A Front Group for the Psycho-Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex
Read Full Artical
TeenScreen is a very controversial so-called "diagnostic psychiatric service" aka suicide survey; done on children who are then referred to psychiatric treatment. The evidence suggests that the objective of the psychiatrists who designed TeenScreen is to place children so selected on psychotropic drugs.
"It's just a way to put more people on prescription drugs," said Marcia Angell, a medical ethics lecturer at Harvard Medical School and author of "The Truth About Drug Companies." She said such programs will boost the sale of antidepressants even after the FDA in September ordered a "black box" label warning that the pills might spur suicidal thoughts or actions in minors. (The New York Post, December 5, 2004)
TeenScreen is based on the thoroughly discredited "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders".
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Schools Putting More Kids on Drugs...Maybe Yours
Just a slap on the hand for Officer Beating Another Man
Police Officer Gets Probation For Assaulting Arrestee
Wed May 24, 6:31 PM ET
OBM: The more things change the more they stay the same in INDIANA. Can someone explain how this is a deterrent for future abuse?
An Indianapolis police officer was sentenced Wednesday to 180 days of probation for roughing up an arrestee in February.
Sgt. Frank Jameson also was given a suspended one-year jail term, and he was ordered to attend anger management classes.
Jameson was charged with battery after Keith Ellis, an 18-year-old suspect in an alleged drug deal, claimed that Jameson choked him and banged his head against a wall while he was handcuffed to a pole in an Indianapolis Police Department building Feb. 9.
A second officer confirmed Ellis' account.
James, a 35-year IPD veteran, was demoted from lieutenant to sergeant shortly after the incident.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Will Your Pastor Serve God or FEMA?
Secret FEMA Plan To Use Pastors as Pacifiers in Preparation For Martial Law
www.prisonplanet.com Original Artical
Nationwide initiative trains volunteers to teach congregations to "obey the government" during seizure of guns, property, forced inoculations and forced relocation
Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com May 24 2006
A Pastor has come forward to blow the whistle on a nationwide FEMA program which is training Pastors and other religious representatives to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to "obey the government" in preparation for a declaration of martial law, property and firearm seizures, and forced relocation.
In March of this year the Pastor, who we shall refer to as Pastor Revere, was invited to attend a meeting of his local FEMA chapter which circulated around preparedness for a potential bio-terrorist attack, any natural disaster or a nationally declared emergency.
The FEMA directors told the Pastors that attended that it was their job to help implement FEMA and Homeland Security directives in anticipation of any of these eventualities. The first directive was for Pastors to preach to their congregations Romans 13, the often taken out of context bible passage that was used by Hitler to hoodwink Christians into supporting him, in order to teach them to "obey the government" when martial law is declared.
It was related to the Pastors that quarantines, martial law and forced relocation were a problem for state authorities when enforcing federal mandates due to the "cowboy mentality" of citizens standing up for their property and second amendment rights as well as farmers defending their crops and livestock from seizure. It was stressed that the Pastors needed to preach subservience to the authorities ahead of time in preparation for the round-ups and to make it clear to the congregation that "this is for their own good."
We have received confirmation from other preachers and Pastors that this program is a nationwide initiative and a literal Soviet model whereby the churches are being systematically infiltrated by government volunteers and used as conduits for martial law training and conditioning. The Pastor was told that over 13,000 counties were already on board.
It falls under the umbrella of the NVOAD program which is training volunteers in a "Peer to Peer" program in a neighborhood setting.
Pastors were told that the would be backed up by law enforcement in controlling uncooperative individuals and that they would even lead SWAT teams in attempting to quell resistance.
"We get the the picture that we're going to be standing at the end of some farmer's lane while he's standing there with his double barrel, saying we have to confiscate your cows, your chickens, your firearms," said Pastor Revere.
The Pastor elaborated on how the directives were being smoke screened by an Orwellian alteration of their names.
"They're not using the term 'quarantine' - this is the term they're going to be using - it's called 'social distancing' don't you like that one," said the Pastor.
He also highlighted how detention camps had been renamed to give them a friendly warm veneer.
"Three months ago it was quarantine and relocation centers and now it's 'community centers' and these are going to be activated at the local schools," he said.
Pastor Revere outlined the plan to carry out mass vaccination and enforced drugging programs in times of crisis such as a bird flu outbreak.
"In the event of an outbreak or a bio-terrorist attack, there'd be a mass vaccination....they have a program nationwide 'Pills in People's Palm In 48 Hours'," said the Pastor who was told that Walmart had been designated as the central outlet of this procedure.
Pastor Revere said that many attendees believed in the necessity of the program and were completely unaware to the motivations behind its true purpose and were offered incentives to become volunteers such as preferential treatment and first access for themselves and their families to vaccines and food shipments in times of emergency.
Which roads to close off after martial law was declared had also already been mapped out.
The precedent for mass gun confiscation in times of real or manufactured emergency was set during Hurricane Katrina when police and national guard patrols forced homeowners even in areas unaffected by the hurricane to hand over their legally owned firearms at gunpoint as is detailed in the video below.
Alex Jones' 2001 documentary film 9/11: The Road to Tyranny featured footage from a FEMA symposium given to firefighters and other emergency personnel in Kansas City in which it was stated that the founding fathers, Christians and homeschoolers were terrorists and should be treated with the utmost suspicion and brutality in times of national emergency.
We have highlighted previous training manuals issues by state and federal government bodies which identify whole swathes of the population as potential terrorists. A Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Law Enforcement pamphlet gives the public characteristics to identify terrorists that include buying baby formula, beer, wearing Levi jeans, carrying identifying documents like a drivers license and traveling with women or children.
A Virginia training manual used to help state employees recognize terrorists lists anti-government and property rights activists as terrorists and includes binoculars, video cameras, pads and notebooks in a compendium of terrorist tools.
Shortly after 9/11 a Phoenix FBI manual that was disseminated amongst federal employees at the end of the Clinton term caused waves on the Internet after it was revealed that potential terrorists included, "defenders of the US Constitution against federal government and the UN, " and individuals who "make numerous references to the US Constitution." Lawyers everywhere cowered in fear at being shipped off to Gitmo.
In December 2003 the FBI warned Americans nationwide to be on the lookout for people reading Almanacs as this could indicate an act of terrorism in planning. Almanacs are popular glove box inventory of any vehicle and this ludicrous fearmongering was met with a raucous response from satirists and news commentators.
In another twilight zone Nazi-like spectacle, Pastors were asked to make a pledge or an affirmation during the meeting to fulfil the roles ascribed to them by FEMA. They were given assurances that they would be covered by full compensation in the event of resisters injuring them during property seizures and round-ups.
The Pastor said that his county had already succumbed to a tattle-tale like mentality where neighbors were reporting neighbors to the authorities for things like having chickens in their back yard. The brown shirt precedent has been set whereby people immediately turn to the authorities in fealty whenever their paranoid suspicions, fueled by zealous government and media fearmongering, are heightened.
Pastor Revere said the completion of the first stage of the program was slated for August 31st. At this point all the counties within the United States would be networked as part of the so-called disaster relief program.
We issue a challenge to all of our readers to print off this article and the supporting documents we will subsequently provide and confront their local preacher with it. If they don't receive a response within a week they should investigate further into whether their preacher is involved and hand out information to other members of the congregation.
Online Scams Create "Yahoo! Millionaires"
In Lagos, where scamming is an art, the quickest path to wealth for the cyber-generation runs through a computer screen.
By Leonard Lawal, FORTUNE
May 22, 2006: 3:28 PM EDT
(FORTUNE Magazine) - Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he's 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck.
Akin, who lives in Lagos, is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs that has emerged in this city of 15 million, Nigeria's largest. His mother makes $30 a month as a cleaner, his father about the same hustling at bus stations. But Akin has made it big working long days at Internet cafes and is now the main provider for his family and legions of relatives.
Call him a "Yahoo! millionaire."
