Showing posts with label institutional terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label institutional terrorism. Show all posts

Saturday, March 17, 2012

WE HAVE MET THE TERRORISTS AND THEY ARE US: HEAVILY ARMED SWAT TEAM CLAIMING TO BE LOOKING FOR "TERRORISTS" DECENDS ON OCCUPIERS *OF THEIR OWN APARTMENT BUILDING* ...WHO WERE "TERRIFIED" THEREBY.











Allison Kilkenny

Allison Kilkenny is an independent journalist and the co-host of the progressive political podcast Citizen Radio



March 16th, 2012 1:49 AM

Occupy Miami Raided, SWAT Team Draws Weapons on Children

Crossposted from the In These Times Uprising blog

This week, I've been exploring all the different types of ways police and the District Attorney's office in New York have been monitoring, bullying, and harassing Occupiers. Of course, this civil liberties accosting is by no means isolated to the New York City area as we saw on Tuesday when dozens of police equipped with shotguns and assault rifles stormed a Miami, Florida apartment and drew their weapons on peaceful protesters and children with the local Occupy Wall Street campaign.

If a SWAT team drew down on unarmed occupiers, that would still be a horrifying, newsworthy story, but what makes the Miami event additionally alarming is that these were not squatters, but rather legal residents. (photo by Chris Mazorra)

That detail seems to have been glossed over in the media. The term "occupiers," though obviously drawing from the name of the protest group, paints an inaccurate depiction of this specific group as having been illegally occupying the apartment building. That's not the case.

Rodrigo Duque, the owner of the apartment building and Occupy protester, allowed some members of Occupy Miami to live there following the eviction of protesters from their camp on January 31. 

During the raid, protesters claim police drew their weapons on children, forced a 57-year-old diabetic woman onto the ground, and allegedly harassed at least one individual, Ramy Mahmoud, during an informal interrogation.
"They are calling us terrorists, but what I saw today was demons pointing guns at us," Ramy Mahmoud adds to the account. "They terrified us.”
 Mahmoud claims he was asked questions such as, "Are you a Muslim?" and "Do you love this country?"

"I said hell no, I don't love this country, and it's because of shit like this,” Mahmoud tells the Miami New Times.

Police say they were responding to alleged reports that residents inside were stockpiling weapons to use in an upcoming demonstration.

“They said that they had gotten a tip that we had 'long guns' and were going to use them at our protest," Occupy member Thomas Parisi tells the Miami New Times. "But we are a peaceful movement and told them that we had no intention of doing anything like that."

Police placed protesters in handcuffs initially, but later released them at the scene and no arrests were made, keeping with the national theme of the arbitrary "grab and release" strategy implemented by law enforcement in dealing with Occupy.

Like the rest of the country, Florida police have undergone a rapid militarization. Rania Khalek profiled this transformation that tends to accelerate in anticipation of political conventions like the Republican National Convention, which takes place in Tampa this year.
The Tampa City Council recently voted on using some of the $50 million in federal grants secured by the city for the 2012 Republican National Convention for a "series of police upgrades" that will include an armoured SWAT truck and a high-tech communication system.
The city council agreed to spend nearly $237,000 on a Lenco BearCat armored vehicle, which will be used in conjunction with two aging armored vehicles the city acquired through the military surplus program. Tampa Assistant Police Chief Marc Hamlin told the Tampa Bay Times that the trucks are strictly for the purpose of protecting officers from potential gunfire, not for day-to-day patrolling and crowd control.
When looking at a photo of the Lenco BearCat armoured vehicle, it's clear "aromored vehicle" is only a slightly friendlier euphemism for what this beastly monstrosity actually is: a tank.




















Although the vote was unanimous, City Council Vice Chairwoman Mary Mulhern expressed alarm about the purchase. Mulhern told AlterNet, “I didn't even know that our police force had a tank and Hamlin made a convincing argument that it’s been used to save a life. I would’ve voted no if we didn’t already have one -- it’s chilling that the police have a tank.” She fears these types of purchases could “militarize” Tampa’s police force.
No evidence has emerged yet that the arrival of the RNC in the fall and the raids on Occupy are related, but it's important to monitor this kind of harassment of protesters, particularly now that SWAT teams are drawing their weapons on legal residents.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Paul Craig Roberts: "The 'war on terror' is now in its tenth year. What is it really all about?"

