[Alex Jones]
Political News, Radio, Ideas, Videos and EventsJFK Murder Plot "Deathbed Confession" Aired On National Radio
2007-04-30
Former CIA agent, Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt names the men who killed KennedyPrison Planet | April 30, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson
The "deathbed confession" audio tape in which former CIA agent and Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt admits he was approached to be part of a CIA assassination team to kill JFK was aired this weekend - an astounding development that has gone completely ignored by the establishment media.
Saint John Hunt, son of E. Howard Hunt, appeared on the nationally syndicated Coast to Coast AM radio show on Saturday night to discuss the revelations contained in the tape.
Hunt said that his father had mailed cassette the tape to him alone in January 2004 and asked that it be released after his death. The tape was originally 20 minutes long but was edited down to four and a half minutes for the Coast to Coast broadcast. Hunt promises that the whole tape will be uploaded soon at his website .
Click here to listen to a clip of the tape.
E. Howard Hunt names numerous individuals with both direct and indirect CIA connections as having played a role in the assassination of Kennedy, while describing himself as a "bench warmer" in the plot. Saint John Hunt agreed that the use of this term indicates that Hunt was willing to play a larger role in the murder conspiracy had he been required.
Hunt alleges on the tape that then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was involved in the planning of the assassination and in the cover-up, stating that LBJ, "Had an almost maniacal urge to become president, he regarded JFK as an obstacle to achieving that."
Asked if his father followed the conspiracy theories into the Kennedy assassination, Saint John said the elder Hunt did follow the work of AJ Weberman, a New York freelance writer, who in the early 70's first accused Hunt of being one of three bums who were arrested in Dealy Plaza. The so-called bums were interrogated and later released by authorities shortly after the assassination. Weberman, one of the founders of the Youth International Party, the Vippies, published photographs of the tramps and found that two of them bore striking similarities to Hunt and Frank Sturgis , also named by Hunt in the tape as having been played a role in the assassination conspiracy.
Asked for his opinion as to whether his father was indeed one of the Dealy Plaza tramps, Saint John, in a stunning revelation, said one of the tramps indeed looked much like his father did in 1963.
Saint John Hunt said that shortly before his death, his father had felt "deeply conflicted and deeply remorseful" that he didn't blow the whistle on the plot at the time and prevent the assassination, but that everyone in the government hated Kennedy and wanted him gone in one way or another. Kennedy's promise to "shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter the remnants to the wind" was being carried out and this infuriated almost everyone at the agency.
Hunt also said that his mother's death in a December 8, 1972 plane crash in Chicago was suspicious and that there was evidence of a White House cover-up surrounding the circumstances of the alleged accident.
Investigators discovered $10,000 dollars in her luggage and Hunt alleged that his mother traveled around the country using Nixon campaign money to payoff the families of the Watergate burglars to keep them quiet about the involvement of the Nixon White House in the Watergate break-in and cover-up.
Hunt cited numerous coincidences surrounding the aftermath of the crash, including Nixon's appointment of his henchman, Egil Krough, to the National Transportation Safety Board which investigates plane crashes, the very day after the incident.
Eyewitnesses reported that the plane exploded above treetop level before it had even hit the runway.
Hunt said that "at least 20-25 FBI members," as well as numerous DIA agents were at the scene of the crash within minutes before rescue personnel had even arrived, and that this fact was attested to in a letter sent by the head of the Chicago FBI to investigator Sherman Skolnick.
Hunt said that his safety was guaranteed by the dissemination of the tape and that he had several copies and had mailed others to addresses both abroad and in the U.S.
"Once this information is out there's really no point in anyone trying to do me in or do me wrong - someone may try to discredit me but I have no skeletons in my closet," said Hunt.
As we have previously reported, the night before the Kennedy assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson met with Dallas tycoons, FBI moguls and organized crime kingpins - emerging from the conference to tell his mistress Madeleine Duncan Brown that "those SOB's" would never embarrass him again.
Though Brown first went public on her 21-year relationship with Johnson in the early 80's, to this day her shocking revelations about how he had told her the Kennedy's "would never embarrass me again" the night before the assassination are often ignored by the media who prefer to keep the debate focused on issues which can't definitively be proven either way (or at least can be spun and whitewashed).
In addition, Barr McClellan, father of former White House press secretary Scott McClellan and a partner in the Austin law firm that represented Johnson, wrote in his 2003 book that LBJ was a key player in the organization of the assassination and its cover-up. McClellan's revelations were the subject of a subsequent History Channel documentary called The Guilty Men .
(With thanks to additional reporting by David Collins)
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Tax protest backers vow to disobey
2007-04-29
Concord Monitor | April 29, 2007
MARGOT SANGER-KATZ
For supporters of Ed and Elaine Brown, a federal judge's decision to sentence the tax-protesting couple to 63 months in prison wasn't the big news Tuesday. In part, that's because it will have no immediate effect on the couple, who remain holed up in their fortified Plainfield home. Instead, the couple's supporters are reacting to an announcement by the federal marshal that anyone who helps the Browns evade capture might be subject to arrest.
For members of the Free State Project, who see the Brown case as a classic example of government overreaching, the marshal's warning was little deterrent. On a message board frequented by Free Staters and libertarians, his message was described as an invitation to civil disobedience, the better to show the iron fist of law enforcement. One poster suggested bringing small offerings, like pieces of hard candy, to see if the bearers would be arrested.
In a press conference after the sentencing hearings, U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said warrants for the couple wouldn't go away and said his office would begin arresting and charging supporters who provide "assistance, aid or comfort to the Browns."
"That's to be expected by the feds; they're trying to scare as many people away from supporting the Browns as they can," said Ian Bernard, a co-host of the libertarian radio show Free Talk Live, who's visited the Browns in Plainfield and speaks frequently about them on his radio show. Bernard said the prospect of arrest shouldn't scare supporters. "Bringing a cake to the Browns shouldn't be a crime."
Monier declined to specify whether bringing food qualified as a crime, but he said that simply visiting would be allowed.
Lauren Canario of Winchester, a Brown supporter who has been visiting the house since Ed Brown first stopped attending his trial, also said she wasn't worried about being arrested. She's faced arrest for other acts of civil disobedience already.
"I was expecting it from the beginning, but it won't stop me from bringing goodies out to the Browns," said Canario said.
But expert watchers of the case said that the marshal's announcement was a smart change in strategy because it would signal that although the Browns are currently free as fugitives, they are still criminals in the eyes of the law.
"I think that the authorities are right to consider charging people who are, at the end of the day, aiding someone who is a convicted felon and who has regularly threatened law enforcement agents with death," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, including militias and tax protesters. "I mean, I don't think it's jokes that this guy is sitting up there and threatening to kill people."
Several Brown supporters indicated this week that threats made by the Browns and others were meant seriously. Bill Miller, a friend of Ed Brown's, said in an internet recording yesterday that it's time for "forming posses, enacting grand juries, laying down indictments and bringing the real criminals to justice."
Bernie Bastian, another close friend of Ed Brown's, said Tuesday that statements about the hanging of judges and prosecutors might be appropriate.
"They're public servants. If they've violated their oath of office, they're treasonous. They should be hung," he said. "They don't wait for a trial. They just hang them."
Staying home
The Browns were convicted in January of conspiring to evade income taxes on nearly $1.9 million that Elaine Brown earned in her West Lebanon dental practice, conspiring to disguise large financial transactions and disguising large financial transactions. Elaine Brown was also convicted of multiple counts of tax evasion and failure to withhold employment taxes for workers in her practice.
For several months, the couple has stayed at home, warning that any attempt to arrest them will end in a violent confrontation. Monier, who is charged with arresting the Browns on bench warrants, has not been specific about possible threats at the house, but he has said repeatedly that he will not initiate a standoff or confrontation with the Browns by going to arrest them.
In interviews and a tour of the house last summer, Ed Brown said that the large, hilltop home was built with eight-inch-thick concrete walls, had a private well and could generate enough electricity to operate off the grid. A five-story-high tower was described by the prosecutor as a "turret" at Ed Brown's arraignment. (Brown calls it a "deck.")
Ed Brown has also said that the house contains a large stockpile of food, though supporters have visited regularly since January, often bringing food with them.
There have been suggestions that those visitors have also brought guns and other military supplies. The Browns voluntarily turned over all their weapons in May as a condition of their release on bail. But Ed Brown has been seen by reporters with a gun since his trial and internet postings have hinted that the Browns have received items on an internet "wish list," which called for weapons and body armor in addition to cash and paralegals. On his daily internet radio show Monday, Ed Brown told a caller that marshals had not removed all of his defensive "equipment" when they took guns in May.
Monier specified on Tuesday that supporters who brought guns or ammunition to the house would be prosecuted.
Sentence reactions
As for the prison sentences themselves, if Judge Steven McAuliffe couldn't please everyone, he at least managed to upset both supporters and critics of the couple. The Browns themselves seem unaffected: On Tuesday, Ed Brown went as far as denying the existence of the sentences, the judge and the court where he once put on his defense.
Many in the pro-Brown camp saw the sentences as unsurprising but disappointing, part of a larger pattern of injustice brought on their friends by the court.
"I think that they were railroaded," said Kat Kanning of Keene, who attended the hearings Tuesday and demonstrated outside the courthouse with a sign that said "Fed Bullies: Leave the Browns alone." Yesterday, Kanning said she left the hearings "with a profound sense of sadness at the state of our country."
Other watchers of the movement said that McAuliffe's sentences fell inappropriately on the low end of the spectrum for tax protesters, especially considering the Browns' fugitive status and threats against federal officials.
J.J. MacNab, a tax evasion expert who is writing a book about the tax protest movement and has attended several recent tax protester trials, described the sentences as "disappointing," but she too was unsurprised.
