When you are the FBI covering up the crime Trump just committed

[msfreeh]

https://www.policemisconduct.net/the-wa ... ars-later/
The Waco Incident – 20 Years Later
Since this web site is all about police misconduct, we cannot let the twentieth anniversary of the Waco incident pass without comment.
April 19, 1993 marks the worst police action in modern American history. Here are the main things to know:
• 76 people, including 27 children, died that day. That loss of life is a sufficient explanation as to why this incident is important and worth remembering.
• The federal police operation did not involve a handful of “rogue” agents. The incident is disturbing because it supposedly involved the best units of the ATF and the FBI. And much of the decision-making was done by the top people at headquarters facilities in Washington, DC.
• Make no mistake, crimes were committed by federal agents at Waco. And those crimes were covered-up.
• If the feds can successfully cover-up the worst police action in modern American history–an event that was highly publicized and that eventually brought extensive congressional hearings and the appointment of a special prosecutor– it is frightening to consider what police agencies would be able to get away in instances where there is no media scrutiny or legislative oversight.
For those interested in the details, read this paper that we published in 2001 (I also recommend the documentary film, Waco: The Rules of Engagement, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1997). For today, let me just highlight some facts for all the people who do not have the time or inclination to study the details.
• When the Branch Davidian residence burned to the ground and it became apparent that the FBI tank assault on April 19 backfired–resulting in almost everyone losing their lives, Attorney General Janet Reno told the media that the reason she ordered the assault was because “babies were being beaten” — so the feds had no choice–they just had to move in. About a week later, Reno testified before Congress. Under oath, she admitted she had no evidence that babies were being beaten! What!?
• The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team kept saying they were there to save lives and that they were especially concerned about the safety of the children in the residence. But their tanks drove into the side of buildings even as the agents admitted they did not know the whereabouts of the children.
• Some of the Branch Davidians survived the inferno of April 19. They were arrested and charged with “murdering ATF agents.” In a stinging rebuke to the federal prosectors, the jury acquitted the Davidians of those very serious charges.
• One of the primary reasons the cover-up was successful was that government officials kept deflecting attention away from their actions to the Branch Davidian leader, David Koresh. And, later, the feds would deflect attention by pointing out the crimes of the Oklahoma City bombers. The feds seemed to taunt everyone with the question, “Who are you going to side with? Koresh? McVeigh and Nicols?” That was always a false choice. One can, for example, condemn excessive force against a shoplifter without “siding with” shoplifting.
• There are, to be sure, some wild conspiracy theories out there about the feds and Waco. But the existence of a conspiracy theorist(s) does not make all government conduct lawful and ethical, at least in logic.
What’s the takeaway from all this? First, recognize that this awful incident really did happen. Crimes were committed and then the government tried to deceive everyone about what actually happened there. Second, when it comes to government power, especially police power and the use of deadly force, be impartial, ask questions, and follow the evidence. We must remember that, in a free society, police agents may not use the “color of their office” to commit crimes.



FBI OCTOPUS

https://www.forbes.com/sites/falonfatem ... 2ef29134d2
Apr 28, 2017 @ 12:28 PM
3 Customer Acquisition Tactics You'll Learn At Connect '17 From An Ex-FBI Agent


I write about company building from the front lines of Silicon Valley

In a few weeks, I’ll be speaking at FullContact’s Connect ’17 conference with my friend Chris Voss. A decorated FBI veteran, the author of “Never Split the Difference,” and the founder of The Black Swan Group, Voss has a once-in-a-lifetime lecture planned for attending founders.
What is it? Well, you’ll have to attend the May 10-12 conference in Denver, Colorado, for the full story, but I’ll tell you this much: With the FBI’s hostage negotiation tactics in your back pocket, you’ll come away with a host of new customer acquisition ideas.
How, exactly, did Voss learn these techniques? After policing some of Kansas City’s toughest neighborhoods, Voss spent 24 years with the FBI, where he became the bureau’s leading kidnapping negotiator. Today, he’s a master of persuasion who helps people navigate everyday negotiations in their personal and professional lives.
A former FBI agent’s marketing playbook
Fortunately, Voss has agreed to share a few of those negotiation tips as a sneak peek of his presentation. He sees three primary ways salespeople and marketers can use them to improve their customer acquisition processes:
1. Don’t act without proof of life.
The FBI won’t bother negotiating with kidnappers unless they can provide proof that hostages are alive. Why? In short, it’s a waste of time. FBI agents first check for life without upsetting the negotiator-kidnapper power balance. Rather than say “Let me talk to the hostage,” one might ask for the hostage’s best friend’s name.
Apply a similar approach to targeting prospects. Don’t ask “Do you want to purchase this product?” First, discover whether a deal is possible. Is the customer actually facing the challenge you think he is? Solutions-based selling works only if you can address your prospect’s problem.
2. Get them to say, ‘That’s right.’
Negotiation is all about empathy. To successfully defuse a kidnapper, you have to show that you understand him. People tend to lower their defenses when they feel they’ve reached a point of agreement.
For example, in his book, Voss tells the story of a kidnapped Haitian boy. “You’re in Washington, D.C.,” the boy’s father told Voss on the phone. “How are you going to help me?” Thinking on his feet, Voss reminded the father that it was Thursday, and because the kidnappers liked to party on weekends, they wouldn’t kill his son. By showing an understanding of the situation and getting the father to say, “That’s right,” Voss elicited the father’s crucial cooperation and saved the boy.
In business, this tactic is particularly useful for price negotiations. “Why won’t you pay X price?” elicits a defensive response. “You feel X price is too high because of Y factor, right?” instead creates a point of rapport. With just a simple phrasing change, you can help a prospect see you as a partner, not an adversary.
3. Turn art and science from adversaries into allies.
In hostage negotiations, some of the work is science. Before ever hopping on the phone, the FBI analyzes kidnapping demographics, close contacts, recent travel, and more. When speaking with a kidnapper, however, there’s no substitute for artful, empathetic negotiation.

https://www.policemisconduct.net/nation ... cap-42717/




National Police Misconduct Newsfeed Daily Recap 4/27/17
April 28, 2017
Here are the 16 reports of police misconduct tracked for Thursday, April 27, 2017:
• Update: Gwinnett County, Georgia (First reported 4/14/17): Two now-former deputies were charged with battery and violation of oath for their video-recorded beating of a motorist. ow.ly/t6h630bdWaG
• Michigan City, Indiana: An officer resigned and was later arrested for raping a woman with “diminished mental capacity.” ow.ly/4zRb30be5iN
• Update: New York, New York (First reported 4/27/16): Two recently retired officers were arrested for their roles in a gun permit bribery scandal while they were on the force. A third former officer was also arrested, but his alleged criminal activity happened after he retired in 1999. ow.ly/Eahp30be5xm
• Pickens County, South Carolina: A deputy was arrested for the alleged harassment of his estranged wife. He was fired. ow.ly/BByK30be8Ux
• College Park, Georgia: An officer resigned and was arrested for meeting underage teens for sex. Officials say that he may not have been aware of the girls’ true ages, as they had posted that they were older on the website through which the officer contacted them. ow.ly/UJdC30be9r2
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: An officer was arrested for sexual abuse of children and child pornography. ow.ly/a96j30bea2V
• Update: Melrose Park, Illinois (First reported 4/15/15): A now-former officer pled guilty to stealing drugs from evidence and using his police car to drive as a cocaine courier. ow.ly/XaX730bebXt
• Update: Federal Protective Service (First reported 6/6/16): A now-former officer pled guilty to murder and other charges for killing two strangers and wounding others during a 2016 DC-area shooting spree. He will still face charges for killing his estranged wife at the beginning of the spree. ow.ly/M2HX30becKw
• Update: Neoga, Illinois (First reported 3/9/16): A now-former officer pled guilty to sexually abusing a teenage girl. He was sentenced to spend 90 days in jail and serve four years of probation. ow.ly/1sCl30bedcN
• Leachville, Arkansas: An officer was suspended with pay for an undisclosed violation. ow.ly/aaat30bedVB
• Hearne, Texas: An officer resigned while he was under investigation. He says he wants to continue a career in law enforcement. ow.ly/mzq630beesp
• Update: San Antonio, Texas (First reported 9/19/16): A detective was suspended three days for striking his wife in the face. He was arrested for the incident, but his wife declined to press charges. ow.ly/8qZk30bef7S
• Augusta, Maine: An officer is being sued for excessive force for shooting a suspect. A judge ruled that she did not properly warn the suspect before firing and thus the lawsuit could move forward. ow.ly/yi8A30befDT
• Mandeville, Louisiana: An officer was fired after he was charged for stealing from Home Depot while he was off duty. ow.ly/Fciw30beg68
• Update: Baltimore, Maryland (First reported 7/30/14): An officer who was convicted of misconduct and fired for actions against a teenage detainee was reinstated by a judge. ow.ly/w1WK30behdo
• Sonoma State University (California): The chief has set a date to resign. He has been on leave since he allegedly stabbed his stepson with a power drill and fired his weapon in a domestic dispute. ow.ly/tXJ130beREl


BLINK TANK


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr9pQ1pIbiU


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3b9nvIw-_k


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05 ... quiry.html


Grassley presses Comey on 'material inconsistencies' in Trump dossier inquiry

Published May 01, 2017
April 7, 2017: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, arrives for a news conference just after the confirmation vote for President Donald Trump's high court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)
A top senator is pushing FBI Director James Comey for information on the bureau's connections to a British ex-spy who authored an unsubstantiated dossier of claims about President Trump on behalf of an opposition research firm -- saying there are “material inconsistencies” between new documents and prior FBI accounts.
In a letter to Comey dated Monday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, complained about a “startling lack of responsiveness” from the FBI on previous questions the committee had about its involvement with Christopher Steele, who wrote the dossier for Fusion GPS.
The dossier, which claimed the Russians had compromising information about Trump, was first circulated by Buzzfeed, but many news networks, including Fox News, have chosen not to report on the specifics of the







http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/loca ... 101036918/

White House considers Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke for post in Homeland Security

April 28, 2017 | Updated 7:41 p.m. CT April 28, 2017


Officials in the President Donald Trump administration are considering Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. for a job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Clarke is to be appointed as assistant secretary at the department's Office of Partnership and Engagement where he would coordinate outreach to state and local law enforcement agencies, Politico, an online news company, reported Friday. The position of assistant secretary does not require Senate confirmation.
On Friday, sources confirmed that news of the possible appointment is coming out now because Trump officials recently completed their background check of the sheriff. Trump staffers are a few steps away from making the appointment. One source said it could take more than a month to finish the process.
"It wouldn't be for a while," the source said. "Nothing's imminent."
Clarke has said in the past that it would be hard to turn down the president if he asks the sheriff to join the administration.
Sources close to the sheriff have said for months that Trump officials have been interested in appointing Clarke to serve as the administration's liaison to the law enforcement community. Those sources said if Clarke landed such a job, he would speak out on police-related matters.
On Friday, Clarke was in Atlanta speaking at a leadership conference for the National Rifle Association, a group that helped him win re-election in 2014. He did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
In his speech Friday, Clarke told the gun-rights activists: "You see, our fight for freedom continues in earnest," according to a report on The Washington Times website. "You see, these rat bastards on the left never give up."
"Election defeats don't matter to them," he said.They will continue "their assault on our Constitution, the rule of law, liberty and American exceptionalism."
Clarke, who campaigned across the country for Trump, was passed over for the cabinet-level job of heading the Department of Homeland Security. Trump picked retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly to lead the agency.
RELATED: Clarke passed over for Trump cabinet post
RELATED: Bice: As Sheriff David Clarke's profile soars nationally, his approval rating at home falls to 31%
The Department of Homeland Security was created in the wake of 9/11. The department's duties range from counter-terrorism to enforcing immigration laws.
This week, Kelly announced the creation of a new office of Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office within the department's Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The office was launched to support victims of crimes committed by "criminal aliens," Kelly said.
Friday was the fifth day of an inquest into the death of a Milwaukee County Jail inmate in April 2016. Terrill Thomas, 38, died of dehydration in a solitary confinement cell seven days after water to the cell was shut off.
His untreated bipolar disorder rendered him incapable of asking for help.
RELATED:3 Milwaukee County Jail staffers point fingers at others in dehydration death
Clarke has not commented publicly about the details of the case.
On Wednesday, the Voces de la Frontera immigrants rights organization asked Gov. Scott Walker to remove Clarke from office because of the death of Thomas in the jail.
Representatives of the group said they delivered to Walker petitions with more than 10,000 signatures of Wisconsin residents urging the governor to use his authority under state law to remove county elected officials for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, official misconduct, or malfeasance in office."
Walker said he would not remove Clarke from the elected post and suggested voters should make that decision.
Clarke is up for re-election in

[msfreeh]

https://solari.com/blog/all-you-need-to ... mes-comey/


All You Need to Know About James Comey
Catherine, News & Commentary on May 17, 2017 at 6:05 pm
Keep Calm and Do the Math

By Catherine Austin Fitts

James Comey, the now former head of the FBI, is also the former General Counsel of Lockheed Martin, the largest defense contractor and weapons manufacturer in America and hedge fund advisor.

Lockheed Martin used to run significant information and payment systems at the Department of Defense. They appear to have spun their subsidiary out of the company after DOD closed their fiscal 2015, with $6.5 trillion of undocumentable adjustments. I wrote about it recently in Lockheed Cuts and Runs and Crazy Man vs. Criminal: Cut and Run, Monica Lewinsky and Real Trouble Ahead.

This is all part of our ongoing coverage of the financial coup d’etat and trillions of missing money: See Financial Coup D’Etat & Missing Money: Links and Financial Coup & Missing Money: Quotes

Here is what you need to know about James Comey. Everything he said or did related to Hillary Clinton or President Trump is unimportant. The fact that James Comey did and said nothing about $6. 5 trillion missing from your government in fiscal 2015 tells you all you need to know about James Comey.

(more…)

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If You are Doing Due Diligence on Frank Keating
Catherine, News & Commentary on May 17, 2017 at 6:05 pm


“F**k ’em, Jack. By the time they win in court, we’ll be gone.” ~Frank Keating

By Catherine Austin Fitts

The White House has confirmed that Frank Keating, former Governor of Oklahoma and former General Counsel of HUD, is being interviewed as one of the candidates under consideration to serve as FBI director. That may explain some of the recent unusual attorney sign ups for the Solari Report.

If you are doing due diligence on Frank Keating when he was general counsel of HUD, you can find the small amount of pertinent information here on the public site:

Kemp Tapes – recordings of my recollections working in the Bush Administration, including with Frank Keating. These recordings where made at the request of attorneys in 1998. They became a viral hit among my employees and their network, reaching numerous investigators of HUD fraud. Tired of making cassettes, we posted on line.
Hamilton Securities Litigation – this includes links to descriptions of HUD and related fraud.
It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp: Kemp, Cuomo, & Pedophilia in Bush I – Keating was the HUD General Counsel who talked Kemp out of making an illegal grant award to Andrew Cuomo during the Franklin Cover Up scandal.
You will need to subscribe to hear Jon Rappoport and I discuss Hamilton Securities. This should have references to Frank Keating’s role as governor during the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Significant HUD mortgage files were destroyed that day.

Then, there are references in various Solari Report materials to my favorite Frank Keating quote.

When Secretary Kemp was discussing how to shut down the coinsurance program in 1he 1989-90 period, one proposal required violating or abrogating FHA contracts with existing coinsured lenders. Numerous HUD senior staff felt it would create a “great headline.” The proposal was expected to quickly wipe out the coinsured lenders businesses. Arguing to proceed nonetheless, Frank as the HUD General Counsel said something I will never forget. It expressed a remarkable “commitment” on the part of a government official to embrace and enforce the rule of law: “F**k ’em, Jack. By the time they win in court, we’ll be gone.”



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... -1.3174862


Republicans, Democrats and even Trump welcome decision to appoint ex-FBI boss as special counsel for Russia investigation
BY ELIZABETH ELIZALDE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, May 17, 2017, 9:45 PM



https://theintercept.com/2017/05/16/the ... dy-family/




The Bizarre Story Behind the FBI’s Fake Documentary About the Bundy




May 16 2017, 12:00 p.m.
RYAN BUNDY SEEMED uneasy as he settled into a white leather chair in a private suite at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. As the eldest son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who had become a national figure for his armed standoff with U.S. government agents in April 2014, Ryan had quite a story to tell.

Eight months had passed since Cliven and hundreds of supporters, including heavily armed militia members, faced off against the federal government in a sandy wash under a highway overpass in the Mojave Desert. Now, here in the comforts of the Bellagio, six documentary filmmakers trained bright lights and high-definition cameras on Ryan. They wanted to ask about the standoff. Wearing a cowboy hat, Ryan fidgeted before the cameras. He had told this story before; that wasn’t the reason for his nerves. After all, the Bundy confrontation made national news after armed agents with the Bureau of Land Management seized the Bundy family’s cattle following a trespassing dispute and the accumulation of more than $1 million in unpaid grazing fees. But the Bundys, aided by their armed supporters, beat back the government, forcing agents to release the cattle and retreat.




http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/16/fbi-i ... p-dossier/



FBI Is Being Sued For Records About Christopher Steele’s Trump Dossier



1:41 PM 05/16/2017



Judicial Watch, the government watchdog group, is suing the FBI for records about its contacts with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the uncorroborated dossier alleging that Trump advisers colluded with the Russian government during the presidential campaign.

The suit seeks all records of communications between FBI officials and Steele, who runs the London-based consulting firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.

Judicial Watch is also seeking records of any discussions of payments from the FBI to Steele for his work compiling the dossier.

Steele’s dossier consists of 17 memos dated from between June 20 to Dec. 13.





http://nypost.com/2017/05/13/comeys-fir ... o-the-fbi/


Comey’s firing is a gift to the FBI



May 13, 2017 |
Let’s cut right to the chase: James Comey should have been fired immediately following his disastrous press briefing last July, in which he candidly laid out the case against Hillary Clinton over her mishandling of classified information and then refused to recommend charges. Overstepping his authority while radiating sanctimony, arrogating power while clumsily intervening in the election, Comey deserved to be sacked on the spot.

Everything since has been one long slow twist in the wind for Comey, a former US attorney in Manhattan, where his most notable accomplishment was sending Martha Stewart to jail.

Ignore for the moment Comey’s series of missteps resulting from the Clinton investigation and his increasingly erratic and unconvincing public fan dance as he sent the nation into electoral paroxysms over the past 10 months.

On his watch, the FBI continued its politically correct, see-no-evil attitude toward radical Islam and thus failed to prevent the atrocity in San Bernardino; it also investigated the Orlando nightclub shooter for 10 months before closing its case, allowing him to kill or wound 102 people. Meanwhile, the federal office of personnel management was hacked by the Chinese, resulting in a serious data breach. That’s failure on an unacceptable level.

Now the bureau’s tied up and bogged down in the almost certainly chimerical “Russian hacking” fantasy, which bubbled up out of the leftist fever swamp in the wake of Clinton’s loss in November, and for which there is exactly zero evidence.

So when President Trump finally put Comey out of his — and our — misery last week, it was the best merited cashiering since Truman fired a showboating MacArthur.

Ignore the political firestorm that’s followed. Trump could cure cancer, solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and appoint Oprah as his special envoy to Mars and the Beltway press corps would still howl for his head. The fires fueling this politically motivated hatefest will abate only when the Democrats accept that they lost an election they fully expected to win.

As the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer, the FBI director shouldn’t be a political figure.
And that’s the key word — political. As the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer, the FBI director shouldn’t be a political figure.

The bureau began as a financial-crimes investigatory arm of the justice department in 1908, and grew to maturity under J. Edgar Hoover, monitoring domestic Bolshevik radicalism in the early 1920s, then tackling interstate violent crime during the wild and woolly ’30s: the birth of the “G-Men.”

Yet the temptation to be a Washington player is always present. Hoover, who served under eight presidents and whose reign lasted until his death in 1972, amassed a storehouse of inside dirt on politicians, which made him essentially unfireable and which led to congressional insistence on Senate confirmation of future directors and 10-year term limits.

What’s needed now is a restoration of what should be the FBI’s primary mission, as it was in the early Hoover days: counterterrorism. Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it’s far less important for the bureau to be chasing bank robbers in Burlington and Butte than it is for it to function as the nation’s first line of homeland security defense.






https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/tru ... 4762a62d6a


True Crime
FBI’s conduct in Best Buy computer case prompts judge to throw out child porn evidence
By Tom Jackman May 17 at 5:30 AM





http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05 ... -says.html



McConnell thinks Garland as FBI director 'fantastic idea,' ex-adviser says
Published May 14, 2017 Fox News








Da Noive! President Barack Obama has chosen to nominate United States Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

We are told he is a “moderate,” but we know how that works. The other “moderates” on the high court somehow manage to march their way in lockstep to the officially designated liberal position on every single major case. Can anyone name an exception?



But that is the least of my objections. Whatever his merits, Garland served as Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick’s “principal deputy” during the two most corrupt years in American political history – the years leading up to Bill Clinton’s reelection in 1996 – and that service alone should kill his candidacy.

Although Garland has no known connection with the TWA 800 investigation, it happened during his watch, and his boss oversaw its unprecedented misdirection.

My newest book on the subject, “TWA 800: The Crash, The Cover-up, And the Conspiracy,” spells out Gorelick’s role in all its unseemly detail. The book will be published before the crash’s 20th anniversary in July, but I would be happy to share an advanced copy with any U.S. senator who wants to know the truth.

In sum, Gorelick and the Clintons pulled off the most successful cover-up in American peacetime history. As a reward, the otherwise unqualified Gorelick was named vice-president of Fannie Mae in 1997, in which job she made more than $25 million during the next six years.

In 2004, Gorelick resigned from Fannie Mae to assume one of only five Democratic seats on the 9/11 Commission, a position no one challenged until Attorney General John Ashcroft testified before the commission on April 13, 2004.

“The single greatest structural cause for the September 11th problem was the wall that segregated or separated criminal investigators and intelligence agents,” said Ashcroft. “Government erected this wall, government buttressed this wall, and before September 11th government was blinded by this wall.”

Ashcroft spoke of the memorandum that established the wall and added a detail that had gone previously unspoken, “The author of this memorandum is a member of the commission.” He was referring, of course, to Gorelick.

Thanks to a mother lode of unearthed CIA documents and one key FBI video, we now know that Gorelick breached her own “wall” to allow the CIA and FBI to work hand and glove in the subversion of the TWA 800 investigation. Senators need to ask Garland what he knew about TWA 800 and when he knew it.

Garland was deeply involved with another questionable investigation, that of the Oklahoma City bombing. In fact, he supervised the prosecutions of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. What someone needs to ask Garland is what happened to John Doe No. 2.

In the way of background, 20 minutes before the April 19, 1995, blast in downtown Oklahoma City, employees at a tire store spotted McVeigh and a short Mideastern-looking man, in the infamous Ryder truck, and even gave the pair directions to the Murrah building intersection.

