Lefty OBAMA,helping FBI coverup,starting CIA secret torture sites,hurting labor..oh yeah real lefty

[Steven Gaal]

Yes 57 deaths not at the hands of FBI contract......but some were. See bottom link RE: Ray Robinson

Leonard Peltier Supporters Hoping for a Presidential Pardon

By: Adrian Jawort

December 19, 2012

To Leonard Peltier supporters, the fact that Barack Obama has taken such personal interest in the U.S. government’s relations with American Indians renews hope of a presidential pardon after he was denied parole in 2009 for his role in the murder of two FBI agents on June 26, 1975.

However, there’s one glaring obstacle in the way of his way potential freedom, and ironically it stems from one of his biggest adherents that brought his plight to the public eye: Peter Mattheissen, the author of the controversial 1983 book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. The book brought Peltier’s case to fame—“immortalized” him—and he’s since garnered sympathy from the likes of Indian country to two Nobel Peace Prize winners to a host of A-list celebrities who deem him a political prisoner.

After Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams approached an American Indian Movement (AIM) compound on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in search of a suspect named Jimmy Eagle, they were incapacitated by a hail of gunfire before being summarily executed. This is not disputed. But according to Matthiessen’s version of events, it all began when a brawl ensued after a night of drinking and cowboy boots were stolen. The FBI was looking for the perpetrators of the stolen item(s), and one of the culprits named Teddy Pourier was described in In the Spirit of Crazy Horse as “a small light-skinned boy who could have passed for a white anywhere else.”

Truth be told, however, Pourier was a six-foot, 200 pound Oglala Sioux with long traditional hair in his early 40’s and the brawl was anything but a typical boys will be boys-type scenario. Pourier, Eagle, and two others had held captive at gunpoint college student Jerry Schwarting and an actual boy of 14 named Robert Dunsmore. For an entire night the victims were beaten as guns were fired over their heads repeatedly. Dunsmore was kept undressed and had bruises on his forehead from the barrel of a gun being pressed against it. That’s why the FBI searched for Eagle—not because of cowboy boots.

Perhaps Mattheissen had a case of mistaken identity when describing Teddy Pourier, but his misleading tone sets a precedent if one reads between the lines. If Mattheissen told the real backdrop of the cowboy boots story, it’d detract from his continuous narrative of creating contempt against agents of the state who only sought to oppress Indians instead of serve them.

Indeed, it was renowned Harvard Law School Professor Alan M. Dershowitz who noted in a New York Times book review that because Matthiessen goes out of his way to obtain a paranoid atmosphere, he “inadvertently makes a strong case for Mr. Peltier's guilt. Invoking the clichés of the radical left, Mr. Matthiessen takes at face value nearly every conspiratorial claim of the movement, no matter how unfounded or preposterous. Every car crash, every unexplained death, every unrelated arrest fits into the seamless web of deceit he seems to feel was woven by the FBI and its cohorts.”

Following Matthiessen’s assumptions, a list of 57 AIM supporters whose deaths were supposedly never investigated by the FBI was produced by Peltier supporters. When the cases were reviewed, most of the actual murders listed in their jurisdiction were in fact prosecuted. Undoubtedly tensions between the GOONs and AIM led to violence, but many deaths listed were the result of automobile wrecks, domestic violence, children playing with guns suicides, and exposure. Also listed as supposed murdered AIM supporters were a 9-month-old baby who died after an inebriated mother fell while holding her, and a 16-month-old and his 7-year-old sister who’d been abused to death.

Dershowitz wrote while reading In the Spirit of Crazy Horse that he wanted to shout at Matthiessen for his naivete because “…allegations, such as systematic beatings and ‘contracts' on the lives of AIM leaders, do not seem credible. Mr. Matthiessen surely provides no proof beyond the self-serving claims of the alleged victims and their partisan lawyers.”

Caught up in such a frame of mind, Mattheissen was easily taken in when the late AIM member Bob Robideau contrived a plan of conjuring up a shadowy, sunglass wearing, black hooded figure by the name of “Mr. X.” Before In the Spirit of Crazy Horse was printed in its 1992 second version, the secretive Mr. X went on record for it claiming he committed the murders Peltier was framed for. He did the same act for the Robert Redford narrated Incident At Oglala film. While Mr. X ‘s intent was to further the case of Peltier’s innocence, his fabrication has condemned him to being a permanently imprisoned martyr.

In Serle L. Chapman’s (Cheyenne) extensive interview with AIM member Dino Butler in the book We, The People of Earth and Elders Volume II, Butler said he was adamant against using the Mr. X illusion. Creating lies to fight liars would make them “lose in the end.” Mr. X was utilized anyway for what Butler called hidden agendas—he said Robideau sold the Mr. X story to Oliver Stone and Robert Redford’s scriptwriters for $10,000 a piece. Perturbed, Butler told anyone who asked about Mr. X the story was “bullxxxx” since other AIM members had collectively agreed not to use the story. “I believe the story was concocted just to keep Leonard in jail longer,” Butler contemplated to Chapman.

