Freedom Fighter Radio

The formation of the European Union (EU) is the ‘blueprint’ being used to construct the North American Union (NAU). In multiple acts of treason, our government is illegally creating the NAU by using secret meetings and deceptive double-speak to hide their ‘INCREMENTAL STEALTH’.
They are making MASSIVE changes to our bureaucratic-administrative-regulatory laws by calling them ‘HARMONIZATIONS.’ What they are doing is re-writing our legal regulatory law to the benefit of, by, and for the corporate elite, which is . . . classic fascism. The only difference between the creation of the EU and the NAU is that it took 55 years for the European free trade agreement to morph into the EU. Unless we can stop them, they will accomplish the NAU here in a BREATHTAKING 15 years. The One World Monopolists have already declared before our Congress, that our borders are to be eliminated by 2010. Are you ready for that?

Source: RawStory

This year, the Grinch is wearing blue instead of green.

On Christmas day, four Washington, D.C. police officers were caught on tape stealing from Toys for Tots, a charity organization that collects toys for poor children. The United States Marines led the group’s toy collection drive.

Yvonne Smith, the Washington, D.C. police department’s outreach coordinator, pleaded with the media for less focus on the crooked officers.

This “starts off Christmas on a sour note, puts distance between the community and the police, and worst of all, tarnishes the image of the Department during a time when we are trying to build strong relationships to foster trust that ultimately helps us solve crimes,” she wrote in an e-mail to D.C.-area media.

Smith added that officers with her department had never done anything like this before — both distributing, and stealing, the charitable toys.

“Please don’t let the Christmas story of the day be about an investigation of officers who make up .001 percent of the department,” she concluded. “Many many many more members made outstanding contributions during this holiday season to make a difference in the lives of families who are struggling.”

“Anytime we are involved in programs that have potential for abuse we ask for the assistance of our Internal Affairs to maintain the integrity of our department and our members,” said Police Chief Cathy Lanier. “In this case, I am sad to say that monitoring has uncovered some questionable behavior of a few of our members.”

No arrests have been made, but D.C. police say the officers have been placed on paid suspension pending the investigation’s conclusion. Chief Lainer has vowed to see the officers “prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

The military as NO BUSINESS engaging in domestic policing activities! If we allow the military to take over domestic policing, the Military will dispense entirely with civilian rule. Mark My Words!

As Jeff Stein, CQ National Security editor, wrote at the time, the Warner bill “virtually invites the White House to declare federal martial law, a fact noted by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt. “The changes to the Insurrection Act will allow the President to use the military, including the National Guard, to carry out law enforcement activities without the consent of a governor,” Leahy said.

The Armed Forces Press Service has initiated a propaganda campaign designed to convince the American people that deploying the 3rd Infantry Division in the United States in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is a good thing. The propaganda piece appeared on the Hinesville, Georgia, Coastal Courier’s website on December 26.

“The first active-duty unit dedicated to supporting U.S. civilian authorities in the event of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack recently wrapped up three days of intensive training its members hope they never have to apply in real life,” Donna Miles reports for the Armed Forces Press Service. “Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team got hands-on training in skills they would depend on to provide humanitarian support during a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident, known here as a CBRNE.”

In order to portray the military as humanitarian saviors, the Armed Forces Press Service included a photo of a soldier wielding the “jaws of life” during an exercise that included “buddie teams” recently returned from Iraq’s Anbar province removing mannequins from the rubble of a collapsed building.

Earlier this month, Branson Hunter, writing for the Big Bear Observation Post blog, reported on the Marine Corps Air and Ground Combat Center and the California Highway Patrol working together “in a joint effort to reduce accidents and drinking and driving” in San Bernardino County, California, a direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878. Infowars covered the story in-depth.