Witness Daina Bradley cried out to the rescuers who were trying to extricate her after the blast – they had to amputate her leg to do so – “It was a Ryder truck. It pulled up, a foreign-looking man got out, and then before long, everything went black.”

Islamic terrorism didn’t start in the U.S. in 2001 — Read the jaw-dropping account of OKC attack: “The Third Terrorist: The Middle Eastern Connection to the Oklahoma City Bombing”

Five minutes before the blast, printing operator Jerry Nance noticed an unusual car in the downtown Oklahoma City parking lot near where he worked. It was a dilapidated yellow Mercury Marquis. Behind the wheel was a dark-skinned, Middle Eastern-looking man in a ball cap.

When Nance walked back towards the car, after getting some stuff from his own car, the Mercury Marquis almost ran him over. The Middle Eastern man was now sitting in the passenger seat, and a tall white man was driving the car out of the parking lot, recklessly at that.

Two minutes later, the Murrah building blew. Nance informed the FBI of this incident before anyone knew McVeigh was apprehended in a yellow Mercury Marquis.

A week later, the FBI quoted Nance and the tire store employees in its request before a federal judge to hold McVeigh over for trial. One of the tire store employees picked McVeigh out of a lineup of look-alikes even before he saw McVeigh on TV.

According to the Washington Post of April 28, 1995, a federal judge ordered McVeigh to be held after an FBI agent “described eyewitness accounts of a yellow Mercury with McVeigh and another man inside speeding away from a parking lot near the federal building.” (Italics added.)

For the next six weeks, John Doe No. 2 was the most hunted man in the world until, without explanation, he just kind of went away, again without the media even commenting on his disappearance. Perhaps Garland could shed some lights on his whereabouts.

Garland was also involved with the Olympic Park bombing. As the reader may recall, security guard Richard Jewell was patrolling the grounds of Centennial Park in Atlanta.

Right around midnight he spotted a large olive-green military-style backpack under a bench. He immediately shared this info with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Jewell and the GBI agent then started to clear an area around the pack.

Soon afterward, the pack exploded. Two people died, and more than a hundred were injured. If Jewell had not seen this 40-pound bomb, it might have killed hundreds.

Likely fearing an Islamic connection as they did in Oklahoma City, the Clinton people turned on the transparently innocent Richard Jewell and hounded him all the way to the November election. Our senators might want to ask who authorized the hounding.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/obama-court- ... xqHKRfb.99




recent film about Garland coverup of OKC bombing

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vHDIhxeMOcI








https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/08/wil ... ue-murder/





Merrick Garland and the Kenneth Trentadue Murder - LewRockwell
Lew Rockwell › william-norman-grigg
Aug 3, 2016 - Merrick Garland, Richard W. Roberts, and the Kenneth Trentadue Murder: The Deep State Takes Care of Its .... The Oklahoma City bombing was the result of a PATCON operation – most likely a security ...


“You have to trust the government,” Justice Department attorney Richard Roberts unctuously told Jesse Trentadue. Seeking to understand why his younger brother Kenneth had died while in federal custody, Jesse, a trial attorney in Salt Lake City, had asked to see the findings of a federal grand jury investigation of the case.

In an incandescent response to Roberts’s patronizing dismissal, Trentadue reminded the Justice Department functionary that the proper relationship between citizens and the government is not one of “trust,” but rather of “accountability from that government to the citizens.”

“The Department of Justice has yet to account to the family for the death of my brother,” Trentadue pointed out. “There is no love between us, and there certainly is no trust.”




By the time Jesse had sent that October 16, 1997, letter to Roberts – who was Chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Section – more than two years had passed since his brother Kenneth had died in a federal prison cell in Oklahoma City. In the August 22, 1995, phone call notifying Kenneth’s mother Wilma about her son’s death, the warden casually mentioned that the body was scheduled for cremation within hours.

Wilma demanded to know if Kenneth’s wife had authorized the disposition of his body. The warden replied that she hadn’t been aware that Kenneth was married. After making it clear that her son’s remains were not to be cremated, Wilma joined Jesse in Oklahoma City, where they took custody of Kenneth’s body.



After carefully scraping away several layers of ineptly applied makeup, Wilma and Jesse understood why authorities had been determined to dispose of Kenneth’s body. The official story was that he had committed suicide by hanging himself in what was described as a suicide-proof cell. This wouldn’t explain why his face and torso were mottled with bruises testifying of a severe beating inflicted by several people, or why his throat appeared to have been cut and his scalp was split open.

By the time Kenneth’s family had collected his body, all of the evidence in the crime scene had been destroyed. In violation of Oklahoma state law, the floors and walls of the cell had been sanitized, erasing fingerprints and wiping away blood and DNA evidence. The victim’s clothing and bedding had been confiscated by FBI Special Agent Jeff Jenkins, who kept this evidence hidden in the trunk of his car until putrefaction set in, rendering it useless to the FBI Crime Lab.

One witness in a nearby cell testified that he heard the sounds of a struggle shortly before Kenneth’s lifeless body was “discovered” by a guard. Several other witnesses reported seeing bloody riot gear, uniforms, and batons belonging to the facility’s SORT (Special Operations Response Team) unit.

The Bureau of Prisons designated “suicide by asphyxia” as the cause of Kenneth’s death,insisting that his other injuries were “self-inflicted.”

Dr. Fred Jordan, Oklahoma’s Chief State Medical Examiner, was pressured to validate the official story that Kenneth was a suicide victim, despite the fact that his body was “covered in blood … soaked in blood, covered with bruises,” as Jordan would later recall. He was forbidden by federal officials to have access to the death scene until five months after the death. An application of Luminol, a blood reagent, left the cell “lit up like a candle because of the blood still present on the walls after four or five months.”

Rather than acceding to federal demands, Jordan listed the cause of Kenneth’s death as “unknown.” Kevin Rowland, chief investigator for the ME’s office, filed a complaint with the FBI describing the incident as “murder.” He also consulted with Col. William T. Gormley of the United States Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, who concurred with Dr. Jordan’s findings.

Rowland, intriguingly, was recently subjected to the pointless torment over a “sexual battery” charge arising from an incident in which he allegedly twisted a male co-worker’s nipple. That alleged incident, furthermore, occurred decades ago. Bear in mind the nature of that charge, and the institutional memory that led to it being filed against this whistleblower; this will become relevant anon.

All of the pertinent facts about Kenneth’s murder were exhumed by Trentadue and his colleagues long after the Justice Department had concluded what Criminal Section Chief Richard Roberts claimed was a “flawless” and “thorough” investigation – one that began on August 21, 1995, and was closed the following day. The findings of that one-day “investigation” were submitted to a federal grand jury – not one on Oklahoma City – which ratified the Justice Department’s official story.

When Trentadue requested access to the federal grand jury’s findings, Roberts parried that petition with a patronizing admonition to “trust the government.” The following year, Roberts was selected by Bill Clinton to serve on the District Court for the District of Columbia, an appointment that could be seen as a reward for his role in consummating a vital cover-up.

Kenneth Trentadue, Jesse learned from an anonymous caller shortly after his brother’s death, was “murdered by the FBI” in a lethal case of mistaken identity. In appearance, body type, distinguishing features (including, however implausibly, tattoos), age, and criminal background, Kenneth was a near-twin of Richard Lee Guthrie – who was in the custody of the federal prison system when Kenneth was arrested for an alleged parole violation shortly after the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

For several years, Guthrie was involved in an FBI-protected gang called the Aryan Republican Army (ARA), which staged bank robberies to fund white supremacist activities across the country. The ARA was an asset of the FBI’s PATCON (Patriot Conspiracy) program, which seeded “radical right” groups with informants and provocateurs. The Oklahoma City bombing was the result of a PATCON operation – most likely a security theater production that went badly off-script. Guthrie is one of the several very good candidates for the enigmatic “John Doe #2” whom many witnesses saw in the company of Timothy McVeigh on the morning of the bombing – and whose identity the government has sought to conceal ever since. Just a few months after Kenneth’s traumatized body was “found” dangling in a cell at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma, Guthrie died in a similarly unconvincing “suicide.”Shortly before he was killed, Guthrie had somewhat imprudently announced his intention to write a memoir disclosing critical secrets regarding the Oklahoma City bombing.

The source who told Jesse that Kenneth had been killed by the FBI described the murder as “an interrogation gone wrong.” Before his parole, Kenneth had been a bank robber, albeit one not affiliated with the alpha gang of the criminal underworld, the FBI. He couldn’t answer any PATCON-related questions, and so he was tortured to death. His captors may have really believed that he was Guthrie. They may have realized that he wasn’t, but decided that it would be compromising to let him live. In either case, the objective was to tie up a loose end quickly. Fortunately, enough of a thread was left dangling for Jesse to find it. He has been tugging on it for more than twenty years.

Learning the identity of “John Doe #2” is necessary to solve the mystery of his brother’s murder, Jesse believes, and the identity of that PATCON asset remains a protected state secret.

In response to a July 2009 Freedom of Information Act request by Jesse, the FBI turned over six DVDs that supposedly contained all of the video recordings collected after the bombing. Missing from that collection – and pointedly ignored in the FBI’s response to Jesse’s request – is a video captured by the exterior surveillance camera located in the Regency Tower

Apartments near the ill-fated Murrah Building. In May 2011, a federal judge ordered the FBI to conduct additional searches and turn over all video records collected, from whatever source, of the Oklahoma City bombing. The bureau has refused to comply with that order, claiming that if the video exists it is irretrievably lost in a long-forgotten evidence vault.

The existence of that video is proven by the testimony of FBI Special Agent Jon Hersley during McVeigh’s April 27, 1995, preliminary hearing. Hersley, who was among those agents tasked “to further identify and locate other individuals who may have been involved in the bombing,” testified that within “two or three days” of the bombing he had been shown “still photos” culled from a video captured by the Regency Tower surveillance system. The film itself, he explained, was in the control of other agents within the bureau.

During cross-examination, defense counsel John Coyle, challenging the foundation for video evidence implicating his client, asked Agent Hersley, “who are those agents that are tasked with the responsibility of reviewing photographs and film footage?” That entirely reasonable question prompted an objection by the lead prosecutor, a Justice Department attorney named Merrick Garland. The objection being overruled, Hersley identified the agent in question as Walt Lamar. As Coyle continued to pursue this line of inquiry, Garland objected a second time, protesting that “we are going in the area of discovery now.”

The second objection was sustained, the matter was dropped, and potential “discovery” of evidence that could have revealed the identity of John Doe #2 was foreclosed by the man who, two decades later, would be chosen to fill a critical vacancy on the Supreme Court.

Assuming that the Senate holds confirmation hearings on the Garland nomination, some senators reportedly plan to ask why he recused himself in a judicial misconduct case involving a colleague – none other than Richard Roberts, who resigned a few days later for “health” reasons. Roberts was under investigation by the Utah Attorney General’s Office and both the House and Senate oversight committees regarding allegations that he had raped a 16-year-old witness during a civil rights case in Utah in 1980.

At the time, the 27-year-old Roberts was an attorney with the Justice Department’s civil rights division. He was dispatched to Salt Lake City to head the federal civil rights prosecution of Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist serial killer who murdered two African-American joggers, Ted Fields and David Martin from an ambush in August 1980.

Terry Mitchell (whose last name at the time was Elrod) had accompanied the two men and a girlfriend during the jog. She was hit by shrapnel but survived. Two months earlier she had been raped by a man named Philip George Moore, which was merely the latest of several such assaults she had endured since childhood. As if the cumulative trauma of those events hadn’t been sufficient, Terry and her family were subjected to hostility and suspicion owing to the fact that the father was involved in a local motorcycle club called the Barons, a fact seized on by some to suggest that Terry had lured the victims into an ambush.

A few weeks after the shooting, Terry fled to Arizona to live with grandparents. She returned the following October to testify in the trial.

During the following January and February, the 27-year-old Roberts sexually exploited the 16-year-old, beginning with an episode in which he lured her into his office on the pretext of reviewing her testimony. Once he had separated the teenager from her mother, Roberts quickly disposed of the fiction that they were going to discuss the case and invited her to dinner.

While Terry was puzzled and concerned and wanted to go home to fix dinner for her younger sisters, “she complied because … Roberts was an authority figure and she had learned to comply with those in positions of authority,”recounts a lawsuit she recently filed against the former judge. With the practiced, methodical patience of a veteran sexual predator, Roberts lured the intimidated girl into his hotel room, where he compelled her to service him sexually, “then raped her twice.”

While maintaining the pretense that he and his victim were engaged in a consensual “affair,” Roberts made it clear that Terry couldn’t disclose what was going on. A mistrial would have resulted, and Franklin – who had yet to be tried for the murders – may have been let loose. If this were to happen, Roberts told his victim, it would be her fault.

After securing Franklin’s conviction, Roberts left, and Terry rarely heard from him again. In 2013, after the serial killer wasexecuted for a murder committed in Missouri, Roberts contacted Terry anew. Terry recorded the phone call and submitted it to investigators for the Utah Attorney General’s office, which verified the substance of her story.

Roberts has admitted to preying upon the then-sixteen-year-old witness, but continues to characterize the matter as a “consensual” affair and a regrettable “lapse in judgment.” Under current state law, the conduct to which Roberts confesses would be statutory rape or perhaps even child molestation. At the time, however, the age of consent was sixteen. Roberts never faced the prospect of serious criminal charges arising from his calculated exploitation of a traumatized and vulnerable girl.



http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/04/okc.html


Twenty Years Later: Facts About the OKC Bombing That Go Unreported
Posted on April 12, 2015 by Kevin Ryan
Next week will mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people including 19 children. The mainstream media will undoubtedly focus its attention on Timothy McVeigh, who was put to death in June 2001 for his part in the crime. They might also mention Terry Nichols, who was convicted of helping McVeigh plan the bombing and is serving a life sentence without parole.

OKC MurrahThere will be less discussion about how the FBI spent years hunting for a man who witnesses say accompanied McVeigh on the day of the bombing. They called this accomplice John Doe #2 and theories about his identity range from an Iraqi named Hussain Al-Hussaini, to a German national described below, to a neo-nazi bank robber named Richard Guthrie. The Justice Department finally gave up its search and said it was all a mistake— that there was never any credible evidence of a John Doe #2 being involved.

That reversal demonstrates a pattern of cover-up by authorities and limited media coverage in the years since the crime. This week, accounts will not repeat early reports of secondary devices in the building, or reports of the involvement of unknown middle-eastern characters. There will also be little if any mention of the extensive independent investigation into the crime that was conducted by leading members of the OKC community. Here are seven more facts that will probably not see much coverage on the 20th anniversary.

Attorney Jesse Trentadue began investigating the case after his brother Kenney was killed in prison, apparently having been tortured to death by the FBI in its search for John Doe #2. Trentadue’s investigation led to a federal judge nearly finding the FBI in contempt of court for tampering with a key witness. Trentadue now says, “There’s no doubt in my mind, and it’s proven beyond any doubt, that the FBI knew that the bombing was going to take place months before it happened, and they didn’t stop it.”
Judge Clark Waddoups, who presided over the case brought by Jesse Trentadue, ruled in 2010 that CIA documents associated with the case must be held secret. These documents show that the CIA was involved in the OKC bombing investigation and the prosecution of McVeigh. This means that foreign parties were involved because the CIA is prohibited from interfering in purely domestic investigations.
Andreas Strassmeir, a former German military officer, was suspected of being John Doe #2. Strassmeir became close friends with McVeigh and they were both associated with a neo-nazi organization located in Elohim City, OK. A retired U.S. intelligence official claimed that Strassmeir was “working for the German government and the FBI” while at Elohim City. Mainstream reports about the OKC bombing typically avoid reference to Strassmeir.
Larry Potts was the FBI supervisor who was responsible for the tragedies at Ruby Ridge in 1992, and Waco in 1993. Potts was then given responsibility for investigating the OKC bombing. Terry Nichols claimed that McVeigh—who allegedly had been recruited as an undercover intelligence asset while in the Army—had been working under the supervision of Potts.
Terry Yeakey, an officer of the OKC Police Department, was among the first to reach the scene and he was heralded as a hero for rescuing many victims. Yeakey was also an eyewitness to conversations and physical evidence that convinced him that there was a cover-up of the bombing by federal agents. Yeakey was committed to getting to the truth about what happened but a year after the bombing he was found dead off the side of a rural road. His death was ruled a suicide despite overwhelming evidence that he was murdered. Authorities reported that Yeakey, “slit his wrists and neck… then miraculously climbed over a barbed wire fence… walked over a mile’s distance, through a nearby field, and eventually shot himself in the side of the head at an unusual angle.” No weapon was found, no investigation was initiated, no fingerprints were taken, and no interviews were conducted. His family continues to fight for the truth about his death.
Gene Corley, the engineer who was hired by the government to support its claims about the structural fire at the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, was brought in to investigate the destruction of the Murrah Building. Corley brought along three other engineers: Charles Thornton, Mete Sozen, and Paul Mlakar. Their investigation was conducted from half a block away—where they could not observe any of the damage directly—yet their conclusions supported the pre-existing official account. A few years later, within 72 hours of the 9/11 attacks, these same four men were on site leading the investigations at the Word Trade Center and the Pentagon.
There are many other links between OKC and 9/11. For example, the alleged hijackers visited the OKC area many times and even stayed in the same motel that was frequented by McVeigh and Nichols. After both the OKC bombing and 9/11, building monitoring videos went missing, FBI harassment of witnesses was seen, and officials ignored evidence that did not support the political story. Additionally, numerous oddities link the OKC area to al Qaeda. In 2002, OKC resident Nick Berg was interrogated by the FBI for lending his laptop and internet password to alleged “20th hijacker” Zacarias Moussoui. Two years after this interrogation, Berg became world famous as a victim of beheading in Iraq. Investigators looking for clues about these connections will be particularly interested in two airports in OKC, the president of the University of Oklahoma, and the CIA leader who both monitored the alleged hijackers in Germany and was hired at the university just before 9/11.
On April 19, 2015, at the 20th anniversary of one of the worst terrorist attacks in history, citizens should be reminded that we don’t know what happened that day. We don’t know because officials have covered-up the crime for unknown reasons and most media sources will not challenge that cover-up.








https://theintercept.com/2017/05/16/how ... ournalist/


HOW AN UNDERCOVER FBI AGENT ENDED UP IN JAIL AFTER PRETENDING TO BE A JOURNALIST
Trevor Aaronson
May 16 2017, 12:36 p.m.
Image: Glendale Police
WORD TRAVELED FAST in tiny Glendale, Colorado, when an undercover FBI agent identifying himself as Charles Johnson began knocking on doors and asking questions.

For nearly a year, as a part of the FBI’s investigation of the armed standoff between a Nevada rancher named Cliven Bundy and Bureau of Land Management agents in 2014, Johnson pretended to be a documentary filmmaker. At one point, he assured Bundy’s suspicious son Ryan, “I want a truthful documentary.” The more than 100 hours of video and audio recordings that Johnson and his team produced while posing as journalists are being used as evidence in criminal trials against Bundy and his supporters. While Johnson was finished with the fake documentary production by the time he arrived in Colorado, he wasn’t done with pretending to be a member of the news media.

It was February 2016, just a couple of weeks after members of the Bundy family and their supporters were arrested following the standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. At the time, Glendale’s civic life was dominated by debate over a $175 million development proposal, called Glendale 180, to create a new nightlife and entertainment district. Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon has led the campaign to remake the city. An eccentric politician who lives in a home that looks like a castle — it has its own website — Dunafon ran as an independent for Colorado governor in 2014. Wyclef Jean even produced his official campaign song.

But Dunafon’s plans for remaking Glendale have been stalled by a local businessman named Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi, who runs a Persian rug store on land he owns that would be a centerpiece of Glendale 180. Glendale wanted to purchase the land for the entertainment district, but Kheirkhahi had proposed developing a high-rise condominium tower on the site. The city’s tiny newspaper, the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle, opposed the condo development proposal, referring to it as the “Tehranian Death Star.” The newspaper quoted several citizens in its pages expressing opposition to Kheirkhani’s residential development. For reasons that remain obscure, Johnson started door-stopping people who were quoted in the newspaper, according to police records obtained by The Intercept.

On February 20, 2016, Johnson showed up at the apartment of Sherry Frame, the Glendale city clerk. Johnson didn’t identify himself as an FBI agent. Instead, he said he was an “investigative consultant” who was hired to look into an ethics complaint. As part of that inquiry, Johnson said he needed to talk to Frame.

Feeling threatened by the unannounced visit to her home, Frame called police. Detectives soon discovered that Johnson had also stopped by the homes of two people who worked at Shotgun Willie’s, a local strip club owned by Mayor Dunafon’s wife. A police officer called Johnson’s number and left a message. Johnson returned the call and left another message. Nothing more happened, until the undercover FBI agent returned to town on March 15, 2016, and contacted Douglas Stiff, a disc jockey at Shotgun Willie’s. Stiff agreed to meet with Johnson at a local restaurant, and then he too called the Glendale police.

In this Feb. 10, 2016 photo, a large roadside sign marks the entrance of longtime strip club Shotgun Willie's, and Smoking Gun Apothecary, the new marijuana dispensary, in Glendale, Colo. Smokin Gun Apothecary is on a site formerly occupied by the Denver area’s best known strip club, Shotgun Willie’s. The strip club hasn’t gone away, it’s moved just across the parking lot. Both businesses have the same owner, who envisions pot shoppers getting discounted drinks at the strip club and is outfitting the roof of the pot shop for a future lounge in case Colorado changes its law banning on-site marijuana consumption.(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) A roadside sign marks the entrance of the Shotgun Willie’s strip club and Smoking Gun Apothecary, the new marijuana dispensary, in Glendale, Colo., on Feb. 10, 2016. Photo: Brennan Linsley/AP
Detective Shaun Farley, suspecting that Johnson was working as a private investigator without a state license, suggested setting up a sting. The case became a game of spy versus spy, an undercover cop trying to catch an undercover FBI agent.
According to audio obtained by The Intercept, on the drive to the restaurant, Farley and Stiff worked on their cover story. “Let’s just say we know each other from CU-Denver,” Farley said.

“CU-Denver?” Stiff said. “All right, cool.”

“Just say we had some class together and been friends ever since, for @#$!%&! business degrees,” Farley added. “So we share common interest in business degrees, chicks with titties, and music, because you’re a DJ, right?”

“Yep,” Stiff said.

Farley slipped the recording device under his clothing. “I can’t just walk in and set it on the table. Be like, ‘What’s up, dude? Here’s my recorder. Say some stupid $#!%.’”

Stiff laughed. Then they walked into the restaurant and greeted Johnson, who explained that he was investigating the proposed condo project and community opposition to it. As part of that work, he said he was contacting people who, like Stiff, had been quoted in the local newspaper as opposing the project. Stiff told Johnson that he didn’t like being tracked down and having a stranger show up at his home.

“I didn’t track you down,” Johnson said.

“You came to my front door,” Stiff replied.

“But I didn’t track you down. The person I work for —”

“Who is?” Stiff interrupted.

