Category: News You Need to Know

The Obama Administration Plans to Continue Murdering People After the Wars are Declared Over

Obama and his supporters are making claims that the president will work to end the war in Afghanistan. Judging by Obama’s bloody history this promise is as empty as any other that he’s made. But if the war is ended Obama and his administration want you to know that they still plan on murdering people there for at least another decade:

Based on interviews with “current and former officials from the White House and the Pentagon, as well as intelligence and counterterrorism agencies”, Miller reports that as “the United States’ conventional wars are winding down”, the Obama administration “expects to continue adding names to kill or capture lists for years” (the “capture” part of that list is little more than symbolic, as the US focus is overwhelmingly on the “kill” part). Specifically, “among senior Obama administration officials, there is broad consensus that such operations are likely to be extended at least another decade.” As Miller puts it: “That timeline suggests that the United States has reached only the midpoint of what was once known as the global war on terrorism.”

When the “conventional war” is concluded names are going to continue being added to Obama’s kill list for “at least another decade.” I didn’t realize there was a difference between “conventional war” and ongoing targeted assassinations. As far as I know it’s considered war whenever the government of one country kills people of another country. War is peace I guess.

More on the State’s Witch Hunt Against Anarchists

The more I research the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) recent arrest of anarchists the more it’s appearing to be a state witch hunt. During this witch hunt the FBI has claimed that the anarchists were arrested for property damage that was caused during May Day. A warrant accidentally unsealed in the Seattle United States District Court shows that the agency’s story is questionable at best:

May Day began with peaceful demonstrations in downtown Seattle, but shortly before noon a swarm of protesters, dressed all in black, massed together and began striking out. They targeted Nike and banks; they slashed tires and broke windows and sprayed anti-capitalist graffiti as some made their way to the Nakamura courthouse. Afterward, members of the so-called “black bloc” protesters shed their dark clothing and blended into the crowd.

The search warrant says the courthouse building, on Spring Street and Sixth Avenue, sustained tens of thousands of dollars in damage, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office could not provide a specific dollar amount. Destruction of government property in excess of $1,000 is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.

[…]

Meanwhile, the FBI set out to find those responsible for the courthouse damage. Agents reported spending long hours reviewing surveillance-camera footage, news video and still photos of the crowd that day, trying to identify suspects based on clues: the white strip around one suspect’s waist, the “fringe” of a shirt, the shape of a backpack.

What the warrant makes clear is that state and federal agents were watching some members of the small group of Portland anarchists even before May Day. The affidavit says they were tracking members as early as April 9, when they and others were “all observed by FBI surveillance at an event” in Portland that day changing out of black clothing.

If this investigation was related to damage caused on May Day why was the FBI spying on the arrested individuals beforehand? My guess is the FBI wanted to create more glory for themselves. Since they lacked any cases that would put them on the front page of newspapers throughout the country they reverted to their usual trick of making up a boogeyman. Historically anarchists have made excellent boogeymen because the state has most people convinced that all anarchists are violent. When the headlines say the FBI arrested a group of anarchists most people say, “Good job, those guys deserve to be in prison!” Going after anarchists is a fairly safe thing to do when you’re an agency trying to create a little hero worship.

After selecting their boogeyman the FBI sat back, spied on some anarchists, and waited for the proper opportunity to move in. That opportunity came on May Day when a peaceful demonstrated suddenly turned violent. The state has a history of using police provocateurs during anarchist demonstrations to incite violence and the FBI has been caught creating and “stopping” terrorists so often that the mainstream media has even caught on. Considering those facts I would not be surprised if the individuals who incited the violence in Seattle on May Day were actually state agents. After all anarchist black bloc demonstrations involve participants covering their faces, which makes identification almost impossible. It’s not difficult for police officers to dress in black, cover their faces, and break things in order to create an excuse to make mass arrests.

Combining the evidence accidentally revealed through the unsealed (and quickly resealed) warrant, the fact that not enough evidence exists to press charges against the arrested anarchists, and the FBI’s history of making up criminals gives this case has all the indicators of being fabricated malarkey.

Russell Means has Passed

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t terribly familiar with Russell Means until after his death was announced but it turns out it was much more bad ass than I realized. During his life Means participated in several high profile American Indian actions against the United States federal government:

He rose to national attention as a leader of the American Indian Movement in 1970 by directing a band of Indian protesters who seized the Mayflower II ship replica at Plymouth, Mass., on Thanksgiving Day. The boisterous confrontation between Indians and costumed “Pilgrims” attracted network television coverage and made Mr. Means an overnight hero to dissident Indians and sympathetic whites.

