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Has New York become a sitting duck?

1/8/2015

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January 8, 2015
Posted by: Jon Dougherty
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In the aftermath of the Islamic terrorist attack in Paris, France, on Wednesday — an attack that left 12 journalists and cops dead — cities throughout the world are increasing alert levels especially those in Western nations, according to a number of reports.

However, the terrorists’ crown-jewel target, New York City, has become more and more vulnerable under the leadership of Mayor Bill de Blasio. For example, his dismantling of a special operations unit of police officers that conducted surveillance and investigations of the city’s and metropolitan area’s mosques has left the Big Apple arguably as vulnerable as it was on Sept. 10, 2001.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) surveillance unit, that had gathered and analyzed intelligence on Muslim communities throughout the area, including mosques in New Jersey, wasn’t disbanded until de Blasio took power. During the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his tough-as-nails police commissioner, Ray Kelly, even after an enormous amount of political pressure from Muslim groups and left-wing organizations, such as the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the surveillance program continued.

The NYPD’s anti-terrorism united known as the Zone Assessment Unit was created with the help of members of the federal intelligence community following the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks. The police commissioner at that time, veteran cop Bernard Kerik, was honest about its existence and its overall role in preventing another 9-11 attack by monitoring Muslim-owned business and mosques across the New York region. It was successful in uncovering a number of suspects including wealthy Muslims who were illegally transferring money to the coffers of terrorist groups such as al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah and others. Unfortunately, it also was a favorite target protests and civil lawsuits.

As a result of the firestorm created by the coalition formed by the ACLU, CAIR, most news organizations, and others, the NYPD and the New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a statement in April 2014 that said:

“The Zone Assessment Unit, previously referred to as the demographics unit, has been largely inactive since January. Recently, as part of an ongoing assessment of Intelligence Bureau operations, personnel assigned to the Zone Assessment Unit were reassigned to other duties within the Intelligence Bureau. Understanding certain local demographics can be a useful factor when assessing information regarding potential threats coming to the attention of the New York City Police Department, it has been determined that much of the same information previously gathered by the Zone Assessment Unit may be obtained through direct outreach by the NYPD to the communities concerned.”

“Our administration has promised the people of New York a police force that keeps our city safe, but that is also respectful and fair. This reform is a critical step forward in easing tensions between the police and the communities they serve, so that our cops and our citizens can help one another go after the real bad guys,” Mayor de Blasio (not very popular with members of the NYPD) said in a statement at the time.


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Obama Threatens Amnesty Executive Action Before New Congress Sworn

11/10/2014

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U.S. President Barack Obama defended his plan to use executive powers to implement some immigration reforms, saying in an interview broadcast on Sunday he had waited long enough for Congress to act.Obama told congressional leaders on Friday he would try to ease some restrictions on undocumented immigrants, despite warnings from Republican leaders that such actions would "poison the well" or would be "a red flag in front of a bull".

The meeting came after Obama's Democratic Party was punished in midterm elections on Tuesday. Republicans seized the U.S. Senate and kept a majority in the House of Representatives, in what Obama said was a message from voters who held him responsible for how Washington worked, or didn't.

In an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," Obama said he had watched while the U.S. Senate produced a bipartisan immigration reform bill, only to have it not taken up by House Republican Speaker John Boehner.

Obama said he had told Boehner if he could not get it done by year's end, the White House was going to have to take steps to improve the system.

"Everybody agrees the immigration system's broken. And we've been talking about it for years now in terms of fixing it," Obama said in the interview, according to a CBS transcript.

U.S. borders needed to be secure, the legal immigration system needed to be more efficient and there needed to be a path to legal status for the 11 million undocumented immigrants.

"We don't have the capacity to deport 11 million people -- everybody agrees on that," he said.

Obama insisted he was not telling Republicans they had run out of time or trying to circumvent them.

"The minute they pass a bill that addresses the problems with immigration reform, I will sign it and it supersedes whatever actions I take," Obama said in the interview.

