Communities United Against Police Brutality
EMAIL NEWS
June 9, 2009
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Federal Appeals Court Hearing
False Reporting Lawsuit
Wednesday, June 10, 8:30 a.m.
Federal Court, 316 Robert St, St. Paul
Three years ago, the state legislature passed a terrible law criminalizing the "false" reporting of police brutality. So far, it's been used against people who reported incidents of sexual assault by police, even when there was biological proof that their complaints were true. In other words, this law allows cops--the same ones you're complaining about--to use the criminal justice system against you if you dare to complain. The law goes even further: it states that if you "cause to be reported" to a law enforcement officer, you could be prosecuted. That means this law applies to reporters, lawyers and others who tell the stories of others who have been brutalized. Clearly this is meant to chill free speech and criticism of public officials and provides yet another barrier to meaningful oversight of the cops. We sued the state of Minnesota over this law. Plaintiffs include this editor (as someone who reports on police brutality incidents in this newsletter and is an officer of CUAPB), two journalists who cover the police brutality beat (that would be Lydia Howell and myself, Rashard Zanders), a person who was charged under this law after being sexually assaulted by cops, and a lawyer who litigates police brutality cases. Despite the fact that a nearly identical law was overturned in California, a freedom-hating federal judge ruled against us, essentially saying that if we hadn't been charged yet we can't sue but if we have been charged we should "seek justice" by fighting against the charges in court. This is an outrageous ruling as no one is required to defend against civil rights violations in criminal court but also because it doesn't address the fact that the potential for charges has a chilling effect on free speech long before someone is prosecuted. This hearing on Wednesday is our federal appeal before a panel of three judges. Federal appeals are fairly rare occurrences and should provide some fascinating court watching. The hearing is short--we get only 15 minutes of oral argument--so please be on time.
Help set up and staff our booth at the
Annual Juneteenth Celebration
Sunday, June 14th
Boom Island, 724 Sibley St NE, Minneapolis
Juneteenth is a celebration of the unofficial end of slavery, some two years after Lincoln's emancipation proclamation when word finally reached Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. This date is recognized across the US as African American liberation day. One of the largest annual celebrations is here in Minneapolis and we have a wildly popular booth every year. It you can dedicate a few hours to help us with the booth, you'll have fun, meet lots of cool people, and your efforts will really be appreciated. Set up is early--we'll be meeting at Walker Church at 7:00 a.m. to load up and car pool to Boom Island. The festival itself runs 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and we'll need help staffing the booth and tearing down afterwards. If you can help, please reply to this email to let us know or just show up on Sunday either at Walker in the morning or at the booth during the festival. This year we will focus on stolen lives around the state as well as the RNC 8 case.
Public Hearing on Brutality and Misconduct by Minneapolis Police
Monday, June 15 6:00 p.m.
Minneapolis Urban League, 2100 Plymouth Avenue
It has become apparent that Minneapolis police are out of control. There have been multiple killings of community members in outrageous circumstances over the last few years. Just in the last few months, calls to our hotline have shot up sharply and are filled with horrific tales of abuse. Between the defanging of the Minneapolis civilian review authority, the abuses of the gang strike task force and the utter lack of willingness on the part of the mayor and city council to hold this police force accountable, local control of the police no longer seems possible. We are gathering testimony for the purpose of seeking federal receivership of the Minneapolis police department. Come and share your story with the community for the purpose of seeking justice.
TruthToTell Three-Part Radio Series: Cop Culture - Fear and Loathing in the Streets
Wednesdays June 10--17--24, 11:00 a.m.
KFAI Radio 90.3FM-Minneapolis/106.7FM Saint Paul and STREAMING at < http://www.KFAI.org>
TruthToTell examines the dark and isolated world of local police culture and the nature of law enforcement in general. •Why has this paramilitary subset of civil society grown so insular, more secretive and more rageful and violent? •How can we address the increasing federal conscription of local law enforcement agencies to violently put down legitimate political dissent – while stoking the deepening paranoia over those who disagree with increasingly rightwing and racist policing? •Why are we seeing more and more deception in police reports, shredding of documents, disappearing evidence and confiscated money? •Why can’t we convict renegade cops and redress their abuses? •Is there or has there ever been a bright line between some officers and the alleged offenders they arrest and charge? •Where is accountability in law enforcement? •Is it recoverable? Cops don’t live in the places they patrol anymore. What role has that played in the dissociation between police and the people they "protect?" TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with current and former local and federal law enforcement, defense community, critics, policymakers, residents and reporters about what we can do to change these occupying armies back to community policing. Join us for this three-part series.
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MANIFEST INJUSTICE: THE FONG LEE CASE
All white, rural jury rules that cop was in fear for his life
Despite significant evidence of police racism and misconduct, an all-white rural jury ruled that Minneapolis cop Jason Andersen was likely in fear for his life. The way jury instructions were set up, this allowed them to block the Lee family from receiving any justice in the case. The instructions were scripted into a series of questions so that a yes answer would mean that the jury would stop, not go on to the next question and would be ruling in favor of Andersen. The first question was "under a 'reasonable police officer' standard, knowing that police have to make split-second decisions, do you believe Officer Andersen was in fear for his life?" Further down the series of questions was whether deadly force was justified. Nowhere in the list of questions was the issue of the throw down gun mentioned.
Of course, just answering yes to that first question meant that jurors had to ignore the fact that Andersen was running AT Fong Lee the entire time and that he moved closer to Lee with each gunshot. It wasn't hard for them, after the judge encouraged them to draw on their (white) life experiences in deciding. Few whites have life experiences that are comparable to what people of color deal with at the hands of police.
Answering yes to that first question meant that jurors never had to deal with the question of the throw down gun. They could ignore mountains of evidence--not to mention an absolutely contorted story by the MPD--about a gun being on the scene that had been in police custody until the shooting. They could disregard the fact that while Fong Lee had defensive wounds through both hands and both hands were covered in blood the gun cops claimed he was holding had no blood, sweat, fingerprints, fibers, DNA or anything else tying it to Fong Lee. The jurors never had to consider that.
Jurors sat through five days of testimony in which witnesses who had never met Lee testified to seeing him cornered and heard him let out a blood-curdling scream before Andersen opened fire, shooting him in the back and buttocks four times. Once Fong fell to the ground, Anderson stood over him and shot him five more times. Multiple witnesses testified that Andersen never told Lee to drop a gun or anything like that. Only one witness--a woman well known to Minneapolis cops and often referred to by them by first name--testified that she heard Anderson say "put down the gun." She was supposedly running in and out of her house and rounding up her children while this was happening. Her testimony was just not credible.
Federal Judge Paul Magnuson, well known for being a system man, played a significant role in propping up the MPD. He ruled that scurrilous rumors about Fong Lee being a gang member (not backed by any evidence) could be brought in but he kept out actual documented complaints about racist comments against Asians made by Andersen. And then, of course, there were those jury instructions which were meant to ensure an unfavorable outcome for the Lee family. To add insult to injury, after the Lee family had spent long hours over two days waiting in the courthouse for a verdict, the judge instructed the family that they should take a lunch break. As soon as the family was away from the courthouse, he brought the jury in to read the verdict into the record. The family learned of the verdict from a reporter.
Community outrage over this verdict led to a huge turnout at an emergency rally held Saturday, May 30th at University and Marion in St. Paul. On only a few hours notice, hundreds came out to support the Lee family as they prepare to file an appeal. The general sentiment of the community was apparent at this rally as most cars driving by honked their horns while drivers and passengers yelled messages of support. Broad segments of the community, including Latinos, Somalis, African Americans and others by the hundreds stood with the Hmong community to demand justice.
Thank you for standing with this family. As this case proceeds to appeal, we will keep you apprised of further developments.
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IT HAPPENS EVERYWHERE
Note: To this list, we would add the Quincy Smith, Fong Lee, Ahmed Gulad cases and others in which unarmed people of color were slain by cops right here in the Twin Cities. Just as in the Fong Lee case, a throwdown gun was used to justify the killing of Bernard Monroe.
Probing Bias Behind The Badge: Louisiana shooting among 4 similar cases across U.S.
By Howard Witt | Tribune Newspapers March 14, 2009
HOMER, La. - On the last afternoon of his life, Bernard Monroe was hosting a cookout for family and friends in front of his dilapidated home on Adams Street in this small northern Louisiana town.
Throat cancer had robbed the 73-year-old retired electric utility worker of his voice years ago, but family members said Monroe clearly was enjoying the commotion of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren cavorting around him in the yard.
Then the Homer police showed up, two white officers whose arrival caused the black family gathering to quickly fall silent.
Within moments, Monroe lay dead, shot by one of the officers as his family looked on.
Now the Louisiana State Police, the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department are swarming over this impoverished lumber town of 3,800, drawn by the allegations of numerous witnesses that police killed an unarmed, elderly black man without justificationand then moved a gun to make it look as though the man had been holding it.
"We are closely monitoring the events in Homer," said Donald Washington, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana.
Yet the Feb. 20 Homer incident was not an isolated case. Across the U.S., in four recent cases, white police officers have been accused of unprovoked shootings of African-Americans in what civil rights leaders say are illustrations of the potentially deadly consequences of racial profiling by police.
In the mostly white Houston suburb of Bellaire, a 23-year-old black man sitting in his SUV in the driveway of his parents' home was shot and wounded on New Year's Eve by police who mistakenly believed he had stolen the vehicle. The case is under investigation.
In Oakland, a transit police officer has been charged with murder in the shooting of an unarmed black man in the back while he was restrained and lying face down on a train platform on Jan. 1.
In New Orleans, nine police officers are under investigation in the New Year's Day death of a black man who was struck by 14 bullets after an undercover team stopped his car. Police say the man, 22, raised a gun and fired at them, but his family disputes that.
"All the anecdotal information demonstrates that African-Americans are the most frequent victims of zealous, inappropriate police activity that often winds up in a shooting," said Reggie Shuford, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.
"People here are afraid of the police," said Terry Willis, vice president of the Homer NAACP branch. "They harass black people, they stop people for no reason and rough them up without charging them with anything."
That is how it should be, responded Russell Mills, Homer's police chief ... "If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names," said Mills, who is white. "I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested."
The Homer police claim Monroe was holding a gun when he was shot but would not comment further.
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NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP YOUR RIGHTS
http://www.flexyourrights.org/trackback/77
A Wisconsin judge overturned the conviction of a man found in possession of a handgun and marijuana joints, finding that he did not voluntarily consent to a search of his car. The defendant, Malcolm J. Muller, initially refused consent, but later gave permission after officers had already started searching the vehicle. The Judge found that the initial illegal search tainted the defendant's subsequent waiver of his 4th amendment rights.
While this suspect was ultimately released, this case demonstrates the importance of standing your ground and NEVER consenting to a search. (And, of course, NEVER carrying a gun and illegal drugs in your vehicle.)
Police will often conduct a search after consent is denied, hoping that they'll be able to convince a judge that they had probable cause. If you give up and consent just because they've started searching, you risk legalizing an otherwise unreasonable search.
To paraphrase Winson Churchill, "Never, never, never, never give up your rights!"
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RULING ALLOWING TASER USE TO GET DNA MAY BE NATION'S FIRST
By Thomas J. Prohaska
NEWS NIAGARA REPORTER
6/4/09
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/692141.html
LOCKPORT It is legally permissible for police to zap a suspect with a Taser to obtain a DNA sample, as long as it’s not done “maliciously, or to an excessive extent, or with resulting injury,” a county judge has ruled in the first case of its kind in New York State, and possibly the nation.
Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza decided that the DNA sample obtained Sept. 29 from Ryan S. Smith of Niagara Falls which ties him to a shooting and a gas station robbery is legally valid and can be used at his trial.
Smith was handcuffed and sitting on the floor of Niagara Falls Police Headquarters when he was zapped with the 50,000- volt electronic stun gun after he insisted he would not give a DNA sample.
He already had given a sample, a swab of the inside of his cheek, without protest the previous month. But police sent it to the wrong lab, where it was opened and spoiled. Prosecutors who had obtained a court order for the first sample went back to Sperrazza, who signed another order without consulting the defense.
Defense lawyer Patrick M. Balkin denounced the ruling in an interview with The Buffalo News.
“They have now given the Niagara Falls police discretion to Taser anybody anytime they think it’s reasonable,” he asserted. “Her decision says you can enforce a court order by force. If you extrapolate that, we no longer have to have child support hearings; you can just Taser the parent.”
A police officer said that when Smith was ordered by officers to give his DNA, he adamantly refused.
“I ain’t giving up my DNA again. I already gave it up once. I’ll sit in jail. I ain’t giving it up. You’re going to have to Tase me,” the officer’s report stated.
The officer wrote that he then applied the stun gun to Smith’s left shoulder, a “drive stun” that is regarded as less painful than shooting electric prongs into a person, which is the usual Taser approach. Smith then consented to the sample, and he was arrested on a contempt of court charge.
In her ruling, Sperrazza cited numerous legal precedents and the state’s Criminal Procedure Law, allowing the use of reasonable force to carry out a court order.
Although there are no New York cases specifically dealing with using a Taser to accomplish that, the judge did find a Wyoming case where a court ruled it was legal to use a Taser to force a suspect to open his hand for a search.
Balkin and other lawyers familiar with the case say they know of no other case in the country in which a Taser was used to gather DNA.
The decision Wednesday in Niagara County stunned Balkin, who admitted in court that he hadn’t been carrying out trial preparation, such as seeking an expert to review the DNA test results.
