In A Move That We Doubt Aaron Swartz Would Approve Reddit Moderator Bans Edward Snowden

Reddit Bans Edward Snowden, Flames Glenn Greenwald In ‘Citizenfour’ Documentary AMA

 

 

 

” Edward Snowden says the only thing he regrets about his revelations regarding NSA surveillance is that he didn’t do it sooner. The former NSA analyst took part in a question-and-answer session on Reddit along with filmmaker Laura Poitras and and journalist Glenn Greenwald Monday.

  The trio appeared on the site to celebrate the Academy Award that “Citizenfour,” a documentary that depicts some of the earliest interviews between journalists and Snowden, received. The NSA leaker was temporarily banned from the popular submission site during the community Q&A, also known as an “ask me anything” or AMA.

” Hey guys, sorry — the reddit mods are being a little weird. My account is /u/SuddenlySnowden,” Snowden said. “Mods: Can you pull back the ban? I can’t post from the primary account. Thanks.”

  Snowden’s account was restored nine minutes later, but not before a Reddit moderator confronted him for complaining about the ban. The Reddit volunteer then got into a spat with Greenwald, later inferring the journalist was intellectually disabled.”

We doubt Aaron would approve , but then a lot of the Reddit moderators are as*holes . Read more

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US Has Fallen From 21st to 49th In Press Freedom Since Obama Took Office

The Government’s War On Freedom Of The Press

 

   Ed. Note: The US is so far down the list that we had to shrink the screen down to 25% to get this screen shot and even then we were unable to capture the top seven nations . They are Finland , Norway , Denmark , Netherlands , Sweden , New Zealand and Austria . Click the image for all of the details.

 

 

 

” The U.S. plummeted to a dismal 49th place on the Reporters Without Borders annual Press Freedom Index, marking the country’s second lowest ranking since the list was created in 2002 and its lowest since 2006. Other countries ranked in the 40s and 50s include Haiti, Mongolia, and Chile.

  The index cited “judicial harassment” of New York Times reporter James Risen, the arbitrary arrest of at least 15 journalists during the Ferguson, Missouri clashes, and the fact that U.S. journalists are still not legally entitled to protect sources who reveal confidential information about their work.

  The U.S.’s slip in press freedom rankings mirrors its seven-place drop in Freedom House’s Global Press Freedom Index from 2013-2014, though the country still ranks among the 14 percent of countries whose press is classified as “free” in the latter scale.

  Reality may be even worse than the rankings suggest. Legal protections for the press have only eroded since the 2006 trough year when the Bush Administration threatened to prosecute Risen for publishing stories chronicling warrantless wiretapping of citizens’ phone calls.

  Since the Obama Administration took power, it has used the Espionage Act to prosecute data leakers a record seven times—more than every other president combined in the law’s nearly 100-year history—a Fox News journalist has been spied on by the Justice Department under the justification that he’s a criminal conspirator, Wikileaks creator Julian Assange has been declared “a hi-tech terrorist,” and the Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court ruling against Risen stating that the First Amendment doesn’t protect him from refusing to testify about a whistleblower that allegedly leaked classified information about the CIA’s efforts to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.

  Reports from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald even suggest that media outlets routinely vet their articles with government officials before publishing them.”

 

 

 By way of comparison , in 2009 when Obama took office the US was ranked in a tie with the UK for 21st place by Reporters Without Borders (again , click the image for the details) :

 

 

Reason has more on this “Change” we can believe in …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Air Marshals Accuse TSA Brass Of Covering Up Misconduct , Warring On Whistleblowers

Transportation Secrecy Administration

 

 

 

 

” Current and former federal air marshals allege that the Transportation Security Administration intentionally hid embarrassing  information about supervisors’ misconduct and targeted employees who sought to expose the truth.

