Monday, September 27, 2010

2010: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-209

Archive for the Category ‘Top 25 of 2010’

25. Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon

25. Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon

Sources: PloS One, August 2008 Title: “Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples” Authors: Matt Finer, Clinton N. Jenkins, Stuart L. Pimm, Brian Keane, and Carl Ross The Guardian, August 13, 2008 Title: “Amazon rainforest threatened by new wave of oil and gas exploration” Author: Ian Sample [...]

24. Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion

24. Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion

Source: Global Research, March 29, 2009 Title: “Economic Meltdown: The “Dollar Glut” is What Finances America’s Global Military Build-up” Author: Michael Hudson Student Researcher: Frances Capell Faculty Evaluator: Mickey Huff Sonoma State University The worldwide surplus of dollars is forcing foreign central banks to bear the costs of America’s expanding military empire. Keeping international reserves [...]

23. Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud

23. Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud

Sources: AlterNet, March 17, 2009 Title: “Fifth World Water Forum Marked by Violence and Repression” Author: Jeff Conant AlterNet, March 18, 2009 Title: “An Inside Peek: Why the World Water Forum Is a Sham” Author: Jeff Conant Democracy Now! March 23, 2009 Title: “Water Rights Activists Blast Istanbul World Water Forum as ‘Corporate Trade Show [...]

22. Obama’s Trilateral Commission Team

22. Obama’s Trilateral Commission Team

Source: August Review.com, January 30, 2009 Title: “Obama: Trilateral Commission Endgame” Author: Patrick Wood Student Researcher: Sarah Maddox Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips Sonoma State University Barack Obama appointed eleven members of the Trilateral Commission to top-level and key positions in his administration within his first ten days in office. This represents a very narrow source [...]

21. Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare

21. Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare

Sources: Mother Jones, January 15, 2009 Title: “Brave New Welfare” Author: Stephanie Mencimer Associated Press, March 26, 2009 Title: “States consider drug tests for welfare recipients” Author: Tom Breen Student Researcher: Samantha Barowsky, Southwest Minnesota State University Malana Men, Sonoma State University Faculty Evaluator: Douglas Anderson, PhD Southwest Minnesota State University Many states are in [...]

20. Secret Control of the Presidential Debates

20. Secret Control of the Presidential Debates

Sources: Open Debates, September 18, 2008 Title: “Pro-democratic Groups Call on Debate Commission to Make Secret Contract Public” Author: George Farah Democracy Now! October 2, 2008 Title: “No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates” Interviewee: George Farah Student Researchers: Erin Galbraith, Natalie Dale, and Kerry Headley Faculty Evaluator: Mickey [...]

19. Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor

19. Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor

Source: Huffington Post, January 27, 2009 Article: “Bailout Spent to Defeat Labor” Author: Sam Stein Student Researchers: Ben Kaufman and Rosemary Scott Faculty Evaluator: Kelly Bucy, PhD Sonoma State University On October 17, 2008, three days after Bank of America Corporation received $25 billion in federal bailout funds, they hosted a conference call to organize [...]

18. Ecuador’s Constitutional Rights of Nature

18. Ecuador’s Constitutional Rights of Nature

Source: Upside Down World, September 25, 2008 Title: “Ecuador’s Constitution Gives Rights to Nature” Author: Cyril Mychalejko Student Researcher: Chelsea Davis Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Wellin, PhD Sonoma State University In September 2008 Ecuador became the first country in the world to declare constitutional rights to nature, thus codifying a new system of environmental protection. Reflecting [...]

17. The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan

17. The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan

Sources: Inter Press Service, March 9, 2009 Title: “Aren’t There War Crimes in The US? Legitimacy of Global Court Questioned Over Sudan” Author: Thalif Deen Dissindentvoice.org, Black Star News, and San Francisco Bay View, March 6, 2009 Title: “Africom’s Covert War in Sudan” Author: Keith Harmon Snow Michelcollon.info, April 1, 2009 Title: “The Darfur crisis: [...]

16. US Repression of Haiti Continues

16. US Repression of Haiti Continues

Sources: Haiti Liberté, September 4, 2008 Title: “UN Military Base Expanding: What is Washington up to in Cité Soleil?” Author: Kim Ives Upside Down World, June 25, 2008 Title: “Bush Administration Accused of Withholding ‘Lifesaving’ Aid to Haiti” Author: Cyril Mychalejko Upside Down World, August 4, 2008 Title: “RFK Center Releases Documents Outlining US Actions [...]

Euro Doom: Germany wants Deutschmark back

Click this link ..... http://tinyurl.com/2e7cc6c

US, S.Korea to hold naval war games next week

SEOUL (AFP) – The US and South Korean navies will next week stage an anti-submarine exercise designed to deter North Korea following its alleged torpedo attack on one of Seoul's warships, officials said Friday.

The drill, the second joint exercise in two months, will involve at least nine ships plus surveillance aircraft, the US military said in a statement.

It is "designed to send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea" while improving capabilities in anti-submarine warfare, the statement said.

South Korea, the United States and other nations say a North Korean torpedo caused the sinking of one of Seoul's warships in March with the loss of 46 lives.

Seoul announced plans for a series of naval drills, either alone or with its ally Washington, to deter Pyongyang.

The North denies involvement in the sinking and criticises the exercises as a rehearsal for war.

"A serious situation, in which an all-out war may break out by any accident, is now prevailing in the Korean peninsula," said ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun this week.

"However, the US war maniacs are ceaselessly beefing up armed forces and staging war games in this acute hotspot, which may drive the situation to an unpredictable grave phase."

The drill will be held from next Monday to Friday in the Yellow Sea between China and Korea. It was postponed early this month due to an approaching typhoon.

It will not involve a US aircraft carrier, unlike the first joint naval exercise held in late July. That drill was relocated from the Yellow Sea to the east coast of the peninsula in response to China's expressions of concern.

The statement said US forces would send two US guided missile destroyers, a surveillance ship, a fast attack submarine and P-3C Orion aircraft to next week's drill.

South Korea would send two destroyers, a fast frigate, a patrol craft, P-3C aircraft and a submarine.

The Big Picture of the truth - The Calling part 1 of 8

Corruption in Kabul - Fool Me Once

FIND OUT WHO IS FINANCING AMERICA’S EXTREMIST “PATRIOTIC REVOLT?“

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

“However, an investigation of site ownership and client lists funding the “Patriotic Revolt” were not what we expected. The “patriots” that were going to replace the armed militia’s of the 1990′s were actually the Republican Party, their phony “think tanks” and the largest multi-national corporations in the world, representing defense, oil, insurance, big pharma, big tobacco and “clean coal,” a veritable “who’s who” of world class criminals.”