“It’s my fault,” Balkin told Sperrazza. “I truly thought it was going to be suppressed.”
Balkin thought a victory on the Taser issue would lead to the dismissal of the 24-count indictment against Smith, 21, of Grove Avenue.
Sperrazza granted a postponement of Smith’s trial to Aug. 10.
Smith is charged with shooting a man in the groin July 27, 2006, after allegedly invading his ex-girlfriend’s home, tying up her two children and forcing the woman to take him to the shooting victim’s home.
He is also accused of taking part in the Dec. 24, 2006, armed robbery of a Sunoco station in Niagara Falls. A codefendant in the robbery, Christopher T. Walker Jr., now 21, pleaded guilty and is serving a 10-year state prison sentence.
DNA was found on a can of pop taken from Smith’s ex-girlfriend’s refrigerator and on a glove dropped at the gas station. It matched a sample he had to give after a previous assault conviction, and prosecutors sought another sample from Smith to confirm the findings.
“Our case is mostly DNA,” Deputy District Attorney Doreen M. Hoffmann said.
She also said she didn’t agree with Balkin that suppressing the DNA sample would have led to the dismissal of the indictment.
There is a surveillance video of the gas station robbery, Hoffmann revealed in court.
Balkin said he also was most concerned about Sperrazza’s reasoning that she didn’t have to go through a courtroom procedure for the second DNA sample because Smith had not objected to the first one.
“The court waived my client’s due process,” the defense lawyer said.
Testimony at a hearing last month partially contradicted the incident report written by Officer George McDonell, who used the Taser on Smith.
Sperrazza wrote in her ruling, based on police testimony, that when Smith refused to give another sample, Detective Lt. William Thomson phoned Hoffmann about it, and Hoffmann “instructed him that they could use the minimum force necessary to obtain the sample.”
But McDonell wrote in his report, “It was relayed that officers could use any means necessary to secure the sample.”
Sperrazza said the police should have arrested Smith first and brought him to court to be warned about the penalties for noncompliance with a court order.
McDonell testified that he used the Taser for one to two seconds. Another officer testified that the data readout on the Taser showed it was on for as long as four seconds.
Court papers filed by Smith’s civil attorney, Christopher O’Brien, assert that Smith was zapped three times and lost consciousness. McDonell’s report says, “Suspect complained of no injury and none was observed.”
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COP RACISM EVEN APPLIES TO COP ON COP VIOLENCE
The editorial below refers to the cop on cop killing of Black officer Omar Edwards by two white colleagues while he was pursuing a car theft suspect. See http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/05/28/2009-05-28_black_cop_killed_by_white_officer.html . This harkens back to the shooting of Minneapolis police officer Duy Ngo by white cop Charles Storlie, who had previously killed Black teenager Tycel Nelson.
You never read this headline: 'Black cop shoots white cop'
Errol Louis
Friday, May 29th 2009, 10:29 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/05/30/2009-05-30_its_never_black_cop_shoots_a_white_cop.html
Many will assume that the killing of Officer Omar Edwards was the result of a tragic but honest mistake, an accident with no malice or racial bias at work.
That would be a reasonable conclusion - and a dead wrong one.
There is nothing reasonable about the fact we never see black or Latino cops accidentally gunning down white undercover officers, but the reverse has been true in several high-profile cases.
It's true that Edwards may have violated Patrol Guide procedures by wheeling around with a weapon in his hand instead of instantly freezing and dropping his gun when ordered to do so.
The officers who killed Edwards may have violated policy, too. We don't know what kind of warning was shouted, and the fatal bullet reportedly entered Edwards' back, raising questions about why and when he was seen as a deadly threat.
For now, we must leave it to departmental investigators and the courts to sort out what happened.
But even before the evidence is in, what every New Yorker can do is acknowledge - and battle - the malicious myth that most black men are up to no good and likely to commit criminal violence.
It's a mindset that leads the public to believe nuts and fraudsters - most recently, Bonnie Sweeten of Florida, who set off a national search by falsely telling FBI agents she and her daughter had been kidnapped by two black men in a Cadillac.
The story wasn't true - and Sweeten faces criminal charges for lying - but America fell for it hook, line and sinker, launching national Amber alerts.
In a similar case, a campaign worker named Ashley Todd last year falsely claimed a 6-foot-4 black man carved a "B" (for Barack Obama) into her cheek. That, too, was a lie.
And so was the 1994 tale spun by Susan Smith of South Carolina, who said a black bogeyman carjacked her two sons - who, it turned out, had died when Smith killed her children by rolling her car into a lake.
This isn't South Carolina or Pittsburgh or Florida: We New Yorkers like to pride ourselves on being tolerant and sophisticated. But we, too, are susceptible to the bias trap.
One news headline described Edwards as "mistaken for a thug" - a reminder of the slurs cops throw around on the job and off. People get classified as thugs, perps, skells, punks and worse.
An onslaught of gangsta rap and other cultural garbage bolsters the bias. We pay a heavy price by letting racist imagery, words and accusations slosh around society unchecked and unchallenged.
In the tense, split-second needed to separate a cop from a crook on a dark street, those myths may have cost a good man his life.
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Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Thursday, May 07, 2009
CUAPB alert: Justice for Fong Lee!
Video shows that Fong Lee DID not have a gun -- this young man was MURDERED by the Minneapolis Police Department, which even had the audacity to award a medal to officer Jason Anderson for this cold-blooded murder. The Minneapolis Police Department needs to be investigated and disbanded and put in receivership with federal controls. Murderers exist on both sides of the badge!
Communities United Against Police Brutality
UPCOMING EVENTS
May 7, 2009
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RALLY FOR JUSTICE FOR FONG LEE
Unarmed man killed by Minneapolis cops
Monday, May 11, 8:45 a.m.
Federal Courthouse
316 N Robert Street, St. Paul
Parking/transportation
Shuttle buses will be available starting at 8:00 a.m. from Lao Family Community of Minnesota, 320 W University Ave, St. Paul
OR meet at 8:00 a.m. at Joseph’s Grill, 140 Wabasha St S, St. Paul, and march with others across the Robert Street bridge to the Courthouse
On July 22, 2006, Fong Lee was riding his bike with friends when Minneapolis cop Jason Andersen and state trooper Craig Benz decided a little "aggressive policing" was in order. They rode their squad car up on the group of young men and, according to several witnesses, hit the rear tire of Fong's bike. Fong either fell or jumped off the bike as the officers ran out of their squad car. Andersen was pointing his gun as he chased Fong through a school playground. Andersen shot Fong 4 times in the back. As Fong lay dying, Andersen shot him 4 more times. 31 seconds after the start of the encounter, Fong Lee was dead. Throughout the entire ordeal, Benz never pulled his weapon.
MPD Lies and Corruption
After the killing, MPD claimed Fong had a gun. However, witnesses and evidence point strongly to a gun being planted on the scene by cops. The gun cops claim was recovered next to Fong's body was in their property room up to the time of the shooting and was likely brought on the scene by a sergeant. The gun had no fingerprints, DNA or blood on it. Further, Fong had a defensive wound in the palm of his dominant hand. The squad car video was rendered useless because it remained in the squad car to which Andersen had access for 10 days after the incident and has, according to experts, been partially erased. What the cops didn't count on is a video of the incident captured by a camera at the school. That video clearly shows that Fong never had a gun.
Case of Extreme Importance to Community
This case is emblematic of all that is wrong with the MPD and the judicial system that backs them up. Racial profiling, corruption, manipulation of evidence and outright lies are all part of this case. Immediately after the incident, cops went into spin mode to dirty up Fong Lee with lies that he was a gang member or criminal (he was neither). An internal non-investigation exonerated Andersen and a bogus grand jury process gave prosecutors political cover not to prosecute Andersen. The story about the gun has changed at least three times. Hennepin County if fighting tooth and nail to block release of the grand jury transcript even to the Lee family's lawyers. On top of everything else, the MPD spit in the face of the community by pinning a medal of "valor" on Andersen.
Lee Family Seeks Justice--Stand with Them!
The Lee family has always held that their son was murdered by Andersen based on race. They have bravely stood up to the lies and corruption of the MPD and continue to press forward, recognizing the importance this case has to the community. We must stand with this family as they try to bring at least some good out of Fong's death by forcing this system to be accountable and as they push for changes to prevent such tragedies in the future. This case goes to court on May 11 and there is a rally outside the courthouse. WE NEED YOU THERE to show the courts that the community supports the Lee family's demands for justice.
Rally sponsored by Coalition for Community Relations, Communities United Against Police Brutality, Lao Family Community of Minnesota, Inc., Minneapolis NAACP, Take Action Minnesota.
JUSTICE FOR FONG LEE!
TAKE AWAY ANDERSEN'S MEDAL!
INDEPENDENT PROSECUTOR!
PROSECUTE KILLER COPS!
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Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
Communities United Against Police Brutality
UPCOMING EVENTS
May 7, 2009
**********************************************
RALLY FOR JUSTICE FOR FONG LEE
Unarmed man killed by Minneapolis cops
Monday, May 11, 8:45 a.m.
Federal Courthouse
316 N Robert Street, St. Paul
Parking/transportation
Shuttle buses will be available starting at 8:00 a.m. from Lao Family Community of Minnesota, 320 W University Ave, St. Paul
OR meet at 8:00 a.m. at Joseph’s Grill, 140 Wabasha St S, St. Paul, and march with others across the Robert Street bridge to the Courthouse
On July 22, 2006, Fong Lee was riding his bike with friends when Minneapolis cop Jason Andersen and state trooper Craig Benz decided a little "aggressive policing" was in order. They rode their squad car up on the group of young men and, according to several witnesses, hit the rear tire of Fong's bike. Fong either fell or jumped off the bike as the officers ran out of their squad car. Andersen was pointing his gun as he chased Fong through a school playground. Andersen shot Fong 4 times in the back. As Fong lay dying, Andersen shot him 4 more times. 31 seconds after the start of the encounter, Fong Lee was dead. Throughout the entire ordeal, Benz never pulled his weapon.
MPD Lies and Corruption
After the killing, MPD claimed Fong had a gun. However, witnesses and evidence point strongly to a gun being planted on the scene by cops. The gun cops claim was recovered next to Fong's body was in their property room up to the time of the shooting and was likely brought on the scene by a sergeant. The gun had no fingerprints, DNA or blood on it. Further, Fong had a defensive wound in the palm of his dominant hand. The squad car video was rendered useless because it remained in the squad car to which Andersen had access for 10 days after the incident and has, according to experts, been partially erased. What the cops didn't count on is a video of the incident captured by a camera at the school. That video clearly shows that Fong never had a gun.
Case of Extreme Importance to Community
This case is emblematic of all that is wrong with the MPD and the judicial system that backs them up. Racial profiling, corruption, manipulation of evidence and outright lies are all part of this case. Immediately after the incident, cops went into spin mode to dirty up Fong Lee with lies that he was a gang member or criminal (he was neither). An internal non-investigation exonerated Andersen and a bogus grand jury process gave prosecutors political cover not to prosecute Andersen. The story about the gun has changed at least three times. Hennepin County if fighting tooth and nail to block release of the grand jury transcript even to the Lee family's lawyers. On top of everything else, the MPD spit in the face of the community by pinning a medal of "valor" on Andersen.
Lee Family Seeks Justice--Stand with Them!
The Lee family has always held that their son was murdered by Andersen based on race. They have bravely stood up to the lies and corruption of the MPD and continue to press forward, recognizing the importance this case has to the community. We must stand with this family as they try to bring at least some good out of Fong's death by forcing this system to be accountable and as they push for changes to prevent such tragedies in the future. This case goes to court on May 11 and there is a rally outside the courthouse. WE NEED YOU THERE to show the courts that the community supports the Lee family's demands for justice.
Rally sponsored by Coalition for Community Relations, Communities United Against Police Brutality, Lao Family Community of Minnesota, Inc., Minneapolis NAACP, Take Action Minnesota.
JUSTICE FOR FONG LEE!
TAKE AWAY ANDERSEN'S MEDAL!
INDEPENDENT PROSECUTOR!
PROSECUTE KILLER COPS!
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
The Swine Flu and NAFTA
A food system that kills
Swine flu is meat industry's latest plague
GRAIN, April 2009
Mexico is in the midst of a hellish repeat of Asia's bird flu experience, though on a more deadly scale. Once again, the official response from public authorities has come too late and bungled in cover-ups. And once again, the global meat industry is at the centre of the story, ramping up denials as the weight of evidence about its role grows. Just five years after the start of the H5N1 bird flu crisis, and after as many years of a global strategy against influenza pandemics coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the world is now reeling from a swine flu disaster. The global strategy has failed and needs to be replaced with a public health system that the public can trust.
Read the full version at: http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=48
How “The NAFTA Flu” Exploded
Smithfield Farms Fled US Environmental Laws to Open a Gigantic Pig Farm in Mexico, and All We Got Was this Lousy Swine Flu
By Al Giordano
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
April 29, 2009
US and Mexico authorities claim that neither knew about the “swine flu” outbreak until April 24. But after hundreds of residents of a town in Veracruz, Mexico, came down with its symptoms, the story had already hit the Mexican national press by April 5. The daily La Jornada reported:
Clouds of flies emanate from the rusty lagoons where the Carroll Ranches business tosses the fecal wastes of its pig farms, and the open-air contamination is already generating an epidemic of respiratory infections in the town of La Gloria, in the Perote Valley, according to Town Administrator Bertha Crisóstomo López.
http://www.narconews.com/images/smithfldlogo.gif
The town has 3,000 inhabitants, hundreds of whom reported severe flu symptoms in March.
CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reporting from Mexico, has identified a La Gloria child who contracted the first case of identified “swine flu” in February as “patient zero,” five-year-old Edgar Hernández, now a survivor of the disease.
By April 15 – nine days before Mexican federal authorities of the regime of President Felipe Calderon acknowledged any problem at all – the local daily newspaper, Marcha, reported that a company called Carroll Ranches was “the cause of the epidemic.”
La Jornada columnist Julio Hernández López connects the corporate dots to explain how the Virginia-based Smithfield Farms came to Mexico: In 1985, Smithfield Farms received what was, at the time, the most expensive fine in history – $12.6 million – for violating the US Clean Water Act at its pig facilities near the Pagan River in Smithfield, Virginia, a tributary that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The company, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dumped hog waste into the river.
It was a case in which US environmental law succeeded in forcing a polluter, Smithfield Farms, to construct a sewage treatment plant at that facility after decades of using the river as a mega-toilet. But “free trade” opened a path for Smithfield Farms to simply move its harmful practices next door into Mexico so that it could evade the tougher US regulators.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect on January 1, 1994. That very same year Smithfield Farms opened the “Carroll Ranches” in the Mexican state of Veracruz through a new subsidiary corporation, “Agroindustrias de México.”
Unlike what law enforcers forced upon Smithfield Farms in the US, the new Mexican facility – processing 800,000 pigs into bacon and other products per year – does not have a sewage treatment plant.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, Smithfield slaughters an estimated 27 million hogs a year to produce more than six billion pounds of packaged pork products. (The Veracruz facility thus constitutes about three percent of its total production.)
Reporter Jeff Teitz reported in 2006 on the conditions in Smithfield’s US facilities (remember: what you are about to read describes conditions that are more sanitary and regulated than those in Mexico):
Smithfield’s pigs live by the hundreds or thousands in warehouse-like barns, in rows of wall-to-wall pens. Sows are artificially inseminated and fed and delivered of their piglets in cages so small they cannot turn around. Forty fully grown 250-pound male hogs often occupy a pen the size of a tiny apartment. They trample each other to death. There is no sunlight, straw, fresh air or earth. The floors are slatted to allow excrement to fall into a catchment pit under the pens, but many things besides excrement can wind up in the pits: afterbirths, piglets accidentally crushed by their mothers, old batteries, broken bottles of insecticide, antibiotic syringes, stillborn pigs—anything small enough to fit through the foot-wide pipes that drain the pits. The pipes remain closed until enough sewage accumulates in the pits to create good expulsion pressure; then the pipes are opened and everything bursts out into a large holding pond.
The temperature inside hog houses is often hotter than ninety degrees. The air, saturated almost to the point of precipitation with gases from shit and chemicals, can be lethal to the pigs. Enormous exhaust fans run twenty-four hours a day. The ventilation systems function like the ventilators of terminal patients: If they break down for any length of time, pigs start dying.
Consider what happens when such forms of massive pork production move to unregulated territory where Mexican authorities allow wealthy interests to do business without adequate oversight, abusing workers and the environment both. And there it is: The violence wrought by NAFTA in clear and understandable human terms.
The so-called “swine flu” exploded because an environmental disaster simply moved (and with it, took jobs from US workers) to Mexico where environmental and worker safety laws, if they exist, are not enforced against powerful multinational corporations.
False mental constructs of borders – the kind that cause US and Mexican citizens alike to imagine a flu strain like this one invading their nations from other lands – are taking a long overdue hit by the current “swine flu” media frenzy. In this case, US-Mexico trade policy created a time bomb in Veracruz that has already murdered more than 150 Mexican citizens, and at least one child in the US, by creating a gigantic Petri dish in the form pig farms to generate bacon and ham for international sale.
None of that indicates that this flu strain was born in Mexico, but, rather, that the North American Free Trade Agreement created the optimal conditions for the flu to gestate and become, at minimum, epidemic in La Gloria and, now, Mexico City, and threatens to become international pandemic.
Welcome to the aftermath of “free trade.” Authorities now want you to grab a hospital facemask and avoid human contact until the outbreak hopefully blows over. And if you start to feel dizzy, or a flush with fever, or other symptoms begin to molest you or your children, remember this: The real name of this infirmity is “The NAFTA Flu,” the first of what may well emerge as many new illnesses to emerge internationally as the direct result of “free trade” agreements that allow companies like Smithfield Farms to escape health, safety and environmental laws.
Lea Ud. el Artículo en Español
Leia este artigo em português
http://www.narconews.com/Issue57/article3512.html
-------------
Suspected epicentre of swine flu is CDM project
Published: 30 Apr 2009 14:28 CET Last updated: 30 Apr 2009 15:47 CET
A pig farm in Mexico claimed to be the source of swine flu is host to a UN-registered CDM project.
The clean development mechanism (CDM) project, which has not gone into operation, was to be developed by UK-listed Ecosecurities at a pig farm near the town of La Perote in Veracruz state.
Media reports have cited the farm as a possible source of swine flu that threatens to become a global pandemic.
However the plant’s owners and the Mexican government said there is no evidence for these claims, and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is carrying out an investigation at the site.
“Depending on the outcome of the investigation from the FAO, it is feasible that, if it had been implemented, the project would have helped by improving waste management on the site,” said Belinda Kinkead, head of implementation of Ecosecurities.
Little impact
Kinkead said swine flu was unlikely to have a major impact on supply of credits - unless the Mexican government was to order a mass cull of pigs in order to prevent the spread of disease.
But so far the government shows few signs of doing this until a firm link is established between porcine and human influenza.
According to design documents, projects that capture animal waste in Mexico could supply around 23 million carbon credits from the Kyoto protocol's CDM between now and the end of 2012.
But the percentage of credits generated by the sector is typically only a quarter of that promised.
Of the 89 projects in the sector registered by the UN, just 16 projects have been issued with credits.
Ecosecurities has plans to develop 28 CDM projects in Mexico that cut methane emissions from pig waste, but only 10 have gone into operation, as the number of credits yielded by such projects is now so small as to render many of them unfeasible, Kinkead said.
AWMS
Other investors in animal waste management systems (AWMS) include Agcert, a company that was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange.
AES Agriverde, which now controls Agcert’s methane capture projects, said it couldn’t comment on the impact of swine flu on its Mexican operations because the company operates a media blackout in advance of declaring quarterly earnings.
Besides trying to sell CDM credits from projects developed by Agcert, the company aims to generate credits that could be sold in a future federal trading scheme in the US.
Only last week, before news of swine flu broke, a US developer Environmental Credit Corp said it would try and generate 200,000 CERs from methane capture projects in Mexico.
Cargill, a large US commodities trader, is also involved in methane capture CDM projects in Mexico, and is named as a participant in the La Perote project now being investigated by the FAO.
However, no one from the company was available to comment at press time.
Flies
Media outlets from across the world have reported claims by villagers close to the La Perote pig farm that flies feeding on animal waste at the facility had helped spread swine flu to the local human population.
The FAO has said so far there is no evidence that swine flu has spread directly from pigs to humans in this way.
At pig farms, companies such as Ecosecurities use technology known as an anaerobic digester to cover up lagoons of animal waste at pig farms and then generate electricity from the captured methane.
By John McGarrity - jm@pointcarbon.com
-------------------------------
Influenciad@s por la Influenza
Miedo y Seguridad Nacional
Nieves Capote Figueroa
Otros Mundos, AC
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México; 2 de mayo de 2009
¿Cómo puede paralizarse un país de más 100 millones de habitantes? Es una pregunta muy útil…sobre todo para quién se la está haciendo.
En la última semana hemos visto un ir y venir de cifras inexactas y cambiantes sobre los contagiados y muertos por la influenza porcina. El jueves 30 de abril en realidad ya no sabíamos de qué nos estaban hablando, primero que 176 muertos (sin especificar nada más), luego que en realidad eran 12 muertos y 358 infectados. Sin embargo, la OMS el mismo día hablaba de 156 infectados para México. Curiosamente, en otros casos, inmediatamente se proporcionan nombres, edades y origen de los fallecidos por accidentes, enfermedades, etcétera. En este caso es un silencio absoluto.... (Ver www.otrosmundoschiapas.org)
On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 1:48 PM, wrote:
Table of contents:
1. [food_justice] What caused swine flu? - dorinda moreno
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: dorinda moreno
To: Activist List, brownpolitics , 1planet1people_thetreesleepsintheseed <1planet1people_thetreesleepsintheseed@yahoogroups.com>, growing_foodandjustice
Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 12:13:31 -0700
Subject: [food_justice] What caused swine flu?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Alice Jay - Avaaz.org"
Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 14:39:07 -0400
Subject: What caused swine flu?
Dear friends,
Evidence is emerging that traces swine flu to giant factory pig farms
that are dirty, dangerous, and inhumane. Sign the petition to the
World Health Organization to investigate and regulate these threats to
our health:
No-one yet knows whether swine flu will become a global pandemic, but
it is becoming clear where it came from – most likely a giant pig
factory farm run by an American multinational corporation in Veracruz,
Mexico.(1)
These factory farms are disgusting and dangerous, and they're rapidly
multiplying. Thousands of pigs are brutally crammed into dirty
warehouses and sprayed with a cocktail of drugs -- posing a health
risk to more than just our food -- they are the perfect conditions to
breed dangerous new viruses like swine flu. The World Health
Organization (WHO) must investigate and develop regulations for these
farms to protect global health.
Big agrobusiness will try to obstruct and scuttle any attempts at
reform, so we need a massive outcry that health authorities can't
ignore. Sign the petition below for investigation and regulation of
factory farms and we will deliver it with a herd of cardboard pigs to
the WHO. For every 100 petition signatures we will add a pig to the
herd, sign below and forward this email to friends and family:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu
Last week the flu was all that we talked about -- Mexico has been
nearly paralysed and across the world leaders halted air travel,
banned pork imports and initiated drastic controls to mitigate the
spreading virus. As the threat shows signs of subsiding the question
becomes where it came from and how we stop another outbreak.
Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world whose
farm is being fingered as the source of the H1N1 outbreak, denies any
connection between their pigs and the flu and big agrobusiness
worldwide pays huge sums of money for research to argue that biosafety
is ensured in industrial hog production. But the WHO has been saying
for years that 'a new pandemic is inevitable'(2) and experts from the
European Commission and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation have
warned that the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig
production is in fact increasing the risk of development and
transmission of disease epidemics. (3)
Studies abound of the horrific conditions endured by pigs in
concentrated large-scale operations, and the devastating economic
impact on small farmer communities of bloated large-scale
operations.(4) Smithfield itself has already been fined $12.6m and is
currently under another federal investigation in the US for toxic
environmental damage from pig excrement lakes.(5)
But even with all of this damaging evidence, a combination of
increased global meat consumption and a powerful industry motivated by
profit at the cost of human health, means that instead of being shut
down - these sickening factory farm operations are propagating around
the world and we are subsidising them (6). In the wake of this swine
flu threat, let's hold industrial pig producers to account. Sign the
petition for investigation and regulation:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu
If we resolve this global health crisis boldly by reassessing our food
consumption and production, and urgently calling for an inquiry into
the impact of factory farms on human health, we could put in place
tough farm practice rules that will save the global population from
future animal borne lethal pandemics.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu
in hope,
Alice, Pascal, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Ben, Ricken, Iain, Paula, Luis,
Raj, Margaret, Taren and the whole Avaaz team
(1) Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm and the flu:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,1701782.story
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-blamed-on-industri-09-05-01
(2) WHO pandemic information
http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19
(3) FAO report and CIWF press release citing European Commission Study
on the risks of industrial farming
FAO and CIWF
(4) CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for
animals in factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:
CIWF and PETA
(5) Reports on Smithfield's animal welfare and environmental damage
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-trouble-with-smithfield-article03132008
http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf
(6) Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farms
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-out-700-million-for-factory-farming-in-England.html
---------
ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global
campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and
values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz
means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from
governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in
Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva.
Call us at: +1 888 922 8229 or +55 21 2509 0368 Click here to learn
more about our largest campaigns. Don't forget to check out our
Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages!
To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to
info@avaaz.org. You can also call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21
2509 0368 (Brazil) If you have technical problems, please go to
http://www.avaaz.org
--
Dorinda Moreno
Elders of 4 Colors 4 Directions
Hitec Aztec Collaborations/FM Global
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For!
End of digest for list growing_foodandjustice - Tue, 05 May 2009
--
S. Lorena Rodriguez
skype: lorerodlez
cell. 098.577.497
(+598.8577497)
“There is another way to live and think: it’s called agrarianism. It is not so much a philosophy as a practice, an attitude, a loyalty and a passion—all based in close connection with the land. It results in a sound local economy in which producers and consumers are neighbors and in which nature herself becomes the standard for work and production.” --Wendell Berry
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Swine flu is meat industry's latest plague
GRAIN, April 2009
Mexico is in the midst of a hellish repeat of Asia's bird flu experience, though on a more deadly scale. Once again, the official response from public authorities has come too late and bungled in cover-ups. And once again, the global meat industry is at the centre of the story, ramping up denials as the weight of evidence about its role grows. Just five years after the start of the H5N1 bird flu crisis, and after as many years of a global strategy against influenza pandemics coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the world is now reeling from a swine flu disaster. The global strategy has failed and needs to be replaced with a public health system that the public can trust.
