Shower up for your country, Honey

Several soldiers from the Virginia National Guard are under investigation for allegedly taking pictures of female soldiers in the shower during pre-deployment mobilization training. The soldiers being investigated are with the 266th Military Police Company and are assigned to Multi-National Force-Iraq in Baghdad, according to a Department of Defense news release. The misconduct allegedly took [...]

Sweat Threat? Army Looks at ‘Abnormal Perspiration’ as Sign of ‘Harmful Intent’

If you walk weird, make funny faces, or sweat a little too much — watch out, when you walk into an airport. The U.S. military wants to use those irregularities as “indicators” of “possibly suspicious and harmful intent.” The Army recently asked for proposals for a new suite of biometric sensors that will hunt for [...]

Black Hawk chopper to scare shit out of suburban grade schoolers

A sleek $6 million war machine will make a visit to Prior Lake’s Grainwood Elementary School on June 4 to inspire intimidate a gaggle of slack-jawed 12-year-olds. Weather permitting, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter–a model commonly employed in the “war” against forbidden plants in foreign lands, particularly Colombia–will touch down on the Grainwood football field [...]

Ecuador will shut US base, expand Iran ties

Ecuadorian Defense Minister Javier Ponce Cevallos says his country is going beyond the Cold War rules and seeking defense ties with Iran. In a snub to US complaints, Ponce said, “we have our own policies, our own geostrategic positions, and what interests us, with Iran for instance, is boosting information technology and our national defense [...]

‘Endemic’ rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care, inquiry finds

Beatings and humiliation by nuns and priests were common at institutions that held up to 30,000 children, Ryan report states Rape and sexual molestation were “endemic” in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages, a report revealed today. The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorized thousands of boys and girls [...]

Pope apologizes to Canada’s indigenous

Pope Benedict XVI has apologized to Canada’s indigenous people for the “deplorable conduct” of the Roman Catholic Church who abused native Indian children. “Given the sufferings that some indigenous children experienced in the Canadian Indian Residential School System, the Holy Father expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members [...]

Reporters Committee releases summary of Sotomayor decisions

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has released a report summarizing the First Amendment and freedom of information opinions of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The report notes that while Sotomayor has an abundance of judicial experience, “it is surprising to see that no clear standard on First Amendment issues has emerged from [...]

Public dispatch records must include destination, appeals board says

The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records said last week that a request for emergency response dispatch logs should have been granted with the addresses of where the dispatched police or fire units were sent, The York Daily Record reported. The decision came in an appeal by The Daily Record of its request for the complete [...]

Media asking for access to evidence of terrorism

Several news organizations are asking a federal judge to release prosecution evidence on the eve of a terrorism trial in Atlanta, The Associated Press reports. The AP, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN and WSB-TV filed a motion Thursday in federal court in Atlanta seeking access to 12 hours of audiotaped interviews with [...]

National Dialogue Needed on Juvenile Justice

The United States may be faltering as an economic powerhouse, but we’re still No. 1 in one important category: locking people up. With one out of every 100 adults behind bars, we’re ahead of China, Rwanda, Cuba and every other country. Our prisoner population has nearly tripled over the past two decades. This catastrophe calls [...]

Dole sued over links to Colombian death squads

Dole Food Company is being sued by the families of 57 people allegedly murdered by paramilitaries hired by the US firm at its banana plantations in Colombia. A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles alleges that Dole hired the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) despite the fact that the group had been designated as a [...]

Patent for killer chip denied in Germany

A Saudi inventor’s proposal to insert semiconductors subcutaneously in visitors and remotely kill them if they misbehave will not be patented in Germany. On Wednesday, a German Patent Office spokeswoman said the application was received on October 30, 2007 and published 18 months later, as required by law, in a patents database. But inventions that [...]

San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy, Ricker Hunt, investigated for on-duty thefts

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is investigating one of its deputies on allegations he took wallets, jewelry and other items from people he arrested. Last week, detectives searched Deputy Ricker Hunt’s Apple Valley home, his truck and his locker at the sheriff’s Adelanto Detention Center, where he is assigned, according to an affidavit returned [...]

