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US police officers beating a university student was caught on tape.
A newly-surfaced video showing US police officers brutally beating up an unarmed university student has provoked outrage across the US.

John McKenna, 21, the University of Maryland student is still recovering from the physical injuries he suffered last month when he got caught up in a celebration of his school basketball team’s win over Duke.

The newly-released video, which has been aired extensively on US TV, shows three police officers in riot gear ramming the student and then beating him with batons.

Left unconscious in the street, McKenna suffered a concussion and bruises on his arms.

According to his lawyer Chris Griffiths, the first-year student needed eight staples in his skull to close his head wound.

"On the way to the jail, officers removed the bandages from his head and said, ‘Look, if you want to go home tonight, don’t complain about your injuries," ABC News quoted Griffiths as saying.

Meanwhile, the police statement accused McKenna of inciting a crowd and claimed his injuries were minor, caused when he was "kicked by the horses."

McKenna’s lawyer said his client had plans to sue the three officers who assaulted him.

Less serious offenders, such as those convicted of misdemeanor offenses, may receive a short term sentence to be served in a local city or county jail, or to alternative forms of sanctions such as community corrections (halfway house) or house arrest. Different U.S. prisons operate at different levels of security, ranging from minimum-security prisons—that mainly house non-violent offenders—to Supermax facilities that house the more dangerous criminals……………

Incarceration_in_the_United_States

A Kenyan lawmaker told the nation’s parliament last month that Barack Obama was born in Africa and is therefore "not even a native American."

During debate over the draft of a new Kenyan constitution, James Orengo, the country’s minister of lands and a member of parliament for the Ugenya constituency, cited America’s election of a Kenyan-born president as an example of what can be accomplished when diverse peoples unite:

"If America was living in a situation where they feared ethnicity and did not see itself as a multiparty state or nation," Orengo posited, "how could a young man born here in Kenya, who is not even a native American, become the president of America?"

Orengo held up the U.S. as a country no longer "living in the past," since Americans elected a Kenyan-born president without regard to "ethnic consideration and objectives."

Debate is then recorded in the Kenyan government’s official March 25, 2010, hansard – a traditional name for printed transcripts of a parliamentary debate – as continuing with no other MPs mentioning or attempting to correct Orengo’s comments about Obama.

As WND has reported, several other sources – including National Public Radio – have claimed Obama’s birthplace as Kenya prior to his election as president.

WND also reported when a video appeared in which Michelle Obama said her husband’s "home country" was Kenya, though her comments didn’t specifically suggest his birth there.

The video, posted April 3 on YouTube and forwarded by a score of Internet e-mails, shows Michelle Obama saying, "When we took our trip to Africa and visited his home country in Kenya, we took a public HIV test."

The reference drew attention because of the claim made in numerous lawsuits and other challenges to Obama’s occupancy of the Oval Office that he is not eligible to be president under the requirement of Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution that the president be a "natural born citizen."

But the NPR reference and Michelle Obama’s comment are far from the only ones of their kind.

At one point, there were reports that even Obama’s grandmother claimed being in attendance at his birth in Africa.

According to a compilation of images at a military forum, another reference was made in 2008 in the Nigerian Observer.

Under a byline from Solomon Asowata and a Washington dateline, the report says, "Americans will today go to the polls to elect their next president with Democratic Party candidate, Senator Barack Obama largely favoured to win. The Kenyan-born Senator will, however, face a stiff competition from his Republican counterpart…"

A commentary at The Post & Email website said, "It is no wonder that many doubt Obama’s claim of a Hawaiian birth."

It cited another report from African Travel Magazine that said, "As Kenyan born U.S. Senator Barack Obama jets into Kenya today as part of his African tour, concerns have once again been raised on the security preparations for other visitors and residents. …."

The Post & Email commentary also cited a report from Indonesia Matters that includes similar references.

WND documented earlier several other statements linking Obama and Kenya.

These included the apparently archived article from the Sunday Standard in Kenya.

