Our "terrorist" tracking system by the numbers

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux (The Intercept, "Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers"

Support independent cartooning: join Sparky's List—and visit Tom Tomorrow's Emporium of Fun, featuring the new book and plush Sparky! (The Nation/ThisModernWorld.com).

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Biggest group on watchlist not terrorists

Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.

 

Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database -- a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments more -- than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category -- 280,000 people -- dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.

1984: The numbers are shocking and aimed at something far more sinister than "terrorism."

 

Peter, are you targeting American citizens?

The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the “terrorist” screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than tenfold, to an all-time high of 47,000 -- surpassing the number of people barred from flying under [Unprecedented President] George W. Bush.

 

Obama and Nixon (TTDB)

“If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he adds, is “revving out of control.”

 

The classified documents were prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center, the lead agency for tracking individuals with suspected links to international terrorism. Stamped “SECRET” and “NOFORN” (indicating they are not to be shared with foreign governments), they offer the most complete numerical picture of the watchlisting system to date. Among the revelations:

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When Guns Are Everywhere in police hands (Tom Tomorrow/thismodernworld.com)

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• The second-highest concentration of people designated as “known or suspected terrorists” by the government is in Dearborn, Michigan -- a city of 96,000 that has the largest percentage of Arab-American residents in the country.
• The government adds names to its databases, or adds information on existing subjects, at a rate of 900 records/day.
• The CIA uses a previously unknown program, code-named Hydra, to secretly access databases maintained by foreign countries and extract  data to add to the watchlists.

Puppet "Capt. America" and Nixon (thenation)

A U.S. counterterrorism official familiar with watchlisting data told The Intercept that as of November 2013, there were approximately 700,000 people in the Terrorist Screening Database, or TSDB, but declined to provide the current numbers. Last month, the Associated Press, citing federal court filings by government lawyers, reported that there have been 1.5 million names added to the watchlist over the past five years. More

The Burning Continues across USA

CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; SCPR.org; TheGuardian.com

Ukraine tired of police abuse then lost Crimea

A wildfire burning in a steep, remote area of the Angeles National Forest is 90 percent contained and no flames were showing.

 

Forest spokesperson Justin Tyler says crews made good progress Friday against the fire that has charred 190 acres of dry brush and chaparral. He says crews are busy dousing hotspots.

 

The blaze was reported shortly before 1:00 pm Thursday above the foothill city of Glendora, northeast of Los Angeles. No buildings are threatened.

 
Two firefighters received heat-related injuries and a third was cut while battling the flames in hot, dry weather. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Saying NO to Israel

The Guardian via Transudationism

(We Blocked the Boat!)  Blockade succeeds as word spreads that ship is off the coast of California, closer to Santa Cruz, and will not be docking that day

An Israeli ship that was scheduled to dock at the port of Oakland in California on Saturday [Aug. 16, 2014] remained at sea as between 2,000 and 3,000 pro-Palestinian Northern California activists streamed towards the port entrance, chanting and waving flags. The protesters intended to form a picket line to prevent work crews from unloading the ship. Activists had originally planned to meet at 5:00 am for a blockade of the Zim Integrated Shipping Services vessel, but word that its arrival had been delayed prompted organizers to push the protest back until later in the afternoon. More

When Pigs Surf

Jesus Christ lizard running across stream

(GoPro) Kama can hang ten in Hawaii because pigs, like other four-legged animals, can swim simply by walking in (not on) water. Except for the Jesus Lizard the Basilisk, who can walk on water (like naga-dragons or snakes who fly in Southeast Asia). How is it this gentle man can go from loving a piglet, one of the smartest and most sensitive creatures in the animal realm, yet eat it with an apple in its mouth or as bacon or as thoracic area "ribs" with BBQ sauce? Guess most people only think they "love" animals until their conditioning kicks in. Our minds being colonized to think flesh eating is "normal," we simply follow this training which goes against our nature, which is basically good.

Greenwald: CIA and NPR propaganda (video)

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Glenn Greenwald (The Intercept) Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez, Nermeen Shaikh (DemocracyNow.org, Aug. 13, 2014)

NPR propaganda uses CIA-linked firm's report on Snowden's whistle blowing

Iraq: Is U.S. "humanitarianism" only summoned to control oil-rich areas?

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The NSA illegally spies on everyone it can.

