Donald Jeffries

I no longer have an argument against anarchy. There isn’t an authority in this crumbling land that is worthy of our respect. They are all illegitimate.

Our Founders never envisioned that those selected to represent the interests of the people would be career politicians. They pictured statesmen, who were interested in public service, not lining their pockets. They never thought of writing term limits into the Constitution. Those enjoying the free ride surely aren’t going to implement them.

In 1944, John T. Flynn, best remembered as the “cancelled” head of the New York chapter of the America First Committee trying to prevent our entrance into World War II, wrote the book Meet Your Congress. It was not just an expose on how bad Congress already was, but a plea for the legislative branch to flex their muscles, and check the unbridled power of the judicial branch and the imperial presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Constitution established three separate but equal branches of government, which was supposed to prevent too much concentrated power in any one place. But early on, the legislative branch took a clear back seat to the judicial branch, when John Marshall simply invented Judicial Review.

When Abraham Lincoln took office, and overstepped his constitutional authority with reckless abandon, the template for the imperial presidency had been set. There has never been an imperial Congress.

Stephen Lendman

A New America Foundation report suggests it. NSA spying is longstanding. It's ongoing abroad and at home. It has nothing to do with national security. It's unrelated to uncovering terrorist plots. Homegrown ones virtually don't exist. Alleged ones are hatched. They're fake. Claiming dozens were foiled in time is false. They're Big Lies. Previous articles discussed dozens of innocent victims. They included:

■ a fake shoe bomber;
■ fake underwear bomber;
■ fake Times Square bomber;
■ an earlier one there;
■ fake shampoo bombers;
■ fake Al Qaeda woman planning fake mass casualty attacks on New York landmarks;
■ fake Oregon bomber;
■ fake armed forces recruiting station bomber;
■ fake synagogue bombers;
■ fake Chicago Sears Tower bombers;
■ fake FBI and other building bombers;
■ fake National Guard, Fort Dix and Quantico marine base attackers;
■ fake 9/11 bombers;
■ fake Boston bombers; and
■ numerous others.

At issue is generating fear. Washington's fake war on terror needs public support. FBI operatives are involved. Orchestrated stings are used. Innocent victims are entrapped. Familiar schemes repeat. 9/11 is the Big Lie of our time. So is the fake war on terror.

Innocent victims languish in America's gulag. NSA spying watches everyone. It's unconstitutional. It's for police state control. It's ending privacy. It's destroying freedom.

Global spying is espionage. It's for political and economic advantage. It's to be one up on foreign competitors. It's for information used advantageously in trade, political, and military relations.

Philip Giraldi

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid, of Fearmongering Fake Terror Alerts, Fear is the Empire's Fence ■ Terrorism has become as all-American as apple pie. It is ingrained in our civic DNA, it fills our newspapers and is the backstory for every foreign policy discussion on talk radio and television. One might reasonably expect that American mothers might now cajole their children into turning out the light and going to sleep not because the bogeyman would otherwise be coming but rather because al-Qaeda might be lurking somewhere up the street.

Warning one’s children about bin Laden would be an astonishing consequence of national paranoia but for the fact that American mothers do no such thing. For something of a national obsession, Americans largely deal with the terrorism problem in an absent minded fashion by allowing the Federal government to help itself to their tax money to make the terrorists go away. Hardly anyone actually knows a victim of terrorism and I have yet to meet anyone who spends his life in fear of a terrorist attack. The disparity between an imagined threat and the actual public response would tend to indicate that the terrorist menace is phony, meant to produce a certain mind set that feeds willingness to fund big government which is promoting itself as essential to protect the country. The reality of American life post 9/11 suggests that fear of terrorism is in reality a largely contrived inside the Beltway phenomenon.

Ray McGovern

Consortiumnews Exclusive: President Obama says he welcomes the debate on post-9/11 surveillance of Americans and the world, but that debate was only made meaningful by the disclosures of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was then indicted and sought asylum in Russia, where he just met with some ex-U.S. intelligence officials, including Ray McGovern.

I’ve had a couple of days to reflect after arriving back from Moscow where my whistleblower colleagues Coleen Rowley, Jesselyn Radack, Tom Drake and I formally presented former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden with the annual Sam Adams Associates award for integrity in intelligence.

