Islas al Poniente, Part 1

Interesting developments in the Philippines...

The Ampatuan family has controlled Maguindanao, a province on Mindanao in the Philippines, since 2001. One family member, Zaldy, was the regional governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and is the former chairman of the ARMM's branch of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, a major ruling party in the Philippines. Eighteen of Maguindanao's mayors are members of the clan, which maintained its own private army.

Esmael Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan and a member of the same political party as the Ampatuans, was going to declare his candidacy for governor, thus challenging Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., son of the incumbent Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, Sr., during this 2010 (May) election cycle. Mangudadatu invited a large number of people to witness this event.

On the morning of November 23, 2009, Mangudadatu's family, some attorneys and members of the media - at least 57 people in six vehicles - were on their way to join Mangudadatu when they were stopped by approximately 100 armed men.

In the ensuing slaughter, everyone in Mangudadatu's group was believed to have been killed. At least four of the women in the group were raped; nearly all of the women had been shot in the genitals. Mangudadatu's wife had her genitals slashed, her breasts shot, her eyes speared, her feet cut off, and had been shot inside her mouth.

This incident was exceptional for its brutality, and with estimates of dead journalists as high as 34, may be the world's worst atrocity against journalists.

Mangudadatu ultimately edged the other candidates who remained in the race by getting over 40% of the vote.

But, there remains the issue of the massacre.

And witnesses to that massacre have a way of dying violently.

From Massacre witness shot dead, June 25, 2010:

A key witness in the trial of a powerful Muslim clan accused of orchestrating the worst political massacre in the Philippines has been shot dead, a prosecutor said on Thursday. The witness, Suwaib Upham, claimed to have taken part in the November 2009 killings of 57 people, including 31 journalists, in a crime allegedly planned by his former employers, the Ampatuan clan.

"He was supposed to be one of our strongest witnesses," prosecutor Harry Roque told Agence France-Presse. "He saw, and participated in, the killings and could have directly named in court those involved."

Roque and acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra blamed each other for the murder of Upham.

The prosecutor, during a radio interview, said that the witness would have still been alive today had the Justice department granted him protection.

He added that Upham was killed on June 14 by an unidentified gunman in Parang town in Maguindanao.

Roque is one of the private prosecutors in the multiple-murder charges filed against Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay, former Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. of Maguindanao, suspended Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and 194 others.

He represents 14 of the slain journalists.

Roque said that Upham, also known as Jessie, personally went to Manila in March to apply as state witness under the Justice department's Witness Protection Program (WPP).

You know, the Philippines is a major outpost of the jihad to spread radical Islam; it is one of Al Qaeda's favorite hangouts.

It is here that Terry Nichols learned his bomb-making skills, which proved so deadly in Oklahoma City.

Furthermore, since much of the jihad is financed through organized crime, especially the sale of drugs (heroin from Afghanistan, for example), the Philippines is a major distribution center for moving Afghan heroin around the Pacific basin.

It's funny how, until this massacre, the Ampatuan clan was part of the Philippine government "in" crowd.

It's also funny how the Philippine government has failed to protect some very key witnesses to the massacre.

From Calls To Investigate Killing Of Philippines Massacre Witness , June 24, 2010:

"Massacre witnesses are dying while the government sits on its hands," said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Suwaib Upham took enormous personal risks by agreeing to testify against Ampatuan family members, yet the government, knowing full well he was in danger, did nothing. This sends the worst possible message to other witnesses thinking of coming forward."

The whole situation makes me wonder if we're not seeing the Philippine Deep State here: corrupt politicians, mujahideen from South Asia, and heroin - always a potent mix.

The Full Gamut: A Blunt Instrument, Part 1

In my previous post, I mentioned the name of Congressman Roy Blunt, Republican from Missouri and candidate for the US Senate in 2010, as a name to name....

You know, it would be improper of me to smear the reputation of one of our nation's officials (and a fellow Republican no less); perhaps I should explain why his name came up?

Well, there's the (non-)story of Sibel Edmonds... from CBS News 60 Minutes "Lost in Translation", dated October, 2002:

Edmonds put her concerns about the FBI's language department in writing to her immediate superiors and to a top official at the FBI. For months, she said she received no response. Then, she turned for help to the Justice Department's inspector general and to Sen. Charles Grassley, whose committee, the Judiciary Committee, has direct oversight of the FBI.

"She's credible," says Grassley. "And the reason I feel she's very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story."

Why is it a non-story? Because, with few exceptions, the Sibel Edmonds story has not made it into the mainstream media. And, when it has - as in the 60 Minutes piece quoted above - only the least explosive of her allegations were addressed.

But, the story has come out. Deposed in the Ohio case Schmidt v. Krikorian, Sibel actually names the names of those who were, according to the information she saw when working as a translator for the FBI, working for the Turkish Deep State (a convergence of Turkish government officials, Turkish big business, and Turkish organized crime). (At first, due to legal maneuvering, the video is rather tedious; but, it gets very interesting later on.)

From Who's Afraid of Sibel Edmonds?, by Sibel Edmonds and Phil Giraldi, November 1, 2009:

A Department of Justice inspector general's report called Edmonds's allegations "credible," "serious," and "warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI." Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee members Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have backed her publicly. "60 Minutes" launched an investigation of her claims and found them believable. No one has ever disproved any of Edmonds's revelations, which she says can be verified by FBI investigative files.

John Ashcroft's Justice Department confirmed Edmonds's veracity in a backhanded way by twice invoking the dubious State Secrets Privilege so she could not tell what she knows. The ACLU has called her "the most gagged person in the history of the United States of America."

Edmonds described a foreign intelligence network. In it, the State Department's number three guy at the time, Marc Grossman, would help conduct espionage, including pointing out to this foreign network which elected officials might be vulnerable to being recruited for treasonous activities. From farther down in the article:

GIRALDI: And Grossman received money as a result. In one case, you said that a State Department colleague went to pick up a bag of money...

EDMONDS: $14,000

GIRALDI: What kind of information was Grossman giving to foreign countries? Did he give assistance to foreign individuals penetrating U.S. government labs and defense installations as has been reported? It's also been reported that he was the conduit to a group of congressmen who become, in a sense, the targets to be recruited as "agents of influence."

EDMONDS: Yes, that's correct. Grossman assisted his Turkish and Israeli contacts directly, and he also facilitated access to members of Congress who might be inclined to help for reasons of their own or could be bribed into cooperation. The top person obtaining classified information was Congressman Tom Lantos. A Lantos associate, Alan Makovsky worked very closely with Dr. Sabri Sayari in Georgetown University, who is widely believed to be a Turkish spy. Lantos would give Makovsky highly classified policy-related documents obtained during defense briefings for passage to Israel because Makovsky was also working for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

GIRALDI: Makovsky is now working for the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy, a pro-Israeli think tank.

EDMONDS: Yes. Lantos was at the time probably the most outspoken supporter of Israel in Congress. AIPAC would take out the information from Lantos that was relevant to Israel, and they would give the rest of it to their Turkish associates. The Turks would go through the leftovers, take what they wanted, and then try to sell the rest. If there were something relevant to Pakistan, they would contact the ISI officer at the embassy and say, "We've got this and this, let's sit down and talk." And then they would sell it to the Pakistanis.

