electromagnetic
energy," according to Defense Department sources.July 2, 2001
July 9, 2001
The Justice Department is operating a super secret federal snoop group in order to keep an eye on "extremists" - meaning those who disagree with the government line.
The Justice Department has activated a little-know and highly secretive information-gathering intelligence program aimed at maintaining intimate surveillance of what are described as "extremists" and the groups to which they belong.
In other words,, the Justice Department is now targeting America political dissidents whose views run counter to those of the plutocratic elite.
The Regional Information Sharing System, or RISS, ws set up to snoop on militias and do-called "patriot groups" that the Justice Department may decide need watching. Ostensibly, the program also monitors organized crime.
Critics say the fact that the Justice Department would lump political dissidents alongside criminal elements is interesting indeed. Sources indicate that RISS has direct links to Morris Dees's Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which feed the federal group what it collects on various organizations, their leaders and members.
RISS was officially created under Attorney General Janet Reno during the Clinton administration, but the new Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft does not seem inclined to disband this spy operation.
Prior to the creation of the new RISS bureaucracy, such surveillance of perceived extremist organizations was left to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was established for these monitoring purposes and to insure internal security. The FBI's most infamous spying operation aimed against political dissident was its COINTELPRO operation of the 1960s. A key ally of the the FBI in its COINTELPRO scheme was, in fact, the ADL, which actually did much of the "on site" work, spying for the FBI domestic spying operation was dubbed (CHAOS).
Many American political groups were infiltrated by COINTELPRO and CHAOS agents, posing as "patriots." Longtime ADL informant Roy Bullock is known to have worked closely with COINTELPRO throughout the 1960s.
After COINTELPRO was officially disbanded following a public outcry when its activities were inadvertently exposed, many of its duties were discreetly left in the hands of the ADL. So for years, the ADL continued to do the "spying" and then turned the data over to the FBI.
But today the FBI seems to be bypassed by RISS, which the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ADL can utilize to "finger" patriotic organizations not "politically correct."
RISS has established information collection centers in Newton, Pa., Franklin, Mass., Springfield, Mo., Sacramento and Phoenix.
According to the Sweetwater, Tenn., Citizens Awareness Committee, a grassroots organization that monitors intrusive government, RISS trades information woth not only law enforcement agencies but with police in Canada, Guam, Australia and Puerto Rico via a network called RISSNET.
"RISSNET," according to the citizens' group, "enables investigators to find links between the movements and look into their finances, telephone calls and membership lists."
Riss is fed much of its information by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Secret service and the Customs Service.
One source told the SPOTLIGHT that RISS has far-reaching international tentacles through connections with Interpol, ant international law enforcement organization.
RISS is supposed to allow local law enforcement the means of keeping the track of organized crime and extremist groups, but checking with police agencies in New York and Virginia. The SPOTLIGHT found none that had any connections with the new super snoop group or even any knowledge of it.*
In the nation's capital officials plan to start brainwashing children as early as age two by imposing mandatory school attendance.
Council members in Washington have introduced legislation to require children as young as 2-years-old to attend school in a move that purportedly seeks to expand early childhood education. Early childhood education is defined as the training before age five when values and beliefs develop.
Washington would be the first jurisdiction in the country to mandate school attendance or home learning for all children at such a young age, according to the Department of Education.
The legislation, introduced by council member and former mayoral candidate Kevin Chavous (D-Ward 7), would require all children who turn 3 and 4 years old before Dec. 31 in an academic year to participate in public, private or parochial school or be instructed "privately."
"We have to get every child early," said Chavous, chairman of the council's education committee. "It would force the school system to take charge and responsibility for every 3- and 4-year-old in the city to make sure they are prepared for kindergarten. To many children are entering the first grade not prepared to learn."
"Education children at an early age addresses, to a large extent, many of the problems we have in overcoming some of the social and cognitive disadvantages that our urban youth have by the time they are five years old," said School superintendent Paul Vance.
