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Following Obama’s choreographed attack on the Second Amendment
earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security announced it will
join the administration, the Justice Department and the FBI in a
renewed attack on firearms.
Under the guise of preventing what is largely unpreventable short of
disarming the entire country – eliminating “active shooter” situations –
DHS boss Janet Napolitano
announced on Wednesday she will work to “identify measures that could
be taken to reduce the risk of mass casualty shootings,” in other words,
disarming law-abiding gun owners.
The Department of Homeland Security is basically an interior ministry
ostensibly created in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Although its stated goal is to prepare for, prevent, and respond to
domestic emergencies, particularly terrorism, it has, since its creation
in October of 2001, pursued its real and unstated objective – acting as
an internal political police force tasked with undermining and
attacking enemies of the ruling elite. DHS: Global Elite’s Secret Political Police
The DHS is not dedicated to preventing “future mass casualty
shootings,” as Napolitano recently stated, but is assigned the critical
task of attacking political enemies considered a threat to the globalist
status quo. From lurid fictional claims about “rightwing extremists” to
shepherding a national effort to undermine and destroy an idealistic Occupy movement, the DHS has repeatedly demonstrated that it is a political secret police.
The “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment”
document leaked to the alternative media in 2009 set the stage for
demonizing gun owners and Second Amendment advocates in addition to a
panoply of other political groups derisively tagged as “rightwing
extremist” by the government.
The Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) also produced a document
in 2009 warning about the danger of a purported “Modern Militia
Movement,” including the likes of Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.
MIAC and fusion centers around the country coordinated with the DHS to
“collect, evaluate, analyze, and disseminate information and
intelligence” on the supposed threat of libertarians and
constitutionalists, including Second Amendment advocates. Between 2004
and 2007, the DHS provided $254 million to fusion centers engaged in
surveilling Americans considered a terrorist threat by the government.
Earlier this year, the DHS released a report, “Hot Spots of Terrorism and Other Crimes in the United States, 1970 to 2008,”
that employed the phrase “extreme right-wing,
ethno-nationalist/separatist” to describe individuals and groups it
claims pose a domestic terrorist threat.
Conflating liberty issues with racism is a deliberate attempt to
further demonize Americans opposed to the policies of the federal
government. Designating opposition as racist is a well-tread path taken
by the corporate media and Democrats, particularly since the election of
Obama.
According to the latest DHS report, “the new ‘terrorists’ in this
country are the Americans who love liberty, hate unconstitutional
government edicts and fear the bureaucrats running Washington, D.C.,”
writes Pat Shannan.
“Second Amendment advocates are at the top of this ‘terrorist’ list,
but a mere ‘pro-life’ bumper sticker might be enough to make one suspect
in the eyes of a dumbed-down cop who forgot his oath.” Pentagon Joins Effort to Target Pro-Second Amendment Movement
More recently, the government enlisted a West Point think tank
to produce propaganda detailing the so-called “far right” and warn
about white supremacists teaming up with the “anti-federalist movement”
to attack political enemies, the government and most notably the police.
The West Point report specifically targets the patriot movement and
constitutionalists opposed to a federal government controlled by an
international financial oligarchy. These violence-prone terrorists, the
report states,
espouse strong convictions regarding the federal
government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural
tendency to intrude on individuals’ civil and constitutional rights.
Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self
government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct
most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in
law enforcement. (Emphasis added.)
The last sentence in the above underscores the purpose of the report
generated by the United States Military academy – demonizing
libertarians, constitutionalists, and specifically advocates of the
Second Amendment as violent terrorists who pose a direct threat to law
enforcement. The effort is designed to radicalize the elite’s front line
– police and first responders – and set them against the “far right.” Establishment Media’s Orchestrated Propaganda Campaign
The establishment media’s concerted campaign against the Second
Amendment has delivered a relentless barrage of polarizing and divisive
propaganda in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in December.
CBS Chief Washington Correspondent and anchor of Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer,
demonstrated the absurd lengths the establishment will go to trash the
Constitution and sow fear and dissension of firearm ownership.