"This is the same judge who didn't see Ed and Elaine as a threat. This is a judge who didn't think Elaine would go home," she said.
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NY Police Report Bomb to Frame Activist as Terrorist
2007-04-29
"By the time the government finds out, you'll be in the hole thirty days" 9/11 Truther is Told By Officer Who Admits to False Accusation of Having a Bomb
Two persons identifying themselves as New York police officers interrupted a 9/11 Truth demonstration-- on a public sidewalk in front of the new WTC 7 Building-- to intimidate free speech, stating "Larry [Silverstein] doesn't want to hear it," before accusing We Are Change founder Luke Rudkowski of having a bomb and that his cell phone was "a gun."
The officer was apparently responding to refusals to stop filming their faces as police attempted to impede free speech on behalf of Larry Silverstein-- making slanderous and knowingly false accusations:
"I think he's got a bomb in his bag. Saw wires coming out. Think he's got a bomb in there."
The police officer carried on during the encounter, saying "A terrorist act-- I guess they go away for about 30 days."
Rudkowski tell him he is not a terrorist and that he is an American citizen. The officer responds, "You're right. But by the time the government figures it out, you'll be in the hole for 30 days."
The officer made the statements on camera with a notable smirk, and made no attempt to distance himself or other witnesses from any physical danger (as he would have done he actually believed the activist had a bomb). The officer went on to give away his criminal behavior-- still on tape, despite ongoing demands he and the other officer made that the cameras be shut off.
Alex Jones commented, "We have New York police ON TAPE threatening to frame someone for terrorism in a nonchalant fashion. How bad would it have gotten if there were no cameras around? If they'll talk like this ON CAMERA, heaven help us."
People are arrested every day for joking about bombs or making other bomb references, even if it is clearly not meant to be serious.
This man identified himself as a police officer and accused Rudkowski of 'having a bomb' and 'being a terrorist' to silence his free speech for Larry Silverstein. It is a serious federal and state crime to publicly state that someone has a bomb and is a terrorist when not true-- like extreme example of yelling fire in a theatre-- and needs to be prosecuted.
Such knowingly misleading and false information is not only malicious and immoral, but has been made specifically illegal under the Anti-Hoax Terrorism Act of 2003-- and expanded for more stringency in 2004 and the Terrorism Prevention Act of 2006, not to mention long-standing protections against defamation and public endangerment. There are also many state and local laws prohibiting such activity.
This man who identified himself as a police officer insisted that Rudkowski and other members of WeAreChange.org must cease videotaping him.
Based on this video evidence alone, this officer should receive a prison sentence and would be liable for civil damages as well-- not only to the wronged demonstrator, but by law enforcement for a dangerous waste of resources, as cited by Ted Kennedy's commentary regarding expansion:
"In addition, this measure expands civil liability to allow federal and state governments to seek reimbursement from someone who knows that emergency personnel are responding to a hoax and fails to inform authorities that no such event has occurred."
Rudkowski was not only intimidated by the corrupt and criminal officer, but his camera was confiscated. Shortly afterwards, police also confiscated his cell phone, claiming that it was "a gun," according to Rudkowski.
The detective also snickered and "sang"tauntingly at Rudkowski, "Guess who's going to jail? Guess who's going to jail?"
Luke was not arrested, but was detained for over an hour while police deliberated over whether take further action.
This officer makes equal attempts to intimidate and ridicule Rudkowski.
Luke Rudkowski told the perpetrating policeman that his statements were "slanderous," denying ridiculous accusations that he was a terrorist.
The officer again responded, "I saw wires. You look like a terrorist. I don't know what a terrorist looks like. You may be a terrorist for all I know...You've made threats; now I'm concerned."
It is obvious from the recorded video that the demonstration was peaceful, no laws were broken and no threats were made. It is also clear that the reason he approached the group did not regard suspicion of threatening behavior, but to tell them that "Larry didn't want to hear it."
The levels of betrayal against the First Amendment of the Constitution are so absurd and violate the basic tenants of original intent, they can only be compared with gross violations by the enforcement officers of the police state apparent, such as that with Abby Newman (as seen below, from 9/11: The Road to Tyranny). Egregious misinterpretation and abuse perpetrated by the very members of society supposedly in place to guarantee our freedoms.
Abby Newman was arrested for not showing ID in August 2000 and fell victim to an illegal vehicle search in which police found items of subversive literature, including a "pocket Constitution."
One officer asked the other "Is this legal?" (Case in point, where the very society of freedom is violated by the system that regulates that society.)
But that has become all too common in the police state. A Christian group in Philadelphia was arrested in 2004 and charged with counts of criminal conspiracy, ethnic intimidation and riot for "praying, singing and reading scripture during an annual 'gay pride' event. Of course, the question here is not one of Christianity vs. homosexuality, but the criminal prosecution of free speech. The eroding inherent right threatens the freedom of Christians, homosexuals, pink-and-polka dotted people, and other groups who were previously guaranteed protection of their voices-- whether right or wrong, embarrassing, hateful or supportive, blasphemous, sinful or true.
An attorney in Portland, Oregon was falsely arrested under anti-terrorism laws shortly after the 2004 Madrid bombings.
Even in Canada, where limitations such as "reasonable" are pitted against guarantees of free speech, people are granted 'fundamental freedoms' to "thought, belief, opinion and expression."
Yet a protestor demonstrating outside the 2006 Bilderberg conference in Ottawa, Don McCormick was kidnapped by an "Integrated National Security Enforcement Team" who detained him, kicked him and psychologically tortured him-- including threats that they would "cut off his arms."-- all this after being warned not to return to the protest the previous day.
Though McCormick was accused of "trying to blow up the Brookstreet Hotel"-- just as Rudkowski was accused of being a terrorist with a bomb-- he was guilty only of holding a picket sign and being critical of the secretive and manipulative group.
Just as McCormick's free speech was violated, intimidated and labeled as terroristic at the behest and for the benefit of the Bilderberg group, Rudkowski's speech was threatened on behalf of Larry Silverstein-- who apparently wanted to silence discuss of 9/11 and WTC Building 7 through bullying threats.
This is not Rudkowski's first encounter with harassment, intimidation and denials to the rights of free speech. During a speech by Zbigniew Brzezinski, security denied his free speech rights as a member of the press and attempted to confiscate his video tape, despite the fact that he declared his press position. Rudkowski serves as a free lance reporter for GCN Live! Radio (nationally-syndicated), and websites such as Infowars.com and PrisonPlanet.com, among others.
Recently the We Are Change group, which Rudkowski founded and remains involved in, was harassed by police outside ABC Studios during a peaceful demonstration of support for Rosie's public assertion of 9/11 Truth.
Free speech is no longer guaranteed under the de facto shadow government that has hijacked the formerly legitimate government of this once great nation. In fact, the threats are widespread-- all the more so on the front lines 'who dare call it treason.'
Luke Rudkowski can be contacted through WeAreChange.org. He has put out a call for legal defense-- Contact luke if you can provide legal aid or identify any of the officers in this video. Stand up to tyranny and criminal violations of basic, inherent rights.
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Internal Carlyle Group Memo: Market Good For 12-24 Months
2007-04-28
International Forcaster | April 27, 2007
Bob Chapman
Now hear this! What we are about to tell you comes from deep within the bowels of the Illuminati. This information runs parallel with what we have been forecasting in our issues of the IF.
In February, via an internal memo, the Carlyle Group said they see another 12 to 24-months or more of "excess liquidity," which will drive further profits and growth and that the current liquidity environment cannot go on forever; and, that the longer it lasts the more money our investors will make; but also that the longer it lasts, the worse it will be when it ends"
In the missive it was stated that Carlyle's fabulous profits were not solely a function of their investment genius, but have resulted in large part from a great market and the availability of enormous amounts of cheap debt. In fact, there has been and is so much liquidity in the world financial system that lenders, even their own lenders, are making very risky credit decisions. This sea of money and credit has allowed deals to be done that could never have been done otherwise.
They do not expect the Fed to reduce interest rates anytime soon.
What could bring this global liquidity to an end? Just that business would diminish their borrowing or could it be higher interest rates? Could it be a terrorist attack; $100 per barrel oil; trade protectionism; the absorption of excess skilled labor into the global economy; the US elections; Russian energy policies; a multi-billion dollar bankruptcy; a tightening by the Bank of Japan or the Fed; an end to the yen carry trade as a result; or perhaps the collapse of several hedge funds or a derivative collapse? All are possible and at least one is probable.
The strategy should be to take lower risk deals and earn lower returns rather than higher risk deals at only small incrementally higher returns. We should redouble our focus on deals with downside protection, asset coverage, multiple and early exit paths, strategic partners, debt pay down, government protection, consumer needs, controllable capital expenditures, defensible market positions, etc.
Carlyle is being careful because they know what is coming, just as we have been telling you here in the IF. Carlyle is the insider. What we have been busy doing for years is figuring out what these elitists will do before they do it.
This is exactly what we have been forecasting. If we and Carlyle are correct, we can expect more than ample liquidity until February of 2009. During the year to 1-1/2 years that follow liquidity will decline and inflation will diminish. After three months of declining liquidity or declining use of liquidity we will know it is time to sell all assets except gold bullion coins, quality gold shares and for those of you who have to have some liquidity, Swiss francs.
Now that foreclosures are going wild lots of crooks are defrauding homeowners. Here are some tips. Don't pay upfront fees to any person or organization promising help. Don't sign anything without have an independent lawyer review it. Seek out accredited financial counselors, using lists such as those kept by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Wild rescue offers that are too good to be true are just a scam.
This week the Supreme Court stepped into the subprime lending crisis with a potentially far-reaching ruling that limits the power of individual states to regulate mortgage lending. The elitists have to control everything in our lives.