“She’s a writer,” Johnson answered.

“Who is?” Stiff asked again.

Johnson refused to answer. He explained that he had been hired by a journalist to investigate claims that were made in the local newspaper.

After nearly an hour of talking, with Johnson repeatedly refusing to disclose who had hired him, Farley piped up: “It still seems like you need a license to do this kind of stuff.”

Johnson demurred, saying he was not acting as a private investigator. The undercover cop and the strip club DJ then walked back to the car.

“How often do you have to waste your time like this?” Stiff asked. “Probably a lot.”

“No, it’s not a waste of time,” Farley answered. “He’s about to get pulled over and get arrested.”

“Badass,” Stiff said, excited. “What crime did he commit?”

Farley explained that in Colorado, as of July 2015, anyone doing contract investigations work needed to be licensed as a private investigator in the state.

“Holy $#!%!” Stiff said.

Another uniformed Glendale police officer then pulled over Johnson, and they agreed to talk at a nearby Starbucks. After interviewing Johnson, the officer let him go, believing that he needed to review the law concerning private investigators before he felt justified in making an arrest. Glendale police officers then reviewed the law, contacted state regulators, and concluded that Johnson was indeed violating state law. They knew from running his plate that he had a rental car that was due back early the next morning. As Johnson dropped off his car, the police approached him. “So I am being placed under arrest?” the undercover agent said.

When he was arrested, Johnson was carrying three different state identification cards, from Tennessee, Hawaii, and Florida, as well as expensive camera equipment. He also had a business card identifying himself as an “investigative consultant” and listing the same Nashville, Tenn., address and phone numbers as Longbow Productions, the fake documentary company the FBI set up to film the Bundys and their supporters. Glendale police booked Johnson and escorted him to an interrogation room, where a camera recorded their conversation. Dressed in blue jeans and a green parka, Johnson maintained his innocence, pointing out that there was an exemption in Colorado law for journalists and that a journalist had hired him to ask questions in Glendale.

“If it was a journalist, what journalist did hire you?” Farley asked.

Johnson shook his head. “And I’m not getting into that because I’m not — because what happened to me, I’m not saying anything about anybody else,” he answered.

The detective followed up: “How did this person reach out to you? How did they even know to contact you?”

“I didn’t know them. From a friend, from a friend who knows what I do,” Johnson said.

None of it added up to Glendale police. So they charged Johnson with unauthorized practice of private investigations and issued a summons to appear in court. Local prosecutors dropped the charges after receiving a letter from the FBI asking them not to prosecute.

It’s unclear what the goal of Johnson’s Glendale undercover operation was or why the FBI’s Denver office decided to use a journalistic cover. “We are not able to comment on the questions you have posed,” said Special Agent Amy Sanders, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Denver office.

In June 2016, four months after this incident, the FBI adopted an interim policy that requires undercover operations involving the impersonation of news media to be approved by the deputy director of the FBI in consultation with the deputy attorney general. As FBI director, James Comey defended the practice of impersonating journalists in criminal investigations but described it as “rare.”

Johnson testified in March in the jury trial of six defendants who had supported the Bundys during the 2014 standoff with federal agents. The trial ended in convictions against two defendants and a hung jury for the other four. Johnson is also expected to testify in the trial of Cliven Bundy and his sons, which is scheduled to begin June 26. The trial may include as evidence video that Johnson produced while impersonating a documentary filmmaker.

The FBI did not respond to questions about Johnson’s arrest in Colorado, including whether it was disclosed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nevada.

Bret Whipple, the lawyer representing Cliven Bundy, had been unaware of Johnson’s arrest in Colorado. “I think it’s absolutely material that could impeach the witness and should have been turned over to us,” Whipple said. “He was breaking local law while acting surreptitiously.”

Top photo: This screen grab made from video released by the Glendale Police shows Charles Johnson during an interrogation.

RELATED
The Bizarre Story Behind the FBI’s Fake Documentary About the Bundy Family
More Than 400 People Convicted of Terrorism in the U.S. Have Been Released Since






http://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/1 ... id=5522810


13 authoritarian jokes on America


Trump Tracker

1) FBI Director James Comey was speaking to federal agents when news of his firing flashed across the television behind him.

The regime blamed new Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and cited Comey's treatment of the Clinton email investigation — as if daring us to pretend they are telling the truth.

2) More than 200 people arrested en masse on Inauguration Day are now facing decades in jail. Authorities issued search warrants and slapped others, like Dylan Petrohilos, with conspiracy charges after the fact. "Prosecuting people based on participation in a public protest," Petrohilos said, "seems like something that would happen in an authoritarian society."

3) Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from anything having to do with the investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign after he was caught lying to the Senate about his meetings with Sergei Kislyak, a Russian ambassador widely considered to be a spy. But Sessions still wrote a letter recommending Comey's canning. He is also involved in hiring the new FBI director, who will be expected to lead the investigation of the Trump campaign.

4) Trey Gowdy, the South Carolina congressman best known for heading up the endless Benghazi hearings, has been floated as a candidate for FBI chief.

If you can't get Rudy Giuliani or the anti-immigrant former sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, Gowdy is perfect. Not only did he direct the 11-hour grilling of the ever-hated Hillary Clinton, but when the House Intelligence Committee questioned Comey in March, Gowdy demonstrated no interest in finding out how Russia had influenced the election. He was, however, quite interested in prosecuting journalists who publish leaked materials.

5) The rest of the Republicans, meanwhile, have been busy stripping healthcare from people with pre-existing conditions.

When Dan Heyman, a reporter in West Virginia, repeatedly asked Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price if domestic violence would count as a pre-existing condition, he was arrested. He faces up to six months in jail for disrupting the work of government. Price commended the police on the arrest.

6) Desiree Fairooz, an activist with Code Pink, was found guilty of disorderly and disruptive conduct and parading or demonstrating on Capitol grounds — for laughing when Sen. Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, said that Sessions' record of "treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented."

Sessions sent a memo ordering federal prosecutors to seek the stiffest possible penalties in all of their cases, reversing an Obama-era policy that steered away from "enhanced" penalties and mandatory minimums for minor or nonviolent drug crimes.

7) Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates was fired when she refused to enforce President Donald Trump's Muslim ban. She was supposed to testify to the House Intelligence Committee about Russia back before its chair, Rep. Devin Nunes, R- California, flipped out and jumped from an Uber at midnight for a mysterious White House meeting. Finally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, no fan of Trump or Russia, called her to testify before the Senate, where she said that she had warned the Trump team 18 days before he was fired that then-National Security Advisor Mike Flynn had been compromised by Russia. During that time, Flynn sat in on a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.






http://www.unionleader.com/article/2017 ... =mobileart



DeLemus backers outraged by ruling



Granite Staters supportive of Jerry DeLemus expressed outrage that he was denied a chance to withdraw a guilty plea in connection with the Cliven Bundy standoff in 2014.

“She should be wearing orange, not black,” friend Jack Kimball said of the judge on the case. “The whole system is ridiculous.”

Kimball, a former state Republican Party chairman, views DeLemus as a “political prisoner.”

DeLemus, a local Tea Party leader from Rochester, served as a co-chairman of Donald Trump’s New Hampshire veterans coalition during the 2016 campaign.

He now awaits a sentencing May 31 in Nevada. Per the plea deal he originally struck last August, he may serve up to six years in federal prison.

His supporters, who gathered at a rally at the State House in late April, have written letters to Attorney General Jeff Sessions with a request for some intervention for those facing charges related to the Bundy standoff. DeLemus’ friends have previously expressed hope that the President would weigh in, possibly with a pardon.

State Rep. Fred Doucette, R-Salem, one of Trump’s three campaign co-chairmen in the state, said Tuesday he planned to write the attorney general about the case.

“Give the guy a fair hearing, at least,” said Doucette, who also sat on Trump’s veterans coalition. “It doesn’t make sense. It’s just plain wrong.”

FBI agents stormed DeLemus’ house and arrested him on March 3, 2016. The indictment called him a “mid-level leader and organizer of the conspiracy” at the Bundy ranch. The standoff there escalated after the rancher’s long-held defiance of federal court orders to remove his cattle from public lands.

DeLemus first traveled to Nevada on April 10, 2014, and he was the first of 19 defendants in the case to accept a plea. Kimball told the Union Leader late last year that DeLemus told him he signed the plea deal out of coercion, or threat that federal agents would come after his family.

Kimball said Tuesday that DeLemus said in court last year that the charges related to his plea deal were a lie.

The bid to withdraw his plea agreement came after seven people who took over a national wildlife refuge in Oregon were found not guilty in that standoff.

Late last month, Judge Gloria Navarro, the same judge presiding over DeLemus’ case, declared a mistrial in a case against four men accused of conspiracy in connection with the 2014 Bundy ranch standoff. A new trial for those four, and a trial for Cliven Bundy, is scheduled to begin in late June.

[email protected]






https://www.thenation.com/article/the-t ... trump-era/


POLICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENTPROTESTDONALD TRUMP
The Threat of Political Policing in the Trump Era
Trump will brook no protest.




https://robertscribbler.com/2017/05/17/ ... te-record/


April of 2017 was the Second Hottest in 137 Year Climate Record
According to measurements by NASA’s GISS global temperature monitoring service, April of 2017 was considerably warmer than all past Aprils in the climate record with the single exception of 2016.

The month came in at 0.88 degrees Celsius above NASA’s 20th Century baseline and fully 1.1 degrees Celsius above 1880s averages. This measure was just 0.01 C warmer than now third warmest 2010 and 0.18 C shy of last year’s record. All of the top ten hottest Aprils on record have occurred since 1998 and six of the top ten hottest Aprils have occurred since 2010.



(During April of 2017, and with only a few moderate exceptions, most of the world experienced above normal to considerably above normal surface temperatures. Image source: NASA GISS.)

The first four months of 2017 now average around 1.21 degrees Celsius warmer than 1880s ranges. This number is about tied with 2016’s overall record warmth which was spurred by a combined strong El Nino and the incredible buildup of greenhouse gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere that we have seen for over more than a century. It is also a warming that is now strong enough to start bringing on serious geophysical changes to the Earth System. The longer readings remain so warm or continue to increase, the more likely it is that instances of global harm in the form of glacial melt, sea level rise, ocean health decline, severe storms and other extreme weather will worsen or emerge.

This year, ENSO neutral conditions trending toward the cooler side of average during the first quarter should have helped to moderate global temperatures somewhat. As is, though a slight cooling vs the first quarter of 2016 is somewhat evident, the broader, more general counter-trend cooling that we would expect following a strong El Nino is practically non-apparent.



(A mildly warm Kelvin Wave forming in the Equatorial Pacific brings with it the chance of a weak El Nino by summer of 2017. This warming of such a broad region of surface waters may combine with atmospheric CO2 and CO2e in the range of 405 and 493 ppm respectively to keep global temperatures near record highs of around 1.2 C above 1880s averages during 2017. Image source: NOAA EL Nino.)

Very strong Northern Hemisphere polar warming during the winter months appears to be a primary driver pushing overall global temperatures higher during recent months. Meanwhile, southern hemisphere polar amplification is becoming more and more apparent over time.

In April, the trend of Northern Hemisphere polar amplification/warming was readily apparent in the NASA measure despite a seasonal relative cooling. Under global warming related heat forcing, we would expect to see the highest temperature departures during late fall through winter. And as 2016 transitioned into 2017, this kind of warming was amazingly evident.



(Only the very far north and the very far south saw below average temperatures in NASA’s zonal measure. Meanwhile, temperatures in the lower Arctic were particularly warm. Image source: NASA GISS.)

Anomalies during April in the higher latitudes did cool somewhat to 2 to 2.6 C above average in the key 65 to 75 N Latitude zone. Highest departures continued to be very considerable for April — ranging from 4 C to as much as 7.5 C above average over Northeastern Siberian, the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, the Bering Sea and parts of Northwest Alaska. Meanwhile, temperatures over the Central Arctic dipped to slightly below average as polar amplification in the southern hemisphere appeared to take a break before warming again in March.

Globally, according to GFS model reanalysis data, temperatures appeared to cool through the end of April. However, by early May another warm-up was underway and, if the GFS measure is any guide, it appears that May will likely be about as warm as April overall. This track would tend to make it 1rst to 4th warmest on record if this trends analysis bears out.

Links:

NASA GISS

NOAA EL Nino

Global and Regional Climate Anomalies

[msfreeh]

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2 ... -isis-plot


Victim in Garland terror attack tormented by belief that FBI knew of ISIS plot
• May 26 2017
The Garland cop and the school security guard stood beside each other in the shade through most of the day, trading stories about chasing bad guys and raising kids.
Just before 6:50 p.m., a voice crackled over the radio saying the event they were guarding was over. It had been controversial and dangerous — a cartoon contest sponsored by anti-Muslim activists to see who could make the most outrageous drawings of the prophet Muhammad.
"Looks like we might get out a little early," said the unarmed security guard, a 60-year-old Sunnyvale man named Bruce Joiner.
Joiner had no idea that, at the same moment, court records show, an undercover FBI agent investigating terrorism was sitting in a nearby car, snapping a cellphone photo of him and Garland police Officer Greg Stevens.

Seconds later, a black sedan pulled up. Two men with assault rifles jumped out and began shooting. Joiner was struck in the left calf as he ran behind a tree. His wounds marked him as the first ISIS victim on U.S. soil. Stevens returned fire with his service pistol, striking the shooters, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, who both died on the scene.


http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/politics/ ... -director/


Former TSA Chief John Pistole Under Consideration for Top FBI Job
John Pistole, the former TSA chief who had been appointed by President Obama, is now being considered for the position of FBI director, CNN reports.
Pistole, who was named deputy FBI director in 2014, met with Deputy Attorney General




http://www.counterpunch.org/2004/06/26/ ... -hearings/



June 26, 2004
John Pistole Decision Not to Explore Quashed FBI Investigations Prior to 9/11 Tarnishes Hearings

At the twelfth and final public session of the 9/11 commission hearings this week in the NTSB building in Washington, DC, the disappointment was palpable among family members of the 9/11 deceased. A less-than distinguished panel of FBI and CIA agents took turns praising the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Al-Qaeda, and offered little hope that future efforts would be successful in stopping terrorism. But give the CIA and FBI this: they can still recognize a marketing opportunity when they see it.
Apparently unfamiliar with the concept of shame, representatives from two of the agencies whose failures bear clear responsibility for the events of 9/11 saw the morning session as an opportunity to shill for ‘patience’ and, tacitly, more money. One after another, in front of the surviving family members, many of whom clutched pictures of their dead sons, daughters, husbands and wives, the agents fawned over the incredible resourcefulness, commitment and dedication of Al Qaeda operatives (in one notable exchange, Al Qaeda was glowingly described as “innovative,” “creative” and “entrepreneurial”—why not just say you were outsmarted?) The CIA agents referred familiarly to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Osama Bin Laden as ‘KSM’ and ‘UBL’. The uninitiated might have gotten the impression they were speaking of protégés, and not hated enemies. Earlier, in a jaunty tone completely incongruous with the substance of his statement, the CIA’s Dr. Kay told the commission that “(Al-Qaeda) may strike next week, next month or next year, but it will strike.” The agencies took no responsibility for the attacks, and they were not challenged to.
But the nadir of the morning session came when commissioner James Thompson asked all of the panelists how best to combat the new type of stateless enemy Al-Qaeda represents. FBI special agent Mary Deborah Doran answered last. She had already warned the Commission in her introductory remarks that, as a “street agent”, she was removed from the “policy and administrative decision-making processes” that determined the scope of the FBI’s investigation of Al Qaeda, and thus could not speak to them (no one did that day, including Executive Assistant FBI Director John Pistole, seated to her right). Her answer to Thompson’s question was: “I think what we need to do . . at the FBI street-agent level, is to continue what we’ve always done, and that is to pursue all the information that we do get. . . to its logical end. . .”
Here, in classic doublespeak fashion, Doran gives an answer that is a non-answer. She had to be aware that several FBI “street-level” investigations into the activities of the 9/11 terrorists were stymied by higher-ups in the weeks prior to 9/11, each under strange circumstances, and well before the street-level agents felt like they had reached their “logical end”. Consider the following cases, all drawn from mainstream news sources, summarized in David Ray Griffin’s well-researched expose, “The New Pearl Harbor”:
1) Ken Williams of the Phoenix FBI office sent a now-famous July 10, 2001 memo to the counterterrorism division of the FBI suggesting that the organization institute a national program to keep tabs on suspicious flight-school students. This came just a few weeks after the CIA learned that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 plot and a well-known terrorist at that time who the CIA was monitoring, was recruiting jihadists to come to the US to take part in attacks here. Williams, who had previously been transferred to an unrelated arson case despite tracking the hijackers for more than a year, had been back on the case for about a month when he wrote the memo, which also warned of a possible “effort by Osama bin Laden to send students to the US to attend civil aviation universities and colleges” (Fortune, May 22, 2002). His suggestion for a national program was ignored before 9/11;
2) FBI agent Robert Wright of the Chicago field office, who had been investigating a suspected terrorist cell for three years, was informed in January 2001 that the case was being closed. This despite Wright’s contention that his case was growing stronger. His investigation included individuals from the notorious Ptech, a software company which provided product for the White House, Congress, FBI, CIA, IRS, Army, Navy, and FAA and which was raided by federal agents in December 2002.
Three months before September 11, Wright wrote a stinging internal memo charging that the FBI was not interested in thwarting a terrorist attack, but rather “was merely gathering intelligence so they would know who to arrest when a terrorist attack occurred.” (UPI, May 30, 2002, cited in Griffin, p. 83);
3) Legal officer Colleen Rowley worked in the FBI’s Minneapolis field office when agents arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August of 2001. The commission made repeated mention of the fact that Moussaoui, by that time, was considered a very dangerous person capable of crashing a plane into the World Trade Center. The Minneapolis felt so strongly about the need to detain him that a request was sent to FBI headquarters to search Moussaoui’s laptop computer under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Approximately 10,000 requests under FISA over the past 20 years had been made without a single request being turned down, but the Minneapolis agency’s request never got out of the FBI. The request had been excised of the critical intelligence that made the case for Moussaoui’s connection to Al Qaeda in Chechnya on its path to FBI headquarters. Excised of that justification, the request was never forwarded for FISA consideration, spurring Rowley to charge that the FBI was “sabotaging” the case, and another agent to charge that headquarters was “setting this up for failure.” (Senate Intelligence Committee, October 17, 2002; Time, July 21 and July 27, 2002 and Sydney Morning Herald July 28, 2002, each cited in Griffin, p. 81);
4) On Aug 28, 2001 the New York FBI office requested opening a criminal investigation in soon-to-be hijacker Khalid Almihdhar based on evidence he had been involved in the USS Cole bombing. The request was turned down, on the basis that, as Griffin puts it, “Almihdhar could not be tied to the Cole investigation without the inclusion of sensitive intelligence information.” This led one frustrated FBI agent to write in an email that “someday someone will die–and. . . the public will not understand why we were not more effective.” (Congressional Intelligence Committee, cited in Griffin, p. 83). Perhaps Doran, a New York FBI agent herself, knew something about this? She was not asked directly.
What these examples make clear is that FBI “street agents” and translators don’t have the power to follow their investigations to their logical ends when they are obstructed by their superiors. In light of these facts, Doran’s breezy recommendation that the FBI street agents “keep doing what we’ve always done” is entirely inadequate, and inspires no confidence. Neither Thompson nor any other commissioner pressed for a better answer. And while the FBI’s “unprecedented transformation” after 9/11 testified to by FBI Executive Assistant Director For Counterterrorism John Pistole on April 14 may sound impressive to some, it does not explain nor address the past obstruction of promising investigations. Factor in the erosion of civil liberties required for its execution, and the “unprecedented transformation” appears to be of dubious value.
There are several other aspects about the FBI’s behavior pre- and post-9/11 that scream out for further investigation. One of the most bizarre cases still unfolding involves the targeting of former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, who was fired by the agency shortly after reporting a number of complaints to her superiors. According to a June 7, 2004 story in The New Republic, those complaints included the charge that a fellow FBI translator, Can Dickerson, tried to recruit Edmonds into a foreign organization whose documents Dickerson had been translating and which had been under investigation by the FBI. Edmonds then filed a wrongful termination suit and took her grievance to Senators Charles Grassley and Patrick Leahy, as well as the television program “60 Minutes,” which aired an interview with her in 2002.
But the FBI has since gone to extraordinary lengths to silence Edmonds. In May, the Bureau re-classified all of the information it presented to Sens. Grassley and Leahy, nearly two years after it had become public. It even violated its own rules for reclassification in doing so. The reclassification has had the effect of silencing Grassley and Leahy on the matter, too, who had been pressing the Bureau for a fuller account of the matter. Now they were limited to writing classified letters to the FBI.
Edmonds, meanwhile, has seen her wrongful termination suit delayed for two years and most recently was informed by Judge Reggie Walton on June 14 that her hearing was delayed once again (for the fourth time), with no date set for a rescheduling. The delays result from an effort from Attorney General John Ashcroft to invoke the State Secrets Privilege, which can quash lawsuits on the basis that their continuation would damage national security. Judge Walton is still waiting for the government to make its case for the invoking of the States Secrets Privilege. In the meantime, as the New Republic notes, while Edmonds herself is not gagged, she is not permitted to reference any of the now-classified information that could substantiate her claims.
At her June 14 press conference outside the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington, DC, Edmonds summarized her charges clearly, stating that for more than two years, “John Ashcroft has been relentlessly engaged in actions geared toward covering up my report and investigations into my allegations. His actions. . . .include gagging the United States Congress, blocking court proceedings on my (wrongful termination suit) by invoking the State Secrets Privilege, quashing the subpoena for my deposition on information regarding 9/11, withholding documents requested under the Freedom Of Information Act and preventing the release of the Inspector General’s report of its investigations into my report and allegations.”
She threw down a gauntlet to all citizens, members of Congress and federal officials that so far have not spoken out, saying, “To become an American citizen, I took the citizenship oath. In taking this oath, I pledged I would support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Therefore, not only do I have the right to challenge John Ashcroft’s anti-constitution(al) and un-American actions, but as an American citizen I am required to do so. So are you.”
Edmonds did testify with the 9/11 commission behind closed doors, but a host of disturbing questions still remain before the commission:
• Why weren’t any of the agents mentioned above called to testify in the commission’s public hearings? What legitimate claim to a thorough investigation can be made without their public testimony?
• Were the FBI agents who saw their investigations stymied at least deposed in private sessions?
• Why was Robert Wright’s investigation derailed, and why did the government move to block significant portions of his book in 2002, such that it remains unpublished to this day?
• Why was the information connecting Moussaoui’s connection with rebels in Chechnya excised before it reached the FBI Deputy General?
• And why have lower-level agents been demoted and/or punished for doing their jobs while their superiors, who spiked, obstructed or otherwise compromised their promisin



John Pistole FBI in the news


https://books.google.com/books?id=LgJzC ... 11&f=false


Cia Earth Blood: Animal Liberation Front - Google Books Result
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=132979527X
Igor Kryan - 2016 - ‎History
Joyce Dietrich VA FBI framed innocent Cost Guard officer Daniel D Dubree VA ... FBI 9/11 cover up Jason Pinegar FBI 9/11 cover up John Pistole FBI 9/11 cover ..


