding government secrecy rapidly growing, we should expect a great deal of criticism regarding the use of classified motions against detainees at Guantanamo.  And when the stakes are so high, we should be calling for more transparency and legitimacy in trials against detainees.

Chris Whitten, Research Fellow
Center for Policy and Research

Robert DuBois discusses Powerful Peace

The first is the Syrian rebel shelling of Shi’ite villages in Lebanon in retaliation for Hezbollah involvement in Syria (reported in the bottom half of this NYT article).  While it is all too natural to want to strike back at those who have wounded you or killed the people you care about, I do not see how this tactic will do anything but mobilize greater Hezbollah involvement in Syria on the side of the regime.  In an age before rockets, when fighting was more local and attacks could be repulsed, then a sensible tactic to draw an enemy away from a location was to attack a place they cared about more, so that they would race to protect the second place and abandon the first.  But with indiscriminate rocket fire, if Hezbollah fighters were still in Shi’ite towns in Lebanon, they would not be able to protect anyone there.  No doubt the Syrian rebels are hoping to discourage further Hezbollah attacks on the theory that any attack from Hezbollah will result in further attacks on the Hezbollah fighters’ families.  I suspect the Hezbollah fighters will view these attacks, even apart from the personal desire for revenge stirred up by casualties, as further evidence that they need to support the Assad regime against rebel groups that would shell their villages and kill their families.  This tactic is more likely to confirm Hezbollah involvement than diminish it.

The other rebel misstep comes from Aleppo, where jihadi rebels abducted, tortured, and then publicly executed a fifteen-year-old boy for blasphemy against Muhammad.  (The Telegraph reported that the particular group was the Islamic State of Iraq, while al-Jazeera (Arabic) blamed the execution on Jabhat al-Nusra.  Both groups are affiliated with al-Qa’ida, and according to al-Jazeera the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq declared the two groups unilaterally merged, until overruled a few days ago by al-Qa’ida’s top leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.)  Al-Jazeera (English) reported that the alleged “blasphemy” occurred in a phrase commonly used in colloquial Syrian Arabic, and that the executioners were mostly composed of foreign fighters speaking other dialects.  While one can understand the religious reasoning that goes into this decision, it is also easy to see that criminalizing a local idiom (on pain of death) will quickly breed widespread popular resentment, and executing a fifteen-year-old boy will make parents with younger children wary of the group.  After last week’s re-capture of al-Qusayr by the regime, everyone is expecting a regime battle for Aleppo in the near future, and this summary abduction, torture, and execution will make the populace of Aleppo much less inclined to support the jihadi rebels during that battle.  Indeed, the execution of the teenager might provide the Assad regime with enough additional support to enable it to regain Aleppo itself.  The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights described the act, as paraphrased by al-Jazeera, as “a gift to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” and that is what it is.

Both the loyalists and the rebels in Syria have committed innumerable criminal acts during the war, in an attempt to capitalize on Machiavelli‘s famous dictum in The Prince that rulers can rule through fear or through love, but it is “safer” and easier to rule through fear.  Perhaps the Syrian Civil War is giving the lie to the Renaissance Italian political theorist.

Most of the new information about the NSA’s PRISM program came from the whistleblower himself, Edward Snowden, and ex-CIA employee.  Snowden is currently living in Hong Kong to avoid prosecution by the federal government for leaking the story.  He provided The Guardian, the British news agency that first broke the story, with a 12-minute video interview that you can watch here.  In the interview, Snowden claimed to have had the authority to spy on any American citizen, including the President.  He claimed to have leaked the information because of some of the same concerns I voiced last week.  In particular, he said that he did not want to live in a society that secretly monitors its citizens, especially those who have done nothing wrong.

So basically what we have learned is that between the CIA and NSA, the federal government had virtually unlimited power to monitor U.S. citizens, even those in the most powerful positions.  It would appear that the government needed no probable cause of any kind to place surveillance on these people.  I think it’s safe to say that most people’s initial reaction to any instance of government surveillance is outrage.  As I said before, we are a freedom- and privacy-loving people.  But it’s also important to look at all perspectives before jumping to conclusions.

First things first, the government is not in an enviable position.  Charged with protecting over 300 million citizens, agencies like the NSA and CIA have a monumental task in detecting and thwarting terrorist attacks against the United States.  Incidents like 9/11 and the Boston Marathon attacks showed just how susceptible we can be to terrorism without implementing a proactive approach.  Because of this, there seems to be a general consensus that the government must have some type of surveillance and intelligence gathering programs.  The trouble is in deciding just how extensive and intrusive these programs should be.  If the government backs off on its surveillance programs and an attack occurs, the public will be outraged and ask why more wasn’t done to protect them.  On the other hand, in situations like this where the government is perceived as having gone too far, the public is also outraged.  The happy medium, if it exists at all, would be extremely difficult to find.  So if the public is going to be outraged regardless of which stance the government takes, it makes sense to some extent that the government would take a proactive stance that might actually prevent attacks and prevent American deaths.

Second, we have to look at what the government was searching for in the records acquired from Verizon.  So far, it appears that the NSA was not listening to individual phone calls or audio recordings.  From what we know thus far the NSA was simply analyzing data for patterns that might uncover terrorist activity within the U.S., which most would consider a legitimate government concern.  Nothing so far points to the government using the collected data for censorship purposes, or anything unrelated to preventing terrorism for that matter.

