July 6, 2009
- Graduates Recite The Lord's Prayer Despite ACLU Ban
- Mainstream Media Can't Admit Its Part of the Problem
- Ron Paul's Bill Would Put Fed on the Hot Seat
- Shocking Book Details New Info On Israeli Attack on USS Liberty
- Guns Even the Score Against ‘Evil'
- Big Media Ignore Ultimate Crimes
- Only Persistent Citizen Pressure Can Stop Thought Censorship Bill
- Retired Navy Officer Charges President With Treason
- Time for Millions of Ordinary Americans To Stand Up and Do the Extraordinary
- Straight Thinking On Iran Needed
- Congress Can Stop the Wars By Stopping the Funding By Ron Paul
- U.S. Almost Fooled Into Attack on Egypt in 1967
July 13 & 20, 2009
- Obama High Court Choice A Globalist At Heart
- Video Threats Against Obama Ignored
- NAFTA Highway Dealt Another Serious Blow
- The Untold Story of Michael Jackson
- What Would Founders Think About ‘Gay' Marriage?
- $3 Billion to Israel
- Senate Democrats Block Measure to Audit the Fed
Whole Body Health
- Genetically Modified Organisms Deemed Unfit for Human Consumption by Study
- Studies Show Animals Fed ‘GM' Grains Develop Wide range of Odd Illnesses
- Strange Bug Rampant in Hospitals
July 27, 2009
- Audit Will Expose Fed
- Populist Icon Eustace Mullins Visits AFP
- Russia, U.S. Agree to Renew Effort To Reveal Truth About U.S. POWs
- Unknown Agency Monitors Thoughts of Military Families
- Concentration Camps In U.S.: Are They Real?
- Researchers Convinced Obama Not 'Natural Born'
- Expect Disastrous Consequences if U.S. Attacks Iran
- Fed, Allies in Congress Want Bankers to Retain God-Like Powers By Ron Paul
Nearly 400 graduating seniors at Pace High School in Santa Rosa County, Fla. stood up in protest against the ACLU and recited the Lord's Prayer during their graduation ceremony on Saturday. Many painted crosses on their graduation caps to make a statement of faith. This event follows a lawsuit the ACLU filed against the Santa Rosa County School District, claiming some of the teachers and administration endorsed religion. Liberty Counsel, a law firm represents Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and schoolteacher Michelle Winkler.
The protest was preceded by a lawsuit filed six months ago by the ACLU. The school district entered into a consent decree, which essentially bans all Santa Rosa County School District employees from engaging in prayer or religious activities. The ACLU alleges that during a dinner event held at Pace High School, Lay asked the athletic director to bless the meal.
The ACLU also alleges that Michelle Winkler's husband, who is not a school board employee, offered prayer at an awards ceremony. Leading up to the graduation ceremony, the ACLU demanded the school stop students from offering prayers or saying anything religious. The ACLU then charged Lay and Mrs. Winkler with contempt of court.
The students were furious with the ACLU for hijacking their free speech rights and decided to take a stand at graduation. As soon as Lay asked everyone to be seated at the ceremony, the graduating class remained standing and recited the Lord's Prayer. The ACLU has not taken any legal action yet.
Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented:
"Neither students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate. The students at Pace High School refused to remain silent and were not about to be bullied by the ACLU. We have decided to represent faculty, staff and students of Pace High School, because the ACLU is clearly violating their First Amendment rights. Schools are not religion-free zones, and any attempt to make them so is unconstitutional." For more, go to www.LC.org.
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Here in the shadow of colorful late journalistic icon H.L. Mencken, known for his revealing news stories and biting commentaries that bore his unmistakable grit and wit, professionals from the dominant corporate media and some independent media gathered for a conference in Mencken's beloved Baltimore. But many acted as if his legacy did not exist. Indeed, most of the attendees seemed to sing the same "collective tune" at the conference, held by Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) in June.
AFP EDITOR DISCUSSES MENCKEN, MEDIA
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Mencken — judging from his life history as "the bad boy of Baltimore" whose pen poked holes in countless scandals but extended into the philosophical and literary realms—likely would have been repelled by the "tune" that IRE played. One can imagine him bristling at the mantra that IRE discussion leaders invoked, calling on newspapers in these tough times to pool their efforts, even among competitors, and take a collective approach to news stories.
News "cooperatives," often funded by tax-exempt foundations, are assuming center stage, while the old model of aggressive commercial or employee-owned news outlets striving for individuality with firebrand reporters whose distinctive personality is part of the enterprise is taking a back seat. Were it not for certain Internet blogs and a relative handful of publications like AFP, Republic Magazine, the Idaho Observer and Rock Creek Free Press, among others, the old model could die in America. The IRE conferees also spoke highly of conventional daily papers pooling their news-gathering and writing operations with college and university papers to cut costs and diversify the news, yet little concern was voiced over whether such a practice would funnel the notorious "politically correct" bias at U.S. universities through their student bodies and into community newspapers.
A key question is the general direction news will take in America, given the economic decline that is putting the squeeze on the daily newspapers and on Americans who look to the media for answers. The Ann Arbor News in Michigan has closed; The Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer have closed;
The Boston Globe is reportedly "taking on water," the Washington Post is losing money; and Chicago's dominant newspapers have sought bankruptcy protection. Will the U.S. big-city newspapers risk losing an increasingly frustrated but better-informed readership (thanks to the Internet) by continuing to downplay certain issues while blacking out critical ones like the secretive Bilderberg group? Or will enough independent outlets work their way into the mix so that Americans can finally read things in their media that are only reported in Europe and elsewhere?
AFP attended several programs at the conference to learn about new developments, along with practical tips on covering the news. A lot of useful information, success stories and other upbeat, inspiring items were shared. However, the "underbelly" of the event indicates that certain taboo topics in the public interest—limited in number but profound in importance—still may not get the wide coverage they should. Just as AFP one year ago at a Minnesota media conference pressed longtime CBS News anchor Dan Rather on the Bilderberg group—where he claimed he had never heard of it—AFP asked the same question, among others, at this IRE conference, in an effort to understand the outlook of media leaders at a pivotal time in U.S. history when our standard of living and freedom itself literally hang in the balance.
AFP approached Leonard Downie Jr., vice president at-large of The Washington Post, right after his book signing alongside veteran Post reporter and author Bob Woodward. Downie, who had just given a conference talk with Woodward on the topic "Accountability and Digging Deep" regarding news practices, did not deny existence of the Bilderberg group, only its importance.
"We've got a lot of problems but that's not one of them," he told AFP.
AFP simply was curious whether Bilderberg's secret get-togethers are a worthy news topic for "digging deep" in these perilous times.
Downie only added: "I have never been there." When asked earlier by this reporter in front of 500 people whether the decline of conventional American media readership is purely economic in nature—or whether readers might feel "betrayed" by a media that seems to have few answers for anxious Americans and appears to be part of the power structure rather than separate from it—Downie replied that overall readership of newspapers and websites is up and that things are not as bad as they seem for the major media, overall.
Woodward felt "betrayed" was too strong a word, but he agreed that the people feel "let down" and they do deserve answers. He went on to share a story about his interactions with the late Katharine Graham, who ran the Post for many years. A couple other reporters in the audience volunteered to AFP a few minutes later that Downie and Woodward largely evaded answering AFP's question, in their view.
However, during a previous IRE program that day, Wall Street Journal writer Jon Hilsenrath— who stated that the Federal Reserve System is his regular beat—replied to AFP that he is aware of HR 1207 to audit the Fed for the first time since its 1913 creation. While he did not firmly state whether he would report on this bill—though this AFP writer announced that the bill had more than 200 co-sponsors and growing—he did note that the Fed, during an economic crisis that has exposed some of the Fed's questionable practices, has hired a lobbyist to counter the proposed audit.
AFP has already reported on the Fed hiring a lobbyist June 22, 2009. That issue also contains AFP's special Bilderberg 2009 Wrap-up Report that includes an attendees list of the 2009 Bilderberg meeting recently held in Greece; the names of Donald Graham, chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Company, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke both appear on the list, along with that of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the New York Federal Reserve's former director.
Downie also took part in a presentation with David Boardman of the Seattle Times and Manny Garcia of the Miami Herald. The panelists noted that newspapers, such as those within Washington state, will be sharing the same stories, except for "exclusive" stories. When AFP noted that many readers, sensing that all the major newspapers in a given region are printing mostly the same "homogenized" news and that readers may stop purchasing all of those papers and turn to the Internet, the panelists agreed that this is a problem. But they feel that their collective approach may be the only way to stay afloat. There was even less official talk at the IRE conference of one central copy desk being set up for two or more newspapers—meaning centralized editing for newspapers—even if the papers have separate owners.
"There will be newspapers that adapt to the new ‘ecosystem' and those that don't," Downie said, while Boardman said that the key for struggling newspapers is to "forge symbiotic relationships within the ecosystem." Downie added: "We are one of the papers that is losing money," which is offset, he said, by income from the Post's Kaplan educational project. "It's an experiment—a work in progress," Garcia told AFP. He added that such a "trial by fire" is "not always easy." Boardman added that even though readers may migrate around to various other news sources, the Seattle Times newspaper and website still intend to be the "portal," or "central platform" for the community of the Northwest.
Is Mencken pacing the floor in eternity right now?
You be the judge.
MARK ANDERSON is AFP's corresponding editor.
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Treasury Department Secretary Timothy Geithner is calling on Congress to hand the privately owned and controlled Federal Reserve even more power to regulate financial markets at a time when there is growing support among legislators to put Fed bankers on the hot seat by giving federal officials the authority to audit the central bank.
In the June 29 edition, AMERICAN FREE PRESS reported that the Federal Reserve Transparency Act (H.R. 1207) introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) had picked up "enough sponsors to get it out of committee and onto the floor of the House of Representatives."
The bill gives the federal government the power to audit the privately owned and controlled Federal Reserve and its various funding arms, which have loaned, given out or guaranteed trillions of dollars to various Wall Street pals and financial institutions. At that time, the bill had 226 co-sponsors—more than half the entire membership of the House. Since then, however, the number has grown to 243, with more joining every day.
The rising popularity of Paul's bill contrasts sharply with recent statements made by Geithner, who wants to give Federal Reserve bankers even more power to regulate financial institutions. The problem for Geithner is that it was former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's loose fiscal policies that have largely been to blame for the economic woes facing the country. For decades, Greenspan flooded the world with U.S. dollars, creating the perfect environment for Wall Street speculators and bankers to dig themselves a financial hole so deep that they took Main Street with them.
Now, as part of a sweeping financial overhaul proposed by the Obama administration, Geithner wants to give the Fed even more power to oversee the largest financial firms such as Citigroup and Bank of America. It's the equivalent of putting the fox in charge of the brooder after he's already eaten most of the chickens in the henhouse.
During a recent hearing on the matter, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), a longtime critic of the Fed, grilled Geithner: "What makes you think the Fed will do better this time around?"
Geithner could only respond that empowering the Fed "made the most sense, given the circumstances."
It should be no surprise that Geithner continues to side with the central bank given the fact that he served as the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009. The New York Fed is considered the most powerful of the regional central banks due to its location near Wall Street and the leadership role it plays in setting monetary policy.
Meanwhile, Paul's call to audit the Fed continues to make headlines across the country.
In mid June, CBS News reported in depth on Paul's measure, which "mandates a thorough audit of the Federal Reserve."
"The tremendous grass-roots and bipartisan support in Congress for H.R. 1207 is an indicator of how mainstream America is fed up with Fed secrecy," Paul said.
"I look forward to this issue receiving greater public exposure."
Christopher Petherick is a journalist and publisher based in Maryland. For more information, see his website at www.brandywinehouse.us or write directly to BRANDYWINE HOUSE BOOKS AND MEDIA, P.O. Box 638, Cheltenham, MD 20623. Petherick encourages all readers with Internet access to sign up for AFP's free weekly email newsletter. It's loaded with house news and special offers available only to newsletter recipients and AFP web site users. See AmericanFreePress.net.