GIRALDI: ISI—Pakistani intelligence — has been linked to the Pakistani nuclear proliferation program as well as to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

So, this network included elected and appointed officials in the US government on one end, and wound its way through narcotics- and arms-smugglers to terrorists, including Al Qaeda and the Taliban, on the other end. Skipping down:

GIRALDI: So the network starts with a person like Grossman in the State Department providing information that enables Turkish and Israeli intelligence officers to have access to people in Congress, who then provide classified information that winds up in the foreign embassies?

EDMONDS: Absolutely. [snip]

One US official whose name came up was Congressman Roy Blunt. From Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among Us, by Brad Friedman, dated March, 2010:

According to Edmonds, Representative Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) — likely to run for a U.S. Senate seat in 2010 — was "the recipient of both legally and illegally raised... campaign donations from... Turkish entities."

Is there truth to this? Well, consider this:

Of course, one legal, documented $1000 donation is nothing. Once these guys start steering money to someone, that money comes from many different directions.

More on that to follow... :)

The Full Gamut?

Foreign Policy is an excellent site, and has an excellent article, entitled Bank Shot by Christian Caryl, dated June 21, 2010. The article addresses attacking the funding of terrorism. Here is one key excerpt:

And don't think that it's only people in suits who are involved; the Pentagon is part of the mix, too. Robert Chase is a retired Marine who runs the Interagency Action Group (IAG) at the U.S. Central Command, the branch of the U.S. military that oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Centcom's stake in the issue came to light in May, when Gen. David Petraeus issued a remarkable press release praising a decision by senior Saudi clerics to issue a fatwa condemning anyone who knowingly finances terrorist attacks.) Chase's remit covers the full gamut of what one might call "economic warfare" against terrorist and insurgent groups in an area of operations extending from Kenya to Kazakhstan. The IAG collaborates with agencies including the Treasury Department, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and even the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Why the USDA? Two words: "opium poppies.") IAG activities range from training customs officers in Central Asia to frustrating the efforts of Hezbollah affiliates to worm their way into Beirut banks. "This has to do with the changing face of war itself," Chase says. "It's not a strictly military matter. These are not organizations like traditional militaries."

Here are the other highlights:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah. Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah; blah blah blah blah? Blah blah blah blah!

They talk about the hawala system and Islamic charities... (yawn)...

Where do most terrorist organizations get most of their money?

Heroin from Afghanistan is conservatively estimated as a 200,000,000,000 USD per year industry; it may be more than twice that.

Yet, less than ten percent of that money makes it back to the producers and suppliers in Afghanistan.

Where does the rest of the money go?

Well, some of it goes to fund terrorism.

But, some of it goes to pay off government officials so that the conditions for heroin trafficking can be maintained favorable...

Conditions such as war and chaos in opiate-producing regions of the world.

If peace ever broke out in Afghanistan, the world might focus on Afghan heroin production. But, with the chaos of war, it is easier to slip heroin shipments out; eyes are open for Taliban and Al Qaeda, not "H".

Ever wonder why we are fighting the war, but never seem to be able to win it?

You see, of the remaining 90% of the $200,000,000,000 or more, some of that finds its way, via ethnic organized crime groups and their semi-legitimate front organizations and related political action committees, into the campaign chests of important politicians.

Vice President Biden, Senator McCain... Gentlemen, do I really need to name names?

Speaking of which, do an internet search for "Biden McCain Albanian heroin" and see what you come up with.

A former Congressman named DioGuardi is running for the Senate now.

Congressman Waxman pledged that, should the Democrats regain control of Congress as a result of the 2006 elections, he would hold hearings into the Sibel Edmonds case, which was about organized crime and foreign intelligence services infiltrating the US government. The D's won, and Waxman joined a lobby organization tied to the very organized crime factions and foreign powers that the FBI was investigating; needless to say, the hearings were never held.

Maybe I need to address this topic in detail.

Maybe I need to name names... Should I do that, Congressman Blunt? Congresswoman Foxx?

Maybe I need to cover the full gamut of terrorist finance operations, narcotics trafficking, and illicit money to US officials publicly on my blog.

(By the way: for the record, Foreign Policy is an outstanding site. But they can't go after international organized crime and crooked politicians in Washington the way I can...)

S.3081.IS

When the British were dealing with rebellious "patriots" in their American colonies, this is exactly the kind of authority the crown gave to its military to suppress insurrection.

Our government "leaders" refuse to go after the criminal activities that fund terrorism (because too much of that money lands in the pockets of our politicians in Washington via bribes and illicit paybacks), but they will target the American people with laws that violate the rights of the accused.

And remember - just because you are accused does not mean you are guilty. Guilt is supposed to be proven in a court of law.

Not anymore - an accusation means you get sent to a military brig, and possibly to Guantanamo. You can be subjected to "enhanced interrogation" - which is mild torture, except that we define torture to exclude the techniques that are called "enhanced interrogation" - and you will confess to something, just to get the "enhanced interrogation" to stop.

This is how it worked in the colonies, that drove us to independence: an accusation meant handing you over to military authorities for interrogation.

This is how it worked in the Soviet Union; this is how it is now in China, North Korea, Iran, Uzbekistan, and many other places: the accused is taken into custody and coerced into confession; the accused has no rights, it is the state that needs protection.

We must have liked it in the 1700's because we're bringing it back.

(a) Military Custody Requirement- Whenever within the United States, its territories, and possessions, or outside the territorial limits of the United States, an individual is captured or otherwise comes into the custody or under the effective control of the United States who is suspected of engaging in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners through an act of terrorism, or by other means in violation of the laws of war, or of purposely and materially supporting such hostilities, and who may be an unprivileged enemy belligerent, the individual shall be placed in military custody for purposes of initial interrogation and determination of status in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

Check this out.

Or, do a search on S.3081.IS and see what you come up with.

By the way - can you tell me which of our Constitutional "safeguards" this violates? You have, after all, read the Constitution - right?

(3) INAPPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN STATEMENT AND RIGHTS - An individual who is suspected of being an unprivileged enemy belligerent shall not, during interrogation under this subsection, be provided the statement required by Miranda v. Arizona (384 U.S. 436 (1966)) or otherwise be informed of any rights that the individual may or may not have to counsel or to remain silent consistent with Miranda v. Arizona.

Dearbornistan

From Sharia in Dearborn: Police stop Christians from handing out material outside Arab Festival, dated June 21, 2010:



From Is this America? Christian activists arrested in Dearborn just for showing up at Arab Festival, dated June 19, 2010:



Welcome to the People's Democratic Republic of North America - soon to be the Islamic Republic of North America.

So Far From God, Part 6

This is why the Obamanistas refuse to effectively deal with the southern border.

From Citizen's group taking border battle into own hands, by Dave Biscobing, updated on June 20, 2010:

PINAL COUNTY, AZ - JT Ready and a group of armed men are taking Arizona's border battle into their own hands this weekend.

"This is the Minutemen project on steroids," he said.

Ready is a member of the Nationalist Socialist Movement, and he and his citizen's militia group are tired of waiting.

"We're going to go all night and shut down the drug corridor that comes directly into Phoenix," Ready said. "We have guys that are going to be doing some covert stuff and we have some snipers coming out."

And, from Heavily-armed citizen militia group plans to patrol smuggling corridor by Teresa Jun and Christopher Francis, updated on June 20, 2010:

PINAL COUNTY, AZ (KOLD) - A group of citizens plans to arm themselves with heavy weaponry and patrol the Vekol Valley area of Pinal County, looking for drug smugglers entering the country. They plan to conduct their patrol operation from 3:00pm Saturday to 3:00pm Sunday.

