When Did America Turn Into The Soviet Union? Washington’s Blog January 13, 2014
Bill Binney is the high-level NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information. A 32-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency, Binney was the senior technical director within the agency and managed thousands of NSA employees. Binney spent decades studying – and trying to counter – the repressive Soviet program of mass surveillance. In other words, Binney is an expert on spying in general, and Soviet spying in particular. Binney said that – after 9/11 – America implemented the same type of system used by the Soviets. Indeed, former KGB agent – and now Russian president – Putin is just about the only leader whoadmires the NSA spy program. And a former lieutenant colonel for the East German Stasi said the NSA’s spy capabilities would have been “a dream come true” for the Stasi. Unfortunately, it’s not just spying … The Soviets had Pravda … similarly, propaganda is now being used within the U.S. The U.S. government pumps out massive amounts of propaganda through the mainstream and “gatekeeper” alternative media,movies, video games, and other venues. When bad government policy leads to bad results, the U.S. government does what the Soviets did: manipulate the data. Under Obama, whistleblowers and dissidents are treated as ruthlessly as in the Soviet Union. In the decade after 9/11, the U.S. used specialized communist torture techniques specifically aimed at extracting false confessions. And the American economy has gone from capitalism to socialism. What the heck happened to American ideals?
Congress Defers To President On NSA Reform Ron Paul Infowars.com January 13, 2014
Congress’s decline from the Founders’ vision as “first among equals” in government to an echo chamber of the unitary executive, has been a slow but steady process. In the process we have seen a steady stream of unconstitutional wars and civil liberties abuses at home. Nowhere is this decline more evident than in the stark contrast between the Congressional response to intelligence agencies’ abuses during the post-Watergate era and its response to the far more serious NSA abuses uncovered in recent years. In 1975, Senator Frank Church (D-ID) convened an historic select committee to investigate the US intelligence services for possible criminality in the wake of Watergate. Thanks in part to reporting by Seymour Hersh and others, abuses by the CIA, NSA, and FBI had come to light, including the monitoring of US peace activists. The Church Committee played its proper Congressional role, checking the power of the executive branch as it had been spiraling out of control since the 1950s and the early CIA covert action programs. The Committee sought to protect US citizens against abuses by their government after those abuses had come to light through leaks of secret government documents. The parallel to the present NSA scandals cannot be ignored. What is completely different, however, is that Congress is today acting as an advocate for the executive branch’s continuing abuses, and as an opponent to the civil liberties of US citizens. Not only has Congress – with a precious few exceptions – accepted the NSA’s mass spying program on American citizens, it has actually been encouraging the president to continue and expand the program!
Where once there was a Congressional committee to challenge and oppose the president’s abuse of power, today the president himself has been even allowed by a complacent Congress to hand pick his own NSA review commission! Are we really expected to believe that a commission appointed by the president to look into the activities of the president’s intelligence services will come to anything more than a few superficial changes to give the impression of real reform? One of the president’s commission recommendations is that the NSA cease holding our phone records and demand that the private phone companies retain those records instead – for the NSA to access as it wishes. This is supposed to be reform? The president will make a speech this Friday to tell the rest of us which of the suggestions made by his own commission he will decide to implement. Congress has no problem with that. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) admitted last week that Congress has no intention of asserting itself in the process. “It’s my hope that [Obama will] do as much as he can through the executive process because the legislative process will be difficult, perilous and long.” Senator Church famously said back in 1975: In the need to develop a capacity to know what potential enemies are doing, the United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air… We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left… There would be no place to hide…. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return.” Have we reached that point? Let us hope not. Real reform begins with the repeal of the PATRIOT Act and of the 2001 Authorization for the use of military force. If we keep our eye on that goal and not allow ourselves to become distracted with the president’s phony commissions we might force Congress to listen. Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 1/13/14: Congress Defers to President On NSA Reform VIDEO BELOW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGjHomk9Hho Former Congressman Ron Paul’s article first appeared at the Ron Paul Institute.
