Yesterday, the FBI disclosed that it has launched criminal investigations against 17 companies “in the fallout of the subprime mortgage collapse.” Two Justice Department officials have confirmed that Countrywide Financial is one of the companies under investigation.
Ya know... Courts might not want to be rushing to judgments in these cases. There is nothing routine about what is going across America in this mortgage crisis. The article discusses some of the problems they see:
While the bureau will not comment on the companies that are under investigation, two Justice Department officials confirmed to ABC News reports in last week's Wall Street Journal that Countrywide Financial is under investigation.
FBI and Justice Department officials declined to comment on any open cases after the recent troubles of investment bank Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan Chase bailed out earlier this week by purchasing the company.
But in an interview with the Reuters news service Tuesday, Neil Power, section chief of the FBI's Economics Crimes Unit, alluded to a possible probe, saying, "Common sense would indicate that we would look at something that big."
It would seem to me that a lack of due diligence on the part of the banks would make them more responsible for any foreclosures on people that should not have had mortgages offered to them in the first place. We expect Joe and Suzy Sixpack to be a little bit ignorant in how these things work and the risks involved but banks should bear a greater responsibility since this is their field of expertise. It seems to me that anyone being foreclosed on in these kind of situations (ARMs, balloon payment mortgages, etc.) should be looked at as somewhat of a victim to a crime.
Also being looked at are hedge funds, like Bear Sterns, and their investments and transactions surrounding all of this. There are some emails that suggest some serious problems in Bear Stern's management. It is also a seemingly ever changing investigation:
The FBI Criminal Investigative Division currently has 1,253 mortgage fraud investigations into all types of mortgage fraud and schemes around the country, including illegal property flipping, home equity schemes and check fraud cases.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) are introducing legislation “aimed at stabilizing financial markets by helping as many as 2 million homeowners avoid foreclosure.” The separate bills look to give the Federal Housing Administration “a key role in helping to renegotiate distressed mortgages and would provide up to $300 billion in guarantees to new lenders.”
Hopefully this is not too little too late and - unlike handing out corporate welfare to the likes of Bank of America, Countrywide and Bear and Sterns - this will offer some real help to the American people that need it.
Why doesn’t our media cover stories like this? They talk about the economy and mortgage crisis, but they aren’t showing the real effects of it. Instead we have to rely upon foreign news to hear about tent cities popping up in America, full of citizens that once owned their own homes.
Wikileaks.org, as it is known, was cut off from the internet following a California court ruling, the site says. The case was brought by a Swiss bank after "several hundred" documents were posted about its offshore activities.
Other versions of the pages, hosted in countries such as Belgium and India, can still be accessed.
However, the main site was taken offline after the court ordered that Dynadot, which controls the site's domain name, should remove all traces of wikileak from its servers.
The following release has not been proofed due to time constraints.
Transparency group Wikileaks forcibly censored at ex-parte Californian hearing -- ordered to print blank pages -- 'wikileaks.org' name forcibly deleted from Californian domain registrar -- the best justice Cayman Islands money launderers can buy?
When the transparency group Wikileaks was censored in China last year, no-one was too surprised. After all, the Chinese government also censors the Paris based Reporters Sans Frontiers and New York Based Human Rights Watch. And when Wikileaks published the secret censorship lists of Thailand's military Junta, no-one was too surprised when people in that country had to go to extra lengths to read the site. But on Friday the 15th, February 2008, in the home of the free and the land of the brave, and a constitution which states "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press", the Wikileaks.org press was shutdown:
BANK JULIUS BAER & CO. LTD, a Swiss entity; and JULIUS BAER BANK AND TRUST CO. LTD, a Cayman Island ORDER GRANTING entity, PERMANENT INJUNCTION
WIKILEAKS, an entity of unknown form; WIKILEAKS.ORG, an entity of unknown form; DYNADOT, LLC, a California limited liability company; and DOES 1 through 10, inclusive,
[..]
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED:
[..]
Dynadot shall immediately clear and remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name and prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org website or any other website or server other than a blank park page, until further order of this Court.
The Cayman Islands is located between Cuba and Honduras. In July 2000, the United States Department of the Treasure Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an advisory states stating that there were "serious deficiencies in the counter-money laundering systems of the Cayman Islands", "Cayman Islands law makes it impossible for the supervisory and regulatory authority to obtain information held by financial institutions regarding their client's identity", "Failure of financial institutions in the Cayman Islands to report suspicious transactions is not subject to penalty" and that "These deficiencies, among others, have caused the Cayman Islands to be identified by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (The 'FATF') as non-cooperative in the fight against money laundering". As of 2006 the U.S. State Department listed the Cayman Islands in its money laundering "Countries of Primary Concern".
The Cayman's case is not the first time Wikileaks has tackled bad banks. In the second half of last year Wikileaks exposed over $4,500,000,000's worth of money laundering including by the former president of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi (see http://wikileaks.be/wiki/The_looting_of_Kenya_under_President_moi which became the Guardian's front page story in September 2007 and swung the Kenyan vote by 10% leading into the December 2007 election and http://wikileaks.be/wiki/A_Charter_House_of_horrors reported in the Nairobi paper The Standard and now the subject of a High Court Case in Kenya).
To find an injunction similar to the Cayman's case, we need to go back to Monday June 15, 1971 when the New York Times published excepts of of Daniel Ellsberg's leaked "Pentagon Papers" and found itself enjoined the following day. The Wikileaks injunction is the equivalent of forcing the Times' printers to print blank pages and its power company to turn off press power. The supreme court found the Times censorship injunction unconstitutional in a 6-3 decision.