Predator drone launching Hellfire missile


The War On Terror

Posted By Paul Craig Roberts On October 15, 2010 @ 11:00 pm



Does anyone remember the "cakewalk war" that would last six weeks, cost $50-$60 billion, and be paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues?

Does anyone remember that White House economist Lawrence Lindsey was fired by Dubya because Lindsey estimated that the Iraq war could cost as much as $200 billion?

Lindsey was fired for over-estimating the cost of a war that, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, has cost 15 times more than Lindsey estimated. And the US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq.

Does anyone remember that just prior to the US invasion of Iraq, the US government declared victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan?

Does anyone remember that the reason Dubya gave for invading Iraq was Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, weapons that the US government knew did not exist?

Are Americans aware that the same neoconservatives who made these fantastic mistakes, or told these fabulous lies, are still in control of the government in Washington?

The "war on terror" is now in its tenth year.  What is it really all about?

The bottom line answer is that the "war on terror" is about creating real terrorists. The US government desperately needs real terrorists in order to justify its expansion of its wars against Muslim countries and to keep the American people sufficiently fearful that they continue to accept the police state that provides "security from terrorists," but not from the government that has discarded civil liberties.

The US government creates terrorists by invading Muslim countries, wrecking  infrastructure and killing vast numbers of civilians. The US also creates terrorists by installing puppet governments to rule over Muslims and by using the puppet governments to murder and persecute citizens as is occurring on a vast scale in Pakistan today.

Neoconservatives used 9/11 to launch their plan for US world hegemony. Their plan fit with the interests of America’s ruling oligarchies. Wars are good for the profits of the military/security complex, about which President Eisenhower warned us in vain a half century ago.  American hegemony is good for the oil industry’s control over resources and resource flows. The transformation of the Middle East into a vast American puppet state serves well the Israel Lobby’s Zionist aspirations for Israeli territorial expansion.

Most Americans cannot see what is happening because of their conditioning.  Most Americans believe that their government is the best on earth, that it is morally motivated to help others and to do good, that it rushes aid to countries where there is famine and natural catastrophes. Most believe that their presidents tell the truth, except about their sexual affairs.

The persistence of these delusions is extraordinary in the face of daily headlines that report US government bullying of, and interference with, virtually every country on earth. The US policy is to buy off, overthrow, or make war on leaders of other countries who represent their peoples’ interests instead of American interests. A recent victim was the president of Honduras who had the wild idea that the Honduran government should serve the Honduran people.

The American government was able to have the Honduran president discarded, because the Honduran military is trained and supplied by the US military. It is the same case in Pakistan, where the US government has the Pakistani government making war on its own people by invading tribal areas that the Americans consider to be friendly to the Taliban, al-Qaeda, "militants" and "terrorists."

Earlier this year a deputy US Treasury secretary ordered Pakistan to raise taxes so that the Pakistani government could more effectively make war on its own citizens for the Americans. On October 14 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered Pakistan to again raise taxes or the US would withhold flood aid. Clinton pressured America’s European puppet states to do the same, expressing in the same breath that the US government was worried by British cuts in the military budget. God forbid that the hard-pressed British, still reeling from American financial fraud, don’t allocate enough money to fight America’s wars.

On Washington’s orders, the Pakistani government launched a military offensive against Pakistani citizens in the Swat Valley that killed large numbers of Pakistanis and drove millions of civilians from their homes. Last July the US instructed Pakistan to send its troops against the Pakistani residents of North Waziristan. On July 6, Jason Ditz reported on Antiwar.com that "at America’s behest, Pakistan has launched offensives against [the Pakistani provinces of] Swat Valley, Bajaur, South Waziristan, Orakzai, and Khyber."

A week later Israel’s US Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) called for escalating the Obama Administration’s policies of US airstrikes against Pakistan’s tribal areas. On September 30, the Pakistani newspaper, The Frontier Post, wrote that the American air strikes "are, plain and simple, a naked aggression against Pakistan."