"We're going to block off the narcoterrorists that come up through this area," said Mesa resident Jason "J.T." Ready, who is organizing the gathering.

Ready says volunteers are coming from all over Arizona, and even out of state, to support the effort.

"This is the Minuteman Project on steroids," Ready explained. "We've got people with assault weapons. We will use lawful, deadly force where appropriate."

You see, by taking a hands-off approach and letting the situation boil, the Obamanistas know that Americans - who are their own leaders - will react.

And, they know someone will overreact.

Skipping down in Citizen's group taking border battle into own hands:

"With calling and writing emails, probably 100 plus a day," said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

Babeu's county is one of the nation's worst for drug trafficking and human smuggling.

And Patrick Bray with the Arizona Cattlemen's Association said his office has been receiving a lot of calls as well from people asking to help ranchers patrol their land.

"It's been a pretty big response," he said. "We tell them 'Thanks, but no thanks.' This is something for the federal government."

But that's why Ready said his group feels the need to act.

He said the federal government is not doing enough, and that now is the time to act.

"Defending our nation is dangerous," Ready said. "We have some brave patriots that are willing to put their lives on the line."

But Babeu said he's worried about what could happen.

"There's more to this than just going out there with a gun," he said. "People are getting killed out there, and we have drug cartels at war with each other."

And, when the problems occur, the Obamanistas will use the situation to make propaganda. Skipping down in Heavily-armed citizen militia group plans to patrol smuggling corridor:

Ready has ties to extremist groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, including a neo-Nazi group known as the National Socialist Movement. Ready has denied the group is neo-Nazi.

People who are right of where the Obamanistas want them to be will be smeared as extremists and militants. Average Americans who are concerned about the border situation will be compared to neo-Nazis and painted as Timothy McVeighs-in-waiting.

Then, the issue will be leveraged to further infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

Obama is a shrewd politician. He may be relatively inexperienced, but he knows how to manipulate a situation. George Soros and company didn't pick this guy as their front man for nothing.

Not securing the border furthers different goals simultaneously:

1) It facilitates the smuggling of drugs into the country, and the cartels then thank the officials in charge of leaving the door open with illicit payoffs.

2) It de-Americanizes America by allowing non-Americans to flood into the country. The only downside for Obama is that, generally, Latinos integrate well into our society. If only they could be immigrants from certain places in the Middle East or South Asia...

3) The issue can be used to divide up decent Americans who are tired of all the Obamanations, and paint them as violent right-wing extremists; serious "gun control" follows.



Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste:

"You don't ever want a crisis to go to waste; and what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."

So Far From God, Part 5

We now resume this series with a brief overview of the current situation along the US/Mexican border.

First, from southern Arizona, Sheriff's report shows rancher in Douglas called about undocumented immigrant before murder, by Christina Boomer, updated June 19, 2010:

DOUGLAS, AZ - In a heavily-redacted Cochise County Sheriff's Office report, ABC15 has learned that people in the area told investigators they heard Rob Krentz talking to his brother over a two-way radio. One person said Krentz asked his brother to call Border Patrol because he had come "across an illegal alien who was injured and Rob was giving assistance." Another woman told detectives, "Rob sounded normal on the radio and she didn't feel he was in any distress when he was talking." That was the last anyone would hear from Rob Krentz.

Krentz was killed in March; the Krentz case has become a high-profile example of why the situation along the border is so intolerable.

When investigators found Krentz's body his dog "Blue" was nearby. The protective dog was still alive but suffering from a gunshot wound. The report stated that family members asked authorities to euthanize him. Both Krentz and his dog were found near an ATV that was still running. One detective thinks the murder happened more than 1,000 feet away from where they found his body. The detective speculated that Krentz was on the moving ATV with Blue in the back until he lost consciousness and then slumped over beside it. Nearly entire paragraphs, detective narratives, and lists cataloging evidence collection have been blackened out by CCSO.

(BTW, underneath the article is the statement "This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed." Below that is a button to share it, including to Blogger. I claim fair use, in compliance with the intent of the publisher.) So, let's see if we got this right. An illegal was hurt, so this gentleman tried to render assistance, and apparently got ambushed - then, the Cochise County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) essentially pulls a "State Secrets Privilege" (do an internet search if you don't know what that means) to kill the story. This man was obviously a good guy, and he paid for his kindness with his life. I wonder if he didn't walk into a drug-smuggling operation. And, why is CCSO blanking out so much of the report? Speaking of drugs, from Albuquerque: Man nabbed twice for heroin in 3 days, by reporter Ian Schwartz, dated June 18, 2010:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Albuquerque Police Detectives arrested a man this week with more than $30,000 worth of heroin and guns. Benedicto Rios got out, and then police got him again, this time at a place where you would not think people would bring drugs. Detectives first arrested the 24-year-old Tuesday after they said he was peddling heroin from a Motel 6 near Coors and I-40. "He sells the drugs to high school students," said Officer Nadine Hamby of the Albuquerque Police Department. Hamby said Rios has a lengthy arrest history for DWI, domestic violence and narcotics. She said he was main supplier of heroin to his two friends, who admitted to police they sold heroin at Cibola High School.

Heroin to high school students... now what blogger do I know that blogs about heroin? Heroin isn't a major US product. I wonder how it got into the US? You don't suppose across a relatively unprotected border, do you? You know, these guys crossing the border illegally with their illegal drugs are fairly heavily armed. A recent story entitled Continued drug violence has Pinal sheriff renewing call for help by Sergio Avila, updated June 12, 2010, references Deputy shot near Casa Grande by Brian Pryor and Craig Smith, April 30, 2010:

CASA GRANDE, Ariz (KGUN9-TV) A Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy was shot by drug smugglers along Interstate 8 near Casa Grande Friday afternoon leading to a multi agency manhunt for the shooters on the ground and in the air. Lt. Tami Villar with the sheriff's office says that the deputy was shot after investigating a load of marijuana in the desert around 4:30 p.m. Friday. A short time later the deputy transmitted to his dispatcher that he had been shot by illegal immigrants who confronted him with AK-47 rifles. Radio contact with the deputy was lost and dozens of cops from all area law enforcement area rushed to the scene. Several law enforcement helicopters began searching for the shooters and the wounded deputy. According to ABC affiliate KNXV their news helicopter while overhead the scene was told by the police helicopters that the shooters had started to shoot at them. A short time later a Arizona Department of Public Safety located the deputy and evacuated him to waiting emergency crews. Paramedics transported the deputy, identified as 53 year-old Louie Puroll to an area hospital for treatment, the wound is described as a graze-wound above his left kidney and he is expected to fully recover. After 6 p.m. several blackhawk helicopters from Customs & Border Patrol arrived on the scene carrying tactical law enforcement officers who immediately began scouring the desert looking for the shooters. As of 9 p.m. Friday, the shooters were still on the loose in the desert near Arizona 84 and Interstate 8.

