1/30/2015 January 30th 2015

THE 1% ELITE___________________


VIDEO: Code Pink Tries to Arrest 91-Year-Old Kissinger for ‘War Crimes,’ Get Smacked Down by 94-Year-Old George Shultz

(pj media, jan 29th)

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/01/29/code-pink-tries-to-arrest-91-year-old-kissinger-for-war-crimes-get-smacked-down-by-94-year-old-george-schultz/



GLOBAL CONFLICTS________________



Israel and Hezbollah are at war.  On top of everything else that is going on in the world, now we have a new war in the Middle East, and nobody is quite certain what is going to happen next.  Israel has been preparing for this moment for more than 8 years.  So has Hezbollah.  According to some reports, Hezbollah has amassed an arsenal of 50,000 rockets since the end of the Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006.  If all-out warfare does erupt, we could potentially see tens of thousands of missiles rain down into an area not too much larger than the state of New Jersey.  And of course the Israeli military is also much more sophisticated and much more powerful than it was back in 2006.  If cooler heads do not prevail, we could be on the verge of witnessing a very bloody war.  But right now nobody seems to be in the mood to back down.  Hezbollah is absolutely fuming over an airstrike earlier this month that killed six fighters and a prominent Iranian general.  And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel is “prepared to act powerfully on all fronts” in response to a Hezbollah ambush that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded seven.  Just such an incident is what sparked the war between the two sides back in 2006.  But this time, a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could spark a full-blown regional war.

(Economic collapse blog, jan 29th)

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/next-war-middle-east-begun-israel-vows-act-powerfully-fronts




Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, created false pretenses for the invasion of Libya in much the same way neocons used fabricated intelligence as an excuse to launch a war against Iraq during the Bush era.

On Wednesday, the Washington Times reported the discovery of tapes recovered from Libya revealing Clinton had “developed tunnel vision and led the U.S. into an unnecessary war without adequately weighing the intelligence community’s concerns.”

An intermediary dispatched by the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Col. Moammar Gaddafi’s son Clinton and the State Department had produced “stupid, stupid facts” that were sent to Congress in the lead-up to the NATO invasion of the north African nation.

Clinton argued the Gaddafi regime would engage in genocide and produce a humanitarian crisis in response to an Arab Spring uprising in Libya.

The so-called Arab Spring was aborderless color revolution-esque effort launched by the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy to reformulate the political landscape in the Middle East, beginning in Egypt.

“It was like the WMDs in Iraq. It was based on a false report,” Gadhafi’s son and heir apparent, Seif Gaddafi, said in a May 2011 phone call to then Democrat Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich.

“Libyan airplanes bombing demonstrators, Libyan airplanes bombing districts in Tripoli, Libyan army killed thousands, etc., etc., and now the whole world found there is no single evidence that such things happened in Libya.”

(Infowars, jan 29th)

http://www.infowars.com/iraq-war-redux-hillary-clinton-manufactured-stupid-facts-that-led-to-the-invasion-of-libya/




Throughout this conflict every once in a while Ukrainian government officials have come clean about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

To the chagrin of the Obama Administration and NATO Russia has not invaded. This latest admission came twice today. Once by inference and the other a direct admission from Ukrainian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Victor Muzhenko.

During a briefing with General Muzenko he announced that “To date, we have only the involvement of some members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and Russian citizens that are part of illegal armed groups involved in the fighting. We are not fighting with the regular Russian Army. We have enough forces and means in order to inflict a final defeat even with illegal armed formation present. “- he said.

If that wasn’t embarrassing enough for the Poroshenko regime which has consistently stated Russia had invaded and that Ukraine is fighting the Russian Army, it was Petro Poroshenko’s own TV station Channel 5 news that broke the story!

Earlier in the day Ukrainian Military spokesman Lusenko said he was worried if a provocation happened Russia would justify bringing in the Russian army.

This was perfectly in line with General Muzenko’s statements which fully destroy western propaganda and agree the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a hoax.

(washingtons blog, jan 29th)

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/01/kiev-announces-russian-invasion-ukraine-hoax.html




Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told CNBC that Russia would consider giving financial help to debt-ridden Greece—just days after the new Greek government questioned further European Union sanctions against Russia.

Siluanov said Greece had not yet asked Russia for assistance, but he did not rule out an agreement between the two countries if Greece came asking.