Earlier this month, The Intercept published documents provided by NSA-whistleblower Edward Snowden that revealed the deep ties between Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies.

In a recent article, investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald cites one 2013 document that described a "far-reaching technical and analytic relationship" between the National Security Agency (NSA) and its Israeli counterpart against "mutually agreed upon geographic targets."

The partnership includes a "dedicated communications line" supporting "the exchange of raw material, as well as daily analytic and technical correspondence." More

NPR's disinformation for the state

Whistleblower former NSA Agent Snowden

Furthermore, Greenwald’s latest article for The Intercept is headlined "NPR is laundering CIA talking points to make you scared of NSAb eporting." 

Greenwald takes a highly critical look at a story by NPR’s counterterrorism correspondent, Dina Temple-Raston, which aired on Morning Edition earlier this month. Temple-Raston’s propaganda-ridden report focused on claims by the tech firm Recorded Future that it has "tangible evidence" that NSA whistleblower Snowden harmed national security by inadvertently prompting "terrorists" to use better encryption programs to maintain their privacy.

 

Greenwald says the NPR report erred in failing to mention that the firm is funded by the CIA, even though Temple-Rason was well aware of this. "This was such a pure and indisputable case of journalistic malpractice and deceit," Greenwald charges. "NPR radically misled millions of people with this report." More

Rise of CIA's "ISIS": US re-invasion of Iraq, backing of Syrian rebels fuels Jihadis’ advance

LA Police Commission gives LAPD Chief Beck 2nd term Beck has worked for the LAPD for more than three decades. Violent crime has fallen under his tenure it's also come with controversy.

• Clippers sale to Steve Ballmer goes through
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• 4 teens plead not guilty to killing Chinese USC student  
• U.S. Sends 130 More Troops to Iraq 
• Report: U.S. Conditions New Weapons to Iraq on Maliki’s Departure
• Gaza Ceasefire Enters Final Hours as Cairo Talks Continue
• 5 Killed in Gaza During Attempt to Dismantle Israeli Missile
• WHO: Gaza Hospitals, Health Facilities "In Dire Need"
• U.K. to Suspends Arms Exports to Israel if Gaza Assault Resumes 
• Venezuela Sends Humanitarian Aid to Gaza 
• Israel Apologizes for Labeling Brazil "Diplomatic Dwarf"
• Israel: U.N. War Crimes Probe a "Kangaroo Court"
• WHO Approves Untested Drugs for Ebola Outbreak
• Police Shooting Leaves Man Critically Wounded After New Ferguson Protests
• Ferguson Police Continues to Withhold Identity of Officer Who Killed Michael Brown 
• Barneys to Pay $525,000 Settlement over Racial Profiling
• Judge Steps Down in Immigration Fraud Trial of Chicago Arab-American Activist
• HRW: Rabaa Massacre in Egypt "a Crime Against Humanity"

What would Buddha or Jesus eat, burgers?

Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Adolfo Flores (LA Times, Aug. 11, 2014)

Hey, you<'re right; this veggie temple food is pretty good! - I told you, brother. (Japan, compassionate, cruelty-free diet, "Saintly Young Men" manga/Mr_Walker/flickr.com)

Israel: A kosher abomination? Serving cheeseburgers, too? (cowyeow/flickr.com)

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This beautiful "Buddha" burger is all vegan

Well, when you think about it, his father loves the sacrifice of helpless animals, particularly babies. He used to command the sacrifice...but not so much the son.

ISLA VISTA, California (site of Christian terrorist carnage near UC Santa Barbara) - In a college town that's seen its share of violence, the Jesus Burgers house serves up a spiritual message.

I wouldn't order that. You? - If it's kosher...

[No f'n way! You gotta be bull shytza-ing me, Wimpy! - It's true, it's on the front page of the LA Times today, and if you can just loan me the money until tomorrow...]