Akin buys things online - laptops, BlackBerries, cameras, flat-screen TVs - using stolen credit cards and aliases. He has the loot shipped via FedEx or DHL to safe houses in Europe, where it is received by friends, then shipped on to Lagos to be sold on the black market. (He figures Americans are too smart to sell a camera on eBay to a buyer with an address in Nigeria.)
Akin's main office is an Internet cafe in the Ikeja section of Lagos. He spends up to ten hours a day there, seven days a week, huddled over one of 50 computers, working his scams.
And he's not alone: The cafe is crowded most of the time with other teenagers, like Akin, working for a "chairman" who buys the computer time and hires them to extract e-mail addresses and credit card information from the thin air of cyberspace. Akin's chairman, who is computer illiterate, gets a 60 percent cut and reserves another 20 percent to pay off law enforcement officials who come around or teachers who complain when the boys cut school. That still puts plenty of cash in Akin's pocket.
A sign at the door of the cafe reads, WE DO NOT TOLERATE SCAMS IN THIS PLACE. DO NOT USE E-MAIL EXTRACTORS OR SEND MULTIPLE MAILS OR HACK CREDIT CARDS. YOU WILL BE HANDED OVER TO THE POLICE. NO 419 ACTIVITY IN THIS CAFE. The sign is a joke; 419 activity, which refers to the section of the Nigerian law dealing with obtaining things by trickery, is a national pastime. There are no coherent laws relating to e-scams, the police are mostly computer illiterate, and penalties for financial crimes are light.
No penalties for breaking the law
"The deterrent factor is not there at all," says Thomas Oli, a Lagos lawyer, citing the case of a former police inspector general who was convicted of stealing more than $100 million and got only six months in jail.
"What do you want me to do?" Akin asks in pidgin English, explaining why he turned to a life of Internet crime. "It is my God-given talent. Our politicians, they do their own; me, I'm doing my own. I feed my family - my sister, my mother, my popsie. Man must survive."
The scams perpetrated by Akin and his comrades are many and varied: moneygram interceptions, Western Union hijackings, check laundering, identity theft, and outright begging, with tall tales of dying relatives and large sums of money in search of safe haven. One popular online fraud often practiced by women (or boys pretending to be women) involves separating lonely men from their money.
Attempts to speak to government officials about Internet crime were futile. They all claimed ignorance of such scams; some laughed it off as Western propaganda.
But last November the Economic Fraud and Financial Crimes Commission won a high-profile case that had dragged on for years against Emmanuel Nwude, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years for bilking a Brazilian bank out of $242 million using an Internet scam involving phony bank drafts. The commission is also pursuing a case against 419 kingpin Fred Ajudua, a lawyer and businessman accused of using the Internet to steal $1 million from a victim in Germany.
Some officials, who asked not be identified, said young people are drawn to Internet crime as a way of getting back at a society that has no plans for them. Others see it as a form of reparation for the sins of the West.
Or as Akin puts it, "White people are too gullible. They are rich, and whatever I gyp them out of is small change to them."
Friday, May 19, 2006
Students Suspended For Bringing 'Happy Crack' To School
Local 6.com
POSTED: 2:04 pm EDT May 18, 2006
UPDATED: 2:18 pm EDT May 18, 2006
'Happy Crack' Is Sugar, Kool-Aid Mixture
PENN HILLS, Pa. -- Parents and at least one school board member said they believe an elementary school in Pennsylvania overreacted when it suspended 14 students earlier this month for mixing sugar and Kool-Aid crystals and calling it "Happy Crack."
Officials in the Penn Hills School District said the kids were suspended for imitating drug activity.
The students put the mixture in plastic bags and labeled it "Happy Crack."
But some parents said they don't think that should have gotten the students suspended from Shenandoah Elementary School.
School Board Member Erin Vecchio told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that she agreed with the parents.
"My own kids used to make it at school. It's Kool-Aid and sugar," Vecchio told the newspaper. "It's colored. It doesn't look like drugs. It looks like Pixy Stix. I didn't find anything wrong with it."
The principal and school superintendent haven't commented on the incident.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
5.5 Ton Cocaine Bust Reveals New Details in the 9-11 Attack
WORLD EXCLUSIVE
May 16 2006--Venice,FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker
A MadCowMorningNews investigation into the ownership of the DC9 airliner caught carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine in Mexico last month has uncovered explosive new details about some of the many lingering mysteries still surrounding the 9.11 attack.
San Diego defense contractor Titan Corporation, already implicated in the fraudulent bankruptcy of a shadowy St. Petersburg FL company which owned the DC9 "Cocaine One" flight busted in Mexico, employed a Lebanese contractor who assisted Mohamed Atta and other terrorist hijackers in Venice, Florida.
For Titan, the revelation marks the latest in a remarkable series of recent scandals, including employees charged with torture and rape at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, a record $26 million fine and conviction for fixing a Presidential election in the African nation of Benin, and growing infamy for being the biggest money backer of disgraced and soon-to-be-jailed former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham.
The story begins when, while researching “Welcome to TERRORLAND” three years ago, we discovered that Makram Chams, a Lebanese national, had provided significant logistical support for Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi.
Chams, we learned, had even entertained recently-convicted Zacharias Moussaoui in his apartment in Venice.
Breaking news from the forest where no one's around
Makram Chams owned a Kwik-Check convenience store in Venice, where the biggest overseas money transfer to the terrorists, $70,000 from the UAE., was sent, according to the testimony of FBI agents during the 9.11 Commission hearings.
Actually the FBI testimony never mentioned Chams, or his store.
They did however show the receipt for the money order at the final hearing of the 9.11 Commission, which we attended. And we were already familiar with the address where the money order went: 201 Nokomis Avenue.
Makram Cham's Kwik-Chek... Strangely, Chams left town soon after the 9.11 attack, abandoning a thriving convenience store which has stood vacant ever since.
In a story in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, reporter Earle Kimel, who first broke the story of Mohamed Atta’s American girlfriend, Amanda Keller, called Chams' abandoned store “A pocket of urban blight in the otherwise smartly tailored suit of downtown Venice.”
Just another freak coincidence?
An understanding of what Makram Chams had been doing while in Venice--and for whom--had eluded us, and been one of our biggest unanswered questions, one which might shed light on whether the U.S. Government possessed guilty foreknowledge--or even culpability--in the 9.11 attack.
Our search for Chams had been unsuccessful. No one knew where he was, or why he'd left. But now Chams has re-surfaced in Saudi Arabia, where he worked in an unlikely capacity: as a contractor for American defense firm Titan Corp.
News of Makram Chams' current whereabouts came to us when a researcher recently sent this addendum to Titan Corp’s 2005 SEC filing:
“On March 14, 2005, Makram Majid Chams, a former consultant of Titan filed a claim with the Preliminary Committee on Labor Disputes Settlement in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Chams alleges that Titan wrongfully terminated his consulting agreement and that he was defamed by Titan's publication in a local newspaper of a mandatory notice that he is no longer representing Titan. The plaintiff is seeking approximately $21.9 million in damages. We intend to defend our position vigorously.”
Was the man suing Titan in Saudi Arabia, “Makram Majid Chams,” the same "Makram Chams" who'd lived in Venice?
Only a dunsky could doubt it
The answer was 'yes.' A marriage announcement in the Sarasota Herald Tribune from January of 1998 gave us the full name of the Makram Chams who'd lived in Venice, identical to the name of the man suing Titan in Saudi Arabia.
“Makram Majid Chams,” said the announcement, had married “Rim Ghazi Abou Zein, both of Venice.”
The news was nothing short of astonishing. The man who'd assisted terrorist hijackers in Venice...working for an American defense contractor in Saudi Arabia? What was Chams doing for The Titan Corp? What made him think they owe him $22 million dollars? And most importantly...
Was Makram Chams already working for Titan while in Venice?
