Tag Archives: United States Department of Homeland Security

Michael Snyder ~ Mourn For America: Whenever A Tragedy Happens They Take Even More Freedom From Us

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Economic Collapse blog April 21 2013

What in the world is happening to America?  Over the past couple of decades, the federal government has used just about every major national tragedy as an excuse to take even more liberty and freedom away from us.  And without a doubt, the Boston Marathon bombing was a great national tragedy.  I don’t think that any of us will forget the images that we have seen over the past week.  All of those responsible for this attack should be exposed, hunted down, tried and punished.  Unfortunately, what always seems to happen is that it is the American people that seem to get punished the most for these tragedies.

Over the past couple of decades we have been told again and again that if we will just give up a little bit more freedom that the authorities will be able to keep us safe.  But you know what?  It is impossible for them to keep us safe.  There is no way in the world that the federal government can protect us from all of the bad guys in the world.  We are a country that is absolutely teeming with “soft targets” – malls, churches, schools, concerts, sporting events, etc.  No matter how much money we spend, there is no way that the federal government will ever be able to provide enough security for all of those soft targets.

Even if our society morphed into something that resembled George Orwell’s “1984″, the government would still never be able to guarantee our safety.  Unfortunately, in the aftermath of this attack there will inevitably be calls for “increased security” and “more anti-terror legislation”.  The answer always seems to be to expand the emerging police state.  But it is getting to the point where all of this “security” is becoming absolutely suffocating, and yet it doesn’t seem to be keeping us any safer.  So where does all of this end?  Are we going to completely throw out the entire U.S. Constitution in a desperate attempt to feel a little bit safer?  Or are we going to choose to live our lives without fear no matter what others may try to do to us?

Benjamin Franklin once made the following statement…

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

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William Dean A Garner ~ The Militarization Of America’s “Homeland Security”

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William Dean A Garner April 7 2013

The Los Angeles Police Department was the first major metropolitan law-enforcement agency in the US to institute a SWAT division. Special Weapons And Tactics.

Special.

Weapons.

And.

Tactics.

Special operations. Special military-trained personnel. Special vehicles, helicopters, training facilities and instruction.

Advanced assault weapons. Supplementary weapons: hand grenades, stun guns, night-vision devices.

Military strategies, masquerading as tactics. Military operations. Military missions on civilian streets and in civilian homes and businesses.

That began nearly more than 40 years ago.

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Robert Taylor ~ TSA Screening Lawsuit Helps Expose Government Abuse

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PolicyMIC April 2 2013

On April 3, the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear an appeal for a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) filed by two Harvard law students in 2010 claiming that their Fourth Amendment rights were violated by “nude body scanners” and “enhanced pat-downs.” The First Circuit is also allowing Freedom to Travel USA, an anti-TSA advocacy group, to make an appearance and oral arguments.

A victory on the side of the two students, Jeffrey Redfern and Anant Pradhan, would definitely be a win for civil liberties and the Bill of Rights. But even if, however, the lawsuits are struck down, this case will help continue to highlight and expose one of the most pervasive institutions of government abuse that exists in America.

This case alone is just one of many that the Freedom to Travel USA, Redfern, and Pradhan have helped bring to the public’s attention. They have put pressure on the TSA for not disclosing enough information about the capability of its scanners and attacking them for their veil of secrecy and dismissive nature towards worries over the health effects.

While some may defend the TSA as supposedly “necessary” for security and many others may acquiesce to their civil liberties violations to go along with the crowd and not raise a fuss, the TSA is truly one of the most vivid examples of the cold, cruel nature of government power. Every time I have had the unfortunate experience of waiting in an airport (and now, even taking the train or bus), I see Orwell’s nightmares staring back at me: the latex gloves, the hideous uniforms, the omnipresent voice-overs, the sheep-like lines, the arrogance of undeserved authority. It truly is the purgatory of the national-security state.

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Douglas J. Hagmann ~ DHS Insider Update: “It Has Begun”

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HomelandSecurityUS March 18 2013

Much like my high-level source within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security outlined in a series of interviews beginning last year, the orchestrated collapse of the U.S. dollar and the entire world’s economic system has begun. The first shots in a global economic take-over were fired in Cyprus as my esteemed colleague and founding editor of Canada Free Press, Judi McLeod laid out in frank detail in her column yesterday. Please read it and heed her advice, or suffer the consequences of your own normalcy bias that such an event will not happen in the United States, Canada, or from wherever you might be reading this. It will, and the plan appears to be on schedule for a shot across the bow later this spring here in the West, with a more aggressive take-over starting sometime this fall, according to my source.

