Thursday, April 18, 2013

First Nations leader sent Idle No More plans to government: emails

The federal government didn’t have to go far to find out what First Nations leaders were planning during last winter’s Idle No More movement.
The plans were sent directly to the government inbox.
Terrance Nelson,  the former chief for Roseau River First Nation in Manitoba, forwarded private emails to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs – meant as “a warning to Canada not to get stupid,” he told Global News in an interview.
The group of five emails, all forwarded on Dec. 30, 2012 and released recently to Global under Access to Information law, contain suggested strategies from some of the most outspoken voices of the Idle No More movement. No responses from the department were included in the released documents.
An email from Derek Nepinak, Grand Chief at the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, warned that Idle No More “will escalate to various levels of violence and confrontation” and that chiefs should be “pre-emptive on the U.S. side.”
“We have the power to shut down the economy, including the export economies into the U.S.,” he wrote.
Nepinak wrote he was planning a trip to Washington in the coming weeks “to meet with various elected officials and potentially member states who will accept us at the United Nations.”
“I will work with my lobbyist to begin an early itinerary, however Im [sic] hopeful that by asking the right people to participate, we might even secure a high level meeting with a top member of the Obama administration, if not the president himself.”
He also wrote about some of the potential consequences of the “Harper Regime” – including First Nations jeopardizing major energy projects such as the Keystone XL, the Northern Gateway pipeline, and hydro exports from Manitoba.
“I believe that the Americans deserve an explanation of why these things may come to pass, including the role that First Nations continue to play in the economic life of Canada and its trade partners.”
Nepinak has been one of the most outspoken critics of the current aboriginal leadership and Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo. He boycotted the Jan. 11 meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and recently proposed a National Treaty Alliance as an alternative to the AFN’s own treaty discussions before a follow-up meeting with the prime minister.
In an interview, Nepinak said he didn’t know Nelson had forwarded his messages. He said he sent them in “a very heightened emotional state of mind,” with many chiefs concerned about the health of Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, who was on a liquid hunger strike since Dec. 11.
“There was a lot of really difficult kinds of feelings, a lot of hurt feelings and emotion that was folded into the discussions at that time,” he said.
“You’ll see things have cooled down since, but it is disappointing that information would be shared like that, particularly when you feel you have a level of trust with certain people.”
He added his comments about being “pre-emptive” weren’t inciting violence but referred to giving the U.S. a head’s up about potential disruption caused by the protests.
“My effort has always been to ensure that there is no violence, but to raise the profile of the issues and the concerns and to raise the economic issues that are at stake here,” he said.
“Pre-emptive does not mean, ‘Let’s engage in violent action.’”
The emails also contain messages from Isadore Day,  chief of the Serpent River First Nation in Ontario, and Ann Gladue-Buffalo, then-chief of Alberta’s Confederacy of Treaty Six Nations. Neither responded or returned calls for interview requests.
Gladue-Buffalo’s email contains details about plans for a National Day of Action on Jan. 16 .
“It was agreed that in the short-term immediate pressure needs to be stepped up because Chief Spence’s health is at risk,” she wrote.
“Call, tweet, MP’s, Senators, and organize and participate in direct actions leading up to a National Day of Action which impact the economy, industry and government. Target Main economic and energy corridors such as power sources, railways and highways.”
The note suggested regional coordination and a public relations strategy that extended to international contacts. It also points to ways in which chiefs were attempting to put pressure on the prime minister to meet with Spence.
“Industry controls PM and Industry can make the PM meet with Chief Spence. Chiefs should also send letters to industry in their territories advising of action measures. Ie. Blockades of major roadways, rail lines, rally’s at MP’s office, letter campaigns, twitter bombs.”
It includes a list of critical dates and strategies to support Spence or protest federal legislation.
In an interview, Nelson admitted to forwarding all the emails, except the one from Gladue-Buffalo. A spokeswoman for aboriginal affairs later confirmed he had sent all the emails.
Nelson said he is regularly in touch with the aboriginal affairs department.
“We just provided a warning to Canada not to get stupid and that’s one of the reasons we provide this information to Canada, making sure that they know that we know,” he said.
“That’s critically important because a lot of the First Nations people don’t have that understanding of how much power we have.”
Nelson added that it’s “somewhat naive” for First Nations people to think the government doesn’t already know about their activities.
“I know I’m monitored. Instead of trying to hide, or trying to do covert activities, I just say ‘Ok, here’s what we’re doing.’”

