George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

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msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

Link du jour


https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... g-news-fox

http://www.malooffoundation.org

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pIhHiI3LkcY

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... j-eberhart

http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/ ... start=7005



https://theintercept.com/2017/06/25/ral ... n-history/


http://www.newsreel.us




http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Dair ... 262326.php


Dairy cow carcasses pile up following California heat wave


Updated 1:53 pm, Sunday, July 2, 2017



https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/23/w ... and-denial


Western Fuels Association's Decades Of Dollars For Climate Science Doubt And Denial
By John Mashey • Friday, June 23, 2017 -



Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody Energy have filed bankruptcies, incidentially revealing payments to cllimate anti-science groups. The Western Fuels Association (WFA) may be smaller and less known, but its long history of funding climate denial is already better exposed. It was called out by Senator Tom Udall in his #WebOfDenial remarks in July 2016. Its earliest well-known disinformation effort is detailed in MedievalDeception 1991: Lindzen Hijacks Curve For Western Fuels Video - Early Fake News.

Its front group Greening Earth Society (GES) claimed “sound information” following the “sound science” theme of The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), started as front for Philip Morris in 1993, but like WFA, also involved Pat Michaels.

Newly-assembled information adds evidence that #WesternFuelsKnew the science was against them, decades ago.

Ross Gelbspan began writing about WFA in the mid-1990s. DeSmog offers a detailed profile (read first!), which includes WFA Annual Reports for 2005 and 2014/2015. Recent searches found the 1998-2003 reports, attached and annotated here, with a few especially instructive quotes, plus a few key events from other sources.

Annual Reports
1998 - The CO2 Issue 1996,1997 financials, and $583K was a substantial fraction of its non-coal costs

p.6 'We lost $583,000 in 1997, even though coal deliveries were substantially over 20 million tons.
1997's red ink was not due to adverse operational performance either in coal deliveries or by management. …
On an ongoing basis, Western Fuels is operating substantially “in the black.”
Our half-million dollar shortfall is due entirely to our advocacy in the area of climate change. The Board of Directors continues to provide financial support to programs designed to turn back efforts by the Clinton Administration to dial-out coalfired generation in the US energy supply mix.' (advocacy, not science)

p.7 'It is not that the science associated with the vision of apocalypse is uncertain. It simply is wrong.
Western Fuels' ongoing activity, including our creation of Greening Earth Society (described elsewhere in this report), is designed to convince Americans that warm is good, cold is bad; using more fossil fuels benefits everyone; and by using fossil fuels, conditions are being created on earth for humans to grow, both in numbers and living standards.' (strawman, but at least clear statement that the goal is convincing Americans, i.e., PR)

1999 Coal Fired Electricity Energizes the U.S. Economy 1998 financials

p.10 'The global-climate-change issue is about the wisdom of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide: a greenhouse gas, primary nutrient for plant life, and unavoidable consequence of humans using fossil fuels.
Western Fuels’ advocacy since 1988 reflects our understanding of this fundamental fact. (1988 important)
Coal is king among fossil fuels in terms of its generation of CO2 per unit of energy output …' (false)

p.15 'Our advocacy work was robust last year. … GES itself had an excellent first year. We premiered The Greening of Planet Earth Continues: The Promise for the 21st Century and Beyond at the Basin Electric annual meeting last November. It was very well received and many people believe it is superior to our earlier video,
The Greening of Planet Earth. … While Big Media and Big Government give no credence to either “Greening” video,
the science they depict has the advantage of being right. (false)

2000 Fuel for Thought - Transforming the debate over coal-fired electricity 1999 financials. The best to study.

p.5 '… we have continued our steadfast opposition to this jihad against CO2 and coal-fired electricity, and we will continue to do so. Our financial performance during the past year reflects this effort. Once again, our advocacy work has left us with a deficit for the year. … Western Fuels remains in a position to continue vigorous pursuit of our advocacy activity. This is particularly true because we continue to receive more and more support (financial and otherwise) from other industry participants. (inquiring minds might ask: who else paid?)

p.7 'Additionally, our early and effective advocacy work with respect to the benefits of cheap electricity through the work of Mark Mills, and now David Wojick, likewise has paid off. '

p.10 'Since Earth Day 1998, Western Fuels Association’s climate change advocacy has been rooted in Greening Earth Society… bi-weekly World Climate Report Online, … a host of studies by the ASU Climate Data Task Force. Together with The Heartland Institute, we now publish World Climate Report’s content in the monthly tabloid Environment & Climate News. Circulation is more than 40,000 nationwide. Pat Michaels, Bob Balling, Sallie Baliunas, and other scientists working under contract with New Hope Environmental Services increase their influence on public and political dialogue.' (ASU = Robert Balling)

p.11 'Mark Mills has worked with us for many years… Mark’s work has been featured in Forbes Magazine and has atracted the attention of high-tech futurist George Gilder.'
(GIlder was cofounder of the Discovery Institute (creationism) ; “men superior to women in work environment,” and seemed to to think Art Robinson and his son Noah great climate scientists watch first 2 minutes of this video. He also suggested that the Wall Street Journal seek a climate OpEd from the Robinsons.)

p.12 'Where does our advocacy stand, today? Based on work by our newest science advisor John Daly concerning the fatal flaws of the ground-based temperature record and revelations concerning agreement among ground-based thermometers, instruments onboard satellites, and carried aloft by weather balloons, Western Fuels is now prepared to argue that no reliable record exists to show a warming globe, and second, to establish the lack of warming, apocalyptic or otherwise.' (Tasmanian resident John Daly was not a scientist of any kind, but mostly known for his blog Still Waiting For Greenhouse, which was well debunked by scientist John Robert Hunter.
Daly's blog was filled with cherry-picking errors, and an important step in this MedievalDeception series. )

2001 WF/BW AR/00 2000 financials

p.2 'As a result of our steadfast advocacy of sound science and cheap electricity, we had been a target of derision and scornful attacks by environmental groups. While we do not rejoice in California’s woe, the situation presents a wake-up call for the energy sector. The science that Western Fuels has helped research and promote in the “global warming debate” has made important impacts on national energy policy. …'

p.3 'We maintain a presence in Washington, DC, as concern for energy moves from far down in the hierarchy of consumer and political concerns to the very top, even as we broaden the scope of our climate change advocacy through management of the Greening Earth Society.'

2002 Racing to Meet Demand 2001 financials

p.4 'and Western Fuels Association’s continued investment in climate change advocacy in 2001.'

p.12 'There is now bi-partisan opposition to designating carbon dioxide as a pollutant, and there is growing awareness of coal as an abundant, reliable, and increasingly clean energy resource. …
Western Fuels sustains its financial commitment to the Greening Earth Society and challenges the popular belief that carbon dioxide emissions will lead to catastrophic changes in earth’s climate. At the same time we
are staying in front of the issues by exploring with others in the coal-chain industry voluntary programs to sequester additional carbon in forests, croplands, and grazing lands.' (strawman, then “exploring”)

2003 Securing Your Energy Future 2002 financials

p.3 'Even that is not good enough for some in Congress who also insist on limits to carbon dioxide emissions….
As concerns carbon dioxide, we have loaned an executive to the Center for Energy and Economic Development to help CEED pursue a carbon sequestration initiative in behalf of the coal producers, utilities, and railroads that comprise its membership. The initiative encourages changes in agriculture practices and the management of forests and grasslands to sequester carbon. …
We also continue financial support of the climate change advocacy work of the Greening Earth Society.'

2006 Western Fuels Association Annual Report financials for 2004, 2005 (no mention of GES, advocacy, CO2, etc)

2015 Western Fuels Association Annual Report 2014/2015 2014 financials

p.7 'Over 1.1 million comments were filed opposing the EPA GHG proposals through www.tellEPA.com and www. Action.coop. Coal states are refusing to comply. County commissioners and state legislators are becoming engaged and writing comments supporting coal issues. Friends of Coal chapters and support rallies are being organized in the West. As a result, a 2015 poll of national concerns shows that climate change is ranked #22 in priority out of 23 issues.8 Such polls are allowing legislators to question and try to rescind or reign in regulatory overreach by the EPA and OSM, block funding for their implementation, and investigate the lucrative “sue-and-settle” industry.

Current benefits of carbon use to the economy and society overwhelmingly outweigh costs by 50-to-1 to 500- to-19 including increased quality and quantity of foods, for example. Carbon based fuels have raised the standard of living worldwide, increased lifespans by decades, and have elevated over a billion people out of poverty in the past 20 years. Western Fuels supports publicizing, indeed celebrating, the social benefits of carbon…benefits which far outweigh the social cost of carbon touted by environmental groups.'
'9 Management Information Services, Inc. (December 2013) for American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, The Social Costs of Carbon? No, The Social Benefits of Carbon.'
(That report is by Roger Bezdek, who testified for Peabody in 2015 Minnesota Social Cost of Carbon Case. Jud

Image credit: Coal trains near North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Wyoming, photo by Kimon Berlin, plus WFA 1998.

* Ross Gelbspan wrote pioneering books on climate disinformation. He often mentioned WFA and its hired experts n The Heat is On (1997, 1998) and Boiling Point (2005)., complemented by Jeff Goodell's Big Coal (2007), all recommended.




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


FBI agent's car, weapons and gear stolen in Chicago's West Loop



Early Monday, an FBI agent left his agency-issued SUV running and unattended long enough for a thief to get in the vehicle and flee, according to a news release.





Estranged Wife Charged in Former FBI Agent's Death




Estranged Wife Charged in Former FBI Agent's Death
The estranged wife of a former FBI agent has been charged with his death, Laurel police announced Monday.
Anne Reed Allen was arrested Friday and charged with the death of her estranged husband, Scott Alan Horn, police said.
On March 16, Horn was found unresponsive in the yard of a home on Patuxent Road. Horn, who was a retired special agent with the FBI, had major trauma to his upper body.
Investigators quickly identified Allen as a suspect in Horn's death.
Allen has been



Source: Estranged Wife Charged in Former FBI Agent's Death | NBC4 Washington http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local ... z4lnIImoGd




http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/artic ... lite-team/

AMERICAN PATRIOT: INSIDE THE ARMED UPRISING AGAINST THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Charges for FBI Agent Renew Scrutiny of Elite Team

JUNE 29, 2017 /
When the FBI finally defused the armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon last year, the agency largely viewed the effort as a success. One of the occupation leaders had been killed by law enforcement, but a situation that threatened to become far more deadly had ended relatively peacefully.

But the operation has now come under increased scrutiny, with the indictment made public this week of an FBI agent for lying and obstructing justice.

The indictment says that the agent, W. Joseph Astarita, a member of the FBI’s hostage rescue team, lied about firing two shots at Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, one of the occupation’s leaders, after he drove his truck toward a roadblock set up by the FBI and Oregon State Police. Finicum was ultimately killed by the state police.






http://www.courthousenews.com/woman-say ... orced-sex/


Woman Says NM Officer Beat Her, Forced Her Into Sex


June 30, 2017
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (CN) — After arresting her as she stepped out of a shower in her home, handcuffing her and subjecting her to lewd comments, a New Mexico sheriff’s officer forced a woman into a sexual relationship with him, she claims in court.




FBI Octopus

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/l ... 5070d.html

“We are a town stamped by something that happened in 1947,” said Roswell Mayor Dennis J. Kintigh, a former state representative, FBI agent and Air Force veteran who worked in the aerospace industry. His background is enough to deepen the suspicion of conspiracy theorists.

“Roswell has a brand — and good, bad or indifferent, it is our brand,” Kintigh said.

That brand means money for a town struggling with a 6.3 percent unemployment rate — just under the state’s 6.6 percent average — and an uncertain oil and gas revenue base. The UFO Museum, which keeps handwritten logs of visitors, recorded more than 200,000 guests in 2016. The city’s 26 hotels reported a total of 248,476 room bookings last year.



Smile: Tricks to make yourself effortlessly charming
SDE Entertainment News-
Jack Schafer, a psychologist and retired FBI special agent who is a likeability coach and author of The Like Switch, points to Johnny Carson as a quintessential ...



http://www.courthousenews.com/sound-can ... ency-nypd/

Sound-Cannon Case Heralds E-Transparency for NYPD


June 30, 2017

In this 2004 photo, an officer with the New York City Police Department stands atop the hood of a vehicle equipped with a Long Range Acoustic Device used for crowd control at the Republican National Convention that year. (Photo by Peter Bergin via Wikipedia)
MANHATTAN (CN) — To learn how the New York City Police Department deploys sound cannons, the average citizen should simply be able to fire off an email under the state’s Freedom of Information Law.

That’s the conviction that guided Keegan Stephan to sue the NYPD last year for details about its use of crowd-control weapons known as LRADs, short for Long Range Acoustic Devices.

A politically active student at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School, Stephan brought a federal civil rights lawsuit last year with five others, challenging how police use these devices.

The deal Stephan reached on his own Thursday with the NYPD, however, could have much broader implications for police accountability.

“NYPD will accept FOIL requests sent to the designated e-mail address, which is currently FOIL@NYPD.ORG,” the 15-page settlement states. “NYPD will also accept any follow-up correspondence regarding pending FOIL requests by e-mail if it is identified by the FOIL Unit file number.”

To the average New Yorker, these two sentences might not mean much, but Stephan believes the commitment could spell a new era of transparency for journalists, open-government activists and concerned citizens.

“Being forced to print, scan, and physically mail documents has derailed countless Freedom of Information requests upon the NYPD by myself and others,” Stephan said in a statement. “I’m thrilled with the outcome of this settlement, which I hope will empower the public to make the NYPD more transparent and accountable.”

In Stephan’s other sound-cannon case, he is part of a group of activists, journalists and filmmakers who all claim to have suffered hearing damage after police deployed the weapon indiscriminately at a Black Lives Matter protest in December 2014, two days after a grand jury declined to indict the police officer who killed Eric Garner.


Standing with their attorney on June 1, 2017, a group of journalists gathered outside the courthouse where they are suing police over their use of sound cannons as a method of crowd control. A federal judge in Manhattan refused to dismiss their case a day earlier.
U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet advanced assault and excessive-force allegations in this case on May 31.

As the challengers slog through the discovery, Thursday’s settlement gives evidence collection a shot in the arm. The NYPD must provide recordings of police communications from the days of the protests, charts depicting the use of LRADs, and training materials and emails related to the devices.

Elena Cohen, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who represents Stephan in both the open-records case and the civil-rights action, said the settlement will update and democratize the NYPD’s once-analog practices.

“This settlement makes requesting public documents more accessible and affordable for the public, recognizing that our right to be aware of governmental actions should not be thwarted by shrouding it with the cloak of secrecy or confidentiality- or the needless expense and time of paper mailing in our digital age,” Cohen said in a statement.

The NYPD has 90 days to update its website with the new protocols. A spokesman for the city declined to comment on Stephan’s settlement.

Related
NYPD Sound Cannons Case Hits Federal Court
January 26, 2017
In "Civil Rights"
Deafening ‘Sound Cannons’ Could Cost NYPD
June 1, 2017
In "Civil Rights"
Judge Raps NYPD for ‘Gotcha’ Tactics in Civil Seizures
May 22, 2017
In "Civil Rights"





http://www.courthousenews.com/s-d-droug ... -ranchers/

S.D. Drought Continues to Take a Toll on Ranchers


June 30, 2017



http://www.courthousenews.com/nypd-clea ... n-slaying/

NYPD Cleared of Evidence Destruction After Slaying

June 30, 2017



http://www.courthousenews.com/bronx-mom ... son-death/

Bronx Mom Claims NYPD Scorched Son

June 30, 2017



http://www.roanoke.com/washingtonpost/u ... e0d52.html


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.

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.

The Washington Post began tracking all fatal shootings by on-duty police in 2015 after the 2014 shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, of Michael Brown, who was unarmed and had an altercation with the officer who shot him.

The ongoing Post project has documented twice as many shootings by police in 2015 and 2016 as ever recorded in a single year by the FBI’s tracking of such shootings, a pattern that is emerging again in 2017.

Since Brown’s killing in Ferguson, other fatal shootings by police, many captured on video, have fueled protests and calls for reform. Some police chiefs have taken steps in their departments to reduce the number of fatal encounters, yet the overall numbers remain unchanged.

Academics who study shootings give weight to The Post’s accounting.

“These numbers show us that officer-involved shootings are constant over time,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina who has studied police use of force. “Some places go up, some go down, but it’s averaging out. This is our society in the 21st century.”

As in previous years, the data gathered by The Post showed that police most frequently killed white males who were armed with guns or other weapons. One in four people killed this year were mentally ill. And police have continued to shoot and kill a disproportionately large number of black males, who account for nearly a quarter of the deaths, yet are only 6 percent of the nation’s




https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/30 ... o-account/


Hillsborough: Holding the Police to Account




“It is also a story of deceit and lies, of institutional defensiveness defeating truth and justice. It is evidence of a culture of denial within South Yorkshire Police.”

— Anne Burkett, BBC, Apr 27, 2016

It took 28 years for the tables to turn on the South Yorkshire police regarding the Hillsborough disaster that took the lives of 96 fans. The 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest saw a sporting catastrophe that was portrayed as less a matter of institutional accountability as the consequence of loutish, irresponsible fans.

The finger pointing began instantly, with the police arguing that the bad behaviour of the fans, fuelled by alcohol consumption, was the primary cause. (This, notwithstanding the fact that some of the injured and dead were children.)

There were, in fact, no limits as to what the fans had done wrong. They supposedly arrived too late; they obstructed the police in accomplishing their tasks; they forced open a gate; many were supposedly ticketless. What mattered in the police narrative and technique was not safety but control.[1]

The ground was laid after the finding by inquest jurors in April 2016 that the fans in question had been unlawfully killed. It had been the longest jury case in British legal history, involving the families and supporters of the Hillsborough Family Support Group (HFSG) and Hillsborough Justice Campaign.

Interest naturally turned towards police conduct not merely on the day itself, but subsequently. The latter point was of particular interest to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which was charged with the task of investigating allegations of a cover-up.

On Wednesday, six people, including two former senior police officers, were charged for criminal offences linked to the disaster. Significant here was the alleged cover-up that ensued. Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service’s head of special crime and counter-terrorism, after reviewing the material, “decided that there is sufficient evidence to charge six individuals with criminal offences.”

Prominently featured is David Duckenfield, the South Yorkshire officer who oversaw policing at the semi-final, charged for the manslaughter of 95 people. (The 96th, Tony Bland, would only die four years after the incident, making a charge of manslaughter inapplicable.) He had eluded the clutches of a private prosecution in 1999 with a stay by the senior judicial officer. For a prosecution to take place, that stay will have to be lifted by application from the prosecutors.

Duckenfield, the grim star of a very grim show, received specific mention from Hemming. During proceedings, the CPS intends to show that Duckenfield’s conduct that day was “extraordinarily bad and contributed substantially to the deaths of each of those 96 people who so tragically and unnecessarily lost their lives.”[2]

The focus on Sir Norman Bettison, former chief constable of Merseyside and West Yorkshire police, an inspector in the South Yorkshire force during the disaster, was one of misconduct. He faces four counts of the offence in public office.

“Given his role as a senior police officer,” stated Hemming, “we will ask the jury to find that this was misconduct of such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder.”

Donald Denton and Alan Foster, both former police chiefs, were charged with perverting the course of justice in allegedly fiddling witness statements used during the original investigation and inquest into the deaths. Dozens of such statements were allegedly doctored to suggest a picture of police control rather than lethal chaos. The police lawyer, Peter Metcalf, was charged for allegedly assisting the enterprise.

Completing the institutional circle is Graham Mackrell, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club’s company secretary and safety officer that day. His charges are less grave, but no less significant: the alleged contravention of safety rules and failing to take appropriate reasonable care for the health and safety of those on the grounds.

This is the season for a reckoning. The charred ruins of Grenfell Tower have drawn necessary accusations about public safety across London. The cult of the cheap and expedient is being challenged; the wisdom of authorities questioned.

The Hillsborough families proved relentless in seeking accountability for the losses of 1989, showing that doing things by the book in calmly directed rage transformed the alleged responsibility of the victims to accountability of the authorities. It is with some historical irony, given the state of Brexit, that these efforts would been further hampered but for the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights via the Human Rights Act 1998.

Notes.

[1] http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/the-hillsborou ... d-justice/

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... rs-charged

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.wnd.com/2017/08/draw-muhamma ... d-us-dead/

'Draw Muhammad' conference organizer: FBI 'wanted us dead'
WND.com-
The paper has requested all documentation from the Garland Police Department that made mention or made reference to an FBI agent on the scene.

Two years ago, two Muslim terrorists, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, drove from Phoenix to Garland, Texas, to attack a “Draw Muhammad” competition arranged by activist Pamela Geller.



They were stopped at a parking checkpoint, where they started shooting, and promptly were shot dead by police.

A few days later, police said they did not expect to identify other suspects in the attack for which ISIS later claimed responsibility.

However, a number of related investigative documents are being held in secret by Garland police, according to the Washington Examiner.

The paper has requested all documentation from the Garland Police Department that made mention or made reference to an FBI agent on the scene.

The Examiner said police say the investigation still is pending.

The “tight hold” on documents by police, the paper said, “is making it difficult for a security guard who was shot during the event to learn whether an undercover FBI agent was there at the scene and knew that a terrorism event was being planned.”

See Pamela Geller’s books, including “Stop the Islamization of America,” in the WND Superstore.

The report said the security guard’s lawyer “believes the FBI agent was trying to get close to the terrorists and may not have warned authorities of the event in order to keep his cover.”

Related stories:


The guard, Bruce Joiner, was shot in the knee, and he and his lawyer now want the details that led to a “60 Minutes” report claiming an undercover FBI agent was behind the car carrying Simpson and Soofi and was taking photographs as they opened fire.

The Examiner reported the FBI agent fled the scene as the attack began but was detained briefly by Garland police.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/08/draw-muhamma ... 85wHlU3.99







https://boingboing.net/2017/08/01/senat ... istie.html


New FBI director is Chris Christie's Bridgegate lawyer and has Christie's infamous cellphone

After firing James Comey for the crime of "showboating," Trump chose Christopher Wray to be the new FBI director. A Senate committee approved the nomination. This is the lawyer who collected over $600 thousand from New Jersey taxpayers for personally representing Chris Christie in the Bridgegate scandal

With Wray’s assistance, Christie wasn’t charged — though prosecutors at the trial said he knew about the closing of commuter bridge lanes as they were happening, which he has denied. Christie said he would have testified at the trial if subpoenaed, but he wasn’t called.
p>The only time Wray’s name surfaced during pretrial motions was when it was revealed that he had a cellphone, believed lost, that Christie had been using during the lane closures. Defense attorneys sought access to the phone but their request was denied by a judge.


The mystery over the missing cell phone that Gov. Chris Christie used during the period when there were legislative hearings on the brewing Bridgegate scandal has been solved

The phone, which lawyers for Bridgegate defendants Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly have been seeking, is in the custody of Christie's personal lawyer, Christopher Wray of King and Spalding.

Brian Murray, a spokesman for Christie, confirmed that Wray has the phone.

The news that Christie's lawyer has the phone comes just after a federal judge ruled Thursday against Baroni, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, who issued a subpoena for the phone, as well as the electronic devices used by other top Christie staffers.

And according to Senator Jeff Merkley, Wray is a "consistent GOP donor" and is a partner in a law firm that "represents the Trump Trust and Russian oil."

Photo of Governor Chris Christie: Gage Skidmore






http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/01/politics/ ... index.html

Only 6 people have ever voted against an FBI director. Five of them did today
By Ryan Struyk, CNN
Updated 10:14 PM ET, Tue August 1, 2017







http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/john- ... le/2630358

John Barrasso to scold feds for quietly killing new FBI headquarters



Aug 2, 2017, 12:01 AM




"The security and efficiency arguments for this are clear. What is not clear is why this project was suddenly halted, why Congress was not notified in advance, and what happens now," Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., will say at a morning hearing, according to an excerpt of his prepared remarks obtained by the Washington Examiner.

A top Senate Republican is expected to scold federal agencies Wednesday for scrapping plans last month to relocate the Federal Bureau of Investigation's headquarters without informing Congress, while simultaneously looking for ways to reopen the relocation review process.

"The security and efficiency arguments for this are clear. What is not clear is why this project was suddenly halted, why Congress was not notified in advance, and what happens now," Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., will say at a morning hearing, according to an excerpt of his prepared remarks obtained by the Washington Examiner. "Senators should not have to find out about a decision of this magnitude" through the news media, he said.

Wednesday's hearing will be the first oversight hearing since the General Service Administration announced it was canceling the FBI relocation review on July 11 because of lack of funding and uncertainty in the procurement process. Barrasso's committee has direct oversight over large federal public works projects.





"I have no doubt that there is a need to replace the FBI's existing headquarters. The men and women of the FBI, who keep us all safe, deserve an office building that meets their needs," Barrasso said in his remarks.

Senior officials from the FBI, GSA, and the Government Accountability Office will be at the hearing.

"At this time, GSA and the FBI are working together to meet the FBI's short- and long-term housing needs and mission requirements, that necessarily includes deciding what investments to make in the Hoover Building now that we know the FBI will be housed there for longer than expected," said Michael Gelber, the GSA's acting public building commissioner, in prepared remarks.

"Additionally, the FBI's portfolio of leased space is being evaluated as well as options to procure a new headquarters for the FBI," he said. "In closing, GSA is committed to carrying out our mission of delivering the best value in real estate. The need for the FBI to have a modern headquarters remains. GSA will continue to work with members of this committee, the FBI, and others in the administration and Congress to meet this need."

The FBI official in his testimony, however, said the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover building in downtown Washington would be too costly to retrofit and is wholly inadequate to protect the agency from a physical or cyber attack.





Link du jour
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article ... -s-killing

http://www.govtech.com/data/Kansas-City ... -Data.html

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryla ... story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/sport ... oneer.html

https://wolbbaltimore.com/2050685/minne ... o-castile/


http://tucson.com/news/local/fbi-threat ... 440cc.html





http://thepowersreport.groupsite.com/page/about-me

Synopsis

Unjustified FBI harassment of Black mayors Coleman Young (Detroit), Harold Washington (Chicago) and Marion Barry (Washington, DC); white agents urinating on photographs of President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore; a white agents' fundraiser for white policemen accused of murdering a Black Detroit motorist; agents pasting the picture of an ape over the photo of an African American agent's child; sheet-clad classmates pretending to be Ku Klux Klansmen at the FBI Academy; the mysterious explosion of a "troublesome" Black agent's FBI-issued vehicle -- all of this, too, is the FBI, and former Special Agent Tyrone Powers tells it as only a conscious Black insider could.



http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/co ... 91403.html

Corbett may have suffered first blow while in bed, expert tells murder ...
Independent.ie-
A forensic scientist said blood spatter marks indicated retired FBI agent Thomas Michael Martens (67) was standing above Mr Corbett (39) when the Irish ...





https://wolbbaltimore.com/2050697/charg ... ideo-case/



Charges Dropped In Baltimore Body-Camera Video Case






https://sputniknews.com/us/201708021056 ... ffic-stop/


WATCH: California Cop Draws Gun During Traffic Stop (Strong Language) © Facebook/Feo Mas
US
01:43 02.08.2017(updated 03:44 02.08.2017) Get short URL91358312
A video made by a driver pulled over by a Campbell County police officer documents their interactions seconds after the officer pulled his gun on the driver and passenger during a routine traffic stop along California’s Highway 101 Thursday afternoon.
The roughly nine minute video, which was posted on Facebook, shows the officer point his weapon toward the passenger, even as the passenger repeatedly asks the cop to put his gun away, as his hands are clearly visible.


​"Why are you still pointing the gun at me, bro?" the passenger asked. "My hands are right here."

According to the Campbell Police Department, the pistol was drawn after the passenger, helping the driver look for her "additional paperwork," made an "unexpected movement towards the bottom of the seat," which caused the officer "to perceive a threat and draw his handgun."

As the officer called in for back-up personnel to assist him, the driver of the car can be heard asking him to put the gun away in favor of a taser gun. The officer did not comply.

"Don’t you have like a taser, or something, that you could use before you use [the gun]?" pleaded the driver. "You’re telling him to relax, but you have a gun on him."

"It is never a comfortable position to have a gun pointed at you, regardless of whether it is an officer," the department’s press release stated. "Unfortunately, the length of time that the officer’s gun was drawn lasted much longer than normal based on his location … If the same situation would have occurred closer to back-up officers, it would most likely have been resolved much sooner."


California Bill Would Mandate Release of Police Bodycam Footage
While the officer’s body camera recorded the entire incident, there is no word on whether the Silicon Valley police department will release the footage in its entirety or through excerpts, The Mercury News reported.
Gary Berg, the public information officer for the police department, noted that the first five minutes of the encounter captured by the body camera showed a "cordial conversation" between the occupants of the vehicle and the officer before the friendly environment soured.

Although the responding officer was outside of his jurisdiction, as a "peace officer in the State of California" the officer still had the authority to pull over



http://www.elpasotimes.com/videos/news/ ... 240629001/

A former Reeves County contracted prison guard received a lenient sentence for his role in a cocaine trafficking scheme after tearfully telling the judge he had committed the crime to buy a home for his two children.