The Plan

To those needing a quick refresher, the plan is quite simple and can be summarized by the Clinton-era quip attributed to political strategist James Carville, “the economy, stupid” and the June 9, 2010 statement by former Obama czar Van Jones, Socialist extraordinaire, “top down, bottom up, inside out.” It is a plan for a one world Communist economy where the “middle class” will be wiped out through a series of events that will have the same ultimate effect as we are seeing in present day Cyprus.

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Michael Tennant ~ TSA Allowed People With Criminal Records To Get Airport Security Badges

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The New American March 9 2013

The federal government has entrusted the security of the nation’s airports to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Yet according to a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), the agency’s bungling of an airport security badge vetting program allowed at least 11 individuals with criminal backgrounds to obtain access to secured airport areas. What’s more, says the OIG, because of the TSA’s lack of oversight, some individuals with criminal records may retain such access to this day.

According to the OIG, the TSA initially selected a single vendor, the American Association of Airport Executives’ (AAAE) Transportation Security Clearinghouse, to relay background check information to the TSA, which then submits the data for a Criminal History Records Check and a Security Threat Assessment. Only individuals who pass both screenings are to be given badges granting them unescorted access to secured airport areas.

Responding to requests from airports, the TSA created the Aviation Channeling Services Provider (ASCP) program in 2010 to offer them a choice of vendors for the badge vetting process. The next year it selected three vendors to participate in the program: AAAE, Telos ID, and L1 Identity Solutions (now MorphoTrust Enrollment Solutions).

This being a government project, it comes as no surprise that the OIG found that the TSA “did not properly plan, manage, and implement” it. In fact, the “project is still not completely implemented and continues to face challenges to accomplish its mission.” As of July 1, 2012, only a single airport had switched vendors (from AAAE to Telos ID), and MorphoTrust Enrollment Solutions was just beginning the testing phase of the project.

From the beginning, the project was doomed. “TSA did not have a written comprehensive plan for the ASCP project design and implementation,” noted the report. The agency has very little documentation on the project at all, and none about who made or approved project decisions. The project team supposedly made decisions, but no one can prove what they were because “TSA did not maintain team meeting minutes but relied on agendas as evidence of actions assigned to each responsible member of the team.”

The TSA also has no idea how much the project has cost thus far. Writes the OIG, “TSA did not track and report all project costs related to implementing the ASCP project.” As a result, it cannot say whether more than three vendors could have been acquired, and it “cannot be sure that it has not incurred unplanned additional costs.”

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Douglas J. Hagmann ~ Surviving The Coming Collapse

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Northeast Intelligence Network March 11 2013

“How do you think it will play out? What will it look like… the economic collapse that you’ve been writing about? I have money invested in the stock market, investments, sitting in the bank. Will my investments be safe? What should I do to prepare?” Those are the most common questions I’ve been receiving since writing about the coming collapse of the U.S. dollar and looming economic crisis. Since my recent article titled Racing for the exits was published, I’ve received nearly one thousand e-mails with these very questions from people all over the world. Obviously, people are very concerned and amid the doom and gloom, are looking for people to provide them with answers, or at least some guidance and direction.

“Doom porn” or a real possibility?

I have been accused of writing what some people call “doom porn,” or the “end of the world as we know it” type events that center around the collapse of our fiat monetary system. Most of these accusers are the people who follow the writing and ranting of the talking heads of corporate media who are shilling for the very people and governmental bodies that are responsible for putting us in the very position we find ourselves today.

To be clear, I’m merely an investigator and writer who, for the last 25 years of my career, developed certain contacts working within various levels of our government. I am a much better investigator than a financial expert, an indisputable fact documented by my own personal financial situation. I’m just an average guy with a family, just trying to make ends meet and make sense of it all. Thankfully, my contacts are much more knowledgeable, and it is from this collective group that I’ve tapped for their knowledge and understanding about what we are facing not only as a nation, but on a global scale. A few of my sources were actually present, in-country, during the collapse of the Soviet Union and other nations over the last quarter-century. I’ve interviewed these eyewitnesses to such cataclysmic economic events, and they have shared their accounts and advice that I am offering now.

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Sherrie ~ A Warning I Have Received This Week From Two Different Former Government Officials (One top rank Military – One Intelligence Officer)

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Sherrie Questioning All February 13 2013

I am going ahead and writing about some conversations I have had this week with two different individuals.

Both are former government officials.  One was a top ranking Military official and another was an Intelligence Officer.  I confirmed both were who they said they were after they had contacted me originally.   I have not written about them on this blog or our conversations, as we will discuss current events etc on the phone.  They have never given me any “top secret” type information (FYI – for any govt. officials reading this).   But they do give me what is real or not real when events happen.

Both had contacted me awhile back and I was very leery in the beginning.  I did not know if they were trying to get information about me etc.   But after a short amount of time I found they were both genuine and sincere of their contacting me.