  The allegations revolve around TSA management’s overuse of an agency-specific designation called Sensitive Security Information (SSI). Though it is not classified, information deemed SSI is supposed to be kept from the public because it would harm transportation security. The marshals claim that the TSA has repeatedly abused the SSI classification, even going so far as to use it on fictitious information, in an effort to keep the public in the dark.

  One current federal air marshal, whose name has been withheld for fear of retaliation, asserts that the TSA has repeatedly sought to silence its employees.

“ When it comes to the Air Marshal Service and TSA, when they are determined to f*** you, they are going to f***ing do everything in their power to make you out to be the bad guy, and they will twist every single word that they can to reflect their position [rather] than the truth,” says the marshal. “They want you to shut up, get on the plane, and sit down. They don’t want to fix any of the problems that exist.”

  The marshal is not alone in making such allegations. In 2011, the TSA fired former federal air marshal Jose Job Lacson, who goes by the name “Jay.” Officially, Lacson was terminated for releasing SSI material online, despite his assertion that he made up the material in question. But he believes the TSA actually sought to punish him for blowing the whistle on his bosses. “

 

National Review Online has more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Time Magazine Opines On The Secrecy Of The Obama Administration … Blames Bloggers

Bloggers, Surveillance And Obama’s Orwellian State

 

 

 

 

 

“ After resigning as the press secretary for President Obama on June 20, Carney gave insight into the Obama administration’s handling of classified documents, and responded to criticism that this administration has been the most Orwellian in recent history.

“ I know — because I covered them — that this was said of Clinton and Bush, and it will probably be said of the next White House,” said Carney in a recent New York Times Magazine interview. “I think a little perspective is useful…It is a serious, serious matter to leak classified information. Some of the debate around this kind of forgets how serious that is.”

 

 

Even in retiring Carney can’t help but pull out the old “Bush did it” card …

 

 

” But, it could also be the changing nature of the relationship between the media and the White House. At a recent event at the New America Foundation, journalists and historians challenged Carney, arguing that this White House has been more secret than previous occupants.

“Increasingly, the Obama White House has become so brittle, and so controlling of the message, that people are afraid to respond to me,” said Kimberly Dozier, a former Associated Press reporter. She was one of the journalists whose phone records were obtained by the Department of Justice last spring during its investigation into a leak of classified information about a failed Al-Qaeda plot. The scope of that investigation, some critics said, was unprecedented overreach.

  According to ProPublica, the Obama administration has filed eight cases under the Espionage Act, which criminalizes disclosing information harmful to national security. Before the Obama administration, only three known cases had ever been charged under the act.”

 

    In the end Time reverts to it’s roots and blames bloggers in justifying the administration crack-down on journalistic freedom , comparing bloggers to “pamphleteers” and calling for them to uphold “the same standards as 20th century journalists” … LOL , not exactly setting a very high bar now are they ?  … Read the rest at Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Border Patrol Bigs Threatening Agents Into Silence

Border Patrol Tells Agent: ‘You Must Cease and Desist’ From Speaking With Media

 

 

 

 

 

” The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has served one of its agents with a letter saying “you must immediately cease and desist” from issuing statements and press releases to the media with information that is “Law Enforcement sensitive,” according to the document, obtained by National Review Online.  

  Kathleen Scudder, assistant chief patrol agent of the San Diego Sector, sent the letter to agent Ron Zermeno, health and safety director of National Border Patrol Council Local 1613, notifying him of an investigation into his conduct and to “remind” him that no agent should make statements or issue press releases “without proper authorization.”  

  Zermeno confirmed the validity of the letter to NRO. He says he thinks the order is retaliation for his actions as a whistleblower, which have involved exposing the public-health risks associated with the illegal immigrants transported to the San Diego Sector. “As a union officer, I feel it’s my job to expose when management is putting people at risk,” he says. “They violated their oath as Border Patrol agents.” “

 

 

   The NRO continues to expose the Fed’s efforts to stifle the few truth-tellers willing to come forward and speak out against the policies of this “most open , honest and transparent” administration .