Following Obama’s speech earlier this week, Schieffer said
dismantling the Second Amendment may present a formidable task, but one
less daunting than passing civil rights legislation or defeating Nazi
Germany in World War II.
Producing a relentless wave of skewed surveys and op-eds in favor of
“gun control” and “gun safety” (the latest misleading euphemism) reveals
the urgency of the effort to disarm America and render it helpless. Conclusion: Law-abiding Gun Owners Are the Target, Not al-Qaeda Terrorists
It is now obvious what is going on in the wake of Sandy Hook – the
establishment is finally pulling out the last remaining stops in its
long envisioned disarmament of the American people in accord with its
ultimate plan to usher in a one-world government and financial system. A
well-armed and educated populace prevents the global elite from
realizing this objective.
In order to realize this required disarmament, supporters and
defenders of not only the Second Amendment but the Constitution at large
must be branded as renegade terrorists who threaten police. The cynical
propaganda effort to pose law enforcement against a growing liberty
movement is key to the elite’s effort to impose an authoritarian police
state on America, a plan that will not be successful if the American
people are allowed to possess firearms more potent than 22 caliber
bolt-action rifles.
Aw, cute: Obama’s civilian army (FEMACorps) just graduated it’s first class
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Remember when Barack Obama asked for a civilian defence force as
strong and well funded as the U.S. military? Well, here’s Obama’s first
graduating class of FEMACorps workers. The kid in the video sums up
pretty well how disturbing this is when he says ‘we don’t really know
what our job is’ while adding that he’ll go wherever the government
sends him. Nothing like a little brownshirt army to have at your beckon
call.
“You remember, how long was it, how long ago was it that I said that
AmeriCorps is going to be working with the Department of Homeland
Security and FEMA and it’s not going to be a good thing? Remember they
mocked me for that?” Glenn asked Stu on radio this morning.
The prediction was prompted by Obama saying, “We cannot continue to
rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security
objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national
security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well
funded.”
While Glenn may have been mocked at the time, a new report shows he may not have been wrong after all. CBS Reported:
231 young adults made history Saturday by graduating
as the first class of FEMA Corps at the Center for Disaster Preparedness
in Anniston, Al. Recent high school graduate and Missouri native Austin McBee made the jump from Eagle Scouts to FEMA Corps. “We are the first class ever to have this kind of a partnership and
we’re looking really forward to working with FEMA and seeing what we
can do to help survivors,” he said. As a new unit of AmeriCorps, FEMA Corps grads will spend 10 months helping the nation respond and recover from disasters. Many of the graduates will head to the Gulf Coast to assist with recent hurricane recovery.
“They’re wearing AmeriCorps Department of Homeland Security
uniforms. This is a FEMA Department of Homeland Security program. Let
me tell you something. Since when do we need a new division of people
going out and helping on a hurricane? That’s what we do. They are
taking our job away. That’s our job. That’s our job as churches and
communities. That’s our job. FEMA is always the last one there. When
we had the tornadoes, Mercury One was one of the first groups on the
scene. Churches are always the first on the scene. And when FEMA
finally got to the tornadoes last season, when they finally got there,
if you remember right it was two days later and they started telling
people, you can’t clean this up. You don’t have a permit. You can’t
clean this up. Remember? What do we need these people for? Why are we
spending money on this? This is the first class wearing the Department
of Homeland Security uniform. Not good, gang. Not good. Really not
good.”
“My favorite line in that is, we don’t ‑‑ we don’t really know what our job description is but we’re willing to help out.”
(NaturalNews) While all eyes were on Hurricane Sandy in the days leading
up to the storm's breach on the mainland of the Northeast, the White
House was busy devising new ways to enslave Americans under the guise of
protecting national security. On October 26, 2012, Barack Obama quietly
signed an Executive Order (EO) establishing the so-called Homeland Security Partnership Council, a public-private partnership that basically merges the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) with local governments and the private sector for the implied
purpose of giving the Executive Branch complete and limitless control
over the American people.