This week both of them have contacted me and have been giving me “warnings.”

Two things from past conversations with them about current events:

First they have both told me “Sandy Hook was a false flag.”  It is to get into the mind set of people that their children are at risk it is the psychology of fear for the masses.   Also the intelligence person said that the Dorner thing, something was really not right about it and he believed the manifesto was written by a few different people due to the way it read and how it was written.  We were not able to get into a long conversation about it so I really can’t say much about that here. (He did say that Dorner will be killed because of what he knew about LAPD)

Second, I was told all the listening into people’s conversations and reading of the emails, people don’t really need to worry about that.  The intelligence officer said “Yes, they are, BUT they don’t give a Sh** about all of our opinions.  They care about money.  They are paying attention to the big corporation phone calls and emails and to know who is making a big money deal with who, so they can make money off that information.”  He said “The rest of it is boring to them and they couldn’t care less what people think.  It is all about money.”  He said all that is going on from the top down is not about money, it is simply about Control of the people.  They have more money than they can ever spend it is the control and power and making downtrodden slaves of the people.

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Gene Howington ~ Your Rights Under Attack: What A Difference 100 Miles Makes

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Jonathan Turley’s Blog February 10 2013

We are all aware of and concerned about the steady erosion of our civil rights at the hands of ever overreaching Federal government. It is a topic that brought many of us to this blog and a topic that draws more audience every day. The latest victim of tyranny is the 4th Amendment. The 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Seems pretty straight forward.  However, the DHS has apparently decided to void the Constitution if you live within 100 miles of the U.S. border. Your electronics may be seized and your data searched if you live or are travelling within 100 miles of the border. This is not a new story. This policy has been known since 2008.  From the beginning there were calls for Congress to reign in the overreach of the the Department for Reich, er, Homeland Security that went unheeded. Most of the calls were for residential traveller exemptions. However, there are new developments. This draconian policy, neglected by Congress, has been unilaterally declared just fine and dandy by the DHS itself in yet another example of the Executive unilaterally claiming unconstitutional powers over citizens with their only check being their own rubber stamp. This policy not only vitiates the 4th Amendment, but has implications for the 1st and 14th as well.

To get an idea of the scope of this “Constitution-free Zone”, consider this map:

ACLUbordermap

Consider too that fully two-thirds (2/3)  of the United States’ population lives within this Constitution-free Zone.   That’s 197.4 million people, including everyone in Hawaii. And Florida, Rhode Island, Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Michigan. Aloha!

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Wendy McElroy ~ Is America A Police State Yet?

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Dollar Vigilante February 6 2013 (Thanks, A.L.)

If you need to ask the question, then the answer is “yes”. But that is a glib response and I do not feel glib about America’s slide through the nine rings of political hell.

A police state is generally defined as a totalitarian government that exerts extreme and pervasive social, political and economic control over peaceful citizens. Ayn Rand called it “the ultimate inversion…the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission.”

There are various ways to measure where a nation sits on the police-state axis.

One way is to compare what you see in America with the following standard description of a police state. A police state maintains its control through the pervasive surveillance of peaceful citizenry, through a vast number of laws with draconian enforcement, and by converting rights into privileges that can be withheld – for example, the ability to travel. Typically, there is a special police force, such as a Stasi, that operates with no transparency and few restraints. The special police do not address violent crime; instead, they exert social control and enforce the law whatever the law may be.

This describes America. Surveillance of daily life has soared; even the Supreme Court has consistently expanded the “right” of police to perform warrantless searches. A vast array of laws now  dictate the minutia of life, from what you may not eat to the light bulbs you may not use as well products you must buy (e.g. health care insurance). On one day in January alone, Obama issued 23 executive orders to start the process of gun control.   Enforcement is becoming every more draconian, with police departments pursuing militarization of their procedures and attitudes. A special police force called the Department of Homeland Security has spearheaded this military zeal; the DHS functions without transparency or accountability. Travel, formerly a right, is now a privilege granted by government agents at their whim.

Does the foregoing describe a free society or a police state?

Another way to judge the degree of totalitarianism is to answer yourself four questions: Continue reading →

Obama Wants Your Guns, Homeland Security Says Defend Yourself With Scissors [Video]

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FreedomOutpost.com | January 31, 2013

Apparently, “Defend yourself with a legal firearm” is not part of the new Department of Homeland Security curriculum.

They have now resorted to a training video that encourages you to use scissors to protect yourself in the event that you are a victim of a shooting.

Perhaps this is an upgrade from them instructing border patrol agents to run and hide.

Why are AR-15′s ‘Personal Defense’ Weapons for the DHS but ‘Assault Rifles’ for Citizens?