“Well, we can imagine any situation, so if such petition is submitted to the Russian government, we will definitely consider it, but will take into account all the factors of our bilateral relationships between Russia and Greece, so that is all I can say. If it is submitted we will consider it,” Siluanov told CNBC in an exclusive interview in Moscow on Thursday.

(CNBC, jan 29th)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102380840




Brazil's biggest city may cut water service to 2 days a week

The worst drought to hit Brazil's biggest city in decades may leave residents with water service only two days a week.

Sao Paulo water utility company Sabesp says a five days-off, two days-on system would be a last-ditch effort to prevent the collapse of the Cantareira water system.

The reservoir is the largest of six that provide water to some 6 million of the 20 million people living in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo. The utility says Cantareira is now down to 5.1 percent of its capacity of 264 billion gallons (1 trillion liters).

(AP, jan 28th)

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_BRAZIL_WATER_RATIONING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-28-14-26-57


Obama’s Israel Problem

(weekly standard, jan 28th)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-s-israel-problem_830240.html





WAR ON TERROR_________________



A man believed to be a Pakistani commander of Islamic State or Daish, Yousaf al Salafi, has confessed to law enforcement agencies in Pakistan to getting funds via the United States, according to a leading Pakistani newspaper siting its sources.

Al Salafi and two companions were arrested in Lahore, Pakistan on January 22, according to AFP.

“During investigations, Yousaf al Salafi revealed that he was getting funding – routed through America – to run the organization in Pakistan and recruit young people to fight in Syria,” a source close to the investigations revealed toUrdu-language Daily Express on condition of anonymity, according to its sister English newspaper The Express Tribune. The newspaper also claimed that Al Salafi was in fact arrested last year sometime in December.

Al Salafi also allegedly confessed to recruiting jihadists to send them to Syria and was receiving about $600 per person. He also admitted that he had been working with a Pakistani accomplice, who was reportedly the Imam of a mosque.

“The US has been condemning the IS activities but unfortunately has not been able to stop funding of these organizations, which is being routed through the US. The US had to dispel the impression that it is financing the group for its own interests and that is why it launched offensive against the organization in Iraq but not in Syria,” a source said.

(Russia Today, jan 29th)

http://rt.com/news/227195-islamic-state-us-funding/




Is the Taliban a Terrorist Group? Yes, One Created by the U.S.

Charles Krauthammer, Fox News and the neocon blogosphere are outraged by a remark made by White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz. Schultz said exchanging an Iraqi prisoner for a Jordanian pilot held by the Islamic State is not the same as the swap of five Taliban prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl.

He declared “the Taliban is an armed insurgency. ISIL is a terrorist group so we don’t make concessions to terrorists groups.”

Krauthammer said in response that the Taliban “slits throats. It attacks buses. It drives car bombs into markets and it’s not a terrorist group.”

The Taliban indeed engages in terror tactics, but what is omitted from the discussion is the fact they learned these tactics from the CIA.

The Afghan Mujahideen, elements that would later become both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, learned “sabotage skills” at Camp Peary, the CIA’s spy training camp in Virginia.

Others were given paramilitary training in the New York area and then sent to Afghanistan with U.S. assistance to join the CIA-supported forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a drug-running warlord who was known for throwing acid at women dressed in Western clothes and for murdering a fellow student from a Maoist faction at Kabul University.

The program to train and fund murderous tribal cutthroats and defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was called Operation Cyclone. Many candidates were recruited at the al-Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, New York, and were trained by Ali Mohammed, a member of the U.S. Army’s elite Green Berets.

Following the defeat of the Soviet Union, the U.S., Britain, and the Saudis used Pakistani intelligence to create the Taliban.
(Infowars, jan 29th)

http://www.infowars.com/is-the-taliban-a-terrorist-group-yes-one-created-by-the-u-s/




US “Fighting” Terror Group with Fictional Leaders

US claims to be waging war against "Islamic State" whose various "al-Baghdadi" leaders do not exist

(Journal Neo, jan 29th)

http://journal-neo.org/2015/01/28/us-fighting-terror-group-with-fictional-leaders/




An eight-year-old boy in France was questioned by police after he allegedly made comments in school in praise of terrorists, police said.

The child triggered concern when he refused to take part in a minute's silence at his school in the southern city of Nice after Islamist gunmen shot dead 12 people at the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on January 7, according to Marcel Authier, in charge of the region's public security.