One of the most effective ways by which
the federal government has been able to spread its tendrils into every
level of state, regional, and local governments in years past has been
to continually convince the people that terrorism lurks around every
corner, and that the federal government is needed to provide safety.
This, of course, is how blatantly unconstitutional provisions like the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act
(NDAA) were able to get passed with relative ease -- without these
draconian expansions of federal control over American affairs, the
terrorists will win, we were all told.
White House forming nationwide secret police to monitor lives of Americans
This
is precisely the angle being taken with the new EO, except it goes even
further in conflating federal power structures with local governments
and the private sector. Based on the eery language contained in the EO,
the federal government appears ready to begin rapidly expanding its
command and control operations at the local level by establishing a vast
network of homeland security
"partnerships" throughout the country, which will be tasked with
reporting back to the central command center and feeding "intelligence"
information as requested by federal officials.
"[W]e must tap the ingenuity outside government
through strategic partnerships with the private sector, nongovernmental
organizations, foundations, and community-based organizations," says
the EO. It goes on to add that the merger between the federal government
and the private sector is necessary to facilitate the government's
desire to better "address homeland security priorities," which includes
things like "responding to natural disasters ... (and) preventing
terrorism by utilizing diverse perspectives, skills, tools, and
resources."
An official Steering Committee will be established
with representatives from virtually every single three and four-letter
federal agency, and this committee will be guided by a separate council
on how to best incorporate the federal government and DHS into every
nook and cranny of American society. Once established, this council will
maintain control over presumably all aspects of society by overseeing a
secret police force comprised of spies from schools, community groups,
churches, and various other local institutions.
"[W]e must
institutionalize an all-of-Nation effort to address the evolving threats
to the United States," adds the ominous EO, which was flown under the
radar of the mainstream media.
Executive Order -- Establishing the White House Homeland Security Partnership Council
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- - - - - - -
ESTABLISHING THE WHITE HOUSE
HOMELAND SECURITY PARTNERSHIP COUNCIL
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States of America, and in order to advance the
Federal Government's use of local partnerships to address homeland
security challenges, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section1. Policy. The purpose of this order is to
maximize the Federal Government's ability to develop local partnerships
in the United States to support homeland security priorities.
Partnerships are collaborative working relationships in which the goals,
structure, and roles and responsibilities of the relationships are
mutually determined. Collaboration enables the Federal Government and
its partners to use resources more efficiently, build on one another's
expertise, drive innovation, engage in collective action, broaden
investments to achieve shared goals, and improve performance.
Partnerships enhance our ability to address homeland security
priorities, from responding to natural disasters to preventing
terrorism, by utilizing diverse perspectives, skills, tools, and
resources.
The National Security Strategy emphasizes the importance of
partnerships, underscoring that to keep our Nation safe "we must tap the
ingenuity outside government through strategic partnerships with the
private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and
community-based organizations. Such partnerships are critical to U.S.
success at home and abroad, and we will support them through enhanced
opportunities for engagement, coordination, transparency, and
information sharing." This approach recognizes that, given the
complexities and range of challenges, we must institutionalize an
all-of-Nation effort to address the evolving threats to the United
States.
Sec. 2. White House Homeland Security Partnership Council and Steering Committee.
(a) White House Homeland Security Partnership Council. There is
established a White House Homeland Security Partnership Council
(Council) to foster local partnerships -- between the Federal Government
and the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations,
community-based organizations, and State, local, tribal, and territorial
government and law enforcement -- to address homeland security
challenges. The Council shall be chaired by the Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (Chair), or a
designee from the National Security Staff.
(b) Council Membership.
(i) Pursuant to the nomination process established in subsection
(b)(ii) of this section, the Council shall be composed of Federal
officials who are from field offices of the executive departments,
agencies, and bureaus (agencies) that are members of the Steering
Committee established in subsection (c) of this section, and who have
demonstrated an ability to develop, sustain, and institutionalize local
partnerships to address policy priorities.