This week, FBI agents began storming locations throughout the Midwest, starting with Minneapolis and then Chicago. The purpose they claim was to stop peace groups that they allege are a danger to the American government’s war effort. However, the largest “official” domestic terrorist act was the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building by individuals affiliated with, of all things, the Republican Party and the Michigan Militia. To be accurate, the Militia claims Timothy McVeigh wasn’t an “official” member but only attended meetings. It wasn’t his Militia efforts that made McVeigh a terrorist but rather his conservative politics and his tendency to act on rhetoric where others used common sense.
Thus far, we are rejecting evidence that McVeigh, a decorated war hero, was working as an FBI informant, despite considerable evidence to the fact.
In fact, the Michigan Militia disbanded with the Bush election claiming they were “no longer needed.” Seeing the FBI hunting down peace groups who were initially affiliated with the Obama campaign is a shock, no, it is more than a shock.

THIS IS LEGAL, "STOP THE WAR" IS NOT

OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING (1995)

The “organs of state security” are now rounding up the supporters of the President and covering for groups that threaten our government with violence, some openly advocating armed rebellion and assassination. This is more than irrational and unbelievable.

In fact, we are flabbergasted.
The moment Barak Obama was nominated for the presidency, “grass roots” groups sprung up around the country, surprisingly similar in make-up to the current Tea Party, not only in look but rhetoric and demeanor. When Obama easily defeated Senator McCain, those same groups, continual assassination threats, mock lynchings and vicious racial rhetoric changed from “conservatives” to “anti-government” radicals overnight.
But these weren’t “grass roots” organizations at all, but something far more sinister, more threatening and much more dangerous as we were to learn.

ANTI-GOVERNMENT THREAT FROM "CONSERVATIVE" WEBSITE, CORPORATE FUNDED

Websites sites like www.resistnet.com, oddly close to www.resist.com, the voice of the Aryan Nation, a white nationalist group, were quickly established and emails spread across the country, originating, as we were told, from the poor and downtrodden, the “Patriotic Resistance” that was going to shed its last drop of blood to protect America from wealthy corporations and the financial thieves who were sucking the blood out of the working classes. Every day we were told to prepare to resist a government “out of control,” one planning to disarm America, one waiting to put patriotic citizens in concentration camps run by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) but controlled by the United Nations. Americans were told to “prepare.”

Even though every trace of those funding the violent and extremist views now presented as an “uprising” of “the people” against their own government have been professionally scoured by security operatives, the secret lists were secured and held in archive. The nation had been told by conservative talk show hosts employed by the major media outlets that all funding for such efforts came from the savings of individuals, workers, the unemployed, small farmers, clergy.
However, an investigation of site ownership and client lists funding the “Patriotic Revolt” were not what we expected. The “patriots” that were going to replace the armed militia’s of the 1990′s were actually the Republican Party, their phony “think tanks” and the largest multi-national corporations in the world, representing defense, oil, insurance, big pharma, big tobacco and “clean coal,” a veritable “who’s who” of world class criminals.
Now these same billionaire corporate bandits and “banksters” claim to be “intellectual force” behind the Tea Party movement. Can this new guise, another “lipstick on a pig” attempt to pass of America’s ruling classes as victims of “big government. fool the Tea Party? If Sarah Palin and Glen Beck,retread hucksters from another era are an indication, the answer may be a resounding “yes.”
Despite attempts to cleans the internet, removing the tracks leading back to the real face behind the “white supremest” mask of the “patriotic resistance,” we have managed to compile the following list:

THE CLASSIFIED LIST OF THOSE BEHIND THE “PATRIOTIC RESISTANCE” MOVEMENT

(THE FOLKS WARNING YOU ABOUT CORPORATE CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT)

AETNA (Big Insurance)

CHRISTIAN ZIONIST MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

AFIPAC (American Friends of ISRAEL)

Alexis de Toqueville Institution (Right wing think tank working for Microsoft and Big Tobacco)

Allied Pilots Association

American Association of Health Plans (Largest lobby group for Big Insurance)

American Association of Political Consultants (Primary trade group for those who run “backroom politics” in America)

American Conservative Union (The “neo-con” club with all top Republican politicians as members, Reagan, Bush, Cheney, Delay, the list goes on forever)

Americans for Hope, Growth and Opportunity (Steve Forbes financed ultra right wing group)

American Policy Center (Ultra-Conservative group opposed to the United Nations and Global Warming science)

American Public Policy Institute (Ultra-Right Wing anti Gay Rights group)

The American Spectator (Right wing publication with history of accepting money from foreign governments. Best known for the discredit Shirley Sherrod attack piece)

Australian Barley Board (Grain conglomerate group tied to monopoly policies)

Black America’s Political Action Committee (Alan Keyes right wing group with almost no African American support)

Blackwell Corporation (Group responsible for organizing personal attacks on progressive politicians run by Washington PR group with ties to extremist militia organizations)

Brude W. Eberle and Associates (Tom DeLay and John Ashcroft)

Business Mail Express (

Campaign Solutions (Voter suppression, Swift Boat campaign and shady right wing causes, the “hit squad” for the Republican National Committee)

Canadian MG Lewis MacKenzie

Capitol Watch

The Carmen Group (Major lobbying group working with security, energy and healthcare sectors, top level “fixers” in Washington)

Carrying Capacity Network

Center for Individual Freedom (Secretive neo-con rights group with ties to the Tobacco Lobby)

CIGNA (Big Insurance)

Citizens for State Power (no records found)

Citizens United (Lobby group that pushed unlimited corporate control of American elections through the Supreme Court)

WALL STREET WARNS THE PRESIDENT "NO REGULATION"

Club for Growth (Ultra-right wing group convicted of failing to register as a Political Action Committee)

Collegiate Network (Right wing group that finances student newspaper “take-overs’ by neo-cons)

Conservative Political Action Conference (Most powerful right wing group in the US, Glen Beck terrirtory)

Ann Coulter (Controversial right wing extremist writer with a penchant for inventing “facts”)

Crown Publishing (Random House subsidiary specializing in right wing publications)

David, Manafort and Freedman, Inc. (“Go-between” between “Big Lottery” reputed tied to organized crime and Senator John McCain)

The Honorable Pete DuPont (DuPont family member, one time Congressman and right wing pundit)

Employee Benefits Associates (Big Business advocacy and consulting for limitation of workplace freedoms and rights)

Energy Freedom Alliance (no records available)

Federalist Society (Lobby group promoting “big business” oriented judicial appointees)