Read the full version at: http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=48
How “The NAFTA Flu” Exploded
Smithfield Farms Fled US Environmental Laws to Open a Gigantic Pig Farm in Mexico, and All We Got Was this Lousy Swine Flu
By Al Giordano
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
April 29, 2009
US and Mexico authorities claim that neither knew about the “swine flu” outbreak until April 24. But after hundreds of residents of a town in Veracruz, Mexico, came down with its symptoms, the story had already hit the Mexican national press by April 5. The daily La Jornada reported:
Clouds of flies emanate from the rusty lagoons where the Carroll Ranches business tosses the fecal wastes of its pig farms, and the open-air contamination is already generating an epidemic of respiratory infections in the town of La Gloria, in the Perote Valley, according to Town Administrator Bertha Crisóstomo López.
http://www.narconews.com/images/smithfldlogo.gif
The town has 3,000 inhabitants, hundreds of whom reported severe flu symptoms in March.
CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reporting from Mexico, has identified a La Gloria child who contracted the first case of identified “swine flu” in February as “patient zero,” five-year-old Edgar Hernández, now a survivor of the disease.
By April 15 – nine days before Mexican federal authorities of the regime of President Felipe Calderon acknowledged any problem at all – the local daily newspaper, Marcha, reported that a company called Carroll Ranches was “the cause of the epidemic.”
La Jornada columnist Julio Hernández López connects the corporate dots to explain how the Virginia-based Smithfield Farms came to Mexico: In 1985, Smithfield Farms received what was, at the time, the most expensive fine in history – $12.6 million – for violating the US Clean Water Act at its pig facilities near the Pagan River in Smithfield, Virginia, a tributary that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The company, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dumped hog waste into the river.
It was a case in which US environmental law succeeded in forcing a polluter, Smithfield Farms, to construct a sewage treatment plant at that facility after decades of using the river as a mega-toilet. But “free trade” opened a path for Smithfield Farms to simply move its harmful practices next door into Mexico so that it could evade the tougher US regulators.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect on January 1, 1994. That very same year Smithfield Farms opened the “Carroll Ranches” in the Mexican state of Veracruz through a new subsidiary corporation, “Agroindustrias de México.”
Unlike what law enforcers forced upon Smithfield Farms in the US, the new Mexican facility – processing 800,000 pigs into bacon and other products per year – does not have a sewage treatment plant.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, Smithfield slaughters an estimated 27 million hogs a year to produce more than six billion pounds of packaged pork products. (The Veracruz facility thus constitutes about three percent of its total production.)
Reporter Jeff Teitz reported in 2006 on the conditions in Smithfield’s US facilities (remember: what you are about to read describes conditions that are more sanitary and regulated than those in Mexico):
Smithfield’s pigs live by the hundreds or thousands in warehouse-like barns, in rows of wall-to-wall pens. Sows are artificially inseminated and fed and delivered of their piglets in cages so small they cannot turn around. Forty fully grown 250-pound male hogs often occupy a pen the size of a tiny apartment. They trample each other to death. There is no sunlight, straw, fresh air or earth. The floors are slatted to allow excrement to fall into a catchment pit under the pens, but many things besides excrement can wind up in the pits: afterbirths, piglets accidentally crushed by their mothers, old batteries, broken bottles of insecticide, antibiotic syringes, stillborn pigs—anything small enough to fit through the foot-wide pipes that drain the pits. The pipes remain closed until enough sewage accumulates in the pits to create good expulsion pressure; then the pipes are opened and everything bursts out into a large holding pond.
The temperature inside hog houses is often hotter than ninety degrees. The air, saturated almost to the point of precipitation with gases from shit and chemicals, can be lethal to the pigs. Enormous exhaust fans run twenty-four hours a day. The ventilation systems function like the ventilators of terminal patients: If they break down for any length of time, pigs start dying.
Consider what happens when such forms of massive pork production move to unregulated territory where Mexican authorities allow wealthy interests to do business without adequate oversight, abusing workers and the environment both. And there it is: The violence wrought by NAFTA in clear and understandable human terms.
The so-called “swine flu” exploded because an environmental disaster simply moved (and with it, took jobs from US workers) to Mexico where environmental and worker safety laws, if they exist, are not enforced against powerful multinational corporations.
False mental constructs of borders – the kind that cause US and Mexican citizens alike to imagine a flu strain like this one invading their nations from other lands – are taking a long overdue hit by the current “swine flu” media frenzy. In this case, US-Mexico trade policy created a time bomb in Veracruz that has already murdered more than 150 Mexican citizens, and at least one child in the US, by creating a gigantic Petri dish in the form pig farms to generate bacon and ham for international sale.
None of that indicates that this flu strain was born in Mexico, but, rather, that the North American Free Trade Agreement created the optimal conditions for the flu to gestate and become, at minimum, epidemic in La Gloria and, now, Mexico City, and threatens to become international pandemic.
Welcome to the aftermath of “free trade.” Authorities now want you to grab a hospital facemask and avoid human contact until the outbreak hopefully blows over. And if you start to feel dizzy, or a flush with fever, or other symptoms begin to molest you or your children, remember this: The real name of this infirmity is “The NAFTA Flu,” the first of what may well emerge as many new illnesses to emerge internationally as the direct result of “free trade” agreements that allow companies like Smithfield Farms to escape health, safety and environmental laws.
Lea Ud. el Artículo en Español
Leia este artigo em português
http://www.narconews.com/Issue57/article3512.html
-------------
Suspected epicentre of swine flu is CDM project
Published: 30 Apr 2009 14:28 CET Last updated: 30 Apr 2009 15:47 CET
A pig farm in Mexico claimed to be the source of swine flu is host to a UN-registered CDM project.
The clean development mechanism (CDM) project, which has not gone into operation, was to be developed by UK-listed Ecosecurities at a pig farm near the town of La Perote in Veracruz state.
Media reports have cited the farm as a possible source of swine flu that threatens to become a global pandemic.
However the plant’s owners and the Mexican government said there is no evidence for these claims, and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is carrying out an investigation at the site.
“Depending on the outcome of the investigation from the FAO, it is feasible that, if it had been implemented, the project would have helped by improving waste management on the site,” said Belinda Kinkead, head of implementation of Ecosecurities.
Little impact
Kinkead said swine flu was unlikely to have a major impact on supply of credits - unless the Mexican government was to order a mass cull of pigs in order to prevent the spread of disease.
But so far the government shows few signs of doing this until a firm link is established between porcine and human influenza.
According to design documents, projects that capture animal waste in Mexico could supply around 23 million carbon credits from the Kyoto protocol's CDM between now and the end of 2012.
But the percentage of credits generated by the sector is typically only a quarter of that promised.
Of the 89 projects in the sector registered by the UN, just 16 projects have been issued with credits.
Ecosecurities has plans to develop 28 CDM projects in Mexico that cut methane emissions from pig waste, but only 10 have gone into operation, as the number of credits yielded by such projects is now so small as to render many of them unfeasible, Kinkead said.
AWMS
Other investors in animal waste management systems (AWMS) include Agcert, a company that was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange.
AES Agriverde, which now controls Agcert’s methane capture projects, said it couldn’t comment on the impact of swine flu on its Mexican operations because the company operates a media blackout in advance of declaring quarterly earnings.
Besides trying to sell CDM credits from projects developed by Agcert, the company aims to generate credits that could be sold in a future federal trading scheme in the US.
Only last week, before news of swine flu broke, a US developer Environmental Credit Corp said it would try and generate 200,000 CERs from methane capture projects in Mexico.
Cargill, a large US commodities trader, is also involved in methane capture CDM projects in Mexico, and is named as a participant in the La Perote project now being investigated by the FAO.
However, no one from the company was available to comment at press time.
Flies
Media outlets from across the world have reported claims by villagers close to the La Perote pig farm that flies feeding on animal waste at the facility had helped spread swine flu to the local human population.
The FAO has said so far there is no evidence that swine flu has spread directly from pigs to humans in this way.
At pig farms, companies such as Ecosecurities use technology known as an anaerobic digester to cover up lagoons of animal waste at pig farms and then generate electricity from the captured methane.
By John McGarrity - jm@pointcarbon.com
-------------------------------
Influenciad@s por la Influenza
Miedo y Seguridad Nacional
Nieves Capote Figueroa
Otros Mundos, AC
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México; 2 de mayo de 2009
¿Cómo puede paralizarse un país de más 100 millones de habitantes? Es una pregunta muy útil…sobre todo para quién se la está haciendo.
En la última semana hemos visto un ir y venir de cifras inexactas y cambiantes sobre los contagiados y muertos por la influenza porcina. El jueves 30 de abril en realidad ya no sabíamos de qué nos estaban hablando, primero que 176 muertos (sin especificar nada más), luego que en realidad eran 12 muertos y 358 infectados. Sin embargo, la OMS el mismo día hablaba de 156 infectados para México. Curiosamente, en otros casos, inmediatamente se proporcionan nombres, edades y origen de los fallecidos por accidentes, enfermedades, etcétera. En este caso es un silencio absoluto.... (Ver www.otrosmundoschiapas.org)
On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 1:48 PM,
Table of contents:
1. [food_justice] What caused swine flu? - dorinda moreno
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: dorinda moreno
To: Activist List
Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 12:13:31 -0700
Subject: [food_justice] What caused swine flu?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Alice Jay - Avaaz.org"
Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 14:39:07 -0400
Subject: What caused swine flu?
Dear friends,
Evidence is emerging that traces swine flu to giant factory pig farms
that are dirty, dangerous, and inhumane. Sign the petition to the
World Health Organization to investigate and regulate these threats to
our health:
No-one yet knows whether swine flu will become a global pandemic, but
it is becoming clear where it came from – most likely a giant pig
factory farm run by an American multinational corporation in Veracruz,
Mexico.(1)
These factory farms are disgusting and dangerous, and they're rapidly
multiplying. Thousands of pigs are brutally crammed into dirty
warehouses and sprayed with a cocktail of drugs -- posing a health
risk to more than just our food -- they are the perfect conditions to
breed dangerous new viruses like swine flu. The World Health
Organization (WHO) must investigate and develop regulations for these
farms to protect global health.
Big agrobusiness will try to obstruct and scuttle any attempts at
reform, so we need a massive outcry that health authorities can't
ignore. Sign the petition below for investigation and regulation of
factory farms and we will deliver it with a herd of cardboard pigs to
the WHO. For every 100 petition signatures we will add a pig to the
herd, sign below and forward this email to friends and family:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu
Last week the flu was all that we talked about -- Mexico has been
nearly paralysed and across the world leaders halted air travel,
banned pork imports and initiated drastic controls to mitigate the
spreading virus. As the threat shows signs of subsiding the question
becomes where it came from and how we stop another outbreak.
Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world whose
farm is being fingered as the source of the H1N1 outbreak, denies any
connection between their pigs and the flu and big agrobusiness
worldwide pays huge sums of money for research to argue that biosafety
is ensured in industrial hog production. But the WHO has been saying
for years that 'a new pandemic is inevitable'(2) and experts from the
European Commission and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation have
warned that the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig
production is in fact increasing the risk of development and
transmission of disease epidemics. (3)
Studies abound of the horrific conditions endured by pigs in
concentrated large-scale operations, and the devastating economic
impact on small farmer communities of bloated large-scale
operations.(4) Smithfield itself has already been fined $12.6m and is
currently under another federal investigation in the US for toxic
environmental damage from pig excrement lakes.(5)
But even with all of this damaging evidence, a combination of
increased global meat consumption and a powerful industry motivated by
profit at the cost of human health, means that instead of being shut
down - these sickening factory farm operations are propagating around
the world and we are subsidising them (6). In the wake of this swine
flu threat, let's hold industrial pig producers to account. Sign the
petition for investigation and regulation:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu
If we resolve this global health crisis boldly by reassessing our food
consumption and production, and urgently calling for an inquiry into
the impact of factory farms on human health, we could put in place
tough farm practice rules that will save the global population from
future animal borne lethal pandemics.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu
in hope,
Alice, Pascal, Graziela, Paul, Brett, Ben, Ricken, Iain, Paula, Luis,
Raj, Margaret, Taren and the whole Avaaz team
(1) Reports on the link between the Mexican factory farm and the flu:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fg-mexico-flu28-2009apr28,0,1701782.story
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=can-swine-flu-be-blamed-on-industri-09-05-01
(2) WHO pandemic information
http://www.euro.who.int/influenza/20080618_19
(3) FAO report and CIWF press release citing European Commission Study
on the risks of industrial farming
FAO and CIWF
(4) CIWF and PETA video reports of the disgusting conditions for
animals in factory farms and the disease ridden manure swamps:
CIWF and PETA
(5) Reports on Smithfield's animal welfare and environmental damage
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/for-la-gloria-the-stench-of-blame-is-from-pig-factories-1675809.html
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/new-report-highlights-the-trouble-with-smithfield-article03132008
http://avaazimages.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithfieldJan08.pdf
(6) Reports on UK tax payers subsidising factory farms
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/5225298/Taxpayers-forking-out-700-million-for-factory-farming-in-England.html
---------
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values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz
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--
Dorinda Moreno
Elders of 4 Colors 4 Directions
Hitec Aztec Collaborations/FM Global
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For!