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This much we do know: On June 8, 1967, during the Six Day War, Israel surprisingly launched a deadly attack upon a lightly armed American spy ship cruising off the coast of Egypt, Israel's enemy at the time. When the attack ended, 34 of the USS Liberty's crew were dead and 171 others were injured, many of them critically.
Here's what we don't know, and may never know: why the Israelis decided to mount the attack. The Liberty was clearly marked, flying the American flag and behaving in a completely benign manner. Moreover, it bore almost no resemblance to the much smaller Egyptian freighter some Israelis said they thought they were attacking. Israel's explanations ranged from lame to downright unbelievable.
Nor will we ever know, for certain, why the United States government's response was so uneven, unless we simply credit those who believe that the pro-Israel lobby in Washington is so all-powerful that American politicians felt too vulnerable to risk its wrath.
We do know that the attack on the Liberty came when the war in Vietnam was going badly and President Lyndon B. Johnson was almost paralyzed by a fear of failure.
James Scott's father was the damage control officer aboard the Liberty, so he had exceptional access to the inside story of the attack. But he didn't simply rely on tales told around the family dining table. He conducted prodigious research to document every aspect of the story, a story that only briefly made headlines before fading into historic obscurity.
Unfortunately, the lessons that should have been learned from the Liberty episode didn't prevent the United States from putting another spy ship, the USS Pueblo, at risk. Seven months after the Liberty was attacked, the Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans in international waters and held hostage, with its crew, for almost a year.
As a former newspaper reporter, Scott knows how to dig for facts, and his book resonates with the results of his relentless search for the truth. Unfortunately, it would appear that the Israeli government was either unwilling or (for reasons that defy logic) unable to conduct its own investigation in such a way that the findings would be credible.
In fairness, Israel did apologize for the attack, but its inability, or its refusal, to provide a plausible explanation for it remains an insult to the victims and their families, not to mention the United States government (which didn't exactly cover itself with glory in its own investigation).
Anyone reading Scott's account of the encounter that occurred 42 years ago may be infuriated by the diplomatic and military blunders (or deceit) on both sides, and yet the most compelling passages of his narrative are those that describe the horrors of the attack and the dreadful consequences for those aboard the Liberty. It is high time someone drew our attention to this tragedy, and Scott has done it in magnificent fashion.
Al Hutchison of Citrus County, Fla., is a freelance writer. His father was a skipper aboard Liberty and Victory ships in World War II. This review originally appeared in The Tampa Tribune.
The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship by James Scott (hardcover, 384 pages, #LLB, $30; reduced to $27 for members of the AFP READERSHIP COUNCIL). Free S&H inside U.S. Call FAB toll free at 1-888-699-NEWS to charge to Visa or MasterCard. ORDER ONLINE HERE.
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Recently, demanding a harsh new federal ban on semi-automatic firearms, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell evoked the defining argument of the gun-ban movement—their twisted confusion between good and evil.
"It's nuts for ordinary citizens to go out and buy assault weapons. Assault weapons are difficult to operate, they jam easily. If you want a gun to protect your home, it's the last thing you should have. . . . If you have an assault weapon to protect your house, you're crazy . . . they're not very effective."
So much for possession of a firearm on the side of good. What about evil?
In the hands of criminals, Rendell said, "Assault weapons only have one purpose. . . . They fire at short range; they put out a ton of fire at one time; and they are very powerful. . . .There's no purpose for these guns but to kill or maim."
Rendell's convoluted notion of good and evil is the very core of why the gun ban movement defies common sense. It rejects the most important instinct of humanity—self-preservation against evil.
Human beings have a hard-wired program for self-protection; for fighting back; for safeguarding their homes, families and communities. As Americans, that's why we preserve armed self-defense as part of our Second Amendment protections.
Rendell's rant was amplified by ABC's 20/20 special, "If Only I Had a Gun"—a shameless hit-job, totally embracing the gun-ban belief system that armed self-defense in the face of evil—a mass murderer in a public setting—is futile.
That same embrace of evil over good was pressed home by an aggressively pacifist media on an international scale with coverage of Somali piracy and terrorism on the high seas.
In the past year alone, Somali pirates, heavily armed with full-automatic firearms and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), have attacked over 100 commercial vessels and extracted tribute of over $100 million. In an April 10 puff-piece, The New York Times called the pirates "professional," quoting an "expert" saying the pirates have "a business model that has proven very effective for them."
There is a single reason the "business model" works. It is the same reason "gun control" provides an overwhelming advantage to armed criminals. Their unarmed victims can't fight back.
As most Americans proudly know, the pirate "business model" was wrecked when the high-seas thugs attempted to capture an American-flagged ship, the Maersk Alabama—the first U.S. vessel seized in an act of piracy since 1801.
The American crew valiantly fought back and maintained control of their ship. U.S. Navy SEAL snipers aboard the destroyer USS Brainbridge killed three Somali pirates as one was about to murder the ship's captain who had bravely traded his freedom for the safety of his crew.
Even using deadly force to save Capt. Richard Phillips was attacked as a provocation. The Christian Science Monitor quoted a maritime expert: "We fear that this escalation spiral, which we've seen in the past few months, will push pirates into a readiness to shoot."
Most importantly, the Maersk Alabama incident sparked a controversy over something that should be a no-brainer—arming crews.
On the side of reason at a recent Senate hearing was Capt. Phillips, who advocated handing out arms to specially trained officers in times of pirate assault.
Also coming out four-square on the side of using armed guards was Gen. David Petraeus, who now heads the U.S. Central Command, that included military operations in Africa. . . .
The gun-ban crowd would impose a tyrannical doctrine that goes against every human instinct for survival. That policy guarantees not free individuals choosing self-defense against evil, but the triumph of evil over disarmed victims.
Wayne LaPierre is executive VP of the National Rifle Association.
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The Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Baltimore in mid-June featured Hard-hitting reporter Seymour Hersh. In Order to do effective news probes, he recommended interviewing former military and intelligence people instead of relying on documents obtained from Freedom of Information Act requests.
Another panelist disagreed, saying that FOIA is the best way to go. But this AFP writer interjected that the worst crimes are hidden in the open, in the very legislation under which we live - in the NAFTA accord that no one has read; in the Federal Reserve Act that no one has read; and in many other unread laws that are not secret.
Our federal legislators cannot read the endless legislation they mold to rule us. The public and press has never read the legislation. Almost none of today's conventional newspapers bother to chronicle the voting records of legislators who write these bills. When deceased legislators passed laws long ago that still cause evil to arise, our news "informers" can hardly hold back their collective yawn. Instead, they look elsewhere for lesser "scandals" that ultimately are rooted in had legislation that no one seriously read and the press only mentioned in broad terms, if there was any mention at all. Often the passage of far-reaching legislation is reported after the fact, or the advance reports hit the newsstands either too late for the public to make a difference, or the reports are vague or incomplete.
The biggest "scandals" are perfectly legal and are enshrined in institutions that we assume to be unquestionable and infallible, even if we agree they may be capable of short-duration scandals based on certain "corrupt" individuals. But the institution itself dare not be challenged. Going that extra step is too much for the plutocratic press in America. And that is why they fail. An increasing number of net-surfing Americans know as much as the press does. So the conventional press had better get some fresh news to the public that has real meaning, purpose and courage. If not, they will become the laughing stock of the nation.
The Internet has mercilessly leveled the playing field for a press that had grown accustomed to its virtual stranglehold over public opinion. This grasp has been loosened and alarmed Americans are actively digging elsewhere for their information, instead of passively watching TV news or perusing sterile newspapers. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve System - the very essence of institutionalized corruption regardless of who is running - stands to be audited for the first time since the Federal Reserve Act was passed on Dec. 23, 1913.
This proposed audit, HR 1207, should be the top story at a time when Americans want hard answers on the economy. A majority in the U.S. House are cosponsoring it. But the conventional press is nearly silent.
The NAFTA accord is an astonishing 230,000 words in length; the Federal Reserve Act is around 2,800 words; the U.S. Constitution, around 4,500. But the NAFTA treaty and the Federal Reserve statute overturn the crucial trade and monetary provisions of the Constitution. - two areas so huge in practical terms that they conquer our nation itself, directly affecting who will eat and who will starve, who will prosper and who will not. Thus, the Red and NAFTA are criminal in and of themselves, regardless of who the president is, or which party has the upper hand. That is the real "scandal."
Since the NAFTA treaty was portrayed as a statute, it was
illegally passed 15 years ago without the two-thirds Senate approval
required in the Constitution for all treaties; it toppled the
Article I Constitutional requirement that only Congress can regulate
trade with foreign nations. The Federal Reserve Act, like NAFTA,
is no where authorized by the Constitution to exist in the first
place. Read the "Fed Act" and the NAFTA. Both are alien
constitutions that replace our Constitutional order with an unelected
plutocracy (rule by the rich).
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Bowing to pressure from citizen activists and grassroots groups, the Senate leadership has abandoned calls to fast track so-called "hate crimes" legislation - at least for now. According to Rev. Ted Pike, Democratic senators put the thought crimes measure on the back burner after realizing that they did not have enough votes to slip the bill through in the middle of the night without first holding hearings on it.
Pike is the head of the National
Prayer Network and operates the web site truthtellers.org,
which provides daily updates on several hate crime bills currently
making the rounds in Congress. While some of the measures have
already passed in the House, it is becoming increasingly difficult
to sneak these measures through the Senate, which tends to be
more conservative.
The hate crimes legislation that has been on the radar of late refers to language drafted by the office of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would federalize crimes that prosecutors believe fall under the heading of "hate crimes" - those that are directed against specially protected groups designated by the federal government. The concerns that the overly broad language cold also be applied to Christians and others, who oppose homosexuality and abortions, in order to silence them.
Democrats knew they could not pass hate crimes legislation as a stand-alone bill in the Senate so they had attached it to innocuous legislation in an effort to sneak it by under the radar of religious and conservative groups.
As a result, Kennedy's language was attached as an amendment to the Travel Promotion Act (S. 1023), a bill that would create a non-profit corporation to promote leisure, business and scholarly travel to the United States. The bill had been introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) On May 12 and had 46 cosponsors.
However, when word got out about Kennedy's sneaky move, conservative and religious groups called their elective officials in Congress to protest the amendment. Republicans told the Democratic leadership that they wanted to discuss the measure in committee and would object if democrats attempted to slip the amendment through without a hearing on it.
As AFP went to press on June 25, the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing to debate the measure with Attorney General Eric Holder, a supporter of hate crime laws, as the only witness. Opponents of the hate crimes legislation hope that long, drawn-out hearings could sideline it, but Pike is not optimistic the bill will be killed.
"Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will undoubtedly conduct the same ‘kangaroo court' hearings Rep. John Conyers did in the House, ramrodding the hate bill through wile giving the illusion of due process," said Pike. "You can be effective by joining with countless others to jam phone lines to Senate, call in to talk radio, and spread your protests on the Internet.
Those who wish to protest legislation that criminalizes thoughts
can call Congress at 1-877-851-6437 toll free or, if you cannot
get through, you can call the capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Demand that your elected representatives vigorously oppose any
hate crime bill that may come up for a vote.
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In a federal complaint totally ignored by the mainstream media for more than three months, retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Walter F. Fitzpatrick III has formally charged Barack Hussein Obama with the high crime of treason for his illegal ascension to the office of president without lawful qualifications to hold the office.
The federal complaint was filed on March 17, 2009 with U.S. Attorney James R. Dedrick in the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville, after Obama failed to respond to the multiple suits challenging his natural birth status. Dedrick immediately reported Fitzpatrick to Washington as a threat to the president.