The US claims that its forces in Afghanistan have the right to cross into Pakistan in pursuit of "militants." Recently US helicopter gunships killed three Pakistani soldiers whom they mistook for Taliban.  Pakistan closed the main US supply route to Afghanistan until the Americans apologized.

Pakistan warned Washington against future attacks. However, US military officials, under pressure from Obama to show progress in the endless Afghan war, responded to Pakistan’s warning by calling for expanding the Afghan war into Pakistan.  On October 5 the Canadian journalist Eric Margolis wrote that "the US edges closer to invading Pakistan."

In his book, Obama’s Wars, Bob Woodward reports that America’s puppet president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, believes that terrorist bombing attacks inside Pakistan for which the Taliban are blamed are in fact CIA operations designed to destabilize Pakistan and allow Washington to seize Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

To keep Pakistan in line, the US government changed its position that the "Times Square Bombing" was the work of a "lone wolf." Attorney General Eric Holder switched the blame to the "Pakistani Taliban," and Secretary of State Clinton threatened Pakistan with "very serious consequences" for the unsuccessful Times Square bombing, which likely was a false flag operation aimed at Pakistan.

To further heighten tensions, on September 1 the eight members of a high-ranking Pakistani military delegation en route to a meeting in Tampa, Florida, with US Central Command, were rudely treated and detained as terrorist suspects at Washington DC’s Dulles Airport.

For decades the US government has enabled repeated Israeli military aggression against Lebanon and now appears to be getting into gear for another Israeli assault on the former American protectorate.

On October 14 the US government expressed its "outrage" that the Lebanese government had permitted a visit by Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who is the focus of Washington’s intense demonization efforts. Israel’s representatives in the US Congress threatened to stop US military aid to Lebanon, forgetting that US Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) has had aid to Lebanon blocked since last August to punish Lebanon for a border clash with Israel.

Perhaps the most telling headline of all is the October 14 report, "Somalia’s New American Prime Minister." An American has been installed as the Prime Minister of Somalia, an American puppet government in Mogadishu backed up by thousands of Ugandan troops paid by Washington.

This barely scratches the surface of Washington’s benevolence toward other countries and respect for their rights, borders, and lives of their citizens.

Meanwhile, to silence the whistleblower website WikiLeaks and to prevent any more revelations of American war crimes, the "freedom and democracy" government in DC has closed down WikiLeaks’ donations by placing the company that collects its money on its "watch list" and by having the Australian puppet government blacklist WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks is now akin to a terrorist organization. The American government’s practice of silencing critics will spread across the Internet.

Remember, they hate us because we have freedom and democracy, First Amendment rights, habeas corpus, respect for human rights, and show justice and mercy to all.

Read more by Paul Craig Roberts

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Folks that Brought Us the 9/11 Aerial Attacks Are Back Again: Erin Brockovich's Successor Assassinated by a Bomb-Laden Drone Fighter Aircraft


Blogger's Note: I couldn't have written the article below any better myself, although from looking at post-explosion aerial photographs of San Bruno and comparing the crater to the size of the fire trucks, I make out the size of the crater to be about 20 by 50 feet, or 25 by 70 at most -- not the 26 by 167 feet quoted by the NTSB (why would they be involved if there wasn't an airplane?). For comparison, the F-18 captured in the photo above 7 1/2 hours before the explosion had a wing span of 40 or 45 feet (depending an whether it was a C or E/F version).

This photo brings back a perhaps-20-year-old but still indelible memory of watching a twin-jet fighter, quite possibly an F-18 (with its landing gear down), in the southerly landing approach to National Airport (heading in the direction of the Pentagon) -- with a twin-rotary-engine transport plane (likely a C-123) just ahead and above it!  In about a half hour they came back to do it again. I am totally convinced this was an early trial run for the Pentagon attack on 9/11/01. Now Ms. Hunt has captured on camera the same-day practice run for the San Bruno attack. The C-130 gunship would have been on hand to finish the job with 105 mm artillery shells in the event the pipeline failed rupture and catch fire when hit by the F-18 drone. Of course, the "Air Force One" type aircraft would have been a Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post, just the same as was caught flying over the Pentagon on the morning of 9/11...

