CLibertyC

U.S. Government: The Truth Is Too Complicated and Dangerous to Disclose to the Public

"Secretive, unaccountable agencies are making life and death decisions which effect our most basic rights. They provide 'secret evidence' to courts which cannot be checked … and often withhold any such 'evidence' even from the judges. The government uses 'secret evidence' to spy on Americans, prosecute leaking or terrorism charges (even against U.S. soldiers) and even assassinate people. All of this happened in Germany – as in America today – because the governments whipped up so much fear of attack by demonizing the enemy and declaring an open-ended war that people became complacent and stopped thinking for themselves." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Government: The Truth Is Too Complicated and Dangerous to Disclose to the Public

Imagining a Legal Basis for Obama’s Overseas Assassinations

"Thanks to someone who has reservations about Obama's murders and leaked it, we have a copy of a secret legal opinion that is supposed to lay out the conditions under which such presidentially-directed murders are legal. This heretofore secret document imagines a legal basis for Obama's overseas assassinations. Imagine is not quite the right word. It fantasizes such a basis. It makes it up by stringing together words that are supposed to make a plausible case. On inspection, however, this case collapses. It is rather like setting a wall on what is supposed to be concrete, but actually is pudding." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingImagining a Legal Basis for Obama’s Overseas Assassinations

NDAA Judge: Executive Branch “Known To Make Things Up”

"Mr. Constitutional Law Professor insisted that he signed the bill with 'serious reservations.' He also promised that he would never, ever use NDAA's powers -- he merely collects such prerogatives as you or I would books or china cups, so he can set them on a shelf and admire them. And for a guy who so unenthusiastically signed the legislation in 2012 -- and in 2013 as well -- he has most vigorously defended it. Judge Katherine Forrest declined to cooperate with evisceration of the Constitution and suspended the NDAA. Ole Reluctant Signer immediately appealed to the Second Circuit to overturn her ruling. That hearing took place yesterday in NYC." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNDAA Judge: Executive Branch “Known To Make Things Up”

Disarm the People, Unleash the Drones: The Feinstein Agenda

"In a letter to Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ralph Nader and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein point out that the drone-killings 'combine prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner in a single person'. Rather than allowing critics of this program to testify in Brennan’s confirmation hearings, Senator Feinstein has limited testimony to the nominee himself. The same Senator Feinstein, of course, is promoting severe restrictions on private firearms ownership. She sees nothing at all wrong with disarming the population while giving the president an unrestricted license to kill American citizens." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDisarm the People, Unleash the Drones: The Feinstein Agenda

Raisons d’État: Justifying Assassination and Murder of American Citizens

"From Niccolo Machiavelli and Cardinal Richelieu to George W. Bush and Barack Obama, survival of the state has been the highest priority of political authority. Any means necessary regardless of morality or legality is sanctioned for reasons of state (raisons d'État). In statecraft, the ends justify the means. I suspect that many of these craven individuals (of both parties) will soon be marching in lock-step unison in shouting their support of an earlier assassination of an American citizen by the top tier of the National Security establishment fifty years ago who was seen as a traitor to his nation during the height of the Cold War." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRaisons d’État: Justifying Assassination and Murder of American Citizens

Obama’s Drone War Could Legally Kill Americans But Not Anywhere

"Obama is stretching the terms 'imminent threat' beyond recognition to justify dubious unilateral presidential action, now targeting regional al Qaeda affiliates in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia—all of which had no role in the 9/11 strikes and which focus their attacks mainly against local governments. This expanded war is congressionally unauthorized, and so it is illegal and unconstitutional to kill anyone in these countries—Americans or foreign peoples. There is now talk about setting up a secret court to approve adding Americans to the terrorist kill list, much like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court does for spying on Americans." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama’s Drone War Could Legally Kill Americans But Not Anywhere

Upstate New York bids to become federal drone testing site

"A coalition of upstate New York universities and defense contractors has submitted a bid to become a federally designated testing and research site for the integration of unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, into domestic airspace. Drones are expected to be used for everything from search and rescue, to crop dusting, to newsgathering. One of the key issues the FAA will have to assess is the ability of drones to communicate with air traffic controllers, manned aircraft and other drones. The massive growth of drone use is expected to create an economic boom in the U.S." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUpstate New York bids to become federal drone testing site

“Klaatu, Barada, Bar Code”: Bar Codes Visible from Outer Space

"What are these all about? We are told that they were camera calibrating devices. American spy planes in the 1950s and 1960s flew overhead, taking photos. But to take a good photo, a camera needs precise measurements for focusing. These bar codes provided the masters. Anyway, that’s the official line. In half a century, none of this leaked out. It makes you wonder. How many things have never leaked out? How many don’t leak out today, and won’t for 50 years?" Continue reading →

Continue Reading“Klaatu, Barada, Bar Code”: Bar Codes Visible from Outer Space

At least six tanks leaking at military nuclear waste dump in Washington state

"The Hanford nuclear site in the southwest of the US state was used to produce plutonium for the bomb that brought an end to World War II. Output grew after 1945 to meet the challenges of the Cold War, but the last reactor closed down in 1987. Its website says:'“Weapons production processes left solid and liquid wastes that posed a risk to the local environment.' The ecological threat extends to the Columbia River, it added, noting that in 1989 US federal and Washington state authorities agreed a deal to clean up the Hanford Site." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAt least six tanks leaking at military nuclear waste dump in Washington state

Activists launch campaign against ‘autonomous weapons’: Killer robots must be stopped

"A new global campaign to persuade nations to ban “killer robots” before they reach the production stage is to be launched in the UK by a group of academics, pressure groups and Nobel peace prize laureates. The Stop the Killer Robots campaign will be launched in April at the House of Commons and includes many of the groups that successfully campaigned to have international action taken against cluster bombs and landmines. They hope to get a similar global treaty against autonomous weapons." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingActivists launch campaign against ‘autonomous weapons’: Killer robots must be stopped