White Owl Conspiracy

Will Snowden Inspire More Whistleblowers To Come Forth?

2013-06-14T08:52:00.004+08:00

Susanne Posel, Contributor |

Daniel Ellsberg, former whistleblower,commends Snowden for having leaked the most important material of our time.

Ellsberg points out that: “The fact that congressional leaders were “briefed” on this and went along with it, without any open debate, hearings, staff analysis, or any real chance for effective dissent, only shows how broken the system of checks and balances is in this country.”

Ellsberg hopes that Snowden will have inspired more whistleblowers to come forward to expose the NSA and the secret dealings of the federal government so that they cannot continue to operate in the shadows.

The American Civil Liberties Union, who is a customer of the Verizon Business network Services, has filed a lawsuit against the US government “charging that the [PRISM] program violates Americans’ constitutional rights of free speech, association, and privacy.”

According to the ACLU’s website : “[The] complaint filed today explains that the dragnet surveillance the government is carrying out under Section 215 infringes upon the ACLU’s First Amendment rights, including the twin liberties of free expression and free association. The nature of the ACLU’s work—in areas like access to reproductive services, racial discrimination, the rights of immigrants, national security, and more—means that many of the people who call the ACLU wish to keep their contact with the organization confidential. Yet if the government is collecting a vast trove of ACLU phone records—and it has reportedly been doing so for as long as seven years—many people may reasonably think twice before communicating with us.”

As of now, Snowden is missing from the hotel in Hong Kong. It is known that Snowden checked out of the hotel, yet where he went is a mystery.

The mainstream media is endeavoring to discover who whistleblower Edward Snowden is.

MSM describes him as “a high school dropout turned analyst with high-level security clearance.”

Snowden is the son of Elizabeth Snowden “chief deputy clerk for administration and information technology for US District Court in Baltimore.”

He grew up in North Carolina and spent time in Maryland with his mother. His father is Lonnie Glenn Snowden, former member of the Coast Guard.

Reports say that Snowden dropped out of high school in his sophomore year and attended Anne Arundel Community College for 6 years, yet never obtained a degree.

Senator Barbara Mikulski has questions about how Snowden, who was a high-school dropout “gained a top-secret clearance and access to high-level government secrets.”

An internal review has been initiated to discern the “potential damage to national security” that Snowden caused by coming forth about the NSA’s PRISM program.

The purpose of the review will find “whether the leaks have compromised sources or surveillance methods, and would likely look for chatter among intelligence targets to see if the leaks have prompted them to change tactics.”

A public review of the secret data mining conducted by the federal government on Americans will most likely not manifest because of the “threat” to national security.

Jay Carney, press secretary for the Obama administration claims that the president is interested “in having the debate and the legitimacy of asking probing questions about these matters.”

Carney also revealed that the Obama administration has “strengthened protections for government workers who come forward through proper channels to air concerns.”

A by-product of Snowden’s revelation has prompted US defense contractors such as Boeing to issue reminders to employees “about the importance of proper handling of classified or sensitive information.”

Stephen Kohn, executive director of the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) asserts that the Obama administration has gone back on his 2008 campaign promise to “extend whistleblower protections to national-security workers.”

Kohn, who spoke with Norman Eisen, classmate of Obama, said: “I confronted Norm … that there had been a promise to protect national security whistleblowers and let them have access to court. He told me to my face that the administration was not going to honor that promise, and I was free to tell the world that they broke it. That’s what he said. The White House completely reversed their position. So the Enhancement Act that he is now praising does not cover NSA, CIA among others — it completely stripped out all protections for national security whistleblowers.”

Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters that the PRISM program “uses pattern analysis of millions of phone calls from the United States, even if those numbers have no known connection to terrorism.”

An anonymous law enforcement official said that the federal government is building a case against Snowden. The nature of the charges has not been decided; yet this person believes that it is “unlikely that Snowden would be charged with treason, which carries the death penalty as a punishment, and therefore could complicate extradition from foreign countries.”

Author Bio

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism Our alternative news-site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun bythe corporate-funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

Must See Commentary: “I Don’t Know What We’re Going To Wake Up To Tomorrow…”

2013-06-14T08:47:00.001+08:00

Mac Slavo, Contributor |

With seemingly endless scandals rocking the country, economic malaise spreading across the world, and super powers positioning their military assets on the grand chessboard, one can’t help but notice that the entire planet is devolving into completely insanity.

Uncertainty is at such a level that it’s impossible to know what happens next.

These people – our leaders, the purported best and brightest members of politics, finance, and industry – have brought us to the brink. What we are witnessing is a complete destabilization of our socio-economic systems and the rule of law, and it’s being fueled by pandemonium in the upper echelons of the global power structure.

Tying it all together can be a daunting task and certainly can’t be done in a thirty second mainstream media sound bite, but Chris Greene of AMTV does a pretty incredible job of it in about five minutes.

This is one commentary that’s not to be missed:

Alright, so Obama’s about to launch World War III. I believe it’s already started. And this is all on the heels of the massive scandals. Too many to count. Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to wake up to tomorrow.

All I know is that we’ve had scandal after scandal – Benghazi, the IRS scandal, the fact that he’s directly lied to our faces regarding the wire-tapping, not just of the Associated Press, but of innocent Americans, the surveillance state… total lies.
…

This next war is going to be biological… nuclear terror… there’s already a cyber war occurring… this is violence and terror at a whole new scale…

It really is unbelievable. So count on it, count on it. I don’t know what we’re going to wake up to tomorrow… we really don’t know.

We just know what the agenda is – lie straight to the American peoples’ faces as you take them to war and confiscate all their wealth – of which they’ve done a fantastic job.
…

So, the reset button, the massive reset button which always occurs throughout history – you know we see this with the rise and fall of empires – is war. That’s how they reset everything financially.

So that’s what’s on the Obama agenda as he sits in the war room… That’s what we have coming… war, death, destruction, and to a great extent could absolutely be the Armageddon.

You can follow Chris Greene at the AMTV web site, Facebook or the Greenewave blog.

Author Bio

Mac would be considered by some to be a doom and gloomer, though he believes reality is reality, and he tries to assign no positive or negative personalperceptionsto any particular event. Mac provides personal commentary and a spin on news and current events. Mac Slavo writes and edits thewebsite: SHTFPlan.com

22 Nauseating Quotes From Hypocritical Establishment Politicians About The NSA Spying Scandal

2013-06-14T08:42:00.001+08:00

Michael Snyder, Contributor |

Establishment politicians from both major political parties are rushing to defend the NSA and condemn whistleblower Edward Snowden. They are attempting to portray Edward Snowden as a "traitor" and the spooks over at the NSA that are snooping on all of us as "heroes". In fact, many of the exact same politicians that once railed against government spying during the Bush years are now staunchly defending it now that Obama is in the White House. But it isn't just Democrats that are acting shamefully. Large numbers of Republican politicians that love to give speeches about "freedom" and "liberty" are attempting to eviscerate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The government is not supposed to invade our privacy and investigate us unless there is probable cause to do so. Apparently many of our politicians misunderstood when they read the novel 1984 by George Orwell.

It wasn't supposed to be an instruction manual. We should be thanking Edward Snowden for exposing the deep corruption that is eating away at our own government like cancer. Now the American people need to pick up the ball and start demanding answers, because without a doubt we are going to see establishment politicians from both major political parties try to shut this scandal down. Establishment Democrats and establishment Republicans both love the Big Brother surveillance grid that the U.S. government has constructed, and they are both making it abundantly clear that they will defend the NSA to the very end. The following are 22 nauseating quotes from hypocritical establishment politicians that show exactly how they feel about the NSA spying scandal...

#1 Barack Obama: "I think it’s important to understand that you can’t have 100 percent security and then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a society."

#2 Barack Obama in 2007: "This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand… That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. And it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists… We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers, and that justice is not arbitrary."

#3 Speaker Of The House John Boehner on what he thinks about NSA leaker Edward Snowden: "He’s a traitor."

#4 U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham: "I hope we follow Mr. Snowden to the ends of the Earth to bring him to justice."

#5 U.S. Senator Al Franken: "I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people."

#6 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "For senators to complain that they didn’t know this was happening, we had many, many meetings that have been both classified and unclassified that members have been invited to"

#7 U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell: "Given the scope of these programs, it’s understandable that many would be concerned about issues related to privacy. But what’s difficult to understand is the motivation of somebody who intentionally would seek to warn the nation’s enemies of lawful programs created to protect the American people. And I hope that he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

#8 U.S. Representative Peter King on why he believes that reporters should be prosecuted for revealing NSA secrets: "There is an obligation both moral, but also legal, I believe, against a reporter disclosing something which would so severely compromise national security."

#9 Director of National Intelligence James Clapper making a joke during an awards ceremony last Friday night: "Some of you expressed surprise that I showed up—so many emails to read!"

#10 Director Of National Intelligence James Clapper about why he lied about NSA spying in front of Congress: "I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner"

#11 National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden: "The president has full faith in director Clapper and his leadership of the intelligence community"

#12 White House press secretary Jay Carney: "...Clapper has been straight and direct in the answers that he's given, and has actively engaged in an effort to provide more information about the programs that have been revealed through the leak of classified information"

#13 Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee: "There is no more direct or honest person than Jim Clapper."

#14 Gus Hunt, the chief technology officer at the CIA: "We fundamentally try to collect everything and hang onto it forever."

#15 Barack Obama: "Nobody is listening to your telephone calls."

#16 Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency: "We do not see a tradeoff between security and liberty."

#17 An exchange between NSA director Keith Alexander and U.S. Representative Hank Johnson in March 2012...

JOHNSON: Does the NSA routinely intercept American citizens’ emails?

ALEXANDER: No.

JOHNSON: Does the NSA intercept Americans’ cell phone conversations?

ALEXANDER: No.

JOHNSON: Google searches?

ALEXANDER: No.

JOHNSON: Text messages?

ALEXANDER: No.

JOHNSON: Amazon.com orders?

ALEXANDER: No.

JOHNSON: Bank records?

ALEXANDER: No.

#18 Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino: "The intelligence activities undertaken by the United States government are lawful, necessary and required to protect Americans from terrorist attacks"

#19 U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss: "This is nothing new. It has proved meritorious because we have gathered significant information on bad guys and only on bad guys over the years."

#20 Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on NSA leaker Edward Snowden: "Let me ask, who died and made him king? Who gave him the authority to endanger 300 million Americans? That's not the way it works, and if he thinks he can get away with that, he's got another think coming."

#21 Senior spokesman for the NSA Don Weber: "Given the nature of the work we do, it would be irresponsible to comment on actual or alleged operational issues; therefore, we have no information to provide"

#22 The White House website: "My administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration."

Right now, the NSA is building a data collection center out in Utah that is so massive that it is hard to describe with words. It is going to cost 40 million dollars a year just to provide the energy needed to run it. According to a 2012 Wired article entitled "The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)", this data center will contain "the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches" in addition to "parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases" and anything else that the NSA decides to collect...

Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

The goal is to know as much about everyone on the planet as possible.

And the NSA does not keep this information to itself. As an article in USA Today recently reported, the NSA shares the data that it collects with other government agencies "as a matter of practice"...

As a matter of practice, the NSA regularly shares its information — known as "product" in intelligence circles — with other intelligence groups.

So when the NSA collects information about you, there is a very good chance that the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS will have access to it as well.

But the U.S. government is not the only one collecting data on American citizens.

Guess who else has been collecting massive amounts of data on the American people?

Barack Obama.

According to those that have seen it, the "Obama database" is unlike anything that any politician has ever put together before. According to CNSNews.com, U.S. Representative Maxine Waters says that this database "will have information about everything on every individual"...

"The president has put in place an organization that contains a kind of database that no one has ever seen before in life," she added. "That’s going to be very, very powerful."

Martin asked if Waters if she was referring to "Organizing for America."

"That’s right, that’s right," Waters said. "And that database will have information about everything on every individual in ways that it’s never been done before."

Waters said the database would also serve future Democratic candidates seeking the presidency.

Perhaps this helps to explain why so many big donors got slapped with IRS audits immediately after they wrote big checks to the Romney campaign.

We are being told to "trust" Barack Obama and the massive government surveillance grid that is being constructed all around us, but there has been example after example of government power being grossly abused in recent years.

A lot of Americans say that they do not care if the government is watching them because they do not have anything to hide, but is there anyone out there that would really not mind the government watching them and listening to them 24 hours a day?

For example, it has been documented that NSA workers eavesdropped on conversations between U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and their loved ones back home. Some of these conversations involved very intimate talk between husbands and wives. The following is from a 2008 ABC News story...

Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of "cuts" that were available on each operator's computer.

"Hey, check this out," Faulk says he would be told, "there's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk, pull up this call, it's really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy'," Faulk told ABC News.

Faulk said he joined in to listen, and talk about it during breaks in Back Hall's "smoke pit," but ended up feeling badly about his actions.

Is this really what we want the future of America to look like?

Do we really want the government to watch us and listen to us during our most intimate moments?

Feel free to express what you think about this NSA spying scandal by posting a comment below...

Author Bio

Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogsThe American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. You can follow him onTwitter here

Check out Michael's new book - "The Beginning of the End"

DHS Admits Boston Training Drill Involving Backpack Explosives Planned Months Before Marathon

2013-06-13T10:08:00.001+08:00

Anthony Gucciardi, intellihub.com |

The Department of Homeland Security has gone public with an admission that an exercise was planned months before the Boston Marathon bombings that involved backpacks being used to detonate explosives by rogue terrorists.

According to the DHS documents acquired by the Boston Globe, the agents were planning on conducting training exercises centered around a fictitious terrorist group called ‘Free America Citizens’, a group that would plant backpacks full of explosivesaround Boston that the detectives would be forced to track down. Ultimately, of course, this ended up happening at the Boston Marathon itself with precise accuracy. The Globe report reads that “the city was hit with a real terrorist attack executed in a frighteningly similar fashion.”

And the DHS isn’t denying that the training exercise manifested itself at the Boston Marathon, as detailed in the back-end article on the Boston Globe that I discovered while browsing the news.

