Dennis Kucinich Makes a Serious Push to Ban Govt. Assassinations of US Citizens

(TheNation) – Lawyers for US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who has reportedly been targeted for assassination by the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command, had to fight the US government to have the right to represent him. On Wednesday, following a lawsuit by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Treasury Department issued a license to the pro-bono lawyers. Now the battle for due process begins. In a statement, al-Awlaki’s new lawyers said the license would “allow us to pursue our litigation relating to the government’s asserted authority to engage in targeted killings of American civilians without due process.”

Al-Awlaki is originally from New Mexico and now lives in Yemen. He has been accused of providing inspiration for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the alleged “underwear bomber,” and Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged Fort Hood shooter.

Most lawmakers have been mute about the Obama administration’s policy to target a US citizen for assassination. Representative Jane Harman, who serves on the Homeland Security Committee, said recently that Awlaki is “probably the person, the terrorist, who would be terrorist No. 1 in terms of threat against us.” One of the few who has spoken against the policy is Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich. “The assassination policies vitiate the presumption of innocence and the government then becomes the investigator, policeman, prosecutor, judge, jury, executioner all in one,” Kucinich told me in April. “That raises the greatest questions with respect to our constitution and our democratic way of life.” He called the policy “extrajudicial.”

Activists Take On Fluoridated Water in Wichita

(Infowars) – Concerned citizens in Wichita, Kansas, have informed that city’s public officials about a poster campaign designed to inform the public about the health hazards of water fluoridation.

“We know the truth. And we are growing our numbers,” writes Travis W. Crank. “You will be forced to answer the increasing number of inquiries to your offices which will result — and shall escalate until the day that it is stopped and independent testing results show that your fluoridation operation has been withdrawn from this area altogether,” he writes in an open letter addressed to Sedgwick County public servants and members of the Wichita City Council.

Video: Anti-Terror Ads Banned For Encouraging Stasi Activity

(SteveWatson) – Government anti-terror advertisements encouraging members of the British public to report on their neighbours’ and work colleagues’ “suspicious” activities have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority after several complaints.

The national advertising watchdog ruled that the radio ads could cause “serious offense” to law-abiding citizens and therefore should not be allowed to be broadcast again. View More Here

10 Of The Most Crooked Candidates Of 2010

(Alternet) – Since 2005, the Watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has highlighted the most egregious violators of the public trust in its annual Most Corrupt Members of Congress report. Now, CREW has begun a list of Crooked Candidates to shine the spotlight on some of the lousy politicians vying for federal office in 2010. Here’s their collection of non-incumbent candidates so far: Read More Here

Ten Ways We Are Being Tracked, Traced, and Databased

(ActivistPost) – The war on terror is a worldwide endeavor that has spurred massive investment into the global surveillance industry – which now seems to becoming a war on “liberty and privacy.”  Given all of the new monitoring technology being implemented, the uproar over warrantless wiretaps now seems moot.  High-tech, first-world countries  are being tracked, traced, and databased,literally around every corner.  Governments, aided by private companies, are gathering a mountain of information on average citizens who so far seem willing to trade liberty for supposed security.  Here are just some of the ways the matrix of data is being collected:

MSM: Jefferson changed ‘subjects’ to ‘citizens’ in Declaration of Independence

(WashingtonPost) – “Subjects.”

That’s what Thomas Jefferson first wrote in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence to describe the people of the 13 colonies.

But in a moment when history took a sharp turn, Jefferson sought quite methodically to expunge the word, to wipe it out of existence and write over it. Many words were crossed out and replaced in the draft, but only one was obliterated.

Over the smudge, Jefferson then wrote the word “citizens.”

No longer subjects to the crown, the colonists became something different: a people whose allegiance was to one another, not to a faraway monarch.

U.S. Postal Service Expands Construction Of Secret Rooms

(PaulWatson) – We have received documents from a military source indicating that U.S. Postal Service facilities across the country are expanding the construction of secretive criminal investigation rooms, which some fear will be used to detain American citizens in the event of a national emergency, bioterror attack or pandemic.

The documents (PDF) show architectural floor plans for criminal investigation rooms that would be housed within existing U.S. Postal Service buildings. The blueprints show “secret rooms” within post offices where, the source claims, “families will be separated” in the event of martial law being declared.

Video: Maryland Citizens Face Felony Charges for Recording Cops

(KurtNimmo) – In Maryland, it is a felony to record thuggish cops as they push around skateboarding teenagers, beat sports patrons, and pull guns on motorists for speeding.

“Several Marylanders face felony charges for recording their arrests on camera, and others have been intimidated to shut their cameras off,” reports WJZ 23 in Baltimore.