Later, he orchestrated an Indian prayer vigil atop the federal monument of sculptured presidential heads at Mount Rushmore, S.D., to dramatize Lakota claims to Black Hills land. In 1972, he organized cross-country caravans converging on Washington to protest a century of broken treaties, and led an occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He also attacked the “Chief Wahoo” mascot of the Cleveland Indians baseball team, a toothy Indian caricature that he called racist and demeaning. It is still used.

And in a 1973 protest covered by the national news media for months, he led hundreds of Indians and white sympathizers in an occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D., site of the 1890 massacre of some 350 Lakota men, women and children in the last major conflict of the American Indian wars. The protesters demanded strict federal adherence to old Indian treaties, and an end to what they called corrupt tribal governments.

What made Russell unique in regards to the American Indian’s fight against the federal government is that he held libertarian beliefs, even going so far as to run for the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate (he lost to Ron Paul). The more I read about the man the more I find to like about him. He was willing to make major stands against the government that all but wiped his people out and believed in individual freedom. That’s often a very rare combination of traits.

Violent Crime Increases for First Time in Almost 20 Years

Considering the state of the economy this news isn’t very surprising:

Violent crimes unexpectedly jumped 18 percent last year, the first rise in nearly 20 years, and property crimes rose for first time in a decade. But academic experts said the new government data fall short of signaling a reversal of the long decline in crime.

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported Wednesday that the increase in the number of violent crimes was the result of an upward swing in simple assaults, which rose 22 percent, from 4 million in 2010 to 5 million last year. The incidence of rape, sexual assault and robbery remained largely unchanged, as did serious violent crime involving weapons or injury.

Before the gun control advocates start claiming that this sudden upswing is due to the increase in gun sales take note of the last sentence, which stated that serious violent crime involving weapons or injury remained mostly the same. On top of that, as expected with unemployment going nowhere but up, the number of burglaries and thefts also increased:

Property crimes were up 11 percent in 2011, from 15.4 million in 2010 to 17 million, according to the bureau’s annual national crime victimization survey. Household burglaries rose 14 percent, from 3.2 million to 3.6 million. The number of thefts jumped by 10 percent, from 11.6 million to 12.8 million.

Unfortunately things are only bound to get worse. Both major presidential candidates and almost everybody running for federal offices has no plan to fix our economic issues. Unless the state is willing to step out of the way, or is forced out of the way when it collapses, unemployment will continue to rise and people will become more and more desperate as their finances dwindle.

The State Releases One of Its Three Political Prisoners

I reported earlier this month that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) were holding Leah Planet, Katherine Olejnik, and Matt Duran prisoner. Leah was being held for refusing to testify against her fellow anarchists noting that the arrests were effectively a witch hunt as the FBI was unable to obtain any evidence that lead to charges. The state has released Lead:

On July 25, Plante, along with two of her closest friends (co-conspirators, if you’re filtering reality through the brain of an FBI agent), Matt Duran and Kteeo Olejnik, were arrested after FBI agents and Joint Terrorism Task Force officers broke down her door with a battering ram.

The officers had a warrant for computers, black clothing, and “anarchist literature.” Plante was then arrested without a warrant, and for items that any of us might have in our possession right now.

[…]

On Friday, October 19, however, she was released with very little information as to why. Her only post-prison comments were attacks against misogynistic posts on her website.

Apparently it was too hard to justify caging somebody for refusing to condemn her friends. Unfortunately Matt and Katherine are still being held in cages. We’ll see how long it takes for the FBI to either create some trumped up charges or release the two and pretend there wasn’t a state sanctioned witch hunt going on.

A Frightening Reenactment of History

The most worrisome thing about economic depressions may not be the devastation they bring up the people, it may be the people’s susceptibility to those promising fixes. History gives us countless examples of tyrants obtaining power because they offer a fix to economic depressions. Of all the examples one of the most frightening was the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany after World War I. World War I left Germany economically devastated and Adolf Hitler promises to fix that, which he did for a short while. Now it seems Greece is reenacting Germany’s plight as fascist are gaining more influence and power:

Greece’s far-right party, Golden Dawn, won 18 parliamentary seats in the June election with a campaign openly hostile to illegal immigrants and there are now allegations that some Greek police are supporting the party.

