under the mainstream radar...

[jonnygemini]

from the washington times/united press international
washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050613-102755-6408r.htm

A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling." Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings."

also (same source):

Two years after President George W. Bush proclaimed "mission accomplished" in Iraq, some thoughtful officers are beginning to question who the insurgents actually are. In a recent interview the head of the US 42nd Infantry Division which covers key trouble spots, including Baquba and Samarra Major General Joseph Taluto said he could understand why some ordinary Iraqis would take up arms against U.S. forces because "they're offended by our presence." Taluto added, "If a good, honest person feels having all these Humvees driving on the road, having us moving people out of the way, having us patrol the streets, having car bombs going off, you can understand how they could (want to fight us). There is a sense of a good resistance, or an accepted resistance. They say 'okay, if you shoot a coalition soldier, that's okay, it's not a bad thing but you shouldn't kill other Iraqis.'" Taluto insisted however that the other foreign forces would not be driven out of Iraq by violence, observing, "If the goal is to have the coalition leave, attacking them isn't the way," he said. "The way to make it happen is to enter the political process cooperate and the coalition will be less aggressive and less visible and eventually it'll go away." Taluto's comments are sure to raise hackles at the Pentagon, which insist that all insurgents are either Baathists or al-Qaida. Taluto observed that "99.9 per cent" of those captured fighting the U.S. were Iraqis.

[jonnygemini]

Int'l Herald Tribune
www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/22/news/social.php

WASHINGTON The Social Security Administration has relaxed its privacy restrictions and turned over information on thousands of people to the FBI as part of terrorism investigations since the Sept. 11 attacks, newly disclosed records and interviews showed.

While the agency, whose main role is running the retirement benefit system, typically bans disclosure of such sensitive information, officials began providing information after the attacks to help the FBI get data on hijackers, possible terrorists and even victims. The disclosures came in agency documents obtained by a private group through a freedom-of-information request and provided to The New York Times. Social Security officials authorized a policy allowing the FBI to gain access in some cases to the documents, including earnings and employer information. In the past, the agency had insisted on disclosing information only for someone who had been indicted.

"We ran thousands of Social Security numbers," said a former senior official at the FBI who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We got very useful information, that's for sure."

Some privacy advocates and members of Congress said they were troubled.

"We in Congress were never told about this," Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, said. "If we don't know when the Social Security Administration decides to change its rules to disclose personal information, I think Americans have a right to be skeptical about their privacy.

Global War on Terrorism: "Wrong Concept"
www.ericumansky.com/2005/06/global_war_on_t.html

That line comes from an unlikely source: Three star General Wallace Gregson, currently commander of Marine forces in the Pacific. It's all part of a fascinating talk he gave recently at the Naval War College, which was picked up by Inside Defense, the highly respected and highly expensive industry newsletter. Unless you pay you can't play, but here are some excerpts:

This war has a popular label and a political label, but it’s not accurate,” said Gregson. “Terrorism is a means of power projection, it’s a weapon, it’s a tool of war. Think of it as our enemy’s stealth bomber. This is no more a war on terrorism than World War II was a war on submarines. It’s not just semantics . . . Words have meaning. And these words are leading us down to the wrong concept.”

Gregson added, “What we’re fighting is an insurgency defined as a popular movement that seeks to change the status quo through violence, subversion, propaganda, terrorism or other military action. But it’s different from other national insurgencies that we’ve known in the past. This one is networked thanks to the wonders of technology. It’s primarily ideologically driven, fundamentalist and extremist.”

[...]

“It’s a collection or a confederation of movements empowered by regional and global fundamentalist extremist insurgents,” Gregson said. “You can borrow an old phrase and say they think globally and act locally.”

[...] “The center of gravity, the decisive terrain in this war is the vast majority of people who are not directly involved but whose support, willing or coerced, is necessary to insurgent operations around the world,” he said. “Hearts and minds are more important than capturing and killing people.”

“The main thrust of my remarks was that we know we’re stuck with the name, it’s going to be the global war on terrorism. . . . But even though we’ve got that name out there, we’ve got to at least in the security community and then further on through the greater world . . . explain what we’re about here and get it into something that is properly categorized and puts us on the side of the angels in various areas.”

We have a chance to start winning this war here and walk it back into the Middle East, but we can’t just continue to admire the problem,” Gregson said. “We have to start doing something and we have to start walking the propaganda back in the other direction and get ourselves on the right side of this issue.”

Providing doctors, engineers, dentists, veterinarians and other aid to enhance the lives of people living in very troubled parts of the world is “often far more important than projecting some type of force,” Gregson said.

Let's give General Gregson a promotion (and maybe a column in the Nation)! More thoughts later, but I of course, am happy to see a top military man talking this way.

Police Investigate Bizarre Vandalism in Deerfield
www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=3503449&nav=2FH5bIAk

When Joe Johnson woke up Sunday morning, the eagle proudly perched atop his mailbox was spray painted bright orange and the word NINJA was stenciled in underneath it.