The boy's teacher said the child also expressed "solidarity" with the gunmen.

"In the current context, the principal of the school decided to report to police what had happened," said Authier, who stressed no complaint had been filed against the boy.

"We summoned the child and his father to try and comprehend how an eight-year-old boy could hold such radical ideas," he added.

(AFP, jan 29th)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/French-police-question-8-year-old-over-terrorism-comments/articleshow/46050308.cms




Prime Minister Stephen Harper said last weekend that new anti-terror legislation to be introduced on Friday will, among other things, “criminalize the promotion of terrorism.”

Such a move, however, could have a chilling effect on freedom of expression in Canada and would not necessarily contribute to effectively fighting domestic extremism, according to legal experts.

The new bill, which could also include provisions for expanded police powers, was promised by the federal government in the weeks following the October attacks in Quebec and Ottawa that left two members of the Canadian Forces dead.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay suggested that the measures would, among a host of other consequences, allow authorities to target materials that may be contributing to the radicalization of Canadians, particularly online.

(CBC, jan 29th)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/new-anti-terror-bill-could-put-chill-on-freedom-of-speech-1.2935312




The U.S. military and intelligence community now suspect that one of the five Taliban detainees released from Guantanamo Bay in return for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May of last year has attempted to return to militant activity from his current location in Qatar by making contact with suspected Taliban associates in Afghanistan, multiple officials tell CNN.

(CNN, jan 30th)

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/29/politics/bergdahl-swap-prisoner-militant-activity/index.html



ECONOMY________________



Occupied by Wall Street – The Latest TARP Taxpayer Screw-Job is Revealed: The Treasury-created market has benefited a few savvy investors, while saddling taxpayers with a loss

One story that I’ve told several times on this site has to do with the day TARP passed. How I got into work extremely early and starting irately yelling about how TARP represented the end of America as we knew it. There weren’t many people on the trading floor at the time, but my boss was there and he told me to take a “walk around the block.” I politely declined, but continued to seethe at my desk.

It’s almost shocking to see the horrific transformation that has occurred in the subsequent six years. It’s so bad, that many people now take things that would’ve been considered unconscionable just a few years ago as part of the “new normal.” There will be a horrible price to pay for this perspective.

The latest scam unveiled by the Wall Street Journal is just the latest example of how and why all the income during the oligarch recovery has gone to, well, oligarchs.

(Liberty Blitzkrieg, jan 29th)

http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/01/28/occupied-by-wall-street-the-latest-tarp-taxpayer-screw-job-is-revealed/



Oil Collapse: “This Could Cause The Most Destructive Economic Situation Since the Great Depression”

With the price of oil hovering around $44 and U.S. oil inventories at record highs the general consensus is that the economy will soon see a boost in consumer spending as Americans will take their gas savings and spend it at retail stores.

But there’s a lot more going on with oil on a geo-political scale than can be pumped into a 30-second propaganda soundbite from financial pundits and talking heads. While lower prices may seem like a boon for the American economy, what’s been missing from mainstream assessments are the fundamental data points that show just how serious a problem we may be facing.

As you’ll see in the succinct breakdown by Future Money Trends in the micro-documentary below, we’ve got some big problems coming our way. It all starts with the fact that debt in the energy sector over the last six years has exploded to $1.7 Trillion on the hopes that oil would continue to trade at around $80 to $100. As we know, that’s no longer the case, which means that all of the companies who took out large loans are no longer able to service their debt.

The end result will be widespread defaults in the oil industry. It’s a recipe for disaster and one that will likely play out right before our eyes in coming months.

(SHTFplan, jan 29th)

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/oil-collapse-this-could-cause-the-most-destructive-economic-situation-since-the-great-depression_01282015




‘Two Percent Inflation’ and The Fed’s Current Mandate

The obsession now is to get price inflation up to at least a 2% level per year. The assumption is that if the Fed can get prices to rise, the economy will rebound. This too is monetary policy nonsense.

If the result of a congressional mandate placed on the Fed for moderate and stable interest rates results in interest rates ranging from 0% to 21%, then believing the Fed can achieve a healthy economy by getting consumer prices to increase by 2% per year is a pie-in-the-sky dream. Money managers CAN’T do it and if they could it would achieve nothing except compounding the errors that have been driving monetary policy for a hundred years.