(ii) The nomination process and selection criteria for members of the
Council shall be established by the Steering Committee. Based on those
criteria, agency heads may select and present to the Steering Committee
their nominee or nominees to represent them on the Council. The Steering
Committee shall consider all of the nominees and decide by consensus
which of the nominees shall participate on the Council. Each member
agency on the Steering Committee, with the exception of the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence, may have at least one
representative on the Council.
(c) Steering Committee. There is also established a Steering
Committee, chaired by the Chair of the Council, to provide guidance to
the Council and perform other functions as set forth in this order. The
Steering Committee shall include a representative at the Deputy agency
head level, or that representative's designee, from the following
agencies:
(i) Department of State;
(ii) Department of the Treasury;
(iii) Department of Defense;
(iv) Department of Justice;
(v) Department of the Interior;
(vi) Department of Agriculture;
(vii) Department of Commerce;
(viii) Department of Labor;
(ix) Department of Health and Human Services;
(x) Department of Housing and Urban Development;
(xi) Department of Transportation;
(xii) Department of Energy;
(xiii) Department of Education;
(xiv) Department of Veterans Affairs;
(xv) Department of Homeland Security;
(xvi) Office of the Director of National Intelligence;
(xvii) Environmental Protection Agency;
(xviii) Small Business Administration; and
(xix) Federal Bureau of Investigation.
At the invitation of the Chair, representatives of agencies not listed
in subsection (c) of this section or other executive branch entities may
attend and participate in Steering Committee meetings as appropriate.
(d) Administration. The Chair or a designee shall convene
meetings of the Council and Steering Committee, determine their agendas,
and coordinate their work. The Council may establish subgroups
consisting exclusively of Council members or their designees, as
appropriate.
Sec. 3. Mission and Function of the Council and Steering Committee. (a) The Council shall, consistent with guidance from the Steering Committee:
(i) advise the Chair and Steering Committee members on priorities,
challenges, and opportunities for local partnerships to support homeland
security priorities, as well as regularly report to the Steering
Committee on the Council's efforts;
(ii) promote homeland security priorities and opportunities for
collaboration between Federal Government field offices and State, local,
tribal, and territorial stakeholders;
(iii) advise and confer with State, local, tribal, and territorial
stakeholders and agencies interested in expanding or building local
homeland security partnerships;
(iv) raise awareness of local partnership best practices that can support homeland security priorities;
(v) as appropriate, conduct outreach to representatives of the private
sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, community-based
organizations, and State, local, tribal, and territorial government and
law enforcement entities with relevant expertise for local homeland
security partnerships, and collaborate with other Federal Government
bodies; and
(vi) convene an annual meeting to exchange key findings, progress, and best practices.
(b) The Steering Committee shall:
(i) determine the scope of issue areas the Council will address and its
operating protocols, in consultation with the Office of Management and
Budget;
(ii) establish the nomination process and selection criteria for
members of the Council as set forth in section 2(b)(ii) of this order;
(iii) provide guidance to the Council on the activities set forth in subsection (a) of this section; and
(iv) within 1 year of the selection of the Council members, and
annually thereafter, provide a report on the work of the Council to the
President through the Chair.
Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) The heads of
agencies participating in the Steering Committee shall assist and
provide information to the Council, consistent with applicable law, as
may be necessary to implement this order. Each agency shall bear its own
expense for participating in the Council.
(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof;
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals;
or
(iii) the functions of the Overseas Security Advisory Council.
(c) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and
appropriate protections for privacy and civil liberties, and subject to
the availability of appropriations.
(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or
benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by
any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
While the debate rages regarding whether or not the U.S. government uses weather manipulation technology
to steer storms like Hurricane Sandy, further evidence shows the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been engaged in research to do
just that for years.
In 2008, an article in New Scientist discussed a new DHS project that funded research into guiding and directing the intensity of hurricanes.
Citing Hurricane Katrina as the basis for the project, the Hurricane Aerosol and Microphysics Program (HAMP) worked with Project Stormfury
veteran Joe Golden and a panel of other experts “to test the effects of
aerosols on the structure and intensity of hurricanes.” HAMP was funded
under contract HSHQDC-09-C-00064 at a taxpayer price tag of $64.1
million.
