DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Monday, December 15, 2014
A Tortured Report
For most of last week, the report on enhanced interrogations produced by Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence dominated headlines. To the extent that there was a debate at all, it was one-sided. News coverage routinely described the findings as the “Senate torture report,” often failing even to note that it was written exclusively by Democratic staff or account for the differences between techniques used as part of the CIA program and abuses committed outside of that program.
We have no doubts that there were abuses. And some of those abuses, if they happened as the report describes, are horrifying and inexcusable. There is no justification, ever, for pureeing the meal of a detainee and inserting the liquefied results in his anus. This isn’t interrogation, it’s torture.
But approved techniques, including some that test the limits of what ought to be morally permissible, were effective. The report’s attempt to demonstrate otherwise is entirely unpersuasive, and its case is marked by the kind of breathtaking intellectual dishonesty that should make us all wary of trusting its conclusions.
Consider the case of Abu Zubaydah. The Feinstein report claims that Zubaydah’s identification of Jose Padilla, the “dirty bomb” plotter: (1) was of little value, (2) came before he was subjected to enhanced interrogation, and (3) helps prove that EITs were ineffective. Only one of those claims is true, and even that’s true only on a technicality.
The Feinstein report says “there was significant intelligence in CIA databases acquired prior to—and independ-ently of—the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program to fully identify Jose Padilla as a terrorist threat and to disrupt any terrorist plotting associated with him.”
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We have no doubts that there were abuses. And some of those abuses, if they happened as the report describes, are horrifying and inexcusable. There is no justification, ever, for pureeing the meal of a detainee and inserting the liquefied results in his anus. This isn’t interrogation, it’s torture.
But approved techniques, including some that test the limits of what ought to be morally permissible, were effective. The report’s attempt to demonstrate otherwise is entirely unpersuasive, and its case is marked by the kind of breathtaking intellectual dishonesty that should make us all wary of trusting its conclusions.
Consider the case of Abu Zubaydah. The Feinstein report claims that Zubaydah’s identification of Jose Padilla, the “dirty bomb” plotter: (1) was of little value, (2) came before he was subjected to enhanced interrogation, and (3) helps prove that EITs were ineffective. Only one of those claims is true, and even that’s true only on a technicality.
The Feinstein report says “there was significant intelligence in CIA databases acquired prior to—and independ-ently of—the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program to fully identify Jose Padilla as a terrorist threat and to disrupt any terrorist plotting associated with him.”
More
NEW SURGE OF MUSLIM REFUGEES COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU
The United Nations is set to send 9,000 Syrian refugees for relocation in the United States. The number of refugees in the US has skyrocketed in the last five years, and is expected to balloon further in 2015.
Many of the Muslims resettled in the United States have been from Somalia. From the Somali population, there have been at least 10 who have joined the Islamic State, with some reports going as high as 25-30. There are fewer and fewer “Moderate” Muslim groups left in Syria- most have either been destroyed or joined with Al Qaeda, or ISIS. What does that mean for the refugees from Syria? “Radicalization” is a serious concern.
The “pipeline”
Back in September, Marie Harf from the State Department stated that the US had only resettled 166 Syrians up to the time of her briefing. But she also stated that “several thousand are in the pipeline” to be resettled by the UNHCR, the United Nations Resettlement agency.
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The “pipeline”
Back in September, Marie Harf from the State Department stated that the US had only resettled 166 Syrians up to the time of her briefing. But she also stated that “several thousand are in the pipeline” to be resettled by the UNHCR, the United Nations Resettlement agency.
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Martin Armstrong Warns Civil Unrest Is Rising Everywhere (And Government Is Digging In Its Heels)
I have warned that governments always turn against the people.
Illinois just made it a felony to film police abuse in the USA.
The Spanish government has followed the same course.
Despite protests from political, judicial and population, the politicians who are becoming ruthless elite dictators rather than democratic representatives of the people, passed a law which provides extensive fines for protesters who dare to film the abuse of police. They have the audacity to claim filming police is an “offense against public safety” with fines of up to 600,000 euros. It is the police who protect government – not the people.
So let’s get this straight. “public safety” has become a code word for “government safety” that no longer gives two shits about the people.
Switzerland enacted laws requiring registration of all guns in the country for the first time when. Why? There have not been any incidents of “public safety”.
They too realize that the people are starting to wake up against the abuse of government everywhere. The people have caused this.