As for why anyone would want to murder Jacqueline Greig, my friend Paul Lehto ran down this info:
Jacqueline Greig was "..a 17 year veteran with the Public Utilities Commission and specifically the lead of the natural gas section of analysts who devoted their careers to the statutory mission of the DRA (Division of Ratepayer Advocates) of minimizing costs to ratepayers consistent with good safety and consumer protection. Greig spent the summer analyzing the PG&E's request for a $4.2 billion rate increase."

"In what I'd call very effective analysis, the DRA (especially Greig, as lead) pointed to so many unsubstantiated cost allegations, including inexplicable doubling of estimates after previously adjusting for wage inflation, that the DRA countered with a $1 billion over three years counter-proposal. That's a difference of $3.2 billion -- and gives PG&E approximately 3.2 billion reasons not to like Jacqueline Greig."
So why would elements of military become the "hit men" to protect the profits of a predatory company like PG&E? Well, Ike warned us about "the military industrial complex," didn't he?

Was San Bruno Explosion a Plane Crash?

September 27, 2010
by Sandra Hunt
for henrymakow.com

A number of reports suggest that the "natural gas pipeline explosion" Sept. 9 that killed seven, injured 50 and leveled 40 homes in San Bruno CA may have involved a plane crash or a missile. If so, there is a massive cover-up taking place.

On 09-09-10 at 11:06 A.M. a huge jet, resembling Air force One flew over San Jose. At 11:29 A.M. an F-18 flew over, and at 12:46 P.M. an AC -130 gunship (with the side gun turrets) followed.

The F-18's engines were roaring like a freight train. The F-18 appeared to be carrying large fuel tanks and ordinance. Being shortly before 9-11, I thought, "here comes another false flag incident."

Above is a photo of the F-18 as it flew over. Below is a photo showing the ordinance these jets can carry. It is not unusual to see an F-18 fly overhead here. It is very unusual for them to be heavily laden with weapons. It had its landing gear down, as you can see, and was headed north (towards Moffett Federal air base, Travis Air Force base, and San Francisco). These are all within thirty miles of San Bruno, where the pipeline allegedly exploded.

I do not know where it was going or when it landed. It was in the area two days before 9-11, and 6 hours and 45 minutes before the explosion in San Bruno Sept 9. That is extremely "coincidental".

EYE WITNESSES REPORT PLANE CRASH

From eyewitness accounts, a jet was involved in the "gas pipeline explosion." I also spoke with a person going to a college by San Bruno and was told that many students were talking about the "plane crash" the next day.

A YouTuber identified it as a plane crash.

A TV news interview with a witness speaks of "a loud rumbling noise" in the air, and debris falling on roofs.

Here are two articles about a jet crashing.

"A plane crash has rocked San Bruno...A massive explosion on Skyline Boulevard in San Bruno, is burning out of control as of this report. The rising ball of fire can be seen from San Francisco.

......some witnesses say that it was a plane crash, while others report a gas station being the cause of the massive explosion. The Ball of flames emanating from the epicenter of the explosion is as high as 100 feet. A cloud of dark smoke is pouring from the top of the fire ball, which is common with jet fuel fires.

......Reports of a crashed plane are being examined as this report is being filed. However, the amount of fuel and the fact that the area in question is within the flight path of SFO, are leading many to believe it to be a plane crash.

......One witness claims to have heard the sound of a commercial jet engine, coming out of nowhere, shaking his home, and then the sound of an explosion.

......Mark Sinclair, a witness half a mile from the location, said he saw a private jet crash, after hitting the tree line.

......"It appears as if the affected area stretches three blocks in all directions from the point of impact. The fire is burning so hot that fire fighters are hard pressed to get to the fire's epicenter. An aviation expert has now confirmed that it is a plane crash, reported that the plane sounded as if it was having engine trouble."


http://www.examiner.com/headlines-in-san-francisco/breaking-news-devastating-plane-crash-san-bruno ("update")

Photo of "Jet crash" in upper San Bruno by lunardis and skyline!
http://twitpic.com/2mvflw

The crash site was locked down, treated as a hazardous waste, crime scene, and quarantined immediately. Residents were only allowed to go through their neighborhoods in buses escorted by police and were not allowed to exit the bus.