Maryland cops are using a Maryland law that states conversations in private cannot be recorded without the consent of both people involved in order to go about their business of harassing, intimidating, and assaulting citizens.

Immigration News

(POEgov) – Video: Congressman Poe Speaks Out As Another Mexican Helicopter Invades U.S.

Flashback: While Government Treats Citizens As Terrorists, Mexican Military Invades U.S.

Mr. Speaker, U.S. Border Patrol agents have spotted yet another Mexican military helicopter incursion into Texas. That makes three times these helicopters have crossed the border into America this year, that we know of. Video Link Here

(WakeUp1776) – New World Order Freaking Out Over Arizona Law

For the first time in a long time I feel that the globalist/communist/international banker/progressives (aka the “New World Order”) are in a reaction phase due to this Arizona law. They are not used to reacting. They are used to being proactive in taking away our sovereignty. They have been in charge for a very long time and are now starting to see an uprising like never before. Read More Here

(PaulWatson&AlexJones) – Dictator Of Failed State Lectures Americans About Freedom

Americans were once again forced to endure the dictator of a failed state which represses and subjugates its citizens as a matter of course lecturing the U.S. about how ‘his people’ were being discriminated against yesterday when unelected Mexican President Felipe Calderon bashed the Arizona illegal immigration law. Read More Here

(CNSNews) – Mexican President Denounces Arizona Law Despite Laws Against Illegal Immigration in His Own Country

At a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized Arizona’s new law against illegal immigration.

Calderon, through a translator, called the law “discriminatory,” while Obama said the wording of the law was “troublesome” and could lead to innocent people being “harassed or arrested.” Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – Video: War Between The States – Utility Commissioner Threatens To Cut Off LA Power If They Boycott Arizona

According to NBC LA (via Drudge Report), an Arizona utility commissioner is going to shut off power to Los Angeles if LA decides to boycott Arizona. Video Link Here

(NBC) – Video: Girl Outs Mother’s Citizenship Status During First Lady’s School Visit

A second-grader may have unwittingly blown the whistle on her mother’s citizenship status during Michelle Obama’s visit to a Silver Spring, Md., school — and right in front of Mexico’s first lady. Video Link Here

(Infowars) – Agenda 21 Alert: Immigration Theater

The purpose of the federal government’s neglect of protecting the border with Mexico is so that illegal immigrants can pass through it, virtually at will, in order to create a nearly open border. This accomplishes the globalists’ objectives of weakening sovereignty and nationalism, developingeconomic strife, and fomenting discord between taxpaying citizens and illegal immigrants, which are necessary elements to implement the North American Union. Further, it sets the stage for amnesty and the federal government’s immigration bill that would establish a national ID card for all workers, the inroad to REAL ID.

Senator: Kagan Argued Government Could Ban Books

(PaulWatson) – In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Mitch McConnell pointed out that Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan once argued that the government should have the power to ban books and censor political pamphlets, as yet more alarming information on Kagan’s hostility towards the First Amendment comes to light.

During the Citizens United vs. FEC case, Kagan’s office was asked by Chief Justice John Roberts if the government could ban publications it they were paid for by a corporation or labor union.

“If it’s a 500-page book, and at the end it says, ‘and so vote for x,’ the government could ban that?” Roberts asked, to which Kagan’s deputy, Malcolm L. Stewart, said the government could censor such information.

Justice Roberts blasted Kagan’s argument at the time, reports Newsmax. –

Arizona vs. Mexico: Crime and Illegal Aliens

(MoneyTeachers) – What exactly are the rights of those that come into the country illegally?  Should they enjoy the same Constitutional Protections as Naturalized Citizens of the United States? Of course, we are talking about Civil Rights and Due Process, Miranda Rights, etc.

The answer of course, is that all human beings deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, but to enter into this country illegally is a violation of both Federal and State Statutes. Thus, illegal aliens are criminals because they are, well, illegal aliens.

New target of rights erosions: U.S. citizens – Glenn Greenwald

A primary reason Bush and Cheney succeeded in their radical erosion of core liberties is because they focused their assault on non-citizens with foreign-sounding names, casting the appearance that none of what they were doing would ever affect the average American.  There were several exceptions to that tactic — the due-process-free imprisonment of Americans Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla, the abuse of the “material witness” statute to detain American Muslims, the eavesdropping on Americans’ communications without warrants — but the vast bulk of the abuses were aimed at non-citizens.  That is now clearly changing.

MSM: Sec. State Clinton Supports Bill to Strip Americans of Citizenship

(Yahoo) – A new bill that would permit the State Department to strip Americans of their citizenship if they support terror networks has drawn a cool reaction from the White House, even as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared to embrace the measure.