A mandate for 2% price inflation is not only a goal for the central planners in the United States but for most central bankers worldwide.

It’s interesting to note that the idea of a 2% inflation rate was conceived 25 years ago in New Zealand to curtail double-digit price inflation. The claim was made that since conditions improved in New Zealand after they lowered their inflation rate to 2% that there was something magical about it. And from this they assumed that anything lower than 2% must be a detriment and the inflation rate must be raised. Of course, the only tool central bankers have to achieve this rate is to print money and hope it flows in the direction of raising the particular prices that the Fed wants to raise.

One problem is that although newly created money by central banks does inflate prices, the central planners can’t control which prices will increase or when it will happen. Instead of consumer prices rising, the price inflation may go into other areas, as determined by millions of individuals making their own choices. Today we can find very high prices for stocks, bonds, educational costs, medical care and food, yet the CPI stays under 2%.

The CPI, though the Fed currently wants it to be even higher, is misreported on the low side. The Fed’s real goal is to make sure there is no opposition to the money printing press they need to run at full speed to keep the financial markets afloat. This is for the purpose of propping up in particular stock prices, debt derivatives, and bonds in order to take care of their friends on Wall Street.

This “mandate” that the Fed follows, unlike others, is of their own creation. No questions are asked by the legislators, who are always in need of monetary inflation to paper over the debt run up by welfare/warfare spending. There will be a day when the obsession with the goal of zero interest rates and 2% price inflation will be laughed at by future economic historians. It will be seen as just as silly as John Law’s inflationary scheme in the 18th century for perpetual wealth for France by creating the Mississippi bubble – which ended in disaster. After a mere two years, 1719 to 1720, of runaway inflation Law was forced to leave France in disgrace. The current scenario will not be precisely the same as with this giant bubble but the consequences will very likely be much greater than that which occurred with the bursting of the Mississippi bubble.

The fiat dollar standard is worldwide and nothing similar to this has ever existed before. The Fed and all the world central banks now endorse the monetary principles that motivated John Law in his goal of a new paradigm for French prosperity. His thesis was simple: first increase paper notes in order to increase the money supply in circulation. This he claimed would revitalize the finances of the French government and the French economy. His theory was no more complicated than that.

This is exactly what the Federal Reserve has been attempting to do for the past six years. It has created $4 trillion of new money, and used it to buy government Treasury bills and $1.7 trillion of worthless home mortgages. Real growth and a high standard of living for a large majority of Americans have not occurred, whereas the Wall Street elite have done quite well. This has resulted in aggravating the persistent class warfare that has been going on for quite some time.

The Fed has failed at following its many mandates, whether legislatively directed or spontaneously decided upon by the Fed itself – like the 2% price inflation rate. But in addition, to compound the mischief caused by distorting the much-needed market rate of interest, the Fed is much more involved than just running the printing presses. It regulates and manages the inflation tax. The Fed was the chief architect of the bailouts in 2008. It facilitates the accumulation of government debt, whether it’s to finance wars or the welfare transfer programs directed at both rich and poor. The Fed provides a backstop for the speculative derivatives dealings of the banks considered too big to fail. Together with the FDIC’s insurance for bank accounts, these programs generate a huge moral hazard while the Fed obfuscates monetary and economic reality.
Lessons yet to be learned:

1. Increasing money and credit by the Fed is not the same as increasing wealth. It in fact does the opposite.

2. More government spending is not equivalent to increasing wealth.

3. Liquidation of debt and correction in wages, salaries, and consumer prices is not the monster that many fear.

4. Corrections, allowed to run their course, are beneficial and should not be prolonged by bailouts with massive monetary inflation.

5. The people spending their own money is far superior to the government spending it for them.

6. Propping up stock and bond prices, the current Fed goal, is not a road to economic recovery.

7. Though bailouts help the insiders and the elite 1%, they hinder the economic recovery.

8. Production and savings should be the source of capital needed for economic growth.

9. Monetary expansion can never substitute for savings but guarantees mal–investment.

10. Market rates of interest are required to provide for the economic calculation necessary for growth and reversing an economic downturn.

11. Wars provide no solution to a recession/depression. Wars only make a country poorer while war profiteers benefit.

12. Bits of paper with ink on them or computer entries are not money – gold is.

13. Higher consumer prices per se have nothing to do with a healthy economy.

14. Lower consumer prices should be expected in a healthy economy as we experienced with computers, TVs, and cell phones.