Having said that, I am not trying to convince anybody that the government did the right thing.  Determining what the right thing even is in this situation is an extremely difficult task, and there probably isn’t a concrete answer.  There is certainly a chance that the government may abuse its power any time it monitors its citizens, but we still don’t have all the facts to make a determination on whether or not they were.  And, especially at a time when confidence in our government is so low, public outcry against the NSA is understandable and maybe warranted.  Even so, when we look at this situation we have to keep it in perspective.  One of the government’s many jobs, and more specifically the NSA’s job, it to protect the public from terrorist attacks, and so far it looks like that is what the PRISM program is intended to do.  More facts are sure to come to light in the following days and weeks, and we might want to reserve judgment until then.

Chris Whitten, Research Fellow
Center for Policy and Research

Hell Must Have Froze Over

The Fact that CBS or any net has finally broken a story on our resident POS is very encouraging. I think they have had enough. 

—————————————————————————————————-

CBS News: U.S. State Department Cover-Ups Range From Prostitution Charges to Drug Rings

http://washington.cbslocal.com
           June 10, 2013 9:44 AM

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – Uncovered documents show the U.S. State Department may have covered up allegations of illegal behavior ranging from sexual assaults to an underground drug ring.

CBS News reports that is has unearthed documents from the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), an internal watchdog agency, that implicate the State Department in a series of misconducts worldwide.

The memo, reported by CBS News’ John Miller, cited eight specific examples, including allegations that a State Department security official in Beirut “engaged in sexual assaults” with foreign nationals hired as embassy guards and the charge and that members of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail “engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries” — a problem the report says was “endemic.”

Former State Department internal investigator Aurelia Fedenisn told CBS News, “We also uncovered several allegations of criminal wrongdoing in cases, some of which never became cases.”

Often times, other DSS agents were simply told to back off of investigations of high-ranking State Department members. Fedenisn told CBS that “hostile intelligence services” allow criminal behavior to continue.

In one such cover-up, investigators were told to stop probing the case of a U.S. ambassador who was suspected of patronizing prostitutes in a public park. The memo states that the ambassador was permitted to return to his post despite having, “routinely ditched…his protective security detail” in order to “solicit sexual favors from prostitutes.”

A draft of the Inspector General’s report on the performance of the Diplomatic Security Service, obtained by CBS News, states, “Hindering such cases calls into question the integrity of the investigative process, can result in counterintelligence vulnerabilities and can allow criminal behavior to continue.”

Fedenisn was part of the team that drafted the whistleblower report, and CBS News reports that two hours after the charges were reported, investigators from the State Department’s Inspector General showed up at her door.

A statement to CBS News states, “It goes without saying that the Department does not condone interference with investigation by any of its employees.”

~Steve~                                        H/T  Drudgereport.com

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/06/10/cbs-news-u-s-state-department-cover-ups-range-from-prostitution-charges-to-drug-rings/

NSA domestic spying = old news

If you’re carrying a cell phone in your pocket, you have a GPS device (chip) on your person. And, unless you take the battery out, the NSA knows where you are at all times, and can even turn the phone on when it’s off (with the battery in) and use it as a listening device.

When it comes to “intercepting” communications, the government has redefined the term “intercepting” to mean “looking through the content gathered”. The government gathers all our data, and it gets warrants to look through our data whenever it wishes to do so. No warrant to gather content is required, only to look through it. This is what was referred to after 9/11 as “new tools for law enforcement”, which meant: no Bill of Rights for suspected terrorists, which included all of us. The NY mafia suffered from this same “no Bill of Rights fate” before 9/11, when “new tools for law enforcement” were needed in order to use the content, which had (for years) been gathered by intercepting their communications, so that the government could, with these “new tools”, use this data against them in court in order to prosecute them, which the government did.

A Florida professor, Sami Al-Arian, suffered this same “no Bill of Rights” fate when, after 9/11, the Patriot Act, with its “new tools for law enforcement”, was implemented, and all the data the government had (for years) been gathering on him  by intercepting his communications could, with these “new tools”, be used against him in court. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_Al-Arian

The NSA domestic spying story is, in fact, old “news”.

NSA whistleblower William Binney resigned from the NSA years ago because the spying program he engineered (=Stellar Wind) was pointed at the American peoples immediately after September 11, 2001. He also filed suit in US federal court against the Bush government concerning this long ago, too.

Why isn’t Mr. Binney, a 32 year NSA employee and the inventor of Stellar Wind, on the news this morning? Why all the hoopla about a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor repeating the same story, in much less detail?

Binney was in fact in a New York Times piece, last year (=2012), wherein he explains all of this, and on Democracy Now, but why is he not in the mainstream media stream today?

Inside the NSA’s Domestic Surveillance Apparatus: Whistleblower William Binney Speaks Out

“William Binney describes how his former agency has built a massive system to track, monitor and record phone and Internet communications of U.S. citizens and people around the world. Binney resigned from the National Security Agency in 2001 to protest growing domestic surveillance. He was a senior NSA crypto-mathematician largely responsible for automating the agency’s worldwide eavesdropping network. He was one of the two co-founders of the agency’s Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center. He resigned after the Sept. 11 attacks. In 2012 he gave his first ever television interview to Democracy Now!”

Source: (VIDEO) – Democracy Now: Inside the NSA’s Domestic Surveillance Apparatus: Whistleblower William Binney Speaks Out - 
http://tinyurl.com/mpgo8kd

The National Security Agency’s Domestic Spying Program

“It took me a few days to work up the nerve to phone William Binney. As someone already a “target” of the United States government, I found it difficult not to worry about the chain of unintended consequences I might unleash by calling Mr. Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency turned whistle-blower. He picked up. I nervously explained I was a documentary filmmaker and wanted to speak to him. To my surprise he replied: “I’m tired of my government harassing me and violating the Constitution. Yes, I’ll talk to you.”