As a whole, people watch sports, buy clothes, and go to dinner. Generally at best half even bother to vote. That has sent the signal to government elites the people do not care so corruption has run wild. But now with taxes rising, unemployment rising, pensions vanishing into thin air, and living standards declining, people want real change no words.
Even in the USA, the Republicans wrongly believe their ideas are what the people want. They too raise taxes. This funding bill allowing the banks to repeal Dodd Frank is an example of the corruption behind the scenes. They votes for Republicans because who is ever in power is being tossed out. Come 2016, it will be the Republican’s turn as we see a rise in third-party activity. This repeal of Dodd Frank is a John Andrew Boehner special that goes against the conservative T-Party Republicans.
More
Illinois just made it a felony to film police abuse in the USA.
The Spanish government has followed the same course.
Despite protests from political, judicial and population, the politicians who are becoming ruthless elite dictators rather than democratic representatives of the people, passed a law which provides extensive fines for protesters who dare to film the abuse of police. They have the audacity to claim filming police is an “offense against public safety” with fines of up to 600,000 euros. It is the police who protect government – not the people.
So let’s get this straight. “public safety” has become a code word for “government safety” that no longer gives two shits about the people.
Switzerland enacted laws requiring registration of all guns in the country for the first time when. Why? There have not been any incidents of “public safety”.
They too realize that the people are starting to wake up against the abuse of government everywhere. The people have caused this.
As a whole, people watch sports, buy clothes, and go to dinner. Generally at best half even bother to vote. That has sent the signal to government elites the people do not care so corruption has run wild. But now with taxes rising, unemployment rising, pensions vanishing into thin air, and living standards declining, people want real change no words.
Even in the USA, the Republicans wrongly believe their ideas are what the people want. They too raise taxes. This funding bill allowing the banks to repeal Dodd Frank is an example of the corruption behind the scenes. They votes for Republicans because who is ever in power is being tossed out. Come 2016, it will be the Republican’s turn as we see a rise in third-party activity. This repeal of Dodd Frank is a John Andrew Boehner special that goes against the conservative T-Party Republicans.
More
This Sign’s Message About Veterans Should be Seen by EVERY Voter
Now, the message is quickly going viral — and liberals are going to hate it.
The homemade sign boldly stated: “Vets Dying on Waitlists – Illegals Get Billions!”
The poster, of course, is a reference to White House scandals involving the Department of Veterans Affairs and illegal amnesty.
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Brother of JFK assassin suing funeral home which sold coffin
Robert Oswald, 80, has accused Baumgardner Funeral Home in Fort Worth, Texas, of acting in bad taste for selling the coffin after his body was exhumed as part of a CIA conspiracy probe.
Two days after President Kennedy was gunned down as he rode in an open-topped motorcade, Oswald was shot dead by night club owner Jack Ruby as he walked through Dallas police station.
Oswald was buried at the Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park in Texas in 1963, but his body was exhumed 18 years later and examined after mounting speculation about CIA involvement.
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Breaking News: Commercial Building Fire with Explosions
Breaking News:
Commercial Building Fire with Explosions
Berlin, Maryland
At Ocean Downs Casino
Worcester County
Multiple explosions reported.
Maintenance building well involved.
Departments Responding:
Berlin
Ocean Pines
Ocean City
Showell
4 Christian teens beheaded by ISIS for refusing to convert. No outrage from UN? Feinstein? Obama?
Sen. Feinstein seemed to believe, for some odd reason, that we needed a “soul revealing” moment in America. And it came at the expense of our intelligence community with some false sense of ensuring a moral high ground over islamic terrorists.
Let me be clear, there is and never will be any moral equivalency between the actions of the barbaric savage jihadists and terrorists and the United States — water boarding, sleep deprivation, loud music, and even diaper-wearing provides no basis for comparison. And as we have reported today, even now the British military is forbidden from shouting, screaming, banging fists on a table, or using insulting language towards captured jihadists.
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Ohio police say man painted gun red to resemble toy
Officers with Hamilton County's Sheriff's Office responding to a call about a man with a gun say they found 23-year-old Orlando Lowery with a red-painted .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun and 9 grams of crack cocaine.
The arrest took place just before 1.30am in the 9500 block of Wayne Avenue in Cincinnati.
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Man can't challenge $280K tax bill he probably doesn't really owe, Pa. court says
In fact, city officials acknowledged in court that the tax bill they sent Nathan Lerner was a "jeopardy assessment" based on a fabrication.
The problem is that Lerner didn't follow the right procedural course in challenging it, a Commonwealth Court panel found in a ruling issued this week. And so, the state judges determined, he's stuck with that unfounded tax tab.