Angela Boyd bounced on the balls of her feet as the smell of sizzling [flesh] pierced the ocean breeze. The 19-year-old and her friends were about to celebrate her birthday in Isla Vista, but they were making a pit stop at the Jesus Burgers house. More

• "Mork" (comedic actor Robin Williams) dead of suicide
• Police shooting of [another] black teen in Missouri now focus of FBI inquiry
• Race car driver Tony Stewart crash: Kevin Ward Jr. died of blunt trauma, sheriff says
• Stockton bank robbery hostage killed by police gunfire, officials say
• Southwest jet stowaway charged with violating LAX stay-away order

• Republican Michele Bachmann's a lesbian hypocrite?
• Beatle Paul McCartney returns to Dodger Stadium 48 years later
• Arizona copper mine would threaten US ocelot, jaguar
• Climate Chaos: "Remarkable" warming reported in Central California coastal waters
• Police State: Meet L.A.'s newest law enforcers: "Water cops"
• Police State:  LAPD's misclassified incidents: How we reported this story
• Inaccurate LAPD crime statistics prompt larger investigation
• U.S. to give long-range weapons to Kurdish fighters [to kill whomever they like, and they don't have to return them but can arm anti-US rebels to serve as a pretext for the next time we want to bomb or otherwise attack the region]
• Middle East: Obama pledges support for new Iraqi leader
• Europe: Leaders OK plan for Russia aid delivery to eastern Ukraine
  
  

  

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An honest man on ISRAEL: Noam Chomsky

Wisdom Quarterly; Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman (democracynow.org, Aug. 7, 2014)

Hideous. Sadistic. Vicious. Murderous. That is how Noam Chomsky describes Israel’s 29-day offensive war on Gaza -- which as killed nearly 1,900 people and left almost 10,000 Gazan Palestinians injured.
 

Pappe: "Racist Apartheid State" with US help

Chomsky has written extensively about the Israel conflict with Palestine for decades. After Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, Chomsky co-authored the book Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians with Israeli scholar Ilan Pappé. (Exeter University Prof. Pappé is one of the leading voices on Israel, calling the U.S./Israel campaign against Palestine an "incremental genocide").
 

Israel claims "self-defense" in war crimes

Chomsky's other books on the Israel/Palestine conflict include Peace in the Middle East?: Reflections on Justice and Nationhood and The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. Perhaps his most famous work is called Manufacturing Consent exposing American propaganda techniques.
 
Noam Chomsky is a world-renowned political dissident, linguist, and author, Institute Professor Emeritus at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where he has taught for more than 50 years. More

• Ceasefire in Gaza enters final 24 hours
• U.N. Chief: Gaza toll has "shocked and shamed the world"
• Obama: Gaza blockade cannot continue indefinitely
• Report: Israeli forces deliberately targeted medics in Gaza
• Iraqi Christians face crisis as I.S. advances; 40,000 Yazidis trapped...
• Ebola toll tops 930; Liberians plead for drug given to U.S. missionaries
• U.S. drone strike kills at least 5 in Pakistan
• Russia sanctions U.S., European agricultural goods
• Snowden allowed to remain in Russia for 3 more years
• Cambodia: 2 Khmer Rouge leaders sentenced to life

U.S. bombs Japanese civilians: Hiroshima

Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan (DemocracyNow.org, Aug 6, 2014); CC Liu and Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Follow the White Rabbit (A Million Windows, Feb. 3, 2011)

American “Enola Gay” dropping the bomb on innocent Japanese civilians at home far from the war zone for the profit of the U.S. military-industrial complex (gtrebekah.edublogs.org)

Nagasaki civilians were bombed by the USA first major war crime, a crime against humanity so enormous that no American thinks much about it except to offer limp excuses that cannot hold up (Nagasaki Museum/US Army handout (latimes.com)

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 69 Years Later

Japan (sunrisejetphotogallery)

“I hate war,” Koji Hosokawa told me as we stood next to the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Japan.

 

The skeletal remains of the four-story building stand at the edge of Japan's Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The world watches in horror this summer as military conflicts rage.

• [These "conflicts" are fomented by the U.S. military-industrial complex.]

The U.S. military-industrial complex loves to bomb Buddhists (amillionwindows)

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They're leaving destruction in their wake from Afghanistan, to Libya, to Gaza, to Syria, to Iraq, and Ukraine...

Protesting and demanding change in Ukraine

[Ukraine is where U.S. Senator, failed presidential candidate, released POW, torture survivor, Arizona Republican John McCain is both eliminating the civil rights of Americans with indefinite detention bills (written with a shameful Joe Lieberman). There he has been stirring up Cold War-era tensions with Russia by offering Ukraine covert U.S. military intervention and promises of overt sanctions].