“The real thing happened before we were able to execute,” a Boston police official told the Boston Globe in the report.

The exercise, labeled as “Operation Urban Shield,” was funded by a $200,000 Homeland Security grant. It was planned months before the Boston Marathon, and it was scheduled to ‘take place’ in official capacity this weekend, according to the sources. But the exercise admission lends further credence to the ignored eyewitness account of bomb sniffing dogs and bomb squads running a training exercise during the morning of the Boston Marathon. Was this training exercise part of Operation Urban Shield?

Interestingly, they specifically detailed that this terrorist group (that presumably is based off of ‘right wing extremists’ and the sovereign citizens movement) would carry a logo of a metal skull wearing an Uncle Sam hat. I’m not claiming there’s a relationship, but I find it funny that even their logo matched up with real events from the Boston Marathon bombings. It was in fact the apparent security at the event that was spotted wearing clothing adorning the image of skulls that turned out to be the logo for the Craft International private security firm.

I will be reporting more on Operation Urban Shield as more information becomes available.

(...)

Why You Should Care That The Gov Is Spying On You

2013-06-13T10:05:00.002+08:00

Susanne Posel, Contributor |

It seems that the mainstream media (MSM) haspolled Americans and determined that 45% of them do not mind being spied on by the federal government as long as it was for preventing terroristic attacks.

Those participants were asked: “should the government be able to monitor everyone’s e-mail to prevent possible terrorism?”

According to Pew, who conducted the poll: “Currently 62% say it is more important for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy. Just 34% say it is more important for the government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.”

An estimated 56% said that it was acceptable for the US government to analyze phone records searching for terrorists.

Over 1,000 people participated in the study . It seems that older Americans are more likely to give up their privacy for national security.

It was found that Americans do not mind that President Obama is spying on them; however knowing that former President George W. Bush had authorized sweeping surveillance on US citizens is unacceptable.

In 2006, a similar poll was conducted which found that 51% of Americans said it was fine with them that the presidency authorized surveillance on US citizens.

In another MSM poll , it was shown that 65% of Republicans and independents view government surveillance as intrusive. Thirty-nine percent of Democrats polled said that the government should not have access to phone records to combat terrorism.

A recent FoxNews poll showed that 68% of participants say that the US government should stay out of their private lives.

Senator Rand Paul commented that “just because Congress approved it doesn’t make it right. Congress has about a 10 percent approval rating, so I think we’re doing things that the public doesn’t approve of.”

Senator Ron Wyden wants to initiate Congressional hearings regarding the NSA programs exposed with Edward Snowden’s revelations.

According to Wyden: “It is impossible for the American people to have an informed public debate about laws that are interpreted, enforced, and adjudicated in complete secrecy. When talking about the laws governing Intelligence operations, the process has little to no transparency. Declassifying FISA Court opinions in a form that does not put sources and methods at risk will give the American people insight into what government officials believe the law allows them to do.”

Wyden has a bill to be introduced that would mandate the federal government disclose the opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) when determinations on collecting phone records and internet communications on Americans are approved.

The bill “would require the Attorney General to declassify significant Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinions, allowing Americans to know how broad of a legal authority the government is claiming to spy on Americans under the PATRIOT Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.”

Wyden is supported by several Senators:

• Patrick Leahy
• Dena Heller
• Mark Begich
• Al Franken
• Jon Tester

Leahy said: “For years, I have pressed for information about the business records program authorized by the PATRIOT Act to be declassified. I am proud to join in this bipartisan legislative effort to increase openness and transparency so that we can shed further light on the business records program authorized by this law.”

Heller explained: “Of course, ensuring Americans’ safety is one of our government’s most important responsibilities, but there is a careful balance between protecting Americans and honoring the Fourth Amendment. This legislation is a measured approach that will bring more transparency to the FISA court and respect the American people’s right to know how and when the government may be accessing their personal information.”

Distractions abound, as MSM are asking Americans whether or not Snowden is a patriot or traitor.

Snowden maintains: “The public needs to decide whether these programs and policies are right or wrong.”

By keeping the public asking questions about Snowden, the MSM are moving attention away from the crux of the issue – as only they can.

The debate beginning divides the opinions of the populace and keep arguments to superficial trends such as whether or not Snowden is a good person and if he is attractive.

The debate should be redirected to the actions of the NSA against the American people; actions that are still being used as of this moment.

Privacy versus security can be summed up in a quote from Founding Father Benjamin Franklin: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Author Bio

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism Our alternative news-site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporate-funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

Hearing On UFO Disclosure

2013-06-13T10:03:00.002+08:00

L. A. Marzulli, lamarzulli.wordpress.com |

The following YOUTUBE clip is from the Citizens Hearing on Disclosure, which happened a few weeks ago. The event took place in Washington DC and was attended by Ex military personal, congressmen and women, law enforcement, scientist, former astronauts, government officials, and researchers. Dr. Roger Leir, who has been in all of the Watchers films was present as well.

The UFO conversation is being dominated by those who hold to the opinion that the phenomena is truly extraterrestrial in origin. In other words what is manifesting are beings and entities from lets say, Zeta Reticuli or the Pleiades star system. However, there is another explanation that is not being considered and it is the interdimensional hypothesis, which states that these beings are not aliens from other worlds but are powerful entities who, in the words of Jacque Valle, aremessengers of deception.

Most of the church is ignorant of what transpired in Washington a few weeks ago, and won’t address the phenomena at all. This is unfortunate and in my opinion shows a lack of discernment as well as living with a head-in-the-sand mentality.

There is a cat and mouse game that continues with UFO sightings. They are witnessed, photographed, filmed and seen by thousands of people and the numbers are growing. Yet, for some reason most Christians won’t address the phenomena. We are the folks who believe in the virgin birth, two gold coins appearing in fishes mouths, talking donkey’s, floating ax heads, staffs which turn into serpents, men who walk on water, rocks that gush water, water turned into wine and finally a dead man rising from a tomb three days after he died! With that in mind why is it that the church can’t seem to cope with the UFO phenomena? We should be at the vanguard not the rear.

UFOs are real, burgeoning and NOT going away and as I have stated before, I believe this is the coming great deception that 2nd Thessalonians speaks of. There will be an apostasy, (The Greek word is Apostasia, which means apostasy) an event which causes men and women to depart — not the rapture — from what they once believed in.

Look at the picture above. What will you do if you walk out of your house and see that? How will you react? Will you rebuke first and ask questions later, or will you be overwhelmed by what you are seeing. Will you believe the lie that will be told, that these beings created us, genetically manipulated us, started our civilizations and religions and now, at this critical juncture in history, they have returned to usher us into a time of peace, prosperity, and knowledge.

It’s coming folks and those who were gathered in Washington several weeks ago are well aware that disclosure of the UFO presence is only a matter of time.

When I interviewed Cris Putnam on Acceleration Radio last week, he made it clear that the Vatican is well aware of the so-called Alien presence and in fact are awaiting and alien saviour to come.

[...]

Whistleblowing: Exemplary Patriotism

2013-06-13T10:00:00.003+08:00

Stephen Lendman, Contributor |

Whistleblowing reflects doing the right thing. It exposes wrongdoing. It does so because it matters.

Edward Joseph Snowden follows a noble tradition. Others before him established it. Daniel Ellsberg called his NSA leak the most important in US history. More on him below.

Expressions of patriotism can reflect good or ill. Samuel Johnson said it’s the last refuge of a scoundrel. Thomas Paine called dissent its highest form. So did Howard Zinn.

According to Machiavelli:

"When the safety of one's country wholly depends on the decision to be taken, no attention should be paid either to justice or injustice, to kindness or cruelty, or to its being praiseworthy or ignominious."

Tolstoy said:

"In our day the feeling of patriotism is an unnatural, irrational, and harmful feeling, and a cause of a great part of the ills from which mankind is suffering; andâ€¦consequently, this feeling should not be cultivated, as is now being done, but should, on the contrary, be suppressed and eradicated by all means available to rational men."

Philosophy Professor Stephen Nathanson believes patriotism involves:

special affection for one's own country;

a sense of personal identification with the country;

special concern for the well-being of the country; and

willingness to sacrifice to promote the country's good.

Socrates once said:

"Patriotism does not require one to agree with everything that his country does, and would actually promote analytical questioning in a quest to make the country the best it possibly can be."

The best involves strict adherence to the highest legal, ethical and moral standards. Upholding universal civil and human rights is fundamental. So is government of, by and for everyone equitably. Openness, accountability and candor can't be compromised.

When governments ill-serve, exposing wrongdoing is vital. It takes courage to do so. It involves sacrificing for the greater good. It includes risking personal harm and welfare. It means doing what's right because it matters. It reflects patriotism's highest form.

Daniel Ellsberg, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are best known. So is Mordechai Vanunu. More on him below. Few remember Peter Buxtun. He's a former US Public Health Service employee.

He exposed the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. About 200 Black men were infected. It was done to watch their progression. They were left to die untreated. Whistleblowing stopped further harm.

A. Ernest Fitzgerald held senior government positions. In 1968, he exposed a $2.3 billion Lockheed C-5 cost overrun. At issue was fraud and grand theft. Nixon told aides to "get rid of that son of a bitch."

Defense Secretary Melvin Laird fired him. Fitzgerald was a driving force for whistleblower protections. He fought for decades against fraud, waste and abuse. He helped get the 1978 Civil Reform Act and 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act enacted.

Gregory Minor, Richard Hubbard and Dale Bridenbaugh are called the GE three. They revealed nuclear safety concerns. So did Arnold Gundersen, David Lochbaum and others. At issue then and now is public safety over profits.

Mordechai Vanunu was an Israeli nuclear technician. He exposed Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. He paid dearly for doing so.

He was charged with espionage and treason. In 1986/87, he was secretly tried and sentenced. He was imprisoned for 18 years. He was confined in brutalizing isolation. He's been harassed and deprived of most rights since.

Daniel Ellsberg called him "the preeminent hero of the nuclear era." In July 2007, Amnesty International (AI) named him "a prisoner of conscience." He received multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

Vanunu said "I am neither a traitor nor a spy. I only wanted the world to know what was happening." People have every right to know.

Mark Whitacre was an Archer Daniels Midland senior executive. He exposed price-fixing, wire and tax fraud, as well as money laundering.

He had his own cross to bear. He was prosecuted and imprisoned. He lost his whistleblower immunity. After eight and a half years, he was released on good behavior.

Jeffrey Wigand was Brown & Williamson's research and development vice president. He went public on 60 Minutes. He exposed deceptive company practices. He was fired for doing so.

B & W enhanced cigarette nicotine content. It was done without public knowledge. At issue was increasing addiction. Wigand told all. He received death threats for doing so. He now lectures worldwide and consults on tobacco control policies.

Gary Webb was an award-winning American journalist. His investigative work exposed CIA involvement in drugs trafficking. His book "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion" told what he knew.

New York Times, Washington Post, and other media scoundrels assailed him. They did so wrongfully and viciously. Then and now they support CIA crimes. They abhor truth and full disclosure. They ruined Webb's career. They did so maliciously.

In December 2004, Webb was found dead at home. He died of two gunshot wounds to the head. Reports called it suicide. Critics believe otherwise. Two wounds suggest murder. Doing the right thing involves great risks. Webb paid with his life.

Swiss lawyer Marc Hodler was International Ski Federation president and International Olympic Committee member.

In 1998, he exposed 2002 Salt Lake City winter games bid-rigging. Olympism profiteering, exploitation and corruption is longstanding.

Deceptive hyperbole promotes good will, open competition, and fair play. Olympism's dark side reflects marginalizing poor and other disenfranchised groups, exploiting athletes and communities, as well as sticking taxpayers with the bill for profit.

Harry Markopolos exposed Bernie Madoff's hedge fund operations. He called them fraudulent. He obtained information firsthand. He got them from fund-of-fund Madoff investors and heads of Wall Street equity derivative trading desks.

He accused Madoff of operating "the world's largest Ponzi scheme." Large perhaps but not the largest.

Wall Street firms make money the old fashioned way. They steal it. They do so through fraud, grand theft, market manipulation and front-running. They scam investors unaccountably. They bribe corrupt political officials. In return, they turn a blind eye.

Compared to major Wall Street crooks, Madoff was small-time. Others mattering most control America's money. They manipulate it fraudulently for profit.

Coleen Rowley's a former FBI agent. She documented pre-9/11 Agency failures. She addressed them to Director Robert Mueller. She explained in Senate Judiciary Committee testimony. She now writes and lectures on ethical decision-making, civil liberty concerns, and effective investigative practices.

Joseph Wilson's a former US ambassador. He exposed Bush administration lies. He headlined a New York Times op-ed "What I Didn't Find in Africa."

"Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq," he asked?

"Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

Bush administration officials accused Wilson of twisting the truth. So did Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other scoundrel media editors. They front for power. Wilson explained what people have a right to know. He was unjustifiably pilloried for doing so.

Wendell Potter was a senior CIGNA insurance company executive. He explained how heathcare insurers scam policyholders. They shift costs to consumers, offer inadequate or unaffordable access, and force Americans to pay higher deductibles for less coverage.

Sibel Edmonds is a former FBI translator. She founded the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC). She did so to aid "national security whistleblowers through a variety of methods."

The ACLU called her "the most gagged person in the history of the United States." She knows firsthand the consequences of secret, unaccountable government operations.

Her memoir is titled "Classified Woman: the Sibel Edmonds Story."

Previous articles discussed Mark Klein. He's a former AT&T employee turned whistleblower. He revealed blueprints and photographs of NSA's secret room inside the company's San Francisco facility. It permits spying on AT&T customers.

Karen Kwiatkowski's a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel. She exposed Defense Department misinformation and lies. She discussed how doing so drove America to war.

Ann Wright's a former US Army colonel/State Department official. In 1997, she won an agency award for heroism.

She's more anti-war/human rights activist/person of conscience than whistleblower. In 2003, she resigned from government service. She did so in protest against war on Iraq.

Edward Joseph Snowden continues a noble tradition. On June 8, London's Guardian headlined "Edward Snowden, NSA whistleblower: 'I do not expect to see home again.' "

He leaked information to The Guardian and Washington Post. He exposed unconstitutional NSA spying. He served as an undercover intelligence employee.