"I tried a pressure washer and it wouldn't come off, so I don't really know what I'm [going to] do to get it off."

Neighbors aren't sure how the vandals got into Deerfield, especially since it's a gated community.

"When you come in through the golf course and [the] gate is locked, they [have] a place where you can walk to get through so you won't have to come through the gates up there."

Investigators have no idea who's behind the graffiti, but whoever it is has been busy. Five homes on Deerfield Street alone have been hit.

Detective John Davis said, "It's not your typical gang graffiti that we're dealing with out here at all. We can't classify this as gang graffiti, right now, we're looking at it as criminal mischief. Normally, they don't use a stencil and make perfect little letters when they're doing their spray painting."

Homes aren't the only targets of the stencil suspects, Starbucks and Fox Run apartments have also been sprayed, as well as The Lufkin Mall and two cars that belong to the Angelina County Sheriff's Office.

If you know who's responsible, call the Lufkin Police Department and ask for someone in the Criminal Investigations Division.

[SAMURAI36]

jonnygemini said:

from the washington times/united press international
washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050613-102755-6408r.htm

A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling." Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings."

This is the story that I've been trying to tell people for YEARS, since this whole fiasco happened. However, people refuse to believe it, even now......

I just sent the link to several people here at work, and most of them were all like "man, I don't believe that".......

Even though the WASHINGTON TIMES covered the story??

At what point do people begin to accept the truth?

Oh well, at least I know.

PEACE

[jonnygemini]

Peace Sam7...Peace and Understanding

Boy do I feel you on that!! I have to watch what I say and to whom with almost paranoid caution...I feel like I have to dumb myself down and self-censor in order to have a conversation with 90% of the people I encounter...But yes, at least WE know whats up...I was in the NBC newsroom in Laredo, TX on the morning of 9/11 and when I saw both towers fall I KNEW it was controlled demo...can't support that with any data I have access to...I'm saying I just felt it in my gut while watching the scence unfold that when you take a corner out of the structure any tower it will not implode and fall in on itself in a perfect pancake action...

Another weird coincidance....Univ7 posted this link in another thread:
The coming financial crash
by Kent Daniel Bentkowski
www.rense.com/general65/Coming_Financial_Crash.pdf

I took an online class from Robert Anton Wilson with the author and it is THE most lucid, terrifying explanation of the current state of affairs I have ever read...Bentkowski is legit, I can definitely vouch for him after interacting with him in class...Smart dude...read that .pdf if you get the chance and plan accordingly...

Peace

jg

[SAMURAI36]

jonnygemini said:

Peace Sam7...Peace and Understanding

Boy do I feel you on that!! I have to watch what I say and to whom with almost paranoid caution...I feel like I have to dumb myself down and self-censor in order to have a conversation with 90% of the people I encounter...But yes, at least WE know whats up...I was in the NBC newsroom in Laredo, TX on the morning of 9/11 and when I saw both towers fall I KNEW it was controlled demo...can't support that with any data I have access to...I'm saying I just felt it in my gut while watching the scence unfold that when you take a corner out of the structure any tower it will not implode and fall in on itself in a perfect pancake action...

Actually, I DO have scientific info on the subject of 9/11, but it's difficult to convey on-line (I would have to talk with you either face-to-face or on the phone to share it with you), which is why I haven't shared it already on-line.

I also have empirical knowledge about several other subjects (APOLLO 13 MISSION = LIE, Food that people eat = LIE, etc), just waiting to be shared.

But regardless, that's what a site like this CRADLE is for.

I took an online class from Robert Anton Wilson with the author and it is THE most lucid, terrifying explanation of the current state of affairs I have ever read...Bentkowski is legit, I can definitely vouch for him after interacting with him in class...Smart dude...read that .pdf if you get the chance and plan accordingly...

Yes, I've read many of WILSON's works:

PROMETHEUS RISING
EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL
ILLUMINATUS TRILOGY

A profound and prolific writer indeed, that is often slept on.

I'll definitely do the knowleddge on this PDF.

In the meantime, check out the STAR WARS thread in the SILVER SCREEN section, for another "lucid, terrifying explanation of the current state of affairs".

PEACE

[Kephrem]

Thanks for the information JONNY, I'll be sure to pass it on, maybe it'll wake some heads up.....


PEACE

[jonnygemini]

Peace Sam...Peace Keph

I printed out the article on the parallels between Star Wars and our gov't to read on the bus ride home today...thanks...

Very pissed off today since the DEA, FBI and federales are out raiding my pot spots here in San Fran after the supreme court decision 2 weeks ago...I moved back to Cali so I wouldn't have to sweat getting locked up over a plant...now I'll have to wait and see what happens

even more disturbing shit...
from washington post
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202305_pf.html

Pentagon Creating Student Database
Recruiting Tool For Military Raises Privacy Concerns

By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; A01

The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., one of many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of data to target potential customers based on their personal profiles and habits.