John Pistole FBI 911 coverup
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... yer-214996


http://shareblue.com/trump-fired-comey- ... y-session/
Trump fired Comey one day after FBI called in Trump’s sons for “emergency session”
By Oliver Willis | May 26, 2017
The day after the FBI and CIA held an emergency meeting with Donald Trump's adult sons over a possible foreign intrusion into Trump Organization servers, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.


http://www.npr.org/2017/05/25/530074684 ... nfirmation


Bi-Partisan Bill Seeks to Require Senate Confirmation of Secret Service Director



https://democrats-homeland.house.gov/si ... clarke.pdf

Democratic Lawmakers Urge Against Homeland Security Appointment of Sheriff David Clarke
There are few law enforcement officials as controversial and divisive as Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke.
That’s why Democrat


https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2016 ... o-the-fbi/


Was Orlando Terrorist a FBI informant?

Orlando shooter: deeper hidden ties to the FBI?
Orlando shooter: deeper hidden ties to the FBI?
by Jon Rappoport
June 13, 2016
The website Cryptogon has pieced together some interesting facts, and a quite odd “coincidence.” I’m bolstering their work.
First of all, the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, changed his name in 2006. As NBC News notes: “Records also show that he had filed a petition for a name change in 2006 from Omar Mir Seddique to Omar Mir Seddique Mateen.”
Why is that important? Why is his original last name, Seddique, also spelled Siddiqui, significant? Because of a previous terrorism case in Florida, in which the FBI informant’s name was Siddiqui. And because that previous case may have been one of those FBI prop-jobs, where the informant was used to falsely accuse a suspect of a terrorist act. The New Yorker (cited above) has details:
“This is not the first time that the F.B.I. has attracted criticism from national-security experts and civil-liberties groups for generating terrorism cases through sting operations and confidential informants. In ‘The Imam’s Curse,’ published in September, I reported on a Florida family that was accused of providing ‘material support’ to terrorists. In that case, a father, Hafiz Khan, and two of his sons were arrested. The charges against the sons were eventually dropped, but Hafiz Khan was convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. At Khan’s trial, his lawyer, Khurrum Wahid, questioned the reliability of the key [FBI] informant in the case, David Mahmood Siddiqui. Wahid accused Siddiqui, who’d had periods of unemployment, of lying to authorities because his work as a confidential informant was lucrative. For his role in the case, Siddiqui had received a hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars, plus expenses. But in a subsequent interview with the Associated Press, Siddiqui stood by his testimony and motives: ‘I did it for the love of my country, not for money.’”
The website Cryptogon, which pieced this whole story together, comments: “What are the odds that an FBI informant in a [previous] Florida terrorist case shares the same last name as the perpetrator of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history—also in Florida—[Omar Mateen] a lone wolf cop poser with multiple acknowledged contacts with the FBI, who was formerly listed on the terrorist watch list and associated with a suicide bomber… while holding a valid security guard license?”
Indeed.
And in case you think Siddiqui is a common last name, here is a statement from Mooseroots:
“Siddiqui is an uncommon surname in the United States. When the United States Census was taken in 2000, there were about 4,994 individuals with the last name “Siddiqui,” ranking it number 6,281 for all surnames. Historically, the name has been most prevalent in the Southwest, though the name is actually most common in Hawaii. Siddiqui is least common in the southeastern states.”
If for some reason the name Siddiqui throws you off, suppose the last name was, let me make something up, Graposco? A few years ago, an FBI informant in Florida, Graposco, appeared to have falsely accused a man of terrorist acts—and in 2016, another Graposco, who changed that last name to something else, killed 50 people in a Florida nightclub shooting—after having been investigated twice by the FBI? Might that coincidence grab your attention?
Again—the 2016 Orlando shooter had extensive contact with the FBI in 2013 and 2014. The FBI investigated him twice and dropped the investigations. The FBI used an informant in a previous Florida case, and that informant had the same last name as the Orlando shooter. It’s quite possible the previous informant was told to give a false statement which incriminated a man for terrorist acts.
You can say this is a coincidence. Maybe it is. But it seems more than odd. Are the two Siddiqui men connected?
Was the Orlando shooter involved in some kind of FBI plan to mount a terror op that was supposed to be stopped before it went ahead, but wasn’t? Was the Orlando shooter “helped” over the edge from having “radical ideas” to committing mass murder?
________________________________________
I could cite a number of precedents. Here is one I reported on in 2014:
There seems to be a rule: if a terror attack takes place and the FBI investigates it, things are never what they seem.
Federal attorney Andrew C McCarthy prosecuted the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing case. A review of his book, Willful Blindness, states:
“For the first time, McCarthy intimately reveals the real story behind the FBI’s inability to stop the first World Trade Center bombing even though the bureau had an undercover informant in the operation—the jihadists’ supposed bombmaker.
“In the first sentence of his hard-hitting account, the author sums up the lawyerly—but staggeringly incomprehensive—reason why the FBI pulled its informant out of the terrorist group even as plans were coming to a head on a major attack:
“’Think of the liability!’
“The first rule for government attorneys in counterintelligence in the 1990s was, McCarthy tells us, ‘Avoid accountable failure.’ Thus, when the situation demanded action, the feds copped a CYA posture, the first refuge of the bureaucrat.”
That’s a titanic accusation, coming from a former federal prosecutor.
Yes, the FBI had an informant inside the group that was planning the 1993 WTC bombing that eventually, on February 26, killed 6 people and injured 1042.
His name is Emad Salem, a former Egyptian Army officer. Present whereabouts unknown. Yanking Salem out of the group planning the Bombing was a devastating criminal act on the part of the FBI.
But there is more to the story.
On October 28, 1993, Ralph Blumenthal wrote a piece about Emad Salem for the New York Times: “Tapes Depict Proposal to Thwart Bomb Used in Trade Center Blast.” It began:
“Law-enforcement officials were told that terrorists were building a bomb that was eventually used to blow up the World Trade Center, and they planned to thwart the plotters by secretly substituting harmless powder for the explosives, an informer [Emad Salem] said after the blast.”
Continuing: “The informer was to have helped the plotters build the bomb and supply the fake powder, but the plan was called off by an F.B.I. supervisor who had other ideas about how the informer, Emad A. Salem, should be used, the informer [Emad] said.”
The FBI called the “plan” off, but left the planners to their own devices. No “harmless powder.” Instead, real explosives.
The Times article goes on: “The account, which is given in the transcript of hundreds of hours of tape recordings Mr. Salem secretly made of his talks with law-enforcement agents, portrays the authorities as in a far better position than previously known to foil the Feb. 26 bombing of New York City’s tallest towers.”
This is a shockingly strong opening for an article in the NY Times. It focuses on the testimony of the informant; it seems to take his side.
Several years after reporter Blumenthal wrote the above piece, I spoke with him and expressed my amazement at the revelations about the FBI—and wondered whether the Times had continued to investigate the scandal.
Blumenthal wasn’t pleased, to say the least. He said I misunderstood the article.
I mentioned the fact that Emad Salem wasn’t called as a prosecution witness in the 1993 WTC Bombing trial.
Of course, why would the Dept. of Justice bring Salem to the stand? Would they want him to blame the FBI for abetting the Bombing?
Again, Blumenthal told me I “didn’t understand.” He became angry and that was the end of the conversation.
I remember thinking: letting the bomb plot go forward…what else do you need for a criminal prosecution of the FBI?
Here is an excerpt from one of those tapes Emad Salem made when he was secretly bugging his own FBI handlers. On this phone call, he talks to his Bureau friend John. Others have claimed this is an agent named John Anticev. The conversation is taking place at some point after the 1993 WTC Bombing. The main topic is Salem’s fees for services rendered as an informant. He apparently wants more money. He also wants to make sure the Bureau will pay him what they’ve agreed to. During the conversation, Salem suddenly talks about the bomb. His English is broken, but his meaning is clear enough. When he finishes, his Bureau handler John just moves on without directly responding.
Salem: “…we was start already building the bomb which is went off in the World Trade Center. It was built by supervising supervision from the Bureau and the DA and we was all informed about it and we know that the bomb start to be built. By who? By your confidential informant. What a wonderful great case!”
According to Salem, there was a bomb, it was built under FBI and “DA” supervision, Salem himself built it, and it exploded.
Questions remain. Did Salem literally mean he built the bomb? Or was he claiming he successfully convinced others to build it? As a provocative agent for the FBI, did Salem foment the whole idea of the WTC attack and entrap those who were eventually convicted of the Bombing? Without his presence, would they have planned and carried out the assault? Was the truck bomb set off under the North Tower the only weapon? Were there other bombs? If so, who planted them?
But the role of the FBI seems to be clear enough. They aided and abetted, and at the very least, permitted the 1993 attack on the Trade Towers.
________________________________________

________________________________________
What about Omar Mateen in 2016, in Orlando?
As the LA Times, reports, the FBI investigated him on two occasions (LA Times, June 13, “Orlando terror attack live updates…”):
“While working as a courthouse guard in 2013, Mateen made ‘inflammatory and contradictory’ statements to co-workers about having relatives in Al Qaeda, the radical Sunni terrorist group, [FBI Director] Comey said. Mateen also claimed to be a member of Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shiite militia, and his remarks drew an 11-month FBI investigation, Comey said. Both groups oppose Islamic State.
“Comey said the FBI also briefly investigated Mateen in 2014 for allegedly watching videos by Al Qaeda propagandist Anwar Awlaki and attending the same mosque as an American who would later become a suicide bomber for Al Nusra Front in Syria — another Al Qaeda affiliate opposed to Islamic State.
“Both investigations were closed without charges.”
Did the FBI just investigate the Orlando shooter? Or did they in some way enlist him in an operation?
Is it merely a terrible mistake that enabled the shooter to work nine years for G4S, the world’s “biggest guarding company” and one of the biggest contractors to the DHS, as Bloomberg News states? Is it merely a terrible mistake that G4S was aware the FBI was investigating the shooter in 2013 and did nothing about it?
Or did some federal group intervene and tell all parties to leave the shooter alone and in place—because he was part of an operation?
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews



http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/bre ... story.html


Orange County Sheriff's Office hosts national counter-terrorism ...
Orlando Sentinel-
Orlando Police Chief John Mina, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, FDLE Special Agent in Charge Danny Banks and FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge ...



http://www.whsv.com/home/headlines/6018616.html

FBI Analyst Sentenced
A former FBI analyst has been
sentenced to seven years in prison for having sex with a young girl
in Spotsylvania County.
44 year old Anthony John Lesko entered an Alford plea
yesterday in Spotsylvania County Circuit Court to nine counts of
felony indecent liberties upon a child. An Alford plea means Lesko
doesn't admit guilt but believes there is enough evidence for a
conviction.
Under a plea agreement, he was sentenced to seven years in
prison with another 15 years suspended. He also was ordered to pay
ten-thousand dollars in restitution to cover the cost of the girl's
mental-health counseling.
Authorities say Lesko engaged in a sex act with her nine times,
beginning when she was nine years old.
Lesko's attorney says he worked as an intelligence analyst at
the F-B-I for 17 years .
According to the plea, Lesko said he was a victim in the case.
He said the girl initiated the contact.


FBI Portland Honors Missing Children's Day
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI continues to partner with local law enforcement agencies to provide ... the country," said Loren Cannon, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon.



FBI OCTOPUS


Roofer arrested, incognito congressman puts up a sign and other ...
Dallas News
Retired FBI agent turned public school investigator Don Southerland Jr. of Plano introduced us to problems in several school districts, including Hearne ISD.



http://observer.com/2017/05/inside-the- ... y-says-ep/


‘Inside the FBI: New York’ Is Scary but Necessary, Says EP



05/25/17 11:32am


There was probably a time when the average citizen didn’t spend much time thinking about the work of the FBI. Those days are pretty much long gone. Now, because of the current tenuous status of the entire world, because of atrocious actions, the work of this agency has taken on increased importance.

In an effort to educate the public about what the FBI actually does, a new series focuses not only on the activities of the agency but also on the people who spend their lives working to enforce the law and provide global security.


Inside the FBI: New York follows the agency and its various units (counterterrorism, cyber crimes and human trafficking, among others) as they deal with various crimes and criminals.

“The FBI is basically a secret institution that everyone knows about, but no one knows what they really do,” explains series executive producer Marc Levin. “Their default answer for 50 years to virtually every question has been, ‘no comment.’ Until now.”


Working with uber scripted television producer Dick Wolf, Levin says that former FBI director James Comey was onboard with the series because he felt it was important for the public to know about the inner-workings of the agency.

But just because Wolf and Comey wanted to do it doesn’t mean it wasn’t without trouble, explains Levin. “First, we had to determine what the term ‘access’ really meant. Fortunately, we were pretty much all on the same page about that. And, then there had to be a real level of trust on both sides—we had to trust that they would let us show as much as we wanted and they had to trust that we were going to show everything with a certain level of respect. I think we worked it out so really everyone’s happy about what we’re showing viewers.”

Levin says that he and his team were embedded during a very interesting time within the agency. “We were inside the FBI during two historic moments that were not good—this change in global terrorism which shifted from organized groups to these sort of social media lone wolf types acting out—and the whole suspicion of Russia hacking the U.S. election.”

The subject matter here is awfully heavy, admits Levin, saying, “I got scared watching a lot of this. There were things that I never gave much thought until I worked on this show. A lot of what happens rocks you, but this is the world we live in and it’s better to be in the know than to try and hide from it. You can’t just hide from it. It’s not going to go away.”

The recent surge in news coverage about the agency actually worked in the series favor, in a way, says Levin. “The intense focus on the FBI by the media made more people within the organization want to work with us because they felt they were being attacked. Every day there are people screaming that the FBI is corrupt. They felt like they were unseen and that nobody understood what they do. I think that worked in our favor in a strange way.”






https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2305-1.html


Branding Hoover's FBI
How the Boss's PR Men Sold the Bureau to America

Matthew Cecil

Hunting down America’s public enemies was just one of the FBI’s jobs. Another—perhaps more vital and certainly more covert—was the job of promoting the importance and power of the FBI, a process that Matthew Cecil unfolds clearly for the first time in this eye-opening book. The story of the PR men who fashioned the Hoover era, Branding Hoover’s FBI reveals precisely how the Bureau became a monolithic organization of thousands of agents who lived and breathed a well-crafted public relations message, image, and worldview. Accordingly, the book shows how the public was persuaded—some would say conned—into buying and even bolstering that image.

Just fifteen years after a theater impresario coined the term “public relations,” the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover began practicing a sophisticated version of the activity. Cecil introduces those agency PR men in Washington who put their singular talents to work by enforcing and amplifying Hoover's message. Louis B. Nichols, overseer of the Crime Records Section for more than twenty years, was a master of bend-your-ear networking. Milton A. Jones brought meticulous analysis to bear on the mission; Fern Stukenbroeker, a gift for eloquence; and Cartha “Deke” DeLoach, a singular charm and ambition. Branding Hoover’s FBI examines key moments when this dedicated cadre, all working under the protective wing of Associate Director Clyde Tolson, manipulated public perceptions of the Bureau (was the Dillinger triumph really what it seemed?). In these critical moments, the book allows us to understand as never before how America came to see the FBI’s law enforcement successes and overlook the dubious accomplishments, such as domestic surveillance, that truly defined the Hoover era.

“This unique, creative, and excellent study makes a significant contribution to the literature on the FBI. Cecils brilliant mining of FBI personnel files has resulted in a fascinating, richly detailed, and wholly satisfying look at the inner workings of Hoover’s FBI.An outstanding work on an important subject.”

—Douglas Charles, author of Hoover’s War on Gays: Exposing the FBI’s “Sex Deviates” Program

“Branding Hoover’s FBI is a path-breaking assessment of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s public relations initiatives. Cecil’s brilliantly researched study documents Hoover’s success in transforming the image of the FBI from a minor and suspect to a powerful and autonomous agency, in the process reshaping American politics in the twentieth century. His thoughtful monograph has particular contemporary relevance highlighting how control over information undermined a constitutional system based on accountability and transparency. ”

—Athan Theoharis, author of The FBI and American Democracy: A Brief Critical History

About the Author

Matthew Cecil is Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is the author of The Ballad of Ben and Stella Mae: Great Plains Outlaws Who Became FBI Public Enemies Nos. 1 and 2 and Hoover’s FBI and the Fourth Estate: The Campaign to Control the Press and the Bureau’s Image, both published by Kansas.







http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bost ... h-47621968



Family of Boston Marathon-bomber's friend sue agents over death

ORLANDO, Fla. — May 24, 2017, 6:48 PM
The parents of a Chechen man who was fatally shot while being questioned in Florida about a Boston Marathon bombing suspect in 2013 have sued four law enforcement agents for wrongful death.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in Orlando by the estate of Ibragim Todashev and Todashev's parents against two Massachusetts state troopers, an FBI agent and an Orlando police officer who was working under the FBI's supervision. Todashev's estate is being represented by an official with the Council of American-Islamic Relations Florida.

The lawsuit seeks damages for lost earnings as well as funeral and medical expenses.

The agents interviewed Todashev four years ago as they looked into the background of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The men had been friends in Boston through mixed martial-arts circles.

The agents have said Todashev became agitated during the interview, grabbed a weapon and was killed. But the lawsuit claims that Todashev was leaving his apartment when he was shot, and agents tried to rearrange the scene.

"The actions of the law enforcement agents were designed to escalate conflict and attempt to justify the wrongful use of force," the lawsuit said.

FBI spokeswoman Kristen Setera in Boson declined to comment because of the pending litigation. Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio also said he couldn't comment on pending litigation, but that "we expect that a vigorous defense of our personnel will be presented in court."

The lawsuit alleges that FBI agents followed, harassed and repeatedly questioned Todashev in the weeks after the Boston bombing even though he had nothing to do with it. The lawsuit also says the FBI was negligent in its investigation into the death of Todashev, who was shot seven times, and that the FBI agent who fired the shots had a history of misconduct.

"Todashev's death ... was the result of excessive force by FBI agents and negligent hiring/ supervision by the FBI — all of which resulted in Todashev's wrongful death," the lawsuit said.




http://kfdm.com/news/guests/retired-fbi ... -in-studio


Retired FBI agent, outspoken critic in JFK assassination findings joins KFDM in studio







https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/po ... f3f4f19277



Why a House Democrat is lobbying for a former GOP lawmaker to be FBI director



Many analysts have argued that the next FBI director shouldn’t be a politician. But try telling that to Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), who has been pressing Senate Democratic leaders to consider former GOP congressman Mike Rogers (Mich.) for the post.

Ruppersberger told me Wednesday that in conversations with Democratic leadership, he had endorsed Rogers’s “integrity, competence and patriotism.” Rogers, a former FBI agent who served as House Intelligence Committee chairman until his retirement in 2015, has also been endorsed by the FBI Agents Association. The group said in a May 13 statement that Rogers “exemplifies the principles that should be possessed by the next FBI director.”





https://28pages.org/2015/02/04/saudi-ar ... nsparency/


NSA
Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Intelligence Community: Allies Against 9/11 Transparency?

February 4, 2015 28 pages, 9/11, Bob Graham, CIA, cover-up, FBI, ISIS, Norm Coleman, NSA, Richard Clarke, Saudi Arabia
By Brian McGlinchey

One of the distinguishing hallmarks of the drive to declassify the 28-page finding on foreign government support of the 9/11 hijackers is the absence of vocal opposition. That’s not to say there are no opponents—only that they are working quietly and effectively behind closed doors.

It’s likely that among the most powerful of those unseen opponents of 9/11 transparency are two strange bedfellows:
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—which has fueled the growth of terror
The U.S. intelligence community—which is charged with thwarting terror
Saudia Arabia’s Broad Influence on U.S. Policy

Saudi Arabia has claimed it wants the 28 pages released, but the kingdom is surely bluffing. At a January 7 press conference promoting the reintroduction of a House resolution urging the president to declassify the 28 pages, former Senator Bob Graham was pointed in describing how Saudi Arabia figures in the censored chapter of the report of a joint Congressional intelligence inquiry into 9/11: “The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11 and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier.”

Like many other countries, Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in building influence within American shores, and that influence may be a big reason why Barack Obama hasn’t reversed George W. Bush’s extraordinary redaction of 28 consecutive pages of a Congressional intelligence report, and why most of our federal legislators haven’t even bothered reading those pages despite the strong urging of peers who have.

Former Senator Norm Coleman: On the Saudi Payroll
Former Senator Norm Coleman: Once a Saudi Critic, Now on Kingdom’s Payroll
One relatively new pillar in Saudi Arabia’s influence infrastructure illustrates its strength. In September, The Nation’s Lee Fang—in a piece outlining the remarkable depth and breadth of the Saudi web of influence—revealed that Saudi Arabia had made an eyebrow-raising addition to its army of lobbyists: Norm Coleman, former United States senator and current chair of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a prominent Republican super PAC.

The hire breaks new ground, writes Fang, as Coleman “appears to be the first leader of a significant Super PAC to simultaneously lobby for a foreign government.” The move also reveals cringe-inducing hypocrisy: In 2005, Coleman signed a letter condemning Saudi Arabia for fostering Islamic extremism around the world, and today he serves on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy.

While noteworthy, Coleman is just one star in a broad constellation of Saudi Arabian influence on American policymakers. As The New York Times reported in a September expose, another major avenue of foreign government influence is the funding of American think tanks:

“The money is increasingly transforming the once-staid think-tank world into a muscular arm of foreign governments’ lobbying in Washington. And it has set off troubling questions about intellectual freedom: Some scholars say they have been pressured to reach conclusions friendly to the government financing the research.”

The pressure on scholars isn’t always indirect: Some “donations” are accompanied by an explicit quid pro quo understanding that the think tank will advance the interest of its foreign state benefactor.

According to a Times infographic, Saudi Arabia has given money to many of the think tanks that journalists and policymakers turn to for analysis, including The Atlantic Council, Brookings Institution, the Middle East Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Does the work product of these think tanks reflect their Saudi sponsorship? Consider the rather Saudi-friendly insights the CSIS’s Anthony Cordesman recently offered decision-makers on the transition of power following the death of King Abdullah. In it, Cordesman heralds Abdullah as “one of (Saudi Arabia’s) most competent and impressive kings” and “a strong ally.” While he touches briefly on extremism, strikingly absent from Cordesman’s examination of Saudi Arabia’s role as a “close partner” in U.S. counterterrorism efforts is any mention of the country’s well-documented financial support of Islamic extremism and terror. To the contrary, Cordesman declares that Saudi Arabia “has been critical to preserving some degree of regional stability…during the rise of Islamic extremism.”