Matthiessen called Butler and was “pissed-off” his credibility had been put in doubt, and Peltier also called and asked why he didn’t back the Mr. X story. In Chapman’s book, Butler said he simply told Peltier that it was because it was lie, and then explained his reasoning:

I said, “Imagine Leonard if I’m the President of the United States and there’s this piece of paper on my desk to release this Indian man who was convicted of killing two FBI agents but now he’s gotten so much support that people want to release him; but this Indian man is sitting in prison and he’s saying, ‘Yeah, I know who killed those agents but I’m not saying because it’s the warrior way and I don’t snitch on my own people.’ And I said, ‘Me, as the President, I’m not going to release you.’ Nobody is going to release you. You came out after the Mr. X story and that’s what you said, ‘Yeah, I know who Mr. X but I’m not going to snitch on my brother, that’s not our way.’ So who do you expect to release you, Leonard? Don’t you see why this story was created?”

When Peltier supporters catch the ear of the president, it’s a question Obama will undoubtedly ask himself. It’s also a question Peltier and his supporters will also have to acknowledge if they want their argument for a presidential pardon taken seriously.

A lifelong Montana resident, Adrian Jawort is a freelance journalist, writer, and poet. A proud member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, he is a contributor to Indian Country Today Media Network as well as Native Peoples, Cowboys & Indians and many other publications.

++++++++++++++

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/tense-fbi-aim-exchange-during-wounded-knee-talk/article_305208da-9149-11e1-8212-001a4bcf887a.html

[Len Colby]

Yes 57 deaths not at the hands of FBI contract......but some were. See bottom link RE: Ray Robinson

Huhh? There's nothing indicating Robinson was murdered let alone that the FBI was responsible. His name isn't even on the AIM list.

The current Ogala Sioux population is over 40,000. The death rate in the US is 0.8% which would come out to 320 deaths a year if the rate for tribe members was the same as for the country. Since they are very poor I'd assume it's higher. The US rate was about 1.0% in the mid 70's but presumably the Ogala population was lower so 300/year is a good rough estimate. The 56 deaths (one seems not to have died) occurred over 4.3 years 12/06/72 - 03/27/77 so roughly 1300 died in that period 4% being violent is not that high and I'm guess about what one would expect if not lower. Even Peltier acknowledged there was a civil war going on. Did the FBI or BIA have a role in some of those deaths? Or did they look the other way when their allies the GOONs (Guardians Of the Oglala Nation) killed? It wouldn't surprise me. But that would NOT justify Peltier's role in the cold blooded execution of the two FBI agents and AIM killed people as well including the agents and one of their supporters from the list who was suspected of being an informant*. One of the men on the list was a participant in the murders of the agents and was wearing one of their jackets when shot.

* http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/us/member-of-indian-movement-is-found-guilty-in-1975-killing.html

I made a mistake in my previous post. Besides their 38 revolvers the FBI agents had a shotgun and a ".308 Remington Game Master model 760 carbine" a pump action weapon with a 4 round magazine, so Peltier's account of fusillades of bullets being fired by the agents is pure fiction.

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ???

FBI Considers the “Occupy Movement” as a “Terrorist Threat”

By Global Research News

Global Research, December 26, 2012

Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF)

============================================

by Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF)

FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) pursuant to the PCJF’s Freedom of Information Act demands reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence” at occupy protests.

The PCJF has obtained heavily redacted documents showing that FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country.

“This production, which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement,” stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF). “These documents show that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity. These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.”

“The documents are heavily redacted, and it is clear from the production that the FBI is withholding far more material. We are filing an appeal challenging this response and demanding full disclosure to the public of the records of this operation,” stated Heather Benno, staff attorney with the PCJF.

• As early as August 19, 2011, the FBI in New York was meeting with the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the Occupy Wall Street protests that wouldn’t start for another month. By September, prior to the start of the OWS, the FBI was notifying businesses that they might be the focus of an OWS protest.
  
• The FBI’s Indianapolis division released a “Potential Criminal Activity Alert” on September 15, 2011, even though they acknowledged that no specific protest date had been scheduled in Indiana. The documents show that the Indianapolis division of the FBI was coordinating with “All Indiana State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies,” as well as the “Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center,” the FBI “Directorate of Intelligence” and other national FBI coordinating mechanisms.
  
• Documents show the spying abuses of the FBI’s “Campus Liaison Program” in which the FBI in Albany and the Syracuse Joint Terrorism Task Force disseminated information to “sixteen (16) different campus police officials,” and then “six (6) additional campus police officials.” Campus officials were in contact with the FBI for information on OWS. A representative of the State University of New York at Oswego contacted the FBI for information on the OWS protests and reported to the FBI on the SUNY-Oswego Occupy encampment made up of students and professors.
  
