False Sense Of Security

Federal judge: Bitcoin, “a currency,” can be regulated under American law

"In the case of a Texas man accused of massive Bitcoin-based fraud, a federal judge has ruled that bitcoins are 'a currency or form of money,' and are therefore subject to relevant US laws. The case revolves around Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST), a virtual Bitcoin-based hedge fund that many suspected of being a scam. BTCST shut down in August 2012, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month formally charged founder Trendon Shavers with running a Ponzi scheme." Continue reading →

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U.S. Officials: Al-Qaeda Developed Liquid That Turns Clothes Into Explosives

"Two senior U.S. government sources who have been briefed on the terror threat that prompted the U.S. to close embassies across the Mideast and North Africa this week, told the network that clothes dipped in the liquid become explosive devices when dry. One of the U.S. officials described the new generation explosive as 'ingenious,' while another said it would be undetectable under current security processes. The liquid explosive is believed to be the brainchild of the Yemen-based affiliate Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the officials told ABC News." Continue reading →

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N.H. City Wants a “Tank” to Use Against Occupiers and Libertarians

"Police Chief John Duval now says that he doesn't actually believe the Free State Project or Occupy New Hampshire are domestic terror threats. 'I wish I would have worded things different in retrospect,' he says. 'I understand why their eyebrows are raised about that.' He says it was meant to refer to the 'unpredictable nature of unpredictable people who attach themselves to otherwise lawful situations.' Duval has no plans to issue a formal apology, but he has exchanged emails with Carla Gericke, president of the Free State Project, who is suing a police department for arresting her in 2011 for allegedly recording a police traffic stop." Continue reading →

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The Best Mob Story Ever

"The best mob story ever told does not involve Al Capone or Bugsy Segal or John Gotti. It involves a mobster few American have ever heard of, Greg Scarpa by name, and his not quite as lethal son, Greg Scarpa Jr., 'Junior' going forward. One reason few people ever heard of Scarpa is that until his arrest in September 1992, he worked as a 'Top Echelon Confidential Informant' under the protection of the FBI for the most of the thirty years prior. During that time, Scarpa murdered at least fifty people. Understandably, this is not a story not that the FBI wants told, but author Peter Lance has told it anyhow in his stunningly comprehensive new book, Deal With The Devil." Continue reading →

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Monday Morning Skeptic: Questioning Authority in the Sprawling Boston Bombing Case

"Mistakes were made. Lots of them—and on more than a few significant aspects of the story. But do such details really matter? If you believe in the infallibility of the FBI, probably not. But the Boston Marathon bombing investigation has bloomed into a complex filigree of related inquiries—from the unsolved triple murder in 2011 in drowsy Waltham, Mass., to the rare 'shelter-in-place' order and live-TV posse search for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on April 19, to the puzzling FBI-agent shooting death in Florida of an unarmed friend of the Tsarnaevs who might have been able to answer crucial questions–had he lived." Continue reading →

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Swiss bank UBS pays $50 million to settle SEC charges from 2007 financial meltdown

"UBS agreed to pay nearly $50 million to settle charges over its disclosures related to a money-losing 2007 investment vehicle linked to sub-prime loans, a US agency announced Tuesday. UBS presented inaccurate or incomplete information about upfront payments in marketing literature to investors and in submissions to the CDO’s directors, the SEC said. When the CDO was liquidated in 2007, outside investors lost approximately $130 million in the CDO, according to an SEC administrative order. In the settlement, UBS agreed to pay about $50 million in disgorgement, interest and penalties. The bank did not admit or deny the SEC’s findings." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSwiss bank UBS pays $50 million to settle SEC charges from 2007 financial meltdown

Drama: Yemen, Guantanamo Bay, Stamford, CT

"I commute to work in Stamford, CT. I take the Metro North almost daily. Today, in light of the 'terrorist' threat I was greeted with the Stamford Police and other law enforcement at the top of the escalator leading from the track. They were checking for traces of explosive material. Some people were being singled out to go through a swab test[...]. My co-worker who arrives later than I do told me he was singled out for a quick swab and when he complained he was told he 'better get used to it' and 'this is for our protection.'" Continue reading →

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What’s in the Vault?

"The request represented less than 5% of all the gold that the Fed officially holds in its New York vaults. (Interestingly, an earlier request by Germany to inspect its assets was denied by the Fed). Despite the relatively small request (relative to the total holdings), repatriation is expected by 2020. Perhaps for fear that she may be 'persuaded' to accept being 'cash-settled' with U.S. dollars in lieu of gold, Germany dared not complain. The letter issued on April 1, 2013 by Dutch State-owned ABN-AMRO bank to holders of paper claims to gold and silver held in its vaults advised that any physical metal custodied at the bank would in the future be 'cash-settled'." Continue reading →

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Is America Going to Hell in a Handbasket?

"While there is very little chance that an Islamic terrorist will ever have any effect on your life, there is a much greater chance that your life will be abused, molested, robbed, assaulted, terrorized or murdered by an American government official. And you 'progressives' out there are just as responsible for turning America into the current police state as are the conservatives and neocons, by the way. But the truth is still difficult for many people to handle. So, as America has reached Hell in a handbasket, people still would rather believe the myth that government is a 'necessary evil,' or that when it gets very, very bad, it can be 'reformed.'" Continue reading →

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Are Police in America Now a Military, Occupying Force?

"Today, the SWAT team is largely sold to the American public by way of the media, through reality TV shows such as Cops, Armed and Famous, and Police Women of Broward County, and by politicians well-versed in promising greater security in exchange for the government being given greater freedom to operate as it sees fit outside the framework of the Constitution. Having watered down the Fourth Amendment’s strong prohibitions intended to keep police in check and functioning as peacekeepers, we now find ourselves in the unenviable position of having militarized standing armies enforcing the law." Continue reading →

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