George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

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msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7691

George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

May 24-26, 2013
see link for full story

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/24/ ... e-kitchen/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Cooking Up Insecurity
Dirty Secrets in the Kitchen
by MARC PERRENOUD

Most of the many television cookery programmes in the past decade, such as the UK’s MasterChef, the US’s Top Chef and Australia’s The Chopping Block have used the talent show (X Factor,Fame Academy or The Apprentice) format in which contestants are eliminated, while the winner gets into the business, with start-up money or training at a prestigious restaurant, and some (short-lived) publicity. But there is a different format, first seen in the UK in 2004, and thereafter worldwide: Ramsay’s KitchenNightmares, in which Michelin-starred chef Gordon Ramsay spends a week in a failing restaurant “coaching” the staff. Ramsay made a US version (2008-2010), and there has been a French version (2011-12) with chef Philippe Etchebest.

Coaching programmes are a popular sub-genre of reality television, and usually they are about life coaching — how to lose weight, dress better, bring up your children, clean, decorate, buy or sell your house. Ramsay is not coaching talented amateurs as in MasterChef, or young beginners as in Top Chef, but working professionals.

More than any other work environment, the restaurant is the perfect theatre for what Everett C Hughes called “the social drama of work” (1). In the theatrical metaphor favoured by interactionist sociologists, the dining room is a stage where professionals and customers perform a well-rehearsed script, while the camera explores backstage in the kitchen. We are presented with a spectacle: every service is a test of technical skill, speed and efficiency. The characters know each other — they use first names, shout, swear — and may be family members, so the coach has a chance to administer a kind of cruel, tear-inducing psychotherapy. The programmes meet the demands of reality television because eating and cooking are universal experiences, with a deep connection to our bodies, likes and dislikes.

A ‘democratic’ assessment

Members of the Writers Guild of America describe on their website how stories are created for reality television, and why a docile public, eager to take part for free, is so useful to the industry (2). In Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, the customers/viewers/actors participate by talking to the camera, providing a “democratic” assessment that cannot be argued with.

Each episode has a precise narrative structure, with a linear edit from day to day. In the first sequence, Ramsay/Etchebest sits in the dining room, tastes dishes and identifies the restaurant’s main problems. In the second sequence he has a stormy exchange with the cook or owner. He then follows the preparations, and witnesses the problems — the poor quality of the ingredients and their preparation, inept cooks and waiters, unhappy customers. The fourth sequence is crisis and confrontation: shouting, insults, threats of violence, even tears. Stages three and four are repeated until the restaurateur is broken down, before being rebuilt, or even reborn, and acts on the coach’s advice — showing authority over the staff or being kinder, simplifying the menu, providing service with a smile. The customers/viewers/actors confirm the immediate improvements. The French and US shows complete the transformation by renovating the restaurant. This ending of the cycle is the physical manifestation of the internal metamorphosis of the main players, and repays them for their (often caricatured) performances: the US version features lazy and irresponsible African-Americans, hypocritical Asians and pretentious, cowardly French. In the end, they all hug and thank the coach.

The show is structured as a redemption, a violent exorcism with a happy ending that is a classic of American storytelling (3). It uses both religious and military style indoctrination to serve an ideology of rebirth, and relies on violent techniques, especially humiliation, pushing the protagonists to admit their failings.

Display of virility

Every version of the series depends on a display of virility — Ramsay uses verbal violence, swearing, insults and threats, and changes his shirt at least twice per UK episode to display his torso. In the French version, Etchebest uses his colossal stature, physically intimidating or jostling the protagonists. The moral fibre of the restaurant staff is put to the test through physical games such as boxing, rugby or paintball.

The programmes don’t show much of the chef’s culinary expertise, and what they do show has decreased over the years. Food preparation is shown in short dramatic montages, like in an action film, with ultra-fast chopping and flaming frying pans. We seldom see the drudgery, the menial tasks delegated whenever possible to junior kitchen staff, although their management is decisive to any team (4); if we do see them, it’s because they have become a means of redemption, as when all the staff are set to clean a filthy kitchen.

Professional ability tends only to be referred to over hygiene — a catering-size jar of mayonnaise kept at room temperature, cockroaches behind the fridge, rotting food in the cold store, grease oozing from the oven. The programme appeals to the viewer’s common sense, without ever putting the work in its social context. Fresh ingredients are obviously better than frozen, but their cost or preparation time are not mentioned except euphemistically — “it’s not that expensive or complicated, is it?” — suggesting all that is needed is willingness.

It’s all about attitude

The participants have very different levels of skill, and the series visits a wide range of establishments, from pizza joints and sushi bars to high class restaurants, but the advice is always the same: it’s all about attitude, will, commitment and standards — all down to the individual.

So the restaurant chef/owner is the model of the contemporary worker, trying to meet paradoxical demands: to be both independent and a team player (knowing how to give or take orders), totally committed to work, taking on a huge amount of responsibility, cool under pressure, ready to work long hours for a miserable income in the hope of better times ahead, and able to cope with the coach’s demands for change, while remaining true to him or her self. All this plus technical skills in the kitchen and social skills with customers, plus creativity in the design of the dishes and the venue. The programme’s passionate advocacy of the talented independent promotes the “risk-taker”, the small entrepreneur: wage earners are outdated.

After the first few UK episodes, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares never directly touches on money — debt, wages, the cost of ingredients, the price of dishes — and never asks about the social background of the protagonists, their training or connections. In this enchanted world, open discussion of money or strategy would end the belief system of this game and reveal the real tricks of the restaurant trade. If the industry were shown as it really is, the programme could no longer confine it to a celestial sphere of vocation and individual morality. Instead, everything comes down to the psychology and personality of the participants.

We are presented with an enchanted version of society. Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares show work as a series of tests that are alsoepiphanies: work should involve a constant rethinking, and the restaurateur should ceaselessly reaffirm his commitment, integrity and indefatigable desire to dowell. The work is by nature insecure: the programme turns that insecurity into a vocation.

Marc Perrenoud is a sociologist at the University of Lausanne.

NOTES.

(1) Everett C Hughes, The Sociological Eye: Selected Papers, Transaction Publishers, New Jersey, 1971.

(2) J Ryan Stradal, “Unscripted Doesn’t Mean Unwritten”; Charles B Slocum, “The Real History of Reality TV”, Writers Guild of America.

(3) Christian Salmon, Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind, Verso, 2010.

This article appears in the excellent Le Monde Diplomatique, whose English language edition can be found at mondediplo.com. This full text appears by agreement with Le Monde Diplomatique. CounterPunch features two or three articles from LMD every month.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7691

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

couple of reads
FBI Crime Family Director Robert Mueller, tired of having his FBI agents arrested for pedophilia and downloading child porn , has created
the perfect cover for the agents. He can now tell the press the arrested agent was part of the Child Abuse Task Force.
Of course there is always minor glitches like when the head of the FBI Child Abuse program Edward Rodgers was sued by his three
for having sex with them starting when they were infants continuing through their teens. see case below.




FBI caught dealing child porn on internet
see link for full story

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/ ... 552044.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
FBI shared child porn to nab pedophiles; Washington home raided
Seattle-area man targeted in wide-ranging investigation into rape, abuse photos
Tuesday, May 28, 2013



The FBI seized and ran a child pornography service late last year as investigators worked to identify its customers, one Western Washington man allegedly among them.

Following a lengthy investigation, Nebraska-based agents raided the large child pornography service in November hoping to catch users who shared thousands of images showing children being raped, displayed and abused.

The Bureau ran the service for two weeks while attempting to identify more than 5,000 customers, according to a Seattle FBI agent's statements to the court. Court records indicate the site continued to distribute child pornography online while under FBI control; the Seattle-based special agent, a specialist in online crimes against children, detailed the investigation earlier this month in a statement to the court.

The investigation appears to mark a departure for the Bureau and other federal law enforcement agencies aiming to root out child porn purveyors.

Historically, child pornography investigations stem from tips made to law enforcement, interactions with undercover officers posing as customers or reviews of documentation seized during searches of child porn clearinghouses like the one recently raided in Nebraska. While investigators are known to have posed as child porn dealers – a 2011 effort involved targeted emails to suspected pedophiles – it is not apparent that the FBI previously dealt child porn as part of a sting.

The Nebraska investigation is still in its early stages, and, while charges appear to be forthcoming, no one being prosecuted has been publicly tied to the site thus far. Information obtained during the investigation resulted in a search of one Western Washington home, and investigators are presently reviewing computers seized during that April search.

The FBI declined requests to discuss the investigation or investigators’ motivations to continue operating the site. Court records indicate investigators hoped to trace customers and were unable to do so through traditional means.

“This remains an ongoing investigation, and local court rules and Department of Justice policy prohibit me from providing more information at this time,” said Sandy Breault, spokeswoman for the FBI Omaha Division. “As in any given matter, if charges are filed, they will eventually become a matter of public record.”

1,000s of images shared during investigation

Named only as “Website A” in an April 10 search warrant affidavit filed by the Seattle-based agent, the child pornography service was described as an online bulletin board with the primary business of advertising and sharing child pornography.

The affidavit was obtained by seattlepi.com earlier in May through a publicly accessible court records system. It has since been sealed.

Agents in the Omaha area seized “Website A” on Nov. 16 and continued to operate it until Dec. 2, monitoring messages from users of the website, the Seattle special agent told the court. The site was shut down Dec. 2.

At the time the service was shuttered it had more than 5,600 users and 24,000 posts, nearly all of which related to child pornography. At least 10,000 photos of children being posed nude, raped or otherwise abused were broadcast through the site.



see link for full story
CNN exclusive: FBI misconduct reveals sex, lies and videotape

By Scott Zamost and Kyra Phillips, CNN Special Investigations Unit
January 27, 2011



Washington (CNN) -- An FBI employee shared confidential information with his girlfriend, who was a news reporter, then later threatened to release a sex tape the two had made.

A supervisor watched pornographic videos in his office during work hours while "satisfying himself."

And an employee in a "leadership position" misused a government database to check on two friends who were exotic dancers and allowed them into an FBI office after hours.

These are among confidential summaries of FBI disciplinary reports obtained by CNN, which describe misconduct by agency supervisors, agents and other employees over the last three years

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/27/siu.fb ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;




Read the FBI documents obtained by CNN







-- An employee had "a sexual relationship with a source" over seven months. The punishment was a 40-day suspension.
-- The supervisor who viewed "pornographic movies in the office while sexually satisfying himself" during work hours received a 35-day suspension.
-- The employee in a "leadership position" who misused a "government database to conduct name checks on two friends who were foreign nationals employed as exotic dancers" and "brought the two friends into FBI space after-hours without proper authorization" received a 23-day suspension. The same employee had been previously suspended for misusing a government database.
-- An employee who was drunk "exploited his FBI employment at a strip club," falsely claiming he was "conducting an official investigation." His punishment was a 30-day suspension.
-- And an employee conducted "unauthorized searches on FBI databases" for "information on public celebrities the employee thought were 'hot'" received a 30-day suspension.


see link for full story
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... a/9887270/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FBI-agents-caught-sexting-and-dating-drug-dealers.html

February 22, 2013
FBI agents caught sexting and dating drug dealers
Dating drug dealers, harassing ex-boyfriends with naked pictures, and pointing guns at pet dogs: these were just a few of the offences committed recently by serving FBI agents, according to internal documents.
The US provided officers from the Egyptian secret police with training at the FBI, despite allegations that they routinely tortured detainees and suppressed political opposition.