The Supreme Court is allowing banks to offer new terms on mortgages in violation of the law.
This will have a big impact on the ability of states to act independently on predatory lending and throws the spotlight on federal authorities.
The Consumer federation of America said, "This is really disappointing news, it could work to the detriment of consumers."
Applications for mortgages fell for the 5th straight week as ARMs fell to 18.1% of applications, the lowest since 7/03. A year ago they accounted for 30%. Refis were 2.5% lower wow, but they were up 10% yoy. Refi apps fell 0.3% and accounted for 44% of applications. The volume of loan applications to buy a home fell 4.2%, but purchase loans were down 3% yoy. US home sales are off 5.5% yoy. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose from 6.16% to 6.22%, the highest in nine weeks. The 15's rose 1 bps to 5.92% and the one-year ARMs rose 1 bps to 5.89%.
US foreclosure filings rose 47% in March yoy. That was 149,000 as California's filings rose 31,434. Nevada and Colorado had the largest percentage gains. Those making late payments are at a four-year high and the failure of 55 subprime mortgage companies has tightened the supply of money for lending. Nevada's foreclosures were triple yoy. That is one foreclosure for every 183 households, which is four times the national average. Colorado's rate was one for every 292. Nationally it was one of every 775. California had 6 of the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates, Stockton being the highest. The others were Vallejo-Fairfield, Modesto, Sacramento, Riverside-San Bernardino and Bakersfield. Greeley, Colorado and Detroit and Denver were also up near the top.
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Pentagon wants to end controversial spying program
2007-04-28
The Pentagon wants to close a domestic terrorism spying venture that has drawn criticism for collecting information on peaceful activists inside the United States, a spokesman said Wednesday.
The new undersecretary of defense for intelligence, James Clapper, found disappointing results during a review of the Pentagon's Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database, instituted in 2003.
Clapper "has assessed the results of the TALON program and does not believe they merit continuing the program as currently constituted, particularly in light of its image in Congress and the media," spokesman Pat Ryder said.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has not yet made a formal decision to shut down the program, Ryder added.
The Pentagon admitted last year that a small portion of the information collected in the database "either should have been purged, or was data that was not appropriate for reporting in that system."
The TALON program began in 2003 to track suspects with possible links to terrorists as part of the United States' post-September 11, 2001 "war on terror."
Parts of the database leaked to news reporters have shown that the Pentagon has been collecting information on peace activists and monitoring anti-war protests across the country.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) last year filed several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking to uncover which peace group is being spied on by the Pentagon and why.
The filing was on behalf of several national groups and seven Florida-based peace activist groups, including Florida members of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker religious-based peace group.
"We found there were any number of things with respect to that program where there were data that was maintained in a database where they probably should have not been maintained there," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
"Everybody will agree there is a need to be able to monitor report threats on US installations and against US military personnel and how you go about that is I guess what the issue is here."
Influential Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said "there are ways to protect defense facilities and military personnel without this kind of overreaching" and saluted the Pentagon's will to put an end to the program.
"Talon was another costly, controversial and poorly focused venture that did not make us any safer," Leahy said.
"Without clear rules and close oversight, databases like this can easily be abused to violate the public's constitutional and privacy rights."
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Public Commentary Expiring to Halt the FDA's Regulation of Vitamins, Supplements and Alternative Treatment
2007-04-24
Aaron Dykes / JonesReport | April 24, 2007
Alarming draconian legislation regarding the FDA's ability to regulate basic vitamins, nutritional supplements and even juices as a "drug" is being snuck in as a rider to an unrelated bill in the Congress [under Docket Number 2006D-0480 ].
The window for public commentary [COMMENT HERE A.S.A.P.] and opposition expires April 30, 2007, leaving almost no time to inform the populace or debate the seemingly absurd treatment of public health-- which hands over a monopoly to the big-pharma industrial complex and criminalizes natural treatments of all kinds.
Here's the summation from Mike Adams of News Target:
When it comes to health freedom, this is the FDA's end game. A new FDA "guidance" document, published on the FDA's website, reveals plans to reclassify virtually all vitamins, supplements, herbs and even vegetable juices as FDA-regulated drugs. Massage oils and massage rocks will be classified as "medical devices" and require FDA approval. The document is called Docket No. 2006D-0480. Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine [CAM] Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.
And now, with this CAM Products Regulation effort, the FDA is about to deal a final, fatal blow to the alternative medicine industry, outlawing nutritional supplements, functional foods, homeopathy and natural therapies all at once.
The legislation is largely a "harmonization" with the World Health Organization's CODEX Alimentarius, which on the surface establishes standardized food guidelines to ensure. Docket Number 2006D-0480 would forced into effect by December 31, 2009 all types of frightful practices in the name of food sanitation and reliable food supply:
1. Codex Alimentarius requires that all meats,
poultry, fish, fruit and vegetables must be irradiated
by Dec. 31, 2009.
2. Codex Alimentarius requires that all dairy
cattle are to be given Monsanto bovine growth hormone
by Dec. 31, 2009.
3. Codex Alimentarius reclassifies vitamin and
mineral supplements as toxins and dramatically limits
their dosage and availability.
4. Many nations have already harmonized their laws
with Codex Alimentarius making it their de facto law.
This has already been approved by the European Union,
Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and others.
5. Codex Alimentarius allows significant trade
sanctions to be levied against noncompliant nations.
6. In 2005 there were five bills submitted to
congress to weaken or eliminate DSHEA.
Simular regulation was attempted in 1992, but rejected after public outcry turned the tide. Hopefully a halting response will surface in enough time to stop this new attempt to restrict even basic rights to natural products.
RELATED:
FDA NAZIS OUTLAW VITAMINS: WORLD GOVERNMENT REDUCES POPULATION
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U.S. commander orders quick end to long war
2007-04-24
Andrew Gray
Reuters
Tuesday April 23, 2007
The U.S. military's Central Command has stopped calling its fight with Islamist militants the "long war" and says the change reflects its aim of reducing troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan over time.
Gen. John Abizaid, the previous head of Central Command, coined the phrase to stress that the broader conflict with militants would not end with the current wars and the term has been widely used by senior U.S. officials and commanders.
President George W. Bush used the phrase in his State of the Union address last year.
"Our own generation is in a long war against a determined enemy," he said.
But Abizaid's successor, Adm. William Fallon, has decided the term sends the wrong message to the Middle East, the area covered by his headquarters, by suggesting intense combat with many U.S. troops will continue there for a long time to come.
"The idea that we are going to be involved in a 'Long War', at the current level of operations, is not likely and unhelpful," Lt. Col Matt McLaughlin, a Central Command spokesman, said in an e-mail message on Tuesday.
"We remain committed to our friends and allies in the region and to countering al Qaeda-inspired extremism where it manifests itself, but one of our goals is to lessen our presence over time," he said.
"We didn't feel that the term 'Long War' captured this nuance," McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said Central Command, based in Tampa, Florida, had "moved away" from the phrase in the last two weeks. He said Fallon, who took command last month, ordered the change after a recommendation by staff.
The shift is in keeping with public comments by Fallon, who has said that he is not a patient man, that time is short in Iraq and he wants to see results.
The move, first reported by the Tampa Tribune newspaper, also reflects the difficulties the United States and other Western nations have had in defining the conflict with al Qaeda and other militants after the September 11 attacks.
Bush adopted the phrase "war on terror" but European and other states have avoided it, believing it suggests a narrow military campaign when major diplomatic, political, economic and crimefighting efforts are also needed to be successful.
Despite his public differences with some European countries, Donald Rumsfeld also disliked the term and its variants when he was defense secretary.
"I think that it is really a long struggle as opposed to a war, which implies armies, navies, air forces and marines contesting each other," he said in December.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Fallon's concern was "completely appropriate" but would not predict if other officials would also modify their language.
While dismissing the "long war," Central Command has not yet offered an alternative.
"We continue to look for other options to characterize the scope of current operations," McLaughlin said.
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Wal-Mart recruits intelligence officers
2007-04-24
MARCUS KABEL
Business Week
Tuesday April 23, 2007
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been recruiting former military and government intelligence officers for a branch of its global security office aimed at identifying threats to the world's largest retailer, including from "suspect individuals and groups".
Wal-Mart's interest in intelligence operatives comes at a time when the retailer is defending itself against allegations by a fired security employee that it ran surveillance operations against targets including critics, dissident shareholders, employees and suppliers. Wal-Mart has denied any wrongdoing.
Wal-Mart posted ads in March on its own web site and sites for security professionals, including the bulletin of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, for "global threat analysts" with a background in government or military intelligence work.
The jobs were listed with the Analytical Research Center, part of Wal-Mart's Global Security division, which is headed by former senior CIA and FBI senior officer Kenneth Senser. The analytical unit was created over the past year and half, according to published comments by its head, Army Special Operations veteran David Harrison.
The job description includes collecting information from "professional contacts" and public data to anticipate and assess threats stemming from "world events, regional/national security climates, and suspect individuals and groups."
"Familiarity with a broad spectrum of information resources and data-mining techniques" is listed among the skills sought, along with a foreign language, preferably Chinese or Spanish.
A Wal-Mart spokesman declined to comment on the Analytical Research Center for this story or to make any security executives available for interviews.
Many corporations hire law enforcement officers for their security departments.
But Steven Aftergood, who runs the government secrecy project for the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, said Wal-Mart's efforts appear to go beyond what most companies are doing, raising questions about corporate intelligence work outside of the oversight process in place for government spying.
"It's a troubling new departure in corporate security. We're not just talking about security, we're talking about intelligence operations," Aftergood said.
Harrison told a meeting of security professionals last year that Wal-Mart was learning to defend itself by using the vast information it routinely collects about its employees, shoppers and suppliers.