On October 1, 2008, the U.S. Army announced its 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team will be under the day-to-day control of the Northern Command, ostensibly “on call” to respond to emergencies and disasters. The recent exercise staged out of the Naval Support facility located at Indian Head, Maryland, is likely only the first of many such exercises that will receive media coverage in order to acclimate the American people to the high profile presence of soldiers on the streets under the control of Northcom. Read More

Raw Story

A naked man wandering around an apartment complex near Houston, Texas died after police shocked him with a taser four times.

USA needs nuclear explosion to turn the world into dictatorship (Pravda) 23 Dec 2008 Is the United States going to put dictatorship into effect under the guise of the anti-terrorist struggle? What may trigger another major transformation in 2009? The answer is obvious: another 9/11 in the USA. Terrible and bloody events are in store for the world in the beginning of 2009. Most likely, the world will witness a reality show with a nuclear blast, which will be used as a reason for the US administration to change the world order again and leave the new Great Depression behind. Read More

Source: The Telegraph

Andy Burnham says he believes that new standards of decency need to be applied to the web. He is planning to negotiate with Barack Obama’s incoming American administration to draw up new international rules for English language websites. Read Full Story

The riots have begun. Civil protest is breaking out in cities across Russia, China, and beyond.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Greece has been in turmoil for 11 days. The mood seems to have turned “pre-insurrectionary” in parts of Athens - to borrow from the Marxist handbook.

This is a foretaste of what the world may face as the “crisis of capitalism” - another Marxist phase making a comeback - starts to turn two hundred million lives upside down.

We are advancing to the political stage of this global train wreck. Regimes are being tested. Those relying on perma-boom to mask a lack of democratic or ancestral legitimacy may try to gain time by the usual methods: trade barriers, sabre-rattling, and barbed wire.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, is worried enough to ditch a half-century of IMF orthodoxy, calling for a fiscal boost worth 2pc of world GDP to “prevent global depression”.

“If we are not able to do that, then social unrest may happen in many countries, including advanced economies. We are facing an unprecedented decline in output. All around the planet, the people have reacted with feelings going from surprise to anger, and from anger to fear,” he said.

Russia has begun to shut down trade as it adjusts to the shock of Urals oil below $40 a barrel. It has imposed import tariffs of 30pc on cars, 15pc on farm kit, and 95pc on poultry (above quota levels). “It is possible during the financial crisis to support domestic producers by raising customs duties,” said Premier Vladimir Putin.

Russia is not alone. India and Vietnam have imposed steel tariffs. Indonesia is resorting to special “licenses” to choke off imports.

The Kremlin is alarmed by a 13pc fall in industrial output over the last five months. There have been street protests in Moscow, St Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok and Barnaul. Police crushed “Dissent Marchers” holding copies of Russia’s constitution above their heads in Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square.

“Russia has not seen anything like these nationwide protests before,” said Boris Kagarlitsky from Moscow’s Globalization Institute.

The Duma is widening the treason law to catch most forms of political dissent, and unwelcome forms of journalism. Jury trials for state crimes are to be abolished.

Yevgeny Kiseloyov at the Moscow Times said it feels eerily like December 1 1934 when Stalin unveiled his “Enemies of the People” law, kicking off the Great Terror.

The omens are not good in China either. Taxis are being bugged by state police. The great unknown is how Beijing will respond as its state-directed export strategy hits a brick wall, leaving exposed a vast eyesore of concrete and excess plant.

Exports fell 2.2pc in November. Toy, textile, footwear, and furniture plants are being closed across Guangdong, now the riot hub of South China. Some 40m Chinese workers are expected to lose their jobs. Party officials have warned of “mass-scale social turmoil”.

The Politburo is giving mixed signals. We don’t yet know how much of the country’s plan to boost domestic demand through a $586bn stimulus package is real, and how much is a wish-list sent to party bosses in the hinterland without funding.

Shortly after President Hu Jintao said China is “losing competitive edge in the world market”, we saw a move towards export subsidies for the steel industry and a dip in the yuan peg - even though China already has the world’s biggest reserves ($2 trillion) and the biggest trade surplus ($40bn a month).