“I have not heard anybody inside the administration that’s been supportive of that idea,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday.

But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration would take “a hard look” at the measure, the New York Times reported. “United States citizenship is a privilege,” she told the Times. “It is not a right. People who are serving foreign powers — or in this case, foreign terrorists — are clearly in violation, in my personal opinion, of that oath which they swore when they became citizens.”

The proposed Terrorist Expatriation Act, introduced by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), seeks to update a federal statue that outlines seven infractions that can result in Americans losing their citizenship. The measure would add to the list “actively engaging in hostilities against the United States or its allies” and “providing material support or resources” to a federally designated terrorist organization. Read entire article

Militarized SWAT Drug Raids on the Rise

(KurtNimmo) – The Cato Institute has compiled information on botched SWAT thug raids around the country and produced the map below. The map graphically reveals how often militarized police mistakenly terrorize citizens as the government pursues its totalitarian drug war.

Video: Oklahoma bans independent militias

(RussiaToday) – An Oklahoma house bill aims to outlaw the forming of a militia without the state’s approval. Citizens believe that the state is taking away their rights to form a lawful militia and it is becoming more of a tyrannical state. Sheree Geo says that the bill makes militia members the same as gang members.

Confirmed: Obama authorizes assassination of U.S. citizen – Glenn Greenwald

(updated below – Update II – Update III)

(Salon) – In late January, I wrote about the Obama administration’s “presidential assassination program,” whereby American citizens are targeted for killings far away from any battlefield, based exclusively on unchecked accusations by the Executive Branch that they’re involved in Terrorism.  At the time, The Washington Post‘s Dana Priest had noted deep in a long article that Obama had continued Bush’s policy (which Bush never actually implemented) of having the Joint Chiefs of Staff compile “hit lists” of Americans, and Priest suggested that the American-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was on that list.  The following week, Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, acknowledged in Congressional testimony that the administration reserves the “right” to carry out such assassinations.

MSM: Irish reporter tries to place Tony Blair under citizen’s arrest for ‘war crimes’

(Telegraph) – An Irish journalist tried to place Tony Blair under citizen’s arrest for war crimes on Tuesday night during a visit by the former prime minister to the European Parliament.

Video: Michael Moore Explains “What The Citizens Have To Do!”

Moore supports Hegelian Dialectic

(MSNBC) – March 15, 2010 – Keith Olbermann

A Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully

(TheAtlantic) – Why is the national security community treating the “Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010,” introduced by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on Thursday as a standard proposal, as a simple response to the administration’s choices in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt? A close reading of the bill suggests it would allow the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens without trial indefinitely in the U.S. based on suspected activity. Read the bill here, and then read the summarized points after the jump.

Video: War Powers Resolution of 1973: Derailing the Gravy Train for the Dogs of War

(AmericasJourney) – Perpetual war for perpetual peace for perpetual war. Who benefits from this cycle of violence? The video at the bottom of this post provides an artistic perspective – an opportunity for us to reflect upon what we’ve become here in Amerika.

Video: Ron Paul – Oath to US Constitution rejected by both parties’ “leadership.” US revolt coming?

(Examiner) – Congressman Ron Paul spoke on the House floor for 5-minutes on US policy to assassinate US citizens at the dictate of the executive branch based on “secret evidence,” US policy of torture that includes American citizens and without legal recourse, US policy of rendition to secret prisons, and unlimited detention.

MSM: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights

(CNN) – A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

The CIA and NSA Want You to Be Their Friend on Facebook

(Cryptogon) – Don’t break out the foil, the U.S. News & World Report article states, because the spooks are telling you up front, here we are. Oh sure. What this shit-for-brains article doesn’t explore is how many hundreds or thousands of full time, professionally run honeypots, black propaganda outlets, sock puppets/trolls/shills etc. are operational on Facebook.

Obama’s Murder Inc.

“There are no warrants or indictments or grand juries impaneled in order for Barack Obama to decide to kill any individual he chooses.”
No one has the right to kill, or so we are told. Regardless of motive, murder is illegal, and the legal system rightfully sets the bar at a very high level before excusing this act. Not so where the government is concerned. Our constitutional law professor president, Barack Obama, like his predecessor George W. Bush, claims the right to murder American citizens. Read More here

The Silence of the Sheep

(OpEdNews) – “In an admission that took the intelligence community and its critics by surprise, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair acknowledged in a congressional hearing Wednesday that the U.S. may, with executive approval, deliberately target and kill U.S. citizens who are suspected of being involved in terrorism.”
That’s the lead paragraph of the news story I wrote for InterPress News Service last Friday. Since then, I just haven’t been able to get this thing out of my mind.
Think about it: “…may, with executive approval, deliberately target and kill U.S. citizens who are suspected of being involved in terrorism.”
Read More Here

Top 10 Problems With America Assassinating Americans

The director of U.S. national intelligence told the House Intelligence Committee the government has the right to kill Americans abroad.