Fabian Dominguez was sentenced July 28 in El Paso to a year and a day in prison in federal court after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine.





http://www.blacklistednews.com/Israeli_ ... 8/Y/M.html

ISRAELI SPYWARE FOUND MINING USER DATA ON GOOGLE PLAY
Published: August 1, 2017






https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170 ... rant.shtml

Another Appeals Court Denies Suppression Of Evidence Obtained With An Invalid FBI Warrant
from the so-much-for-valid-warrants-being-better-than-invalid-ones dept
A second appeals court has handed down a ruling on the constitutionality of the Network Investigative Technique (NIT) deployed by the FBI during its Playpen child porn investigation. The Tenth Circuit Appeals Court overturned the suppression of evidence granted by the lower court, ruling that the FBI's NIT warrant was invalid but that the agent's "good faith" reliance on the warrant prevented exclusion of the evidence.
Multiple courts have found the NIT warrant invalid. The warrant was obtained in Virginia but the search the FBI's malware performed accessed computers all over the world. Prior to the recent Rule 41 changes, warrant execution was limited to the jurisdiction it was obtained in. The Appeals Court worked around the jurisdictional limit by reasoning the NIT was sent from Virginia and returned info gathered in the same jurisdiction. It just kind of glossed over the part where computers located all over the nation were briefly infected by the NIT to obtain the information needed to pursue suspects.
The Eighth Circuit Appeals Court decision [PDF] finds more problems with the NIT warrant and execution than the Tenth Circuit did. The consolidated appeal, however, ultimately finds in favor of the government, overturning two lower court suppression orders.
First, the good news. The appeals court finds the FBI does indeed need warrants to perform these searches, even if IP addresses aren't necessarily protected by the Fourth Amendment.
In this case, the FBI sent computer code to the defendants’ respective computers that searched those computers for specific information and sent that information back to law enforcement. Even if a defendant has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his IP address, he has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of his personal computer. [...] Moreover, the NIT retrieved content from the defendants’ computers beyond their IP addresses. We conclude the execution of the NIT in this case required a warrant.
The court also disposes of the government's "but it's kind of just a tracking device" argument:
Although plausible, this argument is belied by how the NIT actually worked: it was installed on the defendants’ computers in their homes in Iowa. The government rightly points out that our court interprets Rule 41 flexibly in light of advances in technology... but we agree with the district court that the “virtual trip” fiction “stretches the rule too far,” We agree with the majority of courts that have reviewed the NIT warrant. These courts have concluded that “the plain language of Rule 41 and the statutory definition of ‘tracking device’ do not . . . support so broad a reading as to encompass the mechanism of the NIT used in this case.” Id. Thus, we hold that the NIT warrant exceeded the magistrate judge’s jurisdiction.
It also agrees with the lower courts' findings the warrant was invalid from the moment it was obtained, since the NIT was clearly going to be traveling outside of the issuing judge's jurisdiction. But that's where the good news ends. The appeals court applies the "good faith" exception and declares the requesting agent -- who knew the NIT would travel outside the jurisdiction and suggested as much in the warrant request -- could rely on a warrant signed by a judge to execute these extrajurisdictional searches.
The defendants also argue that the NIT warrant was facially deficient because FBI agents should have known that a warrant purporting to authorize thousands of searches throughout the country could not be valid. Specifically, Horton argues that “there can be no credible argument that officers reasonably believed that none of the 214,898 members of [Playpen] were located outside of Virginia.” We, however, will not find an obvious deficiency in a warrant that a number of district courts have ruled to be facially valid. Further, we have declined to impose an obligation on law enforcement to “know the legal and jurisdictional limits of a judge’s power to issue interstate search warrants.” Law enforcement did not demonstrate bad faith, and we will apply the Leon balancing test as instructed by the Supreme Court.
So, law enforcement officers are not required to know the legal limits of the warrants they seek. Apparently, neither are judges, as the judge signed off on this warrant despite being told it would be executed outside of his jurisdiction.
But that's not the worst part of the opinion. The worst part is this: the court says there's no deterrent value in suppressing evidence obtained with a facially-invalid warrant because the law changed after the fact.
Because Rule 41 has been updated to authorize warrants exactly like this one, there is no need to deter law enforcement from seeking similar warrants.
Under this rationale, anyone currently incarcerated for marijuana possession or distribution in states where weed is now legal should have their sentences immediately vacated. After all, there's no deterrent effect in keeping them locked up, now that both actions have become legal.
So, it's now 2-0 in favor of the FBI in federal appeals courts. In the future, its NIT activities won't receive much scrutiny. But it appears everything it did in violation of Rule 41 prior to the rule changes is being forgiven by higher courts -- whether with generous applications of the "good faith" doctrine or by making the Rule 41 changes effectively retroactive.





https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/us- ... gs.kCwhzDM


US judge orders FBI investigation into records of 1953 Executive Order targeting LGBTI federal employees
President Eisenhower signed the Executive Order
US judge orders FBI investigation into records of 1953 Executive Order targeting LGBTI federal employeesWikipediaJudge orders FBI investigation into Executive Order signed by President Eisenhower (pictured) targeting LGBTI people1 August 2017 by Anya Crittenton
In a new ruling, a US federal judge ordered the FBI to conduct an investigation into Executive Order (EO) 10450. This decades-old order led to purging of gay and lesbian federal employees during the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s. It was signed by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953.

Judge Royce Lamberth, against objections from the Department of Justice (DOJ), determined an earlier FBI search was ‘inadequate’. The ruling came days after the DOJ decided the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not protect LGBTI people.
Yahoo! News first reported the news of Lamberth’s ruling. They also published the entirety of Lamberth’s unyielding decision, which can be viewed and read here.
This order was a point of interest in Yahoo’s documentary, Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government’s War on Gays. In the film, Douglas Charles, a Penn State University historian, stated about the order: ‘In terms of FBI abuses, this ranks near the top. It was an effort to silence [gays], it was an effort to ruin their lives. Because if you were exposed as gay in the 1950s or 1960s, your life as you knew it was over.’
The Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., an educational non-profit with the mission of performing archival research to uncover erased LGBTI stories, filed a lawsuit via the Freedom of Information Act against the DOJ last year to release documents related to EO 10450. In response, the FBI discovered 5,500 documents but determined it would be burdensome to sort through them all. They also stated no documents were found relating to Warren Burger, the assistant attorney general charged with enforcing the ban.
‘Thousands of LGBT Americans were ruthlessly investigated, interrogated and fired because of this order,’ Charles Francis, the president of the Mattachine Society, told Yahoo! News.
An inadequate investigation
Regarding Mattachine’s lawsuit, Lamberth wrote in his ruling: ‘The Court finds it nearly impossible to believe that a search for every permutation of the name of the man who was charged with carrying out EO 10450, a robust federal mandate that built upon an established FBI initiative, yielded zero responsive documents.’
Furthermore, in the FBI’s initial search, they looked for the key words ‘Executive Order 10450,’ ‘Sex Deviate,’ and ‘Sex Deviate Program’. However, the EO used another term — ‘Sexual Perversion’ — and the FBI never searched for this term.
Lamberth criticized this oversight in his ruling: ‘The language of EO 10450 uses the term ‘sexual perversion’ rather than ‘Sex Deviate’ and the FBI’s affidavit does not address this shift in institutional language.’



FBI Octopus


http://www.satprnews.com/2017/08/02/a-n ... ip-summit/


A New Dawn for Public-Private Sector Cyber Collaboration to Power ...
satPRnews
... ICF International; Hugo Fueglein, Managing Director, Diversified Search; John Iannarelli, Former Senior Executive Advisor, FBI; Alissa Johnson, VP & CISO, ...



http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles ... YFyr9EpChA

Crazy Times in Flint: Cops Visit Residents Who Sign Mayoral Recall Petition

By Allan Lengel

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

http://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/2017/ ... inati.html


Friday, 25 August 2017
Dutch Banker Who Exposed Illuminati, Found Dead
Ronald Bernard, Dutch Banker Who Exposed Illuminati, Found Dead

Ronald Bernard, the elite Dutch banker who exposed the financial industry Illuminati in a series of TV interviews, has been found dead in Florida. He was 61.

Newspunch,
24 August, 2017

Bernard, who was 61-year-old, had been living in Sebring, Florida for the past year after marrying an American citizen. The Highland County Sheriff’s Office said that Ronald Bernard called 911 at 3:46 p.m. saying he got lost after leaving for a walk at 1 p.m. on the nature trail on the west end of Sun ‘n Lake in Sebring.

Ronald Bernard, the elite Dutch banker who exposed the Illuminati in a series of TV interviews, has been found dead in Florida.ronald-bernard-dutch-bankerMore than a dozen deputies along with K-9 units, air units from Highlands and Polk counties, four-wheelers from HCSO and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission searched for Ronald Bernard. “The terrain was very difficult, and searchers were at times in waist deep water as they tried to zero in on Fernandez’s location,” the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies pinged his cell phone but it kept showing different locations and Bernard called back several times — he said his life was in danger — but he kept moving despite being told to stay put, deputies said. The last contact dispatchers had with the former banker was at 6:13 p.m.

At 8:24 p.m., the Polk County helicopter spotted Bernard, who was face down in shallow water about 300 yards away from the last known location of his cell phone and 1.8 miles from the entrance to the trail at Sun ‘n Lake Boulevard and Balboa Boulevard.

The cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner.


[Banker: I Was Told To Sacrifice Children At Illuminati Party]
Ronald Bernard blew the whistle on occult practices and child sacrifice among banking industry elites, describing his experiences in a gut-wrenching TV interview that went viral earlier this year. Sharing explicit details about the way the Illuminati uses child sacrifice to test and blackmail its members, he said he was asked to sacrifice a child at a party.

“I was warned off when I got into this – don’t do this unless you can put your conscience 100% in the freezer. I heard myself laugh at it back then, but it wasn’t a joke at all.”

“I was training to become a psychopath and I failed.”

Describing the period his “freezer began to malfunction”, Ronald also told stories about crashing national economies and bankrupting companies. These actions led to suicides and destruction – successes worth celebrating, according to his banker colleagues.




http://www.motherjones.com/crime-justic ... e-prisons/

A Federal Judge Put Hundreds of Immigrants Behind Bars While Her Husband Invested in Private Prisons
Judge Linda Reade’s husband bought more prison stock five days before one of the nation’s biggest immigration raids.
SAMANTHA MICHAELSAUG. 24, 2017 6:00 AM



It was almost lunchtime inside the country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, on May 12, 2008. The meatpackers, mostly migrants from Guatemala and Mexico, wore earplugs to block out the noise of the machinery and couldn’t hear the two black helicopters hovering overhead or the hundreds of armed federal immigration agents closing in around them until the production line stopped. One worker tried to flee with his knives, stabbing himself in the leg when he was pushed to the ground. “They rounded us up toward the middle like a bunch of chickens,” a 42-year-old Guatemalan worker later recalled. “Those who were hiding were beaten and shackled.”






https://www.patreon.com/posts/kevin-consults-13829736

Kevin consults lawyers on anthrax, Palestine, and more!
Aug 12 at 10:15pm
KB-TJ_2017-0813_kissin-corrigan_web.mp3
First hour: Frederick, MD attorney Barry Kissin on Trump vs. the Deep State, the specter of World War III, Robert Mueller's connection to the 9/11-anthrax coverup, and much more. Barry is an expert on the anthrax aspect of the 9/11-anthrax false flag event. He has written numerous hard-hitting op-eds and letters in the Frederick News-Post, including this one on the push for war against Russia.
Second hour: London, Ontario human rights attorney Edward Corrigan on Israeli apartheid. He is the author of many articles including "Israel and Apartheid: A Framework for Legal Analysis," collected in Ghada Ageel, ed., Apartheid in Palestine. Edward Corrigan, like yours truly, is a frequent commentator on Press




http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... -1.3441206


British police missed chances to stop pedophile Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins' child sex abuse

Updated: Friday, August 25, 2017, 1:26 PM



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3442699


Cash-strapped Secret Service spends $7,100 on luxury portable toilets for Trump’s Bedminster trip
BY DENIS SLATTERY JESSICA SCHLADEBECK
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, August 25, 2017, 4:06 PM





http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/25/co ... atalities/

Exclusive: Traffic fatalities linked to marijuana are up sharply in Colorado. Is legalization to blame?
Authorities say the numbers cannot be definitively linked to legalized pot


Link du jour


http://www.denverpost.com/2016/05/26/ph ... s-gallery/


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... ayer-rally


Turd Reich: San Francisco dog owners lay minefield of poo for rightwing rally
‘I just had this image of alt-right people stomping around in the poop,’ says the organizer of an unusual protest ahead of Saturday’s Patriot Prayer rally







http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/25/th ... supremacy/
A black Denver man went undercover as a digital white supremacist. This is what he learned.
Curious about where his trolls were getting their revisionist history lessons, Theo Wilson decided to go undercover






https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... since-1945

France faces worst wine grape harvest since 1945
Wine production to fall by 18% on 2016 after spring frosts ravage vines, but hot summer could deliver top vintages



http://www.energyandpolicy.org/utilitie ... te-change/

Utilities Knew: Documenting Electric Utilities’ Early Knowledge and Ongoing Deception on Climate Change From 1968-2017

Scientists had begun to warn electric utilities about climate change by 1968, and by 1988 the industry’s official research and development organization had acknowledged that, “There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is real.”

Despite this early knowledge about climate change, electric utilities have continued to invest heavily in fossil fuel power generation over the past half a century, and since 1988 some have engaged in ongoing efforts to sow doubt about climate science and block legal limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

The Energy and Policy Institute’s new report provides a first look into the electric utility industry’s nearly 50-year long relationship with climate science, based largely on original research that reviewed scores of industry documents:



Download report
Utilities Knew: Documenting Electric Utilities’ Early Knowledge and Ongoing Deception on Climate Change From 1968-2017


Below are just a few of the key findings from the report.

The electric utility industry was warned about climate change in 1968

Dr. Donald F. Hornig, a science advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson, warned the 1968 Annual Convention of the Edison Electric Institute about the threat that allowing CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels to build up in the atmosphere could one day pose to the climate.

“Such a change in the carbon dioxide level might, therefore, produce major consequences on the climate – possibly even triggering catastrophic effects such as have occurred from time to time in the past,” Hornig said.



Utilities sponsored climate change research during the 1970s and 1980s

While the science on climate change was limited compared to what we know today, by 1971 electric utilities knew enough to include research into the “effects of CO2” in the industry’s long-term research and development goals for through the year 2000. More than 50 electric utilities contributed to the development of these goals, as did industry associations like EEI:


Acknowledgments section from the Electric Research Council’s 1971 report, “Electric Utilities Industry Research and Development Goals Through the Year 2000“
Utilities, through the largely customer funded Edison Electric Institute and Electric Power Research Institute, sponsored cutting edge climate research during the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1980s, EPRI funded research by influential scientist Charles Keeling and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography that documented “virtually all that we knew at the time from measurements of atmospheric CO2.” Between 1985 and 1988, EEI and EPRI co-sponsored another study which found that “climate changes possible over the next 30 years may significantly affect the electric utility industry.”



Utilities knew long ago that climate change concerns could warrant a shift away from fossil fuels

“If a consensus arose that we had to limit or curtail the use of hydrocarbons because of their impact on climate, the implications would be enormous,” Dr. Carroll L. Wilson, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, warned at EEI’s Annual Convention in 1971.



“If this turns out to be of major concern, then fossil fuel combustion will be essentially unacceptable, an important justification for expanding the nuclear and solar energy options,” Dr. Cyril Comar, director of EPRI’s environmental assessment department, told Congress in 1977.



“As consensus builds that man is changing the earth’s climate, policymakers are turning their attention to the issue and exploring potential responses,” the EPRI Journal reported in 1988.



By 1988, electric utilities were at a critical juncture. They could either be a part of the solution to climate change, or a part of the problem.

Some utility interests responded to the “growing consensus” on climate change with disinformation

“It is possible that an increase in concentration of atmospheric gases which absorb the outgoing infrared radiation could result in a rise in average global temperature,” William McCollam, Jr., then president of EEI, admitted to Congress in 1989. McCollam also acknowledged that climate change “could have significant effects on agriculture, rainfall, sea level, storm events, demography, and human health.”

However, McCollam claimed that “our knowledge is currently so limited that we cannot yet judge with any accuracy what might be the results of continued increases in greenhouse gases.”

“… we believe that any plan calling for urgent and extreme action to reduce CO2 emissions is premature at best,” McCollum told Congress.

“The electric utility industry is aggressively pursuing several paths which are designed to meet the nation’s energy needs while reducing atmospheric emissions,” McCollum nonetheless pledged.

Instead, that same year, EEI and some major electric utilities chose to “aggressively” work to sow doubt about climate science. American Electric Power, Consumers Power Company, EEI, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and Southern Company joined the Global Climate Coalition, which for years worked to deny the causes and risks of climate change. In 1991, EEI and Southern Company spearheaded the Information Council on the Environment ad campaign, which listed as its top strategy an effort to “reposition global warming as theory (not fact).”


One of the misleading ads produced in 1991 for the Information Council on the Environment, which was backed by the Edison Electric Institute and Southern Company
Some utilities continue to mislead on climate change in 2017

Despite EEI’s 1989 pledge to reduce atmospheric emissions, annual CO2 emissions from the electricity sector remained higher in 2016 than they were when McCollum testified in 1989, due in large part to ongoing efforts by some in the industry to sow doubt about climate science and block legal limits on CO2 emissions from power plants.

Thomas Fanning, the CEO of Southern Company, continued to deny that CO2 emissions are the primary contributor to climate change during an interview with CNBC in 2017. At the time, Fanning was also the chairman of EEI and the face of the investor-owned electric utility industry. Yet no effort was made by EEI, Southern Company, or other utilities to set the record straight.


A 2017 interview and Tweet by CNBC served as a reminder of the ongoing culture of climate denial at Southern Company
Some electric utilities continue to back special interest groups – including the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, American Legislative Exchange Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Utility Air Regulatory Group – that mislead on climate science and/or oppose legal limits on CO2 emissions from power plants.


Above is one of the U.S. Chamber’s “Public Policy Priorities for 2017.” A representative from Southern Company serves on the Chamber’s board of directors
Nearly 50 years after scientists began to warn the electric utility industry about climate change, some utilities continue to stand in the way of real progress in addressing the problem. It is a story with striking parallels to the investigations into ExxonMobil’s early knowledge and ongoing deception on climate change. Research has shown that electric utilities could face serious financial repercussions if ever held liable for the climate change damages incurred by their power plant emissions.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.occurrencesforeigndomestic.c ... mpossible/



materially impossible

“President Donald Trump has forbidden members of his cabinet from making any reference whatsoever to the alleged “Islamist” conspirators, during the commemorations of the 9/11 terrorist attacks… On the evening of September 11, 2001, the real estate developer Donald Trump appeared on the TV channel New York 9, and revealed that the official narrative was physically untenable: it is materially impossible for two planes to manage to bring down the twin towers, much less a third tower. ….” More (with video):

http://www.voltairenet.org/article197886.html

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music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NGvvRP-4RY

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“… While it is impossible to predict the outcome, when taken together, the US actions seem to indicate their intent to attack the DPRK, overtly or covertly, or through proxies, though the risks are catastrophic. Only the dangerous possibility of China’s involvement could deter this intent. North Korea is now being crushed economically and subjected to intolerable provocations. Although the “status quo” may appear to be in the interest of all parties, recalcitrant and irrational aggressive forces are being unleashed within US-NATO, with or without UN authorization. If US-NATO military power is permitted to obliterate North Korea, their resultant intoxication with military force, combined with their economic weakness makes it inevitable that China and Russia are their next quarry. It is imperative that Russia and China take this seriously, as they surely do. The time is long overdue for Russia and China to use their veto power. Their appeasement of US/NATO interests is short-sighted and enabling a war of possibly incalculable proportions. It is preferable to live with a nuclear armed North Korea than to die in a nuclear holocaust….”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/un-securi ... ar/5609257

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https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/ne ... r-antilles

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/15 ... -survivor/

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Ed.: Recently, I was challenged by a naysayer on the HAARP/hurricane issue to put up confirmation that HAARP was real, operational, etc.; here are six links found on the first search:

http://vlf.stanford.edu/research/experi ... ric-heater

https://www.nap.edu/read/18620/chapter/2#10

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienc ... ange73.htm

https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dang ... p_1990.pdf

http://ireap.umd.edu/sites/default/file ... d-IVEC.pdf

http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewc ... ics_facpub

[##]

[Ed.: The history of the military-industrial complex, from its early evolution since the final phases of World War Two as carefully nudged and nurtured by people whose membership in a secret society arguably bound them to a state other than the USofA, has been replete with the use of sword vs. shield Hegelian justification for “the other side has it and is going to use it against us so we must go beyond normal morality and humanitarian restraint”, as well as the taking of covert steps to ensure that the other side had the technology too.

This has been combined with the active seeding of espionage agents from the other side into technology programs, a constant race for perfection of technique, their use on human guinea pigs, the demonstration projects, and a “wink, wink” attitude toward mass destruction by any and all means possible in intermittent steps.

Operation Paperclip could be seen as a pivot around which this turned and, indeed, early research into Tesla technologies, as well as what we call mind control, may have been done covertly while Paperclip people were still detained or incarcerated in Germany immediately post-surrender.]

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https://www.mojahedin.org/images/2016/2 ... -Syria.jpg

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Moscow, SANA – The Russian warplanes destroyed workshops for making booby-trapped vehicles of ISIS terrorists in the countryside of Hama, Homs and Deir Ezzor provinces.

Lt. Gen. Alexander Lapin, chief of staff of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria said in a statement Saturday that the Russian fighter jets destroyed three workshops for making booby-trapped vehicles of ISIS where they were discovered by unmanned planes in the vicinity of Uqeirbat town in Hama countryside and in the countryside of Deir Ezzor and in al-Sukhnah city in Homs province.

Lapin pointed out that the terrorists fill the old military vehicles with explosives and use them for suicidal operations, adding that the destruction capability of these vehicles cover a circle with a diameter of 300 meters and cause huge destruction once they blow up.

http://sana.sy/en/?p=113926

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https://therearenosunglasses.wordpress. ... airstrike/

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http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.c ... -kill.html

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Russian forces fire on US-backed rebel group in Syria

CNN 2h ago

RELATED COVERAGE

Russian airstrikes intentionally hit Kurdish, Western forces in east Deir Ezzor: Coalition

Local Source AMN Al-Masdar News (registration) 6h ago

Jets strike US-backed forces in eastern Syria

Reuters 15h ago

Pentagon claims Syrian opposition troops wounded in Russian air strike

International TASS 35m ago

Syria’s Deir el-Zour Coming Back to Life After 3-year Siege

In Depth Voice of America 12h ago

View full coverage

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/15 ... e-charles/

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http://greencrowasthecrowflies.blogspot ... e-for.html

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D’accord, accord

WH: US staying out of climate accord

CNN 2h ago

RELATED COVERAGE

Sarah Sanders on Twitter: “Our position on the Paris agreement has not changed. @POTUS has been clear, US …

Most Referenced Twitter 1h ago

Paris climate deal: US denies it will stay in accord

BBC News 58m ago

Trump Administration Seeks to Avoid Withdrawal From Paris Climate Accord, International Climate Officials Say

Highly Cited Wall Street Journal (subscription) 5h ago

View full coverage

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http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/16/news/ch ... index.html

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2017

Cracks in the foundations

“Are the Shadow Brokers identical with the Second Source?”

“Shadow Brokers And The “Second Source””. emptywheel has been unconvincing lately, another victim of Putin/Trump Derangement Syndrome, now apparent due to The Clarification.

The careful Electrospaces conclusion is that Shadow Brokers is probably the Second Source (second to Snowden), and is probably an NSA insider based out of the NSA facility in San Antonio. All of these ‘hacks’ are actually leaks, and leaks pose a deep psychological problem for Imperialists (leaks drive them bat-$#!% insane; see also Angleton’s insane and destructive/self-destructive search for the supposed CIA mole back in the 60s). A hack is evidence of a technical problem which can be fixed, while a leak is a much deeper and darker problem, one involving dissent from the ideological foundations of Empire, and one that cannot ever truly be fixed, even by apprehending the leaker.

AT 9/16/2017 10:28:00 AM

[Ed.: Angleton was the mole. The simplest cover for that fact is his deep engagement over time in turning everything upside down to search for the mole. Read deeply about the fellow, his background, his history and his time in Italy.]

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The Barcelona Agreement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgL2CGDBYd4

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https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-akZEAlbV13k/ ... 4%2529.jpg

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The Democrats Have Become Socialists | RealClearPolicy

Posted by Michele Kearney at 9:34 AM

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http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/09 ... nc-emails/

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http://snippits-and-slappits.blogspot.c ... er_15.html

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Cops Say Suing Them for Killing Man with Down Syndrome Over a Movie Ticket Sets ‘Bad Precedent’

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-d ... precedent/

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Here are the nine reports of police misconduct tracked for Wednesday, July 12, 2017:

https://www.policemisconduct.net/nation ... cap-71217/

National Police Misconduct Newsfeed Daily Recap 7/12/17

Author Jonathan Blanks Posted on July 13, 2017

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DOJ rolls back program intended to identify problems in police departments

The Department of Justice announced Friday that it’s rolling back an Obama-era program created to help improve trust between police agencies and the communities they serve.

The department said it’s making significant changes to an office that investigated and issued public reports about problems it found in individual police departments.

DOJ said the changes to the program “will return control to the public safety personnel sworn to protect their communities and focus on providing real-time technical assistance to best address the identified needs of requesting agencies to reduce violent crime.”

The move falls in line with Sessions’ tough-on-crime policies and President Trump’s pro-police administration.

Read the full story here

[&&]{**}[##]

https://willyloman.wordpress.com/2017/0 ... is-police/

[&&]{**}[##]

[Ed.: Quite apart from other issues and nonsense and the commercials which denote or make fun of the phenomenon, I detect a hidden poison operating inside the US today (and perhaps in other parts of the world, but I don’t travel), and that is the disappearance and degradation of interpersonal face-to-face communication. People don’t talk to one another, everyone is or acts estranged, there is an uptick of anomie and a downturn in the ability of people to connect. This is, of course, flying in the face of social media, Facebook, smart phones et alia which are in theory an attempt to enable connection but seem to be having the opposite effect.]

[##]

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semp ... 34198.html

[##]



https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ePR4teBzI0M/ ... 1%2529.GIF

[&&]{**}[##]

http://greencrowasthecrowflies.blogspot ... -from.html

[&&]{**}[##]

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/15 ... e-charles/

[&&]{**}[##]

Judge blocks Trump from denying funds to sanctuary cities

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s rules requiring so-called sanctuary cities to help enforce federal immigration laws in order to receive funding.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced new rules governing DOJ law enforcement grants.

Read the full story here

[&&]{**}[##]

McCain backs bill to block transgender troops ban

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) is backing a bipartisan bill that would block President Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.

“When less than one percent of Americans are volunteering to join the military, we should welcome all those who are willing and able to serve our country,” McCain said in a statement.

Read the full story here

[&&]{**}[##]

https://sputniknews.com/news/2017091610 ... mp-odessa/

[&&]{**}[##]

2 years for officer in child-porn case

Alan C. Vigiard, a 46 year old Sergeant with the Adams Police Department in Massachusetts who served as a child exploitation officer, was charged, October 2009, and pleaded guilty to 10 counts of child pornography. Vigiard was sentenced, 22 June 2011, to two years in jail, serving only one year, and five years supervised release. He was free pending sentencing. The Police Department allowed him to resign. On 1 November 2016, Vigiard was arrested for a second time on child pornography charges. He was held without bail pending sentencing and was sentenced, December 2016, to 10–12 years in jail. Vigiard was originally caught viewing child sexual abuse at work; spending, on average, one to six hours per shift viewing pornography, including child pornography, and was caught masturbating in the evidence room.

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/2 ... ase,442007

[&&]{**}[##]

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/media- ... ng-people/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Quinn

[Ed.: This woman, who has an interesting father, is a spoiled, elite, entitled sensationalist who should have been hired to co-write Hillary’s recent exercise in angst.]

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/G4S

Church Shooter has ties to G4S see second post below


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 703066001/


Personal turmoil weighed on Nashville church shooting suspect
USA TODAY NETWORKAdam Tamburin, The Tennessean Published 8:14 a.m. ET Sept. 26, 2017 | Updated 12:21 p.m. ET Sept. 26, 2017


https://theintercept.com/2016/06/14/orl ... nary-firm/

ORLANDO SHOOTER WASN’T THE FIRST MURDERER EMPLOYED BY GLOBAL MERCENARY FIRM
Alex Emmons
June 14 2016, 1:44 p.m.


THE MAN WHO shot over 100 people and killed 49 in an Orlando nightclub Saturday worked at a retirement home as a security guard for G4S – a giant, often controversial global contracting corporation that provides mercenary forces, prison guards and security services. G4S is one of the world’s largest private security companies, with more than 620,000 employees and a presence in over 100 countries.

G4S confirmed in a statement that Omar Mateen had worked for the company since 2007, and said it was “shocked and saddened” by the shooting. A later statement said that Mateen was subject to “detailed company screening” in 2007 and again in 2013, “with no adverse findings.”

But one of Mateen’s former coworkers told the New York Times that he “saw it coming,” that Mateen “talked about killing people all the time,” and that he was “always angry, sweating, just angry at the world.”

The coworker, who said he quit his job due to harassment from Mateen, explained that he “complained multiple times” to G4S, because Mateen didn’t like “blacks, women, lesbians, and Jews.”

Yet G4S continued to employ Mateen, who was able to obtain a “security officer” license to buy firearms in addition to his state license and conceal carry permit.

Mateen was even allowed to work at G4S while under FBI investigation. According to the FBI, Mateen was suspected of involvement in terror in 2013. The FBI investigation included the use of paid informants, recording conversations, following him, electronic surveillance, and interviewing him three times, FBI Director James Comey said on Monday. The investigation was closed because it produced no hard evidence of terrorist complicity.

G4S’s statement says that Mateen was subject to “checks from a U.S. law enforcement agency with no findings reported to G4S.” But according to the New York Times, the investigation took place because of “reports from [Mateen’s] coworkers, that he… suggested he may have had terrorist ties.”




http://www.organiclifestylemagazine.com ... its-career


VACCINES, RETROVIRUSES, DNA, AND THE DISCOVERY THAT DESTROYED JUDY MIKOVITS’ CAREER

December 1, 2015 by Allene Edwards
Last updated on: March 15, 2017


Judy Mikovits, PhD is a biochemist and molecular biologist with more than 33 years of experience. Internationally known, a veritable “rock star” of the scientific world, she served as the director of the lab of Antiviral Drug Mechanisms at the National Cancer Institute before directing the Cancer Biology program at EpiGenX Pharmaceuticals. She later developed the first neuroimmune institute. Her early work focused on cancer and HIV, her latest on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and autism. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles.

In 2011, she made the discovery that destroyed her career. She found that at least 30% of our vaccines are contaminated with gammaretroviruses. Not only is this contamination associated with autism and chronic fatigue syndrome, it is also associated with Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Alzheimer’s.

When she released this shocking information, she was warned by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that she would become a target, just as he had been. But she assured him that all of her work had been properly reviewed and, of course, she was safe.