The only public comment to date on the work of the Analystical Research Center, the speech was reported on by the trade magazine Government Security News. Wal-Mart did not dispute the report when contacted by The Associated Press this week.
Harrison told the meeting that Wal-Mart tracks customers including those who use its pharmacies, buy propane tanks and anyone making "bulk purchases" of prepaid cell phones, which some law enforcement officials have tied in the past to terrorist or criminal activities.
Harrison did not elaborate on how that information could be better used, except to say the data could be shared with law enforcement.
Wal-Mart's union-backed critics said culling customer data for intelligence was disturbing.
"The idea that Wal-Mart is creating its own personal CIA should make every American -- Wal-Mart customer or not -- nervous about whether Wal-Mart is invading their privacy or could do so in the future," said Chris Kofinis, spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.com.
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John Kerry: Building 7 Was Deliberately Demolished
2007-04-24
Massachusetts Senator's conclusion directly contradicts 9/11 official story, multi-billion dollar insurance lawsuitPrison Planet | April 23, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson & Aaron Dykes
At a recent speaking engagement in Austin Texas, Senator John Kerry responded to a question about WTC Building 7 by concluding that according to his information, the building was brought down as a result of a controlled demolition, directly contradicting the official line that the structure fell as a result of fire and debris damage.
WTC Building 7 was a 47-story building in the WTC complex that collapsed at 5:20pm on September 11. The building had been structurally reinforced and was not hit by a plane yet collapsed in a uniform implosion within its own footprint in a matter of seconds after sustaining relatively light debris and fire damage following the collapse of the twin towers.
News networks like BBC and CNN were reporting that the building had collapsed before it fell , indicating that the media were being handed a script of events that had yet to even unfold.
Ground zero EMT's, firefighters and police were all told hours in advance to clear a collapse zone for Building 7 as it was going to be "brought down."
Questioned on WTC 7 by members of Austin 9/11 Truth Now at a Book People event in Austin Texas, Kerry responded, "I do know that that wall, I remember, was in danger and I think they made the decision based on the danger that it had in destroying other things, that they did it in a controlled fashion."
Kerry is basically saying that the building was intentionally demolished to prevent a random collapse from damaging nearby buildings, but that premise has never been explicitly admitted, with officials clinging to the notion that the collapse was expected but was not aided by means of explosive charges, because to admit to a controlled demolition would be to expose foreknowledge of 9/11 itself.
Whether Kerry is basing his response on inside knowledge or hearsay is largely irrelevant, the fact that a sitting United States Senator is openly contradicting the official 9/11 story as well as a multi-billion dollar insurance lawsuit strikes at the root of the controversy surrounding Building 7.
In February of 2002 Silverstein Properties won $861 million from Industrial Risk Insurers to rebuild on the site of WTC 7. Silverstein Properties' estimated investment in WTC 7 was $386 million. This building's collapse alone resulted in a payout of nearly $500 million, based on the contention that it was an accidental event caused by the fall of the twin towers.
EMT's, firefighters and first responders all knew the building was pulled, anyone with an ounce of common sense can watch the videos and understand that building's don't commit suicide - and yet Silverstein, the government, and their propaganda arm Popular Mechanics, are wedded to the myth that the structure fell as a result of fire damage. They are beholden to this explanation because any revision on their behalf would undermine the entire sequence of events on 9/11 and call into question other aspects of the official story.
Their credibility rests on sweeping the issue of WTC 7 under the rug, which makes it our responsibility to keep beating the Building 7 drum.
Official reports from both NIST and FEMA state that they cannot explain why Building 7 fell, but maintain that it was related to a terrorist attack on the complex on 9/11. However, the FEMA report concludes that, "The specifics of the fires in WTC 7 and how they caused the building to collapse remain unknown at this time. The best hypothesis has only a low probability of occurrence. Further research, investigation, and analyses are needed to resolve this issue."
NIST is currently undertaking a study of WTC 7 to determine if bombs or incendiary devices were used to bring down the building.
Controlled demolitions expert Danny Jowenko was shown footage and building schematics of Building 7 by Dutch television and immediately concluded that its collapse was a result of deliberately placed explosives .
Preparing to demolish even a moderate sized building takes weeks of preparation. A building as large as WTC 7, a 47-story skyscraper, must have taken at least as long. Therefore, the idea that the building was demolished in response to fires spread from the twin towers is not a satisfactory response, as the building could not have been set up for unexpected demolition in only a few hours, much less while fires burned inside. All personnel were withdrawn from the area very early, meaning the explosives which can clearly be seen in the videos were placed days or weeks before 9/11.
Kerry was also asked about the research of Dr. Steven Jones, who has tested both samples of steel from the twin towers as well as recovered dust, which have both tested positive for the chemical signature of Thermate, which is used to cut support beams in localized reactions during a controlled demolition.
Kerry stated that he was not aware of the research and is "open to hearing anything based in fact and evidence."
Since John Kerry is a fellow Skull and Bones member with President Bush, allied to the fact that he took a dive despite massive evidence of vote fraud during the 2004 election, we won't hold our breath on the possibility of Kerry being a torch bearer for a new investigation into 9/11, but his conclusion that WTC 7 was deliberately demolished adds substantial weight to a 9/11 enigma that officials are terrified will reach critical mass.
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Sweeping Forced Abortions Used in Regime's Birth Control Enforcement
2007-04-24
Radio Free Asia | April 23, 2007 
Yan Ming
CHINA-Recently, governments in Shandong and Guangxi Provinces are forcing pregnant women to abort their babies. Among these pregnant women, some of them are in the late stages of their pregnancy.
After being injected with drugs, a Christian who was seven months pregnant gave birth to a dead child on April 18. The nine month old fetus of another woman did not move for 48 hours after she was forcibly injected with drugs. Birth Control Departments and hospitals in Guangxi Province refuse to respond to the reporter's questions about the forced abortions.
Illegal Late Term Abortions
According to information from the China Aid Association released on April 17, in Texas in the United States, a large scale mandatory abortion program is being carried out in Baise City, Shanxi Province in China. In the People's Hospital in Youjiang District, Baise City alone, there were 41 pregnant women being forcibly injected with abortion drugs on that day. Wei Linrong, a Christian who was seven months pregnant was one of them. On the morning of April 17, ten officials from the Baise City Birth Control Commission broke into Wei's home. They kidnapped Wei to the Youjiang People's Hospital and forcibly injected her with an abortion drug. Our reporter called Wei's husband, Pastor James Liang on April 18 and learned that Wei gave birth to a dead boy. Liang told the reporter that Wei was given the injection at 11 a.m. on the April 17 and had a miscarriage at 6 a.m. on the April 18. Liang didn't know what kind of injection Wei was given. After giving her the injection, the fetus was left to die slowly in the uterus. Liang and Wei already have a child. Liang told the reporter the pregnancy was an accident. They didn't mean to violate the government's birth control policy.
He Caigan was another victim in the same hospital. She was nine-months pregnant with her first baby. The Baise City birth control department claimed that because she had not turned 18 and did not have a marriage certificate, they forced her to give up her baby. According to He, the hospital didn't tell her what drug was used. The hospital staff put two injections into the fetus's head. The fetus did not move for 48 hours after the injections. She said: "I was scared. I closed my eyes when they injected the drugs. After the injections, the baby kicked and moved continuously for 20 minutes and then stopped moving. It hadn't moved since then." She wanted the baby but said she couldn't do anything since it was the government's decision. She also saw another woman in the same hospital who was nine months into her pregnancy being injected with an abortion drug as well.
Hospital Denies Accusations
Our reported called the Youjiang People's Hospital on the April 18 to inquire about Wei and He's situation.
Reporter: The Hospital forced 41 pregnant women to abort. How come a nine month pregnancy was still forcibly aborted?
Staff: Who told you that? We don't abort those who are due soon.
Reporter: What about Wei Linrong? She was seven months into her pregnancy. She was injected with an abortion drug and gave birth to a dead baby boy this morning.
Staff: Why don't you come to the hospital and see for yourself. I am not obligated to answer your question.
Reporter: Did the Birth Control Commission send anyone to the hospital?
Staff: Yes, there was a group of them.
Reporter: Are they stationed there?
Staff: Yes. You have to come over here if you have any more questions.
Another Twelve Women Injected in One Hour
A close friend of Wei Linrong told the reporter: "This [forced abortion] was arranged by the Birth Control office. They often send people to force civilians to go to the hospital for abortions." In the one hour while the reporter was trying to gather information from various government officials, the Youjiang People's Hospital forcibly injected another dozen pregnant women with abortion drugs. In Laizhou City, Shandong province, a 39-year-old Christian, Xu Hui, who was accidentally pregnant with her second child was also forced by the government to abort her baby. She was six months pregnant.
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Texas Senate waves through cell phone wiretapping bill
2007-04-24
The Register | April 23, 2007
John Leyden
A bill extending wiretapping provisions to cell phones and covering a wider range of crimes - including kidnaping, human trafficking and money laundering - has been approved by the Texas Senate.
Only murder, drug-related crimes and child pornography investigations are covered by existing lawful interception laws in Texas, AP reports. Wiretaps authorised by the proposed laws could be used to authorise the tracking of suspect's mobile, land line and online activities in multiple s; unlike current laws which are specific.
The draft Homeland Security legislation also places tighter controls on the sale of prepaid phones. Retailers will be asked to keep records of customers in a move that means prepaid phones can no longer be bought over the counter without ID. Customers will have to supply their name and address, date of birth or Social Security number, while sales would be limited to five prepaid cell phones at a time.
Police in Texas were also given the legislative go-ahead to use CCTV footage at toll booths to prosecute crime.