Considering Saudi Arabia’s think tank sponsorship, it’s no wonder that 28Pages.org is only aware of one occasion where one of these influential entities has allowed an analyst to use its platform to promote the release of the 28 pages: Last month at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Rubin urged their release and implored journalists to make the 28 pages a 2016 campaign issue.

Intelligence Community’s “Pervasive Pattern” of Covering Saudi Role

Saudi Arabia’s reasons for wanting the 28 pages kept secret are clear, but what about America’s intelligence community? Actually, its motives are likely identical: Shielding itself from public humiliation and the consequences that would accompany it.

Former Senator Bob Graham
Former Senator Bob Graham
The intelligence community would have us believe that publishing the 28 pages would somehow pose a threat to national security, a notion that’s been pointedly rebutted by many who’ve read them, including former Senate intelligence committee chairman Graham.

At the January 7 press conference, Graham said, “Much of what passes for classification for national security reasons is really classified because it would disclose incompetence. And since the people who are classifying are also often the subject of the materials, they have an institutional interest in avoiding exposure of their incompetence.”

The intelligence community’s failure in the years and months leading up to 9/11 isn’t exactly secret, but the 28 pages may shed powerfully unflattering new light on it. Remember, they’re found in the report of the “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.”

Secrecy about American intelligence agencies’ performance before and after the 9/11 attacks stretches far beyond the 28 pages. Perhaps the most prominent example of that broad veil relates to a 9/11 hijacker cell in Sarasota: Graham says the FBI failed to disclose its knowledge of that cell to the joint congressional intelligence inquiry he co-chaired.

When the cell later came to the attention of investigative journalist Dan Christensen at FloridaBulldog.org, the FBI first denied that it found any connection between 9/11 hijackers and a wealthy Saudi family that suddenly fled the country two weeks before September 11, and then denied it had any documentation of its investigation. Now we know the FBI indeed found direct links between that family and the hijackers, and a federal judge is studying more than 80,000 pages of FBI documents relating to the Sarasota investigation for potential release in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Relating the FBI’s Sarasota secrecy to the 28 pages, Graham said, “This is not a narrow issue of withholding information at one place, in one time. This is a pervasive pattern of covering up the role of Saudi Arabia in 9/11 by all of the agencies of the federal government which have access to information that might illuminate Saudi Arabia’s role in 9/11.”

Richard Clarke
Former Counterterror Czar Richard Clarke
The CIA may want the 28 pages kept secret, too. Richard Clarke, who was the White House’s counter-terrorism czar in the Clinton and Bush administrations, says the CIA never told him that two known Al Qaeda operatives were living in southern California under their own names. Considering the San Diego cell figures prominently in the joint inquiry report, the 28 pages may shed light on the CIA’s motives for its history-altering failure to inform Clarke or the FBI or elaborate on what disaster-averting information the CIA had and didn’t share.

Like the CIA, the NSA also knew about the San Diego-based hijackers well before September 11. Keeping the 28 pages under wraps may serve the agency in its fight to preserve the post-9/11 mass surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden: If the 28 pages amplify the fact that the government had all the information it needed to thwart the 9/11 attacks without those controversial programs, the NSA’s arguments would be further weakened.

A Deadly Bargain

Amid all this discussion of the actions and inactions that enabled the terrible loss of life on 9/11, one shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that lives continue to hang in the balance—and the fact that former Senator Graham and current Congressmen Walter Jones, Stephen Lynch and Thomas Massie have all said that declassifying the 28 pages is imperative to understanding and countering the ongoing terror threat.

Said Graham at the 28 pages press conference that came just hours after the terror attack on the offices of French magazine Charlie Hebdo: “There is no threat to national security in disclosure (of the 28 pages). I’m going to make the case today that there’s a threat to national security by non–disclosure, and we saw another chapter of that today in Paris.”

According to Graham, shielding Saudi Arabia from scrutiny of its role in 9/11 has emboldened the kingdom to continue its sponsorship of extremism and, in the process, enabled the rise of ISIS. If so, the continued censorship of the 28 pages has cost more lives around the world than were lost on September 11, 2001—and with growing U.S. involvement in the fight against ISIS, American lives could become increasingly imperiled.

Americans may not be surprised that a faraway monarchy would be willing to gamble the lives of innocents in a bid for continued power, but they should be deeply troubled that the U.S. intelligence community would—wittingly or not—make the same deadly bargain. By shielding themselves from the oversight that’s vital to our system of government, our national security agencies also shield Saudi Arabia from accountability. In so doing, they endanger the very lives they’re charged with saving.

Brian McGlinchey is the founder and director of 28Pages.org.

REDACTED w911Help release the 28 pages: Call or write to Congress today with our help.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and grow the 28 pages movement.


Grayson to Submit New Request to Read 28 Secret Pages on 9/11

January 26, 2015 28 pages, 9/11, Alan Grayson, Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, NSA
Congressman Alan Grayson
Congressman Alan Grayson
Congressman Alan Grayson, one of three representatives who last week joined the growing movement to declassify a 28-page finding on foreign government support of the September 11th hijackers, told 28Pages.org he did so because “the American people have the right to know what happened on 9/11 in every regard.”

As he takes a stand for releasing the 28 pages to the public, he remains determined to read the 28 pages himself. Denied permission by the House intelligence committee in the waning weeks of the last Congress, Grayson will try again in the new one.

The Florida congressman said the December 1 refusal of his first request was “politics, pure and simple.”

“There are people on the intelligence committee who are unhappy with the fact that I have been a staunch opponent of pervasive domestic spying here in the United States,” said Grayson. “The vote was almost entirely on party lines because the Republican chairman (Mike Rogers) misrepresented information to the committee about my actions.”

Rep. Grayson on the House Floor, June XX 2013
Grayson Speaking on the House Floor, June 2013
In June 2013, amid the first wave of Edward Snowden’s revelations of NSA mass domestic surveillance, Grayson delivered a speech on the House floor that was accompanied by a display of NSA briefing slides that had already been published in The Guardian and The Washington Post. Grayson said the information he shared in the speech relied “solely on information in The Guardian…and that was misrepresented to the (intelligence) committee members as my misusing classified information.”

“Frankly, if they’re going to be playing those kinds of games, it’s a wonder that good people ever get to find out anything about the octopus tentacles of the spying-industrial complex,” said Grayson.

Grayson is hoping for a different outcome when he submits a new request to read the 28 pages.

“Chairman Rogers is no longer chairman of the committee—in fact he’s no longer on the committee or even in Congress—and I hope the current chair will not try to twist the facts the way that Rogers did and I’ll be able to see the information that not only I should be able to see but also every member of the public,” said Grayson.

Grayson cast doubt on the notion that releasing the redacted information could pose a risk to national security or intelligence operations.

“It’s inconceivable to me at this point, more than 13 years later, that there’s any actionable information the administration needs to keep secret in order to be able to do anything with it,” said Grayson, who represents Florida’s 9th congressional district. “No one has ever claimed there’s anything in those 28 pages that needs to remain classified in order to protect current U.S. interests,” he added.

Grayson’s criticism of the continued secrecy of the 28 pages is echoed by many who have read them, including former Senator Bob Graham—who co-chaired the joint congressional inquiry that produced the 28-page chapter in an 838-page report—and Congressmen Walter Jones, Stephen Lynch and Thomas Massie.

While Grayson is well-known as an outspoken Democrat, support for the declassification of the 28 pages on Capitol Hill comprises a near-perfect 50/50 mix of Republicans and Democrats united by a common belief that foreign government links to the 9/11 terrorists shouldn’t stay secret.

REDACTED w911Pressure your legislators to read the 28 pages and support their release. Call or write today.









http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/edito ... b6890.html




Tulsa World Editorial: Keating would do a good job as FBI director
By World's Editorial Writers






http://www.rense.com/general10/30.htm

[msfreeh]

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles ... with-flier


U.S. Appeals Court Rules for TSA Screener Who Had Run-In With Flier who asked to file a complaint
and was arrested
Aug. 22, 2017, at 12:29 p.m

U.S. Appeals Court Rules for TSA Screener Who Had Run-In


Screeners at U.S. airport security checkpoints should behave themselves, but cannot always be sued if they do not, according to a court ruling on Tuesday.

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia threw out a First Amendment claim by an architect, Roger Vanderklok, who said he was arrested in retaliation for asking to file a complaint against an ill-tempered Transportation Security Administration supervisor.

"We, of course, do not suggest that TSA screeners should act with disdain for passenger rights or that they can escape all the consequences of their bad behavior," Circuit Judge Kent Jordan wrote for a three-judge panel.

"Ultimately, the role of the TSA in securing public safety is so significant that we ought not create a damages remedy in this context," Jordan added. "The dangers associated with aircraft security are real and of high consequence."

Airport security screening can be stressful. The decision was issued four weeks after the TSA announced tighter screening of electronic carry-on items, because of concern they could be used to conceal explosives.

Vanderklok said he was flying on Jan. 26, 2013 to Miami from Philadelphia International Airport to run a half-marathon when TSA personnel subjected his carry-on bag to extra screening, after x-rays showed a heart-monitoring watch stored in PVC pipe.

The TSA supervisor, Charles Kieser, said he summoned police after Vanderklok made a bomb threat.

Vanderklok denied doing so, and said Kieser retaliated for his having requested a complaint form to report the supervisor's "rude" and "aggressive" behavior.

Prosecutors charged Vanderklok, a father of three then in his mid-50s, with threatening to place a bomb and making terroristic threats. He was acquitted after Kieser's testimony did not match airport surveillance video.

Vanderklok then sued Kieser for damages for allegedly violating his constitutional rights to free speech and against malicious prosecution.

Addressing only the free speech claim, the appeals court said a lower court judge erred





https://robertscribbler.com/2017/08/23/ ... ends-coal/

China Built 24 Billion Watts of Solar in Just Two Months as Trump Attacks Renewables and Defends Coal
by robertscribbler
Between the present U.S. Executive Branch and China, we can really tell which government is serious about being a moral leader on the critical issue of climate change and which government continues to wallow in the land of backwards thinking and heartless denial. For as the Trump Administration is doing everything it can to defend the coal-fired 'Satanic mills' that are so radically transforming the world for the worst while attacking renewable energy, China is continuing to build the solar farms that are capable of replacing them like gangbusters.

More than 10 Billion Watts Per Month

In June, China added a staggering 13.5 billion watts (gigawatts) of solar panels to its present large and growing solar fleet. In July, the country added another 10.5 gigawatts of solar. The two month total of 24 gigawatts is more than half the size of the total U.S. solar fleet of 44.4 gigawatts. In other words, China just added more solar capacity in two months than the U.S. added in all of the past two years.



(New solar market guidance for China shows an expected 180 to 230 GW of solar capacity by 2020. The present build rate indicates that even this range may be conservative. Image source: Renew Economy.)

As a result of this amazing build pace, China has already smashed through its 2020 solar goal of 105 gigawatts. The country now boasts a solar fleet of 112.3 billion watts. Long range forecasters now expect China to approach or exceed 200 gigawatts of solar by 2020 -- or more than 20 percent the size of China's present (and shrinking) coal fleet. And if China somehow maintained its amazing rate of solar installation during June and July, the country would exceed 200 gigawatts of national solar capacity by May of 2018.

No one presently expects that to happen. But China has surprised the world before. This is exactly the kind of surprise that a world wallowing in the ever-worsening impacts of climate change so desperately needs. And the irony is that this new hope for rapid carbon emissions reductions is coming from China. Not the supposedly enlightened and progressive United States which is presently afflicted by the absolute worst form of backward-looking executive leadership imaginable.

Moral Leadership on Climate Change or Loss Thereof

I'm betting the people of the U.S. don't want to be led down the path toward a new dark age of every worsening climate change and a fossil fuel resource curse write large by Trump. That we would much rather do our part to save the world from ever-worsening climate destruction while taking leadership roles in the very new industries that U.S. innovation helped to create.



(Whether you're optimistic or pessimistic about Earth's climate sensitivity, the pathway toward worst case climate change [otherwise known as business as usual] lies in a world that continues to burn coal. So Trump's defense of coal and attacks on renewables are, in essence, a defense of the worst case when it comes to climate change related disasters. Image source: The Brookings Institute.)

So what do we do?

We let the world know that Trump's brand of leadership is not acceptable to Americans. That the true government leaders in the U.S. are those like California and Vermont and New York. That we support the future industries like those being pioneered by Musk and so many others. That we do not fear the future so much as recognize and embrace its mighty and admittedly difficult challenges. That we rise to the occasion by fighting for carbon emissions reductions and we do not falter.

Links:

China Added 10.5 Gigawatts of Solar in July

Trump's Attack on Renewable Energy

Scott Pruitt's Big Coal Lie

Renew Economy

The Brookings Institute





https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/hurri ... egenerates

A Hurricane Watch for Texas as Tropical Depression Harvey Regenerates

Dr. Jeff Masters · August 23, 2017, 3:36 PM


Above: Tropical Depression Harvey as seen by the GOES-16 satellite at 9:50 am EDT Wednesday, August 23, 2017. Image credit: NOAA/CIRA/RAMMB. NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite has not been declared operational and its data are preliminary and undergoing testing.
A Hurricane Watch and Storm Surge Watch is posted for much of the coast of Texas, as Tropical Depression Harvey treks northwestwards at 9 mph over the Gulf of Mexico. An Air Force hurricane hunter plane found that Harvey had reorganized into a tropical cyclone on Wednesday morning, with a large, disorganized closed surface circulation and top winds to 35 mph. Harvey is expected to intensify into a strong tropical storm or Category 1 hurricane that will bring dangerous flooding rains in excess of 10” to Texas late this week. This Hurricane Watch is the first for any part of Texas since Hurricane Ike in 2008. Wednesday also marks the first time the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has issued an operational Storm Surge Watch. The product was not yet official in 2016, when prototype storm surge watch and warning graphics were produced for Hurricane Matthew along the southeast U.S. coast.

Conditions in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday morning were favorable to very favorable for intensification. Satellite images showed that Harvey was slowly developing, with a modest amount of heavy thunderstorm activity that was growing in areal coverage and organizing into low-level spiral bands. These thunderstorms were not very intense yet, with cloud tops that were relatively warm, indicating that they did not extend high into the atmosphere. There was some dry air on the west side of Harvey, but the storm was beginning to wrap spiral bands laden with moisture into this area, which should allow the storm to wall itself off from any dry air intrusions. High cirrus clouds streaming to the north and northeast of the center showed the presence of a respectable upper-level outflow channel, which was ventilating the storm and helping intensification. Wind shear was light to moderate, 5 - 15 knots, which is favorable for intensification. The atmosphere had a high mid-level relative humidity of 70%, and the ocean was very warm, with sea surface temperatures (SSTs) of 30°C (86°F.)






http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/23/tr ... h-message/


Trump’s science envoy quits with scathing letter with an embedded message: “I-M-P-E-A-C-H”



Link du jour


http://goodlife.org


http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-ame ... story.html


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... oved-again


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3436081


https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... -streaming


http://nypost.com/2017/08/22/inside-a-s ... er-farm/#1


http://stj911.org/members/index.html

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/23/ph ... august-23/





News from Maine

http://www.gatewaymastering.com/bob-ludwig/



https://www.theguardian.com/news/galler ... ble-photos



FBI Octopus

http://www.mywindsornow.com/news/author ... e-library/


FBI agent/Author Pete Klismet Jr. to visit Windsor-Severance Library



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3435235

Texas man convicted in child sex case released from prison as friend named a suspect

Wednesday, August 23, 2017, 8:40 AM



https://rightsanddissent.org/news/know- ... bi-knocks/

Know Your Rights: When the FBI Knocks

archival poster "don't talk to the FBI
August 22, 2017 – The FBI is investigating the car attack against anti-racist activists in Charlottesville, VA, and has been reaching out to counterprotesters who were there, to conduct interviews ostensibly about the car attack.




http://org.salsalabs.com/o/498/p/dia/ac ... _KEY=18558

How many people have been killed by police this year?

According to The Washington Post, there have been "769 people shot dead by police this year," while The Guardian has counted 901.* But you won't get an official number out of the FBI or anywhere else in the Justice Department, because local police are not required to report how many people they have killed. The Police Reporting Information, Data and Evidence (PRIDE) Act would change that, requiring states and Indian Tribes to report use of force incidents, and requiring that those reports be made public.

It's a crucial element to ensuring police accountability.

Tell your members of Congress to co-sponsor and support the PRIDE Act

* Data as of October 12, 2015 see updated reports, and data for your state at The Washington Post and The Guardian.





https://www.villagevoice.com/2012/12/11 ... ck-driver/


FBI Agent Arrested For Driving Without Pants and Allegedly Trying to Seduce a Truck Driver
by JASON LEWIS

John A. Yervelli, a 48-year-old special agent for the FBI’s Buffalo office, allegedly pulled alongside a truck on an upstate thruway, signaled to the driver of the truck that he was not wearing any pants and proceeded to make lewd gestures, according to a Buffalo News report.


The alleged incident occurred around 9 p.m. Friday night — (you know, around the time when most agents might de-stress at the bar, relax at home with their families or generally not drive pants-less on a thruway.)

Not long after the truck driver alerted authorities, Yervelli was pulled over by a state trooper and arrested on misdemeanor public lewdness charges. He faces up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine if convicted, according to the report.



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3436368


Florida to execute a white man for killing black person for the first time ever
ASSOCIATED PRESS Wednesday, August 23, 2017, 3:23 PM





How the FBI Hacked the 2016 Presidential Election
Hacking Democracy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iZLWPleeCHE







http://justicegazette.org/bernie-defrauded-in-ca.html


Bernie Sanders Wins California Landslide
BUT
2/3 of his Votes Aren’t Counted
(VIDEO)

FIGHTS ON

The theft of California hasn't deterred Sanders from his course. He has promised to fight on while noting it is a steep uphill climb. Given all the states where vote fraud in favor of Hillary Clinton has been allowed to swing primaries from Sanders to Clinton, it is in fact a steep uphill climb to restore democracy and force the now undemocratic Democratic Party to nominate the man the vast majority of American voters have voted for or tried to vote for.
Picture
It has been learned from poll workers that 50% to 90% of voters who were supposed to have been eligible to vote in the Democratic primary were told they would have to vote provisional ballots. There were two irregularities leading to the forced use of provisional ballots instead of regular ballots. The first was that previously registered voters' names had been removed from the rolls. The second was that someone (in most cases, not the voter) had marked them as vote by mail voters but they had received no ballot in the mail. Oddly, virtually all of those not allowed to vote and forced to vote provisional ballots were Bernie Sanders supporters.

The next oddity is even more curious. Poll workers in Los Angeles and Orange County report that Bernie won the electronic votes in their precincts by well over a 2 to 1 margin, the opposite of the result of the vote count. ​The contrast between this and the outcome is indicative of vote-flipping. Also the outcome.. outcome does not match what anyone who has conducted polling in this state knows: Below the election night video is a video about black box voting (Hacking Democracy) , The Democratic Party has essentially endorsed this video, showing it at various conventions and another video of a computer programmer confessing to creating a vote-flipping program.
Picture
If you add the lower figure of 50% of voters who were not allowed to vote regular ballots for Bernie to the votes he received, you wind up with a substantial Sanders landslide victory in California. The primary beneficiary of the fraud is Hillary Clinton.

As for provisional ballots, acclaimed BBC reporter, author and election fraud expert Greg Palast (pictured to the right) calls them "placebo ballots." Greg is the reporter who exposed the voter fraud in Florida in 2000. Nightline used his footage in covering the story. Here is from Greg's article, "How California is being stolen from Sanders right now."

"As I’ve previously reported, provisional ballots are “placebo” ballots that let you feel like you’ve voted, but you haven’t. Provisional ballots are generally discarded."
Picture
The Justice Gazette has conducted considerable polling and the official results reflect the opposite of how people said they were going to vote. At​ the California Democratic Convention most of the elected delegates were "Bernie or Bust." Ask yourself, when Sanders gets enthusiastic crowds of thousands in California (sixty thousand according to police in Oakland alone) compared to laid- back crowds of hundreds for Clinton, who voted for Clinton? Ask your neighbors, co-workers and fellow students if they voted for her and then start asking how she supposedly won the election without the support of the voters. Or just look at Alameda County (Berkeley, Oakland), where Sanders was greeted by a hundred thousand active supporters, where Clinton is very unpopular and where Clinton's percentage and Sanders percentage appear to be the exact reversal of what the residents of that county know to be the case. If you walked into any store or group setting, other than a Clinton gathering, and asked who was going to vote for Clinton, you would find that nobody or maybe one or two people would be considering voting for her. Almost all the rest would be planning to vote for Bernie Sanders. We know. At the Justice Gazette, reporters did just that.

Poll workers in Orange and Los Angeles County have reported that Bernie won the electronic votes in their precincts by well over a 2 to 1 margin. So how does this translate into a victory for Clinton? Ask yourself why an excited crowd of thousands came to the election night event of a loser when this kind of crowd has never come to the event of a primary loser in California's history. Perhaps this is because Sanders didn't lose. Votes can be flipped in less than a minute by someone walking into the Registrars office. Watch Bev Harris's documentary Hacking Democracy and the video of a confession on the creator of a program designed to do just that below.


Picture
Prior to going into the California primary, it was known that Sanders was going to insist that the Democratic National Convention nominate the winner of the California primary. Clinton is very unpopular in California and it would have been impossible for her to acquire the votes to win legitimately. There was only one way for Clinton to win and that was to rig the election. Those running the Democratic Party have made it clear, following the known rigging of elections in other states, that they either consider election fraud and rigging a proper way to win a nomination or don't care if a candidate wins this way.​
​
Back to forcing the majority of Sanders voters to vote uncounted provisional ballots. You may ask, how Hillary knew who to disenfranchise? There are multiple ways. First, new voters were overwhelmingly planning to vote for Bernie. Second, of the NPP (no party preference) voters, the vast majority were Sanders supporters. But it may also be the Sanders campaign that owes the voters an apology for letting Clinton know which voters to disenfranchise.
Picture
Last December the relationship between NGP Van and Clinton and that Van's apparent willingness to engage in unethical conduct on behalf of the Clinton campaign was widely exposed. Yet, the primary applications the Sanders campaign uses for canvassing were obtained from NGP Van. One of the main application programs the Sanders campaign used for canvassing is called Minivan.​ It is well known that many many, if not most, manufacturers leave a backdoor allowing them to re-access programs.