While we didn’t know the answers to any of these questions, one thing we did know was that Bob Woodward would not be on the case. The major media steered completely clear of stories about what was clearly the biggest 9.11 crime scene that wasn't reduced to rubble: Venice, Fl., home to three of the four terrorist pilots.
We decided to take a closer look at Makram Chams.
Hangin' with the 'Mak Jack' Attack
A Venice Yellow Cab driver, Bob Simpson, first told us that the Middle Eastern man who owned the convenience store had been close to the hijackers, and that Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi frequently met at an apartment in Venice which he rented.
Simpson had been questioned closely by the FBI three days after the Sept. 11 attack. “I heard a voice say ‘this is Special Agent Joe Anderson from the FBI calling,’” he told us. “My heart sort of skipped a beat. Then he said, ‘Don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong.’”
“He asked if I’d seen pictures of the terrorists, and if I had, wanted to know if I recognized any. I said yes, I recognized Mohamed Atta. I’m the day driver for Yellow Cab in Venice, and he was in my cab a bunch of times in August,” cabbie Simpson explained. “The night driver had him even more than I did.”
Simpson picked up Atta at the convenience store owner’s apartment on several occasions. He told the FBI he had been asked to drive to Orlando by a relative of the Middle Eastern man who owned the convenience store.
“Their (the terrorists) best friend used to live upstairs on the second floor,” stated Simpson, pointing to the Burgundy Square Apartments in downtown Venice. I saw Atta and Al-Shehhi there.”
“They were always hanging out together at the store. Most of the time, I’d be called by their friend, or they would call saying pick them up there at the market.”
Dead eyes then, Dead everything now
That the terrorist hijackers spent much time hanging out in Makram Chams' Kwik-Check was independently confirmed by numerous observers, including a local psychiatrist who contacted us recently.
“Nokomis Ave runs right behind the hospital in Venice,” stated the psychiatrist. "Each day as I left the hospital for the office I'd head north on Nokomis. At the corner of Nokomis and Miami there was this little (Kwik-Chek) convenience store run by middle-eastern types.”
“Half the time I'd be late for the office and I'd stop in there and grab something awful for lunch. A woman and a large man were usually behind the counter. Some days I'd go in there and no one would be behind the counter but there would be loud talking in the back.”
“A few times I saw Atta in there, hanging around. Once I made eye contact with him—dead on! Emphasis on "dead" because when we locked eyes a chill went through me and I thought: "He's got 'dead' eyes."
“When you become a shrink you sometimes get attuned to what might be going on with a person just from seeing how they look—their faces and eyes—on the street or in public. The chill I got when I saw Atta was not the chill of fear. It was a chill about how sick he looked. He looked to be one of the most depressed persons I'd ever laid eyes on.” 
“He looked so depressed that it was as if he was already gone. In retrospect I feel he may have been just as happy to die for the sake of ending it all as he was to die for Allah.”
“A couple of weeks after 9/11 the convenience store closed up,” stated the psychiatrist, who has since moved out of state. “I was down there last summer visiting the old psych unit crew, nurses and staff, at a yearly reunion at Sharkey's, and the store was still closed up. I found a reference to the store on the TERRORLAND website, and it got me thinking.”
“I wish I'd paid more attention back then… but who knew?”
Who was the Saudi in Armani and shades?
Cabbie Simpson told of how he had picked up a wealthy Saudi businessman at the Orlando Airport after picking up the convenience store owner at the apartment in Venice. The FBI expressed interest in the rich Saudi, he said.
“They were especially interested in a rich Saudi guy that I’d been sent to pick up at the Orlando Airport. They said they already knew that he'd ridden in my cab because they’d gotten my cab number from a surveillance camera at the airport.”
“He flew in on a private jet, and was dressed in Armani and shades, with his wife, who wore traditional Arab clothing. After clearing international customs, they proceeded back to a Venice apartment rented by the convenience store owner.
Six weeks later, he drove the wealthy Saudi's wife back to the Orlando Airport, Simpson told the FBI. Again they left from the convenience store owner's Venice apartment. When he arrived to pick up his fare, Simpson was asked to come up to the apartment to help carry a chest down to the cab.
“The chest was so heavy it took two people to carry,” Simpson said. "A big bald guy who was there helped me carry the chest down.” The man who helped him carry the chest down the stairs to the cab, said Simpson, was Zacharias Moussaoui.
A fungible commodity useful everywhere
Cabbie Simpson had been so clearly impressed with how heavy the chest had been that we too were intrigued. We called a man we knew to have worked for many years in American intelligence to ask what he thought made the chest so heavy.
“Gold,” he replied immediately. “There was gold in that chest.”
The identification of Moussaoui in Venice confirmed what we had reported exclusively nearly four years ago, when we learned that the second Dutch national flight school owner at the Venice Airport, Arne Kruithof, was questioned for two days by officials taking depositions from potential witnesses in Moussaoui's trial.
Further confirmation of Moussaoui’s presence in Venice came much later from an unlikely and usually highly-dubious source: Rudi Dekkers.
Continuing the FBI cover-up about the terrorist’s activity in Venice, jurors in the trial of Zacharias Moussaoui were never told that Moussaoui had been there.
They did however, hear testimony which confirmed the allegation in “Welcome to TERRORLAND,” of a systematic cover up by the FBI of the fact that Venice was the terrorist’s main base of operations.
In February 2001, the jurors were told, Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi had been spotted in Clearwater Florida flying a single-engine plane registered to Huffman Aviation...almost two months after the FBI’s official chronology states Atta left Venice and Huffman for good.
Ask Jack how Gus Boulis became "Abramoff-impaired"
We had initially thought that Makram Chams was probably an Arab operative
sent in early to smooth the way for the hijackers.
Then we discovered that Chams had been a PARTNER in 1997 and 1998 in a gambling boat called “Vegas in Venice,” which cleaned up in Venice for two years.
This information only added to our puzzlement. We wondered: Where does an immigrant, bootstrapping himself up in America through the time-tested method of owning a convenience store, get the JUICE to be a partner in a gambling boat?
People kill to get jobs like that in Florida.
Just ask Jack Abramoff.
The controlling partner in the gambling ship in which Makram Chams was a partner is Ian Goldfarb, from Gladwyne, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia.
The only other local partner in the casino ship, we were shocked to discover, was Max Burge, who we’d interviewed during research for “Welcome to TERRORLAND,” because Burge owned the planes used at Huffman Aviation.
Small world. But it soon got even smaller…
Frederic Geffon from “Royal Sons,” the aggravated part-owner of “Cocaine One,” told us that he had done business with Burge.
The San Diego FBI: Confidential informants you can trust!
Royal Sons had used the address of Huffman Aviation’s hanger at the Venice Airport in a few airplane ads. This is inexplicable, at least it is to Royal Son's Frederic Geffon, who denies ever placing plane ads with a Venice Airport address. His denial rang a little hollow with his claim that anyone could have placed ads claiming to be him.
Possible, perhaps. But also, we think, highly unlikely.
We finally found someone who knew what had happened to Makram Chams. It was his sister, May Chams. She was then working at the same pharmacy in Venice where we discovered, much later, that Mohamed Atta had brought his father, less than two weeks before the attack. We persisted in questioning May, in the face of her obvious hostility, and were finally rewarded.
“Mak is in San Diego," she told us,"helping the FBI.”
Only now does her statement make sense to us. But, if Makram hotfooted it to San Diego on “business” after the 9.11 attack, it would be a strong indication that he had a relationship with Titan Corp... while he was still in Venice.
Compromise current operations at your peril
It has since been revealed that Titan trains mercenaries, and provides mercenaries for operations. Current operations. Ongoing operations...
Disclosures in the Duke Cunningham scandal lead directly to Titan. Before it is done, this may present someone with some very thorny problems.
As a result of our investigation so far, for example, we will be reporting in our next story that by delving into the relationships between the corporations involved in the 5.5 ton cocaine caper we have been able to uncover evidence of the unmistakable presence, behind the scenes in the scandal, of Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi...