• Documents released show coordination between the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and corporate America. They include a report by the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC), described by the federal government as “a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector,” discussing the OWS protests at the West Coast ports to “raise awareness concerning this type of criminal activity.” The DSAC report shows the nature of secret collaboration between American intelligence agencies and their corporate clients – the document contains a “handling notice” that the information is “meant for use primarily within the corporate security community. Such messages shall not be released in either written or oral form to the media, the general public or other personnel…” (The DSAC document was also obtained by the Northern California ACLU which has sought local FBI surveillance files.)
  
• Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS) reported to the DSAC on the relationship between OWS and organized labor for the port actions. The NCIS describes itself as “an elite worldwide federal law enforcement organization” whose “mission is to investigate and defeat criminal, terrorist, and foreign intelligence threats to the United States Navy and Marine Corps ashore, afloat and in cyberspace.” The NCIS also assists with the transport of Guantanamo prisoners.
  
• DSAC issued several tips to its corporate clients on “civil unrest” which it defines as ranging from “small, organized rallies to large-scale demonstrations and rioting.” It advised to dress conservatively, avoid political discussions and “avoid all large gatherings related to civil issues. Even seemingly peaceful rallies can spur violent activity or be met with resistance by security forces. Bystanders may be arrested or harmed by security forces using water cannons, tear gas or other measures to control crowds.”
  
• The FBI in Anchorage reported from a Joint Terrorism Task Force meeting of November 3, 2011, about Occupy activities in Anchorage.
  
• A port Facility Security Officer in Anchorage coordinated with the FBI to attend the meeting of protestors and gain intelligence on the planning of the port actions. He was advised to request the presence of an Anchorage Police Department official to also attend the event. The FBI Special Agent told the undercover private operative that he would notify the Joint Terrorism Task Force and that he would provide a point of contact at the Anchorage Police Department.
  
• The Jacksonville, Florida FBI prepared a Domestic Terrorism briefing on the “spread of the Occupy Wall Street Movement” in October 2011. The intelligence meeting discussed Occupy venues identifying “Daytona, Gainesville and Ocala Resident Agency territories as portions …where some of the highest unemployment rates in Florida continue to exist.”
  
• The Tampa, Florida FBI “Domestic Terrorism” liaison participated with the Tampa Police Department’s monthly intelligence meeting in which Occupy Lakeland, Occupy Polk County and Occupy St. Petersburg were discussed. They reported on an individual “leading the Occupy Tampa” and plans for travel to Gainesville for a protest planning meeting, as well as on Veterans for Peace plans to protest at MacDill Air Force Base.
  
• The Federal Reserve in Richmond appears to have had personnel surveilling OWS planning. They were in contact with the FBI in Richmond to “pass on information regarding the movement known as occupy Wall Street.” There were repeated communications “to pass on updates of the events and decisions made during the small rallies and the following information received from the Capital Police Intelligence Unit through JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force).”
  
• The Virginia FBI was collecting intelligence on the OWS movement for dissemination to the Virginia Fusion Center and other Intelligence divisions.
  
• The Milwaukee division of the FBI was coordinating with the Ashwaubenon Public Safety division in Green Bay Wisconsin regarding Occupy.
  
• The Memphis FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force met to discuss “domestic terrorism” threats, including, “Aryan Nations, Occupy Wall Street, and Anonymous.”
  
• The Birmingham, AL division of the FBI sent communications to HAZMAT teams regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement.
  
• The Jackson, Mississippi division of the FBI attended a meeting of the Bank Security Group in Biloxi, MS with multiple private banks and the Biloxi Police Department, in which they discussed an announced protest for “National Bad Bank Sit-In-Day” on December 7, 2011.
  
• The Denver, CO FBI and its Bank Fraud Working Group met and were briefed on Occupy Wall Street in November 2011. Members of the Working Group include private financial institutions and local area law enforcement.
  
• Jackson, MS Joint Terrorism Task Force issued a “Counterterrorism Preparedness” alert. This heavily redacted document includes the description, “To document…the Occupy Wall Street Movement.”
  

You can read the FBI – OWS documents here where we have uploaded them in searchable format for public viewing.

The PCJF filed Freedom of Information Act demands with multiple federal law enforcement agencies in the fall of 2011 as the Occupy crackdown began. The FBI initially attempted to limit its search to only one limited record keeping index. Recognizing this as a common tactic used by the FBI to conduct an inadequate search, the PCJF pressed forward demanding searches be performed of the FBI headquarters as well as FBI field offices nationwide.

The PCJF will continue to push for public disclosure of the government’s spy files and will release documents as they are obtained.

Edited December 31, 2012 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

Lefty Obama ??

[Len Colby]

So you think Chomsky is credible?

[Steven Gaal]

So you think Chomsky is credible?