By Raf Sanchez, Washington

Disciplinary files from the Bureau's Office of Professional Responsibility record an extraordinary range of transgressions that reveal the chaotic personal lives of some of America's top law enforcers.

One male agent was sacked after police were called to his mistress's house following reports of domestic incident. When officers arrived they found the agent "drunk and uncooperative" and eventually had to physically subdue him and wrestle away his loaded gun.

A woman e-mailed a "nude photograph of herself to her ex-boyfriend's wife" and then continued to harass the couple despite two warnings from senior officials. The Bureau concluded she was suffering from depression related to the break-up and allowed her to return to work after 10 days.


see link for full story

http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/192104 ... ent-Busted" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Buffalo FBI Agent Busted
Dec 10, 2012


BUFFALO, NY - A Special Agent working in the Buffalo office of the FBI is due in Eden Town Court later this month, after being arrested by New York State Police last Friday night, charged with exposing himself to a fellow motorist on the New York State Thruway.

State Police Lt. David Denz confirmed for WGRZ-TV that John A. Yervelli Jr., 48, of Lakeview, was charged with Public Lewdness, a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail.

According to Denz, a truck driver from central New York was traveling in the right lane while east bound on the Thruway near mile marker 442, between Exits 57 and 57A, when he noticed a grey minivan pull alongside him in the passing lane.

The trucker told police that when he looked down, he noticed the driver of the other vehicle (who had turned his dome light on) was not wearing pants.

"At that point the complainant stated that the driver of the minivan was exposing himself and making lewd gestures," Denz told 2 On Your Side.

Denz says the trucker called police, who then intercepted the minivan at the Hamburg toll plaza, where the trucker also went to identify Yervelli. Denz said it appeared Yervelli was wearing pants when he was pulled over.

"He denied exposing himself," Denz told Channel 2, but added that "inconsistencies" in the account given by Agent Yervelli lead State Police to file charges.

A source says Yervelli insisted to the trooper who pulled him over that he was attempting to relieve himself into a bottle while he was driving. However, the location where he said that occurred was within a few miles (or minutes) of the exit he was headed to, and even closer to a Thruway rest stop.

"I don't want to give you too many specifics as far as what he stated, but he made statements that would lead you to believe that the truck driver's story was credible," Denz said.

Child Porn Probe Leads To FBI Headquarters
Target claims inquiry is just a “misunderstanding”
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/ ... adquarters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
JANUARY 5 2011--The government’s pursuit of suspects trafficking in child pornography recently led federal agents to a familiar address--the FBI’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, where a bureau official is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The investigation by the Department of Justice’s inspector general is focusing on FBI employee Joseph Bonsuk’s receipt of nearly 80 illicit images that were e-mailed to him by an Illinois sex offender whose rap sheet includes felony convictions for bank robbery and solicitation of a minor.

Prosecutors move to dismiss charges against former Scout leader

January 3, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Conn. --Federal prosecutors have moved to dismiss charges against a retired FBI agent who was indicted on child sex charges dating back more than a decade when he was a Boy Scout leader, in response to the death of his accuser.


William Hutton, 63, of Killingworth, was arrested in February on charges he enticed a member of his Scout troop to Maine for the purpose of sexual activity in 1994 and 1995.


http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Form ... -86217.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Former Scout leader, FBI agent indicted on child sex charges
News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)
Saturday, February 4, 2006


NEW HAVEN (AP) - A retired FBI agent was indicted Friday on federal child sex charges dating back more than a decade when he was a Boy Scout leader.
William Hutton, 63, of Killingworth, was arrested Friday. The federal grand jury indictment accuses Hutton of enticing a member of his Scout troop to Maine for the purpose of sexual activity in 1994 and 1995.

"It's obviously devastating. He was an FBI agent in this district and was reputed in this district," defense attorney Hugh Keefe said.

"The people who worked with him in the U.S. attorney's office and FBI respected him."

Keefe said the investigation has been going on for years. He would not discuss the details of the case or how the allegations surfaced.

Investigators asked anyone who knows anything about the case to call the FBI. U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said that's standard practice whenever there might be more victims.

"In any case that's a concern," O'Connor said. "Whether that's the situation here I can't say."

If convicted on all four charges, Hutton faces up to 30 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

Hutton was released on a $200,00 bond. He may not own any firearms or have any unsupervised contact with children. He was also ordered to stay away from playgrounds, schools, arcades or anywhere children congregate.


http://www.headwatersproductions.com/pr ... icle5.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Edward Rodgers was in charge of investigating cases of Child Abuse at the FBI

THE DENVER POST - Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire
May 17, 1990
Sisters win sex lawsuit vs. dad $2.3 million given for years of abuse
By Howard Prankratz
Denver Post Legal Affairs Writer

Two daughters of former state and federal law enforcement official Edward Rodgers were awarded $2.319,400 yesterday, after a Denver judge and jury found that the women suffered years of abuse at the hands of their father.

The award to Sharon Simone, 45, and Susan Hammond, 44, followed testimony of Rodgers’ four daughters in person or through depositions, describing repeated physical abuse and sexual assaults by their father from 1944 through 1965.

Rodgers, 72, who became a child abuse expert after retiring from the FBI and joining the colorado Springs DA’s office, failed to appear for the trial. But in a deposition taken in March, Rodgers denied ever hitting or sexually abusing his children.

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/FormerL ... ntArrested" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Local attorney arrested
On child indecency accusations

Updated: Wednesday, 22 Apr 2009, 1:33 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 20 Apr 2009,
MOBILE, Ala. - Mobile Police arrested 52-year-old Phillip Kent Baxley on child indecency charges. Baxley is a local attorney in Mobile, but he's also a former coach and acting president for the Mobile Soccer Club.

"I'm surprised to hear it," said Mobile Soccer Club Director, Mohammed Elzare. "He's a former FBI agent and attorney. So we're definitely saddened to hear this."

Baxley was arrested at his Dauphin Street office on a fugitive felony warrant out of Harris County, Texas.

Texas police officers say Baxley was involved in an incident with a nine-year-old girl in 2004.
Investigators say it happened at a family member's house in a Houston suburb, but the girl waited some time before saying anything.

"When the victim, the nine-year-old made the outcry she was interviewed in another county and all of the information was forwarded to us and the investigation went from there," said Lt. Wade Conner with the Deer Park, Texas Police Department.

Mobile Soccer Club Board Members say they were blind-sided by the news on Monday. For now, the board likely plans to distance itself from Baxley.

"Stopping ties until this situation is resolved and hopefully it comes out to a good outcome," said Elzare.

But Texas investigators are confident the charges will stick, despite Baxley's background. "If they're a pedophile then we deal with them all the same," said Wade. "It doesn't matter what they do for a living."

Baxley is locked up in the Mobile County Jail. That's where he'll stay until he's extradited to Texas.





FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Child Abuse

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/was ... hief_x.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tuesday February 17, 2004 11:46 PM

By JOHN SOLOMON

Associated Press Writer
https://antipolygraph.org/cgi-bin/forum ... 1077052156" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
WASHINGTON (AP) - The former chief internal watchdog at the FBI has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl and has admitted he had a history of molesting other children before he joined the bureau for what became a two-decade career.

John H. Conditt Jr., 53, who retired in 2001, was sentenced last week to 12 years in prison in Tarrant County court in Fort Worth, Texas, after he admitted he molested the daughter of two FBI agents after he retired. He acknowledged molesting at least two other girls before he began his law enforcement career, his lawyer said.

Monday August 8, 2005 Longtime FBI agent sentenced to prison on child porn count

also see http://www.policeone.com/news/113935-Lo ... hild-Porn/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
BOISE, Idaho- A longtime FBI agent who helped arrest infamous outlaw Claude Dallas has been sentenced to a year in prison for possessing child pornography.

William Buie, 64, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in March. Buie told authorities that he learned to access child pornography Web sites while attending a seminar on preventing child exploitation in 2000 or 2001.





February 22, 2007
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007 ... 007/262383" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Ex-FBI man gets 7 years for child sex
Former FBI analyst sentenced in child sex case


A 17-year veteran of the FBI will serve seven years in prison for having sexual relations with a young girl in Spotsylvania County, a judge ruled yesterday.

Anthony John Lesko, 44, entered an Alford plea yesterday in Spotsylvania Circuit Court to nine counts of felony indecent liberties upon a child.

Lesko, who later moved to Jacksonville, Fla., worked as an intelligence analyst at the FBI for 17 years, according to his attorney, James A. Carter II. He is a major in the U.S. Army Reserves and has received numerous military awards.

An Alford plea means Lesko doesn't admit guilt but believes there is enough evidence for a conviction. Under the terms of the plea, he was sentenced to seven years in prison with another 15 years suspended.

Lesko engaged in a sex act with a girl, 9 and 10 at the time, at least nine times in 2003-2004, according to evidence put forth by Spotsylvania Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely.

The girl told a member of the Spotsylvania Department of Social Services about the activity in February 2004, according to the evidence. Lesko at first denied the allegations, but later spoke with a U.S. Navy counselor about them.

Lesko told the counselor that he was the victim of the sexual assault; he said the girl initiated the contact, according to the plea. Lesko entered the plea partly to spare the girl the pain of a trial, his attorney said.
on for 12 months after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.

William Buie, 64, of Boise, most recently worked as an investigator for the Idaho attorney general's office.


FBI Agent Accused Of Masturbating In Public
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index. ... _pris.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
May 25, 2007
FBI Agent Accused Of Masturbating In Public

Posted by, Marissa Pasquet KOLD News 13 News Editor

FBI Special Agent Ryan Seese, 34, is facing sex offense charges after a cleaning woman said she found him masturbating in a women's lavatory on campus, according to a University of Arizona police spokesman.


FBI Workers Suspected of Secretly Taping Teens in Dressing Room

April 20, 2009

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517222,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall.

The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy. They were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on temporary changing rooms and zoomed in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said Monday.


see link for full story
http://fox59.com/2013/04/10/former-fbi- ... y-charges/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

April 9, 2013
Former FBI agent files petition to enter guilty plea for child pornography charges


A local former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent arrested on child pornography charges filed a petition to enter a guilty plea.

Donald Sachtleben was arrested in May 2012, following an investigation into the distribution of child pornography. Authorities said they were able to trace online activity back to Sachtleben’s Carmel home.

According to court documents, Sachtleben hid behind the email ‘pedodave69@yahoo.com’ and openly traded child porn. In one email he attached nine images of child pornography and child erotica and wrote:

“Saw your profile… Hope you like these and can send me some of (y)ours. I have even better ones if you like.”

