Flannel Shirt

Oswalds' mothers

There have been numerous reports of Lee Harvey Oswald being in two places at once. 

Note here that the Marguerite Oswald of 1945 was probably 5'7" or 5'8" (at least!) and by the time that Oswald was arrested she was under five-feet tall. Also, her face changed.

Jim Garrison said this in an interview in 1967

What worries me deeply, and I have seen it exemplified in this case, is that we in America are in great danger of slowly evolving into a proto–fascist state. It will be a different kind of fascist state from the one of the Germans evolved; theirs grew out of depression and promised bread and work, while ours, curiously enough, seems to be emerging from prosperity.

But in the final analysis, it’s based on power and on the inability to put human goals and human conscience above the dictates of the state. Its origins can be traced in the tremendous war machine we’ve built since 1945, the “military–industrial complex” that Eisenhower vainly warned us about, which now dominates every aspect of our life. The power of the states and Congress has gradually been abandoned to the Executive Department, because of war conditions; and we’ve seen the creation of an arrogant, swollen bureaucratic complex totally unfettered by the checks and balances of the Constitution. In a very real and terrifying sense, our Government is the CIA and the Pentagon, with Congress reduced to a debating society.

Seems to be playing out according to the program

I mentioned the other day how Edward Snowden seems to be traveling around the world, revealing secrets in accordance with President Obama's diplomacy. Releasing NSA secrets about China when he was meeting with their leader, releasing secrets about the US spying on Germany when he was meeting with Merkel. I also have mentioned how this reminds me a lot of the U-2 incident, wherein the CIA had a spy plane go down over the USSR, thus blowing up the US-USSR peace talks in Paris in 1960. 

Slate.com, which is part of the Washington Post's internet presence, spells it out in case you didn't understand the narrative of Snowden's world tour. If you don't understand WaPo's long history of cooperation with U.S. intelligence agencies, please read the last ten years of my blogging.

For those who think that Edward Snowden deserves arrest or worse, cheer yourselves with the thought that Sheremetyevo International Airport might possibly be the most soul-destroying, most angst-inducing transport hub in the world. Low ceilings and dim lighting create a sense of impending doom, while overpriced wristwatches glitter in the murk. Sullen salesgirls peddle stale sandwiches; men in bad suits drink silently at the bars. A vague scent of diesel fuel fills the air, and a thin layer of grime covers the backless benches and sticky floor. It's not a place you'd want to spend two hours, let alone 48.

Yet there he remains, a guest of the Russian government. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov both have repeated the fiction that Snowden "did not cross the Russian border" because he remains in the transit zone at Sheremetyevo. But as of Monday evening, Snowden was in violation of Russian law, which requires anyone staying in the airport longer than 24 hours to have a valid transit visa. Whether Russian authorities have given him a visa or are allowing him to break the law, they have made a deliberate decision to let him remain there, assuming they are not holding him against his will.

Secretary of State John Kerry has appealed for Snowden's extradition on grounds of "respect for the rule of law." Although the United States has no extradition treaty with Russia, Kerry has pointed out that it has transferred seven people to Russia in the past two years to honor Russian requests. For the moment, the Russians seem disinclined to respect the rule of law, which is not surprising as they don't respect it at home. The last time a prominent former Russian secret service agent escaped to the West, Russian agents poisoned him with polonium 210, leaving a trail of radiation all over London and Hamburg.

Too much remains opaque, and too much reporting seems sensationalized, to draw conclusions on what this affair says about the National Security Agency, except that it is shockingly bad at protecting supposedly secret information. But something interesting has been revealed about the nature of contemporary international relations. In this narrow sense, the Cold War is back: We are once again dealing with a Russian government that sees the world ideologically, in black and white. What's bad for us is good for them, and vice versa. If Snowden is embarrassing to the United States, he should be protected as long as possible. If we think Bashar Assad is cruelly and recklessly destroying Syria, then Russia will lend him support. If we fear Iran's nuclear program, then Russia will help build it.