The report begins, "Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack (sic) Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race on Friday night amid a furor over lurid sex club allegations."

The article is credited to the wire service Associated Press at the bottom of the page. However, the article could not be found either in the AP archives available to the public online or the archive on the newspaper’s website. WND telephone calls and e-mails to the newspaper did not generate a response.

Last year, an African news site and an MSNBC broadcaster referred to President Obama’s birthplace as being outside of the United States.

Network correspondent Mara Schiavocampo was reporting on the celebratory atmosphere in Accra, Ghana, immediately prior to Obama’s visit to the west African nation.

Interviewing a person who appeared to be a shop operator, she stated, "Barack Obama is Kenyan … but Ghanaians are still proud of him."


The video of the report is at this link.
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: News and videos from the evening broadcast NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: News and videos from the evening broadcast- msnbc.com

Also, a report at Modern Ghana posted in advance of the president’s visit cited his birthplace on the continent of Africa.

"For Ghana, Obama’s visit will be a celebration of another milestone in African history as it hosts the first-ever African-American President on this presidential visit to the continent of his birth," the report said.
WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama’s status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama’s American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.

Other challenges have focused on Obama’s citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.

Complicating the situation is Obama’s decision to spend sums exceeding $1.7 million to avoid releasing an original long-form state birth certificate that would put to rest the questions.

WND also has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and his adoption records.
Because of the dearth of information about Obama’s eligibility, WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a campaign to raise contributions to post billboards asking a simple question: "Where’s the birth certificate?"
WND also reported previously when Michelle Obama contradicted Obama’s story that he lived with his mother and father for several years in Hawaii after he was born before his father left to pursue a graduate degree.

Michelle Obama said her husband’s mother, Ann Dunham, was "very young and very single" when she gave birth to the future U.S. president.
Her comments undermine the official story as told by Barack Obama – that Dunham was married to his father, Barack Obama Sr., at the time of birth.

The remarks were made by Michelle Obama during a July 2008 round table at the University of Missouri. Obama was responding to criticism of her husband’s presidential campaign speeches about fatherhood and faith-based initiatives.

WND also reported previously when Michelle Obama contradicted Obama’s story that he lived with his mother and father for several years in Hawaii after he was born before his father left to pursue a graduate degree.

Michelle Obama said her husband’s mother, Ann Dunham, was "very young and very single" when she gave birth to the future U.S. president.

Her comments undermine the official story as told by Barack Obama – that Dunham was married to his father, Barack Obama Sr., at the time of birth.

The remarks were made by Michelle Obama during a July 2008 round table at the University of Missouri. Obama was responding to criticism of her husband’s presidential campaign speeches about fatherhood and faith-based initiatives.

Lawmakers voted 197 to 1 with 142 abstentions to approve the measure late yesterday, according to records posted on parliament’s Web site.

Hungary’s Nazi-allied government during World War II shared responsibility for the murder of more than 550,000 Jews, including about 430,000 people deported to concentration camps, according to a report on the Web site of Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Only some residents of the Budapest ghetto, decimated by Nazi death squads, were spared. (Jewish Bullshit)

About 50,000 Jews live in Hungary, the most among the European Union’s eastern members, according to the American- Israeli Cooperative Enterprise’s Jewish Virtual Library.

Lawmakers passed the governing Socialist Party’s proposal in parliament’s last session before elections in April. The opposition Fidesz party is set to win the balloting ahead of the Socialists. The radical nationalist Jobbik party, which previously focused on crimes committed by ethnic Roma, is forecast to place third, the best result for a radical party since Hungary’s transition to democracy 20 years ago.

“A monster has been born and is now standing here at our gates,” Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai told lawmakers yesterday, calling Jobbik undemocratic. “The problem with Jobbik is that it devastates our nation, it offers scapegoats, not solutions.”~jewified~

Previous efforts in the past decade to make Holocaust denial a criminal offense either floundered in parliament or was vetoed by the Constitutional Court.