I'll bet the guys guarding Obama are more heavily armed than just having 9mm pistols. But, then again, Obama is the elite; he is the one who will sit on Mount Olympus and send good things down to us as he sees fit. We mortals are expected to live under gun control, and even the police upon whom we are supposed to rely to protect us are often barely able to survive, they are so outgunned. You know, in France, Sweden and other places in Europe, there are no-go areas that the police dare not venture into, except briefly and in force. Is the US-Mexican border getting like that? Knowing 1) it's their job to protect it; 2) heroin and other drugs are being trafficked in, and this, in turn, kills Americans and destroys American communities; and 3) innocent Americans, such as ranchers and even police, are getting ambushed and killed as the contraband is moved north into US territory - knowing all this, why would government officials leave that border unprotected?

From U.S. Military has Special Ops "Boots on the Ground" in Mexico, posted by Bill Conroy, June 12, 2010 (please see original for links and further information):

Task Force is Embedded with Mexican Troops, CIA Operative Claims A special operations task force under the command of the Pentagon is currently in place south of the border providing advice and training to the Mexican Army in gathering intelligence, infiltrating and, as needed, taking direct action against narco-trafficking organizations, claims a former CIA asset who has a long history in the covert operations theater. [snip] As evidence of his claims about the U.S. special operations task force operating in Mexico, [former CIA contract pilot William Robert "Tosh"] Plumlee in early April last year provided Narco News with information he said he obtained from that task force detailing the Mexican Army's investigation of a mass grave site located outside of Palomas, Mexico. About a month later, in early May 2009, the first press reports appeared in Mexican newspapers indicating that a mass grave containing at least seven bodies had been discovered at the same site identified by Plumlee. At the time of the unearthing of the Palomas mass grave, Narco News chose not to release specific information about the U.S. task force for fear that it might compromise lives. Since that time, however, Plumlee says task force members have become convinced, due to corruption and leaks within the Mexican government, that their presence in Mexico is now known to narco-trafficking organizations. In addition, in recent weeks, there have been a series of reports in mainstream newspapers, such as the Washington Post and The Nation magazine, indicating that U.S. special forces teams are operating in numerous foreign countries.

Government corruption? Imagine that... but only down south, right? In an exclusive story he provided to the San Diego Reader in 1990, Plumlee discusses how he helped the government run drugs during the 1980's. This makes me wonder - those government guys that were running drugs back then... are they controlling the show now? If so, that would explain a great deal. Perhaps the reason our people on the front lines of the "War on Drugs" can't win is because their moves are being manipulated from above - not to end drug smuggling, but merely to control it, and make sure certain people profit from it with less competition. That would explain why we can't get our border under control, despite 1) the necessity to do so, 2) having the resources to do so, and 3) the outcry calling for it. Here's a quote I am going to take completely out of context. From Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 7, 2004:

JH: Here's a question that you might be able to answer: What is al-Qaeda? SE: This is a very interesting and complex question. When you think of al-Qaeda, you are not thinking of al-Qaeda in terms of one particular country, or one particular organization. You are looking at this massive movement that stretches to tens and tens of countries. And it involves a lot of sub-organizations and sub-sub-organizations and branches and it's extremely complicated. So to just narrow it down and say al-Qaeda and the Saudis, or to say it's what they had at the camp in Afghanistan, is extremely misleading. And we don't hear the extent of the penetration that this organization and the sub-organizations have throughout the world, throughout their networks and throughout their various activities. It's extremely sophisticated. And then you involve a significant amount of money into this equation. Then things start getting a lot of overlap -- money laundering, and drugs and terrorist activities and their support networks converging in several points. That's what I'm trying to convey without being too specific. And this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this money.

Maybe it's not just Al Qaeda's narcodollars that are "getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying."

Change

He sings his song
Talks so much
Nothing is said
Uh... uh... huh
He sings his song
Change and such
And we are led
Uh... uh... huh

Crises go by
People blown with the wind
Deceit is a web
That we are trapped in
Said on that day
I want change

He was just a junior senator then
I wanted to breathe
A breath of fresh air
So I believed
Said on that day
I want this change

He sings a song
Talks so much
But what is said?
Uh... uh... huh
It's not his song
Change and such
Away we are led
Uh... uh... huh

The people... never expect it...
Dictatorship
And the world changes color
But the world
Does not change
And then... deceit of men... we find out when
It's too late
We go forth... a dream we had...
A word... we once heard...
We now fight for... liberty

The song he sings
Not his own:
"And of us
They demand
What we want them to have"
Led away no more
Freedom rescued
From the grave

Freedom
Is a change
Worth dying for
Infinite change
That does not change
Worth living for
But for how long
Until they come again
As the world changes color
Because the world
Does not change

for Mia

The Inquisition of the United State: Entr'acte

In a series of posts entitled The Inquisition of the United State (see sidebar), I condemned Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law; I believe I said at one point that it was "stupid".

The law is too open to abuse of the rights and privileges of American citizens; furthermore, Arizona's law enforcement may find that enforcing this law inhibits their ability to enforce other laws by driving a wedge between law enforcement and the community.

Having said all that, I reaffirm my belief that the federal government has abrogated its Constitutionally-mandated duty of protecting this nation and the freedoms we have. In place of this, it is obvious the politicians in Washington have sold out America and Americans in every way it is imaginable to do so; furthermore, I accuse elements in Washington, most emphatically including President Obama, as well as others to be named later, of being anti-American, and of seeking the destruction of the United States of America as we know it, and, worse yet, of seeking to destroy any chance of having a free country with limited government as this country's founders intended.

To me, it is obvious there is a concerted effort to undermine not just our liberty, but our sovereignty as well. This effort did not begin with the Obama Administration; Bush-43 and Clinton each did his share of the damage as well: whether through gross incompetence, criminal neglect or un-American treachery remains to be established as provided by law.

Furthermore, though I have grave misgivings about Arizona's law, I would like to point out that the actions and inactions of the federal government have placed the states and the people of this great nation in a difficult situation with no good answers apparent to most. Consequently, given the situation now faced, I feel Arizona is doing the best Arizonans can to protect American citizens and American territory from an illegal invasion that threatens this nation's very existence.

However, be advised: we the people are being stampeded in exactly the direction the anti-American cabal in Washington wants us to go, just as we have been stampeded on too many occasions already during the current and the previous two Presidencies.

By The Dawn's Early Light

In September, 1814, British forces, having just burned the White House, were marching on Baltimore. Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane was in command of a Royal Navy force whose mission was to beseige Fort McHenry, the key point defense for Baltimore. The ground force commander, Colonel Arthur Brooke, was under orders not to attack American positions around Baltimore unless he was sure they could be taken.

If Fort McHenry could be subdued, the ground forces, supported by the Royal Navy, could march into Baltimore; if Fort McHenry could not be subdued, then the fort's guns would sink any British warships attempting to pass by.

On Semptember 13th, nineteen British warships approached Fort McHenry and exchanged fire with the fort, before retreating out of range of the fort's guns and beginning a bombardment to soften up the fort for a ground assault.

The British ships fired cannon, mortars, and their secret weapon, the Congreve rocket, which was a design from their colony of India consisting of an iron case filled with black powder for propulsion, and a cylindrical-conoidal warhead.

Always accompanied by other artillery fire, the rockets were inaccurate, occasionally turning back toward those who launched them, but had a tremendous psychological impact on the intended targets, partly due to the heavy artillery fire that accompanied them.

During the night of September 13-14, the Royal Navy bombarded Fort McHenry heavily; since the British warships were out of range, all the garrison of the fort could do was take the bombardment and refuse to strike the American flag that was flying overhead.