Asked why he turned whistleblower, he said:

"The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting."

"If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards."

"I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things."

"I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under."

NSA spies globally, he said. Claims about only doing it abroad don't wash. "We collect more digital communications from America than we do from the Russians," he said.

Previous articles said NSA works with all major US telecom companies. They do so with nine or more major online ones. They spy on virtually all Americans.

They target everyone they want to globally. NSA capabilities are "horrifying," said Snowden. "You are not even aware of what is possible."

"We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify (it). You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place."

Asked what he thought might happen to him, he said "Nothing good."

He left America. He moved to Hong Kong. He fled for his safety. He knows he can't hide. If US authorities want him targeted, they'll act no-holds-barred.

If they want him arrested, they'll find him. If they want him disappeared, imprisoned and tortured, he's defenseless to stop them. It they want him dead, they'll murder him. Rogue states operate that way. America's by far the worst.

DNI head James Clapper accused Snowden of "violat(ing) a sacred trust for this countryâ€¦.I hope we're able to track whoever is doing this," he said.

These type comments expose America's dark side. So does unconstitutional NSA spying and much more. Washington flagrantly violates fundamental rule of law principles. It does so ruthlessly. At stake is humanity's survival.

Snowden fears recrimination against his family, friends and partner. He'll "have to live with that for the rest of (his) life," he said.

"I am not going to be able to communicate with them. (US authorities) will act aggressively against anyone who has known me. That keeps me up at night."

Asked what leaked NSA documents reveal, he said:

"That the NSA routinely lies in response to congressional inquiries about the scope of surveillance in America."

America "hacks everyone everywhere." he said. "(W)e are in almost every country in the world."

"Everyone, everywhere now understands how bad things have gotten - and they're talking about it."

On June 9, London Guardian editors headlined "Edward Snowden: more conscientious objector than common thief," saying:

What's next is certain. US authorities "will pursue Snowden to the ends of the earth." America's "legal and diplomatic machinery is probably unstoppable."

Congress should eagerly want to hear what Snowden has to say, said Guardian editors. They should "test the truth of what he is saying."

They know full well. Many or perhaps most congressional members are fully briefed on what goes on. They're condone it. So do administration and judicial officials.

Obama could stop it with a stroke of his pen. So can congressional lawmakers. Supreme Court justices could uphold the law.

Lawlessness persists. Moral cowardice pervades Washington. America's dark side threatens everyone. There's no place to hide.

Author Bio

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site atsjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the ProgressiveRadio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

Check out Stephen's new book "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

The Rest Of The World Is Absolutely Disgusted With Our Big Brother Spying Methods

2013-06-13T09:51:00.002+08:00

Michael Snyder, Contributor |

The rest of the world has found out that the U.S. government has been listening to their phone calls and watching what they do on the Internet and they do not like it one bit. Outrage has been pouring in from all over the planet, and one member of the European Parliament is even comparing the NSA to the Stasi. But instead of stepping back and reevaluating our Big Brother spying methods now that they have been revealed, Barack Obama and other leading members of Congress are defiantly declaring that there is nothing wrong with these methods and that no changes will be made.

The U.S. government is going to continue to invade the privacy of the citizens of the rest of the world as much as it possibly can, and our leaders don't seem to really care what the international response is. And make no mistake - the goal of the U.S. intelligence community is to literally know everything about everyone. The chief technology officer of the CIA, Gus Hunt, made the following shocking admission back in March: "We fundamentally try to collect everything and hang onto it forever." He followed that statement up with this gem: "It is really very nearly within our grasp to be able to compute on all human-generated information." In other words, they want it all, and they nearly have the capacity to gather it all already. So where does this end? Will the U.S. intelligence community ever be happy until they have every piece of data on every single person on the entire planet? Do we really want a government that collects "everything" and hangs on to it "forever"?

Thanks to Edward Snowden, the rest of the globe is starting to understand the extent to which the U.S. government has been spying on them. Needless to say, a lot of people are extremely upset about this.

In Germany (a country that knows a thing or two about Big Brother tactics), some prominent politicians are publicly denouncing the surveillance that the U.S. government has been doing on their citizens. In fact, one German politician has accused the U.S. of employing"American-style Stasi methods"...

In a guest editorial for Spiegel Online on Tuesday, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said reports that the United States could access and track virtually all forms of Internet communication were "deeply disconcerting" and potentially dangerous.

"The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is," she said.
"The suspicion of excessive surveillance of communication is so alarming that it cannot be ignored. For that reason, openness and clarification by the U.S. administration itself is paramount at this point. All facts must be put on the table."

Markus Ferber, a member of Merkel's Bavarian sister party who sits in the European Parliament, went further, accusing Washington of using "American-style Stasi methods".

In Italy, the government official in charge of data protection, Antonello Soro, said that the surveillance that the NSA is doing "would not be legal in Italy" and would be "contrary to the principles of our legislation and would represent a very serious violation".

In Russia (another country with a long history of using Big Brother tactics), President Vladimir Putin has expressed significant concern about the NSA spying program and there are even rumors that Russia will be offering asylum to Edward Snowden...

Alexey Pushkov, head of the Duma's international affairs committee and a vocal US critic, said on Twitter: "By promising asylum to Snowden, Moscow has taken upon itself the protection of those persecuted for political reasons. There will be hysterics in the US. They only recognise this right for themselves."

He continued: "Listening to telephones and tracking the internet, the US special services broke the laws of their country. In this case, Snowden, like Assange, is a human rights activist."

But even more important than what foreign politicians think about the NSA spying scandal is what average people all over the globe think. This scandal is causing millions of average people all over the planet to look at the United States with disgust and disdain. How can we hold ourselves out as the "defenders of freedom" to the rest of the globe when we are openly telling them that we are going to spy on them as much as we possibly can? How do we expect the rest of the world to look at us as "the good guys" when we are selfishly grabbing and recording all of their emails, phone calls and Internet searches without any concern for their privacy whatsoever?

What makes all of this even worse is that our top intelligence officials are making jokes about this scandal. For example, just check out the wisecracks that the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, was making at an awards ceremony on Friday...

With the current and past directors of national intelligence at the Omni Shoreham to honor former CIA and National Security Agency chief Michael Hayden, the result in speeches and interviews with intel professionals was a gumbo of outrage, worry and humor.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the black-tie crowd of more than 700 he would “address the elephant in the room” and proceeded, to applause, to denounce “the unauthorized leaks as reprehensible and egregious.” Clapper characterized the program as completely legal, debated and reauthorized by Congress under strict oversight and by court order “to make our nation safe and secure.”

He then cracked a few jokes. “Some of you expressed surprise that I showed up—so many emails to read!” Clapper said. Greeting fellow banqueter John Pistole, the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration who recently reversed a planned policy to permit air travelers to carry certain knives on planes, Clapper said, “John, can I borrow your pocket knife?”

How in the world can he make a joke about reading our emails at a time like this?

This is how arrogant the U.S. intelligence community has become. They feel like they can do whatever they want and get away with it.

For example, back in March Clapper flat out lied to the U.S. Congress about the surveillance that the NSA is doing. When he was asked by Senator Ron Wyden if the NSA was collecting any information on the American people, Clapper completely denied it.

The following is from a transcript of that exchange...

"Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" Oregon Republican Sen. Ron Wyden asked Clapper at the March 12 hearing.

"No, sir," Clapper responded.

"It does not?" Wyden pressed.

Clapper recanted and said: "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could, inadvertently perhaps, collect -- but not wittingly."

Apparently Clapper must have "forgotten" that the government is forcing all of the big telephone companies to turn over all of their call records to the NSA every single month.

And you know what? The truth is that the government is not just collecting "metadata" about our phone calls. The content of our calls is being recorded and stored as well. Just check out this story from the Blaze...

Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf in 2008 during an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno detailed how he learned phone calls were allegedly being recorded.

Promoting the film “Eagle Eye,” which according to IMDb shows how “technology of everyday life[is used] to track and control,” LaBeouf told Leno that an FBI consultant for the movie said one in five phone calls made are recorded and logged.

“And I laughed at him,” LaBeouf said.

“And then he played back a phone conversation I’d had two years prior to joining the picture,” LaBouf continued.

Both Leno and LaBeouf concluded it was “extremely creepy.”

The American people, along with the people of the entire planet, deserve the truth about this.

Unfortunately, Barack Obama is certainly not going to tell us the truth, and there will probably only be a half-hearted effort by some members of Congress to get to the bottom of things.

That is why it is going to be important to take this to court, and thankfully a couple of lawsuits are already in the works.

According to U.S. News & World Report, one of these lawsuits is being filed by a former Justice Department prosecutor...

Former Justice Department prosecutor Larry Klaymanamended an existing lawsuit against Verizon and a slew of Obama administration officials Monday to make it the first class-action lawsuit in response to the publication of a secret court order instructingVerizon to hand over all phone records of millions of American customers on an "ongoing, daily basis."

Klayman told U.S. News he will file a second class-action lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia targeting government officials and each of the nine companies listed in a leaked National Security Agency slideshow as participants in the government's PRISM program.

And according to USA Today, the ACLU has also filed a lawsuit...

National Security Agency surveillance programs came under more scrutiny Tuesday as the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit and a prominent senator and Internet giant Google called on the Obama administration to disclose more information.

In its lawsuit, the ACLU said an NSA program that harvests phone calls violates the rights of all Americans.

"The program goes far beyond even the permissive limits set by the Patriot Act and represents a gross infringement of the freedom of association and the right to privacy," said Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal director.

Hopefully these lawsuits will reveal more details about the spying that has been taking place.

There is also a "bipartisan coalition" of 86 Internet companies and civil liberties organizations that have sent a letter to Congress demanding action on these issues. You can read the full letter right here. Some of the organizations involved include the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reddit, Mozilla, FreedomWorks, and the Center for Digital Democracy.

Will Congress listen to them?

Probably not.

But at least they are trying to do something about this.

The key will be to get the American people outraged enough about all of this that they won't forget about it in a week or two. And that is not an easy thing to do.

There have been a couple of public opinion polls taken over the past few days that show some very curious results. A Rasmussen survey found that 59 percent of Americans are against the government secretly collecting our phone records and only 26 percent are in favor. But a Washington Post survey found that 56 percent of Americans consider the collecting of our phone records to be "acceptable" and only 41 percent consider the practice to be "unacceptable".

How could those two surveys get such wildly different results?

A lot of it is in the way that they ask the questions.

In the end, our politicians don't really care too much about what the general public thinks anyway. They are just going to continue to do what they have been doing and the rest of the world will continue to become even more disgusted with us.

We are recklessly destroying our global reputation and our leaders do not even seem to care. But someday America will need some friends, and when that day arrives we may find that we don't have too many left.

Author Bio

Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogsThe American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. You can follow him onTwitter here

Check out Michael's new book - "The Beginning of the End"

Recovery: Record 23 Million American Households Receive Food Stamps

2013-06-13T09:43:00.003+08:00

Mac Slavo, Contributor |

Just when you thought America was coming out of recession…

The number of American households on food stamps reached a new record high in March, according to new data released by the Agriculture Department.

The March numbers the USDA released Friday reveal 23,116,441 households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, each receiving an average monthly benefit of $274.30.

The number of individuals on SNAP did not break any records but remained high, with 47,727,052 people enrolled in SNAP, receiving an average monthly benefit of $132.86.
The number of individuals on SNAP hit a record high in December, with 47,792,056 people enrolled.

SNAP has been in the news in recent years and months as the program’s rolls have ballooned and the cost has quadrupled since 2001 and doubled since President Obama took office.

Nearly a quarter of the households in this country depend on the government to put food on the table.

One hundred million of our fellow countrymen are enrolled in at least one welfare program aimed at helping them make ends meet.

Recovery?

This is a depression and it won’t be getting better any time soon.

Author Bio

Mac would be considered by some to be a doom and gloomer, though he believes reality is reality, and he tries to assign no positive or negative personalperceptionsto any particular event. Mac provides personal commentary and a spin on news and current events. Mac Slavo writes and edits thewebsite: SHTFPlan.com

Parents Of Slain Navy Seal Claim Tapping Sounds On Phone, Strange Texts After Son’s Death

2013-06-13T09:40:00.001+08:00

Jack Blood, Deadlinelive.info |

Navy Seals have been dying in record numbers ever since the ALLEGED Killing of Osama Bin Laden. This story seems to merge the latest NSA Spying scandal with that event.

Was the Govt (and shadow govt) spying on this family to see if they may have been told anything about the OBL cover up? (BTW: This exact thing happen to Jack Blood during this website’s reporting of the Nick Berg Beheading in 2003)

A Philadelphia couple has joined the first class-action lawsuit against the Obama administration over the National Security Agency’s collection of millions of customer phone records from Verizon.

The plaintiffs are calling the domestic spy operation a breach of privacy.

Filed in federal court in Washington, DC on Sunday, the lawsuit names a host of heavy hitters including President Obama, the NSA, and the Department of Justice.

“It’s a violation of our privacy rights, our freedom of association, our due process rights,” says attorney Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch.

Klayman originally filed the lawsuit last week as the sole plaintiff. On Sunday, Charles and Mary Anne Strange — a Philadelphia couple whose son Michael, a US Navy Seal, was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2011 (see related story) — joined the suit as a class action.

“Somebody has to be held accountable for my son’s death. Thirty brave Americans, the biggest loss in the Afghan war. And that’s when I started asking questions, that’s when my phone got tapped,” Strange said.

Strange claims he heard tapping noises while on the phone and he says he started getting odd texts shortly after his son’s death.

“I called Verizon, ‘I have a text 001 and 002’ and I called them up and I said ‘who’s this?’ and they said it’s somebody listening in from the United States, and someone from Afghanistan,” Strange explained.

The plaintiffs say they have been highly critical of the current administration and are likely targets.

[...]