“Two weeks later, driving past the headquarters of the N.S.A. in Maryland, outside Washington, Mr. Binney described details about Stellar Wind, the N.S.A.’s top-secret domestic spying program begun after 9/11, which was so controversial that it nearly caused top Justice Department officials to resign in protest, in 2004.”

Source: The New York Times – August 22, 2012 – The National Security Agency’s Domestic Spying Program – The Program –
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-security-agencys-domestic-spying-program.html?_r=0

The DoD (ARPA) created the internet, and social media networks like MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook were created by DoD (DARPA) for CIA and NSA domestic spying purposes. Geospatial social networking is an integral part of NSA’s Stellar Wind domain timeline data gathering domestic surveillance program.

“Facebook was setup by the C.I.A. Try telling that to most people and they laugh at it. People seem to think its a coincidence that Facebook seems to be so intrusive over and over again. Privacy policies that would make anyone scratch their head. I’m not going to beat around the bush with this blog post. Facebook was setup by the C.I.A. as a data mining project to collect as much information on as many people as they could. Not only that but it also has very strong ties to D.A.R.P.A. The purpose of this data mining project that became Facebook was to find out a boat load of things on people. Where they are going. What they are doing. What airline are they using Who do they associate with What type of books or movies have you been reading. How you feel about things politically. The list goes on and on. Before I elaborate let me say that my prior statement about Facebook being setup by the C.I.A. isn’t a theory or a hunch. If you simply follow the money its quite easy to see what is going on. Before we follow this money trail, just think about this.”

01/19/2012 – Facebook And It’s Connections To The C.I.A. And D.A.R.P.A. by Brian S Staveley –
http://www.therealnewsonline.com/2/post/2012/01/facebook-and-its-connections-to-the-cia-and-darpa.html

VIDEO – NSA Whistleblower: Everyone in US under virtual surveillance, all info stored, no matter the post –

VIDEO – NSA [contractor] whistleblower Edward Snowden: ‘I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things’ – video –
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jun/09/nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden-interview-video

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool

“The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone’s microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a “roving bug,” and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.”

Source: FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool –
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html

See: “The CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, all use WordPress” - 
http://wp.me/pPnn7-1Tz

VIDEO – Andy Griffith Vs the Patriot Act - 

You’re not doing anything wrong; therefore you’ve nothing to worry about? Think again:

“The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior.”

See: Harvey Silverglate, Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent - 

VIDEO – NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake speaks at National Press Club – March 15, 2013 –

The heavy hand of totalitarianism, which we’re now experiencing, didn’t originate with B. Obama, nor with G.W. Bush, but with R. Reagan and G.H.W. Bush…

See: 9/11, Iran-Contra, and Treason - 
http://wp.me/pPnn7-1rg

VIDEO – Alternative Views – UNDER THE BUSH WITH THE CIA  – CIA Operation CYCLONE, NWO, Afghanistan, Bush Senior, CIA Drug trafficking (1989) –

VIDEO – Alternative Views: A SIGNATURE—AND FASCISM! (1989) – It’s morning again in Gulags NDAA America: Building a path for Bush-Obama era USA –

On Wednesday, the Guardian published a secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over data for all the calls made on its network on an “ongoing, daily basis.” Other revelations about surveillance of phone and digital communications have followed.

That the National Security Agency has engaged in such activity isn’t entirely new: Since 9/11, we’ve learned about large-scale surveillance by the spy agency from a patchwork of official statements, classified documents, and anonymously sourced news stories.

 

This is an example of the slippery slope. Almost all of Congress supported the Patriot Act when it was passed, and few Americans protested (yes, I WAS one of the protesters.) But now that we have started down the slippery slope that is the Patriot Act, they are finding more and more ways to infringe on our privacy. And at first glance, it seems fairly innocuous– they collect metadata regarding calls made in which one of the participants is outside of the US. Then they may initiate further surveillance and tap the phones. Who can complain about that?

Except my future son-in-law has family in the UK and calls them frequently. Now surely none of them would show up on the surveillance radar– but how do we know that, because we don’t know how they select the phones which will be tapped and whose phones they select? My almost son-in-law has a fairly common name, and we know from the experience my dh, Bill Robinson, has had at airports since 9-11 that merely having a name that is similar to someone who is on the Watch List is enough to warrant additional screening at the airport. Either that, or Bill, himself, is on the Watch list, which given his history of writing letters to the editor criticizing the Bush Administration is not inconceivable.

Then, I have another friend with family in Iran. They also speak frequently on the phone. Well we KNOW that anybody who lives in Iran is automatically suspect, right? (No, I don’t really believe that, but there are many who do!) So are they being tapped?

I have FaceBook friends who are from Pakistan, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries. We became friends when I was playing Farmville and have remained friends. I’ve even chatted with a few of them on FB Chat. I don’t really know much about any of them, but what if by virtue of our FB chats and the fact that we are FB friends, any of us comes under suspicion?