California Organization of Police and Sheriffs Sued by Attorney General

State Attorney General Edmund G. Brown today filed eight lawsuits against 17 telemarketers and a dozen charities, including the Ontario-based California Organization of Police and Sheriffs, alleging they squandered millions of dollars in donations. The lawsuits are intended to permanently stop the charities’ “deceptive practices and require the repayment of all funds raised under false pretenses,” [...]

Comment: Get real, drug czars

ELEVEN years ago, the United Nations pledged to win the war on drugs within a decade. It has failed. At this year’s meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, held in Vienna in March, there was a two-day session to evaluate the progress since 1998. In his opening remarks, the head of the UN [...]

Newly declassified documents reveal More than $97 million from USAID to separatist projects in Bolivia

The declassified documents in original format and with Spanish translation are available here Recently declassified documents obtained by investigators Jeremy Bigwood and Eva Golinger reveal that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has invested more than $97 million in “decentralization” and “regional autonomy” projects and opposition political parties in Bolivia since 2002. The documents, [...]

FCC’s Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts

You may not know it, but if you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cellphone in your house, the Federal Communications Commission claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it. That’s the upshot [...]

Italian Prosecutor: Enough Evidence for CIA Convictions

FLORENCE, Italy — The chief prosecutor in a trial related to the U.S. “rendition” of a suspected terrorist believes there is more than enough evidence to secure a conviction of over two dozen Americans charged in the case despite a ruling that excludes key Italian documents and testimony under  ”state secrecy” laws. A judge in [...]

New RAND Study on Social Science for Counterterrorism

Social Science for Counterterrorism: Putting the Pieces Together “Social science has much to say that should inform strategies for counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. Unfortunately, the relevant literature has been quite fragmented and seemingly inconsistent across sources. Our study was an attempt to do better-not only by surveying the relevant literature, but by ‘putting together the pieces.’ [...]

Defense Science Board Report on Department of Defense Biological Safety and Security Program

Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Department of Defense Biological Safety and Security Program “This report examines the biological safety, security, and personnel reliability programs of the Department of Defense‘s biological labs, and compares these labs with other similar operations in academia, industry and the federal government. The report offers recommendations for [...]

Energy Department Activities Involving FISA

Although the Department of Energy is not one of the agencies that performs intelligence surveillance or physical search under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, it does occasionally play a role in providing analytical support to other agencies such as the FBI that do conduct FISA surveillance. A recent DOE Inspector General report (pdf) noted four [...]

FISA Surveillance Down, NSL Requests Up in 2008

During calendar year 2008, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved 2,083 applications for authority to conduct electronic surveillance and physical search of suspected foreign intelligence and terrorist targets under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to a new annual report to Congress (pdf) from the Department of Justice.  The Court made substantive modifications to two [...]

Drug-Friendly Netherlans to close prisons for lack of criminals

For years prohibitionists, including our own Drug Enforcement Administration, have claimed — falsely — that the tolerant marijuana policies of the Netherlands have made that nation a nest of crime and drug abuse. They may have trouble wrapping their little brains around this: The Dutch government is getting ready to close eight prisons because they [...]

National Cyber Range: Building Attack Tools for Mass Destruction

A quintessential hallmark of an authoritarian regime, particularly one that operates within highly-militarized, though nominally democratic states such as ours, is the maintenance of a system of internal control; a seamless panopticon where dissent is equated with criminality and the rule of law derided as a luxury ill-afforded “during a time of war.” In this [...]

In a Switch, City Tells Schools to Monitor On-Campus Military Recruiting

Schools will be required to provide military opt-out forms to 9th- and 10th-grade students and to develop a plan to monitor on-campus recruiting by the armed forces, according to new guidelines announced by the New York City Department of Education on Monday night. The requirements, set to go into effect this fall, follow months of [...]