Russian foreign policy also has an internal logic: It is intended to support the legitimacy of the current regime. Russia has no important economic or geostrategic interests in Syria, but the fall of another dictator might send a message of encouragement to its own people. With Snowden, the Russians are treading carefully. Although the temptation to use him as an anti-American propaganda tool must be very strong, they haven't praised him too loudly, perhaps for fear of encouraging the hacking of their own government's documents.

This incident underscores that no common worldview can be relied upon in dealing with this Russian government; there is no agreement about international rules of the game, let alone the rule of law. That is, of course, the case with many countries, but since the 1990s many in Washington have maintained the illusion that there can or should be a special relationship between the two former superpowers. Bill Clinton's decision to let Russia join the Group of Eight was the result of one such outreach. The Obama administration's ill-fated "reset" of Russian-American relations was another.

That doesn't mean there can be no resolution: It is perfectly possible that, as in Cold War days, Russian authorities will seek to trade Snowden for something or someone else they want, whether a spy or a criminal. It is possible that they will detain him for a while to see if he can be useful. By the time you read this, they might have just let him go elsewhere, as the Chinese did, to rid themselves of the problem. But they won't send him home as a gesture of good will or a matter of principle, as Kerry seems to hope. We can expect that only from some of our allies, and Russia isn't one at all.

And if you don't think that there's an effort within the military-industrial complex to sabotage Obama, read this.

NSA spied on Obama

When you realize that the CIA (and NSA and FBI) are not under the power of the President or Congress, then you will begin to understand how things work.

Enraged by the lies and spin offered in response to recent disclosures of massive domestic spying, former NSA official Russell Tice blows his whistle again in this exclusive Boiling Frogs interview, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.  Please share this podcast widely, and download it to ensure that it doesn’t somehow disappear.Tice makes numerous stunning disclosures in this interview, partly in reaction to the misleading statements from Obama, NSA chief Alexander, FBI boss Mueller and Congressional leaders who defend the programs that were confirmed by the recent leaks from Ed Snowden.

Tice is deeply concerned that his former agency has gone “rogue”, that Gen. Keith Alexander wields the power to blackmail as J. Edgar Hoover once did, and that hundreds of key people in government, the courts, business and political activism have been targeted for wiretapping and other surveillance.  He names names.

He responds to the unsigned FISA Court ruling against Yahoo that dismissed 4th amendment issues and asserted that there have been no abuses.  Tice knows of real abuses, and tells quite a bit.

We talk about cyberwarfare, and the NSA’s ability to originate cyber attacks but make it look like they came from China or Iran.  Tice declines to comment on PRISM, as he considers it a lawful foreign intel program, but has plenty to say about the collection of phone records and the collection and retention of all of our phone calls.

Tice explains in detail how the National Security Agency targets, sucks-in, stores and analyzes illegally obtained content from the masses in the United States. He contradicts officials and the mainstream media on the status of the NSA’s Utah facility, which is already operating and “On-Line.” He reveals the NSA as a Deep State that targets and wiretaps US political candidates for its own purposes.

I'm really embarrassed

A relative of mine on a social media site linked to a very racist, ignorant webpage. It's embarrassing. Here's a sample:

Apparently, there are still people, I'm presuming mostly older white people living in the former Confederacy, who think that Obama was born in Kenya. Many think he is an anti-Christ (although at the site there was some disagreement on when the end times were coming), that he wants to take away their guns and all sorts of other crazy things. For example, Paula Deen didn't get fired from the Food Network because she was oblivious to events of the last fifty years regarding race and society and was saying offensive things that hurt the network's ratings, but rather because her high-calorie recipes offended the First Lady. Actually, the website didn't use "First Lady" but an offensive term which I won't repeat here.