+++++++++++++++++++

Sometimes yes and sometimes no. On JFK ,no Chomsky is not credible. Somewhere in my files is a self published book about a fellow who had a 6 months back and forth data correspondence with Chomsky on DALLAS/JFK . Later Chomsky said ,"he had never really looked into the matter (JFK)"

=========

A disinfo/gatekeeper is like a baloney sandwich: nourishing bread and horrible baloney.

[Len Colby]

LOL, so you cite the "baloney sandwich" when suits you and dismiss him (it?) as dismiss him as "a disinfo/gatekeeper" when he contradicts you.

[Steven Gaal]

Well just need to seperate wheat from chaff.

Critical analytical thinking is a key part of university study. Many first year students receive comments such as 'not analytical enough' on their early assignment. In brief, this means looking very closely at the detail and not taking what you read or hear for granted. You should:

• Evaluate how far materials are appropriate, and up-to-date.
  
• Evaluate how far the evidence or examples used in materials really proves the point that the author claims.
  
• To weigh up opinions, arguments or solutions against appropriate criteria.
  
• To think a line of reasoning through to its logical conclusion.
  
• Check for hidden bias or hidden assumptions.
  

##########################################################

I can literally post about LEFTY OBAMA ?? day and night. Will get back on topic soon. I actually hold back on this topic.

[Len Colby]

None the less opinions are like @$$#*!+$, everybody has one and you a citing the opinion of someone you classify as "a baloney sandwich"

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ??

JSoc: Obama's secret assassins

The president has a clandestine network targeting a 'kill list' justified by secret laws. How is that different than a death squad?

Naomi Wolf

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 February 2013 09.00 ES

The film Dirty Wars, which premiered at Sundance, can be viewed, as Amy Goodman sees it, as an important narrative of excesses in the global "war on terror". It is also a record of something scary for those of us at home – and uncovers the biggest story, I would say, in our nation's contemporary history.

Though they wisely refrain from drawing inferences, Scahill and Rowley have uncovered the facts of a new unaccountable power in America and the world that has the potential to shape domestic and international events in an unprecedented way. The film tracks the Joint Special Operations Command (JSoc), a network of highly-trained, completely unaccountable US assassins, armed with ever-expanding "kill lists". It was JSoc that ran the operation behind the Navy Seal team six that killed bin Laden.

Scahill and Rowley track this new model of US warfare that strikes at civilians and insurgents alike – in 70 countries. They interview former JSoc assassins, who are shell-shocked at how the "kill lists" they are given keep expanding, even as they eliminate more and more people.

Our conventional forces are subject to international laws of war: they are accountable for crimes in courts martial; and they run according to a clear chain of command. As much as the US military may fall short of these standards at times, it is a model of lawfulness compared with JSoc, which has far greater scope to undertake the commission of extra-legal operations – and unimaginable crimes.

JSoc morphs the secretive, unaccountable mercenary model of private military contracting, which Scahill identified in Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, into a hybrid with the firepower and intelligence backup of our full state resources. The Hill reports that JSoc is now seeking more "flexibility" to expand its operations globally.

JSoc operates outside the traditional chain of command; it reports directly to the president of the United States. In the words of Wired magazine:

"JSoc operates with practically no accountability."

Scahill calls JSoc the president's "paramilitary". Its budget, which may be in the billions, is secret.

What does it means for the president to have an unaccountable paramilitary force, which can assassinate anyone anywhere in the world? JSoc has already been sent to kill at least one US citizen – one who had been indicted for no crime, but was condemned for propagandizing for al-Qaida. Anwar al-Awlaki, on JSoc's "kill list" since 2010, was killed by CIA-controlled drone attack in September 2011; his teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki – also a US citizen – was killed by a US drone two weeks later.

This arrangement – where death squads roam under the sole control of the executive – is one definition of dictatorship. It now has the potential to threaten critics of the US anywhere in the world.

The film reveals some of these dangers: Scahill, writing in the Nation, reported that President Obama called Yemen's President Saleh in 2011 to express "concern" about jailed reporter Abdulelah Haider Shaye. US spokespeople have confirmed the US interest in keeping him in prison.

Shaye, a Yemeni journalist based in Sana'a, had a reputation for independent journalism through his neutral interviewing of al-Qaida operatives, and of critics of US policy such as Anwar al-Awlaki. Journalist colleagues in Yemen dismiss the notion of any terrorist affiliation: Shaye had worked for the Washington Post, ABC news, al-Jazeera, and other major media outlets.

Shaye went to al-Majala in Yemen, where a missile strike had killed a group that the US had called "al-Qaida". "What he discovered," reports Scahill, "were the remnants of Tomahawk cruise missiles and cluster bombs … some of them bearing the label 'Made in the USA', and distributed the photos to international media outlets."