Flickers Films (no records available)

Free Enterprise Fund (anti-Social Security group)

Foley and Lardner (Law firm representing Exxon Oil)

Forbes for President 2000 (Forbes PAC)

The Galen Institute (Big Insurance lobbists)

Grassfire.org (controversial ultra-right wing group dedicated to George W. Bush)

The Hawthorn Group (“clean coal” lobbyists)

Heritage Foundation (Ultra-right wing group behind neo-conservative internationalist agenda)

Institute for Legal Reform (Part of US Chamber of Commerce, favors special privileges for Big Business in law)

Institute for Policy Innovation (anti-Social Security group headed by Dick Armey)

Institute for Socio-Economic Studies (no records available)

The Keene Report (no information available)

Law Enforcement Alliance of America (conservative group active in gun rights)

The Limited (Israeli owned retail conglomerate)

The Manhattan Institute (neo-con, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, “War or Terror” lobby group)

McDonald Douglas (Big Defense/Big War)

McGuire/Woods Consulting, LLC (Law firm for Big Oil, Big Insurance, Big Lottery)

National Audit Defense Network (tax avoidance group in trouble for, of all things, tax problems and endless consumer complaints)

National Center for Policy Analysis (Big Healthcare lobbyists)

National Farmers Federation of Australia (Australia Big Agriculture lobby)

National Rifle Association (conservative group funded through scare tactics about imaginary gun seizure legislation)

PALIN SMILES WHILE CROWD SCREAMS "KILL OBAMA" (FINDLAY, OHIO 2008)

National Taxpayers Union (Right wing group funded by Richard Mellon Scaife)

News World Communications (Reverend Moon’s propaganda arm)

Nuclear Energy Institute (Nuclear power lobby group)

The O’Leary/Kamber Report (neo-con funded voice of Tea Party movement)

Playcare Incorporated (funders of neo-con and Tea Party movements allied to Bush/Cheney)

PM Consulting Corporation (Advocacy group for lower taxes on wealthy and corporations)

Prima Publishing (conservative publication division of Random House)

Progress & Freedom Foundation (Big Telecom lobbyist group)

Prudential (Big Insurance)

Public Safety Systems (War on Terror “airport security” company)

Republican Majority Coalition (The Republican Party)

Republican National Committee (The Republican Party leadership)

Natan Sharansky (Top Israeli extremist, Likudists, ultra-nationalist and Zionist Leader)

Small Business Survival Committee (Big Tobacco packaged to look like something else)

Southeastern Legal Foundation (Legal arm of numerous right wing causes, a “flat earth” defender)

Starboard Response (no information available)

Stevens & Schriefer (Republican Party campaign advertising)

United Seniors Association (Big Pharma lobby group)

University of Phoenix

USA Weekend (publishing brand for conservative Gannet newspaper chain)

US Chamber of Commerce (Big Business/open immigration lobby group)

US English (right wing anti-Hispanic lobby group)

Washington Times Foundation (ultra-right wing scandal sheet of the Unification Church “Moonies”)

Westinghouse Corporation (Big Defense)

The Winston Group (right wing strategy and polling group)

WND Books (World Net Daily, right wing extremist publications)

Alcohol Lobby Now Openly Spending Against CA's Legal Pot Initiative in Alliance with Police Industrial Complex

Big Alcohol's decision to squash marijuana law reform to protect its bottom line is simply politics as usual.

It is said that politics makes strange bedfellows, but there are arguably few stranger than the emerging alliance between two of California's most powerful political players: the police-industrial complex and Big Alcohol. Campaign finance reports from the Golden State disclose that the California Beer and Beverage Distributors -- a trade organization that represents over 100 beer distributors statewide -- is one of the primary backers of the lobby group Public Safety First, sponsors of the No on Prop. 19 campaign.

According to the California Secretary of State's office, the beer lobby donated $10,000 to Public Safety First on September 7, 2010. The donation came just days before PSF issued an online mailing alleging that the passage of Prop. 19 -- which would legalize the private adult use and cultivation of limited amounts of cannabis, and allow local governments the option of regulating its commercial production and retail distribution -- would inevitably lead to stoned school bus drivers and crossing guards, and will cause California public schools to "lose as much as $9.4 billion in federal funding." (Needless to say, passage of the measure would do none of these things.)

While it's hardly astonishing that the corporate beer lobby would oppose efforts to legalize marijuana, a non-toxic, ostensibly safer alternative to alcohol, it is surprising to see how quickly the law enforcement lobby -- to date the largest supporters of PSF -- is willing to get into bed with big booze. So far, the Cal Beer and Beverage Distributors $10,000 appropriation is one of the largest monetary donations received by Public Safety First, third only to the $30,000 donated by the California Police Chief's Association and the $20,500 donated by the California Narcotics Officers Association. (Overall, PSF has had a notoriously difficult time raising money for its effort. Last month, the East Bay Express reported that total financial contributions to the Prop. 19 campaign were well ahead of those reported for Public Safety First, which at that time had only raised $61,000, with just one citizen donor.)

There's no doubt that police officers know firsthand the social toll caused by alcohol. Federal government estimates indicate that alcohol consumption costs the nation some $200 billion annually in hospitalizations, criminal expenditures and lost productivity. (Ironically, the nation's top drug cop, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, has specifically highlighted the staggering social costs of alcohol abuse in his rhetoric against Prop. 19.) Government figures further indicate that alcohol is a contributing factor in at least 25 to 30 percent of all violent crime in America, including between 30 to 60 percent of homicides and perhaps as many as half of all sexual assaults.

On college campuses alone, an estimated 700,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by peers who have been drinking, and close to 100,000 students are reported victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. Nationally, some 41,000 people per year die as a result of drunk driving or other alcohol-related accidents. Conversely, cannabis use is associated with decreased aggression, reduced risk of injury, and is assumed to play, at best, only a nominal role in traffic accidents. (In fact, the total national number of marijuana-related auto accidents is so small the federal government doesn't even compile the statistic.)

Breast cancer cases fell as HRT use dropped: study

Breast cancer rates fell as women turned away from hormone replacement therapy, a study has shown, boosting understanding of how the two are linked.

Breast cancer rates fell as women in Canada shunned hormone replacement therapy, research has found.
Breast cancer rates fell as women in Canada shunned hormone replacement therapy, research has found. Photo: CORBIS

Use of HRT to combat the effects of the menopause halved in Britain after studies suggested it could increase the risk of breast cancer.

A study conducted in Canada has now found that as use of the treatment dropped, the number of cases of breast cancer detected also reduced.