Police obtained a search warrant on May 3. During an initial forensic examination of Sachtleben’s laptop computer, approximately 30 images and video files containing child pornography were reportedly discovered.


Former top FBI agent charged with child porn distribution
By Bill Mears, CNN
May 15, 2012
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/15/justice/e ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(CNN) -- A former supervisory FBI agent has been arrested and jailed on child pornography charges.

Donald Sachtleben was taken into custody and charged Monday after a nationwide undercover investigation of illegal child porn images traded over the Internet.



A federal complaint alleges 30 graphic images and video were found on Sachtleben's laptop computer late last week when FBI agents searched his home, about 23 miles north of Indianapolis.



Sachtleben is currently an Oklahoma State University visiting professor, according to his online resume. He is director of training at the school's Center for Improvised Explosives, but all references to his work have now been removed from the university's website. There was no indication from the school as to whether it had suspended him. Calls to the university and his Indianapolis attorneys were not immediately returned.

He had been an FBI special agent from 1983 to 2008, serving as a bomb technician. He worked on the Oklahoma City bombing and Unabomber investigations, according to his university biography.

A separate LinkedIn profile filled out by Sachtleben says he is an "accomplished investigator with more than 25 years of experience in FBI major case management, counter terrorism investigations, bombing prevention, post blast investigations and public speaking."





FBI agent arrested on child sexual assault charge




Associated Press - January 15, 2008 6:14 PM ET
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7978377" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) - An FBI agent is under arrest in Pueblo for investigation of sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust.

Authorities say 53-year-old David Allan Johnson is being held in the Pueblo County jail today on a $100,000 bail.

Former Great Falls FBI agent sentenced on child sex charges

Jan 23, 2008



A man from Great Falls who's accused of sexually assaulting five underage girls will be spending the next 10 years behind bars.

Stanley Perkins, 64, changed his plea to guilty after police began investigating him for child molestation in August 2006.

The former educator, who also served two years as an FBI agent, was sentenced on one count of felony sexual assault.

see link for full story
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/crime- ... ormer.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Jail for former FBI worker from Va.
Washington Post Editors

A 65-year-old former FBI employee from Prince William County was sentenced to nearly four years in prison Friday for possessing child pornography.

Samuel I. Kaplan, of Gainesville, who pleaded guilty June 2 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, was sentenced to 46 months behind bars.

Kaplan was an information technology program manager at an FBI facility in Chantilly when authorities discovered that he had used the FBI's computer network to "facilitate sexually explict communications," the Justice Department said.

Investigators said they later found 10 to 20 images on Kaplan's home computer showing juveniles involved in sex acts.


http://franklincoverup.com/index.php?op ... &Itemid=26" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Ex-FBI agent gets 2 1/2 years for assault on marshal
A federal judge today sentenced retired FBI special agent Gary L. John
to 2 ½ years in prison for assaulting a U.S. marshal trying to place him
under arrest.
John, formerly of 110 Post Rd., Westerly, had been on the lam for two
months, when U.S. marshals working with Rhode Island Sheriffs
Department, tracked him to Stratford, Conn., in December 2005. He was
wanted in Rhode Island at the time for allegedly violating orders
barring him from contacting his ex-wife and for failing to appear in
court.

see link for full story
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-0 ... -fbi-agent" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
FBI agent convicted of daughters' abuse
July 11, 1993|By Traci A. Johnson | Traci A. Johnson,Staff Writer

An FBI agent who lives in Carroll County has been convicted of sexually abusing his daughters over a 14-year period.

The agent, as part of an agreement with prosecutors, pleaded guilty Friday before Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold to two counts of second-degree sexual offense and two counts of child abuse.

The agent's name is being withheld to protect the privacy of the victims.

In exchange for the agent's plea, the state dropped 18 other counts against him, ordered a presentence investigation and agreed to let him remain free on $125,000 bond pending sentencing Sept. 10.

The agent was suspended from the FBI's Baltimore field office when he was arrested in December.

The original indictment also charged the man with fondling his oldest daughter's friend several years ago when the girl had slept over at the agent's home.

An investigation began after one of the man's daughters told a county child-abuse investigator of at least five incidents of molestation from 1980 to 1987, court documents said.

The victims said their father performed sexual acts ranging from fondling to intercourse beginning when each was preschool age. The abuse lasted until the girls were in their early teens, said Assistant State's Attorney Kathi Hill in a statement of facts presented in court.

In February, defense attorney John E. Harris Sr. tried unsuccessfully to have the case moved out of Carroll on the grounds that pretrial publicity had damaged the defendant's chance for a fair trial.

Ms. Hill said the state will recommend a sentence of 35 years in state prison, with 15 years suspended.

Although Ms. Hill said she once argued that the agent should be incarcerated until his trial, she said Friday she was not worried about whether he will return for his sentencing.

"Even if he'd take a walk, when he eventually comes back he wouldn't have to be tried again. He'd just be sentenced," Ms. Hill said. "There's not so much fear on our part, because we don't have to prove the case again."

The state will ask the court, as part of the agent's sentence, to impose five years of supervised probation and order him to have no contact with females under 18 and to undergo psychological therapy.

Judge Arnold also accepted a plea agreement Friday in which a Mount Airy hairdresser admitted sexually abusing a teen-age boy he befriended in 1990.

David Curtis Flynn of Grimes Court in Mount Airy was immediately sentenced to four years in prison for a second-degree sexual offense.

From January 1991 to November 1992, Flynn had a sexual relationship with the boy, whose family knew and trusted the man, according to a statement of facts that Ms. Hill read in court.

The victim told authorities that Flynn talked to him before the incidents, saying he had been abused as a child, Ms. Hill said.

"I am deeply sorry . . . in my soul," Flynn said. "None of my attentions were meant as wrongdoing. I showed [the victim] the kind of love and affection I was brought up with. I'm deeply sorry for upsetting his childhood."

Judge Arnold sentenced Flynn to 10 years in state prison, then suspended six years of the term.

The judge also ordered five years of supervised probation for the defendant after the prison term and ordered him to participate in all recommended treatment programs.



Mystery Over FBI Agent's Firing
Government shrouds details of why top child porn prober got canned

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/ ... nts-firing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mystery Over FBI Agent's Firing



AUGUST 20--The lead FBI investigator on several of the government's highest profile child porn prosecutions has recently been fired in connection with her work on those cases, though details of why the agent was terminated have been sealed by a federal judge.

The canning of Monique Winkis, 40, was just disclosed by federal prosecutors to a Tennessee defense lawyer who represents Timothy Richards, who was convicted in a case in which Winkis was the lead FBI agent. In an August 8 U.S. District Court filing, defense lawyer Kimberly Hodde stated that prosecutors had informed her that Winkis was canned due to her 'conduct in the investigation of cases related to Defendant Richards' prosecution.'

Specific details of Winkis's firing are contained in a court filing made by Department of Justice officials, a submission that was ordered sealed last week by Judge Aleta Trauger. In her court filing, Hodde argues that Richards, pictured at left, is entitled to details about the Winkis firing since the ex-prober was the FBI case agent assigned to his prosecution.

The Winkis firing was apparently first disclosed by government lawyers during a late-June status conference, at which Trauger set dates for court pleadings 're: FBI Wincus,' according to a court filing. Winkis did not respond to a detailed message left with her mother, and the federal prosecutor handling the Richards case did not return a message left at her office. An FBI spokesperson declined comment, noting that the agency is prohibited from discussing personnel matters.

According to court records, Winkis worked for the FBI for about 13 years, most recently from the bureau's Washington, D.C. headquarters where she was a supervisor in the Innocent Images Unit. In that capacity, Winkis developed cases based on information provided by Justin Berry, who began operating an X-rated Webcam business while still a teenager. Berry's cooperation was, in large part, arranged in late-2005 by Kurt Eichenwald, then a New York Times reporter investigating online child porn businesses.

According to a December 2005 Eichenwald story, the Times 'persuaded Justin to abandon his business and, to protect other children at risk, assisted him in contacting the Justice Department.' That Times report also quoted Winkis commenting on the breadth of potential targets identified as a result of Berry's cooperation and how 'hundreds of other kids that we are not aware of yet' could be saved from sexual abuse and exploitation.


EX-FBI AGENT JOHN LANDS IN JAIL - AGAIN

By Ryan McBride - The Sun Staff



WAKEFIELD - A former FBI agent from Westerly has returned to prison
after a series of recent arrests for violating a court order to stay
away from his ex-wife.



John served 15 months at the ACI for a criminal conviction of violating a
restraining order in March 2002. His suspended sentence and probation
from the conviction end in 2012.



According to court records, state police arrested John in February 2002
on a disorderly conduct charge for exposing himself in public.


Calif. FBI agent accused of paying for prostitutes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wire ... fbi-agent/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

GREG RISLING | September 24, 2012
LOS ANGELES — An undercover FBI agent has been accused in court documents of spending U.S. taxpayer dollars on prostitutes in the Philippines for himself and others during an international weapons trafficking probe last year.

Deputy Federal Public Defender John Littrell filed a motion last week asking a judge to toss an indictment against his client, Sergio Santiago Syjuco, for "outrageous government misconduct." Syjuco, 25, and two other Philippine nationals have been charged with conspiracy and face up to 20 years in prison.

The agent, who wasn't identified in court documents, paid up to $2,400 each time he went to brothels with Syjuco and others to reward them for their work to secure weapons to ship to the U.S. without a license, court documents show.

"I have never seen anything like this during my career as a criminal defense lawyer," Littrell told The Associated Press on Monday. "I hope that the Department of Justice takes these allegations seriously, does a complete investigation, and ensures that whoever authorized this outrageous misconduct is held accountable."

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller declined comment Monday, but federal prosecutors acknowledged in court documents that the agent sought nearly $15,000 in reimbursements for "entertainment" and other expenses related to the investigation. The prosecutors said they don't have any receipts from the clubs, but two of them listed in the filing, "Air Force One" and "Area 51," are suspected brothels.

No charges have been filed against the agent.

Syjuco, Cesar Ubaldo and Arjyl Revereza, a Philippines customs official, were charged earlier this year with violating arms import laws by selling a grenade launcher, a mortar launcher and other weapons to the undercover agent who said he was interested in buying high-powered weapons that could be used by drug cartels in the U.S. and Mexico.

The case was part of a federal investigation of Asian organized crime groups involved in the illicit trafficking of firearms.

The weapons were eventually loaded onto a ship that arrived at the Port of Long Beach in June 2011 and the items were seized by authorities.

Littrell argues that the agent – and none of the three defendants – arranged importing the weapons to the U.S. He also questioned why the weapons were first shipped from the Philippines to China, where it wasn't known whether officials there checked the container, before arriving in the U.S.

Littrell and an investigator recently visited the Philippines and interviewed several people who claim the agent, using an alias "Richard Han," paid for himself and others to have sex with prostitutes. Alex Escosio, who worked at Area 51, told defense attorneys that Han "always paid for everything, including alcohol, private rooms, food and girls for the entire group of people he brought in," court documents show.