Fourteen women and 21 children were killed. "Whether anyone actually active in al-Qaida was killed remains hotly contested." Shortly afterwards, Shaye was kidnapped and beaten by Yemeni security forces. In a trial that was criticized internationally by reporters' groups and human rights organizations, he was accused of terrorism. Shaye is currently serving a five-year sentence.

Scahill and Rowley got to the bars of Shaye's cell to interview him, before the camera goes dark (in almost every scene, they put their lives at risk). This might also bring to mind the fates of Sami al-Haj of al-Jazeera, also kidnapped, and sent to Guantánamo, and of Julian Assange, trapped in asylum in Ecuador's London embassy.

President Obama thus helped put a respected reporter in prison for reporting critically on JSoc's activities. The most disturbing issue of all, however, is the documentation of the "secret laws" now facilitating these abuses of American power: Scahill succeeds in getting Senator Ron Wyden, who sits on the Senate intelligence committee, to confirm the fact that there are secret legal opinions governing the use of drones in targeted assassinations that, he says, Americans would be "very surprised" to know about. This is not the first time Wyden has issued this warning.

In 2011, Wyden sought an amendment to the USA Patriot Act titled requiring the US government "to end practice of secretly interpreting law". Wyden warns that there is now a system of law beneath or behind the law that we can see and debate:

"It is impossible for Congress to hold an informed public debate on the Patriot Act when there is a significant gap between what most Americans believe the law says and what the government is using the law to do. In fact, I believe many members of Congress who have voted on this issue would be stunned to know how the Patriot Act is being interpreted and applied.

"Even secret operations need to be conducted within the bounds of established, publicly understood law. Any time there is a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the government secretly thinks the law says, I believe you have a serious problem."

I have often wondered, since I first wrote about America's slide toward fascism, what was driving it. I saw the symptoms but not the cause. Scahill's and Rowley's brave, transformational film reveals the prime movers at work. The US executive now has a network of secret laws, secret budgets, secret kill lists, and a well-funded, globally deployed army of secret teams of assassins. That is precisely the driving force working behind what we can see. Is fascism really too strong a word to describe it?

• This article originally referred to Scahill and Rowley's documentary as Secret Wars; this was amended to Dirty Wars at 5.20pm ET on 3 February. The phrase "US kill list" in the subhead was also amended to "kill list" in order to remove possible ambiguity

Edited February 4, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

CAN YOU SAY GENOCIDE ?? I BET YOU CAN !!

LEFTY OBAMA ??

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Ethiopia-United States relations

Ethiopia

United States

Ethiopia-United States relations are bilateral relations between Ethiopia and the United States. Ethiopia is a strategic partner of the United States in the Global War on Terrorism. The United States is the largest donor to Ethiopia: in 2008 U.S. foreign aid to Ethiopia totaled US$ 969 million, in 2009 US$916, with 2010 estimated at US$513 and US$586 requested for 2011.^[1] U.S. development assistance to Ethiopia is focused on reducing famine vulnerability, hunger, and poverty and emphasizes economic, governance, and social sector policy reforms. Some military training funds, including training in such issues as the laws of war and observance of human rights, also are provided.

Recently, the Ethiopian government has been criticized for severe human rights violations. According to Human Rights Watch, the aid given by the United States is being abused to erode democracy in Ethiopia.^[2]

The Ethiopian ambassador to the U.S. is Samuel Assefa; he is also accredited to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Principal U.S. Officials include Ambassador Donald Y. Yamamoto and Deputy Chief of Mission Deborah Malac. The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia is located in Addis Ababa.

============================================

Besieged, Abused, Ignored: Ethiopian Annihilation Of The Ogaden People

By Graham Peebles

Global Research, February 12, 2013

Eurasia News 7 February 2013

============================================

In the harsh Ogaden region of Ethiopia, impoverished ethnic Somali people are being murdered and tortured, raped, persecuted and displaced by government paramilitary forces. Illegal actions carried out with the knowledge and tacit support of donor countries, seemingly content to turn a blind eye to war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by their brutal, repressive ally in the region; and a deaf ear to the pain and suffering of the Ogaden Somali people.

Around five million traditionally nomadic pastoralists – live in what is one of the least developed corners of the world besieged by military oppression, drought and famine.

Democracy denied

When the British, with due colonial duplicity, arrogantly handed the Ogaden region over to Ethiopia in 1954, the ethnic Somali people found themselves under occupation by, what they regard as a foreign power. The centuries old struggle for self-determination, has since 1984 been taken up by the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), predictably regarded as ‘terrorists’ by the Ethiopian government; which hunts them down and, with impunity, tortures, imprisons and rapes its members and suspected supporters while carrying out widespread extrajudicial killings.

