The bad news from last week’s passage of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act is that Americans can still be arrested on US soil and detained indefinitely without trial. Some of my colleagues would like us to believe that they fixed last year’s infamous Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA, which codified into law the unconstitutional notion that some Americans are not subject to the protections of the Constitution. However, nothing in this year’s bill or amendments to the bill restored those constitutional rights.
Supporters of the one amendment that passed on this matter were hoping no one would notice that it did absolutely nothing. The amendment essentially stated that those entitled to habeas corpus protections are hereby granted habeas corpus protections. Thanks for nothing!
As Steve Vladeck, of American University’s law school, wrote of this amendment:
“[T]he Gohmert Amendment does nothing whatsoever to address the central objections…. [I]t merely provides by statute a remedy that is already available to individuals detained within the United States; and says nothing about the circumstances in which individuals might actually be subject to military detention when arrested within the territory of United States…. Anyone within the United States who was subject to military detention before the FY2013 NDAA would be subject to it afterwards, as well…”
Actually, the amendment in question makes matters worse, as it states that anyone detained on US soil has the right to file a writ of habeas corpus “within 30 days” of arrest. In fact, persons detained on US soil already have the right to file a habeas petition immediately upon arrest!
Reauthorizing the indefinite detention of US citizens without charge might be the scariest provision in next year’s defense spending bill, but it certainly isn’t the only one worth worrying about.
An amendment tagged on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 would allow for the United States government to create and distribute pro-American propaganda within the country’s own borders under the alleged purpose of putting al-Qaeda’s attempts at persuading the world against Western ideals on ice. Former US representatives went out of there way to ensure their citizens that they’d be excluded from government-created media blasts, but two lawmakers currently serving the country are looking to change all that.
Congressmen Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Adam Smith (D-WA) introduced “The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012” (H.R. 5736) last week during discussions for the NDAA 2013. It was voted on by the US House of Representatives to be included in next year’s defense spending bill, which was then voted on as a whole and approved. The amendment updates the antiquated Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1987, essentially clarifying that the US State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors may “prepare, disseminate and use public diplomacy information abroad,” but while also striking down a long-lasting ban on the domestic dissemination in America. For the last several decades, the federal government has been authorized to use such tactics overseas to influence foreign support of America’s wars abroad, but has been barred from such strategies within the US. If next year’s NDAA clears the US Senate and is signed by President Obama with the Thornberry-Smith provision intact, then restrictions on propaganda being force-fed to Americans would be rolled back entirety.
Pennsylvania State Constable Ed Quiggle, Jr., the elected Constable for the City of Sunbury’s 9th Ward, will sign a resolution in opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, also known as the NDAA, on Saturday, May 26th, 2012 at 10 a.m., in Cameron Park directly across the street from the Northumberland County Courthouse in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. The NDAA authorizes the federal government to arrest and indefinitely detain Americans and legal aliens without charge or trial.
On January 17th, 2012 the County Commissioners of Elk County, Pennsylvania unanimously passed a resolution opposing the NDAA, titled “To Preserve Habeas Corpus And Civil Liberties.” Sheriff Mike McMoran, Comanche County, Kansas, Sheriff Grayson Robinson, Arapahoe County, Colorado, and former Sheriff Richard Mack have signed resolutions opposing the NDAA and ordering no one in their department to cooperate with the enforcement of the NDAA. Virginia, Maine, and Utah have passed bills opposing and nullifying the NDAA, and many other states have introduced similar bills. Many local governments and groups have already passed resolutions.
Groups across the political spectrum are supporting the nullification and/or repeal of the NDAA . . .
Organizations include the ACLU, Demand Progress, Downsize DC, Gun Owners of America, Japanese American Citizens League, the Tenth Amendment Center, Oath Keepers, Amnesty International, the Patriot Coalition, PANDA – People Against the National Defense Act, Rhode Island Liberty Coalition, the John Birch Society, Reclaim Democracy, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, People’s Campaign for the Constitution, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries, United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, Physicians for Human Rights, Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Public Witness, Rabbis for Human Rights –North America, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the Ron Paul and Gary Johnson Presidential campaigns, and many others.
Our corporate Rulers lust to profit even more than they already have from passengers’ trauma at the TSA’s checkpoints. Accordingly, “Homeland Security Department contractors such as Adobe, Boeing Co. and IBM, announced Monday the creation of the WHSR [Washington Homeland Security Roundtable]-TSA Senior Executive Industry Forum.” They hope to “[start] a dialogue to make it easier to do business with TSA.”
Agency head admits $1 billion body scanner program may fail
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
May 22, 2012
Although reports today suggest that the TSA is looking to move away from physical pat downs, owing to public backlash, TSA head John Pistole admitted recently that screeners are being trained to pay specific attention to the crotches of travelers moving through airport security.
“Pistole told me that the TSA has developed mock-ups of the bomb, and agents are being instructed on its design and how to detect it,” Goldberg writes.
“If done properly, it may be found,” Pistole said referring to TSA pat downs.
Goldberg himself was the journalist that related the story of his own 79-year-old mother-in- law being stopped and asked by the TSA if she was wearing a sanitary napkin because TSA agents spotted “an anomaly in the crotch area”.
Goldberg also reveals that Pistole admitted that the expensive body scanners that have been installed in hundreds of airports across the country may fail to detect explosives.
“The advanced imaging technology gives us the best chance to detect the underwear-type device,” he said.