(ron paul institute, jan 28th)
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/january/28/two-percent-inflation-and-the-feds-current-mandate/



The WTF moment has arrived: the moment when the Chair of the "independent" Fed tells an audience of Democrats, away from the public, just what her plans for monetary policy are in private

(Zero hedge, jan 29th)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-29/janet-yellen-now-advises-democrats-what-feds-monetary-policy-plans-are



While banks are still the go-to solution for most consumers, 29 percent say they're keeping at least some savings in cash bills and coins, according to a new survey of 1,820 adults from American Express.
(CNBC, jan 29th)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102377632




Up to 30 million taxpayers will claim an exemption from Obamacare on their tax forms this year, the administration predicted Wednesday as officials tried to prepare the country and a skeptical Congress for the first wave of tax penalties under the Affordable Care Act.

Most Americans get insurance through their jobs or from a government program such as Medicaid, and will only have to check a box on their tax forms.

(Washington times, jan 28th)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/28/20-percent-taxpayers-claim-obamacare-exemption/#ixzz3QKOSx9mr



HEALTH_____________________



Doctor Educating Public on Vaccines Receives Bomb Threats, Cancels Tour

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny announced that she has cancelled speaking appearances scheduled for Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Gold Coast. The reason was due to pro-vaccine extremists calling for violence and making bomb threats against venue owners and their families in some cities originally scheduled for the healthy living seminars.
(Natural Society, jan 29th)

http://naturalsociety.com/dr-sherri-tenpenny-vaccines-bomb-threats/





For many, the measles outbreak at Disneyland is the proof that this matter should no longer be a choice.

Already, an unvaccinated Pasadena woman has been forcibly quarantined after her sister contracted measles.

But it is going further.


USA Today columnist Alex Berezow boldly proclaimed:

    "Parents who do not vaccinate their children should go to jail.

    Anti-vaxxers often claim the right not to put “poison” in their children’s bodies. That is ludicrous. A mountain of data has demonstrated that vaccines are safe and effective. Insisting otherwise is akin to believing that the moon landing was faked.

    Measles is perhaps the most infectious human disease. Virus particles can remain in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves. And measles is not a minor infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that before widespread vaccination began in 1980, 2.6 million people a year died from measles. About 400 people a day still do.

    Put simply, no person has the right to threaten the safety of his community. Like drunken drivers, the unvaccinated pose an imminent danger to others. They pose a lethal threat to the most vulnerable: the immunocompromised, such as HIV or cancer patients, and infants who have yet to receive their vaccines.

    Anti-vaccine parents are turning their children into little walking time bombs. They ought to be charged for endangering their children and others."



Tell that to the parents of Keira Driscoll, a five year old who died from very strain of the flu that she was vaccinated against just three days after receiving an immunization.

So, there you have it: people who create walking time bombs are terrorists; terrorists should be arrested; parents who don’t vaccinate should be arrested for weaponizing their children. Great.

However, this propagandist fails to point out, or perhaps even comprehend, that the real reason behind these deaths, though still quite tragic, is compromised immune systems – not the disease iteself. The vast majority of these deaths occur in populations who live without basic conditions of clean water, sanitation and sufficient levels of essential vitamins in their diet.

Like the flu, it tends to kill those who already have weakened or underdeveloped defenses against illness.

Measles poses relatively little risk to a healthy child. Pediatrician Dr. Jay Gordon told CBS News:

    “This measles outbreak does not pose a great risk to a healthy child,” said Dr. Gordon. “And quite frankly I don’t think it poses any risk to a healthy child.”

    “Not meningitis, not the plague, not Ebola, they’d get measles. Measles is almost an always a benign childhood illness.“


Mortality from Childhood Diseases Was Declining Before the Vaccine Arrived

Overall, studies have shown that rising standards of living have done the most to decrease mortality from infectious disease – not vaccines.

The following chart shows that while the measles vaccine, first introduced in 1963, dramatically decreased the number of measles cases, the number of deaths from measles was already in a downward spiral, thanks to general advances in reducing childhood mortality, in part due to social focus on improving nutrition and hygiene.