Fitzpatrick's criminal complaint* says, in part, "Your criminal ascension manifests a clear and present danger. You fundamentally changed our form of government. The Constitution no longer works. Confident holding your silent agreement and admission, I identify you as a foreign born domestic enemy. My sworn duty, Mr. Obama, is to stand against what you stand for. You are not my president. You are not my commander-in-chief.
"You [Mr. Obama} have broken in and entered the White House by force of contrivance, concealment, conceit, dissembling and deceit. Posing as an imposter president and commander-in-chief, you have stripped civilian command and control over the military establishment. Known military criminal actors - command racketeers - are now free in the exercise of military government intent upon destruction of America's constitutional government."
Over 400,000 American citizens have signed a national petition demanding that Barack Obama keep his campaign promise to operate a "transparent" government, beginning with his own history.
Instead, Obama has spent a million in legal fees to block his true identity from becoming public. His entire past, from birth in Africa to adoption n Indonesia, to his travel on an Indonesian passport, his college records, including how such an "average" individual was able to afford such an expensive Ivy League education, and how he came to be friends with so amy anti-American criminals during that period remains a secret, guarded far more carefully than actual matters of national security.
Barack entered college at Occidental in California in the fall of 1979 and remained at Occidental until the spring of 1981, but certainly would have entered Occidental under the name of Barry Soetoro, the name used since his adoption in Indonesia.
Occidental has stated that "Neither Obama's image nor name appear in any Occidental yearbooks or weekly student newspaper for the years he attended." This means that there is no hard public evidence that proves that Barack Obama ever attended Occidental College. In her 1980 divorce, his mother identified him as Barry Soetoro, a legal citizen f Indonesia, who was still dependent on both parties for his continuing education. This is further proof of his fraudulent occupancy of the White House, because it connotes Indonesian citizenship, the country from which he also held a passport.
Internet writer J.B. Williams says "The man had a blank résumé, a laundry list of evil associates, a past more secret than your average CIA agent, nothing on his résumé that screams ‘leader' of anything, and after an uneventful freshman year as a U.S. senator, managed to become president of the United States."
By leveling these charges, Fitzpatrick may have placed his own head of the chopping block, although this seems doubtful now. Even though retired, he is subject to recall and has pointed out on his website how at least two other Navy men in recent years were recalled to duty for the specific reason of bringing them to trial. One is languishing in Leavenworth Federal Prison.
Potentially, Fitzpatrick has opened himself up to recall, which could then be closely followed by a charge of mutiny, should he fail to obey an order from his alleged commander-in-chief. However, this is unlikely because the Obama records would have to be made public in order to convict him. All evidence seems to now reflect that such an eventuality could only serve to convict Obama.
Fitzpatrick reports that two days after he filed charges,
government agents showed up on his doorstep: "The two Secret
service agents, escorted by two local police officers, arrived
at eight minutes before 3 o'clock in the afternoon. They all
left about an hour later. I'm still here. It's been two months.
[With his inaction] Mr. Obama admits his treason."
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What the United states and the world need is a leader of stature and greatness. The elected President of the United States for many years has been the unelected leader of the free world. This post of leadership was determined by World War II, during which the greatest mobilization of power in history was assembled to defeat Germany and Japan.
America's great aly at that time was the Soviet Union, supplied by the United States, and ruled by the brutal mass murderer Josef Stalin. Franklin Delano Roosevelt sat on the American throne, and Winston Churchill acted for the king of England.
FDR, tired and ailing died during his fourth term (April 1945) as president and succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman, who ordered that two atom bombs be dropped on Hiroshima and Kokura to bring about the unconditional surrender of Japan.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme allied commander in Europe, from his headquarters in Britain, order the invasion of Europe. American and other Allied forces defeated Germany on the west, and the Soviet Union did the honors on the eastern front. (Gen. George S. Patton wanted America to go all the way to Moscow, but he was ordered to stop.)
The shameful outcome of the war had been determined by the "big three" at Yaota and millions of Europeans were permanently enslaved until their freedom got the OK from Western leaders much later.
Today's world is full of pressure or flash points of trouble. Chaos, fighting and even potential conflict are turned off and on. A lot of times it is the media which issues the call to arms by presidential or congressional action or inaction.
North Korea might nuke the United States (Hawaii) at will. If not Hawaii, it could attack Japan, an ancient enemy.
Then there's China that is already being called the world's lone superpower. The United States is at China's mercy both monetarily and militarily. How did that ever happen? Who allowed it? Some transitional leaders on the world stage?
At one time Britain ruled the world. Bt today, its power is more nominal than real. True, the price of gold is set twice daily in "The City," the financial district of London, when five men meet in an office of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd.
The private company running our finances is the so-called Federal Reserve. Congress abdicated its constitutional power to coin money in 1913 when it turned over that control to the Fed.
Until the current banking scandal broke millions of Americans had no idea the Fed is private and, so to speak, has the money concession in the United States.
Other areas of conflict constantly crying out for our attention are Afghanistan and Pakistan. Is Osama bin Laden hiding in a cave in Afghanistan (assuming he is still alive) or is he in Pakistan? Pakistan has the bomb. So does its neighbor India. So does Israel.
Iraq is still bubbling with oil but Iran has taken over the top spot in the news. Israel is a ticking bomb arsenal whose leaders want the Palestinians out of the way and Iran neutralized one way or another. It does not matter if Iran held elections or not. The "wrong" man, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won reelection as president, so the American media continues to call for his ouster.
As for our congress, the leadership abilities under the Capitol dome are limited. Both of the major parties have a limited talent pool of members who solidly stand for the represent America to the world. Of Course, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) comes to mind as being known worldwide for his fight for constitutional government. But the big media has sufficiently sidetracked him.
One person left to lead could perhaps be you, and millions of other Americans, who would rise up as "We the People" and take charge of our leaderless republic. Call them Tea Parties.
But be sure to make your voice heard. You might be more ready
than you ever thought to play a leadingt role on the world stage.
Think about it.
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Isn't it amazing to see and hear all of the television experts on Iran who have suddenly spring up like poison ivy? They're all there. Blond beauties reading their lines, dimple-cheeked boys and of course, Mr. Ugly himself, Charles Krauthammer, a spokesman for a chronic national troublemaker.
They know everything there is to know about the internal situation in Iran, except, it seems, the fact that Iran is currently in a recession, with 30 percent unemployment and double-digit inflation.
We have not witnessed any of these talking heads saying what is important, which is that we have no business telling the people there that to do. We should keep our dirty hands off their problems, exactly as they should not tell us what to do.
Judging by history, it is a sure bet that the CIA and its brains, Israel, are involved up to their snouts in fanning the flames of discontent.
Remember what happened the last time our genius CIA controllers messed around in Iran? We ousted Mohamed Mossadeq, put in the corrupt shah and many Iranians and Americans were killed. Now - following the law of unintended consequences - we are faced again with fundamentalist Islam.
Answer this. Can Americans in our polluted democracy conduct our own affairs any better than the Iranians conduct theirs?
Iran (Persia) has been around 10 times longer than the U.S. What do we have to teach them other than hypocrisy, arrogance, corruption and vainglorious folly?
As our country careens toward a worthless dollar, national
bankruptcy and anarchy, maybe it's time to follow the advice
of George Washington (remember him?) And mind our own business
before it's too late.
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Congress Passed the war supplemental appropriations bill. In an affront to all those who thought they voted for a peace candidate, the current president will be sending another $106 billion we don't have to continue the bloodshed in Afghanistan and Iraq, without a hint of a plan to bring our troops home.
Many of my colleagues who voted with me as I opposed every war supplemental request under the previous administration seem to have changed their tune. I maintain that a vote to fund the war is a vote in favor of the war. Congress exercises its constitutional prerogatives through the power of the purse, and as long as Congress continues to enable these dangerous interventions abroad, there is no end in sight, that is until we face total economic collapse.
From their spending habits, an economic collapse seems to be the coal of Congress and this administration. Washington spends with impunity domestically, bailing out and nationalizing everthing they can get their hands on, and the foreign aid and IMF funding in this bill can rightly be called an international bailout.
As Americans struggle through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, this emergency supplemental appropriations bill sends $660 million to Gaza, $555 million to Israel, $310 million to Egypt, $300 million to Jordan, and $420 million to Mexico. Some $889 million will be sent to the United Nations for so-called "peacekeeping" missions. Almost $1 billion will be sent overseas to address the global financial crisis outside our borders. Nearly $8 billion will be spent to address a "potential pandemic flu" which could result in mandatory vaccinations for no discernable reason other than to enrich the pharmaceutical companies that make the vaccine.
Perhaps most outrageous is the $108 billion loan guarantee to the International Monetary Fund. These new loan guarantees will allow that destructive organization to continue spending taxpayer money to prop up corrupt leaders and promote harmful economic policies overseas.
Not only does sending American taxpayer money to the IMF hurt citizens here, evidence shows that it even hurts those it pretends to help. Along with IMF loans come IMF-required policy changes, called Structural Adjustment Programs, which amount to forced Keynesianism. This is the very fantasy-infused economic model that has brought our own country to its knees, and IMF loans act as the Trojan horse to inflict it on others. Perhaps most troubling is the fact that leaders in recipient nations tend to become more concerned with the wishes of international elites that the wishes and needs of their own people. Argentina and Kenya are just two examples of countries that followed IMF mandates right off a cliff.
The IMF frequently recommends currency devaluation to poorer nations, which has wiped out the already impoverished over and over. There is also a long list of brutal dictators the IMF happily supported and propped up with loans that left their oppressed populace in staggering amounts of debt with no economic progress to show for it.
We are buying nothing but evil and global oppression by sending your tax dollars to the IMF. Not to mention there is no constitutional authority to do so.
Our continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan does not make
us safer at home, but in fact undermines our national security.
I vehemently opposed this supplemental appropriations bill and
was dismayed to see it pass so easily.
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June 8, 1967 — the fourth day of the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan — was a beautiful day in the Mediterranean. The USS Liberty was in international waters off the coast of Egypt. Israeli aircraft had flown over the USS Liberty in the morning and had reported that the ship was American. The crew, in close proximity to the war zone, was reassured by the presence of Israeli aircraft. But at 2:00 p.m. sailors sunbathing on the deck saw fighter jets coming at them in attack formation. Red flashes from the wings of the fighters were followed by explosions, blood and death. A beautiful afternoon suddenly became a nightmare. Who was attacking the USS Liberty and why? The attack on the Liberty was an attack on America.
The Liberty was an intelligence ship. Its purpose was to monitor Soviet and Arab communications in order to warn both Israel and Washington should the Soviets enter the war on behalf of its Arab allies. The Liberty was armed only with four machineguns to repel boarders. Its request for a destroyer escort had been denied.
The assault on the Liberty is well documented. With no warning, the Liberty was attacked by successive waves of unmarked jets using cannon, rockets and napalm. The attacking jets jammed all of the US communications frequencies, an indication they knew the Liberty was an American ship.
The air attack failed to sink the Liberty. About 30 minutes into the attack three torpedo boats appeared flying the Star of David. The Israeli boats were not on a rescue mission. They attacked the Liberty with cannon, machineguns and torpedoes. One torpedo struck the Liberty mid-ship, instantly killing 25 Americans while flooding the lower decks. The Israeli torpedo boats destroyed the life rafts the Liberty launched when the crew prepared to abandon ship, sending the message there’d be no survivors.
At approximately 3:15 two French-built Israeli helicopters carrying armed Israeli troops appeared over the Liberty. Phil Tourney could see their faces only 50/60 feet away. He gave them the finger. Surviving crewmembers are convinced the Israelis were sent to board and kill all survivors.
The Israeli jets destroyed the Liberty’s communication antennas. While under attack from the jets, crewmembers strung lines that permitted the ship to send a call for help. The USS Saratoga and the USS America launched fighters to drive off the attacking aircraft, but the rescue mission was aborted by direct orders from Washington.