"The purpose of the system . . . is to provide a single central facility within the Department of Defense to compile, process and distribute files of individuals who meet age and minimum school requirements for military service," according to the official notice of the program.

Privacy advocates said the plan appeared to be an effort to circumvent laws that restrict the government's right to collect or hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work.

Some information on high school students already is given to military recruiters in a separate program under provisions of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Recruiters have been using the information to contact students at home, angering some parents and school districts around the country.

School systems that fail to provide that information risk losing federal funds, although individual parents or students can withhold information that would be transferred to the military by their districts. John Moriarty, president of the PTA at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, said the issue has "generated a great deal of angst" among many parents participating in an e-mail discussion group.

Under the new system, additional data will be collected from commercial data brokers, state drivers' license records and other sources, including information already held by the military.

"Using multiple sources allows the compilation of a more complete list of eligible candidates to join the military," according to written statements provided by Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke in response to questions. "This program is important because it helps bolster the effectiveness of all the services' recruiting and retention efforts."

The Pentagon's statements added that anyone can "opt out" of the system by providing detailed personal information that will be kept in a separate "suppression file." That file will be matched with the full database regularly to ensure that those who do not wish to be contacted are not, according to the Pentagon.

But privacy advocates said using database marketers for military recruitment is inappropriate.

"We support the U.S. armed forces, and understand that DoD faces serious challenges in recruiting for the military," a coalition of privacy groups wrote to the Pentagon after notice of the program was published in the Federal Register a month ago. "But . . . the collection of this information is not consistent with the Privacy Act, which was passed by Congress to reduce the government's collection of personal information on Americans."

Chris Jay Hoofnagle, West Coast director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the system "an audacious plan to target-market kids, as young as 16, for military solicitation."

He added that collecting Social Security numbers was not only unnecessary but posed a needless risk of identity fraud. Theft of Social Security numbers and other personal information from data brokers, government agencies, financial institutions and other companies is rampant.

"What's ironic is that the private sector has ways of uniquely identifying individuals without using Social Security numbers for marketing," he said.

The Pentagon statements said the military is "acutely aware of the substantial security required to protect personal data," and that Social Security numbers will be used only to "provide a higher degree of accuracy in matching duplicate data records."

The Pentagon said it routinely monitors its vendors to ensure compliance with its security standards.

Krenke said she did not know how much the contract with BeNow was worth, or whether it was bid competitively.

Officials at BeNow did not return several messages seeking comment. The company's Web site does not have a published privacy policy, nor does it list either a chief privacy officer or security officer on its executive team.

According to the Federal Register notice, the data will be open to "those who require the records in the performance of their official duties." It said the data would be protected by passwords.

The system also gives the Pentagon the right, without notifying citizens, to share the data for numerous uses outside the military, including with law enforcement, state tax authorities and Congress.

Some see the program as part of a growing encroachment of government into private lives, particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"It's just typical of how voracious government is when it comes to personal information," said James W. Harper, a privacy expert with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "Defense is an area where government has a legitimate responsibility . . . but there are a lot of data fields they don't need and shouldn't be keeping. Ethnicity strikes me as particularly inappropriate."

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Social Security Administration relaxed its privacy policies and provided data on citizens to the FBI in connection with terrorism investigations.

Supreme Court: Homes can be seized for private development
www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/23/scotus.property.ap/index.html
www.reason.com/hitandrun/2005/06/whats_yours_is.shtml#009953

June 23, 2005
What's Yours is Mine

The Supreme Court has rendered its verdict in Kelo v. New London, and the widely-expected result has come to pass: a 5-4 loss for property rights. As Raich taught us that growing pot in your backyard for personal consumption is "interstate commerce," Kelo informs us that taking people's homes to hand over to private developers building an office complex is a "public use."

You do wonder: Now that the "liberal" justices on the court have sided with the drug warriors against cancer patients, and with a plan to rob people of their homes for the benefit of wealthy developers, will some court-watchers on the left begin to question the wisdom of having let economic freedom become the red-headed stepchild of modern jurisprudence?

UPDATE: The opinions are here. As with Raich (in a sense just a reaffirmation of Wickard), we're just seeing a particularly outrageous confirmation of what was already, in effect, the law. As the majority opinion says, quoting an earlier decision, the "Court long ago rejected any literal requirement that condemned property be put into use for the ... public." Which is to say, they've rejected the notion that "public use" means anything more stringent than: "legislators want to do this." The Court's view is that any "public purpose" will do, and such purposes apparently include increased tax revenue. The straightforward implication is that any taking of a private residence to hand it over to a business, or just from a poor person to a wealthy person, will be a taking in service of a public purpose: As a general rule, the rich pay more taxes than the poor, and businesses pay more taxes than households.

inverential peace

jg