You don't say?

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. (BBC Article)

Interesting

Judge Halts Award Of Iraq Contract
By Alec Klein and Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 2, 2007; Page D01
Brian X. Scott, a 53-year-old Colorado man, filed the complaint in early April. He argues that the military's use of private security contractors is "against America's core values" and violates an 1893 law that prohibits the government from hiring quasi-military forces.

Nothing oils the gears like "Sex Offender"

So you want unfettered access to those databases, but you don't want to be bothered with a pesky warrant. The owners of the Db don't buy the "terrorist threat" line because it's been beat to death and they're getting wise. What to do?
Trot out the "sexual predators online" angle. Nothing gets people moving like the idea of some sicko hassling their little Jean Bonet Ramseys.

MySpace Says Come Back With a Warrant
Doormat The Electronic Communications Privacy Act forbids MySpace from handing over the names of sex offenders on its site to the attorneys general, unless someone comes up with a subpoena, the company says. (Threat Level)

Why wouldn't THEY get a warrant in the first place?!?

In reality, when THEY're not threatening us, THEY're threatening the kids.

Echo

Biong Boing echo

Spying on the Home Front: PBS domestic surveillance doc

Anonymous Digital Rights Crusader says,

Last night, PBS Frontline aired Spying on the Home Front (Link), devoted to all the ways our government is spying on us outside of normal lawful processes. With extras not included in the televised version, the episode is available in either Quicktime or Windows Media (Video Link).

President Bush described his anti-terrorist measures as narrow and targeted, but a FRONTLINE investigation has found that the National Security Agency (NSA) has engaged in wiretapping and sifting Internet communications of millions of Americans; the FBI conducted a data sweep on 250,000 Las Vegas vacationers, and along with more than 50 other agencies, they are mining commercial-sector data banks to an unprecedented degree.

Semantics of terror

Still no fucking definition.

Abortion clinics have been bombed with people in them...not terrorism.
Labs conducting animal research burned...terrorism.
Lite-brites garner 140 hours and apologies.
Real fake bombs get...two weeks suspension.

Feds push terrorist label on arsonists
A federal judge was to hear arguments Tuesday on a motion by the government to add a so-called terrorism enhancement to their sentences. (Article)

Create a bogeyman and you can lock up anyone.

Terrorism is designed through the use of violence to intimidate non-combatants into complying with ideological and/or political goals. It's not that I advocate the destruction of labs necessarily. It is that by confusing the two types of attackers is to not be prepared to defend against different types of attacks.

If we start thinking of a group like ALF as being a terrorist organization, we put ourselves at risk by misunderstanding actual terrorists. We also dilute the nastiness that is real terrorism. It also makes for bad analysis. Knowing that ALF does not want to commit acts of violence against people necessarily and is more interested in destroying apparatus instead, we can then assume that they would attack at night or on the weekend. A terrorist on the other hand, is interested in horrific carnage (not necessarily massive) therefore would be more inclined to attack during the week and during the day.
I'm not saying elements of radical groups might not eventually commit an act of terrorism. I'm not saying they're innocent; they've committed illegal guerrilla attacks against the corporate research community. I'm saying that they haven't yet comitted a terrorist act and it is to the detriment of the intelligence community, law enforcement, the courts, and most importantly our civil liberties if we allow this sloppy, opportunist use of the word terror for corporate/political agendas.
Hold everyone accountable for the proper use of the word.

Oil and Water II

Back when I had posted about a build-up of force in the Persian Gulf to intimidate Iran, but had warned about the fact that they had Silkworms missiles that I believe they got from China (Oil and Water).
I then read this with interest

CENTCOM Commander’s Veto Sank Bush’s Threatening Gulf Buildup
by Gareth Porter
Admiral William Fallon...vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM, according to sources with access to his thinking. (Article)

If true, it would represent a pretty severe break between armed forces and the administration. I'd like to see more sources for confirmation, but I really wouldn't be surprised. There's a big gulf between talking shit and real fighting and I think the military is getting tired of them running big mouths while they do the fighting.

