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Preemptive Policing & the National Security State: Repressing Dissent at the Republican National Convention

Tom Burghardt
Antifascist Calling
Nov 18, 2008

With “preemptive policing” all the rage in Washington, the whistleblowing website Wikileaks has done it again, exposing how repressive trends in the U.S. had real world consequences for democracy during September’s Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul, Minnesota.

On November 15, the global whistleblowers published a leaked planning document “Special Event Planning: 2008 Republican National Convention,” a dense schematic used by repressors who targeted activists, journalists and concerned citizens during the far-right conclave.

Labeled “Limited Distribution/For Official Use Only,” Wikileaks believes that the dossier is “potentially legally significant due to upcoming legal cases over the mass arrests at the convention.”

Compiled by Terri Smith (terri.smith@state.mn.us) the Branch Director for Response, Recovery and Mitigation at the Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management agency (HSEM), the 31-page file offers a veritable bird’s-eye view onto the close coordination amongst federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including the Pentagon’s U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) during a so-called National Special Security Event (NSSE).

…….full article here

Mark Cuban SEC Charges Related to 9/11 Movie?

Karina Longworth
SPOUTblog
Nov 18, 2008

A strange twist in the Mark Cuban story tonight, one which pushes it a little bit further into our wheelhouse. New York Times blogger Floyd Norris has published an email allegedly sent on May 05, 2007 to Cuban by Fort Worth SEC lawyer Jeffrey Norris (”no known relation to me”, notes the blogging Norris). In the email, Jeffrey Norris essentially tells on Cuban to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, who is CCed, regarding Cuban’s involvement with Loose Change, a 9/11 conspiracy theory film which appeared online in three different incarnations over three years, becoming an internet sensation.

Addressing Cox, Norris explains that Cuban “participated in distributing the vicious and absurd documentary” and declares that Cuban’s “support for this project is irresponsible and immoral.” Floyd Norris posits that the email may be evidence that Cuban is “the victim of a political hit job because he helped finance a movie that was scathingly critical of President Bush.”

…….full article here

Vigilante Man: Crime Without End, Amen.

Chris Floyd
Empire Burlesque
Nov 18, 2008

The Iraq War? Illegal. Who says so? The former top law lord of America’s main ally in the invasion and occupation. What does it mean? It means that the whole mass-murdering operation was, has been, and remains a damnable crime against humanity by any and all legal standards, even those of the invading countries themselves. (To say nothing of the moral abomination involved).

And from this, what follows? Nothing. No prosecutions. No justice for the victims, no punishment for the murder bosses — some of whom are already slithering across the bloodsoaked corridors of the imperial courts to join the circles of power again. The rest are leisurely packing their bags for a cozy, coddled, easy retirement — while their corporate cronies continue to feast on the blood money of the soon-to-be-augmented war machine.

But who cares about all that! Wonder what kind of puppy the Obamas are gonna get? Wonder what they’re gonna name it? And do ya think Obama really will get the NCAA to bring in a football playoff? Glorioski, ain’t it a grand time to be alive?

…….full article here

9/11 Blogger
Nov 18, 2008

“The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington’s handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal.” - Naomi Klein, “In Praise of a Rocky Transition”

Klein talked about the Wall St. bailout on DemocracyNow! yesterday;

Part 1/3

…….full post (and more videos) here

Afghan article says US Bin-Ladin hunt phoney

Juan Cole
Informed Content
Nov 17, 2008

The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Persian Afghan press alleging that French troops were at one point close to capturing Usamah Bin Ladin in Afghanistan, but that American forces stopped them from doing so. It says that a forthcoming French documentary containing interviews with the French soldiers provides proof for the allegation. The argument is that the Bush administration needed Bin Ladin to be at large in order to justify its military expansionism.

…….full article here

Pilots threaten strike over ID card plan

Pilots have threatened to strike over Government plans to use them as “guinea pigs” in its ID card scheme.

Jon Swaine
Telegraph.co.uk
Nov 18, 2008

The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), which represents most of the country’s commercial pilots, said the Government’s “early warning system should be flashing” over its opposition to plans to force aviation workers be the first Britons to carry ID cards.

Jim McAuslan, Balpa’s general secretary, said his members resented being treated as guinea pigs and added: “It may come to an industrial dispute.

“We would want to avoid that. We would want the Government to think again about the whole scheme,” he told The Independent.

The Government insists that the cards must be fast-tracked to airport staff due to the importance of high security in their workplaces. The Home Office is preparing to unveil a plan to make staff at Manchester and London City airports sign up for an ID card before they can apply for security accreditation necessary for workers at the sites. Under the plans, ID cards will be issued to staff from next autumn.

…….full article here

The G-20 Washout: No Policy Solutions. Global Economy is Still on the Brink of Disaster

Mike Whitney
Global Research
Nov 18, 2008

As expected, the G-20 Economic Summit in Washington turned out to be a total bust. None of the problems which have pushed the global economy to the brink of disaster were resolved and none of the main players who gamed the system with their toxic securities were held accountable. Instead, the visiting dignitaries gorged themselves on stuffed quail and roast rack of lamb before settling on a toothless “Statement on Financial Markets” which accomplished absolutely nothing. The one noteworthy clause in the entire document is a two paragraph indictment of the United States as the perpetrator of the financial crisis. At least they got that right.

From the text:

“Root Causes of the Current Crisis: During a period of strong global growth, growing capital flows, and prolonged stability earlier this decade, market participants sought higher yields without an adequate appreciation of the risks and failed to exercise proper due diligence. At the same time, weak underwriting standards, unsound risk management practices, increasingly complex and opaque financial products, and consequent excessive leverage combined to create vulnerabilities in the system. Policy-makers, regulators and supervisors, in some advanced countries, did not adequately appreciate and address the risks building up in financial markets, keep pace with financial innovation, or take into account the systemic ramifications of domestic regulatory actions.

…….full article here

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Democrats Cover Up Bush Era War Crimes

George Washington’s Blog
Nov 17, 2008

The Associated Press writes:

“Two Obama advisers said there’s little—if any—chance that the incoming president’s Justice Department will go after anyone involved in authorizing or carrying out interrogations that provoked worldwide outrage.”

And when Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy was asked if Bush officials could face war crimes, he responded:

“In the United States, no. These things are not going to happen.”

This is not entirely surprising, given that Democratic congress members Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman and John D. Rockefeller were secretly briefed on torture many, many years ago, and yet did nothing to stop those unlawful programs. Indeed, they egged the torturers on (for example, the above-linked Washington Post article says “no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder”).

…….full article here