Sen. John Carona, the architect of the bill, argued that the legislation would help police to fight organised crime and terrorism in the state. Critics said the measures extended crimes labeled as homeland security issues too far.
One Democrat senator voiced concerns over whether the bill infringed Texans' civil liberties, particular the friends and relatives of suspects, but the proposals ultimately received the unanimous approval of the state's upper house. The bill was passed down to the House of Representatives in Texas for further consideration.
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Vermont pushes bid to impeach Bush
2007-04-21
The senate in the northeastern US state of Vermont passed a resolution Friday calling on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush, senate officials said.
The largely symbolic move, which stands little chance of going much further, was approved by 16 votes to nine and followed a public rally this week in the state capital Montpelier calling for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to go.
"I was deeply moved by the meeting on Tuesday and I've been a supporter of this consistently from the beginning," Democratic Senate President Peter Shumlin told the Vermont Guardian newspaper.
"There hasn't been a president of the United States of America who has worked harder for impeachment hearings than President Bush and Vice President Cheney," he was quoted as saying.
"The neat thing about the Vermont legislature is that we listen to citizens," he told the newspaper.
A similar resolution has been before the state's House Judiciary Committee for weeks, but the speaker has reportedly been reluctant to spend time on the resolution, preferring to discuss education funding and health care.
Backers hope the resolution -- and similar measures proposed in a handful of other states -- will send a clear message to the White House.
"We're not standing here as Vermonters and impeaching the president, but we are sending a message and denouncing the actions of this administration," one supporter, Barry Aleshenick, told the Vermont Guardian.
"It's a matter of getting the ball rolling."
The verdant and mountainous state, which borders Canada and is the second least-populated state in the country, is best known for its maple syrup and liberal politics.
Besides the impeachment resolution, other business on the state legislature's agenda this week included "an act relating to home-fermented beverage competitions."
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Second Amendment In Danger Under Anti-Gun Bush
2007-04-19
Gun control advocates should love the PresidentInfowars.net | April 19, 2007
Steve Watson
In the wake of the tragic shooting massacre in Virginia this week gun control advocates have once again come crawling out of the woodwork to capitalize on the ill informed and automated response of blaming the destructiveness of a mentally ill person's rampage on the second amendment.
The problem is that the gun control advocates are preaching to the converted when they clamor and claw at the government to restrict gun ownership in America.
Gun control advocates should applaud Bush for what he has done for their cause, instead they reveal the enormity of the false left/right paradigm that exists in US politics by berating him and his ilk as right wing gun nuts.
Many point to the fact that Bush allowed the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004 as an indication that he caved in to the NRA. John Kerry even accused Bush of conspiring to "chose his powerful friends in the gun lobby over the police officers and families that he promised to protect."
In Reality Bush wanted to renew the assault weapons ban but was forced to let it expire when it became clear that he may not retain office in 2004 should he alienate core Republican voters.
At the time Bush was applauded by Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer for his stance.
The assault weapons ban is just one of the numerous anti-gun positions taken by the Bush Administration. Additional examples include disarming airline pilots, forfeiting gun rights for misdemeanors, and arguing that the total DC gun ban is a reasonable restriction on the 2nd Amendment.
Speaking in late 2005 on the topic of the second amendment, former Republican Congressman, CIA official and board member on the NRA Bob Barr said that his position had enabled him to judge the difference between how the Clinton and Bush administration's approached the issue of gun control. Barr echoed the sentiments of many other prominent conservatives in expressing his frustration about how the Bush administration was even more anti-second amendment than the Clinton office.
"it's my impression to be honest with you, and this is confirmed by a lot of folks who are involved very heavily in regulatory matters involving firearms, that it is more difficult dealing with this administration than it was dealing with the prior administration."
In the past another Republican Congressman, and now Presidential candidate, Ron Paul has accused the Bush administration of attempting to set in motion a militarized police state in America by enacting gun confiscation martial law provisions in the event of emergencies such as an avian flu pandemic or natural disasters.
"I think they're concerned about the remnant, the remnant of those individuals who don't buy into stuff and think that they should take care of themselves on their own, that they should have their own guns and their own provisions and they don't want to depend on the government at all and I think that is a threat to those who want to hold power. They don't want any resistance to their authoritarian rule."
Paul, a staunch gun-rights supporter, has previously blasted the administration's position on so-called "assault weapons" while claiming it is gun-rights oriented as hypocritical.
In making his point, Paul quoted Georgetown University professor Robert Levy, who recently offered this comparison: "Suppose the Second Amendment said, 'A well-educated electorate being necessary for self-governance in a free state, the right of the people to keep and read books shall not be infringed.' Is there anyone who would suggest that means only registered voters have a right to read?"
"Tortured interpretations of the Second Amendment cannot change the fact that both the letter of the amendment itself and the legislative history conclusively show that the Founders intended ordinary citizens to be armed," said Paul.
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Seung-Hui Cho Was a Mind Controlled Assassin
2007-04-19
Deadly accuracy, disturbing revelations suggest outside involvement in VA Massacre, cocktail of brainwashing from prozac, violent video games contributed to carnagePrison Planet | April 19, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson
Seung-Hui Cho was a mind-controlled assassin, whether you believe he was under the influence of outside parties or not, the fact is that the cultural brainwashing of violent video games and psychotropic drugs directly contributed, as it does in all these cases, to the carnage at Virginia Tech on Monday morning.
Gun grabbers are already exploiting the tragedy to disarm future students from the opportunity of being able to defend themselves against deranged killers, but the media circus is completely silent when it comes to the laying blame at the feet of a deadly cocktail of mind-warping drugs and bloodthirsty shoot-em-ups.
Outside of the obvious culpability of the factors we see in every mass shooting - video games and "antidepressant" drugs, numerous red flags concerning Monday events are beginning to suggest that Cho was more than a heartbroken nutcase with an axe to grind.
Charles Mesloh, Professor of Criminology at Florida Gulf Coast University, told NBC 2 News that he was shocked Cho could have killed 32 people with two handguns absent expert training. Mesloh immediately assumed that Cho must have used a shotgun or an assault rifle.
"I'm dumbfounded by the number of people he managed to kill with these weapons," said Mesloh, "The only thing I can figure is that he got close to them and he simply executed them."
Mesloh said the killer performed like a trained professional, "He had a 60% fatality rate with handguns - that's unheard of given 9 millimeters don't kill people instantly," said Mesloh, stating that the handguns Cho used were designed for "plinking at cans," not executing human beings.
Cho was certainly no slouch, in the two hour gap between the first reported shootings and the wider rampage that would occur later in the morning, during which time the University completely failed to warn the students despite having loudspeakers stationed throughout the campus, Cho had time to film a confession video, transfer it to his computer, burn it onto a DVD, package it up, travel to the post office, post the package, and travel back to his dorm room to retrieve his guns and then travel back to the opposite end of the campus to resume the killing spree. The almost inconceivable speed of Cho's actions become more suspicious when we recall initial reports that there were two shooters.
Even if we rule out the fact that Cho had received expert firearms training, the cultural mind control of violent video games and mind-altering psychotropic drugs were themselves a cocktail of brainwashing that directly contributed to the carnage, as they do in nearly all these cases.
From the very first reports of the shootings we predicted the killer would be on prozac, would have recently been in psychiatric care and would have regularly played violent video games and that has precisely turned out to be accurate in all three instances.
"Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly a game called "Counterstrike," a hugely popular online game in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns," reports Newsmax citing the Washington Post.
"In December 2005 -- more than a year before Monday's mass shootings -- a district court in Montgomery County, Va., ruled that Cho presented "an imminent danger to self or others." That was the necessary criterion for a detention order, so that Cho, who had been accused of stalking by two female schoolmates, could be evaluated by a state doctor and ordered to undergo outpatient care," reports ABC News , " but despite the court identifying the future killer as a risk, they let him go.
Investigators believe that Cho Seung Hui, the Virginia Tech murderer, had been taking anti-depressant medication at some point before the shootings, according to The Chicago Tribune .
Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, as well as 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, the Oregon killer who gunned down his parents and classmates, were all on psychotropic drugs. Scientific studies proving that prozac encourages suicidal tendencies in young people are voluminous and span back nearly a decade.
Jeff Weise, the Red Lake High School killer was on prozac , "Unabomber" Ted Kaczinski, Michael McDermott, John Hinckley, Jr., Byran Uyesugi, Mark David Chapman and Charles Carl Roberts IV, the Amish school killer, were all on SSRI psychotropic drugs.
Since these deadly drugs are prevalent in almost all mass shooting incidents, where is the call to ban prozac? Why is the knee-jerk reaction always to attack the 2nd Amendment rights of Americans to self-defense, a right that was exercised in January 2002 when students subdued a shooter at another Virginia university before he could kill more than three people because they were allowed guns on campus?
Why are the deeper reasons behind what motivates young men to kill pushed aside while control freaks demand that law-abiding citizens be disarmed of the only thing that can protect them from such madmen?
Questions about the sequence of events on Monday, VA Tech, as well as the profile of the killer are arousing increased suspicion.
We have been receiving numerous calls and e mails alerting us to the fact that VA Tech is pulling links from its website concerning their relationship with the CIA. Reports from November 2005 confirm that the CIA was active in operating recruitment programs based out of VA Tech. Several professors from VA Tech are involved in government programs linked with NASA and other agencies.
Wikipedia also pulled a bizarre recently taken photograph of Cho wearing a U.S. Marines uniform.
Such details only fan the flames of accusations that Cho could have been a Manchurian Candidate, a mind-controlled assassin.
The CIA's program to create mind-controlled assassins that could be triggered by code words, MK ULTRA, is not a conspiracy theory, it's a historical fact documented by declassified government files and Senate hearings . President Bill Clinton himself had to apologize for the program before he left office.