Shutter to think, according to the Office of Medical and Scientific Justice, “the theory of ‘herd immunity’ is failing or was flawed to begin with” while a 2014 Council on Foreign Relations report found:

    “the most highly vaccinated populations are also those with the greatest number of outbreaks for those same infectious diseases. This was especially the case for measles, mumps, rubella, polio and pertussis outbreaks,” with the U.S. Canada and rest of the Western world leading the list.

(Shtfplan, jan 29th)

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/measles-police-state-parents-who-do-not-vaccinate-their-children-should-go-to-jail_01292015





Ebola outbreak: Virus mutating, scientists warn

Human geneticist: "We know the virus is changing quite a lot"

Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious.

More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Scientists are starting to analyse hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in Guinea.

They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish whether it’s able to jump more easily from person to person.

(bbc, jan 29th)

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31019097





U.S. GOVERNMENT_________________________


The U.S. Navy has unveiled new plans to employ robots to train marine forces in the future. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) on Tuesday launched a new experiment that it hopes will help create robots and other human surrogates for military training purposes.

As part of the study, being carried out at the University of Central Florida, the researchers have placed a human surrogate, which will greet and interact with people passing through the lobby of the university’s Institute for Simulation and Training. The study with the robot, which will be controlled by a human operator in another location, will continue for several weeks.

“Marine Corps training concepts continue to merge virtual and live components to create the most realistic, effective and affordable training for Marines,” Peter Squire, a program officer for ONR, said in a statement. “The way people react to and interact with the different surrogates in this study is crucial to understanding how we can improve our military training systems.”

According to the Navy, the study’s results will be used by researchers to demonstrate the use of surrogates in more complex situations that will require a greater amount of human-machine interaction.

(IB times, jan 29th)

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-navy-plans-use-robots-train-marine-forces-1797286




In 2011, 1 in 25 Americans was arrested. In a few years, if the FBI has its way, the federal government will possess the DNA of all of those people and more.

Under the radar of most lawmakers and journalists, the Bureau—with private industry and congress’ help—is pushing the most massive expansion of biometric state surveillance since the invention of the fingerprint.

Late last year, the FBI cut the ribbon on its one billion dollar biometrics database, called Next Generation Identification. Since NGI’s official launch, state and local law enforcement officials have been encouraged to submit face prints, fingerprints, retina scans, photos of tattoos and scars, and DNA collected from people nationwide to the FBI’s central database.

Those state and local officials can also search against the FBI’s biometrics store, if they want to identify someone. With NGI in full operation, the scary future of Minority Report infamy takes a giant leap forward into the world of non-fiction.
(Privacy SOS, jan 29th)

http://privacysos.org/node/1659




Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee that’s investigating Benghazi, said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has agreed to testify for a second time on the 2012 terror attack that left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens.

“The chairman asked me back in September to inquire as to whether Secretary Clinton would testify,” Mr. Cummings said, CNN reported. “She immediately said she would and that she wanted to come in December, but if December did not work, she would come in January. She said, ‘I’ll do it,’ period. The fact is, she was very clear. She did not hesitate for one second.”

Mrs. Clinton’s first Capitol Hill testimony about the Sept. 11, 2012, terror attack didn’t go so well. At a January 2013 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, she engaged in a fiery exchange with Sen. Ron Johnson about the root of the attack, which the White House had painted as due to an impromptu protest that developed over a YouTube video that was critical of Muslims.

(Washington times, jan 29th)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/28/hillary-clinton-agrees-to-testify-again-on-benghaz/




Obama just picked a fight with border agents

The Obama administration’s starting to implement its executive actions on immigration from November 2014 — and their early guidelines just set up a fight with enforcement agents who are already ticked off at the White House.

Applications for the new “deferred action” program aren’t expected to open up until spring. But federal immigration agents are already being told to consider whether immigrants in their custody might qualify for the new program — and not to deport them if they might.

The new guidance that Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are receiving was reported by Breitbart Texas a few weeks ago, after receiving leaked documents from a Customs and Border Protection agent. (The Associated Press reported on a similar set of guidelines on Wednesday.) The leaks make it clear that the agents themselves are extremely unhappy that they’re being told not to deport immigrants who they know are unauthorized — and in fact, if anything, are being told to help them. Immigration agents have long distrusted the Obama administration’s commitment to enforcing immigration law aggressively. That relationship is about to get a whole lot rockier.
(VOX, jan 29th)

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/29/7945249/obama-border-ice




A Soros-funded group arguing to replace the U.S. passport with a North American passport appears ready to take up the mantle of championing the concept of a European Union-style regional government to supersede the sovereignty of the United States, Mexico and Canada, fulfilling the dream of the late American University professor Robert Pastor.