When I was in the army at the end of the Vietnam War I was stationed at Fort Devens in Massachusetts. I was a clerk but was temporarily assigned to the Headquarters on base to help with a race relations program the army was instituting then. Racial tensions were boiling in the military and someone in Washington decided it would be a good idea to spread some sensitivity and understanding among the troops.  When I returned to my job in personnel the warrant officer in charge of my unit was extremely cool to me. He wouldn't release me to work full-time for race relations because I was "too valuable" but as soon as he saw the opportunity he moved me to an engineering battalion to be their company clerk. The base commander plucked me up within a week and assigned me as an instructor with the race relations program. 

During the week I was in the engineering company I had to pull CQ duty one Saturday. CQ means "charge of quarters" and by definition means defending the base or something, but it really meant that I sat in the battalion headquarters and answered the phone while everyone was off for the weekend. Someone must have known of my teaching role because the desk where I was assigned was covered with racist literature. I moved it all to the side and did my shift. A week later I was reassigned to the base headquarters and finished my active duty in the army as an instructor in race relations. 

That was forty years ago, in 1973.

1973 was the last of George W. Bush's six years he contracted to serve in the Air Force National Guard. While I was in Fort Devens George W. Bush was in Harvard's Business School forty miles to the east. He wasn't attending National Guard meetings. He hadn't done that for quite awhile. He wasn't excused from his commitment. No, he was AWOL. Actually, when you're AWOL over thirty days you're considered a deserter, but when your dad is a rich man with powerful political connections someone somewhere papers over that kind of thing. 

At some point during his time in the National Guard, before he stopped going to meetings and doing his service commitment, he was relieved of flying. Why? There's some evidence that he had lost his nerve. Then again, there was some evidence that he couldn't pass the drug test. There is no evidence that Obama ate a dog while he was growing up. 

So what do I do? Do I ignore the racism and ignorance this relative is spreading around? Mostly, that's what I do. But sometimes I can't. I'm embarrassed for my relative. But at this late stage in our lives there is nothing I can do to change her. 

It's too bad because there are plenty of things to discuss politically. I've got plenty of complaints about the Obama Administration, but when my relative deals in fantastic, insane fear-mongering instead of what's actually happening in Washington, D.C. there really is no point of engaging in a dialogue. The shame of it all is that she is now at an age where she is dependent on things like Social Security and she keeps voting for the same people who keep voting to cut it. (Really, look at Paul Ryan's budget that the Republicans passed in the House.)

These two illustrations, and many more, were at that website. It's not just the "media" that calls Obama the President. It is a majority of the voters, the Electoral College, and it's the rest of the world. Except for those living in the Confederacy of the Mind.

A great new game!

Check it out!

Excellent essay

Why hasn't the mainstream noted the government's oppressive surveillance before now? Because it was focused on the underclasses. Thus:

For decades now, I’ve seen the aftermath of botched drug raids; early morning mayhem in which police, using mauls and wearing body armor, smash through the front doors of ghetto homes, guns drawn, shouting for sleeping residents to drop to the ground.  I’ve seen raids of sixteen or eighteen addresses come up empty for drugs and weapons at more than half of those locations. And of course, I’ve seen raiding officers drop a copy of the signed, documented and perfectly legal probable cause on the rowhouse floor, gather equipment, and walk out of homes from which they recovered no evidence of criminality.

“Are you gonna fix my door?” is always a stunned resident’s first question.

“You need to call the city for that,” is always the ready, ambiguous reply.

What poor and working-class communities routinely endure within the very constitutional construct of our drug war makes the wails of indignation over this NSA data-mining astonishing and embarrassing to me. And no, before you get wound up prematurely and choose the too-easy, I-didn’t-read-deep-enough argument, I am not saying that overreach in other realms of the criminal justice system justifies overreach anywhere else.