The thought that companioned me the entire time was the constant admonition of my Irish grandmother: “Show me your company, and I’ll tell you who you are!” I cannot remember ever feeling so honored as I did by the company I kept over the past week.

That includes, of course, Snowden himself, WikiLeaks journalist Sarah Harrison (and “remotely” Julian Assange) who, together with Russian civil rights lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, helped arrange the visit, and – last but not least – the 3,000 Internet transparency/privacy activists at OHM2013 near Amsterdam, whom Tom, Jesselyn, Coleen and I addressed in early August and who decided to crowd-source our travel. (See: “In the Whistleblower Chalet” by Silkie Carlo.)

As representatives of Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, we were in Moscow last Wednesday not only to honor Snowden with the award for integrity, but also to remind him (and ourselves) that we all stand on the shoulders of patriots who have gone before and pointed the way.

Lee Rogers

Barack Obama has nominated Jeh Johnson to head the Department of Homeland Security. Johnson is actually a perfect choice for the Washington DC war criminals considering his prior track record. Since 2009 he has worked in the Department of Defense as their general counsel. In this role he has provided the legal justification for the Obama regime’s foreign military interventions including drone strikes that have killed numerous civilians. Johnson has also claimed that the Obama regime has the legal authority to kill American citizens if they take up arms with Al-Qaeda. Through these and other ridiculous legal assertions, Johnson has proven that he himself is a terrorist war criminal. Considering that the American economy is edging closer and closer to a total collapse they will need someone in charge of Homeland Security who is not afraid to give orders to kill Americans. Johnson as a terrorist war criminal will fit very nicely into this role.

According to a recent Washington Post article, Johnson was responsible for the prior legal review and approval of all military operations executed by the Obama regime. This makes Johnson an incredibly evil man. The Obama regime has been responsible for a number of war crimes including the authorization of drone strikes that have killed many civilians. Even women and children have been killed by some of these strikes. It is also worth noting that the Obama regime launched an unprovoked attack against the sovereign nation of Libya which by the standards set after World War II is a war crime. Of course they almost did the same thing in Syria until it became clear that such an operation had no real support domestically or amongst the international community. It is hard to believe that anyone could possibly find an appropriate legal justification for such horrible atrocities but apparently if you are a criminal like Johnson this comes easy.

Stephen Lendman

Evidence mounts. America crossed the line. It operates lawlessly. It reflects police state ruthlessness. Big Brother's real. It's not fiction. It watches everyone. It's about control, espionage and intimidation. It targets fundamental freedoms. It has nothing to do with national security. America's only threats are ones it invents. It does so for political advantage.

On July 31, London's Guardian headlined "XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the Internet.' " It "gives 'widest reading' collection of online data. NSA analysts require no prior authorizations for searches." They sweep up "emails, social media and browsing history." It collects "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet." Every keystroke enters a database. NSA training materials call XKeyscore its "widest-reaching" online intelligence gathering tool. Agency officials call it their Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). Virtually nothing escapes scrutiny.

London's Guardian used classified information. It's sourced from a February 2008 presentation. It's about meta-data mining. It explains what Edward Snowden meant, saying: "I, sitting at my desk, (can) wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email" address. It's chilling. It's worst than previously thought.

According to Guardian contributor Glenn Greenwald: XKeyscore lets analysts "mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed." Agency personnel use XKeyscore and other systems for "real-time" interception of personal online activity.

At the time, US officials scoffed. House Republican Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Mike Rogers said: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."

David Bromwich

The crux of the NSA story in one phrase: 'collect it all'.
~ Glenn Greenwald

Most Americans who know anything about the National Security Agency probably got their mental picture of it from a 1998 thriller called Enemy of the State. A lawyer (Will Smith), swept up by mistake into the system of total surveillance, suddenly finds his life turned upside down, his family watched and harassed, his livelihood taken from him and the records of his conduct altered and criminalised. He is saved by a retired NSA analyst (Gene Hackman) who knows the organisation from innards to brains and hates every cog and gear that drives it. This ally is a loner. He has pulled back his way of life and associations to a minimum, and lives now in a desolate building called The Jar, which he has proofed against spying and tricked out with anti-listening armour, decoy-signal devices and advanced encryption-ware. From his one-man fortress, he leads the hero to turn the tables on the agency and to expose one of its larger malignant operations.