• VIDEO: McCain calls U.S. "cowardly" for not arming Ukraine
• U.S. stealthily devastates Japan yet again: Fukushima under HAARP
• Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• "From Hiroshima to Fukushima: Japan’s Atomic Tragedies" (Amy Goodman)

Never far from the dead and injured, nuclear-armed missiles stand by ready to rain down ultimate devastation, waiting for the horrible moment when hubris [our overarching American pride and exceptionalism], accident, or inhumanity triggers the next nuclear attack.

 

“I hate war,” Hosokawa reiterated. “War makes everyone crazy.”

Nagasaki Festival

 

(FTWR) Imagine 20 bulky, drunk Japanese men carrying a two ton golden shrine, hauling [it] up several flights of stairs.

We are experiencing the Kunchi matsuri Festival in Nagasaki City, Japan (where they affectionately call it O-kunchi).

Kunchi started as a festival to celebrate the harvest season, then came to be an occasion to oust hidden Christians, and nowadays it’s primarily just a holiday.

 

500,000 displaced, 10,000 injured by Israel

The city districts make their own floats; one float was a beautiful ship with kids playing drums, and one of them was also trying to catch as many painted wooden fish from the ground as possible. We also find traditional Dragon Dance and, of course, the use and abuse of sake [a distilled rice alcoholic spirit that leads us to wonder if the name Naga-saki isn't a reference to "dragon-brew," naga-alcohol]... More 

• From atomic bombings to Fukushima, Japan pursues a [money making] nuclear future despite a devastating past
• Hiroshima organizes scientific teams and medical treatment centers to receive victims of radiation poisoning
• U.S. Jewish leader Henry Siegman to Israel: Stop Killing Palestinians and End the Occupation
• Gaza ceasefire: After 1,800+ Dead, What Led Israel to Stop the Assault — and What Comes Next?
• VIDEO: Norman Finkelstein and 25 others arrested at Israeli U.N. Mission protesting Gaza assault
• Henry Siegman, leading voice of U.S. Jewry, on Gaza: "a slaughter of innocents"

"Evacuate your cities." U.S. threat letter to Japan, circa 1945

Israel keeps killing kids with impunity (video)

Ashley Wells, Sheldon S., Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman, Mo Omer, Aaron Mate, Nermeen Shaikh (DemocracyNow.org, Aug. 4, 2014)

As Israel's kill toll in Gaza tops 1,800, Dr. Mona El-Farra mourns loss of 9 innocent relatives in Israeli strike

• Thousands of Americans protest U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza in Washington, D.C.

Israel kills dozens more in Rafah

The United States [minus our shadow government reveling in profits for the military-industrial complex] and the United Nations have condemned Israel after an airstrike killed 10 people near the entrance of a U.N. school sheltering Palestinian civilians.

The school was reportedly being used as a shelter for about 3,000 people, most of them terrified children. It was the second illegal targeting of a U.N. school by Israel in less than a week. It tried to pin its first attack on Hamas to deflect international criticism but was conclusively shown to be the culprit, making Israel a "terrorist state" once again. And it was the seventh such crime against humanity over the course of Israel’s offensive war on Gaza.

Music for Judeo-Christian soldiers

Jewish American youth aspire to go to Israel to kill Palestinians, fly safe missions as glorious, state-sponsored Air Force terrorists, defend their other country from the unruly natives. It has in just 50 years packed the indigenous population into two teeming camps in which they are concentrated, open air prisons, non-Jewish neighborhoods, ghettos called the West Bank and the Gaza Strip where they are fish in a barrel to be shot at. Wonder what they listen to on their iPads as they kill, Florida's Cannibal Corpse maybe? "They think they know who I am/ All they know is I love to kill/ Face down, dead on the ground/ Find me before another is found/ I come alive in the darkness [night raids]/ Left murdered and nameless/ Dead, unburied, and rotten/ Half eaten by insects.../ They're all dead, they're all dead/ They're all dead, by [our invasion]... It felt so good to kill/ I took their lives away/ Seven dead, lying rotten/ Unburied victims their naked bodies putrefy [and get eaten by animals]/... They're all dead, they're all dead/ They're all dead, by [our invasion]/ I come alive in the darkness/ Left murdered and nameless/ Dead, unburied, and rotten/ Half eaten by insects..."