However after several years breast cancer rates began to increase again which, researchers said, suggests that not using HRT simply led to their tumours growing more slowly.

The hormone, oestrogen, contained in some forms of HRT can fuel certain types of breast cancer.

So the research suggests that the link between breast cancer and HRT is due to the treatment causing tumours to grow more rapidly and so be detected on tests. Whereas when fewer women use HRT, the tumours grow more slowly and so take longer to be detected and show up in official rates.

The findings were published online in Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr Prithwish De, of the Canadian Cancer Society, and colleagues, found that use of HRT dropped from 12.7 per cent in 2002 to 4.9 per cent in 2004. During the same period breast cancer rates dropped by 9.6 per cent even though the same number of women were having mammography tests.

Between 2004 and 2006 use of HRT remained stable at around five per cent of women aged 50 to 59 but breast cancer rates began to increase again.

Dr De wrote: "The results support the hypothesised link between the use of hormone replacement therapy and invasive breast cancer incidence and indicate that the sharp decline in breast cancer incidence in 2002 is likely explained by the concurrent decline in the use of hormone replacement therapy among Canadian women.

"This hypothesis was supported by the temporal agreement of the trends in breast cancer incidence and use of hormone replacement therapy, especially given the absence of changes in mammography rates during the period of interest.

"In addition, the greatest decline in breast cancer incidence occurred among women 50–69 years, who are the predominant users of combined hormone replacement therapy."

The authors added: "Further evidence of a link between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer is the rebound in cancer incidence rates observed in Canada since 2005. The largest hormone replacement therapy declines occurred among those older than 50 years, and the rebound in cancer incidence was also mainly restricted to women aged 50 years or older.

"Such a rebound might be expected if occult hormone-sensitive tumours were merely slowed by the withdrawal of hormone replacement therapy rather than prevented by it. If so, hormone replacement therapy may be thought to act as a promoter rather than as a putative cause of breast cancer. However, further follow-up data as well as information on the incidence trend of oestrogen receptor–positive breast cancer are needed to confirm this hypothesis and trend."

Dr Sarah Rawklings, Head of Policy & Education at the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer said: "This study supports existing research into the link between HRT and breast cancer. It will be important to continue to study the effects of HRT on breast cancer incidence and development. Women who are concerned about this should contact their GP before starting, stopping or changing their HRT."

Bank Of America Debt Collectors Called Borrowers "F___ing N__ger" And "Punk" To Get Them To Pick Up The Phone

Such wonderful people these Bankers and Debt Collectors are.


Bank of America has been busted using some seriously outrageous tactics to try to collect debts so small they're barely worth the paper they're written on.

It wasn't until ABC News ambushed BOFA CEO Brian Moynihan Michael-Moore style outside his office that the firm finally responded by firing its debt-collection firm.

Israel is guilty of everything the US is accusing Iran of and accused Iraq of doing

Click this link ....... http://tinyurl.com/2e7aag6

The End of Small Farms? HR 2749, HR 875, HR 759, NAIS & Monsanto - Shelly Roche

Click this link ...... http://tinyurl.com/27mkmxo

19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind

The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing. It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution. It was America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes. It was the great American manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II. But now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America. Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the same time period. The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little. Do you know what our biggest export is today? Waste paper. Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world wants to sell to us. The United States has become bloated and spoiled and our economy is now just a shadow of what it once was. Once upon a time America could literally outproduce the rest of the world combined. Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than anyone else in the world. If the deindustrialization of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we going to be leaving to our children?

Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things. So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider itself to be a great nation? We have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close to sustainable. Every single month America does into more debt and every single month America gets poorer.

So what happens when the debt bubble pops?

The deindustrialization of the United States should be a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country. But sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them.

For people like that, take this article and print it out and hand it to them. Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber.

The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind....

#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation.

#2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.

#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.

#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.

#5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.

#8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.

#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.

#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford's new "global" manufacturing strategy.

#11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.

#13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th.

#15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.

#17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.

#18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

#19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it?

How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands?

How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy?

How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide?

The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one.

If you disagree with this article, I have a direct challenge for you. If anyone can explain how a deindustrialized America has any kind of viable economic future, please do so below in the comments section.

America is in deep, deep trouble folks. It is time to wake up.

Genocide taking place against Kaiowa-Guarani natives in Brazilian state of Mato Grosso

We cannot sit still and be quiet anymore in a situation that urges action.

Infants chased away from their birthright and forced to subsist on filth as nourishment?

Infants chased away from their birthright and forced to subsist on filth as nourishment?

These photos were taken by a photographer who cannot be identified because his life is at risk. This is a genocide that is happening in Brazil, in a state ruled by President Lula’s political party (PT)*. We must not close our eyes and turn our back to those people who are suffering all kinds of discrimination and violence. Children die of malnutrition and adults commit suicide by drinking themselves to dead. (Where does the booze supply come from?) The infant mortality is high and the murder rates as well. The mass media refuses to publish this because it is the “land of Gilmar Mendes“** (according to the photographer’s own words), a mafia that is not afraid to kill anyone who dares to question or even try to help these poor people. The goal is to transform the little Native American land there is into soybean and livestock area, and this is already happening!

Decapitation

Here you see a photo of an Indigenous person killed by repeated strikes in the face, young Indians who commit suicide victims of depression and alcoholism and children dead from malnutrition. The villages are burned down to force the Kaiowa-Guarani people off their land … Look at the drawings of children, all images shown people being murdered because that is the reality of these little children forgotten by Brazil and all the irresponsible world media who laude Lula as the champion of the poor!

Malnourished

Please forward this, we want it to reach the hands of someone who can help!!

According to the photographer who sent us these pictures the only chance for these slaughtered Indigenous people is the interference of some strong and foreign institution working in the field of human rights.

Foreign” because the MAFIA that is behind the ongoing genocide is infiltrated in all the branches of official organs and authorities and there are very few who have the courage to speak out or do something since the mobsters threaten and kill without hesitation.

Contact me:
Natalia Forcat
NaT / Illustration Studio and Visual Solutions

NOTICE: This e-mail contains terrible images WHICH MUST BE SEEN!

A coincidence(?): I was with a friend a few days ago and we talked about the ongoing genocide committed against the Kaiowa-Guarani People.

She told me that back in the 80s, early 90s, while she worked on cases of “suicide“, an forensic expert – very famous today – was studying 20 of these suicides and had come to the conclusion, that most of them were incredible “accomplishments” just to avoid a more blunt word. Since most of these “suicides” were committed by young people who hanged themselves from a height less than their own and still managed to break the neck…

The photo of an Indigenous boy hanged below does not invalidate such insinuations. Or did the branch give way over time, until they find his body?