In 2009, Richard Spinrad, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s (NOAA) assistant administrator for the Office of
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), sent then DHS Program Manager
for Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) William Laska an official memorandum regarding OAR’s review of a “Statement for Work” for HAMP.
“While OAR recognizes that weather modification, in general, is occurring through the funding of private enterprises, NOAA does not support research that entails efforts to modify hurricanes,” Spinrad wrote.
He then went on to list all the reasons Project Stormfury was
discontinued, including the inability to separate the difference in
hurricane behavior when human intervention is present versus nature’s
inherent unpredictability overall. Spinrad also noted that any
collaboration with DHS must occur within NOAA’s mission (which Spinrad
and NOAA obviously felt HAMP did not do).
NOAA houses the National Hurricane Center, the primary U.S.
organization responsible for tracking and predicting hurricanes. Recent
budget cuts are expected to hit NOAA’s satellite program, the heart of
the organization’s weather forecasting system, by $182 million.
Note that even Spinrad admits the existence of weather modification
programs as if its general, accepted knowledge. Although DHS was turned
down, the agency moved ahead with their research without NOAA’s participation.
A paper co-written by several participants in the HAMP project including Joe Golden entitled, “Aerosol Effects and Microstructure on the Intensity of Tropical Cyclones,”
was released in the July 2012 Bulletin of the American Meteorological
Society. In conclusion, the authors wrote, “We recommend that hurricane
reconnaissance and research airplanes are equipped with aerosol and
cloud physics instruments and fly patterns that will allow such
measurements.” Drone use in “areas where safety concerns preclude
aircraft measurements” was also called for.
The spraying of aerosols
into the air, otherwise known by the monicker “chemtrails,” is promoted
under the guise of geoengineering with a surface excuse to halt global
warming. The practice has been openly called for more and more recently,
although the chemtrail phenomenon has already been reported across the
globe for years now. In the Environmental Research Letters journal,
scientists’ most recent geoengineering proposal detailed an “affordable”
$5 billion project wherein airplanes will spray sulfur particles in the
atmosphere to cool the planet.
In HAMP’s final report,
authors concluded, “Pollution aerosols reduced the cloud drop size and
suppressed the warm rain forming processes in the external spiral cloud
bands of the storms.” It was also mentioned, “During the past decade it
was found that aerosols (including anthropogenic ones) substantially
affect cloud microphysics,” proving deliberate chemtrailing has been
occurring for at least the past ten years.
Though the paper was labeled “final report,” further journal articles
regarding HAMP have been released, and the HAMP project was reportedly
not scheduled to end until 2016.
The question remains: With its bizarre combination of elements, was
deliberate manipulation through HAMP research at play in Hurricane
Sandy?
Homeland Security Expands Use Of Drones On The Border
This is one of 10 Predator B drones that DHS uses to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. It is based in Corpus Christi, Texas.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- The Department of Homeland Security has taken to the high skies for its latest high-tech border security program.
It has retooled the unmanned aerial vehicle,
commonly known as a drone, an established military weapon. The drone
has been turned into a new civilian, eyes-in-the-sky border protection
instrument.
The program is operated by the Office of Air and Marine, a division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency within the Homeland Security Department responsible for securing the nation's borders. Michael Kostelnik, a former Air Force Major General, is in charge of Air and Marine.
"Today we form the world's largest law enforcement air force," he said.
Kostelnik’s fleet has grown to 270 aircraft, including 10 drones with
bases at the U.S-Mexico border in Arizona and here in Corpus Christi,
on the Texas Gulf Coast about 150 miles southeast of San Antonio.
There's another operations center in South Florida and the northern border base is in North Dakota.
The border drones are Predator B models. They've been modified from
the standard military-issue types, which are armed with weapons and are
being currently used in the war in Afghanistan and in certain strikes in
Pakistan.
Instead of missiles, the civilian-styled border drones, which cost
$18 million apiece, carry powerful radars. They look like high-tech
gliders without cockpits.