The Wikileaks.org injunction is ex-parte, engages in prior restraint and is clearly unconstitutional. It was granted on Thursday afternoon by California district court judge White, Bush appointee and former prosecutor.
The order was written by Cayman Island's Bank Julius Baer lawyers and was accepted by judge White without amendment, or representations by Wikileaks or amicus. The case is over several Wikileaks articles, public commentary and documents dating prior to 2003. The documents allegedly reveal secret Julius Baer trust structures used for asset hiding, money laundering and tax evasion. The bank alleges the documents were disclosed to Wikileaks by offshore banking whistleblower and former Vice President the Cayman Island's operation, Rudolf Elmer. Unable to lawfully attack Wikileaks servers which are based in several countries, the order was served on the intermediary Wikileaks purchased the 'Wikileaks.org' name through -- California registrar Dynadot, who then used its access to the internet website name registration system to delete the records for 'Wikileaks.org'. The order also enjoins every person who has heard about the order from from even linking to the documents.
In order to deal with Chinese censorship, Wikileaks has many backup sites such as wikileaks.be (Belgium) and wikileaks.de (Germany) which remain active. Wikileaks never expected to be using the alternative servers to deal with censorship attacks, from, of all places, the United States.
The order is clearly unconstitutional and exceeds its jurisdiction.
Wikileaks will keep on publishing, in-fact, given the level of suppression involved in this case, Wikileaks will step up publication of documents pertaining to illegal or unethical banking practices.
Wikileaks has six pro-bono attorney's in S.F on roster to deal with a legal assault, however Wikileaks was given only hours notice "by email" prior to the hearing. Wikileaks was NOT represented. Wikileaks pre-litigation California council Julie Turner attended the start of hearing in a personal capacity but was then asked to leave the court room.
White signed the order, drafted by the Cayman Islands bank's lawyers without a single amendment.
The injunction claims to be permanent, although the case is only preliminary.
As of Friday, February 15, those going to Wikileaks.org have gotten Server not found messages. Today I received a message explaining that a California court has granted an injunction written and requested by lawyers for the Cayman Island's Bank Julius Baer. It seems that the bank is trying to keep the public from accessing documents that may reveal shady dealings.
... could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act.
„
— Time Magazine
Important enough as a journalistic tool that some, with shady dealings, seem to see a need to shut it down. Welcome to the bush and GOP created and corporate owned America.
This is just another chapter in a bigger battle, IMHO:
One challenge in any reconstruction, though, would be balancing the interests of various constituencies. The first time around, researchers were able to toil away in their labs quietly. Industry is playing a bigger role this time, and law enforcement is bound to make its needs for wiretapping known.
There's no evidence they are meddling yet, but once any research looks promising, "a number of people [will] want to be in the drawing room," said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor affiliated with Oxford and Harvard universities. "They'll be wearing coats and ties and spilling out of the venue."
The big telcoms have already shown a willingness to try and take control of the internet AND will sell out your right to privacy at the drop of an FBI letter.
Yeah... Ya gotta sleep with one effin' eye open at all times in this modern America. Freedom ain't Free, it'll cost ya a lot of sleep.
A little something you can do about this, as well as helping spread the word for Wikileaks, via Save the Internet:
You can help make the internet faster, more open and accessible to all. Tell Congress to preserve Net Neutrality and help ensure that the benefits and promise of the Internet are available to all Americans.
The News deeply objects to the appointment of Mr. Rove to speak this June. At Commencement two years ago on June 4, 2006, Headmaster Shanahan asked graduating seniors to think of their responsibilities to themselves, and to others. He lamented how “responsibility to others and for oneself has been all but forgotten in certain circles.” Mr. Shanahan alluded to various public figures who have been exposed for scandalous activities, noting that in spite of their lack of ethics and sense of responsibility they were all found to be “not guilty.” At that Commencement Mr. Shanahan posed a very important and pressing question: “How can so many moral, ethical and legal laws be broken and still no one is guilty, no one assumes public responsibility for having chosen to do wrong?”
It is ironic that the man who issued those words two years ago has chosen a commencement speaker who has gained infamy in many circles for less-than-ethical decisions and actions.Thus far, Mr. Rove has not been indicted for any major crimes. But, many would argue that he is as culpable for the compromised situation the country finds itself in as any other figure of the Bush administration.
snip
Helping to send the U.S. to war in Iraq is not the only thing Mr. Rove is infamous for. For example, he has acknowledged being a source for an article that disclosed the identity of former C.I.A. officer Valerie Plame (although he did not use her name in conversation). However, the point of this article is not to recount a long list of unethical decisions. Mr. Rove would be a very interesting speaker, and having him give a Special Program address could make sense. However, he is unfit to deliver our graduation address. The point of the graduation ceremonies is to celebrate the seniors and the unforgettable time they have spent at Choate and to bring the community together around the climactic moment on the school calendar. Instead, we will be deeply divided. A graduation speaker should inspire us. More importantly, he should represent the values of the school and serve as a role model for the graduates as they enter the adult world. Rove does neither of those two things.
What kind of message does hosting Mr. Rove send to the student body? Do we wish to condone his behavior? It would seem that students are being told that the ends justify the means. The News urges Mr. Shanahan to reconsider his decision. While it is gracious of Mr. Rove to offer his services as Commencement speaker, The News asks that the school kindly reject the offer.
Karl Rove is widely believed to have been instrumental in the current administration’s decision to go to war with Iraq. He chaired the White House Iraq Group, which, according to CNN and Newsweek, was created with the objective of publicizing the threat posed to the U.S. by Saddam Hussein prior to the Iraq War.