Golden Dawn, Greece’s fascist party, have been promising fixes to the economic failures and people are slowly signing on. The party’s primary support seems to be coming from the police, which isn’t surprising given the authoritarian nature of many police officers. In fact some of the police in Greece have even gone so far as to send victims to members of Golden Dawn:

Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party is increasingly assuming the role of law enforcement officers on the streets of the bankrupt country, with mounting evidence that Athenians are being openly directed by police to seek help from the neo-Nazi group, analysts, activists and lawyers say.

In return, a growing number of Greek crime victims have come to see the party, whose symbol bears an uncanny resemblance to the swastika, as a “protector”.

One victim of crime, an eloquent US-trained civil servant, told the Guardian of her family’s shock at being referred to the party when her mother recently called the police following an incident involving Albanian immigrants in their downtown apartment block.

“They immediately said if it’s an issue with immigrants go to Golden Dawn,” said the 38-year-old, who fearing for her job and safety, spoke only on condition of anonymity. “We don’t condone Golden Dawn but there is an acute social problem that has come with the breakdown of feeling of security among lower and middle class people in the urban centre,” she said. “If the police and official mechanism can’t deliver and there is no recourse to justice, then you have to turn to other maverick solutions.”

One of my friends likes to say that history doesn’t repeat itself but it does follow parallel tracks. I believe what’s happening in Greece is one of those parallel tracks. Similar circumstances to Germany have lead to the gradual rising power of a nationalistic authoritarian regime. Currently people are scoffing at Golden Dawn because they hold so few elected offices but people also scoffed at the Nazi Party in its early days. History shows us that people are more than happy to surrender control to tyrants if those tyrants offer something of sufficient value.

We’re seeing the start of something that could get extremely ugly in Greece. I only hope that something happens to stop it before it gets out of control.

What’s in a Word

Words are powerful tools that can convey any number of ideas. Unfortunately, as with any tool, words can be used for both good and evil. Some people use words to express ideas of liberty, others use words to entertain, but the state uses words to deceive:

“Never believe anything until it is officially denied,” is a useful saying, advising scepticism towards whatever the government claims to be doing. This is the right mental attitude for any journalist or observer of the political scene. But for sniffing out official or journalistic mendacity, evasion and ignorance, a good guide is the use of tired and misleading words or phrases, their real purpose being not to illuminate but to conceal.

Suspicion of an attempt to deceive should be aroused by any sighting of the word “community”, as in “international community” or “Islamic community”: the phrases suggest solidarity and consensus of opinion where it does not exist. More toxic are policies pretending that there is something called “the community” that can look after people hitherto cared for by the state. When care in the community was introduced in Britain, it meant that people living in mental hospitals which were being sold by the government were kicked out to be looked after by a community that either feared or ignored them.

A good wordsmith can portray one idea while actually saying the exact opposite. By saying the “Islamic community” supports terrorism a politician can portray every Muslim as a supporter of terrorism without actually saying every Muslim supports terrorism. The article has many more examples of words to keep an ear open for.

FBI Captures Another FBI Created Terrorist

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) made a big announcement bragging about the terrorist they captured. It is later found out that the terrorist was actually contacted by an undercover FBI agent, urged to commit an act of terror by the undercover FBI agent, and provided a weapon by the undercover FBI agent. Yes, the FBI is again bragging about stopping a terrorist plot of their own creation:

A terrorist tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in Lower Manhattan with a 1,000-pound bomb this morning, authorities said.

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, parked a van filled with what he thought were real explosives outside of the Liberty Street building, sources said, then tried to set them off using a cell phone detonator.

Nafis obtained 20 50-pound bags of explosives from an undercover FBI agent that he met on the Internet, authorities said.

In a statement meant to take responsibility for the attack, Nafis said he wanted to “destroy America,” by targeting its economy.

These supposed plots become more ridiculous every time. Apparently Nafis wanted to destroy America by targeting the Federal Reserve. What makes this story hilarious is that the Federal Reserve is one of the primary reasons the American economy is in the toilet.

The only thing left to say about this story is that it demonstrates that the only reason we need the FBI is to protect us against the FBI.