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Bachmann to Obama at White House Christmas Party: Bomb Iran
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) knew the White House Christmas party this week would be her last chance as a member of Congress to speak directly to President Obama. She didn’t waste the opportunity.
Despite the objections of her family members, who didn’t want to be embarrassed, Bachmann said she wanted to give some “substantive comments” to the president. She waited until pictures were taken and her family walked off the stage.
“I turned to the president and I said, something to the effect of, ‘Mr. President, you need to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities, because if you don’t, Iran will have a nuclear weapon on your watch and the course of world history will change,’” she told the Washington Free Beacon.
“And he got his condescending smile on his face and laughed at me and said, ‘Well Michele, it’s just not that easy.’
And I said to him, ‘No, Mr. President, you’re the president, it will happen on your watch, and you’ll have to answer to the world for this.’
And that was it and then I left. Merry Christmas,” she said with a laugh.
Read more here
Despite the objections of her family members, who didn’t want to be embarrassed, Bachmann said she wanted to give some “substantive comments” to the president. She waited until pictures were taken and her family walked off the stage.
“I turned to the president and I said, something to the effect of, ‘Mr. President, you need to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities, because if you don’t, Iran will have a nuclear weapon on your watch and the course of world history will change,’” she told the Washington Free Beacon.
“And he got his condescending smile on his face and laughed at me and said, ‘Well Michele, it’s just not that easy.’
And I said to him, ‘No, Mr. President, you’re the president, it will happen on your watch, and you’ll have to answer to the world for this.’
And that was it and then I left. Merry Christmas,” she said with a laugh.
Read more here
Supreme Court Justice Scalia backs torture of terror suspects saying it's 'facile' and 'absurd' to rule out brute force in interrogations
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has said it would be absurd and facile to ban interrogators from torturing terror suspects.
His controversial declaration comes amid outrage over a Senate report into CIA torture tactics, which found no life-saving information was extracted using brute force.
Speaking to a Swiss radio station, Scalia, 78, said American and European liberals who say such tactics may never be used are being self-righteous.
He said: 'Listen, I think it's very facile for people to say, "Oh, torture is terrible". You posit the situation where a person that you know for sure knows the location of a nuclear bomb that has been planted in Los Angeles and will kill millions of people.
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His controversial declaration comes amid outrage over a Senate report into CIA torture tactics, which found no life-saving information was extracted using brute force.
Speaking to a Swiss radio station, Scalia, 78, said American and European liberals who say such tactics may never be used are being self-righteous.
He said: 'Listen, I think it's very facile for people to say, "Oh, torture is terrible". You posit the situation where a person that you know for sure knows the location of a nuclear bomb that has been planted in Los Angeles and will kill millions of people.
More
UPDATE: Gunman, two hostages dead in Sydney hostage taking
Iranian gunman facing assault and murder charges and two of his hostages are killed as police in Sydney, Australia, storm cafe to end hostage taking.
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McAuliffe Begins Push For Fresh Wave Of Gun Control Regulations
The governor introduced a package of gun control measures in Arlington Monday that he said were necessary to keep Virginians safe. Among the legislation he will pursue during the 2015 legislation session is a bill that would limit handgun purchases to one a month. Another bill would prohibit people subject to protective orders from possessing firearms.
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Cromnibus: a winter festival of unrestrained spending
As they had a habit of saying throughout the interstellar empire of “Dune,” the spice must flow. Money is once more flowing out of Congress to all manner of follies and outrages, thanks to an omnibus spending bill that funds everything except Homeland Security through September of 2015 – throwing away every scrap of leverage the incoming Republican majority could possibly exercise against Emperor Obama, ensuring that no one outside the authors of Democrat Party fundraising email spam will be talking about shutdowns, and effectively neutering freshly-elected conservatives. The GOP leadership can get through another year with its favorite wheezy excuse for not standing up and fighting for anything: Our hands are tied. Sure, the knots are a bit clumsy, but that’s to be expected when you tie your own hands. It’ll be good enough for the permanent Beltway culture, which can have a very merry Christmas, riding their one-horse open sleighs down streets coated with a fresh blizzard of taxpayer dollars, jingling all the way.