"And I'm encouraging them to do so ... on parallel track we're going to be implementing an executive action.

"But if in fact a bill gets passed, nobody's going to be happier than me to sign it, because that means it will be permanent rather than temporary."

Without any changes, the government will continue to misallocate resources, deport people who should not be deported and not deport those who are dangerous, he said.

Any unilateral action promises to draw the ire of Republicans in Congress. U.S. Senator John Barrasso, the No. 4 Republican in the Senate, told Reuters on Friday members of Congress had told Obama that would be a "toxic decision".

"It will hurt cooperation on every issue," Barrasso told "Fox News Sunday".

"What the president does over the next two months is going to set the tone for the next two years."

Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said on ABC's "This Week" he hoped Obama would delay action "and have a real comprehensive discussion about what's possible, because a great deal is possible on immigration reform."


© 2014 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

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Putin Blatantly Calls Out the US Government’s Destructive Foreign Policy

11/9/2014

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By Joseph Lemieux 

(TheAntiMedia) The backdoor assertions from foreign countries are out the window. These countries are now speaking openly about their displeasure with the United States’ destructive foreign policy. 


Vladimir Putin, on the 25th of October, executed his speech within the Valdai Discussion Club in front of fellow world leaders, openly discussing the United States failed foreign policy. We will go into some excerpts from his speech, and examine the validity of his claims, and worries.
“What we needed to do was to carry out a rational reconstruction and adapt it the new realities in the system of international relations.
But the United States, having declared itself the winner of the Cold War, saw no need for this. Instead of establishing a new balance of power, essential for maintaining order and stability, they took steps that threw the system into sharp and deep imbalance.”

Has the US Governments actions created an imbalance in the international community’s stability? This very well may be true! Just to name a few we have the War on Terror as a whole, War in Afghanistan, the Iraq War, US Intervention in Libya, and US intervention is Syria. These are just the face of our conflicts, this does not account for the drone warsin various country’s or the proxy wars we may be unaware of.

“The measures taken against those who refuse to submit are well-known and have been tried and tested many times. They include use of force, economic and propaganda pressure, meddling in domestic affairs, and appeals to a kind of ‘supra-legal’ legitimacy when they need to justify illegal intervention in this or that conflict or toppling inconvenient regimes. Of late, we have increasing evidence too that outright blackmail has been used with regard to a number of leaders. It is not for nothing that ‘big brother’ is spending billions of dollars on keeping the whole world, including its own closest allies, under surveillance.”

The US Government has done exactly these things. Take a look at Libya and Syria with use of force to remove a regime we don’t agree with. What about our spying apparatus the NSA, how has that been used? We do know that the NSA was spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, an ally of the United States, and for what? Possibly dirt to make sure any plan we had, with the idea of Germany’s involvement, would happen! Are we spying on even more allied nations in the hopes of having leverage to blackmail?

“In Syria, as in the past, the United States and its allies started directly financing and arming rebels and allowing them to fill their ranks with mercenaries from various countries. Let me ask where do these rebels get their money, arms and military specialists? Where does all this come from? How did the notorious ISIL manage to become such a powerful group, essentially a real armed force?”

The supply of weapons to ISIL in the beginning was widely contested, and highly ignored by media, but that’s not the case anymore. Reports continue to come out with the proof that US Government weapons continually end up in the hands of ISIL, whether it be intentional, or unintentional, those weapons are the US Governments responsibility. We are fighting a war with people we are still giving weapons too, that seems like a conflict of interest, unless your a war profiteer that is!

“As for financing sources, today, the money is coming not just from drugs, production of which has increased not just by a few percentage points but many-fold, since the international coalition forces have been present in Afghanistan. You are aware of this. The terrorists are getting money from selling oil too. Oil is produced in territory controlled by the terrorists, who sell it at dumping prices, produce it and transport it. But someone buys this oil, resells it, and makes a profit from it, not thinking about the fact that they are thus financing terrorists who could come sooner or later to their own soil and sow destruction in their own countries.”