She was wrong. She was threatened and told to destroy her data; she refused. She was fired, then arrested for supposedly stealing her data from her worksite. She had been facing charges and was bound by a gag order from the court for the last four years. Recently, charges were dropped and the gag order was lifted. Dr. Mikovits is now free to talk, and boy is she talking.

The retroviruses contaminating vaccines originate from mice used for research. Dr. Mikovits asks, “How many new retroviruses have we created through all the mouse research, the vaccine research, gene therapy research? More importantly, how many new diseases have we created?”

“When they destroyed all of our work, and discredited everything I or Frank Ruscetti had ever published, and arranged for the publication of my mug shot in Science, the NIH very deliberately sent the message to researchers everywhere about what would happen to any honest scientist who dared ask those important questions.”

More:






Link du jour
http://www.cryptogon.com/?cat=4


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc ... -1.3528774

http://www.organiclifestylemagazine.com ... its-career


http://phibetaiota.net/2017/09/preston- ... ore-127286

https://alethonews.wordpress.com/2017/0 ... is-hiding/


http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.c ... ussia.html


http://www.hardcrackers.com/rainbow-coa ... class-war/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3528256

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/09/2 ... hats-next/




Blink Tank

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NBFAB1NMIHM


Watch the doc on Maier



http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/new ... -1.3528729
i


http://phibetaiota.net/category/journal ... 9-justice/









https://www.rt.com/news/404833-11yo-gir ... osecutors/


11yo girl had ‘consensual’ sex with 28yo man, French prosecutors say citing lack of violence
Published time: 28 Sep, 2017 03:22
Edited time: 28 Sep, 2017 07:38

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://robertscribbler.com/2017/10/11/ ... alifornia/



Significant Monsters: Climate Change Enhanced Wildfires Tear Widening Swath Through California
“We are facing some pretty significant monsters,” — Cal Fire incident commander Bret Couvea to a room of about 200 firefighters and law enforcement officials at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds on Wednesday morning.

“Think of the climate change issue as a closet, and behind the door are lurking all kinds of monsters — and there’s a long list of them,” — Steve Pacala.

*****

As of Wednesday, the massive fires blazing across California and concentrated in the north had consumed over 141,000 acres, resulted in the loss of 17 lives, and destroyed more than 2,000 structures. Approximately 50,000 people are now evacuated from the fire zones. And about 500 individuals are reported missing. A grim tally that is unfortunately likely to worsen as the hours and days progress.


This outbreak is now one of the worst fire disasters ever to strike California. One which may break all previous records for tragic loss of life and property when this terrible event finally winds down many days from now and all losses are counted.

Significant Monsters…

In total, eight major fires are still burning across the state. As all but one fire remains uncontained, the area consumed continues to expand. The seven large out of control fires presently range in size from 7,500 to 37,000 acres each and have burned approximately 40,000 additional acres in just the past 24 hours alone. Lighter winds and cooler weather have aided firefighting efforts. But the sudden large scale of the fires erupting Sunday through Tuesday and very dry and occasionally gusty conditions with no rain in sight have produced serious challenges for firefighters.



(The skies of northern California blanketed by smoke from massive blazes streaming like ‘liquid fire’ across Northern California on Tuesday, October 10. Image source: NASA Worldview.)

As of yet, no direct initial cause for the fires has been identified. But the co-location of some fires with downed power lines due to wind gusts up to hurricane force late Sunday night have provided one potential ignition source. Human error or malicious activity have not yet been ruled out.

… Fed by Climate Change …

Regardless of direct cause of ignition, the fires lit in vegetative growth that sprang up after an abnormally wet winter and spring. This growth has flash-dried over summer in a region that received 10-20 percent of its typical moisture allotment over that period. Northern California over recent years has experienced severe drought, extreme rains, and during summer of 2017 flash drying of new vegetative growth. This is a cycle of extremes consistent with human caused climate change. So as with the major hurricanes blowing up over the ocean this year we can definitely say that climate change has played a role in setting conditions that enabled this event to hit a much more fierce than usual intensity.

… Caused by Bad Energy and Environmental Policy Choices

Bad choices — primarily involved with continued policies promoting fossil fuel burning (#1), harmful agricultural practices (#2), and deforestation (#3) have brought us to this pass. Failure to rapidly enable a renewable energy transition and to produce policies that promote less harmful consumption and more sustainable land use will result in an ever-increasing tempo of extreme events.

We see this high tempo now in events that bear the names Harvey, Irma, Maria, California fires and so, so many more over the past few years. Let us hope and pray that it relents enough to give us the space to make the right choices for ourselves, the life supports of our planet, and our children.

RELATED STATEMENTS AND INFORMATION:

A recent climate study found that warming oceans have weakened the southwestern monsoon generating a prevalence for droughts and wildfires in the region. This is a direct result of human-caused climate change:


Links:

The National Interagency Fire Center

NASA Worldview

Some Pretty Significant Monsters

Pure Devastation

California Fires: Before and After Photos

How Did the California Fires Become so Devastating?

Hat tip to Eleggua

Hat tip to Genomik




Exposing the Big Game / October 11, 2017
Reblogged this on The Extinction Chronicles.


Bill / October 11, 2017
Don’t expect any help from Trump/Pruitt to combat climate change…
Scott Pruitt unveiled his plan to repeal the Clean Power Plan to loud applause in Hazard, Kentucky, a sleepy coal town in the state’s mountainous south-east. “The war on coal is over,” said Mr Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
https://www.economist.com/blogs/democra ... up-smoke-0


robertscribbler / October 11, 2017
I think we’re pretty clear that Trump/republicans/Pruitt are completely in bed with the harmful fossil fuel interests that are causing this nightmare to unfold with increasing intensity and regularity.


bostonblorp / October 11, 2017
OT: Something to keep an eye on – the Weddell polynya (a giant hole in the middle of Antarctica) has returned. Not specifically tied to GW (yet) but if it grows or more of them appear then we’ll have yet another problem.

“This is like opening a pressure relief valve – the ocean then releases a surplus of heat to the atmosphere for several consecutive winters until the heat reservoir is exhausted,” adds Professor Latif.

https://phys.org/news/2017-09-antarctic ... imate.html

Pls delete if a repost.


robertscribbler / October 11, 2017
Thanks for this. Completely helpful. Not off topic at all.


wili / October 11, 2017
I heard someone on the radio who was an eye witness express the same thought that I had after seeing some of the descriptions of this horrific destruction…that it looks like a bomb had been dropped on these neighborhoods. I thought the same thing about pictures of Barbuda and elsewhere.

This puts me in mind of the Hansen point that the amount of added energy we are adding to the system is on the order of a half-million atom bombs every single day. (Perhaps robert or others can update me on the latest numbers here?)

Mostly this is just a handy way to get across what the energy equivalent is of the enormous imbalances we are throwing into our only home.

But these images show that in a sense we are indeed dropping bomb-like destruction on our children and now clearly on ourselves.

Basically, since we started burning fossil-death-fuels, we started a war on the future. A war we had be ‘winning.’

But it is clear that now we have entered that future, we have switched over to the losing side. The bombs are now falling around our ears, seemingly on a weekly basis now, even in some of the most affluent parts of the most powerful country in the world.

And yet we continue hurling those hundreds of millions of bombs on ourselves even as we sink ever more deeply into the losing side of history.


wili / October 11, 2017
California fire official: 3,500 homes and businesses have been destroyed in deadly wine country wildfires.



wili / October 11, 2017
With 3,500 structures burned, the California fires are now officially the most destructive in state history.



wili / October 11, 2017
NWS Bay Area: Updated Red Flag Warning and Wind Advisory Information for later today. VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER! #cawx #northbay #napa #sonoma



wili / October 11, 2017
Dramatic footage shows a @sonomasheriff deputy driving through an advancing wildfire in Northern California cnn.it/2gblpso

Brief video at the link.


Paul / October 11, 2017
I wonder what DT would be saying about these fires if he were still with us…


eleggua / October 11, 2017
Elegy for DTLange.




Suzanne / October 11, 2017
Pictures at the LA Times from the fires. Just horrific…
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html


Suzanne / October 12, 2017
What should have been…
“Hillary Clinton links CC to recent hurricanes, wildfires in Speech”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary- ... d=50385107

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks with hurricanes and earthquakes and now these terrible fires,” said Clinton. “So in addition to expressing our sympathy, we need to really come together to try to work to prevent and mitigate, and that starts with acknowledging climate change and the role that it plays in exacerbating such events,” Clinton said to applause.

Leave a Reply









http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i ... 12216.html

Immigration officer wanted sex for his service. That didn’t work out so well





https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... 800d68af43

Robert Mueller can’t save us from Trump
But the FBI gave us Trump.
go figure!





http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/ne ... -1.3555011

Exhibit explores police surveillance as documenting history




Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 1:09 AM







http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/en ... -1.3556764

APNewsBreak: Steve Bannon had ties to Harvey Weinstein




Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 4:50 PM






https://www.boston.com/news/national-ne ... ts-officer

Authorities: Black female Temple University student killed by police in Miami Beach after car hits officer
By FREIDA FRISARO and DENISE LAVOIE AP, 3:12 PM








Link du jour


http://bangordailynews.com/2017/10/11/e ... -students/

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/f ... 271107.php


https://www.boston.com/culture/arts/201 ... sterpieces

http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/10/11/c ... ata/89751/


https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/ ... es-farming

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/11/ph ... ctober-11/


http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/califo ... 23651.html

http://bangordailynews.com/2017/10/11/n ... to-prison/




http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/11/vi ... ng-police/


October 11, 2017 at 3:17 pm
A disabled Vietnam veteran has won a $760,000 jury award after Kremmling police brutalized him during an unjustified raid on his mobile home in 2013.

Robert Mark Smith was repeatedly harassed and victimized by the police, who were punishing him for his protests against their prior wrongdoings, according to a news release by the Denver law firm Killmer, Lane & Newman.








It speaks volumes when you have to put body cameras on your police because
you don't trust them



http://bangordailynews.com/2017/10/11/n ... y-cameras/

Portland, Maine police union strike deal to outfit police with body cameras




http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc ... -1.3557030

‘Dominican Hulk’ and auxiliary cop busted in gun, drug sting


BY GRAHAM RAYMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 8:45 PM







http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3556987

‘White Lives Matter’ rallies planned for two Tennessee cities on same day
BY JESSICA SCHLADEBECK
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 8:00 PM



http://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/11/de ... nitiative/


Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is against Green Roof Initiative, says it “goes too far too fast”
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is opposing a citizen initiative on the November ballot that would require most new city buildings of at least 25,000 square feet to have gardens, solar panels or other “green roof” components, saying it “goes too far too fast.”







http://www.sacbee.com/news/article178368526.html

Ophelia is the 10th hurricane in a row. That hasn't happened since 1893.
BY JENNY STALETOVICH
jstaletovich@miamiherald.com
OCTOBER 11, 2017 3:39 PM

Ophelia became a hurricane late Wednesday, the tenth in a row and tying a record set more than a century ago.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/article17836 ... rylink=cpy





http://www.sfgate.com/technology/busine ... 269149.php

Trump reportedly asked for a tenfold increase in US nukes before Tillerson called him a 'moron'
Alex Lockie, provided by
Published 4:11 am, Wednesday, October 11, 2017





Florida school district to pay $3.6 million after blaming third-graders for being molested by teacher
BY JESSICA SCHLADEBECK
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 5:16 PM







http://bangordailynews.com/2017/10/11/b ... bloomberg/

Anti-coal effort expands with $64M donation from Michael Bloomberg






http://bangordailynews.com/link/only-on ... peachment/


Only one remedy for Governor LePage’s threats to sheriffs — impeachment






https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... -war-drugs


Rodrigo Duterte pulls Philippine police out of brutal war on drugs
Deadly crackdown, which has seen thousands killed, will be left to drug enforcement agency, president’s office says

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

Link du jour


https://www.pinterest.de/pin/540009811554997140/




FBI informant Scott Kimball killed at least three woman while working for the FBI as
an informant

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Lee_Kimball


Scott Lee Kimball (born September 21, 1966) is a convicted serial killer from Boulder County, Colorado. He is serving a 70-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2009 to the murders of Kaysi McLeod, 19; Jennifer Marcum, 25; LeAnn Emry, 24; and Kimball's uncle, Terry Kimball, 60. All four victims died between January 2003 and August 2004, while Kimball was on "supervised release" after a prior check fraud conviction, serving as an FBI informant. Marcum remains missing and is presumed dead, while the other three bodies were recovered in remote Colorado and Utah locations.[1]

Scott Lee Kimball
Born Scott Lee Kimball
September 21, 1966
Kimball has boasted to friends of multiple other murders, but authorities have uncovered no direct evidence corroborating his claims.[2]

In September 2010, it was reported that the FBI was investigating Kimball as a possible suspect in the murder and mutilation of a woman found in Westminster, Colorado, in October 2004, while Kimball lived in the area under FBI supervision.[3] In December 2010, Kimball told a cousin that he had been proposed as a suspect in the West Mesa murders in New Mexico, which were committed during the same 2003-2005 time period. He denied involvement.[4]

Kimball is currently serving his sentence at the Sterling Correctional Facility.



https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-wor ... e-attempt/


Colorado inmate, ex-FBI informant accused of escape attempt

Originally published October 19, 2017 at 7:08 pm


DENVER A former FBI informant who is in prison for four murders is accused of attempting to arrange a killing from behind bars and escape from the Sterling Correctional Facility.






https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justic ... -activists


Is the FBI Setting the Stage for Increased Surveillance of Black Activists?





OCTOBER 18, 2017 | 10:00

A recently leaked FBI “Intelligence Assessment” contains troubling signs that the FBI is scrutinizing and possibly surveilling Black activists in its search for potential “extremists.”

The report, which the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division prepared, identifies what it calls “Black Identity Extremists” as security threats. Their “perceptions of police brutality against African Americans … will very likely serve as justification” for violence against law enforcement officers, the report claims. Today, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Center for Media Justice seeking other records regarding the FBI’s surveillance of Black people on the basis of a supposed shared ideology, including records using the term “Black Identity Extremists.”

The report is disturbing on several levels, starting with the label “Black Identity Extremist.” Its definition of the term is so confusing as to be unintelligible:

“The FBI defines black identity extremists as individuals who seek, wholly or in part, through unlawful acts of force or violence, in response to perceived racism and injustice in American society and some do so in furtherance of establishing a separate black homeland or autonomous black social institutions, communities, or governing organizations within the United States.”
What seems to be a made-up term raises concerns that the FBI created the designation to enhance government scrutiny of Black activists, including people involved in Black Lives Matter, which some wrongly blame for incidents of violence and label a hate group. By focusing on ideology and viewpoint in defining what constitutes a so-called “Black Identity Extremist,” the FBI is spending valuable resources to target those who object to racism and injustice in America.

The report is also flawed in its conclusions and methodology. Any violence against law enforcement officers is unacceptable, but the FBI’s focus on supposed “Black Identity Extremists” appears misplaced. Studies show that attacks against police officers are extremely rare and that white men carry out the overwhelming majority of those attacks.

STOP SENDING WEAPONS OF WAR TO OUR COMMUNITIES

TAKE ACTION NOWIn addition to missing that context, the report offers no evidence to support its assessment that “Black Identity Extremists” are a threat because they supposedly share a violent ideology. Instead, the FBI’s conclusion is premised on a description of six separate violent incidents and the “key assumption” that those incidents were ideologically motivated. In other words, the report appears to assume its own core conclusion. The report even contradicts itself by acknowledging that the six incidents appear to have been “influenced by more than one ideological perspective.”

The report is yet another indication that the FBI thinks it can identify security threats by scrutinizing people’s beliefs and speech. In making its assessment, the FBI relied on individuals’ use of social media, including who they associated with, what search terms they used, and what content they liked. But there’s nothing wrong with having radical or “extreme” ideas, and evidence shows that the overwhelming majority of people who hold radical beliefs do not engage in or support violence.

The danger, of course, is that Black activists now have even more reason to be concerned that the law enforcement will surveil and take action against them for engaging in constitutionally protected speech. In an interview with the Guardian, one BLM activist said the “Black Identity Extremist” classification would “criminalize anyone who is already in the movement.” This is a concern that even an international human rights expert from the U.N. expressed when reporting on the chilling effects of police practices against protesters. Such targeting of Black activists also throws open the door to racial profiling.

The FBI’s history gives Black activists plenty of cause for concern. In the 1960s, the FBI conducted extensive surveillance of those it deemed “Black Extremists” and “Black Nationalists” under the covert COINTELPRO program. The FBI has been “mapping” racial and ethnic communities in the United States, including the Black population in Georgia, based on crude and false stereotypes about particular communities' propensity to commit certain crimes. That mapping included scrutiny of protests against police killings.

And FBI domestic terrorism training presentations conflate examples of armed resistance, or armed self-defense, by older organizations like the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army with beliefs expressed by various modern groups to suggest, without evidence, that these latter-day groups pose a similar threat. More recently, Department of Homeland Security records from 2014 and 2015 show that government officials trolled social media accounts to map and collect information on Black Lives Matter protests and supposedly related events.

The FBI’s recent “Intelligence Assessment” is yet another example of using “domestic terror” and “extremism” as a smokescreen for silencing constitutionally protected speech and unfairly targeting civil rights activists through surveillance. By conjuring this category of “Black Identity Extremists,” the FBI dangerously equates domestic extremist movements that are actually on the rise, like white supremacists, with one that looks near nonexistent.

The public needs to know more about the FBI’s activities related to what it calls “Black Identity Extremism.” Obtaining the agency’s records on these activities is one step toward protecting the free speech and privacy rights of Black activists.





FBI Octopus

http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/366408 ... n-violence


FBI and DEA visit classrooms: Pledge against gun violence
FOX Carolina-
The FBI and DEA may have visited your child's classroom recently, but it was for a good cause. Thousands of students took a pledge against ...








https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal


ATF gunwalking scandal

Weapons recovered by Mexican military in Naco, Sonora, Mexico on November 20, 2009. They include weapons bought two weeks earlier by Operation Fast and Furious suspect Uriel Patino, who bought 723 guns during the operation.[1]
"Gunwalking", or "letting guns walk", was a tactic of the Arizona Field Office of the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which ran a series of sting operations[2][3] between 2006[4] and 2011[2][5] in the Tucson and Phoenix area where the ATF "purposely allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them".[6] These operations were done under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner, a project intended to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico by interdicting straw purchasers and gun traffickers within the United States.[7] The Jacob Chambers Case began in October 2009 and eventually became known in February 2010 as "Operation Fast and Furious" after agents discovered Chambers and the other suspects under investigation belonged to a car club.[1]

The stated goal of allowing these purchases was to continue to track the firearms as they were transferred to higher-level traffickers and key figures in Mexican cartels, with the expectation that this would lead to their arrests and the dismantling of the cartels.[6][8][9] The tactic was questioned during the operations by a number of people, including ATF field agents and cooperating licensed gun dealers.[10][11][12][13][14] During Operation Fast and Furious, the largest "gunwalking" probe, the ATF monitored the sale of about 2,000[1]:203[15] firearms, of which only 710 were recovered as of February 2012.[1]:203 A number of straw purchasers have been arrested and indicted; however, as of October 2011, none of the targeted high-level cartel figures had been arrested.[6]

Guns tracked by the ATF have been found at crime scenes on both sides of the Mexico–United States border, and the scene where United States Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010. The "gunwalking" operations became public in the aftermath of Terry's murder.[2] Dissenting ATF agents came forward to Congress in response.[16][17] According to Humberto Benítez Treviño, former Mexican Attorney General and chair of the justice committee in the Chamber of Deputies, related firearms have been found at numerous crime scenes in Mexico where at least 150 Mexican civilians were maimed or killed.[18] Revelations of "gunwalking" led to controversy in both countries, and diplomatic relations were damaged.[2]

As a result of a dispute over the release of Justice Department documents related to the scandal, Attorney General Eric Holder became the first sitting member of the Cabinet of the United States to be held in contempt of Congress on June 28, 2012.[19][20] Earlier that month, President Barack Obama had invoked executive privilege for the first time in his presidency over the same documents.[21][22]



Further information: Project Gunrunner and Mexican Drug War
One 20-year veteran of ATF's Tucson office told us that before Operation Wide Receiver, all of ATF's trafficking cases were very similar in their simplicity: ATF would get a tip from an FFL [Federal Firearms Licensee][14] about a buyer who wanted a large number of firearms and information about when the transaction was scheduled to take place, and would set up surveillance and arrest the buyer when he headed southbound or at the border. Sometimes the initial buyer would cooperate with ATF, and agents would arrest the actual buyer when he showed up to take possession of the guns. If the guns went to a stash house, agents would speak with subjects at the stash house or conduct a search of the stash house. This agent told us that ATF interdicted guns as a matter of course and had been "content to make the little cases," but that Wide Receiver represented a "different direction" from ATF’s typical practice.
—Report by the Office of the Inspector General on the Review of ATF's Operation Fast and Furious and Related Matters, September 2012[1]
ATF "gunwalking" operations were, in part, a response to longstanding criticism of the bureau for focusing on relatively minor gun violations while failing to target high-level gun smuggling figures.[23] U.S. firearms laws currently govern the possession and transfer of firearms and provide penalties for the violation of such laws. “Gun trafficking”, although not defined by statute, essentially includes the movement or diversion of firearms from legal to illegal markets.[24]:Summary A 2009 GAO report on efforts to combat arms trafficking to Mexico notes that straw purchasing is not in itself illegal, although it is illegal to provide false information in connection with a purchase.[25]

Four federal statutes govern U.S. commerce of firearms domestically and internationally. Many states supplement these federal statutes and have firearms laws of their own that are stricter. For example, some states require permits to obtain firearms and impose a waiting period for firearm transfers. Domestic commerce and importations into the United States are generally regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) and the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA). The exportation of firearms from the United States is regulated by the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 and, to a lesser extent, the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).[24]:3

Defendants are often prosecuted and convicted under provisions of statutes such as the GCA that make it unlawful for certain persons to be in possession of firearms, govern the transaction process of obtaining firearms (e.g., straw purchases), and contain penalties for the use of a firearm in a crime of violence or a drug trafficking crime, or penalties for knowingly or fraudulently smuggling goods that would be contrary to U.S. law and regulation.[24]:18

In a 2012 case in San Juan, Texas, under existing 1968 Gun Control Act provisions on straw purchasing (Title 18 United States Code, Section 924(a)(1)(A)), straw purchaser Taisa Garcia received 33 months and buyer Marco Villalobos received 46 months, plus two years supervision after release.[26] In another Texas gun trafficking case, Oscar Bravo Hernandez received a sentence of 84 months for buying and sending to Mexico at least 55 firearms from a ring of nine straw purchasers who received sentences from 51 months for the most involved down to three years probation for the least involved.[27]

According to twenty-year ATF veteran Jay Wachtel, letting guns "walk" has been a practice done in a controlled manner that involved surveillance and eventual seizure of the weapons. "The idea was that you would follow it long enough until you were sure you had enough probable cause" to initiate an arrest, Wachtel said.[28] According to ATF field agents involved in Operation Fast and Furious, a part of Project Gunrunner, "ATF agents were trained to interdict guns and prevent criminals from obtaining them" and not to allow guns to walk and then disappear.[11] ATF agents assigned to Phoenix from other districts to work on Fast and Furious were critical of the operation.[29]

Operations Edit

There have been allegations of "gunwalking" in at least 10 cities in five states.[30] The most widely known and controversial operations took place in Arizona under the ATF's Phoenix, Arizona field division.

2006–2008: Operation Wide Receiver and other probes

The suspicious sale of AR-15s led to Operation Wide Receiver.[31]
The first known ATF "gunwalking" operation to Mexican drug cartels, named Operation Wide Receiver, began in early 2006 and ran into late 2007. Licensed dealer Mike Detty of Mad Dawg Global informed the ATF of a suspicious gun purchase that took place in February 2006 in Tucson, Arizona. In March he was hired as a confidential informant working with the ATF's Tucson office, part of their Phoenix, Arizona field division.[31]

With the use of surveillance equipment, ATF agents monitored additional sales by Detty to straw purchasers. With assurance from ATF "that Mexican officials would be conducting surveillance or interdictions when guns got to the other side of the border",[12] Detty would sell a total of about 450 guns during the operation.[30] These included AR-15s, semi-automatic AK-pattern rifles, and Colt .38s. The majority of the guns were eventually lost as they moved into Mexico.[6][31][32][33]

As the later DOJ OIG Report documented, under Wide Receiver coordination of ATF Tucson with the ATF Mexico City Office (MCO) and with Mexican law enforcement had been haphazard. Discussions of getting tracking devices from Raytheon were not followed up. ATF field agents and the cooperating gun dealer had been told by ATF supervisors that the guns were being interdicted before they could reach Mexico, but only 64 of the 474 guns had actually been seized. The kingpin sought by walking the guns, Israel Egurrola-Leon, turned out to be the target of a larger drug case Operation Iron River run by OCDETF. After Operation Wide Receiver was ended, several attorneys at the Phoenix USAO who reviewed the Wide Receiver cases for prosecution found the cases had been so poorly managed that they were reluctant to bring any of them to trial.[1]

At the time, under the Bush administration Department of Justice (DOJ), no arrests or indictments were made. After President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the DOJ reviewed Wide Receiver and found that guns had been allowed into the hands of suspected gun traffickers. Indictments began in 2010, over three years after Wide Receiver concluded. As of October 4, 2011, nine people had been charged with making false statements in acquisition of firearms and illicit transfer, shipment or delivery of firearms.[23] As of November, charges against one defendant had been dropped; five of them had pleaded guilty, and one had been sentenced to one year and one day in prison. Two of them remained fugitives.[31]

The Hernandez case
Another, smaller probe occurred in 2007 under the same ATF Phoenix field division. The Fidel Hernandez case began when the ATF identified Mexican suspects who bought weapons from a Phoenix gun shop over a span of several months. The probe ultimately involved over 200 guns, a dozen of which were lost in Mexico. On September 27, 2007, ATF agents saw the original suspects buying weapons at the same store and followed them toward the Mexican border. The ATF informed the Mexican government when the suspects successfully crossed the border, but Mexican law enforcement were unable to track them.[4][10]

Less than two weeks later, on October 6, William Newell, then ATF's Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Phoenix field division, shut down the operation at the behest of William Hoover, ATF's assistant director for the office of field operations.[34] No charges were filed. Newell, who was Phoenix ATF SAC from June 2006 to May 2011, would later play a major role in Operation Fast and Furious.[4][12]

The Hernandez case was referenced in a briefing paper prepared for Attorney General Michael Mukasey prior to his meeting with the Mexican Attorney General Medina Mora on November 16, 2007. The paper stated, "ATF has recently worked jointly with Mexico on the first-ever attempt to have a controlled delivery of weapons being smuggled into Mexico by a major arms trafficker" and that "the first attempts at this controlled delivery have not been successful". The paper also stated, "ATF would like to expand the possibility of such joint investigations and controlled deliveries—since only then will it be possible to investigate an entire smuggling network, rather than arresting simply a single smuggler."[35]

Investigators regarded the Hernandez Case as an example of "controlled delivery" with surveillance and involvement of Mexican authorities rather than "gunwalking" or failure to attempt interdiction.[1][36][37]

The Medrano case
The 2008 Alejandro Medrano case involved both ATF SAC William Newell and cooperating Tucson gun dealer Mike Detty of Operation Wide Receiver. ATF Phoenix allowed about 100 guns to be taken into Mexico over the objections of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel who became aware of the case. Phoenix ATF SAC Newell acknowledged to ICE "that letting guns cross the border was part of ATF’s plan". In August 2010, Medrano was sentenced to 46 months, his associate Hernan Ramos received 50 months and their fellow conspirators received prison terms from 14 to 30 months, but the target, a Sinaloa Cartel kingpin, Javier Elenes Ruiz, nicknamed "Rambo," remained untouched inside Mexico.[36]

2009–2011: Operation Fast and Furious
On October 26, 2009, a teleconference was held at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. to discuss U.S. strategy for combating Mexican drug cartels. Participating in the meeting were Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, acting ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele Leonhart, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Robert Mueller and the top federal prosecutors in the Southwestern border states. They decided on a strategy to identify and eliminate entire arms trafficking networks rather than low-level buyers.[3][38][39] Those at the meeting apparently did not suggest using the "gunwalking" tactic, but Phoenix ATF supervisors would soon use it in an attempt to achieve the desired goals.[40]

The strategy of targeting high-level individuals, which was already ATF policy, would be implemented by Bill Newell, special agent in charge of ATF's Phoenix field division. In order to accomplish it, the office decided to monitor suspicious firearms purchases which federal prosecutors had determined lacked sufficient evidence for prosecution, as laid out in a January 2010 briefing paper. This was said to be allowed under ATF regulations and given legal backing by U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Dennis K. Burke. It was additionally approved and funded by a Justice Department task force.[3] However, long-standing DOJ and ATF policy has required suspected illegal arms shipments to be intercepted.[4][5]


FN Five-sevens were among the weapons allowed to walk.[41]
The operation began on October 31, 2009, when a local gun store reported to the Phoenix ATF that four individuals had purchased multiple AK-47 style rifles.[42] In November 2009, the Phoenix office's Group VII, which would be the lead investigative group in Fast and Furious, began to follow a prolific gun trafficker. He had bought 34 firearms in 24 days, and he and his associates bought 212 more in the next month. The case soon grew to over two dozen straw purchasers, the most prolific of which would ultimately buy more than 600 weapons.[3][5][43] The effort would come to be called Operation Fast and Furious for the successful film franchise, because some of the suspects under investigation operated out of an auto repair store and street raced.[3]

Under the previous Operation Wide Receiver, there had been a formal ATF contract with the cooperating gun dealer and efforts were made to involve the ATF Mexico City Office (MCO) and Mexican law enforcement. Under Operation Fast and Furious, at Newell's insistence the cooperating gun dealers did not have contracts with ATF, and MCO and Mexican police were left in the dark.[1]

According to internal ATF documents, the operation was initially run in conjunction with the Phoenix DEA Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).[44] On January 26, 2010, ATF formally applied to the Justice Department in Washington for funding through the OCDETF program. When it won approval and received additional funding, Operation Fast and Furious was reorganized as a Strike Force that included agents from ATF, FBI, DEA, and the ICE component of the Department of Homeland Security, which would be run through the U.S. Attorney's office rather than the ATF. This new Strike Force designation allowed the operation to take advantage of sophisticated surveillance techniques such as federal wiretaps, which would require court orders and interaction from Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C. since federal law requires certain individuals to review evidence and certify the necessity of such techniques.[45]