U.S. House of Rep. Shamefully Passes CISPA; Internet Freedom Advocates Prepare for a Battle in the Senate

Dave Maass and Mark M. Jaycox
EFF

Today, Internet freedom advocates everywhere turned their eyes to the U.S. House of Representatives as that legislative body considered the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.

For the second year in a row, the House voted to approve CISPA, a bill that would allow companies to bypass all existing privacy laws to spy on communications and pass sensitive user data to the government.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation condemns the vote in the House and vows to continue the fight in the Senate.

"CISPA is a poorly drafted bill that would provide a gaping exception to bedrock privacy law,” EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl said. “While we all agree that our nation needs to address pressing Internet security issues, this bill sacrifices online privacy while failing to take common-sense steps to improve security."

The legislation passed 288-127, despite a veto threat from Pres. Barack Obama, who expressed serious concerns about the danger CISPA poses to civil liberties.


"This bill undermines the privacy of millions of Internet users,” said Rainey Reitman, EFF Activism Director. “Hundreds of thousands of Internet users opposed this bill, joining the White House and Internet security experts in voicing concerns about the civil liberties ramifications of CISPA. We’re committed to taking this fight to the Senate and fighting to ensure no law which would be so detrimental to online privacy is passed on our watch.”

EFF extends its deep gratitude to the many organizations that have worked with us on this campaign and the tens of thousands of EFF members who helped us by contacting Congress to oppose CISPA. We look forward to continuing to fight by your side in defense of civil liberties as CISPA moves to the Senate

Boston Bombing Victim in Iconic Photo Helped Identify Attackers

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FBI Releases Images of Two Boston Bombing Suspects
Minutes before the bombs blew up in Boston, Jeff Bauman looked into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him.
First responders including Carlos Arredondo, in cowboy hat, tend to Jeff Bauman, who was severely wounded after two explosions occurred along the final stretch of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street in Boston on April 15, 2013. Photographer: Kelvin Ma/Bloomberg
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation released this footage of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing attacks. (Courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Source: Bloomberg)
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Kevin Knierim, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, and Larry Compton, operations manager at Forensic Video Solutions, talk about FBI's release today of pictures and video showing two men suspected in the April 15 terrorist bombing in Boston. They speak with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg)
Just before 3 p.m. on April 15, Bauman was waiting among the crowd for his girlfriend to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. A man wearing a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt looked at Jeff, 27, and dropped a bag at his feet, his brother, Chris Bauman, said in an interview.
Two and a half minutes later, the bag exploded, tearing Jeff’s legs apart. A picture of him in a wheelchair, bloodied and ashen, was broadcast around the world as he was rushed to Boston Medical Center. He lost both legs below the knee.
FULL COVERAGE: Boston Marathon Bombings
“He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,’” Chris Bauman said yesterday in an interview.
Those words may help crack the mystery of who perpetrated one of the highest-profile acts of terror in the U.S. since the 2001 assault on New York City and the Washington area, one that killed three people and wounded scores.
While still in intensive care, Jeff Bauman gave the FBI a description of the man he saw, his brother said. Bauman’s information helped investigators narrow down whom to look for in hours of video of the attack, he said.

Video Released

The bureau released video images of two men yesterday. Both men have on hooded sweatshirts under dark jackets; one is wearing a light-colored baseball cap turned backward on his head, while the other is wearing a dark baseball cap facing forward. Both are carrying large backpacks.
“I’ve had many times alone with him, and yes, he told me every single detail,” Chris Bauman said.
Paul Bresson, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, declined to comment on specific tips in the continuing investigation. Two FBI agents interviewed at the Boston office declined to confirm or deny the account.
On April 15, Remy Lawler, 25, was standing with Jeff Bauman, said her father, Arthur Lawler, of Amesbury. Shortly before the explosion, Remy, who’s the roommate of Jeff’s girlfriend, Erin Hurley, moved closer to the finish line, away from Bauman and another friend, to take better photographs.
She suffered a baseball-sized shrapnel wound.
Shortly after, Lawler called her mother’s cell phone and left a message in which she cried “Mom! Mom!” Medics could be heard telling her, “You’re going to be all right,” her father said.