On the Senate floor in 1977, Senator Ted Kennedy said, "The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions were involved in an 'extensive testing and experimentation' program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens 'at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign."
One such victim of these experiments was Cathy O'Brien, who immediately after the shootings re-iterated the revelations in her latest book, that Blacksburg Virginia is a central for mind control programs that are still ongoing today.
CIA mind control programs can be tracked back to the 1950's and Project BLUEBIRD, later renamed ARTICHOKE. From blogger Kurt Nimmo;
"BLUEBIRD was approved by the CIA director on April 20, 1950. In August 1951, the Project was renamed ARTICHOKE. BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE included a great deal of work on the creation of amnesia, hypnotic couriers, and the Manchurian Candidate," writes Colin A. Ross, MD. "ARTICHOKE documents prove that hypnotic couriers functioned effectively in real-life simulations conducted by the CIA in the early 1950's. The degree to which such individuals were used in actual operations is still classified.... BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE were administered in a compartmented fashion. The details of the programs were kept secret even form other personnel within the CIA.... The BLUEBIRD/ARTICHOKE materials establish conclusively that full Manchurian Candidates were created and tested successfully by physicians with TOP SECRET clearance from the CIA.... As well as being potential couriers and infiltration agents, the subjects could function in effect as hypnotically controlled cameras. They could enter a room or building, memorize materials quickly, leave the building, and then be amnesic for the entire episode. The memorized material could then be retrieved by a handler using a previously implanted code or signal, without the amnesia being disturbed. Hypnosis was not the mind control doctors' only method for creation of controlled amnesia, however. Drugs, magnetic fields, sound waves, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, and many other methods were studied under BLUEBIRD and ARTHICHOKE."
Researchers into supposed "lone nut" assassinations time and time again run across evidence pointing to CIA mind control experimentation. The best example is Sirhan Sirhan, Bobby Kennedy's assassin. Sirhan was found to be in a completely trance-like state after pulling the trigger and couldn't even remember shooting Kennedy when asked about the incident days later. Sirhan's lawyer, Lawrence Teeter, has presented convincing evidence that Sirhan was under mind control.
Either way you cut it, Seung-Hui Cho was a victim of brainwashing and mind control. The right questions are not being asked and the finger of blame is being pointed in the wrong direction, ensuring that another tragedy like the VA Tech Massacre is almost guaranteed.
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VA Massacre Proves Government Can't Protect You
2007-04-18
Cowardly cops with sub-machine guns hid behind trees as punk madman went on killing spreePrison Planet | April 17, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson
The loudest message sent by what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday is that government cannot and will not protect you.
Contrast the events at VA Tech with the 1966 UT Tower shooting, which was until yesterday the deadliest shooting massacre on a University campus in America.
The shooter was Charles Whitman, an army sniper who carried out his killing spree enjoying "a nearly unassailable vantage point from which he could select and dispatch victims," according to Crime Library , armed to the teeth with an arsenal of high powered weaponry.
The Virginia killer was able to dispatch twice as many victims as Whitman despite having apparently little firearms skill, using only two relatively weak handguns and being surrounded by police and other civilians who could have attempted to apprehend him at any point.
The difference? 40 years ago cops were not cowards, they knew their job was to protect the public and they didn't hide behind trees while wearing bullet proof body armor and toting sub-machine guns, cowering in fear at the prospect of facing up to a punk with a pea-shooter.
They didn't wait for two hours as a killer roamed the campus without even warning the students.
The case of the UT Tower shooting when compared to the Virginia massacre illustrates perfectly how American men have been turned into weak yellow bellies who beg and plead for the equally spineless police to protect them in a crisis.
As soon as reports of a shooter atop the UT Tower surfaced, residents and police alike loaded up and headed straight for UT campus in a communal effort to take down the killer. Had these individuals not kept Whitman pinned back, countless more innocents would have perished.
Ray Martinez was an Austin police officer who wasn't even on duty when news of the shootings broke, but he immediately put on his uniform and rushed to the scene of the carnage.
Martinez, officer Houston McCoy, and officer Jerry Day hastily deputized citizen Allen Crum and charged up towards the observation deck to confront the killer. Martinez and McCoy burst in on Whitman, unloading eight rounds between them and silencing the shooter.
These upstanding police officers did not consider themselves brave or special for what they did, they were simply doing their job, instead of strutting around in combat gear and hiding behind trees as we witnessed yesterday.
The Virginia massacre is another painful reminder that your government cannot and will not protect you.
Watch Alex Jones' interview with UT Tower hero Ray Martinez below.
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Yet disarmament lobby and establishment media exploit tragedy to disarm more potential victims
2007-04-17
Yet disarmament lobby and establishment media exploit tragedy to disarm more potential victimsPrison Planet | April 17, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson
In January 2002, a student at the Virginia Appalachian School of Law, Peter Odighizuwa, shot three people dead before other students were able to retrieve guns from their cars and put an end to the carnage before there was more bloodshed. Over thirty victims at VA Tech yesterday were denied that right as a result of a campus gun control law that helped the shooter pick off his targets at will.
A bill in the Virginia legislature last year that would have allowed students with concealed weapons permits to carry their guns at schools was killed, with VA Tech spokesman Larry Hincker heralding the move as action that would "help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus." How hollow those words sound now in light of eyewitness reports of how victims had to cower under desks as the killer calmly approached, their only means of defense throwing chairs or risking their lives by escaping out of high-rise windows.
"Isn't it interesting that Utah and Oregon are the only two states that allows faculty to carry guns on campus. And isn't it interesting that you haven't read about any school or university shootings in Utah or Oregon? Why not? Because criminals don't like having their victims shoot back at them," Gun Owners of America's Larry Pratt said yesterday. "That's why the American people want an end to this ineffective gun ban."
85% of Americans support the right of a principle or a teacher to have instant access to a safely stored firearm in order to defend the lives of students and prevent a school massacre, but a drive is already underway to disarm more victims and grease the skids for more horrors similar to what unfolded yesterday.
The talking points have already been disseminated and the disarmament lobby and the establishment media is doing it's best to exploit yesterday's tragedy to push for gun control.
The Los Angeles Times lauded the fact that the NRA are still silent on the massacre, claiming that "Supporters of gun rights generally kept their heads down," which is completely untrue. Everyone besides the NRA immediately went on the offensive , pointing out the fact that campus gun control policies directly disarmed the victims. The NRA at its apex is a co-opted organization, and routinely backs down when key gun control debates arise. Gun Owners of America , the only major no compromise 2nd Amendment group in America, issued a press release in which its President Larry Pratt stated,"All the school shootings that have ended abruptly in the last ten years were stopped because a law-abiding citizen -- a potential victim -- had a gun." "The latest school shooting demands an immediate end to the gun-free zone law which leaves the nation's schools at the mercy of madmen. It is irresponsibly dangerous to tell citizens that they may not have guns at schools. The Virginia Tech shooting shows that killers have no concern about a gun ban when murder is in their hearts." Questions linger about the massacre itself, with furious students blaming a delayed, incompetent and cowardly response from police for the over two hour gap between the first and second shootings before they were warned. The identity of the killer has not yet been released, but quite what motivated a man whose girlfriend cheated on him to slaughter over thirty other innocent people is very suspicious. Rumors that two shooters were involved have still not been ruled out. Students of numerology will be all too aware of the connotations attached to the fact that there were 33 victims in all. The massacre occurred three days short of the anniversaries of Waco and Ruby Ridge and four days short of the 1999 Columbine shootings. |
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Ban People — They Kill
2007-04-17
Paul Craig Roberts
V Dare
Tuesday April 17, 2007
The tragic murders of Virginia Tech students, apparently by an insane person, will prompt new attempts to ban private ownership of guns. Once guns are banned, crime will explode. Households and vulnerable members of society will lose the ability to defend, which will invite more intrusions and attacks. Knife crimes will rise as they have in Great Britain.
Gun prohibition will create a new industry for criminals-gun running and black market sales. Police will conduct stings by posing as black market gun dealers and entrap innocent citizens driven by fear and threat to secure means of personal protection.
A large industry of family businesses dedicated to meeting the needs of shooters, who would never shoot at anything but a paper or clay target, will be wiped out. Gun clubs will close their doors. Collectors of valuable Winchesters and Colts, beautiful pieces of Americana, will have to give them up or be at risk of prison sentences.
Gun banners might be surprised at the number of Americans who provide parts and repairs for firearms that have been out of production for 70 or 80 years. Other businesses provide components from which dedicated hobbyists fashion ammunition that is no longer commercially produced.
Marksmanship is an Olympic sport. A large number of marksmanship events are hosted all over the country, with the national championships at Camp Perry being the best known. I have been a member of gun clubs for decades, and no member has ever shot anyone, accidentally or intentionally. For an older person, marksmanship is one of the few outdoor convivial pursuits, and the challenge of mind- eye-hand coordination and windage calculation is rewarding.
Guns have been around for a long time, but these crazy shootings are a new development that point to a failure of culture to produce people with a sense of responsibility and self-control. When I was a kid, a youngster could walk into a local hardware store and buy a gun. There were no restrictions. If a kid was so young that he couldn't see over the counter, the store owner might call a parent for approval. We all had guns, and we never shot ourselves or anyone else.
One of my grandmothers thought nothing of me and my friends playing with the World War II weapons my uncle had brought back. My other grandmother never batted an eye when I collected my grandfather's shotgun from behind the door and went off to match wits with the crows that raided the pecan trees or the poisonous cottonmouth snakes that could be found along the creek that ran through the farm.
My grandmother never worried about me until I got a horse, a more dangerous object in her view than a gun.
We also all had knives, which we carried in our pockets to school every day. We never stabbed anyone and very seldom cut our own fingers.