When worlds collide, things tend to get messy. So we learned again 10 days ago when one hurtling car plowed into another on a dark Florida road in the middle of the night, leaving misery and outrage in its wake.

One vehicle was a six-figure supercar driven by a wintering millionaire from Houston who was seen at a society fundraiser earlier in the evening and in another bar and restaurant shortly before the crash. The other was just a car, a modest means of transportation that was taking a recent college graduate to his mother’s home, where he’d be closer to a flag-football game with friends scheduled for the next day.

In the aftermath of the collision, 23-year-old Scott Wilson lay dead in a roadside drainage ditch, his used Hyundai Sonata turned into an unrecognizable lump of twisted metal. Taken to the hospital with minor injuries was John Goodman, 46, the heir to a Houston fortune who has devoted his life to the pursuit of polo and the good times that go with it.

Authorities are investigating whether Goodman was impaired when the 2008 Bentley convertible he was driving apparently ran a red light on a road not far from the polo club he owns in a rural corner of Wellington, a suburb of Palm Beach. He hired Florida’s best-known criminal defense lawyer to represent him, prompting many people around Palm Beach to jump to conclusions, inundating local newspaper stories with comments calling for his head.

“In this county, it’s very clear that authorities have been abysmal in dealing with celebrities and multimillionaires entering the criminal justice system,” said Jose Lambiet, the society reporter for the Pam Beach Post whose Page2Live is a nexus for celebrity news. “Time after time after time, whatever it is, they are getting away with it. It’s case after case, and I think the citizens of Palm Beach are getting sick of it.”

…Goodman’s former wife, Carroll, alleged in documents related to their 2008 divorce that he had a substance-abuse problem, specifically cocaine, and that she was concerned for their two children, of whom they share custody. She requested that the court require periodic drug tests. The court declined.

As for Goodman’s condition on the night of the accident, authorities are releasing no information. So far there have been no leaks about his blood-alcohol level. The Palm Beach Post reported Saturday that Goodman had bought a round of 16 shots at a bar not long before the crash, and a local television station reported that the first motorist to come across the accident said the driver of the Bentley was not present, but the significance of that, if true, is unclear. Goodman was not accused of fleeing the scene or eluding arrest.

In Palm Beach society, home to Donald Trump and formerly Bernie Madoff, Goodman may be better known than he is in Houston. He built the International Polo Center in 2004, and it quickly became the hub of U.S. winter polo.

…“It’s like a war,” Goodman told the Houston Press in 1998. “Something bad can happen to you, and then something good happens.”

…But sometimes something bad can happen, as it did to Scott Wilson, and to a lesser degree the other driver. If Lambiet’s prediction is right, there is good reason for Goodman to think something good may follow.

Samuel T. Francis – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anarcho-tyranny

Sat, 20 Feb 2010

Two US lawyers who contributed to the sanctioning of torture techniques on terrorism suspects during former President George W. Bush’s tenure are spared disciplinary reprisal.

The US Justice Department said in a Friday report that John Yoo and Jay Bybee had engaged in professional misconduct, but spared them punitive measures.

The long-anticipated Justice Department memo said that the two authors of torture scripts "violated" their duties and "acted in reckless disregard" in practicing independent legal judgment.

However, the document stops short of incriminating the two law authorities, which would, in turn necessitate judgment.

The so-called enhanced questioning method they authorized included water-boarding of terrorism suspects as the Bush administration tried to elicit intelligence after the September 11 incident for capturing or killing anti-American militants.

During the Bush administration, Yoo and Bybee were high-ranking officials in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

The latest news comes despite human rights groups’ pressure on President Barack Obama to pursue criminal charges against those blamed for torturing detainees during the Bush era.

Bush lawyers advocating torture walk away scot-free

Cleared: Jay Bybee and John Yoo Blog de KingShamus

Think Progress DOJ official reportedly clears torture architects John Yoo and Jay Bybee.