Here are 10 problems with this:

CIA Has Program to Assassinate U.S. Citizens

(TheNewAmerican) – The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has maintained an assassination list of U.S. citizens for the last eight year and has actually assassinated Americans, according to January 27 Washington Post story.

Video: Intel Boss Blair – Government Plans to Kill Citizens

Patsies take heed. The U.S. government will kill you. That’s what the Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told a House intelligence committee yesterday. The Department of Defense will “follow a set of defined policy and legal procedures that are very carefully observed” in the use of lethal force against U.S. citizens who make the mistake of joining organizations created by the CIA and the Mossad.

Video: Obama seeks power to Assassinate “US Citizens” they label as terrorist

Part 1 of 2

Corporations are not people and money is not speech

(AlethoNews) – In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned century-old restrictions on corporate spending in elections under the guise of protecting First Amendment free speech rights. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said, “If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” This argument of the majority decision rests on the notions that corporations are covered by the same free speech protections as individual citizens and that campaign donations or financing are the same as speech.

Official US policy: kill American citizens when President/Fuhrer declares them “terrorist”

(Examiner) – I had previously reported that US citizens are being tortured by our own government when the executive branch says the magic word: “terrorist.” Under the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA), such Americans can be detained forever without legal right of habeas corpus. If those Americans are brought to trial rather than detained and tortured at the whim of the tyrants, the US government has created an unconstitutional system of judgment and execution: the President/dictator slurring the American as “terrorist” also says who the judges are to determine guilt with available penalty of execution. These three military tribunal judges are allowed to accept “secret evidence” from the government that is unavailable for the defendant to view or challenge if two other words are said: “national security.”

The Value of Government Surveillance of Citizens

(C4L) – It’s amusing to watch U.S. officials protest the Chinese government’s surveillance of its own citizens. After all, isn’t it the U.S. government that secretly and illegally conspired with private telecom companies to record telephone conversations of private American citizens? And isn’t it the U.S. government that secured both civil and criminal immunity for the telecoms’ decision to sell out the privacy of their customers to the feds?

Presidential Assassinations of US Citizens – Glenn Greenwald

The Washington Post‘s Dana Priest today reports that “U.S. military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops who in the past six weeks have killed scores of people.”  That’s no surprise, of course, as Yemen is now another predominantly Muslim country (along with Somalia and Pakistan) in which our military is secretly involved to some unknown degree in combat operations without any declaration of war, without any public debate, and arguably (though not clearly) without any Congressional authorization.  The exact role played by the U.S. in the late-December missile attacks in Yemen, which killed numerous civilians, is still unknown.
But buried in Priest’s article is her revelation that American citizens are now being placed on a secret “hit list” of people whom the President has personally authorized to be killed:

Watchdog groups warn: ‘Corporate globalization’ of US elections is upon us

(RawStory) – The Supreme Court may have ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission days ago, but the decision’s shockwaves are still rippling across American democracy.

The Bush-Packed Supreme Court Thinks Corporations Are People Too

(AlterNet) – Corporations now have all the privileges of citizenship, without any of the responsibilities.

MSM: China admits it runs illegal black jails to torture citizens who file complaints

(Telegraph) – A magazine run by the Chinese government has revealed the existence of a network of secret detention centres or “black jails” in Beijing where inmates are often beaten or tortured.

Barney Frank and the Planet of the Banks – Ralph Nader

What planet is Congressman Barney Frank on, anyway? It is the planet of the banks and other financial firms that keep his campaign coffers humming, as their chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

A Nation of Snoops

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton and other big city cops are calling for a new system of “citizen watch” programs, allegedly to help them spot hidden terrorists. I view this new call for a nation of private spies with a deep suspicion born of experience with the LAPD and its historic penchant for spying on law-abiding residents of that city.

Police Support Stasi-Like Citizen Tattle Tale Program

Police Chiefs across the country are supporting a “community watch” project in the name of anti-terrorism that encourages citizens to spy on each other and report any “suspicious” behaviour to police.

German Interior Ministry plans to expand the powers of the secret police

The Interior Ministry, currently headed by Wolfgang Schäuble, plans to expand the authority of the German state to spy on its own citizens. The domestic secret service will be given far-reaching powers and the separation of the police and secret services will be largely abolished.