US Homeland Security National Interoperability Field Operations Guide, May 2009

US Department of Homeland Security National Interoperability Field Operations Guide, May 2009. Notable for its extensive list of radio frequences and call procedures. Download here.

Michael V. Hayden today

Less than three months after stepping down as CIA director, retired general Michael V. Hayden has taken several jobs in the private sector. He has just joined the board of the National Interest Security Company (NISC), a holding company that manages all the assets of the DC Capital Partners equity fund in the intelligence field. [...]

Polar War Games Minus the Russians

Intelligence Online has learned that an Arctic Game in which several Western intelligence agencies will participate is due to take place in London on June 11-12 under the auspices of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The exercise will simulate several crises in a polar environment. Thanks to Alaska, the U.S. [...]

Cops Say to Legalize Drugs

President Obama drew a slew of criticism recently when he derisively dismissed a drug reform question during a town hall meeting. Here was the “crazy” question that warranted such a disrespectful response: “With over 1 out of 30 Americans controlled by the penal system, why not legalize, control, and tax marijuana to change the failed [...]

Under the radar: US Democrats overseas pass marijuana resolution

The Democratic Party Committee Abroad, otherwise known as Democrats Abroad, passed a resolution on April 25 recommending the legalization of marijuana in all 50 states. The news appears to have gone completely unnoticed by all mainstream outlets. The Democrats Abroad are considered a state party by the Democratic National Committee, which affords them eight elected, [...]

Cop “Takedown” Leaves Innocent Man in Coma

Video released 05/21/09 shows a burly King County sheriff’s deputy slamming a man into a tiled wall earlier this month in what a sheriff’s spokesman said was “a tragic accident.” A lawyer for the family of 29-year-old Christopher Harris said the video and witness accounts show the Edmonds restaurant worker was a victim of excessive [...]

2 submariners charged with assault in NH

Two sailors assigned to the attack submarine USS Greeneville were arrested and charged with severely beating a man in Portsmouth, N.H., local authorities said. The two sailors were driving a government van near the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard shortly before midnight May 22 when they stopped and beat up the 48-year-old man, said Ken Durand, a [...]

U.S. holds journalist without charges in Iraq

Reuters cameraman Ibrahim Jassam has been held since September. The U.S. military rejected a court order to release him, saying he is a ‘high security threat.’ No evidence has been presented. Reporting from Baghdad — The soldiers came at 1:30 a.m, rousing family members who were sleeping on the roof to escape the late-summer heat. [...]

Panel votes to investigate ‘Extremism’ report

Democrats on a key House panel joined Republicans in a unanimous vote calling for a formal inquiry into the Department of Homeland Security to determine how a contentious report that described military veterans as possible recruits for radical extremists was developed and distributed. In a rare bipartisan manner, the House Committee on Homeland Security agreed [...]

Pig receives probation for aggravated rape, battery and attempted sexual battery

EDGARD, La. — A former lieutenant in the St. John the Baptist Sheriff’s Office pleaded guilty Friday to two felony counts and received a sentence of 10 years of probation. Wayne Schaeffer was indicted in January 2008 on charges of aggravated rape, battery and attempted sexual battery. The felony counts were filed after several women [...]

No free press during war time (which is always)

A former United States Army Lieutenant Colonel who worked for military intelligence is calling for the military to attack and kill “partisan media.” Before reading his comments recall that the First Amendment protects freedom of the press, treason is defined in the Constitution as an “overt act” of “aiding the enemy,” and also realize that [...]

Onward, Christian Soldiers

Does finding out that a top military intelligence official was sending Donald Rumsfeld briefings emblazoned with religious crusader talk about the invasion of Iraq, like “open the gates so that the righteous may enter” fit “the left’s narrative that the Iraq war must have been conceived with an ulterior motive — war for oil, war [...]

“Mancow” Waterboarded

Radio host “Mancow” has apparently been defending the water torture. Perhaps those days are now over.