"Although the government represents that these expenditures were for `entertainment and cocktail (tips included),' it is impossible that the agent could not have known that they money went toward prostitutes," Littrell wrote in court documents.

Area 51 was raided in May by Philippine authorities where 60 victims of sex trafficking were rescued, some of whom were underage girls, Littrell said. At least seven people were arrested.

see link for full story

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/12/ke ... 82698.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





Keith Dietterle, FBI analyst, accused of distributing child pornography
By Jennifer Donelan
December 3, 2012 - 05:37 pm


An FBI analyst has been accused of distributing child pornography in a disturbing case that's left his neighbors wanting answers.



A task force made up of FBI agents and D.C. police officers busted Keith Dietterle. The 28-year-old will appear for a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Dietterle is accused of sending child pornography to another man he met in a chat room frequented by individuals who have a sexual interest children. But the person Dietterle was allegedly speaking with was a D.C. police detective.

According to court documents, agents say Dietterle thought he was communicating with a man who claimed to be sexually abusing a 3-year-old nephew and 12-year-old daughter. The detective wrote he and Dietterle discussed a possible meeting with the "children" for sex. Over a two week period, Dietterle sent three images via Yahoo instant messenger depicting child pornography, court documents state.

Dietterle is accused of later sending multiple links, including a 13-minute video, images and six separate videos of underage children all being sexually abused.

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see link for full story
http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/05/31/58111.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Friday, May 31, 2013

Agency Used Bad Math in Permit to Kill Whales


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CN) - Mathematical errors tainted approval of a seismic survey program that is killing endangered beluga whales in Alaska, a federal judge ruled.
"Seismic surveys use high-energy, low-frequency sound in short pulse durations to determine substrates below the sea floor, such as gas and oil deposits," according to the ruling.
In April 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued Apache Alaska Corp. a permit to kill up to 30 beluga whales while conducting such surveys in Cook Inlet, Alaska.
Apache Alaska's oil and gas leases in Cook Inlet cover over 300,000 acres. The permit authorized the company to conduct 24-hour surveys using explosives and seismic air guns for 10 to 12 hours a day for 160 days.
The Native Village of Chickaloon and three nonprofits then filed suit, challenging the Incidental Harassment Authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
They say air gun noise interferes with the ability of whales to "communicate and breed," causes them to leave their habitat, and can "cause hearing loss and death."
Belugas are small, toothed mammals distinguished by their pure white skin and lack of dorsal fin. They typically grow between 12 and 14 feet long and weigh around 3,150 lbs., according to the National Marine Fisheries Service's website.
The Cook Inlet whales are the only endangered population of beluga. Their numbers were around 1,300 in the 1970s, but have shrunk to a mere 300 as a result of threats like shipping, oil and gas production, and pollution, the agency said.
Cook Inlet's beluga whales joined the list of endangered species in October 2008 thanks to efforts by the National Resources Defense Counsel and the Center for Biological Diversity, both plaintiffs in the action. The government also "designated more than 3,000 square miles of the Cook Inlet as critical habitat essential to the whales' survival in April 2011," the NRDC said.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason found Tuesday that the Fisheries Service miscalculated when it concluded that the surveys would result in the "taking" of 30 belugas.
"Applying the uncorrected survey data to the corrected total population abundance resulted in an underestimation of the percentage of the beluga whale population that would be encountered in the survey area," Gleason wrote.
"NMFS asserts that any inaccuracies in the density estimates are immaterial because the agency has authorized a take of no more than 30 beluga whales and has required '"real-time" monitoring to insure that this authorized take amount is not exceeded,'" she added. "But NMFS has not shown that Apache's monitoring will detect all beluga whales in the safety radii."
Gleason emphasized that "the amount of correction has been significant."
"In most years, the aerial survey count has been approximately one-half or two-thirds of the total population abundance estimate after correction," the ruling states.
Gleason said these miscalculations make the agency's incidental take calculations "arbitrary and capricious."
She emphasized that the ruling "does not resolve the extent to which those mathematical errors may impact other aspects of the agency's decision-making."

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see link for full story
http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-nato-su ... ns/5337281" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


US-NATO Supplying Syria Opposition Terrorists with Chemical Weapons
Syrian Army seizes Sarin Cylinders from Militants in Hama
By Press TV
Global Research, June 02, 2013


The Syrian army has seized two cylinders of the nerve agent sarin during an operation in the city of Hama.

Syrian media say the operation was carried out against a militant hideout in the city’s al-Faraieh neighborhood on Saturday.

Sarin is a colorless, odorless liquid gas which causes respiratory arrest and death. The poisonous agent has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687.

The foreign-backed militants in Syria have repeatedly threatened to use such weapons.

A video released last December showed them testing chemical agents on lab rabbits and threatening to kill pro-government Syrians.

msfreeh
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Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

Could you say a bit more about that?

I remember being really shocked when I came across the WASP / Bankster funding of the Nazi machine as I was when finding out that there was similar funding for the Russian revolution, both documented in depth by Antony Sutton.

http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/ ... =8&t=29055" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

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two reads -you do know what to do?



1st read

see link for full story
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/ ... bI105xyziE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

JNF Withdraws from $500,000 Clinton Event
Following outrage in Israel and abroad, the Jewish National Fund says it won't pay former U.S. President $500,000 to speak at a gala.
6/7/2013, 12:15 AM



The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet Leyisrael) said on Thursday that it will not take part in an upcoming gala event attended by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and will not pay him $500,000 to give a speech at this gala.

Clinton's participation in the event has not been canceled.

Earlier this week it was reported that the JNF would pay Clinton this huge sum for the gala evening, to be held June 17 in honor of President Shimon Peres's 90th birthday. It will be held at the Peres Academic Center in Rehovot, one of the few institutions in Israel that are named for living dignitaries.

The reports said that the Peres Center has been cooperating with the JNF for a year. JNF hoped to improve the organization's image abroad by bringing Clinton to speak about it in Israel, and to have Clinton meet with its largest donors, thus bolstering donations. The reports about the outrageous sum that Clinton would be paid for the speech sparked an uproar both in Israel as well as by JNF donors abroad.


2nd read

https://www.google.com/search?num=40&si ... 3g17orooOY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Mena - What Really Happened
whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/MENA/mena.php‎
Despite a public statement by then-Governor Bill Clinton that he was doing all he could to investigate allegations of CIA drug running at Mena, citizen's groups ...
BILL CLINTON and CIA DRUGS for GUNS, and IRAN/CONTRA ...
http://www.ncoic.com/clinton.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;‎
Jan 25, 1992 – Governor Bill Clinton and Mena Airport connection to Iran/Contra. ... at the Mena airport refused to hand down any indictments after drug ...
The Crimes of Mena - The Forbidden Knowledge
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/ha ... f_mena.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;‎
Then, after Clinton became president, Mena began to reappear. ... "Seal was smuggling drugs and kept his planes at Mena," *The Wall Street Journal* ... Revenue Service Agent Bill Duncan, Arkansas State Police investigator Russell Welch, ...
Bill Clinton's Lies About CIA Drug Trafficking In Mena, Arkansas ...
► 2:33► 2:33
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDMktUYvC7k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;‎
Mar 29, 2008 - Uploaded by Citizen Investigator's Channel
In this clip from The Mena Connection, Sarah McClendon questions Bill Clinton about his knowledge ...
The Mena Connection: Bush, Clinton, and CIA drug smuggling part ...
► 10:00► 10:00

President Bill Clinton - The Dark Side
http://www.realchange.org/clinton.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;‎
Bill Clinton's Skeleton Closet ... What can we say about Bill and Hillary that hasn't been said before? ... Mena, Arkansas: Contra & Drug Smuggling Center?

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http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... AA&dur=127" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;






The IRS has announced that they will give a free pencil sharpener to all taxpayers who pay their taxes on time this year. It can be placed on your desk as a constant reminder of the service they provide to you each year.

msfreeh
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see link for story
http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/06/10/58366.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That Ain't the Way





SAN ANTONIO - Judson Independent School District teacher Cynthia Ambrose ordered 20 kindergarten students to hit another one to teach him "why bullying is bad," the boy's mom claims in Bexar County Court.

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http://www.kulturekritic.com/2013/06/wo ... r-tantrum/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

6-Year Old Girl Handcuffed, Arrested, Charged with Assault After Temper Tantrum
Added by bowatkin on June 13, 2013.

msfreeh
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see link for exploding corn niblets shrapnel
http://www.abqjournal.com/main/210939/n ... ffice.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Man Arrested After Threatening to Detonate Explosive-Laden Burrito at FBI Office


A man convinced that the FBI had implanted a tracking device into his head threatened to detonate an explosive burrito at the bureau’s Albuquerque field office, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

Brian DeMarco, 50, called up the FBI from his Super 8 motel room to warn that he planned to blow up a explosives-rigged Mexican lunch wrap, the FBI told the Journal.

Additionally, DeMarco, who also complained that the FBI was beaming photos into his brain, said he had placed a bomb at the Albuquerque Social Security Administration building.

DeMarco, who said he’d been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was arrested at a bus station and no explosives were found.
- See more at: http://ticklethewire.com/#sthash.Omt2RveN.dpuf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Melissa Neale, Orlando Woman, Accused Of Disciplining Child With Stun Gun Over Oatmeal

The Huffington Post
06/17/2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/1 ... 54922.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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see link for full story
http://www.imperialvalleynews.com/index ... ademy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
FBI to Participate in Youth Criminal Justice Academy
Wednesday, 19 June 2013 18:57

San Diego, California - Daphne Hearn, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the San Diego FBI Field Office, announces the FBI will be participating in a Youth Criminal Justice Academy, presented by the San Diego Learning for Life and Exploring Program. The event will be held on Thursday, June 20, 2013, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., at Camp Balboa, 1207 Upas Street in San Diego, California, 92103.

The FBI, through its Community Outreach Program, is partnering with the Learning for Life and Exploring Program to provide information to young people on career choices and qualifications for law enforcement careers. The event will also provide a chance for participants to receive hands-on-training related to evidence collection techniques. The FBI’s half-day program on June 20th is one of a week-long schedule of programs. The other four days include both federal and local law enforcement programs.

The Youth Criminal Justice Academy event supports the Learning for Life and Exploring mission of enabling young people to become responsible individuals by teaching positive character traits, career development, leadership, and life skills so they can make ethical choices and achieve their full potential. This mission also falls in line with the FBI’s goal of providing positive learning opportunities, career awareness, and safety information to young people.

Learning for Life programs are designed for all age groups from kindergarten through age 20. For more information on the Learning for Life and Exploring Programs, contact Marilyn Copeland at (619) 298-6121 ext. 232 or Marilyn.copeland@lflmail.org. For more information concerning the FBI’s Community Outreach Program, please contact Public Affairs Specialist Emily Yeh at (858) 320-8312 or emily.yeh@ic.fbi.gov or Community Outreach Specialist Erin MacKinnon at (858) 320-8313.