In an interview, Kostelnik didn't stop raving about the ability the
drones have to scan large swaths of land from 20,000 feet up in the air
while still being able to zoom in so close that footprints can be seen
on the ground.
By Hernán Rozemberg
Drone pilot Tom Mason controls the drone on a recent border-securing mission.
Read more about the use of drones on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The drones are credited with leading to the arrests of more than
62,000 illegal immigrants, nearly 2,000 smugglers and more than 800,000
pounds of drugs, all in 2010, the latest available count.
The Corpus Christi operations center is on the second floor of an airplane hangar inside the Naval Air Station.
Two to three agents at a time rotate shifts, their eyes constantly
staring at various flat-screen monitors on the wall -- indicating the
drone's flight path, the live images relayed from up above and Google
Earth maps to corroborate "hot spots," or known locations along the
350-mile Texas coastline and 1,250-mile Texas-Mexico border known for
illegal activity.
"Alright guys, we're done with the test, let's go on the mission
profile," one of the agents spoke into the radio to the drone pilot and
co-pilot. The pilots are actually based outside in a trailer because
this naval base site was not originally set up to have a full-fledged
drone operations center.
The pilot and co-pilot, technically called the sensor operator, work
out of flight stations inside the trailer. They sit in pilot chairs and
have their own screens to monitor -- seeing the same relayed drone
images as their counterparts in the operations center next door. The
pilot operates the drone through a joystick.
Homeland Security requested that the agents remain unidentified, for their safety.
"Alright, if you want to step out and scan down to the river for a
while, our next target is 20 miles away," the dispatch agent instructed
the pilot after the drone flew along the Texas coast and made a sharp
western turn to scan the Rio Grande.
Suddenly, the pilot spotted something suspicious. Several people on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande jumped in the water.
"There’s something over there, I just saw something move across the road there," the pilot said.
It makes Border Patrol administrator Hector Black perk up. Adapting
to the increased use of drones as part of its work, the Border Patrol
recently assigned a full-time staffer to the operations center to act as
a liaison between the center, the flight station and the agents on the
ground.
By Hernán Rozemberg
Drone agents during a recent live mission at the operations center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
"This is an invaluable tool," said Black, an 18-year veteran of the
agency who was previously assigned to Puerto Rico. "It allows us to see
from a different angle. It’s a lot better to see stuff from above than
on the ground, you can see it a lot easier. This is great for the guys
down there."
The pilot seeing unusual activity was case in point.
While on the ground it would have been harder and would have taken
more time to decipher what was going on, the drone images revealed
fairly quickly that the potential drug smugglers or illegal immigrants
were actually Mexican fishermen cooling off in the Rio Grande.
And the intelligence sharing works both ways. Black gets a call from
his colleagues out of the McAllen Border Patrol station, saying they
were tipped to a potential smuggling attempt further down river.
Immediately, Black relayed the information to drone agents sitting next
to him, who in turn coordinated with the pilot to check out the site.
Most of the time the work can get mundane if there's not a lot going
on. But Tom Mason likes the fact that at any moment, the monotony could
be broken with a big case.
"This is a really fun job," said Mason, who used to fly for the Navy.
"Some of the missions, some of the things you get to do, some of the
chases, some of the things you get to see. You get to take down either a
boat or an airplane with a bunch of stuff in it."
Yet despite its tremendous growth, the drone program may be going
into a holding pattern. A Homeland Security Inspector General report in
May cited it for poor planning and oversight. Drones could be flying
more than 10,000 hours a year, the report says, but so far they’ve been
put to use for only 4,000.
The agency said bad weather often plays a role, not allowing the
drones to take off or forcing them to land sooner than expected. But the
report said overall the program has been successful and will keep
improving through growing pains.
Editor’s Note
– Where does it end? The continual grab for power not only over our
system of government but over the people themselves seems endless with
the Obama Administration. The argument over the use of drones to kill
America’s enemies overseas is fraught with opinions already, but
to authorize their use on American citizens, no matter what they have
done raises many more questions and opinions as well.