Putin brings up Afghanistan, and the drug trade, so how much weight does this actually carry? It seems like his accusation comes to hold water quite well. Afghanistan currently produces 90% of the worlds heroin, and we are occupying that nation. Does this mean the US Government is the largest supplier of heroin in the world? I don’t know if I can make that claim, but then again the devils in the details right?

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AFTER FEIGNING LOVE FOR EGYPTIAN DEMOCRACY, U.S. BACK TO OPENLY SUPPORTING TYRANNY

10/4/2014

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BY GLENN GREENWALD From The Intercept

It is, of course, very difficult to choose the single most extreme episode of misleading American media propaganda, but if forced to do so, coverage of the February, 2011 Tahrir Square demonstrations in Egypt would be an excellent candidate. For weeks, U.S. media outlets openly positioned themselves on the side of the demonstrators, depicting the upheaval as a Manichean battle between the evil despot Hosni Mubarak’s “three decades of iron rule” and the hordes of ordinary, oppressed Egyptians inspirationally yearning for American-style freedom and democracy.

Almost completely missing from this feel-good morality play was the terribly unpleasant fact that Mubarak was one of the U.S. Government’s longest and closest allies and that his “three decades of iron rule” — featuring murder, torture and indefinite detention for dissidents — were enabled in multiple ways by American support.

Throughout Mubarak’s rule, the U.S. fed his regime an average of $2 billion each year, most of which was military aid. The tear gas cannisters shot at protesters by Mubarak’s police bore “Made in U.S.A.” labels. A 2009 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks noted that “Egyptian democracy and human rights efforts … are being stymied” but described the benefits received by U.S. from support for the regime: “Egypt remains at peace with Israel, and the U.S. military enjoys priority access to the Suez Canal and Egyptian airspace.” Another 2009 cable put it more bluntly: “the Egyptians appear more willing to confront the Iranian surrogates and to work closely with Israel.”
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That same year, Hillary Clinton pronounced: “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family.” Another WikiLeaks cable, anticipating the first meeting between Obama and Mubarak in 2009, emphasized that “the Administration wants to restore the sense of warmth that has traditionally characterized the U.S.-Egyptian partnership” and that “the Egyptians want the visit to demonstrate that Egypt remains America’s ‘indispensible [sic] Arab ally.’” The cable dryly noted that “[intelligence] Chief Omar Soliman and Interior Minister al-Adly keep the domestic beasts at bay, and Mubarak is not one to lose sleep over their tactics.” The Obama administration supported Mubarak right up to the point where his demise was inevitable, and even then, plotted to replace him with Soliman: an equally loyal and even more brutal autocrat, most appreciated in Washington circles for helpfully torturing people on behalf of the Americans.

During the gushing coverage of the Tahrir protests, Americans were told almost none of this (just as most Arab Spring coverage generally omitted long-standing U.S. support for most of the targeted tyrants in the region). Instead, they were led to believe that the U.S. political class was squarely on the side of democracy and freedom in Egypt, heralding Obama’s statement that Egyptians have made clear that “nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day.”


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Politico: Holder Perfectly Timed Resignation to Make Way for Successor

9/27/2014

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By Sandy Fitzgerald
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Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation on Thursday had everything to do with timing, and came as a "quit-now or never-quit moment," a former Obama administration official told Politico Magazine.

Holder, who had reportedly been discussing his departure for 18 months with President Barack Obama and senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, announced his resignation on Thursday, saying he'll remain on duty until a new attorney general is confirmed.

He's been under pressure to retire not only from political forces dissatisfied with his record, particularly when it comes to the Fast and Furious scandal, but by his wife, a physician concerned about a recent health scare. 

But Holder's timing was perfect, given the chance that Republicans could take over the Senate after the November election. By leaving now, confirmation hearings are certain to be held under a Senate that is still controlled by Democrats.

Had he waited, Obama could have had much more difficulty confirming Holder's successor, the former official said. 