‘Feels Guilty’

“She feels guilty about a lot of this -- that she wasn’t with her friends,” Arthur Lawler said.
It would take hours before the Bauman family knew what had happened to Jeff. They learned about it the way much of the world did: the grisly image on television of their son being wheeled from the scene, his lower legs destroyed.
Erika Schneider, Bauman’s sister, saw it first. “She called my mom, freaking out,” Chris said. Chris was working at a McDonald’s near their home in Concord, New Hampshire, when his mother called him.
“Chris, you have to sprint home,” she said. “Something’s happened.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Asjylyn Loder in New York at aloder@bloomberg.net; Esme E. Deprez in New York at edeprez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net

hillary clinton put on house arrest

Hillary Clinton Placed Under House Arrest -- Unconfirmed Report, March 1...: http://youtu.be/daLCA5YCz74 via @youtube

Hillary Clinton Placed Under House Arrest – Unconfirmed Report

Sunday, March 17, 2013 15:14
0
(Editors Note: Beforeitsnews is unable to confirm nor deny this report.)
Hillary Clinton Has Been Placed Under House Arrest
Date: Sunday, 17-Mar-2013 17:01:19

.
$660 TRILLION WORTH OF DERIVATIVES, OH MY!


http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=272005
HIGH Treason Traitor
Hillary Rodham Clinton UNITED States of America - As Wanta-Reagan-Mitterrand Protocols implementation remains imminent with an April 1st U.S. Supreme Court ordered deadline, it can now be reported that former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been placed under house arrest by the U.S. military on charges of financial treason.
On week ago Friday, the same day Jack Lew was sworn in as U.S. Treasury Secretary, sociopath Hillary attempted to illegally divert $1.7 TRILLION of U.S. Treasury funds to a secret CIA proprietary account in the People’s Republic of China.
Both Chelsea Clinton (Hillary’s daughter) and former Citibank CEO and Clinton era Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin have power of attorney over the account.
Reference: Chelsea Clinton just the other day purchased a $10.5 MILLION apartment in New York City.
Note: The illegal THEFT of U.S. Treasury funds was enabled by the Dallas, Texas branch of the German Nazi Bush Crime Family controlled Commerzbank.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher became aware of this treasonous grand larceny and notified Federal Reserve Chairman Bernard Bernanke and sent criminal referrals to the U.S. FBI, the U.S. Treasury and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

MIT Says There's a Shooter on the Loose and an Officer Down on Campus

Reuters
Adam Clark Estes 11:01 PM ET
Updated 11:21 p.m.: MIT issued an emergency alert at 10:48 on Thursday night reporting shots fired on the university campus. MIT's school newspaper, The Tech, reports, "Shots fired near 32 Vassar St (Stata Center), police officer down. Please stay inside." That report is backed up by CBS News's Bonney Kapp who reports hearing "officer down" on the police scanner just before the MIT alert went out. The Tech followed up a few minutes later, reporting that the injured officer was from MIT Police and was being taken to Mass. General Hospital. For now, details are scarce, but the suspect is on the loose and considered armed and extremely dangerous.
Police are on the scene and searching for the suspect, while the university's ordered all students and staff to remain indoors.

Image via Twitter / Matt Tomlin
The following photo of the scene of the shooting is graphic:

Image via Twitter / The Tech
This is a developing story. We'll update you as new information comes in.
Building 32 is circled in red:

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
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DHS Insider Breaks Down Obama’s Short-term Agenda