Ten 55-gallon-drums containing "hazardous material" were immediately removed from the scene.

There appears to be a massive cover up here. I am watching where this is going on a daily basis and trying to "follow the money and politics' to figure out what the possible goal(s) may be. There is so much  media "fear mongering" about which pipeline is going to blow up next, like the fear they promoted on 9-11 to pass draconian legislation already prepared (Patriot Act). Perhaps the big gas conglomerates want to scare the taxpayers into paying for new gas lines so they pocket the savings.

Calif. neighbors survey ruins of blasted hillside (AP)-- "Meanwhile, federal investigators were probing how the gas line was able to rupture, blowing a segment of pipe 28 feet long onto the street some 100 feet away and creating a crater 167 feet long and 26 feet wide."

......"Investigators believed they had collected all the sections needed to reconstruct the metal pipeline but asked that anyone who found metal fragments in the blast area contact the NTSB."

Notice that the NTSB is involved! The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an Independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the U.S.   www.ntsb.gov

Why would they be involved if there had been no jet crash? And why would the "pipeline" be sent to Washington? Why would they ask "that anyone who found metal fragments in the blast area contact the NTSB" if it were only a gas line explosion?

"The commission also plans to appoint an independent expert panel to help with their investigation. Crews Monday prepared to ship to Washington a crate containing the 28-foot section of ruptured natural gas pipeline that was blown out of the ground. Also being shipped were two 10-foot sections of pipe removed from the crater Sunday from either side of where the ruptured section had been.

.......Investigators believed they had collected all the sections needed to reconstruct the metal pipeline but asked that anyone who found metal fragments in the blast area contact the NTSB."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100913/ap_on_bi_ge/us_large_explosion

QUESTIONS?

28 ft. + 10 ft. + 10 ft. = 48 feet of pipe. If the crater was 167 ft. long that would leave 119 feet of the pipeline unaccounted for, whereas "Investigators believed they had collected all the sections needed to reconstruct the metal pipeline".

Why would the NTSB ask "that anyone who found metal fragments in the blast area contact the NTSB" if it was simply an old, corroded pipeline? There are plenty of laboratories with metallurgists that could analyze the pipe right here in Silicon Valley (Lockheed, Nasa-Ames Lab, Lawrence Livermore Lab. etc,). On the other hand, if parts of an aircraft or military ordnance were found, they certainly would want to confiscate those items.

Why would the NTSB ship the three recovered pieces to Washington if it were simply a corroded pipeline. The dimensions of an F-18 fighter jet are 56 ft long, 37.5 ft. wide, and 15.25 feet in height. Could the remains of a crashed F-18 be what is being shipped to Washington (Pentagon?) for analysis. F-18's have crashed in California before, and many were recalled due to stress fractures.

F-18 Fighter Jet's Crash in San Diego, CA on December 8, 2008 kills three can be seen at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4656395n

Also, the Crash of "Flying Tiger Line" Flight #282 occurred in San Bruno in 1964 and many of the details sound strikingly familiar to the recent event.
http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Flying_Tiger_282.htm

These are just pieces to be considered in the puzzle. I can't say the jet was involved. However there is a tremendous amount of suspicious activity and cover-up regarding this explosion, the quarantine, the hazardous clean-up, NTSB, FBI anti-terrorist team, pieces being shipped to Washington, etc.

This seems to me to be one of the most credible possibilities I can see, after studying many different articles on the event. Hopefully more people will come up with more details until the truth is uncovered. Perhaps someone out there has some more video to help clear this up. Everyone has cell phone cameras these days, and it is quite possible someone else got some footage of what happened.

*******************************
Here are some related articles;

"San Bruno fire debris a health and environmental hazard"
http://www.mercurynews.com/san-bruno-fire/ci_16089214

"The scene at ground zero after the explosion"
http://www.mercurynews.com/san-bruno-fire

The term "ground zero" refers to the point of detonation of a nuclear device. Could a bunker-buster or mini-nuke have been detonated?