So is the Communist Party mulling a 1930s “beggar-thy-neighbour” strategy of devaluation to export its way out of trouble? Such raw mercantilism can only draw a sharp retort from Washington and Brussels in this climate.

“During a global slowdown, you can’t have countries trying to take advantage of others by manipulating their currencies,” said Frank Vargo from the US National Association of Manufacturers.

It is a view shared entirely by President-elect Barack Obama. “China must change its currency practices. Because it pegs its currency at an artificially low rate, China is running massive current account surpluses. This is not good for American firms and workers, not good for the world,” he said in October. The new intake of radical Democrats on Capitol Hill will hold him to it.

There has been much talk lately of America’s Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which set off the protectionist dominoes in 1930. It is usually invoked by free traders to make the wrong point. The relevant message of Smoot-Hawley is that America was then the big exporter, playing the China role. By resorting to tariffs, it set off retaliation, and was the biggest victim of its own folly.

Britain and the Dominions retreated into Imperial Preference. Other countries joined. This became the “growth bloc” of the 1930s, free from the deflation constraints of the Gold Standard. High tariffs stopped the stimulus leaking out.

It was a successful strategy - given the awful alternatives - and was the key reason why Britain’s economy contracted by just 5pc during the Depression, against 15pc for France, and 30pc for the US.

Could we see such a closed “growth bloc” emerging now, this time led by the US, entailing a massive rupture of world’s trading system? Perhaps.

This crisis has already brought us a monetary revolution as interest rates approach zero across the G10. It may overturn the “New World Order” as well, unless we move with great care in grim months ahead. This is where events turn dangerous.

The last great era of globalisation peaked just before 1914. You know the rest of the story.

Did KBR Expose Troops to Toxin?
CBS News: American Soldiers Are Dying of Lung Cancer - And May Have Been Knowingly Exposed

The military contractor Kellogg Brown and Root, known as KBR, has won more than $28 billion in U.S. military contracts since the beginning of the Iraq war. KBR may be facing a new scandal. First, accusations its then-parent company [Cheney's] Halliburton was given the lucrative contract. And later, allegations of shoddy construction oversight that resulted in Americans getting electrocuted. Now, some other American soldiers say the company knowingly put their lives at risk, CBS News reports.

(CBS) The military contractor Kellogg Brown and Root, known as KBR, has won more than $28 billion in U.S. military contracts since the beginning of the Iraq war. KBR may be facing a new scandal. First, accusations its then-parent company Halliburton was given the lucrative contract. And later, allegations of shoddy construction oversight that resulted in Americans getting electrocuted. Now, some other American soldiers say the company knowingly put their lives at risk, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian and investigative producer Laura Strickler exclusively report.

“We didn’t question what we were doing, we just knew we had to provide a security service for the KBR,” said Battalion Cmdr. Gentry.

Today James Gentry is dying from rare form of lung cancer. The result, he believes, of months of inhaling hexavalent chromium - an orange dust that’s part of a toxic chemical found all over the plant.

At least one other Indiana guardsman has already died from lung cancer, and others are said to be suffering from tumors and rashes consistent with exposure to the deadly toxin.

“I’m a nonsmoker. I believe that I received this cancer from the southern oil fields in Iraq,” he said.

Now CBS News has obtained information that indicates KBR knew about the danger months before the soldiers were ever informed.

Depositions from KBR employees detailed concerns about the toxin in one part of the plant as early as May of 2003. And KBR minutes, from a later meeting state “that 60 percent of the people … exhibit symptoms of exposure,” including bloody noses and rashes.

Gentry says it wasn’t until the last day of August in 2003 - after four long months at the facility - that he was told the plant was contaminated.

“We would never have been there if we would have known,” Gentry said.

A new internal Army investigation obtained exclusively by CBS News says the Army’s medical response was “prompt and effective.”

The Pentagon is muscling in everywhere. It’s time to stop the mission creep.

