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

Massive rally at White House condemns Israel

Ashley Wells, Sheldon S., Wisdom Quarterly; CODEPINKla.org

Hey, White House, Buddhist monks agree: We need the change we were promised! (phayul)

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Massive Rally at White House condemning Israeli massacre in Gaza

Cool it in Gaza? - Hell no, we're killing 'em!

Washington, DC - CODEPINK (Women for Peace) joined the White House rally on Saturday, August 2, calling on the U.S. government to pressure Israel [and or the CIA and U.S. military-industrial complex] to stop the ongoing massacre and lift its illegal siege of Gaza in Palestine, Israel.

Gaza Strip ghetto, Palestine

CODEPINK activists carried large banners and conducted a mock cemetery with bloodied dolls and toys commemorating the loss of so many innocent Palestinian lives, especially children.

CODEPINK activists have engaged in actions across the country almost daily since the Israeli attack on Gaza began. They have protested at Israeli consulates across the country, been arrested for blocking the entrance of the Israeli Embassy in DC, rallied at U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s house, and more.

 

The U.S. gov't pushes for Israel's crimes.

With the toll in Gaza [now far] surpassing 1,400 deaths, 8,200 wounded, and 180,300 civilians displaced, activists are determined to keep pressure on the U.S. to end its arming, funding, and unconditional support for Israel and its war crimes.
 

In the past few days alone, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks by U.S.-owned F-16s, Apache helicopters, weaponized drones, tank shelling, and naval bombardment.

 

Actually controlling the media

The tiny Gaza Strip (home of 1.8 million civilian)’s only power plant was targeted by Israel's state-sponsored militants -- the fourth most powerful army in the world -- and blown up, schools were destroyed, U.N. shelters were illegally bombed and hospitals targeted after threat-warning that they would be shelled, and over 4,000 homes knocked to the ground, explains retired Colonel Ann Wright (with paraphrasing and augmenting by WQ). “We must take action to stop this!”

“As a Jew, a mother, a U.S. taxpayer, and a compassionate human being, I weep as I watch the massacre of so many innocent people, including hundreds of children in Gaza”

- CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin

“We must take our heartbreak and outrage directly to the White House,” Benjamin adds. The press contact for this action is Ali McCracken (860) 575-5692. More

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Control of the U.S. Media

Israel's side of the story (video)

Sheldon S., Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly

 

Green: annihilating Palestine's right to exist

As if the Israeli propaganda machine did not already entirely drown out every other voice on the matter, with help from the figurehead capital of the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex known as the White House and its active press room, let's hear what it's like on the ground in Gaza through the eyes of a super-embedded super-soldier, armed with the latest, most high-tech U.S. weaponry capable of speeding up the "incremental genocide" on the neighboring and astonishingly peaceful Palestinians.

(Peaceful? They certainly can't be called "restive" when a population of 2,000,000 is blamed for every Israeli claim of self-defense and offense by an increasingly marginalized and demonized Hamas movement, which does amount to even 1% of the total Palestinian population).

Hooray for colonialism!

"Waltzing down the strip past the fence over fox holes and chunnels, It take not of the martyr's hip: Does it strut, does it offend? I pull my AK-, my way, '48, the newest thing and brandish it on my lip with the cadence of my automatic clip.

"'Nakba' says my friend as I take him down, him and all his hoodlum kids. Now words have I, none he'd understand. He's coming to that side to be re-arrested, not tried but traded for terrorist fiends.

"But if I could say to Bibi or to the Knesset entire, Give us free reign, messiah, give us free reign, would they smile? Livni winks. We're acting as she pleases. We're taking all their homes and the property seizes, she says, he says, NOBODY SAY A WORD!

"Operation Protected Edge glints from my sword, and I'll light up this whole block. You have exactly 57 seconds. Third Floor, jump! because you won't be making it to the door. How I adore the smell of falafel in the morning burning in the rubble like the faint ghosts that to Gaza go. And I, a masked soldier, lately return home."

NOTE: For the official Israeli party-line via the Knesset's [Israeli government's] direct line, refer to the White House, AP, BBC, UPI, AFP, CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, and CIA.

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NSA: Greenwald to speak in L.A. (June 19)

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; HaymarketBooks.org; KPFK.org

Sponsored by Haymarket Books, The Center for Economic Research and Social Change, Metropolitan Books, and KPFK FM (Pacifica Free Speech Radio, Los Angeles).

Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Surveillance State

• Thursday, June 19, 2014 - 7:00 pm
• Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC)
• 244 S. San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 See map
• TICKETS only $6

Glenn Greenwald

In May 2013, Glenn Greenwald set out for Hong Kong to meet a source who claimed to have astonishing evidence of pervasive government spying and insisted on communicating only through heavily encrypted channels.
 

Read a chapter free (truthdig.org)

That source turned out to be the 29-year-old NSA spy, teacher, and Booz Allen Hamilton (mole) contractor Edward Snowden, and his revelations about the agency’s widespread, systemic overreach proved to be some of the most explosive and consequential news in recent history, triggering a fierce debate over national security and information privacy.

As the arguments rage on and the government considers various proposals for reform, it is clear that we have yet to see the full impact of Snowden’s disclosures.
 

Best pres we never had: Emperor 0

In April 2014, Greenwald and his colleagues at The Guardian received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. See Greenwald live and in-person as he puts all the pieces together, recounting his high-intensity 11-day trip to Hong Kong but more importantly examining the broader implications of state surveillance detailed in his reporting for The Guardian, and revealing fresh information on the NSA’s unprecedented abuse of power with never-before-seen documents entrusted to him by Snowden himself.

Greenwald will be signing his new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State. Coming at a landmark moment in American history, No Place to Hide is a fearless, incisive, and essential contribution to our understanding of the U.S. surveillance state.

• Part of the Glenn Greenwald Speaks: Edward Snowden, NSA, and US Surveillance State

(Iraq and Obama)(Ukraine)(Free your mind, the rest will follow?)(Soccer)