End of digest for list growing_foodandjustice - Tue, 05 May 2009
--
S. Lorena Rodriguez
skype: lorerodlez
cell. 098.577.497
(+598.8577497)
“There is another way to live and think: it’s called agrarianism. It is not so much a philosophy as a practice, an attitude, a loyalty and a passion—all based in close connection with the land. It results in a sound local economy in which producers and consumers are neighbors and in which nature herself becomes the standard for work and production.” --Wendell Berry
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Gaia Health: Anti-Education Intentionally Dumbs Down Americans
Gaia Health: Anti-Education Intentionally Dumbs Down Americans
Methinks the intentional dumbing down began during the Reagan Years. How successful it has been. Have you noticed the decline the the quality of intellectual conversation around your favorite coffee shop(s)? RZ
Methinks the intentional dumbing down began during the Reagan Years. How successful it has been. Have you noticed the decline the the quality of intellectual conversation around your favorite coffee shop(s)? RZ
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Monday, May 04, 2009
Friday, May 01, 2009
Teens acquitted of murder in immigrant's fatal beating - CNN.com
Teens acquitted of murder in immigrant's fatal beating - CNN.com
Lady Justice and all-white juries will ALWAYS be a blight on the justice system.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
End the Fed!
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release: April 21, 2009
Contact: Melissa Hill, 612-250-7178, endthefedmpls@gmail.com
End the Fed Minneapolis hosts bank protest outside the Federal Reserve.
Activists demand an end to the robbing of the American people by the financial elite.
Minneapolis, MN— A broad-based coalition of local activists will speak out against the unsustainable economic policies promoted by the private Federal Reserve banking system in conjunction with other nationwide protests across the country on April 25th. During an unprecedented economic crisis, the Federal Reserve has funneled over $2 Trillion dollars to the big money center banks who own and operate the Fed so that those institutions could pay off their failed derivatives bets, buy up smaller banks and line the pockets of insiders with bonuses in the biggest heist in human history.
What: End the Fed Rally and March
When: Saturday, April 25, 2009. Rally begins at 12 p.m.
Where: Outside the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Building, - 90 Hennepin Ave.
Who: End the Fed Minneapolis with guest speakers and musical entertainment
About End the Fed – End the Fed (www.endthefed.us) is a nationwide nonpartisan coalition that calls for the repeal of the Federal Reserve Banking System. End the Fed Minneapolis (www.meetup.com/ETFMpls) is the local affiliate established in October of 2008 in preparation for the first major rally held on November 22, 2008.
For Immediate Release: April 21, 2009
Contact: Melissa Hill, 612-250-7178, endthefedmpls@gmail.com
End the Fed Minneapolis hosts bank protest outside the Federal Reserve.
Activists demand an end to the robbing of the American people by the financial elite.
Minneapolis, MN— A broad-based coalition of local activists will speak out against the unsustainable economic policies promoted by the private Federal Reserve banking system in conjunction with other nationwide protests across the country on April 25th. During an unprecedented economic crisis, the Federal Reserve has funneled over $2 Trillion dollars to the big money center banks who own and operate the Fed so that those institutions could pay off their failed derivatives bets, buy up smaller banks and line the pockets of insiders with bonuses in the biggest heist in human history.
What: End the Fed Rally and March
When: Saturday, April 25, 2009. Rally begins at 12 p.m.
Where: Outside the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Building, - 90 Hennepin Ave.
Who: End the Fed Minneapolis with guest speakers and musical entertainment
About End the Fed – End the Fed (www.endthefed.us) is a nationwide nonpartisan coalition that calls for the repeal of the Federal Reserve Banking System. End the Fed Minneapolis (www.meetup.com/ETFMpls) is the local affiliate established in October of 2008 in preparation for the first major rally held on November 22, 2008.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Reuters:Recession fueling right-wing extremism
So does Democrat complacency in the face of obvious right-wing (white supremicist) US policies.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
The Crash of '09, The Collapse of '10 -- InformationClearinghouse.info
The Crash of '09, The Collapse of '10
By Humayun Gauhar
April 07, 2009 "The Nation" --- Many American analysts are saying that America's real economic collapse could come by the end of this year. "It will come to be known as 'The Crash of 09', they say. Others, especially a Russian political analyst, are predicting its physical collapse too. There's no doubt that the country is up the dirtiest of imaginable creeks without a paddle. But what's amazing is that America remains mired in stunning denial, continuing to make bad situations worse with useless bailout plans and messing around with the world instead of facing up to the reality that its time as a hyper-power is up, that's its economic system has failed and that its only recourse is to end its adversarial doctrine and get out of its lost wars as painlessly and honorably as possible. There's no point in going on flogging dead horses. The only sensible thing that survival demands is to craft a new moral economic and financial system and a moral foreign policy.
The deep recession verging on depression that we have seen so far was caused by the crash in the US housing market. Since other developed industrialised nations, especially of Europe, were aping the shenanigans of unchecked and poorly regulated American bankers and financiers, the collapse of their markets, banks and economies followed like dominoes. Iceland was the first to officially declare bankruptcy. Its GDP is only about $6.5 billion but its banks had lent something like $65 billion while its regulators were asleep on the wheel. Britain has not declared bankruptcy officially but we all know that it is bankrupt for all intents and purposes and none of its banks and financial institutions has any legs left.
However, this is only the aperitif. Wait for the crash of US commercial real estate, which analysts think will happen by autumn this year. Shops are closing down and there's no one to rent them. Companies are retrenching and freeing up a lot of office space or closing down entirely and vacating even more precious office space with no one to rent it again. Huge skyscrapers are becoming ghost-scrapers. All this expensive commercial real estate is mortgaged to the hilt. With no rental income coming in, the loans against them will become difficult to service and there will be fearsome default. There's insurance and re-insurance here also and the amounts involved are mind-boggling. No bailout plan would come even close to coping. When the commercial real estate collapse comes, all hell will break loose. And if multinationals like General Motors and Ford call it a day, it won't just be thousands upon thousands of people unemployed (though its heartless to use the word 'just' here). Two entire towns will be become ghost towns. That's terrible. If you count the number of people - wives, children and parents - who are dependent on those incomes, it becomes worse than terrible. It becomes absolutely and totally unconscionable, while corrupt and greedy bankers and the likes of Bernie Madoff have made off with billions - perhaps trillions - of dollars and are still doing so because "our contracts say so."
Then there is Professor Igor Nikolavich Panarin whom I came across in a December 2008 article by Andrew Osborne of the Wall Street Journal no less, not some fly-by-night rag. If he has got it right, next year will come to be known as 'The Collapse of 2010' for that is when the USA will disintegrate into six separate entities. Those six entities, says Prof Panarin, are The California Republic, The Central North American Republic, Atlantic America, The Texas Republic, Hawaii and Alaska going back to Russia.
With millions of Chinese living on America's eastern seaboard (The People's Daily's circulation there alone is over five million) The California Republic, Prof Panarin thinks, will either be part of China or come under Chinese influence. The Central North American Republic will be part of Canada or under Canadian influence, Atlantic America may join the European Union, The Texas Republic will be part of Mexico or under Mexican influence and Hawaii will go either to Japan or China.
Prof Panarin is a former KGB analyst and a Russian professor of political science, Dean of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Academy in Moscow and author of several books on geopolitics. Thus one can hardly call him a fruitcake. Actually, he first made this prediction not after the economic meltdown that started last year but in Linz, Austria, in September 1998 in front of 400 delegates at a conference devoted to information warfare and the use of data to get an edge over a rival. Of course it was received with consternation. "When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise," he says. Later, many delegates asked him to sign copies of the map. Its like when the French political scientist Emmanuel Todd made his famous forecast in 1976 about the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years before it actually did and many people laughed. But Todd had the last laugh.
Prof Panarin doesn't say that America's collapse is a forgone conclusion. "There's a 55-45 percent chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. But if it comes it will be driven by three factors - "mass immigration, economic decline and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the US will break into six pieces...He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the US. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the Union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The US will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in." All we Pakistanis thus have to do is hang in there and soon America will not be meddling in our affairs any more, what to talk of General Patraeus's adviser David Kilcullen saying that Pakistan could fall apart in five or six months.
It's not easy to comprehend the collapse of an empire or a superpower. When termites are eating away at their vitals for years one cannot see it. People are too much in thrall of their power, wealth and panoply. Thus when the collapse comes it seems sudden, and takes people by surprise. "I went to sleep last night and when I woke up next morning the Soviet Union was gone." The most powerful war machine ever built couldn't save it. Remember the British Empire on which "the sun would never set"? It set so firmly that only six decades later Britain is not only bankrupt, it has become America's appendage, a third rate power and could itself disintegrate soon with Scotland seceding. The history of the world is replete with the demise of civilisations, empires and superpowers. The graveyards of nations are full of their bones.
That there may be something to what Prof Panarin says is borne out by the fact that the late Bush Administration made contingency plans to impose martial law in case of economic collapse or massive and violent social unrest with blood on the streets. His predictions seem plausible, even probable, if all the dire scenarios come right, as they have thus far. According to Rand Clifford the US has already made plans to "round up insurgent US citizens" and detain them in what are called "Rex 84" camps. Plus they have made "safe facilities" for members of Congress and their families. A report by the Phoenix Business Journal says: "A new report by the US Army and War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks." The Journal's story quote from the War College report: "Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defence establishment to reorient priorities in extremist to defend basic domestic order and human security." It needs saying that the military regularly makes plans for the most dire of situations, however seemingly unlikely.
Let Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and an early supporter of Barack Obama have the last word. The US is "going to have millions and millions of unemployed people really facing dire straits. And we're going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there's public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in America...hell there could even be riots."
The writer is a senior political analyst - E-mail:humayun.gauhar@gmail.com
Copyright The Nation
By Humayun Gauhar
April 07, 2009 "The Nation" --- Many American analysts are saying that America's real economic collapse could come by the end of this year. "It will come to be known as 'The Crash of 09', they say. Others, especially a Russian political analyst, are predicting its physical collapse too. There's no doubt that the country is up the dirtiest of imaginable creeks without a paddle. But what's amazing is that America remains mired in stunning denial, continuing to make bad situations worse with useless bailout plans and messing around with the world instead of facing up to the reality that its time as a hyper-power is up, that's its economic system has failed and that its only recourse is to end its adversarial doctrine and get out of its lost wars as painlessly and honorably as possible. There's no point in going on flogging dead horses. The only sensible thing that survival demands is to craft a new moral economic and financial system and a moral foreign policy.
The deep recession verging on depression that we have seen so far was caused by the crash in the US housing market. Since other developed industrialised nations, especially of Europe, were aping the shenanigans of unchecked and poorly regulated American bankers and financiers, the collapse of their markets, banks and economies followed like dominoes. Iceland was the first to officially declare bankruptcy. Its GDP is only about $6.5 billion but its banks had lent something like $65 billion while its regulators were asleep on the wheel. Britain has not declared bankruptcy officially but we all know that it is bankrupt for all intents and purposes and none of its banks and financial institutions has any legs left.
However, this is only the aperitif. Wait for the crash of US commercial real estate, which analysts think will happen by autumn this year. Shops are closing down and there's no one to rent them. Companies are retrenching and freeing up a lot of office space or closing down entirely and vacating even more precious office space with no one to rent it again. Huge skyscrapers are becoming ghost-scrapers. All this expensive commercial real estate is mortgaged to the hilt. With no rental income coming in, the loans against them will become difficult to service and there will be fearsome default. There's insurance and re-insurance here also and the amounts involved are mind-boggling. No bailout plan would come even close to coping. When the commercial real estate collapse comes, all hell will break loose. And if multinationals like General Motors and Ford call it a day, it won't just be thousands upon thousands of people unemployed (though its heartless to use the word 'just' here). Two entire towns will be become ghost towns. That's terrible. If you count the number of people - wives, children and parents - who are dependent on those incomes, it becomes worse than terrible. It becomes absolutely and totally unconscionable, while corrupt and greedy bankers and the likes of Bernie Madoff have made off with billions - perhaps trillions - of dollars and are still doing so because "our contracts say so."
Then there is Professor Igor Nikolavich Panarin whom I came across in a December 2008 article by Andrew Osborne of the Wall Street Journal no less, not some fly-by-night rag. If he has got it right, next year will come to be known as 'The Collapse of 2010' for that is when the USA will disintegrate into six separate entities. Those six entities, says Prof Panarin, are The California Republic, The Central North American Republic, Atlantic America, The Texas Republic, Hawaii and Alaska going back to Russia.
With millions of Chinese living on America's eastern seaboard (The People's Daily's circulation there alone is over five million) The California Republic, Prof Panarin thinks, will either be part of China or come under Chinese influence. The Central North American Republic will be part of Canada or under Canadian influence, Atlantic America may join the European Union, The Texas Republic will be part of Mexico or under Mexican influence and Hawaii will go either to Japan or China.
Prof Panarin is a former KGB analyst and a Russian professor of political science, Dean of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Academy in Moscow and author of several books on geopolitics. Thus one can hardly call him a fruitcake. Actually, he first made this prediction not after the economic meltdown that started last year but in Linz, Austria, in September 1998 in front of 400 delegates at a conference devoted to information warfare and the use of data to get an edge over a rival. Of course it was received with consternation. "When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise," he says. Later, many delegates asked him to sign copies of the map. Its like when the French political scientist Emmanuel Todd made his famous forecast in 1976 about the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years before it actually did and many people laughed. But Todd had the last laugh.
Prof Panarin doesn't say that America's collapse is a forgone conclusion. "There's a 55-45 percent chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. But if it comes it will be driven by three factors - "mass immigration, economic decline and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the US will break into six pieces...He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the US. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the Union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The US will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in." All we Pakistanis thus have to do is hang in there and soon America will not be meddling in our affairs any more, what to talk of General Patraeus's adviser David Kilcullen saying that Pakistan could fall apart in five or six months.