The photo of an Indigenous boy hanged below does not invalidate such insinuations. Or did the branch give way over time, until they find his body?

Isn’t it (in many cases) rather opportunistic and ruthless talk on suicides in the region in order to cover the ongoing genocide?

Luis Carlos de Alencar

Noose-2

*Blairo Motor sawMaggi (his nickname is a reminder of his stand towards the rainforest and the Native Peoples living in and depending on it) is a soya-billionaire and former governor of Mato Grosso who started out politically in the PPS (acommunistparty opposed to President Lula) but soon changed to PR (a fascist party) in order to support(!) President Lula. (Everything is possible in Brazilian politricks.)
He is the single most responsible person for Marina Silva to step down as (very successful) Secretary of the Environment, since President Lula favored Motor Saw Maggi rather than his secretary and party founding comrade Marina (who is now running for president as the Green Party’s candidate).
He is not governor anymore but doubtlessly still one of the most influential people in Brazil.
See more at http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blairo_Maggi

**53rd President of Brazil’s Supreme Court
Widely criticized by famous Brazilian law professors like Dalmo de Abreu Dallari (who is one of Brazil’s leading intellectuals and lectures on Peace Education, Human Rights and Democray and Tolerance at UNESCO, among other institutions) who wrote in an article in Brazil’s leading daily newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that with Mendes’ approval by the Senate (he was chosen by then president Fernando Henrique Cardoso) Brazil will be running serious risks as a state of law, including the fight against corruption and the constitutional normality.
Gilmar Mendes also had to encounter many regional prosecutors who were working for his impeachment. And he even made it into the BBC headlines. See more at http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilmar_Mendes

DENUNCIA! Massacre de Indios em Matogrosso! Não feche os olhos!

olá,

AVISO: esse email imagens terríveis QUE PRECISAM SER VISTAS!!!!

Toddlers draw out the horrors which have aged them beyond reason

Toddlers draw out the horrors which have aged them beyond reason

coincidência: estava com uma amiga há alguns dias e comentavamos sobre o genocídio dos kaiowá.
ela me disse, que lá pelos anos 80, início dos 90, trabalhou com os casos de “suicídio”.
um perito – muito famoso até hoje – estudou 20 e tantos episódios naquela ocasião e declarou-lhe, o que também é a sua opinião (a de minha amiga), ser uma proeza incrível (na falta de melhor palavra) a maioria desses “suicídios” serem cometidos por jovens, ou quase jovens, que se enforcaram de uma altura menor do que a sua própria.
e ainda conseguem quebrar o pescoço.
a foto do garoto indígena enforcado abaixo não desmente tais insinuações.
ou será que o galho cedeu com o tempo, até acharem seu corpo?
será que, em algumas situações, não há um oportunismo cruel com o discurso dos suicídios dos kaiowá para encobrir diversos casos de extermínio naquela região?
abraços e solidariedade

Luis Carlos de Alencar

Is this right?

Is this right?

DENUNCIA! Massacre de Indios Guarani Kaiowá em Mato Grosso! Não feche os olhos!

Estas fotos foram tiradas por um fotógrafo que não pode se identificar pois corre risco de morte. Se trata de um genocidio que está acontecendo no Brasil, não devemos fechar os olhos para esta gente que está sofrendo todo tipo de discriminação e violencia. As crianças morrem de desnutrição e os adultos, por não vislumbrar saídas acabam se entregando à bebida ou se suicidam. A mortandade infantil é altíssima e os assassinatos também. Os medios de comunicação se negam a divulgar isto porque lá é “terra de Gilmar Mendes” (segundo as próprias palavras do fotógrafo que plasmou estas atrocidades) , uma mafia que não tem medo de assassinar quem for questionar ou até tentar ajudar esta pobre gente. O objetivo é transformar as reservas em plantação de soja e criação de gado e isso já está acontecendo!!!
Tem uma foto de um índio morto a pauladas no rosto, indios jovens que se suicidam vítimas da depressão e o alcoolismo e crianças mortas de desnutrição. As aldeias são incendiadas para forçar os índios abandonar a terra…Vejam os desenhos das crianças, em todas as imagens aparece gente sendo assassinada pois essa é a realidade destes pequenos filhos esquecidos do Brasil!

Por favor, repasse, queremos que isto chegue às mãos de alguma pessoa que possa ajudar!!!!

Segundo o fotógrafo que nos encaminhou estas fotos a única possibilidade para estos índios é a interferencia de alguma instituição de peso ESTRANGEIRA de direitos humanos pois a MAFIA que está exterminando estos índios está infiltrada em várias instancias do poder e são poucos os que tem coragem de fazer alguma coisa pois estes mafiosos ameaçam e matam mesmo!

How children interpret the evil they're forced to endure

How children interpret the evil they're forced to endure

Contato comigo:
Natalia Forcat

NaT / Estúdio de Ilustração e Soluções Visuais

US Cyber Command/Mossad? Stuxnet worm 'targeted high-value Iranian assets'

One of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever detected was probably targeting "high value" infrastructure in Iran, experts have told the BBC.

Stuxnet's complexity suggests it could only have been written by a "nation state", some researchers have claimed.

It is believed to be the first-known worm designed to target real-world infrastructure such as power stations, water plants and industrial units.

It was first detected in June and has been intensely studied ever since.


"The fact that we see so many more infections in Iran than anywhere else in the world makes us think this threat was targeted at Iran and that there was something in Iran that was of very, very high value to whomever wrote it," Liam O'Murchu of security firm Symantec, who has tracked the worm since it was first detected, told BBC News.

Some have speculated that it could have been aimed at disrupting Iran's delayed Bushehr nuclear power plant or the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.

However, Mr O'Murchu and others, such as security expert Bruce Schneier, have said that there was currently not enough evidence to draw conclusions about what its intended target was or who had written it.

Initial research by Symantec showed that nearly 60% of all infections were in Iran. That figure still stands, said Mr O'Murchu, although India and Indonesia have also seen relatively high infection rates.


20090710_world_wide_wiretap.htm

'Rare package'

Stuxnet was first detected in June by a security firm based in Belarus, but may have been circulating since 2009.

Unlike most viruses, the worm targets systems that are traditionally not connected to the internet for security reasons.

Instead it infects Windows machines via USB keys - commonly used to move files around - infected with malware.

Once it has infected a machine on a firm's internal network, it seeks out a specific configuration of industrial control software made by Siemens.