The very same Adnan Khashoggi who has been a force behind a well-financed disinformation campaign billing itself the “9.11 Truth Movement.”
The U.S. military has 1200-man psychological warfare battalion, we learned recently. They probably aren't all working in Iraq. In all likelihood, a psy-op has been waged against the American people to draw attention from questions about who the terrorists were associating with--and what they had been doing--while they were in the U.S.
Questions with answers.
Someone would prefer they not become public.
But you won't find much about any of this on the innumerable websites of the “9.11 Truth Movement." Most seem to be utterly fascinated currently with speculation about materials which might have been secreted inside the Twin Towers which could have made them collapse.
They used to utterly fascinated with proving that no plane hit the Pentagon. Before that there were utterly fascinated with the idea that the planes were flown by remote control. And on and on.
Controlling the debate is easy when a billionaire is footing the bill.
Advantage Khashoggi.
But it ain't over till its over... And there's a DC9 sitting in Mexico tonight whose anxious owners know something about this powerful truth:
It ain't over.
NEXT: The CIA, Adnan Khashoggi, the Israeli Kach party, and the DC9 airliner now known as “Cocaine One.”
Pentagon Video Is Giant Psy-Op
Intended to create circus of interest around 'no plane' theories, later debunk them.
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com | May 16 2006
Grainy video stills showing what is claimed to be the nose cone of Flight 77 will only result in an increased circus of debate around the issue of what happened at the Pentagon in preparation for a future release of clear video footage that 'debunks' people who question the official version of 9/11.
For over four years we have remained neutral on the subject, agreeing that unanswered questions need to be explored but warning against the Pentagon issue becoming the core focus of the 9/11 truth movement.
The danger is clearly that the government will use its media mouthpieces in particular Fox News to hype this until it becomes the de facto keystone of alternative explanations behind 9/11.
At the point when that crescendo reaches its peak crystal clear footage of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon will be released, knocking down the straw man argument that the establishment itself erected.
The government is steam valving this issue so as to garner as much interest as possible before blowing the entire matter out of the water. We know for a fact that the FBI seized the gas station camera footage and footage from hotels across the highway which would show the entire sequence of events and prove exactly what happened at the Pentagon.
The fact that they have again chosen to release grainy and foggy images which only lead to more speculation tell us two things.
1) The government truly is frightened to death of releasing any images which accurately depict what happened at the Pentagon because it doesn't jive with the official version of 9/11.
2) Or the government knows that Flight 77 hit the Pentagon and has clear footage of the incident, but is deliberately releasing these speculative images in order to stoke the debate so it can later release the high quality video and use it to debunk the entire 9/11 truth movement.
The media obsession with this one facet of an entire smorgasbord of 9/11 questions, and their refusal to address more hardcore 9/11 evidence, leads us to fear the latter explanation is the case.
Why no discussion of Building 7 and the comments of Larry Silverstein?
Why no discussion of the hijackers being trained by the US government? Lt. Colonel Steve Butler of the Monterey Defense Language Institute was suspended from duty after he accused Bush of allowing 9/11 to happen.
Why no discussion of the NORAD stand down?
Because none of these issues are honey pots, none of them are speculation because the cards are laid out on the table for everyone to see and the evidence is clear.
While intelligent questions need to be asked about what really happened at the Pentagon we feel that research in this context should come with the proviso that a potential trap is being laid to discredit all 9/11 research at a later date, and that today's story is part of that process.
Allegedly Forced To Strip, Strippers Sue Police
One Dancer Says He Felt 'Violated'
POSTED: 5:27 pm EDT May 16, 2006
UPDATED: 6:15 pm EDT May 16, 2006
Source -local 6.com
BALTIMORE -- Three strippers are suing the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Department for $5 million.
WBAL-TV in Baltimore reported that three male exotic dancers insist they were wrongly arrested and taken advantage of by officers.
The police stopped the three men on March 4 for a speeding violation. The men said the officers ordered them out of their sport utility vehicle, forced them to strip and confiscated $10,000 in cash that the dancers said they earned in tips.
The defense claims the officers required the men to strip and pose for full-body pictures. The officers charged the men with misdemeanor drug possession offenses. Baltimore prosecutors confirmed for WBAL-TV that judges later dropped those charges.
"I feel very violated. Not only did he make us take our clothes off, but before asking me to take my clothes off, he said, 'I'm not gay.' That's very uncomfortable," said Edward Cloyd, one of the three dancers.
Simms reported the officers stopped the SUV at Fort McHenry tunnel because the female driver was speeding. The men had just finished a job in Philadelphia and said they were en route to Washington, D.C., for another performance.
"The police officer used the power of the state to force my clients -- who didn’t have a choice -- to take their clothes off. That's not part of their regular policy and procedures, that's not how it's done," said Jimmy Bell, the dancers' attorney.
WBAL-TV learned that it appears an MdTA officer informed a prosecutor April 18 that almost $10,000 was seized from the group, but that fact does not appear in the statement of probable cause for the arrests.
"Anyone could make accusation in a lawsuit. We just heard about hits (Tuesday) ourselves, so our internal affairs unit will investigate this," MdTA police Cpl. Pamela Thorne said.
An MdTA representative told the 11 News I-Team that the department's research indicates $9,645 was put in the bank on March 15, which is 11 days after the traffic stop.
The representative also said no request has been made to get the money back
LaRouche Warns Nissan's Wage Killer: 'Mississippi Is Not Manchukuo'
This article appears in the May 12, 2006 issue of Executive Intelligence Review
by Bonnie James
The Japanese car-maker Nissan is leading a "race to the bottom," in a drive to bust wages, working conditions, benefits, and the right to organize, in what a Mississippi State Legislator has called a "racial experiment on African American workers, aimed at how low they can drive auto, and American workers as a whole." In its Canton, Miss. plant, Nissan has slashed wages to about 40% below what an union autoworker in one of the Big Three auto plants earns, and about 20% under the pay scale for Nissan workers in the company's Smyrna, Tenn. plant, some 300 miles distant. The average hourly wage in Canton is about $12 an hour, while the supplier industries for the plant are paying $9-11 per hour. These are poverty-level wages, for full-time, skilled industrial work.
In a discussion with EIR's Paul Gallagher on April 28, State Rep. James Evans, who represents Mississippi's 70th legislative district, and is a member of the state AFL-CIO organizing committee, pointed out that the Canton plant is "part of the Black Belt ... the City of Jackson is 75-80% black; and the county is the same kind of numbers, and maybe even more." The "experiment" being carried out at Canton, just north of the state capital at Jackson, is based on taking an "eager," largely black workforce, and using the plant as a model to destroy wage standards throughout the auto industry, and across the board.
The driving force behind Nissan's Nazi-like labor policy is Carlos Ghosn, a Brazilian-born Lebanese, trained in France, who became CEO of the company in 2000, and instituted the so-called Nissan Revival Plan. Ghosn—also the chief operating officer of Renault, Nissan's industrial partner—is known throughout the industry as "Le Cost Killer." Under his anti-labor, "shareholder value" regime, Nissan's stock price tripled from 2000 to 2003. The Canton plant, begun in 2000, was part of the "revival." Nissan built it on the quick, and it opened in 2003 with production of the Nissan Quest minivan. Now it also makes the Nissan Titan pickup, Armada SUV, Altima sedan, and the upscale Infiniti sport-utility vehicle. The corner-cutting has led to manufacturing defects in the cars. All but the Altima have received unacceptable ratings this year from Consumer Reports magazine, and sales fell 0.6% at the same time that the market increased 1.1%.
Evans charges that Nissan is treating its workers "like human cattle": "When you decide on this race to the bottom—it's two ways that you can level off standards of living. You can bring the folks at the bottom up to the folks at the top, or you can drop the folks at the top down toward the folks at the bottom.