UN To Countries: Comply With Our Policies On Energy Or Stop Using Fossil Fuels

2013-06-12T09:36:00.003+08:00

Susanne Posel, Contributor |

The 2013 World Energy Outlook (WEO) reportentitled “Redrawing the Energy-Climate Map” produced by the International Energy Agency (IEA) claims that China is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and should invest in renewable energy while mandating energy efficiency.

Globally, emissions of CO2 rose by 1.4% in 2012. Japan alone had a 6% rise which coincides with their phasing out of nuclear power.

The IEA would like to see global compliance to 4 policies that would endeavor to control the climate and not harm economic growth of individual nations.

• Constructing and improving energy efficient buildings
• Improving industry and transport
• Limiting the use of energy wasting power plants
• Halving methane emissions
• Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies

Faith Birol, chief economist for the IEA, wants governments across the globe to take the findings of the 2013 WEO report seriously and make the necessary adjustments to come into compliance with their recommendations.

Looking to 2020, the international community should spend $1.5 trillion to adhere to climate targets.

The IEA expects that all governments would contribute to this investment into schemes to stored CO2 which would enable fossil fuels to continue to be used.

Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the IEA said : “Climate change has quite frankly slipped to the back burner of policy priorities. But the problem is not going away — quite the opposite.”

Negotiations are in the works between countries and the UN to stike a global deal that would force all nations to adhere to international law concerning CO2 emissions.

With governments having the choice of whether or not to participate now, after this agreement were signed, the UN would be able to take over and force a nation to comply.

Birol said: “The IEA has also warned of the dangers of locking in fossil fuel infrastructure, which would need to be retired early, at great additional cost, in order to meet the 2C target. The IEA’s message is crystal clear: dither and delay in making the transition to a low-carbon energy system will be risky and expensive.”

Aggressive actions to make sure governments comply with international mandates on climate change would have energy corporations time to strategize.

Indeed there is the reality that adherence to the suggestions of the WEO would “require the complete reorientation of our fossil- fuelled energy system valued in the trillions of dollars.”

The WEO report claims that a move toward natural gas as a replacement for coal would “reduce [CO2] emissions by 200 million tons.”

Recently General Electric (GE) has invested in Hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) and petrol cultivation with a focus on natural gas extraction.

The National Research Council (NRC) has released a study on fracking which fracking causes earthquakes, yet claims that it is still a “low risk”. They blame carbon capture for “inducing seismic events”, although there is insufficient scientific data to make such a claim.

The explanation the NRC provides is the injection of wastewater underground that causes earthquakes that can be felt by people above ground. The NRC says that “the total balance of fluid introduced or removed underground” determines whether or not earthquakes occur.

In Europe, Benny Peiser of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWF), an alarmist think-tank that purveys the lie of man-made climate change, describes fracking as a “clean energy source”.

In another study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the current method of carbon capture by storing the gas underground is directly causational to earthquakes.

The IPCC is responsible for the use of fracking as a pollution control to move away from coal-based electrical power.

In November of 2012, a new study published by the World Bank, there is a call for “stepping up efforts” to meet the global carbon reduction levels to avert catastrophic consequences that would cause of the planet’s temperature to rise an estimated 4 degrees Celsius before the end of the century.

Stephanie Pfeifer, chief executive of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)explained : “This scenario threatens to have severe physical impacts and puts the investments and savings of millions of people at risk. Investors support strong and concerted climate action now to bring emissions down. The measures in this report could save trillions in future adaptation costs, but they will not be achieved without tough policy decisions including putting a high price on carbon, phasing out billions in fossil fuel subsidies and introducing frameworks which stimulate investment in low-carbon energy.”

Govindswamy Bala, associate professor, Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) remarked that geoengineering to combat CO2 in the atmosphere is an intentional planetary scale technique to counteract the effects of climate change induced by long-lived greenhouse gases. [And in essence] we do not have complete knowledge of the risks and side effects. Further, geoengineering cuts across national boundaries and hence it is a global commons problem. Hence, we will need international — legal and governance — frameworks. Given the track record of global negotiations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the chances of reaching an international agreement on geoengineering are remote.”

Author Bio

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism Our alternative news-site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporate-funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

Weather Weapons Have Existed For Over 15 Years, Testified U.S. Secretary Of Defense

2013-06-12T09:34:00.000+08:00

J. D. Heyes, Naturalnews.com |

The development of so-called "weather weapons" has been dismissed by many as paranoid hyperbole, the work of science fiction movie script writers and conspiracy theorists, but the fact is they have existed, at least in the laboratory, for decades.

None other than former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, in fact, has talked about the development of weather-related weaponry - or, more specifically, techniques to create weather events to support offensive military operations. During a question-and-answer session at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy at the Georgia Center in Athens, Ga., in 1997, Cohen addressed them:

There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least. Alvin Toeffler has written about this in terms of some scientists in their laboratories trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.

So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It’s real, and that’s the reason why we have to intensify our efforts, and that’s why this is so important.

What about ’chemtrails?’

Shortly after Cohen’s testimony reports began to surface about contrails - plumes of condensation trailing behind aircraft that allegedly contain chemicals which made some people sick. From WorldNetDaily, which reported on the phenomenon in February 1999:

Specifically, the focus of this mysterious "sickness" is centered around the observance of contrails - trails of gaseous substances - left in the wake of jet planes flying high above certain areas of the country. Observers on the ground have discovered, after several "patterns" of contrails have been produced by numerous planes making dozens of passes over an area, that a colorless web-like sticky substance falls from the sky, often generating sickness for many who come in contact with it. In other areas no such substance is reported, but scores of people have become ill nonetheless, presumably because the planes forming the contrail patterns are literally spraying some sort of chemical in the air.

Word was these chemicals were part of an Air Force operation to "seed clouds" as part of weather modification experimentation. Officially, of course, the Air Force denied such allegations, but a number of residents in heavily "seeded" areas reported on several occasions that heavy rains would follow such seeding operations.

In addition to contrails, other reports have mentioned the Air Force’s HAARP initiative - High Altitude Auroral Research Project, located in Alaska in 1990 (http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/). According to the project’s website, "HAARP is a scientific endeavor aimed at studying the properties and behavior of the ionosphere, with particular emphasis on being able to understand and use it to enhance communications and surveillance systems for both civilian and defense purposes."

[...]

Meals Ready To Eat – Not!

2013-06-12T09:27:00.002+08:00

Gaye Levy, Contributor |

The concept of a meal in a pouch is not new. For years, military organizations have contracted to have “Meals Ready to Eat” (or MREs) made for distribution to hungry soldiers in the field when a mess kitchen was unavailable.

The evolution of military grade MREs from the 1960’s era to now has resulted in light weight pouches that contain a complete meal sealed into a tidy packet. A typical MRE contains a main course, side dish, bread, dessert, and flameless ration heater. There will also be a napkin, eating utensil and condiments such as salt and pepper. True U.S. military MREs are well marked with the designation “U.S. Government Property, Commercial Resale is Unlawful” although this is a misnomer since there are no laws that forbid the resale of MREs.

That said, the companies that produce military MREs market similar MREs to civilians, often in cases of 12 units but also as individual packets.

The components of one of the MREs used for this article.

In addition, it is not unusual for companies such as Mountain House, Wise, Thrive Life and others to refer to their meal-sized food pouches as MREs. Alas, this confuses the consumer since these pouches of food are not anything like the military MRES. Instead these pouches represent a standalone entrée, side dish or dessert suitable for one, two, or more people. Examples include chili, beef stroganoff, chicken alfredo and similar dishes that require the addition of very hot or boiling water before they can be consumed.

TESTING THE REAL THING – MILITARY STYLE MEAL READY TO EAT

Last January, I was contacted by the Meal Kit Supply company and was offered a case of their MREs for testing and review purposes. I accepted with the usual caveat that I would post an honest and truthful review.

The box of MREs arrived a few weeks later and thus began the disgusting discovery that these meals were not only expensive, but laden with chemicals and unhealthy ingredients. Not only that, the flameless heater did not work worth a darn and the so called “meal ready to eat” had to be heated in a pot of boing water on the stove. The portions were tiny when compared, for example, to the Food Insurance or Mountain House pouches and the company, well, more about that later.

I realized at this point that my opinion was not going to stand up on its own. After all, the reviews I read at the company website and from other bloggers (who, by the way, were offered the same products for review) were all quite favorable. I decided to call in some help by offering a few packets to my friend, Bruce Conway, who is a long time outdoor enthusiast and prepper.

M.R.E.s – MEALS READY TO DEFEAT

When Gaye Levy, noted survival and preparedness writer, asked me to evaluate a couple of MRE meals (meals ready-to-eat) that had been given to her by mealkitsupply.com for evaluation, I eagerly agreed. I had been interested in trying MRE’s for years, but had not gotten around to trying or buying them.

In the past, I had good camping experiences with MountainHouse™ freeze dried meals, and had been assured that modern MREs were now even better.

MRE’s, I was told, had been improving steadily over the years in both quality and variety. So, I could be reasonable assured that these MREs would prove to be preferred forms of preparedness meals to flesh out my personal bug-out cache.

Unfortunately, my first experience with an MRE was not a good one.

Gaye provided me with two of the MRE packets for review. One was Chili with beans, and the other was Chicken Fajitas. Both sounded good.

The MREs, were made/distributed by one of the largest MRE manufacturers in the world; Meal Kit Supply.com, who proclaim their products to be “the gold standard” in the meals ready-to-eat industry. These are identical to the MREs supplied to the military of both Canada and the U.S.

As I pulled open the MRE bag and spilled the contents onto the table, I was at first impressed with the quantity of the sealed meal packs and extras in the bag which included a nonflammable meal pouch heater, beverages, dessert (pound cake), a moist towelette, plastic ware and condiments. It was like Christmas—military style, with an excessive amount of brown packaging.

When I trimmed the top of the flameless ration heater and poured the required two ounces of water into the bag to activate the heater, the reaction was instantaneous. It inflated the bag (which I had successfully wrapped quickly around two sealed entree pouches.) The steam scalded my hand, and caused mild asthma-like symptoms which lasted for about fifteen minutes.

The instructions caution using the ration heater with “adequate” ventilation, advising consumers to make the meal outdoors. The heaters are considered “safe to use, except when aboard aircraft. To quote, “… the release of hydrogen gas from these flameless ration heaters is of a sufficient quantity to pose a potential hazard on board a passenger aircraft.”

O.K. I am now less than impressed, Strike one; toxic outgassing—hot steam and hydrogen. Strike two; an unbelievable amount of packaging and plastic trash.

The slim advantage of MRE “pros” versus “cons” was narrowing rapidly.

Then I ate the chicken fajitas. It was, at best, O.K. The Fajita meat and sauce were poured on top of the hot rice packet, with a couple of passable vacuum-packed flour tortillas. The rice heated unevenly, so some was underdone and hard. There are likely tricks to preparing these that I am unaware of.

Within 1/2 hour gastric distress began. My face got hot and flushed, stomach began twisting in knots. I didn’t get sick, exactly. It was some kind of toxic reaction.

Within an hour or so I knew that I had consumed a large dose of MSG. A similar thing had happened a year earlier when a manufacturer began adding MSG to a formerly MSG-free product. I kept eating it for several months, until symptoms similar to what the MRE caused showed up. I eventually re-read the product label and discovered the switch to MSG, and never ate that product again.

It turns out that most MREs are loaded with MSG (which has been linked to numerous diseases and conditions , in addition to being addictive), preservatives, artificial sweeteners, dyes, fillers, etc.

As these MRE’s are from Canada, and contain levels of MSG far beyond EPA suggestions, I suspect that some of these ingredients are actually manufactured in China, and only distributed by Meal Kit Supply. This is ONLY a suspicion on my part, and not backed up by evidence. But they “taste” like they are made in China.

It took a full week for my body to purge the MSG. During that time it ravaged my digestive track, requiring probiotics, hot cereal, yoghurt, and detoxification with lots of fluids. The excessive amount of MSG even anesthetized my urinary track, which was numb for several days.

When Gaye wrote the manufacture about my experience, they responded thus:

“As sorry as I am to hear you were ill, I don’t think our MREs were the cause: we have no preservatives or mystery chemicals in our product, and have never had issues with people getting sick after their consumption (they feed the troops after all — the government would throw a fit if their soldiers were getting sick!). Anyways, as it has already been 4 months and we continue to hit road bumps, it might be best to call off the review all together.”

To think that soldiers in the military are required to eat these day after day is mind-boggling. Most MRE reviews say that although tasty, MREs plug up the average digestive track in a week or two. Most eaters report distress after two to three days of MRE’s.

“Gulf War veterans are twice as likely to develop A.L.S. than those who did not serve. These vets were all exposed to MSG by way of their MREs, or Meals-Ready-To-Eat. The U.S. military has been adding MSG to MREs on purpose to make army rations more palatable. MREs were actually required to contain a minimum amount of MSG up until very recently. We have gotten new reports that fortunately, they are no longer using MSG in MREs. The intake of MSG by GIs in Iraq in particular, was compounded by the fact that diet drinks containing aspartame were also supplied to the troops – at the same time. MSG and aspartame are more harmful together as research has shown (See Related Research).” – ( MSG, A.L.S., and Gulf War Vets – http://www.msgtruth.org/als.htm).

I would think that those relying on MREs during a disaster, or other large emergency, require food that is safe, nutritious and delicious. MRE meals from Meal Kit Supply may be edible, but they fall short in other regards: They are neither safe nor delicious. They are full of MSG and artificial sweeteners. They even loaded up the plain rice packet with MSG. Why would ordinary rice require MSG?

Get a clue Meal Kit Supply. Loading up your products with MSG and Aspartame may be legal, but it is highly unethical, as these chemicals used together contribute to many diseases and conditions. Get rid of them, and you will once again have a product to be proud of. Your competitors such as Mountain House, and Alpine Aire Foods are MSG free. Your products would be much improved by following their example.

To further investigate the hazards of the long-term consumption of MRE’s, go to:

Examining Typical Non-Organic MRE Ingredients & Why You Should Consider Making Your Own Healthy MREs

Respectfully,

W. Bruce Conway
www.noahs-archives.com

THE FINAL WORD

This article will not win any popularity contests with MRE distributors. But it represents the truth as I see it and for that I will not apologize. When I contacted Meal Kit Supply about the results of my testing, they asked me to call off the review but they did not scare me off.

