Ex-CIA Head Jose Rodriguez on Report Fallout: Obama Admin Prefers to Kill From Afar
Hat Tip: BB
12/10/14
Daily Archives: December 10, 2014
12/10/14
12/10/14
12/10/14
12/10/14
The Treasury Department is Seeking Survival Kits for Bank Employees and Thousands of Cellphone Users Received a Government “Emergency Alert”
By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Two items came across my desk this morning that certainly got my attention.
Let’s start with the Treasury Department seeking survival kits for every employee at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which conducts on-site reviews of banks throughout the country. Now, why would they do that? Do they expect major unrest concerning the banks? This would certainly seem to indicate such an event. Or perhaps just major unrest. The solicitation states the feds are willing to spend up to $200,000 and it was dated December 4th.
From The Washington Free Beacon:
The survival kits must come in a fanny-pack or backpack that can fit all of the items, including a 33-piece personal first aid kit with “decongestant tablets,” a variety of bandages, and medicines.
The kits must also include a “reusable solar blanket” 52 by 84 inches long, a 2,400-calorie food bar, “50 water purification tablets,” a “dust mask,” “one-size fits all poncho with hood,” a rechargeable lantern with built-in radio, and an “Air-Aid emergency mask” for protection against airborne viruses.
Survival kits will be delivered to every major bank in the United States including Bank of America, American Express Bank, BMO Financial Corp., Capitol One Financial Corporation, Citigroup, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Company, and Wells Fargo.
Items will also be delivered to OCC offices across the country, from Champaign, Ill. to Billings, Mont. The agency also has offices in Sioux City, Iowa; Joplin, Mo.; and Fargo, N.D.
Since the mission of the OCC is to “ensure that national banks and federal savings associations operate in a safe and sound manner, provide fair access to financial services, treat customers fairly, and comply with applicable laws and regulations,” why in the world would they need to supply these people with survival fanny packs? Does their safety measures now cover the end of the world? Okay, who ordered the apocalypse and didn’t tell me? The agency has about 3,814 employees that need to be outfitted with their doomsday packs. This includes “bank examiners” who provide “sustained supervision” of major banks in the United States. Maybe they think we are returning to Prohibition times and revenuers will be shot or something like that. First they armed all these people, now they are giving them survival supplies. Doesn’t take a genius to do the math here.
Usually kits like these are ordered for the military or FBI. Guess these guys are gearing up to be part of Obama’s DHS at-home police force. Wink, wink.
If that’s not creepy enough for you… I have more.
Thousands of cellphone users in Kentucky received an “emergency alert” from the federal government warning them to “prepare for action.” The local authorities later blamed the message on “human error” during testing. Bull crap. This was a test, I would wager to see how people reacted. The alert went out to the Corbin and London areas of Southern Kentucky yesterday, understandably shaking people up. They came from the Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort via the Federal Communication Commission’s Wireless Emergency Alert system. How do you screw that up? I don’t think you can.
These messages are meant to alert citizens of local or national emergencies. My first exposure to such a message was right after moving to Oklahoma, when a really ugly storm hit around midnight. My phone went nuts and emitted a rousing alert that scared me more than the storm did. No sleep was had that night.
Frankfort Emergency Operations spokesman Buddy Rogers claimed that the alert was mistakenly sent out “during testing” and was the result of “a computer error, followed by a human error.” Right, because you know that sounds so very plausible. This isn’t a first ‘test’ either. Not long ago, the cellphone emergency alert system in New Jersey caused panic after Verizon customers received text messages warning them that a “civil emergency” was in progress and to “take shelter,” prompting alarmed citizens to flood 911 lines with anxious calls and in general ‘panic.’ Once again a testing error was blamed by Verizon.
Give credit where credit is due here, Info Wars has been just about the only one on this thing. Back in October, they also reported that television viewers in a number of states were interrupted by an emergency alert from the White House warning them to stand by for an emergency message and not to use their phones. Visions of the Cold War and nuclear bunkers were experienced by many. First you freeze, then you panic if you aren’t prepared and that is exactly what happened. And again it was blamed on an error – AT&T subsequently blamed a nationally syndicated radio station for triggering the alert message. Some cried bull crap, given that only the federal government has the capability of sending out EAS alerts. America is being Grubered and used as guinea pigs.