We often had fights, more often wrestling each other to the ground than fist fights. No one ever thought of pulling a knife or a gun on his antagonist. Parents and teachers did not exactly approve of fights, but they considered them natural. We were not arrested, handcuffed and finger-printed for being in a fight.
Except for war films, movie violence was rare. I still remember the shock we all experienced when the hero in a cowboy movie actually shot and killed the outlaw. Until that film, the hero would shoot the gun out of the outlaw's hand, knock him out with a punch to the jaw, and deliver him rope bound to the sheriff.
I began my teaching career at Virginia Tech when the institution still had its Cadets. Students marched in uniforms with powerful military weapons that as far as I can remember still had firing pins. No one ever loaded a rifle and shot someone. Indeed, as a high school and Georgia Tech student, we had to take R.O.T.C. We knew how to field strip a M1 30-06 rifle and could have procured surplus army ammunition with ease, but no one was ever irresponsible enough to load one of the weapons. When we had marksmanship practice, it was at a firing range.
The change is in the behavior of people, not the presence of guns. Banning guns does not address the cause of gratuitous violence. We need to find the cause of the sickness in our society that produces people who deal with their problems by murdering others.
England has discovered the truth of the NRA's motto - "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." The gun ban has only disarmed the honest citizens. Drugs are banned, but they are available almost everywhere, as was alcohol during Prohibition. If a deranged person can't obtain a black market gun, he will make a bomb.
Indeed, the Iraq war has greatly stimulated interest in, and knowledge of, bomb-making. The longer the senseless occupation of Iraq continues, the more likely that Americans, like residents of Baghdad, will awaken each day to the news of 100 dead and 100 injured.
Gun rights are constitutionally protected, because the Founding Fathers did not trust even the limited and constrained government that they created. To infringe this constitutional right makes it easier to infringe others. Certainly the Bush administration has shown no reluctance to infringe such foundations of our political and legal existence as habeas corpus and the requirement that warrants be obtained before privacy is invaded.
If we lose the Constitution, we have lost our country.
Responsibility goes with accountability. Government, like people, becomes less responsible as accountability declines. Indeed, it is impossible to have irresponsible people and responsible government as the government is staffed by people.
In my day parents and teachers had authority. Today teachers have no authority, which is why they have to call the police to control the kids. Child Protective Service has stripped parents of authority. Children are taught at school to call CPS if they are spanked by parents. Apparently, teachers cannot recognize the decline of their own authority in the decline of parental authority.
I remember when a misbehaving kid picked up by the police was turned over to his parents. Today, the kids are taken to jail.
Humans are fallible and will fail in their responsibilities to others and do bad things. However, today they fail more often than in the past. The cause is not guns.
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Gun-control argument builds in background
2007-04-17
Lack of concrete information makes for restrained reactions, while gun-rights backers have little comment to make.Joel Havemann
Los Angeles Times
Tuesday April 17, 2007
Washington - Monday's deadly rampage at Virginia Tech might have lit the fuse for another round in the long- running debate over gun control, but this time the response was largely one-sided.
Gun-control advocates pointed to the shootings as dramatic evidence of the need for tougher laws, while supporters of gun rights generally kept their heads down.
And leaders of both major political parties focused their reactions on expressions of sympathy for the victims and their families, while avoiding comment on gun control.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California expressed sorrow at the event but remained silent on gun control.
In the past,
Democrats often have been at the forefront of the fight for tighter gun laws, but the party recently has been trying to broaden its appeal to hunters and others who oppose more controls.
However, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., whose husband was killed by a gunman who opened fire in a railroad car on Long Island in 1993, was one of the few members of Congress who added a political note to her statement of sympathy.
"The unfortunate situation in Virginia could have been avoided," she said, "if congressional leaders stood up to the gun lobby."
Beyond politics, one reason for the restrained reactions might have been the lack of concrete information about what happened at the university, including the identity and motivation of the gunman and how he obtained the guns used.
Virginia's gun laws, like those of many states, make it easy to buy and own firearms, including handguns, and the state has been criticized often as the source of guns used in crimes in the Washington area and in other East Coast cities.
The lack of information about the Blacksburg incident made it impossible to say what role, if any, state laws might have played.
The National Rifle Association, the nation's leading gun lobby, expressed its condolences but said, "We will not have further comment until all the facts are known."
Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, sounded an equally cautious note. "I can't say how this will play into the debate until we know how old the shooter was and how he got his guns."
Virginia makes it relatively difficult for juveniles to obtain guns.
Gun purchasers are subject to background checks, unless they buy their guns from private citizens at gun shows.
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Retired physicist claims 9/11 attack was really controlled demolition
2007-04-17
Ex-BYU professor bases theory on examination of dust samplesPhilip Jankowski
The Daily Texan
Tuesday April 17, 2007
Stephen E. Jones, a retired physicist from Brigham Young University, announced his findings Saturday that imply a controlled demolition as the cause of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, instead of the impact from the two airplanes.
His findings were announced during the Project for the New American Citizen's two day event "Rebuilding America's Senses: Exposing False-Flag Terrorism to Prevent a New 9/11."
"We're trying to expose this idea that governments have used false-flag terrorism in order to get their public to go to war," said Matt Dayton, co-founder of the Project for the New American Citizen and radio-television-film junior.
"I'm sure [Stephen Jones] is a talented scientist," said Thomas Kelley, government junior and president of College Republicans at Texas. "But I think he can bend it anyway he wants. As a scientist, he can present facts in any way he chooses."
As the headlining speaker on Saturday, Jones gave a technical presentation that examined dust from the collapse of the towers in an attempt to debunk a report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which determined molten material photographed flowing out of the World Trade Center towers before their collapse was liquefied aluminum from the airplanes.
The molten material seen from several news and amateur cameras appeared a yellow-orange hue, but Jones said that when aluminum is melted, its color remains silvery. When Jones added several materials present in the towers to the molten aluminum, its color remained silver.
Jones was able to duplicate the color by adding aluminum and iron oxide. With the addition of sulfur, the liquid would become quite volatile.
"It could cut through steel like a hot knife through butter," Jones said.
By examining dust particles obtained from ground zero, Jones was able to compare the compositions of metal particles with those that remain from controlled demolitions.
He claims that the two were nearly identical, resembling thermite, a fire "accelerant" that Jones said is often used for arson.
Jones was one of many speakers during the two-day event at Burdine Hall that culminated in a protest on the Main Mall on Sunday. The audience, some clad in leather jackets with the anarchy symbol spray painted on the back, others wearing shirts proclaiming that "9/11 was an inside job," clapped wildly to the various allegations of war-mongering and calls to action.
"Go to hell, Karl Rove!" the audience shouted after Alex Jones, a radio talk show host who spoke before Stephen E. Jones, echoed what the audience thought of the former Deputy Chief of Staff for the George W. Bush administration.
Alex Jones, whose show "Infowars" has aired on public access television in Austin for several years, is noted for preemptively accusing the government on July 25, 2001, of preparing to launch a terrorist attack on the United States.
"I have to respect the fact that he has the right to say whatever he wants," Kelley said, "But nothing he says is true or is helpful ... . I think most importantly ... it devalues the lives that were lost that day."
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Virginia Tech Shooting -- Gun Bans Are The Problem, Not The Solution
2007-04-17
Eddie Isler or Ellie McDaniel
http://www.gunowners.org/pr0704.htm
Tuesday April 17, 2007
"When will we learn that being defenseless is a bad defense," asked Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America?
"All the school shootings that have ended abruptly in the last ten years were stopped because a law-abiding citizen -- a potential victim -- had a gun," Pratt said.
"The latest school shooting demands an immediate end to the gun-free zone law which leaves the nation's schools at the mercy of madmen. It is irresponsibly dangerous to tell citizens that they may not have guns at schools. The Virginia Tech shooting shows that killers have no concern about a gun ban when murder is in their hearts.
"Not far from Virginia Tech, a killer was stopped at the Appalachian School of Law when two students were able to go off campus to their vehicles and get their guns which they used to subdue the killer. Sadly, not even that awkward defense was available at Virginia Tech.
"Isn't it interesting that Utah and Oregon are the only two states that allows faculty to carry guns on campus. And isn't it interesting that you haven't read about any school or university shootings in Utah or Oregon? Why not? Because criminals don't like having their victims shoot back at them," Pratt said. "That's why the American people want an end to this ineffective gun ban."
Pollsters have found that 85% of Americans would find it appropriate for a principal or teacher to use "a gun at school to defend the lives of students" to stop a school massacre (Research 2000 poll).
The words of Virginia Tech spokesman, Larry Hincker, should be haunting him in the wake of the massacre at his school. Last year, a bill was killed in the Virginia legislature to enable those with concealed weapons permits to carry their guns at schools. Hincker said that "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
"Gun Owners of America has called on Congress to repeal its deadly law requiring gun free school zones," said Pratt. "Likewise, the call has been made to state legislatures to enact legislation enabling people with concealed carry permits to be able to have their weapons with them in schools."
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Virginia School Shooting: Another Government Black-Op?
2007-04-17
Early details suggest Columbine-style set-up to justify mass gun control, VA Tech has "blood on their hands," banned concealed carry, disarming victimsPrison Planet | April 16, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson & Steve Watson
Early details about the horrific school shooting at Virginia Tech strongly indicate that these events represent a Columbine-style black-op that will be exploited in the coming days to push for mass gun control and further turning our schools into prisons.
Eyewitness Matt Kazee told the Alex Jones Show that it was a full two to three hours after the shootings began that loudspeakers installed around the campus were used to warn students to stay indoors and that a shooter was on the loose.
Quite how the killer was afforded so much time before any action was taken to stop him is baffling, especially considering the fact that the campus, according to Kazee, was crawling with police before the event happened due to numerous bomb threats that had been phoned in last week.