"The earlier we can get these youngsters in school and make positive social and cognitive impressions, the better our chance of having productive learners," Vance said, "I'd like to get all of these youngsters in school as early as possible."
A librarian at the Department of Education, who lives in the trendy Adams Morgan area of Washington, told The SPOTLIGHT that the public schools in her neighborhood have failed miserably to teach youngsters to read.
At the public schools available to her children, 97 percent of the fourth-graders read at "below basic" levels. "That's why my Jewish kids go to a Catholic school," she said.
The proposed early education would cost up to $51.6 million in the firs year of full access and $32 million a year after that. The bill envisions a pilot program in fall 2003 and full access to public schooling by 2004.
The extremely high cost of educating young children has been addressed by William M. Bowen, Jr., author of Globalism: America's Demise, who stated, "It does not take a lot of time and money to educate children. It does take a lot of time and money to indoctrinate and modify their values."
City officials said the proposal, sponsored by seven of the 13 council members, has enough support to become law.
Adrian Fenty (D-Ward 4), who prides himself on being a politician with a "a strong leftward bent," told The SPOTLIGHT that he believes the government should be actively involved in early education and family affairs.
One of the stated goals of the Communist Party has long been "the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents."
Officials also we the plan as providing more free babysitting at taxpayers' expense. Most children in Washington were born out of wedlock and are reared by single mothers or grandparent.
Fenty added that providing working parents with daycare paid for by the state was an "intended consequence" of the legislation.*
The Pentagon is hyping a new "non-lethal" energy beam weapon for crowd control - that means you.
The Pentagon has developed a new "non-lethal" beam
projection device to control crowds that utilizes "millimeter-wave electromagnetic
energy," according to Defense Department sources.
The device, which the Pentagon expects will be in wide use with the U.S. military by 2009, employs a directed energy beam that inflicts a painful brief burning sensation. It heats up the surface of a victim's skin and within seconds can create pain similar to touching a hot light bulb.
"It is the kind of pain you would feel if you were being burned," Rich Garcia, a spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirkland Air force base, New Mexico, explained. "It's just not intense enough to cause any damage."
However, Human Rights Watch and other such monitoring groups are asking questions about potential dangers of the new device.
"What, as an example, will happen to children in the crowds?" one critic of the Pentagon's plan to employ the weapon asked. "What about pregnant women and the elderly?"
The beam penetrates to a depth of one-sixty-fourth of an inch below the surface of a victim's skin and creates the burning sensation.
"When it penetrates in, it activates pain sensors and you feel a lot of pain," the Air Force's Garcia explained. "But there's no damage. It truly is a non-lethal device."
According to Garcia the Air Force has "tested 72 human beings that have had over 6,500 exposures."
Currently, the Air Force has plans to test the device on goats and humans at Kirkland.
Already, the Marine Corps intends to mount the electromagnetic energy weapons on its Humvees, all terrain vehicles.
Later, according to Pentagon sources, the device may be used on aircraft and ships.
The Pentagon concedes that the new projected beam device is not just intended for crowd in Third World countries where the U.S. Military may become involved in so-called "peacekeeping" missions. It could be used for crowd control purposes that the military may be called upon to maintain in the United States.
With the increased blurring of military and special law enforcement units, such as Special Weapons and Tactics units, as a result of the nation's war on drugs, the new weapon could come into police hands to be used in controlling rallies.
In other words, the electromagnetic beam devices could have been used last year in Seattle to control crowds demonstrating against supposed "free trade" had it been available.*
Plutocrats are reevaluating whether an international war crimes court is a good idea after a number of suits were filed against favored leaders.
A flow of embarrassing lawsuits deluged Belgium's war crimes court on June 18, after a case was lodged against Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon. The charge is commission of war crimes.
Is the mas murder of civilians a war crime? Apparently it depends on who you are.
Belgium immediately announced it is planning to "tighten" its war crimes law to nip the effort to apply the sauce to both goose and gander in the bud.