Americans with some vague memory of how the system is supposed to work might be wondering what happened to the sober deliberation of budgets, the careful spending of every dollar, and even the basic rules of accounting. Welcome to the new millennium, old-timers! We don’t do things that way any more. Government by perpetual crisis is so much more exciting, and lucrative for the Ruling Class. Now we wait until the hands of the fiscal doomsday clock stand at one minute to midnight, and the political class has to fund everything with “emergency spending bills,” scribbled in blind haste and posted on glitchy websites for public review in a half-hearted ritual of “transparency.” We live in the shadow of the cromnibus, an appropriately clunky word that combines “continuing resolution” emergency tactics with “omnibus spending” irresponsibility. The Cromnibus is a flabby beast a gaping maw and many tentacles to feed itself, but it lacks eyes, ears, and a frontal lobe.
More
Americans with some vague memory of how the system is supposed to work might be wondering what happened to the sober deliberation of budgets, the careful spending of every dollar, and even the basic rules of accounting. Welcome to the new millennium, old-timers! We don’t do things that way any more. Government by perpetual crisis is so much more exciting, and lucrative for the Ruling Class. Now we wait until the hands of the fiscal doomsday clock stand at one minute to midnight, and the political class has to fund everything with “emergency spending bills,” scribbled in blind haste and posted on glitchy websites for public review in a half-hearted ritual of “transparency.” We live in the shadow of the cromnibus, an appropriately clunky word that combines “continuing resolution” emergency tactics with “omnibus spending” irresponsibility. The Cromnibus is a flabby beast a gaping maw and many tentacles to feed itself, but it lacks eyes, ears, and a frontal lobe.
More
Kidnapping Defendant Receives Lengthy Sentence
GEORGETOWN — A Sussex County Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced Jackeline Perez, 17, to spend the next 16 years in prison for her role in the March 2013 carjacking and kidnapping of an 89-year-old Sussex County woman.
Perez, 17, pled guilty to first-degree carjacking, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree conspiracy on Sept. 12. She was sentenced by Judge Richard F. Stokes. Deputy Attorneys General Melanie Withers and Casey Ewart prosecuted the case for the Department of Justice.
She and three others, who have all either pled guilty to or been convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and conspiracy charges, were involved in the carjacking and kidnapping of Margaret E. Smith on March 18, 2013. Perez and her friend, Junia McDonald, 16, first asked Smith for a ride from a Milford convenience store to a home in Lincoln. After arriving at the home, Smith was forced to turn over her car keys and then forced into the trunk of her car. Perez and McDonald then drove to pick up other friends – Philip Brewer and Rondaiges Harper – with Smith locked in the trunk of the car. Smith spent two days trapped in the trunk of her car before being released at a cemetery near Seaford.
Junia McDonald, 16, who was sentenced Sept. 12 to 16 years in prison followed by nine years of home confinement and probation. She had pled guilty to first-degree carjacking, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree conspiracy.
Rondaiges Harper, 19, was convicted by a jury in June on first-degree kidnapping, first-degree carjacking and conspiracy charges. He was sentenced July 25 to 30 years in prison.
Philip Brewer, 18, pled guilty in September 2013 to second-degree carjacking, three counts of kidnapping and four counts of second-degree conspiracy. He will be sentenced Dec. 19.
Perez, 17, pled guilty to first-degree carjacking, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree conspiracy on Sept. 12. She was sentenced by Judge Richard F. Stokes. Deputy Attorneys General Melanie Withers and Casey Ewart prosecuted the case for the Department of Justice.
She and three others, who have all either pled guilty to or been convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and conspiracy charges, were involved in the carjacking and kidnapping of Margaret E. Smith on March 18, 2013. Perez and her friend, Junia McDonald, 16, first asked Smith for a ride from a Milford convenience store to a home in Lincoln. After arriving at the home, Smith was forced to turn over her car keys and then forced into the trunk of her car. Perez and McDonald then drove to pick up other friends – Philip Brewer and Rondaiges Harper – with Smith locked in the trunk of the car. Smith spent two days trapped in the trunk of her car before being released at a cemetery near Seaford.
Junia McDonald, 16, who was sentenced Sept. 12 to 16 years in prison followed by nine years of home confinement and probation. She had pled guilty to first-degree carjacking, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree conspiracy.
Rondaiges Harper, 19, was convicted by a jury in June on first-degree kidnapping, first-degree carjacking and conspiracy charges. He was sentenced July 25 to 30 years in prison.
Philip Brewer, 18, pled guilty in September 2013 to second-degree carjacking, three counts of kidnapping and four counts of second-degree conspiracy. He will be sentenced Dec. 19.