Additionally, Mr. Rove has been accused of leaking the identity of undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plume, in retaliation for her husband’s op-ed piece in The New York Times that criticized the evidence that the Bush Administration cited as justification for the War in Iraq. Rove has also been accused of corruption and conflicts of interest in cases where he helped shape administration policies on energy while holding stock in energy companies such as Enron.
Although Rove was never formally indicted on any charge, there is widespread anger towards the school administration’s decision to invite Karl Rove to speak on campus. “Beyond the fact that his being a widely believed Federal criminal stands against most of the principles that we claim have on campus, it is more than disappointing that the decision was made with so little consultation of other members of the Choate community and that Mr. Shanahan chose to invite such a divisive figure to say the least,” observed an angry Alessio Manti ‘08, a member of the graduating class.
Obviously, they have been paying attention to politics in their school. Though, they might want to note that outing Valery Plame, likely, had less to do with retribution against her husband, Ambassador Wilson, for his actions on the Niger documents than it does with stolen state secrets, nuclear secrets, being sold on the black market and the outfit that would have been investigating this issue, Brewster Jennings and Associates:
Edmonds had told this newspaper that members of the Turkish political and diplomatic community in the US had been actively acquiring nuclear secrets. They often acted as a conduit, she said, for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s spy agency, because they attracted less suspicion.
She claimed corrupt government officials helped the network, and venues such as the American-Turkish Council (ATC) in Washington were used as drop-off points.
The anonymous letter names a high-level government official who was allegedly secretly recorded speaking to an official at the Turkish embassy between August and December 2001.
It claims the government official warned a Turkish member of the network that they should not deal with a company called Brewster Jennings because it was a CIA front company investigating the nuclear black market. The official’s warning came two years before Brewster Jennings was publicly outed when one of its staff, Valerie Plame, was revealed to be a CIA agent in a case that became a cause célèbre in the US.
"You've probably never heard of Jim Goodnow, but Jim is a veteran who owns a bus, The Yellow Rose, that he uses to haul Iraq Veterans Against the War around the country. Friday night he pulled into a New Jersey truck stop to get some sleep and someone torched The Yellow Rose. Jim is OK.
Let this be a lesson for all of us. We are not dealing with rational, sane people, when we're dealing with the Right. Let's face it, these people consider the draft dodging, drug addicted, liar Rush Limbaugh a great American patriot."
I am sorry to hear about this. Just glad to hear that nobody was hurt. And I hope his insurance covers "GOP extremists' acts of terrorism," if that is the case?
A Louisiana State University student told another student that he was planning a violent attack against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the police said. The student, Richard R. Wargo, 19, of Shreveport, was held on $1 million bail.
snip
Mr. Wargo had asked another student whether he wanted to commit arson, a “terrorist act” that he described as a “national event.” “He reportedly went on to say it was political and it involved Hillary Clinton,” Chief Adams said.
I went to do a little poking around to see if maybe, JUST MAYBE, this crackpot terrorist wannabe was an LSU College Republican... But for some reason the site is temporarily down?
I am the newly elected and former President of the LSU College Republicans.
The "be right back" page on the LSUCR.com website was purely coincidence. Warga has nothing to do with me or my decision to have our website redesigned with a Web 2.0 look and feel. Our website was last updated in May of 2005, so it was time for a face lift.
I have personally never met the guy and I have been in the leadership of the College Republicans for the past 3 years. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Thanks,
Paul Dietzel 2 President College Republicans at LSU
"I know nothing, I hear nothing, I see nothing..." I'll give Dietzel the benefit of the doubt barring proof otherwise.
The classmate later learned Clinton had scheduled a Baton Rouge appearance. Police said the student reported Wargo to the university after a second conversation in which Wargo made another remark indicating he planned violence against Clinton.
That remark "was something along the lines of, 'Have you ever heard of a dead president?'" Adams said.
Police arrested Wargo in a traffic stop Thursday night. Officers searched his dormitory room and found documents that made the classmate's accusations appear credible, Adams said. He declined to give details, but said officers also seized Wargo's computer and marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Making threats toward presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was a “stupid thing to do,” but in time it will be clear the LSU student behind the threats had no intention of carrying them out, his attorney said Monday.
Richard Ryan Wargo, 19, 10301 Evangeline, Shreveport, was released Monday from Parish Prison to the custody of his parents, attorney Frank Holthaus said.
The release is subject to conditions, including one that requires Wargo to undergo a mental health evaluation and get treatment if recommended by the therapist.
What kind of penalties could he face for his threats?
Under Louisiana law, a terrorizing conviction carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a fine up to $15,000, while communicating false information of a planned arson carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Usually we are talking about the right-wingnut-crack that freepers are smoking. Crooks & Liars reports on the white powder that one freeper was desperate to share with anyone that held opposing viewpoints to the failed Republican agenda.
C&L reported earlier on the guy who sent the fake anthrax around. Who would have thought that a right wing conservative would be involved in terrorist activities?
HMMM?? Who would have thought that the wingnutty Free Republic was guilty of supporting terrorists other than Mr. Bush?
Can you believe how many of those terrorists are over here? Can't be more, can there?
Terrorism charges brought Friday against the administrator of a loan investment program claimed that he secretly tried to send $152,000 to the Middle East to buy equipment such as night vision goggles for a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 53, of Ardsley, N.Y., pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to an indictment accusing him of terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and other charges. The charges carried a potential penalty of 95 years in prison.
But would you really believe me if I told you he was a Republican?
