Homeland Stupidity

Ted Koppel: ‘Can You Imagine A Day When We’ll Be Without The TSA?’

"'The terrorists have achieved more with one phone call than we have achieved with all our response,' Koppel said. 'Terrorism is imply the weapon by which the weak engage the strong,' Koppel said. 'They cause the strong—in this case us—to overreact. We are the ones who went into Iraq and spent about a trillion and a half dollars doing it, losing 4,500 men and women, god knows how many tens of thousands injured. We are the ones who created a bureaucracy. The TSA has what—57,000 people operating within the TSA? Can you imagine a day when we will ever be without that bureaucracy? All imposed upon ourselves.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTed Koppel: ‘Can You Imagine A Day When We’ll Be Without The TSA?’

Homeland Security tracks down 400-page diary of Nazi leader and Hitler aide

"The FBI opened a criminal investigation into the missing documents. No charges were filed in the case. But the Holocaust museum has gone on to recover more than 150,000 documents, including a trove held by Kempner’s former secretary, who by then had moved into the New York state home of an academic named Herbert Richardson. The Rosenberg diary, however, remained missing. Early this year, the Holocaust museum and an agent from Homeland Security Investigation tried to locate the missing diary pages. They tracked the diary to Richardson, who was living near Buffalo." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHomeland Security tracks down 400-page diary of Nazi leader and Hitler aide

Does “Homeland Security” really protect you?

"Secretary Janet Napolitano’s resignation is the perfect time get rid of the Department. Its alleged purpose is to prevent terrorism. But it’s trying to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist. You’re far more likely to die from bathtub drowning, home appliances, or deer accidents than from terrorism. This tells me the DHS is a waste of time. Spending shot up from $20 billion in 2002 to $60 billion this year. Also, the DHS isn’t really about security or terrorism prevention at all: The primary counter-terrorism agencies - FBI, CIA, and NSA - aren’t even part of the DHS. Less than 25% of DHS grants actually go to terrorism prevention." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDoes “Homeland Security” really protect you?

IRS Needs AR-15′s For “Standoff Capabilities”?

"The IRS, which primarily acts as an audit agency, refuses to answer why its agents need AR-15s for 'standoff capability.' The IRS is not the only federal agency stocking up tactical weapons and training for paramilitary raids. Agencies like the Department of Education, the Social Security Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Internal Revenue Service continue to purchase large amounts of tactical weapons and ammunition to build up their law enforcement divisions." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIRS Needs AR-15′s For “Standoff Capabilities”?

Entire New York Town Placed On Lockdown Over Police Standoff

"The entire upstate New York town of Bovina was placed on lockdown Sunday while police were engaged in a standoff with an armed man. A New York Alert notification was activated at about 2 p.m. Sunday, but a Delaware County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher said people in the town of Bovina were not in imminent danger and nobody was injured. There were no official details released about the man or why police were after him, the newspaper reported. Police officers were seen swarming on the ground as helicopters flew overhead, and residents were stopped by police and advised not to pick up hitchhikers, the paper reported." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEntire New York Town Placed On Lockdown Over Police Standoff

Obama’s Response To NSA Surveillance Still Lacking Justification

"It's a lot of rhetoric about transparency, with a few random claims about how important these programs are. Separately, he continued to insist that we're better than some other countries (setting the bar low) and that we don't spy on Americans -- despite the evidence from this morning that this isn't true. In answering questions, he insisted the two key programs being discussed, Section 215 of the Patriot Act and 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, were critical to finding important intelligence -- despite the fact that multiple Senators have insisted that there remains no evidence that Section 215 was necessary in any terrorist case." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama’s Response To NSA Surveillance Still Lacking Justification

Maine Governor LePage: I’d like to blow up newspaper building

"Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) wasted no time in making a disturbing joke after boarding a flight simulator during a Friday appearance, the Bangor Daily News reported on Friday. 'I want to find the Press Herald building and blow it up,' LePage said in video posted online from his appearance at an event hosted by defense contractor Pratt & Whitney, referring to the Portland Press Herald. LePage later told a WMTW-TV reporter he was targeting both newspapers in the simulation. Later that day, LePage sent a tweet to the Press-Herald, saying, 'Threatened? It was a joke, folks.' Local FBI officials told the Press-Herald they did not expect him to carry out such a threat." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMaine Governor LePage: I’d like to blow up newspaper building

US Military Caught Manipulating Social Media, Mass Fake Accounts

"The New York Times report goes on to detail information uncovered from hacked data regarding the military operation to stage ‘grassroots’ responses and organizations in order to deceive via psyop. Professor of philosophy Peter Ludlow writes for the Times: 'The hack also revealed evidence that Team Themis was developing a 'persona management' system — a program, developed at the specific request of the United States Air Force, that allowed one user to control multiple online identities ('sock puppets'_ for commenting in social media spaces, thus giving the appearance of grass roots support.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS Military Caught Manipulating Social Media, Mass Fake Accounts

Just What I Was Afraid Of: Feinstein To Hold NSA Hearings

"If you really think that Feinstein and Obama are calling for hearings and revisions in the Patriot Act to enhance American freedoms, then you really need to get here to San Francisco, fast, I have a great fog making machine to sell you. Any revisions will carry short paragraphs of legalese that will allow the data collection to be used against Americans in many more ways. The legislation will be passed and 6 months later, after it is enacted, WaPo and NYT will come out with stories on how the legislation actually enhanced the government to use the data in new ways. Any Congressional hearings will be very dangerous." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJust What I Was Afraid Of: Feinstein To Hold NSA Hearings

What It’s Like to Get a National-Security Letter

"I spoke with Brewster Kahle, the founder of the nonprofit Internet Archive, perhaps the greatest of our digital libraries, and of the Wayback Machine, which allows you to browse an archive of the Web that reaches back to 1996. He is one of very few people in the United States who can talk about receiving a national-security letter. Hundreds of thousands of national-security letters have been sent. But only the plaintiffs in the three successful challenges so far—Kahle; Nicholas Merrill, of Calyx Internet Access; and the Connecticut librarians George Christian, Barbara Bailey, Peter Chase, and Janet Nocek—are known to have had them rescinded." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat It’s Like to Get a National-Security Letter