San Bruno fire - residents tell how it started:

"Henry Sanchez was driving home from his three kids' back-to-school night at a nearby school when he approached the intersection of Claremont and Glenview.

He looked through the windshield where just a few blocks ahead of him a flash of flame crossed the sky, followed by a deafening explosion."

"Jerry Guernsey had spent the day working on his '57 Chevy on Concord Way, just blocks from the impact, where he's lived for 25 years. He'd fired up the barbecue in his backyard when it sounded like a jetliner had dropped from the sky. "But the noise just kept going," he said."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/10/MNQ11FBN3G.
DTL#ixzz0z9aLiv00

1 dead, 53 homes destroyed in California fire
By TREVOR HUNNICUTT (AP) SAN BRUNO, Calif.

"Jane Porcelli, 62, said she lives on a hill above where the fire was centered. She said she thought she heard a plane overhead with a struggling engine.

"And then you heard this bang. And everything shook except the floor, so we knew it wasn't an earthquake," Porcelli said. "I feel helpless that I can't do anything. I just gotta sit by and watch."

Stephanie Mullen, Associated Press news editor for photos based in San Francisco, was attending children's soccer practice with her two children and husband at Crestmoor High School when she saw the blast at 6:14 p.m.

"First, it was a low deep roar and everybody looked up, and we all knew something big was happening," she said. "Then there was a huge explosion with a ball of fire that went up behind the high school several thousand feet into the sky."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jtJybupNzubmTwvygBrl_sqbsXqgD9I4T4J00

Breaking News: Devastating explosion in San Bruno

" Conflicting reports are coming into KPIX as to the cause of the explosion. Some witnesses say that it was a plane crash, while others report a gas station being the cause of the massive explosion. The Ball of flames emanating from the epicenter of the explosion is as high as 100 feet. A cloud of dark smoke is pouring from the top of the fire ball, which is common with jet fuel fires."

"The area contains hundreds of homes as well as a community college. Reports of a crashed plane are being examined as this report is being filed. However, the amount of fuel and the fact that the area in question is within the flight path of SFO, are leading many to believe it to be a plane crash."

"One witness claims to have heard the sound of a commercial jet engine, coming out of nowhere, shaking his home, and then the sound of an explosion. Still no confirmation of a plane crash has been announced. However, it is not confirmed that a plane has crashed in a populated area of San Bruno.

"Another witness, at a nearby Shopping center, reports constant flames rising as high as 100 feet. Internet reports are claiming that a plane has crashed. However, no official information has been released regarding this claim.

Mark Sinclair, a witness half a mile from the location, said he saw a private jet crash, after hitting the tree line. Sinclair said he was concerned about being on the flight path of planes coming into and leaving SFO.
www.examiner.com/headlines-in-san-francisco/breaking-news-devastating-plane-crash-san-bruno

Gas Main Explodes in San Bruno California, State of Emergency Declared. FBI Joint Terrorism Taskforce?
Lots of video!
http://theintelhub.com/2010/09/09/developing-story-gas-main-explodes-35-to-45-homes-damaged-or-destroyed/

"Missile Strike Downs San Francisco Plane, News Blackout Ordered"
Important to note about this catastrophe is that within 1 hour of the still unidentified plane being shot down, American authorities ordered a "news blackout" of the true events surrounding this massive explosion and have, instead, directed their propaganda media organs to blame it on a gas line break, without, of course, mentioning that, according to the Pacific Gas & Electric Company's own website showing where all of its gas lines are located, none of them that are able to cause such destruction come even close to the area hit.
http://whatdoesitmean.com/index1404.htm
**************

San Bruno Plane Crash or Explosion?
Be sure to watch the bottom you tube video! Looks like a plane crash to me (just about what I would expect to see from an F-18 size crash)
http://today24news.com/breaking/san-bruno-plane-crash-or-explosion-fire-burned-homes-1-dead-103973

"San Bruno pipeline blast responders suspected jet crash or terrorists"
http://robocaster.com/presstelegram/podcast-episode-home/breakingnews-ci_1%206074883/san-bruno-pipeline-blast-responders-suspected-jet-crash-or-terrorists.asp