CBS News has confirmed that Alishtari is a donor to the Republican Party, as he claims on his curriculum vitae. Alishtari gave $15,500 to the National Republican Campaign Committee between 2002 and 2004, according to Federal Election Commission records. That amount includes $13,000 in 2003, a year when he claims to have been named NRCC New York State Businessman of the Year.
Alishtari also claims to be a lifetime member of the National Republican Senate Committee's Inner Circle, which the NRCC describes as "an impressive cross-section of American society – community leaders, business executives, entrepreneurs, retirees, and sports and entertainment celebrities – all of whom hold a deep interest in our nation's prosperity and security."
The Republican party needs to be placed on "The List" of terrorist related organizations and watched very carefully.
It is pretty apparent that the FBI and Homeland Security are wasting their time watching us liberal/peacenik/Quaker/progressive/etc. types. Just ask Ken Krayeske...
[updates] Thank you to those that got this story moving. Raw Story, Crooks and Liars, and Josh Marshall, whose his readers have been dig, dig, digging:
Choice artifacts they have dug up?
This:
Never too Late for this Story Update: Oh that's interesting. Cunning Realist found this CV purportedly posted by Mr. Alishtari. In addition to other GOP donor awards, Alishtari says that he was appointed to something called the "White House Business Advisory Committee" in 2003. And CR ends with this point, referencing Alishtari's CV: "Note the entrepreneurial business background with a focus on technology/security. Have any of those businesses ever received government contracts or funds? Any direct or indirect contact in the past with anyone from the Bush administration or Congress?"
That:
It tuns out Mr. Alishtari, the GOP campaign contributor indicted for sending funds for terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, had a fairly lively life online. TPM Reader TDP points to what purports to be Alishtari blog. And in a rather rambling post there's a reference to an alleged meeting with VP Dick Cheney. "When I went to DC in the Fall of 2003 and met with VP Cheney, I was first in a room full of advisers where I asked how to resolve this and they advised me to talk to counsels which led to this solution."
Now, we can't be certain that this is actually Alishtari's blog, though I think the weight of evidence suggests that it is.
And the other thing:
He contributed a decent amount of money to GOP congressional campaign committees in the 2002 and 2004 cycles and managed get named to a number of 'committees' and 'councils' set up as perks for GOP campaign contributors, including something called the "White House Business Advisory Committee."
Now a reader of the Cunning Realist blog has dug up the archived version of the website of Mr. Alishtari's company, GlobalProtector, which shows that at the same time Alishtari was giving money to the GOP he was bidding on multiple government contracts -- including ones with the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.
Westchester businessman and purported peace activist was nabbed by the feds for allegedly plotting to funnel more than $150,000 to terrorists at training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Peace activist my ass! This guy is so up to his eyeballs in the GOP and full of it.As it turned out Alishtari actually donated more than the originally reported $15,500 to the Republican party coffers... About $35,000 in total.
Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, indicted two weeks ago for financing terrorists in Afghanistan among other charges, gave more than $35,000 to Republican campaign committees, not $15,000 as was reported earlier.
A $20,000 contribution from Alishtari to the National Republican Senatorial Committee on August 29th, 2003, was not previously reported because his name was misspelled ("Allshtari") on the NRSC's disclosure form to the Federal Election Commission (unfortunately, such misspellings are fairly frequent). Alishtari's online CV stated that he was named an "Inner Circle Member for Life" of the NRSC.
"Oops! Building on my last post on the NRCC's bogus Business Advisory Council and 'Businessman of the Year' program, it turns out that Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari isn't the first member of the council to be indicted on charges of supporting terrorism.
Yasith Chhun, the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a group designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization, was indicted in May of 2005 for charges of plotting to overthrow the Cambodian government. He was also, The Los Angeles Times reported, a member of the NRCC's Business Advisory Council:"
Chhun is set to go to trial next month and has been indicted for "attempting to kill the prime minister, attack government buildings and launch small-scale attacks on karaoke bars and fuel depots in an effort to galvanize opposition to the Phnom Penh government," according to the La Times.
Attacking Karaoke bars? Some might argue that he was doing a public service there. (JK)
When will the United States government outlaw the GOP for their ties to global terrorism? heh
No matter how you look at it... We will always be fighting them OVER HERE, regardless of the political party in charge. The one other thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that while we are fighting them over here already, many of them clearly are REPUBLICAN TERRORISTS.
Figure the odds, eh?
So the Republican party can shut their gaping pieholes when they try and label liberals, progressives and Dems as "emboldening", "giving comfort to," "etc. ad nauseum," the enemy in any way related to terrorism.
You lying and incompetent fuckwads in the Republican party have done more to further terrorists' causes "OVER HERE" than most of the other terrorist leaders in your "Global War on Terror" combined.
The one and only thing that has kept us safe "OVER HERE," so far, is the fact that the FBI and the CIA don't buy the GOP's ridiculous talking points. And nobody else is buying your propaganda either.
The Washington Post gets a retired FBI agent on the record who contradicts much of what former CIA agent John Kiriakou had to say last week about the capture and torture of Abu Zubaydah. Who to believe?
A) A high-ranking Al Qaeda operative who largely confounded U.S. interrogators with his literary and tactical genius until they submitted him to waterboarding and other forms of torture. After that, he provided key information that likely preempted future attacks.
B) A low-ranking and mentally ill Al Qaeda operative who provided valuable information under gentle questioning, but whose confessions made under torture were useless. Much of the threat information he provided was "crap."
A is the CIA's version (and the President's). B is the FBI's. And in today's Washington Post, Dan Eggen and Walter Pincus walk through the competing profiles. Zubaydah, remember, was one of the two detainees whose interrogations appeared on the destroyed CIA tapes.