The future of the U.S. lies in North America, not in the United States as a sovereign nation, contends the New America Foundation, a Washington-based leftist think-tank with ties to Jonathan Soros, son of famed leftist billionaire George Soros.

Appropriately named “New America,” the foundation believes the U.S. passport should soon become obsolete and replaced with a European Union-style passport issued for all citizens of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Citizens would be redefined by their regional identity as “North Americans,” echoing President Obama’s claim in Spanish in his Dec. 17, 2014, announcement of his executive actions to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, “Todos Somos Americanos,” or, “We are all Americans.

“The United States, Canada and Mexico are bound by a shared economic, environmental, demographic and cultural destiny. How we move forward together is key to our success,” wrote André Martinez, an editor with New America and a professor at the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University; and Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, a fellow at New America and a former adviser on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s policy planning staff, in an article titled “Why we need a North American Passport,” published by CNN.com.

“In recognition of our shared destiny, the three countries should create a North American passport that would, over time, allow their citizens to travel, work, invest, learn and innovate anywhere in North America. Work, tourist and student visas are necessities in the modern world to regulate the flow of people between sovereign states,” Martinez and Kurtz-Phelan declared.
(WND, jan 29th)

http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/u-s-passports-on-verge-of-elimination/




After Crying “Conspiracy Theory,” CNN Touts North American Union....Just a few years ago, it was all a baseless “conspiracy theory.”

Just a few years ago, it was all a baseless “conspiracy theory.” Now, promotion of a European Union-style merger between the United States, Mexico, and Canada is being shouted from the rooftops — by U.S. taxpayer-funded globalists writing in the very same media outlet, CNN, that tried to ridicule GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul over the North American Union issue just a few years ago. Indeed, according to the recent opinion piece by two mid-level operatives for the “New America Foundation,” the future of the United States does not rest with the U.S. Constitution, “We the People,” or even the Supreme Court. Instead, it “lies in North America,” claimed New America’s Andrés Martinez and Daniel Kurtz-Phelan.

(New American, jan 30th)

http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/north-america/item/20009-after-crying-conspiracy-theory-cnn-touts-north-american-union




POLICE STATE________________



New York’s New Elite Anti-Terror Strike Force to Target Protesters

“It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris"

According to Bratton, the 350-person “Strategic Response Group,” which is expected to receive funding from the Department of Homeland Security, will focus in on “disorder control and counterterrorism protection capabilities.”

“It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris,” Bratton said.

Using such foreign terror attacks as justification, Bratton stated that the elite group would be specifically trained in the use of “high-tech weaponry.”

“They’ll be equipped and trained in ways that our normal patrol officers are not,” Bratton said. “They’ll be equipped with all the extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and machine guns — unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances.”

Instead of only responding to alleged threats, the strike force will be tasked with permanently patrolling the city, “building relationships” with the community in the process.

“They never have a chance to really have time to build relationships, to work on the problems in these distressed neighborhoods,” Bratton claimed.

The unit is expected to cover multiple areas throughout the city after an initial pilot program in Manhattan and Queens, an idea Bratton believes will be widely received by New York City residents.

Bratton’s casual comparison of protests and violent terrorist plots is indicative of the government’s view on First Amendment-protected activity.

Leaked Department of Defense documents obtained by the ACLU in 2009 revealed that the federal government has consistently labeled protest as “low-level terrorism.”

Although Bratton failed to mention what specific “high-tech weapons” would be used, it is possible the unit will utilize equipment such as LRAD sound cannons and Stingray cell phone interceptors.

Given the state’s well-noted stance on protest, political groups from across the spectrum will undoubtedly be targeted.

A leaked New York State Counter Terrorism Bulletin provided exclusively to Infowars last June revealed that several peaceful Second Amendment groups in opposition to gun control were being targeted by law enforcement.

Despite Bratton’s claims regarding terrorism, the growing backlash from activists against law enforcement, linked directly to cases such as the choking death of Eric Garner, will almost certainly take center stage for the new unit.

(Infowars, jan 29th)

http://www.infowars.com/new-yorks-new-elite-anti-terror-strike-force-to-target-protesters/




The Secret Service will be searching social media messages this Sunday to discern between real and bogus threats during the Super Bowl, according to Department of Homeland Security officials. But agents will not be using sarcasm-detecting software they have expressed an interest in buying, the agency said.