In Arizona, Sanders poll workers were told on the last day before the election that it was known that their MiniVan program had been hacked and that on that pre-election day, people would be using paper canvassing sheets. This was just for the last minute stuff. Almost all the canvassing had been done already in Arizona. What did the Sanders volunteers tell MiniVan (and possibly the Clinton campaign) about the voters they canvassed or called? They marked if the person was: "Strong Sanders," "Leaning Sanders," "Strong Clinton,""Leaning Clinton," or "Undecided," among other things. If you were Clinton and you wanted to disenfranchise millions of voters, wouldn't it be nice to know who is supporting your opponent? For the record, reporters for the Justice Gazette did bring their concerns about MiniVan to the attention of the Sanders campaign following Arizona. However, the campaign went back to using this in state after state.
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While the public is mostly loyal to Sanders, some question the loyalty of some of his staffers. Canvassers were given wildly inaccurate precinct phone and walking lists that left off most of the voters who were planning to support Sanders. Canvassers were supposed to skip about 20 or more houses for every one they hit. Usually the one selected had the wrong occupant while the new occupants of the selected houses as well as people who were supposed to be passed over in the other 20, often said they were registered and planning to vote for Bernie to canvassers who chose to speak to them anyway. It was pointed out to the campaign that it would have been easier and more productive to go door to door to all the houses than to search around for the one inaccurate address on a street a mile from the last address.
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Another key alert as to possible infiltrators was the odd treatment of the press. While Correct the Record and reporters/hackers from other organizations and media groups promoting Clinton were treated like royalty, members of the press who had gone on record supporting Sanders were often treated with contempt by certain members of the team running logistics at the rallies. Correct the Record (the PAC paying a million dollars to hackers who put child pornography on Sanders facebook pages and then got them closed down) was given the best filming location in San Pedro after that same prime filming location had been denied to news teams favorable to Sanders. On election night, several reporters favorable to Sanders commented on how rudely they were being treated. Reginald Hubbard and Jesse Cornett who reportedly threatened some of the mild-mannered, more loyal press with loss of equipment, removal or confiscation of their press credentials (which they had brought with them) and removal of the actual reporters from the event in response to polite questions about the sound arrangements. Most of the pro-Sanders reporters were placed on a riser near distorted speakers and denied access to the event's sound boxes they had been promised and which were provided for other media. One reporter, a very sweet woman, who had been traveling on a bus following the candidate, seemed to disappear from the event after she reported that she had been rudely treated by these same staff people prior to the speech.

The fix was in before the primary. An instructional video for poll workers told them to give provisional ballots to NPP voters, official conduct that would have been illegal in California. AP joined in the effort to try to fix the election by calling the nomination for Clinton the night before the election when AP knew or should have known that Clinton did not have enough pledged delegates and would not have enough on June 7th to be the nominee. This appears to have been part of the overall attempt to suppress the vote. As Sanders has repeatedly pointed out,

"If there is a large turnout we will win. If there is a very large turnout we will win huge. If there is a low turnout, we will lose."

In spite of AP's false call, the actual turnout was very large and, but for the suppression, the evidence supports the theory that Sanders would have won by a very wide margin.

Overall, it was a tough night for Sanders supporters. The average American is not about to support Hillary Clinton. Nobody at the election night event believed there was any accuracy in the results. Despite the officials results (which left off half or more of the voters), the Sanders supporters were optimistic as they knew in their hearts that Sanders had won California. With the election rigging and theft so obvious, the bulk of the public does not believe that Clinton is a legitimate nominee. The bulk of the Democratic voters will never accept Clinton or vote for her in the general election. Some are calling the theft of the nomination a "coup d' etat," "treason" and "sedition" on Clinton's part.

As for the voters who weren’t allowed to vote, the buck stop with two people: California Secretary of State and Clinton supporter Alex Padilla and Hillary Clinton, herself, the candidate who benefited from the voter suppression. Almost everyone in American knows or is related to one of Clinton’s victims. Clinton's apparent crimes are against the American people and this matters more than whether a clown is running as a nominee the other party. America has survived racist clown Presidents in the past but is not about to endure a President who has committed crimes that have destroyed the right to vote of people they know.
​
The crowd at the Sanders rally is not going to give up. In fact they are energized and angry and most of them have as their top goal, defeating Hillary Clinton in all elections. If Bernie were to endorse her, his supporters would be saddened and many would feel betrayed, but the Sanders voters have made it clear that they will not follow Bernie to Clinton.

In view of the information from polling place workers about Sanders winning by more than a 2 to 1 margin and in view of the removal of 2/3 or more of his votes from the official results, the Justice Gazette declares Bernie Sanders the landslide winner of the 2016 California Primary Election.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... -1.3435521


Trump supporters share photo of Phoenix rally crowds — except it's actually the Cleveland Cavaliers 2016 championship parade

[msfreeh]

http://www.newsweek.com/jeff-sessions-r ... him-664119

JEFF SESSIONS' RUSSIA CONTACTS SPARK LAWSUIT FOR ADVICE THE FBI GAVE HIM
ON 9/13/17 AT 9:53 AM

A new lawsuit has challenged the FBI to release advice it gave Attorney General Jeff Sessions about whether his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during the 2016 election should have been included on his security clearance application.

After CNN revealed Sessions had at least two meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in May, the attorney general said he left contacts with the dignitary off his application because he was told to by the FBI.

Later it was revealed Sessions met with Kislyak as many as three times after he testified: “I did not have communications with the Russians” during his Senate confirmation hearing. Sessions released a redacted copy of his application form in July.

A new lawsuit against the FBI is demanding the agency release the advice they gave Attorney General Jeff Sessions about contacts with Russia on his security clearance application.


“If Jeff Sessions wants us to believe his excuse, he should prove it,” said Austin Evers, executive director of the government watchdog group American Oversight in a statement about the new lawsuit Tuesday.

Sessions heads the Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the FBI. When his contacts with Russia’s ambassador were first revealed, Ian Prior, a spokesman for the DOJ said the FBI investigator handling the background check told Sessions “not to list meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities.”

Leaked intelligence intercepts reported in The Washington Post later revealed two of Sessions conversations with Kislyak concerned campaign matters.

“American Oversight is joining People For the American Way in suing for the release of documents corroborating—or disproving—Sessions’ latest excuse,” said Evers after the FBI failed to respond to their freedom of information request after the agency said it would process it in 20 days after July 25. The FBI’s response is nearly a month overdue.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics ... 7ccdf16569


Fired and rehired: Hundreds of officers fired for misconduct returned to policing
By THE WASHINGTON POST
August 6, 2017 at 12:33 am



Since 2006, the nation’s largest police departments have fired at least 1,881 officers for misconduct that betrayed the public’s trust, from cheating on overtime to unjustified shootings. But The Washington Post has found that departments have been forced to reinstate more than 450 officers after appeals required by union contracts.

Most of the officers regained their jobs when police chiefs were overruled by arbitrators, typically lawyers hired to review the process. In many cases, the underlying misconduct was undisputed, but arbitrators often concluded that the firings were unjustified because departments had been too harsh, missed deadlines, lacked sufficient evidence or failed to interview witnesses.

A San Antonio police officer caught on a dash cam challenging a handcuffed man to fight him for the chance to be released was reinstated in February. In the District, an officer convicted of sexually abusing a young woman in his patrol car was ordered returned to the force in 2015. And in Boston, an officer was returned to work in 2012 despite being accused of lying, drunkenness and driving a suspected gunman from the scene of a nightclub killing.



http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/joh ... -1.3498056

John Jay professor placed on administrative leave for tweeting he’s proud to teach ‘future dead cops’
BY GRAHAM RAYMAN MOLLY CRANE-NEWMAN RICH SCHAPIRO
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Friday, September 15, 2017, 10:01 PM





http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3498410

Brother of black motorist killed by cops slams judge’s acquittal of officer
BY JESSICA SCHLADEBECK
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, September 15, 2017, 3:26 PM


His brother, Antwan Johnson, told Fox 2 he felt the judge shirked his obligations because his time on the bench is almost up. Wilson will have to retire when he turns 70 in December.

“The whole time the trial was going on, the man was falling asleep on the stand,” he told the news station, adding that he believes Wilson’s mind was made up before the trial started last month.






http://www.denverpost.com/2017/07/01/fa ... ings-2017/

492 died in police shootings this year
Six-month count almost identical to prior 2 years


July 1, 2017 at 11:42 pm | UPDATED: July 2, 2017 at 1:25 am
Police nationwide shot and killed 492 people in the first six months of this year, a number nearly identical to the count for the same period in each of the prior two years.

Cumulative fatal shootings by year.John Muyskens, The Washington PostCumulative fatal shootings by year.
Fatal shootings by police in 2017 have so closely tracked last year’s numbers that on June 16, the tally was the same. While the number of unarmed people killed by police dropped slightly, the overall pace for 2017 through Friday was on track to approach 1,000 killed for a third year in row.





Link du jour

http://www.latimes.com/sns-bc-ca--calif ... story.html


http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Wit ... 201927.php


http://www.occurrencesforeigndomestic.c ... nological/

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Ber ... 201372.php

http://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/g ... emes-index


http://www.sfgate.com/lifestyle/article ... 192375.php



http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/articl ... 201945.php

FEMA auctioned disaster trailers before Harvey made landfall
Michael Sisak and Emily Schmall, Associated Press Updated 9:20 pm, Friday, September 15, 2017






http://www.alexandrianews.org/2017/09/w ... ual-abuse/


Washington, DC Lawyer Pleads Guilty To Distributing Videos Of Child Sexual Abuse

September 15th 2017
A Washington, DC lawyer pleaded guilty today to distributing videos of child sexual abuse.

According to court documents, Jason Mark Sims, 35, replied to an advertisement placed by an undercover FBI agent on Craigslist. Sims and the undercover agent discussed meeting so that Sims could sexually abuse the undercover agent’s purported 10-year-old daughter. Although Sims ultimately declined to meet the undercover in person, he did provide the undercover with links to videos depicting the sexual abuse of girls as young as 4 years old.





http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/a ... sex_abuse/




https://www.google.com/search?source=hp ... AaTn5Bc8FM:


FBI agent guilty of sex abuse
Was bureau's chief of internal affairs
| February 18, 2004

WASHINGTON -- John Conditt 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.






http://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/15/jo ... withdrawn/

DA withdraws request to jail John Bowlen, son of Broncos owner, because of unsigned paperwork




http://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/15/jo ... o-charges/

No charges for four Westminster officers who fired 63 shots, killed suspect after hitting him 41 times
Joseph David Jaster was wanted in connection with a motorcycle theft







http://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/12/vi ... -of-sorts/

Video capturing violent arrest of black woman in Aurora a blessing of sorts


: September 12, 2017 at 5:54 pm | UPDATED: September 15, 2017 at 9:12 am


Thankfully for OyZhana Williams there was a surveillance camera outside the University of Colorado Hospital the night she drove her boyfriend to the emergency room for a gunshot wound.

Had her violent arrest in 2015 not been captured on camera, she likely would have faced charges of assaulting an officer — a felony carrying a four-year minimum sentence — based on the statements of three Aurora Police officers whose accusations are not backed up by the video evidence.

The video is pretty convincing that Williams not only didn’t start the fight, but the struggle that ensues after she is dragged from the back of a patrol car can only be described as self-defense.


http://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/15/tr ... al-donors/

President Donald Trump speaks during a ...
Trump’s FEC nominee has questioned the value of disclosing political donors
James “Trey” Trainor, the conservative Texas lawyer nominated by President Donald Trump this week to serve on the Federal Election Commission, has challenged the principle that the public benefits from the disclosure of political donors, arguing that voters could be distracted from the content of political messages if they focus on who is financing ads.





http://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/13/lo ... -it-movie/


Longmont Caring Clowns brace for negativity from “It” release
“A real clown is somebody who is sweet and kind and loving and giving of themselves”




http://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/15/va ... stigation/


Vatican diplomat recalled amid child porn investigation
A U.S. official familiar with the case said the priest was a senior member of the Vatican embassy staff




http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/articl ... 200227.php

Iceland's center-right govt collapses amid pedophile scandal
Jan M. Olsen, Associated Press Updated 2:55 pm, Friday, September 15, 2017







http://stevehochstadt.blogspot.com/2017 ... fargo.html

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

White Collar Crime at Wells Fargo


Wells Fargo was the world’s most valuable bank until 2016, when it slipped into second place behind JPMorgan Chase. It may also be one of the biggest criminal enterprises in American history.

I’m not the only one who thinks so. Harold Meyerson, executive editor of the American Prospect, began an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times last month: “What’s the biggest criminal enterprise in California? MS-13? The remnants or successors to the Crips and the Bloods? The Mexican Mafia? If we’re talking about the sheer volume of offenses, the answer is clear: Wells Fargo.”

Not just journalists. New York Congressman Gregory Meeks told CEO John Stumpf at a Congressional hearing a year ago that Wells Fargo “basically has been a criminal enterprise”. Meeks said, “I’ve got individuals right now on the street, they’re not back in their homes,” because of fraudulent mortgages. Would Wells Fargo put his homeless constituents back in their homes? Stumpf had no answer.

Wells Fargo employees created 3.5 million fraudulent accounts in customers’ names without their knowledge. The bank signed up 500,000 customers for online bill payment services without their knowledge, some of which carried fees. It charged military personnel illegally high interest on loans and then seized vehicles from soldiers who fell behind on their payments. It charged half a million auto loan customers for insurance that they did not need. About 20,000 people could not pay these extra fees, went into default, and had their cars repossessed.

The bank didn’t only cheat its customers. Wells Fargo paid $100,000 to settle a class action suit in 2009 by its employees in Nevada, who were mislabeled “managers” so they would not have to be paid overtime and then forced to work unpaid “call nights” to drum up more business. A branch manager was fired in 2010 when he reported these criminal actions to his supervisors. The bank was ordered this year to pay him $5.4 million in back pay and compensatory damages. One manager notified the bank’s confidential ethics hotline about fraudulent activity in September 2011 and was fired later that month. A banker in Pennsylvania also called the hotline and sent an email to human resources about the unethical practices he was told to perform in September 2013. Eight days later he was fired.

Wells Fargo has committed these crimes for at least 15 years. And company leaders knew it. Internal complaints were made as early as 2005. In 2009, six fired employees sued, alleging unethical practices. Employees wrote directly to CEO John Stumpf as early as 2011. In 2013, the New York Times reported that Wells Fargo employees were under intense pressure, including threats of getting fired, if they did not meet ambitious goals by opening accounts and starting credit cards without permission. Complaints were made to managers and nothing was done.

If somebody uses someone else’s personal information to open a credit card account, the penalties are severe. Ordinary crime. Our customary language puts Wells Fargo’s actions in a different light: white-collar crime, which the FBI defines as “characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and are not dependent on the application or threat of physical force or violence.” The escape from any jail time or criminal record of every participant except one banker after the bank collapse and financial crisis of 2008 shows how our society excuses big crimes when they are committed by rich, usually white men in fine suits.

But some other definitions might be more appropriate for Wells Fargo’s actions. The crimes of so-called “organized crime” are defined clearly. Extortion, a time-tested endeavor of organized crime, is the acquisition of property through the use of threats or force. Didn’t Wells Fargo threaten homeowners and car owners with seizure of their property if they didn’t pay illegally created charges? And then make good on those threats?

Loan-sharking is the provision of loans at illegally high interest rates accompanied by the illegal use of force to collect on past due payments. Didn’t Wells Fargo charge illegal interest rates to soldiers and then forcibly take their property?

Wouldn’t Wells Fargo fit the FBI’s definition perfectly? “The FBI defines a criminal enterprise as a group of individuals with an identified hierarchy, or comparable structure, engaged in significant criminal activity.”

What price has Wells Fargo paid for their millions of individual crimes? Virtually none. The few hundred million dollars that Wells Fargo has paid in fines or has promised to pay customers who were cheated are a tiny fraction of the $11 billion in profits for just the first six months of 2017. Wells Fargo says it will refund nearly a million dollars to customers who had been signed up for online bill payment – that’s less than $2 per fraudulent transaction.

Wells Fargo’s chief executive after 2007, John Stumpf, was publicly rebuked in a congressional hearing in 2016, had to resign, and forfeited $41 million in stock options. That left him with Wells Fargo stock worth almost $250 million. Carrie Tolstedt, leader of the community banking division, where these criminal actions occurred, had to “retire” at age 56, and lost $19 million. She had made $27 million in her last three years, and took with her a mere $125 million in stocks. Earlier this year, four second-level executives were fired. Nobody has done a day of jail time.

After years of intense pressure on employees to get new accounts any way they could, Wells Fargo fired 5300 employees for unethical behavior. The company leaders walked away with millions of dollars.

That criminal enterprise was too big to jail. Our political and judicial systems seem inadequate to protect ordinary Americans from corporate crime or to punish criminals when they are caught.

Can we, the people, do something? Wells Fargo customers could simply switch banks. There is no big advantage in using a giant global bank. My local Jacksonville bank performs all the services I need, whether I’m at home or across the world.

A survey in October 2016, just after the scandal made headlines, showed that only 14% of Wells Fargo customers had decided to leave. It’s not so easy. Most people get multiple services from their bank, including loans, automatic bill pay, and credit cards. Switching takes time and money, and many customers don’t have either. One third of Americans with savings accounts have a zero balance. Although the number of new credit card and checking accounts fell by half earlier this year, that still means that thousands of people were opening new accounts with Wells Fargo.

Other corporations are happy to take tainted money from Wells Fargo. The bank will now be a sponsor of the annual football rivalry between Oregon and Oregon State. Wells Fargo signed an extension of its deal as official retail bank of Major League Soccer, and became an official partner of the NFL Los Angeles Rams.

Since the beginning of 2017, Wells Fargo stock has fallen about 10%. Don’t buy their shares. TV viewers could tune out the Wells Fargo golf championship, broadcast every May, forcing the tournament organizers to find another sponsor, and avoid other sporting events and programs sponsored by Wells Fargo.

Not very satisfying. But if we don’t say no to white-collar criminals, who will?

Steve Hochstadt
Springbrook WI
September 10-12, 2017
not accepted for publication by the Jacksonville Journal-Courier




https://rightsanddissent.org/news/group ... oversight/


September 13, 2017 by Rights & Dissent



A broad coalition of 60 groups, led by The Constitution Project (TCP) and including Defending Rights & Dissent, sent a letter today to several Senate and House committees calling for a moratorium on the U.S. Department of Defense 1033 program — the largest and most prominent federal program providing police departments with military equipment — until Congress holds hearings to ensure that, if military equipment is provided to law enforcement, such equipment is not overused and misused. The signatories include right- and left-leaning organizations, including civil and human rights groups, government watchdogs, children’s advocacy organizations, faith groups, and law enforcement. The letter follows Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement and President Trump’s Executive Order removing important limits and oversight of programs allowing police to obtain military equipment from the federal government.


Many of the signatories were directly involved in conversations with the previous administration leading to important oversight and limits on the ability of law enforcement agencies to obtain certain military equipment — such as bayonets, grenade launchers, and weaponized and armored vehicles — from federal programs like the 1033 program. The letter states, “We are dismayed that, after years of advocacy and dialogue, we are once again returning to an era in which federal agencies will operate these programs virtually unchecked.”

The letter also emphasizes that:

“Such federal programs-to the extent they provide military equipment or facilitate its acquisition-must be subject to necessary limits and additional oversight due to their corrosive impact on constitutional and community policing and exacerbation of racial tension in this country. We urge you to suspend the controversial 1033 program until Congress and the public understand-through Congressional hearings-what steps the federal government is taking to provide oversight and accountability of these programs.

Over the last few years, high-profile encounters-many deadly-between law enforcement and community members renewed important public discussions around the troubling trend of police militarization and tactics in our country. Reforming programs that allow police to acquire military equipment is both a practical and constitutional imperative. Rather than expanding their arsenals, law enforcement agencies nationwide should be emphasizing building trust with the communities they serve.

“Those concerned with greater transparency and accountability in our government should be deeply troubled by this policy change,” Madhuri Grewal, TCP Senior Counsel, stated. “Just last month, the Government Accountability Office created a fake law enforcement agency and was able to obtain $1.2 million worth of military gear from our federal government. Now, it has become even easier to obtain military equipment from the Department of Defense and other federal agencies.”

Last year, TCP’s Committee on Policing Reforms – – a bipartisan group that includes former law enforcement and military officers– issued a report that highlighted serious constitutional and policy concerns raised by law enforcement’s use of military equipment and tactics. The report calls for necessary limitations on the federal programs providing tactical military equipment to states and requiring law enforcement agencies to demonstrate that military equipment would be used only in limited and narrowly-tailored circumstances.

Read the letters here:
Senate letter
House letter

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Topics:POLICE MILITARIZATION AND USE OF FORCE

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Visit: 1100 G St. NW Suite 500
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http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Ben ... 202186.php

Ben Shapiro protester says she was arrested for carrying cardboard sign
By Kimberly Veklerov Updated 7:55 pm, Friday, September 15, 2017













http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3498235

Taxpayer funds used for Mar-a-Lago stay, invoice shows
BY CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Friday, September 15, 2017, 2:06 PM



https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/ ... 0s-part-2/

September 14, 2017
CIA’s 60 year war with the Government Accountability Office: the new millennium Part 2
Unless Congress forces CIA to comply with GAO on all matters and makes it subject to GAO’s auditors, nothing will change for the next sixty years
Written by Emma Best
Edited by JPat Brown
Read Part 1 here

As a result of the failure by the Senate Intelligence Committee to restore the GAO’s authority to audit or review the CIA, by the next that immunity had spread to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which had assumed some of the Agency’s responsibilities in coordinating the Intelligence Community. Like CIA, the ODNI cited a legally dubious position in a 1988 letter from the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) stating that the GAO had no authority to look at anything relating to “intelligence activities.” Also like CIA, the ODNI used a such a broad definition of intelligence activities so that “by definition” they were categorically exempt.

The GAO noted that despite the argument being presented by both CIA and the ODNI, “neither section 413 nor its legislative history states that the procedures established therein constitute the exclusive mechanism for congressional oversight of intelligence activities, to the exclusion of other relevant committees or GAO.“ The OLC’s letter, which had been issued to help block the GAO probe on Noriega, offered a legal position which the GAO flatly rejected.



Regardless of the merits of the legal argument itself and accepting the OLC’s position arguendo, the GAO rightly disagreed with the ODNI’s position that their review involved intelligence activities anymore than CIA’s cafeteria does. The Project on Government Oversight similarly criticized the position, arguing that the ODNI was attempting to put itself entirely above GAO’s authority. POGO seconded the GAO’s argument against the ODNI’s position, which was the review wasn’t looking at “actual intelligence activities.” Regardless of their objections, the ODNI stood fast in its position, setting the stage for further denials of cooperation and outright obstruction of oversight activities.



In 2007 and 2008, several pushes were made to grant the GAO audit authority with regards to CIA and the Intelligence Community. Ultimately, the issue died despite a plea to the Chairmen of the Intelligence Committees. One of the chairmen, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), later overtly confirmed that he saw things as a competition with his Intelligence Committee, saying that GAO investigations were a “rather bad idea.” The Senator argued that “you can’t just sort of wander in and do this stuff like you’re investigating FAA weather stations.” Instead, he felt that his Senate Intelligence Committee should be given more oversight authority and the ability to appropriate funds.

Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), at the same time, argued that “the GAO does precisely what the majority [in Congress] asks them to do.” Roberts said that the GAO shouldn’t be granted audit authority lest there be “further politicization of intelligence.” Senator Roberts was the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee before Senator Rockefeller, and the person who fired the entire Senate audit staff in what was regarded as a politically motivated move.