The Brussels government fears that Belgian courts will be flooded with international war crimes cases that will damage its diplomatic relations.
"The law was designed against former dictators, not serving leaders," said Foreign Ministry spokesman. "It is a good law but it can cause embarrassment."
There are several options under study, and we could change the law by the end of the year."
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
A group of 23 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon accused Sharon of acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the massacre of up to 2,000 Palestinians at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps by Israel's Phalangist allies during the 1982 Lebanon war.
Sharon, Israeli defense minister at the time, was forced to resign by stayed in the cabinet after an Israeli commission found him "indecently responsible" for the murders carried out by Lebanese Christian militia.
The Palestinian plaintiffs, including a 36-year-old paralyzed woman who traveled from Lebanon to plead her case in Bussels, say Sharon bears criminal responsibility for the massacre.
The case is the most prominent in a series brought under a 1993 law giving Belgian courts jurisdiction over war crimes committed anywhere in the world, even when they do not involve Belgians.
Also in June, two Rwandan nuns were given prison sentences of from 12 to 15 years for their part in the massacre of 7,000 ethnic Tutsis who had sought refuge in their convent during the genocide of 1994.
Other cases in the Belgian courts include suits against the former dictator of Chad, Hissene Habre; Iran's former president, Hasbemi Rafsanjani; the remnant of Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge regime; Guatemalan generals, and the former Moroccan interior minister, Driss Basri.*
Israel is ordering another 50 advanced F-16 jets, from U.S. military suppliers, similar to the jets it has been using to bomb and strafe Palestinian towns in which thousands of innocent men, women and children have been killed. As has been the case in the past, the $2 billion purchase will be financed by your dollars. The order will not be delivered for at least a year, pending the arrival of another round of F-16 requested by the Israeli military, giving the Mideast nation 100 of the high-tech U.S. fighter jets. Critics have blasted the United States for supplying Israel with jets that it uses brazenly to murder Palestinians in violation of a U.S. agreement stipulating that the jets should only be used in defense.*
On June 27, federal bankruptcy court Judge S. Martin Teel dismissed Liberty Lobby's bid to seek renewed protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code.
The immediate effect of Teel's ruling is that it is now virtually certain that this will be the last issue of this populist newspaper published by Liberty Lobby.
Although Teel did not order Liberty Lobby into Chapter 7 bankruptcy - immediate liquidation - his ruling still opens up Liberty Lobby to seizure by the California-based conspirators who have an unwarranted multi-million dollar court judgment against Liberty Lobby.
According to Liberty Lobby's longtime counsel, Mark Lane, Reel was "wrong on both the law and the facts."Lane pointed out that as a bankruptcy judge, Teel should be acting not only to ensure that the creditor - Liberty Lobby's only creditor, by the way - gets paid, but that the debtor - Liberty Lobby - can continue operating on a day-to-day basis, pay its employees, and raise the funds necessary to pay the creditor.
Instead, Teel has blocked Liberty Lobby from spending any of its own funds - including paying its Longtime, loyal employees - and has made it impossible for Liberty Lobby to continue functioning
Lane points out that Teel's ruling was inexplicable in that the judge suggested that Liberty Lobby had filed for bankruptcy protection in order to renege on its previous settlement when, in fact, Liberty Lobby's bid for Chapter 11 protection was an effort to have the original agreement, which was trashed by the conspirators, reaffirmed by Teel.
In December of last year, a California state judge, Runston G. Maino, had unilaterally abrogated the original agreement that had been worked out in order to settle Liberty Lobby's federal bankruptcy. Maino was the judge who, in 1996, had leveled the initial multimillion-dollar judgment that first forced Liberty Lobby into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
To the astonishment of many attorneys and others, federal Judge Teel permitted the state judge to void the bankruptcy settlement that had been hammered out and approved by Teel in the first place.
So now, although Teel appears to have relinquished his own authority to allow Maino free rein, he is still giving his imprimatur to the efforts to destroy Liberty Lobby and The SPOTLIGHT by preventing Liberty Lobby from functioning.