Significant

I thought this was important enough to echo Boing Boing.

Have you seen any nuclear material?
Pakistan places advertisements regarding 'misplaced' isotopes.
"Pakistan has never lost nuclear material per se, but it has a poor track record of protecting its nuclear technology." (article)

They say it's for material that may from medical waste and the like before Pakistan was a nation.
I give a 9.9999999999% chance that that's the case. 85% chance loose nukes and show up in some bomber's hands, but they're caught. 4.9999999% chance there's an attempted detonation in Iraq.
.0000001% chance loose nukes detonate in Britain and .0000000001% chance make it in a cargo container and detonate in the U.S.
It's still shitty we even have to think in these terms.


Now that I've hit on some keywords, I bet you this'll get a glance from the TIA, ADVISE, and ECHELON.

Note to Intel: If you're looking here you're wasting taxpayers money. Hit the bricks. The most effective intel comes from old fashioned investigation techniques.

Don't forget me...

Image from http://berlin-wall.org/

..when they place the last brick in Fortress America's wall.

From the What The Fuck?!?! department (but then again, I'm not surprised).

ACLU Says Government is Excluding Foreign Scholars Because of Political Views

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that it filed a new legal complaint challenging the federal government’s continued exclusion of prominent Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan. The complaint also challenges the Patriot Act’s “ideological exclusion” (emph. mine - Snag) provision, which authorizes the government to deny visas to foreign citizens on the basis of their political views.

Ideological Exclusion?!?! I didn't agree to that! Nobody put that to a vote! My representatives surely wouldn't have allowed that bullshit!
Joliet Prison, Illinois
To think, you can't come to the U.S. because of what you think.
To my fellow American's remember this...a wall works both ways.

Paper Dragons

Over the coming years the China/Taiwan issue will cease to exist. The Chin will neither liberalize nor remain totalitarian. As a people, the "Cultural Revolution" could never have lasted there. It's not that they can't be egalitarian, but culturally they are a patient people not given to whiles and whims of modern politics.
Now a middle class grows in China as America's shrinks and U.S. companies (among others) are finding ways to profit of off a dying superpower. Corporations are not interested as to where their profit comes from, as long as it comes.
As I've always said, if you want to stabilize a nation/region, don't bomb it into submission...encourage a large middle class. People are less likely to die for something if they have something to live for.

Incoming!

Another salvo against Americans.

Spy Chief Seeks More Surveillance Power
National Intelligence Director Is Pushing To Expand Government's Eavesdropping Authority
WASHINGTON, April 11, 2007

The changes McConnell is seeking mostly affect a cloak-and-dagger category of warrants used to investigate suspected spies, terrorists and other national security threats. The court-approved surveillance could include planting listening devices and hidden cameras, searching luggage and breaking into homes to make copies of computer hard drives.

The argument has been presented that lacking these authorities, they can't go after the bad guys. I say if you've got such good evidence that you would like to completely fuck the 4th Amendment, then as an investigator you should have the balls to do it illegally and if you're right and you save the fucking world...I'm sure all will be forgiven.
I would also like to see a legal definition of terrorist and "other national security threats" before I give any more authorization.

Low Flying Aircraft

“I gotta visit this place, the Salton Sea. Absolutely Ballardian. I'm picturing Low Flying Aircraft.

Coming in May is what looks to be a neat documentary, Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, narrated by John Waters.

Salton Sea
Accidentally” created by an engineering error in 1905, reworked in the 50’s as a world class vacation destination for the rich and famous, suddenly abandoned after a series of hurricanes, floods, and fish die-offs, and finally almost saved by Congressman Sonny Bono, the Salton Sea has a bittersweet past.

Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea trailer

Luftwaffe scuffles with Allgemeine-SS

By the end of WWII, there was a growing distinction and animosity between the military of the nation and the politically inspired "special" combatants of NAZI Germany. (See Waffen-SS: The army and the Waffen-SS) Leadership of the Luftwaffe and Wehremacht where ripped from their Edwardian wars of nobility fantasies and thrust into 2nd/3rd Generation/Industrial war and forced to play second fiddle to a group of opportunists and psychopaths.
So it is with historical interest that I come across this:

Even though they won't face a court-martial, two Air Force officers involved in a road-rage incident with a Blackwater USA contractor in Afghanistan have been slapped with administrative sanctions.

The discipline was meted out by the same general who dismissed criminal charges against Lt. Cols. Gary Brown and Christopher Hall.

Brown's civilian attorney has fired back with an angry letter, calling the sanctions a "laugh-out-loud joke" and suggesting that the general bowed to pressure from Blackwater, a private military company based in Moyock, N.C.

It's the latest turn of events in an escalating clash between uniformed military personnel and private contractors on the battlefield.

In a letter of reprimand, Lt. Gen. Gary North, commander of the 9th Air Force, wrote that Brown acted with "unreasonable force and intimidation" in a confrontation with the Blackwater contractor after their vehicles collided on a busy Kabul road Sept. 19.

"Specifically," North wrote, "while in uniform you shoved, kicked, pointed your loaded M-4 rifle at, and threatened the life of Mr. Jimmy Bergeron, a U.S. civilian contractor employee who did not pose a reasonable threat to you or others.... I find your conduct reckless, undisciplined and a discredit to the armed forces." (More...)

Tip from Danger Room - Officers, Mercs Brawl

Singing in the Rain

Unprovoked beatings of homeless soaring

By TODD LEWAN, AP National Writer Sun Apr 8, 7:20 PM ET

ORLANDO, Fla. - It was a balmy night, the sort that brings the homeless out from the shelters, when the police were summoned to America Street. On the driveway of a condo, just a few paces from the gutter, lay a man. A dying man.

He looked to be 50-ish, and a resident of Orlando's streets, judging by the moldy jacket. And he'd been bludgeoned — so badly bludgeoned that he could hardly move.

Before being rushed to the hospital, where he died of his head injuries, the man, August Felix, described his attackers. Young fellows did it, he whispered to the officers who got to him first. Kids. (More...)

The practice seems endemic

...stereotyped victims, offenders who act on latent prejudices, offenders who seek thrills or feel superior to their victims, and a mob mentality that sweeps away caution.

More scary shit

And number 2
You have the right to food money
Providing of course you
Dont mind a little
Investigation...
Humiliation...
And if you cross your fingers...
Rehabilitation!

Know your rights
These are your rights

-Know Your Rights
The Clash

From the Boston Globe

Taunton schools this spring could become the first in Massachusetts to have students pay for lunch by scanning their fingerprints, a plan that is triggering an uproar among parents and ACLU officials worried about privacy and possible identity theft.

No shit (or know shit), it's causing an uproar. But it's only a matter of time when some jerk-off thinks this is a good idea before it's implemented. And once your data's in the system , then it's easily accessible by other government agencies.
THEY've ID'd you before you even get a chance to run.

Malvern, Pa.-based identiMetrics, a leading vendor, said hundreds of schools nationwide use its system, including nearly a third of the school districts in West Virginia and a private enrichment center for children in Wellesley. (More...)

And Wellesley...that fucking fru-fru, uppity, ineffectual...Ah!...don't get me started. They've even banned out-of-towners from picking through their dump. What the fuck is a private enrichment center. That's one spooky sounding program It reminds me of Pangbourne Village in Ballard's Running Wild.

Why not photo ID cards, with unique ID numbers?

OK...back to my meditations.