Michael Hayden, who became the director of the NSA in 1999, saw the movie and told his workers they had an image problem: the agency had to change its ways and inspire the trust of citizens. But in 2001 Hayden, like many other Americans, underwent a galvanic change of consciousness and broke through to the other side. In the new era, in order to fight a new enemy, he saw that the United States must be equipped with a secret police as inquisitive and capable as the police of a totalitarian state, though of course more scrupulous.

Gripped by the same fever and an appetite for power all his own, Dick Cheney floated the idea of Total Information Awareness (soliciting Americans to spy on their neighbours to fight terrorism), but found the country not yet ready for it. So he took the project underground and executed it in secret. Cheney issued the orders, his lawyer David Addington drew up the rationale, and Hayden at NSA made the practical arrangements. Eventually Cheney would appoint Hayden director of the CIA.

Stephen Lendman

Spying on its citizenry reflects one of the most defining police state characteristics. Post-9/11, America crossed the line. Unconstitutional mass surveillance became official US policy.

Bush began it. Obama accelerated it. He did so straightaway as president. He promised otherwise. He pledged transparency and openness. He promised no more Bush/Cheney lawlessness. He lied. He exceeded the worst of his predecessors. Free societies don't tolerate these practices. Obama authorized them secretly. He subverted constitutional law. He violated the public trust. He broke a key campaign pledge. He declared war on freedom. It's more illusion than reality. It's fast disappearing. It may entirely vanish on Obama's watch.

Big Brother is real. It's no longer fiction. Privacy no longer exists. Web site visits are tracked. Cell phones log our movements. Emails and social network communications are monitored and stored. Sweeping warrantless spying is policy. Government is shrouded in secrecy. Constitutional protections don't matter. Police states operate this way. America's by far the worst. Everyone's suspect unless proved otherwise. Guilt by accusation is policy.

Stephen Lendman

Things appear heading closer toward full-scale US intervention. The fullness of time will have final say.

On April 28, The New York Times headlined "Lawmakers Call for Stronger US Action in Syria," saying: Republicans "took President Obama to task Sunday for what they characterized as dangerous inaction in Syria…." Senators John McCain (R. AZ) and Lindsey Graham are Armed Services Committee members. They "warn(ed) that failure to intervene in Syria would embolden nations like Iran and North Korea." "If we keep this hands-off approach to Syria, this indecisive action toward Syria, kind of not knowing what we’re going to do next, we’re going to start a war with Iran because Iran’s going to take our inaction in Syria as meaning we’re not serious about their nuclear weapons program," said Graham. Michigan Republican Representative Mike Rogers claims Assad's been using chemical weapons for the past two years. Obama's "red line" can't be a "dotted line," he said.

Lee Rogers

[Bob Altemeyer: "The Authoritarians" (.pdf) - Ed.]

The video and images depicting the havoc caused in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing were undoubtedly a disturbing sight. Even more disturbing were the sights and sounds of Bostonians celebrating and cheering the capture of suspect number two following the implementation of a full blown militarized police state in and around Boston. These mindless sheep were cheering the suspect’s capture despite the fact that the FBI and local police forces have still failed to produce any concrete evidence proving that either of the two suspects planted the bombs. Even worse was how many of these mindless zombies were cheering the militarized police forces that put the city under a state of martial law in the name of capturing a single 19 year old young man.

It is a documented fact that these militarized police forces conducted warrantless unconstitutional door to door searches and restricted travel for no justifiable reason. These types of warrantless searches are a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. The actions taken by Governor Deval Patrick and the militarized police goons were unlawful according to the supreme law of the land and a misuse of government resources. Even after conducting these unlawful searches for hours on end the storm troopers still failed to find the suspect that they were looking for. Once the so-called lock down was lifted the suspect was found minutes later by a man who saw something suspicious near his boat after he was allowed to leave his home. If these idiots didn’t roll out full blown martial law throughout the area and simply asked for the public’s help in locating this person, the suspect would have been found much sooner. This is just one reason why it is disgusting to see how so many brainwashed robots were cheering the police forces who conducted these illegal operations.