"And treating them like human cattle—the fact that he [Ghosn] has laid off over 100,000 folks, and driven wages down, lets you know that he's trying to set a standard for how fast they can accelerate this race to the bottom in wages. And this is the experiment to see—because this is the worst shop; it's strategically located; and I'm certain that the results, of how well he survives this in the long haul, is what the industry and others are waiting to see."
"It's part of the race to the bottom as far as the middle class is concerned," Evans emphasized, "and it's greed driving down the middle class. This is one step above servitude, for $12 an hour. That's what that is, with no respect on the job, no rights on the job. And then, it's a deceptive thing; because the Constitution guarantees respect and dignity. And the law—although it's too weak to do any good in the face of these thieves—but the law says the workers have a right to organize to better themselves.
"So we've got the Constitution and the laws; and in essence, they're trying to deny them their legal rights and constitutional rights, with fear and deception."
LaRouche's Mobilization
In a discussion following his April 27 webcast from Washington, D.C., Lyndon LaRouche, who has proposed a top-to-bottom retooling of the auto industry for production of advanced transportation and nuclear plants, was asked whether he planned on taking up the banner of those who are protesting Nissan's experiment in Canton. The questioner noted that the Canton situation, while extremely disturbing, is by no means unique; that at least half a dozen such experiments have been documented across the South over the past six months. The cynical explanation for this is that, "if American workers can be persuaded to work at this wage level, then jobs can be kept at home, and the outsourcing will end. And at the same time, these workers will be put to work at 'productive jobs.' "
LaRouche responded by cautioning the Japanese automaker, and its French co-owners, "that Mississippi is not Manchukuo"—the area in Manchuria, China, invaded and occupied by the Japanese in 1931-32, and renamed "Manchukuo"—where terrible atrocities were committed against the civilian population. "This was typical of the Japanese occupation in various parts of Asia, which was very brutal, LaRouche added. "The Japanese tend to be rather nasty, extremely inhuman, in treating people who they feel are, shall we say, their helpless subjects.
"And for Japan—at least a firm which is associated with the name of Japan—to engage in what is happening in Mississippi in particular, but also speckled in other locations around the United States, is something which is not easily forgivable on the part of Japan."
LaRouche then addressed the Mississippi "experiment": "Now, on the question of the location of this operation in the United States: The peculiarity is, the United States, despite all else, has a higher level of culture than is available to investors in other parts of the world, even a poor area, like the poor area where they're concentrating on a largely African-descent population in this particular case.
"Remember that before this time, Japan invested significantly in auto-producing plants in the United States, and while the UAW was functioning, and when the Big Three existed, that when the Japanese would set up an industry, they would do everything possible to keep the unions out of those plants. But, the way they would combat the unions, is by trying, appearing at least, to match the benefits, which the UAW had negotiated with its relevant firms.
"Now, what's happened in this case, in this particular case, and others, is a move to break that pattern. They say, 'Screw them.' And they go into areas where the population is relatively poor, poverty-stricken. They get concessions, in which all kinds of concessions are made—no taxes, no this, no that—from the local community. In other words, the local government funds the operation. And they use this as a pattern to break the unions. And to break the standards of labor, and welfare, in this country. This includes pensions.
"Now, what they're doing is, by the General Welfare principle, is something we can not tolerate. But the reason they do that, is ... because the United States is a better source of skilled labor, than any other part of the world they have available—even poor people who are of African descent in these areas of Mississippi. They have an inherent cultural advantage over the labor force available in other parts of the world. And therefore, the Japanese are very astute to that. They always moved in, in the United States, in producing automobiles, because they could produce better here, than they could in Japan. Because the culture of production in the United States, is better than Japan. Japan has a very high investment in high-capital intensive machinery, which is how they produce. But the subtleties of production, the American labor force, and the American environment, is much better for production, than Japan itself. As Japan cases show.
"So, therefore, they're coming in here, and looting us, because we're here. And they intend to loot us on a large scale, gobbling up the entire auto industry, loot us, with the connivance of the people in the auto industry itself, U.S. auto industry. But at the same time, they're picking up the advantage of labor of a degree of skill and productivity, they can not get in other parts of the world.
"So, it's not a benefit to us, that they intend. They come to suck our blood, not to benefit us."
In response to LaRouche's characterization of the issue at the Canton plant, Representative Evans stated: "That shows that Mr. LaRouche is a learned man who has done his research on Mississippi.... He sized it up correctly."
Canton: 'A Place of Fear'
Following a Feb. 24, 2005 meeting with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, local ministers and community leaders called Nissan's Canton plant "a place of fear." They said the employees are forced to work long hours at a breakneck pace, and under a restrictive attendance policy. One Jackson minister said, "It's not salary or health benefits. It's firing—how easy it is to get fired." The top wages, only attainable by a small part of the work force, are $2.25 less than at Nissan's Smyrna, Tenn. plant, and $6 an hour less than a UAW member makes at a Ford plant, UAW Vice President Bob King said.
Worse, most of the workers are being hired and kept as temporary employees of a labor company, Ranstadt, for 18 months to two years before they even enter Nissan's wage-scale progression, and five more years before they earn company health insurance or retirement plans.
Evans graphically described the speed-up and brutal working conditions at the plant: "They're eating the flesh off their backs, and robbing them and their families of the benefits of their labor, by auto industry standards. That's what they're doing, robbing them day by day."
Why do the Canton workers put up with this? These are people, mainly African-Americans, who have come from low-wage, often minimum-wage service jobs; for many, $12 an hour is a significant wage increase. On top of that, the company tells them horror stories about the union, and they come to see it as a threat. So, they become fearful: fearful of losing their jobs.
Effects on the State of Mississippi
The slave-labor-like conditions being enforced at Nissan's Canton plant are also severely impacting the State of Mississippi. When asked by EIR, what, if any, benefits the plant has brought to the state, which made a significant commitment to Nissan to have the plant located there, Evans was blunt: "You know, when the commitment was made, to do the Nissan plant, the initial investment was $300 million or so. And then they came back, and wanted another launch-pad, and we paid for another $64 million. And there were also other things that we paid for, as far as training, and set-up costs, and other things, and that come to around $400 million. That was the financial thing. Then, the tax breaks and the tax benefits, from the state, and from the county, and from the city of Canton, added as part of our normal economic package. And I think that folks calculated that at about $65-70,000 per job. That was the commitment that the state made to that Nissan project there."
But, those hopes were soon dashed, when the state realized that the wages at the plant were so low, that returns to the economy would be virtually nil. "To get its investment back," Evans explained, "in essence, was [the assumption] that [Nissan] would be paying workers $23 an hour. We calculated when we would get the money back. Now, if you're paying them $12 an hour, that means it's going to take you double the time to get it back, if you ever get it. And you have to examine: Is the commitment being kept? That's what the community wants ... and those are questions that the taxpayers are concerned with being answered."
In other words, workers making $24,000 per year, at best—barely above the official poverty level for a family of four—will not be paying much in the way of taxes, or have the discretionary income to spend in the local economy, as had been anticipated. Evans estimated that it would take at least 20 years for Mississippi to recover, in payroll taxes, its concessions to Nissan.
In addition, Nissan—acting as an "automotive Wal-Mart"—threatens its local suppliers, like Tower Automotive, with cutoff of contracts in reprisal for any union activity at the supplier.
'Mission: Impossible'
The United Auto Workers and the AFL-CIO have decided to take on the challenge of organizing the Canton Nissan plant, a project that Evans calls "Mission: Impossible," in a reference to the TV spy drama of the 1960s. Because, as he said, "If you look at every time that 'Mission: Impossible' came on, they completed a mission that was impossible, successfully." While the labor movement has had other "missions impossible," Evans judged that Canton may be among the most challenging, "because we're dealing with Carlos Ghosn, who is really 'Mr. Anti-Labor.' " On the positive side, Evans believes that the community will support the organizing drive, "because a lot of folks have tried to do things in Mississippi that they couldn't do anywhere else; and they got met, with a strong, unified community."