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Jihawg Ammo: Pork-laced Bullets Designed To Send Muslims Straight ‘To Hell'

Religion News Service | By Tracy Simmons Posted: 06/22/2013 8:20 am EDT
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/2 ... ostpopular" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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2 reads
http://www.myrecordjournal.com/wallingf ... 963f4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

see link for full story


Moran Middle School wins national award from FBI


Tuesday, June 25, 2013


WALLINGFORD -- For the month of February, Moran Middle School received the FBI-SOS Internet Challenge's National Award in the Stingray category -- the first school in Connecticut to earn the award.

FBI-SOS, or safe online surfing, is a free monthly program developed and administered by the FBI.

The students received the FBI-SOS National Trophy on Monday, which was presented by the FBI.

The program aims to provide students with the knowledge of how to avoid dangerous situations, specifically internet predators.

Participating students learn about internet safety through online games and activities. At the end of the month, the students take an online quiz to test their knowledge.

To learn more about Internet safety, and to play safety related children's games, visit the FBI's website https://sos.fbi.gov/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.


2nd read
http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher

by John Taylor Gatto, New York State Teacher of the Year, 1991





Call me Mr. Gatto, please. Twenty-six years ago, having nothing better to do, I tried my hand at schoolteaching. My license certifies me as an instructor of English language and literature, but that isn't what I do at all. What I teach is school, and I win awards doing it.

Teaching means many different things, but six lessons are common to schoolteaching from Harlem to Hollywood. You pay for these lessons in more ways than you can imagine, so you might as well know what they are:

The first lesson I teach is: "Stay in the class where you belong." I don't know who decides that my kids belong there but that's not my business. The children are numbered so that if any get away they can be returned to the right class. Over the years the variety of ways children are numbered has increased dramatically, until it is hard to see the human being under the burden of the numbers each carries. Numbering children is a big and very profitable business, though what the business is designed to accomplish is elusive.

In any case, again, that's not my business. My job is to make the kids like it -- being locked in together, I mean -- or at the minimum, endure it. If things go well, the kids can't imagine themselves anywhere else; they envy and fear the better classes and have contempt for the dumber classes. So the class mostly keeps itself in good marching order. That's the real lesson of any rigged competition like school. You come to know your place.

Nevertheless, in spite of the overall blueprint, I make an effort to urge children to higher levels of test success, promising eventual transfer from the lower-level class as a reward. I insinuate that the day will come when an employer will hire them on the basis of test scores, even though my own experience is that employers are (rightly) indifferent to such things. I never lie outright, but I've come to see that truth and [school]teaching are incompatible.

The lesson of numbered classes is that there is no way out of your class except by magic. Until that happens you must stay where you are put.

The second lesson I teach kids is to turn on and off like a light switch. I demand that they become totally involved in my lessons, jumping up and down in their seats with anticipation, competing vigorously with each other for my favor. But when the bell rings I insist that they drop the work at once and proceed quickly to the next work station. Nothing important is ever finished in my class, nor in any other class I know of.

The lesson of bells is that no work is worth finishing, so why care too deeply about anything? Bells are the secret logic of schooltime; their argument is inexorable; bells destroy past and future, converting every interval into a sameness, as an abstract map makes every living mountain and river the same even though they are not. Bells inoculate each undertaking with indifference.

The third lesson I teach you is to surrender your will to a predestined chain of command. Rights may be granted or withheld, by authority, without appeal. As a schoolteacher I intervene in many personal decisions, issuing a Pass for those I deem legitimate, or initiating a disciplinary confrontation for behavior that threatens my control. My judgments come thick and fast, because individuality is trying constantly to assert itself in my classroom. Individuality is a curse to all systems of classification, a contradiction of class theory.

Here are some common ways it shows up: children sneak away for a private moment in the toilet on the pretext of moving their bowels; they trick me out of a private instant in the hallway on the grounds that they need water. Sometimes free will appears right in front of me in children angry, depressed or exhilarated by things outside my ken. Rights in such things cannot exist for schoolteachers; only privileges, which can be withdrawn, exist.

The fourth lesson I teach is that only I determine what curriculum you will study. (Rather, I enforce decisions transmitted by the people who pay me). This power lets me separate good kids from bad kids instantly. Good kids do the tasks I appoint with a minimum of conflict and a decent show of enthusiasm. Of the millions of things of value to learn, I decide what few we have time for. The choices are mine. Curiosity has no important place in my work, only conformity.

Bad kids fight against this, of course, trying openly or covertly to make decisions for themselves about what they will learn. How can we allow that and survive as schoolteachers? Fortunately there are procedures to break the will of those who resist.

This is another way I teach the lesson of dependency. Good people wait for a teacher to tell them what to do. This is the most important lesson of all, that we must wait for other people, better trained than ourselves, to make the meanings of our lives. It is no exaggeration to say that our entire economy depends upon this lesson being learned. Think of what would fall apart if kids weren't trained in the dependency lesson: The social-service businesses could hardly survive, including the fast-growing counseling industry; commercial entertainment of all sorts, along with television, would wither if people remembered how to make their own fun; the food services, restaurants and prepared-food warehouses would shrink if people returned to making their own meals rather than depending on strangers to cook for them. Much of modern law, medicine, and engineering would go too -- the clothing business as well -- unless a guaranteed supply of helpless people poured out of our schools each year. We've built a way of life that depends on people doing what they are told because they don't know any other way. For God's sake, let's not rock that boat!

In lesson five I teach that your self-respect should depend on an observer's measure of your worth. My kids are constantly evaluated and judged. A monthly report, impressive in its precision, is sent into students' homes to spread approval or to mark exactly -- down to a single percentage point -- how dissatisfied with their children parents should be. Although some people might be surprised how little time or reflection goes into making up these records, the cumulative weight of the objective- seeming documents establishes a profile of defect which compels a child to arrive at a certain decisions about himself and his future based on the casual judgment of strangers.

Self-evaluation -- the staple of every major philosophical system that ever appeared on the planet -- is never a factor in these things. The lesson of report cards, grades, and tests is that children should not trust themselves or their parents, but must rely on the evaluation of certified officials. People need to be told what they are worth.

In lesson six I teach children that they are being watched. I keep each student under constant surveillance and so do my colleagues. There are no private spaces for children; there is no private time. Class change lasts 300 seconds to keep promiscuous fraternization at low levels. Students are encouraged to tattle on each other, even to tattle on their parents. Of course I encourage parents to file their own child's waywardness, too.

I assign "homework" so that this surveillance extends into the household, where students might otherwise use the time to learn something unauthorized, perhaps from a father or mother, or by apprenticing to some wiser person in the neighborhood.

The lesson of constant surveillance is that no one can be trusted, that privacy is not legitimate. Surveillance is an ancient urgency among certain influential thinkers; it was a central prescription set down by Calvin in the Institutes, by Plato in the Republic, by Hobbes, by Comte, by Francis Bacon. All these childless men discovered the same thing: Children must be closely watched if you want to keep a society under central control.

It is the great triumph of schooling that among even the best of my fellow teachers, and among even the best parents, there is only a small number who can imagine a different way to do things. Yet only a very few lifetimes ago things were different in the United States: originality and variety were common currency; our freedom from regimentation made us the miracle of the world; social class boundaries were relatively easy to cross; our citizenry was marvelously confident, inventive, and able to do many things independently, to think for themselves. We were something, all by ourselves, as individuals.

It only takes about 50 contact hours to transmit basic literacy and math skills well enough that kids can be self-teachers from then on. The cry for "basic skills" practice is a smokescreen behind which schools pre-empt the time of children for twelve years and teach them the six lessons I've just taught you.

We've had a society increasingly under central control in the United States since just before the Civil War: the lives we lead, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the green highway signs we drive by from coast to coast are the products of this central control. So, too, I think, are the epidemics of drugs, suicide, divorce, violence, cruelty, and the hardening of class into caste in the U.S., products of the dehumanization of our lives, the lessening of individual and family importance that central control imposes.

Without a fully active role in community life you cannot develop into a complete human being. Aristotle taught that. Surely he was right; look around you or look in the mirror: that is the demonstration.

"School" is an essential support system for a vision of social engineering that condemns most people to be subordinate stones in a pyramid that narrows to a control point as it ascends. "School" is an artifice which makes such a pyramidal social order seem inevitable (although such a premise is a fundamental betrayal of the American Revolution). In colonial days and through the period of the early Republic we had no schools to speak of. And yet the promise of democracy was beginning to be realized. We turned our backs on this promise by bringing to life the ancient dream of Egypt: compulsory training in subordination for everybody. Compulsory schooling was the secret Plato reluctantly transmitted in the Republic when he laid down the plans for total state control of human life.

The current debate about whether we should have a national curriculum is phony; we already have one, locked up in the six lessons I've told you about and a few more I've spared you. This curriculum produces moral and intellectual paralysis, and no curriculum of content will be sufficient to reverse its bad effects. What is under discussion is a great irrelevancy.

None of this is inevitable, you know. None of it is impregnable to change. We do have a choice in how we bring up young people; there is no right way. There is no "international competition" that compels our existence, difficult as it is to even think about in the face of a constant media barrage of myth to the contrary. In every important material respect our nation is self-sufficient. If we gained a non-material philosophy that found meaning where it is genuinely located -- in families, friends, the passage of seasons, in nature, in simple ceremonies and rituals, in curiosity, generosity, compassion, and service to others, in a decent independence and privacy -- then we would be truly self-sufficient.

How did these awful places, these "schools", come about? As we know them, they are a product of the two "Red Scares" of 1848 and 1919, when powerful interests feared a revolution among our industrial poor, and partly they are the result of the revulsion with which old-line families regarded the waves of Celtic, Slavic, and Latin immigration -- and the Catholic religion -- after 1845. And certainly a third contributing cause can be found in the revulsion with which these same families regarded the free movement of Africans through the society after the Civil War.

Look again at the six lessons of school. This is training for permanent underclasses, people who are to be deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius. And it is training shaken loose from its original logic: to regulate the poor. Since the 1920s the growth of the well-articulated school bureaucracy, and the less visible growth of a horde of industries that profit from schooling exactly as it is, have enlarged schooling's original grasp to seize the sons and daughters of the middle class.

Is it any wonder Socrates was outraged at the accusation that he took money to teach? Even then, philosophers saw clearly the inevitable direction the professionalization of teaching would take, pre-empting the teaching function that belongs to all in a healthy community; belongs, indeed, most clearly to yourself, since nobody else cares as much about your destiny. Professional teaching tends to another serious error. It makes things that are inherently easy to learn, like reading, writing, and arithmetic, difficult -- by insisting they be taught by pedagogical procedures.

With lessons like the ones I teach day after day, is it any wonder we have the national crisis we face today? Young people indifferent to the adult world and to the future; indifferent to almost everything except the diversion of toys and violence? Rich or poor, schoolchildren cannot concentrate on anything for very long. They have a poor sense of time past and to come; they are mistrustful of intimacy (like the children of divorce they really are); they hate solitude, are cruel, materialistic, dependent, passive, violent, timid in the face of the unexpected, addicted to distraction.