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Douglas J. Hagmann
HomelandSecurityUS.com
December 27, 2012
After a lengthy, self-imposed informational black-out, my high-level DHS contact known as “Rosebud” emerged with new, non-public information about plans being discussed and prepared for implementation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the near future. It is important to note that this black-out was directly related to the aggressive federal initiative of identifying and prosecuting “leakers,” at least those leaks and leakers not sanctioned by the executive office – the latter of which there are many.
Due to those circumstances, my source exercised an abundance of caution to avoid compromising a valuable line of communication until he had information he felt was significant enough to risk external contact. The following information is the result of an in-person contact between this author and “Rosebud” within the last 48 hours. With his permission, the interview was digitally recorded and the relevant portions of the contact are provided in a conversational format for easier reading. The original recording was copied onto multiple discs and are maintained in secure locations for historical and insurance purposes.
Meeting
The following began after an exchange of pleasantries and other unrelated discussion:
DH: Do I have your permission to record this conversation?
RB: You do.
DH: I’ve received a lot of e-mail from people wondering where you went and why you’ve been so quiet.
RB: As I told you earlier, things are very dicey. Weird things began to happen before the election and have continued since. Odd things, a clampdown of sorts. I started looking and I found [REDACTED AT THE REQUEST OF THIS SOURCE], and that shook me up. I’m not the only one, though, that found a [REDACTED], so this means there’s surveillance of people within DHS by DHS. So, that explains this cloak and dagger stuff for this meeting.
DH: I understand. What about the others?
RB: They are handling it the same way.
DH: I’ve received many e-mails asking if you are the same person giving information to Ulsterman. Are you?
RB: No, but I think I know at least one of his insiders.
DH: Care to elaborate?
RB: Sorry, no.
DH: Do you trust him or her. I mean, the Ulsterman source?
RB: Yes.
DH: Okay, so last August, you said things were “going hot.” I printed what you said, and things did not seem to happen as you said.
RB: You’d better recheck your notes and compare [them] with some of the events leading up to the election. I think you’ll find that a full blown campaign of deception took place to make certain Obama got back into office. The polls, the media, and a few incidents that happened in the two months before the election. I guess if people are looking for some big event they can point to and say “aha” for verification, well then I overestimated people’s ability to tell when they are being lied to.
DH: What specific incidents are you referring to?
RB: Look at the threats to Obama. Start there. The accusations of racism. Then look at the polls, and especially the judicial decisions about voter ID laws. Bought and paid for, or where there was any potential for problems, the judges got the message, loud and clear. Then look at the voter fraud. And not a peep from the Republicans. Nothing. His second term was a done deal in September. This was planned. Frankly, the Obama team knew they had it sewn up long before election day. Benghazi could have derailed them, but the fix was in there, so I never saw anything on my end to suggest a ready-made solution had to be implemented.
DH: What’s going on now?
RB: People better pay close attention over the next few months. First, there won’t be any meaningful deal about the fiscal crisis. This is planned, I mean, the lack of deal is planned. In fact, it’ necessary to pave the way for what is in the short term agenda.
DH: Wait, you’re DHS – not some Wall Street insider.
RB: So you think they are separate agendas? That’s funny. The coming collapse of the U.S. dollar is a done deal. It’s been in the works for years – decades, and this is one of the most important cataclysmic events that DHS is preparing for. I almost think that DHS was created for that purpose alone, to fight Americans, not protect them, right here in America. But that’s not the only reason. There’s the gun issue too.
DH: So, what are you seeing at DHS?
RB: We don’t have a lot of time, tonight – our meeting – as well as a country. I mean I have heard – with my own ears – plans being made that originate from the White House that involve the hierarchy of DHS. You gotta know how DHS works at the highest of levels. It’s Jarrett and Napolitano, with Jarrett organizing all of the plans and approaches. She’s the one in charge, at least from my point of view, from what I am seeing. Obama knows that’s going on and has say, but it seems that Jarrett has the final say, not the other way around. It’s [screwed] up. This really went into high gear since the election.
But it’s a train wreck at mid management, but is more effective at the lower levels. A lot of police departments are being gifted with federal funds with strings attached. That money is flowing out to municipal police departments faster than it can be counted. They are using this money to buy tanks, well, not real tanks, but you know what I mean. DHS is turning the police into soldiers.
By the way, there has been a lot of communication recently between Napolitano and Pistole [TSA head]. They are planning to use TSA agents in tandem with local police for certain operations that are being planned right now. This is so [deleted] important that you cannot even begin to imagine. If you get nothing else out of this, please, please make sure you tell people to watch the TSA and their increasing involvement against the American public. They are the stooges who will be the ones to carry out certain plans when the dollar collapses and the gun confiscation begins.