Social media-tracking technology is just one piece of surveillance gear the government will deploy for the face-off between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at the University of Phoenix Stadium.

(Nextgov, jan 29th)

http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2015/01/dhs-reveals-super-bowl-surveillance-techniques-kinda/104016/




VIDEO: A Seattle teacher has brought a lawsuit against the city of Seattle after he was pepper sprayed in the face by a police officer for no reason whatsoever while walking down the street.

Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher, was attending a peaceful march in Seattle on Martin Luther King Jr. day. He was leaving the event, while speaking with his mother on the phone, when he happened to be passing a police officer who was going nuts. The video shows how Hagopian caught a wash of pepper spray directly in the face.

(Infowars, jan 29th)

http://www.infowars.com/video-seattle-cop-goes-nuts-pepper-sprays-people-passing-on-sidewalk/




An Alaskan public safety officer reportedly shocked an 11-year-old boy with a taser because he was asking about the device. According to the boy’s mother, he was tased by the officer after asking him what it felt like to get shocked. The officer then apparently gave the boy a live demonstration, hitting him in the arm with the barbs of the taser.

“They were talking about being Tased, and my son did ask to be Tased,” the boy’s mother, Terrie Ward, Juneau Empire newspaper.

Public safety officers are basically cops in every way aside from the fact that they are not sworn in and are not allowed to carry firearms while on duty. Public safety officers are used by police departments to patrol remote areas that they cant afford to staff with better paid officers.

Alaska’s Public Safety spokeswoman Megan Peters told reporters that investigators were working to determine “whether a crime was committed” or whether it was an “administrative matter for the tribal government.”

(free thought project, jan 29th)

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/11-year-old-asks-cop-taser-feels-like-tases/




City of Boston tickets Secretary of State John Kerry for failing to shovel

Failure to remove snow and ice from a sidewalk can result in a fine of $50 per day.

(Politico, jan 29th)

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/john-kerry-snow-shovel-ticket-boston-114748.html





TECHNOLOGY, PRIVACY AND THE SPY GRID___________



A new smart mattress hopes to create the perfect conditions for sleeping and waking up by controlling your house.

Luna’s new device fits around the mattress like a cover, and monitors whether those sleeping on it are asleep. When it senses that they are, it can power down lights or change heating settings. And when it detects that they’re waking back up, it can start brewing coffee or turn the lights back on.

And while you’re asleep, it will track the room temperature and how much sleep you get, creating the perfect conditions. The bed has “dual zone temperature”, which means that it can monitor differnet sides of the bed separately.

The device is being funded through a campaign on Indiegogo, which promises to “Turn Your Bed into a Smartbed”. It normally costs $249 (£165), but can be bought for $179 through the Indiegogo campaign.

(The indepedent, jan 29th)

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/luna-smart-mattress-will-turn-off-lights-when-you-go-to-sleep-get-coffee-ready-when-youre-waking-up-10010695.html





Turkey has been a bastion of Internet censorship for so long that EFF could write a regular feature called This Week in Turkish Internet Censorship and never run out of content.

Last year’s highlights included the Turkish government blocking Twitter and YouTube—bans that triggered widespread protest and were eventually lifted by order of the Constitutional Court, citing concerns over free expression. Now, less than a month into 2015, Turkish authorities are already using the threat of new bans to bully social media companies into blocking content for them.

What kind of content drives the Turkish government to make these threats? Political content. The ban on YouTube began mere hours after the posting of a top-secret government meeting on Syria allegedly depicting government officials discussing a possible false-flag operation on Turkey in an effort to drag Turkey into Syria’s war, as well as audio recordings that seemed to imply corruption among figures in PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan’s close circle. The more recent threats stem from a court-issued ban on publication of news related to an incident in which two Syria-bound trucks belonging to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) were stopped by a prosecutor who sought to have police search the vehicles. Signed proceedings related to the search were recently leaked on Twitter, allegedly showing that arms belonging to MİT were found in the trucks. Both Facebook and Twitter took down the content for users in Turkey in response to government bullying, though neither company is legally required to comply with a court order from a country in which they have no offices.

(EFF.org, jan 29th)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/facebook-caves-turkish-government-censorship