The fort's defenses were concentrated on the harbor opening; after nightfall, the British landed a small force on the other side of the fort. It was hoped they might slip past the fort and draw Baltimore's defenders away, permitting the British to assault an undefended Baltimore. Instead, Fort McHenry's 1000-man garrison, under command of Major George Armistead, turned their fire on the landing party. Combined with the darkness and the foul weather, Fort McHenry's gunfire caused the diversionary attack to fail.

Meanwhile, the bombardment continued, with the ghostly glare of the rockets visible streaking into Fort McHenry. As dawn approached, men on board the British warships strained their eyes to see whether Fort McHenry had struck her colors.

Among the men on the British warships was Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and amateur poet. On a mercy mission from the American side to secure the release of a prisoner of the British, Dr. William Beanes, Key bore letters attesting to good treatment British officers had received from Dr. Beanes. The British agreed to release him, but since Key had seen British preparations for the assault, neither would be released until after the battle.

Straining his eyes as dawn broke, Francis Scott Key and those around him looked to see what flag flew over Fort McHenry. If the fort surrendered, Baltimore would be burned as Washington had been; if not, Baltimore was safe. Had the garrison been able to withstand the bombardment from the ships against which the garrison could do nothing?

The air was still after the stormy weather and after the battle. The garrison lowered the small storm flag that had been flying, and raised an oversized 30 ft × 42 ft flag which had been made a few months before by local flagmaker Mary Pickersgill and her 13-year-old daughter. Gently, a breeze stirred, and then stirred more; finally, through the haze, the men on the British ships could see it: it was the Star-Spangled Banner.

On the back of the letters he carried, Francis Scott Key began to pen the words to a poem, which he called the Defense of Fort McHenry; eventually, known by another name, these words would be put to the tune of an old British drinking song, and would become the young nation's national anthem.

__________

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

__________

America is again under assault, but just as the night seems darkest right before dawn, so does the threat to America seem greatest right before America rises up to defend truth, justice and freedom. Though others focus on the darkness, I can already see that Star-Spangled Banner proudly waving over the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave by the early light of the dawn of an America renewed, whose greatness is founded on the principles which have always made this country special, a beacon of hope for all the world for all time: a dedication to the fact that We the People are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that in our Creator we trust to help us find our way through the darkness.

God bless America.

The South Country, Part 5

See? I told you so!

From UN says violence in Kyrgyzstan was orchestrated, By Yuras Karmanau and Sergei Grits, June 15, 2010:

From self-imposed exile in Belarus, Bakiyev has denied any ties to the violence, but Otunbayeva insisted Tuesday his supporters had stoked the conflict.

"Many instigators have been detained and they are giving evidence on Bakiyev's involvement in the events. No one has doubts that he is involved," she said.

The region around Osh, a city of 250,000, is a top conduit for heroin flowing out of Afghanistan, and thus a hotbed for gangs and guns. Some observers said the violence could have been rooted in the fight for control over drug trafficking.

Mars Sariyev, a Bishkek-based analyst, said figures from Bakiyev's entourage might have encouraged the ethnic violence in order to regain control over the drug flow.

Afghanistan is now the major world producer of heroin.  Afghan heroin is very high quality, and the price has come down dramatically in recent years; in short, Afghan heroin is literally driving other producers out of the world market.

One major route to market for Afghan heroin is through Central Asia to Russia and Europe; destination countries and countries along the route are suffering increased rates of heroin usage, along with all the problems that accompany heroin use.

Heroin production supports our enemies in the War on Terror - or whatever we're calling it today under Obama.

Our enemies just call it a jihad against the Great Satan. Perhaps Obama should adopt that term as well.

But, heroin production doesn't just support our enemies.

Terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda, like organized crime, are involved in criminal activities; terrorists want to kill and destroy, organized crime wants to make money. But, illegal is illegal, and they have common enemies: governments and nations seeking to protect themselves and their citizens.

So, as you go high enough up the chain in either terrorist or criminal organzations, you get to a point where their support networks converge; arms-trafficking, narcotics-trafficking and other criminal activities converge with terrorist activities, and the money-laundering that supports it all.

These criminal activities need to be protected from law enforcement, so money is diverted to paying off law enforcement and government officials.

Consequently, if you investigate government corruption deeply enough, it is easy to trace much of it to drug trafficking, and then to terrorism; similarly, if you investigate terrorism and terrorism financing deeply enough, it is easy to trace it to drug trafficking, and then to corrupt government officials.

That is why there was no serious investigation of the Oklahoma City Bombing; they prosecuted McVeigh and Nichols, who were guilty, and they ended it there, even though the trail also led to Al Qaeda via the Philippines, and to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

That is why the Crime of the Century - the 9/11 attacks - were not investigated by the FBI, and to this day, Osama bin Laden is not wanted for 9/11. Look at the FBI's wanted poster for Osama: no mention of 9/11.

That is why they didn't prevent 9/11, even though they had plenty of fairly specific, actionable intelligence about it: had they acted, the investigation would have turned up corrupt US government officials on the payroll of foreign organized crime, so these officials derailed the warnings before 9/11, and the investigation afterwards, to protect themselves.

From Cracking the Case: An Interview With Sibel Edmonds by Scott Horton, August 22, 2005:

SH: And as you pointed [out], some of this information has been confirmed in the public. I know when you speak about the Iranian informant...

SE: Correct.

SH: ...who warned in April of 2001 -- that was even confirmed by Mueller, the director of the FBI.

SE: Absolutely there was actually an article in the Chicago Tribune in July 2004 saying that even Mueller expressed surprise that during the hearings, the commissioners didn't ask about this. And guess what, nobody reported all these omissions. What would happen if you hit them with 20 cases? And I'm talking about 20 affidavits from experts and veteran agents.

SH: This is all about the question of prior knowledge and who knew what, when before the attack.

SE: And also what happened afterward. I started working three days after Sept. 11 with a lot of documents and wiretaps that I was translating. Some of them dated back to 1997, 1998. Even after Sept. 11, covering up these investigations and not pursuing some of these investigations because the Department of State says, "You know what, you can't pursue this because that may deal with this particular country. If this country that the investigation deals with are not one of the Axis of Evil, we don't want to pursue them." The American people have the right to know this. They are giving this grand illusion that there are some investigations, but there are none. You know, they are coming down on these charities as the finance of al-Qaeda. Well, if you were to talk about the financing of al-Qaeda, a very small percentage comes from these charity foundations. The vast majority of their financing comes from narcotics. Look, we had 4 to 6 percent of the narcotics coming from the East, coming from Pakistan, coming from Afghanistan via the Balkans to the United States. Today, three or four years after Sept. 11, that has reached over 15 percent. How is it getting here? Who are getting the proceedings from those big narcotics?

One of those countries which if mentioned cannot be investigated is Kyrgyzstan, because, if you investigated it, and really dug down deep... from 'The Stakes Are Too High for Us to Stop Fighting Now' An interview with FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds by Christopher Deliso, August 15, 2005:

SE: The fact that there are no investigations -- I will give you an analogy, okay? Say if we decided to have a "war on drugs," but said in the beginning, "right, we're only going to go after the young black guys on the street level." Hey, we already have tens of thousands of them in our jails anyway, why not a few more? But we decided never to go after the middle levels, let alone the top levels...

It's like this with the so-called war on terror. We go for the Attas and Hamdis -- but never touch the guys on the top.

CD: You think they [the government] know who they are, the top guys, and where?