But, this is bigger than the State of Mississippi, as Evans points out: "It's a crusade for justice. And the United Auto Workers is here, because the workers inside that Nissan plant asked for help. They asked the community folks for help; and they asked other folks for help. And the Auto Workers stepped up to the plate, and said, 'Here we are.' And the AFL-CIO, which I work for ... is letting folks know that they have the right to a voice at work; and they have the right to better themselves, period. So, it's obvious I'm in, from the guardian of the taxpayers voice in the state, to the employees' rights.
"I don't want Nissan to make a mistake about it," Evans declared. "I'm doing this. This is my job. And I'm glad of the opportunity to be on a 'Mission: Impossible' team."
Power Is Shut Off Over One "Penny"
FLINT, Mich. (AP) - It was just a penny, but to Consumers Energy it was enough to cut off power in a local home. Jacqueline Williams, 41, of Flint had an electricity bill of $1,662.08 and paid all of it, except for one cent. That wasn't enough for the power company, which blacked her out for seven hours Wednesday.
The CMS Energy Corp. subsidiary told Williams the power would not be turned on until the penny was received.
``I went down there, paid my penny and got a receipt,'' Williams told The Flint Journal.
Shortly after, the electricity was turned back on.
``All of this for one penny,'' said Williams, who went to the state Department of Human Services for help in April and was told the agency would pay most of the bill.
But she was still short more than $500.
Williams, a Social Security recipient, went to the Salvation Army, where she received $430.67, and Consumers agreed to match $430.66 toward the bill.
However, she was still one cent short.
A Consumers Energy spokesman said that the utility had no choice in the matter, though he was not aware of any similar incidents where service was stopped for one cent.
``This was the first one I've heard about,'' said Terry DeDoes. He said the company has many programs to help people who fall behind in their utility bills.
Williams said she doesn't want to find herself in the same situation again.
``I'm praying to God I stay on top of my bills,'' she said.
Information from: The Flint Journal, http://www.flintjournal.com
What Do These Companies Have in Common: "Cramming"
Florida Opens "Cramming" Probe
Charges From Axcess Internet Solutions Placed through ILD Teleservices
By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.Com
May 16, 2006
Source Site
Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has launched an investigation into five telephone companies for placing unauthorized charges on consumers' bills. The investigation may also expand to cover the activities of ILD Teleservices and Axcess Internet Solutions.
Crist says charges for an internet shopping service have appeared on phone bills sent to BellSouth, Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and SBC Communications customers, triggering the investigation into what might be a case of "cramming." Cramming is a practice that bills for extra services without the customer's knowledge.
The practice of tricking consumers into paying for phony or useless services has escalated since passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allows third party companies to place bills for unrelated communications services on customer's telephone bills.
Crist's Economic Crimes Division began an investigation last week after the Tallahassee Democrat detailed the charges that several Sprint customers found on their bills. The $12.95 charges are for a service called Email Discount Network, which supposedly offers members a discount for internet shopping done through the company's website.
Further investigation revealed that BellSouth, AT&T, SBC Communications and Verizon customers also found the unauthorized charges on their bills.
At about the same time ConsumerAffairs.com received a complaint from Gary Hertz, a professional office manager in Doral, Florida about more than $35 in charges that mysteriously appeared on his company's phone bill.
"I noted charges totaling $35.31 on my current BellSouth bill, billed by ILD Teleservices on behalf of Axcess Internet Solutions, Inc.," Hertz told ConsumerAffairs.com in a follow-up interview.
"The charges were described as Web hosting monthly service fee. Our business is referred to us by psychiatrists, and we have no need for a website. Through BellSouth's assistance, we were able to navigate phone calls to finally get to Axcess via ILD. We cancelled the service."
But Hertz's office had to pay the charges, even though Hertz is sure no one ordered the service. When he asked the Axcess customer service rep to play back the recording of the authorization, he listened in amazement as he heard his boss answer affirmatively, authorizing the service. Hertz told his boss, who had no idea what he was talking about, until he put two and two together.
"A couple of months ago a guy came to our office, saying he was our new Bell South rep, and that as part of a promotion, we qualified for one additional phone line for free. Then, on a Friday after hours a guy called our office and was automatically transferred to my boss," Hertz said.
"He said he was with the phone company, and was ready to install the free line. My boss said he'd have to do it when the office was open, so the caller transferred him to the scheduling department."
Hertz says his boss was asked a number of questions that required him to say "yes" a lot. He said the questions were about the installation and not about any services. Yet when Hertz listened to the authorization recording, all the questions were about the service and none concerned any phone line installation.
"And we never did get a free phone line, either," Hertz said.
Axcess Internet Solutions is the object of as number of similar complaints, and has drawn the irate attention of a company with a similar name. Axcess Internet said it has been flooded with angry complaints from consumers who have mistaken it for the Florida-based company, and has even posted the following statement on its Web site:
"Axcess Internet would like to take this opportunity to let our customers know that neither Axcess Internet Services, Inc. nor, Axcess Internet (a Washington State registered trade name) is responsible for this action. Any charges attributed to Axcess Internet or its subsidiaries, found on your phone bill, were not made by Axcess Internet Services, Inc.
"Axcess Internet has been researching this issue and has learned that the company responsible for these charges may be Axcess Internet Solutions, Inc.. Axcess Internet Solutions, Inc. is headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida and is a subsidiary of Phinder Technologies, Inc. of Canada."
John Scherer, a spokesman for Crist, says Hertz's complaint has been turned over to the Economic Crimes division that's conducting the current investigation. Crist, meanwhile, says the practice known as "cramming" is getting more and more scrutiny.
"These secret charges were placed on bills in hopes that no one would notice," said Crist. "In this case, someone did notice and we will investigate fully to make sure Florida customers are not forced to pay for services they did not order and do not want."
THE SPIES WHO SHAG US: The Times and USA Today have Missed the Bigger Story -- Again
Friday, May 12, 2006
by Greg Palast..Web Site Link
I know you're shocked -- SHOCKED! -- that George Bush is listening in on all your phone calls. Without a warrant. That's nothing. And it's not news.
This is: the snooping into your phone bill is just the snout of the pig of a strange, lucrative link-up between the Administration's Homeland Security spy network and private companies operating beyond the reach of the laws meant to protect us from our government. You can call it the privatization of the FBI -- though it is better described as the creation of a private KGB.
The leader in the field of what is called "data mining," is a company called, "ChoicePoint, Inc," which has sucked up over a billion dollars in national security contracts.
Worried about Dick Cheney listening in Sunday on your call to Mom? That ain't nothing. You should be more concerned that they are linking this info to your medical records, your bill purchases and your entire personal profile including, not incidentally, your voting registration. Five years ago, I discovered that ChoicePoint had already gathered 16 billion data files on Americans -- and I know they've expanded their ops at an explosive rate.
They are paid to keep an eye on you -- because the FBI can't. For the government to collect this stuff is against the law unless you're suspected of a crime. (The law in question is the Constitution.) But ChoicePoint can collect it for "commercial" purchases -- and under the Bush Administration's suspect reading of the Patriot Act -- our domestic spying apparatchiks can then BUY the info from ChoicePoint.
Who ARE these guys selling George Bush a piece of you?
ChoicePoint's board has more Republicans than a Palm Beach country club. It was funded, and its board stocked, by such Republican sugar daddies as billionaires Bernie Marcus and Ken Langone -- even after Langone was charged by the Securities Exchange Commission with abuse of inside information.
I first ran across these guys in 2000 in Florida when our Guardian/BBC team discovered the list of 94,000 "felons" that Katherine Harris had ordered removed from Florida's voter rolls before the election. Virtually every voter purged was innocent of any crime except, in most cases, Voting While Black. Who came up with this electoral hit list that gave Bush the White House? ChoicePoint, Inc.
And worse, they KNEW the racially-tainted list of felons was bogus. And when we caught them, they lied about it. While they've since apologized to the NAACP, ChoicePoint's ethnic cleansing of voter rolls has been amply rewarded by the man the company elected.