Teel's action sets up a framework in which the California group will, in the end, get less money from a potential liquidation of Liberty Lobby than they would if Liberty Lobby were to continue operating.
Since Teel has been issuing judgments favorable to the California conspirators, this suggests the California group is more interested in shutting down The SPOTLIGHT than it is in getting money to continue the operations of the now-moribund Legion for the Survival of Freedom, the corporate entity in whose name the conspirators filed the lawsuit against us.
Liberty Lobby's counsel Mark Lane views Reel's ruling to be unprecedented in that Teel is denying a newspaper the right to continue operating when it has the means to do so - a direct assault on the First Amendment.
Neither Liberty Lobby nor The SPOTLIGHT have any outstanding debts - other than the large court judgment. The effort to seek bankruptcy protection had nothing whatsoever to do with and mismanagement or inability of this newspaper to continue operating on a viable basis.
In the meantime, while Liberty Lobby has filed an appeal of Judge Teel's dismissal of the application for chapter 11 protection , a temporary stay is in place until July 5. If, by that time, a federal judge has overruled Teel, it will give Liberty Lobby breathing space - but not much.
FATE UNCERTAIN
According to Liberty Lobby Board of Policy (BOP) Chairman Vince Ryan: "While Liberty Lobby's fate remains uncertain and very much in the balance, there is one thing that can be said for certain: the staff and leadership of our populist Institution are standing firm and holding fast, despite all of the devastation what's been wrought by this nightmare. While The SPOTLIGHT, and its publisher, Liberty Lobby, have fallen victim to this conspiracy, you can rest assured that we will be back - and vary, very soon."
A mysterious wrinkle developed regarding Judge Teel's verbal order of June 27! This, as this issue of The SPOTLIGHT goes to press, the exact terms of the order are unknown. Experienced observers interpret Teel's erratic behavior as indicating his fear of being overruled because of the gross inconsistencies in his ruling as explained above.*
You are reading the last issue of The SPOTLIGHT. But soon you will have a new SPOTLIGHT.
Judge S. Martin Teel, federal bankruptcy judge for the District of Columbia, has made it impossible for our publisher, Liberty Lobby, to exist. As the news story on this page reports, he has frozen our bank account, forbade us to put any money from subscriptions, books or donations in the bank, and won't even let us pay our loyal employees back salary.
Of course, we have appealed, and we should prevail on appeal because Teel's orders are so contrary to the law and to the facts. Teel seems to have a habit - where Liberty Lobby is concerned - to make up his law as he proceeds. It's the familiar "Liberty Lobby Exception" gone wild.
So at this writing, we find that the situation we are in is very fluid. Even if the appeal court rules for us, we will find ourselves back in Teel's court and he will continue doing all he can to place heavy obstacles in our path.
Because of Teel's interference, do not look for this newspaper to arrive next week. This issue, number 28 of this year, is the last one of over 1,340 issues published weekly and on-time since September 1975.
We feel that's a proud record, especially considering that our consistent reporting of real news has necessarily stepped on the toes of many, many high-up malefactors who have not found our reporting of their misdeeds endearing.
And although these gentry may chortle at The SPOTLIGHT's present infirmity, their glee will turn to apprehension when they see that a new SPOTLIGHT, Phoenix-like, will rise from our ashes.
Judge Teel showed his malice when he denied our request to refund to all subscribers the cost of their unexpired subscriptions. Thus he has in effect confiscated your subscription money. In our book, this is not mere theft, it is a violation of the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against the taking of private property without just compensation, but the judge, we suspect, is unfamiliar with the Constitution.
A new SPOTLIGHT should be in your hands soon. It will be published by and entirely different organization that will bear no relation to Liberty Lobby and thus will be immune from the tender ministrations of Judge Runston G. Maino and S. Martin Teel. We're looking forward to your support of the new SPOTLIGHT as you have supported the old. But, still, it's hard to say