All the peripheral tendencies of childhood are magnified to a grotesque extent by schooling, whose hidden curriculum prevents effective personality development. Indeed, without exploiting the fearfulness, selfishness, and inexperience of children our schools could not survive at all, nor could I as a certified schoolteacher.

"Critical thinking" is a term we hear frequently these days as a form of training which will herald a new day in mass schooling. It certainly will, if it ever happens. No common school that actually dared teach the use of dialectic, heuristic, and other tools of free minds could last a year without being torn to pieces.

Institutional schoolteachers are destructive to children's development. Nobody survives the Six-Lesson Curriculum unscathed, not even the instructors. The method is deeply and profoundly anti-educational. No tinkering will fix it. In one of the great ironies of human affairs, the massive rethinking that schools require would cost so much less than we are spending now that it is not likely to happen. First and foremost, the business I am in is a jobs project and a contract-letting agency. We cannot afford to save money, not even to help children.

At the pass we've come to historically, and after 26 years of teaching, I must conclude that one of the only alternatives on the horizon for most families is to teach their own children at home. Small, de- institutionalized schools are another. Some form of free-market system for public schooling is the likeliest place to look for answers. But the near impossibility of these things for the shattered families of the poor, and for too many on the fringes of the economic middle class, foretell that the disaster of Six-Lesson Schools is likely to continue.

After an adult lifetime spent in teaching school I believe the method of schooling is the only real content it has. Don't be fooled into thinking that good curricula or good equipment or good teachers are the critical determinants of your son and daughter's schooltime. All the pathologies we've considered come about in large measure because the lessons of school prevent children from keeping important appointments with themselves and their families, to learn lessons in self-motivation, perseverance, self-reliance, courage, dignity and love -- and, of course, lessons in service to others, which are among the key lessons of home life.

Thirty years ago these things could still be learned in the time left after school. But television has eaten most of that time, and a combination of television and the stresses peculiar to two-income or single-parent families have swallowed up most of what used to be family time. Our kids have no time left to grow up fully human, and only thin-soil wastelands to do it in.

A future is rushing down upon our culture which will insist that all of us learn the wisdom of non-material experience; this future will demand, as the price of survival, that we follow a pace of natural life economical in material cost. These lessons cannot be learned in schools as they are. School is like starting life with a 12-year jail sentence in which bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach school and win awards doing it. I should know.

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Thursday, 27 June 2013 13:44
Our Planet Is Exploding With Ocean Dead Zones
http://www.businessinsider.com/map-of-w ... nes-2013-6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“The world's oceans are exploding with dead zones, regions where the water is so depleted of oxygen that fish and other sea life that live near the bottom cannot survive.

Dead zones are human-caused. They occur when crop fertilizer and cow poop, containing high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous, get washed into streams and rivers and out to the ocean.

The nutrient-rich farm runoff triggers huge algae blooms. When the algae dies, it sinks down to the bottom of the water. Bacteria living in the water decompose the dead algae, and use up the oxygen. Without enough oxygen in the water, fish and shellfish suffocate and die.

The number and size of marine dead zones has doubled each decade since the 1960s, mostly due to agricultural pollution, according to study published in the journal Science. They are concentrated on the East coast of the U.S. and Europe.

Declines in oxygen are associated with an expanded use of industrial nitrogen fertilizer, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. The impacts of these fertilizers, however, were not observed until at least a decade later.”

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http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Vatica ... 88791.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Vatican rentboy and satanism claims revealed by convicted paedophile priest
Nine teenagers allegedly pimped out to nine different clergyman

June 29, 2013


A former pedophile priest has claimed that an underage male prostitution ring has been operating inside the Vatican with clergymen hiring rent boys for sex inside churches. The Vatican has denied the claim.

According to the Iberian Times, the sensational claims have prompted Italian investigators to open an inquiry, after the alarm was raised by a convicted paedophile priest.

Don Patrizio Poggi, 46, reportedly told Italian authorities that a former Italian police officer pimped boys for nine clergymen.

Although he himself had previously served a five-year sentence for abusing teenage boys while he was a parish priest at the San Filippo Neri church in Rome, Poggi said he made the allegations to 'protect the Holy Church and the Christian community.'

The at-risk boys were carefully chosen because they were starving and desperate, Poggi told Il Messaggero newspaper.

According to reports the former policeman recruited the boys, mostly eastern European immigrants, outside a gay bar named Twink located near Rome's Termini train station.

The former policeman reportedly lured the underage boys into prostitution through 'false work offers for modeling and acting roles,' Poggi said.

The boys were reportedly paid $200 to around $600 to perform sex acts in church premises across the Italian capital.

In another sensational claim Poggi also accused the former policeman of selling consecrated hosts for satanic rites.

This week Poggi reportedly presented photographic evidence to the Italian police in the company of two senior Vatican clergymen who vouched for his credibility

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2 reads


July 1, 2013
Brazil's hydro dams could make its greenhouse gas emissions soar

Already a top emitter, Brazil could spew hundreds of millions more tons of gases blamed for climate change, such as CO2 and methane, as it floods Amazon forest for hydro power, researchers say.


http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news ... ate-change" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


2nd read

Death Valley sets all-time June nationwide record at 129 degrees


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... 7098.story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

July 1, 2013, 9:17 a.m.

After adjacent thermometers showed conflicting temperatures Sunday at Death Valley National Park, park rangers this morning resolved the debate over the precise peak temperature reached.

According to the National Weather Service, Sunday's highest temperature was 129 degrees, making it the hottest June temperature ever recorded in the U.S.

msfreeh
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



NYC cases show how crooked officers misuse FBI database for cyber snooping, other offenses


Sunday, July 7, 12:23 PM

NEW YORK — It’s billed by the FBI as “the lifeline of law enforcement” — a federal database used to catch criminals, recover stolen property and even identify terrorism suspects.

But authorities say Edwin Vargas logged onto the restricted system and ran names for reasons that had nothing to do with his duties as a New York Police Department detective. Instead, he was accused in May of looking up personal information on two fellow officers without their knowledge.



The allegation against Vargas is one of a batch of corruption cases in recent years against NYPD officers accused of abusing the FBI-operated National Crime Information Center database to cyber snoop on co-workers, tip off drug dealers, stage robberies and — most notoriously — scheme to abduct and eat women.

The NCIC database serves 90,000 agencies and gets 9 million entries a day by users seeking information on stolen guns and cars, fugitives, sex offenders, orders of protection and other subjects, according to an FBI website. The NYPD system — called the “Finest,” as in “New York’s Finest” — also allows access to state criminal and Department of Motor Vehicles records.

How often the database is used for unauthorized purposes is unclear. The NYPD insists that officers are under strict orders to use it only during car stops, ongoing investigations or other police work. The department assigns them login names and passwords that allow supervisors to track their usage on desktop computers in station houses or on laptops in patrol cars.

NYPD recruits are warned that “if you misuse or you access information in an inappropriate manner ... you are in serious trouble — such as being prosecuted, being fired and also big fines,” a police academy instructor testified at the trial of Gilbert Valle, who was convicted in March in a bizarre plot to kidnap, cook and cannibalize women.

In addition, an FBI compliance unit conducts spot audits to examine users’ ”policies, procedures, and security requirements,” the FBI said in a statement. The FBI also requires each state to have its own audit programs and claims that “malicious misuse is not commonly discovered.”

But both the instructor testifying at the Valle trial and an Internal Affairs Bureau investigator who took the witness stand in an earlier case have conceded that officers can easily circumvent safeguards.

The investigator testified as a government witness at the 2010 trial of an NYPD officer accused of using the database to conduct surveillance of a perfume warehouse in New Jersey before an armed robbery there. He told jurors that officers often do searches while logged in under another officer’s name — either out of neglect or, in this case, intent.

“Unfortunately ... it’s not unusual that it happens,” the investigator said.

The instructor, when asked about an officer’s ability to effectively log in anonymously, responded, “I know it occurs. I wouldn’t say it’s common, but I know it does occur.”

At a trial where Valle was convicted in March, prosecutors alleged that the officer used the database — sometimes accessing it while riding in a patrol car with his supervising sergeant — to help compile dossiers on women that listed their birthdates, addresses, heights and weights. None of the women were harmed, but prosecutors alleged he went as far as to show up on one woman’s block after striking an agreement to kidnap her for $5,000 for a New Jersey man who wanted to rape and kill her.

msfreeh
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When corporate media and corporate Tokyo Electric Power tells me Toshida did not die from radiation exposure
at Fukashima I believe what they say, eh? wink nod know what I mean?




see link for more of corporate controlled media
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/ ... 6940.story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Former Fukushima Daiichi plant chief Masao Yoshida dies at 58




Masao Yoshida, the plant manager who led the fight to bring Japan's Fukushima atomic station under control during the 2011 nuclear disaster, has died. He was 58.

He died Tuesday of esophagus cancer at a Tokyo hospital, according to a statement from Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The illness was unrelated to the radiation exposure after the nuclear accident, according to the company.

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2 reads


1st read see link for full stories
11 July 2013, 19:35
http://www.h-online.com/security/news/i ... 16235.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


DEF CON hacker conference says no feds, please
In a blog entry on the conference web site, DEF CON founder Jeff Moss (aka The Dark Tangent) has asked federal agents not to attend this year's DEF CON, which is set to take place in early August. Since recent news of the US government's extensive eavesdropping operations has made it difficult for many hackers to feel comfortable casually mixing with law enforcement officials, Moss is asking FBI agents, known as "feds", to take the year off. "This will give everybody time to think about how we got here, and what comes next," Moss wrote.



2nd read
08 June 2009, 09:43
Hacker joins US Government's Homeland Security Advisory Council
http://www.h-online.com/security/news/i ... 41927.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

During the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) meeting on June 5th the US Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, swore in new council members. The new members include Jeff Moss, also known as "Dark Tangent", founder of the hacker event DEFCON and the Black Hat security conference. Moss previously worked in the Information System Security division at Ernst & Young and on the board of Secure Computing Corporation, which was acquired by McAfee.

Apart from Moss, the advisory body consists of politicians, policemen, business men and scientists. The chairman is format CIA and FBI chief William Webster. The members of the HSAC make recommendations and give advice directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

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see link for full story

http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/07/14/the-mi ... few-clues/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The Michael Hastings Wreck–Video Evidence Only Deepens the Mystery
By Michael Krikorian - David J. Krajicek on Jul 14, 2013
this-was-not-an-accident

Or was it?

Michael Krikorian, an essayist and former Los Angeles Times crime reporter, happened upon the scene a few hours after journalist Michael Hastings’s speeding car slammed into a palm tree and burst into a fireball.

Krikorian has seen his share of fatal car wrecks. But this one was different. As he put it, “This demands a closer examination.”

In accident-investigation parlance, it was a roadway departure–a non-intersection crash in which a vehicle leaves the traveled way for some reason.

But how and why did Hastings’s Mercedes depart the traveled way, and why was it traveling so perilously fast?