In 1992 as part of the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) much trumpeted, never realized policy of Ethnic Federalism, that promised autonomy and cultural respect to the many tribal groups in the country; ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden were officially acknowledged and inaugural regional elections held. The ONLF, a secular group in a largely Muslim region, “won 60% of seats… and formed the new (regional) government” Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported. Two years later, and in response to the will of the people, the ONLF called for a referendum on self-determination. The government’s reaction to such democratic gall was to kill 81 unarmed civilians in the town of Wardheer, disband the regional parliament, arrest and imprison the vice-president and several other members of the parliament, instigate mass arrests and indiscriminate killings; this brutal act ignited the current struggle and drove the ONLF into the shadows and its current guerilla war.

Resource rich

The region, rich in oil and gas reserves, is potentially the wealthiest area of Ethiopia. Resources that the indigenous people are understandably keen to benefit from, that the EPRDF sees as another party asset to add to its burgeoning portfolio. Genocide Watch (GW) tell us that, “immediately after oil and gas were discovered in the Ogaden, Ethiopian government forces evicted large numbers of [Ogaden Somalis] from their ancestral grazing lands and herded them into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, causing a humanitarian disaster”. If the ONLF are correct and their view sounds more than plausible, the Ethiopian military intends to secure the resources for the government and exclude the local people. The Africa Faith and Justice Network confirms such suspicions, saying: “With the discovery of petroleum leading to exploration missions by foreign companies, the government’s motives are questionable.”

Upfront fees for exploration rights are reputed to have been sold to foreign corporations for between $50 – $100 million, paid by under-informed, overexcited multinationals, who subsequently pull out, having underestimated the logistical problems of working in the region. China Petroleum was one such; they were subjected to an unprecedented ill-judged attack by the ONLF in 2007 that caused the deaths of nine Chinese workmen and, according to China Daily , “65 Ethiopian employees”. The Ethiopian government, itching to intensify the conflict that had been simmering for over three decades, retaliated with excessive brutality, by HRW reports, “launching a brutal counter-insurgency campaign in the five zones of [the] Somali Region primarily affected by the conflict… [Where] the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) has deliberately and repeatedly attacked civilian populations,” killing hundreds of men women and children.

Displaced & destitute

Thousands of terrified Ogaden Somalis have since fled the affected areas. They seek refuge “in neighbouring Somalia and Kenya from widespread Ethiopian military attacks on civilians and villages that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,“(ibid). Large numbers have been made homeless and destitute, accurate numbers are difficult to collate due to restricted access, however human rights groups estimate the number, to be greater than one hundred thousand.

The Ogaden, GW states “has been transformed into a vast military occupied area, with thousands in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.” Most displaced persons, the International Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reports, “sought shelter with relatives or safety in the bush, rather than gathering in organized camps,” where widespread abuse is known to take place, including starvation that GW describes as “genocide by attrition”. These desperate, frightened people are not regarded as refugees and so receive no humanitarian aid support from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). And the EPRDF, consistent with their duplicitous approach to governance, fails to meet dutiful obligations under the historic Kampala Convention which “reaffirms that national authorities have the primary responsibility to provide assistance to IDPs…. (And) … to address the plight of people uprooted within their borders”. The ruling party ignores these requirements, acting not in accordance with international law, the federal constitution or indeed their moral duty.

Especially violent

In 2009, after widespread condemnation of the Ethiopian army’s conduct in the region, the regime formed the highly suspect Liyu (Special) Police. Somaliland Press (26/9/12) states, the government “deliberately recruited unemployed youths from the streets”. This shadowy paramilitary force of 10,000 – 14,000, fits, HRW says, “into the context of impunity where security forces can more or less do what they want.” Not a group, then, that the British government should be supporting. In a baffling move however, according to The Guardian (10/1/13) , the Department for International Development (DFID) has submitted, a “tender to train security forces in the Somali region of Ogaden”, Amnesty International’s Claire Beston said: “It was highly concerning that the UK was planning to engage with the Special Police..…. There is no doubt that the Special Police have become a significant source of fear in the region.”(Ibid) The DFID in denying the report ambiguously states that, “reforming the Special Police is critical for achieving a safe and secure Somali Region”, failing to recognize that the Liyu force needs not reforming but disbanding and, along with all Ethiopian military personnel, marched out of the region immediately.

State-sanctioned terrorism and genocide

In addition to murder and rape, appalling levels of torture and extrajudicial execution are reported. Thousands, according to GW, “have been arrested without any charges and held in desolate desert prisons”. Mass detention “without any judicial oversight are routine. Hundreds—and possibly thousands—of individuals have been arrested and held in military barracks, sometimes multiple times, where they have been tortured, raped, and assaulted”, HRW report.

Children and women being the most vulnerable suffer acutely, the rape of Ogaden Somali women is a favored weapon of the Ethiopian paramilitary; held in military barracks women are imprisoned as sex slaves, where they are subjected to multiple gang rape and torture. African Rights Monitor (ARM) recount one woman’s story that mirrors many and shocks us all. She claims to have been, “raped by fifty soldiers for a period of twelve hours and hung upside down over a pit of fire that had chili powder in…. to suffocate her lungs”.