The worm searches out industrial systems made by Siemens

The worm searches out industrial systems made by Siemens
Once hijacked, the code can reprogram so-called PLC (programmable logic control) software to give attached industrial machinery new instructions.

"[PLCs] turn on and off motors, monitor temperature, turn on coolers if a gauge goes over a certain temperature," said Mr O'Murchu.

"Those have never been attacked before that we have seen."

If it does not find the specific configuration, the virus remains relatively benign.

However, the worm has also raised eyebrows because of the complexity of the code used and the fact that it bundled so many different techniques into one payload.

"There are a lot of new, unknown techniques being used that we have never seen before," he said These include tricks to hide itself on PLCs and USB sticks as well as up to six different methods that allowed it to spread.

In addition, it exploited several previously unknown and unpatched vulnerabilities in Windows, known as zero-day exploits.

"It is rare to see an attack using one zero-day exploit," Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at security firm F-Secure, told BBC News. "Stuxnet used not one, not two, but four."

He said cybercriminals and "everyday hackers" valued zero-day exploits and would not "waste" them by bundling so many together.

Microsoft has so far patched two of the flaws.

'Nation state'
Mr O'Murchu agreed and said that his analysis suggested that whoever had created the worm had put a "huge effort" into it.

"It is a very big project, it is very well planned, it is very well funded," he said. "It has an incredible amount of code just to infect those machines."




There have been no instances where production operations have been influenced or where a plant has failed” - Siemen's spokesperson


His analysis is backed up by other research done by security firms and computer experts.

"With the forensics we now have it is evident and provable that Stuxnet is a directed sabotage attack involving heavy insider knowledge," said Ralph Langner, an industrial computer expert in an analysis he published on the web.

"This is not some hacker sitting in the basement of his parents' house. To me, it seems that the resources needed to stage this attack point to a nation state," he wrote.

Mr Langner, who declined to be interviewed by the BBC, has drawn a lot of attention for suggesting that Stuxnet could have been targeting the Bushehr nuclear plant.

In particular, he has highlighted a photograph reportedly taken inside the plant that suggests it used the targeted control systems, although they were "not properly licensed and configured".

Mr O'Murchu said no firm conclusions could be drawn.

However, he hopes that will change when he releases his analysis at a conference in Vancouver next week.

"We are not familiar with what configurations are used in different industries," he said.

Instead, he hopes that other experts will be able to pore over their research and pinpoint the exact configuration needed and where that is used.

'Limited success'

A spokesperson for Siemens, the maker of the targeted systems, said it would not comment on "speculations about the target of the virus".

He said that Iran's nuclear power plant had been built with help from a Russian contractor and that Siemens was not involved.

"Siemens was neither involved in the reconstruction of Bushehr or any nuclear plant construction in Iran, nor delivered any software or control system," he said. "Siemens left the country nearly 30 years ago."

Siemens said that it was only aware of 15 infections that had made their way on to control systems in factories, mostly in Germany. Symantec's geographical analysis of the worm's spread also looked at infected PCs.

"There have been no instances where production operations have been influenced or where a plant has failed," the Siemens spokesperson said. "The virus has been removed in all the cases known to us."

He also said that according to global security standards, Microsoft software "may not be used to operate critical processes in plants".

It is not the first time that malware has been found that affects critical infrastructure, although most incidents occur accidentally, said Mr O'Murchu, when a virus intended to infect another system accidentally wreaked havoc with real-world systems.

In 2009 the US government admitted that software had been found that could shut down the nation's power grid.

And Mr Hypponen said that he was aware of an attack - launched by infected USB sticks - against the military systems of a Nato country.

"Whether the attacker was successful, we don't know," he said.

Mr O'Murchu will present his paper on Stuxnet at Virus Bulletin 2010 in Vancouver on 29 September. Researchers from Kaspersky Labs will also unveil new findings at the same event.

Why an Underwear Bomber Trial with an Entrapment Defense Would be One of the Greatest Events in U.S. History


Haskellfamily.blogspot.com
[...] It seems to me, that now that the Underwear Bomber is representing himself, or possibly using new attorneys, that the use of an entrapment defense is not out of the question. The use of such a defense could be one of the greatest moments in the history of the United States of America. Only through a defense such as this, could the full involvement of the U.S. Government be fully discovered and divulged. Please consider the following:
1. The Underwear Bomber was escorted through security without a passport by the Sharp Dressed Man who by all accounts, appears to be a government agent.
2. Congressional hearings have confirmed that the Underwear Bomber was likely let on flight 253 intentionally.
3. The bomb failed to detonate, and by many accounts, was designed so that it would not detonate.
4. The entire terrorist attack was filmed from before it started until after it ended.
5. The bomb was obtained in Yemen where the CIA has been known to have agents interacting with Al Qaeda.

Once you accept the above, it is not so far fetched to believe that the U.S. Government planted a defective bomb on the Underwear Bomber to:

1. Renew the Patriot Act
2. Get body scanners in the airports
3. Further the U.S. involvement in strategically located Yemen
4. Further the fraudulent war on terror
5. Provide further profit to the military industrial complex

Only through an entrapment defense that is fully litigated in open court could the American citizens get what they deserve, an open honest investigation into the Christmas Day events of 2009. Such a trial could possibly wake up the millions of American citizens that fail to even consider that its government is corrupt, dishonest, and working for those who only seek to consolidate their power and wealth...

Source: http://haskellfamily.blogspot.com/2010/09/why-underwear-bomber-trial-with.html

FBI Raids Peace Activist Homes Looking For Terrorist Ties! (All I Can Find Anybody Got More)

Click this link ...... http://tinyurl.com/2dp3yky

A Suspected Terrorist Speaks

The Intel Hub
By Greg Bishop

The public became aware of Michael Finton September 24th, 2009. That’s when he appeared in a Springfield court facing alarming charges, especially for sleepy Springfield, Illinois. Finton was not being charged with fraud. It was not rape. Finton was not being charged with assault and robbery, as he was convicted of in 1999. No, Finton was there facing charges of terrorism. He was arrested after calling a cell phone twice. It’s charged he called the cell phone to detonate a van packed full of explosives that he parked downtown. That was nearly a year ago. Now, the man, known as Talib Islam, is in legal limbo.

“I believe I am legally innocent,” Finton exclaimed wearing handcuffs, a black-and-white stripe jumpsuit and black-rimmed glasses.

This story is about a suspected terrorist busted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Finton is accused of trying to kill a lot of people and scar an already damaged capitol city ego. Why would I write a story about a suspected and accused terrorist? Because he asked me to, quite frankly.