Sat, 13 Feb 2010

The political storm over allegations of MI5′s complicity in torture has escalated after British Home Secretary accused the media of "spreading accusations."

Home Secretary Alan Johnson also accused British media commentators of spreading "ludicrous lies" about the UK’s Security Service.

A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Binyam Mohamed, is presently suing the UK government on the grounds that the MI5 Intelligence Agency was complicit in his torture and provided questions and information to his interrogators.

This week, UK’s appeals court rejected efforts by the Foreign Office to suppress seven paragraphs of a report drawn up by British judges in August 2008, based on their access to more than 40 US intelligence documents. The paragraphs, now published on the Foreign Office website, find that Mohamed "was subject to a very cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the US authorities.”

As defense lawyers prepared to challenge the government’s success in suppressing severe criticism of MI5 officers made by one of Britain’s most senior judges, the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, pointed the finger at the "very top of government" saying senior ministers had probably known about claims of Britain’s involvement in torture but failed to take action to stop it.

The appeal court also referred to a recent US court case where the judge vindicated Mohamed’s claims that "UK authorities" had been "involved in and facilitated the ill-treatment and torture" to which he was subjected while being under the US control.

Ethiopian-born Mohamed, a British resident, was arrested in Pakistan on April 10, 2002 as he was about to board a flight to Britain. After being imprisoned and tortured in Pakistan, he was turned over to the FBI.

A victim of extraordinary rendition at the hands of the CIA, he was flown to Morocco, where he was again tortured and slashed with razor blades on his chest and genitals. He was then moved to Afghanistan, where he was frequently tortured in the infamous “Dark Prison” before being finally detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He spent four years there and again subjected to torture and abuse. He was released in February 2009 without charge, after nearly seven years in prison.

February 8th, 2010
American Grand Jury has archived extensive records over the past year which we used in our jury hearings. We now believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Obama is not a “natural born” citizen and it is even possible that he may be an illegal alien.

We also have records showing the Democratic National Convention fraudulently declared Obama constitutionally eligible while never vetting the “natural born” requirement with the electorate.

Now, new evidence has come to light whereby Dr. James Manning has declared that Obama never attended Columbia University [New York].

Dr. Manning has hired a team of investigators to comb over every bit of available evidence to validate his declaration.

Manning’s investigators conclusively state that:

1) Columbia University will not divulge whether the “alleged” diploma issued was in the name of Barry Soetoro or Barack Hussein Obama. No public record exists regarding the diploma.

2) Obama alleges he attended Columbia in 1982, 1983. But, the investigators have been UNABLE to turn up a single shred of written documentation for the years 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 that show where Obama appeared on a school roster, register, faculty memo, bulletin board, school awards, dean’s list; where Obama’s name appeared in a yearbook, club record, fraternity record, extra curricular activity member roster, student newspaper, student radio or tv activity; where Obama appeared in any records as a worker, employee, laborer in or about Columbia University; where Obama enrolled in any sports activity or program.

3) As a graduating senior in 1983 he does not appear in any Political Science (his major) or Granduating Class yearbook or invitation records.

4) There is absolutely no documentation of any kind to show Obama attended, lived, worked or played at Columbia University during the investigated 4 years.

February 8, 2010

The Florida Supreme Court has refused to halt next weeks scheduled execution of 45-year-old Martin (Michoel Yechiel) Edward Grossman, a Jewish inmate, ~jewified~ convicted of murdering a Pinellas County wildlife officer in 1984.:)

According to a report by the Associated Press, the justices Monday rejected claims from Grossman ~jewified~that he wasn’t given a fair chance to prove his trial lawyer had been ineffective nor allowed to present certain mitigating evidence against a death sentence.-crybaby-

The high court also ruled he was premature in arguing that he may be mentally incompetent. An insanity claim must first go to Gov. Charlie Crist for a ruling before it can be appealed. -crybaby-
Grossman ~jewified~ was 19 years old when he and a friend went to a wooded area in Pinellas County on Dec. 13, 1984 to shoot a stolen handgun.