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Activist Post | January 29 2013

“We are fast approaching the stage of ultimate inversion: the stage where government is free to do as it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission.” - Ayn Rand

Why are fully-automatic AR-15s with 30-round magazines and hollow-point bullets called ‘personal defense’ weapons when the Department of Homeland Security purchases them, but semi-auto AR-15s are assault rifles in the hands of citizens?

DHS Orders 7000 AR-15s – Wiki Image

The Department of Homeland Security filed a purchase bid this past June titled “Personal Defense Weapons Solicitation”.  It is combined bid for 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition and “select-fire firearm suitable for personal defense.”

Increasingly the government is giving itself privileges that they are taking away from citizens. This is becoming most obvious in regards to gun rights, but it’s becoming a widespread abuse of power across all aspects of society. The government is supposed to derive its authority from the people not the other way around.

Ron Paul recently addressed this exact topic proposing the simple solution: ”Anything the government assumes they have a right to do to us, we should assume we have a right to do that to them.”

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Chris Hedges ~ State Of Fear

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Truthdig | January 7 2012

Shannon McLeish of Florida is a 45-year-old married mother of two young children. She is a homeowner, a taxpayer and a safe driver. She votes in every election. She attends a Unitarian Universalist church on Sundays. She is also, like nearly all who have a relationship with the Occupy movement in the United States, being monitored by the federal government. She knows this because when she read FBI documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through the Freedom of Information Act, she was startled to see a redaction that could only be referring to her. McLeish’s story is the story of hundreds of thousands of people—perhaps more—whose lives are being invaded by the state. It is the story of a security and surveillance apparatus—overseen by the executive branch under Barack Obama—that has empowered the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to silence the voices and obstruct the activity of citizens who question corporate power.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, said in a written statement about the released files: “This production [of information], which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protesters organizing with the Occupy movement. These documents show that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity. These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.”

The FBI documents are not only a chilling example of how widespread this surveillance and obstruction has become, they are an explicit warning by the security services to all who consider dissent. Anyone who defies corporate power, even if he or she is nonviolent and acting within constitutional rights, is a suspect. These documents are part of the plan to make us fearful, compliant and disempowered. They mark, I suspect, a government attempt to end peaceful mass protests by responding with repression to the grievances of Americans. When the corporate-financed group FreedomWorks bused in goons to disrupt Democratic candidates’ town hall meetings about the federal health care legislation in August 2009, Eric Zuesse of the Business Insider notes, “there was no FBI surveillance of those corporate-organized disruptions of legitimate democratic processes. There also were no subsequent FreedomWorks applications for Freedom of Information Act releases of FBI files regarding such surveillance being used against them—because there was no such FBI campaign against them.”

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Doug Hagmann ~ The latest from “DHS Insider” (Part II)

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Northeast Intelligence Network | December 24 2012 | Thanks, A.L.

The following is the second part of [Doug Hagmann's] in-person interview with a DHS insider. For Part I, please click HERE.

DH: Wait, this sounds way, way over the top. Are you telling me… [Interrupts]

RB: [Over talk/Unintelligible] …know who was selected or elected twice now. You know who his associates are. And you are saying this is way over the top? Don’t forget what Ayers said – you talked to Larry Grathwohl. This guy is a revolutionary. He does not want to transform our country in the traditional sense. He will destroy it. And he’s not working alone. He’s not working for himself, either. He has his handlers. So don’t think this is going to be a walk in the park, with some type of attempt to rescue the country. Cloward-Piven. Alinsky. Marx. All rolled into one. And he won’t need the rest of his four years to do it.

DH: I need you to be clear. Let’s go back again, I mean, to those who speak out about what’s happening.

RB: [Edit note: Obviously irritated] How much clearer do you want it? The Second Amendment will be gone, along with the first, at least practically or operationally. The Constitution will be gone, suspended, at least in an operational sense. Maybe they won’t actually say that they are suspending it, but will do it. Like saying the sky is purple when it’s actually blue. How many people will look a the sky and say yeah, it’s purple? They see what they want to see.

So the DHS, working with other law enforcement organizations, especially the TSA as it stands right now, will oversee the confiscation of assault weapons, which includes all semi-automatic weapons following a period of so-called amnesty. It also includes shotguns that hold multiple rounds, or have pistol grips. They will go after the high capacity magazines, anything over, say 5 rounds.

They will also go after the ammunition, especially at the manufacturer’s level. They will require a special license for certain weapons, and make it impossible to own anything. More draconian than England. This is a global thing too. Want to hunt? What gives you the right to hunt theiranimals? Sound strange? I hope so, but they believe they own the animals. Do you understand now, how sick and twisted this is? Their mentality?

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