After all, no one is suggesting that we do away with court-approved search warrants for domestic crime suppression. Or dialed-numbered recorders. Or interrogation rooms. Or informants. Or just about any other law enforcement asset that can be used properly and misused egregiously.  Oh, more people are now complaining about the excesses of the drug war, to be sure.  But all of us understand that the existing legal weapons and strategies are there for all crimes — for murder, for rape, for robbery, for burglary. Hell, if a crew of detectives were pulling cell numbers off a tower to identify and arrest a rampaging serial rapist — and traipsing through the phone metadata of ten thousand other citizens to do it — we’d do more than applaud; we’d buy the film rights. We are comfortable with a certain level of intrusion involving all previous weapons of law enforcement, and even the use of phone metadata as it can be utilized.  Why, I wonder.  And why has this particular law enforcement intervention– no less legal as it was proposed to the FISA court — engaged the worst fears of many.

 

Before Snowden there was Oswald

Citizen Snowden

My opinion regarding Edward Snowden, which I wrote about three days ago, is shared.

COMMENT: As infor­ma­tion emerges con­cern­ing Edward J. Snow­den, the appar­ent leaker in the NSA/PRISM story, a num­ber of points of infor­ma­tion stand out:

• This poster boy for civil lib­er­ties and open­ness [Snow­den] has spent his entire [young] pro­fes­sional life steeped in “alpha­bet soup”–the intel­li­gence agen­cies. He has worked for NSA, the CIA and Booz Allen Hamil­ton, a tech firm that is a vir­tual annex of the Amer­i­can intel­li­gence appa­rat. (Booz Allen is owned by the Car­lyle Group and has employed James Clap­per [cur­rent direc­tor of national intel­li­gence, Jonathan Bush, of THOSE Bushes, and James Woolsey [for­mer direc­tor of the CIA]). Snowden’s is a curi­ous pro­fes­sional resume for some­one we are to believe is deeply con­cerned about pri­vacy and per­sonal lib­erty issues.

• He mate­ri­al­izes in Hong Kong as Pres­i­dent Obama is meet­ing with the Chi­nese lead­er­ship in an attempt to improve rela­tions. This can­not help any attempts at improv­ing U.S./Chinese rela­tions with regard to cyber­spy­ing or much or any­thing else. He is appar­ently leak­ing doc­u­ments to the Chi­nese on U.S. hack­ing oper­a­tions directed against the Chi­nese. (This inci­dent strikes us in a sim­i­lar man­ner to the down­ing of a U-2 spy plane prior to the Eisenhower/Kruschev sum­mit. In The Guns of Novem­ber, Part I, we exam­ined infor­ma­tion from Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty indi­cat­ing that the U-2 had been delib­er­ately sab­o­taged by CIA hard­lin­ers to frus­trate attempts at improv­ing U.S./Soviet relations.)

• Snow­den does not have a high school degree–manda­tory for some­one seek­ing employ­ment as a national secu­rity con­trac­tor. One won­ders if he was “fast-tracked” and just who may have done the work on his behalf.
• The dis­clo­sures con­cern­ing PRISM fol­low shortly on Obama’s tak­ing con­trol of the drone pro­gram away from the CIA. Might this be a response? Might Michael J. Mor­rell be involved in this? Are we, in fact, look­ing at a desta­bi­liza­tion gam­bit against Obama?
• It turns out that Cit­i­zen Snow­den is a sup­porter of Nazi-linked Ron Paul.
• The vast bulk of Paul’s Super PAC money came from ultra-right wing Peter Thiel.
• Despite denials from Palan­tir con­cern­ing inquiries about its PRISM soft­ware being the same “PRISM” fea­tured in the NSA data-mining pro­gram, it turns out that Palan­tir does indeed have a work­ing rela­tion­ship with the intel­li­gence com­mu­nity.
• Thiel is one of the asso­ciates of the Koch Brothers-founded Cato Institute.
• The leak­ing jour­nal­ist, Glenn Green­wald, is also pro­fes­sion­ally asso­ci­ated with the Cato Institute.
• The pos­si­bil­ity that the Cato/Thiel/Paul dynamic may have fac­tored in the devel­op­ment of this story is one to be con­tem­plated and researched. 
• The Koch Broth­ers have also been deeply involved with financ­ing the Tea Party move­ment, focus of the IRS non-scandal. 
• It now devel­ops that a con­ser­v­a­tive Repub­li­can ini­ti­ated the scrutiny of the Tea Party doc­u­ments. Cou­pled with the fact that a Bush appointee was in charge of the IRS at the time, one must won­der if the non-scandal sur­round­ing the IRS/Tea Party scrutiny was a delib­er­ate gam­bit to ensnare the Obama admin­is­tra­tion in scandal.
• Note that, again, the so-called scan­dals ensnar­ing Obama stem from pro­grams begun by George W. Bush’s regime and leaked from the intel­li­gence com­mu­nity. We are almost cer­tainly look­ing at a de-stabilization pro­gram under­taken by the GOP/Underground Reich fac­tion of the intel­li­gence community.
• With regard to NSA/GCHQ spying–this has been known for years. There are For The Record pro­grams deal­ing with this sub­ject mate­r­ial. So there is noth­ing really new here. We also reit­er­ate that the ini­tial assault on Echelon/NSA/GCHQ came from the far right and Under­ground Reich, in the form of the Free Con­gress Foun­da­tion and the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment (read “Ger­many,” which does the same thing). Be sure to read our first post on this subject.