It's not easy to comprehend the collapse of an empire or a superpower. When termites are eating away at their vitals for years one cannot see it. People are too much in thrall of their power, wealth and panoply. Thus when the collapse comes it seems sudden, and takes people by surprise. "I went to sleep last night and when I woke up next morning the Soviet Union was gone." The most powerful war machine ever built couldn't save it. Remember the British Empire on which "the sun would never set"? It set so firmly that only six decades later Britain is not only bankrupt, it has become America's appendage, a third rate power and could itself disintegrate soon with Scotland seceding. The history of the world is replete with the demise of civilisations, empires and superpowers. The graveyards of nations are full of their bones.
That there may be something to what Prof Panarin says is borne out by the fact that the late Bush Administration made contingency plans to impose martial law in case of economic collapse or massive and violent social unrest with blood on the streets. His predictions seem plausible, even probable, if all the dire scenarios come right, as they have thus far. According to Rand Clifford the US has already made plans to "round up insurgent US citizens" and detain them in what are called "Rex 84" camps. Plus they have made "safe facilities" for members of Congress and their families. A report by the Phoenix Business Journal says: "A new report by the US Army and War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks." The Journal's story quote from the War College report: "Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defence establishment to reorient priorities in extremist to defend basic domestic order and human security." It needs saying that the military regularly makes plans for the most dire of situations, however seemingly unlikely.
Let Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and an early supporter of Barack Obama have the last word. The US is "going to have millions and millions of unemployed people really facing dire straits. And we're going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there's public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in America...hell there could even be riots."
The writer is a senior political analyst - E-mail:humayun.gauhar@gmail.com
Copyright The Nation
Monday, April 06, 2009
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Terror as a tool of empire- ICH
Though I commend the slew of journalists who have taken to critical reporting of the USA's white supremacist, imperialist foreign policy, I can't help but think how useful this concern would have been twenty or thirty years ago. The national trajectory towards fascism didn't just begin with 9/11.
Monday, March 30, 2009
RNC8 supporters face continued state harassment
Editor's note: This is an update from our allies at CUAPB who have been instrumental in representing and raising awareness around the assault on our civil liberties and human rights in reference to the RNC/martial law exercise during Labor Day weekend. Protestors and community organizers are being harassed and targeted for intimidation by the Twin Cities 'law enforcement' community.
COALITION: COP HARASSMENT, SPYING MUST STOP!
Groups Vow to Continue Defending the RNC 8 Despite Intimidation Attempts
Contact: Celia Kutz (Friends of the RNC 8), press@rnc8.org, 612.886.4565
Jude Ortiz (Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure),
recycleme2@riseup.net, 612.655.6904
Police conduct during last Saturday's community event in support of the
RNC 8 - a group of protest organizers each facing four conspiracy and
terrorism charges - provided a startling glimpse into coordinated
multi-agency efforts to harass, intimidate and spy on community members
engaged in legal, First Amendment-protected activities. Just like the
charges against the RNC 8, the operation was a waste of scarce resources
in tough economic times.
At least 15 cities across the nation held events for the March 28, 2009
National Day of Solidarity with the RNC 8. In the Twin Cities, the Tour de
Fletcher bicycle ride visited the sites of last August's pre-emptive
police raids by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher. Organizers advertised
the event as 100% legal and riders obeyed all traffic laws. Throughout
the ride, several Minneapolis police squad cars, bicycle cops, two paddy
wagons and a rented van full of more officers menaced the roughly 50
riders who participated. Two police officers wore black masks, making
them unidentifiable. One rider who attempted to leave the event was
arrested without any apparent justification and now faces charges of
disorderly conduct. The arrest appears to have been staged to justify the
massive police presence--and wasted taxpayer resources--at the peaceful,
lawful event. The arrested individual overheard his arresting officer
saying, "1 down, 39 to go" and an officer at the jail saying, "So how many
did you get?" as if authorities had planned a mass arrest.
Video of the event produced by Twin Cities Indymedia is available at:
http://tc.indymedia.org/2009/mar/video-rnc-8-supporters-mobilize-police-continue-intimidation
Pictures from the event are available at:
http://www.alanwilfahrt.com/Assests/journal_week/week13-09/tour-de-fletcher.html
Later in the day, even more officers and police cars, including the
unmarked vehicle of a St. Paul Police Commander, lined the streets at a
south Minneapolis church during a community lunch which was part of the
event. Officers photographed individuals as they entered the church and
recorded license plate numbers of cars outside. Although the upbeat
bicycle ride ended in Minneapolis, multiple squad cars with bicycles were
sighted afterwards at 951 Iglehart Avenue and were reported at 627 Smith
Avenue in St. Paul (sites of pre-emptive raids and listed as potential
stops on the ride), confirming the multi-agency nature of this effort.
"We've seen a definite increase in police harassment and spying at social
justice events since the RNC," states Michelle Gross, President of
Communities United Against Police Brutality. She adds, "Police have been
photographing participants, documenting license plates and even openly
harassing people who have broken no laws, especially in the last few
months."
Despite police efforts, the March 28 event was a complete success with
many new people coming forward to show their support for the RNC 8. The
lunch raised significant funds for their legal defense. The previous day,
supporters delivered a petition with 3,000 signatures to prosecutor Susan
Gaertner demanding she drop the charges against the RNC 8. Organizers
stated this was only the first installment and that more signatures will
follow. The 17,000 member Duluth Central Labor Body also submitted a
support statement to Gaertner urging her to drop the charges, as did Don
Olson on behalf of the "Minnesota 8," well-known Vietnam-era draft
resisters. During the visit to Susan Gaertner, known undercover police
officers were again seen photographing activists.
Several organizations were responsible for planning the March 28 event and
these groups have vowed to continue their efforts in spite of police
harassment. They include Friends of the RNC 8, RNC 8 Defense Committee,
Communities United Against Police Brutality, Community RNC Arrestee
Support Structure (CRASS) and others.
Reports, including photos, from RNC 8 solidarity events can be found at
www.RNC8.org.
COALITION: COP HARASSMENT, SPYING MUST STOP!
Groups Vow to Continue Defending the RNC 8 Despite Intimidation Attempts
Contact: Celia Kutz (Friends of the RNC 8), press@rnc8.org, 612.886.4565
Jude Ortiz (Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure),
recycleme2@riseup.net, 612.655.6904
Police conduct during last Saturday's community event in support of the
RNC 8 - a group of protest organizers each facing four conspiracy and
terrorism charges - provided a startling glimpse into coordinated
multi-agency efforts to harass, intimidate and spy on community members
engaged in legal, First Amendment-protected activities. Just like the
charges against the RNC 8, the operation was a waste of scarce resources
in tough economic times.
At least 15 cities across the nation held events for the March 28, 2009
National Day of Solidarity with the RNC 8. In the Twin Cities, the Tour de
Fletcher bicycle ride visited the sites of last August's pre-emptive
police raids by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher. Organizers advertised
the event as 100% legal and riders obeyed all traffic laws. Throughout
the ride, several Minneapolis police squad cars, bicycle cops, two paddy
wagons and a rented van full of more officers menaced the roughly 50
riders who participated. Two police officers wore black masks, making
them unidentifiable. One rider who attempted to leave the event was
arrested without any apparent justification and now faces charges of
disorderly conduct. The arrest appears to have been staged to justify the
massive police presence--and wasted taxpayer resources--at the peaceful,
lawful event. The arrested individual overheard his arresting officer
saying, "1 down, 39 to go" and an officer at the jail saying, "So how many
did you get?" as if authorities had planned a mass arrest.
Video of the event produced by Twin Cities Indymedia is available at:
http://tc.indymedia.org/2009/mar/video-rnc-8-supporters-mobilize-police-continue-intimidation
Pictures from the event are available at:
http://www.alanwilfahrt.com/Assests/journal_week/week13-09/tour-de-fletcher.html
Later in the day, even more officers and police cars, including the
unmarked vehicle of a St. Paul Police Commander, lined the streets at a
south Minneapolis church during a community lunch which was part of the
event. Officers photographed individuals as they entered the church and
recorded license plate numbers of cars outside. Although the upbeat
bicycle ride ended in Minneapolis, multiple squad cars with bicycles were
sighted afterwards at 951 Iglehart Avenue and were reported at 627 Smith
Avenue in St. Paul (sites of pre-emptive raids and listed as potential
stops on the ride), confirming the multi-agency nature of this effort.
"We've seen a definite increase in police harassment and spying at social
justice events since the RNC," states Michelle Gross, President of
Communities United Against Police Brutality. She adds, "Police have been
photographing participants, documenting license plates and even openly
harassing people who have broken no laws, especially in the last few
months."
Despite police efforts, the March 28 event was a complete success with
many new people coming forward to show their support for the RNC 8. The
lunch raised significant funds for their legal defense. The previous day,
supporters delivered a petition with 3,000 signatures to prosecutor Susan
Gaertner demanding she drop the charges against the RNC 8. Organizers
stated this was only the first installment and that more signatures will
follow. The 17,000 member Duluth Central Labor Body also submitted a
support statement to Gaertner urging her to drop the charges, as did Don
Olson on behalf of the "Minnesota 8," well-known Vietnam-era draft
resisters. During the visit to Susan Gaertner, known undercover police
officers were again seen photographing activists.
Several organizations were responsible for planning the March 28 event and
these groups have vowed to continue their efforts in spite of police
harassment. They include Friends of the RNC 8, RNC 8 Defense Committee,
Communities United Against Police Brutality, Community RNC Arrestee
Support Structure (CRASS) and others.
Reports, including photos, from RNC 8 solidarity events can be found at
www.RNC8.org.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Nubians: still surviving --BBC
This culture was victimized to so as to try to remove Black Africans from their legacy as the originators of high Egyptian culture.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
RAWSTORY: Flying shoes greet War Criminal/HumanRights violator/treasury looter GWB in Calgary
Thank Jah our neighbors to the north aren't afraid to express themselves.
Must read: Law enforcement gone crazy --by Patrick Wood
The Radical Polarization of Law Enforcement Print E-mail
by Patrick Wood, Editor
March 18, 2009
Patriots, Christians and concerned citizens are increasingly in the cross hairs of the U.S. intelligence community, and battle lines are being quietly drawn that could soon pit our own law enforcement and military forces against us.
A February 20 report entitled "The Modern Militia Movement" was issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) that paints mainstream patriotic Americans as dangerous threats to law enforcement and to the country. Operating under the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the MIAC is listed as a Fusion Center that was established in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
Because authenticity of the report was questioned by some, this writer contacted Missouri state Representative Jim Guest (R-King City) who had personally verified that the report had indeed been issued. Rep. Guest is chairman of the Personal Privacy Committee and is a prominent leader in the national Blowback against the Real ID Act of 2005 that requires states to issue uniform driver's licenses containing personal biometric data. (See Guest warns against Big Brother, Real ID)
Rep. Guest stated that he was "shocked and outraged" at the report, which clearly paints him and many other elected state leaders, as a potential threats to law enforcement.
Instead of focusing on actual criminal incidents of "home-grown" terrorism, the MAIC report instead lists issues that it believes are common to the threats it perceives. Thus, Americans involved with the following issues are highly suspect:
-- "Ammunition Accountability Act" - requiring each bullet to to be serialized and registered to the purchaser.
-- "Anticipation of the economic collapse of the US Government" - Prominent scholars and economists are openly debating the bankruptcy and insolvency of the United States government.
-- "Possible Constitutional Convention (Con Con)" - 32 states have called for a Constitutional Convention to force Congress and the Executive Branch into a balanced budget, but many are concerned that if called, Con Con would be taken over by hostile interests who would introduce Amendments that are harmful to national Sovereignty.
-- "North American Union" - MIAC states that "Conspiracy theorists claim that this union would link Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The NAU would unify its monetary system and trade the dollar for the AMERO. Associated with this theory is concern over a NAFTA Superhighway, which would Fast Track trade between the three nations. There is additional concern that the NAU would open up the border causing security risks and free movement for immigrants."
-- "Universal Service Program" - "Statements made by President Elect Obama and his chief of staff have led extremists to fear the creation of a Civilian Defense Force. This theory requires all citizens between the age of 18 and 25 to be forced to attend three months of mandatory training." (This is exactly what Obama and Rahm Emmanuel have repeatedly stated on national TV, and thus is hardly a theory.)
-- "Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)" - This includes human implantation, but the larger concern is universal id cards and personal property identification that can be read electronically without the bearer's knowledge.
Citizens who are concerned about the above issues are then lumped into radical ideologies such as Christian Identity, White Nationalists (e.g., neo-Nazi, Skinheads, etc.) and anti-Semites. Tax Resisters and Anti-Immigration advocates are thrown into the same category.
The MIAC report then sternly warns law enforcement personnel,
"You are the Enemy: The militia subscribes to an antigovernment and NWO mind set, which creates a threat to law enforcement officers. They view the military, National Guard, and law enforcement as a force that will confiscate their firearms and place them in FEMA concentration camps." [Bold emphasis appears in original]
On the last page of the MIAC report, a section listing Political Paraphernalia (flags and symbols) states,
"Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups. It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty, or Libertarian material. These members are usually supporters of former Presidential Candidate: Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr.
Militia members commonly display picture, cartoons, bumper stickers that contain anti-government rhetoric. Most of this material will depict the FRS, IRS, FBI, ATF, CIA, UN, Law Enforcement, and the 'New World Order' in a derogatory manor (sic). Additionally, Racial, anti-immigration, and anti-abortion, material may be displayed by militia members."