When the Liberty notified the Sixth Fleet it was again under attack, this time from surface ships, the Fleet commander ordered the carriers America and Saratoga to launch fighters to destroy or drive off the attackers. The order was unencrypted and picked up by Israel, which immediately called off its attack. The torpedo boats and the hovering helicopters sped away. Israel quickly notified Washington that it had mistakenly attacked an American ship, and the US fighters were recalled a second time.
The USS Liberty suffered 70% casualties, with 34 killed and 174 wounded. Although the expensive state of the art ship was kept afloat by the heroic crew, it later proved unsalvageable and was sold as scrap.
Why didn’t help come?
No explanation has ever been given by the US government for Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s orders for the Sixth Fleet to abort the rescue mission. Lt. Commander David Lewis of the Liberty told colleagues that Admiral L. R. Geis, commander of the Sixth Fleet carrier force, told him that when he challenged McNamara’s order to recall the rescue mission, LBJ came on the line and said he didn’t care if the ship sank, he wasn’t going to embarrass an ally. The communications officer handling the transmission has given the same account.
A BBC documentary on the Israeli raid reports confusion about the attacker’s identity almost resulted in a US assault on Egypt. Richard Parker, US political counsel in Cairo, confirms in the BBC documentary he received official communication an American retaliatory attack on Egypt was on its way.
The US government’s official position on the USS Liberty corresponds with Israel’s: The attack was unintentional and a result of Israeli blunders. This is the official position despite the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Assistant Secretary of State Lucius Battle, and a long list of US Navy officers, government officials and Liberty survivors are on record saying the Israeli attack was intentional.
According to Helms, Battle and the minutes of a White House meeting, President Johnson believed the attack was intentional. Helms says LBJ was furious and complained when The New York Times buried the story on page 29, but that Johnson decided he had to publicly accept Israel’s explanation. “The political pressure was too much,” Helms said.
US communications personnel, intelligence analysts and ambassadors report having read US intercepts of Israeli orders to attack the Liberty. In one intercept an Israeli pilot reports that the Liberty is an American ship and asks for a repeat and clarification of his orders to attack an American ship. One Israeli who identified himself as one of the pilots later came to America and met with US Representative Pete McCloskey and Liberty survivors. The pilot said he had refused to participate in the attack when he saw it was an American ship. He was arrested upon returning to base.
The Liberty flew the US flag. The ship’s markings, GTR-5, measured several feet in height on both sides of the bow. On the stern the ship was clearly marked USS LIBERTY. Mistaking the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, as Israel claims to have done, was impossible.
Tattered flags show ferocity of the attacks
The Israelis claim the Liberty flew no flag, but two US flags full of holes from the attack exist. When the first flag was shot down, crewmen replaced it with a flag 7 feet by 13 feet. This flag with its battle scars is on display at NSA headquarters at Ft. Mead, Maryland.
Admiral John S. McCain Jr., the father of the current US senator, ordered Admiral Isaac C. Kidd and Captain Ward Boston to hold a court of inquiry and to complete the investigation in only one week. In a signed affidavit Captain Boston said President Johnson ordered a cover-up and that he and Admiral Kidd were prevented from doing a real investigation. Liberty survivors were ordered never to speak to anyone about the event. Their silence was finally broken when Lt. Commander Jim Ennes published his book, Assault on the Liberty.
It is now established fact that the attack on the Liberty was intentional and was covered up by President Johnson and every administration since. There has never been a congressional investigation, nor has the testimony of the majority of survivors ever been officially taken. Moreover, testimony that conflicted with the cover-up was deleted from the official record.
Disgusted by the US government’s official stance discounting the survivors’ reports, Admiral Tom Moorer, retired Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, organized the Moorer Commission to make public the known facts about the attack and cover-up. The Commission consisted of Admiral Moorer, former Judge Advocate General of the US Navy Admiral Merlin Staring, Marine Corps General Raymond G. Davis and former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Akins.
The Commission’s Report concluded:
“That there is compelling evidence that Israel’s attack was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill her entire crew.
“That fearing conflict with Israel, the White House deliberately prevented the US Navy from coming to the defense of USS Liberty by recalling Sixth Fleet military rescue support while the ship was under attack.
“That surviving crew members were threatened with ‘court-martial,
imprisonment or worse’ if they exposed the truth; and [the
survivors] were abandoned by their own government.
“That there has been an official cover-up without precedent
in American naval history.
“That a danger to our national security exists whenever
our elected officials are willing to subordinate American interests
to those of any foreign nation.”
Why did Israel attack the Liberty? Was something super secret going on that is so damaging it must be protected at all cost?
Some experts believe Tel Aviv decided to sink the Liberty because the ship’s surveillance capability would discover Israel’s impending invasion and capture of Syria’s Golan Heights, an action opposed by Washington. Others believe Israel was concerned the Liberty would discover Israel’s massacre of hundreds of Egyptian POWs, a war crime contemporaneous with the attack on the US ship. Still others believe that Israel intended to blame the attack on Egypt in order to bring America into the war. It is known the US was providing Israel with reconnaissance and that there were joint US-Israeli covert operations against the Arabs that Washington was desperate to keep secret.
Survivors with whom I spoke said the attack was the easy part of the experience. The hard part has been living with 40 years of official cover-up and betrayal by the US government. One survivor said that he was asked to leave his Baptist church when he spoke about the Liberty, because the minister and fellow church-goers felt more loyalty to Israel than to a member of the congregation who had served his country. His church’s position was that if our government believed Israel, the survivors should also.
Survivor Phil Tourney said that “being forced to live with a cover-up is like being raped and no one will believe you.”
Survivor Gary Brummett said he “feels like someone who has been locked up for 40 years on a wrongful conviction.” Until the US government acknowledges the truth of the attack, Brummett says the survivors are forced to live with the anger and dismay of being betrayed by the country they served.
Survivor Bryce Lockwood has been angry for 40 years. The torpedo that killed his shipmates, wrecked his ship and damaged his health was made in the USA.
Survivor Ernie Gallo told me he “has been haunted for four decades” by the knowledge that his commander-in-chief recalled the US fighters that could have prevented most of the Liberty’s casualties.
Every American should be troubled by the fact that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense prevented the US Sixth Fleet from protecting a US Navy ship and its 294-man crew from foreign attack. They should also be troubled that the President ordered the Navy to determine the attack was unintentional.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of
the US Treasury, former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal
and co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
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Only a miracle can prevent Senate confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as Supreme Court justice, but Republicans have a patriotic duty to let the people know she is an unwise—even dangerous—choice for the job.
If she had been on the court, the ruling favoring white firemen who had been denied promotion after passing tough tests because no blacks or Hispanics were capable would have been sustained and public safety put at risk. (The high court had been asked to reject the case ending the fireman's fight. Instead, the federal appeals court was ordered to hear the case.)
Former President George Bush's appointments to the Supreme Court should be hailed by all patriots: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. They, with Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, formed the court's "right wing." With unpredictable help from fence-sitter Anthony Kennedy, the court was able to make a few good decisions. With Miss Sotomayor, the court will lurch left. She joins the court's left wing as an advocate of subordinating the U.S. Supreme Court to the opinions of foreign courts—a frightening surrender of sovereignty.
On April 28, she delivered a speech claiming that "unless American courts are more open to discussing the ideas raised by foreign cases . . . we are going to lose influence in the world."
She said judges have correctly looked to foreign authorities "to help us understand whether our understanding of our own constitutional rights fell into the mainstream of human thinking. To the extent we have freedom of ideas, international law and foreign law will be very important in the discussion of how to think about unsettled issues in our legal system" she said in April.
In a 2007 forward to the book The International Judge, Miss Sotomayor wrote that judges should "all attempt to cobble together a culture of justice-seeking in a changed world."
Reacting to her words, Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee that is holding hearings on her nomination, signaled that lawmakers will educate Americans on her lunatic-left views. He said: "Moral authority is undermined when we allow foreign law, which we had nothing to do with, to impact our law. That is a pernicious thing."
Miss Sotomayor is a lifelong advocate of taxpayer-funded abortion on demand. When Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) asked if the unborn had any rights whatsoever, she replied that she had "never thought about it." (Not thinking is characteristic of the lunatic left.)
Miss Sotomayor is trying to hide her position on gun control but she is fiercely opposed to the Second Amendment. She has ruled that the Supreme Court's recent upholding of the right of Americans to bear arms applies only to federal lands (the case had been filed in Washington). It does not apply to the states, she argued.
"Her opinion was that the hundreds of millions of Americans in the 50 states do not have a fundamental right to bear arms," DeMint said. "She refused to back away from that opinion in my meeting with her."
Her view that a Hispanic woman justice would render better opinions than a white male have been, correctly, widely reported. But the mainstream media has maintained a near-absolute silence on her views that the Supreme Court should be guided by foreign courts and views.
AFP editor James P. Tucker Jr. is a veteran journalist who spent many years as a member of the "elite" media in Washington. Since 1975 he has won widespread recognition, here and abroad, for his pursuit of on-the-scene stories reporting the intrigues of global power blocs such as the Bilderberg Group. Tucker is the author of Jim Tucker's Bilderberg Diary, available from AFP for $25. Free S&H in U.S. Call 1-888-699-NEWS.
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A VIDEO ON THE INTERNET RECENTLY showed a bunch of rowdy, fair-skinned racists referring to President Obama with the dreaded and outlawed "n" word, saying he should be killed. One said he knows where Obama lives and was going to perform a forced homosexual act on him if he does not straighten up in regard to his foreign policy.
But it wasn't some band of "neo-Nazi skinheads" or an "Aryan resistance group" making threats against the life of the president this time. Every member of this gang was Jewish. They were dual-citizen/single-loyalty American Jews on travel in Israel.
Appearing on the Internet in a Youtube video entitled "Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem on the Eve of Obama's Cairo Address," the video is a collage of various interviews featuring a gaggle of drunken American Jews visiting "home sweet home" Israel. When posed the singular question by the interviewer "What do you think about Obama coming to the region?" the answers were stupendous in their vulgarity and racism.
Spanning the scope from simple foul-mouthed gobbledygook to outright criminality, a small sample of some of the comments might as well be quotes from the infamous Turner Diaries so often cited by Jewish "watchdog" groups.
Besides being called "just another nigger from the town," gutter language for female genitalia was also used in describing the president as well as him being called a terrorist that deserved to "be shot."
They were angry because the dark-skinned leader of the free world dared visit a Muslim nation [Egypt, that not only maintains a peace treaty with Israel but as well assists the Jewish state in slowly but surely exterminating Palestinians in the concentration camp known as Gaza; see item at right.—Ed.] and chose to speak in conciliatory terms to Muslims around the world rather than launching missiles as Israel would like to see take place.
Abe Foxman, Elie Wiesel and Morris Dees Seligman and their respective organizations, the Anti-Defamation League, Simon Wiesenthal Center and Southern Poverty Law Center—have had nothing to say about the matter. The same ADL recently took award-winning cartoonist Garry Trudeau to task for a cartoon piece harking back to Jesus "driving the moneylenders from the temple."
The same ADL et al. stampede to the nearest microphone whenever the slightest whiff of racist flatulence is detected by one of their super-sniffing hound dogs who come barking into the faces of every human on Earth, lecturing on the evils of hate and extremism.
They have virtually ignored this outrageous video assault on the president of the United States, despite the fact that millions of people have viewed the video. They did put the heat on Youtube to have the video removed.
A former schoolteacher fluent in several languages, Mark Glenn is a prolific writer whose provocative essays have been published worldwide. His book, No Beauty in the Beast, can be ordered from TBR BOOK CLUB (1-877-773-9077) for $25 ppd.
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TEXAS-BASED COMPREHENSIVE Development Agreements, or CDAs, that could have transformed a number of freeways into foreign controlled tollways—charging cash-strapped motorists up to 75 cents a mile—were dealt another serious blow July 2 as Gov. Rick Perry's special legislative session that was called July 1 drew to a close.
Opponents to his tolling-the-freeways agenda ran up the victory flag once again. Thus, "any private investment in the road business dies as of Aug. 31," was how Hank Gilbert of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, or TURF, assessed the situation.