As Bruce said to me, this is a story that needs to be told.

Author Bio

Gaye Levy, also known as the SurvivalWoman, grew up and attended school in the Greater Seattle area. After spending many years as an executive in the software industry, she started a specialized accounting practice offering contract CFO work to emerging high tech and service industries. She has now abandoned city life and moved to a serenely beautiful rural area on an island in NW Washington State. She lives and teaches the principles of a sustainable, self-reliant and stylish lifestyle through emergency preparation and disaster planning through her website at BackdoorSurvival.com. The SurvivalWoman speaks her mind and delivers her message with optimism and grace, regardless of mayhem.

27 Edward Snowden Quotes About U.S. Government Spying That Should Send A Chill Up Your Spine

2013-06-12T09:18:00.000+08:00

Michael Snyder, Contributor |

Would you be willing to give up what Edward Snowden has given up? He has given up his high paying job, his home, his girlfriend, his family, his future and his freedom just to expose the monolithic spy machinery that the U.S. government has been secretly building to the world. He says that he does not want to live in a world where there isn't any privacy. He says that he does not want to live in a world where everything that he says and does is recorded. Thanks to Snowden, we now know that the U.S. government has been spying on us to a degree that most people would have never even dared to imagine. Up until now, the general public has known very little about the U.S. government spy grid that knows almost everything about us. But making this information public is going to cost Edward Snowden everything.

Essentially, his previous life is now totally over. And if the U.S. government gets their hands on him, he will be very fortunate if he only has to spend the next several decades rotting in some horrible prison somewhere. There is a reason why government whistleblowers are so rare. And most Americans are so apathetic that they wouldn't even give up watching their favorite television show for a single evening to do something good for society. Most Americans never even try to make a difference because they do not believe that it will benefit them personally. Meanwhile, our society continues to fall apart all around us. Hopefully the great sacrifice that Edward Snowden has made will not be in vain. Hopefully people will carefully consider what he has tried to share with the world. The following are 27 quotes from Edward Snowden about U.S. government spying that should send a chill up your spine...

#1 "The majority of people in developed countries spend at least some time interacting with the Internet, and Governments are abusing that necessity in secret to extend their powers beyond what is necessary and appropriate."

#2 "...I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents."

#3 "The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to."

#4 "...I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."

#5 "The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything."

#6 "With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your e-mails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your e-mails, passwords, phone records, credit cards."

#7 "Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector, anywhere... I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President..."

#8 "To do that, the NSA specifically targets the communications of everyone. It ingests them by default. It collects them in its system and it filters them and it analyzes them and it measures them and it stores them for periods of time simply because that's the easiest, most efficient and most valuable way to achieve these ends. So while they may be intending to target someone associated with a foreign government, or someone that they suspect of terrorism, they are collecting YOUR communications to do so."

#9 "I believe that when [senator Ron] Wyden and [senator Mark] Udall asked about the scale of this, they [the NSA] said it did not have the tools to provide an answer. We do have the tools and I have maps showing where people have been scrutinized most. We collect more digital communications from America than we do from the Russians."

#10 "...they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world known to them."

#11 "Even if you're not doing anything wrong, you're being watched and recorded. ...it's getting to the point where you don't have to have done anything wrong, you simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody, even by a wrong call, and then they can use this system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you've ever made, every friend you've ever discussed something with, and attack you on that basis, to sort of derive suspicion from an innocent life."

#12 "Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest."

#13 "Everyone everywhere now understands how bad things have gotten — and they’re talking about it. They have the power to decide for themselves whether they are willing to sacrifice their privacy to the surveillance state."

#14 "I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under."

#15 "I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy, and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."

#16 "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong."

#17 "I had been looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is about being the first to act."

#18 "There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich."

#19 "The great fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. [People] won't be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things... And in the months ahead, the years ahead, it's only going to get worse. [The NSA will] say that... because of the crisis, the dangers that we face in the world, some new and unpredicted threat, we need more authority, we need more power, and there will be nothing the people can do at that point to oppose it. And it will be turnkey tyranny."

#20 "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

#21 "You can't come up against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and not accept the risk."

#22 "I know the media likes to personalize political debates, and I know the government will demonize me."

#23 "We have got a CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong – and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be."

#24 "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end."

#25 "There’s no saving me."

#26 "The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won't be able to help any more. That's what keeps me up at night."

#27 "I do not expect to see home again."

Would you make the same choice that Edward Snowden made? Most Americans would not. One CNN reporter says that he really admires Snowden because he has tried to get insiders to come forward with details about government spying for years, but none of them were ever willing to...

As a digital technology writer, I have had more than one former student and colleague tell me about digital switchers they have serviced through which calls and data are diverted to government servers or the big data algorithms they've written to be used on our e-mails by intelligence agencies. I always begged them to write about it or to let me do so while protecting their identities. They refused to come forward and believed my efforts to shield them would be futile. "I don't want to lose my security clearance. Or my freedom," one told me.

And if the U.S. government has anything to say about it, Snowden is most definitely going to pay for what he has done. In fact, according to the Daily Beast, a directorate known as "the Q Group" is already hunting Snowden down...

The people who began chasing Snowden work for the Associate Directorate for Security and Counterintelligence, according to former U.S. intelligence officers who spoke on condition of anonymity. The directorate, sometimes known as “the Q Group,” is continuing to track Snowden now that he’s outed himself as The Guardian’s source, according to the intelligence officers.

If Snowden is not already under the protection of some foreign government (such as China), it will just be a matter of time before U.S. government agents get him.

And how will they treat him once they find him? Well, one reporter overheard a group of U.S. intelligence officials talking about how Edward Snowden should be "disappeared". The following is from a Daily Mail article that was posted on Monday...

A group of intelligence officials were overheard yesterday discussing how the National Security Agency worker who leaked sensitive documents to a reporter last week should be 'disappeared.'

Foreign policy analyst and editor at large of The Atlantic, Steve Clemons, tweeted about the 'disturbing' conversation after listening in to four men who were sitting near him as he waited for a flight at Washington's Dulles airport.

'In Dulles UAL lounge listening to 4 US intel officials saying loudly leaker & reporter on #NSA stuff should be disappeared recorded a bit,' he tweeted at 8:42 a.m. on Saturday.

According to Clemons, the men had been attending an event hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.

As an American, I am deeply disturbed that the U.S. government is embarrassing itself in front of the rest of the world like this.

The fact that we are collecting trillions of pieces of information on people all over the planet is a massive embarrassment and the fact that our politicians are defending this practice now that it has been exposed is a massive embarrassment.

If the U.S. government continues to act like a Big Brother police state, then the rest of the world will eventually conclude that is exactly what we are. At that point we become the "bad guy" and we lose all credibility with the rest of the planet.

Author Bio

Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogsThe American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. You can follow him onTwitter here

Check out Michael's new book - "The Beginning of the End"

National Security Breach: NSA Leak May Cause Future Threat To Safety

2013-06-11T09:03:00.004+08:00

Susanne Posel, Contributor |

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviserrelayed that the Obama administration is conducting “an assessment of the damage that has been done to U.S. national security by the revelation of this information. Currently, there’s a review underway to understand what potential damage may be done.”

James Clapper, director of National Intelligence issued a statement over the weekend explaining that PRISM is “an internal government computer system used to facilitate the government’s statutorily authorized collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision.”

Clapper explained: “PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program. The United States Government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers. All such information is obtained with FISA Court approval and with the knowledge of the provider based upon a written directive from the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.”

Admonishing the leak in the mainstream concerning the National Security Agency (NSA) and Verizon, Clapper said: “Our ability to discuss these activities is limited by our need to protect intelligence sources and methods. However, there are significant misimpressions that have resulted from the recent articles. Disclosing information about the specific methods the government uses to collect communications can obviously give our enemies a ‘playbook’ of how to avoid detection. Nonetheless, [the law governing PRISM] has proven vital to keeping the nation and our allies safe. It continues to be one of our most important tools for the protection of the nation’s security.”

Anonymous recently revealed that they have “access to President Obama’s Skype.”

The hacktivist group asked officials from the Obama administration to explain to them “the government’s point of view simply because it will help us build a more complete view of what’s really going on. Even clever lies, denials, and evasion help us in our pursuit of truth. We won’t release the information until we’ve run it all over with several officials and received a frank appraisal of its context.”

Jay Carney, press secretary for the Obama administration, is attributed with saying (in a possible reference to Anonymous): “The sad irony is that PRISM doesn’t even exist, but because of hacks like these we need something like it. We will not cooperate with terrorists on any level, and we refuse to comment on illegally-obtained confidential information.”

The hacktivist group Anonymous released 13 documents last week that were directly related to PRISM.
They were classified from federal agencies like the Department of Defense (DoD).

The documents show that the DoD and the National Security Agency (NSA) have been collecting data on Americans for years.

Under the NetOps Strategic Vision , the federal government has been monitoring the internet through corporations such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and others.

According to Anonymous: “NetOps will transform along with the Global Information Grid to dynamically support new warfighting, intelligence, and business processes and enable users to access and share trusted information in a timely manner. The future Global Information Grid will result in a richer Net-Centric information environment comprised of shared services and capabilities based on advanced technologies.”

William Binney, former NSA agent turned whistleblower, commented that for the last 12 years, the federal government “has had access to all the internet communication passing through at least one and possibly more fiber-optic hubs in the US. That would give the NSA access to a vast amount of data without “direct access” to company servers.”

Binney goes on to suggest: “I figure they could get 80% on what’s on the network and the other 20%, the companies [like Google and Facebook] have to fill in.”

Last December, Obama issued a presidential memorandum entitled “National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs” that outlines the provision “and guidance to promote the development of effective insider threat programs within departments and agencies to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security.”

The National Insider Threat Policy (NITP) is still classified, yet the referenced document describes “minimum standards” for stifling federal information leaks that would indicate the release of intelligence considered secret for the protection of national security. Federal employees that are privy to such information would be monitored by this directive.

The Insider Threat Task Force, an interagency created to minimize the dangers to national security posed by “unauthorized disclosures” of intelligence, will be empowered to unilaterally prevent information sharing. Sensitive data as collected by the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and other federal agencies tasked with obtaining information have measures in place to protect employee’s ability to have access to such data; as well as having to gain chain-of-command permission with an ever present need-to-know parameter.

Obama further defines this safety measure by stating: “Our nation’s security requires classified information to be shared immediately with authorized users around the world but also requires sophisticated and vigilant means to ensure it is shared securely.”

The Senior Information Sharing and Safeguarding Steering Committee are given the authority to dictate policies governing this presidential measure as well as oversee government agency’s compliance per department. This committee was empowered in 2011 because of disclosure of classified government documents given to WikiLeaks by Bradley Manning.

The Obama administration has been posturing themselves behind the scenes to establish “adequate protections to our classified information while at the same time sharing the information with all who reasonably need it to do their jobs.”

With executive order 13587, Obama set out to “improve the security of classified networks . . . and responsible sharing and safeguarding of classified information.”

While claiming to be concerned with remaining “consistent with appropriate protections for privacy and civil liberties”, Obama ensures that digital data that is defined by the US government as sensitive can and will be under policy regulations of interagency bodies of correlating departments. This blanket statement applies to “information security, personnel security, and systems security; address both internal and external security threats and vulnerabilities; and provide policies and minimum standards for sharing classified information both within and outside the Federal Government.”

This presidential memorandum clearly defines Obama’s desire to quash any intelligence leaks that may occur under his watch. Regardless of the future treatment of federal whistleblowers, this executive-created extension of cybersecurity compliments the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) that was being redefined for 2013.

Author Bio

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism Our alternative news-site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporate-funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

The Essence Of DNA Identity

2013-06-11T08:59:00.001+08:00

SARTRE, Contributor |

Do you intrinsically possess individual privacy rights, based upon natural law authority, or are your civil liberties arbitrarily defined by the current whims of government? How you answer, this question speaks loudly about your understanding of the nature of your very being. Those who deem that natural law is a myth or a superstition are poised for voluntary surrender of their vital identity. The cataloging of individual essence is aberrant. Your deoxyribonucleic acid is the core element of personal uniqueness and human dignity. If your DNA is subject to government collection and storage, the right of personal privacy is destroyed.

The dramatic proliferation of coercive police powers has little correlation to an improvement in public safety. The precedent that convicted criminals lose constitutional rights has gone virtually unchallenged in a society enamored with obedience to state authority. The practice of the law and the judicial review that provides the arbitrary and capricious rulings that incessantly favors the expansion of a greater level of state control, consistently violates common law and inherent principles.

It seems that civil liberties are an underreported topic by most "so called" conservative venues. Alas, the folks on the left at Democracy Now undertake the task of covering the implications and debates the merits of greater police powers in an interview, Supreme Court OKs Unfettered DNA Collection.

"In a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the police can collect DNA samples from people they arrest even before they are convicted of a crime. Supporters of the swabbing method call it "the fingerprinting of the 21st century" that will help nab criminals and break open unsolved cases. But privacy advocates say the ruling is vague because it does not define what constitutes a "serious crime," and could create an incentive for police to make more arrests. The Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 ruling will likely fuel an expansion of DNA swabbing nationwide."

Background on the legislation that mandates DNA mining is a very slippery slope. The DNA Identification Act of 1994 authorized the establishment of a national index of: (1) DNA identification records of persons convicted of crimes, (2) analyses of DNA samples recovered from crime scenes, and (3) analyses of DNA samples recovered from unidentified human remains. Justice for All Act of 2004 instituted material changes to the DNA Identification Act of 1994, including the:

creation of a new indicted persons index;

expansion of the offenses for which federal and military offender samples are collected;

enhancement of the criminal penalties for unauthorized use of NDIS;

authorization of one-time keyboard searches by all NDIS participants of samples not normally

included in NDIS (except for voluntarily submitted elimination samples);

deletion of the separate requirement for semiannual external proficiency tests (although it

retained the separate requirement for biannual external audits);

requirement for state and local forensic laboratories to be accredited by a nationally recognized program within 2 years of enactment (October 30, 2006); and

requirement for the FBI to report to Congress any plans to change the "core genetic markers" 180 days prior to that change taking effect.