I leave it to you out there. Looks to me like the government is still rapidly gearing up for some sort of emergency and/or catastrophe. What say you?
12/10/14
‘The Architect’ of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques Speaks
While reporting on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence release Wednesday of its controversial 525-page report about the CIA’s so-called “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”, most news outlets contacted the usual inside-the-Beltway suspects for comments and highlighted polar-opposite views. The folks at Vice News, however, went to the Florida Everglades to interview James Mitchell, the man some refer to as “The Architect” of the CIA’s EIT program.
The 25-minute interview is worth watching, regardless of which side you find yourself when it comes to interrogating terrorists and suspected terrorists. And when you’re done watching it, you might be interested in my contention that torture might be a moot issue if not for the actions taken by a small group of people, including James R. Clapper Jr., the man now serving as our nation’s Director of National Intelligence (i.e., our nation’s top intelligence official).
12/10/14
Rolling Stone Reporter Boasts ‘Finely Tuned Bullshit Detector’
As an investigative reporter and author, I’ve talked with hundreds of people over the years. Many were politicians with agendas. One had a felony record. Others were experts at determining when people were being deceptive. And then there is journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely who revealed she has a super power!
Charles Johnson at GotNews.com reported today that the Rolling Stone writer, who now faces allegations she fabricated a story about a gang rape at a fraternity house on the University of Virginia campus, told an audience at the University of Pennsylvania she has “a finely tuned bullshit detector and when it goes off I pay close attention because it doesn’t tend to go off without a reason.”
12/10/14
Always Something
It seems there is always something to contend with, a “crisis du jour,” so to speak. I am moved to address this current “crisis” – which is really small potatoes – because the PA and the world at large are already building it into something that it is not. As you may be exposed to distorted versions of the occurrence, I want to share the facts as I have been able to acquire them:
Zaid Abu Ein, a Palestinian Arab who was formerly a minister, today led a protest march of some 300 Palestinian Arabs in the Arab village of village of Turmus Ayya – near Shilo, in the Binyamin region of Samaria. What they were protesting was the presence of the nearby Jewish village of Adei Ad. There had been considerable tensions between the residents of the two villages, and this demonstration was less than peaceful: According to reports there was rioting, and the IDF used a relatively small amount of tear gas to settle things down.
Subsequently, a large group of Arabs led by Abu Ein attempted to continue their march, which was intended to go all the way into the Jewish village. A contingent of IDF soldiers blocked their way and they tried to push past the IDF troops; this led to an altercation, with shoving back and forth.
Abu Ein then walked away and sat down on the ground. At that point he was showing signs of distress, and apparent pains in his chest. An IDF medic offered him medical assistance but he refused it and said he wanted to go to the hospital in Ramallah. On the way to the hospital, he died.
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The IDF believes he died of a heart attack. Reportedly this was a man who had diabetes and high blood pressure.
The Arabs, however, are letting it be known that we killed him. They never miss a chance to make Israel look vicious and to represent themselves as “martyrs.” As we might expect in such a situation, there are various accounts of what transpired.
Arabs are saying that soldiers rammed Abu Ein in the chest with their rifle butts. An Israeli observer said this never happened and Israel National News reports that there is no video footage indicating that he had been attacked or beaten.
(There is some Arab footage, which was clearly edited. See: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4602043,00.html . Had there been footage of soldiers attacking or beating Abu Ein, it would have been distributed big time.)
Abbas is referring to “the brutal assault that led to the martyrdom [of Abu Ein].” He called the incident “a barbaric act that cannot be tolerated or accepted.”
PA Minister Riyad al-Maliki says “Israel will pay for his death.”
There are reports from some PA sources that the PA will now discontinue all security cooperation with Israel, but I do not believe Abbas himself has said this. There was one comment about PA intention to “now” – i.e., in light of this event – renew pursuit of unilateral efforts to secure recognition as a state. Abbas has been doing this all along, But it becomes oh so convenient to claim that their intention was to negotiate but Israel’s behavior makes this impossible.
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The IDF has announced that an autopsy will be done by a Jordanian team, with an Israeli pathologist present. The PA agreed to this, and subsequently I read that a Palestinian Arab doctor would also be present.
The IDF also proposed that the PA participate into a joint investigation of the occurrence, but there has been no word as to whether that will happen.
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The funeral will be Thursday, and the IDF has stationed additional troops in the area in anticipation of violence. That there will be violence is almost a certainty.