Illustration by Michael Ramirez

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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IRS Gives Bonuses To Workers Facing Disciplinary Action & Ones Who Owe Back Taxes

Another Smidgen Of IRS Corruption

 

 

 

 

 

” There’s nothing like the truth to erode the credibility of America’s chief executive. Remember when President Obama told Bill O’Reilly during his Super Bowl interview “There is not a smidgen of corruption,” referring to the IRS?

  Not only does it appear there might be a “smidgen” of corruption, there is apparently a steaming pile of incompetence as well. According to a report by the Associated Press, the Internal Revenue Service has paid more than $2.8 million in bonuses. More than 2,800 workers got bonuses despite facing a disciplinary action in the previous year, including 1,150 who owed back taxes. A report by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration indicates the bonuses were awarded from October 2010 through December 2012. George also uncovered the IRS targeting of conservative groups for which he was viciously attacked by liberal progressives.”

 

Read more

Illustration by Michael Ramirez

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More Revelations Of State Department Corruption Under Hillary Emerge

Murder In Juarez

 

 

 

 

 

” David Farrington, a U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) service agent, has been vexed by a troubling question for the past several years. He has reason to suspect a colleague deliberately failed to warn an American working at a U.S. consulate in Mexico that she was targeted for assassination by a drug cartel.

  Farrington, a former Marine and 10-year veteran of the State Department’s security service, was the first agent to get to the scene of the March 13, 2010, Juarez murders—another car carrying a consulate employee was attacked as well—and caught the case, as they say in police lingo. But his revulsion quickly turned to consternation, and then obsession, when he began asking questions about the whereabouts of the consulate’s chief security officer that day. Eventually, he was taken off the case, according to State Department emails obtained by Newsweek, relieved of his badge and gun, and ordered to undergo a psychological fitness review. But he hasn’t given up.”

 

 

 

Benghazi is not the only place where Hillary and Obama’s State Dept let Americans die …

 

 

 

” Leslie Enriquez and her husband were gunned down as they drove away from a birthday party in the drug-and-violence-wracked border city of Juarez four years ago last month. Nearly simultaneously, another car leaving the party was sprayed with bullets, killing the husband of a Mexican employee of the U.S. consulate. A senior Mexican police official said later that a drug cartel enforcer who confessed to the murders claimed Enriquez was targeted because she was helping a rival gang with U.S. visas—an allegation denied by U.S. officials.”

 

 

 

The rot in Obama & Hillary’s State Dept knows no bounds …

 

 

” Documents show that the Juarez case was just one of a slew of episodes in which investigators charged that senior State Department officials deep-sixed investigations to protect careers or avoid scandal. In June 2013, CBS News aired a report by John Miller, a former FBI chief spokesman, based on an internal IG memo citing instances in which “investigations were influenced, manipulated or simply called off” by senior department officials. The most sensational case involved allegations that the American ambassador to Belgium routinely shook off his security detail to pursue sex with hookers and/or minor children in a city park. He was quietly replaced.

  Other cover-ups cited by Miller involved allegations that a diplomatic security agent in Beirut “engaged in sexual assaults’ on foreign nationals hired as embassy guards; that an “underground drug ring” in Baghdad may have supplied narcotics to State Department security contractors; and that agents in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail “engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries”—a problem the IG report described as “endemic.”

 

 

 

   Read the whole sordid story at Newsweek , although for all of the information provided about massive corruption within the State Department there is not a single mention of the bosses , Hillary and Obama . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thank You, Edward Snowden!

From Reason …

 

 

 

” Since November, advertisements featuring the face of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have been wrapped around several city buses roaming the streets and avenues of Washington, D.C. The can’t-miss ads featuring whistleblower Snowden’s goateed visage cover most of the outside of the buses.