By Thomas A. Schweich

We no longer have a civilian-led government. It is hard for a lifelong Republican and son of a retired Air Force colonel to say this, but the most unnerving legacy of the Bush administration is the encroachment of the Department of Defense into a striking number of aspects of civilian government. Our Constitution is at risk. President-elect Barack Obama’s selections of James L. Jones, a retired four-star Marine general, to be his national security adviser and, it appears, retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair to be his director of national intelligence… could pave the way for these respected military officers to reverse the current trend of Pentagon encroachment upon civilian government functions, or they could complete the silent military coup d’etat that has been steadily gaining ground below the radar screen of most Americans and the media. While serving the State Department in several senior capacities over the past four years, I witnessed firsthand the quiet, de facto military takeover of much of the U.S. government.

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

“As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” said Daniel O’Connell, chairman of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan group. Read More

WASHINGTON – It’s something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where’s the money going?

But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation’s largest banks say they can’t track exactly how they’re spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.

“We’ve lent some of it. We’ve not lent some of it. We’ve not given any accounting of, ‘Here’s how we’re doing it,’” said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. “We have not disclosed that to the public. We’re declining to.”

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what’s the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers. READ MORE

From the Rodney King riots to unannounced “training” exercises over American cities, the US military is being trained to turn the United States into a dictatorship.

Here you see the local police, dressed up like Nazi thugs, lined up military fashion to join the war games. Across America our “peace officers” have transformed into “law enforcers.” Whereas the blue and white garbed friendly policeman of the past was someone you might call to help rescue your cat out of the tree or invite in for a cup of coffee, law-abiding Americans now dread a visit from the ski-masked, jackbooted thugs. Over and over again, the innocent are victimized by out-of-control police “forces” that repeatedly raid the wrong houses, violate the Fourth Amendment, stooping so low as to shoot family dogs. Think that the way the police in this picture look like the military is a coincidence? Think again. The move to militarize the police has been snowballing over recent years. Police now train like the military, dress like the military, use military weapons and call citizens “civilians”. And of course they have been working with the military, as they are prepared to turn America in to a Police State.

This violent attack by the police of Galveston Texas demonstrates yet again the Police State is here. This attack should not have happened even if she was an adult.Call the Galveston Police Now express your outrage as this type of type attack should never happen to any one.

Call the Galveston Police Department express your outrage (409) 765-3600 sign- Jim Host of Freedom Fighter Radio.net

Andrew McLemore
Raw Story

A girl’s family has filed a lawsuit against Galveston police for their assault on their 12-year-old daughter after mistaking her for a prostitute.

As the girl, Dymond Milburn, walked in her front yard, three men jumped out of a van and beat her about the face and throat, one of them telling her, “You’re a prostitute. You’re coming with me.”

Police attacked Milburn despite the fact that she didn’t fit the racial description of their suspects: three white prostitutes and a black drug dealer.

Three weeks after Milburn was hospitalized for her injuries, police went to her school and arrested her for assaulting an officer during the incident.

The incident occurred two years ago, and since then, Milburn has suffered behavioral problems, nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The lawsuit against the officers also alleges that the men thought Dymond, an African-American, was a hooker because of the “tight shorts” she was wearing. Police have not yet apologized for the incident.

The case has gone to trial, but the judge declared a mistrial the first day and a new trial is set for February.

“I think we’ll be okay,” said Anthony Griffin, Milburn’s attorney. “I don’t think a jury will find a 12-year-old girl guilty who’s just sitting outside her house. Any 12-year-old attacked by three men and told that she’s a prostitute is going to scream and yell for Daddy and hit back and do whatever she can. She’s scared to death.”

The officers’ lawyer, William Helfand, said Milburn’s father had also been arrested for attacking the officers after his daughter called for him when the police attacked her. Helfand said both would face consequences for their actions.

“It’s unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that both these folks violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest,” Helfand said.

One blogger defended the story from accusations that it was a hoax because it has not been picked up by the national media and many of the facts come from the Milburn’s attorney.

But the blogger points out that neither the Galveston police department nor the Galveston district attorney’s office have responded to inquiries about the case.