As host of a Saturday evening, alternative-theory, political talk-show on WMAY, I never get mail. I thought barely anybody listened. I’ve had a caller claim he has video evidence of county deputies abusing stun guns on his daughter while she was in handcuffs. My pleading for the caller to send the evidence in to the media has even resulted in nothing.

Only sometimes would I receive a book from various publishers about the afterlife, or UFOs, or even books about Stonehenge–things I do not talk about. My program covers growing institutionalized surveillance and secretive groups like Club Bilderberg and Bohemian Grove. I talk about the importance of the multitude and how globalization should be from below, not above. I preach the importance of our rights as humans to petition for redress from our government. I encourage everyone to be critical, to be the press and to think for themselves.

I had just arrived back into town from a cross-country journey to Los Angeles attempting to free Lindsay Lohan from jail with Producer Joe from the Free Beer and Hot Wings Morning Show. This was a ridiculously successful radio stunt. I tagged along to film the eight-day adventure. It sounds like an unreal trip because it was and there’s video evidence!

When I arrived back to work the Monday following the trip, Finton reached out to me with a hand written letter from the Sangamon County Jail. He requested an interview with me specifically. He noted that another media outlet in Springfield had requested an interview and he wanted the host of a little known talk show there so his story would be fairly covered.

Apparently he had heard me talk about his case and other cases involving a scenario which we’ve heard many examples. In the past 9 years we have had a flux of carefully crafted and controlled stories of terror plots playing out in the media. Here’s how they usually read: “The Joint Terrorism Task Force disrupted a sleeper cell today and arrested one (sometimes it’s three or four) person(s).” Basically, the FBI sets up sting operations for individuals or groups only to take them down with plenty of frightened, yet relieved citizens thanking the Feds. These acts are also met with plenty of editorials bolstering more funding for the Feds.

The interview

I show up to the Sangamon County Jail’s visitor room one Saturday afternoon. After setting up my recorder and ensuring the microphone was up to the ear piece, I see other Sangamon County inmates through three different panes of glass, both are young black women wearing orange and white stripe jumpsuits and they’re trying to get my attention. The stools were bolted down, as were the phones used to communicate with inmates.

I see a young, very thin red-headed man walk by two panes of glass away. We make eye contact. Then there’s an officer. The buzzer sounds and the doors unlock. I could feel the harsh metal clanging throughout the walls all around. Michael Finton came into the sterilized, institutionalized, visitor’s room. We are separated by a thick piece of reinforced glass. The yellowish light bouncing off the concrete blocks painted white is quickly overcome by the sound of heavy locks shutting.

“How did you get here?” I asked.

“It’s a long story,” he said.

“The things that happened from 2007 to 2009 need to be known, but my lawyer says that is not admissible in court.” That’s why Finton claims he had to get his story out, even against recommendations from his appointed public defender.

Finton converted to the Muslim faith after serving over seven years with the Illinois Department of Corrections for aggravated battery and robbery. After converting to Islam, serving his time and being released in 2009, Finton claims he was “a model parolee.” According to the 30-year-old, this all started after prison. He and a fellow Muslim man helped a doctor move from Decatur to Chicago. While in the windy city, the empty U-Haul they were driving was involved in a minor car accident. When police arrived at the scene, they questioned Finton, he recalls.

“What happened is the police saw that I was a Muslim and they saw, you know, there was a Koran in the U-Haul Truck and we had just finished emptying out the U-Haul Truck and they seen an empty U-Haul Truck and of course they jumped to conclusions. So, they called the FBI.” Finton continued “The FBI confirmed that I was telling the truth.”

Innocent explanations, house raids on “bogus” warrants, and an apparent pattern of harassment is what Finton worked to convey in the 30 minute interview. Finton even claims this is all well documented and investigated. All of this according to a man facing life in prison for charges of terrorism.

Micheal Finton says he knew the terror plot he is being charged with was a set up and there wasn’t anywhere else he could turn. Born in California, Finton says he was raised in the foster care system for most of his child and shortly after arriving in Illinois he ended up in IDOC for 7 1/2 years. “Jail is not really so bad,” he said.

A common element

Not long ago the FBI initiated a special operation called Tripwire. The operation has been reported to be involved in interviewing the nation’s crop dusters looking for potential bio-terror attacker and has kept a close eye on activities within prisons. Then there are the sleeper cells. You hear stories where a sleeper cell of 4 or 5 terrorists are busted by the FBI. Then you come to read in the story that there was an FBI informant or agent involved providing material and rhetorical support. These sting operations are developed to protect citizens from terrorists by “identifying potential terrorist sleeper cells within the United States.” Apparently this is done in a very direct and aggressive manner.

In the affidavit against Finton the undercover confidential enforcement officer tells Finton that “two or three other such attacks might happen on the same day.” At least one other attack was planned for that day, and then taken down by federal agents that were involved in the planning.

Hosam Smadi in Dallas, Texas, was also arrested the just the day before Finton was arrested on basically the same charges. Smadi was arrested after placing what, authorities claim, he thought were explosives at the 60-story Fountain Place Tower. The fake bomb was provided by the FBI. Smadi, a Jordanian living in the country on an expired visa, pleaded guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction charge and is currently awaiting sentencing. “Smadi believed this was an active weapon of mass destruction,” his statement said. “Smadi believed the bomb would explode and cause extensive damage.”

A press release from the United States Attorney Central District of Illinois states Finton’s case “is not in any way related to the ongoing terror investigation in New York and Colorado.” Authorities are also on record saying there was no link between Finton and Smadi. But, there is a common element with Finton’s case and the Joint Terrorism Task Force’s “uncovering” of Smadi, the “Portland Seven,” the “Lackawanna Six,” and the Northern Virginia jihad. That relation is the Joint Terrorism Task Force’s informants and agents.

There are many similarities between what both Smadi and Finton are charged with. They both were under heavy surveillance by federal agents and informants. These informants then provided rhetorical and material support and even built the phony bombs and funded the operations. There were also no other individuals involved with the two distant cases. It was only the defendant and FBI agents in both the Finton and Smadi case. These were not elaborate plots by “sleeper cells.”

There are several differences between the two cases, however. Finton is an American citizen, here legally and according to Finton himself, a model parolee. Smadi was here illegally. As for the charges, Finton is charged with attempting to use a WMD and attempting to target a federal building. The attempting to bomb a public place charge against Smadi was dropped in a plea deal this past May. Smadi may serve 30 years.

Finton doesn’t want to plead guilty or even reach a plea deal. He was approached with a plea deal, but claims that was a set up too. “If I were to plead guilty it would just basically be on the um you know … um … to say basically um … just get it over with, if you’re going to give me life, give me whatever you’re going to give me.”