The Supreme Court of the United States in their decision, MARYLAND v. KING, drastically extended the scope for DNA sampling based upon a conviction to the new benchmark, an arrest.

In the Washington Post, Professor Brandon Garrett cited in the article, After the Supreme Court’s DNA decision, what is the future of criminal justice?

"Garrett also said that simply adding a DNA sample from everyone who is arrested might even make it harder for police to identify criminals, increasing the likelihood of false positives without adding any perpetrators to the system.

"A lot of innocent people will have their DNA in these databases," he said. "That dilutes the databases and weakens their power." He argued that since many criminals have prior convictions, taking samples only from convicts would be more efficient."

Making the case for privacy rights, David Gusella argues in the Boston Collage Law Review, No Cilia Left Behind: Analyzing the Privacy Rights in Routinely Shed DNA Found at Crime Scenes.

"The purpose of DNA databases is to prevent future crime and to combat recidivism by using the information to catch repeat offenders. The government’s purpose in maintaining DNA samples does not outweigh the privacy rights of individuals because maintaining these samples ostensibly serves no governmental purpose. Despite the fact that many courts have found that convicted felons have a reduced privacy interest due to their past crimes, this privacy interest is diminished, not non-existent. In addition, because innocent people may be included in this database, their right to privacy in their genetic information should outweigh the minimal governmental interest in having access to non-phenotypic information. As a result, states should adopt some sort of limits on the duration of retention of physical DNA samples."

Collecting DNA from defendants is not equivalent with inking fingerprints into a database. Courts, routinely rubber-stamp the broadening of government authority. The calculated assault on liberty is accelerated when the function of peacekeeping morphs into intimidating law enforcement.

The outrageous Supreme Court decision in MARYLAND v. KING violates "due process" and demolishes the principle of innocent until proven guilty. The risk is obvious as stated in the article, Stockpiling of innocents' DNA.

"The policy of indefinitely retaining the DNA of anyone arrested – but not necessarily convicted – has meant that hundreds of thousands of innocent people, including thousands of innocent children, have had their DNA permanently retained."

Are there limits to a national DNA database? If any citizen arrested is subjected to a non- consensual DNA swabs sample, does it end with just suspects? In an age of hyperbolic criminalization of disputed infractions, giving greater discretionary power to an all-pervasive police state is sheer lunacy.

In the disembodied spirit of "it takes a village to raise a child", the article Newborn DNA Registries Raise Privacy Concerns by Sarah McIntosh indicates a disturbing practice.

"A February report in the Texas Tribune revealed the Department of State Health Services was giving hundreds of infant blood spots to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL). According to information obtained through open records requests, AFDIL was in the process of building a national mitochondrial DNA registry."

From the same piece Twila Brase, president of the Citizens' Council on Health Care, warns of the consequences of allowing involuntary DNA samples databases.

"Government ownership enables the state health department and future legislatures to use newborn DNA as they see fit," Brase said. "There is a potential for eugenic strategies, especially in this era of cost containment. Governments and legislatures could implement policies that use the genetic screening data to reduce the bearing of children with costly medical conditions, mandating the kind of decisions you’ve seen with Downs’ Syndrome children."

With the inception of DNA science, the practice of biological engineering has gone wild. Extracting a DNA exemplar at birth is much different from forcing an arrestee to give up a saliva sample. The entire foundation of Western Civilization, based upon the inborn natural human rights of personhood, is violated when state mandates claim their license over your singular essence.

Assembling a massive DNA database on untold millions of Americans is an existential threat to the sacredness of life itself. The government is not our jailer, but is supposed to be our servant. Caution and vigilance oversight of government abuses is a cardinal duty of every American. Reasonable people should never trust the state to be the gatekeeper of your biological building blocks.

Common sense concludes that ownership of your DNA cannot morally be transferred into a communal retrieval system. Big Brother wants to dispatch the Grim Reaper when defective or unacceptable genetic traits are deemed detrimental to the socially collectivist society.
The "PC" misinformation declares, "Eugenics is the applied science of the bio-social movement which advocates practices to improve the genetic composition of a population, usually a human population." The true reality is that government sponsored research projects are seeking ways of culling the herd. DNA collection is the route to dissention elimination. Purging the general population of political undesirables is a goal that most courts would eagerly uphold. As the police state intensifies, the selection process for isolating individuals that resist the tyranny will increase.

If your DNA is in the possession of the illicit authorities, the effortless framing of targeted nuisances becomes a distinct probability. The ease of charging a rebel against the state as a terrorist comes out of a master database. Do you trust the government to obey constitutional precepts and restraints?

Unless the public develops a defiant attitude towards the inhuman incarceration culture, the DNA collection scheme will just inflate the population of embattled captives. The solution is to defend civil liberties at every opportunity. This is not a phony left-right canard. The kernel of universality rests upon the certainty that each individual is sacred. Your DNA is the quintessence of your person and no government can legitimately enforce the theft of your singularity.

People need to learn a greater respect for their own privacy and practice its defense accordingly.

Author Bio

SARTRE is the pen name of James Hall, a reformed, former political operative. This pundit's formal instruction in History, Philosophy and Political Science served as training for activism, on the staff of several politicians and in many campaigns. A believer in authentic Public Service, independent business interests were pursued in the private sector. Speculation in markets, and international businessinvestments, allowed for extensive travel and a world view for commerce. SARTRE is the publisher of BREAKING ALL THE RULES.

Mass Surveillance In America

2013-06-11T08:53:00.001+08:00

Stephen Lendman, Contributor |

It shouldn't surprise. It's longstanding policy. Post-9/11, it escalated. Previous articles said Big Brother is real. It's no longer fiction.

Mass surveillance is official US policy. It's not for national security. It's not about discovering terror or other threats. None whatever exist. Claiming otherwise doesn't wash. Big Lies substitute for vital truths.

What's ongoing reflects unchecked power. It's for unchallenged global dominance. It's secret with no oversight for good reason. It's unconstitutional. Societies governed this way are lawless. People living in them aren't free.

America never was a democracy. It wasn't created to be one. It's not one now. Freedom is verboten. It's vanishing in plain sight. Wealth, power and privilege alone matter. Police state terror targets non-believers.

Money power runs America. Powerful interests alone matter. What they say goes. What they want they get. Obama's their nominal front man. Complicit congressional and judicial officials are involved. So are media scoundrels.

They serve wealth, power and privilege. They spurn populist interests. They pretend otherwise. Policies belie official rhetoric. A previous article said impeaching Obama is vital. It's a national imperative. What's ongoing now may be prelude for much worse to come.

Police states operate this way. They tolerate no opposition. People wanting to live free and saying so are considered enemies. Challenging government of, by and for privileged elites is criminalized. Expect much worse ahead.

Mass surveillance is all-embracing. There's no place to hide. Everyone is watched. Non-believers are targeted. Privacy no longer exists.

Orwell envisioned the future. "Big Brother is watching," he said. "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment."

"How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to."

The worst of what Orwell foresaw is real. It's worse than he imagined. State-of-the-art technology is frightening. It's used repressively. It's a dagger at the heart of freedom. It's being destroyed in plain sight.

NSA is nicknamed No Such Agency. It's the crown jewel of mass surveillance. It's Big Brother writ large. It's too great a menace to ignore.

What's now public knowledge may be the tip of the iceberg. Much more needs to be known. Free societies require sunshine. It's the best disinfectant. It's the only one.

Hopefully more insiders will tell all. Preserving what too vital to lose depends on them. Freedom's too precious to lose. It's practically gone now. Reclaiming what's lost depends on mass opposition against ruthless state terror.

Governments subverting popular interests lack legitimacy. America's Declaration of Independence said so. Governments "deriv(e) their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Whenever government ill-serves, "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Governmentâ€¦."

When longstanding "abuses and usurpations" become despotic, "it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government (and replace it) for their future security."

Colonial America rejected British tyranny. Challenging what replaced it is vital. It's same old under new management. It's old wine in new bottles. It's draconian. It's technologically threatening. It's too intolerable to permit.

Collective activism has power. What better time to use it than now. America’s waging political, social, financial, and hot wars.

It’s doing so globally. It’s happening at home and abroad. Constitutional protections are vanishing. America’s social contract is being destroyed.

Militarization, permanent wars, and unchallenged global dominance reflect policy. So does police state harshness. Dissent is endangered. Privilege is entrenched. Fundamental freedoms are disappearing in plain sight.

Electoral politics doesn’t work. Money power runs America. Vital change more than ever is needed. Authority must be challenged disruptively.

Resisting tyranny is a universal right. Jefferson said doing so "is obedience to God." Women's rights advocate Susan B. Anthony said the same thing.

In his second Treatise of Government, John Locke addressed the "Right of Revolution," saying:

"....acting for the preservation of the Community, there can be but one Supream (sic) Power, which is the Legislature, to which all the rest are and must be subordinate, yet the Legislature being only a Fiduciary Power to act for certain ends, there remains still in the People a Supream Power to remove or alter the Legislature, when they find the Legislative act contrary to the trust reposed in them."

"When government fails the people, its "trust must necessarily be forfeited, and the Power devolve into the hands of those that gave it, who may place it anew where they shall think best for their safety and security."

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote:

"If the law purports to require actions that no-one should ever do, it cannot rightly be complied with; one's moral obligation is not to obey but to disobey."

"If the lawmakers (i) are motivated not by concern for the community's common good but by greed or vanity (private motivations that make them tyrants, whatever the content of their legislation), or (ii) act outside the authority granted to them, or (iii) while acting with a view to the common good apportion the necessary burdens unfairly, their laws are unjust and in the forum of reasonable conscience are not so much laws as acts of violence."

"Such laws lack moral authority, i.e. do not bind in conscience; one is neither morally obligated to conform nor morally obligated not to conform."

"All who govern in the interests of themselves rather than of the common good are tyrants."

"Against the regime's efforts to enforce its decrees, one has the right of forcible resistance; as a private right this could extend as far as killing the tyrant as a foreseen side-effect of one's legitimate self-defence."

Martin Luther King said:

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law."

"I am convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good." King championed "creative protest." Passivity is no option in the face of injustice."

Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" remains a landmark essay.

"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree resign his conscience to the legislator," he asked?

"The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right."

"All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable."

"Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?"

The state "is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion....They can only force me who obey a higher law than I."

Gandhi said throughout history, "there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always."

Ralph Waldo Emerson believed unjust laws must be resisted. His "Representative Men" essays expressed strong abolitionist sentiment.

"I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom....If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own," he said.

Slavery today exists in new forms. Abolishing freedom best explains it. Tolerating what demands challenging assures much worse ahead. It's happening in plain sight.

Mass surveillance permits it. London's Guardian revealed more. On June 8, it headlined "Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data."

The Guardian obtained another leaked document. Hopefully many more will come out.

Boundless Informant (BI) is a data-mining tool. It's used to record and analyze "where its intelligence comes from." It's capability "raise(s) questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the surveillance it performs on American communication."

BI "count(s) and categoriz(es) the records of communications, known as metadata, rather than the content of an email or instant message."

BI documents show NSA collected almost three billion pieces of intelligence "over a 30-day period ending in March 2013."

An NSA fact sheet says BI "allows users to select a country on a map and view the metadata volume and select details about the collections against that country."

It's used internally and abroad. It's a global spy tool. It's watching everywhere all the time. It can if it wants to. In March, DNI head James Clapper testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Senator Ron Wyden asked: "Does NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of American?"

"No sir," said Clapper. He lied saying so. Virtually everyone in America is monitored all the time. NSA is Big Brother writ large. Guardian obtained documents prove it.

NSA capabilities keep improving. What's ongoing now will be technologically advanced ahead. It's used for unchallenged control. Perhaps Orwell explained best.

Power is sought "for its own sake," he said. Ruthless rulers aren't "interested in the good of others." They're "interested solely in power, pure power."

"Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me."

Orwell also said "(u)ntil they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."

Author Bio

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the ProgressiveRadio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

Check out Stephen's new book "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

Twenty TRILLION Phone Calls: “They’ve Been Collecting Data About ALL Domestic Calls Since October 2001″

2013-06-11T08:47:00.001+08:00

Mac Slavo, Contributor |

In 2011, when we noted that Everything You Do Is Monitored, we weren’t embellishing or fear mongering.

This is as real as it gets.

The National Security Agency’s collection of phone data from all of Verizon’s U.S. customers is just the “tip of the iceberg,” says a former NSA official who estimates the agency has data on as many as 20 trillion phone calls and emails by U.S. citizens.

William Binney, an award-winning mathematician and noted NSAwhistleblower, says the collection dates back to when the super-secret agency began domestic surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I believe they’ve been collecting data about all domestic calls since October 2001,” said Mr. Binney, who worked at NSA for more than 30 years. “That’s more than a billion calls a day.”
The data were collected under a highly classified NSA program code-named “Stellar Wind,” which was part of the warrantless domestic wiretapping effort — the Terrorist Surveillance Program — launched on orders from President George W. Bush.

But don’t kid yourself if you think the only data being aggregated, recorded and analyzed is who you called or emailed.

Let’s be clear: EVERYTHING.

Binney explained that the government is taking the position that it can gather and use any informationabout American citizens living on U.S. soil if it comes from:
Any service provider … any third party … any commercial company – like a telecom or internet service provider, libraries, medical companies – holding data about anyone, any U.S. citizen or anyone else.

I then asked the NSA veteran if the government’s claim that it is only spying on metadata – and not content – was correct. We have extensively documented that the government is likely recording contentas well. (And the government has previously admitted to “accidentally” collecting more information on Americans than was legal, and then gagged the judges so they couldn’t disclose the nature or extent of the violations.)

Binney said that was not true; the government is gathering everything, including content.

Binney explained – as he has many times before – that the government is storing everything, and creating a searchable database … to be used whenever it wants, for any purpose it wants (even just going after someone it doesn’t like).