US, we deserve protection not US bombs

The coordinates of the school were reportedly communicated to the Israel "Defense" Force no fewer than 33 times, the last time just an hour before the shelling. That is, there is no way Israel did not know exactly what they were targeting and shelling in violation of international law and Geneva Conventions. 

 

Shortly after Israel’s attack on Sunday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement saying: "The United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon characterized the attack as "a moral outrage and a criminal act." [Will PM Netanyahu be dragged to the Hague? Not if U.S. politicians and CIA officials can help it.] 

DN! gets an update from Christopher Gunness, spokesperson for UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency) for Palestine Refugees. More

Israel's new policy: Kill Everything That Moves: "Everything that moves in Rafah is a target": Israel continues shelling civilians in Gaza during short "pause" [that serves mostly to draw out more human targets as relative try to gather corpses and body parts for dignified burials] 

 

The number of Palestinians murdered by Israel in Gaza has topped 1,800 as the Israeli offensive enters its 28th day. On yesterday [Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014], at least 10 people were killed when Israel illegally shelled another U.N. school shelter for Palestinian civilians.

 

Why kill Gazans when you can kill Gaia?

The U.S. has officially called the attack "disgraceful," while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned it as a "moral outrage and a criminal act." It was the seventh U.N. school hit since Israel’s offensive began. The U.N., meanwhile, is warning of a "rapidly unfolding" health crisis in Gaza as large parts of the territory had their power and running water taken out by targeted Israeli strikes, and around 400,000 are now displaced by Israel's war of aggression on its segregated indigenous population.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed since a 72-hour ceasefire collapsed on Friday [Aug. 1, 2014]. Over the weekend, the Israeli government admitted that a soldier it had used as war propaganda by reporting him [Hadar Goldin] as "captured and taken hostage by Hamas" was actually killed in a battle as he attacked badly outgunned Hamas resisters.

Earlier today, Israel announced a unilateral seven-hour truce ("pause") in most of the Gaza Strip, except for Rafah, where Israel has concentrated its bombardment. Palestinians have already accused Israel of breaking its own ceasefire by launching deadly attacks on the Shati refugee camp, another crime against humanity. DN! goes live to Gaza City to speak with its correspondent Mohammed Omer, an award-winning Palestinian journalist who has family in Rafah. More

 

"Disgraceful," "criminal act [aka war crime]": Israel is condemned as 10 die in another of its strikes on U.N. shelters in Gaza

 

Likely solution for a lasting ceasefire was on the table before Israeli assault & over 1,800 dead

CIA's other spy scandal: Agency spied on emails between Congress & whistleblowing officials

Part 2: Weapons expert Theodore Postol asks, Is Israel’s Iron Dome really an Iron Sieve?

Part two of  interview with acclaimed MIT physicist Theodore Postol, who says there is no evidence Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system is actually working. Prof. Postol estimates that the Iron Dome, which is partially built by U.S. corporate war-profiteers Raytheon, intercepts just 5 percent of rockets fired at Israel.

• Part I: Iron Dome or Iron Sieve? Evidence says...

• Palestinian death toll tops 1,800; UN condemns "criminal" Israeli shelling of another school for displaced
• U.N. warns of "rapidly unfolding" Gaza health crisis [Communicable diseased will spike due to Israel's war crimes targeting water, power, sanitation -- killing more civilians than its thousands of tons dropped on their homes, streets, and U.N. shelters.] 
• Israel breaks unilateral "pause" with new illegal airstrike
• Obama floats executive action after Congress fails to pass immigration bills
• Pres. Obama backs extreme right-wing CIA Director after Senate spying prompts resignation calls [over felonies he committed by perjury]
• U.S. Pres. Obama admits "We tortured some folks" — and that not all Bush-era methods are banned
• Ebola death in West Africa toll tops 820
• Over 400,000 under water ban in Ohio; toxic [chemtrails and/or] algae bloom linked to Climate Chaos, industrial-scale Big Agra farming
• Suspicious [HAARP?] earthquake kills around 400 in Chinese province
• Report: USAID staged civic programs to destabilize Cuban gov’t
• Choking-killing of civilian Eric Garner by NYPD brutality ruled a "homicide"
• Israel kills over 200 after another phony ceasefire collapses; claim of captured soldier [which was a lie] retracted
• Hundreds protest record number of deportations outside White House
• 2 Americans return to U.S. for Ebola treatment