  The ads are part of the Thank You, Edward Snowden campaign headed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a left-leaning public interest organization that focuses on defending activists’ free speech rights. According to the group’s executive director, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the ads were funded by donations from some 30,000 citizens.” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lerner Emails/Documents To Be Given Up By IRS

IRS Handing Over Lerner Documents To Ways And Means

 

 

 

 

 

” The Internal Revenue Service will give documents and emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner to the House Ways and Means Committee, House Republicans announced Friday. 

  The news was released in a statement from committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, who said the IRS was finally handing over the documents he requested months ago, as his committee continues its investigation into the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups. 

” From the few Lerner documents we have received, we know that Washington, D.C., orchestrated the targeting of groups applying for tax-exempt status, surveillance of existing tax-exempt groups and formed the proposed 501(c)(4) rules designed to push conservative groups out of the public forum,” Camp said. 

” The remaining documents are key to determining the level of wrong doing and deception committed by this agency,” he added. “

Read on at Newsmax

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edward Snowden Elected Rector Of University Of Glasgow

Edward Snowden, Winnie Mandela, Ross Kemp: All The Greats Have Been Rector Of Glasgow University

 

 

 

 

” What were Glasgow’s students thinking when earlier this week they elected Edward Snowden as Rector of that ancient and great institution?In Scottish universities the office of Rector is an important role. Not only is it his or her job to represent the interests of undergraduates. A good Rector can also play a key role in the development of the university.

  Snowden cannot possibly do the job, because he is in hiding or on the run. Perhaps, from a top secret location, he could be “Skyped” in virtually to chair the university court, one of the functions of he is supposed to fulfill at the University of Glasgow. The moment I suggested that there I regretted it. That’s what they’re going to do, isn’t it? The designer protest Rector of the tech generation, who is at war with the US government over internet spying, can be beamed in remotely, thus “sticking it to the man”.

  In truth, much of the outraged reaction from traditionalists over Snowden’s election is hugely overdone. The whistleblower Snowden is merely the latest in a long and quixotic line of choices. All the greats have been Glasgow Rector. Winnie Mandela did the gig, although it was never clear whether she actually knew she had been elected. Questions were asked about the validity of her nomination papers and the authenticity of her signature. Her supporters in the Labour Club always insisted she had signed up.”

 

The Telegraph has more

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Snowden Seeking Asylum In Brazil

SNOWDEN: NSA’S INDISCRIMINATE SPYING ‘COLLAPSING’

 

 

 

” National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden wrote in a lengthy “open letter to the people of Brazil” that he’s been inspired by the global debate ignited by his release of thousands of National Security Agency documents, and that the NSA’s culture of indiscriminate global espionage “is collapsing.”

  In the letter, obtained on Tuesday by The Associated Press, Snowden commended the Brazilian government for its strong stand against U.S. spying.

  He said he’d be willing to help the South American nation investigate NSA spying on its soil, but could not fully participate in doing so without being granted political asylum, because the U.S. “government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak.” “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Security Expert Builds Frag Grenade In Minutes With Airport Purchased Materials

Frag Grenade In 8 Minutes

 

” Security researcher builds grenade in under 8 minutes using items available in airport terminal.All materials required to build this weapons were purchased in an airport AFTER the security screening.”

This is a profoundly disturbing video .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Military Brass Were Relieved Of Command After Benghazi For Insisting On A Rescue Op

Benghazi Attorney: Very Good Evidence People Were RELIEVED OF DUTY Because They Insisted On A Military Response

 

 

 

 

” Benghazi whistleblower attorney Joe DiGenova was on with WMAL this morning to talk Benghazi after last night’s 60 minutes piece and noted toward the end of the interview that there is very good evidence that people were relieved of command because they insisted on a military response and refused to not dispatch troops to aid our men on the ground in Benghazi. He also stated that the main reason there was no response was because the president went to sleep and refused to issue an order allowing our troops to fly into Libya.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Attend The “Stop Watching Us” Rally In DC Today , Or Watch Live Feed From Earthcam

Techies Concerned Over NSA Surveillance Will March In D.C., Proclaiming ‘Stop Watching Us’

” Organizers hope to draw a couple of thousand protesters to the rally and march, set to kick off at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in front of Union Station before moving to the Reflecting Pool at the Capitol. Speakers will include Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), former congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake and former Army Lt. Dan Choi, who is a gay-rights activist.” 