The dealers involved became concerned as months went by and the same individuals they reported to ATF as suspected straw purchasers returned and repeatedly bought identical weapons. As they later told the DOJ OIG, their previous experience was that after they reported a suspected straw to ATF, they did not see the straw again unless subpoenaed to testify against the straw at trial.[1] One cooperating dealer expressed his concerns in a series of emails in April and June 2010 to GS David Voth, who assured the dealer that ATF was monitoring the suspects using a variety of techniques that he could not discuss in detail.[14]

The tactic of letting guns walk, rather than interdicting them and arresting the buyers, led to controversy within the ATF.[5][46] As the case continued, several members of Group VII, including John Dodson and Olindo Casa, became increasingly upset at the tactic of allowing guns to walk. Their standard Project Gunrunner training was to follow the straw purchasers to the hand-off to the cartel buyers, then arrest both parties and seize the guns. But according to Dodson, they watched guns being bought illegally and stashed on a daily basis, while their supervisors, including David Voth and Hope MacAllister, prevented the agents from intervening.[3]

However, other accounts of the operation insist that ATF agents were prevented from intervening not by ATF officials, but rather by federal prosecutors with the Attorney General's office, who were unsure of whether the agents had sufficient evidence to arrest suspected straw-buyers.[47] According to some reports, many agents insisted they were prevented from making arrests because prosecutors were unwilling to engage in what could become a potentially contentious political battle over Second Amendment rights during an election year, particularly given the difficult nature of prosecuting straw buyers, and the weak penalties associated with it, even if successful.[47] Instead, prosecutors instructed ATF agents not to make arrests, but rather continue collecting evidence in order to build a stronger case. One tactic proposed for doing so was a wiretap of suspected straw-buyers, in an attempt to link the suspects to criminal activities taking place on the Mexican side of the border.[47] Between March 20 and July 30, 2010, nine wiretaps were sought and approved by Justice Department officials, resulting in a significant delay in concluding the case.[1]:247,274

One of the central targeted individuals was Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta.[45] By December 2009, Celis-Acosta was being investigated by the ATF, which had placed a secret pole camera outside his Phoenix home to track his movements. Around this time, apparently by chance, ATF agents discovered Celis-Acosta was also a potential criminal target of the DEA, which was operating a wire room to monitor live wiretaps in order to track him. On April 2, 2010, Celis-Acosta was arrested on possession of cocaine and found in possession of a weapon purchased by Uriel Patino, who had already purchased at least 434 guns from cooperating gun dealers in the Phoenix area. By this time about a dozen ATF agents regularly surveilled Celis-Acosta as he recruited 20 friends and family to buy guns for him and regularly traveled to Texas to obtain funds from cartel associates to purchase firearms. On May 29, 2010, Celis-Acosta was detained in Lukeville, Arizona with 74 rounds of ammunition and 9 cell phones. He was then released by the chief ATF investigator on Fast and Furious, Hope MacAllister, after he promised to cooperate with her to find two specific Sinaloa cartel associates. After the redetention and arrest of Celis-Acosta in February 2011, the ATF learned that the associates they were after were FBI/DEA paid informants, and one of them was Celis-Acosta's financier. Since they were informants, they were unindictable under Operation Fast and Furious.[45][48][49][50][51]

Later, the DOJ inspector General concluded: "We did not find persuasive evidence that agents sought to seize firearms or make arrests during the investigative stage of the case and were rebuffed by the prosecutor. …We found that the lack of seizures and arrests was primarily attributable to the pursuit of a strategic goal shared by both the [Phoenix] ATF and the U.S. Attorney's Office—to eliminate a trafficking organization—and the belief that confronting subjects and seizing firearms could compromise that goal."[1]


Weapons bought by Fast and Furious suspect Uriel Patino, seized by Border Patrol and Tucson ATF agents on the Tohono O'odham Reservation from a vehicle headed toward the Mexican border, February 20, 2010.[1]
By June 2010, suspects had purchased 1,608 firearms at a cost of over US$1 million at Phoenix-area gun shops. At that time, the ATF was also aware of 179 of those weapons being found at crime scenes in Mexico, and 130 in the United States.[8] As guns traced to Fast and Furious began turning up at violent crime scenes in Mexico, ATF agents stationed there also voiced opposition.[3]

On the evening of December 14, 2010, U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and others were patrolling Peck Canyon, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, 11 miles from the Mexican border. The group came across five suspected illegal immigrants. When they fired non-lethal beanbag guns, the suspects responded with their own weapons, leading to a firefight. Terry was shot and killed; four of the suspects were arrested and two AK-pattern rifles were found nearby.[3] The Attorney General's office was immediately notified of the shooting incident by email.[52] The rifles were traced within hours of the shooting to a Phoenix store involved in the Fast and Furious operation, but the bullet that killed Terry was too badly damaged to be conclusively linked to either gun.[3] Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler and Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson were informed about the guns, but they didn't believe the information was sufficiently important to alert the Attorney General about it or to make any further inquiry regarding the development.[1]:297

After hearing of the incident, Dodson contacted ATF headquarters, ATF's chief counsel, the ATF ethics section and the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General, none of whom immediately responded. He and other agents then contacted Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa (R–IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who would become a major figure in the investigation of "gunwalking". At the same time, information began leaking to various bloggers and Web sites.[3]

On January 25, 2011, Burke announced the first details of the case to become officially public, marking the end of Operation Fast and Furious. At a news conference in Phoenix, he reported a 53-count indictment of 20 suspects for buying hundreds of guns intended for illegal export between September 2009 and December 2010. Newell, who was at the conference, called Fast and Furious a "phenomenal case," while denying that guns had been deliberately allowed to walk into Mexico.[3][12]

Altogether, about 2,000 firearms were bought by straw purchasers during Fast and Furious.[1]:203[3] These included AK-47 variants, Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles, .38 caliber revolvers, and FN Five-sevens.[41] As of October 20, 2011, 389 had been recovered in the US and 276 had been recovered in Mexico. The rest remained on the streets, unaccounted for.[15] As of February 2012, the total number of recovered firearms was 710.[1]:203 Most of the guns went to the Sinaloa Cartel, while others made their way to El Teo and La Familia.[2][32]

Although most weapons were purchased by suspects under investigation by the program, there have been reports of at least one instance of ATF agents being directly involved in the transfer of weapons. On April 13, 2010, ATF Agent John Dodson, with assistance from Agents Casa and Alt, directed a cooperating straw purchaser to give three guns to Isaiah Fernandez, a suspected gun trafficker, and had taped the conversations without prosecutor approval.[47]

After being instructed by his superiors to obtain approval from prosecutors (albeit retroactively), Dodson's proposal was later rejected by his immediate superior David Voth, although he later received permission from Voth's supervisor after submitting a written proposal for the program. On June 1, 2010, Dodson used $2,500 of ATF funds to purchase six AK Draco pistols from local gun dealers, which he then gave to Mr. Fernandez, who reimbursed him for the expense of the guns, plus $700 for his assistance.[47] Two days later, Agent Dodson went on a scheduled vacation without interdicting the weapons. As a result, the weapons were never recovered, no arrests were ever made, and the case was closed without charges being filed.[47]

According to the DOJ OIG report, Agent Dodson, as the undercover posing as a straw buyer, was not expected to surveil the weapons after hand-off to Fernandez. Other ATF agents followed the weapons to a storage facility; then surveillance was terminated without interdiction.[1] The Fernandez case was dropped from Fast and Furious after it was determined that Fernandez was not connected to Mexican cartels and had ceased buying guns for resale.[1][53]

Aftermath and reaction Edit

Fate of walked guns Edit
Since the end of Operation Fast and Furious, related firearms have continued to be discovered in criminal hands. As reported in September 2011, the Mexican government stated that an undisclosed number of guns found at about 170 crime scenes were linked to Fast and Furious.[54] U.S. Representative Darrell Issa (R–Calif.–49) estimated that more than 200 Mexicans were killed by guns linked to the operation.[55] Reflecting on the operation, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the United States government is "...losing the battle to stop the flow of illegal guns to Mexico,"[56] and that the effects of Operation Fast and Furious will most likely continue to be felt for years, as more walked guns appear at Mexican crime scenes.[57]

In April 2011, a large cache of weapons, 40 traced to Fast and Furious but also including military-grade weapons difficult to obtain legally in the US such as an anti-aircraft machine gun and grenade launcher, was found in the home of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a prominent Sinaloa Cartel member, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Torres Marrufo was indicted, but evaded law enforcement for a brief time.[58][59] Finally, on February 4, 2012, Marrufo was arrested by the Mexican Police.[60]

On May 29, 2011, four Mexican Federal Police helicopters attacked a cartel compound, where they were met with heavy fire, including from a .50 caliber rifle. According to a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, this rifle is likely linked to Fast and Furious.[2]

There have been questions raised over a possible connection between Fast and Furious and the death of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata on February 15, 2011.[61][62] The gun used to kill Zapata was purchased by Otilio Osorio in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, Texas[63] (outside the area of responsibility for the ATF Phoenix field division[64] which conducted Fast and Furious), and then smuggled into Mexico. Congressional investigators have stated that Osorio was known by the ATF to be a straw purchaser months before he purchased the gun used to kill Zapata, leading them to question ATF surveillance tactics[63] and to suspect a Texas-based operation similar to Fast and Furious.[65]

In addition to Otilio Osorio, a Texas-based drug and gun trafficker, Manuel Barba, was involved in trafficking another of the guns recovered in the Zapata shooting. The timeline of this case, called "Baytown Crew", shows guns were allowed to walk during surveillance that began June 7, 2010. On August 20, 2010, Barba received a rifle later recovered in the Zapata ambush and sent it with nine others to Mexico. The warrant for Barba's arrest was issued February 14, 2011, the day before Zapata was shot.[66] On January 30, 2012, Barba, who claimed to be working with Los Zetas in illegally exporting at least 44 weapons purchased through straw buyers, was sentenced to 100 months in prison.[67]

On November 23, 2012, two firearms linked to the ATF were found at the scene of a shootout between Sinaloa cartel members and the Mexican military. One of the weapons was an AK-47 type rifle trafficked by Fast and Furious suspect Uriel Patino, and the other was an FN Herstal pistol originally purchased by an ATF agent. Mexican beauty queen Maria Susana Flores Gamez and four others were killed.[68][69]

One of the nineteen guns Mexican authorities said they found at the hideout of Joaquin Guzman aka El Chapo, after his January 2016 capture, was associated with the Fast and Furious operation. The Justice Department confirmed that the .50-caliber rifle was bought in July 2010 in a straw purchase by someone not known to the ATF at the time, and stated the weapon was not associated with any other crime. In a letter to congressional leaders, Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik, head of the Justice Department's legislative affairs office, wrote, "ATF and the department deeply regret that firearms associated with Operation Fast and Furious have been used by criminals in the commission of violent crimes, particularly crimes resulting in the deaths of civilians and law enforcement officials."[70][71]

Investigations and fallout Edit
In the U.S. Congress, Representative Darrell Issa (R–CA–49), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Chuck Grassley (R–IA), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have been leading investigations of "gunwalking" operations.[72] There have also been investigations by the United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and others.

2011 Edit
On January 27, 2011, Grassley wrote a letter to ATF Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson requesting information about the ATF-sanctioned sale of hundreds of firearms to straw purchasers. The letter mentioned a number of allegations that walked guns were used in the fight that killed Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.[73] A second letter from Grassley on January 31 accused the ATF of targeting whistleblowers.[74]

On February 4, 2011, after review and comment from dozens of officials in the Justice Department Criminal Division, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix, and ATF Headquarters,[1]:332 Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich sent a response to Grassley regarding his two letters. Weich said claims "...that (the) ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them to Mexico [are] false. ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.”[75][76] On February 28, Attorney General Eric Holder requested that the Department of Justice's Inspector General begin an investigation of Fast and Furious.[77]

On March 22, 2011, President Barack Obama appeared on Univision and spoke about the "gunwalking" controversy. He said that neither he nor Attorney General Holder authorized Fast and Furious. He also stated, "There may be a situation here in which a serious mistake was made, and if that's the case then we'll find out and we'll hold somebody accountable."[78]

On May 3, 2011, Attorney General Holder testified to the House Judiciary Committee that he did not know who approved Fast and Furious, but that it was being investigated. He also stated that he "probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks,"[79] a claim which would later be questioned[80][81][82] as explained below.

In June, ATF Agent Vince Cefalu, who helped to publicize Fast and Furious, was served with termination papers, in a move by the agency he described as politically motivated retaliation. He had been at odds with ATF management since he filed a complaint over tactics in an unrelated case in 2005. The ATF denied that the firing was retaliation, and Cefalu's termination letter noted that he leaked documents to the Internet and showed a "lack of candor" in other operations.[83]

On June 14, 2011, a preliminary joint staff report was released by Representative Issa and Senator Grassley.[11] Among the findings: agents were told to stand down rather than interdict weapons, they complained about the strategy and were ignored, and Fast and Furious led to increased violence and death in Mexico.[84] Agents were panicked, certain that "someone was going to die".[85]

Representative Issa continued to hold hearings in June and July where ATF officials based in Phoenix and Mexico, and at headquarters in Washington, testified before the committee.[86] ATF agent John Dodson stated that he and other agents were ordered to observe the activities of gun smugglers but not to intervene. He testified:[87][88]

Over the course of the next 10 months that I was involved in this operation, we monitored as they purchased hand guns, AK-47 variants, and .50 caliber rifles almost daily. Rather than conduct any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals for a short time after their purchases, but nothing more. Knowing all the while, just days after these purchases, the guns that we saw these individuals buy would begin turning up at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico, we still did nothing. ...

I cannot begin to think of how the risk of letting guns fall into the hands of known criminals could possibly advance any legitimate law enforcement interest.

A second joint staff report was released by the Republicans on July 26.[41]

In August, three important Fast and Furious supervisors were transferred to new management positions at ATF headquarters in Washington: William Newell and David Voth, field supervisors who oversaw the program from Phoenix, and William McMahon, an ATF deputy director of operations. The transfers were initially reported as promotions by the Los Angeles Times, but the ATF stated that they did not receive raises or take on greater responsibilities.[72][89] In late August, it was announced that Acting ATF Director Melson had been reassigned to the Justice Department, and U.S. Attorney Burke announced his resignation after being questioned by Congressional investigators earlier that month.[90]

In October, documents showing that Attorney General Holder's office had been sent briefings on Fast and Furious as early as July 2010, prompted questions about his May statement that he wasn't sure of the exact date, but had known about it for only a few weeks. The briefings were from the National Drug Intelligence Center and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. The Justice Department said that those briefings were about a different case started before Holder became Attorney General, and that while he had known about Fast and Furious, he didn't know the details of the tactics being used.[82]

On October 31, 2011, after the release of subpoenaed documents, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer stated he found out about gunwalking in Operation Wide Receiver in April 2010, and that he wished he had alerted the deputy or the attorney general at the time.[91][92] The following day, in testimony before the Senate Judicial Committee in a hearing on International Organized Crime, when asked if he had reviewed the letter before it was sent to Senator Charles Grassley on February 4, 2011, denying gunwalking, Breuer replied, "I cannot say for sure whether I saw a draft of the letter that was sent to you. What I can tell you, Senator, is that at that time I was in Mexico dealing with the very real issues that we're all so committed to."[93]

On November 8, 2011, Holder stated for the first time in Congressional testimony that "gunwalking" was used in Fast and Furious. He remarked that the tactic is unacceptable, and that the operation was "flawed in its concept and flawed in its execution". He further stated that his office had inaccurately described the program in previous letters sent to Congress, but that this was unintentional. Reiterating previous testimony, he said that he and other top officials had been unaware that the "gunwalking" tactic was being used. Holder stated that his staff had not showed him memos about the program, noting, "There is nothing in any of those memos that indicates any of those inappropriate tactics that are of concern. Those things were not brought to my attention, and my staff, I think, made the correct decision in that regard."[80][94][95]

That same month, ex-US Attorney Burke admitted to leaking sensitive documents about ATF agent and whistleblower Dodson. Senator Grassley expressed concern that the Justice Department was using Burke as a scapegoat to protect higher officials and vowed to continue his probe.[96]

On December 2, 2011, the Justice Department formally withdrew its statement from February 4, 2011, denying gunwalking due to inaccuracies.[97]

Later that month, documents showed that some ATF agents discussed using Fast and Furious to provide anecdotal cases to support controversial new rules about gun sales. The regulation, called Demand Letter 3, would require 8,500 firearms dealers in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas that "have a significant number of crime guns traced back to them from Mexico" to report multiple rifle sales.[98]

2012 Edit
Investigations by Congress and the DOJ Inspector General continued into 2012. In January, Patrick Cunningham, who was the criminal division chief at the Phoenix office of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona and has since resigned, asserted his innocence and his constitutional right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying.[99] Cunningham worked directly under Burke during Fast and Furious. He was subpoenaed because of the role he might have played in the operation, and in the letter sent from the DOJ to Senator Grassley in February 2011 that claimed the ATF did not allow weapons to be trafficked to Mexico.[100]

On January 31, 2012, Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report titled, "Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gunwalking in Arizona".[36] The report concluded that there was no evidence of involvement by high-ranking appointees at the Justice Department in "gunwalking". Rather, Operation Fast and Furious was just one of four such operations conducted over five years during the Bush and Obama administrations, and was only "the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office".[101]

In May, it was reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General had begun to investigate Fast and Furious, with a report expected in October. The DHS had Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents assigned to the operation after becoming involved in late 2009.[102]

On May 3, 2012, Congressman Issa released a memorandum to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that included a draft of a resolution to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt.[103] In the memo, Issa described the connection between Operation Fast and Furious and the OCDETF program since at least January 2009, which would involve multiple executive agencies including the ATF, DOJ, DEA, FBI, ICE, and DHS. He questioned how, why, or if oversight by high level Justice Department did not occur in such an important case. He further described the tragic death of Brian Terry, the whistleblowers and their mistreatment, and the damage the operation had to US-Mexico relations.

On June 7, 2012, under the threat of being held in contempt of Congress for not turning over additional requested documents, Attorney General Holder appeared at his seventh Congressional hearing, where he continued to deny knowledge of "gunwalking" by high-level officials. By then, the Justice Department had turned over more than 7,000 pages of documents.[104]

During the June 12, 2012, Senate hearing, Eric Holder stated, "If you want to talk about Fast and Furious, I'm the Attorney General that put an end to the misguided tactics that were used in Fast and Furious. An Attorney General who I suppose you would hold in higher regard was briefed on these kinds of tactics in an operation called Wide Receiver and did nothing to stop them—nothing. Three hundred guns, at least, walked in that instance." Holder cited a briefing paper on "Wide Receiver"; the DOJ Office of Legislative Affairs later clarified that the briefing paper was about the Fidel Hernandez case, prepared for Holder's predecessor, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey before his meeting with Mexican Attorney General Mora on November 16, 2007.[35] The Hernandez Case had ended October 6, 2007,[105] before Mukasey entered office November 9, 2007.[106] The office further explained, "As Attorney General Holder also noted in his testimony, and as we have set forth in prior correspondence and testimony, he took measures and instituted a series of important reforms designed to ensure that the inappropriate tactics used in Fast and Furious, Wide Receiver, Hernandez, and other matters about which the Department has informed Congress are not repeated."[35] The later DOJ OIG investigation concluded "Attorney General Mukasey was not briefed about Operation Wide Receiver or gun 'walking,' but on a different and traditional law enforcement tactic that was employed in a different case."[1]

On June 20, 2012, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted along party lines to recommend that Holder be held in contempt. At issue were 1,300 pages of documents that had not been turned over to Congress by the DOJ. Earlier that day, President Obama had invoked executive privilege over those documents, marking the first time the privilege has been asserted during his presidency.[21][22] Issa contends that the Obama executive privilege claim is a cover-up or an obstruction to the congressional probe. Issa said the department has identified "140,000 pages of documents and communications responsive to the committee's subpoena".[107]

On June 28, 2012, Holder became the first sitting member of the Cabinet of the United States to be held in criminal contempt of Congress by the House of Representatives for refusing to disclose internal Justice Department documents in response to a subpoena. The vote was 255–67 in favor, with 17 Democrats voting yes and a large number of Democrats walking off the floor in protest and refusing to vote. A civil contempt measure was also voted on and passed, 258–95. The civil contempt vote allows the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to go to court with a civil lawsuit to look into the US Justice Department's refusal to turn over some of the subpoenaed documents and to test Obama's assertion of executive privilege. Holder dismissed the votes as "the regrettable culmination of what became a misguided—and politically motivated—investigation during an election year," and the White House called it "political theater rather than legitimate congressional oversight".[19][20] The National Rifle Association controversially lobbied for Holder to be held in contempt.[108][109][110][111][112][113]

In June 2012, a six-month-long investigation by Fortune magazine stated that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, in contrast to most other reports. Agents interviewed during the investigation repeatedly asserted that only one isolated incident of "gunwalking" ever occurred, and was performed independently by ATF Agent John Dodson (who later appeared on CBS News as a whistleblower to denounce the gunwalking scandal) as part of an unauthorized solo action outside the larger Fast and Furious operation.[47]

On July 31, 2012, the first part of a new three-part report, Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation,[37] was released by Republican lawmakers. The report singled out five ATF supervisors for responsibility in Fast and Furious, all of whom had been previously reassigned. The report also said that Fast and Furious resulted from a change in strategy by the Obama Administration. The Justice Department was dismissive of the report, saying that it contained "distortions" and "debunked conspiracy theories," and that "gunwalking" tactics dated back to 2006.[114] DOJ spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler, while critical of the report, did credit it for acknowledging that the idea for "gun walking"—allowing illegal sales of weapons on the border—originated under the Republican administration before Eric Holder took office in 2009. Schmaler noted that Holder moved swiftly to replace the ATF's management and instill reforms.[115] On the same day, ATF Deputy Director William Hoover, who was one of the five blamed in the Congressional report, officially retired.[116] The report included an appendix disputing claims in the Fortune article.[53] Following its publication, Dodson's lawyer wrote the managing editor of Fortune stating the article was "demonstrably false" and that a retraction was in order.[117] After Fortune did not retract the article, Dodson sued for libel on October 12, 2012.[118][119]

On September 19, 2012,[120] the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz publicly released a 471-page report[1] detailing the results of the Justice Department's own internal investigations. The Inspector General's report, which had access to evidence and interviews with witnesses not permitted in previous Congressional reports, recommended 14 federal officials for disciplinary action, ranging from ATF agents to federal prosecutors involved in the Fast and Furious operation.[120] It found "no evidence" that Attorney General Holder knew about Fast and Furious before early 2011.[121] It found no evidence that previous Attorneys General had been advised about gunwalking in Operation Wide Receiver.[1]

While the OIG report found no evidence that higher officials at the Justice Department in Washington had authorized or approved of the tactics used in the Fast and Furious investigations, it did fault 14 lower officials for related failures, including failures to take note of "red flags" uncovered by the investigation, as well as failures to follow up on information produced through Operation Fast and Furious and its predecessor, Operation Wide Receiver.[120][122] The report also noted ATF agents' apparent frustrations over legal obstacles from the Phoenix Attorney's Office to prosecuting suspected "straw-buyers," while also criticizing the agents' failure to quickly intervene and interdict weapons obtained by low-level suspects in the case.[120] The 14 Justice Department employees were referred for possible internal discipline. The Justice Department's Criminal Division head Lanny Breuer, an Obama administration presidential appointee, was cited for not alerting his bosses in 2010 to the flaws of Operation Wide Receiver.[123] Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, who was responsible for authorizing a portion of the wiretap applications in Operation Fast and Furious and faulted in the report for not identifying the gunwalking tactics, resigned on the day of the report.[124]

On December 4, 2012, the ATF Professional Review Board delivered its recommendations to high-level ATF managers, who will decide whether to accept them. The recommendations included firing William McMahon, ATF Deputy Assistant Director; Mark Chait, ATF Assistant Director for Field Operations; William Newell, Phoenix ATF Special Agent in Charge; and George Gillett, Newell's second in command. Two additional ATF employees, Phoenix supervisor David Voth and lead agent Hope McAllister, received recommendations for demotion and disciplinary transfer to another ATF post, respectively.[125][126] It was reported the next day that McMahon had been fired. It was also announced that Gary Grindler, Eric Holder's chief of staff who was faulted in the OIG report, would be leaving the Justice Department.[122] Later that month, the family of Brian Terry sued seven government officials and a gun shop involved in Operation Fast and Furious for negligence and wrongful death.[127]

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Woody Harrelson smoked weed during 'brutal’ dinner with Donald Trump

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Suburban St. Louis mall briefly closed during protests



MANCHESTER, Mo. (AP) — A suburban St. Louis Wal-Mart and nearby shopping mall have briefly closed because of protests.The protests are part of an economic boycott effort. It’s organized by black St. Louis faith and civic leaders involved in recent protests over the acquittal in September of white former police officer Jason Stockley of first-degree murder in the death of a black drug suspect.









http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/o ... -1.3659856
Outrage over fine for 85-year-old dementia patient sitting on bus stop bench
BY CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, November 27, 2017, 4:14





http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3659760

Arlington National Cemtery police investigated for fake beating photo
BY CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Monday, November 27, 2017, 2:18 AM




https://theintercept.com/2017/11/26/hon ... testimony/

Members of the Honduran Directorate for the Fight against Drug Trafficking (DLCN) and the Military Police take part in an operation to seize 32 real estate, 15 vehicles and nine commercial companies of six Honduran police officers charged in absentia in New York late last month, in Tegucigalpa on July 14, 2016.The police officers were indicted in a cocaine smuggling and weapons conspiracy linked to a son of the troubled country's former president. The six defendants, aged 39 to 46, were charged a month after Fabio Lobo, son of former Honduran president Porfirio Lobo, pled guilty to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. US prosecutors say the officers agreed to give cocaine safe passage through Honduras in exchange for nearly $1 million in bribes from purported Mexican drug smugglers, who were in fact undercover US agents. / AFP / ORLANDO SIERRA (Photo credit should read ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images)


TOP U.S.-BACKED HONDURAN SECURITY MINISTER IS RUNNING DRUGS, ACCORDING TO COURT TESTIMONY
Jake Johnston
November 26 2017, 8:29 a.m.
Photo: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
THE HONDURAN MINISTER of security, who was intimately involved in solidifying the 2009 coup, is tied up in drug trafficking, according to testimony from a Mexican drug-trafficker-turned-Drug-Enforcement-Agency-informant in U.S. court.

In November 2016, as the world’s attention was fixated on the surprise election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, two nephews of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro were found guilty on drug trafficking charges. The conviction was another feather in the cap of U.S. prosecutors who have been targeting the Venezuelan government with corruption and drug trafficking investigations.

But in the South Florida courtroom, the testimony of José Santos Peña also implicated Julián Pacheco Tinoco, a former Honduran military official with long ties to the U.S. security apparatus.

A U.S. prosecutor asked the informant about a meeting in Honduras he had participated in a few years earlier. The purpose of the meeting with Honduras’s current security minister and then head of military intelligence Pacheco Tinoco was “so that he could give me help to receive shipments from Colombia to Honduras,” the informant told the court.

“What type of shipments?” the prosecutor asked.

“Cocaine,” the informant clarified.

According to the prosecution, one of the defendants in the case had deleted from his Samsung phone chat records and contact information bearing Pacheco’s name. But the allegation that the top security official of one of the United States’s closest regional allies was involved in drug trafficking was treated as a nonevent in Washington; not a single major media story mentioned the DEA informant’s testimony.

In March 2017, this time in a New York courtroom, Pacheco’s name would once again come up. More details of his and other Honduran government officials’ alleged involvement in drug trafficking were revealed.

Today, Pacheco remains the minister of security, in charge of the entire Honduran national police force. With hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. assistance pouring into Honduras’s security forces, Pacheco is one of the most important players in the country’s security and counternarcotics cooperation with the United States.

In an e-mailed statement, Tim Rieser, the foreign policy aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the senator is concerned with the allegations, but that more facts are needed. Leahy “believes the State Department should be looking at this carefully because the Security Minister needs to be someone of unimpeachable integrity,” Rieser wrote.

With future funding for Honduras threatened by some members of Congress — including Leahy — Pacheco was in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. It wasn’t the first time he had made a trip to protect the U.S.-Honduran relationship.

Authorities incinerate a load of cocaine seized to two Colombian nationals navigating along the Caribbean, in Tegucigalpa, on July 11, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / ORLANDO SIERRA (Photo credit should read ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images)
Authorities incinerate a load of cocaine seized to two Colombian nationals navigating along the Caribbean, in Tegucigalpa, on July 11, 2017. Photo: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
PACHECO’S CONNECTION WITH the United States dates back decades. As a 21-year-old cadet, Pacheco traveled to the U.S. military’s School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. In September 1979, he graduated from a course on counterinsurgency tactics.

With the election of Ronald Reagan the following year, Honduras took on new prominence as a U.S. ally and as a staging ground for covert American support for the contra right-wing insurgency in Nicaragua. U.S. security aid to the country skyrocketed, as did allegations that the Honduran military was involved in drug trafficking and in dozens of disappearances of activists. U.S. diplomats largely looked the other way.

In the spring of 1986, at the height of the United States’s Cold War efforts in Central America, Pacheco was once again at the School of the Americas. This time, having been promoted to lieutenant, Pacheco graduated from a course in psychological operations.

After the Berlin Wall fell, the Pentagon changed tack in Central America and began focusing more on the “War on Drugs.”

In April 1988, the most notorious Honduran trafficker at the time, Juan Ramón Matta Ballesteros, was arrested and sent to the United States. As a key interlocutor between the Medellin Cartel in Colombia and Mexican traffickers, Ballesteros had compromised the highest levels of the Honduran military and government. He had also been a U.S. ally and owned a CIA-linked airline that had funneled weapons to the Nicaraguan contras – while sending drugs north.

Honduras’s constitution barred extradition, but working with rogue elements in the Honduran military, U.S. Marshal agents facilitated the capture of Matta Ballesteros. He was brought to the Dominican Republic, where he was officially turned over to U.S. authorities. The Honduran military officers who participated in the rendition were eventually criminally charged in their home country.