Gilbert told AFP: "Perry is getting his head beaten in," meaning that the special session that the Republican governor called not long after the regular legislative session adjourned on May 31, bore no fruit for Perry, who had hoped to get these CDA/public-private partnerships approved.
Because "the CDAs never made it to the House floor," the state Senate did not even lift a finger, Gilbert told AFP around 3 p.m. local time on July 2.
Only CDAs that have already been approved can move forward. AMERICAN FREE PRESS will monitor how many of those exist and search for piecemeal infrastructure projects that could quietly move small segments of the Trans-Texas Corridor system forward. But the TTC portion of the NAFTA Superhighway has been dealt numerous delays and it seems doubtful that the large number of tough, active Texans involved in this fight will ever allow that free-trade super-corridor to straddle the huge Lone Star State as part of the North American Union plan. At some point TTC backers will have to give up. But other segments of the NAFTA highway system in other southern states and coming from Canada are still an issue.
Two other Texas bills that Trans-Texas Corridor foes disdained—HB1 and SB1—were amended in the special session so drastically that previous schemes to raid pension funds and other financial skullduggery to help CDAs and put a couple billion dollars outside of legislative oversight were rendered harmless. The state's Transportation Commission, in league with TxDOT, would have been able to handle the funds independently. Improper TTC promotion and help for CDA's may have resulted.
In fact, the $2 billion at stake now goes where it should go: half to the State Infrastructure Bank and half to the Texas Department of Transportation's general fund, according to Gilbert. He was visiting state legislators as he talked with AFP for late developments.
"None of the money [the $2 billion] can be used for CDAs or toll roads," Gilbert said. However, the "safety net" bill that was known as HR 1959 as the regular legislative session ended—but which died back then due to inaction and technically put TxDOT on the road to abolition—was expected to pass July 2. Otherwise, TxDOT would sunset in September. And the Texas Legislature does not meet again in regular session until 2011.
But TURF and the San Antonio Toll Party, the two main anti-TTC, anti-toll groups, want TxDOT to exist. They simply want the agency to honor its mandate to maintain and improve the busy Texas infrastructure system with gas taxes and no use of tax dollars to promote and lobby for the TTC international tollway or any related matters.
HB 300, a bill that would have advanced CDAs, among other things, also died from inaction in the late hours of May 31. The grassroots activism against these Texas schemes is among the most aggressive and successful seen. But you'd never know that judging from the establishment press. As holiday tea parties called for reforms in general, these Texans have been doing the actual work to advance freedom and independence by straining their budgets and contributing time away from their families for extended periods shadowing state legislators.
Mark Anderson is a longtime newsman now working as a corresponding editor for American Free Press. Together he and his wife Angie provide many photographs of the events they cover for AFP. Mark welcomes your comments and inputs as well as story leads. Email him at at truthhound2@ yahoo.com.
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DELIBERATELY IGNORED by the mainstream media, in its endless tributes to a transvestite and accused pedophile, is the fact that Michael Jackson was anti-Jewish. His burning distaste for Jews has been on the record for years. Consider the lyrics to his 1995 song, They Don't Care About Us: "Beat me / hate me /You can never break me /Will me / thrill me / you can never kill me / Jew me, sue me / Everybody do me / Kick me, kike me / Don't you black or white me."
ABC's Good Morning America played a recorded voice message to his former manager, Marc Schaffel, on Nov. 22, 2005. Complaining about media manipulation, Jackson snarled, "They suck—they're like leeches. I'm so tired of it. I start out the most popular person in the world, make a lot of money, cars, and everything, and end up penniless. It's a conspiracy. The Jews do it on purpose."
Did Jackson harbor feelings of resentment against those who run this country's banks and generated reams of negative publicity against him in the press? ADL Director Abraham Foxman felt so. In November 2005 he responded, "Michael Jackson has an anti-Semitic streak. It seems every time he has a problem in his life, he blames it on Jews. It's sad that Jackson is infected with classically stereotypical ideas of Jews as all-powerful, money-grubbing and manipulative."
The ADL also officially branded Jackson anti-Semitic. If Jackson's treatment was the result of a "Jewish media vendetta," then did his brother Jeremiah, who joined the Nation of Islam in 1989, urge Michael to follow in his footsteps? On Dec. 18, 2003, the New York Post reported, "Michael Jackson has become a member of the black group Nation of Islam."
Similarly, on Feb. 24, 2007, the San Francisco Chronicle followed up: "Pop superstar Michael Jackson has confirmed his conversion to Islam, according to reports in the Middle East. The Arab-Israeli newspaper Panorama claims Jackson has announced the move and revealed plans to move to Bahrain."
After being hounded by attorneys, creditors, and critics, longtime former nanny Grace Rwaramba felt this move did not serve Jackson's best interests, as Nation of Islam security men and handlers began ripping him off on a large scale. She cites two examples where they vastly overcharged him on rental properties, and pilfered substantial amounts of money from a personal appearance in Japan.
Much of this activity can be attributed to Leonard Muhammad, son-in-law of Louis Farrakhan (the man erroneously accused of calling Judaism a "gutter religion").
Roger Friedman of Fox News explained on Jan. 14, 2004, "Nation of Islam chief of staff Leonard Muhammad is now, for all intents and purposes, running Jackson's schedule and businesses. He was seated at the head of the table at a summit meeting for Jackson's lawyers and accountants."
With Muhammad acting as his manager, Rwaramba stated that the Nation of Islam also exerted great influence on Jackson's children. This situation created further turmoil with the mother of his children. Friedman continued, "[Debbie] Rowe has complained to friends that she does not want her children, Paris and Prince, exposed to the Nation of Islam. . . . She has told these friends that she is Jewish, and that the children, by birth, are Jewish, too."
One individual brought in to handle Jackson's affairs was "official spokesman" Dr. Tohme R. Tohme, a Lebanese businessman claiming to be an "ambassador-at- large for the country of Senegal." However, two problems arise in regard to his purported credentials. He's not a licensed doctor, and Senegalese officials say they'd never heard of him.
Tohme and his business partner, James Weller (described as a Nation of Islam strong-arm) created a firestorm when they threatened the lives of two creditors who intended to sell Jackson memorabilia. If they proceeded, Tohme told them, "there will be bloodshed to the auctioneers." Needless to say, they filed a lawsuit against Jackson.
Another physician—Dr. Conrad Murray—actually lived with Jackson and tried to administer CPR when the singer neared death. His past is also quite shady, as he's not certified in either internal medicine or cardiology. He filed for bankruptcy in 1992 and has five tax liens. He also saw three judgments totaling over $435,000 filed against his company in 2008.
Dr. Tohme nonetheless manipulated Jackson—with his physical condition deteriorating—into accepting an arduous 50-concert tour promoted by AEG Live.
Ironically, the firm's owner, Phillip Anschutz, is a Jewish businessman Fortune magazine called in its Sept. 2, 2002 edition, "the greediest executive in America."
AEG then advanced Michael Jackson $10 million (most of which his middlemen gobbled up), and appointed Conrad Murray as his personal physician. Fueled by eight different drugs—Demerol, Dilaudid, Vicodin, Soma, Xanax, Zoloft, Paxil and Prilosec—the "King of Pop," Jackson ultimately succumbed to the same tragic fate as the "King of Rock," Elvis Presley.
On June 27, journalist Ian Halperin wrote in the UK's Daily Mail, "Michael Jackson was driven by a cabal of bankers, agents, doctors and advisers to commit to the grueling 50 concerts in London's o2 Arena."
He then quoted a former employee, who crystallized how each party involved wanted their ounce of flesh from Jackson. "It's not like he's in control of his own life anymore. It sounds like somebody else is pulling his strings and telling him what to do. Someone wants him dead. They keep feeding him pills like candy. They're trying to push him over the edge. He needs serious help. The people around him will kill him."
Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and the author of many books on 9-11 and the New World Order. These include 9-11 Evil: The Israeli Role in 9-11 and Phantom Flight 93.
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This nation faces a moral disaster the God-fearing Founders could never imagine: a society in which same-sex couples become "parents" of adopted children and rear them in their own sick lifestyles. Unless patriots fight back, the United States could face moral deterioration on the level of the Roman Empire.
President Obama hosted a "gay pride" celebration at the White House June 29, promising to "extend as many federal benefits as possible" to same-sex couples and their "children," and promised to get another "hate crime" law through Congress adding homosexuals to laws that already federalize a mugging if the victim happens to be black, Hispanic or a woman.
"It's not for me to tell you to be patient any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century ago," Obama told the 300 assembled homosexuals. "But I say this: we have made progress and we will make more."
"Hate crime" laws that wold add homosexuals to the protected list are pending in the House and Senate; the chief advocate is Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). Under such laws, if a victim is among the "protected" and federal thought police conclude "hate,"in addition to greed, motivated the mugging, it becomes a federal crime with higher penalties for bad thoughts. This obviously violates constitutional free speech guarantees.
There is a concerted effort to persuade the public to accept this moral decay. The Associated Press carried a windbag story for virtually every daily newspaper in the country celebrating two male homosexuals gaining access to small boys on Father's Day ("a fairy-tale ending"). The mainstream media now uses the term "gaybe boom" in referring to the Urban Institute's estimated 65,000 same-sex couples with custody of small children. "Gaybe boom" is popular with Associated Press, CNN and USA Today, among others.
Newsweek proclaims that "There's no need to waste time with further study. The policy on ‘gays' in the military must be overturned now." Few people who have worn their country's uniform agree with Anna Quindlen's words. Newsweek also celebrates "The end of Christian America," saying "the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades.
Obama is using a complex procedure to undo legislation passed in the 1980s, led by the late, great Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), to ban people infected with HIV from entering the country. Such people, suffering from what develops into AIDS, are on the list of "a communicable disease with public health significance."
It's true that HIV is not transmitted by casual contact. You can safely sit beside a homosexual and breathe the same air. But any blood contact is dangerous. If you have to hit a homosexual to stop his advances (yes, this happens) and you get his blood on your knuckles, you are at risk. Similarly, rescue workers are endangered. Health officials in Los Angeles report that 22 actors in "adult"(pornographic) movies have been infected with HIV,
When Americans spoke English, "adult" films or books
referred to those preferred by adults over those ofr children,
such as Grimm's Fairy Tales. But such changes in the use
of words - the hijacking of the word "gay," for instance
- are part of the effort to mainstream homosexuality.
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The White House fiscal year 2010 budget is being deliberated in the House Appropriations Committee, and one of the provisions which requests nearly $3 billion in more military aid to Israel is raising eyebrows.
In mid June anti-war groups vociferously objected to sending more U.S. taxpayer dollars to bolster Israel's military following news reports that Israeli forces had used American-made weapons to massacre Gaza civilians in January 2009.
According to online reports, members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, fearing that peace activists would bring unwanted publicity to the proposed handout, had held their "mark-up" hearing in a small room in the Capitol, preventing the press and other citizens from attending. In record time, legislators moved the massive bill through the subcommittee, sending it on its way to the full committee where it is currently being vetted.
Since the United States first started handing out U.S. taxpayer
dollars to Israel, the tiny Middle Eastern country has received
more than $10 trillion, according to multiple published reports
from mainstream newspapers like The Christian Science Monitor
and even The Washington Post.
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In a surprising move, on July 6, Senate Democrats moved to block an amendment mirroring language introduced in the House by Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul that would give federal authorities the power to audit the privately owned and controlled Federal Reserve.
John Tate, the president of Paul's grassroots group, Campaign for Liberty, characterized the amendment as "the first shot in our battle to pass ‘Audit the Fed' through the Senate."
Capitalizing on a chance to force the Senate to remove restrictions that prevent the General Accountability Office (GAO) from investigating the U.S. central bank, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) Tried to attach the complete text of S. 604, the Senate's version of Paul's "Audit the Fed" bill (H.R. 1207), to the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act (H.R. 2918), which had already passed the House. The lengthy appropriations bill contained $3 billion worth of funding programs, which included provisions authorizing the GAO, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, to conduct audits of various government agencies.