And now ChoicePoint and George Bush want your blood. Forget your phone bill. ChoicePoint, a sickened executive of the company told us in confidence, "hope[s] to build a database of DNA samples from every person in the United States ...linked to all the other information held by CP [ChoicePoint]" from medical to voting records.
And ChoicePoint lied about that too. The company publicly denied they gave DNA to the Feds -- but then told our investigator, pretending to seek work, that ChoicePoint was "the number one" provider of DNA info to the FBI.
"And that scares the hell out of me," said the executive (who has since left the company), because ChoicePoint gets it WRONG so often. We are not contracting out our Homeland Security to James Bond here. It's more like Austin Powers, Inc. Besides the 97% error rate in finding Florida "felons," Illinois State Police fired the company after discovering ChoicePoint had produced test "results" on rape case evidence ... that didn't exist. And ChoicePoint just got hit with the largest fine in Federal Trade Commission history for letting identity thieves purchase 145,000 credit card records.
But it won't stop, despite Republican senators shedding big crocodile tears about "surveillance" of innocent Americans. That's because FEAR is a lucrative business -- not just for ChoicePoint, but for firms such as Syntech, Sybase and Lockheed-Martin -- each of which has provided lucrative posts or profits to connected Republicans including former Total Information Awareness chief John Poindexter (Syntech), Marvin Bush (Sybase) and Lynn Cheney (Lockheed-Martin).
But how can they get Americans to give up our personal files, our phone logs, our DNA and our rights? Easy. Fear sells better than sex -- and they want you to be afraid. Back to today's New York Times, page 28: "Wider Use of DNA Lists is Urged in Fighting Crime." And who is providing the technology? It comes, says the Times, from the work done on using DNA fragments to identity victims of the September 11 attack. And who did that job (for $12 million, no bid)? ChoicePoint, Inc. Which is NOT mentioned by the Times.
"Genetic surveillance would thus shift from the individual [the alleged criminal] to the family," says the Times -- which will require, of course, a national DNA database of NON-criminals.
It doesn't end there. Turn to the same newspaper, page 23, with a story about a weird new law passed by the state of Georgia to fight illegal immigration. Every single employer and government agency will be required to match citizen or worker data against national databases to affirm citizenship. It won't stop illegal border crossing, but hey, someone's going to make big bucks on selling data. And guess what local boy owns the data mine? ChoicePoint, Inc., of Alpharetta, Georgia.
The knuckleheads at the Times don't put the three stories together because the real players aren't in the press releases their reporters re-write.
But that's the Fear Industry for you. You aren't safer from terrorists or criminals or "felon" voters. But the national wallet is several billion dollars lighter and the Bill of Rights is a couple amendments shorter.
And that's their program. They get the data mine -- and we get the shaft.
Apparent AT&T mailer that went out last week
by John in DC - 5/16/2006 07:34:00 PM
I've received this from two people now, and each one had a different AT&T return address depending on where the person was located in the US (meaning, this wasn't the same image being forwarded around the Net), leading me to believe that this is for real.
(For those of you who are a little slow on the irony side of things, read what AT&T wrote on the front of the envelope. You'll recall that AT&T is one of three companies alleged to have voluntarily helped the NSA spy on its customers.)
OBM: This could be fake…but if more people report of getting these in the mail...it would suggest that someone within AT&T has a conscience and tried to give the public an heads up.
Big Brother Strikes Again: NSA & Bush Warrantless Wiretapping---Not Listening to What Your Saying, but to Who & When You Call
Click Here & Scroll down Link Page to See Video
Phone Logs and Fox Pundits
Jon Stewart and his team of very talented writers had a field day with the NSA warrantless wiretapping and the latest news from this USA Today article: NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
It seems that the entire Fox News network of anchors has been hired to be the press secretary for the White House..."Fair & Balanced My A**
OBM: People how much illegal stuff does Bush have to do before you would support impeaching him & sending him to jail. P.S. He's already done most of what you my thing of and more.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Cops Beat Me after My Sister was Hit & Killed by Off-Duty Cop
New York Daily News
Cops beat me after sis slain, she claims
BY CHRISENA COLEMAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, May 15th, 2006
The sister of a 12-year-old Bronx girl who was run over and killed by an off-duty cop is hitting the NYPD with a police-brutality lawsuit, charging she was beaten and thrown to the ground by cops at the scene of the fatal accident.
A lawsuit to be filed today by attorney Sanford Rubenstein alleges that 23-year-old Latoya Richardson was brutally beaten by cops after she crossed the police line at the scene at E. 181st St. and the Grand Concourse.
Richardson's sister, Virginia Verdee, a bubbly sixth-grader, was walking home from a Friday night church service at Love Gospel Assembly Church on Sept. 23, 2005, when she darted out in front of the off-duty cop's Jeep.
Richardson told the Daily News that she had gone to pick up her sister from church and found out she had been struck by a car driven by off-duty cop Michael Carlo.
Richardson said she saw the damage to the car and went across the street to buy a disposable camera to take pictures of the cop's dented car, the skid marks and her sister's splattered blood.
"After I took the pictures, I put the camera in my purse," Richardson said. "Two cops came running up behind me. One cop grabbed my purse and another tackled me to the ground.
"He put his knee in my back, Maced me, twisted my arm," she continued. "I couldn't believe I was assaulted by the cops. My sister had been hit by a car and was dying, and the cops beat me up and charged me with disorderly conduct."
The disorderly conduct charge against Richardson was later dismissed. No charges were filed against the off-duty officer.
Rubenstein said his client suffered severe injuries to her back and shoulder and still has a great deal of pain.
"The police were negligent," he charged. "It is unconscionable that Latoya Richardson would be assaulted and battered by police officers."
"Nobody deserves to be attacked by the police," said Richardson. "I am still distraught over the death of my sister and the way the police beat me. It wasn't right, and I didn't deserve it."
Better Late than Never - If Only the U.S. Government Would do the Same
Apology for a Lynching
May 15, 2006
Paper Regrets Role of Predecessor in 1916 Atrocity
Today at 11 a.m. Texas time, a small interracial organization plans to meet on the steps of the Waco, Texas, courthouse to read a resolution condemning and apologizing for the lynching of a 17-year-old African American, Jesse Washington -- a lynching "so astonishingly brutal that the incident became known nationally as the 'Waco Horror,'" in the words of Wade Goodwyn in a National Public Radio story on Saturday.
"His fingers were amputated for souvenirs and his fingernails taken for keepsakes. Finally all that was left was a charred torso, but Washington’s body parts were put in a bag so they could be dragged through downtown," the story recalled.
On Sunday, the Waco Tribune-Herald apologized for the role that journalists played in the tragedy. The reading of the resolution is to take place 90 years from the exact moment Washington was seized in the courtroom.
"The editorial board of the Tribune-Herald wants to denounce what happened," the newspaper wrote Sunday.
"We recognize that such violence is part of this city's legacy. We are sorry any time the rule of passion rises above the rule of law. We regret the role that journalists of that era may have played in either inciting passions or failing to deplore the mob violence.
"We are descendants of a journalism community that failed to urge calm or call on citizens to respect the legitimate justice system."
The white journalism community was distinct from the black one.
"The Waco Horror broke new ground in lynch journalism," David Levering Lewis wrote in his 1993 biography "W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race," about the legendary scholar and activist who edited the NAACP's magazine the Crisis. The publication reported on the Washington lynching in its June and July 1916 issues. NAACP board members "were shocked by the choice of cover for the June issue -- the ghastly, burnt-cork husk of Jesse Washington suspended by chain from a tree. Du Bois poured into the special July supplement the bloodstained detail of an undercover investigation," Lewis wrote.
"The Crisis carried lengthy, verbatim statements by lynching-party participants, and Du Bois editorialized with his usual withering irony." In a previous issue, Du Bois had listed the 2,732 lynchings of African Americans between 1885 and 1914 and said, "all this goes to show how peculiarly fitted the United States is for moral leadership of the world."