Why The Risk Of World War Is Rising Washington’s Blog January 13, 2014
Top economic advisers are forecasting war and unrest. They give the following reasons for their forecast: • Countries start wars to distract their populations from lousy economies • Currency and trade wars end up turning into shooting wars • The U.S. is still seeking to secure oil supplies, and the U.S. doesn’t like any country to leave the dollar standard Additionally, the American policy of using the military to contain China’s growing economic influence – and of considering economic rivalry to be a basis for war – is creating a tinderbox. As the New York Times noted in 2011: For a superpower, dealing with the fast rise of a rich, brash competitor has always been an iffy thing. Just ask … Thucydides, the Athenian historian whose tome on the Peloponnesian War has ruined many a college freshman’s weekend. The line they had to remember for the test was
his conclusion: “What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.” So while no official would dare say so publicly as President Hu Jintao bounced from the White House to meetings with business leaders to factories in Chicago last week, his visit, from both sides’ points of view, was all about managing China’s rise and defusing the fears that it triggers. Both Mr. Hu and President Obama seemed desperate to avoid what Graham Allison of Harvard University has labeled “the Thucydides Trap” – that deadly combination of calculation and emotion that, over the years, can turn healthy rivalry into antagonism or worse. Indeed, Allison writes: The defining question about global order in the decades ahead will be: can China and the US escape Thucydides’s trap? China is certainly aware of this potential dynamic for world war … and is eager to avoid it. As Xinuanoted last July: Greek historian Thucydides described the situation between Athens and Sparta as a combination of “rise” and “fear,” which inevitably resulted in war about 2,400 years ago. Over the past 500 years, when a rising power has challenged a ruling power, war has often followed, reinforcing the concept of “The Thucydides Trap.” In the 21st century, however, China and the U.S. could and must avoid falling into this trap, especially against the backdrop of ever-deepening economic globalization and interdependence. *** “The Thucydides Trap” offers a worthy caution, but it is not a tragedy that can not be avoided. The 21st century will not necessarily mark the rise of China alongside the fall of the U.S., rather, through joint efforts, the two sides can see the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, U.S. recovery and a developing world, simultaneously. And the China Post made a similar point last June. Obviously, the dispute between China and Japan over oil-rich islands – with the U.S. backing Japan – is a complicated one. Indeed, Japan is threatening to seize another 280 islands whose claim is disputed. Given that China passed Japan as the world’s second biggest economy in 2010, Thucydides’s trap could very well apply to Japan’s fear and hatred of China’s economic growth. And China’s threat to “take back” an island occupied by another close U.S. ally – the Philippines – could be another potential flashpoint in Chinese-U.S. relations. It seems like the U.S. and China are drifting towards war over the long-term, as proxy disputes with Japan, the Philippines and other countries cannot remain cool forever without accident or incident. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail on all sides …
China Set To Seize South China Sea Island By Force Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com January 13, 2014
Beijing claims island “illegally occupied” by the Philippines Reports out of Chinese state media indicate that Beijing is set to invade an island in the South China Sea “illegally occupied” by US ally the Philippines, stoking concerns that the tension filled region could explode. The article originally appeared at qianzhan.com under the headline, ‘Sudden major move of Chinese troops this year to recover Zhongye Island by force’, and was translated by the China Daily Mail. Relying on US support, the Philippines is so arrogant as to announce in the New Year that it will increase its navy and air force deployment at Zhongye Island, a Chinese island that it has illegally occupied for years. It will be an intolerable insult to China According to experts, the Chinese navy has drawn a detailed combat plan to seize the island and the battle will be restricted within the South China Sea. The report goes on to state that the “battle” will not include a Chinese invasion of Filipino territories, although the Philippines will undoubtedly view Beijing’s attack on Zhongye Island as precisely that since it has been occupied by Filipino troops for over 40 years. “Of course, claims that “battle will be restricted” are nothing but taunting and should China launch an offensive here, we suspect the already dry and brittle tinder box in the South (and East) China Sea could rapidly escalate,” reports Zero Hedge.
The report arrives hot on the heels of Japan’s announcement that it will “nationalize” around 280 islands in the disputed region, the latest shot across the bow in a tit-for-tat build up that experts have warned heralds the beginning of a new cold war. China’s latest act of aggression arrives after months of military posturing and bellicose rhetoric. In October, China sent a surveillance ship to Hawaiian waters for the very first time in an unprecedented move which was described as a provocative retaliation to the U.S. naval presence in the East China Sea. A lengthy editorial which appeared in Chinese state media last month explained how the Chinese military’s current reformation process was part of a move by President Xi Jinping to prepare the People’s Liberation Army for war in response to US aggression in the Asia Pacific, developments which have prompted “major changes” in China’s national security situation. Strident rhetoric about Beijing’s ability to attack US military bases in the Western Pacific, as well as the release of a map showing the locations of major U.S. cities and how they would be impacted by a nuclear strike launched from the PLA’s strategic submarine force also turned heads. Following discussion in state media about plans to to turn the moon into a Star Wars-style “death star” from which the PLA could launch missiles against any target on Earth, a display to promote China’s Jade Rabbit Moon rover also included a background photograph of a mushroom cloud over Europe. REMEMBER CHINA IS DOING ALL THIS WITH THE BLESSING OF THE U.S. CORPORATE CONTROLLED GOVERNMENT. THIS IS WHAT THE EVIL DEMONIC SCUMBAG GLOBALIST N.W.O WANT. DEATH AND DESTRUCTION THEY CRAVE IT BECAUSE THEY THINK THERE GODS. STOP THE NEW WORLD ORDER. EndGame Blue Print to Global Enslavement VIDEO BELOW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-CrNlilZho&ob=av3e
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