Further proof

Colorado to use inmates to fill migrant shortage
Tough laws passed last year against illegal immigration have created a need for farmworkers.
By Nicholas Riccardi, Times Staff Writer
March 1, 2007

..."Prisoners who are a low security risk may choose to work in the fields, earning 60 cents a day. They also are eligible for small bonuses." (More...)

We just gotta think up some more laws for folks to break, then we'll be able to compete with China's growing economy.

Further evidence...

From Sex Workers to Restaurant Workers, the Global Slave Trade Is Growing
By David Batsone, Sojourners. Posted March 15, 2007

Twenty-seven million slaves exist in our world today. Girls and boys, women and men of all ages are forced to toil in the rug loom sheds of Nepal, sell their bodies in the brothels of Rome, break rocks in the quarries of Pakistan, and fight wars in the jungles of Africa. (More at Alternet: Rights and Liberties...)

If anyone has any leads for a Private Investigator/Research/Intel Analyst position to help stem human rights violations, particularly the slave trade, let me know.

Further evidence...

...of the epic culture shift.

How corporations are like cold war superpowers.
Spy v. Spy
by Ilana Ozernoy
In an effort to ferret out the source of a leak of embarrassing company memos, a Wal-Mart employee apparently intercepted text messages and telephone calls of other employees. (More at The New Republic)

Talkin' to your shoes

As usual, Boing Boing's tipped me off to something exceedingly important.

Navy Researching Vomit Beam

You never know what's going to land in your mailbox. Last night, I found a weapon that shoots an invisible wall-penetrating beam that makes people so dizzy they fall over. (It can make them puke, too, but I'll get to that in a moment.)

Now we're talking.

Invocon, Inc., one of dozens of companies expected to showcase their wares at the forum, says it'll be there to display its "non-lethal, stand-off weapon for military and law enforcement personnel that could ultimately work through walls and other non-metallic structures."

More at Wired's Danger Room
And you know Those schematics are going to eventually have an open source equivalent.

BTW...here's a list of many of our favorite names for driving the porcelain bus.

For Want of a Dentist

You can't make this shit up

Pr. George's Boy Dies After Bacteria From Tooth Spread to Brain
Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday.

A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.

If his mother had been insured.

If his family had not lost its Medicaid.

If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.

If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth. (More...)

Fighting them there so...
I'm trying to stay away from the political, but fuck man!

Niger Delta

It's interesting that such small, decentralized elements can put such a hurt on oil production.
Mark these little insurrections. We'll see more and more of this as oil supply diminishes, capital is consolidated in the hands of fewer and fewer, and demand continues to increase.
In fact, watch the same effect as potable water continues to diminish.

Photo: George Osodi/AP
Nigeria's militants highlight woes amid wealth
"We ARE not terrorists," screamed a black-masked militant brandishing an assault rifle. "We are freedom fighters!"
He had arrived minutes earlier in a motorboat bristling with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades held by fighters in camouflage body armour and balaclavas.
White flags, a tribute to their tribe's god of war, fluttered from the stern.

The Niger government recently requested a contingent of US Marines to hunt MEND down. The US declined...for now. Just wait 'til we really start feeling the pinch.

MEND at Wikipedia including timeline and tactics.

And from NPR's On Point:

Oil in the Niger Delta
The Niger Delta is rich with oil, but the local residents are some of the poorest in the world. We'll look at the rise in militancy and the fight for oil money.

A little side analysis. I want to draw attention the photos because I think they're an important element to the story. First indicator - they have embraced the media, which is significant in itself. Second - notice how they're outfitted? Matching vests, balaclavas, reasonable weaponry. These are folks who want to be seen as organized, reasonable, competent. They don't want to be seen as crazed, back-water terrorists, reactionaries. In no way do I mean to diminish their fight, but I find it interesting that they've managed to get so much coordinated gear. I'm sure the guerrillas in the bush aren't quite as well uniformed. They imply as much in the text, but these people understand the power of image.

It'll be an interesting struggle to keep an eye on.