The best chance? “This is not 100 percent guaranteed,” he said. “If it comes down to a terrorist who has a well- concealed device, and we have no intelligence about him, and he comes to an advanced-imaging technology machine, it is still our best technology. But it’s really an open question about whether the machine, or the AIT operator, would detect the device.”
“The existence of this latest iteration of the underwear bomb is, as the security expert Bruce Schneier argues, “an advertisement against increased airport security — not in favor of it,” Goldberg concludes.
He further notes “when even the head of the TSA admits that its technology might not be able to stop innovative new bombs, it might be time to look at our counterterrorism spending priorities — and focus more resources on stopping embryonic plots and less on harassing my mother-in-law.”
PR campaign will bombard Americans with positive messages about technology
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
In the aftermath of conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer’s observation that the first person to shoot down a surveillance drone on U.S. soil will be a “folk hero,” the drone industry has committed itself to launching a propaganda blitz aimed at bombarding the public with positive messages about the technology.
“After issuing a statement denouncing Krauthammer’s remarks as “irresponsible” and “dangerous,” (Michael) Toscano said the AUVSI would go on the offensive against critics. While the strategy is still being shaped, Toscano made it sound like something straight out of a crisis-management textbook — or Orwell. The AUVSI wants to bombard the American public with positive images and messages about drones in an effort to reverse the growing perception of the aircraft as a threat to privacy and safety,” reports Salon.
One of America’s most prolific spy agencies wants to make sure the country’s war on cybercrimes continues with the next generation, and they are bringing their agenda into classrooms to see it through.
In an effort to combat cyberattacks — the government’s latest anti-American boogieman — the National Security Agency will soon be scouting new recruits at colleges and universities in the United States. Four schools have been selected by the NSA as official Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations, and the agency hopes that the programs there will get students up to snuff so that they can someday join Uncle Sam’s elite team of all-American hackers.
Neal Ziring, NSA’s technical director for their Information Assurance Directorate, tells Reuters that the agency is looking for “quality cyber operators,” but today’s schools largely fall short of offering the education and training that’ll produce programmers capable of conquering foreign cyber infrastructures. The agency looks to change all of that by ensuring that the next generations of computer geniuses are properly trained before getting their degrees, saving the federal government the trouble of teaching their new hires themselves.
A senior US lawmaker with 30 years experience in Congress came out hard against CISPA this week, attacking the legislation’s creators for drafting a bill that erodes Internet privacy for Americans.
Sen. Ron Wyden is warning that CIPSA cyber security legislation is being pushed into effect simply to create a new cyber industrial complex while doing very little to actually protect America’s networks from cyber attacks.
If enacted the entire Internet will become a massive big brother spy network that government will use to monitor every single digital communication sent including email, text message, all instant messages including video messaging calls on Skyp, Facetime and other services, as well as all comments or items shared on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
A 29-year-old Rhode Island man is expected to pay $675,000 for the unauthorized downloading of 30 songs after the Supreme Court said on Monday that they will not weigh in on one of the record industry’s longest-running copyright infringement cases.
Joel Tenenbaum of Providence, RI will now go back to court to continue his fight against a penalty that a District Court judge once called “unconstitutionally” excessive.
Tenenbaum was hit with a $675,000 fine — $22,500 per song — after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) took him to court over copyright infringement in 2009 and won their case. Following that decision, Nancy Gertner of United States District Court in Boston shot down the jury-determined penalty and reduced it by 90 percent, but not without the RIAA appealing and winning once more, reinstating the original fine.
May 22, 2012 by RussiaToday So how many GMOs does one put into one’s stomach daily? Tim’s robot friend couldn’t care less, so it’s a challenge to explain that the unknown effects of genetically modified organisms on our body could strike several years down the line.
The biggest threat to America today is not terrorists or global warming, but the mass genocide of Americans who die every year at the hands of the corrupt U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a recent report, investigative reporter Jon Rappoport uncovers the dirty truth that FDA-approved drugs kill at least 100,000 people every single year — the FDA actually lists this figure on its own website — and the agency is doing absolutely nothing about this disastrous trend.
On a webpage entitledWhy Learn about Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR)?, the FDA admits that 100,000 people die every single year as a result of taking FDA-approved pharmaceutical drugs. Citing figures from three different published studies, the figures also reveal that two million people a year suffer from serious ADRs, which include things like stroke, heart attack, and permanent neurological damage.
Since these figures come from studies dating back to at least 1998, it is clear that the FDA is fully aware of the extensive harm being caused by supposedly “safe” drugs. And since it has done nothing to address the problem, the agency is complicit in willfully harming and murdering tens of millions of Americans throughout just the past several decades, which makes it one of the most murderous government regimes in history.
The World Health Organization (WHO) will declare polio a global health emergency this week.
Although they claim they lack the sufficient funding to take on this endeavor, Sona Bari, spokeswoman for the polio eradication program at WHO, said the world faced a “now or never” moment.
WHO asserts that in 2011 the disease was reported to be running rampant throughout Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, with 650 cases around the world.
They will focus their efforts in these countries.
WHO is seeking to secure $1billion to add to their existing funds. They will bring this topic to the attention of ministers of health at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland this week.
They hope to coerce polio-free countries to donate money. They also suggest that officials from polio-free countries have officials at airports to administer vaccinations to people at arriving from affected nations.