SE: Oh yeah, they know.

CD: So why don't they get them?

SE: It's like I told you before -- this would upset "certain foreign relations." But it would also expose certain of our elected officials, who have significant connections with high-level drugs- and weapons-smuggling -- and thus with the criminal underground, even with the terrorists themselves.

The South Country, Part 4

At the end of Part 3, we saw how deposed Kyrgyz President Bakiyev had arranged for his son's company to pay no taxes on a no-bid contract awarded to him by the US government.

I wonder if this is true....

You can go to the Federal Procurement Data System and look up these contracts.

Here's what I found.

First, a contract worth well over $14 million USD for fuel - apparently part of an ongoing deal:

This did seem to have been competitively bid:

But, when that contract expired on August 31, 2009, another contract came into effect. This one was worth almost a quarter of a billion dollars...

And, unlike the previous contract, this bid had no competition:

If you look closely at the third image, though, you will notice that the total value, with all the options, etc., wound up being some $730 million USD.

At this point, support for fuel to Manas Airbase is a business deal that is approaching $1,000,000,000 in value - no-bid, and tax-free.

Hypothetically speaking, now...

If a popular uprising in Kyrgyzstan should install a new government, headed by an interim President named Otunbayeva, and if that new government should begin investigating this and link it all to a corrupt deal arranged by the deposed president for his son who owns this company (and five others!), that could really upset somebody's business deal, couldn't it?

Now, hypothetically speaking...

With nearly $1 billion USD riding on the deal of one company, plus five more companies involved in the corruption - and this just of one son of the deposed Kyrgyz president; nevermind other family members and friends - that could be powerful motivation to engineer well-organized "ethnic violence", couldn't it?

From Kyrgyzstan crisis spreads as 100,000 Uzbeks try to flee, by Kristen Chick, June 15, 2010:

The son of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was arrested in England on Tuesday for alleged links to the Kyrgyzstan violence. Nearly 200 have died and 100,000 ethnic Uzbeks have fled to the border with Uzbekistan.

As China and Turkey send in planes to retrieve their nationals from Kyrgyzstan, ethnic Uzbeks are being told they can't flee despite deadly violence that has so far killed 171 and wounded nearly 1,800, according to the government, though the real numbers are likely much higher.

Meanwhile, suspicions continue to grow that the ousted president has links to the violence, with his son being arrested in England on Tuesday on charges that he is instigating the unrest that has largely targeted ethnic Uzbeks in the cities of Osh and Jalalabad.

From Kyrgyz interim gov't warns of violence around capital, Xinhua News, June 15, 2010:

BISHKEK, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyz interim Deputy Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev warned on Tuesday that the riots in southern Kyrgyzstan, which had killed at least 170 people, could spread to the country's capital Bishkek and Chui region in the north.

Speaking to reporters in Bishkek, Atambayev described violence in southern city Osh as "premeditated," but said that the interim government was well prepared for possible violence in Bishkek and Chui.

You don't suppose somebody is trying to start a counterrevolution in order to protect hundreds of millions - maybe billions - of dollars worth of business deals, do you?

And, considering that in Part 2 this was also linked to organized crime, you don't suppose that heroin from nearby Afghanistan is at stake as well, do you?

From Trouble Down South, dated June 14, 2010:

Kyrgyz military officials say that agents of Bakiyev dispatched well-trained mercenary snipers to Osh and Jalalabad who shot indiscriminately at locals to spread chaos. While it's not surprising that the new government would seek to pin the blame on its predecessor, there is compelling evidence to suggest that the unrest may have been carefully orchestrated. These include attempts by unidentified armed groups to seize control of TV channels, universities, and local government buildings during the fighting, unlikely targets for a mob driven purely by ethnic animosity.

The South Country, Part 3

Starting in this post, we begin to dig a little deeper into what might be happening in Kyrgyzstan. I shall attempt to develop the story chronologically.

Please note that there are different ways of spelling the name of the deposed Kyrgyz president; in my previous post on the subject, I had it "Bakiev" and here it is "Bakiyev".

On April 6, an opposition protest against government corruption and the high cost of living turned violent. The next day, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev declared a state of emergency. As the situation worsened, Russia was accused of being behind the unrest - a charge Moscow denied. On April 15, President Bakiyev fled the country with his family.

Please note that in Part 2, Bakiyev was said to be allied to Washington, and his replacement, interim President Otunbayeva, was said to be allied to Moscow.

Meanwhile, President Bakiyev's son, Maxim, by this time facing criminal charges for corruption, was in the United States as this situation developed in Kyrgyzstan.

Now, we first consider excerpts from Kyrgyzstan: Possible Diplomatic Debacle Looms for US Government over Manas Base, dated April 9, 2010, by Deirdre Tynan:

It is unclear if the provisional government led by Roza Otunbayeva has made a formal request to the United States for the return of Maxim Bakiyev. A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Bishkek said on April 10: "It is the US government's long standing position not to comment on extradition matters." The State Department in Washington referred all inquiries back to the embassy.

Beyond the immediate issue of Maxim Bakiyev's status in the United States, Washington's engagement with the Bakiyev family seems to have the potential to develop into a diplomatic disaster for the US government, political analysts say.

The sudden turn of events in Bishkek has created a near-term crisis for US strategic interests in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The United States had cultivated a cozy relationship with Bakiyev and his family, with the apparent aim of ensuring access to the transit center at Manas airport outside Bishkek, an important support hub for military operations in Afghanistan.

The US government's close relationship with the Bakiyevs has quickly emerged as a sore point in US relations with the new Kyrgyz leadership. Maxim Bakiyev's presence in the United States could exacerbate hard feelings in Bishkek, potentially making it more difficult for the United States to hold on to Manas basing rights.

Maxim Bakiyev's presence in the United States also could invite heightened scrutiny of possible inappropriate financial dealings involving the US Defense Department and the Manas base. At the very least, Maxim may well become a lightning rod for criticism of the United States coming from within Kyrgyzstan.

Already, the Central Asian state's provisional government has expressed interest in reviewing US government contracts concerning Manas operations. In addition, EurasiaNet.org has learned that the US Congress is preparing its own probe of Manas contracts.

So, the people were protesting corruption, the protests got out of hand, and Kyrgyz President Bakiyev was deposed and forced to flee the country; meanwhile, his son is in the US, charged back home in Kyrgyzstan with criminal corruption, while the US Congress was about to open its own investigation of the alleged corruption.

Skipping to the end:

It would seem that the Kyrgyz provisional government is intent on following the money.

The corruption surrounding Maxim, it seems, centers on the US Airbase at Manas, a Kyrgyz airport just outside the capital Bishkek, and named for an epic Kyrgyz hero. The Manas Airbase is a main transshipment point for support of US and allied operations in Afghanistan.

We now consider an excerpt from Kyrgyzstan: US Congressional Committee to Probe Manas Deals, by Deirdre Tynan, April 13, 2010 (please see original for links I did not reproduce):

A US congressional subcommittee is opening a wide-ranging investigation into the Defense Department's fuel contracting practices at the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan.

The investigation, to be conducted by the National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, will seek to determine what relationship, if any, existed between Red Star Enterprises Ltd., its affiliate Mina Corp. and the family of nominal president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, whose administration collapsed amid political violence in Bishkek on April 7.