It's clear off the bat that the version of events provided by John Kiriakou, the former CIA agent who launched something like a PR blitz last week, is not quite right. In his telling, Zubaydah held out until waterboarded; after only 35 seconds of that, he gave in and "from that day on, he answered every question."
By contrast, both CIA and FBI agents tell the Post that he provided valuable information before he was waterboarded. And there wasn't just one session: "Instead, [other former and current officials] said, harsh tactics used on him at a secret detention facility in Thailand went on for weeks or, depending on the account, even months."
A federal judge has ordered a hearing on whether the Bush administration violated a court order by destroying CIA interrogation videos of suspected terrorists.
U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy rejected calls from the Justice Department to stay out of the matter. He ordered lawyers to appear before him Friday morning.
In June 2005, Kennedy ordered the administration to safeguard “all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.”
Quebec provincial police admitted Thursday that their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que., denied allegations its undercover officers were there on Monday to provoke the crowd and instigate violence.
"At no time did the police of the Sûreté du Québec act as instigators or commit criminal acts," the police force said in French in a news release. "It is not in the police force's policies, nor in its strategies, to act in that manner."
"At all times, they responded within their mandate to keep order and security."
Here is the video again so you can decide if the police were being disruptive before their fake arrest:
While you think about it watch this video of protesters in Montebello for all of the story:
Now that you know what the real protesters are talking about... Take another look at the same pic with circles around parts of two of the "arrested protesters" and one of the arresting police officers:
Click on Pics For Larger Image
This story is hitting the Canadian Blogosphere like lightning, and even the Canadian MSM has picked it up:
The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find their own protest location.
Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try to snatch the bandanas from their faces.
Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the ground and handcuff them.
Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.
The Toronto Star actually ran the story as well. There are records of four arrested protesters at the summit, and none of these three alleged police officers are among those arrests according to the news reports.
To myself, it is pretty obvious from the photo and video evidence that they are cops and that as soon as they realized their cover was blown they moved to the safety of their fellow police officers. And they purposefully walked right into their own arrests, putting up little to no real fight for supposed shit disturbers, rather than have their faces on the national news if they had been unmasked. And given the police issue boots they are wearing they certainly walk the walk.
If they are doing this in Canada, and this is pretty good proof that they are, IMHO, then do you have any doubts about them doing this here in the good old US of A?
Also of note is that when they are on the ground being arrested none of the police officers are really at the ready, batons drawn, and one of the protesters just lies there compliantly with his hands behind his back AND has no visible cuffs (or ties) on his wrists. Yeah... Real shit distuber protesters, huh?
And then the police finally walk them off, cuffed, BUT without removing their hats or bandannas. Like that is real. Are they hiding something? DUH! The identity of their fellow officers.
The other day I posted on the Wiki scandal unearthed by the new Wikiscanner software that backtracked ever-changing entries to the source. Bloggers were digging up all kinds of changes that were corrupting the truth. Alternet provides some insight into why this is so big, and why it will likely never get any serious coverage in the corporate owned media:
Griffith created Wikiscanner for a frankly political reason. As he told the Times of London, he did it "to create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike." In the process, however, he's revealed something far more fundamental than the fact that acolytes of Pepsi and the CIA will stop at nothing to propagandize on behalf of their employers: he's undermined the myth of the anonymous blogger in the basement.
It turns out that the people who are hiding behind anonymity online for nefarious or selfish reasons are not little guys in pajamas but the very bastions of accountability that haters of the Web have deified. It's not a mean dude with a grudge who is spreading lies on Wikipedia but rather a member of the federal government or a journalist at The New York Times.
Geez... Who knew I was supposed to be wearing pajamas? I guess I'll have to give up Blogging naked.
I have never hidden the fact that this Blog is about 75% snark. I have said that often, in posts and in comments. But contained within every post is roughly about 50% fact, and 49% fact based opinion. The other 1% of the opinion is conspiracy theory stuff that is fun to look at and consider, but clearly marked as such. I can't afford to lie on my Blog because I am not an anonymous Blogger, and I am neither in my basement nor my pajamas... But that is besides the point.
Even if I should chose to start wearing pajamas and hang out with the spiders downstairs while I Blog, I promise that they will be reality based pajamas and that they will continue to reveal nothing more than the naked truth. Though, I can't promise the spiders will still be around because they will disappear faster than the information in a Wiki post on bush family scandals...
Here is the original post from last Friday, just in case you missed it because you were too busy staring at me in shock while I was Blogging:
Well, someone who is doing the nasty work for one SKorchin was easily traced to Fema.gov.
If you've been reading Dailykos, here and here, watching Keith Olbermann, or listening to NPR, you would know that an IP address can now be traced on Wikipedia.
This might help explain why the Katrina victims are still waiting for competent assistance.
Fema.gov vandalizes Lieberman opponent's biography page by Sue Fema.gov vandalized the John Orman, chairman of the CFL party's Wiki page.
71.252.64.8 came back as- Multi-RBL check 71.252.64.8 (poker-2.fema.gov) using Robtex. FEMA, of course, is under Homeland Security, which the senator runs.
I also traced another vandalizing IP address to Courtyard Hartford in Cromwell (Mr. Korchin's home town), but that's another story.
Crooks and Liars has the goods on Diebold and FOX "news" playing the propaganda game for their own benefit:
“Diebold Election Systems” are three words synonymous with the aggressive pursuit of failure. Not only did the company badly implement a dubious concept — unverifiable electronic touch-screen voting machines — but it did so with determined flourish, letting its code and internal communication leak out onto the Web; employing as a chief executive a man who declared he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year”; abusing copyright law in an attempt to quell its critics; and, among many other caught-red-handed indiscretions, deleting criticism of itself from Wikipedia.