” Hosted by a hodgepodge coalition that includes the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as well as libertarian-leaning groups such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and FreedomWorks, the Stop Watching Us organizers hope for a diverse crowd that includes the Internet-weary. No need to RSVP by name: Just show up! Don’t worry about those addresses they’re collecting from you — it’s just to let lawmakers know that an actual constituent has shown up; no other use for the data planned.

But it’s the Internet-savvy who represent the beating heart of the movement. At a training session Friday morning on the Hill, a few gray-haired activists and policy wonks stood out in a crowd dominated by the postgrad vibe — beards, glasses, shaggy hair — of techies on their day off from the cubicle farm.”

 

    Click the picture above to go to the Washington Monument Earthcam  that provides a live feed of the National Mall and can be zoomed in to see the Capitol Reflecting Pool , albeit a bit pixilated . Union Station , being a transportation hub is devoid of street cameras so this is the only live view that we could locate to watch the demonstration . 

 Here are some links to traffic cameras in the area . Perhaps viewers with a better knowledge of the DC area can find other viewing alternatives .

TrafficLand Cameras

DDOT Cameras

   Here is a map of the area involved today including Union Station and the roads leading to the Capitol Reflecting Pool.

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Washington Times Engages Government In War Against Journalists

Armed Agents Seize Records Of Reporter, Washington Times Prepares Legal Action

 

 

” Maryland state police and federal agents used a search warrant in an unrelated criminal investigation to seize the private reporting files of an award-winning former investigative journalist for The Washington Times who had exposed problems in the Homeland Security Department’s Federal Air Marshal Service.

Reporter Audrey Hudson said the investigators, who included an agent for Homeland’s Coast Guard service, took her private notes and government documents that she had obtained under the Freedom of Information Act during a predawn raid of her family home on Aug. 6.

The documents, some which chronicled her sources and her work at the Times about problems inside the Homeland Security Department, were seized under a warrant to search for unregistered firearms and a “potato gun” suspected of belonging to her husband, Paul Flanagan, a Coast Guard employee. Mr. Flanagan has not been charged with any wrongdoing since the raid.

The warrant, obtained by the Times, offered no specific permission to seize reporting notes or files.

The Washington Times said Friday it is preparing legal action to fight what it called an unwarranted intrusion on the First Amendment.”

    We posted about this blatant , illegal fishing expedition yesterday . This piece offers considerably more detail than was available yesterday , including the fact the Mr Flanagan has been arrested on “gun charges” more than once  , but more importantly , that Ms Hudson has been the cause of numerous governmental investigations and much embarrassment over the course of her career in DC . She is certainly an enemy of the State .

 

 

” Mrs. Hudson has been a reporter in Washington, D.C. for nearly 15 years, and covered Homeland Security for the Times after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks through December 2009.

Her investigations have sparked numerous congressional investigations that led to laws signed by former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. She has won numerous journalism awards for her investigations, including the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi bronze medal for public service, the Society of Professional Journalists Dateline Award in Investigative Reporting, and was nominated twice by The Times for the Pulitzer Prize.”

 

 

Another battle in the war on whistleblowers/journalists is enjoined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Health Insurance Cancellations Dwarf Enrollments … Ah That Hope & Change

Health Insurance Cancellation Notices Soar Above Obamacare Enrollment Rates

 

 

 

 

” Hundreds of thousands of Americans who purchase their own health insurance have received cancellation notices since August because the plans do not meet Obamacare’s requirements.