Statistics of abuse are impossible to state, the numbers are perhaps of less importance than the crimes and the suffering caused, survivors bear the physical scars and mental trauma of their ordeals, from which many may never recover.

A scorched-earth policy involving burning of crops and homes and killing cattle is part of the campaign of state terror, as HRW record, “Confiscation of livestock [the main asset], restrictions on access to water, food, and other essential commodities” have “been used as weapons in an economic war”. As has the destruction of villages, confirmed by evidence from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, proving, “that the Ethiopian military has attacked civilians and burned towns and villages in eight locations across the remote Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia.” Such inhumane methods are employed by the EPRDF to instill fear in the Ogaden Somali people and suppress their legitimate demands for autonomy. It is shocking criminal abuse which staggeringly, “GW considers to have already reached stage 7 [of 8], genocidal massacres against many [Ogadeni, Anuk, Oromo and Omo] of its people”. International donors however, who provide a third of Ethiopia’s total federal budget – around $4 billion a year, to their utter shame say and do nothing; neglect constituting complicity.

Village executions

With the region virtually shut off, video evidence smuggled out of Ethiopia by Abdullahi Hussein, a former Ethiopian civil servant is rare. Revealing Somaliland Press (26/9/12) say that, “whole villages have been emptied of inhabitants through executions and mass flight from terror… you can hear members of the Liyu Police desecrate a civilian they have just killed. They stomp on his head and poke his face with a stick.” Such attacks on settlements are routine: Demanding our attention is Qurille village in the Wardeer district attacked in September 2012: Ogaden Online recounts how troops: “Shoot each resident of the town in their custody at point blank range” including women and children. Bodies are hung from trees in a public display of state terrorism, to engender lasting fear. This type of brutality is widespread. HRW records how in Raqda village in the Gashaamo district during March 2012, “the Liyu police force summarily executed at least 10 men – in their custody, killed at least nine residents… [and] abducted at least 24 men.”

The killing continued two days later on 17th March, when “Liyu police took another four men from their homes and summarily executed them. A woman whose brother was a veterinarian told HRW: “They caught my brother and took him outside. They shot him in the head and then slit his throat.” Defenseless villages are easy prey for the Liyu and their brutal methodology, as HRW state, “troops have forcibly displaced entire rural communities, ordering villagers to leave their homes within a few days or witness their houses being burnt down and possessions destroyed—and risk death”. Page upon page could be filled with such violent disturbing accounts.

Exclusion of foreign media and aid workers

Contrary to constitutional and human rights law, the EPRDF has imposed a widespread blockade on the Ogaden region, seeking to control the flow of information outside the country as it does within its borders, where it allows no freedom of the media; of expression, of assembly or of political dissent. Add to this the outlawing of trade unions and the partisan distribution of aid and a picture of a brutal totalitarian regime emerges from the duplicitous mist of politically correct, democratic rhetoric.

Attempts to work in the region by international media and humanitarian groups are seen as criminal acts, punishable under the widely condemned anti-terrorist proclamation.

Two Swedish journalists investigating human rights abuses in the Ogaden, made headlines in July 2011 when they were attacked and arrested by the Liyu police and subjected to a terrifying ‘mock’ execution. Charged and sentenced in Ethiopia’s kangaroo court to 11 years imprisonment, they were later released having served 400 days in appalling conditions. Reporters from the New York Times, The Telegraph and Voice of America have also been imprisoned and expelled, so too United Nations (UN) workers and staff from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) who were arrested and accused of being spies! Wrapped in paranoia, the EPRDF suspended 42 NGOs in 2009 for reporting government human rights abuses in the region and, in 2007 in what must be the EPRDF’s Pièce de résistance, the International Committee of the Red Cross were expelled.

In addition to the information embargo, the region is subject to what HRW describe as “severe restrictions on movement and commercial trade, minimal access to independent relief assistance,” and the “politicized manipulation of humanitarian operations, particularly food distribution”; meaning food supplied by donor countries is stolen to feed the Ethiopian army and the Liyu force. This in one of the worst areas for drought and famine in the country, where, In-Depth Africa reports, “1,539,279 people (30% of the population) in the region lack food, water and health services”.

Peace and justice for the people

The little known conflict in the Ogaden is a cause of intense tension between Ethiopia and Somalia and a destabilizing issue in an unstable region. It is a fight that has been distorted by the former Government of Somalia, which sought to misrepresent the issue and transform it into a boundary dispute; a misconception that suits the Ethiopian regime keen to avoid the substantive point of regional autonomy.

All efforts to facilitate a lasting peaceful resolution to what is an age-old struggle should be urgently made, Ethiopia’s donors and facilitators, principally America, along with the European Union and Britain must act with due responsibility. Action should be taken to: Close down IDP camps and the people allowed to return to their communities; aid provided for rebuilding villages (not to train the Liyu) destroyed by the military; regional elections organised and a referendum on self-determination held.