The GAO nearly gained its audit authority several years later. The 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act included a provision which would have finally granted the GAO the authority it needed to meaningfully and reliably contribute to oversight of CIA and the rest of the Intelligence Community. The provision, however, was dropped after President Obama threatened to veto it. Another amendment was similarly passed and attached to a Defense Spending bill to grant the House Intelligence Committee to “order GAO investigations on all subjects involving the intelligence community.” Nevertheless, a measure was passed that required the ODNI to formulate a policy on cooperating with the GAO. That policy would be issued at the end of April 2011, coming into effect at the end of June that year.



While the policy included several good points, such as instructions not to automatically categorically deny the GAO access to things (using language largely recycled from a much earlier DOD Directive), it received some criticism from the GAO. In a letter from the Comptroller General to DNI James Clapper, the Comptroller General points out that the language could easily be followed in an overly broad way that would “significantly hinder GAO’s ability to conduct related work that we are routinely requested by the Congress to do.” GAO’s criticism was justified, since the ODNI had interpreted similar language very broadly before to deny access to the GAO. Therefore, the GAO felt that they and the ODNI would have to carefully monitor and enforce the intent of the directive.



As further investigations revealed that the ODNI wasn’t capable of properly monitoring and reporting on itself, the ODNI didn’t revise or expand their guidance. The record shows that instead, the ODNI began to violate, or at least ignore, its own guidance. Part of the Directive requires that if the GAO provides a draft of one of their products to part of the Intelligence Community, they are “strongly encouraged to provide GAO with a timely response.” As a general rule, this meant seven to thirty days.



The ODNI was apparently free, however, to ignore this guidance, remaining silent for several months when the GAO asked them to review and comment on their report on the use of “originator controlled” dissemination controls. Since the request for comment was simply a courtesy but a necessary sensitivity and security review, the GAO was unable to proceed with the report without the ODNI’s cooperation. After several months of delay, Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) wrote in his capacity as the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to the ODNI urging a response. According to the Congressman’s letter, the ODNI had ignored “numerous attempts at follow-up” by both the GAO and the Committee, resulting in “at least a two month delay” in the report’s release.



The situation has not improved for CIA, either. Even when the information isn’t classified and the Agency isn’t exempt from releasing it, CIA refuses to report the data to the GAO on the basis that someone could learn about the Agency from it, “along with other publicly available information.” This is a return to the mosaic theory, which CIA and other Agencies have repeatedly used to block the release of unclassified and non-exempt information.

Unless Congress forces CIA to comply with GAO on all matters and makes it subject to GAO’s auditors, nothing will change. Unfortunately, Congress has never seemed willing to take the steps necessary to actually submit the Agency to oversight, and when it comes to the budget Congressional staffers and lawyers are “impressed” with how budget reprogramming (redirecting funds after they were appropriated for a specific purpose) “[goes] on all the time [in a way that] is not reflected” without a detailed audit.

The alternative would be for President Trump to order CIA to subject itself to GAO audits, but as of this writing the efforts to “drain the swamp” have been limited to hiring Goldman Sachs executives and have not moved onto improving government oversight.

Read the ODNI’s 2011 policy embedded below.

DOCUMENT

[msfreeh]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyp ... -1.3593969

Two NYPD detectives indicted in rape of 18-year-old woman they busted for pot



BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA GRAHAM RAYMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, October 27, 2017, 4:58 PM


Link du jour



https://bangordailynews.com/2017/10/27/ ... al-ground/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/obitu ... ldman.html

https://bangordailynews.com/2017/10/27/ ... ian-trail/


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10 ... man-waste/

Telegraph News
Shocking photo shows Caribbean Sea being 'choked to death by human waste'


https://bangordailynews.com/2017/10/27/ ... -up-north/



Blink Tank

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/10/26/jfk-files/




https://www.facebook.com/Loudandclearbrianbecker/

Loud & Clear with Brian Becker

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by journalist and bestselling author Max Blumenthal, as well as by Bruce Fein, a former Assistant Attorney General of the United States to discuss Twitter's announcement that it is banning advertising by RT and Sputnik.






https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... ccusations


Revealed: Dalai Lama’s ‘personal emissary’ suspended over corruption claims
Tibetan monk who is gatekeeper to the Dalai Lama in the US strongly denies allegations he demanded improper payments




http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2017/10/li ... again.html


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2017

Lifetime winner / never again
Lifetime winner news:
"Jesus Campos reportedly left the country days after Vegas massacre";
"Brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock charged with child porn possession in L.A.";
"Vegas killer’s brother terrorized auto shop where he squatted";
"Las Vegas shooting investigators find gunman Stephen Paddock's disturbing internet history"; and
"Additionally, housekeepers had visited Mr. Paddock’s room, where he fired on the crowd below, more than once in the days before the shooting, but did not notice any sign of his large stockpile of weapons. He also ordered room service at least once, according to people with knowledge of the security response inside the hotel." (scroll down to reference to Paddock being a "lifetime winner", impossible to do playing video poker).
"Trump keeps some JFK files secret over CIA, FBI concerns". Nice of them to highlight the good stuff. #UnlikelyThingsInTheJFKFiles

""I’ve being saying that he is the Giant since 1998"". "Deathbed confession may crack case of the 'Crazy Brabant Killers' ". Gladio/strategy of tension operation in Belgium, now with evidence of police involvement.

The Great Shiksa Pogrom of 2017 continues to destroy the lives of wonderful men (when will we have to pay for the stark concrete monuments - including the Tomb of the Unknown 'Woody' - so that we never forget and buses of schoolchildren will have somewhere to go to learn the lessons of 'never again'?):
"Five women accuse journalist and 'Game Change' co-author Mark Halperin of sexual harassment";
"Leon Wieseltier Admits ‘Offenses’ Against Female Colleagues as New Magazine Is Killed";
"Over 300 Women Chime In After L.A. Times Details Director's Sex Abuse Reputation".
For the love of G-d, we're talking about things that happened in 1998, 2003, 2015. How could any man living in those primitive benighted times have any idea that women didn't like being raped? Everybody is now enlightened, and with some spiritual counselling, 'sex addict' treatment, and mindfulness - you have to love how the full panoply of Khazar @#!!$#!% is rolled out to deal with the PR problem caused by Khazar behavior - we should be able to put all this behind us, and concentrate on the real issue, a rather obvious case of Jew hatred.




http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/10/69849.html


Trump’s Hate-Iran Campaign →
Iran and 9/11: Down the Rabbit Hole of Blame
Posted on October 26, 2017 by WashingtonsBlog
By Kristen Breitweiser, one of the four 9/11 widows – known as the “Jersey Girls” – instrumental in forcing the government to form the 9/11 Commission to investigate the 2001 attacks. Follow Kristen Breitweiser on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kdbreitweiser.

Largely unreported and unknown to almost everyone is the recent push to re-establish an Iranian role in the 9/11 attacks. To be more specific, some in Washington are currently trying to allege that Iran played a larger role in the 9/11 attacks than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Why this assertion about Iran— that has been lying fallow for years—is so recently being resurrected raises questions, bears scrutiny, and begs an examination.

Prior to delving into the Iranian revelations, some background is needed to best understand the rather inorganic evolution of this Iranian evidence. As many know, the 9/11 Families have spent the past 16 years trying to hold the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks accountable for the mass murder of our loved ones. First, we fought for the 9/11 Commission so that we might have an independent investigation into the attacks, learn lessons, fix problems, and hold those in government accountable for their failures that contributed to the vast devastation of that horrific day. Next, as an expressly granted right given to us by Congress in the creation of the 2001 Airline Stabilization Act (more commonly known as the 9/11 Victims’ Compensation Fund), we attempted to hold all the co-conspirators of the 9/11 attacks accountable in a federal court of law. Notably, to the 9/11 Families the definition of “co-conspirators” was always a “both-and” situation, not the more exclusionary “either-or” scenario. In other words, we wanted any and all of those who played a hand (however large or small) in the murder of our loved ones held accountable.

Trying to hold co-conspirators of the 9/11 attacks accountable in federal court is not as easy as the public might think. First, the U.S. government plays a large role with a strong hand in determining who can be qualified as a “co-conspirator.” Notably, this decision historically hinges upon who is “in favor” or “out of favor” with the U.S. government. It can also depend on the foreign and domestic policy agendas of the U.S. government. (Ironically enough, both of these things—domestic and foreign policy agendas —are what created the 9/11 attacks in the first place but that is a much larger topic in need of a tome not a blog.)

As an example of how the U.S. government and its agendas control who gets held accountable for bad acts and who doesn’t, in 2002, a lawsuit on behalf of some 9/11 families was filed against Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Obviously, this lawsuit fell in favor with the U.S. government, since at the time, President Bush was trying to establish a connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks to serve as a basis for the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, nearly at the same time in 2002, another group of 9/11 family members (represented by yet another attorney) filed their lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This lawsuit was not looked upon as favorably by the U.S. government for several reasons: President Bush considered the members of the Saudi Royal Family to be close family friends; the United States was extremely dependent on Saudi oil; the U.S. had always been dependent on Saudi cash; and finally, perhaps most pragmatically, the U.S. needed Saudi military bases to stage its upcoming war in Iraq. It should come as no surprise then, that the Saudi lawsuit continues to falter to this day while the Iraq lawsuit had a favorable resolution.

Fifteen years later, the 9/11 families are still trying to hold the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia accountable in a federal court of law for the mass murder of our loved ones. And, unfortunately for us, the Kingdom seems to still remain “in favor” with the U.S. government—which is probably why our path to justice has taken so long and why our court case against the Saudis is constantly getting delayed and dismissed by the Judge. To wit, 16 years after the cold-blooded murder of our loved ones, we have yet to even reach the discovery phase of our federal court case—the part of our case where we get to show our evidence (the money transfers, the checks, the FBI reports, the travel documents, the correspondence, the wiretaps, etc.). As an aside, the government in its own criminal prosecution of the co-conspirators of the 9/11 attacks, via its use of the military tribunal system, is as largely unsuccessful as the 9/11 families have been in our federal civil court case. Notably, nearly all of the GTMO cases haven’t even moved passed the pre-trial stages and/or hearings, yet. Clearly, the government’s self-created military tribunal system has proven to be (much like its twin-sister program of enhanced interrogation)—just another ill-conceived, hastily done, colossal mistake, and abject failure. And more importantly, both of these post-9/11 U.S. government-created programs have, thus far, only obstructed our rocky path to justice.

The 9/11 Families’ case against the Saudis has been dismissed at the trial level for a myriad of reasons, more recently, because the Kingdom was not a named State Sponsor of Terrorism. In case you didn’t already know this horrifying dirty little secret, for the most part, getting on and off the official State Sponsor List is mostly a political decision, having very little to do with reality—i.e. whether you really deserve to be on the list in the first place. And typically, you can get off the list by buying your way off, just as long as you are deemed “in favor” with the right people and/or Presidents at the right time. This is what happened with Pan Am Lockerbie and Libya, by the way. Notably, while Libya took responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Lockerbie, more recent reports have shown that Iran was actually responsible for the terrorist attack.

Nevertheless, in response to being unable to hold the Saudis accountable for their role in the 9/11 attacks because the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not an “officially named State Sponsor of Terrorism,” the 9/11 Families fought for and won JASTA (Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act). JASTA enables any victim of mass terrorism on U.S. soil to hold any nation accountable—regardless if that nation was on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. JASTA is a solid anti-terrorism law that can in some ways get around the “politics” that sometimes block the path to justice for victims of terrorism. Notably, the entities that fought most stridently against JASTA were certain key members of the Foreign Relations Committees and the Armed Services Committees; the U.S. State Department’s Near East Affairs Desk; former CIA Director John Brennan; former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and American Enterprise Institute’s John Bolton; Secretary of State John Kerry; and President Barack Obama. Obviously, each of these individuals and entities had their own agendas, but clearly their overall reason to oppose anti-terrorism legislation like JASTA should be fairly apparent to all. Sadly, saving lives from terrorist attacks and holding official and unofficial state sponsors of terrorism accountable for their role in supporting terrorism and/or terrorist groups—were not chief among their interests. Nevertheless, after overcoming such staunch “establishment” opposition, JASTA became the law of the land in October 2016. And, the 9/11 Families returned, once again, to federal court to hold one of the largest co-conspirators of the 9/11 attacks, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, accountable for their very well-documented and well-known logistic and financial support of the 9/11 hijackers and al Qaeda.

Finally last spring, directly due to the enactment of JASTA, the 9/11 Families filed our Complaint naming the Kingdom—regrettably, not specific Saudi Royal Family Members like Prince Bandar bin Sultan or his wife who sent money to the 9/11 hijackers—as defendants in our new lawsuit. In their answer to our complaint, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia claimed that the 9/11 Families’ lawsuit should be dismissed for several reasons, chief among them, that the 9/11 Commission exonerated the Saudis from any role in the 9/11 attacks. This novel defense was not new to us. In fact, in 2016, when the infamous 28 pages were finally released to the American public, many establishment-type folks—the Saudis, the Director of the CIA, the Obama Administration, etc.—said eerily similar things about the 28 pages “exonerating the Saudis” and there being “no there, there” with regard to the evidence presented in the 28 pages. Of course, these statements were ridiculous since the pages themselves represented 28 f-u-l-l pages of facts and evidence detailing the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks—indeed, even Forrest Gump could discern that there was plenty of “there, there.”

Nevertheless, hearing this same tired argument of “exoneration” now being put forth by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s attorneys as a legal basis to dismiss the Saudi lawsuit from federal court was received with exceptional incredulity by the 9/11 Families. After all, we were the very same people who had fought for the creation of the 9/11 Commission in the first place. How could the Saudis now be using the 9/11 Commission against us?

In short, we knew everything about the Commission—we fought for its creation; its members and make-up; its budget; its timetable; its access to documents and people; its subpoena power; its open hearings; its extension; its hampered and flawed final recommendations; and, perhaps, most notably its mandate. Because of those things, we knew—first hand—exactly what the Commission’s mandate was: to specifically not find fault or finger point in order to remove any taint of embarrassment and also to achieve consensus. To quote the 9/11 Commission Chairmen in the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report’s Preface: “Our aim has not been to assign individual blame.” Logically speaking then, how could a Commission with a specifically tailored, strict and narrow mandate to not find fault or finger point, exonerate anyone? Plain and simple, it can’t. (Note: we fought very hard to try to have the Commission’s mandate strong enough to hold people responsible and accountable but we lost that fight. Regrettably, to date, not one person in the U.S. government has been held accountable, fired, or reprimanded for their role in facilitating and/or failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks. In fact, some people like former Director of the CIA, George Tenet, were given medals.)

Knowing the preposterousness of this new Saudi defense, the 9/11 families reached out to the former 9/11 Commission members and made a simple request: Please sign an affidavit saying, “Our report speaks for itself. We did not exonerate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” To us, it seemed a no brainer. Note, we did not ask the Commission to say the Saudis were guilty or responsible—we merely asked for them to say that they did not exonerate the Saudis. We knew all of these men and women. We knew their work product. We knew the Commission’s Final Report and its footnotes inside and out. And, we knew the Staff Director, too. It was at this juncture that the 9/11 Families were informed by certain key members of the 9/11 Commission that they could not sign any affidavits and that they believed that Iran had more to do with the 9/11 attacks than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I–r–a–n????

Obviously, as key 9/11 family members who fought to have the Commission created, closely followed the Commission’s investigation, attended every hearing, testified before the Commission, held regular conference calls with the Commission throughout its existence, monitored their progress, and were actively engaged with the follow-up to the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report, we were stunned and confused in hearing this revelation about Iran. To us, it seemed half-baked and very over–cooked. Frankly, we’d been down this road before.

So, exactly where was this Iranian information coming from and how had it remained secret for 16 years? Had it been suppressed?!? Was there foreign influence involved in keeping it a secret??? (Gasp) Were the Russians perhaps responsible for keeping this Iranian evidence under wraps?!? Frankly, we always knew the Staff Director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, was close with Condoleeza Rice who was a so-called “Soviet expert,” but still, something that untoward just seemed too far-fetched. Should someone call Robert Mueller?!?

No, but more seriously and specifically, just how had this Iranian evidence gone unnoticed for so long?

We began to wonder: Had the FBI in its PENTTBOM investigation come across this same evidence? Were there mountains of FBI 302’s involving: Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 Hijackers being Iranians; some of those 9/11 hijackers visiting the Iran Consulate and Embassy; Iranian officials meeting the hijackers at U.S. airports and escorting them through border security; Iranian officials paying rent, opening checking accounts, and getting drivers’ licenses for the 9/11 hijackers; an Iranian–visa-express program; the Iranian Ambassador’s personal checks and/or wire transfers to the 9/11 hijackers; an Iranian support network inside the United States for the 9/11 hijackers that was made up of Iranian officials on the Iranian payroll; evidence of Iranian FBI informants; evidence of Iranian-connected imams counseling and providing support to the 9/11 hijackers; evidence of phone calls made between the Iranian Embassy and the 9/11 hijackers; Iran paying for plane tickets for the dry-runs of the 9/11 hijackers; Iranians in U.S. flight schools; and/or, Iranian funding of the training camps in Afghanistan. Is that why we went to Afghanistan immediately after the 9/11 attacks—to ferret out Iranian funded al Qaeda training camps? Was Iran mentioned in its own 28 pages of the Joint Inquiry of Congress’ Investigation into the September 11th attacks? Were members of the Iranian Royal Family flown out of the United States in the hours after 9/11? When Abu Zubaydah was captured, did he have the phone number of the Iranian Ambassador’s home in Aspen? Or the name and phone number of the Iranian King’s nephew who was living in the United States? Did Osama Basnan meet with an Iranian prince in Houston back in 2002 prior to that same Iranian Prince meeting President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas? Were the Senate and House Intelligence Committees and Foreign Relations Committees briefed about this Iranian information and evidence? Did President Bush know this Iranian information when he started the war in Iraq? More recently, did President Obama know this Iranian information when he promoted and signed his nuclear treaty with Iran merely two years ago? Of course not—>BECAUSE ALL OF THAT EVIDENCE WAS ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA, NOT THE REPUBLIC OF IRAN.

Incidentally, prior to promoting the Iran deal, President Obama must have known about the little bits of Iranian evidence that was actually collected by the 9/11 Commission since the person who largely took credit for selling the Iran deal to the American public, Ben Rhodes, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting for the Obama Administration, was also former 9/11 Commission Co-Chair Lee Hamilton’s right hand man during the term of the Commission. In fact, a quick search of the 9/11 Commission archives can easily show Iran documents very likely penned in Ben’s own hand revealing that Rhodes knew plenty about the Commission’s investigation and work-product—and even the scant bit of evidence the Commission was able to dig up about Iran. So, assuming arguendo, that this Iranian evidence is to be perceived as persuasive and more damning than all of the evidence the Commission collected against the Saudis, just how could Ben Rhodes and Barack Obama promote a peace treaty with these perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks? Maybe someone should ask Rhodes and Obama?

Interestingly, and nearly at the same time as President Obama and Ben Rhodes were selling the Iran nuclear deal, the 9/11 Families were fighting for JASTA–>and President Obama was strongly opposing JASTA thereby siding on behalf of the Saudis, instead of with U.S. victims of terrorism. These two things may seem unrelated until you consider how President Obama was reportedly finally able to ward off Saudi opposition to his precious Iran deal—he gave the Saudis incentives. One of these incentives was the $110 billion weapons deal that President Trump was just recently given credit for. And, perhaps, the other incentive was Obama’s promise to oppose JASTA and block the 9/11 Families’ Saudi lawsuit? One wonders.

Also going on at this very same time in the summer of 2015, an entirely different group of 9/11 Family members with an entirely different set of attorneys were in federal court and received a final default judgment against Iran for its role in the 9/11 attacks. Quite ironically, several 9/11 staffers apparently handily provided affidavits in that case attesting to an Iranian role in the 9/11 attacks. While busy fighting for JASTA in Washington (to hold the Saudis accountable for the 9/11 attacks) a few 9/11 Families took note of this Iranian final default judgment being so breezily signed off on by the usually recalcitrant federal judge (recalcitrant at least when things are related to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and we clearly saw the writing on the wall: In 2016, the U.S. government wants Iran to be held responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

Which brings us to the evidence linking Iran to 9/11. To quote former Director of the CIA, George Tenet: It’s a slam dunk.

The evidence is scant and the information surrounding it is even more obscure. But it’s not like many haven’t taken such odds to the bank before—witness the war in Iraq. Indeed, most of what we know about the 9/11-Iran connection is provided by Phil Shenon in his book, “The Commission.” Shenon writes about an eleventh hour discovery of Iran evidence by a 9/11 Commission staff member named Lorry Fenner. Interestingly, while Fenner is finding this Iranian information in NSA files, nearly at the same time, Staff Director Philip Zelikow and Staff Member Dieter Snell are also doing an eleventh hour re-write of the Saudi section of the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report so as to downplay and discount the Saudi role in the 9/11 attacks. (FYI, Snell is one of the 9/11 Staffers who happily provided an affidavit in the aforementioned Iran lawsuit. How convenient.)

Some background research on Fenner reveals, according to Shenon, that Fenner was placed on the Commission staff with encouragement by Jamie Gorelick. Some believe that Gorelick, herself an “old friend” of Director of the CIA George “slam dunk” Tenet, might have been placed on the Commission to downplay CIA failures and protect the agency from undue exposure—for which the CIA had plenty—>particularly when it comes to the CIA’s role with regard to Saudi Arabia and al Qaeda, generally, and the 9/11 hijackers, specifically. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that Gorelick’s reported staff pick, Fenner, is responsible for this eleventh-hour investigation into NSA files.

First, according to Shenon, Fenner was a staffer assigned to an entirely different part of the Commission’s investigation and was, therefore, not officially authorized to be investigating NSA files when she made her eleventh-hour discovery about Iran playing a role in the 9/11 attacks. Reportedly, according to Shenon, other 9/11 Commission staffers who did similar things (i.e. went outside official channels to investigate matters like the Saudis) were summarily fired for going outside their investigative purview. It appears that Fenner did not meet the same fate due to her Iranian forays. In fact, it appears that she received Staff Director Zelikow’s approval for same. Second, it’s probably not exactly surprising that a staffer placed on the Commission by someone like Gorelick (think CIA) would want to find dirt in NSA files as a way to discount and distract from the CIA’s own failures and facilitations. And, what better way to do this than by rifling through NSA files and finding information that pins blame on Iran so as to downplay the CIA’s largest 9/11 angle of exposure, the role played by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In other words, Fenner’s foray was meant as a distraction.

Thus, Fenner, the intrepid investigator, singlehandedly pours over “tens of thousands” of documents that are “densely written, with code names and abbreviations and acronyms and geographic locations that she would not understand,” and miraculously (within a few hours) discovers proof that Iran played a role in 9/11—EUREKA! Yes, in the tens of thousands upon thousands of NSA documents—and after “several days…of two or three hours at a time” (that’s “days” not “weeks” and “2 or 3 hours” not “10 or 12 hours”) Fenner apparently found what she was likely sent to look for: a crumb of Iranian evidence.