The following year, the United States invaded Panama, turning on another erstwhile ally involved in drug trafficking, Gen. Manuel Noriega. Noriega himself was head of military intelligence before becoming president and had been “our man in Panama,” receiving regular CIA payments for decades. Anyone – no matter their criminal record – could be a U.S. ally. That is, until they weren’t.

In Honduras, shifting U.S. priorities, a decrease in funding, and the arrest of Matta Ballesteros pushed the military into the background — at least for a little while. In June 2009, a military coup d’état ousted left-leaning elected president, Manuel Zelaya, who was dropped off in Costa Rica in his pajamas.

With relations tested, and the U.S. having temporarily suspending security assistance, then-Col. Pacheco Tinoco was sent to Washington, D.C., by the head of the Honduran armed forces. His mission was to convince the United States that the military acted properly, that there was no coup.

He met with senior State Department officials at the Old Ebbitt Grill near the White House and with congressional offices on Capitol Hill. He also met with a retired U.S. general who headed the Pentagon’s Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies and who allegedly helped facilitate meetings for Pacheco.

A continued relationship was a geostrategic interest of both militaries.

Later that summer, when Zelaya snuck back into Honduras and took refuge at the Brazilian embassy, U.S. diplomats intervened to ensure it was Pacheco who acted as “the key point of contact.”

Zelaya was not restored to office. In November of that year, the U.S. ended up backing controversial elections that were boycotted by opposition groups and considered illegitimate by most of the region’s governments. With the election, the coup was consolidated, as was the Honduran military’s return to political prominence. The declared winner of the election was Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo of the National Party, which had strong, historic ties to the nation’s military. Pacheco was named director of military intelligence.

The most prominent coup leaders from within the military were removed, and “in general,” wrote the U.S. ambassador, “respected officers have been promoted to positions of importance.” The shakeup would allow “the U.S. to begin to initiate a careful process of reengagement with the Honduran military,” the ambassador wrote to a host of intelligence agencies and other government agencies in Washington.

Honduran Security Minister Julian Pacheco prepares to deliver a press conference in Tegucigalpa, on March 7, 2017. Pacheco denied on Tuesday the accusations made by a former Honduran drug lord currently being held in the United States, of collaborating with drug trafficking. / AFP PHOTO / ORLANDO SIERRA (Photo credit should read ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images)
Honduran Security Minister Julian Pacheco prepares to deliver a press conference in Tegucigalpa, on March 7, 2017. Pacheco denied on Tuesday the accusations made by a former Honduran drug lord currently being held in the United States, of collaborating with drug trafficking. Photo: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
SINCE THEN, MORE and more evidence has emerged linking senior Honduran officials to drug trafficking. In 2015, Pepe Lobo’s son, Fabio, was arrested in Haiti and quickly sent to the United States. To take down Fabio, U.S. prosecutors again relied on the work of Santos Peña, the Mexican DEA informant. More importantly, in late 2013 Devis Leonel Rivera Maradiaga, the infamous leader of the Honduran criminal organization the Cachiros, quietly reached out to the DEA and began cooperating.

In early March 2017, Maradiaga took the stand during Fabio’s ongoing trial. He told the court that he had given bribes to Pepe Lobo during his 2009 presidential campaign. He also described a meeting with Pepe, Fabio, and others at the president’s residence.

“[Pepe] said not to worry,” Maradiaga testified, “that if anything were to happen that we should talk to Juan Gómez, that Juan Gómez in turn would talk to [Fabio Lobo], and then [Fabio Lobo] would get in touch with General Pacheco Tinoco.”

Before his assassination in 2015, Gómez was governor of Colón, a rural Honduran department at the heart of the Cachiros’s drug trafficking enterprise. During the mid-2000s, when the enterprise began to boom, Pacheco led a military battalion stationed there. He and Gómez met nearly every week.The day of one of their meetings, Fabio called Pacheco from his father’s house and told him he would come by later that day, according to Maradiaga.

Maradiaga and Fabio became close. Maradiaga told prosecutors that he considered Fabio a member of the Cachiros. In the fall of 2013, just before beginning his cooperation with the DEA, Maradiaga told Fabio of an incoming shipment of more than 1,000 kilos of cocaine. “I knew that having him with me, everything would go well and I felt better supported if I was with the president’s son,” he testified. With his security detail of military police officers, Fabio drove to Tocoa, in Colón, to meet the shipment.

Maradiaga claims to have paid Fabio $50,000. “He asked me whether I could pay him a little bit more because he needed to give him — give more money to the boss, and I knew who that was,” Maradiaga testified. The boss was “General Pacheco,” he said.

In June 2014, Fabio and Maradiaga met at a body shop in San Pedro Sula, Honduras’s second city. A white Hummer was in the shop and Maradiaga suggested that this would be a perfect gift for one of their friends in the police. Fabio allegedly called Pacheco and sent him a photo of the car.

It was just weeks later when Fabio and the Mexican DEA informant visited Pacheco. The meeting was recorded. “We wanted to come here with something illegal. You know?” the informant began, after exchanging pleasantries, “Of course, we just want your, your authorization and consent.”

“What type of work?” Pacheco asked.

“Um, we want to come here with merchandise, with drugs.”

The minister of security, a licensed attorney, did not fall for the absurdly obvious ruse. “No, it’s not much,” Fabio tried to reassure him. Pacheco excused himself and exited the room.

Less than six months later, the recently elected Juan Orlando Hernández, also of the National Party, named Gen. Pacheco Security Minister. He was the first active-duty military officer to be named to the post. At the request of the U.S. Embassy, and following a strong outcry by human rights groups, Pacheco retired from the military.

Pacheco categorically rejected the “ill-intentioned” and “unfounded” allegations when Maradiaga’s testimony went public. The drug trafficker was attempting to secure favorable treatment from the United States and undermine the Honduran government’s efforts to crack down on criminal activity, Pacheco said.

In September, Fabio Lobo was sentenced to 24 years in prison. “I want to apologize to the government of the United States,” he said, “and especially to my father, who has nothing to do with this.” Now, it may be the current Honduran president, controversially standing for reelection November 26, whose family is in legal trouble.

Maradiaga has turned over to the DEA a recorded conversation he had with Honduran lawmaker Tony Hernández, the brother of President Juan Orlando Hernández. According to Maradiaga’s testimony, the two discussed funneling government monies to a Cachiro-controlled front company in return for bribes.

Last month, the allegations reached the president himself. The New York Times reported that Maradiaga had given U.S. authorities another recording from 2013 in which a drug trafficker said he “made a $250,000 payment intended for Juan Orlando Hernández.”A Hernández representative denied the charges to the Times, and in what was either an incredibly honest or naïve response to a local paper, the president’s chief of staff said:

If we’re going to look at how organized crime has permeated society in general and funneled money, placed deputies, placed judges, various offices, within the attorney general’s office and everywhere, hold on to your seats, because we’re talking about all colors here.

The takeover of the Honduran government hasn’t stopped the United States from continuing its support for Honduras. Earlier this year, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly referred to Hernández as a “great guy” and a “good friend.” Kelly was the head of the Pentagon’s Latin American subsidiary U.S. Southern Command under the Obama administration. Hernández told the press that relations were now “probably better than ever.”

Eager to try to improve its image internationally, the Honduran government has initiated a police reform process with financial support from the United States and other international donors. At least 14 drug trafficking suspects have recently been extradited to the United States.

But the Honduran government appears to be selective regarding which individuals involved in drug trafficking should be handed to U.S. authorities. Last month, it was reported that Ramon Matta Waldurraga had turned himself over to the DEA in August. He is the son of Ballesteros, the Honduran trafficker rendered to the US in 1988.

Pacheco told the press that the government had no arrest warrant or extradition request for Matta Waldurraga, though the United States later unsealed a 2014 indictment on money laundering and drug trafficking charges. Like his father before him, Waldurraga’s testimony threatens to implicate military and political actors across Honduras.

And so the Honduran government remains on the defensive.

TOPSHOT - A man rides a bike past graffiti of Honduran indigenous environmentalist Berta Caceres a year after her murder, in La Esperanza, 180 km west of Tegucigalpa, on March 2, 2017. Caceres, an organizer of the Lenca people, the largest native group in Honduras, was murdered on March 3, 2016 in this city. / AFP PHOTO / ORLANDO SIERRA (Photo credit should read ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images)
A man rides a bike past graffiti of Honduran indigenous environmentalist Berta Caceres a year after her murder, in La Esperanza, west of Tegucigalpa, on March 2, 2017. Photo: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
ON MARCH 3, 2016, world-renowned environmental activist Berta Caceres was assassinated. A number of suspects have been arrested, including at least one U.S.-trained member of the Honduran military. But more than a year later, those who laid the groundwork for it remain free.

Caceres was the general coordinator of the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, or COPINH. With Caceres at its head, COPINH had led the struggle against a large hydroelectric project in rural Honduras. The company, COPINH has argued, failed to consult with the local population as required by Honduran law.

The concession for the dam was awarded under the post-coup government in 2010. The company building the dam, DESA, counts some of Honduras’ richest and most powerful as investors.

Blocked from accessing the vast majority of the criminal file, and in the absence of an independent investigation, relatives of Caceres arranged for a group of international human rights lawyers to conduct their own. The report from the International Advisory Group of Experts (GAIPE) was released on October 31 in Tegucigalpa.

The team analyzed many gigabytes of data drawn from cell phones and computers of some of those involved, though it was still just a small portion of the full case file. Still, the report found WhatsApp messages suggesting a well-orchestrated conspiracy to assassinate Caceres that had lasted many months. The Honduran government had been sitting on the evidence for more than a year.

The authors of the report presented their findings to members of Congress in Washington, D.C., in early November.

“There is now little doubt about the identities of at least some of the intellectual authors who conceived of and paid for the assassination of Berta Caceres,” Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, noted in a statement submitted to the congressional record. Yet, he added, “the Public Ministry has failed to act on this evidence, perhaps because it implicates DESA executives with ties to officials in the Honduran Government.”

The lack of accountability and unwillingness of the Honduran government to properly investigate the crime has put continued U.S. assistance “in jeopardy,” he said.

At the time of the assassination, Pacheco was security sinister. Two weeks after the report was released, more recent WhatsApp messages were leaked. They are allegedly from Pacheco. (Pacheco didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Intercept.)

In the messages, Pacheco complained about protective measures that have been decreed for members of COPINH and the cost to the government, though the vast majority have yet to be implemented. Pacheco referred to those whose lives have been threatened as a “mountain of moochers that take shelter behind the human rights banner.”

“This undermines peace and tranquility,” he continued, “this undermines national and international investment.”

In the coming weeks, the State Department is expected to let congressional appropriators know whether it considers that Honduras has complied with certain anticorruption and drug trafficking obligations attached to the majority of U.S. assistance to the country.

But back in early November, before the WhatsApp messages — and at the same time as Caceres’ family was presenting its findings — Pacheco was also in Washington.

Police officers from the anti-drug squad in Tegucigalpa on October 7, 2010 look after a load of 500 kilos of cocaine seized from traffickers during a joint operation by the Honduran Police, the Army and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in Brus Laguna, Mosquitia, Honduras. AFP PHOTO/Orlando SIERRA (Photo credit should read ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images)
Police officers from the anti-drug squad in Tegucigalpa on Oct. 7, 2010 look after a load of 500 kilos of cocaine seized from traffickers during a joint operation by the Honduran Police, the Army and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in Brus Laguna, Mosquitia, Honduras. Photo: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
TOGETHER WITH MEMBERS of the police reform commission, Pacheco held high-level meetings with State Department staff and key congressional offices. On November 2, the delegation participated in a public event at the partially congressionally funded Woodrow Wilson Center, housed in the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington.

At the very end of the two-hour event, an attendee, Christiam Sánchez, confronted Pacheco over his alleged role in drug trafficking. Pacheco “should be presenting his resignation and making himself available to authorities that are part of the investigation,” Sánchez said to the packed room. “How can you continue to be a part of the police reform process?” he asked Pacheco.

“I was serving the son of the ex-president,” Pacheco said about meeting with the now-jailed Fabio and the Mexican DEA informant, “and if I had to, I would do that again.”

“If I were a ‘narco’ like Christiam is saying,” he told the crowd, “I would not be seated here.”

Top photo: Members of the Honduran Directorate for the Fight against Drug Trafficking (DLCN) and the Military Police take part in an operation to seize 32 real estate, 15 vehicles and nine commercial companies of six Honduran police officers charged in absentia in New York late last month, in Tegucigalpa on July 14, 2016. The police officers were indicted in a cocaine smuggling and weapons conspiracy linked to a son of the troubled country’s former president. The six defendants were charged a month after Fabio Lobo, son of former Honduran president Porfirio Lobo, pled guilty to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. U.S. prosecutors say the officers agreed to give cocaine safe passage through Honduras in exchange for nearly $1 million in bribes from purported Mexican drug smugglers, who were in fact undercover U.S. agents.



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Report: Juneau’s rape kit backlog is ‘one of the worst’





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Philly paying millions to resolve allegations of police misconduct
Updated: NOVEMBER 26, 2017 — 8:50 AM EST504






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Off-duty NYPD detective cuffed after fight at Brooklyn Outback Steakhouse
BY LAURA DIMON
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, November 27, 2017, 10:02 AM






http://www.publicopiniononline.com/stor ... 895960001/
Former Waynesboro man writes book about what it's really like in the FBI





http://www.mediachannel.org/hoovers-fbi ... th-estate/





Media Channel


Hoover’s FBI and the Fourth Estate
March 12, 2014



Note: In addition to the interview above, we are pleased to be able to offer you the Introduction to Professor Matthew Cecil’s Hoover’s FBI and the Fourth Estate: The Campaign to Control the Press and the Bureau’s Image. Our thanks to the author and the University Press of Kansas for making this content available. Please click HERE to purchase the book.

Introduction

Before the Freedom of Information Act opened up J. Edgar Hoover’s massive archive of meticulously indexed files to researchers in the 1970’s, the FBI enjoyed a unique and lofty position in American society. Hoover and his agents were heroes to many Americans. Tales of the FBI’s infallible laboratory and army of honest and professional agents became part of popular culture. Thanks to movies, television programs, books, magazines, and countless news reports, the FBI was widely considered to be an indispensable government agency. It was not always that way.

Created in the early 1900’s despite a storm of controversy and fear of federal law enforcement, the early FBI, originally known as the Bureau of Investigation, quickly established itself as precisely the corrupt, out-of-control agency critics feared it would be. It was not until the 1930’s that the FBI and Hoover, who was named director in 1924, began a three-decade period of cultural and jurisdictional growth. The arc of FBI power mirrored the arc of Hoover’s own life. Scandal and corruption (some of it enabled by Hoover) had nearly sunk the agency by the time he took over as director in 1924. By the late 1930’s, Hoover had calmed many critics’ fears by removing political cronies, professionalizing the agency, and modernizing its law enforcement techniques. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, Hoover became a ferocious anticommunist, utilizing the awesome power of the FBI to enforce a specific vision of what it meant to be an American. In the 1960’s and early 1970’s, Hoover’s vitality waned and critics became increasingly willing to attack the Bureau’s activities.

Hoover and the FBI first emerged as cultural icons in the mid-1930’s when the public became aware of the Bureau through its high-profile battles with enigmatic outlaws such as John Dillinger. Hoover personified the legendary G-man, and he and the Bureau became media darlings. Dramatic FBI cases became the fodder for newspaper and magazine stories, radio programs, and books. The 1940’s and 1950’s saw Hoover and the Bureau at their most powerful as they rooted out subversion (through both legal and illegal means) and maintained the loyal and outspoken support of a majority of Americans. As Hoover aged, though, his agency failed to shift with the times; the nation had moved beyond the director’s Victorian-era worldview, leaving him and the FBI out of step with society. The Bureau’s demonization of Hoover’s enemies on the Left became increasingly strident and anachronistic as leftists and their antiwar or pro–civil rights messages moved closer to the mainstream. In the years prior to Hoover’s death, public criticism of the FBI, once a dangerous and lonely undertaking, had become increasingly common. Hoover’s passing in 1972, after forty-eight years leading the FBI, eliminated the primary locus of the Bureau’s iconic power and control.

When historians and authors gained access to the FBI’s remarkable trove of information, the Hoover legend immediately began unraveling. A culture of secrecy that had shielded the Bureau from scrutiny for decades was removed, replaced with relative openness and limited public access to the information in the FBI files. Initial forays into the files allowed pioneering FBI scholars to sketch out the framework of what lay behind the Bureau’s public facade and create a timeline of Hoover’s many shameless illegalities and seemingly constant lesser offenses against civil liberties. That reality—of a lawless and uncontrolled Bureau that expended enormous amounts of time and resources policing political thought rather than investigating violations of federal law—confirmed more than six decades of critics’ complaints. Americans came to understand that Hoover, hired to clean up the Bureau, had ultimately transformed the FBI into an American secret police force, even as he convinced the public and many in the news media that he was a trustworthy defender of civil liberties.

It is interesting to consider how, in a nation so proud of its watchdog press, a high-profile federal agency managed to hide the reality of its activities for so long. The answer is as complex as the FBI’s decades-long deception, but it surely includes failings entrenched in the ideology of journalism and in readers’ and viewers’ often uncritical acceptance of news as truth.

For the news-consuming public, particularly during times of national crisis, Hoover’s stellar reputation likely fulfilled some inner need to believe that good people were working hard on their behalf and that better times lay ahead. For ordinary Americans, the question of how government news emerges from the messy process of journalism and public relations was not, and is not, a common topic of concern. Most of the time, news is a commodity consumed without great thought about how it has been produced. An examination of the requirements of news work and of the relationship between public relations messages and news content demonstrates that the production of news, because it involves human beings, is far from the objective ideal that has come to characterize journalists’ defense of their work. Instead, it is a human process that involves myriad choices of what to include, what to leave out, and how to express what is left as a simplified narrative that somehow reflects reality.

What about the journalistic canon of objectivity? As David T. Z. Mindich noted in his study of the development of objective journalism, it is surprising that “years after consciousness was complicated by Freud, observation was problematized by Einstein, perspective was challenged by Picasso, writing was deconstructed by Derrida, and ‘objectivity’ was abandoned by practically everyone outside newsrooms, ‘objectivity’ is still the style of journalism that our newspaper articles and broadcast reports are written in, or against.”

In fact, modern assertions of objective journalism are a twentieth-century phenomenon. Journalism in the early to middle 1800’s was an openly and explicitly partisan or “biased” activity, as newspapers associated with particular individuals or political factions presented their own editorial worldviews. With the advent of the Penny Press in the 1830’s, which relied on advertising rather than subscription revenues, newspapers filled their columns less with editorial matter, with its presumed potential to alienate advertisers, and more with relatively unbiased “news.” The arrival of the Associated Press in 1848 has sometimes been credited with signaling the rise of “objective” journalism. As journalism historian Michael Schudson suggested, however, the defensive journalistic objectivity that exists today did not begin to take shape until after World War I. In spite of minor challenges to the ideology of objectivity, it remains the core of the news paradigm today.

During most of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the objective news paradigm has not been defined by a clear set of guidelines or ethical standards. Objective news is an ideal in which “bias” or a lack of objectivity is minimized. Yet even that watered-down definition, a far cry from the blank-slate arguments of an “objective” scientist, is problematic, according to scholar Robert A. Hackett: “The ideal of objectivity suggests that facts can be separated from opinion or value judgments, and that journalists can stand apart from the real-world events whose truth or meaning they transfer to the news audience by means of neutral language and competent reporting techniques.” In journalistic practice, objectivity has become a “strategic ritual,” a set of established routines that, if applied properly, allows journalists to protect themselves against charges of bias. In practice, a journalist’s concern about how to maintain objectivity has become less a philosophical question than a logistical one. The objectivity journalists speak of and the objectivity they practice may be very different. Though they often speak of “truth” and “reality,” in practice, journalists learn to gather and juxtapose competing truth claims and proclaim the result to be an “objective” representation.

Thus, the process of reporting the news is a product of journalists and sources understanding those established routines, as noted by Richard V. Ericson, Patricia M Baranek, and Janet B. L. Chan in their study of crime news. “Staged performances in both the courtroom and newsroom are packaged as if they are based on more ‘natural’ events and therefore represent unmediated reality,” they wrote. “The realism helps them to constitute the truths of their discourses… as if theirs is not one way of seeing but the way of seeing.” The authors concluded that government news coverage, rather than providing a reflection of reality, often becomes “primarily a public conversation among journalists and government officials with others left to make only occasional utterances and to eavesdrop.” In his study of the media’s role in the emergence and disappearance of the New Left movement in the 1960’s, Todd Gitlin asserted that when considered in the context of law enforcement, that closed conversation ostensibly based on interdependence actually overwhelmingly empowers the police: “When the power to define news is, in effect, turned over to the police, the media are serving to confirm the existing control mechanisms in society.” It is the conventions of journalism that create a power imbalance between media and government, Gitlin said. By adhering to those conventions and routines, journalists “systematically frame the news to be compatible with the main institutional arrangements of the society. Journalists thus sustain the dominant frames through the banal, everyday momentum of their routines.”

Those understandings of the nature of journalism correspond to contemporary accounts during Hoover’s early tenure as director of the FBI. In his 1937 book The Washington Correspondents, Leo Rosten observed reporters in order to describe how they produced and reproduced government officials’ “way of seeing” through their work routines. According to Rosten, the work of reporters covering government was a vocation of “professional reflexes and individual temperament” rather than any application of objectivity:













https://robertscribbler.com/2017/11/27/ ... -underway/





54 Fahrenheit Above Average: Extreme Warming Event For Greenland, Baffin Bay Underway

At the mouth of Baffin Bay just off the West Coast of Greenland today hurricane force wind gusts are blowing in from the south.



This roaring invasion of warm air originates from the Central Atlantic along a latitude line south of the Azores. It climbs hundreds of miles north to where it is intensified between a grinding 975 mb low off Labrador and a massive 1042 mb high squatting over Central Greenland. Temperatures in this warm air mass range from near 50 degrees (F) over Southwestern Greenland to around 40 degrees (F) over the mouth of Baffin Bay. Or between 9 and 36 degrees (F) above normal for this time of year.







(Hurricane force wind gusts are driving a wedge of above freezing air into Baffin Bay and over Western Greenland at a time when these regions should be seeing well below freezing conditions. Image source: Earth Nullschool.)



This warm wind driven air mass is expected to move north over the next 24 to 48 hours. It will steadily blanket both glaciers and areas typically covered with sea ice. And as it does so, it will push temperatures above freezing for large sections of both Baffin Bay and Western Greenland with above 32 F readings progressing as far as the Petermann Glacier.



What this means is that temperatures will likely hit record ranges of up to 54 degrees Fahrenheit above average in some locations near the far northern extent of this expected warm air invasion. Overall, Greenland itself is expected to see 15 degree (F) above average readings for the entire island. This will generate brief surface melt conditions for parts of Greenland during late November.







(Large region of 20 to 30 C, or 36 to 54 F, above average temperatures is predicted to blanket Greenland and the Canadian Archipelago after moving north through Baffin Bay over the next two days. Image source: Global and Regional Climate Anomalies.)



Strong warm air invasions of the Arctic at this time of year are a signal coming from human-forced climate change. As the northern pole darkens with winter, a global warming related phenomena called polar amplification ramps up. In addition, during recent years, we’ve seen warm air slots tend to develop beneath strong ridging features in the upper level Jet Stream. This year, the warm air slots have tended to form over the Bering Sea along the Pacific side of the Arctic and progress northward into the Chukchi. This has resulted in a large zone of ice free waters for a typically frozen region between Alaska and Siberia as warm winds and storm force waves have continuously beat the ice back.



The present warm air invasion for Greenland may be a signal that a similar warm air slot is attempting to develop over Baffin Bay going forward. Or it may be a fluke in the overall pattern. Watch this space.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peop ... SKBN1F81XS

Fired FBI director James Comey to teach ethics at Virginia college





https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/0 ... /23339381/


Senator says FBI lost crucial texts tied to Clinton probe

WASHINGTON The Federal Bureau of Investigation has lost about five months worth of text messages between two staffers who worked on probes into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails and possible collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, according to a Republican lawmaker.



https://www.globalresearch.ca/russiagat ... ry/5626626

Russiagate Has Blown Up in the Face of Its Originators—the FBI ...
Center for Research on Globalization-Jan 20, 2018
It is exactly as I told you. Russiagate is a conspiracy between the FBI, the DOJ, and the Hillary campaign to overturn Donald Trump's election. We have treason committed at the highest levels of the FBI and Department of Justice and the Democratic National Committee. If you believed one word of ...





http://www.euronews.com/2018/01/19/-gan ... d-in-syria

'Gangster jihadist' rapper who married FBI translator killed in Syria

By Emma Beswick

last updated: 19/01/2018



https://gizmodo.com/we-sued-for-roger-a ... 1822194410

We Sued for Roger Ailes' FBI File—Here's What We've Got So Far


A batch of never-before-seen FBI files on late Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes, obtained exclusively by Gizmodo and



http://www.berkeleycopwatch.org

Berkeley Copwatch is hosting a special KNOW YOUR RIGHTS training before the 96 hours of direct action to help people get ready to deal with massive police presence in the streets. We will practice techniques for gathering evidence, challenging racist practices and dealing with police intimidation after the protests are over. The event is free and wheelchair accessible.





http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists ... 80120.html


Pa. State Police shooting case looks ugly under grand jury spotlight |
Updated: JANUARY 20, 2018 — 5:26 AM EST

Two troopers shot and killed a 47-year-old man, Anthony Ardo, who’d been threatening to blow himself up in Lower Mount Bethel Township. A lieutenant called District Attorney John Morganelli to see what he wanted to do. Then a higher-ranking captain got involved. He told Morganelli to buzz off; state cops would investigate the shooting by his officers instead — no ifs, ands, or buts.


Morganelli didn’t take it well: “I think it is a mistake to shut us out,” he warned the captain.

Morganelli put a grand jury on the case. State police, whom the grand jury later dubbed “arrogant,” tried to kill the grand jury probe.

In the end, troopers were cleared of wrongdoing. But the grand jury, in a Dec. 27 report, found a staggering degree of confusion among high-ranking state police over what the 4,300-member-strong department’s policy on police-involved shootings was in the first place.

One high-ranking official told the grand jury that Morganelli had the right to lead the probe. Commissioner Tyree Blocker testified that state police did.

Also, the troopers got preferential treatment from their comrades. They weren’t interviewed until 30 days later and had the chance to review video of the shooting before they were interviewed.




https://rightsanddissent.org/news/group ... r-protest/

Groups seek oversight of NYPD Strategic Response Group’s role in abusive and repressive protest policing and conflation of “anti-terror” and protest

January 16, 2018 by Rights & Dissent




Link du jour

https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/01/19 ... er-record/


http://peopleslawoffice.com



https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/01/20 ... aterville/


Woman’s March in Maine
2018
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Skojs6SYjSg

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qWrsfwp2PzU


Woman’s March Vermont

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Z5s7T9WNs


https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/20 ... l:trending

He just graduated from Harvard. He’s also undocumented. Will he be deported?
Dario Guerrero took his mom to Mexico when she was dying. It cost him his DACA status.





http://www.wsbtv.com/news/national/hot- ... /687310919

More than 1,000 cold-stunned sea turtles found in Florida bay

PUBLISHED: January 20, 2018 at 9:00 pm | UPDATED: January 20, 2018 at 9:10 pm





Blink Tank


https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/1 ... grid-click

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=UUBjh- ... -iFgDK_D5s




https://rightsanddissent.org/news/new-f ... -protests/

With New FOIA Request, Defending Rights & Dissent and National Lawyers Guild Demand Answers About Infiltration of Inauguration Protests

January 11, 2018 by Rights & Dissent



WASHINGTON, D.C.— Defending Rights and Dissent (DRAD) and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) have once again teamed up to seek information about the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) conduct during Inauguration protests.

Earlier today, the two groups filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information about the infiltration of protest group DisruptJ20 by MPD, as well as the extent of MPD cooperation with non-law enforcement third parties like Project Veritas.

During the first criminal trials stemming from the J20 protests, Officer Bryan Adelmeyer testified in open court about MPD’s infiltration of protest planning meetings. He also confirmed in testimony that Project Veritas, an ultraconservative and widely discredited organization, did the same. Prosecutors played video footage for the jury during trial that was taken by a member of Project Veritas using a hidden button-camera. Ultimately all six defendants were acquitted by the jury; 188 defendants from the inauguration protests are still awaiting trial.

“MPD’s dragnet of J20 protesters apparently includes video obtained by white supremacists who infiltrated groups planning protected First Amendment activities,” said Maggie Ellinger-Locke, Executive Vice President of the NLG. “We call on the U.S. Attorney to put an end to this practice by dismissing all remaining charges against the 188 other J20 defendants.”

As explained in the FOIA request, MPD must comply with the “Police Investigations Concerning First Amendment Activities Act of 2004.” When asked at trial (and under oath) about his compliance with key components of this Act such as the requirement to obtain written authorization before infiltrating political groups, Officer Adelmeyer responded that he could not recall. The extent of Officer Adelmeyer’s directive was to “study the concerns and issues that are paramount within the anti-establishment community.”

“It is entirely inappropriate for the MPD to deem certain views ‘anti-establishment’ and then gather information on them. Political activism is not a crime and police infiltration of activist groups chills speech and deters political participation, which is why the City Council has explicitly imposed statutory restrictions on investigations of First Amendment protected activity. Officer Adelmeyer’s testimony raises serious questions about whether the MPD is following those restrictions and if they are relying on third parties, who have their own political goals, to evade these prohibitions,” said Chip Gibbons, Policy and Legislative Counsel for DRAD.

The FOIA seeks all unredacted videos, notes, training materials, and other records concerning MPD’s infiltration of DisruptJ20 and its collaboration with far-right organizations, including Project Veritas, Oath Keepers, The Rebel Media, and Media Research Center.

The full request can be read here.






https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-cente ... n-physical

Men Rounded Up in Post-9/11 Sweeps Push Suit Against Warden for Physical, Verbal, Religious Abuse


January 19, 2018, New York – Today, in a case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) urged a federal court to protect the ability of people detained in federal prisons to sue for damages over violence and other abusive treatment. In a June 2017 ruling, the Supreme Court held that high-level federal officials could not be individually sued for their policy of profiling and ultra-restrictive conditions of confinement during the post-9/11 detentions. The Court sent claims against the warden, who allowed physical and other abuse not required by the high-level officials’ policy, back to a lower court to determine whether the case against him may proceed.