In a city where there seem to be as many car wrecks as cars, North Highland Avenue in L.A.’s Hancock Park neighborhood is not exactly Dead Man’s Curve. A fatal car accident there is rare.

Highland is a four-lane neighborhood artery as straight as a laser, with a narrow, grassy median lined with towering Washingtonia robusta palms. In the two miles between Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards, not a single traffic fatality was recorded on Highland from 2001 to 2009, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. http://map.itoworld.com/road-casualties-usa#fullscreen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the final moments of Michael Hastings’s life, the car he was operating accelerated to a treacherous speed before swerving off the pavement, mounting the median and slamming into one of the palms. There were no skid marks—no apparent attempt to brake before the collision.

Hastings, 33, covered the Iraq War as a young correspondent for Newsweek. But he made front-page news (and won the prestigious George Polk journalism prize) for his 2010 Rolling Stone magazine profile of “The Runaway General,” Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO’s security force in Afghanistan. Hastings’s story portrayed the dismissive contempt with which McChrystal and his staff viewed President Obama and Vice President Biden. The general apologized, calling the profile “a mistake reflecting poor judgment.” But he was forced to resign.

Michael Hastings was carving out a journalism niche as a muckraker, and some see nefarious forces at work in his death.

We asked Michael Krikorian for his take on the curious accident, which happened in his hometown on a block he visits several times a week. He provides the details of new video evidence that offers a few clues about the seemingly inexplicable fatality.—David J. Krajicek

————-

By Michael Krikorian

Shortly before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 18, I was walking with my girlfriend, Nancy Silverton, to get my car, which I had left the night before at her restaurant, Pizzeria Mozza, at Highland and Melrose avenues. Walking west on Melrose, we noticed crime scene tape as we arrived at Highland. Just to the south, a wrecked and charred car was being pulled away from a palm tree in the median.

We lifted the yellow tape and walked down the sidewalk to get access to the alley leading to the lot where my car was parked. A Los Angeles police officer stopped us. Nancy explained she owned the restaurant and I identified myself as a reporter. The officer let us walk on and gave a quick rundown: A man had driven into the tree at 4:30 that morning. He was dead.

My first thought was that another early morning L.A. drunk had killed himself. I told the officer that a security camera located outside the front door of the pizzeria probably captured the crash.

As we talked to the police, a Mozza employee named Gary, who has been staying at a small apartment above the restaurant, approached us to say that he had heard the crash.

“I heard a ‘whoosh,’ then what sounded like a bump and then an explosion,” he said. “I thought the building had been hit.”

He said he rushed down and saw the car ablaze. Gary listened as two men who claimed to have witnessed the crash told police the car had sped through a red light at Melrose.

Later, when the pizzeria manager arrived at work, we watched the security camera footage. There’s no wonder it was a fatality. The crash ended with a hellish explosion and fire. The officer, watching the video with us, was as stunned as we were. He said, “I have never seen a car explode like that.”

Soon, a flatbed truck with the burned Mercedes CL 250 aboard drove slowly by, going north in the southbound lanes of Highland. The front of the car, particularly on the driver’s side, was badly damaged. I snapped a couple of poor photos with my iPhone.

The Man Who Brought Down General McChrystal

Nancy and I got in my car and went home. I went on to Watts to do some reporting on another story and later to Gardena. That afternoon, I got an email from a friend to whom I had mentioned the crash. It included a link to an L.A. Times story about the wreck. My friend wrote, “The driver was a well-known journalist: Michael Hastings. What a drag. Obviously a talented guy. Wonder why he was driving so fast?”

I went online and read about Michael Hastings, the guy who brought down General McChrystal. The conspiracy theories were already being spun on the web: that a bomb had been planted in the car, or that its controls had been hacked and the crash was engineered remotely by an unseen hand.

For nearly five years, McChrystal served as chief of the Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees the military’s commando units, including the Army Delta Force and the Navy Seals. This was not a paper-pushing general. McChrystal was a soldier’s general who would go on raids with his men. A reporter brings him down—and then dies in a mysterious crash three years later. If this had happened in Russia, wouldn’t we all figure it was some dark military conspiracy?

I’m not a conspiracy guy, but my reporter’s instincts told me that this demands a closer examination. So I snooped around.

Mysteries on the Video Tape

“I’ve never seen an explosion like that,” said Terry Hopkins, 46, a former U.S. Navy military policeman who served in Afghanistan, told me. “I’ve seen military vehicles explode, but never quite like that. Look, here’s a reporter who brought down a general. He’s sending out emails saying he’s being watched. It’s four in the morning and his car explodes? Come on, you have to be naïve not to at least consider it wasn’t an accident.”

I turned to the one piece of evidence I had: the security camera footage.

The camera shows the view from near the entrance of Pizzeria Mozza.

Four seconds into the start of the tape, a minivan or SUV goes by the front of restaurant. Three seconds later, another vehicle goes by, traveling from the restaurant front door to the crash site in about seven seconds. At 35 seconds into the tape, a car is seen driving northbound and appears to slow, probably for the light at Melrose.

Then at 79 seconds, the camera catches a very brief flash of light in the reflection of the glass of the pizzeria. Traveling at least twice as fast as the other cars on the tape, Hastings’s Mercedes C250 coupe suddenly whizzes by. (This is probably the “whoosh” that Gary, the Mozza employee, heard.)

The car swerves and then explodes in a brilliant flash as it hits a palm tree in the median. Viewed at normal speed, it is a shocking scene—reminiscent of fireballs from “Shock and Awe” images from Baghdad in 2003.

I have heard and read a wide range of guessed speeds, up to as much as 130 mph. I think it’s safe to say the car was doing at least 80.

Driving 80 on Highland is flying. Over 100 is absolute recklessness.

Highland has a very slight rise and fall at its intersection with Melrose. It’s difficult to tell by the film, but based on tire marks—which were not brake skid marks, by the way—chalked by the traffic investigators, it seems that the Mercedes may have been airborne briefly as it crossed the intersection, then landed hard. Tire marks were left about 10 feet east of the restaurant’s valet stand.

(Later, I drove the intersection at just 45 mph, and my car rose up significantly.)

About 100 feet after the car zooms by on the tape, it starts to swerve. At about 195 feet from the camera, the car jumps the curb of the center median, heading toward a palm tree 56 feet away.

About halfway between the curb and the tree, the car hits a metal protrusion—perhaps 30 inches tall and 2 feet wide—that gives access to city water mains below. This is where the first small flash occurs. This pipe may have damaged the undercarriage of the car, perhaps rupturing a fuel line.

I looked at the tape frame by frame. A second flash immediately follows the first. It might be the brake lights, but it’s hard to tell. The next frame is dark. Then comes the first explosion, followed immediately by a large fireball.

I showed the video to a number of people. Everyone had the same reaction: essentially, “Wow!”

“This Was Not a Bomb”

I showed the video to Scott E. Anderson, an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor with Digital Sandbox who has engineered explosions for many films.

He viewed the footage more than 20 times at various speeds, including frame by frame. Anderson concluded, “This was not a bomb.”

He said a bomb would have propelled the car upward, not forward.

“It’s very hard to blow up stuff well,” Anderson said. “I think too many things would have to go right. Luck would be involved. Good and bad. Does someone doing this to Hastings want to rely on luck? Too many things have to go right. It would have to be perfect. And that’s almost impossible.”

He continued, “It comes down to physics. A bomb would have lifted the car and the engine up. Based on this video, the car doesn’t go up, and the engine goes forward, which makes sense since the car apparently did not hit the tree head on.”

He said the fireball may be enhanced by the recording device.

“That type of surveillance camera has auto exposure so it can change what it sees based by the ambient exposure day or night,” Anderson explained. “This camera is set at night and anything that happens very quickly, be it a flash light or a big ball of fire, the camera won’t react fast enough, so the first flash of light is going to appear much bigger in the viewing. So the initial explosion would always look bigger than it is.”

He suggested a simple demonstration using a cellphone video app: Strike a match in a dark room and it will flare up on camera much more than in reality.

Why Was He Driving So Fast?

The pizzeria video is compelling, but it fails to answer the key question: Why was Michael Hastings traveling so fast?

As Anderson put it, “None of this happens without the speed.”

Some theorize that the car was hacked—operated remotely (like a drone, for example) by someone who wished to harm Hastings.

That may be technologically possible, but is it plausible?

Hastings ran at least two red lights, and possibly a third. Could a hacker have planned for no cross traffic, which might have derailed the mission? If the flash before the dark frame was indeed brakes, that would indicate the brake light was functional. If the car were hurtling along out of his control, wouldn’t Hastings have been plying the brake pedal all along, not merely in the last second before the crash?

And even if the brakes and accelerator were rigged, the steering must have been functional, according to a Los Angeles Police Department officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “For nearly a half a mile, that car must have been going straight,” the officer said. “That can’t be done at that speed for that long, even with the best alignment.”

“Stanley Got Him”

The day after the crash, I found myself in the homicide squad room in South Los Angeles. The Hastings topic came up, and one of the detectives said, “Stanley got him. Took his time, but got him. That wasn’t an accident.” (Meaning General Stanley McChrystal.)

On cue, a sign showed up the next day on the now-singed Hasting’s Palm: “This was not an accident.” By nightfall, someone had replaced it with another message: “Go to sleep people. This was an accident.”

Hastings’s death was national news briefly, but it was soon pushed aside by subjects deemed more pressing to the mainstream media. The George Zimmerman homicide trial was gearing up in Florida. Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency leaker, was playing Tom Hanks at a Moscow Airport. Istanbul had erupted in the biggest anti-government protests in its history, and political strife in Cairo was taking center stage.

Michael Hastings was put on the mainstream media’s back burner—or perhaps on an unlit hibachi behind the garage.

But on YouTube the conspiracy thrived. One video that has received over 8,500 views proclaimed that the plot was so over-the-top that the culprits had removed the bombed car, and in the process, placed another car in front of different trees. It also stated there was no damage to the front of the car.

I saw the car being towed away. It was absolutely mangled on the front, particularly the driver’s side. I’ve lived in Los Angeles most of my life and have seen the aftermath of many car crashes. This was one of the worst. There was no way a driver could have survived.

LAPD Traffic Bureau: ‘No Foul Play’

Two days after the crash, the LAPD announced that there appeared to be no “foul play” in the single-car fatal crash. That ignited even more conspiracy talk: The “feds” had gotten to the LAPD and were hushing it up.

A week after that statement, the lead investigator on the case, Detective Connie White from LAPD’s West Traffic Bureau, contradicted that. When I asked her if “foul play” had indeed been ruled out, she replied, “No. Nothing has been ruled out.”

White said the investigation was nearly complete, but she refused to give details. She said an official report, including toxicology results on Hastings’s remains, may be weeks away.

As far as a bomb or car-hacking, White said, “At this point there is nothing that leads us in that direction.”

When asked if any explosive materials had been discovered on the car or at the crash scene, White sounded like she chuckled.

She said, “Oh, boy. Hold on.”