California student journalist seeks shield law protection

A student journalist who witnessed a killing in San Francisco is trying to use California’s shield law to protect his work., the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The 22-year-old San Francisco State University photojournalism student was working on his senior project in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood when he witnessed the killing of Norris Bennett, according to the [...]

GI’s lawyer disputes evidence in overdose case

FORT LEWIS, Wash. — A lawyer for the Fort Lewis soldier accused of giving his 16-year-old girlfriend a fatal drug overdose says he was sleep-deprived when he told an investigator he gave her a pill. Capt. Don-Michael Barbour told a hearing the statement from Timothy Bennitt should not be used against him. In the days [...]

Tension grows over Riverside police review panel

That was the hope when Riverside created a civilian panel to watch over its police department nearly 10 years ago. But critics contend that “meddling” by city officials has compromised the Community Police Review Commission‘s independence and could erode public confidence in its watchdog role. Tensions reached a high in recent months when city officials [...]

Home School Fair is a hit in Ontario

[ Simply keeping your child out of state elementary school, with little concern for formal "education," will benefit them greatly, over the propaganda, indoctrination and social and intellectual deprivation of a system designed originally to create "soldiers" of the state, like Hitler's Youth.  Remove the bullshit of religion, and you'll have one healthy child. ] [...]

Abeer means “fragrance of flowers”

See also: US Army media brief for rape and murder of 14 year old Iraqi girl and family by 101st soldiers, 2006 Green trial prosecutors tell of gruesome scene Jury set for Steven Dale Green, charged with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family

State Supported and State Associated Gangs: Credible “Midwives of New Social Orders”

From the Strategic Studies Institute,United States Army War College Added May 22, 2009 Type: Monograph 78 Pages View the Summary First Download it Now Cost: Free Brief Synopsis The monograph examines contemporary populism and neo-populism, 21st century socialism, and a non-state actor (al-Qaeda) seeking regional and global hegemony. They are: first, paramilitary gang permutations in [...]

Handheld stealth

New technology should not be a tool for subverting citizens’ power to monitor government actions. San Bernardino County‘s example shows the need for cities and counties to ensure that all communications about official business are open to public scrutiny. County special counsel John Hueston raised the issue in his investigation of the county assessor’s office. [...]

Court May 19 for San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy Heverly, charged with assault

A San Bernardino County sheriff‘s deputy accused of flashing his badge and holding a gun to a tow-truck driver’s head while off duty is scheduled to appear in court today for a hearing that will determine if the case is ready for trial. Richard Heverly, 42, who works at the West Valley Detention Center in [...]

Supervisors to discuss next step in medical marijuana law controversy in CLOSED session

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors will meet in closed session June 2 to discuss its next plan of action following the U.S. Supreme Court‘s refusal to hear its joint lawsuit challenging California’s medical marijuana law.”I assume the board, in its judicious manner, will issue a decision forthwith,” said Burt Southard, spokesman for Board [...]

Josie Gonzales, county supervisor, says she supports medical marijuana program

A day after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state’s medical marijuana law, a San Bernardino County supervisor indicated Tuesday that she is ready to support the policy. The Board of Supervisors is not scheduled to discuss its next step until June 2, but Supervisor Josie Gonzales told about 40 medical marijuana advocates it would [...]

Canadians Take Notice, the U.S. Is Militarizing the Border

More troops, more searches, more surveillance drones. The U.S. is taking Canadians’ pictures as they cross the border, and their biometrics. A camera snaps your license plate. An electronic card reader mounted on a yellow post scans your car for the presence of any radio-frequency ID cards inside. If there is an enhanced driver’s license [...]

Navy unveils ‘Bravo Zulu’ to target younger recruits

The Naval Academy yesterday debuted its newest recruiting tool __ a graphic novel called “Bravo Zulu,” which is Navy-speak for “Well Done.” The 16-page, comic book-style publication is designed to get middle school and early high school students interested in attending the academy. The short novel tells the story of five plebes who have become [...]