Binney said that former FBI counter-terrorism agent Tim Clemente is correct when he says that nodigital data is safe (Clemente says that all digital communications are being recorded).

Binney gave me an idea of how powerful Narus recording systems are. There are probably 18 of them around the country, and they can each record 10 gigabytes of data – the equivalent of a million and a quarter emails with 1,000 characters each – per second.

Source: Washington’s Blog

The surveillance grid is being put into place all around us and its capabilities are unimaginable to most – something that could only exist in the realm of Hollywood plots.

But this is no $80 million Hollywood movie. The budget for the U.S. government’s surveillance program is 1,000 times that.

At an estimated $80 billion this production employs nearly one million people.

Moreover, anyone who uses a machine to send information – of any kind – over the internet, is indirectly employed by these agencies, as well.

The net is expansive – and it’s growing.

Realistically, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the government simply puts an end to the spying, lays off these one million people, and calls it a day.

Our Congress authorized these activities with the Patriot Act, and subsequent laws that have been enacted since. While this doesn’t mean the new mandates and regulations are just in the eyes of the Constitution, the machine has given itself permission to do exactly what they’ve done. And if the sentiment of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is shared by the rest of his colleagues, this is only going to get worse:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) must have studied his Police State Handbook before giving an interview regarding the Verizon scandal.

“I think we should be concerned about terrorists trying to infiltrate our country and attack us and trying to coordinate activities from overseas within inside the country…

…I’m a Verizon customer. I don’t mind Verizon turning over records to the government if the government’s going to make sure that they try to match up a known terrorist phone with somebody in the United States. I don’t think you’re talking to terrorists. I know you’re not. I know I’m not. So, we don’t have anything to worry about.”

Via: The Organic Prepper

What we have to worry about, Senator Graham, is unprecedented intrusion into every aspect of our lives and a government that will use that information to presume every citizen of this nation guilty in the eyes of the law.

“If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.”

-Cardinal Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis (link)

Despite what this police statist may believe is within the scope of government’s responsibility, the fourth amendment of our Constitution is very clear on this.

As human beings we all have a right to be safe and secure in our persons, homes, and personal effects. This includes our personal private communications and activities.

The government of this country has overstepped its bounds.

The only solution is handcuffs for ALL those responsible for authorizing such transgressions against a free people.

We’re not trying to be pessimists here, but since the odds of that happening are slim to none, we must assume that every digital interaction within the Prism is subject to monitoring. This includes the obvious communication devices like phones and computers, but likewise encompasses your Wifi connected dishwasher, your video gaming system, vehicular GPS tracking, credit card transaction, visits to your doctor, and any appearance you make in front of a camera or microphone. And within just a few short years, even your daily movements, from the minute you step outside your door, will be monitored by a web of thousands of drones hovering quietly above.

All of it is being tapped by a network of processors so advanced that they can record and aggregate yottabytes of data (A yottabyte is equivalent to about 100 trillion DVD’s).

These capabilities exist right now, and they are being used to watch your every move.

Author Bio

Mac would be considered by some to be a doom and gloomer, though he believes reality is reality, and he tries to assign no positive or negative personalperceptionsto any particular event. Mac provides personal commentary and a spin on news and current events. Mac Slavo writes and edits thewebsite:SHTFPlan.com

Ninety Percent Of U.S. Tobacco Is GMO; Hey Smokers, You're Smoking Pesticide!

2013-06-11T08:42:00.001+08:00

S. D. Wells, NaturalNews.com |

Smoke herbicide and pesticide all day and what do you get? You get a recurring hangover that seemingly needs a new blast of nicotine to quell or "dissipate," but in actuality, the only thing the nicotine does is stave off the headache, the nervousness, the anxiety, the "chemical hangover," and after 30 to 40 minutes, it kicks in again, that feeling of angst, of unnecessary worry, and you need another fix. What is the TRUE driving force of the cigarette addiction? Could it possibly be that the 4,000-plus chemicals, which are comprised of pesticide and different super strength herbicides, cause a "hangover" which beckons for relief?

GMO tobacco means that scientists in labs are injecting or infusing the genes of bacteria from the DNA of other living things into the seeds of the tobacco plant. GMO tobacco also means that pesticide and herbicide are inside the tobacco plant, and that farmers who use GM pesticides are spraying up to TEN TIMES MORE RoundUp and other poisons on the crop, adding exponentially to the toxicity of the smoker's nightmare, where these bug and weed killers are mixed with bacteria in the lungs, the heart and the brain, compounding the inability of the pack-a-day smoker to ever quit the habit.

(...)

The tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens): A devastating insect pest of tobacco and cotton, the budworm is an inch and a half long, pale green in color and has pale stripes. The female moths lay their eggs in the bud of tobacco plants and the tiny larvae begin feeding in the unfolded leaflets of the plants, which leaves the plants ragged looking. Once these caterpillars burrow deep into protective foliage, insecticide sprays don't reach them, plus, once the budworm matures, it becomes resistant to most insecticides anyway. This is why the giant agricultural biotech firm Monsanto creates genetically modified plants, my friends, to kill the pests from the inside out. This translates into irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and leaky gut syndrome for humans. This is digestion and lung destruction. This is prostate and bladder cancer. These mutations are birth defects being generated in food and tobacco. See how quickly it all adds up? And what do the killers recommend you use for your own garden pests? They say use more chemicals that cause cancer, like bleach, cascade, Bayer's "suspend," do it yourself pro-grade, "RoundUp," Royal pest control and "Miracle Grow." (http://www.ehow.com/info_7920787_insecticide-bud-worms.html). And what is prescribed later for pesticide disease (cancer)? Chemotherapy. Chemo is just more chemicals for that chemically driven disease.

The tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta): The hornworm is one of the largest insects that damages tobacco. The larvae are greenish in color with white bars on their sides and a reddish horn projecting from the back end. They reach three to four inches in length and are such ravenous feeders that they may completely defoliate plants if not controlled.

The aphid (Myzus persicae): Aphids vary in color from light green to yellow or almost black. Two "tail pipes" or cornicles project from their rear end. Aphids damage tobacco by sucking plant juices from the leaves which causes them to curl. As they feed, they excrete honeydew that supports fungus growth, which gives the tobacco a black sooty appearance. This can result in an uneven curing of the whole tobacco harvest. This is why Biotech develops fungicides - to destroy bugs and fungi, but that can also destroy human gut flora (good bacteria, proteins, enzymes, etc). This digestive destruction feeds cancer. Don't smoke fungicide and don't eat it, if you value your life.

The tobacco wireworm (Conoderus vespertinus): These pests occur throughout the south and can be the predominant species in any field. When full grown the larvae are an inch long and are yellow-brown in color. Tobacco wireworms are hard, shiny and look just like a short piece of wire - hence their name. Wireworms feed on the roots or underground stems of tobacco plants, which often destroys the rest. (http://wiki.bugwood.org/Archive:SEIPM/Tobacco_Insects)

Farmers could use diatomaceous earth to kill these pests, if they only knew about it! Instead, humans are smoking insect and weed killer. When we use pesticides on our lawns or gardens, we're careful to avoid direct contact whenever possible, and we certainly wouldn't knowingly breathe pesticides into our lungs, but that's exactly what smokers do every time they take a puff!

(...)

Video Compilation Of Bilderberg Gathering

2013-06-10T20:31:00.005+08:00

Obama Creates List of Cyber Targets & Militarizes Internet Surveillance

2013-06-10T09:26:00.002+08:00

Susanne Posel, Contributor |

Caitlin Hayden, spokesperson for the National Security Council (NSC) announced the President Obama signed a directive that calls for the national security and intelligence agencies to create a list of potential cyber targets for the development of offensive cyber operations.

Hayden’s statement read: “This directive will establish principles and processes that can enable more effective planning, development and use of our capabilities. It enables us to be flexible, while also exercising restraint in dealing with the threats we face. It continues to be our policy that we shall undertake the least action necessary to mitigate threats and that we will prioritize network defense and law enforcement as the preferred courses of action.”

This week, Obama responded to the revelation in the mainstream media that the National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting data on all Americans under the guise of discovering terroristic plots.

Obama said that this “modest encroachment on privacy . . . helps us prevent terrorist attacks.”

According to the president Americans must accept this “trade-off” that creates balance between privacy and safety. He said: “Nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program is about. In the abstract you can complain about Big Brother and how this is a potential program run amok, but when you actually look at the details, I think we’ve struck the right balance. There are trade-offs involved.”

In defense of unnecessary government surveillance on all Americans, Obama said: “You can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a society.”

In 2012 Obama signed a secret policy directive that gives the military complete control over the internet should the US come under a cyber attack. Being called Presidential Policy Directive 20, the alleged document (being classified) is a guideline that explains how specific federal agencies will be empowered by the Obama administration to intercept online “breaches of security” – including hacking and other digital attacks.

This document assures that the US government is taking the offensive and proactive approach to digital security where network defense is recognized as operations designed to ensure defense of national security. Whether it mean shutting down main servers or local computers that have been identified as targets, a complete shutdown of internet access (although it requires cybersecurity legislation) would not be out of the realm of possibility.

The military’s role in cybersecurity with regard to digital attacks will be to ensure US digital information, data, and privacy be protected. This new responsibility with be worked in conjunction with law enforcement network defenses that are being used to para-militarizing the web using cyber units.

In the Obama cybersecurity executive order is a compromise by the administration offered to those concerned about Big Brother controls invading US citizen’s privacy on the Web. One concession outlined is the sharing of internet traffic information by the US government and private sector corporations involving critical infrastructure and electrical grid. Social media companies would not be held under the same mandate.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, will be given the sole power of oversight to reference top-secret intelligence reports only known to her to bases identification of cyberthreats and individual targets.

Napolitano conveyed concern about the possibility of “attacks on our nation’s control systems — the control systems that operate our utilities, our water plants, our pipelines, our financial institutions.”

In October of last year, DHS began combining resources to create a digital militia that will come to the aid of the US government to protect against cyber threats. Their focus will be all digital government infrastructures, industry, academia and any cyber “emergencies” that may manifest without warning.

Telecommunications corporations are mandated to report “sensitive information” to DHS and provide tat to establish patterns of internet behavior to be deciphered by federal surveillance agencies.

The NATO Co-operative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDC) has written the Tallinn manual defining international law with regard to cyber-attack perpetrated by a government and how they contribute to military retaliation.

The purpose of the CCDC is to work with NATO; as well as “academia and the private sector.” They are an international military organization (IMO) who has entertained General Keith Alexander, commander of US CYBERCOM and the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) to deliver speeches at conferences held at the CCDC.

Alexander said the Central Security Service and the Department of Defense (DoD) are collaborating to collect international intelligence for the purpose of developing a “national security information system” directed toward protecting national infrastructure.

In the manual, the CCDC defines cyber-attack as “reasonably expected to cause injury or death to persons or damage or destruction to objects.”

A cyberwar is conducted with an expectation of causing physical harm, according to the CCDC.

The manual was authored by an “international group of experts: consisting of British lawyers and retired military personnel. There is a strong admonishment toward using cyber-attacks against citizens, hospitals, nuclear power stations and damns. It is expected that should a cyber-attack befall one of these than it would result in tremendous loss of life and be retaliated with “military objectives.”

Cyber-attacks can incur a drastic response from governments; including the use of conventional weapons. The manual explains that hacktivists will be classified as legitimate targets, even though they are technically citizens.

A hacktivist is defined as “a private citizen who on his or her own initiative engages in hacking for, inter alia, ideological, political, religious, or patriotic reasons.”

The manual states: “An act of direct participation in hostilities by civilians renders them liable to be attacked, by cyber or other lawful means.”

The crude definition of whether or not a hacktivist is engaging in “direct participation in hostilities” and become a target was stated as: “”Consider the example of an individual hacktivist who has, over the course of one month, conducted seven cyber-attacks against the enemy’s command and control system. By the first view the hacktivist was only targetable while conducting each attack. By the second he was targetable for the entire month. Moreover in the absence of a clear indication that the hacktivist was no longer engaging in such attacks, he or she would have remained targetable beyond that period.”

Indeed, it is expected that physical wars will be fought over “cyber operations alone might have the potential to cross the threshold of international armed conflict” and hacktivists would be expected to become targets because of their participation in online attacks.

This includes denial-of-service site crashes that are a favorite of hacktivists. The manual authorizes a nation to impose “proportionate counter-measures” to mitigate hacktivist’s attacks and use actual force when necessary.

CYBERCOM was created by the DoD to combine “military missions” and “cyberspace operations . . . [to] conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations.”

The DoD cyber-soldiers are trained in “managing information, securing information, and ensuring our ability to operate.” Because of hacktivist attacks, the advantage must be had by the US Military.

Author Bio

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism Our alternative news-site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporate-funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

Breaking: New PRISM Slide Leaked By The Guardian: NSA Has Direct Access To Servers Of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple And Others

2013-06-10T09:23:00.002+08:00

Mike Adams, NaturalNews.com |

Breaking news -- this is one of the biggest stories of our lifetime -- it is critical for all internet users to read and understand this. The Guardian has just released a new slide today from its collection of 41 PRISM slides detailing the top secret NSA spy program that has, for years, granted the U.S. government "back door" access to the servers of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, AOL, Facebook and others. The new slide, shown below, reveals that every one of these companies has been blatantly and viciously lying to its users over the last several days as they have denied the government has any sort of "direct access" to their servers.

In a brilliant move of strategic journalism, the Guardian held on to this revealing PRISM slide until today, allowing all these tech companies to dig themselves into deep holes of denial regarding participation in the NSA spy program. Once all the companies were on the record claiming government has no "direct access" to their servers, the Guardian slapped down this jaw-dropping top secret slide image shown below. It reveals, in plain English, that the NSA's "FAA702" operations engage in "collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple."

That slide, originally published by the Guardian, is shown here:

In one fell swoop, the credibility of the top U.S. technology companies as well as the federal government has now been shattered. They've all been lying to us. Maliciously... destructively... demonically!

It is now obvious that Facebook is a massive spy network whose primary purpose is to get you to upload and post all your personal information so that all that information can be data-mined by government spooks. The primary purpose of Gmail is not to provide a free email services, but rather to get people to send and receive emails through an online service that's directly scanned by the NSA.