No wonder, then, that Diebold Election Systems has decided to steal a page from the playbook of that paragon of corporate responsibility Philip Morris (aka the Altria Group): Diebold will erase its sorry history with a simple name change!
Henceforth, when reaching for an example of mind-boggling incompetence, please say “Premier” rather than “Diebold,” because Diebold Election Systems is now Premier Election Systems.
The name change, the company says in a press release, “signals a new beginning” and a “fresh identity” — though in the same release the firm concedes that it will still be making and pushing the same sorry voting machines (machines that, as Princeton computer scientist Edward Felten and his colleagues showed last year, are actually vulnerable to a virus-based attack). Read more…
It seems Diebold has teamed up with FOXNews in an attempt to re-write history. We have to stay on top of this sort of trickery, especially with the crucial 2008 presidential election on the horizon. Let’s review - Diebold Election Systems is now PREMIER Election Systems.
People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.
snip
WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class.
Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the merits of a Vietnam War rural pacification program that he headed.
Aerial and satellite images of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were removed using a computer traced to the FBI, WikiScanner showed.
There is nothing like a Grand Old Propaganda war being carried out by GOP wingnut arm chair warriors, corporations, and the government here in the US of A.
Face the facts wingnuts...
There are too many of us in the reality based world, and too few of you in the slimmest of minority GOP propaganda spinners, for you to get away with your kind of propaganda, censorship and yellow jopurnalism anymore.
Want to know what agencies in the U.S. government are making changes to Wikipedia? Try this “top 25″ list on for size (from Government Executive Tech Insider):
1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa.gov) 6,846 2. Department Of Veterans Affairs (va.gov) 4,210 3. Forestry And Fire Protection (ca.gov) 4,148 4. Dept Homeland Security (dhs.gov) 4,081 5. Information Systems U.S. House Of Representatives (house.gov) 3,736 6. National Institutes Of Health (nih.gov) 3,019 7. U.S. Courts (uscourts.gov) 2,869 8. U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture (usda.gov) 2,435 9. City Of New York (nyc.gov) 2,404 10. Salem Public Schools (ct.gov) 2,398 11. U.S. Dept Of Justice (usdoj.gov) 2,189 12. Information Services Division (nd.gov) 2,140 13. U.S. Senate Sergeant At Arms (senate.gov) 1,809 14. Federal Aviation Administration (faa.gov) 1,706 15. NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (noaa.gov) 1,590 16. Dotrspavolpe Center (dot.gov) 1,566 17. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (llnl.gov) 1,456 18. U.S. Department Of Labor/Employment Standards Admin (dol-esa.gov) 1,449 19. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov) 1,449 20. Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov) 1,290 21. National Park Service (nps.gov) 1,214 22. Library Of Congress Information Technology Services (loc.gov) 1,142 23. Social Security Administration (ssa.gov) 1,134 24. U.S. Patent And Trademark Office (uspto.gov) 1,097 25. Virginia Information Technologies Agency (Vita) (virginia.gov) 1,047
Obviously, some of the changes being made were probably benign, in order to correct some factual error - but it’s easy to imagine that the vast majority of changes from government internet domains are being made to change perception. In other words, massaging the propaganda to fit a particular agency’s agenda.
I’ve always maintained that there’s a lot of good info on Wikipedia, but due to the open source nature of the site, it’s important to take what you find, and corroborate it through second and third sources. However, it’s interesting that government agencies have been sooooooooo active in altering entrys into on of the web’s most accessed information sites.
As with all things online, caveat emptor. Multiple sources are your friend.
WikiScanner provides "Wired's list of salacious edits" on a stand alone page. The list provides some of the more troublesome edits and from where they originated, including some from government agencies
Well, someone who is doing the nasty work for one SKorchin was easily traced to Fema.gov.
If you've been reading Dailykos, here and here, watching Keith Olbermann, or listening to NPR, you would know that an IP address can now be traced on Wikipedia.
This might help explain why the Katrina victims are still waiting for competent assistance.
Fema.gov vandalizes Lieberman opponent's biography page by Sue Fema.gov vandalized the John Orman, chairman of the CFL party's Wiki page.
71.252.64.8 came back as- Multi-RBL check 71.252.64.8 (poker-2.fema.gov) using Robtex. FEMA, of course, is under Homeland Security, which the senator runs.
I also traced another vandalizing IP address to Courtyard Hartford in Cromwell (Mr. Korchin's home town), but that's another story.
Crooks and Liars has the goods on Diebold and FOX "news" playing the propaganda game for their own benefit:
“Diebold Election Systems” are three words synonymous with the aggressive pursuit of failure. Not only did the company badly implement a dubious concept — unverifiable electronic touch-screen voting machines — but it did so with determined flourish, letting its code and internal communication leak out onto the Web; employing as a chief executive a man who declared he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year”; abusing copyright law in an attempt to quell its critics; and, among many other caught-red-handed indiscretions, deleting criticism of itself from Wikipedia.
No wonder, then, that Diebold Election Systems has decided to steal a page from the playbook of that paragon of corporate responsibility Philip Morris (aka the Altria Group): Diebold will erase its sorry history with a simple name change!
Henceforth, when reaching for an example of mind-boggling incompetence, please say “Premier” rather than “Diebold,” because Diebold Election Systems is now Premier Election Systems.