The New York Times; 6/11/2013; p. A13.

EXCERPT: . . . . It is not clear how Mr. Snow­den man­aged to extract the secret doc­u­ments, and the por­trait of his trans­for­ma­tion from a trusted National Secu­rity Agency con­trac­tor to a leaker is still impressionistic.

Last year, he donated money to the cam­paign of Ron Paul the lib­er­tar­ian –lean­ing Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­date who was long crit­i­cal of government’s grow­ing reach. . . .

“How the U.S. Uses Tech­nol­ogy to Mine More Data More Quickly” by James Risen and Eric Licht­blau; The New York Times; 6/8/2013.

EXCERPT: When Amer­i­can ana­lysts hunt­ing ter­ror­ists sought new ways to comb through the troves of phone records, e-mails and other data pil­ing up as dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ca­tions exploded over the past decade, they turned to Sil­i­con Val­ley com­puter experts who had devel­oped complex

The part­ner­ship between the intel­li­gence com­mu­nity and Palan­tir Tech­nolo­gies, a Palo Alto, Calif., com­pany founded by a group of inven­tors from Pay­Pal, is just one of many that the National Secu­rity Agency and other agen­cies have forged as they have rushed to unlock the secrets of “Big Data.” . . . .

“Repub­li­can IRS Agent Says Cincin­nati Began ‘Tea Party’ Inquiries” by David Mor­gan and Kim Dixon [Reuters];Yahoo News; 6/9/2013.

EXCERPT: A U.S. Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice man­ager, who described him­self as a con­ser­v­a­tive Repub­li­can, told con­gres­sional inves­ti­ga­tors that he and a local col­league decided to give con­ser­v­a­tive groups the extra scrutiny that has prompted weeks of polit­i­cal controversy.

In an offi­cial inter­view tran­script released on Sun­day by Demo­c­ra­tic Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Eli­jah Cum­mings, the man­ager said he and an under­ling set aside “Tea Party” and “patriot” groups that had applied for tax-exempt sta­tus because the orga­ni­za­tions appeared to pose a new prece­dent that could affect future IRS filings.

Cum­mings, top Demo­c­rat on the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Over­sight and Gov­ern­ment Reform Com­mit­tee con­duct­ing the probe, told CNN’s “State of the Union” pro­gram that the manager’s com­ments pro­vided evi­dence that pol­i­tics was not behind IRS actions that have fueled a month-long furor in Washington.

“He is a con­ser­v­a­tive Repub­li­can work­ing for the IRS. I think this inter­view and these state­ments go a long way toward show­ing that the White House was not involved in this,” Cum­mings told CNN’s “State of the Union” program. . . .

The 5 Stages

This.