Now we see what the DOJ lawyers have to say about the subject in the
newly released white paper you can download below. Then the further
questions arise as we see drones being deployed by law enforcement, the
EPA, on the border and more. What is to stop them from using one here
inside the USA? Will Obama determine there is a home grown threat that
requires drones? What constitutes a threat to use deadly force? With all
the talk about the DHS labeling many on the right as possible homegrown
terrorists, who draws the line? You be the judge:
Take a Rare Look at How Obama Decides to Send Drones to Kill Americans
By Adam Clark Estes – The Atlantic Wire/Yahoo News
Human rights advocates were floored on Monday night when NBC News published the details of an alarming Justice Department memo detailing
the protocol for sending drones after United States citizens. It’s not
as if they hadn’t suspected that the Obama administration’s top secret
drone attack protocol contained some unsavory details.
They just didn’t expect them to be so frightfully broad. The scoop by
Michael Isikoff is actually startling not for the details but rather for
the lack of details. It’s very vague about a decision-making process
that puts American lives on the line. Put simply, the government
believes that a lethal drone attack against an American citizen is
justified if the targets are a) “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaeda
or b) “an associated force.”
See the entire document here from MSNBC or download the PDF: DOJ White Paper.
One of those two qualifiers is infinitely more worrisome than the
other. Going after leaders of al Qaeda makes sense. That’s what the War
on Terror is all about, right? Breaking down networks of violent
terrorists and keeping Americans safe. If an American happens to be
caught up with al Qaeda, someone like Anwar al-Awlaki, then well… they
shouldn’t be surprised if they’re getting chased by drones. At least that’s what we’ve been told so far. How and why these attacks are carried out by drones is also detailed in the memo, but we’ll get back to that in a second.
But what does “an associated force” mean? It seems like the guy who
sells the terrorists bomb supplies would probably qualify, but what
about the unknowing neighbor or the hired hand? Can we just kill them
too in good conscience? Quite unfortunately, the government isn’t
exactly sure. The memo suggests that anyone who “present[s] an
‘imminent’ threat of violent attack against the United States” qualifies
for assassination ”a lawful killing in self defense,” but that “does
not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific
attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate
future.” In other words, an “informed, high-level” official can order
the killing of any American citizen that was “recently” involved in
threatening “activities.” As Isikoff points out, the memo fails to
define both of those terms.
“This is a chilling document,” said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal
director of the American Civil Liberties Union. ”Basically, it argues
that the government has the right to carry out the extrajudicial killing
of an American citizen. … It recognizes some limits on the authority it
sets out, but the limits are elastic and vaguely defined, and it’s easy
to see how they could be manipulated.” We’ve already seen some of this
vague authority in action. A couple of years ago, The New York Timesprovided some insight into
how subjective the process of deciding when to kill and when not to
kill American citizens based on a top secret memo that justified the
killing of al-Awlaki. That document as well as this latest leak from the
Justice Department essentially says that a lethal attack, likely by a
drone, is the method of choice whenever a capture mission would put
other American lives on the line. Again, the documents are very vague
about where to draw the line.
Inevitably, this latest revelation into how the Obama administration
runs the War on Terror behind closed doors leads to more questions than
answers. How, for instance, do they decided when to kill non-U.S.
citizens? Previous reporting on the issue says that the government considers any military-aged male to be an insurgent, so
it seems like pretty much anybody in the general region of Afghanistan
or Pakistan could expect to find themselves in America’s crosshairs. But
again, we don’t know because the Obama administration is keeping it
completely secret, despite years worth of callsto disclose its decision-making process.
This could be the beginning of an enlightening time for those who
demand answers about the government’s shady drone program. On Thursday,
John Br[e]nnan has his confirmation hearing where the Senate will decide whether or not he’s fit to run the Central Intelligence Agency. Since he’s more or less the architect of America’s drone war, we’re sure the Senators will have a question or two about this memo and, we hope, some memos that we haven’t seen before.