The name change, the company says in a press release, “signals a new beginning” and a “fresh identity” — though in the same release the firm concedes that it will still be making and pushing the same sorry voting machines (machines that, as Princeton computer scientist Edward Felten and his colleagues showed last year, are actually vulnerable to a virus-based attack). Read more…
It seems Diebold has teamed up with FOXNews in an attempt to re-write history. We have to stay on top of this sort of trickery, especially with the crucial 2008 presidential election on the horizon. Let’s review - Diebold Election Systems is now PREMIER Election Systems.
People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.
snip
WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class.
Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the merits of a Vietnam War rural pacification program that he headed.
Aerial and satellite images of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were removed using a computer traced to the FBI, WikiScanner showed.
There is nothing like a Grand Old Propaganda war being carried out by GOP wingnut arm chair warriors, corporations, and the government here in the US of A.
Face the facts wingnuts...
There are too many of us in the reality based world, and too few of you in the slimmest of minority GOP propaganda spinners, for you to get away with your kind of propaganda, censorship and yellow jopurnalism anymore.
Want to know what agencies in the U.S. government are making changes to Wikipedia? Try this “top 25″ list on for size (from Government Executive Tech Insider):
1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa.gov) 6,846 2. Department Of Veterans Affairs (va.gov) 4,210 3. Forestry And Fire Protection (ca.gov) 4,148 4. Dept Homeland Security (dhs.gov) 4,081 5. Information Systems U.S. House Of Representatives (house.gov) 3,736 6. National Institutes Of Health (nih.gov) 3,019 7. U.S. Courts (uscourts.gov) 2,869 8. U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture (usda.gov) 2,435 9. City Of New York (nyc.gov) 2,404 10. Salem Public Schools (ct.gov) 2,398 11. U.S. Dept Of Justice (usdoj.gov) 2,189 12. Information Services Division (nd.gov) 2,140 13. U.S. Senate Sergeant At Arms (senate.gov) 1,809 14. Federal Aviation Administration (faa.gov) 1,706 15. NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (noaa.gov) 1,590 16. Dotrspavolpe Center (dot.gov) 1,566 17. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (llnl.gov) 1,456 18. U.S. Department Of Labor/Employment Standards Admin (dol-esa.gov) 1,449 19. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov) 1,449 20. Internal Revenue Service (irs.gov) 1,290 21. National Park Service (nps.gov) 1,214 22. Library Of Congress Information Technology Services (loc.gov) 1,142 23. Social Security Administration (ssa.gov) 1,134 24. U.S. Patent And Trademark Office (uspto.gov) 1,097 25. Virginia Information Technologies Agency (Vita) (virginia.gov) 1,047
Obviously, some of the changes being made were probably benign, in order to correct some factual error - but it’s easy to imagine that the vast majority of changes from government internet domains are being made to change perception. In other words, massaging the propaganda to fit a particular agency’s agenda.
I’ve always maintained that there’s a lot of good info on Wikipedia, but due to the open source nature of the site, it’s important to take what you find, and corroborate it through second and third sources. However, it’s interesting that government agencies have been sooooooooo active in altering entrys into on of the web’s most accessed information sites.
As with all things online, caveat emptor. Multiple sources are your friend.
WikiScanner provides "Wired's list of salacious edits" on a stand alone page. The list provides some of the more troublesome edits and from where they originated, including some from government agencies
"Six Islamic militants from Yugoslavia and the Middle East were arrested on charges of plotting to attack the Fort Dix Army post and 'kill as many soldiers as possible,' authorities said Tuesday.
In conversations secretly recorded by an FBI informant over the past year, the men talked about killing in the name of Allah and attacking U.S. warships that might dock in Philadelphia, according an FBI criminal complaint."
Whoops! They are already over here. Another terrorist attack courtesy of the failed bush and GOP foreign policy.... Fortunately this group was thwarted by the FBI.
A Louisiana State University student told another student that he was planning a violent attack against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the police said. The student, Richard R. Wargo, 19, of Shreveport, was held on $1 million bail.
snip
Mr. Wargo had asked another student whether he wanted to commit arson, a “terrorist act” that he described as a “national event.” “He reportedly went on to say it was political and it involved Hillary Clinton,” Chief Adams said.
I went to do a little poking around to see if maybe, JUST MAYBE, this crackpot terrorist wannabe was an LSU College Republican... But for some reason the site is temporarily down?
The classmate later learned Clinton had scheduled a Baton Rouge appearance. Police said the student reported Wargo to the university after a second conversation in which Wargo made another remark indicating he planned violence against Clinton.
That remark "was something along the lines of, 'Have you ever heard of a dead president?'" Adams said.
Police arrested Wargo in a traffic stop Thursday night. Officers searched his dormitory room and found documents that made the classmate's accusations appear credible, Adams said. He declined to give details, but said officers also seized Wargo's computer and marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Making threats toward presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was a “stupid thing to do,” but in time it will be clear the LSU student behind the threats had no intention of carrying them out, his attorney said Monday.
Richard Ryan Wargo, 19, 10301 Evangeline, Shreveport, was released Monday from Parish Prison to the custody of his parents, attorney Frank Holthaus said.
The release is subject to conditions, including one that requires Wargo to undergo a mental health evaluation and get treatment if recommended by the therapist.
What kind of penalties could he face for his threats?
Under Louisiana law, a terrorizing conviction carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a fine up to $15,000, while communicating false information of a planned arson carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Usually we are talking about the right-wingnut-crack that freepers are smoking. Crooks & Liars reports on the white powder that one freeper was desperate to share with anyone that held oposing viewpoints to the failed Republican agenda.
C&L reported earlier on the guy who sent the fake anthrax around. Who would have thought that a right wing conservative would be involved in terrorist activities?