Even if the current situation is not unreasonable, how do we know that the next permutation of this act won’t be? The Act started in 2001 allowing the sharing of “tangible” data such as tax forms,  books, business records and library check out records. It wasn’t till 2006 that we found out about the warrantless data mining of phone records. Then in 2007, the FBI and NSA started getting access to info from Microsoft, and in subsequent years Apple and Google. Well crap! That suddenly makes my Yahoo Account feel much more secure than the Google Account I’ve held for years as my very private email account. And with the purchase of my last Android phone and my iPAD, I now make frequent purchases through Google Check Out. So does that mean that the government now knows how much time I waste playing Angry Birds? Or are they tracking my purchase of John Denver Music with suspicion since he was known as a hippie peace freak?

The trouble is, it’s hard to argue with a program that has apparently been a factor in preventing further terrorist attacks in the US. It’s hard to argue with success. But how much are we willing to give up for that security? On the one hand, it’s easy for me to say that the government is welcome to look at any of my phone records, Amazon book orders and Angry Bird purchases they want– but there are a few problems with that– what if they start tracking what I watch on TV? What if they start instructing their satellite cams to zoom in on my house? How do I know they aren’t already doing so?

And what if they start taking a perfectly innocuous action of mine– and decide it’s suspicious? We’ve all had the experience of surfing the web and being pulled into a website we really didn’t want to see by inadvertently clicking on something else. Or, sometimes, in my attempt to learn about a subject, I might inadvertently  end up on a website the NSA has marked as suspicious. Will they then increase their surveillance of me? Start tapping my phones? Start reading my emails? Do I have anything in there I don’t want the government to read or know about?

Well, I have, on rare occasions,  criticized Obama. I’ve criticized Dubya and Cheney a lot, and if Cheney is still running things from his secret bunker as some have claimed, I might be in trouble. I have also frequently criticized the Patriot Act, right wing politics and Faux News. I’ve said, more than once, that Gitmo should be closed. Does that open me up to greater suspicion?

Many think that my aforementioned dh has become an apologist for Islam as he frequently argues against the anti-Muslim hysteria that we frequently encounter here in the US and in Texas. Does that automatically open him and me up to more suspicion?

It’s easy to scoff and say, “My life is an open book and the government is welcome to poke through my underwear drawer any time they like.” But are they really? If the organization doing the searching is determined to find something, I am not so sure that they won’t be able to dig up something. I did send a letter to President Nixon when I was a very little girl. In the letter I expressed my concern about the POW/MIA situation in Viet Nam. Clearly my anti-government tendencies go way back! (And no, I didn’t do it as a school assignment. It was of my own volition. I even got a letter back from him that my parents told me had his actual signature. I still have the letter somewhere.)

I do jaywalk rather frequently as it is the only way to get across the street in Fort Worth, and I have run the occasional red light and driven the wrong way down a one way street. I even go more than five miles above the speed limit on occasion.

I sent dirty letters to my husband when he was in Officer Training School in San Antonio, and I wore a black armband when Ronald Reagan was elected. I inhaled some second hand marijuana smoke while standing in line for a concert. I have muttered imprecations against the Catholic Church on more than one occasion. So I clearly am not as pure as the driven snow.

It seems kind of silly for me to be worried about this government erosion of our privacy, because I REALLY don’t have anything to hide. Yet, I am worried. How much more has the government failed to reveal about their data mining? And where do we draw the line and say enough is enough?

Santa Monica – June 7, 2013

Socialism, School shootings, and the Psychopathic Society

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy, and thus, those who are against it must be mad.”

Source: Political Abuse of Psychiatry—An Historical Overview –
http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/1/33.full

When the recent shooting at Santa Monica College took place, I went back through my gmail “lockdown” alerts to discover this college – and other schools in the area – had, during May, experienced a series of frightening and suspicious active shooter alerts.

Santa Monica College had an active shooter lockdown event on May 16, 2013. No shooter was, in fact, found in the school, although an unarmed student was arrested for making threats.

A student who witnessed the July 7, 2013 active shooter incident at Santa Monica College says a climate of fear has long been pervading the school, because of the earlier May 16 active shooter incident, although no shooter was present at the school, as well as recent bomb threats at the school, and that, in addition to these, she also thinks this shooting – and the overall climate of fear – is related to the recent Boston bombings and, in addition, she says some students at the school are also saying a soon to be released Hollywood film: “The Purge” is adding to this pervasive climate of fear and may in fact be related to all of these fearful events. (See the 2nd video titled: “Student describes scene at Santa Monica shooting” at this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/16/santa-monica-college-lockdown_n_3286760.html
– Note – you’ll have to skip ahead to this in order to find it, or simply wait for it to play in order.)

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy…”

“The Purge”

“In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity-including murder-becomes legal. The police can’t be called. Hospitals suspend help. It’s one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment. On this night plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking. When an intruder breaks into James Sandin’s (Ethan Hawke) gated community during the yearly lockdown, he begins a sequence of events that threatens to tear a family apart. Now, it is up to James, his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), and their kids to make it through the night without turning into the monsters from whom they hide.”

See: “The Purge” (IMDb) –
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2184339/

See: The Purge: 5 Ways to Prepare for Lockdown - 
http://www.eonline.com/news/427921/the-purge-5-ways-to-prepare-for-lockdown

VIDEO – The Purge Official Trailer #1 (2013) – Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey Thriller HD –

June 7, 2013 – Shooter Detained At Santa Monica College, Campus On Lockdown

“Three people were wounded at Santa Monica College Friday afternoon after an active shooter reportedly entered the campus and fired multiple shots near the school’s library and on nearby streets, according to authorities… The suspect was found in the school’s library and taken into custody. The extent of the injuries were not immediately known, according to the Los Angeles Times.”