Senate Democrats, however, quickly moved to block Demint's amendment, titled the Federal Reserve Sunshine Amendment (S. Amdt. 1367), from coming up for a vote.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D -Neb.) used a procedural move to prevent a vote by claiming that the amendment violated standing rule 16 of the Senate, which limits what kind of amendments can beadded to appropriations legislation. The Senate president promptly sided with Nelson over DeMint, and the amendment was killed.
On the Senate floor, DeMint argued that it was Congress's duty to remove any remaining restrictions that prevent the federal government from auditing the Fed. The Fed's various funding arms have loaned and given out trillions of U.S. dollars to various financial institutions, including foreign banks, he added, but it has never once been audited.
"The Federal Reserve, the unelected central bank of the United States, enjoys a monopoly over the flow of our money and credit, but has never been completely transparent or accountable to Congress since its creation in 1913," said DeMint. "The Federal Reserve will create and disburse trillions of dollars in response to our current financial crisis. Americans across the nation, regardless of their opinion of the bailout, want to know where the money has gone. That is why you see so much bipartisan support in the House and Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders , the author of S. 604 and Jim DeMint on the same side in the Senate."
DeMint directly challenged Nelson's procedural move, noting that there were already amendments calling for audits of federal agencies, so it was appropriate to add a measure to audit the Fed. DeMint then began listing the other amendments authorizing the audits.
While the Senate president agreed with DeMint that each amendment violated rule 16, they were still left in the final bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of 67 to 25 with seven senators not voting.
"DeMint fired the opening salvo and showcased the hypocrisy
of the Senate for allowing other GAO audits bo be included in
the bill while refusing to even allow a vote on Fed transparency,"
said Tate, Campaign of Liberty's president. "The American
people deserve answers on what the Fed has done with trillions
of our tax dollars, and what they are committing us and future
generations to as part of their secret deals with foreign central
banks and governments."
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The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has issued a warning urging the public to avoid genetically modified foods and has also called for a moratorium on genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, until long-term, independent studies can prove their safety. The group has also called for required labeling of foods that contain GMOs, a move that has been strongly opposed by the Food and Drug Administration and big Biotech which cooperatively purport that consumers should not have the right to know whether the foods they buy come from traditionally bred or artificially engineered sources.
While urging for more independent studies, the AAEM paper cites its own studies alleging that genetically modified foods cause serious adverse health effects, emphasizing more than a mere "correlational association" as is commonly assumed.
Probably the worst finding in the AAEM report is the fact that GMOs can live and reproduce in the intestinal flora of the body long after being ingested. The genes present in the Genetically modified organisms can transfer into the DNA of intestinal bacteria, the good bacteria that digest food and maintain bodily health. This reprogramming can cause the intestinal flora to begin reproducing Bt pesticides, for example, rather than producing the harmless bacteria it is supposed to. The implications of these alterations are mind boggling since intestinal flora is crucial for life.
AAEM is urging its members along with the scientific and medical community to continue gathering case studies and initiate epidemiological research to help determine, once and for all, the effects of GMOs on human being in addition to their effects on animals.
Some Doctors are now warning their patients to avoid BMOs, recognizing the possible causation between GMOs and disease. Ohio allergist Dr. John Boyles believes genetically engineered foods are so dangerous that people should never eat them. Biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava, following the review of more than 600 scientific journals, has concluded that the drastic deterioration of Americans' health in recent years can be attributed to GMOs being introduced into their diets.
Experimental studies of genetically engineered foods and their effects in the body are disturbing, to say the least. Biologist David Schubert of the Salk Institute has stated that children are the most likely people to experience the adverse effects of GMOs, noting that apart from the adequate safety studies, children become "the experimental animals" In truth, every citizen is a guinea pig when genetically altered organisms are introduced into the food supply without adequate safety studies let alone honest labeling.
It is wise to avoid foods that contain GMOs and ingredients
that are genetically engineered. These include non-organic corn
and soy derivatives, canola and cottonseed oils, and sugar from
sugar beets. Ingredients such as corn starch, corn meal, and
soy lecithin are great examples of common ingredients that are
suspect. Unless labeled as non-GMMO or explicitly organic, these
common ingredients are most likely genetically modified and should
be avoided.
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In the animal studies that have been conducted on genetically modified (GM) products, some noteworthy findings have been discovered by researchers:
Female rats fed genetically modified food saw most of their babies die within three weeks compared to the 10% death rate experienced by rats fed natural soy. The babies that survived in the genetically modified-fed control group were also born smaller and had problems getting pregnant later on.
Male rats fed genetically modified soy experienced a change in testicular color from pink to dark blue, as well as altered sperm and significant changes in their reproductive systems.
Indian buffalo that consumed genetically modified cottonseed experienced various birthing complications including infertility, abortions, premature delivery, and prolapsed uteruses. Many of the calves that survived birth died shortly thereafter.
In the United States, about 24 farmers reported that their pigs became sterile after consuming genetically modified corn.
Genetically modified corn and cotton, purposely engineered to create their own built-in pesticide called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), have been indicted in several studies to provoke intense allergic and immune reactions and death. Since the levels of Bt produced in the plant represent thousands of times more a concentration of Bt than natural Bt spray, the effects are greatly amplified. Shepherds whose sheep grazed on Bt cotton after harvest witnessed thousands of their sheep die. Postmortem examinations revealed severe irritation and black patches in the intestines and liver, as well as enlarged bile ducts. All sheep fed the Bt cotton eventually died within 30 days while those that grazed on natural cotton remained healthy.
Bt corn was also responsible for the deaths of cows, horses, water buffaloes, and chicken in both Germany and the Philippines.
Genetically modified tomatoes fed to rats were shown to cause bleeding stomachs and eventually killed many of the rats.
These are just a few examples of the many catastrophic effects
of using genetically modified organsms as food.
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Most of the world heard of it, but it is killing people without warning - usually patients who are already under a doctor's care and/or in hospitals around America. Recognized first in the 1970s as a staph infection emerging in the hospitals that was resistant to penicillin-type antibiotics, scientists used that peculiar feature in choosing its name - Methicillian-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus or simply MRSA.
MRSA, a drug-resistant germ, lurks in hospitals, carried by patients and staff and fueled by inconsistent infection control. This stubborn germ is spreading across America at an alarming rate, but no one has ever tracked these cases - until now.
MRSA, is spread by touch or contact. It can slip into breaks in the skin as tiny as a mosquito bite. Six out of seven people infected with MRSA contract it at a health-care facility, and it is infecting and killing more people this year than ever before. MRSA infections often strike critically ill patients or those with weakened immune systems - patients typically treated in a hospital's intensive-care unit.
Except for having developed some tests to indicate its presence, physicians are baffled by the disease and its sources. Meanwhile, MRSA has found a new breeding ground in unclean jailhouse cells. Texas peace officer Matt Guest worked for a couple of years as a detention officer in county jail and writes that it became his belief that the current generation of young people are more susceptible because of the rampant over-use of antibiotics in recent years.
He explains that not only are doctors prescribing antibiotics far too often, but now farmers are allowed to put them in cattle feed.
"I worked a couple of years in a very clean mid-sized jail," says Guest, "which far exceeded the state standards, and I observed several bad cases of MRSA. The inmates would get boils that would go very deep before coming to a head. Once they finally were lanced, the wound was a large open sore that would not heal quickly, the way you would expect. They would often maintain their infection, with red streaks moving out from the sore."
Guest instructs that one's biggest weapon against MRSA is simple soap and frequent baths for anyone subjected to the conditions such as incarceration of hospitalization.
"Don't just rinse off under the warm water," he says, "but scrub your skin with an abrasive object like a washcloth or loofa or one of those less-than-masculine-looking, yet highly effective, poofball things. Doctors are asking that we don't use anti-bacterial soaps, because we're just breeding super-resistant germs."
Some investigators are struck by the time frame but cannot pinpoint anything definite. MRSA evidently appeared at about the same time our old-fashioned isolation procedures disappeared. Not coincidentally, it was also about the time that business school-educated hospital administrators began to be hired by hospital boards to manage the business.
"Hospital boards of directors are seldom, if ever, medical professionals themselves," says a reporter who investigated the situation in Seattle hospitals, "so it was a case of the blind leading the blind, otherwise known as a bureaucracy. In my experience, they were far more concerned with hospital cosmetics than with the messy details of patient care."
Concerted efforts of hospitals to hide or cover up the frequency of infection and the morality of infection are suspected. While it is certain that hospitals don't want the public to be able to judge them on the basis of facts, many believe that the real culprit nationwide is the CDC. This agency has effectively stonewalled any effort to establish infection control procedures in hospitals for decades. Why?
The hand with the biggest stake in this game is pharma and to them being sick unto death means money. The CDC covers itself by focusing attention on non-existent problems. Meanwhile, America has an epidemic that's becoming worse by the day, according to The Seattle Times.
Over the past decade, the number of Washington hospital patients infected with the frightening MRSA virus has skyrocketed from 141 a year to 4,723. The Times gained access to state files that revealed 672 previously undisclosed deaths attributable to the infection. One has to assume that the figures would be similar in most of the other states as well.
In "How Our Hospitals Unleashed a MRSA Epidemic," investigative reporters Michael Berens and Ken Armstrong told the story of Joyce Allen.
In October 2005, Allen went for open-heart surgery at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacome. Doctors told her to expect a quick recovery. But during the operation, MRSA somehow slipped into her chest. Doctors had cut through her sternum. When they fused the sternum back together, the contagion was entombed inside. The blood-rich bone marrow was a perfect hiding spot. Withing a week, the germ pushed into her arteries and crept into vital organs.
Antibiotics failed to conquer the infection. By April 2006, as Allen hovered near death, surgeons made the decision they had dreaded: Cut out the sternum. They sheared away 6 inches of bone with a diamond-coated blade. Allen, 57, is crippled for life. She measures each day by the level of pain. On her worst days, she's unable to pick up her small grandson.
Disabled, she gave up her customer-service job at a Tacoma cabinet company. She now lives in a trailer in Spanaway, surviving on $877 a month in benefits.
Nobody knows how the germ got into St. Joseph's operating room. But St. Joseph didn't test her for MRSA, according to medical records. When it comes to most cardiac patients, the hospital still doesn't. Who gets tested for MRSA, and who does not, is a medical game of chance.
A Bainbridge Island plaintiffs' lawyer, Christopher Otorowski,
believes doctors may many times omit MRSA from death certificates
because the infection is typically picked up in a hospital.
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During a hearing on Capitol Hill in early July, a top official at the Federal Reserve warned Congress to stay out of the bankers' business and not force the privately owned and operated central bank to submit to a public audit.
On July 9 The Financial Times reported on Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul's landmark "Audit the Fed" legislation (H.R. 1207), which would remove any remaining proscriptions on federal authorities investigating the Federal Reserve Bank, which serves not only as the U.S. central bank but is increasingly acting as the top banker to the world. So far Paul's bill has picked up 261 co-sponsors, well over half the membership in the House.
Since the collapse of economies around the world in the summer of 2008—brought about by Wall Street greed—the Fed, through its various funding arms, has had the printing presses running day and night, churning out dollars. The Fed publicly claims that its balance sheet stands at just under $2 trillion, largely composed of loans to private banks, mortgage holdings and Treasury bills (U.S. taxpayer debt). But some honest economists believe the Fed is not telling the whole truth about its assets and liabilities, fudging the facts to keep U.S. taxpayers in the dark about the state of the central bank. But the truth is few know just how much money is even in circulation today.
For the past three years, the Fed has only been reporting two out of three monetary aggregates. The first is M1, the narrowest measure of money supply, which includes currency held by consumers and private corporations, money held in checking accounts and travelers checks.