26-year-old Florida Wildlife Officer Margaret Park interrupted them and Grossman pleaded with her not to report him for having the gun and being outside Pasco County, both of which were violations of his probation for burglary.

Grossman ~jewified~ struck Park on the back of the head when she tried to radio for help and his accomplice beat her.

Grossman, ~jewified~ who was a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than Park, wrestled her gun away from her and shot her in the back of the head.

(Dov Gordon – YWN)

The Yeshiva World Supreme Court Refuses to Halt Execution of Jewish Inmate Frum Jewish News

Fla. justices refuse to halt execution next week – Florida AP – MiamiHerald.com

Florida rabbis seek to prevent Jew’s execution – Israel News, Ynetnews

ALL 4 INVOLVED IN SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY BREAKIN CIA “N-O-C” AGENTS

CIA PROGRAM MAY HAVE TRAINED DOMESTIC “DEATH SQUADS”

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
January 30, 2010

Last week’s breakin at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office in the New Orleans Federal Building was more than it seemed, much more. All of the 4 arrested had been trained by the CIA and, possibly, Israel. One arrested, Stan Dai, is listed as an Operations Officer of the Department of Defense Irregular Warfare Program and a known expert and lecturer on, not only surveillance but explosives training, assassinations and “false flag operations.” If you wanted a plane to crash, an enemy to get sick and die or a building to blow up, Dai would be the man to know how to make it happen. Problem is, his skills were being used as part of a criminal conspiracy inside the United States against members of our own government.

Original reports on the “break-in” were also wrong. One of those arrested was found blocks away with a covert receiver, managing the office bugs. The man in the car is identified as Stan Dai, Operations Officer for the Department of Defense Irregular Warfare Program:

“one of the four was arrested with a listening device in a car blocks from the senator’s offices.” The FBI’s affidavit noted that Flanagan and Basel were in the building with O’Keefe, and a federal law enforcement official confirmed to AP that Dai was the one in the car.”

What is not initially known is whether this was the first attempt or, as is much more likely, an additional incursion to plant new bugs as the ones in place were missing key conversations. Also, it is not known how many “black ops” crews are being run by the CIA inside the United States in violation of their charter or if their operations are being limited to spying on Democratic lawmakers or if operations of a more threatening nature have been performed but remain undiscovered.

Additionally, as this was a covert op against US government investigations of, not only terrorism and terrorism funding but major financial crimes against the United States, it is unclear who the recipient of the “product,” an intelligence industry term for “output” or information put up for “distribution” might be. Potential buyers could be the Republican Party, Israel, Turkey, India, Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea or financial institutions involved in massive money laundering schemes being investigated by the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security of which Senator Landireu is a member.

Learn how the Intelliegence Community Center for Academic Excellence (IC CAE) at Georgetown University and the CIA got involved in this seedy domestic “black ops” group. In a story broken this week:

Dai’s links to the intelligence community appear to be particularly strong. He was a speaker at Georgetown University’s Central Intelligence Agency summer school program in June 2009, and is also listed as an Assistant Director at the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence at Trinity in D.C. (note the parallels between the Georgetown program tied to “conservative think tanks” and the GWU program with similar ties and the same characters where we trace Dr. Hasan, Ft Hood mass murderer to)

The university’s president Patricia McGuire told The Associated Press that it promoted careers in intelligence but denied that it trains students to be spies. (a seemingly meaningless statement considering what has happened)

The Trinity program received a “$250,000 renewable grant from the U.S. Intelligence Community” upon launching in 2004, according to its Web site. The program’s goals are stated:

The IC CAE in National Security Studies Program was established during 2005 in response to the nation’s increasing need for IC professionals who are educated and trained with the unique knowledge, skills and capabilities to carry out America’s national security objectives.

The CIA summer school packet also notes that Dai “served as the Operations Officer of a Department of Defense irregular warfare fellowship program.”

