Land Of The Flea

NDAA Indefinite Detention Opponents File Supreme Court Emergency Motion

"Opponents of the post-9/11 use of indefinite military detention have filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to block a law they say allows innocent American citizens to be locked away without trial. The motion, submitted on Wednesday, asks the Supreme Court to reinstate an injunction against a key portion of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. Unless the court does so, the motion argues, Americans are 'in actual and imminent danger of losing their core First Amendment rights and fundamental Equal Protection liberties.'" Continue reading →

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Indefinite Detention and the NDAA: The rise of America’s imperial presidency

"In the eleven years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, America has effectively lived under a perpetual state of emergency. Last year, President Barack Obama while vacationing in Hawaii signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act which included an embedded provision allowing the presidency what some have termed as indefinite detention powers. The political firestorm and continuing controversy over both the Global War on Terror and the NDAA has led many American citizens to wonder just what all of this means for their individual freedom." Continue reading →

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New Hampshire police Taser Chinese woman who tried to buy too many iPhones

"Police in Nashua, New Hampshire say they were forced to use a Taser on a 44-year-old Chinese woman who does not speak English after she was told to leave an Apple Store because she was trying to buy too many iPhones. Through a translator, Xiaojie Li told WMUR that she had bought two iPhones from the Pheasant Lane Mall Apple Store on Friday and returned on Tuesday to buy more to send to her family in China. Shoppers captured cell phone video of police — who were providing security at the store’s request — using a stun gun on Li as she laid on the mall floor screaming." Continue reading →

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Europeans outraged over the US using Patriot Act for worldwide spying

"Researchers from the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Information Law say that legislation enacted to allegedly protect the security of US citizens has in the process eroded privacy protections on a global scale. As more and more companies and individuals across the world begin relying on cloud computing to store information digitally on remote servers, the Dutch researchers warn that the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allow for those files to be fed into the US intelligence community, disregarding privacy safeguards in place for others around the globe." Continue reading →

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Pentagon to expand intelligence gathering to rival CIA

"The Pentagon, in a major expansion of its intelligence gathering activities, plans to assemble an espionage network rivaling the Central Intelligence Agency in size. Citing unnamed US officials, the Washington Post said that as part of the project, US military officials will send hundreds of additional spies overseas. They also plan to overhaul the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) which has focused primarily during the past decade on activities related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the expansion is complete, the DIA is expected to have as many as 1,600 intelligence 'collectors' around the world." Continue reading →

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Secret Service Turns Up the Heat On Circulating Liberty Dollar Coins

"Some years ago, news reporter Simon Constable joked that you should hide your Liberty Dollars because the feds are coming after them! Unfortunately, the Secret Service just took an alarmingly big step in that direction. I just received the message below that was sent to an E-Bay seller who had all his NORFED Liberty Dollar (NORFED) removed from his site." Continue reading →

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Glenn Greenwald: Laptop seizures by US government highlight 9/11-era climate of fear

"A nation in which liberties are systematically abused - in which limitations on state power are ignored without consequence - is one which gives rise to a climate of fear. This climate of fear, in turn, leads citizens to refrain from exercising their political rights, because they know the government can act against them without real constraints. This morning, the New York Times reports on the US government's practice of targeting US dissidents - or those whom it believes to be engaging in dissent - with extremely invasive border searches, including seizing (and sometimes keeping for months) their laptops and other electronic data, all without any warrants." Continue reading →

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Afghan Children Legitimate Targets, Says U.S. Lt. Col., As They Might Have “Hostile Intent”

"When the war gets to this level--whether or not we believe the Army's assertions that the kids it's killing in Afghanistan deserved it--it's time to rethink whether you are winning hearts and minds, nation rebuilding, or just involved in an endless insane game of blowing shit up and making people so mad they give you what you think is a legitimate excuse to keep blowing shit up." Continue reading →

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A Long-Distance Relationship With the I.R.S.

"Foreign financial institutions will be required to scour their records for signs that customers are American, like a U.S. address or phone number or instructions to transfer funds to a U.S. bank account. Anyone flagged in the search will be asked to provide proof of citizenship and/or residence status, and Americans will have to provide a Social Security number. Even with the penalties, Fatca is not expected to raise significant revenue for the U.S. Treasury; the Congressional Budget Office forecasts a take of $8.7 billion over 10 years. That is barely a rounding error in an annual budget of more than $3 trillion." Continue reading →

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The U.S. Plot to Nuke the Moon

"Shortly after the Soviets lunched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, the U.S. government seriously considered a nuclear strike against the Moon in order to intimidate Russia. A missile carrying an atom bomb would have been launched from an undisclosed location and then detonated on impact. Preparations were made for a missile launch in 1959, but the program was quietly scrapped. What is truly strange is that the plan to nuke the moon was supposedly inspired by the need to catch up with the Soviets in the space race. Yet there’s evidence that Washington actually spotted Moscow a lead by allowing the Russians to launch the first satellite." Continue reading →

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