The second is M2, the figure most commonly cited to describe the country's money supply. This includes M1 plus any savings that are in relatively liquid holdings like money market mutual funds.
The third, which is no longer released to the public, is called M3. It is made up of M2 plus large liquid assets including some money market funds and certificates of deposit held by massive financial corporations and other large institutions.
In 2006, the Fed announced it would stop publishing statistics for M3, which is considered the broadest accounting of the country's money supply. The Fed claimed M3 did not provide any additional information on currency trends beyond what was contained in M2. But the reality is, M3 gives Americans the best sense of the dollar's value by revealing how much money is out there.
In the past year, M1 has risen by an incredible 16.3 percent to $1.669 trillion. M2's growth has been less dramatic at 8.7 percent, for a total of $8.369 trillion. But the growth of M3—which the Fed no longer discloses—over the past few years is especially troubling, according to figures compiled by economist John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics. Williams pieces together government reports to provide readers with what he contends is a more accurate accounting of key statistics for the country.
Williams reports that M3's growth in 2009 was 18 percent. That means in the past decade M3 has more than doubled in from $5 trillion in 2000 to $14.5 trillion. The dramatic growth of currency in circulation in the past few years lends ammunition to those seeking a full and open accounting of the practices of the central bank. That could explain why the Fed has been going on the offensive, using fear-mongering to scare legislators into backpedaling on these landmark measures in the House and Senate that would open up the Fed to public scrutiny.
At the hearing on July 9 before the House Financial Services Subcommittee, Donald Kohn, the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, told Congress that any interference in the affairs of bankers would "negatively affect markets."
Said Kuhn: "Erosion of the Federal Reserve's monetary independence would lead to higher long-term interest rates as investors begin to fear future inflation."
Translation: Our current system of debt would likely collapse should the world learn the truth about our money —and just how bad off the banking system really is. The next day, in an interview with Reuters, Rep. Paul said: "The dollar is worth four cents compared to what it was worth in 1913 when the Fed was established. . . . That tells you they're not very good at protecting the value of our money. They're the counterfeiters of the world, protected by this secrecy. That has to end."
And, since AFP reported in the July 6 edition on the list of congressmen who have sponsored Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul's Audit the Fed bill (H.R. 1207), an additional 20 legislators have signed on to sponsor the landmark measure for a total of 261 cosponsors. The latest additions include Rep. Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Ky.), Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), Rep. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.), Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), Rep. John Sullivan (D-Okla.), Rep. Joe Courtney (DConn.), Rep. Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.), Rep. Scott Murphy (D-N.Y.), Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio), Rep. Charlie Melancon (DLa.), Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.), Rep. Timothy H. Bishop (D-N.Y.), Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Rep. DavidWu (D-Oreg.).
Christopher Petherick is a journalist and publisher based in Maryland. For more information, see his website at www.brandywinehouse.us or write directly to BRANDYWINE HOUSE BOOKS AND MEDIA, P.O. Box 638, Cheltenham, MD 20623. Petherick encourages all readers with Internet access to sign up for AFP's free weekly email newsletter. It's loaded with house news and special offers available only to newsletter recipients and AFP web site users. See AmericanFreePress.net.
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America's greatest historian—bar none—is once again making his most pivotal works available to the public for a limited time. And AMERICAN FREE PRESS is proud to be in the forefront of distributing the books of the amazing Eustace Mullins
The last several years have been rough for America's premier populist historian, 86-year-old Eustace Mullins. He had a debilitating stroke, was imprisoned in a nursing home against his will, robbed of many assets by corrupt vultures who posed as friends— the list goes on and on.
But Eustace is now in the care of a good friend, Jesse Lee and, despite the fact that he doesn't move as fast as he used to, Eustace remains alert, bright-eyed, witty, articulate, and—most of all— ever and always committed to the principles he's fought for over the last 60 years—beginning in his days as a young protege of then-imprisoned poet Ezra Pound, the iconoclastic American-born global icon.
It was Pound who personally commissioned Mullins to investigate
and write the monumental first-ever full accounting of The Secrets
of the Federal Reserve, the alien-owned money monopoly that misrules
and bankrupts America for its own greedy profiteering (see accompanying
story).
But The Secrets of the Federal Reserve was just the first of dozens of books and literally hundreds of hard-hitting monographs and probably thousands of articles written by Eustace Mullins—covering topics as diverse as corruption in the medical establishment, the judicial system, and in the realm of religion and philosophy, among many other controversial topics.
Ever fearless and undaunted—despite years of unrelenting harassment by the FBI and its close allies in the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith—Eustace Mullins has lectured all across America and throughout Europe and Asia and he's been a regular guest on hundreds of radio programs, always providing his audiences with lively and entertaining and informative insights and memories of his own yeoman efforts to bring history into accord with the facts.
Right now—free at last and able, thanks to the efforts of his loyal and devoted friend Jesse Lee, Eustace is currently traveling cross-country, visiting old friends and making new ones, and on July 8 he visited his longtime friends at the office of AMERICAN FREE PRESS on Capitol Hill in Washington. Eustace and Jesse had lunch with AFP correspondent Michael Collins Piper and later they all gathered at the AFP office to chat and reminisce with Eustace's friend of 50 years, Willis Carto, and other AFP staffers including Anne Cronin (who's known Eustace since 1964) and AFP editor Jim Tucker.
But the gathering at the AFP office wasn't just socializing. Eustace arrived with several hundred copies of several of his currently-out-of-print classics and they are now available directly from AFP.
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Russia recently agreed to reactivate a joint U.S. and Russian commission on prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action (POW-MIA) issues. Moscow had backed away from the commission in 2004, amid worsening relations with Washington.
The two sides are renewing talks at the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, set up in the early 1990s to resolve issues of missing servicemen.
The American and Russian governments reached "a common understanding on a framework" on the commission after exchanging diplomatic notes, the White House announced.
The commission rose to prominence in 1994 when the Russian co-chairman, Col. Gen. Dmitri Volkogonov, a retired military adviser to President Boris Yeltsin, announced he had discovered a KGB document from the 1960s stating that Russian intelligence had been assigned the task of delivering Americans with special knowledge to the USSR. However, this has been officially denied by the Russian government.
Volkogonov, who was also a historian, went from being a Communist hardliner to being a leading anti- Stalinist. He died in 1995 in Moscow.
Americans are still listed as missing from World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War and the Cold War. Unacknowledged U.S. prisoners are believed to have been held by Soviet, Chinese and North Korean officials during and after one or more of these conflicts, and U.S. prisoners might have been transferred to the Soviet Union during the war in Vietnam. Some might still be alive.
The commission will include working groups on soldiers missing from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War, including Soviet military personnel unaccounted for in Afghanistan.
Longtime American POW researcher Mark Sauter said: "Restoring the Joint Commission is overdue and necessary, but not sufficient, to resolve the fate of many missing American heroes."
Sauter said the problem with the commission is that Moscow has been withholding secret files it has on American POWs shipped to Siberia from Korea.
"We know, and they know, they have files that would resolve cases of Americans shipped from Korea to China, to Siberia," he said. "But all the U.S. side has been allowed to do is pick around the edges of those files."
John Tiffany is AFP's copy editor. He is also the associate editor of THE BARNES REVIEW revisionist history magazine. TBR, published six times a year, is the preeminent magazine of honest historical inquiry in the United States today. To find out more about TBR, go to www.barnesreview.org.
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The government is secretly monitoring our minds, as a recent experience shows. I was recently referred to a subcontractor of the global consulting giant Ceridian. On their law compliance page, Ceridian's motto is, "Be compliant. Be global. Be ready for anything, anywhere. Get what you want."
The myriad tentacles of this corporation are in many lucrative pots. On behalf of their government subcontract through Military One Source, they also have their fingers on the pulse of military opinion.
My husband is in Iraq. Shortly after he departed to the war zone, I was contacted by our Navy Fleet and Family Support Center. They informed me of my privileges and resources, should I need them during my husband's absence. I was given a point of contact for this purpose at Naval Air Station Key West, Florida.
After Jon left for Iraq from his two weeks of R&R, he was delayed en route back to his military post. I did not know for several days if he was alive or dead. My sleeplessness was exacerbated by an overload of mental activity. Between Jon and the hard news, I had not slept in days.
It had been our daily custom to touch base via computer or telephone. So until Jon contacted me, I suffered a constant dread of chaplains ringing the doorbell. My husband did contact me and all is well. During the anxious period, however, I went for days without sleep. Because this condition threatened my ability to drive safely, I felt the need to seek help via my official military channels.
It was during my contact with Naval Air Station Key West's work and family life consultants that I was referred to a subcontractor under the aegis of Ceridian by the name of Military One Source. Their web site boasts confidential, non-medical, free-of-cost counseling spanning many subjects that affect the military.
This seemed like a good place for me to get advice about how to deal with sleep issues since Jon has been gone. After all, these people tooted their horn loudly about being "masters level" experts in their fields. The government was dangling an attractive carrot.
Before sharing any personal information, I ascertained from a non-medical counselor that our phone conversation was not being recorded in any way. He assured me at that time that our talk was strictly confidential and that Military One Source was a non-formal support and referral service.
Due to my state of sleep deprivation I was not myself that night. I thought the talk was therapy in and of itself. I do not recall many of the things we talked about because I was not taking notes. What I do recall, however, is that I relaxed my guard due to the counselor's assurance that our conversation would not become an official record. With my lance and drawbridge down and my visor up, it never occurred to me that he was the one taking notes.
Later I learned that our conversation had not only become an official record, but apparently an official psychiatric record that is filed under the iron-clad rigors of the U.S. Government's HIPAA Law.
HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which is an innocuous label designed to deflect curiosity. This label has little to do with what the law is really about. It hit the streets in 1996 and was forced down everyone's throat by 2002. After that, anyone who violated the new "Top Secret Codeword" status of medical records was punished severely and run up the flagpole of public example.
In a recent case, a CVS drugstore employee accidentally tossed an empty pill bottle in the trash with a patient's name on it. The drugstore chain was fined $2.25 million to settle the case. People that I interviewed from the HIPAA community about this case said that CVS "got off easy." Anyone who is not "HIPAA compliant" faces heavy fines and imprisonment.
Back to my newly acquired mental health stigma. According to another Military One Source counselor that night, I had been entered into their database under the heading of "mental health counseling." This bothered me some, but I did not pursue it further. Sleep deprivation impedes mental acuity. Sleep was my main concern that night. However, the database entry was nonetheless curious, as I made clear to this non-medical counselor that I was calling only to get advice about sleep.
I learned later, during an energetic research session, that all conversations with military members and their families are documented by Military One Source counselors. This is done via note-taking while military personnel or their loved ones spill their guts about whatever is on their mind. These clandestine notes are then entered into a HIPAA-compliant database as an official record. After that they may as well be in Fort Knox. The HIPAA law bars access to medical records to everyone except need-to-know medical personnel and government investigative bodies. This means that it is unlikely that I will ever know what this guy wrote about me in the secret database.
When I asked his manager what had been written about me in their database, he refused to say. When I asked for the physical location of their offices, they would not say. Thanks to Google Earth, however, it did not take me 20 seconds to locate them. The real reason for the HIPAA law has nothing to do with patient confidentiality. It acts as a cloak for the dagger of privacy invasion.
Covert note taking is almost as bad as secretly recording a conversation. You are, in effect, recording a conversation. In courtrooms they have shorthand typists whom they call court recorders. What this guy did was similar, but he did it covertly. Had he told me that even a sigh of mine would have been documented, I would have ended the call immediately.
I was hoodwinked into a measure of candor for government thought surveillance purposes. They are acutely concerned about military sentiments. These are turbulent times. So offering this free counseling service is a ploy for accessing those sentiments. If they could send a tiny drone into our heads that would report back to them, I'm sure they would do it. But they don't have that technology yet so they have to depend on Military One Source.
In my case, my words were secretly recorded, assessed, weighed, judged and officially filed all without my knowledge from a man who told me that he would do no such thing.