The case, Turkmen v. Ashcroft (known in the Supreme Court as Ziglar v. Abbasi), was filed in the Eastern District of New York against prison administrators and high-level Bush officials for their roles in the profiling and abuse of detainees at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in New York City. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, hundreds of non-citizen Muslim, Arab, and South Asian men were rounded up solely on the basis of their race, religion, ethnicity, and immigration status. They were held in extremely restrictive confinement and physically and psychologically abused. In sending claims against the warden back to the lower court, the Supreme Court questioned whether the men have the right to sue for damages, because although the Supreme Court had previously allowed such claims by people who were convicted and sentenced to prison, it hadn’t ruled on the distinct question of claims by immigration detainees not convicted of anything.

“It makes no sense that those who are suspected of violating the immigration law should have less recourse for abuse than those who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Rachel Meeropol. “These men were brutally beaten and harassed in a federal prison. There is no question that a prisoner in the next cell, beaten by the same guards, could sue the warden who allowed it to happen. To deny my clients this last opportunity for justice would be rank discrimination—and leave vulnerable thousands of other immigration detainees—at a time when racist and anti-immigrant violence demands our urgent attention.”

Many of the detained men were held in a specially created maximum security housing unit for months in solitary confinement, prohibited from contact with the outside world, beaten, deprived of sleep, and denied the ability to practice their religion. Upon arrival at MDC, many of the detainees had their faces smashed into a t-shirt pinned to a wall with a picture of the American flag and the words “These colors don’t run” and were told, “Welcome to America.” The blood-smeared shirt hung on the prison wall for months. Ultimately, the men were charged with civil immigration violations, such as overstaying a visa or working without authorization, cleared of any connection to terrorism, and deported.

“The Supreme Court has already allowed the most powerful people responsible for my treatment to evade accountability,” said Benamar Benatta. “If the courts let prison officials off the hook as well, I will have waited 16 years for no justice at all. Those in power will be free not only to profile people based on religion and race, but to assault and torment people while they are held.”

Former MDC Warden Dennis Hasty argued in a brief also to be submitted today that he can’t be held accountable for allowing the plaintiffs to be abused by the guards under his supervision because Bureau of Prisons’ policy requires a warden to “stay his hand” when he hears complaints of abuse. He also argued that he had no responsibility to protect the detainees in his facility because his superiors in the Bureau of Prisons were taking steps to prevent abuse. Meeropol called these arguments “unsupported and implausible” and “frankly shocking.”

Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision, few courts even questioned the idea that federal detainees, just like convicted prisoners, could sue their abusers for money damages, and every appellate judge on the Second Circuit agreed that these claims against Hasty should go forward. The Supreme Court’s June decision already reversed the balance of the historic ruling in the case by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which had allowed claims to proceed against former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former FBI director Robert Mueller, and former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar for ordering that the men be held on the basis of blatantly discriminatory tips about their race, religion, and ethnicity. Now the remainder of the case hangs in the balance.

The Turkmen plaintiffs are represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, cooperating attorneys Michael Winger and Alexander A. Reinert, and Covington & Burling, LLP.

The case was first filed in April 2002 and has been working its way through the courts ever since.

Read the briefs filed today here and here. For more information, visit CCR’s case page.


The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.






https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/20/b ... -research/

From a remote cabin in the snowy hills above Crested Butte, Billy Barr’s historical records make him an accidental apostle among climate researchers
Year-round citizen scientist’s data provides context for the pros who descend on the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab in summer

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

The Nunes Memo and Vince Foster

The memorandum prepared by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes contains a couple of names that are very familiar to those of us who have followed the cover-up in the case of the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent W. Foster, Jr., from its beginning. Here are the key passages:

The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page’s July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the [Christopher] Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News—and several other outlets—in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington DC in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.

----

Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations—an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David Corn. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September—before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October—but Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.

What is revealed here is that the (former?) British intelligence agent, Steele, is as thick as thieves with a couple of intelligence assets in the American news media, Michael Isikoff and David Corn. You may search their names on my home page to see the full ugly picture of their KGB-like activities while they play the role of journalists, but we will hit some of the highlights for you here.

Michael Isikoff

One of the quotations at the top of “The Press and the Death of Vincent Foster” is from Isikoff in the August 15, 1993, Washington Post:

Foster's attempt to seek legal help is described in more than 200 pages of Park Police and FBI reports into his death that have not yet been publicly released. ...those reports leave no doubt that Foster was suffering from a worsening depression....

In other words, the FBI had used Isikoff as a conduit for what they wanted the American people to believe was the cause of death, giving him the privilege of viewing the evidence, which they denied to the public. He duly delivered for them. It is very similar to how they used his work to hoodwink the FISA court. Here’s my description of Isikoff in the referenced article:

Michael Isikoff of first The Washington Post and then with the Post Corporation's Newsweek magazine may be described as the lead mainstream reporter on the Foster case. Five days before this article appeared there had been the above-mentioned joint news conference [announcing the suicide conclusion]. The gathered journalists had not been told on what basis murder had been ruled out and no written substantiation for the suicide conclusion had been released. Furthermore, no indication was given of when or if any report would be released. Journalists were told simply that they could file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for any supporting documentation should they wish to see it.

America's news organs demonstrated total satisfaction with this conclusion announced as though by imperial decree. They did not clamor for a report substantiating the conclusion. They did not even report the fact that the Park Police and the FBI offered no real substantiation for their suicide conclusion and that there was no public report or any prospects for one in the foreseeable future. Rather, here we have The Post in its first Sunday edition after the official announcement telling us that reports that neither they (ostensibly) nor we have been able to see leave "no doubt" about a key disputed question in the case. This is press dereliction of responsibility to the public of the highest order.

Isikoff was the reporter of the news on Wednesday, July 28, 1993, eight days after Foster’s body was discovered in Fort Marcy Park in McLean, Virginia, that a note had been found in Foster’s office with the names of some psychiatrists on it. Two days later, he was the co-writer with the late Ann Devroy of a much longer article that said that the note with the psychiatrists names on it had been found by police searching Foster’s car, and to this day neither Isikoff nor the The Post has given any explanation for why the change in the supposed discovery location. When you’re making a story up, I suppose it doesn’t really make any difference. But speaking of making things up, that Isikoff and Devroy article also had this big-time whopper:

Police who arrived at Foster's house the night of the death were turned away after being told Lisa Foster and family members were too distraught to talk. Investigators were not allowed to interview her until yesterday. "That was a matter between her lawyers and the police," [White House spokesman David] Gergen said, and the White House "had no role in it."

The article is still up online, and you can read it here. I write about all of it in the first installment of “America’s Dreyfus Affair: The Case of the Death of Vincent Foster.” Not only was Gergen lying about the police being turned away from the Foster house that night, but Isikoff and the folks at The Post had to have known that it was a lie. It came to light about a year later when the Park Police testified before a Senate committee that they were not only not turned away, but they interviewed Lisa and other family members at length, and The Post’s reporter, Walter Pincus, had written much earlier that he was also at the Foster house that night, while neglecting to mention that the police were also there.

Isikoff was later treated as something of a white knight by the press for leaking the Monica Lewinsky story to the up-and-coming Matt Drudge when his then Newsweek bosses supposedly wouldn’t let him publish it in the magazine. In reality, what was going on was that the Lewinsky story was being hyped as a distraction away from the Foster case, while Drudge was built up as a legitimate source of alternative news. As a bonus, Starr was made to appear to be a conservative zealot out to get the Clintons so that when his drawn-out whitewash of the Foster murder was eventually published, it would be more readily believed. “Even Kenneth Starr concluded that it was a suicide.”

But what kind of court of law would even take seriously an article in the press, especially one in Yahoo News? How about one that includes a judge who was an active participant in the Foster cover-up? We are talking about John D. Bates, one of two members of Kenneth Starr’s team whom President George W. Bush appointed as federal judges. The other was Brett Kavanaugh, who took over as lead investigator for the conscience smitten Miguel Rodriguez, who resigned in disgust. One can’t help but believe that the primary qualification for the federal bench that both men exhibited was that they had shown that they would go along with the cover-up of a crime of the most heinous sort. In 2006, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Bates to be a member of the FISA court. That is not to say that he was responsible for allowing the surveillance of Carter Page, heavily based upon a spurious dossier and a news report, but with him as an example, we see what sort of people are likely to be making such decisions.

David Corn

David Corn played a far less prominent role in the Foster-case cover-up than did Isikoff, but it was in my covering of the case that I first encountered him. I explain it in my article, “How to Become a ‘Made Man’ in the Media,’ in which Corn plays one of the two title characters:

I first became aware of Corn when we both attended a press conference in Washington, DC, in the spring of 1995 in which Christopher Ruddy announced the findings of three investigators that tended to support Ruddy’s theory that Foster had not died at the place where the body had been found. Ruddy’s loudest and most aggressive antagonist at that news conference was Corn, then working for The Nation magazine. I have since come to realize that the scene I witnessed there was nothing more than a show, with Ruddy playing the rightist and Corn the leftist. The “investigation” that Ruddy was touting, I have since figured out, was little more than a charade, as I explain briefly in the recent article, “Latest Foster Cover-Up Book Not Completely Worthless.” Corn’s objections, as I recall, did not address the real weaknesses in what Ruddy was reporting, but simply amounted to the usual “conspiracy theory” denunciation.

Corn has continued to play his role of leftist Clinton-couple defender, as we see in his Mother Jones article of a year ago, “Here Come the Crazy Clinton Conspiracies of the 1990s.”

Actually, at that 1995 press conference, Ruddy, born in 1965, was more at the stage of his career for the spook-vetting process than was Corn. Corn was already 36 years old and had written the book Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA’s Crusades. Kevin Barrett’s assessment of Corn and that book is summed up in this passage:

Corn is obviously CIA all the way—otherwise why would he cover up Shackley’s connection to the JFK assassination? Why would he write an exhaustive “biography” of Shackley that omitted Shackley’s extensive links to CIA drug running? And most important of all, why would Corn be working overtime against 9/11 truth?

I had long since arrived at a similar evaluation of Corn, as we can see in my 1998 article, “Rotten Goulden/Corn,” in which I pair him with the obvious CIA journalist, Joseph Goulden. In sum, if there is any such thing as a journalist who works for the CIA—and if there has ever been any such thing as Operation Mockingbird—then surely Corn is one of them.

A further indication of the fact that Isikoff and Corn work for the same central employer of journalists is that they even collaborated on a book, Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War. Reading this customer review of the book by one R. Heubel, one gathers that it is as phony as the New York Times review of it:

I see this is a best-selling book by two prominent journalists. It is shocking, then, that there is no mention in the book of either the "Downing Street Memo" from July 2002 which documents the fact that Bush, at least as far back is middle of 2002 (and many contend even earlier - when the Bushies came into office in January 2001 - wanting war with Iraq), had decided to go to war with the small details like the "cause" or "justification" for the war to be left up to the spin-meisters and Karl Rove.

Neither is the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) mentioned in the book. The PNAC is the Neo-Con, war-mongering think-tank which had advocated war with Iraq as far back as 1997-98.

It is sad that the Mainstream Media and the journalistic establishment have almost completely ignored the Downing Street Memo and the Project for a New American Century in their coverage and analysis of the Iraq war and the Bush administration. An even better book in this regard is Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans--Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild [by Greg Palast].


FBI Cover-Up

One other important player in the cover-up of the Foster murder is on display in the Nunes memo, and that is the FBI itself. The story that the fake conservative critic, Christopher Ruddy, pedaled, and the one that you see on display in the first two of a three-video collection here, is that the FBI was kept out of the Foster investigation and that the Park Police bungled it because of their incompetence. The title of the third video, though, says it all, “The Vince Foster Cover-up: The FBI and the Press.” That video is showcased at fbicover-up.com, where one will discover that the same FBI agents were involved in every so-called “investigation,” from the one by the Park Police, right through those by Robert Fiske and Kenneth Starr. It was an FBI cover-up all the way, abetted by the press, not unlike countless scandals before and since, from the JFK assassination to TWA 800 to 9/11 to the Boston Marathon bombing, and on and on. One might just as well call cover-ups of the malfeasance of the Deep State the primary function of the FBI. We should hardly be surprised, then, to find them up to their eyeballs in the latest high-level rottenness. The only surprising thing is that someone in the Congress has shown the backbone to begin to call them out over it. It also makes one wonder whether Isikoff and Corn are working for the CIA or the FBI, or if it matters.

David Martin
February 5, 2018

Addendum

Another media/Deep State figure involved at the ground floor of the Foster cover-up has emerged in the wake of a criminal referral related to the FISA-warrant scandal by Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham. According to Grassley and Graham, someone connected to the U.S. State Department was involved in the supplying of spurious Russia-connected information on Trump. After Rep. Trey Gowdy characterized the person to Martha MacCallum of Fox News, MacCallum guessed, “Sidney Blumenthal?”

“That’d be really warm. You’re warm. Yeah,” responded Gowdy.

According to Judicial Watch, Blumenthatl is also connected to a second dubious dossier that repeats many of the unverified claims in the Steele dossier.

A good summation of Blumenthal’s role in the Foster cover-up, and much more, is to be found in my 2015 article, “Sidney Blumenthal, Vince Foster, and the Deep State.” Here is an excerpt:

[As Washington correspondent for The New Yorker], Blumenthal did not write critically of the Clinton scandals, but he did indeed report on perhaps the biggest controversy of all, if his writing on the matter can properly be called reporting. It was that writing, in fact, that first brought him to my attention. The following passage is from my first installment of “America’s Dreyfus Affair: The Case of the Death of Vincent Foster”:

[Walter] Pincus's theme of [Vincent] Foster as fragile victim of the merciless press was picked up on by Sidney Blumenthal in his August 9 [1993] New Yorker article:

Foster sought perspective through a number of conversations with Walter Pincus, a reporter for the Washington Post, whose wife is from Little Rock. "He couldn't understand why the press was the way it was," Pincus said. "It was a sense that people would print something that was wrong, and that other people would repeat it. I'd say, 'You can't let the press get your goat; you have to go on. This is how the game is played.' He'd say, 'Fine.' "

The article is titled simply “The Suicide,” and it can most fairly be described as a very vigorous sales job for the notion that Deputy White House Counsel Vincent W. Foster, Jr. committed suicide because this experienced courtroom litigator couldn’t take the public scrutiny of his new job in Washington. While masquerading as an objective journalist, Blumenthal, it is clear, was already doing the work for which he would be openly paid within the year when he went to work for the White House; he was acting as a shill for the Clintons.

Foster’s body had been discovered at an obscure Civil War relic named Fort Marcy Park off the George Washington Parkway on the Virginia side of the Potomac River late in the day on July 20. The nearest federal facility to it is the CIA headquarters complex perhaps a mile away as the crow flies, a fact never mentioned in the press. I had lived in Fairfax County, where the park is located, since 1982 and I had never heard of it. Foster, who had only been in town a few months living in Georgetown, had reported for work as usual on that Tuesday and was reported to have had a cheeseburger for lunch at his desk. Then, according to the known narrative at the time, he had left the office and wasn’t seen again until his body was discovered around 6 pm in a remote spot in this remote park that there was no record of his having previously visited.

It is quite obvious that Blumenthal hadn’t bothered to check out the park and the unlikely spot where they tell us Foster chose to blow his brains out with an untraceable nondescript .38 caliber revolver made up of the parts of two guns, because he wrote in his New Yorker piece that the park overlooks the Potomac River. It does not. It’s somewhat near the river, but you can’t see it from there. Chain Bridge Road runs between the park and the river, and you can’t see the river from that road either until you get near to the Potomac-crossing bridge that gives the road its name, a bit further to the south.

It would appear that practically the entire stable of Deep State media hacks who served the Clintons so well in the past have been trotted out in the effort to bring down Donald Trump.

David Martin
February 7, 2018

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Beatings, murders and prisoners set on fire: inside the prison called 'gangland'

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Government Cryptocurrency Cop Heads to Law Firm
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Ex-top cop Garry McCarthy defends background checks on Chicago Police Board speakers: ‘I’d like to know it. Wouldn’t you?'

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FBI spy Stefan Halper wants case dismissed after being called a 'rat f---er'
by Jerry Dunleavy
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Georgians Demand More Testing of New Voting System



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Scientists Find Possible Link Between Air Pollution and Psychiatric Disorders






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August 20, 2019

LOS ANGELES — Jane Doe sued Los Angeles County, its Sheriff’s Department and Detective Neil David Kimball, claiming Kimball raped her when she was 14 and he was a member of the Sex Crimes Unit, in Superior Court.
Return To Top


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CALIFORNIA
A first: Los Angeles Police Commission picks women to lead the civilian oversight panel


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Black teen 'humiliated' after school colored his hair with marker, parents say
Texas lawsuit says school personnel drew on the student’s scalp

msfreeh
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Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/kristen-s ... -in-seberg

Kristen Stewart Takes On the Racist FBI in ‘Seberg’
The film, which premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, dramatizes the FBI’s persecution of actress Jean Seberg for her ties to the Black Panther Party.



https://nypost.com/2019/08/30/fbi-seize ... n-accuser/

FBI seizes infamous photo of Prince Andrew with Jeffrey Epstein accuser
By Lia Eustachewich
August 30, 2019 | 8:47a


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FBI Tracking of Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo Foreshadowed Future Abuses

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Homicide Cop Slams Botched Investigation Into Princess' Death On Anniversary

Investigator Demands, ‘The Case Of How Diana Died Must Be Re-Opened.'
August 31, 2019 @ 17:36PM


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Case of the Murdered Newlywed and the Cop Who Nearly Got Away With It: Inside 'The Lazarus Files'
CRIME
7:03 AM PDT, September 1, 2019 - CAITLIN NO



https://www.ctinsider.com/local/stamfor ... 403169.php



*
https://abc7chicago.com/new-video-relea ... n/5507058/


DeKalb police release new footage after viral video appears to show cops choke, Taser man

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Boston Straight Pride Was A Flop, Cops Maced Queer Protesters


https://nypost.com/2019/09/01/cops-are- ... hief-says/

Cops are mad’ over Pantaleo firing, NYPD chief says
By Craig McCarthy
September 1, 2019 | 1:07


https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/c ... 071131001/

Two Marco cops who gave 'free pass' to woman who had sex with officers have yet to face discipline

Devan Patel, Naples Daily News Published 6:00 a.m. ET Aug. 31, 2019



https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2019/08/3 ... op-bdk.cnn

Ex-NYPD cops admit to having sex with woman in custody
Former NYPD detectives Eddie Martins and Richard Hall admitted to bribe taking and having sex with an 18-year-old woman in their custody in 2017.Source: CNN




https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019 ... -reveal-c/

Evidence request by Flynn's lawyer seeks to expose Clinton-FBI alliance in Russia probe


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tlD0c-_oyIE

Caroline Myss Live in Canada


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FBI says more than 4,000 jobs coming to Huntsville
Updated Aug 30, 2019; Posted Aug 30, 2019




https://bangordailynews.com/2019/09/02/ ... -quantico/

A monument crafted in Maine is headed to the FBI Academy in Quantico

Set to be the focal point of a memorial garden and courtyard that will honor the FBI, its history and principles, the sculpture will feature quotes from FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Freshwater Stone is among a half-dozen Maine firms that collaborated in its creation, company owner Jeff Gammelin said.

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10/17/2019

The Chicago Teachers Union Goes on the Offense Against Austerity
Alan Maas, Jacobin

Trump Is Waging a War On Labor Unions, But You Wouldn’t Know It from CNN’s Dem Debate
Michael Arria, In These Times

US Drone Program May Have Helped Turkey Kill Kurds for Over a Decade
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House Democrats Just Demanded These Neo-Nazi Groups Be Prosecuted as International Terrorists
Tess Owen, Vice News

10/16/2019


The FISA Court’s Section 702 Opinions, Part II: Improper Queries and Echoes of “Bulk Collection”
Elizabeth Goitein, Just Security

Civil Rights Are on the Chopping Block in New Supreme Court Term
Marjorie Cohn, Truthout

Berkeley Becomes Fourth U.S. City to Ban Face Recognition in Unanimous Vote
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The Fight to Save Rodney Reed From Execution in Texas
Rebekah Barber, Truthout

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How Photos of Your Kids Are Powering Surveillance Technology
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When kids are threats: the assessments unfairly targeting students with disabilities
Ike Swetlitz, The Guardian

Texas Cop Arrested, Charged With Murder for Shooting Woman in Her Home
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Organizations Decry Cozy Relationship Between Amazon and Local Police
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Digital dystopia: how algorithms punish the poor
Ed Pilkington, The Guardian

No More Sneaky Backdoors for the FBI (Take Action!)
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How Twelve Years of Warning and Six Years of Plodding Reform Finally Forced the FBI to Do Minimal FISA Oversight
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Whistleblowing in Washington: Lessons Learned and Unlearned
Patrick Eddington, JustSecurity

LAPD searches blacks and Latinos more. But they’re less likely to have contraband than whites
Ben Poston and Cindy Chang, LATimes

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https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny- ... story.html

The accountability the NYPD needs: Pass Question 2 to strengthen the Civilian Complaint Review Board

By CONSTANCE MALCOLM and GWEN CARR

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
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Criminal justice advocates concerned prosecutors will find way around reforms

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FBI AND SAN FRANCISCO POLICE HAVE BEEN LYING ABOUT SCOPE OF JOINT COUNTERTERRORISM INVESTIGATIONS, DOCUMENT SUGGESTS
Ryan Devereaux
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Michael Flynn defense says Mifsud phones they seek from DOJ may trace back to FBI and CIA
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 & Jerry Dunleavy
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FBI Briefs Students on Foreign Misinformation Campaigns
November 3, 2019





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34 Speakers/Witnesses! MORE THAN ANY OTHER JFK CONFERENCE!

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Hubert Clark, Roger Craig, Jr., David Denton, Marshal Evans,
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NOV
21
The 7th Annual JFK Assassination Conference
by JFK Conferences, LLC

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https://rightsanddissent.org/news/patri ... 98b6ac22a4


Patriot Act Extended Until March 15
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Oakland police commissioner in dustup at son’s school; City Hall takes notice

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/02/us/chica ... index.html

Chicago mayor fires city's top cop for 'intolerable' actions and misleading the public, she says

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Updated 12:14 PM ET, Mon December 2, 2019




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Normal cop took $12k while responding to overdose call
* Maria Nagle Dec 2, 2019 Updated 1 hr ago





The Mercury NewsVallejo cop involved in two fatal shootings in two years placed on leaveThe Vallejo police officer who shot and killed a man behind a building in
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Oklahoma Cop Accused Of Lying When He Said ‘Pig’ Was Printed On Starbucks Cup
The Starbucks employee has been fired.




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*
These cops owe taxpayers more than $600K | Editorial


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Olympians demand Justice Department release report on FBI in Nassar case
December 2, 2019
For months Lynn Raisman tried to find out why the FBI had not interviewed her daughter Aly, the three-time Olympic gymnastics champion, about being sexually assaulted by .
Steve Penny, USA Gymnastics president and chief executive officer, admonished Raisman to keep quiet, insisting that the FBI investigation of Nassar was proceeding, she said. The FBI wasn’t returning Raisman’s emails or telephone calls, she said. At one point an FBI official informed Raisman that one of the agents handling the case “doesn’t have to call you back if he doesn’t want to,” she recalled.
The FBI finally arranged an interview with Aly Raisman in September 2016, 15 months after the bureau was first told that she was a potential victim of Nassar. Agents informed Aly Raisman the interview would take place, not in her Boston

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine ... rc404=true

One City’s Struggle to Police the Police
Under Obama, Newark promised to reform its force. Is the Trump administration failing to follow up?





https://whowhatwhy.org/2019/12/08/saudi ... onnection/

DECEMBER 8, 2019 | WHOWHATWHY STAFF
SAUDI MILITARY BASE SHOOTER AND THE UNEXPLAINED 9/11 CONNECTION




https://whowhatwhy.org/2011/09/22/saudi ... -family-0/

SAUDI ROYAL TIES TO 9/11 HIJACKERS VIA FLORIDA SAUDI FAMILY?

WhoWhatWhy has found evidence linking the Saudi royal family to Saudis in South Florida who reportedly had direct contact with the 9/11 hijackers before fleeing the United States just prior to the attacks. Our report connects some of the dots first laid out by investigative author Anthony Summers and Florida-based journalist Dan Christensen in articles jointly published in the Miami Herald and on the nonprofit news site BrowardBulldog.org.
In early September of this year, Summers and Christensen reported that a secret FBI probe, never shared with Congressional investigators or the presidential 9/11 commission, had uncovered information indicating the possibility of support for the hijackers from previously unknown confederates in the United States during 2001.
Now WhoWhatWhy reveals that those alleged confederates were closely tied to influential members of the Saudi ruling elite.



https://whowhatwhy.org/2019/12/05/food- ... -billions/

DECEMBER 5, 2019 | LANA COHEN
FOOD POISONING: CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS HEALTH OF BILLIONS





https://nypost.com/2019/12/08/one-woman ... dent-cops/

Off-duty NYPD officer kills one, injures another in alleged DWI crash in East Flatbush
By Craig McCarthy and Tina Moore
December 8, 2019 |




https://wtop.com/baltimore/2019/12/balt ... t-charges/



Baltimore County cop facing rape, assault charges

Liz Anderson | @planetnoun





https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2019/12 ... -says.html

Akron should rehire cop fired over Facebook post about Louis Farrakhan, arbitrator says






https://www.star-telegram.com/news/stat ... 67709.html

TEXAS
Texas cop arrested after he allegedly strip-searched six women in 11 days, police say
BY DAWSON WHITE
DECEMBER 08, 2019 10:26 AM
*
* Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/stat ... rylink=cpy




https://www.kiis1011.com.au/newsroom/vi ... x-inquiry/

Victoria's Top Cop To Explain At 'Lawyer X' Inquiry



https://columbiachronicle.com/qa-profes ... ed-hampton

Q&A: Professor commemorates legacy of activist Fred Hampton


By Paige Barnes, Staff Reporter
December 8, 2019



https://headlinezpro.com/come-after-you ... complaint/

“Come After You Get Raped”: UP Woman Alleges Cops Dismissed Complaint
By preet - December 8, 2019



https://moosegazette.net/top-cop-in-fou ... nt/154083/

Top cop in foul-mouthed rant at lack of diversity in his department
By Charles Henry - December 8, 2019 6



https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mum ... 430588.cms

Cops parade bar dancers, claim it was safety check

Read more at:
https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mum ... aign=cppst



https://www.nj.com/monmouth/2019/12/nj- ... arges.html

N.J. cops accused of vandalizing cars for revenge arrested on new charges



https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/12/08/ ... e-numbers/

Utah’s hate crime numbers don’t tell the whole story. Here’s what we know.



https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/12/extr ... orial.html

But Mike German, a retired FBI agent and a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program, makes a convincing case that our priorities are upside down.
In 2017, the feds charged more than 200 people with felonies because they were at an anti-Trump protest where some windows were broken, while just a handful of federal arrests were made after white supremacists openly brutalized and stabbed counterprotesters in a series of cities ending with Charlottesville.
“It raises sharp questions about how the federal government is viewing these cases,” German says. “Today, the FBI could not tell us how many people white supremacists killed last year, which for a domestic intelligence agency, seems like a blind spot.”
The FBI isn’t transparent about how it allocates its resources, either, and there’s plenty of cause for skepticism. The agency has stated in the past that in the field of domestic terrorism, environmental rights activists pose the number one threat.



https://dentondaily.com/fords-lawyers-b ... n-justice/

Ford’s lawyers blast FBI’s Kavanaugh probe as ‘stain’ on justice
by Denton Staff Contributor — December 7, 2019
Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers fired off a letter to the head of the FBI Thursday lambasting the against Brett Kavanaugh for not interviewing her or others who could back her story.
“We write to provide you with the names of several of the witnesses we requested that the FBI interview in connection with this matter







Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against
The growing threat of abrupt and irreversible climate changes must compel political and economic action on emissions.
Nature.com, Nov. 27, 2019
Politicians, economists and even some natural scientists have tended to assume that tipping points1 in the Earth system — such as the loss of the Amazon rainforest or the West Antarctic ice sheet — are of low probability and little understood. Yet evidence is mounting that these events could be more likely than was thought, have high impacts and are interconnected across different biophysical systems, potentially committing the world to long-term irreversible changes.
Here we summarize evidence on the threat of exceeding tipping points, identify knowledge gaps and suggest how these should be plugged. We explore the effects of such large-scale changes, how quickly they might unfold and whether we still have any control over them.
Nature.com, Nov. 27, 2019
In our view, the consideration of tipping points helps to define that we are in a climate emergency and strengthens this year’s chorus of calls for urgent climate action — from schoolchildren to scientists, cities and countries.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) introduced the idea of tipping points two decades ago. At that time, these ‘large-scale discontinuities’ in the climate system were considered likely only if global warming exceeded 5°C above pre-industrial levels. Information summarized in the two most recent IPCC Special Reports (published in 2018 and in September this year)2,3 suggests that tipping points could be exceeded even between 1 and 2°C of warming (see ‘Too close for comfort’).
If current national pledges to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions are implemented — and that’s a big ‘if’ — they are likely to result in at least 3°C of global warming. This is despite the goal of the 2015 Paris agreement to limit warming to well below 2°C. Some economists, assuming that climate tipping points are of very low probability (even if they would be catastrophic), have suggested that 3°C warming is optimal from a cost–benefit perspective. However, if tipping points are looking more likely, then the ‘optimal policy’ recommendation of simple cost–benefit climate-economy models4 aligns with those of the recent IPCC report2. In other words, warming must be limited to 1.5°C. This requires an emergency response.
Ice collapse
We think that several cryosphere tipping points are dangerously close, but mitigating greenhouse-gas emissions could still slow down the inevitable accumulation of impacts and help us to adapt.
Research in the past decade has shown that the Amundsen Sea embayment of West Antarctica might have passed a tipping point3: the ‘grounding line’ where ice, ocean and bedrock meet is retreating irreversibly. A model study shows5 that when this sector collapses, it could destabilize the rest of the West Antarctic ice sheet like toppling dominoes — leading to about 3 metres of sea-level rise on a timescale of centuries to millennia. Palaeo-evidence shows that such widespread collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet has occurred repeatedly in the past.
The latest data show that part of the East Antarctic ice sheet — the Wilkes Basin — might be similarly unstable3. Modelling work suggests that it could add another 3–4m to sea level on timescales beyond a century.
The Greenland ice sheet is melting at an accelerating rate3. It could add a further 7m to sea level over thousands of years if it passes a particular threshold. Beyond that, as the elevation of the ice sheet lowers, it melts further, exposing the surface to ever-warmer air. Models suggest that the Greenland ice sheet could be doomed at 1.5°C of warming3, which could happen as soon as 2030.
Thus, we might already have committed future generations to living with sea-level rises of around 10m over thousands of years3. But that timescale is still under our control. The rate of melting depends on the magnitude of warming above the tipping point. At 1.5°C, it could take 10,000 years to unfold3; above 2°C it could take less than 1,000 years6. Researchers need more observational data to establish whether ice sheets are reaching a tipping point, and require better models constrained by past and present data to resolve how soon and how fast the ice sheets could collapse.
Whatever those data show, action must be taken to slow sea-level rise. This will aid adaptation, including the eventual resettling of large, low-lying population centres.
A further key impetus to limit warming to 1.5°C is that other tipping points could be triggered at low levels of global warming. The latest IPCC models projected a cluster of abrupt shifts7 between 1.5°C and 2°C, several of which involve sea ice. This ice is already shrinking rapidly in the Arctic, indicating that, at 2°C of warming, the region has a 10–35% chance3 of becoming largely ice-free in summer.
Biosphere boundaries
Climate change and other human activities risk triggering biosphere tipping points across a range of ecosystems and scales (see ‘Raising the alarm’).
Ocean heatwaves have led to mass coral bleaching and to the loss of half of the shallow-water corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. A staggering 99% of tropical corals are projected2 to be lost if global average temperature rises by 2°C, owing to interactions between warming, ocean acidification and pollution. This would represent a profound loss of marine biodiversity and human livelihoods.
As well as undermining our life-support system, biosphere tipping points can trigger abrupt carbon release back to the atmosphere. This can amplify climate change and reduce remaining emission budgets.
Deforestation and climate change are destabilizing the Amazon — the world’s largest rainforest, which is home to one in ten known species. Estimates of where an Amazon tipping point could lie range from 40% deforestation to just 20% forest-cover loss8. About 17% has been lost since 1970. The rate of deforestation varies with changes in policy. Finding the tipping point requires models that include deforestation and climate change as interacting drivers, and that incorporate fire and climate feedbacks as interacting tipping mechanisms across scales.
With the Arctic warming at least twice as quickly as the global average, the boreal forest in the subarctic is increasingly vulnerable. Already, warming has triggered large-scale insect disturbances and an increase in fires that have led to dieback of North American boreal forests, potentially turning some regions from a carbon sink to a carbon source9. Permafrost across the Arctic is beginning to irreversibly thaw and release carbon dioxide and methane — a greenhouse gas that is around 30 times more potent than CO2 over a 100-year period.
Researchers need to improve their understanding of these observed changes in major ecosystems, as well as where future tipping points might lie. Existing carbon stores and potential releases of CO2 and methane need better quantification.
The world’s remaining emissions budget for a 50:50 chance of staying within 1.5°C of warming is only about 500gigatonnes (Gt) of CO2. Permafrost emissions could take an estimated 20% (100GtCO2) off this budget10, and that’s without including methane from deep permafrost or undersea hydrates. If forests are close to tipping points, Amazon dieback could release another 90GtCO2 and boreal forests a further 110GtCO211. With global total CO2 emissions still at more than 40Gtper year, the remaining budget could be all but erased already.
We argue that cascading effects might be common. Research last year14 analysed 30 types of regime shift spanning physical climate and ecological systems, from collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet to a switch from rainforest to savanna. This indicated that exceeding tipping points in one system can increase the risk of crossing them in others. Such links were found for 45% of possible interactions14.
In our view, examples are starting to be observed. For example, Arctic sea-ice loss is amplifying regional warming, and Arctic warming and Greenland melting are driving an influx of fresh water into the North Atlantic. This could have contributed to a 15% slowdown15 since the mid-twentieth century of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) , a key part of global heat and salt transport by the ocean3. Rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet and further slowdown of the AMOC could destabilize the West African monsoon, triggering drought in Africa’s Sahel region. A slowdown in the AMOC could also dry the Amazon, disrupt the East Asian monsoon and cause heat to build up in the Southern Ocean, which could accelerate Antarctic ice loss.
The palaeo-record shows global tipping, such as the entry into ice-age cycles 2.6 million years ago and their switch in amplitude and frequency around one million years ago, which models are only just capable of simulating. Regional tipping occurred repeatedly within and at the end of the last ice age, between 80,000 and 10,000 years ago (the Dansgaard–Oeschger and Heinrich events). Although this is not directly applicable to the present interglacial period, it highlights that the Earth system has been unstable across multiple timescales before, under relatively weak forcing caused by changes in Earth’s orbit. Now we are strongly forcing the system, with atmospheric CO2 concentration and global temperature increasing at rates that are an order of magnitude higher than those during the most recent deglaciation.
Atmospheric CO2 is already at levels last seen around four million years ago, in the Pliocene epoch. It is rapidly heading towards levels last seen some 50 million years ago — in the Eocene — when temperatures were up to 14°C higher than they were in pre-industrial times. It is challenging for climate models to simulate such past ‘hothouse’ Earth states. One possible explanation is that the models have been missing a key tipping point: a cloud-resolving model published this year suggests that the abrupt break-up of stratocumulus cloud above about 1,200 parts per million of CO2 could have resulted in roughly 8°C of global warming12.
Some early results from the latest climate models — run for the IPCC’s sixth assessment report, due in 2021 — indicate a much larger climate sensitivity (defined as the temperature response to doubling of atmospheric CO2) than in previous models. Many more results are pending and further investigation is required, but to us, these preliminary results hint that a global tipping point is possible.
To address these issues, we need models that capture a richer suite of couplings and feedbacks in the Earth system, and we need more data — present and past — and better ways to use them. Improving the ability of models to capture known past abrupt climate changes and ‘hothouse’ climate states should increase confidence in their ability to forecast these.
Some scientists counter that the possibility of global tipping remains highly speculative. It is our position that, given its huge impact and irreversible nature, any serious risk assessment must consider the evidence, however limited our understanding might still be. To err on the side of danger is not a responsible option.
If damaging tipping cascades can occur and a global tipping point cannot be ruled out, then this is an existential threat to civilization. No amount of economic cost–benefit analysis is going to help us. We need to change our approach to the climate problem.
Act now
In our view, the evidence from tipping points alone suggests that we are in a state of planetary emergency: both the risk and urgency of the situation are acute (see ‘Emergency: do the maths’).
Emergency: do the maths
We define emergency (E) as the product of risk and urgency. Risk (R) is defined by insurers as probability (p) multiplied by damage (D). Urgency (U) is defined in emergency situations as reaction time to an alert (τ) divided by the intervention time left to avoid a bad outcome (T). Thus:
E = R × U = p × D × τ / T
The situation is an emergency if both risk and urgency are high. If reaction time is longer than the intervention time left (τ/T>1), we have lost control.
We argue that the intervention time left to prevent tipping could already have shrunk towards zero, whereas the reaction time to achieve net zero emissions is 30 years at best. Hence we might already have lost control of whether tipping happens. A saving grace is that the rate at which damage accumulates from tipping — and hence the risk posed — could still be under our control to some extent.
The stability and resilience of our planet is in peril. International action — not just words — must reflect this.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03595-0
 
 

https://www.thenation.com/article/clima ... ropaganda/

The Media Are Complacent While the World Burns
But there’s a brand-new playbook for journalists fighting for a 1.5°C world.
By Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/ ... f-new-work

Far Side creator Gary Larson launches website with promise of new work






https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/12/17/ ... re-boston/

Officer pleads not guilty after 11-year-old alleged shoplifter was assaulted in Boston Primark store

By John R. Ellement Globe Staff,Updated December 17, 2019, 12:55 p.m.

A Securitas Services USA special police officer allegedly repeatedly physically assaulted an 11-year-old girl suspected of shoplifting and violated her civil rights by attacking her even after being ordered to stop


https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/12/17/ ... ver-banks/

Large ice disk forms in Maine before being destroyed against river banks

By Maria Lovato Globe Correspondent,Updated December 17, 2019, 4:25 p.m.




From: Denton, David <‪dentond@iecc.edu‬>




Project JFK/CSI Dallas, with the support of the JFK Historical Group, is sponsoring Political Assassinations of the 1960s — The Westport Connection, a national symposium on the murders of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 

The event will be held ‪Thursday, April 16 through Sunday, April 19, 2020‬ at the Four Points Hotel by Sheraton in Kansas City, Mo.

Featured Speakers Include: 

• Expert Researchers and Authors: Casey Quinlan, Brian Edwards, David Knight, Barbara Honegger, Gary Shaw, Victoria Sulzer, Ed Tatro, Larry Rivera, Jeff Worcester, Rick Russo, Phil Nelson, Richard Bartholomew, Randy Benson, Dr. Gary Aguilar, Joe Green

• History Professors: Mal Hyman and David Denton

• Ryan Jones, Museum Historian for the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn.

Announcements of additional speakers will follow. For updated information about the conference, please visit Project JFK/CSI Dallas or the JFK Historical Group. 

Early bird registration continues ‪through January 31, 2020‬. The cost is $100 per guest. A Dinner Banquet with a guest speaker will be held ‪on Saturday, April 18.‬ There is a separate cost of $40 to attend this event. The conference pass, banquet tickets and memberships to the JFK Historical Group may be purchased here.

A Speakers Farewell Luncheon, featuring a talk by Ed Tatro, will be held ‪on Sunday, April 19.‬ Information regarding tickets will be forthcoming. 

Authors who purchase a membership to the JFK Historical Group, will receive a full-page ad in the conference program and a complimentary ticket to the Speakers Farewell Luncheon.

We are inviting and expecting high school and college groups to attend as well and are offering a discounted rate to them. More details will follow soon.

Hotel reservations can be made by contacting Four Points Hotel by Sheraton, Kansas City International Airport, ‪816-521-9672‬. Please mention you are with the JFK Historical Group to receive the special conference rate of $94.

For conference updates and additional information, please visit the Project JFK/CSI Dallas or JFK Historical Group.


We look forward to seeing you,

David Denton, History Professor, Olney Central College, Olney, Ill.




https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ ... story.html

Sheriff’s deputy broke into grieving people’s homes while they attended funerals: complaint

By NELSON OLIVEIRA

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
DEC 18, 2019 | 11:


https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny ... story.html

Surveillance footage outside of Jeffrey Epstein’s cell during suicide attempt is missing

By STEPHEN REX BROWN

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
DEC 18, 2019 | 6:08 PM






https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/inv ... 685801001/

Child rape case against former cop moves toward trial after 30-year delay
Elizabeth Murray



https://nypost.com/2019/12/18/anti-cop- ... d-meeting/

Anti-cop protesters arrested at heated MTA board meeting
By David Meyer and Jackie Salo
December 18, 2019


https://nypost.com/2019/12/18/nevada-ac ... smuggling/

Nevada accuses US government of ‘secret plutonium smuggling’
By Associated Press
December 18, 2019



http://www.startribune.com/mexico-probe ... 566320092/

Mexico probes embezzlement by former top cop
Associated Press DECEMBER 18, 2019 — 6:40PM


MEXICO CITY — The head of Mexico's financi


http://www.startribune.com/ex-cop-gets- ... 566320032/

Ex-cop gets 10 years for ordering teens to strip, run naked
Associated Press DECEMBER 18, 2019 — 4:16PM


FORT LAUERDALE, Fla. — A Florida police officer was sentenced to 10 years behind bars Wednesday for threatening to arrest two teens if they didn't strip and run naked through the Everglades.
Former Miccosukee officer Michael Martinez, 30, pulled the young couple over in 2016 after they ran a stop sign and h



https://kfgo.com/podcasts/tales-of-true ... ler-a-cop/

Is the Long Island Serial Killer a Cop?
A Police Officer in a marked vehicle is the most beyond reproach. Nobody questions why a police cruiser is parked along the road. You just move on with your day, keep a close eye on the rearview mirror and hope they don’t have any questions for you.
Wednesday, December 18, 2019 2:22 p.m. by Troy Larson


https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... 82673.html

Fired Hialeah cop accused of sexually abusing women and girls pleads not guilty
BY JAY WEAVER AND NICHOLAS NEHAMAS
DECEMBER 18, 2019 10:41 AM
*
* Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... rylink=cpy



https://www.cbs7.com/content/news/Monah ... 16991.html

Monahans cop arrested for having sexual relationship with 17-year-old Andrews HS student


https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states ... questioned

State Reduces Hit-Man Sentence After Cop Conduct Questioned
An Oregon man who raised questions about the integrity of the police investigation that led to his prosecution has won release from prison eight years into a 20-year sentence for hiring a hit man to kill an acquaintance.

By Associated Press, Wire Service Content Dec. 18, 2019, at 8:30 a.





https://trib.com/news/local/crime-and-c ... 9f858.html

Rock Springs cop sues city, alleging it discriminated against her for being pregnant
* Shane Sanderson Dec 17, 2019 U





https://scvnews.com/off-duty-lapd-cop-a ... -incident/

Off-Duty LAPD Cop Arrested in Alleged Road Rage Incident

JIM HOLT | THE SIGNAL | WEDNESDAY, DEC 18, 2019



http://rjrnewsonline.com/local/former-c ... st-charged

Former cop who fled Jamaica 10 years ago after warrant was issued for his arrest, charged
7:23 pm, Wed December 18, 2019


https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/n ... ce-1842436

2:00 AM, December 19, 2019 / LAST MODIFIED: 04:38 AM, December 19, 2019
Cop held for giving info to Indian police



https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zea ... permission

Cop chastised for trespass while on duty, using police vehicle to take firewood without permission
5:45PM • SOURCE:  1 NEWS





https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit ... 875710.cms


Courtroom shooting: 18 UP cops suspended,  ..

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... aign=cppst



https://www.chronicle.co.zw/seven-bulaw ... -arrested/

Seven Bulawayo cops arrested



https://blog.sfgate.com/inoakland/2019/ ... al-crisis/

Combining clinicians and cops, Oakland’s response program helps those in mental crisis
By Oakland North on December 18, 2019 at 12:38 PM



https://larouchepub.com/other/editorial ... m_top.html

This editorial appears in the December 20, 2019 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
EDITORIAL
Taking the Empire Down
from the Top
by Barbara Boyd
[Print version of this editorial]
The following is based on Mrs. Boyd’s notes for her presentation on the LaRouche PAC Fireside Chat on December 12, 2019. She was joined on the program by William Binney, former technical director at the National Security Agency, and Larry C. Johnson, former analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. Both Binney and Johnson are members of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). The full discussion, lasting more than two hours, with a live question and answer session, is available here.
Dec. 12—Wednesday, December 11, saw a truly historic Senate hearing in which DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz answered questions about his report on gross misconduct by the FBI and DOJ (Department of Justice) in the international campaign to prevent the election of Donald Trump and then to remove him from the Presidency, a coup which has been ongoing in the United States since the November 2016 election.
Today, we have a Democratic Party in the House of Representatives continuing the coup with Articles of Impeachment, articles which, if accepted and voted up by the Senate, would turn our Constitutional republic into a British parliamentary system with the President becoming a figurehead, serving at the pleasure of the Senate, a President who can be removed over style or policy disputes. We would be formally controlled, as the British and European parliaments are controlled, by a financial oligarchy centered in the central banks and the City of London, a modern imperial entity administered by academics, technocrats, and professional mandarins, like all empires in history.
The tool for such control is—as in George Orwell’s novel, 1984, and in the former East Germany—mass surveillance, outright control of popular opinion, and the inducement of cult-like ignorance and political divides based essentially on identity politics. On August 23 of this year, Mark Carney, the darling central banker now for the British Empire, called for precisely this form of fascism to be implemented immediately here in the U.S. and worldwide, using the Green New Deal as the mechanism to achieve it, a call otherwise r



https://www.wsj.com/articles/wheres-the ... 1576714083

Where’s the Liberal Outrage?
Would Joe Biden or any other Democratic president let the FBI’s discredited behavior become the norm?



https://www.inquisitr.com/5800695/james ... trump-fbi/

December 18, 2019
Carter Page Warrants Mean James Comey May Have Been Told To Put FISA On Trump Campaign, Says Former FBI Agent



https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/p ... nt-process

Wednesday, 18 December 2019
FISA Court Gives FBI Deadline to Reform Surveillance Warrant Process



https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... chard-jew/

Louis Freeh is the real culprit in the Richard Jewell story
Former FBI director's mishandling of the 1996 Olympics bombing in Atlanta led to the Jewell debacle






https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/joh ... -shooting/

John Guandolo: The US Should Bomb Mecca in Retaliation for Pensacola Shooting

By Kyle Mantyla | December 18, 2019 10:54 am


On the most recent episode of his “Understanding The Threat” radio program, disgraced former FBI agent and anti-Islam conspiracy theorist John Guandolo said that the United States should bomb the holy city of Mecca in retaliation for the recent shooting by a Saudi aviation student at the naval base in Pensacola, Florida.
Guandolo is a radical right-wing activist who trains law enforcement agencies around the country to identify seemingly anyone with dark skin and a beard as an


https://mailtribune.com/news/state-news ... y-literate

Forensic Justice Project helps lawyers become more scientifically literate

by Jake Thomas, Oregon Capital BureauWednesday, December 18th 2019




https://thefederalist.com/2019/12/18/fb ... r-in-2016/




FBI Blows Off Senators’ Request On Materials Related To Ukrainian DNC Contractor In 2016

DECEMBER 18, 2019 By Tristan Justice
The FBI ignored Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin’s requests last month for information related to former Democratic National Committee (DNC) contractor and her efforts to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign from Ukrainian officials.
In November, Johnson and Grassley gave the FBI a Dec. 9 deadline to meet their demands to hand over information found over the course of an investigation into a cyberattack on the DNC


https://whowhatwhy.org/2019/12/18/are-a ... l-college/

DECEMBER 18, 2019 | GABRIELLA NOVELLO
ARE AMERICANS READY TO JUNK THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE?


https://www.motherjones.com/environment ... -refugees/

* ENVIRONMENT
DECEMBER 7, 2019
This City May Become a Magnet for Climate Refugees
“With climate change, the world is going to suck, but Buffalo may suck less.”

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... azi-salute

West Virginia governor fires 34 cadets and instructor over Nazi salute photo
* Correction officer trainees made gesture during class photo
* Jim Justice: ‘I condemn the photo … in the strongest terms’





https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... he-sky-red

Australia bushfires: towns devastated and lives lost as blazes turn the sky red
Thousands shelter on beaches as fires rip through Victoria and New South Wales


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

What an insult': CES names Ivanka Trump as keynote speaker




https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... e-cant-see

Like a chemical in the water': alarming amounts of nanoplastics pollute the ocean


https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... raphs-2019

How we saw America in 2019 – Guardian US's favorite photographs
Crissy Robbins holds her son Kenneth Koy-o-woh in front of the prescribed burn in Weithpec, California in October. Photograph: Alexandra Hootnick/The Guardian
The photographers Guardian US worked with treated each story with care and creativity, making images that provide a stunning view of the past year
* Images selected by Jehan Jillani



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... eparations

Native American 'land taxes:' a step on the roadmap for reparations





https://www.jurist.org/news/2019/12/den ... a5e5c424a1

Denver County judge rules urban camping ban unconstitutional
DECEMBER 30, 2019 12:37:07 PM Jacob Dougherty




A Denver County Court judge ruled on Friday that Denver’s ordinance banning urban camping violates the Eighth Amendment.
In his opinion, Judge Johnny C. Barajas wrote that the ordinance specifically violates the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, which “imposes substantive




https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... a5e5c424a1



Where Even the Children
Are Being Tracked
By Charlie Warzel and Stuart A. Thompson
Photography by Damon Winter
DEC. 21, 2019



https://gothamist.com/news/after-years- ... a5e5c424a1

After Years Of Complaints, NYC Will Compensate Jail Visitors Who Were Subjected To Invasive Searches
BY CINDY RODRIGUEZ
DEC. 17, 2019 1:38 P.M. •



https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191 ... a5e5c424a1

Daily Deal: The 2020 Full Stack Digital Marketing Certification Bundle

NIST Study Of 189 Facial Recognition Algorithms Finds Minorities Are Misidentified Almost 100 Times More Often Than White Men
(Mis)Uses of Technology
from the white-dudes-score-another-unearned-perk dept



https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... astContent

The Post's View
Opinion
Trump’s handling of the Gallagher case just got even more appalling





https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1850517.Alien_Ink

Alien Ink: The FBI's War on Freedom of Expression

by Natalie Robins





4.08  ·  Rating details ·  12 ratings  ·  0 reviews
Alien Ink is the most comprehensive book written on how the FBI warred against American writers & readers. Robins reveals assaults on freedom of expression began before J. Edgar Hoover joined the Justice Department & made his name synonymous with that of the FBI for over 40 years. The war carried over into the 80s, when librarians, as part of a Library Awareness Program, were recruited to spy on readers. Drawing on nearly 150 files released under the Freedom of Information Act, her narrative offers documentary evidence about the hounding & intimidation of writers ranging from John Reed to Allen Ginsberg, from Edna St Vincent Millay to James Baldwin, & from Walter Winchell to Robert Lowell--a virtual Who's Who of American letters. Alien Ink is the story of hidden agendas & powers, & contains many surprises--among them, that Hoover, known for rightist sympathies, not only inhibited left-wing expression, but harassed right-wingers as well. Robins shows how the FBI combed papers, books, plays, films & radio broadcasts for "alien ink"--anything "anti-American" or "anti-FBI"--& describes how those incriminated endured phone taps, mail searches & character assassinations. She reveals the pressure tactics FBI agents employed to make them toe the line, as well as the astounding criminal lengths (including extortion & entrapment) that the FBI went to in order to "get something" on those writers who wouldn't capitulate. She explains the FBI's attitude toward the group of writers it considered the most threatening: journalists. Confirming her findings are dozens of interviews--dramatic dialogs--with living writers & others of all ideologies, who bear witness to the FBI's investigative crusade.
Prologue
The files
The formal witnesses
1.The Russian Revolution & WWI. Before Hoover; The arrival of Hoover
2.The 20s: undeclared wars, the rise of fascism & the Sacco-Vanzetti case. The arrival of new aliens: 1920-29
3.The Spanish Civil War. Images in their minds; The search for new aliens; The 1930s; "A little bit in awe of them"; The friendlies; The friendlies, cont.; The unfriendlies; The unfriendlies, cont.
4.WWII & the Cold War. A broader net; Pound, Boyle, Hecht, Stein; Hemingway, Wilder, Sherwood, MacLeish, Cowley; Rukeyser, Herbst, Porter & Fast; Wouk, Cozzens, Mitford, Parker, Hammett, Hellman, Lowell
5.McCarthy's war & the Korean War. Sinister influences; Matthiessen, Untermeyer, Hughes, Wright; Adams, Shapiro, Williams; Trilling, Agee, Capote, Gardner, Miller
6.The continuing Cold War & Vietnam War. The 60s aliens; Mailer, Ginsberg, Frank; Baldwin, Baraka, Schwartz, Roethke, Stout, Williams, Paley, Doctorow
7.After Hoover. A broader outlook: 1970-present; Spies in the stacks
8.Preparing for 2000s: is the past past? "Most of damage was invisible"
Appendix A. Writers, editors, agents & publishers indexed by the FBI because they signed civil rights &/or antiwar protests during the 60s
Appendix B. Additional files
Appendix C. An epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index (less)



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... a-martinez


Police murder journalist?


Chile: was a young woman murdered for photographing anti-government protests?
Albertina Martínez found dead two days after covering a protest in Santiago amid speculation she was targeted because of her job


https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-yearly-roun ... illed-2019

RSF yearly round-up: “historically low” number of journalists killed in 2019






http://ticklethewire.com/2019/12/30/you ... s-in-2019/

You Won’t Believe the Bizarre Banned Items Confiscated at Airports in 2019







https://www.prisonlegalnews.org



CoreCivic Prisons in Tennessee Have Twice as Many Murders, Four Times the Homicide Rate as State-Run Facilities
Loaded on JULY 16, 2019
Filed under: Corrections Corporation of America/CoreCivic, Prison/Jail Murders, Articles About PLN, PLN related. Location: Tennessee.
On June 10, 2019, the Human Rights Defense Center and No Exceptions Prison Collective reported that from 2014 through June 2019, there were twice as many murders in the four Tennessee prisons operated by CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America) than in the 10 prisons run by the Tennessee Department ...
Read more...





https://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/ ... story.html





Nearly 30 officers to be hanged for torturing, killing teacher in Sudan

By NELSON OLIVEIRA

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
DEC 31, 2019 | 12:02 PM




https://www.inquirer.com/news/ryan-pown ... 91231.html


Murder trial for ex-Philly cop may be delayed by legal battle over use-of-force law
by Chris Palmer, Updated: December 31, 2019- 5:26 PM






https://www.nj.com/morris/2019/12/newar ... urder.html

Newark cop accused of killing wife is indicted on charges of murder, attempted murder



https://www.thedailybeast.com/ryan-flan ... o-shooting

How a Rich Cop Wannabe Wound Up On the Wrong Side of the Law

‘HERE IN CRAZY FLORIDA’
He donated hundreds of thousands to police, fancied himself a cop—then was caught with a gun and a list of enemies.

Published Dec. 31, 2019 6:24PM





https://thecrimereport.org/2019/12/31/p ... n-top-cop/


Philadelphia Picks First African-American Woman Top Cop



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Cop charged after hitting and killing 4-year-old with police cruiser, MO officials say

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation- ... rylink=cpy




https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... mpage.html

Nearly 11,000 people sign petition calling for white NYPD cop to be fired after he was sentenced to just FIFTEEN days in jail for a racist drunken rampage in a black family's home - but will remain in his job





https://www.dailyunion.com/news/decembe ... 0313b.html



Buy Now
Former Jefferson County Deputy Janelle Gericke made her initial appearance Monday afternoon at the Jefferson County Courthouse with her attorney, Michael C. Witt. She is accused of burglarizing homes when residents were attending funerals.




https://www.theherald-news.com/2019/12/ ... e/aaju963/



Final pretrial hearing set for former Joliet cop in theft case



https://www.thenorthernview.com/news/ex ... ce-victim/

Kelowna cop accused of sending explicit photos and threatening domestic-violence victim
A woman claims she had to leave the Kelowna area to avoid further harassment by RCMP members
* MICHAEL RODRIGUEZDec. 31, 2019 11:30 a.m.NEWS




https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... reach.html

Daniel Morcombe cop who allegedly sent his ex-wife a photograph of himself holding a tomahawk to his throat is charged with fourth domestic violence breach



https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-we ... -interview

Federal Agents Avoid Slander Claim Over Tax Case Media Interview
Dec. 31, 2019, 9:39 AM



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-agent- ... -maryland/

FBI agent, estranged wife found dead in apparent murder-suicide






https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/ ... story.html

For the Massachusetts State Police and FBI, a reversal of fortune




https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/cri ... ab21f.html

Judge finds former FBI agent not guilty of voluntary manslaughter in wife's death
* BY KEITH EPPS/THE FREE LANCE-STAR Jul 31, 2015



https://katu.com/news/local/fbi-agents- ... oting-case

FBI agent found not guilty in case related to LaVoy Finicum shooting death

by KATU, Associated PressFriday, August 10th 2018



http://jimbovard.com/blog/2012/08/22/20 ... -her-baby/




20 Years Ago at Ruby Ridge: FBI Sniper Slays Mother Holding her Baby
by Jim on August 22, 2012
Today is the 20th anniversary of the killing of Vicki Weaver. Following is an article I wrote on this back in 1995, followed by the response from FBI director Louis Freeh, which claimed that I “grossly mischaracterized” the details of Vicki Weaver’s killing.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fb ... story.html


FBI agent acquitted of shoplifting charge




https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/27/us/f ... nic-agents.



FBI Is Accused of Intimidation By Attorneys for Hispanic Agents
https://www.nytimes.com › 1988/08/27 › fbi-is-accused-of-intimidation-by-a...
Aug 27, 1988 - F.B.I. Is Accused of Intimidation By Attorneys for Hispanic ... The plaintiffs' attorneys, Hugo Rodriguez and Antonio Silva, said the bureau had ...






https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/ ... tory1.html

Former federal agents' spy story opens Pandora's box for FBI


https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/di ... 1/1574356/

Perez v. FBI, 707 F. Supp. 891 (W.D. Tex. 1989)





https://theintercept.com/2019/12/31/joe ... it-prison/

JOE BIDEN WANTS TO END PRISON PROFITEERING. ONE OF HIS TOP FUNDRAISERS IS A MAJOR PLAYER IN PRISON HEALTH CARE.
Aída Chávez
December 31 2019, 7:53 a.m.






https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/30 ... ever-seen/

Get Ready for a Stop-Bernie Onslaught Like You’ve Never Seen



https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -for-ufos/

This Is What It’s Like to Be the Only Man in Washington Lobbying for UFOs
A closer encounter with our 2016 story.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politi ... story.html



Trump administration gives crooked Brazilian meatpacker another taxpayer-funded bailout despite bipartisan outrage





https://www.nj.com/cumberland/2020/01/n ... r-old.html

*
N.J. cop accused of beating multiple suspects admits assaulting 62-year-old
Updated 8:18 PM;Today 2:34 PM



https://nypost.com/2020/01/10/former-ny ... dit-union/


Former NYPD officer admits to stealing $400K from Municipal Credit Union






https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/2 ... -fund.html



Valley cop admits he took $315K from firefighters’ relief fund



https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/brow ... story.html

Margate cop fired after cocaine went missing

By LISA J. HURIASH

SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL |
JAN 10, 2020 | 3:45 PM
| MARGATE


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Former Cop Who Appears To Have Been Wrongly Convicted Of Rape Files Appeal With Supreme Court






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Now ex-cop who stole from Walmart, Target while in uniform is going to prison


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South Elgin cop charged with domestic violence again


https://nj1015.com/nj-cop-to-get-year-i ... -concrete/

NJ cop to get year in jail for slamming man’s face into concrete

Sergio Bichao
January 10, 2020


Read More: NJ cop to get year in jail for slamming man's face into concrete | https://nj1015.com/nj-cop-to-get-year-i ... m=referral


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The Navy Has Secret Classified Video of an Infamous UFO Incident
A records request shows the Pentagon has "discovered certain briefing slides that are classified TOP SECRET" and a "video classified SECRET."