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It is, in several regards, enlightening to know a bit more about who this Abu Ein was:
Palestinian sources have identified him as a member of the Revolutionary Council of Fatah; this is also known as the Abu Nidal Organization – a recognized terrorist organization. In 1979, he planted explosives that killed two Israelis in Tiveria, and then fled to Chicago. Successfully extradited, he was tried and sentenced to life in prison in 1982. But a mere three years later he was part of a prisoner exchange – referred to as the Ahmed Jabril prisoner swap – done to secure the release of three soldiers.
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In 2006, he gave an interview on TV in which he praised the Oslo Accords. Please read this carefully. Talk about it being instructive! (When he refers to “resistance,” he means violence.)
“The Oslo Accords are not the dream of the Palestinian people. However, there would never have been resistance in Palestine without Oslo.
“Oslo is the effective and potent greenhouse which embraced the Palestinian resistance…
“In all the occupied territories, we could not move a single pistol from place to place. Without Oslo, and being armed through Oslo, and with the Palestinian Authority’s ‘A’ areas, without the training, the camps, the protection afforded by Oslo, and without the freeing of thousands of Palestinian prisoners through Oslo – we and this Palestinian resistance would not have been able to create this great Palestinian Intifada.” (Emphasis added)
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Clearly, Abu Ein was directly involved in the second intifada. Marwan Barghouti, who is in Israeli prison serving five life sentences, was a leader of that intifada. Barghouti hid in Abu Ein’s house before his capture.
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Subsequently, he served in various positions in the PA. First as deputy minister of prisoner affairs, where he was involved in the task of getting money to convicted terrorists serving in Israeli prisons. He charged that Israeli prison conditions for Arabs were worse than what Jews suffered under the Nazis.
Most recently he served as head of the PA Committee against the Separation Wall and Settlements.
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The fact that Abu Ein was a man of violence, who embraced terrorism, does not provide proof of how he died.
But in light of all of the above, I would make two comments. The first is that he was clearly a trouble maker, and it seems very likely indeed that the IDF found it necessary to push him back and confront him today. This was not a gentle man of peace.
But more importantly: please consider what it tells us, that the Palestinian Authority selected such a man to assume official positions, including as a deputy minister.
12/10/14
12/10/14
Gruber Scolded by Michigan Congressman (video)
By: Izzy Lyman
WatchDog Wire
House Oversight Committee quizzes economist
Gruber testifying…
Dr. Jonathan Gruber, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist and Affordable Care Act consultant who became infamous for dubbing the American electorate as “stupid” and bragging that “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage” [with regards to the ACA becoming law], appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday.
“Examining ObamaCare Transparency Failures” was the topic of the four-hour hearing during which Gruber was brutally grilled by the likes of Trey Gowdy and Darrell Issa.
Gruber’s written testimony included this statement: “I would like to begin by apologizing sincerely for the offending comments that I made. In some cases I made uninformed and glib comments about the political process behind health care reform. I am not an expert on politics and my tone implied that I was, which is wrong. In other cases I simply made insulting and mean comments that are totally uncalled for in any situation.”
Despite the groveling mea culpa, Gruber’s controversial comments, discovered on video by citizen journalist Rich Weinstein, were also scrutinized by committee member Congressman Kerry Bentivolio, R-MI-11. Bentivolio is a reindeer rancher who impersonates Santa Claus during the Christmas season; he wasn’t in the mood to be jovial with the New England economist.
At one point, Bentivolio’s exchange with Gruber went like this:
Bentivolio: “You did not apologize for helping the Administration deceive the American people on this health care act. Or for telling America the truth, in your video comments, about how it was a fraud upon the American people. Is that correct, sir?
Gruber: “I think the Affordable Care Act was passed in a highly transparent fashion with hundreds of hours of debate.”
Bentivolio: “But every single thing they promised was a lie. How can you call that transparent?”
Ouch.
Top Image: YouTube screenshot
Small image: Washington Times
Dick Manasseri:
This courageous 3-tour Veteran, who is not afraid to condemn the the man whose name is synonymous with lying, was defeated by the Establishment GOP in his home state precisely because he is an honest man who wouldn’t play along with the Chamber of Commerce mentality of the GOP. Thank you Kerry Bentivolio for your service right to the end!
In Memoriam
Available at Amazon.com 