"You didn’t want confirmation hearings in 2015 if the Republicans control the Senate," the official said. "So if he didn’t do it now, there was no way he could ever do it.”

Holder told Obama his resignation plans over the Labor Day holidays, reports Politico, and Obama did not push back, although he faces a long confirmation battle to replace Holder.

This way, Obama has time to pick and vet Holder's successor and push him through during the post-election, lame-duck session after the midterm elections.

Holder, the nation's first African-American attorney general, is also leaving office on a high point after his trip to Ferguson, Mo., during the riots following the shooting death of an unarmed teenager.

But while the trip was well-received, Holder has been a polarizing figure politically, including being the first sitting Cabinet member to be found in contempt of Congress.

And Republicans are not sorry to see him go.

"I welcome the news that Eric Holder will step down as Attorney General,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, in an email to Politico. “From Operation Fast and Furious to his misleading testimony before the House Judiciary Committee regarding the Department’s dealings with members of the media and his refusal to appoint a special counsel to investigate the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups, Mr. Holder has consistently played partisan politics with many of the important issues facing the Justice Department.”

But Holder will leave a hole in the Obama administration, particularly when it comes to race relations, as the outgoing attorney general often said things that Obama would not say.

“He’s a race man,” said Charles Ogletree, a longtime friend of Holder’s and mentor to Obama and his wife, Michelle, when they were Harvard Law students back in the 1980s.

"He’s gone farther and deeper into some issues of race than the White House would like, but I know he has the president’s well-wishes," said Ogletree. "It’s clear [Obama and Holder] believe in the same things.”

Holder has also become a close friend of Obama, even to the point of vacationing with the president and his family on Martha's Vineyard. Their wives are also close friends.

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THE SECRET GOVERNMENT RULEBOOK FOR LABELING YOU A TERRORIST

7/27/2014

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BY JEREMY SCAHILL AND RYAN DEVEREAUX
From: The Intercept

"The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept.

The “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance,” a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government’s secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals to be designated as representatives of terror organizations without any evidence they are actually connected to such organizations, and it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to place entire “categories” of people the government is tracking onto the no fly and selectee lists. It broadens the authority of government officials to “nominate” people to the watchlists based on what is vaguely described as “fragmentary information.” It also allows for dead people to be watchlisted.

Over the years, the Obama and Bush Administrations have fiercely resisted disclosing the criteria for placing names on the databases—though the guidelines are officially labeled as unclassified. In May, Attorney General Eric Holder even invoked the state secrets privilege to prevent watchlisting guidelines from being disclosed in litigation launched by an American who was on the no fly list. In an affidavit, Holder called them a “clear roadmap” to the government’s terrorist-tracking apparatus, adding: “The Watchlisting Guidance, although unclassified, contains national security information that, if disclosed … could cause significant harm to national security.”
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Because the government tracks “suspected terrorists” as well as “known terrorists,” individuals can be watchlisted if they are suspected of being a suspected terrorist, or if they are suspected of associating with people who are suspected of terrorism activity.

“Instead of a watchlist limited to actual, known terrorists, the government has built a vast system based on the unproven and flawed premise that it can predict if a person will commit a terrorist act in the future,” says Hina Shamsi, the head of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “On that dangerous theory, the government is secretly blacklisting people as suspected terrorists and giving them the impossible task of proving themselves innocent of a threat they haven’t carried out.” Shamsi, who reviewed the document, added, “These criteria should never have been kept secret.”"

The rulebook, which The Intercept is publishing in full, was developed behind closed doors by representatives of the nation’s intelligence, military, and law-enforcement establishment, including the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and FBI. Emblazoned with the crests of 19 agencies, it offers the most complete and revealing look into the secret history of the government’s terror list policies to date. It reveals a confounding and convoluted system filled with exceptions to its own rules, and it relies on the elastic concept of “reasonable suspicion” as a standard for determining whether someone is a possible threat. 


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