Dai has been an undergraduate fellow with the Washington-based national security think tank Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies (FDD), according to his College Leadership Program award biography at the Phillips Foundation — as Lindsay Beyerstein first reported.

FDD claims that it’s partly funded by the US State Department. Its Leadership Council and Board of Advisers comprise many high-profile conservative politicians and public figures — including former House speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), former Bush official Richard Perle and columnist Charles Krauthammer.

Operatives recruited in universities and managed thru conservative think tanks receive paid “vacations” to Israel and elsewhere, places where they are trained in silent killing, use of poisons, explosives and other potentially useful skills whether their career is in intelligence or politics. As with other terrorist suspects such as those who travel to Afghanistan for their training, these domestic types are funded covertly through the US government but, as we see in New Orleans, rented out to either Israel, India or the Republican party.

This history of this program parallels one from the Nixon administration after the Vietnam War. CIA recruiters subsidized hundreds, perhaps several thousand veterans, Marines, Special Forces and Army Rangers who served in unofficial and semi-official capacities in and out of the US. Some serve to this day. Today’s, if current bio’s are any indication, depend more on ideology than physical bravery or intellectual qualifications. Perhaps the “purity” test left little room for battle hardened veterans who might choose country over party and loyalty over cash.

In a “clarification” of how Israel is involved and sees their cooperation in this domestic terror organization as part of their support of the United States as a trusted ally, we received the following story:

Dai traveled to Israel for two weeks in 2004 on an FDD (Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies, a conservative Washington based “think tank” with CIA ties) -sponsored trip, the Daily Herald reported. “All expenses (room, board and travel) will be assumed by FDD,” FDD’s Web site said of its Israel program.

A host of FDD testimonials from Academic Fellows reveal that many fellows have traveled to Israel for training and field trips. The Foundation says the course includes “lectures by academics, diplomats, military and intelligence officials, and politicians from Israel, Jordan, India, Turkey and the United States.”

FDD proclaims that “Like America, Israel is at the forefront in the war on terrorism.” Further explaining its interest in Israel, FDD declares:

“Both the United States and Israel are democracies, and both face the same enemy. It is this connection between Israel’s experience and the future of the United States that is the essence of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.”

One FDD testimonial, by 2004-2005 fellow Dr. Cathal J. Nolan, highlighted the group’s bond with high-level intelligence and government officials in Israel:

“The access which FDD provided to top government officials–and to academic, police, security service, and intelligence experts at the highest levels–was truly remarkable. I know of no other foundation or fellowship program which is able to provide so much top-level access and first-hand intelligence and security service information in so compact a form, or in such an intellectually stimulating environment.”

No explanation was offered as to how this “stimulating environment” managed to foster attacks on high security government offices, filled with vital intelligence.

If Israel and the United States face the same enemy, why is Israel training Americans to attack America?

One can’t help but see parallels between “junkets” to Israel for “intelligence training” and Islamic militants who go to Afghanistan for “terrorist” training.

How few Islamic terrorists would we catch if they were aided by Washington “think tanks,” guided by the Department of Defense or funded by the CIA?

Last week, Veterans Today outlined the many high security projects being monitored from Senator Landrieu’s office which included, not only terrorist money laundering and other security issues but investigations targeting tens of billions of dollars being hidden offshore illegally by Americans, many with ties to Israel. The projects subject to spying by this CIA/Israeli operation are, among others: (source: Department of Homeland Security and the United States Senate)

SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE
Current hearings held by the Senate Homeland Security Committee chaired by Landireu, hearings subject to this espionage attack involve:

• Intelligence reform in the aftermath of the Christmas terrorist attack
• Overviews of contracting corruption in Afghanistan
• Planning for securing America’s diplomats around the world
• The Terrorist Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act (IRTPA)
• Investigating the root causes of the Ft. Hood attack
• Securing America from financial crimes
• America’s Defense from Cyber Attack
• Development plans for “post surge” Afghanistan