HMMM? Who would have thought that the wingnutty Free Republic was guilty of supporting terrorists other than Mr. Bush?
Can you believe how many of those terrorists are over here? Can't be more, can there?
Terrorism charges brought Friday against the administrator of a loan investment program claimed that he secretly tried to send $152,000 to the Middle East to buy equipment such as night vision goggles for a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
Abdul TawalaIbn Ali Alishtari, 53, of Ardsley, N.Y., pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to an indictment accusing him of terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and other charges. The charges carried a potential penalty of 95 years in prison.
But would you really believe me if I told you he was a Republican?
CBS News has confirmed that Alishtari is a donor to the Republican Party, as he claims on his curriculum vitae. Alishtari gave $15,500 to the National Republican Campaign Committee between 2002 and 2004, according to Federal Election Commission records. That amount includes $13,000 in 2003, a year when he claims to have been named NRCC New York State Businessman of the Year.
Alishtari also claims to be a lifetime member of the National Republican Senate Committee's Inner Circle, which the NRCC describes as "an impressive cross-section of American society – community leaders, business executives, entrepreneurs, retirees, and sports and entertainment celebrities – all of whom hold a deep interest in our nation's prosperity and security."
The Republican party needs to be placed on "The List" of terrorist related organizations and watched very carefully.
It is pretty apparent that the FBI and Homeland Security are wasting their time watching us liberal/peacenik/Quaker/progressive/etc. types. Just ask Ken Krayeske...
[updates] Thank you to those that got this story moving. Raw Story, Crooks and Liars, and Josh Marshall, whose his readers have been dig, dig, digging:
Choice artifacts they have dug up?
This:
Never too Late for this Story Update: Oh that's interesting. Cunning Realist found this CV purportedly posted by Mr. Alishtari. In addition to other GOP donor awards, Alishtari says that he was appointed to something called the "White House Business Advisory Committee" in 2003. And CR ends with this point, referencing Alishtari's CV: "Note the entrepreneurial business background with a focus on technology/security. Have any of those businesses ever received government contracts or funds? Any direct or indirect contact in the past with anyone from the Bush administration or Congress?"
That:
It tuns out Mr. Alishtari, the GOP campaign contributor indicted for sending funds for terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, had a fairly lively life online. TPM Reader TDP points to what purports to be Alishtari's blog. And in a rather rambling post there's a reference to an alleged meeting with VP Dick Cheney. "When I went to DC in the Fall of 2003 and met with VP Cheney, I was first in a room full of advisors where I asked how to resolve this and they advised me to talk to counsels which led to this solution."
Now, we can't be certain that this is actually Alishtari's blog, though I think the weight of evidence suggests that it is.
And the other thing:
He contributed a decent amount of money to GOP congressional campaign committees in the 2002 and 2004 cycles and managed get named to a number of 'committees' and 'councils' set up as perks for GOP campaign contributors, including something called the "White House Business Advisory Committee."
Now a reader of the Cunning Realist blog has dug up the archived version of the website of Mr. Alishtari's company, GlobalProtector, which shows that at the same time Alishtari was giving money to the GOP he was bidding on multiple government contracts -- including ones with the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.
"A Westchester businessman and purported peace activist was nabbed by the feds for allegedly plotting to funnel more than $150,000 to terrorists at training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Peace activist my ass! This guy is so up to his eyeballs in the GOP and full of it.
As it turned out Alishtari actually donated more than the originally reported $15,500 to the Republican party coffers... About $35,000 in total.
Abdul TawalaIbn Ali Alishtari, indicted two weeks ago for financing terrorists in Afghanistan among other charges, gave more than $35,000 to Republican campaign committees, not $15,000 as was reported earlier.
A $20,000 contribution from Alishtari to the National Republican Senatorial Committee on August 29th, 2003, was not previously reported because his name was misspelled ("Allshtari") on the NRSC's disclosure form to the Federal Election Commission (unfortunately, such misspellings are fairly frequent). Alishtari'sonline CV stated that he was named an "Inner Circle Member for Life" of the NRSC.
"Oops! Building on my last post on the NRCC's bogus Business Advisory Council and 'Businessman of the Year' program, it turns out that Abdul TawalaIbn Ali Alishtari isn't the first member of the council to be indicted on charges of supporting terrorism.
YasithChhun, the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a group designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization, was indicted in May of 2005 for charges of plotting to overthrow the Cambodian government. He was also, The LosAngeles Times reported, a member of the NRCC's Business Advisory Council:"
Chhun is set to go to trial next month and has been indicted for "attempting to kill the prime minister, attack government buildings and launch small-scale attacks on karaoke bars and fuel depots in an effort to galvanize opposition to the PhnomPenh government," according to the La Times.
Attacking Karaoke bars? Some might argue that he was doing a public service there. (JK)
When will the United States government outlaw the GOP for their ties to global terrorism? heh
No matter how you look at it... We will always be fighting them OVER HERE, regardless of the political party in charge. The one other thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that while we are fighting them over here already, many of them clearly are REPUBLICAN TERRORISTS.
Figure the odds, eh?
So the Republican party can shut their gaping pieholes when they try and label liberals, progressives and dems as "emboldening", "giving comfort to," "etc. ad nauseam," the enemy in any way related to terrorism.
You lying and incompetent fuckwads in the Republican party have done more to further terrorists' causes "OVER HERE" than most of the other terrorist leaders in your GWOT combined.
The one and only thing that has kept us safe "OVER HERE," so far, is the fact that the FBI and the CIA don't buy the GOP'sridiculous talking points. And nobody else is buying your propaganda either.