The number of cancellation notices greatly exceed the number of Obamacare enrollees.

Insurance carrier Florida Blue sent out 300,000 cancellation notices, or 80 percent of the entire state’s individual coverage policies, Kaiser Health News reports. California’s Kaiser Permanente canceled 160,000 plans — half of its insurance plans in the state — while Blue Shield of California sent 119,000 notices in mid-September alone.”

 

    No one can say exactly how great is the divide between new enrollments and cancellations because “the most open , honest and transparent administration” in our nation’s history refuses to release the success rates of new enrollments . Does anyone doubt that if the numbers were good Obama would be pounding his chest and bragging about how many lives have been bettered by HIS good work ?

 

” But it’s difficult to determine exactly how lopsided the rates of cancellations versus the rates of enrollment are — the Obama administration jealously guards the official enrollment numbers, refusing to release them to even the law’s loyal Democratic supporters.

Several states have released Obamacare enrollment data , however, revealing extremely low rates. South Dakota reported that only 23 people enrolled in the exchanges, a mere 0.0000276 percent of that state’s population. North Dakota enrolled only 20 residents.

Alaska, meanwhile, comes in at seven total enrollees, or 0.000957 percent of Alaskans.

Sources inside the Department of Health and Human Services told The Daily Mail that only 6,200 Americans signed up for coverage the day HealthCare.gov launched, while only 51,000 applied in the first week.”

     Remember those promises about openness , honesty and transparency ? Neither do we . Promises are nothing but empty words to the man from Kenya , Indonesia , Hawaii , Chicago , yeah that’s it , Chicago . Who can forget this whopper ? The one that sold suckered the public on Obamacare .

 

 

    Can you keep your plan ? Hundreds of thousands , soon to be millions , can’t , how about you ? How’s that for Hope & Change ?

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The “Smart Diplomacy” Surveillance Club Just Grew Exponentially … NSA Bugged 35 World Leaders

NSA Monitored Calls Of 35 World Leaders After US Official Handed Over Contacts

 

 

 

 

” The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its “customer” departments, such the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their “Rolodexes” so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.

The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately “tasked” for monitoring by the NSA.

The revelation is set to add to mounting diplomatic tensions between the US and its allies, after the German chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday accused the US of tapping her mobile phone.

After Merkel’s allegations became public, White House press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement that said the US “is not monitoring and will not monitor” the German chancellor’s communications. But that failed to quell the row, as officials in Berlin quickly pointed out that the US did not deny monitoring the phone in the past.

The NSA memo obtained by the Guardian suggests that such surveillance was not isolated, as the agency routinely monitors the phone numbers of world leaders – and even asks for the assistance of other US officials to do so.”

 

Read more at the Guardian

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ACLU Finally Takes An Interest In “Fast & Furious”

The Ministry of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Truth

 

Agent Jaime Zapata

 

 

Agent Brian Terry

 

” The frenzy over “Operation Fast and Furious” has been hard to avoid. It’s been the subject of a massive DOJ report, Congressional hearings, contempt votes, subpoena fights in federal court, and relentless media scrutiny. But if there’s one telling the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) would love to rectify, it’s the “thoughtcrime” account of Agent John Dodson, one of the ATF insiders who helped bring the operation to public light.

The ACLU sent a letter today to the ATF, which has refused to allow Agent Dodson to publish a manuscript about Fast and Furious. Our letter explains why the denial violates his First Amendment rights, and undermines the importance that whistleblowers and public employee speech play in revealing wrongdoing and contributing to public debate.

If “Fast and Furious” makes you think of Vin Diesel, and “gunwalking” of vigorous calisthenics, let’s back up a bit. The Phoenix field division of the ATF launched a gun smuggling investigation in late 2009, in which they deliberately let straw buyers get their hands on assault rifles, which agents hoped to follow south to their ultimate consumers – drug traffickers in Mexico. But the ATF lost track of some 2,000 weapons, later implicated in hundreds of murders in Mexico.