Source: Shooter Detained At Santa Monica College, Campus On Lockdown –
http://www.neontommy.com/news/2013/06/shooter-detained-smc-campus-lockdown

June 7, 2013 – Santa Monica gunman shot dead after killing 6

“In a series of violent confrontations Friday, a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle killed as many as six people and wounded at least five others before being shot dead by police inside the Santa Monica College library, police said.

A “person of interest” was also taken into custody, but it was not immediately clear whether he was involved in the shooting spree, which began just before noon PT (3 p.m. ET).”

Source: USA Today – Santa Monica gunman shot dead after killing 6 –
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/07/santa-monica-college-shooting/2401919/

VIDEO – News Conference on Santa Monica College Mass Shooting, California – 6/7/13 –

Witness: Santa Monica shooting suspect ‘looked like a SWAT team member’ –
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/07/witness-santa-monica-shooting-suspect-looked-like-a-swat-team-member/

June 7, 2013 – Gunman in Santa Monica shooting rampage that left four dead ‘murdered his father and brother, set their home ablaze and then opened fire on random vehicles outside Santa Monica college’

Source: Daily Mail – Gunman in Santa Monica shooting rampage that left four dead ‘murdered his father and brother - 
http://tinyurl.com/m2lqqm9

SANTA MONICA, CA – JUNE 07: California Highway Patrol Officers contain a scene at Santa Monica College after multiple shootings

May 16, 2013 – Santa Monica College Lockdown: Report Of Gunman On Campus, Other Schools Also On Lockdown (VIDEO, UPDATES)

“Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, Calif. was placed on lockdown Thursday morning after police received a call of a gunman on campus, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Students were told to stay off of campus as police investigate the threat. John Adams Middle School and Will Rogers Elementary in Santa Monica were also placed on lockdown.

An unidentified male student described by police as suicidal was arrested on campus shortly after 9:30 a.m., CBS reports. It was unclear if he had a weapon in his possession.”

Source: Santa Monica College Lockdown: Report Of Gunman On Campus, Other Schools Also On Lockdown (VIDEO, UPDATES) –
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/16/santa-monica-college-lockdown_n_3286760.html

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy…”

Like the film: “The Purge”, the original Star Trek episode: “The Return of the Archons” also had a plot wherein a planet had a crime-free society, but only because its citizen were allowed (read: required) to run amok for “festival” (6 pm – 6 am  = “The Red Hour”), which allowed them to release their pent-up, evil desires, in exchange for their “crime-free” society.

The Return of the Archons

“The Enterprise travels to Beta III to learn the fate of the U.S.S. Archon, gone missing a century earlier. One member of the landing party disappears, and one returns in a strangely blissful state. Kirk beams down with another landing party; amidst the chaos of “Festival” their hosts asks if they are “Archons.” To learn more, Kirk must convince Betan citizens to disobey Landru, the man who has ruled them for 6,000 years – or find those who already resist. But with the Lawgivers everywhere, that task is going to be difficult…”

See: “The Return of the Archons” (IMDb) – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708476/

VIDEO – (Clip) Classic Star Trek: “The Return of the Archons” –

VIDEO – (FULL) Classic Star Trek: “The Return of the Archons” –
http://www.StarTrek.com/watch_episode/9Hl10CboNevN

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy…”

The Socialist Borg?

“The Borg are a collection of species that have been turned into cybernetic organisms functioning as drones of the Collective, or the hive. A pseudo-race, dwelling in the Star Trek universe, the Borg force other species into their collective and connect them to “the hive mind”; the act is called assimilation and entails violence, abductions, and injections of cybernetic implants. The Borg’s ultimate goal is “achieving perfection”.

See: Borg (Star Trek) –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek
)

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy…”

Henrik Palmgren of Red Ice Radio

Sweden: The Socialist Model

Henrik Palmgren of Red Ice Radio is warning the world, especially America, that Sweden’s socialist utopia is, in fact, a hell on earth, wherein all citizens must conform by sublimating their individual freedoms, ambitions, desires, and emotions for the sake of the collectivists hive. As Palmgren, “The Purge”, and “The Return of the Archons” points out, this is a recipe for disaster, yet this is exactly where the fascist dictatorship now lording over the USSA is taking us: headlong into disaster and full blown tyranny.

“Alex Newman is an American freelance writer and the president of Liberty Sentinel Media Inc., a small media consulting firm. He is currently living in Sweden and has spent most of his life in Latin America, Europe and Africa. He has a degree in foreign languages and speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian and a little Swedish and Afrikaans. Newman also earned a degree in journalism from the University of Florida, with emphasis on economics and international relations. He joins us to discuss his article titled, Sweden’s Big Government ‘Utopia’ Unmasked. We’ll dig into the meat of Sweden’s totalitarian style socialist system, brilliantly rigged to create a collective mind of willing slaves who defend the system at all costs. Alex explains how this, with a few adjustments, is the globalists’ favored political system. Also, we’ll mention how this system is being brought to other places in the world. This socialist system seeks to destroy the middle class, to control the education of our children, to destroy the independent thinker and to crush the human spirit, all under the guise of equality for all.”

Red Ice Radio – Alex Newman – Hour 1 – Sweden’s Big Government ‘Utopia’ Unmasked –

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy…”

An eye witness is comforted by a police officer. Three people were wounded Friday during a shooting in the Santa Monica College area, law enforcement sources told The Times.