By MJ Banias
Jan 10 2020, 10



https://theintercept.com/2020/01/10/us- ... lai-yemen/

U.S. STRIKE ON IRANIAN COMMANDER IN YEMEN THE NIGHT OF SULEIMANI’S ASSASSINATION KILLED THE WRONG MAN
Alex Emmons
January 10 2020, 5:57 p.m.


https://theintercept.com/2020/01/10/joe ... wa-tv-ads/

JOE BIDEN IS GETTING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF AIR COVER IN IOWA FROM UNDISCLOSED DONORS
Akela Lacy
January 10 2020, 1:12 p.m.


https://www.innerviews.org

Anja Garbarek delivers recombinant songs that uncover difficult truths. Her latest release, The Road Is Just a Surface, examines vulnerability, mental illness and the folly of projecting invincibility



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Two teens charged with playing porn flicks on highway billboard

By BRIAN NIEMIETZ

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
JAN 10, 2020 | 7:36 PM


https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ck-pension

Ousted Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg to receive $60m in stock and pension
* Muilenburg left after two 737 Max aircraft crashed, killing 346
* Boeing says ex-CEO will forfeit stock worth $14.6m


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Paleolithic diet may not have been that 'paleo', scientists say
Researchers at Wits University suggest humans in southern Africa were eating carbs up to 170,000 years ago – a blow to gym vloggers everywhere


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The imperfect vessel: why white evangelicals see Trump as King Cyrus


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Wildfires could flip parts of the Amazon from a carbon sponge to a source by 2050
Curbing new deforestation could help avoid the alarming tipping point, simulations suggest


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Here’s how climate change may make Australia’s wildfires more common
Extreme wildfires down under are linked to a weather pattern that starts in the Indian Ocean


https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new ... vera-rubin

Dark matter pioneer Vera Rubin gets a new observatory named after her
The researcher found evidence of dark matter and broke barriers for women in science


https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/10 ... f-the-bbc/

JANUARY 10, 2020
“Trust Us Not to be Really Impartial”: Reflections on the Structure and Content of the BBC
by T.J. COLES

Photograph Source: Sean MacEntee – CC BY 2.0
As Iran responds to US war crimes and tensions escalate, we can expect the BBC to increase its anti-Iranian propaganda. The BBC’s Defence Correspondent, Jonathan Marcus, opines: “it was rocket attacks from Iran’s proxies – local Shia militia – against US bases [in Iraq] that formed the prelude to this recent crisis,” referring to Iranian missile launches against US bases in Iraq. But it was not. It was US-British regional hegemony and US-British-Israeli attacks on Iran with sanctions, assassinations, the murder of civilian engineers, counter-government activity, and support for terror groups, including the Mujahideen al-Khalq and the Jundallah that sets part of the backdrop. But why does the BBC spew this kind of propaganda?
This article is a modified version of responses to questions someone asked me via email. He did not give permission for me to publish the Q&A in article form, hence the reworking here.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BBC BIAS
To understand the content of the BBC we should ask what sort of institution it is. It originated in the 1920s as the brainchild of Lord Reith, a Tory party secretary. Winst


https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/10 ... countries/

JANUARY 10, 2020
Mega Droughts Engulf Countries
by ROBERT HUNZIKER

Photograph Source: Mark Heard from Calgary, Alberta, Canada – CC BY 2.0
Throughout the world, mega droughts are hitting hard with a ferocity not seen in decades and in some cases not seen in centuries. It’s not merely coincidental that as global warming accelerates droughts turn more vicious than ever before. All of which begs the logical question of when will world leaders wake up with a unified plan of action to mitigate carbon emissions, or is it already too late?
Nobody knows for sure if and when it is too late, but the evidence is crystal clear that extraordinarily powerful droughts are decimating regions of the planet like there’s no tomorrow.
An Australian research paper addressed the issue: Multi-century Cool-and Warm-Season rainfall Reconstructions for Australia’s Major Climatic Regions, European Geosciences Union, Vol. 13, Issue 12, Nov. 30, 2017 by Mandy Freund and Benjamin Henley. According to The University of Melbourne headline about the article: “Recent Australian Droughts may be the Worst in 800 Years.”
That study, which identified the “worst droughts in 800 years,” was published two years prior to the recent drought period accompanied by massive fires across the entire continent… these are unprecedented conditions… never before recorded or seen! Thus sending a strong signal




https://whowhatwhy.org/2020/01/10/the-n ... ike-video/

JANUARY 10, 2020 | CHRIS GAY
THE NEW YORK TIMES’S ODD PLANE-STRIKE VIDEO


https://whowhatwhy.org/2020/01/11/house ... the-world/

JANUARY 11, 2020 | MILICENT CRANOR
HOUSE OF PAIN: WATCH CRAZY PARLIAMENT FIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD



https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/



* CRIME AND JUSTICE


Stabbings, Fires, Flooded Cells: Mississippi’s Prison System Is Falling Apart
Five people died in one week. Now a lawmaker is asking for a federal investigation.



https://inthesetimes.com/article/22197/ ... dress-code

CULTURE » JANUARY 2, 2020
The Grooming Gap: What “Looking the Part” Costs Women
If women don’t conform to beauty expectations, they’re paid less.





https://www.whosarat.com


Photos of Police Informants



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/ ... e-inaction

Friday, January 10, 2020
byCommon Dreams
Tens of Thousands Join 'Sack ScoMo' Protests Against Government Climate Inaction as Bushfires Rage Across Australia
"These fires, heatwaves, and droughts are not just unprecedented—they're the direct result of decades of climate destruction at the hands of fossil fuel loving politicians."



https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020 ... licity-war



Published on
Friday, January 10, 2020
by Common Dreams
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton Issues Call to Catholics: Let Us End Our Complicity in War
All Catholics should refuse to kill and should refuse cooperation with United States wars.



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/ ... s-kneeling

Published on
Friday, January 10, 2020
byCommon Dreams
'Cowardice': Olympics Committee Slammed for New Guidelines Barring Athletes From Kneeling, Raising Fists
"God how I despise these Olympic politician opportunists."



https://www.indiewire.com/2010/10/wesle ... ke-122209/


Wesley Snipes Trying To Mount Hoover Vs MLK Pic, Irked No One Has Talked To Him About ‘Blade’ Remake

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/nation ... story.html

2 Ohio cops lose jobs over Stormy Daniels strip club arrest





https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny ... story.html


NYPD officer & fiancée charged with murder in death of cop’s 8-year-old son: police

By ROCCO PARASCANDOLA and MICHAEL SHERIDAN

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
JAN 24, 2020 | 10:30 AM


https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ ... story.html

Former Mexican police commander indicted in Brooklyn for trafficking cocaine

By NOAH GOLDBERG

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
JAN 24, 2020 | 10:38



https://www.rt.com/news/479061-iraq-protests-us-troops/

'Million-Man March' kicks off in Baghdad to demand US troop pullout (VIDEO, PHOTOS)
24 Jan, 2020 11:25


https://www.rt.com/news/479127-us-troop ... jury-iran/

34 US troops suffered brain injury in Iran’s revenge strike for Soleimani’s killing – Pentagon




https://www.rt.com/news/479044-duterte- ... dominance/

‘I want to open new fronts with Russia & China as US lived off the fat of our land,’ Philippines’ Duterte tells RT 
24 Jan, 2020 09:15 / Updated 7 hours ago





https://www.rt.com/news/479029-egypt-mu ... est-voice/

Listen to your mummy! Egyptian priest’s ‘voice’ heard 3,000 years after his death through 3D-printed vocal tract





https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/24 ... inscribed/


JANUARY 24, 2020
A Climate Time Bomb With Trump’s Name Inscribed
by ROBERT HUNZIKER

Photograph Source: NASA – Public Domain
Thwaites, in West Antarctica, is the world’s most dangerous glacier. As of January 15th, scientists have labeled it: “A Climate Time Bomb.”
Thwaites is crumbling apart on the underneath side where warm ocean currents circulate, which is clear evidence that global warming is really, truly hitting its stride even as America, obeying President Trump’s orders, rejected its commitment to Paris ’15, a major climate agreement of almost all the nations of the world.
In point of fact, America is too focused on ceaseless


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... rror-group


Revealed: the true identity of the leader of an American neo-Nazi terror group



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ners-birth

Pregnant and shackled: why inmates are still giving birth cuffed and bound


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... a-fig-leaf

Millionaires like me should pay more taxes. Giving to charity is a fig leaf
Chuck Collins






https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/24 ... y-funding/


JANUARY 24, 2020
In the Name of “Israel’s Security”: Retreating US Gives Israel Billions More in Military Funding
by RAMZY BAROUD

Photograph Source: Ilan Rom – CC BY-SA 4.0
Billions of US tax-payers’ money will continue to be funneled into Israel in the next fiscal year, and for many years in the foreseeable future. Republican and






https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/01/c ... harge.html

Case weakens against another defendant in Nathan Bill’s cop brawl prosecution after judge dismisses charge
Updated Jan 23, 2020; Posted Jan 23, 2020





https://www.newsobserver.com/news/polit ... 60133.html

Accusations target Durham, SBI as a cop fights to clear his name

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/polit ... rylink=cpy





https://minnlawyer.com/2020/01/24/fired ... il-rights/

Fired cop sues county attorney, alleging violation of his civil rights
By: Barbara L. Jones January 24, 2020







https://qctimes.com/news/local/rick-s-s ... 187eb.html


3. United Township student resource officer charged with sex assault, possession of child porn 



FILE: Panelist East Moline police officer Kirk DeGreve answers students questions during a Quad Cities Big Table panel discussion surrounding student safety Friday, April 20, 2018 in East Moline. The students who chose to participate, held a walk out against gun violence and commemorate the shooting at Columbine High School 19-years ago. The Quad Cities Big Table initiative brought people together for conversation about the future of the Quad-Cities Area.
MEG MCLAUGHLIN /
A former student resource officer at United Township High School was charged Thursday with sexual assault and possessing child pornography.
Former East Moline Officer Kirk DeGreve was formally charged in Rock Island County with two counts Class 1 felony criminal sexual assault and two counts Class 3 felony possession of child pornography.





https://newsmaven.io/pinacnews/cops-in- ... jC1uZt-fvg

Cop Fabricates Story of Black Man who Robbed him; 3 Innocent Black Men Detained






https://newsmaven.io/pinacnews/eye-on-g ... KQFC-q1AuQ

Texas Cops Shoot 3-year-old Girl and 16-year-old boy in No-Knock Drug Raid





https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nas ... 1.40934213

Family, religious leaders say teen was beaten by Nassau cops during arrest






https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cops-spy ... 18203.html

Cops Spying on Londoners’ Faces Sparks Human Rights Concerns






https://www.foxnews.com/politics/carter ... rder-finds

Carter Page FISA warrant lacked probable cause, DOJ admits in declassified assessment



https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nation ... r-n1121406

Two of 4 warrants letting FBI spy on ex-Trump aide Carter Page were not valid, says DOJ





https://www.commentarymagazine.com/amer ... rter-page/



Has the FBI Learned Its Lesson?



https://saraacarter.com/sen-grassley-de ... contracts/

Sen. Grassley Demands Answers From Pentagon On FBI Spy Stefan Halper’s Questionable Defense Contracts
By Sara Carter -
January 22, 2020






https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pu ... story.html

FBI, federal prosecutors investigate District’s forensic firearms lab






We brought Dr Whitehust to speak at Bates College.

See. https://www.whistleblowers.org/members/ ... hitehurst/
We brought Attorney Steven Kohn to speak at BostonUniversity. See. https://www.whistleblowers.org/members/stephen-m-kohn/

https://www.whistleblowersblog.org/2017 ... b-scandal/

Dr. Whitehurst and the FBI Lab Scandal




POSTED IN INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY WHISTLEBLOWERS
When Dr. Frederic Whitehurst initially blew the whistle on the systemic forensic fraud in the FBI crime lab, he could never have known it was the start of a lifelong fight for government accountability.

In 1994, he reported his concerns with FBI lab practices internally. It was “alterations of reports, alterations of evidence, folks testifying outside their areas of expertise in courts of law”, said Whitehurst, but “really what was going on was human rights violations. We have a right to fair trials in this country… And that’s not what was going on at the FBI lab.”
After his superiors failed to take any action, he took his concerns to the Department of Justice. Whitehurst faced significant and ongoing retaliation from the FBI, who highly criticized his claims, attacked his credibility, and fired him from his position at the FBI crime lab as chemist and lab supervisor.
Bad Science and Forensic Fraud
 Eventually, investigations were launched into Whitehurst’s allegations but failed to lead to any justice. It wasn’t until ten years later that Whitehurst was finally vindicated, when a scathing 500+ page study of the lab by the Justice Department Inspector General, Michael Bromwich, concluded major reforms were required in the lab. This included the use of forensic hair analyses, which had been used for decades in state and federal criminal cases, and was proven flawed and inaccurate more than ninety percent of the time. Some of the cases Whitehurst had reported included the 1993 World Trade Center attack, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the O.J. Simpson murder case.
As a result, the FBI agreed to unprecedented reforms. These included outside accreditation of its crime lab, the appointment of an objective and independent scientist to oversee lab operations, and the removal of various lab officials who had engaged in misconduct. The FBI pledged to review all cases potentially affected by the lab’s flawed forensic science.
Department of (In)Justice
While Dr. Whitehurst received $1.16 million as settlement from the FBI in 1998, he continued to investigate and research FBI misconduct in cases that used hair analysis, compiling the data as head of the National Whistleblower Center’s (NWC) Forensic Justice Project. It was here that he discovered the Justice Department had failed to keep its promise to review the potentially affected cases and to notify the adversely affected defendants.
In 2012 the Washington Post published an extensive review of the FBI and DOJ failures to properly review the cases impacted by the FBI lab scandal, based on Whitehurst’s research. As a result, the DOJ agreed to conduct yet another review of hair cases in collaboration with the Innocence Project and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL).
* 3,000 cases were identified by the government that had used microscopic hair analysis from FBI examiners.
* 500 have been reviewed as of March 2015.
* 268 included pro-prosecution testimony from FBI examiners.
* 257 (96 percent) contained erroneous statements from “FBI experts”.
One example of the many people falsely imprisoned is Donald Eugene Gates, who served twenty-seven years for a violent crime he did not commit before his exoneration.
For some, however, it was too late. Defendants in at least 35 of these cases received the death penalty and errors were identified in 33 (94 percent) of those cases. Nine of these defendants have already been executed and five died of other causes while on death row.
To Serve and Protect
It has taken the FBI and Justice Department more than twenty years to actually review these problems – and the government still does not know the full extent of damage caused by the FBI lab scandal.
But Whitehurst does not regret his decision to blow the whistle on systemic government forensic fraud and corruption. “I took an oath of office and whoever was breaking the law, whoever was committing civil rights violations or human rights violations, I was supposed to do something about it. Yes, absolutely, I’d do it all over again… there have been amazing changes in the FBI laboratory…they are light years ahead of where they were.”
America’s first successful FBI whistleblower, Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, changed the U.S. criminal justice system forever.
 
Further Reading:
* Watch the short video below to hear Dr. Whitehurst describe his experience blowing the whistle on the FBI.
* Help NWC fight for stronger legal protections for FBI whistleblowers- donate for #GivingTuesday.    
* Learn more about Dr. Whitehurst and FBI whistleblower rights.




National Whistleblower Center
1.8K subscribers
FBI Whistleblower Dr.Frederic Whitehurst Exposed Forensic Fraud in FBI Crime Lab

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/02/15/ ... be-reined/


Tainted jailhouse informants must be reined in
Too many wrongful convictions trace their roots to informants who lied their way out of prison.



By The Editorial Board,Updated February 15, 2020, 4:00 a.m.


https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny ... story.html

Off-duty NYPD school safety agent busted for beating teen daughter with curtain rod

By THOMAS TRACY

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
FEB 15, 2020 | 11:50 AM


https://www.nydailynews.com/news/nation ... story.html


Bodycam shows 6-year-old Florida girl calmly walking with officer before she’s committed to mental health facility

By JESSICA SCHLADEBECK

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
FEB 14, 2020 | 9:44 AM


https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/br ... story.html

Bronx teacher who performed oral sex on 14-year-old gets 10 years probation, avoids jail, keeps teaching certificate

By MOLLY CRANE-NEWMAN

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
SEP 13, 2018 | 12:00 AM






https://www.pressherald.com/2020/02/14/ ... ew-mccabe/

February 14 2020

Justice Department closes case against ex-FBI official Andrew McCabe




https://www.rt.com/usa/480942-bernie-sa ... mfi-aipac/

With Sanders surging in the polls, Israel lobby spends big bucks to sink his chances in Nevada
15 Feb, 2020 21:02 / Updated 20 minutes ago




https://www.rt.com/business/480767-china-us-patent-war/

China beats US in key patents to secure technological dominance – report
15 Feb, 2020 11:44



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... aytona-500

Donald Trump
Trump quotes Emerson: 'When you strike at the king, you must kill him'




https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-clip ... fe-1487232


EXCLUSIVE: BILL CLINTON, EX- FBI AGENT DISCUSS ANTI-SEMITISM IN 'VIRAL: ANTISEMITISM IN FOUR MUTATIONS'
BY JAMES CROWLEY ON 2/13/20 AT 5:18 PM EST




http://www.fbicover-up.com/justice-brett-kavanaugh.html

Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and his ongoing cover-up of the murder of Vince Foster

This website is dedicated to
revealing the truth by making government
and court records available for public review





A comic of Vince Foster, Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton from the files of the Office of the Independent Counsel.




https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/inv ... 762436002/

FBI could hold the key to a notorious Texas cold case. But the info isn't being released.


https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2020/ ... rs/163127/

FBI Has Failed to Move the Needle on Diversity Over the Past Decade, Despite Efforts of Recent Directors
Percentages of women and minorities have remained virtually unchanged.
COURTNEY BUBLÉ | FEBRUARY 14, 2020


https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/2/14/ ... -fbi-files

Judy Baar Topinka fed the FBI tips for years on possible corruption in the west suburbs, records show



Justice Dept. will not allow FBI to testify in Fairfax investigation of Bijan Ghaisar killing

https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-la ... r-killing/




https://www.kvue.com/article/news/inves ... 54fde938aa

Why is the FBI withholding DNA evidence in Austin’s 1991 yogurt shop murders?
The issue is the latest turn in a case that has haunted Central Texas since 1991. It’s been said that Austin lost its innocence that night.


Published: 11:03 PM CST February 8, 2020
Updated: 11:59 PM CST February 9, 2020


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ating-2020

Barr directs FBI to get his approval before investigating 2020 presidential candidates: report
BY MARTY JOHNSON - 02/06/20 09:23 AM EST



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... remists-in

Bloomberg compared civil libertarians, teachers union to NRA 'extremists' in 2013: report


https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4832 ... -bloomberg

Bill Maher booed on HBO show after mocking liberals for calling Bloomberg racist






https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/glob ... and-103019

Global Terrorism: Threats to the Homeland





https://truthout.org/articles/time-for- ... -homeland/

Time for the US to Dump the Word “Homeland






https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-techn ... ere-suing/

The FBI is Tracking Our Faces in Secret. We’re Suing.
There can be no accountability if there is no transparency.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/ ... ks-disgust

Published on
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
byCommon Dreams
'Audience Full of Rich People'? $1,750+ Ticket Prices for Democratic Debate Spark Disgust
"I think it speaks to the fundamental, endemic corruption of the Democratic Party establishment that you had to pay... multiple thousands of dollars to get into that room."
byJake Johnson, staff writer

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2020/a20041.pdf#page=2

Audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Controls over Weapons, Munitions, and Explosives



https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2020/a20040.pdf#page=2

Audit of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s Intermountain West Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory – Salt Lake City, Utah




https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2020/20045.pdf


Report to Congress on
Implementation of Section 1001 of
the USA Patriot Act
(as required by Section 1001(3) of Public Law 107-56)



https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/titicut-follies-1968

https://vimeo.com/22027387

Frederick Wiseman's "Titicut Follies" was filmed in 1966 at the State Hospital for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Mass. It was shown at the 1967 New York Film Festival, had two limited runs in New York and -- aside from a few screenings before film societies -- has had no other distribution. This is its first commercial booking outside New York.
It is not hard to understand why this is the case. "Titicut Follies" is one of the most despairing documentaries I have ever seen; more immediate than fiction because these people are real; more savage than satire because it seems to be neutral.

We are literally taken into a madhouse. Inmates of varying degrees of mental illness are treated with the same casual inhumanity. There is an old man named Jim who is constantly taunted by the guards, whose uniforms are disturbingly similar to a policeman's. While he is being shaved with fast, painful strokes by the barber, the guards needle him: "Why's your room so filthy, Jim? What's that you said, Jim?" They are bullies who have their victim pinned and helpless.
When Jim is returned to his room, it is an absolutely empty cell. And Jim is naked. It appears that the inmates are deprived of clothing much of the time because that is cheaper and makes security easier. It is not explained how naked confinement in a barren cell cures mental illness and indeed this hospital seems to come from the Middle Ages.
Massachusetts legislators have tried for two years to suppress Wiseman's film. They say it invades the privacy



https://truthout.org/category/op-ed/

OP-ED ECONOMY & LABOR
To Confront Coronavirus, We Need an Emergency Wealth Tax




https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/27 ... resswoman/


MARCH 27, 2020
A Message For America from Brazil’s First Indigenous Congresswoman
by RUTH HOPKINS

Photograph Source: The Institute for Inclusive Security – CC BY 2.0
Last year, we all watched in horror as the Amazon rainforest burned at an unprecedented rate. We cannot afford to lose it, especially amid a climate emergency. It’s vast greenery releases oxygen and stores carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that causes of global warming. The death of the Amazon would mean the end of life on Earth.
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon have been on the frontlines of protecting the rainforest since colonization began.
Joênia Wapixana, from the Indigenous nation of Wapichana, is the first Indigenous woman elected to the Chamber of Deputies in Brazil. She recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with Congresswomen Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
She came to share her concern over the imminent dangers that now threatens the very existence of the Amazon rainforest, as well as the survival of the Indigenous Tribespeople who call

https://whowhatwhy.org/2020/03/27/bats- ... r-viruses/

MARCH 27, 2020 | JEFF SCHECHTMAN
WHY DO PANDEMICS OFTEN START WITH BATS?




https://theintercept.com/2020/03/27/imm ... -new-york/

HOW ICE OPERATIONS IN NEW YORK SET THE STAGE FOR A CORONAVIRUS NIGHTMARE IN LOCAL JAILS
Ryan Devereaux
March 27 2020, 2:20 p.m.




https://whowhatwhy.org/2020/03/26/china ... reat-game/

MARCH 26, 2020 | MANSUR MIROVALEV
CHINA VAULTS PAST US, RUSSIA IN NEW ‘GREAT GAME’


https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... n-positive

THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
Mystery In Wuhan: Recovered Coronavirus Patients Test Negative ...

March 27, 20209:28 AM ET


https://thenextweb.com/neural/2020/03/2 ... ronavirus/

Snowden warns: The surveillance states we’re creating now will outlast the coronavirus
Temporary security measures can soon become permanent





https://whowhatwhy.org/2020/03/25/scien ... n-the-lab/

MARCH 25, 2020 | LANA COHEN
SCIENTIST IS SAVING CORALS BY BREEDING THEM IN THE LAB





https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/27 ... est-of-us/

MARCH 27, 2020
Bailouts for the Rich, the Virus for the Rest of Us
by ROB URIE

Photograph Source: Jane Angch – CC BY 2.0
For the second time in a generation





https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/27 ... -bailouts/

MARCH 27, 2020
Stimulus Bill Allows Federal Reserve to Conduct Meetings in Secret; Gives Fed $454 Billion Slush Fund for Wall Street Bailouts
by PAM MARTENS - RUSS MARTENS

The U.S. Senate voted 96-0 late yesterday on a massive bailout of Wall Street banks versus a short-term survival plan for American workers thrown out of their jobs – and potentially their






https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/27 ... -covid-19/

MARCH 27, 2020
Could the Death of the National Security State be a Silver Lining of COVID-19?
by JEFFERSON MORLEY

Photograph Source: Carnaval.com Studios – CC BY 2.0
Could something good come from the catastrophe of COVID-19? Might the epic insecurity of a plague teach us something about national security?
Political scientist Micah Zenko calls the current pandemic “the worst intelligence failure in U.S. history.”
Former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman sees






https://theintercept.com/2020/03/27/deb ... -shutdown/



DEBT COLLECTION INDUSTRY DEEMS ITSELF ESSENTIAL TO “FINANCIAL HEALTH” OF CONSUMERS, FIGHTS COVID-19 SHUTDOWN
Lee Fang
March 27 2020, 2:40 p.m.





https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7jy ... -dog-cages

Police in the Philippines Are Putting Coronavirus Lockdown Violators in Dog Cages
Police also shot a man on a motorcycle dead for allegedly evading a checkpoint.



https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xgq3 ... hand-signs


This Machine Learning Algorithm Detects Naruto Hand Signs
Someone created an algorithm to recognize hand seals from the anime show Naruto, using computer vision.





https://www.thenation.com/article/socie ... ensorship/




This Was Never Just About Woody Allen. It Still Isn’t.
Against the vice cop of the mind.
By JoAnn Wypijewski





https://www.thenation.com/article/socie ... ronavirus/



The Postal Service Is Breaking Down
Covid-19 has already begun to take its toll on the overextended USPS workforce.
By Jake BittleTwitter




https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus ... s-parents/



The Passwords He Carried
I had to get my father’s affairs in order. You do too.
CLARA JEFFERY





https://www.americanswhotellthetruth.or ... ctory-fire





Anniversary of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
New York, New York
March 25, 2020
Writer's Almanac


Thanks for The Writer's Almanac for reminding us that the New York’sTriangle Shirtwaist Factoryburned down on this date (March 25) in 1911. Also, we rememberFrances Perkins on this day; she worked tirelessly to bring about fire safety reforms in New York City. "One hundred and forty-six workers — most of them immigrant women and girls — died in the fire or shortly afterward.
Read more




NorthJersey.comPaterson cop was fired for taking classes during maternity leave. Now she
is suingAn officer Paterson police fired because she was preparing for a promotion
test while she was on maternity leave has filed a lawsuit against the ...14 hours ago





https://www.thenews-messenger.com/story ... 924141001/


Teen arrested after kicking parent over cell phone






https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligenc ... arassment/

Female Cop Sues PPD, Alleging Retaliation for Reporting Sexual Harassment
A female Philadelphia police sergeant has sued the city, alleging her superiors retaliated against her for reporting a lieutenant's pattern of sexual harassment against women in the department.
By P.J. D'Annunzio | March 27, 2020 at 11:33 AM






A liberal is someone who walks out of
the room when a argument turns into
a fight.
A conservative is a liberal who has been
Mugged.
Here in Maine we soldier on and fight
the good fight.



https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politi ... rtbeat-flt
John Kerry says Kentucky congressman ‘tested positive for being an a–hole’
By BRIAN NIEMIETZ
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAR 27, 2020 | 1:43 PM




https://www.pressherald.com/2020/03/27/ ... cal-masks/
Maine sail-maintenance shop turns to sewing medical masks
The North Sails workshop in South Freeport has started making masks for caregivers who need protection







The bigger question is why we let the FBI elect Donald
Trump to represent the Deep State.
An active barometer of your situational awareness can be
measured by you identifying your members of Congress
being blackmailed by the FBI.
See
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6fwvow






Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2020 MEDIA CONTACT
Jeremy M. Edwards ‪(202) 705-6697‬
Rush Introduces Legislation to Protect Inmates And Their Families from Unjust Charges for Communications Services
WASHINGTON — Yesterday, U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) introduced H.R. 6389, the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act, which protects inmates from unjust and unreasonable charges related to the telephone services and advance communications they rely on during their term of imprisonment.  In particular, the bill bans commissions received by prisons and other confinement facilities from communications providers, which is the primary cause of increased rates incurred by inmates and their families.
“In jails and prisons across the country, the average inmate can expect to pay as much as $25 per call they make to a family member or loved one.  Given that most prisoners are paid legal slave wages — if any wages at all — this cost is usually incurred by the person they are calling, often forcing families to choose between putting food on the table and speaking with their loved one who happens to be in prison,” said Rep. Rush.  “Predictably, these unjust and unreasonable charges can enflame already tense relationships between incarcerated persons and their support systems, thereby exacerbating recidivism.
“Mrs. Martha Wright-Reed knew this struggle intimately, forced to choose between purchasing medication for herself and communicating with her incarcerated son.  She would go on to lead a campaign for just communications rates for incarcerated people for over a decade, and later serve as lead plaintiff in Wright v. Corrections Corporation of America,” Rush continued.  “This legislation serves to commemorate her fight for justice, protect prisoners from unfair rates for their communications services, and ensure that their families do not have to make the difficult choice between paying their bills and speaking with a loved one ever again.”
In addition to banning site commissions, H.R. 6389 caps intrastate and interstate phone services at four cents per minute for debit prepaid calling, and five cents per minute for collect calling.





https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus ... story.html

More than 800K physicians beg Trump to let experts, not holidays, determine when public gatherings are safe again

By BRIAN NIEMIETZ

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAR 27, 2020 | 11:39 PM



https://www.rt.com/news/484280-cat-belg ... virus-pet/

Cat contracts coronavirus FROM sick owner in new case of human-to-animal transition
27 Mar, 2020 13:13




https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2020/a20042.pdf#page=2

Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Monitoring of Inmate Communications to Prevent Radicalization

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: George Orwell shake hands with Charles Darwin

Post by msfreeh »

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medica ... r-BB12coPu

Tiger at NYC's Bronx Zoo tests positive for coronavirus
A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywher

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