Foregoing redactions, they nixed his entire manuscript. Claiming a right to refuse publication requests “for any reason” (the ATF’s emphasis), the ATF explained to Agent Dodson that his book would have “a negative impact on morale in the Phoenix [Field Division] and would have a detrimental [sic] effect on our relationships with DEA and FBI.” Agent Dodson doesn’t deny that his book could add to the ATF scrutiny, or even its three-year streak of bad press as a result of the affair. But these reasons just don’t cut it when it comes to a whistleblower’s right to speak – and the public’s right to hear what he has to say.

We decided to send the ATF a friendly reminder that we don’t lose our rights to speak, write, and teach when we accept government employment. “

 

 

Some of the guns

 

 

Some of the victims

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ATF Tries To Block Whistleblowing Agent’s Fast and Furious Book

1st Amendment Battle Over ‘Gun-Walking’ Expose

 

 

” The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is blocking the main whistleblower in the Fast and Furious case from publishing a book, claiming his retelling of the Mexico “gun-walking” scandal will hurt morale inside the embattled law enforcement agency, according to documents obtained by The Washington Times.

ATF’s dispute with Special Agent John Dodson is setting up a First Amendment showdown that is poised to bring together liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and conservatives in Congress who have championed Mr. Dodson’s protection as a whistleblower.

The ACLU is slated to become involved in the case Monday, informing ATF it is representing Mr. Dodson and filing a formal protest to the decision to reject his request to publish the already written book, sources told The Times, speaking only on the condition of anonymity.”

 

 

Illustration by Nate Beeler

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Retired Senator Speaks On FEMA “Emergency” Plans

FEMA Region 3 Author Senator Songstad Goes Public

 

 

 

 

 

” Retired South Dakota Senator Sheldon Songstad, who represented  Sioux Falls from 1975-1988, has emerged from the shadows to discuss his memo about FEMA Region 3 .  According to Songstad the FEMA Region 3 memo was only intended for a select group of friends, but managed to make its way to numerous alternative and mainstream media outlets.

Songstad, calling in from a secure line to  the Rick Wiles Show claims he is out of the country traveling incognito, making his whereabouts unknown.  When asked where FEMA Region 3 was by host Rick Wiles , Songstad said “I think it’s the four states up around Washington DC, Virginia, up in that area. ” I don’t know about you but if i’m issuing an alert for a FEMA region I’m going to sound a little more convincing than “around Washington DC, Virginia up in that area.”  Perhaps we can dismiss Songstads lack of geographical expertise to old age. That statement wasn’t the only thing that sounded funny, when asked other questions about his FEMA alert Songstad gave a simple one word answer and refused to elaborate.”

 

 

The rest of the interview is here .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Judge Napolitano: We Should be ‘Grateful’ to NSA Leaker Edwards Snowden

Published on Aug 3, 2013

” NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been granted one year asylum in Russia.

Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said we “should be grateful” to Snowden for exposing the government’s “massive violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

Napolitano went on to say that “Snowden’s behavior is not always easy to defend,” and added that should the NSA leaker ever return to the U.S., his case would “absolutely” end up in the Supreme Court.”

 

 

 

 

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Snowden Granted 1-Year Asylum In Russia, Leaves Airport (PHOTOS)

Russia Times

 

” NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is allowed to enter the country’s territory.

The whistleblower has been granted temporary political asylum in Russia, Snowden’s legal representative Anatoly Kucherena said, with his words later confirmed by Russia’s Federal Migration service.

“I have just handed over to him papers from the Russian Immigration Service. They are what he needs to leave the transit zone,” he added. 

Kucherena showed a photocopy of the document to the press. According to it, Snowden is free to stay in Russia until at least July 31, 2014. His asylum status may be extended annually upon request.”

 

 

 

 

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