Socialism, school shootings, and “security”

The government is behind the school (and other) shootings, active shooter drills, and the school (an other) lockdown training, as a way in which to induce fear and conformity in the community, for the good of the new, socialist collective, which used to be known as America, in which we and our freedoms were protected from such tyrannical abuses by the government(s) by a Bill of Rights and Constitution.

The Department of Homeland Security, since Sandy Hook, has been funding active shooter drills in schools, malls, and churches all over the new United Socialist States of America, with drills of this sort taking place virtually every day throughout our formerly great nation. These drills are, in fact, the means by which government agencies can introduce a real active shooter into the drill, making the drill go live, or to present the drill to the public, via mass media, as though it were a real active shooter event (e.g., Sandy Hook) when in fact it was not.

Our tyrannical government is creating a submissive population, especially via training our school children to be submissive, which is turning America from a land of freedom and opportunity into a land where “freedom” and “opportunity” means: “shelter in place” and “come out with your hands up”.

See: Critiquing the Boston Lockdown: The SWAT Goons Meet Sheriff Andy Taylor - 
http://wp.me/pPnn7-2fy

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy…”

Santa Monica – June 7, 2013

See: Kids can’t make gun noises in schools but the authorities can use guns while running full scale, realistic, and very scary active shooter drills in schools? –
http://wp.me/pPnn7-2h3

VIDEO – Sandy Hook – GRTV – Interview with Professor James Tracy –

VIDEO – The Dark Knight Massacre was staged – IT’S ALL CONNECTED –

Santa Monica – June 7, 2013

DHS Active Shooter Preparedness

‘The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) aims to enhance preparedness through a ”whole community” approach by providing training, products, and resources to a broad range of stakeholders on issues such as active shooter awareness, incident response, and workplace violence. In many cases, there is no pattern or method to the selection of victims by an active shooter, and these situations are by their very nature are unpredictable and evolve quickly. DHS offers free courses, materials, and workshops to better prepare you to deal with an active shooter situation and to raise awareness of behaviors that represent pre-incident indicators and characteristics of active shooters.”

See: DHS Active Shooter Preparedness –
http://www.dhs.gov/active-shooter-preparedness

“Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Chalmers Johnson for a discussion of his new book, Nemesis. In the interview, Johnson, an Emeritus Professor of the University of California, analyzes the impact of the American empire on democracy at home. Comparing the United States to Rome and Great Britain, he argues that a combination of military Keynesianism, the Bush administration’s attempt to implement a unitary presidency, and the failed checks on executive ambition point to political and economic bankruptcy.”

VIDEO – Conversations with History: Chalmers Johnson –

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals. But to be punished, however severely, because we have deserved it, because we ‘ought to have known better’, is to be treated as a human person made in God’s image.” ~ C. S. Lewis

Source: “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment”, by C.S. Lewis -
http://www.angelfire.com/pro/lewiscs/humanitarian.html

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy, and thus, those who are against it must be mad.”

Source: Political Abuse of Psychiatry—An Historical Overview –
http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/1/33.full

See: Gun control, mental health, and the end of the Second Amendment –
http://wp.me/pPnn7-2c0

See: Those against the regime must be mentally ill, and disarmed? –
http://wp.me/pPnn7-2gt

See: The DSM – Psychology and Psychiatry’s Subjective Sinking Ship –
http://wp.me/pPnn7-2jz

The heavy hand of totalitarianism, which we’re now experiencing, didn’t originate with B. Obama, nor with G.W. Bush, but with R. Reagan and G.H.W. Bush…

See: 9/11, Iran-Contra, and Treason - 
http://wp.me/pPnn7-1rg

VIDEO – Alternative Views: A SIGNATURE—AND FASCISM! (1989) – It’s morning again in Gulags NDAA America: Building a path for Bush-Obama era USA –

VIDEO – Alternative Views – UNDER THE BUSH WITH THE CIA  – CIA Operation CYCLONE, NWO, Afghanistan, Bush Senior, CIA Drug trafficking (1989) –

Peter Dale Scott

“Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America” – Peter Dale Scott – Professor Emeritus of English, University of California, Berkeley

VIDEO – Conversations With History – Peter Dale Scott –

“Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer, and researcher. He was born in Montreal in 1929. An anti-war speaker during the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, he was a co-founder of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at UC Berkeley, and of the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA). He is the author of several books including, The War Conspiracy (1972), The Iran-Contra Connection (1987),Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America (1991, 1998), Drugs Oil and War (2003), The Road to 9/11 (2007), and The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War (2008). In the first hour we revisit Breivik’s attack on Norway. We discuss his possible motivations, his connections and his alignment with Nick Greger. Peter explains why he refers to these attacks as “deep events” and gives examples of other systemic deep events. We’ll discuss false flag attacks as a strategy to bring in a new agenda. Peter points out similarities to Operation Gladio and Breivik’s model of attack.”

VIDEO – Red Ice Radio – Peter Dale Scott – Hour 1 – Norway’s Massacre, Breivik & Deep Events –

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy…”

Why Sweden is not the country you thought it was

“In this commentary Henrik Palmgren analyzes the recent civil unrest and rioting in the immigrant dense suburbs outside Stockholm, Sweden. He talks about the media climate in Sweden which has done everything they can to fuel the fires. Henrik explains why the different sides are both right and wrong. Once again he refutes the Nordic Model [= socialistic conformity] as the promoted future “super model.”