As for the mainstream press, he asks. “Why don’t 90 percent of the abuses of power we look at on this site get covered by the national media?”

By DERRICK MAHONE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Ann Dejarnett went about her shopping at the Kroger on Whitlock Avenue in Marietta with a lot more comfort knowing there was an extra pair of eyes watching.

The Marietta police department’s Skywatch Tower was high above the parking lot Monday afternoon. The tower moves around the city to various store parking lots.

“You feel comfortable knowing the police are out here,” Dejarnett said while loading a cart full of groceries into her car. “At this time of year, people make a lot of purchases and they want to be safe.”

The Skywatch Tower, in use since February, is a $79,000 mobile unit manned by police officers. Police say its presence alone deters crime.

In addition to the tower, Marietta police are using electronic signs in the parking lots of stores, alerting shoppers to lock their cars and put valuables in their trunk or out of sight.

During the peak of the holiday shopping season, police are mindful of the spike in robberies. Late last month, Cobb police received a report about a tactic commonly used in some car thefts.

The suspects usually flatten a tire by pulling the air inflation stem, then wait for the owner. The suspects offer to help the owner, and once inside the car, will steal items from the car.

Authorities say it’s better to contact someone you know to help in an emergency. If you suspect a scam, contact the police.

As they do every year, Cobb police will increase patrols at Town Center and Cumberland malls throughout the month. “We want to be more visible and put the public at ease,” Sgt. Dana Pierce said. “There is a lot of focus on street robberies. We are looking for criminal activity.”

While increased police presence is comforting, some shoppers don’t want overkill.

“When you see a lot of police it makes you nervous that something has happened before,” said Kroger shopper Janet Knautz. “When you find out that it is safe and they are patrolling, you are a little more comfortable.”

A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” said the War College report.

The study says economic collapse, terrorism and loss of legal order are among possible domestic shocks that might require military action within the U.S. READ MORE

Holy fascist police state, Batman! US military mobilizes troops for inauguration –7,500 active duty troops and 4,000 national guard troops will take part in operations

The US military plans to mobilize thousands of troops to protect Washington against potential terrorist attack during the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama, a senior US military commander said Wednesday. They will fly combat air patrols and man air defenses, organize large scale medical support, and help local law enforcement provide security in the capital, said General Gene Renuart, head of the US Northern Command. [Bye-bye, Posse Comitatus!]

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US military plans to mobilize thousands of troops to protect Washington against potential terrorist attack during the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama, a senior US military commander said Wednesday.

They will fly combat air patrols and man air defenses, organize large scale medical support, and help local law enforcement provide security in the capital, said General Gene Renuart, head of the US Northern Command.

“(It’s) not because we see a specific threat, but because for an event this visible, this important and this historic, we ought to be prepared to respond if something does happen,” he told reporters.

Renuart said some 7,500 active duty troops and 4,000 national guard troops will take part in the operations in support of the inauguration of the 44th US president on January 20.

Overall responsibility for security during the inauguration falls to the Secret Service.

But Renuart’s command, which is co-located with NORAD, is responsible for preparing for any contingency.

Some troops will march in parades, serve in honor guards or perform other ceremonial duties, he said.

But most of the national guard troops will back up local law enforcement, while active duty forces will provide specialized capabilities, according to the general.

Renuart said NORAD, the US-Canadian command responsible for defending North American airspace, will increase combat air patrols over the United States to guard against another September 11 type attack.

“Our integrated air defense system in the national capital region will be up and robust and available,” he said. It typically includes Patriot missile defense batteries deployed at key points around the city.

Chemical response units also will be on alert in case of a chemical weapons attack, he said.

A joint task force for the capital region is planning medical response in case of an attack that produces large numbers of casualties, he said.

“It is prudent for us to assume that it would make news for a terrorist element, or a rogue element of some sort, to interrupt that (the inauguration).

“So it is prudent for us to plan for the possibility of that kind of event, and be prepared either to deter it or respond to it,” he said.