We Were Never at War with the So-Called Jihadists

We were never at war with so-called jihadists, we were always at war with Eastasia. Don’t be alarmed by the fact that your government is giving arms to so-called jihadists:

Most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster, according to American officials and Middle Eastern diplomats.

That conclusion, of which President Obama and other senior officials are aware from classified assessments of the Syrian conflict that has now claimed more than 25,000 lives, casts into doubt whether the White House’s strategy of minimal and indirect intervention in the Syrian conflict is accomplishing its intended purpose of helping a democratic-minded opposition topple an oppressive government, or is instead sowing the seeds of future insurgencies hostile to the United States.

“The opposition groups that are receiving the most of the lethal aid are exactly the ones we don’t want to have it,” said one American official familiar with the outlines of those findings, commenting on an operation that in American eyes has increasingly gone awry.

This really makes you wonder what the United States’s interest in toppling the Syrian regime is. What is it about the Syrian regime that makes them so increadibly dangerous that America is willing to arm the same groups that it claims are a threat to the American people? Is the Syrian regime more brutal than the theocratic regimes that have been filling power vacuums left in the Middle East as of late? As it currently stands the Syrian constitution requires the president to be Muslim but doesn’t establish Islam as the state’s religion. In fact it has the following to say:

Citizens are equal in rights and duties, without discrimination on grounds of sex, race, language,religion or creed.

Would the situation in Syria improve if a more theocratic regime gained power? Historically such a thing is extremely rare. In general more theocratic states end up being more tyrannical and use whatever religion they claim to believe in as justification for solidifying their power. I would argue that it’s unlikely that America is arming so-called jihadists for the benefit of the Syrian people. On the other hand Syria is on the border of Iran and would make a great launching point for any war against Iran. That’s something to consider.

Propagandizing the People to Support War

Interesting research has arisen that demonstrates humans become more dogmatic when they are shown evidence of destruction:

In a series of studies, students who were shown pictures of destroyed buildings — as opposed to fully intact or under-construction buildings — responded to queries with more dogmatic attitudes and greater support for military action against Iran, according to Kenneth E. Vail III of the University of Missouri-Columbia, who conducted the studies with a team of researchers from Missouri, Virginia and Colorado.

[…]

Since destruction breeds dogmatism, Vail says, it’s conceivable that visual reminders of terrorist attacks and other violent disasters have shaped the psyche of Americans in the shadow of 9/11. Have we been primed for a confrontation?

“Over the past 10 to 12 years or so, we saw some pretty blatant demonstrations of that tactic,” he says. “Both politicians and the media [tend] to replay and display images and footage from those sorts of events when they’re trying to push various policies and/or military campaigns.”

It appears that humans can be provoked into course of action if they are propagandized with images of destruction. Obviously the war mongers have been aware of this idea for some time as they often use the tactic in order to build support for war. Take Syria for example, it’s obvious that many war mongers are interested in a war with Syria. President Obama has gone so far as to put American troops in harm’s way with the apparent desire to instigate a war with Syria. An Austrian newspaper was caught photoshopping an image with the only plausible reason being to propagandize people against Syria:

VIENNA, Austria — Austrian newspaper publisher Christoph Dichand apologized after Kronen Zeitung was caught using a faked dramatic photograph of a family fleeing Syria’s civil war-torn city Aleppo.

The picture – published in the country’s biggest selling Kronen Zeitung (Krone) newspaper – shows a father cradling a child with a woman in a hijab beside him as they hurry through what appears to be the bombed out ruins of the city. It was being used to illustrate a story on people fleeing the city as government forces clash with rebels.

But sharp-eyed bloggers at the social news website Reddit noticed that while the family image was genuine, the background had been photoshopped.

Considering the findings of the previously mentioned research and the apparent desire of America and many European countries to instigate a war with Syria it’s easy to understand why the image was photoshopped. We return to the fact that states require popular support in order to continue. The overall population of a country far outnumbers the number of goons employed by the state so the possibility of the people rising up and overthrowing the current rulers is always there. In order to prevent this the state feeds up propaganda meant to either instill love of the state or fear of others. If we fear others then it’s easy for the state to justify its existence; it can claim it’s necessary in order to protect the state’s people from the others.

When you see reports of atrocities occurring in other nations ask yourself whether or not the state you live under has a vested interest in warring with the accused state. If there appears to be a vested interest in a war you must dig deeper because you may find out that the photograph showing a bombed out city is nothing more than a fabrication.