VIDEO – Why Sweden is not the country you thought it was – Red Ice Commentary –

The Psychopathic Society

“Mike Cross, author of Freedom from Conscience – Melanie’s Journey discusses psychopaths and their relation to politics, society and personal relationships. Mike, a former Oregonian now a resident of Stockholm, teaches psychology and international finance. We begin the first hour commenting on the Nordic model of government and society. Mike talks about how conformity within a society is an ideal system for the psychopath. We’ll also discuss how a “reverse Freud” is used to overthrow tradition and create revolution. Then, we’ll discuss repression within a society, which creates a sort of schizophrenia. Later, Mike tells us about the psychopath within government. He compares the politician’s psychopathy to arrested development.”

VIDEO – Red Ice Radio – Mike Cross – Hour 1 – Philosophy of a Psychopathic Society –

(Listen after 25:00 for references to “The Return of the Archons” and The Borg)

“Socialist ideology is focused on the establishment of the ideal society, where all are equal and all will be happy…”

  <

————————————— oops, watch your step…..    ~ Steve~ ………………

http://www.bizpacreview.com
        June 8, 2013 by Michael Dorstewitz

An Air Force video saluting first sergeants was ordered removed by the Pentagon because it mentions the word “God” which, top brass fears, may insult atheists or Muslims.         Boo Fricken Hoo!!!

( May I interject for a moment, Screw them and the sexual partner camel they rode in on.)  

Ahhchhhpatooeymed, You say the sweetest things to a girl. Uhh I mean Camel.

The video was based on the famous “So God made a farmer” commentary written and narrated by the late radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. The Harvey piece was later dusted off and used in a Dodge Ram Super Bowl commercial.

The first sergeant tribute was created by a Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst chaplain as a poem, which was later made into a video titled, “So God created a First Sergeant,” according to Fox News Radio’s Todd Starnes.

The chaplain leaders at the New Jersey joint Army, Navy and Air Force base gave the tribute its seal of approval, as did the the base command structure prior to publication. Shortly after is was posted on YouTube it came to the attention of the Pentagon.

“Proliferation of religion is not allowed in the Air Force or military,” wrote the chief of the Air Force News Service Division in an email obtained by Fox News. “How would an Agnostic, Atheist or Muslim serving in the military take this video?”

( You’ll forgive me , but )

“I would not recommend using this at all,” the chief wrote.

In addition to his objection of the video’s repeated use of the name “God,” the chief found its opening lines objectionable.

“The choice of ‘On the Eighth day’ verbiage to begin this video is highly suggestive from the book of Genesis in the Bible and has Christian overtones,” he wrote.

Well, to be fair, it would also have Jewish overtones. That leaves Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, Hindus and all the rest. But the video was never intended to be required viewing — even by Christians and Jews.

Nonetheless, the video was removed to assure it meets military “religious neutrality” standards.

“The Air Force removed the ‘God Created a First Sergeant’ video from the official Joint Base McGuire Dix YouTube site to evaluate whether it is consistent with official Air Force guidance, to include whether it meets official guidance governing religious neutrality in the Air Force as prescribed in Air Force Instruction 1-1, Air Force Culture,” spokesperson Ann Stefanek said in a statement.

One would think the Pentagon would have loftier concerns — apparently not.

One would also think that if the Harvey original, “So God made a farmer,” was appropriate to be disseminated to the general public on last Super Bowl Sunday, the Air Force chaplain’s “So God created a First Sergeant” would work for the military.

The Air Force must have turned into wusses.

Read more at Fox and watch the video causing the stir.

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/06/08/pentagon-removes-air-force-tribute-video-for-mentioning-god-75332

It is our contention and that of many other researchers that the War on Terror is nothing more that a Global effort for world empire by the Power Elite New World Order crowd. The reality is that America is the premiere Sponsor of Terrorism in the World, not the popular bad-guy regimes of Iran and Syria and the like. This doesn’t mean that they are blameless. Far from it – but they are far from being the prime movers of terrorism. That infamous award belongs to the Hammer of the Whole Earth – Amerika.

The US Governments global War on Terror is reminiscient of the George Orwell classic 1984, where the world was involved with an unending war against a faceless enemy, much like our bogus war against the faceless al-Kaeda. Richard Clark states that al-Kaeda was created for Saudi Arabia to bankroll Osama bin Laden, through the House of Saud in the Afghan war with Soviet Russia during the 1980′s and both Riyadh and Washington contributed upwards of $3.5 billion to the mujahadeen soldiers (al-kaeda).

This is the same time period where George Herbert Walker Bush was VP of the United States and went on to be president. We all know that George junior also became president in 2001. George W. Bush went on to declare a “Global War on Terror” after a covert black ops false flag event destroyed the Twin Towers.  The  Bush, saud, and bin Laden families have deep business and personal ties to one another. The bin Laden families was wisked out of the US right after 911.

Recently, a video surfaced showing Hillary Clinton openly acknowledging that America created and funded Al Qaeda. There is no mention, however, that the US Government which is wholly owned and operated by the NWO, ever ceased funding al-Kaeda  in the course of the last 30 years.
See Before It’s News for more details

Jesus with the woman at the well (John 4)

Hate, anger, revenge and the Christian counter-culture of love, compassion, and forgiveness

“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

The Sermon on the Mount

“Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:1-11)

VIDEO – Jesus Of Nazareth (Quote 9/10) – Speech On The Hill –

Anger

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 5:21-26)

With whom are we angry? Whom do we hate? Upon whom do we seek revenge? Our enemies? Our fellow human beings? Our brothers and sisters?