Mina Corp. currently holds the contract for fuel deliveries to Manas. The contracts previously were held by Red Star. Manas is a key hub for US and NATO troops and materiel going to and from Afghanistan.

The subcommittee will also probe what, if anything, the Pentagon, the State Department and the US Embassy in Bishkek knew about suspected contracting irregularities.

[snip]

Sources have asserted to EurasiaNet.org that US Embassy personnel in Bishkek were aware of allegations concerning possible links between Maxim Bakiyev and Red Star/Mina Corp.

Now for an excerpt from Bishkek Fuel-Supply Corruption Probe Focusing on Maxim Bakiyev, by Deirdre Tynan, dated May 1, 2010 (again, see original for important links):

Kyrgyzstan's General Prosecutor's Office is focusing its corruption investigation concerning fuel supplies at Manas Transit Center on companies allegedly controlled by Maxim Bakiyev, the son of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Kyrgyz prosecutors are investigating six local suppliers that provided TS-1 jet fuel to Mina Corp and Red Star Enterprises Ltd., two entities that have held fuel supply contracts for Manas operations. Manas is a key logistics hub for US and NATO military operations in Afghanistan.

According to an April 30 statement released by the General Prosecutor's Office, the six Kyrgyz entities are suspected of having engaged in fraudulent practices to evade paying roughly $90 million in excise taxes over the past five years, a period that coincides with former president Bakiyev’s tenure in power.

The six companies under investigation were identified in the General Prosecutor's Office statement as "Manas Fuel Services, Kyrgyz Aviation, Central Asia Fuel, Aviation Fuel Service, Aircraft Petrol Ltd., [and] Central Asia Trade Group."

"It should be noted that all of the above companies belong to Maxim Bakiyev," the statement added. Bakiyev, the former head of the Kyrgyz Central Agency for Development, Investment and Innovation, was in Washington, DC, when unrest erupted in Bishkek in early April, resulting in his father's ouster. Kyrgyzstan's provisional leadership has authorized a warrant for Maxim's arrest. His current whereabouts have not been independently verified.

According to Kyrgyz prosecutors, the elder Bakiyev allegedly engineered parliamentary changes in tax regulations that were purportedly tailored to benefit his son's commercial interests.

So, Daddy Bakiyev was manipulating the government to enrich little Maxie Bakiyev.

Skipping down:

According to the US government's Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) website, Mina Corp obtained the latest Manas fuel contract worth up to $730.9 million on July 29, 2009, to supply fuel to Manas under a no-bid contract. The justification cited was the "national security" clause of the Federal Acquisition Regulations system.

[snip]

Under the terms of the Manas Transit Center agreement, both Red Star and Mina Corp are exempt from Kyrgyz customs and taxes. Article 7 of the agreement signed last year states: "purchases of goods and services in the Kyrgyz Republic by the US government or on its behalf to implement this agreement are not subject to any taxes, customs fees and similar payments on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic."

Wow - no taxes or customs on the proceeds from a no-bid contract. That's a pretty nice deal for a president's son!

Stay tuned for Part 4.

Obamacare Without Intent

Am I reading this right?

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 63 > § 1347

Health care fraud

Whoever knowingly and willfully executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice —

(1) to defraud any health care benefit program; or

(2) to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any health care benefit program,

in connection with the delivery of or payment for health care benefits, items, or services, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both. If the violation results in serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of this title), such person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and if the violation results in death, such person shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both.

Also:

-CITE-
18 USC Sec. 1347 01/05/2009

-EXPCITE-
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 63 - MAIL FRAUD AND OTHER FRAUD OFFENSES

-HEAD-
Sec. 1347. Health care fraud

-STATUTE-
Whoever knowingly and willfully executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice -

(1) to defraud any health care benefit program; or

(2) to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any health care benefit program,

in connection with the delivery of or payment for health care benefits, items, or services, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both. If the violation results in serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of this title), such person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and if the violation results in death, such person shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both.

-SOURCE-
(Added Pub. L. 104-191, title II, Sec. 242(a)(1), Aug. 21, 1996,
110 Stat. 2016.)

-End-

This is now amended thusly:

(b) INTENT REQUIREMENT FOR HEALTH CARE FRAUD.—Section
1347 of title 18, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by inserting "a)" before "Whoever knowingly"; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
"(b) With respect to violations of this section, a person need not have actual knowledge of this section or specific intent to commit a violation of this section.".

Key part: "a person need not have ... specific intent to commit a violation of this section."

In other words, with the advent of Obamacare - a 906-page law - you can now be convicted and sentenced to prison for a violation of this 906 page law even though it is not shown you intended to do so.

Over nine hundred pages... people are going to violate some part of this nine-hundred-page law every day without intending to do so.

How many people have even read it?

How many people have even read the summary?

How many pages of federal laws are on the books? And, how many of those pages have you read? Do you even know when you are violating one of these laws?

They can come after anyone they want to. They have the legal authority; Congress passes these bills, and stupid (sly?) Presidents sign them into law.

You might want to review my previous post and see what this could mean.

Obama/Ayers Plan Being Implemented?

I watch this, and I wonder if it could be true. It sure looks like it could be...



Now, consider Executive Order-- Establishing the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council, dated June 10, 2010:

Sec. 3. Purposes and Duties. The Council shall:

(a) provide coordination and leadership at the Federal level, and among all executive departments and agencies, with respect to prevention, wellness, and health promotion practices, the public health system, and integrative health care in the United States;

(b) develop, after obtaining input from relevant stakeholders, a national prevention, health promotion, public health, and integrative health-care strategy that incorporates the most effective and achievable means of improving the health status of Americans and reducing the incidence of preventable illness and disability in the United States, as further described in section 5 of this order;

[snip]

Sec. 5. National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy. Not later than March 23, 2011, the Chair, in consultation with the Council, shall develop and make public a national prevention, health promotion, and public health strategy (national strategy), and shall review and revise it periodically. The national strategy shall:

(a) set specific goals and objectives for improving the health of the United States through federally supported prevention, health promotion, and public health programs, consistent with ongoing goal setting efforts conducted by specific agencies;

(b) establish specific and measurable actions and timelines to carry out the strategy, and determine accountability for meeting those timelines, within and across Federal departments and agencies; and

(c) make recommendations to improve Federal efforts relating to prevention, health promotion, public health, and integrative health-care practices to ensure that Federal efforts are consistent with available standards and evidence.

(And don't think Obamacare is unrelated to all this!)

They could make National Health Camps in the Arizona desert, and put in there all those Arizonans who want immigration laws enforced. That would be a good way to begin to destroy the counterrevolutionary forces.

Mr. President, Mr. Ayers: Comrade Lenin, Comrade Stalin and Kim Il Sung would be proud of you!

(Hat tip to Sam Samford and Janis Jaffe Pace.)

Slick: Barack and Spilled Oil, Part 1

I'm trying to find the humor in this, because this is really infuriating and devastatingly sad.

Let's see if I can take this in some kind of order.

First, from Gulf Oil Spill "Could Go on Years and Years" ... by F. William Engdahl, dated June 11, 2010:

The Obama Administration and senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe. Senior researchers tell us that the BP drilling hit one of the oil migration channels and that the leakage could continue for years unless decisive steps are undertaken, something that seems far from the present strategy.