An ever present fear is another attack like the one on September 11, 2001 on New York and Washington with hijacked airliners.

But Renuart said both NORAD and the Northern Command have worked hard to prevent a repeat, devising systems that allow them to determine whether a suspicious flight poses a threat.

Civilian aircraft have been intercepted 400 times a year without a shoot-down, he said.

“Fortunately, we have not had to do that,” he said.

“But there are a number of aviators out there who have had a chance to see an F-16 up very close, who have been landed at an airfield that wasn’t their planned airfield, and were greeted by 30 or 40 of their newest friends in the FBI.”

He said in virtually every case “a mix of buffoonery or mechanical failure or just lack of understanding rules of the road” got them into trouble.

The attacks in Mumbai, India have raised the spectre of another kind of threat — suicide attacks by heavily armed, well trained assailants.

Renuart said the United States was better equipped with counter-terrorism teams to deal with that kind of attack than India proved to be, but he said “the key is how quickly can you respond.”

“Certainly, the Mumbai attacks ought to be understood clearly down to the local level — the speed to which a small group of people could begin to hold a fairly large city hostage,” he said.

Contributed by: BMcDonald

There is no limit to the degree to which global warming alarmists will stoop to scare the living crap out of people. LISTEN. When people are resorting to this kind of blatant distortion of reality to coerce you into buying their line of crap, red flags should be popping up all over the place. There is nothing honest or accurate about this commercial. It’s been made for one reason and one reason only. To scare you into believing that the world is going to come to and end if you don’t buy into all the crap these people want to impose on us, to manage our “carbon footprints,” which means every single aspect of our lives!

The last thing people that produce this kind of crap are interested in is communicating the truth. Pure Madison Avenue mind screwing! That’s all it is.

The world is not incinerating people! It’s all B.S. designed for one reason, to get you to go along with the most extreme form of control and taxation the world has ever seen. The people behind the global warming fraud know full well that CO2 does not drive climate. But they also know that it’s a part of everything that happens on the planet, from breathing to driving your car. And they want to tax and control it all, every aspect of your life! Do your homework. Read all the info in our Global Warming.

State Department officials worked closely with the private security contractor Blackwater USA to play down incidents in which company operatives killed innocent Iraqis, according to Blackwater and State Department documents obtained by a congressional committee. When a drunken Blackwater contractor killed a bodyguard of Iraq’s vice president last Christmas Eve, the State Department helped spirit the contractor mercenary out of the country within 36 hours [oh, just like the bin Laden family after 9/11], according to the report, released Monday by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

WASHINGTON — State Department officials worked closely with the private security contractor Blackwater USA to play down incidents in which company operatives killed innocent Iraqis, according to Blackwater and State Department documents obtained by a congressional committee.

When a drunken Blackwater contractor killed a bodyguard of Iraq’s vice president last Christmas Eve, the State Department helped spirit the contractor out of the country within 36 hours, according to the report, released Monday by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Officials in Baghdad and Washington then dickered with Blackwater on the compensation for the family of the guard, Raheem Khalif. An unnamed official in the State Department’s Diplomatic Security service complained that the $250,000 payment proposed by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was too much, because it might lead Iraqis to “try to get killed so as to set up their family financially,” according to a State Department e-mail obtained by the committee.

When a Blackwater contract employee killed an Iraqi in Hillah in June 2005, the State Department asked the firm to pay $5,000 in compensation. “(W)e are all better off getting this case — and any similar cases — behind us quickly,” a department official wrote.

The disclosures appear to contradict past claims by State Department officials that they aggressively investigated wrongdoing by Blackwater. The company has received $835 million in contracts to guard U.S. civilians in Iraq.

Blackwater has come under heightened scrutiny since a shooting Sept. 16 in Baghdad that left 11 Iraqis dead. On Monday, the FBI said it has begun a criminal investigation.