Current investigations by the Sub-Committee on Investigations are:
• Speculation in trading and how it effects national security
• How US banks help overseas corporation dodge US taxes
• Report on Tax Havens hiding billions from the IRS
• Massive abuses of government credit cards by employees
• Ending “offshore secrecy” to allow the US to recover billions in tax shortfall
• Shell Oil credit card interest abuses
• Medicaid abuse and equipment overcharges
• Billions in unpaid taxes on Medicaid income by American doctors
• Speculation in the energy markets costing American consumers billions a year
• Failures in United Nations reform, waste and corruption
• Speculation and manipulation that controls and rigs crude oil and gasoline markets
• and many many more

9/11
• The Senate HSC is responsible for implementing all intelligence reforms resulting from the findings of the 9/11 commission especially in light of continued failures as demonstrated by the Ft. Hood tragedy and the Detroit terror attack.

Current contracting oversight responsibilities:
• Overseeing all USAID reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan
• Investigating massive corruption tied to the US Embassy in Kabul
• Overseeing all US contractors used in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world in regard to corrupt practices and cost overruns
• Detecting and Prosecuting Contractor Fraud

No information has been given as to how Federal authorities came to break up this terrorist operation but we are told that informants inside the CIA still loyal to the United States were involved. The arrest of Dai, a highly trained operative blocks away from the scene opens a number of scenarios.

With much of the CIA’s former leadership now employed by Blackwater/Xe, a company owned and controlled by Republican party leadership, the lines between domestic and foreign intelligence operations have become blurred. “CIA agents” killed in Afghanistan recently may all have been Blackwater/Xe employees, some or all former CIA operatives seeking the higher salaries of the private security industry. Has the CIA become “interchangable” with a mercenary group tied to a political party and available for hire by anyone with enough money? The deteriorating security sitiuation in Afghanistan and Pakistan gives creedence to this hypothesis.

The use of forces designated only to be used against American enemies outside the United States against elected officials of our own government, possibly on behalf of an unfriendly foreign government, is a total indictment of the usefulness of our entire intelligence community. Attempts to centralize intelligence resources only tied those resources to individuals whose political ideologies surpassed loyalty to the United States or were superceded by moral flexibility, so often the case with politicians, now popularly described under the term “situational narcissism.” (believing one’s position places one above any moral code or ethical standard)

Significant polarization within the political community during the Bush administration encouraged members of the intelligence community to look on members of the opposition political party as terrorist sympathizers. We are told that many members of the military and intelligence community may be actively involved in “extracurricular” activities, freelancing for individuals no longer in government. Those co-opted by extremist views are vulnerable to ploys from foreign intelligence agencies who represent themselves as part of “right thinking” or “conservative” patriotic groups.

This is a common ploy, developed long ago by the KGB in the Soviet Union and now SOP, (Standard Operating Proceedure) for agencies of friend and foe alike.

It is now a subject for a legitimate investigation as are such “accidents” as the Ohio plane crash that killed Mike Connell, GOP “vote rigging” guru who asked for police protection from Karl Rove tied to rigging the 2004 Presidential Election. Connell’s family believes his death was murder. US Senators, investigative reporters, whistleblowing scientists, “girlfriends” and so many other categories seem to die in numbers well beyond any actuarial table.

We are already spending billions of dollars a year hunting foreign terrorists that threaten the United States. Do we need to double this and go on a “witch hunt” within our own agencies, the ones we entrust with our own security? There is only one answer: Yes, of course we must. We may not have a few “bad apples,” we may have a diseased orchard.

The US military’s highest court has upheld convictions of two soldiers for abusing Abu Ghraib detainees in Iraq.

The US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington has confirmed the conviction of former Army officers Sabrina Harman and Michael Smith. Harman had helped place a hooded detainee atop a box with wires in his hands.

The detainee was told he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box.

The court found no errors by the judge who presided over the court-martial of former Sgt. Michael Smith, an Army dog handler.

Smith, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was convicted of offenses that included letting his Belgian shepherd bark and lunge at prisoners for his own amusement.