I wrote to the chief executive officer of this corporation and every man involved under her. I feel my confidence was betrayed not only by this subcontractor, but by my government for commissioning them to do what they do and for how they do it. I feel that I have been mentally violated. No wellness support contractor should act as a thought-spy for the government.
My experience may be of interest to our airmen, sailors, soldiers and Marines and their loved ones. It will be a shock to them to learn that secretive subcontractors are keeping covert tabs on the inner sanctums of their minds and those of their spouses while they are off invading the lands of and picking fights with whoever the government deems is our "enemy."
S.H. Pearson is a freelance writer and the wife of a U.S. serviceman who can be reached at shpearson.wordpress.com.
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A bill introduced on Jan. 22 of this year "to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish national emergency centers on military installations," as the text of HR 645 actually states as its central purpose, could conceivably be geared toward creating what many Americans have feared in recent years—detention centers, or concentration camps, on American soil.
These fears are more acute these days due to the imploding economy, swine flu scares and other fear factors—real, imagined or concocted—that could lead to food runs, bank runs, and other signs of civil unrest that may spark a government crackdown.
FILMMAKER DISCUSSES FEMA CAMPS IN US
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Thus, AMERICAN FREE PRESS, in dealing with an issue that includes speculation and unverified sightings of these detention facilities, takes a cautious approach to monitor this issue. AFP obtained a copy of HR 645 and determined that the bill had just two cosponsors as of July 13. On Feb. 6 it was referred to the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities. It apparently has not moved.
So, the bill's status regarding potential passage appears to be nearly "dead in the water," but there is much more to this subject than HR 645, whose sponsor is U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat whose career has been mired in controversy and wrongdoing. Regardless of its status, the bill's text reads like it's mainly about emergency recovery for first responders, various other local, state and federal personnel and the general public—although the Defense and Homeland Security secretaries, not just emergency management agencies, are directly involved in decision making. The bill calls for "not fewer than six national emergency centers on military installations," which would be located in designated Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regions. The bill specifies "a preference for designation of closed military installations."
There are many of these since a special panel, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, began to close bases when the "ColdWar" with the USSR ended.
The bill also states it would provide for creating facilities "capable of hosting the infrastructure necessary to rapidly adjust to temporary housing, medical and humanitarian assistance needs. . . ."
But whenever closed military installations are not available, the bill's wording says that the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security "shall jointly designate portions of existing military installations . . . as national emergency centers."
Notably, the use of former military bases, or parts of operational ones, is what many observers say is apparent when they venture out to view U.S. detention facilities that reportedly have already been built, HR 645 notwithstanding. Martial law could be right around the corner, some fear, pointing to 15 executive orders that—if ever implemented—would give the federal government control over all communications, food, transportation and almost everything else imaginable. Thus, the big picture regarding this issue is disturbing, but also is unclear. A lengthy list of about 800 alleged detention centers/concentration camps has circulated on the Internet for several years. AFP west coast correspondent Anthony Hilder, an author and film maker, said in March 2009 (see AFP news video posted at American-FreePress.net) that a Russian-made film, Concentration Camps in America, claims to have solid proof that such camps are a reality and are sitting empty, awaiting some sort of major civil breakdown—be it another terrorist attack or mass influx of illegal aliens—that would justify a limited or full-scale use of such facilities, many of which are said to have guard towers, barbwire, various barracks and other menacing surroundings.
Hilder himself said that, of the places on the list, perhaps 40 percent are actual camps, in his estimation.
In the Midwest, for example, the list of camps includes everything from a former hospital across from the Crown Point, Indiana county jail—the hospital is reportedly 80 percent vacant and is thought to be a Federal Emergency Management Agency holding facility—to the highly scrutinized former Amtrak repair facility in Marion County, Indiana near Indianapolis, where the rail lines, the high razor-wire fencing, the huge vacant buildings, color-coded zones allegedly designed for processing incoming people, helicopter landing pads and other physical features suggest to observers that this is among the largest detention centers in the continental United States.
Another large facility is claimed to be in Alaska at, or near, Elmendorf Air Force Base, near Anchorage, with a capacity of 500,000. The biggest of them all is said to be just outside of Fairbanks, which is described as having a capacity for 2 million people, with mental health facilities.
AFP will continue probing this subject while checking out facilities across the nation.
Interestingly, HR 645's sponsor, Rep. Hastings, is a former federal judge who is one of only six judges ever to be impeached by the U.S. Congress—which is no small distinction in a nation where federal impeachment efforts rarely get past first base. Previously a practicing attorney, Hastings spent 10 years as a federal judge until 1989 but was impeached, convicted and removed from office for corruption and perjury. "He was the sixth federal judge to be impeached and removed from office in American history," his Wikipedia online profile states. The 23rd District Democrat, first elected to the U.S. House in 1992 and never seriously challenged for his seat since then, was impeached for some early shenanigans that caught up with him. Back in 1981, he was charged with accepting a $150,000 bribe in exchange for a lenient sentence and the return of seized assets for 21 racketeering counts against Frank and Thomas Romano. Hastings also was charged with perjury in his testimony about the case. So in 1988, the Democratic controlled House took up the case, and Hastings was impeached for bribery and perjury by a resounding vote of 413-3. He was then convicted by the Senate in 1989.
Prior to his impeachment, he was acquitted by the jury in the Romano case after his alleged co-conspirator, William Borders, refused to testify in court (resulting in a jail sentence for Borders).
EXECUTIVE ORDERS EXPAND POWERS OF FEMA
EXECUTIVE ORDER 12148 created the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is to interface with the Department of Defense for civil defense planning and funding.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 12656 appointed the National Security Council as the principal body that should consider emergency powers. This allows the government to increase domestic intelligence and surveillance of U.S. citizens and restrict the freedom of movement within the United States of civilians and grant the government the right to isolate large groups of civilians. The National Guard could be federalized to seal all borders and take control of U.S. air space and entry ports.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all transportation.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over all fuel depots and power plants.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into federal work brigades.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the postmaster general to run a national registration.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including ones in the commercial service.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, waterways and public storage.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions or crises.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.
MARK ANDERSON is a longtime newsman now working as a corresponding editor for American Free Press. Together he and his wife Angie provide many photographs of the events they cover for AFP. Mark welcomes your comments and inputs as well as story leads. Email him at at truthhound2@yahoo.com.
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We've just one simple question for the president regarding his birth issue: "What passport did you use when you were suttling between New York, Jakarta and Karachi?"
It woud be interesting to learn just how a young man who arrived in New York in early June 1981, without the price of a hotel room n his pocket, could suddenly come up with the price of a round-the-world trip a month later.
But once on a plane, zooming around the world at someone's expense, what passport was he offering when he passed through customs and immigration at the various stops?
The American people not only deserve to have answers to these questions, they must have answers. It makes the debate over Obama's citizenship a rather short and simple one.
Q: Did he travel to Pakistan in 1981, at age 20?
A: Yes, by his own admission
Q: What passport did he travel under?
A: There are only three possibilities: 1)He traveled with a U.S.
passport, 2)He traveled with a British passport, or 3)He traveled
with an Indonesian passport.
Q: Is it possible that Obama traveled with a U.S. passport in
1981?
A: No. It is not possible. Pakistan was on the U.S. State Department's
"no travel" list in 1981.
Conclusion: When Obama went to Pakistan in 1981, he was traveling with either a British passport or an Indonesian passport.
If he had been traveling with a British passport, this alone would provide proof that he was born in Kenya (then a British possession) on August 4, 1961), not in Hawaii as he claims. And if he had been traveling with an Indonesian passport, this would offer substantial evidence to prove that he relinquished whatever previous citizenship he held, British or American, prior to being adopted by his Indonesian stepfather in 1967.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the American people need to know how he managed to become a "natural born" American citizen between 1981 and 2008.
Given the destructive nature of his plans for America, as
illustrated by his speech before Congress and his disastrous
spending plan, the sooner Americans learn the truth, the better.
However, given also the protection he has been afforded in avoiding
this issue over the past 13 months, it appears doubtful that
congress of the Supreme Court has any intention of forcing him
to come clean. Keep the heat on.
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Iran says that Israel controls the media in America. Well, anyone with reading ability or who watches TV knows that. Following the instructions of the Israel lobby, the corporate media doesn't like Iran one little bit, and they seem to be doing their best to rouse the lust in the American media for Persian blood.
Yes, Israel wants the American people to give their democratic OK to a nuclear attack on Iran.
Should American policymakers follow this suicidal advice, it would be, of course, good for Israel because it would be a hit on Iran. But it would create the worst mess for the United States in our history. And considering our previous international misadventures, that's saying a lot.
It's time for patriots to wake up to this possible disaster before it's too late.
For openers, it would be a war we could not possibly win. A mere air and naval bombardment (which is all we could possibly do) would satisfyingly murder lots of Persians, but that's all.
It could not be decisive, no matter how many men, women and children we'd kill.
Numbskull armchair strategists do not realize that only a ground army capable of destroying the belligerent's army and occupying the country can ever win a war. This is as true today as it was 3,000 years ago. And it must be evident to every American planner that a ground war against Iran and occupation of that country would be totally impossible. It would take a well-equipped army and navy of a million men. Men, not girls and fairies.
In short, to attempt it would be insane.
That's some of the reasons why it would be an American disaster - the worst disaster even that senseless American intervention into the problems of other countries has created since 1917.
And such wanton aggression would rightly find every country in the world except Israel opposed, meaning that American prestige - already at an historic low - would plummet further.
George Washington said it: America should never intervene in the wars ofother nations. Our true policy is to stay here, mind our own business and improve America. And to hell with the financial and ethnic lobbies that want war.
God knows we can't run the world when we can't even properly
run the space we now occupy.
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I was very pleased that hearing were held on the Federal Reserve System. My bill HR 1207, known as the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, was discussed at length, as well as the general question of whether or not the Federal Reserve should continue to operate independently.
The public is demanding transparency like never before. A majority of the House has cosponsored HR 1207. Yet, Sen. Jim DeMint's heroic efforts to attach it to another piece of legislation elicited intense opposition by the Senate leadership.
The hearings on capitol Hill provided us with a great deal of information about the types of arguments what will be levied against meaningful transparency and how the secretive central bankers will defend the status quo that is so beneficial to them.
Claims are made that auditing the Fed would compromise its "independence." However, by independence, they really mean secrecy. The Fed clearly cherishes its vast power to create and spend trillions of dollars, diluting the value of every other dollar in circulation, making deals with other central banks, and bailing out cronies, all to the detriment of the taxpayer and to the enrichment of themselves. I am happy to challenge this.
They claim the Fed is endowed with special intellectual abilities with which to control the market and that central bankers magically know what the market needs. We should just trust them. This is patently ridiculous. The Market is a complex and intricate thing. No one knows what the market needs, other than the market itself. It sends signals, such as prices, that should be reacted to and respected, not thwarted and controlled. Bankers are not all-knowing and cannot ignore the rules of supply and demand. They might act as if they are, but their manipulation of the market just ends up throwing it wildly off balance, which gives us boom and bust cycles.
They claim the Fed must remain apolitical. No organization is apolitical that relies on the president to appoint its chairman. In fact, it is subject to the worst sort of politics - power to create trillions od dollars and affect the value of every dollar on the country without the accountability of direct elections or meaningful oversight. The Fed typically enacts monetary policy that is favorable to particular administrations close to elections, to the detriment of long-term considerations. They do this partly because of the political appointee process for chairmanship.
The only accountability the Federal Reserve has is ultimately
to Congress, which granted its charter and can revoke it at any
time. It is Congress's constitutional duty to protect the value
of the money, and they have abdicated this responsibility for
too long. This was the issue that got me involved in politics
35 years ago. It is very encouraging to finally see the issue
getting some needed exposure and traction. It is regrettable
that it took a crisis of this magnitude to get a serious debate
on this issue.
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