What was the ostensible genesis of all these "threats" to law enforcement? The report explains it this way...
"Academics contend that female and minority empowerment in the 1970s and 1960s caused a blow to white male's sense of empowerment. This, combined with a sense of defeat from the Vietnam War, increased levels of immigration, and unemployment, spawned a paramilitary culture. This caught on in the 1980's with injects such as Tom Clancy novels, Solder of Fortune Magazine, and movies such as Rambo that glorified combat. This culture glorified white males and portrayed them as morally upright heroes who were mentally and physically tough.
"It was during this timeframe that many individuals and organizations began to concoct conspiracy theories to explain their misfortunes. These theories varied but almost always involved a globalist dictatorship the"New World Order (NWO), which conspired to exploit the working class citizens."
In other words, these "ridiculous NWO theories" were created by psychological deviants who were trying to justify their own self-induced misfortunes.
Fear ye, all troopers
For unsuspecting law enforcement personnel, this MIAC training document polarizes unsuspecting officers to fear peaceful, law-abiding citizens and greatly increases the risk of armed confrontation. For instance, a routine traffic stop would be escalated if the officer observes a Ron Paul or Chuck Baldwin bumper sticker on the rear bumper of the car. The mere possession of printed material such as the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights would be viewed as subversive, even though most officers are required to take an oath to "defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States" as a condition of their employment.
Additionally, troopers are indoctrinated that all such topics are pure fantasy and without any factual basis. Even if they had their own concerns, they would be ridiculed into accepting the position that all criticism of the New World Order is dangerous to their well being.
The Columbia Daily Tribune (Columbia, Missouri) reports this concern from local resident Tim Neal, who apparently fits the MIAC's "Modern Militia" profile:
“If a police officer is pulling me over with my family in the car and he sees a bumper sticker on my vehicle that has been specifically identified as one that an extremist would have in their vehicle, the guy is probably going to be pretty apprehensive and not thinking in a rational manner, and this guy’s walking up to my vehicle with a gun.” [see 'Fusion Center' draws fire over assertions]
MIAC is a Fusion Center
As mentioned above, the Missouri Information Analysis Center is one of a network of over 50 Fusion Centers around the country.
According to the National Criminal Intelligence Resource Center (NCIRC), a Fusion Center is "a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise, and/or information to the center with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity."
As of 2006, the NCIRC listed 50 Fusion Centers in various states.
Most importantly, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are the driving forces behind Fusion Centers, having published "Fusion Center Guidelines: Developing and Sharing Information and Intelligence in a New World." This report headlines "Fusion" as "Turning Information and Intelligence Into Actionable Knowledge."
Fusion Centers are one of five areas of information sharing under the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) that was established by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
ISE membership includes the Department of Commerce, CIA, Department of Defense, Director of National Intelligence, Department of Energy, FBI, Health and Human Services, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Homeland Security, National Counter-Terrorism Center, Department of Interior, Office of Management and Budget, Department of Justice, Department of State, Department of Transportation and the Department of Treasury.
According to one white paper (on the ISE web site) entitled The Intelligence Fusion Process for State, Local and Tribal Law Enforcement, "The most important output of the intelligence Fusion Center is actionable intelligence. This means that the intelligence produced by the center will drive operational responses and strategic awareness of threats." Accordingly,
"The heart of good intelligence analysis is to have a diverse array of valid and reliable raw information for analysis. The more robust the raw information, the more accurate the analytic output (i.e., intelligence) will be."
The above mentioned MIAC report, issued by an official Fusion Center, is apparently part of this "diverse array of valid and reliable raw information."
However, ISE's understanding of intelligence is foolish. Any intelligence analyst knows that so-called raw information is treated as garbage until verified from multiple sources to validate accuracy, completeness and freedom from bias. Secondly, analytic output depends upon trained and experienced human reasoning and judgment, not on the "robustness" of the raw information itself.
Where do Fusion Centers get inputs?
According to their own documents, Fusion Centers are "seeded" with ideas for analysis by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Although this is problematic in itself, attention is better directed to the left-wing nonprofit organization, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Upon careful word and theme comparison between the MIAC report and SPLC literature, it is apparent that there is a significant link between the two. Either MIAC received training or training material from SPLC or some of its personnel had some previous exposure to it.
The SPLC aggressively offers training to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. According the SPLC web site, "We focus on the history, background, leaders and activities of far-right extremists in the U.S." and states that it "is internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups."
Hate crimes are essentially acts of vilification of a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group, such as racial, religious, sexual orientation, nationality, gender, etc. While hate crimes are wrong under any circumstance, the SPLC sees no conflict in profiling conservative whites, Christians, Constitutionalists, and patriots as being associated with, if not responsible for, hate crimes in America. This is the pot calling the kettle black.
For instance, consider the SPLC statement, "...a basic fact about all three movements: Patriots, white supremacists and anti-abortion militants are all fueled by interpretations of religion."
Aside from the fact that this sweeping generalization is plainly not true, it is mud-slinging at its best: Patriots are lumped in with white supremacists, anti-abortionists are militants, and all are driven by an obviously irrational and fanatical application of religion.
In another SPLC article about a tragic killing in South Carolina, entitled "The Abbeville Horror", the writer goes well beyond just the facts of the story and is careful to sprinkle in words and phrases such as:
Patriots, tax protestors, sovereign citizens, antigovernment extremists, New World Order paranoia, Disarming U.S. Citizens, hard-line Christian Right, constitutional rights, antigovernment "Patriot" literature, anti-Semitic conspiracy, "Live Free or Die," Ruby Ridge and Waco, Second Amendment, extremist organizing, "closet extremists," paranoid beliefs, "Give me liberty or give me death." [quotes appear in original text]
These are the same kinds of words and themes that are seen in The Modern Militia Movement article, where distinctions between good and bad people are blurred and confused: All are guilty by association, if nothing else.
Should a private organization like SPLC be allowed to provide official training to public-entrusted law enforcement agencies? Most would say, "No." Even if the training was free, the agency should reject influence from the public sector, and even more so if it presents biased and one-sided information that is claimed to be factual.
Conclusion
It is critical to understand that the legitimate law enforcement agencies of cities, counties and states are not adversaries of the people. They are greatly needed for protection against crime and for keeping order in our communities.
They are, however, being methodically seeded with very wrongheaded and dangerous information, the specific intent of which is to polarize law enforcement against peaceful citizens who simply care about the downfall of their country.
This writer interviewed Chuck Baldwin and asked about how he felt when he first saw his good name associated with those who would threaten bodily harm to law enforcement agencies. "Personally, I was stunned," he said, "but my family has taken this very personally as well. This is more than disturbing."
When asked about the possible affect of the report on the Constitution Party, of which he was the 2008 presidential candidate, he replied, "I think it will galvanize people and help them to understand the nature of the battle we are in. Freedom must be defended."
In fact, the MIAC report has created a firestorm all over America. Tens of thousands of protests are being called, written, emailed and faxed to authorities and legislators in Missouri. It would not be surprising to see the report rescinded and an apology given.
Even so, behind-the-scene groups like the SPLC will continue unabated and undeterred in their effort to misinform and disrupt healthy community relations with worthy law enforcement agencies and personnel.
The message to every jurisdiction: Don't let it happen!
Final thought
Locate the Fusion Center in your state and keep a close eye on the information they are releasing. Stay close to as many law enforcement personnel as you can, asking them to keep their eyes open for reports similar to the Missouri report. Petition your state legislators to ban law enforcement training by private organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Additional resources
FBI nudges state 'fusion centers' into the shadows (CNET)
Fusion Centers and Privacy (EPIC)
Backgrounder: Fusion Centers (CFR.org)
Information Sharing Environment (ISE)
ISE Web site
by Patrick Wood, Editor
March 18, 2009
Patriots, Christians and concerned citizens are increasingly in the cross hairs of the U.S. intelligence community, and battle lines are being quietly drawn that could soon pit our own law enforcement and military forces against us.
A February 20 report entitled "The Modern Militia Movement" was issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) that paints mainstream patriotic Americans as dangerous threats to law enforcement and to the country. Operating under the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the MIAC is listed as a Fusion Center that was established in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
Because authenticity of the report was questioned by some, this writer contacted Missouri state Representative Jim Guest (R-King City) who had personally verified that the report had indeed been issued. Rep. Guest is chairman of the Personal Privacy Committee and is a prominent leader in the national Blowback against the Real ID Act of 2005 that requires states to issue uniform driver's licenses containing personal biometric data. (See Guest warns against Big Brother, Real ID)
Rep. Guest stated that he was "shocked and outraged" at the report, which clearly paints him and many other elected state leaders, as a potential threats to law enforcement.
Instead of focusing on actual criminal incidents of "home-grown" terrorism, the MAIC report instead lists issues that it believes are common to the threats it perceives. Thus, Americans involved with the following issues are highly suspect:
-- "Ammunition Accountability Act" - requiring each bullet to to be serialized and registered to the purchaser.
-- "Anticipation of the economic collapse of the US Government" - Prominent scholars and economists are openly debating the bankruptcy and insolvency of the United States government.
-- "Possible Constitutional Convention (Con Con)" - 32 states have called for a Constitutional Convention to force Congress and the Executive Branch into a balanced budget, but many are concerned that if called, Con Con would be taken over by hostile interests who would introduce Amendments that are harmful to national Sovereignty.
-- "North American Union" - MIAC states that "Conspiracy theorists claim that this union would link Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The NAU would unify its monetary system and trade the dollar for the AMERO. Associated with this theory is concern over a NAFTA Superhighway, which would Fast Track trade between the three nations. There is additional concern that the NAU would open up the border causing security risks and free movement for immigrants."
-- "Universal Service Program" - "Statements made by President Elect Obama and his chief of staff have led extremists to fear the creation of a Civilian Defense Force. This theory requires all citizens between the age of 18 and 25 to be forced to attend three months of mandatory training." (This is exactly what Obama and Rahm Emmanuel have repeatedly stated on national TV, and thus is hardly a theory.)
-- "Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)" - This includes human implantation, but the larger concern is universal id cards and personal property identification that can be read electronically without the bearer's knowledge.
Citizens who are concerned about the above issues are then lumped into radical ideologies such as Christian Identity, White Nationalists (e.g., neo-Nazi, Skinheads, etc.) and anti-Semites. Tax Resisters and Anti-Immigration advocates are thrown into the same category.
The MIAC report then sternly warns law enforcement personnel,
"You are the Enemy: The militia subscribes to an antigovernment and NWO mind set, which creates a threat to law enforcement officers. They view the military, National Guard, and law enforcement as a force that will confiscate their firearms and place them in FEMA concentration camps." [Bold emphasis appears in original]
On the last page of the MIAC report, a section listing Political Paraphernalia (flags and symbols) states,
"Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups. It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty, or Libertarian material. These members are usually supporters of former Presidential Candidate: Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr.
Militia members commonly display picture, cartoons, bumper stickers that contain anti-government rhetoric. Most of this material will depict the FRS, IRS, FBI, ATF, CIA, UN, Law Enforcement, and the 'New World Order' in a derogatory manor (sic). Additionally, Racial, anti-immigration, and anti-abortion, material may be displayed by militia members."
What was the ostensible genesis of all these "threats" to law enforcement? The report explains it this way...
"Academics contend that female and minority empowerment in the 1970s and 1960s caused a blow to white male's sense of empowerment. This, combined with a sense of defeat from the Vietnam War, increased levels of immigration, and unemployment, spawned a paramilitary culture. This caught on in the 1980's with injects such as Tom Clancy novels, Solder of Fortune Magazine, and movies such as Rambo that glorified combat. This culture glorified white males and portrayed them as morally upright heroes who were mentally and physically tough.
"It was during this timeframe that many individuals and organizations began to concoct conspiracy theories to explain their misfortunes. These theories varied but almost always involved a globalist dictatorship the"New World Order (NWO), which conspired to exploit the working class citizens."
In other words, these "ridiculous NWO theories" were created by psychological deviants who were trying to justify their own self-induced misfortunes.
Fear ye, all troopers
For unsuspecting law enforcement personnel, this MIAC training document polarizes unsuspecting officers to fear peaceful, law-abiding citizens and greatly increases the risk of armed confrontation. For instance, a routine traffic stop would be escalated if the officer observes a Ron Paul or Chuck Baldwin bumper sticker on the rear bumper of the car. The mere possession of printed material such as the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights would be viewed as subversive, even though most officers are required to take an oath to "defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States" as a condition of their employment.
Additionally, troopers are indoctrinated that all such topics are pure fantasy and without any factual basis. Even if they had their own concerns, they would be ridiculed into accepting the position that all criticism of the New World Order is dangerous to their well being.
The Columbia Daily Tribune (Columbia, Missouri) reports this concern from local resident Tim Neal, who apparently fits the MIAC's "Modern Militia" profile:
“If a police officer is pulling me over with my family in the car and he sees a bumper sticker on my vehicle that has been specifically identified as one that an extremist would have in their vehicle, the guy is probably going to be pretty apprehensive and not thinking in a rational manner, and this guy’s walking up to my vehicle with a gun.” [see 'Fusion Center' draws fire over assertions]
MIAC is a Fusion Center
As mentioned above, the Missouri Information Analysis Center is one of a network of over 50 Fusion Centers around the country.
According to the National Criminal Intelligence Resource Center (NCIRC), a Fusion Center is "a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise, and/or information to the center with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity."