DH: Whoa, wait a minute. You just said a mouthful. What’s the agenda here?
RB: Your intelligence insider – he knows that we are facing a planned economic collapse. You wrote about this in your articles about Benghazi, or at least that’s what I got out of the later articles. So why the surprise?
DH: There’s a lot here. Let’s take it step by step if you don’t mind.
RB: Okay, but I’m not going to give it to you in baby steps. Big boy steps. This is what I am hearing. Life for the average American is going to change significantly, and not the change people expect. First, DHS is preparing to work with police departments and the TSA to respond to civil uprisings that will happen when there is a financial panic. And there will be one, maybe as early as this spring, when the dollar won’t get you a gumball. I’m not sure what the catalyst will be, but I’ve heard rumblings about a derivatives crisis as well as an oil embargo. I don’t know, that’s not my department. But something is going to happen to collapse the dollar, which has been in the works since the 1990′s. Now if it does not happen as soon as this, it’s because there are people, real patriots, who are working to prevent this, so it’s a fluid dynamic. But that doesn’t change the preparations.
And the preparations are these: DHS is prepositioning assets in strategic areas near urban centers all across the country. Storage depots. Armories. And even detainment facilities, known as FEMA camps. FEMA does not even know that the facilities are earmarked for detainment by executive orders, at least not in the traditional sense they were intended. By the way, people drive by some of these armories everyday without even giving them a second look. Commercial and business real estate across the country are being bought up or leased for storage purposes. Very low profile.
Anyway, I am hearing that the plan from on high is to let the chaos play out for a while, making ordinary citizens beg for troops to be deployed to restore order. but it’s all organized to make them appear as good guys. That’s when the real head knocking will take place. We’re talking travel restrictions, which should no be a problem because gas will be rationed or unavailable. The TSA will be in charge of travel, or at least be a big part of it. They will be commissioned, upgraded from their current status.
They, I mean Jarrett and Obama as well as a few others in government, are working to create a perfect storm too. This is being timed to coincide with new gun laws.
DH: New federal gun laws?
RB: Yes. Count on the criminalization to possess just about every gun you can think of. Not only restrictions, but actual criminalization of possessing a banned firearm. I heard this directly from the highest of my sources. Plans were made in the 90′s but were withheld. Now, it’s a new day, a new time, and they are riding the wave of emotion from Sandy Hook., which, by the way and as tragic as it was, well, it stinks to high heaven. I mean there are many things wrong there, and first reports are fast disappearing. The narrative is being changed. Look, there is something wrong with Sandy Hook, but if you write it, you’ll be called a kook or worse.
DH: Sure
RB: But Sandy Hook, there’s something very wrong there. But I am hearing that won’t be the final straw. There will be another if they think it’s necessary.
DH: Another shooting?
RB: Yes.
DH: That would mean they are at least complicit.
RB: Well, that’s one way of looking at it.
DH: Are they? Were they?
RB: Do your own research. Nothing I say, short of bringing you photographs and documents will convince anyone, and even then, it’s like [DELETED] in the wind.
DH: So…
RB: So what I’m telling you is that DHS, the TSA and certain, but not all, law enforcement agencies are going to be elbow deep in riot control in response to an economic incident. At the same time or close to it, gun confiscation will start. It will start on a voluntary basis using federal registration forms, then an amnesty, then the kicking-in of doors start.
Before or at the same time, you know all the talk of lists, you know, the red and blue lists that everyone made fun of? Well they exist, although I don’t know about their colors. But there are lists of political dissidents maintained by DHS. Names are coordinated with the executive branch, but you know what? They did not start with Obama. They’ve been around in one form or another for years. The difference though is that today, they are much more organized. And I’ll tell you that the vocal opponents of the politics of the global elite, the bankers, and the opponents of anything standing in their way, well, they are on the top of the list of people to be handled.
DH: Handled?
RB: As the situations worsen, some might be given a chance to stop their vocal opposition. Some will, others won’t. I suppose they are on different lists. Others won’t have that chance. By that time, though, it will be chaos and people will be in full defensive mode. They will be hungry, real hunger like we’ve never experienced before. They will use our hunger as leverage. They will use medical care as leverage.
DH: Will this happen all at once?
RB: They hope to make it happen at the same time. Big cities first, with sections being set apart from the rest of the country. Then the rural areas. There are two different plans for geographical considerations. But it will all come together.
End of Part I
This article was posted: Thursday, December 27, 2012 at 1:15 pm