Too many drinks? New cellphone app may tell you so
A new federally funded cellphone app allows people who may have had one too many to get an idea just how drunk they are -- and hail a ride home.
Users enter their sex, height, weight, and number of drinks consumed to help figure out their blood-alcohol level. They also can play two interactive games to test reaction time and cognitive agility. And the app uses GPS technology to call cabs and pre-load phone numbers for potential designated drivers.
The app, called ENDUI -- pronounced "End DUI" -- was announced Thursday by government and police officials in Maryland. Funded by federal money reserved for drunken-driving education efforts, the app is among several in a handful of states to tackle drunken driving -- though Maryland's is one of the most elaborate.
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Users enter their sex, height, weight, and number of drinks consumed to help figure out their blood-alcohol level. They also can play two interactive games to test reaction time and cognitive agility. And the app uses GPS technology to call cabs and pre-load phone numbers for potential designated drivers.
The app, called ENDUI -- pronounced "End DUI" -- was announced Thursday by government and police officials in Maryland. Funded by federal money reserved for drunken-driving education efforts, the app is among several in a handful of states to tackle drunken driving -- though Maryland's is one of the most elaborate.
More
The Devastation Of America's Working Class
After years of exposing, month after month, the truth about the US labor market - its conversion into a part-time (in 2010!), low-paying job market where Millennials refuse to work (as the job market reality is gruesome so instead they opt to load up on record amount of student loans) and where older Americans, instead of enjoying retirement are forced right back into the labor force leading to record numbers of workers over the age of 55 (thanks to ZIRP crushing the value of their savings and a refusing to participate in an HFT- and central-bank rigged stock market), the mainstream media, having grown tired of spinning the bullshit optimistic propaganda, has finally moved to the "tinfoil" side, and has done something it normally wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Tell the truth.
Enter the NYT with a shocking dose of truthfulness, one which goes to show just one thing: how over the past decade, notwithstanding the tripling of the S&P from its post-Lehman lows on the back of $11 trillion in central bank liquidity, America's working class has been not only skewed beyond recognition, but is now absolutely devastated. And all thanks to the Federal Reserve skewing the value of money so much that those who should be working aren't, and those who should be retiring, are serving you Starbucks.
Here are the facts, long overdue but facts nonetheless, from the NYT:
At every age, the chances of not working have changed in the last 15 years.
Teenagers are far more likely not to work.
Older people are retiring later and working more.
In the late 1960s, almost all men between the ages of 25 and 54 went to work. Only about 5 out of every 100 did not have a job in any given week. By 2000, this figure had more than doubled, to 11 out of every 100 men. This year, it’s 16.
About 13 percent of the increase in prime-age nonworkers, including a substantial fraction of the younger ones, comes among people who say they are in school.
Much of the school-related rise in nonwork, at least since 2007, appears to be less about staying in school than it is about not being able to find part-time jobs(don't tell that to the trillion+ in student loans though).
Some men in school say they would like to be working part time but they’ve given up looking for a job. Others may stop going to school entirely if they could find a job, or if the college wage premium were smaller.
About 20 percent of the new nonworkers say they are disabled, a category whose numbers have risen particularly for workers above age 50.
Enter the NYT with a shocking dose of truthfulness, one which goes to show just one thing: how over the past decade, notwithstanding the tripling of the S&P from its post-Lehman lows on the back of $11 trillion in central bank liquidity, America's working class has been not only skewed beyond recognition, but is now absolutely devastated. And all thanks to the Federal Reserve skewing the value of money so much that those who should be working aren't, and those who should be retiring, are serving you Starbucks.
Here are the facts, long overdue but facts nonetheless, from the NYT:
At every age, the chances of not working have changed in the last 15 years.
Teenagers are far more likely not to work.
Older people are retiring later and working more.
In the late 1960s, almost all men between the ages of 25 and 54 went to work. Only about 5 out of every 100 did not have a job in any given week. By 2000, this figure had more than doubled, to 11 out of every 100 men. This year, it’s 16.
About 13 percent of the increase in prime-age nonworkers, including a substantial fraction of the younger ones, comes among people who say they are in school.
Much of the school-related rise in nonwork, at least since 2007, appears to be less about staying in school than it is about not being able to find part-time jobs(don't tell that to the trillion+ in student loans though).
Some men in school say they would like to be working part time but they’ve given up looking for a job. Others may stop going to school entirely if they could find a job, or if the college wage premium were smaller.
About 20 percent of the new nonworkers say they are disabled, a category whose numbers have risen particularly for workers above age 50.
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