As of 2006, the NCIRC listed 50 Fusion Centers in various states.
Most importantly, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are the driving forces behind Fusion Centers, having published "Fusion Center Guidelines: Developing and Sharing Information and Intelligence in a New World." This report headlines "Fusion" as "Turning Information and Intelligence Into Actionable Knowledge."
Fusion Centers are one of five areas of information sharing under the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) that was established by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
ISE membership includes the Department of Commerce, CIA, Department of Defense, Director of National Intelligence, Department of Energy, FBI, Health and Human Services, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Homeland Security, National Counter-Terrorism Center, Department of Interior, Office of Management and Budget, Department of Justice, Department of State, Department of Transportation and the Department of Treasury.
According to one white paper (on the ISE web site) entitled The Intelligence Fusion Process for State, Local and Tribal Law Enforcement, "The most important output of the intelligence Fusion Center is actionable intelligence. This means that the intelligence produced by the center will drive operational responses and strategic awareness of threats." Accordingly,
"The heart of good intelligence analysis is to have a diverse array of valid and reliable raw information for analysis. The more robust the raw information, the more accurate the analytic output (i.e., intelligence) will be."
The above mentioned MIAC report, issued by an official Fusion Center, is apparently part of this "diverse array of valid and reliable raw information."
However, ISE's understanding of intelligence is foolish. Any intelligence analyst knows that so-called raw information is treated as garbage until verified from multiple sources to validate accuracy, completeness and freedom from bias. Secondly, analytic output depends upon trained and experienced human reasoning and judgment, not on the "robustness" of the raw information itself.
Where do Fusion Centers get inputs?
According to their own documents, Fusion Centers are "seeded" with ideas for analysis by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Although this is problematic in itself, attention is better directed to the left-wing nonprofit organization, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Upon careful word and theme comparison between the MIAC report and SPLC literature, it is apparent that there is a significant link between the two. Either MIAC received training or training material from SPLC or some of its personnel had some previous exposure to it.
The SPLC aggressively offers training to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. According the SPLC web site, "We focus on the history, background, leaders and activities of far-right extremists in the U.S." and states that it "is internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups."
Hate crimes are essentially acts of vilification of a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group, such as racial, religious, sexual orientation, nationality, gender, etc. While hate crimes are wrong under any circumstance, the SPLC sees no conflict in profiling conservative whites, Christians, Constitutionalists, and patriots as being associated with, if not responsible for, hate crimes in America. This is the pot calling the kettle black.
For instance, consider the SPLC statement, "...a basic fact about all three movements: Patriots, white supremacists and anti-abortion militants are all fueled by interpretations of religion."
Aside from the fact that this sweeping generalization is plainly not true, it is mud-slinging at its best: Patriots are lumped in with white supremacists, anti-abortionists are militants, and all are driven by an obviously irrational and fanatical application of religion.
In another SPLC article about a tragic killing in South Carolina, entitled "The Abbeville Horror", the writer goes well beyond just the facts of the story and is careful to sprinkle in words and phrases such as:
Patriots, tax protestors, sovereign citizens, antigovernment extremists, New World Order paranoia, Disarming U.S. Citizens, hard-line Christian Right, constitutional rights, antigovernment "Patriot" literature, anti-Semitic conspiracy, "Live Free or Die," Ruby Ridge and Waco, Second Amendment, extremist organizing, "closet extremists," paranoid beliefs, "Give me liberty or give me death." [quotes appear in original text]
These are the same kinds of words and themes that are seen in The Modern Militia Movement article, where distinctions between good and bad people are blurred and confused: All are guilty by association, if nothing else.
Should a private organization like SPLC be allowed to provide official training to public-entrusted law enforcement agencies? Most would say, "No." Even if the training was free, the agency should reject influence from the public sector, and even more so if it presents biased and one-sided information that is claimed to be factual.
Conclusion
It is critical to understand that the legitimate law enforcement agencies of cities, counties and states are not adversaries of the people. They are greatly needed for protection against crime and for keeping order in our communities.
They are, however, being methodically seeded with very wrongheaded and dangerous information, the specific intent of which is to polarize law enforcement against peaceful citizens who simply care about the downfall of their country.
This writer interviewed Chuck Baldwin and asked about how he felt when he first saw his good name associated with those who would threaten bodily harm to law enforcement agencies. "Personally, I was stunned," he said, "but my family has taken this very personally as well. This is more than disturbing."
When asked about the possible affect of the report on the Constitution Party, of which he was the 2008 presidential candidate, he replied, "I think it will galvanize people and help them to understand the nature of the battle we are in. Freedom must be defended."
In fact, the MIAC report has created a firestorm all over America. Tens of thousands of protests are being called, written, emailed and faxed to authorities and legislators in Missouri. It would not be surprising to see the report rescinded and an apology given.
Even so, behind-the-scene groups like the SPLC will continue unabated and undeterred in their effort to misinform and disrupt healthy community relations with worthy law enforcement agencies and personnel.
The message to every jurisdiction: Don't let it happen!
Final thought
Locate the Fusion Center in your state and keep a close eye on the information they are releasing. Stay close to as many law enforcement personnel as you can, asking them to keep their eyes open for reports similar to the Missouri report. Petition your state legislators to ban law enforcement training by private organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Additional resources
FBI nudges state 'fusion centers' into the shadows (CNET)
Fusion Centers and Privacy (EPIC)
Backgrounder: Fusion Centers (CFR.org)
Information Sharing Environment (ISE)
ISE Web site
Monday, March 16, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
MN progressives launch seven major lawsuits against RNC police misconduct
teddooleylaw@winternet.com
SEVEN MAJOR LAWSUITS FILED FOR RNC POLICE MISCONDUCT
In the autumn of 2008, when thousands of good citizens came to St. Paul to express their political will for the next four years, a smaller group came for the purpose of denying those thousands their political freedoms. This group conspired to disrupt our lovely city’s normal flow of commerce and liveability.
These conspirators met clandestinely, all around the country, planning their moves. They had training videos on how to neutralize and disrupt the regular citizens. They purchased new weapons, they appeared in strange formations. They were disguised behind masks. And many of them moved in line with called-out, seemingly planned drills. Many dressed in black as they moved in “black blocks.”
These were the 6500 law enforcement interlopers. And when they left, they left behind much damage to our people, our society and our liberties.
On Thursday, 26 February, seven individual law suits will be filed in the Federal courts, suits against individual officers and the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Ramsey County.
Plaintiffs Michelle Gross, Mike Whalen, Wendy Binion, Mick Kelly, Alex Lilly and Betsy Raasch-Gilman will appear at the press conference at William Mitchell College of Law on the 26th at 3:30 to address the press. These plaintiffs will be available for questions from the press members.
PREVIEW: Binion, Johnson & Sang http://blip.tv/file/1808487
Kelly http://blip.tv/file/1808587
Teichberg & Katz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIm-IWaOPjo
Whalen's home http://blip.tv/file/1808637 seven
SEVEN MAJOR LAWSUITS FILED FOR RNC POLICE MISCONDUCT
In the autumn of 2008, when thousands of good citizens came to St. Paul to express their political will for the next four years, a smaller group came for the purpose of denying those thousands their political freedoms. This group conspired to disrupt our lovely city’s normal flow of commerce and liveability.
These conspirators met clandestinely, all around the country, planning their moves. They had training videos on how to neutralize and disrupt the regular citizens. They purchased new weapons, they appeared in strange formations. They were disguised behind masks. And many of them moved in line with called-out, seemingly planned drills. Many dressed in black as they moved in “black blocks.”
These were the 6500 law enforcement interlopers. And when they left, they left behind much damage to our people, our society and our liberties.
On Thursday, 26 February, seven individual law suits will be filed in the Federal courts, suits against individual officers and the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Ramsey County.
Plaintiffs Michelle Gross, Mike Whalen, Wendy Binion, Mick Kelly, Alex Lilly and Betsy Raasch-Gilman will appear at the press conference at William Mitchell College of Law on the 26th at 3:30 to address the press. These plaintiffs will be available for questions from the press members.
PREVIEW: Binion, Johnson & Sang http://blip.tv/file/1808487
Kelly http://blip.tv/file/1808587
Teichberg & Katz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIm-IWaOPjo
Whalen's home http://blip.tv/file/1808637 seven
Friday, February 20, 2009
Malcolm X on Zionist Israel
The number one weapon of [20th century] imperialism is zionist dollarism, and one of the main bases for this weapon is Zionist Israel. The ever-scheming European imperialists wisely placed Israel where she could geographically divide the Arab world, infiltrate and sow the seed of dissension among African leaders and also divide the Africans against the Asians.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Jackson's behind another dumb idea
Members of the singing Jackson family want to open a multibillion dollar tourist resort and Jackson 5 museum at site of African slave port.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
ICH: Obama -- regime rotation
This is an excellent article by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed that highlights what will be a constant theme during President Obama's years: Does he actually represent change?
CUAPB VP Darrell Robinson wins courtroom victory
Communities United Against Police Brutality
EMAIL NEWS FLASH
January 26, 2009
**********************************************
VICTORY!
In an exciting courtroom victory today, charges leveled against CUAPB Vice President Darryl Robinson after he was beaten and arrested during copwatch were suddenly dropped by the prosecution in the middle of jury selection. We believe this was indicative of the weakness of the case, once the prosecution realized there were a number of witnesses who could collaborate Darryl's recollections of the incident. Darryl still faces one count of trespass for a previous copwatch incident and that case will go to trial on March 23rd but for now we are all relishing the wonderful victory today.
Thanks go to Ted Dooley, attorney extraordinaire, and to the large number of wonderful folks who showed up for courtwatch today--including five members of the RNC 8. The judge really took notice when the entire courtroom stood up as Darryl's name was called. Courtwatch/court solidarity rocks!
Please continue to support people going to court on RNC-related charges. For an ongoing court calendar of RNC cases, go to http://twincities.indymedia.org/ and look under the Upcoming Events column.
___________________________________________________________
"WALL 7" CHARGES DISMISSED!
In what many consider the first test of the strength of RNC prosecutions, charges were dismissed on Friday, January 23rd against a group of seven people arrested at Wall and 6th Streets. The "Wall 7" were along a group of 30 people who were arrested on day 1 after they were hemmed in the area by marauding bands of riot cops and bicycle patrols. Each of the defendants faced four misdemeanor charges.
The weakness of the case became apparent after three days of cop testimony in which prosecution witnesses tried to tie Wall 7 defendants with incidents in other intersections blocks away. Having enough of the farce, the judge declared that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the prosecution and tossed out all charges with no option for the prosecution to bring charges later.
The case was also a showcase for the wisdom of court solidarity. Although the "Wall 7" are young people mostly from the northeast, they vowed not to take any deals and to return to court in St. Paul as many times as it took to clear their names. They were aided in this effort by travel funds and other assistance from Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure (CRASS), a group formed to address the arrests and other after-effects of the RNC. For more information on CRASS, go to www.rncaftermath.org
___________________________________________________________
Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
EMAIL NEWS FLASH
January 26, 2009
**********************************************
VICTORY!
In an exciting courtroom victory today, charges leveled against CUAPB Vice President Darryl Robinson after he was beaten and arrested during copwatch were suddenly dropped by the prosecution in the middle of jury selection. We believe this was indicative of the weakness of the case, once the prosecution realized there were a number of witnesses who could collaborate Darryl's recollections of the incident. Darryl still faces one count of trespass for a previous copwatch incident and that case will go to trial on March 23rd but for now we are all relishing the wonderful victory today.
Thanks go to Ted Dooley, attorney extraordinaire, and to the large number of wonderful folks who showed up for courtwatch today--including five members of the RNC 8. The judge really took notice when the entire courtroom stood up as Darryl's name was called. Courtwatch/court solidarity rocks!
Please continue to support people going to court on RNC-related charges. For an ongoing court calendar of RNC cases, go to http://twincities.indymedia.org/ and look under the Upcoming Events column.
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"WALL 7" CHARGES DISMISSED!
In what many consider the first test of the strength of RNC prosecutions, charges were dismissed on Friday, January 23rd against a group of seven people arrested at Wall and 6th Streets. The "Wall 7" were along a group of 30 people who were arrested on day 1 after they were hemmed in the area by marauding bands of riot cops and bicycle patrols. Each of the defendants faced four misdemeanor charges.
The weakness of the case became apparent after three days of cop testimony in which prosecution witnesses tried to tie Wall 7 defendants with incidents in other intersections blocks away. Having enough of the farce, the judge declared that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the prosecution and tossed out all charges with no option for the prosecution to bring charges later.
The case was also a showcase for the wisdom of court solidarity. Although the "Wall 7" are young people mostly from the northeast, they vowed not to take any deals and to return to court in St. Paul as many times as it took to clear their names. They were aided in this effort by travel funds and other assistance from Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure (CRASS), a group formed to address the arrests and other after-effects of the RNC. For more information on CRASS, go to www.rncaftermath.org
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Communities United Against Police Brutality
3100 16th Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867)
Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South
http://www.CUAPB.org
Thursday, January 22, 2009
ICH: embedded with medics in Gaza
Video depicts images from the 22-day bombardment of the people of Gaza.
Israel synonomous with genocidal nazi regime
Warning: this links to video taken during the 22 day bombardment of the peope of Gaza
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
UN official: US should pursue Bush and Rumsfeld for crimes
It's a no-brainer to the whole world except Obama and the complicit Dems who aided and abetted the Bush criminal empire.
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