Boston-like bomb plans published by al Qaeda

AQM1
By Douglas J. Hagmann
17 April 2013: A bomb-making manual, written in Arabic and published less than two months ago, made its rounds on sites used by Muslim terrorists worldwide. The manual provides specific instructions on the best methods of packaging a bomb using a pressure cooker. Previously, the English language Muslim terrorist magazine published under the name Inspire carried similar instructions, although the instructions contained within this newest manual appear to be far more advanced by comparison.

Advanced instructions pertaining to procuring the needed materials, from the pressure cookers to be used as the containers to the other components, including methods of detonation to methods of disguising the bombs themselves, appear to be consistent with the information made public by law enforcement officials investigating the bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday.
The individual behind the independent monitoring of Arabic language websites and turning over such findings to U.S. and other intelligence agencies as such plans are found is an independent undercover operational asset known as “Archangel,” who has a widely known and well respected track record for successful infiltration of “locked” or difficult to find websites and forums.
The intelligence agencies of the U.S. and other countries have been provided with ample material from “Archangel.” Most notable and relevant to the latest bombing is the focus on “sporting events” as potential targets as detailed in a previous issue of Inspire magazine.  Below are two images extracted and appropriately redacted from the latest version of the bomb making manual.
AQM2  AQM3
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Official: Suspect In Custody In Boston Bombings

Official: Suspect In Custody In Boston Bombings
13056
Updated: 2:30 p.m. ET
BOSTON (AP) — A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Wednesday in a breakthrough that came less than 48 hours after the deadly attack, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said Wednesday.
The official spoke shortly after several media outlets reported that a suspect had been identified from surveillance video taken at a Lord & Taylor store between the sites of the two bomb blasts, which killed three people and wounded more than 170.
The official was not authorized to divulge details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The suspect was expected at a Boston courthouse under heavy security, the official said.
A news briefing was scheduled later Wednesday.
Law enforcement agencies had earlier pleaded for the public to come forward with photos, videos or any information that might help them solve the twin bombings. Police also gathered surveillance video from businesses around the finish line.
The bombs were made from ordinary kitchen pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage, investigators and others close to the case said. But the FBI said nobody had claimed responsibility.
Investigators in white jumpsuits had fanned out across the streets, rooftops and awnings around the blast site in search of clues on Wednesday. They combed through debris amid the toppled orange sports drink dispensers, trash cans and sleeves of plastic cups strewn across the street at the marathon’s finish line.
President Barack Obama branded the attack an act of terrorism. Obama plans to attend an interfaith service Thursday in the victims’ honor in Boston.
Scores of victims of the Boston bombing remained in hospitals, many with grievous injuries. Doctors who treated the wounded corroborated reports that the bombs were packed with shrapnel intended to cause mayhem. In addition to the 5-year-old child, a 9-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy were among 17 victims listed in critical condition.
The trauma surgery chief at Boston Medical Center says most of the injuries his hospital treated after the marathon bombings were to the legs.
“We have a lot of lower extremity injuries, so I think the damage was low to the ground and wasn’t up,” Dr. Peter Burke said. “The patients who do have head injuries were blown into things or were hit by fragments that went up.”
Dozens of patients have been released from hospitals around the Boston area.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, all four amputations performed there were above the knee, with no hope of saving more of the legs, said Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery.
“It wasn’t a hard decision to make,” he said Tuesday. “We just completed the ugly job that the bomb did.”
The bombs exploded 10 or more seconds apart, tearing off victims’ limbs and spattering streets with blood. The blasts near the finish line instantly turned the festive race into a hellish scene of confusion, horror and heroics.
The blasts killed 8-year-old Martin Richard, of Boston, and 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, of Medford. The Shenyang Evening News, a state-run Chinese newspaper, identified the third victim as Lu Lingzi. She was a graduate student at Boston University.
___
Associated Press writers Jay Lindsay, Pat Eaton-Robb, Steve LeBlanc, Bridget Murphy, Rodrique Ngowi and Meghan Barr in Boston; Eileen Sullivan, Julie Pace and Lara Jakes in Washington; Paisley Dodds in London; Lee Keath in Cairo; and Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee contributed to this report along with investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York.