I thought maybe I had asked a touchy question, and I expected a “no comment.” But she returned to the phone and said, “No.” The way she said it, I wondered if she had shared a laugh with other detectives about my question.

She added, “If this were anything other than an accident, other departments would have been brought in to investigate,” alluding to homicide, the bomb squad or a terrorism unit. (Though one might think “other departments” would have been needed in any case–simply to determine whether it was an accident or not.)

On TV, Hastings Provokes another General

I’ve seen a number of people use the word “fearless” to describe Hastings. The word has different meanings to different people. To some, it might be how well someone held up in the second battle of Fallujah.

I have no idea how Hasting was in the trenches. But I watched him in action on Piers Morgan’s CNN show last November against retired General David Kimmit, an admirer of General David Petraeus. At one point, Kimmit told Hastings that his impressions about Iraq after Petraeus were wrong. Kimmit added that he knew this because he has been back to Iraq, working in the private sector.

Exasperated, Hasting threw up his hands, gave his unique smirk and proclaimed, “I’ve spent more time in Iraq than you have, man.”

Hastings went on to chide Kimmit for profiting off the war in the private sector. “I’m glad the general was able to make money off his services,” he said.

In that TV vignette, I could see why a guy like Hastings would piss off the military brass and would be so admired by fellow journalists.

I hope that someone will be able to explain why Hastings’s Mercedes was speeding like a silver bullet. Maybe the answer will show up in the toxicology results. I know this much: American journalism has lost a pit bull of an investigative reporter.

msfreeh
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see link for full story

http://naturallymoi.com/2013/07/news/wo ... tto-booty/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


TN Doctor Diagnoses Woman With ‘Ghetto Bοοty’
July 15, 2013
Dr. Timothy Sweo of Jackson, TN diagnosed Terry Ragland with ghetto booty syndrome.


Fifty-five year-old Terry Ragland, of Jackson, TN, is suing the state following Dr. Timothy Sweo’s diagnosis of “ghetto bοοty.” Ragland has been suffering from severe lower-back pains and sought medical attention to find solutions to heal her pain. She never imagined that Dr. Sweo at Sports Orthopedics and Spine, would lean on slang to diagnose her.

msfreeh
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Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

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Four Years in Jail for ‘FBI Fantasy’
July 17, 2013 AFP
28_Huff FBI Fantasy

• Retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander says he has evidence to prove friend is innocent

By Pat Shannan

Readers of AMERICAN FREE PRESS will remember the series of articles run on these pages in 2010-11 concerning the plight of the Monroe County, Tennessee man who tried to expose fraud in the local court and grand jury system. Instead, United States Navy Lieutenant Commander Walter Fitzpatrick (Ret.) found himself jailed for trying to perform a citizen’s arrest when the cops wouldn’t enforce their own laws.

According to the man who started it all, the following federal attack on him and Darren Huff of Dallas, Georgia, in the small Tenn. town of Madisonville, was just one more Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provocation, and he now has the evidence to prove it.

“Darren Huff is an innocent man in jail for four years for a crime that never happened,” said Fitzpatrick.

When interested citizens came to Madisonville on April 20, 2010 for a court hearing on the Fitzpatrick matter, Huff was followed from north Ga. by the FBI, detained at the interstate exit by state and local law enforcement and released after agreeing to lock his legally-registered rifle and handgun in the toolbox of his pickup truck. No arrest was made and Huff proceeded peacefully into town. The police saw that the supporters were not there to provoke violence but to stand up for a fellow American who was being wronged by the system.

“The FBI saw it as another invitation to create a crime where none existed,” said Fitzpatrick. He proved his point with Special Agent Mark Van Balen’s sworn affidavit on April 26.

Hard Assets Alliance

Even though video shows Huff being determined not to be a security risk by the Tenn. authorities and released, six days later Van Balen swore out an affidavit “full of lies and deception,” according to Fitzpatrick, including Huff’s alleged threats to “make arrests on various individuals, that he was ready to die for his rights and that if they didn’t have enough people on April 20 to do all they planned to do that day, that they would be back in one to two weeks.”

Huff has repeatedly denied making any such outrageous statements, and Van Balen even admits in his affidavit that he never heard anything provocative from Huff.

Van Balen claims that Huff was heard making threats at the traffic stop by a Lt. Don Williams of the Drug Task Force and these were passed on to him. Van Balen makes no claims of personal knowledge as to any lawbreaking by Huff. In fact, court testimony showed that Huff was under FBI surveillance from the night of April 19. Huff was followed when he left home at 4 a.m. and was watched all day. There was never a moment when the FBI did not know where Huff was during that 24-hour period, and he was never a threat to anyone.

Fitzpatrick told AFP that he has located and interviewed 31 of the 33 people known to have been on the scene that morning outside of the Monroe County courthouse. None of the 31 was armed or even saw anyone other than law enforcement officers armed. The other two were a Knoxville news reporter and cameramen who refused to identify themselves when Fitzpatrick asked them to do so.

Not one of the 31 citizens was approached and questioned by any of the 150 law enforcement officers on the scene as to whether or not they were armed. Fitzpatrick has collected statements from all 31. It was a peaceful assembly.

“Furthermore,” said Fitzpatrick, “Darren Huff not only was unarmed the whole time but he spent his morning at Donna’s Old Town Café across the street and the only time he briefly set foot on the courthouse property was to take sausage biscuits and coffee to officers standing there. However, my hearing was being held four blocks away at a separate courthouse building unknown to Huff, and he was never there.

“Federal officials not only successfully prosecuted and convicted a U.S. citizen for a thought crime,” added Fitzpatrick, “but the only one with the thought was the fantasizing FBI agent.”

Huff is more than a year into serving a four-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas. He is still waiting for his attorney, Gerald Gulley of Knoxville, to file his appeal. Gulley did not return AFP’s calls.

Fitzpatrick cites a little known FBI program known as “Operation Vigilant Eagle” that involves surveillance of veterans who express views critical of the government. This includes those who discuss a pending revolution on the Internet.

“Anybody in America who stands up for the rights of American citizens as outlined by the Constitution is being targeted and jailed by the federal government,” he said.

This case is significant and chilling because the FBI has prepared it to stifle dissent.

In their slick description of it on their website, they brag that “Huff was sentenced to four years in prison for transporting firearms across state lines with the intent to cause a civil disorder. It was the first time this violation was successfully prosecuted.”
- See more at: http://americanfreepress.net/?p=11620#s ... wpxRV.dpuf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

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see link for full story

http://peoplesworld.org/what-lies-acros ... -on-cuban/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


“What Lies Across the Water”: Revealing new book on Cuban 5

July 17 2013


Publication of Stephen Kimber's book about Cuban anti-terrorists serving wildly extravagant terms in U.S. jails is a remarkable event. Previously appearing as an e-book, "What Lies Across the Water" is the first full-length book published in English on the so-called Cuban Five. They were arrested in Miami on Sept. 12, 1998, and a worldwide movement on their behalf is demanding their freedom. Many view them as political prisoners.

In comprehensive and convincing fashion the book explains how Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González came to be arrested, tried, and imprisoned. Its coverage of bias and legal failings that marred their prosecution and trial is adequate, but less detailed. Kimber devotes more attention to events and personalities directly affecting the Five than to the context of early anti-Cuban terror attacks and the Cuban revolution.

Kimber, a journalism professor at the University of King's College, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, drew upon news stories in the Florida, Central American, and Cuban media and read 20,000 pages of court transcripts. He interviewed officials and contacts in Florida, Cuba, and elsewhere, and also family members of the Five and the prisoners themselves, via correspondence. The author's clear, flowing, and often seat-gripping, even entertaining, narrative is an added plus. The book is highly recommended.

Kimber starts out by confessing he was no expert on the case initially. He was about to write a novel that touched upon Cuba. Then a Cuban friend with political and intelligence experience told him that "nothing can really be resolved between Washington and Havana until they [the Five] are returned to Cuba." So instead of writing a novel, Kimber began work on a story he realized was important and that "needed to be told by someone who didn't already know which versions of which stories were true."

The way Kimber's report unfolds serves to highlight convoluted linkages of the prisoners' experiences and their case to the many-faceted U.S. apparatus set up to undo the Cuban revolution. Implacable, non-stop U.S. enmity sets the stage for obfuscations, contradictions, intrigue, ambiguities, and strange twists. For Kimber, the resulting atmosphere was one where "Nothing, it seems, is ever as it seems."

For example, Cuba's "Wasp Network" included at least 22 agents it employed in an effort to block terrorism directed against it, not just the Cuban Five, as is often assumed. Agents were posted throughout the United States, away from Florida. Some of those arrested in 1998 pled guilty and served only short sentences. Cuban agents served as FBI informants. Far from exclusively monitoring private paramilitary groups, as many assume, one Cuban Five agent did gather non-classified intelligence from a U.S. military installation. For years, the FBI monitored movements, contacts, and communications of the Five and other agents. Meanwhile, the Cuban American Nation Foundation (CANF), darling of U.S. presidents, professed non-violence, yet operated a paramilitary wing.

Even the Miami Herald, reviled by Cuba solidarity activists, gains points through its reporter Juan Tamayo, who linked Havana hotel bombings to the Cuban exile terrorist Luis Posada.

The book attests to difficulties attending intelligence gathering in the midst of all but open U.S. war against Cuba. Cuban agents were well prepared, and superior officers in Havana supervised them closely. "Compartmentalized," they were unable usually to identify fellow agents in the United States. They relied on advanced technical skills, support from loved ones, fearlessness, their own resourcefulness, their sensitive understanding of hazardous situations, and very hard work.

Kimber's "What Lies across the Water" has the potential for stimulating new thinking on the case of the Five. Information it provides and the book's fact-based style of presentation ought to persuade readers to move beyond viewing the prisoners' fate as a sort of morality tale, one with U.S. over-reaction, prisoners' revolutionary virtue, and suffering. The book would encourage them instead to develop a response built on considering the larger context of generalized U.S. bullying of Cuba. The book may or may not succeed in this, but in all respects it is essential reading for those either new or old to the case of the Five.

The book exerts an appeal through effective portrayals of characters so far out of the ordinary, with such bizarre purposes, as almost to defy belief. They include: Cuban agent Percy Alvarado Godoy, CANF infiltrator for years; terrorist honchos Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada; the opportunistic Brothers to the Rescue leader Jose Basulto; and even Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, message carrier to the Clinton White House.

There is the flamboyant Wasp agent, pilot, unfaithful husband, and FBI informant Juan Pablo Roque, who returned to Cuba; CANF founder and Miami titan Jorge Mas Canosa; and not least, Francisco Avila Azcuy. That FBI informant, Cuban spy for 13 years, and chief of Miami's Alpha 66 private military formation, was unusual, even in a setting where double agents were, and undoubtedly are, routine.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7691

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

Whaddya expect when the moonbats spend your trax dime to invade other countries
for Exxon Mobil


Friday, 19 July 2013 15:56
Detroit becomes largest US city to declare bankruptcy
http://www.collapsenet.com/free-resourc ... bankruptcy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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