Lewis explained that Washington "was a mentally impaired field hand who, after raping and killing his white employer's wife in the kitchen, returned to hoe cotton placidly beside the husband, son, and daughter. Jailed for safekeeping in Dallas and then tried in Waco, he was set upon and dragged from the courthouse by most of the white men, women, and children of the town. Hitched to a car and dragged till the chain broke, Jesse Washington's ears were severed, his body doused with kerosene, pieces carved from it, and in final Gothic glee, the shouting, cavorting townspeople hoisted him to a tree on the courthouse lawn and finished incinerating him. Woodrow Wilson was still to redeem his promise to denounce lynching."
"While some newspapers urged residents to let the law take its course, the Waco Morning News described the mob in heroic terms," J.B. Smith wrote last year in the Waco Tribune-Herald.
"'Resembling the forefathers who dared anything for their country's sake, the determined band of farmers and neighbors last night declared to the sheriff that they didn't want trouble, but that their blood would not stand for a fiendish brute to trample the chastity and sacredness of life and their women folk,' the newspaper stated," Smith reported.
"'Yesterday's exciting occurrence is a closed incident,' stated the Waco Times-Herald (a predecessor of this newspaper) on the day after the lynching."
The incident is the subject of two recent books: "The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP," by Patricia Bernstein (Texas A&M Press) and "The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas 1836-1916," by William Carrigan (University of Illinois Press).
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Teacher Sits Hispanic Students Outside in the Hot Sun like Dogs
Teacher removed from class over accusations
FWISD: Hispanic students say she punished them for missing school May 1
*actual children & school NOT PICTURED*
05:16 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 9, 2006
By TOYA LYNN STEWART / The Dallas Morning News
A Fort Worth elementary school teacher has been removed from the classroom after allegations related to her discipline of fifth-grade Hispanic students who missed a day of school last week.
Some parents of the students at T.A. Sims Elementary School said teacher Jan Shannon chastised their children for missing school on May 1. She made them sit outside in the sun and read for two hours without water or bathroom breaks, several parents said. They also allege that the teacher called the students derogatory names, including one that refers to those who crossed the border illegally.
The district declined to name the teacher, but a Jan Shannon is listed as a fifth-grade teacher on the school's Web site. She could not be reached for comment.
May 1 – known as Labor Day in Mexico and other Latin American countries – was the day when thousands of immigrants skipped school and work to participate in "Day of Action" rallies and voter registration drives across the U.S.
Barbara Griffith, spokeswoman for the Fort Worth school district, said she couldn't release information about the alleged incident because it's a personnel matter.
Ms. Griffith could confirm only that there was a pending investigation at the school.
"My daughter didn't go to school on Monday. She stayed home to work on a project" with a classmate, Aracelia Moreno said. "When they turned the project in on Tuesday, they were told they'd get zeroes because they missed school – even though the project was due on Wednesday."
Ms. Moreno said her daughter, Zayra Moreno, was told she would receive a zero "because they went to the stupid marches."
Ms. Moreno said she went to the school on Thursday to talk to Ms. Shannon and was told the teacher was not at school because she was under investigation, she said.
Ms. Moreno was also told that eight to 10 students were involved and that those students were asked by school administrators to write an account of what happened. The students' statements were similar, Ms. Moreno said.
Another parent, Virginia Aranda, said she was furious when she learned what happened after picking up her daughter, Adda Garza, from school that day and noticing the girl's sunburned face. She was even more angry when Adda told her that the teacher used a derogatory term several times.
"My daughter's American-born, and even if she wasn't, that's uncalled for," Ms. Aranda said, adding that the teacher should have known better.
"It's racism," she said. "She crossed the line."
The district wouldn't confirm whether the teacher had been suspended with pay or placed on paid administrative leave.
However, board policy states: "A teacher with a probationary or continuing contract may be suspended with pay or placed on administrative leave with pay by the superintendent during an investigation of alleged misconduct by the teacher or at any time the superintendent determines that the district's best interest will be served by the suspension or administrative leave."
Ms. Aranda said she was told one student's nose began bleeding and her head was aching while outside. The students tried to tell the teacher, but she made them return outside, Ms. Aranda said.
The ordeal was traumatic for the students and parents, Ms. Moreno said.
"I don't want her in the school," she said of Ms. Shannon. "She's a teacher. She's supposed to be teaching, not judging the students."
Ms. Aranda said she hopes Ms. Shannon doesn't return to the school – or any district.
"I won't be satisfied if she goes to another district," she said. "She needs to have her teaching certificate revoked."
Staff writer Stella M. Chávez contributed to this report
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Mexico to U.S. Immigration: Illegal Immigration or Human Exploitation & Legalized Slavery
Written by Kdsmooth at One Brotha's Mind
Understanding History
First a little history Native Americans had settled the lands of Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. Then Spain in 1682 began occupation the area of Texas and allowed people from Mexico to freely move to these areas in an attempt to dilute and convert the indigenous (Native American) population after 1690. By the early 19th cent Americans were covetously eyeing Texas, especially after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Spain began to allow American settlements in 1821. By 1830 the Americans outnumbered the Mexican settlers by more than three to one and the Mexican government became understandably concerned. Troops were sent to police the border, close the seaports, occupy the towns, and levy taxes on imported goods to stop the influx of Americans. The Texas Revolution broke out (1835) in Gonzales when the Mexicans attempted to disarm the Americans and were defeated. In Other Words: The same settlers/thieves that Mexico was nice enough to allow into the lands took up arms against Mexico and took it. Mexico sent Santa Anna with a large army, which resulted into the Alamo.
Texans sought annexation to the United States, but antislavery forces in the United States vehemently opposed the admission of another slave state. U.S. concern though of British and French diplomats eyeing Texas helped cause annexation in July 1845. The Mexican War (1846–1848) between the United States and Mexico resulted in the cession by Mexico of lands now constituting all or most of the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. So first… thieving greedy American settlers took Texas with guns, and then the U.S. took California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado with more guns. Last time I checked that’s call armed robbery. Not to even mention what was happening to the Native Americans.
American Hypocrisy
1. Americans want to close our boarders to people who historically opened theirs to us.
2. American companies & employers illegally hire Mexican immigrants and profit on the front & back end from the slave wages they pay them. (This has been going on for more than 20 years).
3. A large portion of Americans have been lied too by the U.S. Government, Business Owners, and greedy supremist who claim that “these People” (Mexican Immigrants) are stealing American jobs, and are sucking money from our health care and educational system. Truth: most immigrants work jobs that most Americans wouldn't do even if the jobs were paying the minimum wage or higher. (Examples: farm harvesting, landscaping, low level construction, housekeeping, janitorial, etc...)
American Solution
1. Employers who take advantage of illegal labor to gain a competitive advantage for their own profit should be identified, arrested, prosecuted, and put in jail. They should be charged with conspiracy, extortion, human slavery, money laundering, and harboring and transporting illegal aliens to name a few.
2. There has be no problem with immigrants working in the U.S. for years for slave wages with no benefits and not paying taxes, so the free health care, education, and other services they require are only the restitution/reparation wages from their illegal slave employment. Enforce the employment laws on companies and make them pay lawful wages and benefits to whom they employ. Therefore taxes can be paid by workers no mater weather they are citizens or not. Understand all tax payers help make the U.S. economy stronger, “the more the better.”
3. America was once called the melting pot. If this is still true then there should be no problem with any immigrants coming here and applying for citizenship. The real question is what is the meaning of “melting Pot”? Did it and does it mean assimilation and indoctrination to thinking exactly like Neo-con…..I mean Americans, forsaking your peoples culture and history to put on the non-existent American culture, changing your name, language, and dress. Wait a minute this is starting to sound a little like slavery only with out the free labor….uh oh to late U. S. companies are already doing that.