“At the request of the Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending a team to Iraq to assist in the ongoing investigation into the September 16, 2007, shooting incident allegedly involving Blackwater employees,” FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said in a statement.

The memorandum released Monday by the House committee’s Democratic staff describes other questionable incidents.

On Sept. 24, 2006, a Blackwater detail driving on the wrong side of the road caused a red Opal driven by an Iraqi to skid into a Blackwater vehicle, hit a telephone pole and burst into flames. Blackwater personnel collected people and equipment from their disabled vehicle and left without aiding those in the Iraqi vehicle, described as being “in a ball of flames,” according to a company report.

On Nov. 28, 2005, a Blackwater motorcade making a round-trip journey to Iraq’s Oil Ministry collided with 18 different vehicles, according to another company document. Team members’ written accounts of the incident were found by the company to be “invalid, inaccurate and, at best, dishonest reporting.”

No employee of a private military contractor has been criminally charged for actions in Iraq.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell didn’t return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment. She told the Associated Press: “We look forward to setting the record straight on this and other issues” at a hearing Tuesday of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Three senior State Department officials are also to testify.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said, “We are scrupulous in terms of oversight and scrutiny, not only of Blackwater but of all our contractors.”

The committee staff working for Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., also reported, based on company documents, that Blackwater has fired 122 employees for misconduct under the State Department contracts.

Of those, 28 were let go for weapons-related incidents, 25 for drug and alcohol violations and 16 for “inappropriate/lewd conduct.”

“The only sanction that has been applied to Blackwater contractors for misconduct is termination of their individual contracts with Blackwater,” the staff memorandum says.

It quotes David Satterfield, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s senior Iraq adviser, as saying that Blackwater has 861 personnel working in Iraq. Two other companies, DynCorp and Triple Canopy, also conduct protective security details in the country.

Citing Blackwater’s security incident reports, the memorandum says Blackwater employees used their firearms 195 times from Jan. 1, 2005, through Sept. 12, 2007. Blackwater fired first in 84 percent of those incidents.

Blackwater documents acknowledge 16 Iraqi casualties in that time frame. But that number appears low.

The House committee says that in many cases, Blackwater employees fire from moving vehicles and don’t “remain at the scene to determine if their shots resulted in casualties.”

In the case of the Christmas Eve killing of a guard to Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi — which enraged the Iraqi government — the Blackwater contractor fled to a guard post operated by Triple Canopy and was later apprehended by police in Baghdad’s Green Zone.

According to investigative reports the committee cites, he claimed to have fired in self-defense, but Blackwater fired him on Christmas Day for violating its policy against possessing a firearm while intoxicated.

With the knowledge of State Department officials, he was put on a plane out of Baghdad on the morning of Dec. 26.

(Marisa Taylor contributed.)

To read the House committee memorandum, go to http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071001121609.pdf

UPDATE: on the Ohio Legislature’s activities since our Wednesday Sledgehammer Alert. Thankfully, that Sledgehammer alerted and activated people across the country to the very real and imminent threat that a Constitutional Convention might soon be called by Congress. You had a definite impact on the Ohio House, and gave us at least a temporary victory. But we’re not finished, as you will see.

First and foremost: Thank you for a job well done! (more…)

If someone disagreed with you about an article or story you published and then complained to the police who came into your business and arrested you for disorderly conduct, would that incident be newsworthy?

What if the police arrested you for disorderly conduct while you were exercising any other constitutionally protected right because someone did not want you to exercise your right? Would you want to tell the people of Wisconsin how fragile it is to exercise their rights?

Once arrested, do you think an employer or all your friends and neighbors would understand or would some of them want to maintain more distance with you? Unfortunately, being arrested is the same thing as being found guilty to many people in the court of public opinion. The police don’t arrest innocent people just for exercising a constitutionally protected right after all. That would be outrageous.

Or do they? Read More

The Bill of Rights was meant to ensure basic rights during times of war and times of peace, regardless of who is in power. In order to ensure its future, we must keep using the First Amendment and speaking out when our rights and the rights of non-citizens are threatened.