But, according to Shenon’s account, Fenner needed more evidence. So according to Shenon, knowing that she was not supposed to be operating inside the NSA files, Fenner asked for help from a Commission ally who could legally operate within the confines of the NSA files. Shenon reports that Fenner turns to Lloyd Salvetti for help. It should come as no surprise that Salvetti, according to Shenon, is a former CIA career officer (and Staff Director Philip Zelikow appointee to the Commission). Together, Salvetti and Fenner engage the support of yet another Commission staffer, Doug MacEachin, who also, according to Shenon, just happens to be a veteran CIA analyst. How shocking. Shenon writes that these three staffers focused on these NSA files literally during the last few days, indeed the very last weekend, of the Commission’s investigative lifespan.

According to Shenon, the three learned that the connections between Hezbollah and Iran and al Qaeda were much more “direct” and “recent” than previously thought. And, they wanted to make sure this vital information made it into the Commission’s Final Report that was about to go to press. Perhaps, due in large part to Zelikow and Snell’s last minute edits and rewrites to the Saudi section of the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report (also reported by Shenon in his book), the new Iran evidence could be added just in time. (A little known fact about the Commission’s Final Report is the very tight publishing restrictions placed on the Commission’s Final Report by its publisher, Norton. In short, apparently, the 9/11 Commission’s Final Report couldn’t exceed a certain page limit. Thus, a heavy editing hand was required in writing the Final Report. Good to know the nation’s worst terrorist attack that killed 3,000 people was abridged for space concerns! And what bother if the damning evidence about the Saudis had to be cut out!) Nevertheless, this Iran evidence needed to get out to the public. In fact, in June 2004, 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean felt compelled to say, “We believe that there were a lot more active contacts, frankly, with Iran and with Pakistan than there were with Iraq.” Unfortunately, by that time, President Bush’s war in Iraq was well underway. Iran would have to wait.

As for the Iranian connections to 9/11, upon inspection, it is likely far less than what can be found about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. After all, the super sleuth Fenner and her two CIA cohorts only found approximately 100 instances of Iran being mentioned in the thousands and thousands of pages of NSA files. Now, I dont fancy myself a mathematician but let’s just say that out of 60,000 files, the word “Iran” was mentioned 100 times? Folks, thats less than .001%. Not exactly an overwhelming number when you consider how many times those three intrepid investigators also probably came across “KSA,” “UAE,” “Pakistan,” and/or “Qatar” in those documents.

Reportedly according to Shenon, the NSA files, “showed that Iranian authorities had helped facilitate the travels of several of the 9/11 hijackers in the year before the attacks. There was nothing to suggest Iran or Hezbollah leaders had knowledge of the 9/11 plot. But there was plenty of evidence to show that they had made special arrangements to allow many of the 9/11 hijackers to visit or pass through Iran,” from Afghanistan. Notably, the Iranian border control policy was a sort of blanket special treatment extended to al Qaeda members transiting Iran from Afghanistan—they simply did not stamp their passports and gave border security instructions to not harass them, in general. In other words, the failure to stamp these 8 hijackers’ passports was not an isolated and/or unique incident. It’s important to also know that under interrogation detainees Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Ramzi bin al Shibh acknowledged that some of the 9/11 hijackers passed through Iran but that the Iranian government had no knowledge of the plot. Of course, this information is problematic since it was gained via torture. In addition, most of the information found in the NSA files that was discovered by Fenner, Salvetti, and MacEachin was apparently written by the NSA after the 9/11 attacks—in fact, one of the files was written as late as August 9, 2002. These revelations could seem to discount the authenticity and weight of the Iran evidence. Nevertheless, a federal court relied on this evidence surrounding the facilitation of travel of some of the 9/11 hijackers to find the government of Iran accountable for the murder of 3,000 on 9/11. Forgive me for asking, but doesn’t this legal threshold for the chain of causation seem considerably lower than that for Saudi Arabia and others?

For example, such “facilitation of travel” for al Qaeda operatives is somewhat akin to how the CIA facilitated the travel of al Qaeda operatives pre-9/11 by arranging/granting approval for visas and/or failing to “watchlist” certain known al Qaeda terrorists when they entered the United States. Frankly, the CIA has a long (and lethal) history of doing this kind of “facilitation of travel.” For example, in 1993, at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan it was a CIA officer who signed the May 1990 visa request that allowed Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman— the Blind Sheikh—to enter the United States. In fact, “Central Intelligence Agency officers reviewed all seven applications made by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman to enter the United States between 1986 and 1990 and only once turned him down because of his connections to terrorism.” Three years later, the Blind Sheikh carried out the first World Trade Center attack killing six people and injuring more than a thousand. The CIA was not held accountable.

Undeterred, the CIA went on to also help “facilitate the travel” of (at least) two 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al Mihdar and Nawaf al Hazmi by purposefully withholding their visa information from the FBI and failing to “watchlist” the two terrorists for a full eighteen months before the 9/11 attacks. Moreover, four days before the 9/11 attacks, even though these two men were considered “armed and dangerous” and “potentially participating in terrorist acts” that might have included the use of weapons of mass destruction, the instructions to law enforcement was to let these terrorists go because they were part of an ongoing investigation. Three thousand people, including my husband, were killed during the September 11th attacks as a result of these two men being let into this country by the CIA. Unfortunately, no federal judge has ever held the CIA accountable for, in my humble opinion, arguably doing more than at least Iran with respect to the “facilitation of travel” for the 9/11 hijackers.

And, then there’s the UAE who also, in my humble opinion, arguably “facilitated the travel” of the 9/11 hijackers in a far larger way and degree than the Republic of Iran. Indeed, 17 of the 19 9/11 hijackers passed through Dubai airport in the immediate months leading up to the 9/11 attacks (that’s long after far fewer (only 8, not 17) of these same men unknowingly passed through Iran, by the way). Moreover, nearly all of the financing of the 9/11 attacks flowed through the UAE, as well. In addition, when Bin Laden was forced to leave Sudan and had to flee to Afghanistan, he was permitted to land in Dubai to refuel his airplane. Nobody knows what would have happened if the UAE did not extend this courtesy to Bin Laden back in 1997—perhaps he wouldn’t have had the ability to build his Afghan training camps, recruit al Qaeda operatives, or plan the 9/11 attacks. Thanks to the UAE, we’ll never know. But really, when one examines the “facilitation of travel” of the 9/11 hijackers and Osama Bin Laden, doesn’t it seem like UAE has more to answer for than the Republic of Iran?

And, I am not saying that Iran is innocent. They are not innocent. Far from it, especially when it comes to broader issues of terorrism beyond the 9/11 attacks. What I am asking for is the fair and honest application of the same standards of proof and evidence to be applied across the board to all entities who played a role in the 9/11 attacks—not just the nations that the U.S. government wants to demonize and go to war with.

One must wonder what other bits of evidence might have been found if the full NSA files were ever actually examined by a truly independent investigation—especially since the NSA (and CIA) had reportedly monitored what’s called the “al Qaeda Switchoard” since 1996. In short, because of this surveillance of the al Qaeda switchboard, “the NSA and CIA already had the information that could have prevented the [9/11] attacks yet for whatever reason, the Central Intelligence Agency which has an extensive history of subterfuge as well as an ongoing disregard for the law withheld the critical information from the FBI.”

Unfortunately, nearly all of the NSA information and evidence (with the exception of the scant evidence used to pin blame on Iran) has been left completely unexamined for the past 16 years—and that, in and of itself, is a crime.

Nevertheless, for right now, some in the U.S. government, for foreign policy reasons, seem to favor pinning the blame for the 9/11 attacks on the Republic of Iran. Historically speaking, the 9/11 Families have learned that when the U.S. government assigns blame (or blocks the assignment of blame) to another foreign government for whatever crime it has committed (or not committed) it’s typically done to serve a very clear foreign policy agenda of the United States—and certainly not done to provide any modicum of justice to the victims and their families. Just ask some of the families of Pan Am Lockerbie, the family of Charles Horman, or any other victim of terrorism.

To quote Charles Horman’s widow, “There is still a long way to go: the United States military continues to lie to the public, and take every opportunity available to cover up their abuses of power. We all have an interest in uncovering the truth. Charles’ mother, Elizabeth, often used the refrain, “we will leave no stone unturned.” That, too, is my mission, and should be the goal of all those dedicated to a just world in which no individual is too big, or too powerful, to answer for their crimes.”

My husband Ron was killed—murdered in cold blood. Sixteen years after I watched him—on live television—either burn alive, get crushed to death, or jump out of a window of the 94th floor of the World Trade Center to escape the horror, the smoke and flames, I still don’t know all of the facts and circumstances surrounding how and why the 9/11 attacks occurred. I want to know why three thousand innocent, beautiful souls were wantonly killed that day. And the people—every single last one of them—who are responsible for my husband’s murder along with the slaughter of 3,000 others beside him—must be held accountable for

[msfreeh]

http://newburghgazette.com/2017/12/17/c ... ral-to-go/

Chaffetz: 'I Think It's Time for the Attorney General to Go' Dwayne Harmon17 December 2017, 01:39



http://newburghgazette.com/2017/12/17/c ... ral-to-go/





http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/por ... -1.3426142

NJ Port Authority Police Entrance Exam uses MMPI Test which is good at weeding out
psychopaths and sociopaths


Port Authority Police candidates with law enforcement jobs failing psych test at alarming rate
BY THOMAS TRACY







http://host.madison.com/news/local/crim ... 7b6d9.html

Adams County police officer charged with sexually assaulting children


Dec 15, 2017


Jason Swiedarke, 31, of Port Edwards, was charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child Wednesday in Adams County Circuit Court. He also was charged with two related felonies.

A criminal complaint alleges Swiedarke had sexual contact with an approximately 4-year-old girl multiple times between October 2012 and April 2013.

Swiedarke also was charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child and other related offenses in Wood County in September and October.

All of the alleged victims were under age 10, according to the criminal complaints.

Swiedarke is charged with sexually assaulting other girls, ages 8 and 9, multiple times, according to a complaint filed in Wood County in October. Swiedarke paid the girls after assaulting them, the complaint A complaint filed in September in Wood County alleges Swiedarke sexually assaulted a 4-year-old girl on Sept. 10. He is scheduled to appear in court on that charge Jan. 5.








https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... 4da53be850

National Security
FBI officials’ text message about Hillary Clinton said to be a cover story for romantic affair

Two senior FBI officials who texted each other about President Trump and Hillary Clinton relied on work phones to try to hide their romance from a spouse and made the bureau’s probe of Clinton’s private email server their cover story for being in such close contact, according to people familiar with the matter.

The two officials, senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page and senior counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, are the subjects of an internal investigation that has roiled the FBI and emboldened its Republican critics who have accused the bureau of political bias. Had Page and Strzok used personal phones instead, people close to case say, it’s unlikely their text messages would have come to the FBI’s attention.



http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... ents-texts

Watchdog: DOJ didn't consult us before releasing FBI agent's texts
BY MAX GREENWOOD - 12/15/17 06:54 PM EST



https://thefederalist.com/2017/12/15/8- ... icy-texts/

8 Worst Defenses Of FBI Agent’s Anti-Trump ‘Insurance Policy’ Texts
How do the media handle dramatic updates that counter their narrative? This week, text messages sent by Peter Strzok, a chief investigator of the Clinton and Russia collusion probes, were released to Congress.



https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/opini ... -look-bad/

Fred LaSor: The FBI makes itself look bad
Fred LaSor
December 16, 2017






December 17, 2017
Midnight at the Democracy Dies in Darkness Café
By Clarice Feldman


Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles ... z51VGM2kjP






https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pu ... e4470a2355

Former police officer argues FBI pushed him to commit crime
By Rachel Weiner December 12 at 9:13 AM
In the years Nicholas Young went to work patrolling Washington’s Metro system, a federal prosecutor said, an FBI agent was lying awake at night worrying about what he might do.

As the first police officer to face terrorism charges in the United States goes to trial in federal court this week, FBI special agents and undercover operatives explained to jurors how they began investigating Young in 2010 — and why he was not arrested until August 2016. It was then that Young bought Google Play gift cards that prosecutors say he thought would be used by Islamic State recruits to download encrypted messaging applications.

During the years-long investigation of the Alexandria, Va., native, several law enforcement officials testified, Young repeatedly made violent remarks that were concerning but did not prompt immediate action. Prosecutors said a sting operation involving the gift cards was necessary to get a dangerous radical not just off the streets, but also out of law enforcement.

[Police officer accused of being an ISIS-supporting neo-Nazi says he just has a dark sense of humor]

An FBI agent will testify that “he didn’t sleep at nights because [Young] had talked about torturing and killing an FBI agent,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg told the judge Tuesday.

An image of Young seized during a search of his home last year and filed in Alexandria federal court. (U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia)
But Young’s attorneys countered, saying his arrest was an overreach born of frustration that a six-year investigation had yielded nothing of value.

In private exchanges, defense attorney Linda Moreno said in her opening statement, agents wrote they “hit the case with a defibrillator,” saying “let’s hope he goes one step further” and breaks the law.


“The FBI induced Nicholas Young, a police officer who had served with distinction, to commit a crime where none existed,” she said.

Young, 37, who worked for the Metro Transit Police, hopes to be the first person since the­ Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to win a terrorism trial by arguing that he was entrapped by law enforcement.







http://igpub.com/the-terror-factory/

THE TERROR FACTORY
Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism

Trevor Aaronson

HARDCOVER
POLITICS & CURRENT AFFAIRS, TITLES
272 PAGES


“Compelling, shocking, and gritty with intrigue.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A real eye-opener that questions how well the country’s security is being protected.”–Kirkus Reviews
“This is investigative reporting at its best. For the first time, a documented investigation into the domestic terrorism program is available to the general public. And the story this dogged reporter tells has been garnering growing attention. Is it possible that we have in fact created the very threat we fear? Are we in danger of destroying the fabric of our freedom in our panic to preserve it? Read Aaronson’s ground breaking report and make up your own mind.”–Lowell Bergman, Pulitzer Prize-winning Professor of Investigative Reporting

“A disturbing window into America’s war on terror. In story after story, Aaronson reveals in detail how the FBI and its informants are creating crime rather than solving it. This is an important piece of journalism.”—Alexandra Natapoff, author, Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice

“The Terror Factoryis a damning exposé of how the government’s front line against terrorism has become a network of snitches at the end of their ropes, and FBI agents desperate to thwart a terrorist plot even if it means creating one.”–Will Potter, author, Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege

“Aaronson explains just how misguided and often deceptive FBI terrorism sting operations have become. In case after case, he demonstrates how the money being spent is more about producing theater than about federal agents arresting suspected terrorists.”–James J. Wedick, former FBI Supervisory Agent

A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism exposes how the FBI has, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11, built a network of more than 15,000 informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the Bureau can then claim it is winning the war on terror.

An outgrowth of Trevor Aaronson’s work as an investigative reporting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, which culminated in an award-winning cover story in Mother Jones magazine, The Terror Factory reveals shocking information about the criminals, con men, and liars the FBI uses as paid informants–including the story of an accused murderer who has become one of the Bureau’s most prolific terrorism snitches–as well as documenting the extreme methods the FBI uses to ensnare Muslims in terrorist plots, which are in reality conceived and financed by the FBI.

The book also offers unprecedented detail into how the FBI has transformed from a reactive law enforcement agency to a proactive counterterrorism organization that traps hapless individuals in manufactured terrorist plots in order to justify the $3 billion it spends every year fighting terrorism.

Trevor Aaronson is co-founder of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. He was a 2010-11 investigative reporting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, where his reporting about FBI informants in U.S. Muslim communities resulted in a Mother Jones cover story that won multiple awards, including the John Jay College/H.F. Guggenheim excellence in Criminal Justice reporting Award, the Molly National Journalism Prize, and the international Data Journalism Award.







http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/0 ... ded_f.html

Port Authority cop suspended after allegedly working as firefighter on days he called in sick


http://stevehochstadt.blogspot.com/2017 ... -away.html



Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Keeping the Blacks Far Away


I grew up in Carle Place, a new suburban town on Long Island, outside of New York City. Young families lived in inexpensive but well-constructed houses in quiet residential neighborhoods with good schools. When I get together with my classmates at reunions, we all agree that our little town offered a wonderful place to grow up.

I never thought about black kids, because I never saw one in my neighborhood or at my schools, right up through high school. I knew black people lived in other towns, and sometimes we faced black kids in athletic contests. I never wondered why they didn’t live near me.

Now I know. I’ve been reading a book titled “The Color Of Law” by Richard Rothstein, who explains how residential segregation happened in America and in my home town.

In response to the government-created Jim Crow discrimination in the South, millions of African Americans moved north in the Great Migration after World War I. At the same time, the nation’s population doubled from 1900 to 1950.

Facing growing population, American cities used zoning laws to direct new construction and to control where people lived. Across the country, zoning was designed to keep black and white apart, to protect white neighborhoods against black people. For example, in St. Louis zoning guided liquor stores, polluting industries, bars, and rooming houses into African American neighborhoods, preserving real estate values in white neighborhoods and creating black slums.

Private business supported segregation. The National Association of Real Estate Brokers adopted a code of ethics in 1924 warning its members that “a realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood members of any race or nationality whose presence would clearly be detrimental to property values.”

In the midst of the Depression, the federal government used its enormous resources to promote home ownership. In 1934, the Federal Housing Administration, part of the New Deal, created affordable mortgages and made loans to encourage home ownership based on color-coded maps of every city, where black neighborhoods were colored red, meaning no help for residents. After World War II, the newly created Veterans Administration offered mortgages to returning servicemen with no down payments and low interest rates, but only for whites.

Collaborating with private developers, banks, and realtors, the federal government helped create the new suburbs which mushroomed around America’s cities. I lived in a suburb built by William Levitt, whose name has become synonymous with suburbanization. His signature project was Levittown, a development with 17,500 mass-produced two-bedroom homes a few miles from where I lived. He repeated this success in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. Behind him stood the FHA and the VA, which financed Levittown on the condition that it be all white. In 1953, the 70,000 residents of Levittown represented the largest all-white American community.

Carle Place was a microcosm of postwar America. Young white men and women could begin their long climb into affluence, security, and respectability through the American dream of home-ownership. Realtors would guide families into the mushrooming modern neighborhoods. Banks offered more favorable terms than ever before. And everybody depended on governments to allocate local spaces for new construction, advise the new projects, and guarantee the loans that bought the houses.

For white people. Not for black people.

So I grew up with no relationships with black Americans, whom I first met in college during the tumultuous years of the civil rights movement. By that time, for me and my suburban baby-boomer peers, getting to know African Americans was awkward and uncertain. We were all, black and white, deprived of the natural development of friendships across lines of race.

Blacks were deprived of much more than that. As I was growing up, Carle Place and much of Long Island embodied a futuristic landscape of tens of thousands of identical houses in geometric patterns on plowed over, treeless ground. Today shady streets, mature landscaping, and countless home expansions and improvements have transformed the aesthetics. The houses that cost about $10,000 to buy now sell for $400,000 to $700,000. Accounting for inflation, the white families like mine, that bought in the late 1940s and early 1950s, tripled or quadrupled their wealth through home ownership.

Instead, black families were forced to live in urban neighborhoods, where discriminatory zoning rules kept home values down. At least into the 1990s, toxic waste facilities continued to be built in minority neighborhoods. Urban highways were typically built through minority neighborhoods. It is still common in American cities to use zoning laws to place businesses that deal with alcohol, firearms, pornography, and now marijuana into low-income neighborhoods, preventing minorities there from building up equity as fast as in residential white neighborhoods.

The end of slavery in 1865 represented the beginning of other forms of government-enforced discrimination for another century. By helping white families to build up wealth through home ownership and preventing black families from doing the same, federal, state and local governments have contributed to today’s racial disparities in wealth.

As Richard Rothstein wrote, “Government and private industry came together to create a system of residential segregation.” All Americans have suffered from this history of racism.

Steve Hochstadt
Jacksonville IL





http://www.philly.com/philly/news/penns ... 71214.html


News — Philadelphia


City paid out $1.25 million to resolve sexual harassment claims against Philly Police officer who
is still working as a cop


Updated: DECEMBER 14, 2017 — 7:56 PM E






http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html

Chicago backtracks on suing estate of black teen killed by cop; mayor apologizes to father







http://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime ... 71215.html

Black narcotics cops sue city claiming discrimination, corruption


Updated: DECEMBER 15, 2017 — 8:38 PM EST



The four-count complaint names Chief Inspector for the Narcotics Bureau Anthony Boyle and Inspector for the Narcotics Bureau Raymond Evers as the supervisors who ordered the plaintiffs to falsify drug reports through a practice known as “flipping,” and who retaliated against them for refusing to do so.

Through flipping, commanding officers expect and require officers to obscure the source of recovered drugs if a suspect who has been arrested is willing to cooperate and provide information on other crimes, the suit states.


The suit also alleges that Boyle and Evers have fostered a racially-hostile work environment by allowing a white corporal to park his Confederate-flag-decorated car on city property; by referring to minorities as “scum” and referring to the killing of such persons as “thinning the herd;” and by assigning black officers to more dangerous locations and less favorable assignments while giving more favorable shifts and safer locations to white officers.






http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc ... -1.3694773
NYPD traffic cop pleads guilty in drunken Williamsburg crash that cut woman’s body in half

BY SHAYNA JACOBS
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 11:28 PM



http://www.startribune.com/dayton-defen ... 464499523/

Minnesota governor defends police shooting
MINNEAPOLIS

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton defended the state agency that investigates police shootings after a prosecutor criticized the investigation into the death of an Australian woman who was killed by an officer after she called police to report a possible assault.



https://apnews.com/1fa0605bafa1455da90b ... ne-protest

More than $600,000 spent on police gear for pipeline protest



https://apnews.com/e3d74a40093a43e3a836 ... icing-role

Enrique Pena Nieto Police Mexico Caribbean Bills Laws Latin America
Mexican Senate keeps military in policing role


MEXICO CITY

Mexico’s Congress approved a law Friday that would give the military a legal framework to act as police, despite unanimous objections from human rights groups.




https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... uson-park/


7 Seattle police officers fired at man killed in park



http://citizensvoice.com/news/city-take ... -1.2280096

City takes more action against cops



https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-ne ... for-a-gun/

Mother of man shot by police disputes department’s account








https://apnews.com/b48076773d9a449a824e ... g-question

Eight graders death by police asks tribal policing question







http://host.madison.com/news/local/cons ... 27b36.html


Police investigating themselves



Consultant: Madison Police 'far from a department in crisis,' but improvements needed
CHRIS RICKERT and LOGAN WROGE Wisconsin State Journal




https://ijr.com/the-declaration/2017/12 ... -fbi-soon/



Trey Gowdy Drops Major Hint About Changes That Could Hit the FBI — And Soon

VIRGINIA KRUTA | DEC 16, 2017 | 1:41 PM


gowdy
Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) has certainly