“Everything that I did, I was told to do. Everything that I did, and what they say about me and this Aaron Schock’s office, I didn’t … that wasn’t my idea. I didn’t bring that up. They did. If you look in every single one of the wiretaps every single time dead bodies are mentioned it’s always coming from the undercover, never coming from me. We can look at—um who built it? They did. Who supplied all the materials? Who supplied the van? Who gave me the phone,” Finton rants on, mentioning fed’s money being exchanged for rent and travel back and forth for the recorded meetings. “This whole thing was their operation.”

“I believe I am legally innocent,” Finton exclaimed wearing handcuffs, a black-and-white stripe jumpsuit and black-rimmed glasses. “Intent and believe are the key words here … ” Finton said while sitting across the glass in the secured visitor’s room. “The people that set this up, without disparaging them, they are not very good at what they do. I knew that this was fake.” The affidavit with the charges against Finton indicates that he stated in recorded conversations with the informant that he suspected this to be a set up. “I knew it was a sting operation the day of, I knew it was a sting operation as soon as I saw it.”

The accused terrorist was not shy in confirming what the affidavits did get right. Finton did want to move to Pakistan to go to school to defend Palestine. “Most of those statements from the affidavit are basically true or somewhat accurate,” he said, hoping to one day defend the Palestinians.

Before his arrest, Finton traveled to the Middle East. But he claims it was an innocent trip. His trip to Saudi Arabia spawned from an Islamic matrimonial website. It was not an arranged marriage website, but rather a parent approved Islamic dating site, Finton said. He had a profile on the site that said he wanted to learn Arabic and move to the Middle East. He wanted citizenship in the Middle East and “If necessary I would have renounced my American citizenship,” he said. Interestingly, if found guilty of the charges, Finton could have his citizenship revoked if a bill promoted by TEA Party backed Senator Scott Brown and newly Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman.

The family from Saudi Arabia wanted to bring Finton over and it was decided that Finton would marry the daughter and move to Saudi Arabia. “I’m not from here in Southern Illinois. People are different, that’s not anything bad, they’re just different. When I went to Saudi Arabia I fit in.” Finton then rambled off about the scourges of modern society like disease, crime, drugs, etc.

After his trip and multiple run-ins with the law on what he claims were bogus reasons, Finton says he was approached by the FBI in 2008. He claims the Feds wanted him to be an informant at a mosque in Decatur. He refused. After continued traffic stops and warranted searches, Finton knew he was being targeted by the authorities.

“I was at the end of my rope,” he exclaimed.

In what could be his one chance to sound off about politics, Finton did have this to say about the forthcoming “International Burn the Koran Day” planned by an evangelical church from Florida; “This doesn’t seem like the greatest idea in the world to me,” he said. Finton says the “notion that Islam wants to destroy democracy is not true. The first country to recognize American democracy was not France or Germany, it certainly wasn’t England. It was the Kingdom of Morocco. The Founding Fathers were very, very aware of the Muslims.”

Finally, Finton claims that the resources the FBI wasted on him could have been used to catch the so-called “underwear bomber” and the young man accused of the Times Square bombing. Those two cases, by the way, do not have the element of the Joint Terrorism Task Force providing material or rhetorical support.

Finton was being represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Robert Scherschligt. Scherschligt requested to be removed from the case because of the lack of cooperation from Finton concerning media interviews. U.S. District Judge David Herndon permitted the request and has assigned Finton new council.

Though the arrest and charges came down last September in Springfield, Finton has been awaiting trial and it appears that the trial is going may be postponed even longer. The newly appointed council needs time to catch up on the case. As the 30-year-old converted Muslim from Decatur gets settled with his new public defender he also awaits a psychological evaluation.
“I’m not crazy,” Finton said. “I’m not going to play crazy.”

Michael Finton’s trial date is September 27th. Then, he will face two counts in federal court: one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of attempting to harm or kill federal employees or agents. Since he was arrested nearly a year ago and charged with parking a van full of explosives next to the Findley Federal Building in downtown Springfield, Finton’s case has been on quite the ride. He has switched public defenders and FBI agents have been moved around. Even the judge presiding over the case will not be normal to Illinois’ Central Judicial District–U.S. District Judge David Herndon hails from Illinois’ Southern Judicial District. Judge Herndon could postpone the trial date even later to allow the new public defender to get acquainted with the case.

Listen to the interview and reactions from listeners of 970 WMAY.

Editors Note: Michael may or may not be guilty. This article was written to show that multiple terror suspects have been set up by the FBI in what some feel was entrapment. In no way does The Intel Hub or Greg Bishop support terrorism, rather we are actively fighting against it.

Congress hears testimony on Holocaust insurance

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Supporters and opponents of the latest version of proposed legislation that would allow Holocaust survivors to sue World War II-era insurers in U.S. courts testified in Congress.

A statement submitted to the hearing Wednesday of the commercial and administrative law subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee by six major U.S. Jewish groups reiterated opposition to the legislation, saying the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims process, launched in the 1990s, had exhausted the avenues of restitution, and that reopening the process would raise false hopes and undermine past U.S. commitments to European insurers and their host nations that ICHEIC would end claims.

A number of courts have not advanced such lawsuits, citing Executive Branch foreign policy prerogatives.

The proposed legislation, initiated by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) would not allow an executive agreement from preempting relief in the courts. Efforts to pass similar laws have never made it through the legislative process in previous Congresses.

"I am concerned that the proposed legislation is likely to seriously damage critical ongoing negotiations with Germany and others for the continuation and expansion of hundreds of millions of dollars in crucial funding required by survivors most in need in the U.S. and abroad," said a statement by Roman Kent, the chairman of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and a board member of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. "It threatens to do this by undermining or reopening previous agreements and other commitments. These negotiations offer the real prospect of substantial benefits for many survivors immediately, as compared to the doubtful likelihood of insurance recoveries for more than a few survivors or heirs of Holocaust victims offered by the enactment of H.R. 4596."

Kent noted that the ICHEIC process remained open.

Sam Dubbin, a lawyer representing a number of survivors who have challenged the ICHEIC process, said the commission did not do enough to force insurers to reveal policies and underestimated the value of policies. Moreover, he challenged the fairness of a process that kept survivors from using the courts, although a number of states have passed laws that would facilitate such action.

"ICHEIC’s performance is really immaterial," Dubbin said. "Even if it was more 'successful' it is simply contrary to American values and the Constitution to deny survivors and family members equal rights enjoyed by every other American."

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