In 1941, 150 years after the first 10 amendments were ratified, President Franklin Roosevelt declared December 15 “Bill of Rights Day.” Now many communities around the country observe the day. BORDC invites you to celebrate and exercise the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Some ideas for celebrating the day include:

• New! Download the Bill of Rights (11 x 17inches), take it to a copy shop, print it off, roll it into a scroll, tie a ribbon around it, and hand out to holiday shoppers, as you remind them of the Bill of Rights protections that are currently being denied all of us. Scroll can also be downloaded as a Word Document. You can also print a copy on legal-sized paper (8 1/2 x 14 inches) PDF legal-size or on letter-sized paper * 8 1/2 x 11 inches) PDF letter-size.
• Download BORDC’s Bill of Rights bookmarks in English or Spanish. Print 6 bookmarks on an 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of cardstock for an inexpensive, educational handout to distribute to your local schools and libraries.
• Entertain holiday shoppers with street theater, or include a short play or video as part of a local civil liberties forum. Visit our recommended resources page for suggestions and links.
• Read the Bill of Rights in front of city hall or other public place. Invite local elected officials to participate.
• Encourage your local government to officially proclaim December 15 Bill of Rights Day.
• Schedule a showing of FBI Unbound: How National Security Letters Violate Our Privacy at a house party, public forum, or on public access television. in your community to raise public awareness of this threat to our Bill of Rights protections.

Pass a Bill of Rights Proclamation in your community. Ask your City Council, County Board of Commissioners or other local government to declare December 15 Bill of Rights Day in your community. See Proclamations and Resolutions section for sample resolutions, ongoing local efforts, and a map of where Bill of Rights Proclamations have been passed.

Organize a reading of the Bill of Rights in your community: invite school classes, entire schools and school districts, city councilors, and others to take part in reasserting this founding document in our public lives.

Distribute these Bill of Rights Day Public Service Announcements to your local radio station. You can add your own local information, or use these already recorded announcements

Pass out copies of the Bill of Rights and Constitution See Resources section for flyers, bookmarks, copies of the Bill of Rights and Constitution, films and videos.

Panel Discussions/Public Forums: Ask local experts on the Constitution to participate in discussion about current threats facing the Constitution and/or showing films. See Resources section

Letter to the editor campaign: Use the tips from this BORDC workshop on creating Circles of Scribes — community letter writing groups — to get a buzz going about Bill of Rights Day in your community.

Open Microphone at a local gathering spot to give community members an opportunity to speak their minds, read from the Constitution, or use poetry to express their feelings about our loss of liberties.

Engage with local media: See Media Resources page for Public Service Announcement links, workshop tips, and press release contacts.

Source: Information Weekly

While it won’t destroy buildings, or directly kill people, it will shut down everything in its path with a power button.

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) bombs have been written about for quite some time, and are supposed to have been used in a number of conflicts in the past 15 years. These weapons are designed to shut down cities, as well as military communications and weapon systems, not physically destroy them.

Well, only the electrical parts.

The U.S. military already has EMP capabilities, but it looks like, based on this Air Force solicitation published in the past couple of days, that they’re about to get more tactical:

Read More

Teen Sues NYC High School; Others Allege ‘Separate Room’ Where Agents Hand Out Fistful Of Discipline

FULL ARTICLE: http://wcbstv.com/local/nyc.school.safety.2.882710.html

.

Chinese bargain hunters are preparing to descend on American cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, where homeowners have suffered some of the steepest price falls in the US.

SouFun, the biggest real estate website in China, is organising a trip next month to look at properties in California and possibly Nevada. Liu Jian, the company’s chief operating officer, said about 300 people had expressed interest in the idea in the three days since it was advertised, though the company would take only a small group on the first trip.

Read More Click here

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com

California cops tasered a distraught son whose father was drowning after he and his brother complained that police were not doing enough to rescue their dad, while authorities prevented the two sons from making any kind of rescue effort themselves.