The shootings came three days after a bomb threat Friday forced the cancellation of classes in three buildings, WDBJ in Roanoke reported. Also, the 100,000-square-foot Torgersen Hall was evacuated April 2 after police received a written bomb threat, The Roanoke Times reported.
CNN quoted a student who was outraged at the delay in identifying and stopping the killer.
"What happened today this was ridiculous. And I don't know what happened or what was going through this guy's mind," student Jason Piatt told CNN. "But I'm pretty outraged and I'll say on the record I'm pretty outraged that someone died in a shooting in a dorm at 7 o'clock in the morning and the first e-mail about it - no mention of locking down campus, no mention of canceling classes - they just mention that they're investigating a shooting two hours later at 9:22."
He added: "That's pretty ridiculous and meanwhile, while they're sending out that e-mail, 22 more people got killed."
The details that are beginning to emerge fill the criteria that this could very well be another government black-op that will be used as justification for more gun control and turing our schools into prisons, festooned with armed guards, surveillance cameras and biometric scanning to gain entry.
Ironic therefore it is that Virginia is a concealed carry state and yet Virginia Tech campus recently enforced a policy prohibiting "unauthorized possession, storage or control" of firearms on campus. According to gun rights activists such as Aaron Zelman of Jews For The Preservation of Firearms, VA Tech has "blood on its hands" for disarming the 21 victims who could potentially have defended themselves against the killer.
Initial reports suggested there were two shooters, but the story quickly changed to just one shooter who later killed himself (as happens in almost all these cases) or was shot by police.
Eyewitness accounts describe police hiding behind trees and failing to pursue the killer, while ordering the school to be placed on lockdown so nobody could escape the carnage as the killer picked off his targets with seemingly little interruption from the police.
At the moment, the official death toll is 30, but could rise, making this the deadliest school shooting in history.
If these figures are accurate, the casualty figures surpass those of the school shooting at Columbine in 1999 when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves.
It is well documented that disturbing questions remain over the incident at Columbine. It is clear that authorities had prior knowledge of what was going to happen. Observers were in the area hours before the shooting took place. Articles from the Associated Press stated that ballistics from Columbine show that six of the thirteen victims were possibly shot and killed by Jefferson County SWAT.
In addition, it was never properly explained how Klebold and Harris were able to transport over 100 bombs into the school before the shootings began.
In the aftermath of Columbine there were calls for vastly increased gun control laws, more than 15 state legislatures passed significant gun control bills or dropped NRA-supported bills.
In 1996 a similar incident occurred in Dunblane in Scotland where sixteen children and one adult were killed. The resulting inquiry recommended tighter control of handgun ownership, public feeling had turned against private gun ownership, allowing a much more restrictive ban on handguns to pass.
It then emerged that the killer Thomas Hamilton was heavily involved in Freemasonry , as well as running clubs for young boys, a fact which Labour and Tory ministers acknowledged in correspondence to each other. A a 100-year public secrecy order was placed on the documents, along with the majority of other information relating to the case including the police report. There have been allegations that the lengthy closure order was placed on the report after it linked Hamilton to figures in the Scottish establishment, including two senior politicians and a lawyer.
In both the Dunblane and Columbine cases the shooters turned the guns on themselves after the killing spree was over.
We will have more on this story as it unfolds.
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Four Hired Guns in an Armored Truck, Bullets Flying, and a Pickup and a Taxi Brought to a Halt. Who Did the Shooting and Why?
2007-04-16
Washington Post | April 15, 2007
Steve Fainaru
On the afternoon of July 8, 2006, four private security guards rolled out of Baghdad's Green Zone in an armored SUV. The team leader, Jacob C. Washbourne, rode in the front passenger seat. He seemed in a good mood. His vacation started the next day.
"I want to kill somebody today," Washbourne said, according to the three other men in the vehicle, who later recalled it as an offhand remark. Before the day was over, however, the guards had been involved in three shooting incidents. In one, Washbourne allegedly fired into the windshield of a taxi for amusement, according to interviews and statements from the three other guards.
Washbourne, a 29-year-old former Marine, denied the allegations. "They're all unfounded, unbased, and they simply did not happen," he said during an interview near his home in Broken Arrow, Okla.
The full story of what happened on Baghdad's airport road that day may never be known. But a Washington Post investigation of the incidents provides a rare look inside the world of private security contractors, the hired guns who fight a parallel and largely hidden war in Iraq. The contractors face the same dangers as the military, but many come to the war for big money, and they operate outside most of the laws that govern American forces.
The U.S. military has brought charges against dozens of soldiers and Marines in Iraq, including 64 servicemen linked to murders. Not a single case has been brought against a security contractor, and confusion is widespread among contractors and the military over what laws, if any, apply to their conduct. The Pentagon estimates that at least 20,000 security contractors work in Iraq, the size of an additional division.
Private contractors were granted immunity from the Iraqi legal process in 2004 by L. Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. occupation government. More recently, the military and Congress have moved to establish guidelines for prosecuting contractors under U.S. law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but so far the issue remains unresolved.
The only known inquiry into the July 8 incidents was conducted by Triple Canopy, a 3 1/2 -year-old company founded by retired Special Forces officers and based in Herndon. Triple Canopy employed the four guards. After the one-week probe, the company concluded that three questionable shooting incidents had occurred that day and fired Washbourne and two other employees, Shane B. Schmidt and Charles L. Sheppard III.
Lee A. Van Arsdale, Triple Canopy's chief executive officer, said the three men failed to report the shootings immediately, a violation of company policy and local Defense Department requirements for reporting incidents. He said Triple Canopy was unable to determine the circumstances behind the shootings, especially since no deaths or injuries were recorded by U.S. or Iraqi authorities.
"You have to assume that, if someone engages, he is following the rules and that he did feel a threat," Van Arsdale said, adding that conflicting accounts, delays in reporting the incidents and lack of evidence made it impossible to determine exactly what provoked the shootings. Triple Canopy officials said they have lobbied for more regulation of contractors since 2004 to better define how incidents such as the July 8 shootings are reported and investigated.
Many details about the shootings are in dispute. This account is based on company after-action reports and other documents, court filings, and interviews with current and former Triple Canopy employees, including all four men riding in the armored Chevrolet Suburban that day.
Schmidt and Sheppard said they were horrified by what they described as a shooting rampage by Washbourne and waited two days to come forward because they feared for their jobs and their lives. The two have sued Triple Canopy in Fairfax County Circuit Court, arguing that the company fired them for reporting a crime.
But another man in the vehicle, Fijian army veteran Isireli Naucukidi, said Sheppard, who was driving, cut off the taxi on Washbourne's orders, giving him a better shot. Naucukidi said the three American guards laughed as they sped away, the fate of the Iraqi taxi driver unknown. Schmidt told Washbourne, "Nice shot," according to Naucukidi.
Naucukidi also said that Schmidt was responsible for an earlier shooting incident that afternoon involving a white civilian truck, and that he believed Schmidt and Sheppard had blamed Washbourne to cover up their own potential culpability. Schmidt denied responsibility for that shooting but acknowledged in an interview he had fired a warning shot into the grille of a car on a separate airport run that morning and had failed to report it.
Naucukidi left Triple Canopy on his own shortly after the incidents occurred. Company officials said he was not fired because, unlike the three other guards, he had reported the shootings immediately. During an interview on the Fijian island of Ovalau, where he farms, Naucukidi said he decided not to return to Triple Canopy because "I couldn't stand what was happening. It seemed like every day they were covering something" up.
The presence of heavily armed guards on the battlefield has long been a wild card in the Iraq war. Insurgents frequently attack them. Iraqi civilians have expressed fear of their sometimes heavy-handed tactics, which have included running vehicles off the road and firing indiscriminately to ward off attacks.
Current and former Triple Canopy employees said they policed themselves in Iraq under an informal system they frequently referred to as "big boy rules."
"We never knew if we fell under military law, American law, Iraqi law, or whatever," Sheppard said. "We were always told, from the very beginning, if for some reason something happened and the Iraqis were trying to prosecute us, they would put you in the back of a car and sneak you out of the country in the middle of the night."
Naucukidi said the American contractors had their own motto: "What happens here today, stays here today."
June 2: Hilla
Washbourne sported a shaved head, a goatee and a mosaic of tattoos and piercings on his muscular, 6-foot-3-inch frame. He led one of two teams on Triple Canopy's "Milwaukee" project, a contract to protect executives of KBR Inc., a Halliburton subsidiary, on Iraq's dangerous roads. He earned $600 a day commanding a small unit of guards armed with M-4 rifles and 9mm pistols, the same caliber weapons used by U.S. troops.
The men referred to each other by their radio call signs. Washbourne was "JW," his initials. Sheppard, a former U.S. Army Ranger, was "Shrek," for his resemblance to the cartoon monster. Schmidt, a former Marine sniper, was "Happy," an ironic reference to his surly demeanor. Naucukidi was "Isi," an abbreviation of his first name.
Schmidt and Sheppard earned $500 a day. Naucukidi earned $70 a day for the same work.
One of the largest security firms in Iraq, Triple Canopy was known for its elite, disciplined guards, including many Special Operations veterans from all branches of service. The company provides security at some checkpoints inside Baghdad's Green Zone. But Triple Canopy officials said the company is not responsible for protecting the Iraqi parliament building, where a bomb Thursday killed at least one person and wounded at least 20.
On the Milwaukee project, Washbourne came to symbolize a lack of discipline that was a departure from the company's approach, according to several current and former employees.
Unlike the U.S. military, which prohibits drinking, Triple Canopy employees ran their own bar, called the Gem, inside the Green Zone. Washbourne sometimes drank so heavily his subordinates had to roust him for his own operations briefin