FAILURE OF U.S. WAR ON TERROR AND HYPER SECURITY STATE: CLUELESS ON BOSTON

John Roberts

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April 18, 2013

 

The bombing at the Boston Marathon was a tragic event, which like the events of 9-11, caused, are causing and have caused, untold suffering and pain to innocent unsuspecting civilians, and my heart and I am sure the hearts of all normal, thinking people go out to the innocent people who were killed or had their lives torn apart. Condolences certainly go out to all of those affected by this, but in light of more than a decade of a U.S. war on terror, the tragedy would indicate a complete and utter failure in protecting the citizenry.
Even before the dust had settled the finger pointing began worldwide and the usual suspects were named: Al-Qaeda, Muslims, Tuareg sympathizers, terrorists of every persuasion and, according to one Russian media outlet citing CNN, a “dark-skinned” suspect. Of course it is a natural function, when an event like this occurs, after the initial shock and trauma recede, to feel anger and a desire for retribution, yet no one has really pointed the finger where it should be pointed because people are too afraid or too conditioned or both to actually face the truth that is right before their eyes.
Americans love to point to the perpetrators of their endless events of mass violence, child killings, mass shootings and now terrorism as being some sort of abomination and isolated single events or as being in some way “evil victimizing innocents” yet refuse, no matter how clear and in their faces the evidence is, that American society, their own government and they themselves and the culture they support are directly to blame.
Americans also love to play the label game and generalize, not everyone of course but it is a fact. If the perp in this case is dark-skinned all browns and dark-skinned people will be demonized, if he or she is Muslim, then all Muslims, if it turns out to be a white person then off course the generalization stops and it will of course be some “deranged” or sick individual. Regardless of the individual reasoning behind the planning of this act, the loss of innocent lives cannot be forgiven, and a whole group of people must not be demonized.
Unless of course it was members of the government or the black-ops community seeking to justify and heighten the entire “war on terror” paradigm, the further stripping of the freedoms and the rights of common Americans and the expansion of the all powerful security state to new levels beyond the Orwellian one that it has already attained.
The failure here is clear: the U.S. authorities and the U.S. government failed and they failed miserably. Despite the stripping away of civil liberties, personal freedoms, constitutional rights, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of movement, coupled with turning the United States into a militarized hyper security state, engaging in an endless global “war on terror”, decimating country after country, torturing, indefinitely detaining people without trial, committing crimes against humanity by aggressively invading sovereign nations, placing missile batteries all over the planet, installing puppet regimes all over the world, clamping down on protests, censoring communications and the media, stifling the internet and meddling in everything and anything they please, all in the name of “TERROR” and “making the American people safe”, they failed to prevent what should have been a preventable act of terrorism.
What is clear here and from statements by counter-terrorism experts and security officials both in the U.S. and the world over is that; no matter how much they monitor and spy on the activities of the people, no matter how many billions of Americans tax dollars they spend on surveillance, programs like Echelon, satellite monitoring, communication intercepts and every other form of security measure known to man, they are incapable of stopping a lone individual or small group operating autonomously and off the grid.
Have Americans been lied to then? You make that judgment. Sure they tell the American people they need Echelon, the CIA, the NSA, the DHS, fusion centers, tracking devices, RFID chips, drones, indefinite illegal detention, illegal torture prisons that provide no actionable reliable intelligence, satellites, gun control, pre-crime arrest, a stifling of freedom of speech and expression, militarized police armed to the teeth, control of every channel of communication, censorship of the media, complete control of the internet and a cowed and dumbed down population to keep “Americans” safe, but doesn’t this act in Boston prove that all of that is a lie?
Could it be the elites and the corporations who now own and control the U.S. Government have another agenda they are carrying out, one which includes total and complete control over the population? Or are we to continue to believe that they care about your safety? Why then did no one inspect the area under the bleachers where the parents of the victims of the Connecticut shootings were sitting and where there were reports that an unexploded bomb was found? Why were these bombs allowed to sit where they were unnoticed for hours, or perhaps days? Why didn’t the U.S. security apparatus think to conduct a sweep of the area before the marathon started, or did they and they were so inept they failed to notice what some reports say were 9 bombs?
Whilst doing all of the above and after over 12 years of the “War on Terror” the American people are supposed to accept that the FBI, CIA, DHS, etc. and the entire U.S. security establishment haven’t got a clue as to who carried this out. Americans are supposed to accept that despite the trillions spent on the war-on-terror-post 9-11-paradigm some individual with pressure cookers, radio-controlled model batteries and black duffel bags, outsmarted the entire U.S. security apparatus and pulled off a heinous act. To top it all off everyone is supposed to accept that the FBI and police are begging the public for assistance, because they are, in reality, clueless.
I wonder how Americans digest the fact that their president, who signs off on an illegal extra-judicial global assassination list every “Terror Tuesday”, authorizing precision surgical drone assassinations based on real-time and iron-clad intelligence, then appears on television after a terrorist attack takes place in his back yard and says things like, “We have no sense of motive in Boston Marathon bombing”, without suffering total brain meltdown.
The bombing at the Boston Marathon might call for questions to be raised as to whether the entire U.S. security and intelligence apparatus really cares one iota about the American people, and whether they exist only to advance and protect themselves and their elite corporate masters. But we won’t go there will we?
The latest news has been that a suspect was arrested and then was not arrested and the ineptness of the authorities continues to go unquestioned and the main point in all of this continues to be missed. That point being that the U.S. with all of its meddling, invasions, extra-judicial assassinations, wars, droning, bellicose rhetoric, sabre-rattling, military expansion, missile shields, internal crack downs, security measures and all the rest, has done absolutely nothing to curb anti-American sentiment, achieve peace, respect foreign cultures and sovereign nations, stop terrorists from being created both inside the U.S. and abroad and guarantee real security for the American people. Instead they continue to create more and more terrorists worldwide and internally, whether this is by design has yet to be seen.
No sense of motive they say? I could list thousands of motives why a terrorist might attack the United States of America, from the destruction of the Serbian people and their country, to North Korea, to the droning of small children in Pakistan, but we won’t go there either will we?
Meanwhile for the rest of the world it is business as usual as U.S. backed terrorists continue killing thousands in Syria, U.S. drone strikes continue massacring entire families and children in Afghanistan, North Korea continues to be pushed into a corner which might lead to nuclear war and yet the world is engaged in round-the-clock coverage of a terrorist attack which took three lives in New York. Not that those lives are not important but why aren’t the lives of poor innocent Afghan children given the same import?
The coverage will continue, as will the debate but on a closing note, I would like to add that unlike the waves of international support that flowed into the U.S. after 9-11, this time the international response seems much more muted, with many thinking people the world over seeming to possibly share the opinion that: “you reap what you sow”.
The views and opinions expressed above are my own. I can be reached at robles@ruvr.ru.