Love Your Enemies

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 5:43-48)

Our Father, who is in heaven, makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. We therefore must be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect, by blessing and forgiving those who sin against us.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Forgiveness

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 6:14-15)

But are we not right, and our enemies wrong? Are we not exceptional? Are we not so much better than our enemies? Are our enemies not savages? Inhuman monsters? Morally inferior to us? While we, alone, are good, humane, and noble?

Hypocrisy

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 7:3-5)

Should we not see ourselves in the places of those we hate and despise? Is it not by the grace of God, alone, that we are not as they are? Or: as we imagine they are? Are not all peoples the children of God? Are not all peoples brothers and sisters, who, all of us alike, have feet of clay?

The Golden Rule

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 7:12)

Should we not treat all peoples as fellow human beings? As a persons of inestimable dignity, worth, and value? Should we not love them instead of despising them, because they have beliefs and values that are different from ours? Or because they have wronged us, in some horrible way?

“Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality.” ~ Jaques Ellul

VIDEO – Faces of the Enemy –

“Once certain groups are stigmatized as evil, morally inferior, and not fully human, the persecution of those groups becomes more psychologically acceptable. Restraints against aggression and violence begin to disappear. Not surprisingly, dehumanization increases the likelihood of violence and may cause a conflict to escalate out of control.

Once a violence break over has occurred, it may seem even more acceptable for people to do things that they would have regarded as morally unthinkable before.”

See: Dehumanization –
http://www.beyondintractability.org/bi-essay/dehumanization

“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

VIDEO – Joshua Casteel: “To Love One’s Enemies” –

Joshua Casteel

But, who is to blame?  Many will say these programs began with Bush.  Others will say the PATRIOT Act gave birth to this surveillance state.  Did we surrender our privacy the moment we cried out for security? 

The job of the NSA and all other intelligence agencies is to gather intelligence.  You may add a period right there.  They gather intelligence with the intention of keeping this country and it’s citizens safe.  Safe from foreign interference.   Safe from attack by rogue nations and terrorists.  And, at times, safe from her own citizens.  That is what they do. 

The fact that these intelligence agencies are constantly developing new ways to gather that intelligence shouldn’t surprise anyone.  Again, its what they do.  As technology advances faster than anyone can keep up, of course there will be new ways to do their jobs.  They will seize upon that technology and apply it.  It should come as no surprise to anyone. 

Therefore, we should not blame them for these apparent assaults upon both the constitutional protections we enjoy and our expectation of privacy.  If it can be done, they will want to do it.  Think of it as the cop on the street finding new and creative ways to fight crime.  So long as crime is going down, not many people will complain about the method being used.  Not until it affects them personally.

So long as they can get away with it, they are going to do it. We should not fault them for “going overboard” in their pursuit of the best and most accurate intelligence. In fact, what I want in an intelligence agent, a law enforcer, and a warrior is someone who should need to be restrained. They should be zealous in their pursuit of our enemies. If in charge, I would require it, demand it, and would fire your ass if you failed to exhibit it.

This brings us to the restraints we place on our agents. To protect the rights and privacy of our citizens, there should be restraints. There should also be very informed, experienced, and rational people applying them. Should be. But it doesn’t seem to be the case.

At some point, someone approached the FISA court and said, “I want to collect data on millions of people who are not involved in any ongoing investigation. Nor are they expected to be at any point in the future.”

Somewhere, a judge, a man sworn to protect the constitution, said, “Sure! Sounds good to me.” And then signed the required documents.

Somewhere, a group of senators, also sworn to protect the constitution, during their oversight meetings said, “Yeah! That idea rocks. Go for it, dude.”

And in the halls of the Justice Department, Langley, Fort Meade, and the White House, a chorus of voices said, “We’re good with that.”

You see, it isn’t the fault of the zealous agent asking permission. Its the fault of those who failed to apply the restraints. Our President. Our Congressmen. Our Senators. Our lawyers. Our judges. Our system. They, in their lust for power and ever increasing reach, have failed to apply the very thing they swore to do: uphold the constitution.

We the citizens must now be responsible, rational, and zealous in our calls for it to stop. Shout it from the rooftops. Email your politicians. Write a letter to the editor. Now that we are aware of it, WE must do what we as citizens have been empowered to do. We are not subjects. We are not employees. WE THE PEOPLE must pull on the reins of this out of control horse.

Ross Elder

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.

The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley.

Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: “Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”

London’s Guardian newspaper reported Friday that GCHQ, Britain’s equivalent of the NSA, also has been secretly gathering intelligence from the same internet companies through an operation set up by the NSA.

According to documents obtained by The Guardian, PRISM would appear to allow GCHQ to circumvent the formal legal process required in Britain to seek personal material such as emails, photos and videos from an internet company based outside of the country.

PRISM was launched from the ashes of President George W. Bush’s secret program of warrantless domestic surveillance in 2007, after news media disclosures, lawsuits and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court forced the president to look for new authority.

Congress obliged with the Protect America Act in 2007 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunized private companies that cooperated voluntarily with U.S. intelligence collection. PRISM recruited its first partner, Microsoft, and began six years of rapidly growing data collection beneath the surface of a roiling national debate on surveillance and privacy. Late last year, when critics in Congress sought changes in the FISA Amendments Act, the only lawmakers who knew about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.

MORE . . . .

Related articles

• U.S. intelligence (NSA) mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program (12160.info)
• US intelligence mining data direct from MSFT, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, others (washingtonpost.com)
• PRISM – US Gov. mining data from Google, y, msn, skype, youtube, and FB (washingtonpost.com)
• By the numbers: The NSA’s super-secret spy program, PRISM (foreignpolicy.com)