In a recent discussion, Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, predicted that the present oil spill flooding the Gulf Coast shores of the United States "could go on for years and years ... many years." ^[1]

According to Kutcherov, a leading specialist in the theory of abiogenic deep origin of petroleum, "What BP drilled into was what we call a 'migration channel,' a deep fault on which hydrocarbons generated in the depth of our planet migrate to the crust and are accumulated in rocks, something like Ghawar in Saudi Arabia."^[2] Ghawar, the world's most prolific oilfield has been producing millions of barrels daily for almost 70 years with no end in sight. According to the abiotic science, Ghawar like all elephant and giant oil and gas deposits all over the world, is located on a migration channel similar to that in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.

Farther down (slightly edited),

According to the Washington report of [investigative journalist Wayne] Madsen, BP statements that one of the leaks has been contained, are "pure public relations disinformation designed to avoid panic and demands for greater action by the Obama administration" according to FEMA and Corps of Engineers sources." ^[7]

The White House has been resisting releasing any "damaging information" about the oil disaster. Coast Guard and Corps of Engineers experts estimate that if the ocean oil geyser is not stopped within 90 days, there will be irreversible damage to the marine eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico, north Atlantic Ocean, and beyond. At best, some Corps of Engineers experts say it could take two years to cement the chasm on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. ^[8]

Only after the magnitude of the disaster became evident did Obama order Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano to declare the oil disaster a "national security issue." Although the Coast Guard and FEMA are part of her department, Napolitano's actual reasoning for invoking national security, according to Madsen, was merely to block media coverage of the immensity of the disaster that is unfolding for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean and their coastlines.

The Obama administration also conspired with BP to hide the extent of the oil leak, according to the cited federal and state sources. After the oil rig exploded and sank, the government stated that 42,000 gallons per day were gushing from the seabed chasm. Five days later, the federal government upped the leakage to 210,000 gallons a day. However, submersibles monitoring the escaping oil from the Gulf seabed are viewing television pictures of what they describe as a "volcanic-like" eruption of oil.

But wait, there's more!

From New evidence undermines latest BP-White House estimate of spill size by Tom Eley, June 12, 2010:

On Thursday, BP and Obama administration efforts to conceal the size of the Deepwater Horizon spill were delivered another blow when teams of scientists estimated that the rate of the oil spill as of early last week was between 30,000 and 50,000 barrels (1.2 million to 2.1 million gallons) per day, and possibly higher.

The figures are staggering. Fifty-three days after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 workers, somewhere between 63 million and 107 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the latest estimates. Between every five and nine days the spill equals the Exxon Valdez, which dumped about 11 million gallons into Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.

An Associated Press analysis notes that, even taking the low-end estimate, "if those 63 million gallons of oil were put in gallon milk jugs, they would line up side by side for nearly 5,500 miles."

Some scientists, among them Ira Leifer of the government-sponsored Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG), believe that BP's decision to cut the riser pipe in order to siphon off a portion of the oil may have actually made the spill far worse. The well could feasibly release as many as 10 million gallons per day, according to a worst-case scenario revealed in paperwork BP submitted for each of its two relief wells.

It appears the spill will continue at least until mid-August — a minimum of 60 more days — and will perhaps drag on into September. This is when relief wells drilled diagonally to intercept with and plug the Deepwater Horizon's may be completed — although there is no certainty that these can succeed. If it has not done so already, the BP spill by then will have easily eclipsed the worst oil spill on record, the 140 million gallons the Ixtoc I rig dumped off of Mexico's Gulf coast in 1979 and 1980. According to marine biologists, the environmental and human impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill are already far worse than the Ixtoc I, which was mitigated by its location and favorable currents.

So, this is gushing far more oil than we have been told, and will continue to do so for at least a couple of months - and remember, it might go for years!

And, they've known it for a while...

From After weeks of delay, BP deploys sensors to measure size of spill, by Andre Damon, June 14 2010 (inside the quote is an important link):

Even in the face of the new estimates, Obama administration officials are seeking to minimize the rate of flow to the extent possible. On Sunday, [Coast Guard Commandant Thad] Allen put the flow rate at about 40,000 barrels a day, and claimed absurdly that the true rate will only be known "when we have it completely capped, control the flow, can actually measure" it.

At the same time, Allen defended BP, saying that earlier estimates "were never BP's figures. They were our figures. We have several different methods of trying to establish the flow rate, from taking overhead satellite imagery of the oil on the water to using very high resolution video to try to assess the volume of the flow and velocity at which it's rising."

What Allen did not mention is that earlier independent figures based on these methods — and in the face of attempts by BP to block access to imagery of the leak itself — conform to the current high estimates. Weeks before the government increased its initial estimate, independent experts analyzed a video of the spill to conclude that the well was leaking 70,000 barrels per day.

The Alabama Press-Register reported on a video released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing scientists discussing a rate of spill of 64,000 to 110,000 barrels per day.

Finally, from From the Ground: BP Censoring Media, Destroying Evidence, by Dr. Riki Ott, June 13, 2010:

Orange Beach, Alabama -- While President Obama insists that the federal government is firmly in control of the response to BP's spill in the Gulf, people in coastal communities where I visited last week in Louisiana and Alabama know an inconvenient truth: BP -- not our president -- controls the response. In fact, people on the ground say things are out of control in the gulf.

Even worse, as my latest week of adventures illustrate, BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability.

For example, while flying on a small plane from New Orleans to Orange Beach, the pilot suddenly exclaimed, "Look at that!" The thin red line marking the federal flight restrictions of 3,000 feet over the oiled Gulf region had just jumped to include the coastal barrier islands off Alabama.

"There's only one reason for that," the pilot said. "BP doesn't want the media taking pictures of oil on the beaches. You should see the oil that's about six miles off the coast," he said grimly. We looked down at the wavy orange boom surrounding the islands below us. The pilot shook his head. "There's no way those booms are going to stop what's offshore from hitting those beaches."

BP knows this as well -- boom can only deflect oil under the calmest of sea conditions, not barricade it -- so they have stepped up their already aggressive effort to control what the public sees.

At the same time I was en route to Orange Beach, Clint Guidry with the Louisiana Shrimp Association and Dean Blanchard, who owns the largest shrimp processor in Louisiana, were in Grand Isle taking Anderson Cooper out in a small boat to see the oiled beaches. The U.S. Coast Guard held up the boat for 20 minutes - an intimidation tactic intended to stop the cameras from recording BP's damage. Luckily for Cooper and the viewing public, Dean Blanchard is not easily intimidated.

A few days later, the gig was up with the booms. Oil was making landfall in four states and even BP can't be everywhere at once. CBS 60 Minutes Australia found entire sections of boom hung up in marsh grasses two feet above the water off Venice. On the same day on the other side of Barataria Bay, Louisiana Bayoukeeper documented pools of oil and oiled pelicans inside the boom -- on the supposedly protected landward side -- of Queen Bess Island off Grand Isle.

With oil undisputedly hitting the beaches and the number of dead wildlife mounting, BP is switching tactics. In Orange Beach, people told me BP wouldn't let them collect carcasses. Instead, the company was raking up carcasses of oiled seabirds. "The heads separate from the bodies," one upset resident told me. "There's no way those birds are going to be autopsied. BP is destroying evidence!"

Video from NOAA site shows officials knew quickly of potential for massive oil flow

You know, Bill Clinton taught me to recognize when a politician was not telling us the whole story - a skill I honed under Bush-43. I know a crook when I see one, and this guy Obama....