Today's Issues
Obama Pushes Gun Control As DHS Orders 7,000 Assault Rifles
As President Obama continues to push for new gun control
legislation, Obama and Vice-President Biden meet with police chiefs from
three towns where mass-shootings took place. Despite the push for gun
control, DHS has ordered 7,000 new assault rifles.
On Monday
morning, President Obama and Vice-President Biden will meet with police
chiefs from three towns where mass shootings took place. The police
chiefs were from Newton, CT; Aurora, CO, and Oak Creek, WI. Also in
attendance will be Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, as well as representatives
from the Major County Sheriffs Association and the Major Cities Chiefs
association.
The meeting takes place as Obama continues to seek
support for new gun control restrictions, including a ban on so-called
"assault weapons." In addition, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is pushing
her proposed legislation to ban 157 kinds of weapon, as well as
magazines capable of holding over 10 rounds. The Senate Judiciary is
plans to take up these proposals on Wednesday.
Despite the focus
on gun control, DHS has placed an order for 7,000 new assault rifles, as
well as 30 round magazines. The 5.56x45mm NATO "personal defense
weapons" (PDW) and magazines would be illegal for civilians to own. In
the request, DHS described the weapons as "suitable for personal defense
use in close quarters." No word yet on whether the request, made in
June 2012, was accepted.
On
Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security, along with a SWAT team
and Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputies raided the home of Robert Adams
in Albuquerque, New Mexico and, according to a federal search warrant
affidavit the raid seized nearly 1,500 firearms from the man’s home and
business. However, no charges have been filed against him, despite the
fact that court documents reveal that agents had been watching Adams for
years.
By Wednesday afternoon dozens of rifles were hauled out of the house, bagged as evidence and laid out on the lawn.
According to search warrants that were filed on Thursday Homeland
Security Investigations confiscated nearly 900 firearms from Adams’
home, 548 handguns and 317 rifles. They also seized 599 pistols and
revolvers from his office.
Neighbors say that he was a firearms collector and some indicated
that he was also a licensed gun seller. No confirmation of that has
been forthcoming.
While having been watched for years and no charges filed as they
seized Adam’s firearms, Federal investigators are saying that they are
investigating him for gun smuggling, tax evasion, violating importation
laws.
KRQE reports,
Court documents reveal federal agents were watching Adams
for years and that some documentation was missing “to determine to whom
Adams [was] selling or exporting his firearms.”
The guns were also not properly marked possibly to make the guns more
valuable and to avoid paying high import taxes, investigators alleged.
However, a bigger concern is that no markings on the guns and missing
documents mean the guns are not traceable by law enforcement.
The search warrant also said Adams was investigated in Canada for
keeping about 80 illegal guns in a storage unit. U.S. agents worked with
Canadian police on that case.
Kurt Nimmo points
out, “New Mexico does not regulate or specifically restrict the
possession of firearms. Owners are not required to register or license
firearms with the state.
“No law shall abridge the right of the citizen to keep
and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and
recreational use and for other lawful purposes, but nothing herein shall
be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons. No municipality or
county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and
bear arms,” Article 2, Section 6 of the state constitution reads.
“Gun collectors are protected under the Firearm Owners Protection Act
of 1986,” Nimmo writes. “The law states that a firearms dealer is
defined as a person who is selling guns for profit or livelihood.
Unlicensed individuals are allowed to sell firearms from their private
collection without performing a background check on the buyer.”
Something seriously smells here. How can you be investigated for
years, yet upon serving a search warrant you don’t put forth any charges
against a man when you confiscate nearly 1,500 firearms? I wish they
had taken this kind of approach to the Obama Justice Department’s
gunwalking program that trafficked nearly 2,500 firearms across the
border into Mexico that has left hundreds dead. No one is claiming that
the firearms that Adams had were used in any crime!
So much for the Obama administration’s claims that they aren’t
against gun collectors. Sports shooters and hunters, you’re up next.
As President Obama continues to push for new gun control
legislation, Obama and Vice-President Biden meet with police chiefs from
three towns where mass-shootings took place. Despite the push for gun
control, DHS has ordered 7,000 new assault rifles.