All these tech giants -- Hotmail, YouTube, Apple, AOL, Yahoo Mail -- exist to spy on you and turn over your information to government spooks... in total violation of U.S. law and basic human dignity.

Tech giants conspired with government to betray their own users

What this astonishing PRISM slide reveals is that all your favorite tech companies are actively working against you, treating you like a criminal suspect while secretly sifting through all your personal emails, phone calls, files and photos. This was all being done with the complete approval of Bush, and then Obama. Unless it is stopped, it will certainly be carried on by the next president, too, who will inherit the infrastructure of a massive police state spy grid.

Now the whole world knows that Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Apple and others are actively conspiring with the federal government to violate your Fourth Amendment rights, steal your private data, deceive you about the purpose of their services and betray you at every level. Furthermore, it is now established that the NSA has direct access to tech company servers where it can scan and copy all your private data in real time.

That the federal government even believes it has the right and the power to engage in such a massive surveillance effort is beyond alarming. These are the actions of a government seeking to utterly destroy privacy and dominate all citizens while making sure none of those citizens ever found out what was really going on.

The government's position is that YOU cannot have any secrets. But the government itself can do anything and everything in secret, including violating your rights and even violating federal law a million times a second as it scans the private emails and postings of innocent American citizens.

(...)

Read More: Breaking: New PRISM Slide Leaked By The Guardian: NSA Has Direct Access To Servers Of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple And Others

The Prison Industrial Complex

2013-06-10T09:17:00.002+08:00

Dave Hodges, Contributor |

Only the most vile, degenerate and immoral person could feel good about the practice of for profit institutionalized slavery which dominated the southern economy for 300 years. What is even more unacceptable is that people who knew better, presumably Christian people with a conscience did little or nothing while evil was triumphing.

Today, America is witnessing the rebirth of institutionalized slavery within its borders and it is indeed a predominantly racist practice with Latinos and Blacks comprising the bulk of the new slaves. And we are also witnessing racist rates of incarceration within our juvenile justice system. This outrageous practice should be decried by every media outlet in the country, but this problem is all but ignored by the mainstream media (MSM). Why? Because the MSM is making money off of this unholy practice.

A Growing Customer Base

There are over two million inmates in American prisons, or one in 743 people. Communist China, which has five times the population of the United States, has 500,000 less inmates. The United States has only 5% of the world’s population, but has 25% of the world’s prison population.

In 1972, the U.S. had less than 300,000 inmates. By 1990, the incarceration rate had skyrocketed to one million and by today, the rate has more than doubled again. Again, I ask why? Because there is very big monied interests behind the growth industry of privatized prisons.

According to Charles Campbell, author of The Intolerable Hulks (2001), the privatization of the prisons movement has its origins in the Revolutionary War period. England began to put undesirables and prisoners in prison ships. The U.S. fully embraced the use of private prisons during the Reconstruction Period (1865-1876) in the south, following the Civil War. Plantation owners and business owners needed “free” replacements to compensate for the loss of their previous slave laborers. In 1868, convict leases were awarded to private business interests in order to bolster their labor workforce and the practice continued until the early 20th century.

Today, this practice has been taken over by private corporate interests who are increasingly taking over our prison system and this unholy practice is no less exploitative than the slave labor abuses of the past and as in all forms of slavery, it is being fueled by profit.

Prison for Profit

The Corrections Corporation of America is the largest private prison operator in the United States. The CCA procured its first private prison in, ironically, 1984.

Did you know that in many states, privatized prisons are guaranteed 90% occupancy rates by the government?

According to theCalifornia Prison Focus“The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being “an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps.”

The Impetus Behind the Prison Industrial Complex

According to public analysis from the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), the largest holder in Corrections Corporation of America is Vanguard Group Incorporated. Vanguard is a major player in controlling several media giants. Vanguard is the third largest holder in Viacom and AOL Time Warner. Vanguard is also the third largest holder in the GEO Group. The GEO group, second only in size to the CCA with regard to privatized prisons as it controls over 100 correctional facilities in the US, UK, Australia and South Africa. In addition to CCA’s unwarranted control over the media, the number-one holder of both Viacom and Time Warner is a company called Blackrock. Blackrock is the second largest holder in CCA, and the sixth largest holder in the GEO Group in this never-ending incestuous relationship.

The conclusion is inescapable. The people who control privatized prisons in the United States are also heavily vested in the media. This is why you don’t hear about the Prison Industrial Complex in the media and the installation of institutionalized slavery in our privatized prisons goes largely unreported in the media.

Vanguard Windsor II Investment Fund owns CCA. However, CCA is a minute part of the Vanguard Windsor II Funds. Vanguard Windsor is also invested in corporate giants like JP Morgan, IBM Pfizer and Conoco. This accounts for the Wall Street backing of privatized prisons and the subsequent lobbying for longer and stricter prison sentences which fuels this growth industry.

This makes the privatized prison industry a Wall Street backed growth opportunity.

Increasingly, the victims of this corrupt prison system are the youth of America.

Need A Job? Go to Prison, They’re Hiring

The Prison Industrial Complex is an impressive growth industry which is fueled by its Wall Street investors and leads to greatly overcrowded and inhumane prisons.

According to the Left Business Observer, the highly privatized federal prison industry produces “100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Thus, we see a partial marriage between private prisons and our government’s wars of occupation. Namely, prison slave labor is being used to produce the weapons and supplies of war.

America has found and antidote to the loss of manufacturing through the various free trade agreements (i.e. NAFTA, CAFTA). Unfortunately, prison slave labor is the solution. The Left Business Observer identifies private corporate interests benefiting from prison slave labor which includes the manufacturing of “93% of all paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture.”

Go to School and End Up In Prison

There are almost 75,000 juveniles in prison and the rates are skyrocketing because of a phenomenon that is now being referred to as the school to prison pipeline in which schools are increasingly refusing to deal with even minor discipline issues and are placing juveniles in police custody.

In 2010, there were 5,574 school-based arrests of juveniles in the Chicago Public School. The juvenile arrests accounted for about one of every five juvenile arrests in the entire city of Chicago for all of 2010. The incarceration rates for Chicago’s juveniles are in line with most other metropolitan areas in the country. There is also a general trend of disproportionate rates of minority contact within the juvenile justice system, Black youth accounted for 74% of school-based arrests, and 22.5% of youth arrested were Latino. The enrollment of Chicago schools in was 45% Black and 41% Latino. These high arrest rates for so many of our minority youth, create potential slave laborers for the Prison Industrial Complex. Once a child is adjudicated in the justice system, society usually witnesses a straight line right to prison. These precious children are having their futures robbed from them before they can even get started. What are they being arrested for? The number one reason is fighting on school grounds.

As a child, I had fights on school grounds, but nobody tried to send me to prison. The number two reason why children end up in the justice system is for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

As a former mental health counselor, I am all too familiar with the devastation brought on by use of drugs. However, marijuana is not one of these drugs. If legalizing marijuana runs against everything you believe in, how about decriminalizing. In other words, we still make the drug illegal but nobody goes to prison for simple possession.

The federal authorities, controlled by the corporations will never allow such a common sense, liberalized approach to drug enforcement. The feds even arrest medical marijuana dispensers and users. Why? Because Wall Street wants prisoners to fill its increasingly privatized and for-profit prison system. This is the major reason why America has 25% of the world’s prison population.

Our minority youth, in the inner cities, are being conditioned by the system that going to prison is part of the life experience. And with extremely high recidivism rates, prison slave labor will never have any shortage of participants.

The Prison Industrial Complex and their lobbyists are responsible for zero tolerance policies, mandatory sentencing and the three strikes life sentencing that is so prominent in many of our states and unless we identify these abuses and stop them, it is only going to get worse.

These events are culminating to establish was has been dubbed as the School to Prison Pipeline

Increasingly, the youth of America are the main participants and as a result slavery has reared its ugly head in the modern era and it is racist and exploits many of our youth for profit. And that is the topic of Part two of the Prison Industrial Complex.

Author Bio

Dave is an award winning psychology, statistics and research professor, a college basketball coach, a mental health counselor, a political activist and writer who has published dozens of editorials and articles in several publications such asFreedoms Phoenix, News With Views and The Arizona Republic. The Common Sense Show features a wide variety of important topics that range from the loss of constitutional liberties, to the subsequent implementation of a police state under world governance, to exploring the limits of human potential. The primary purpose of The Common Sense Show is to provide Americans with the tools necessary to reclaim both our individual and national sovereignty.

Video: David Icke Arrives At Bilderberg 2013

2013-06-09T09:32:00.000+08:00

The U.S. Government Has Been STEALING User Data From Major Internet Companies Without Their Permission

2013-06-09T09:28:00.002+08:00

Michael Snyder, Contributor |

The U.S. government has been hacking in to the servers of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple and has been taking their user data without their knowledge or consent. According to the Washington Post, the information being stolen includes "audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs". This program is known as PRISM, and it was first revealed by the Washington Poston Thursday. Since the story broke, Director of National IntelligenceJames Clapper has admitted that PRISM exists and so has Barack Obama. The Washington Post initially claimed that all of the Internet companies were willingly handing over their user data to the government. Now we are learning that is NOT true. In fact, all of the Internet companies named in the Washington Post story have denied knowing about PRISM or ever giving the federal government permission to directly access their servers.

So this means that the U.S. government has been stealing massive amounts of user data from the largest Internet companies in the world without their permission. Of course this is highly illegal and it directly violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but you can bet that the Obama administration is going to do everything that it can to get the courts to "make it legal". Hopefully the revelation of this program will be enough to get the American people to realize that we are rapidly being transformed into a Big Brother police state that is descending into tyranny.

Barack Obama has described the systematic gathering of cell phone records and the Internet spying that the federal government has been doing as "modest encroachments" that we should all just accept as part of the price of living in a modern world, but if we allow the government to get away with this, where will it end?

Even if we had a total "Big Brother" society where the government watched everything that we did 24 hours a day, bad people would still do bad things. There would still be terror attacks and great tragedies. No matter how much the government intrudes into our lives, it can never guarantee us 100% safety.

Those that founded the United States understood this. They did not want this country to be turned into a police state. That is why they guaranteed us some very important protections in the Bill of Rights. If the government wants to do a search, there are some very important procedures that must be followed first.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration appears to believe that the Constitution does not apply to user data on the Internet. The NSA is apparently hacking into Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple and taking whatever they want without ever getting permission from those companies.

You can bet that there are some very, very angry executives at those companies right now that are trying to figure out how to respond to these revelations.

All of these companies have vehemently denied that they were involved. At this point, there is no reason to doubt their very strong denials.

For example, the following is what Larry Page, the CEO of Google and David Drummond, the Chief Legal Officer of Google wrote in a message to Google users on Friday...

Dear Google users—

You may be aware of press reports alleging that Internet companies have joined a secret U.S. government program called PRISM to give the National Security Agency direct access to our servers. As Google’s CEO and Chief Legal Officer, we wanted you to have the facts.

First, we have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. Indeed, the U.S. government does not have direct access or a “back door” to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday.

Second, we provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law. Our legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don’t follow the correct process. Press reports that suggest that Google is providing open-ended access to our users’ data are false, period. Until this week’s reports, we had never heard of the broad type of order that Verizon received—an order that appears to have required them to hand over millions of users’ call records. We were very surprised to learn that such broad orders exist. Any suggestion that Google is disclosing information about our users’ Internet activity on such a scale is completely false.

Finally, this episode confirms what we have long believed—there needs to be a more transparent approach. Google has worked hard, within the confines of the current laws, to be open about the data requests we receive. We post this information on our Transparency Report whenever possible. We were the first company to do this. And, of course, we understand that the U.S. and other governments need to take action to protect their citizens’ safety—including sometimes by using surveillance. But the level of secrecy around the current legal procedures undermines the freedoms we all cherish.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has issued a similar denial. He insists that Facebook never even heard of PRISM until Thursday...

I want to respond personally to the outrageous press reports about PRISM:

Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers. We have never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively. We hadn't even heard of PRISM before yesterday.

When governments ask Facebook for data, we review each request carefully to make sure they always follow the correct processes and all applicable laws, and then only provide the information if is required by law. We will continue fighting aggressively to keep your information safe and secure.

We strongly encourage all governments to be much more transparent about all programs aimed at keeping the public safe. It's the only way to protect everyone's civil liberties and create the safe and free society we all want over the long term.

So how has the U.S. government been getting this user data if they do not have the cooperation of these large Internet companies?

They have been stealing it.

Is this the kind of society that we want to have? Do we really want the government to be free to hack into the servers of Internet companies and take user data any time that it wants?

And guess what?

According to the Wall Street Journal, the NSA has also been gathering massive amounts of credit card data as well...

The National Security Agency's monitoring of Americans includes customer records from the three major phone networks as well as emails and Web searches, and the agency also has cataloged credit-card transactions, said people familiar with the agency's activities.

So if you ever bought something embarrassing with a credit card, there is a very good chance that the NSA knows about it.

If you don't like where all of this is headed, then now is the time to stand up and say something about it.

Sadly, the truth is that most of our politicians see absolutely nothing wrong with our current system. The following is what Barack Obama said in response to the recent revelations about the NSA...

"You can't have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We're going to have to make some choices as a society," he said. "I think that on balance, we have established a policy and a procedure that the American people should feel comfortable with."

Do you feel comfortable with the fact that the NSA is hacking into major Internet companies and stealing their user data?

I know that I definitely am not.

I think that the journalist that originally broke the story about how the government is systematically gathering our phone records summed up what many of us are feeling right now pretty well...

“There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal, and that is to destroy privacy and anonymity, not just in the United States but around the world,” charged Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for the British newspaper “The Guardian,” speaking on CNN. “That is not hyperbole. That is their objective.”

What do you think?

Is all of this government spying good for America or bad for America?

Please feel free to share your opinion by posting a comment below...

Author Bio

Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogsThe American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. You can follow him on Twitter here

Check out Michael's new book - "The Beginning of the End"