Congress members threatened with biological attack

Reuters

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Feb. 22, 2012
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Wed, Feb 22 2012
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several members of the Congress received mail threatening a biological attack and containing a suspicious powder later found to be harmless as law enforcement officials warned on Wednesday that more letters could be on their way.
A number of media organizations and TV shows, including the New York Times and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, received mail postmarked Oregon warning that letters had been sent to the Washington or local offices of all 100 U.S. senators and that 10 contained a deadly pathogen, a law enforcement source said.
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, received a letter containing a powdery substance at one of his offices in his home state of Ohio, a Republican aide said, adding that the powder was harmless.
Letters containing powder were also received at the home-state office of two senators, according to Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer, the chamber's chief law enforcement officer. Tests found the powder was harmless, Gainer said in a statement. He did not identify the senators.
In a notice to Senate staffers titled "Urgent: Suspicious Mail Alert," Gainer warned that the sender of the letters had "indicated that additional letters containing a powdery substance will be arriving at more Senate offices and that some of these letters may contain actual harmful material."
He warned that special attention should be paid to letters sent from Portland, Oregon.
"The FBI is aware of this situation and is responding accordingly. So far, none of the letters have contained a hazardous substance," said FBI spokesman Chris Allen in Washington. Allen said the FBI was working with other law enforcement agencies to determine if the mailings were related.
The New York Police Department was made aware of the letters received by some media outlets on Tuesday night and alerted the FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police, a law enforcement source said.
The letters to the news organizations did not contain any suspicious substances. They demanded an end to corporate money and lobbying in U.S. politics, an end to corporate personhood, and called for a new constitutional convention, the source said. The letters were signed "the MIB."
Other media that received the letters were The Colbert Report, Washington Post, USA Today, NPR, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, This Week with Christiane Amanpour, Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Fox News.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Thomas Ferraro and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington, Michelle Nichols in New York and Mark Hosenball in London; Editing by Sandra Maler and Anthony Boadle)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/22/us-usa-congress-threat-idUSTRE81L21W20120222