The appalling atrocities committed daily by the Ethiopian paramilitary constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity that should immediately be referred to the International Criminal Court for prosecution. They are, though, just the deepest wounds within a scarred body of human rights abuses, violating federal and international law, being perpetrated by the EPRDF regime throughout the country and with utter impunity. This must end and the Ogaden Somali people, allowed to determine their own destiny and to live in peace.

Graham Peebles is an artist, writer and director of The Create Trust, which he founded in 2006. He has run education projects & teacher training programs in Palestine, India and Ethiopia, where he spent two years working with local groups in Addis Ababa. Contact: graham@thecreatetrust.org

Notes

http://www.chinadail...tent_858956.htm

[ii] http://www.hrw.org/n...62175/section/4

[iii] http://www.genocidew...g/ethiopia.html

[iv] http://www.genocidew...g/ethiopia.html

[v] http://www.internal-...ntries/ethiopia

[vi] http://www.internal-...pala-convention

[vii] http://somalilandpre...in-ogaden-35429

[viii] http://www.aljazeera...5840290803.html

[ix] http://www.aaas.org/...pia_intro.shtml

[x] http://ogaden.com/ho...as-qoriile.html– By Mohamud A. Dubet

[xi] http://www.hrw.org/n...lice-execute-10

[xii] http://www.hrw.org/s...opia/index.html

[xiii] http://indepthafrica...f/#.UPBCpVRl8Xw In Ethiopia: A War on Humanitarian Agencies and Staff

Edited February 12, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ??

Obama’s Top Choice for OMB Led Walmart Foundation’s Targeted Giving

• If tapped by Obama, Burwell would not be the first business leader to join his Administration following work for a company marked by ugly labor relations. Obama’s previous OMB director, Jack Lew, served as chief operating officer at New York University while the university withdrew union recognition from its graduate student employees (Lew was promoted from OMB to White House Chief of Staff, and is now Obama’s Treasury Secretary nominee). GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt led Obama’s Jobs Council while union members rallied against the company’s plans to impose two-tier wages and eliminate future workers’ pensions. During Obama’s first term, Republicans blasted Obama-appointed officials at the National Labor Relations Board for pursuing an investigation against Boeing for allegedly illegally punishing strikers; Obama chose members of Boeing’s board as commerce secretary, chief of staff, and export council chair. The top contender for Commerce Secretary is reportedly Penny Pritzker, the Hyatt hotel heiress has sought to thwart organizing efforts by the hospitality workers’ union UNITE HERE (disclosure: one of our former employers), and who as a member of Chicago’s school board has been a staunch ally of Mayor Rahm Emanuel before, during and after the city’s teachers strike.
  Asked about a potential conflict of influence policy regarding Walmart and regulatory review in a Burwell-led OMB, Raddhol told us: "Your question is more appropriate for the OMB." The Obama Administration did not respond to a request for comment.
  

SEE BELOW LINK

• http://www.thenation...targeted-giving#
  
• LEFTY OBAMA ??
  

Edited February 19, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ??

Is the US maintaining death squads and torture militias in Afghanistan?

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and local residents insist that the answer is yey.

Glenn Greenwald //guardian.co.uk, FEB/26/13

=====================================

Afghan President Hamid Karzai addesses military officers in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. Photograph: Ahmad Jamshid/AP

(updated below)

In 2010, as WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of classified documents relating to the conduct of the US government, government defenders dismissively claimed that they revealed nothing new. Among the many documents disproving that claim were ones relating to a US policy in Iraq set forth in "Frago 242", which ordered coalition troops not to stop or even investigate torture and other war crimes by the Iraqi forces they were training, but simply to "note" them.

And note them they did: the logs record thousands of cases of Iraqi forces severely beating, brutalizing and torturing Iraqi civilians while US forces, with rare exception, did nothing to stop it (when the documents were released, the Guardian detailed just some of the illustrative cases). As the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder wrote at the time, the documents contain "incredibly awful reports of systematized detainee abuse by Iraqi soldiers and security forces right under the noses of the American-led coalition, which appears to have had virtually no incentive to put a stop to them" (as usual, these documents were classified not to safeguard US national security but rather to conceal bad and embarrassing acts on the part of the US government: that is why it is not hard to understand why the US government is so aggressive about punishing Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and other whistleblowers and journalists who expose these secrets).

In Afghanistan on Sunday, President Hamid Karzai alleged that the US is doing something much worse: not merely standing by and watching their trained forces torture and kill, but actively and systematically participating. As the Guardian's Golnar Motevalli reported:

"The Afghan government has ordered US special forces to leave one of Afghanistan's most restive provinces, Maidan Wardak, after receiving reports from local officials claiming that the elite units had been involved in the torture and disappearance of Afghan civilians. . . .

"The provincial governor and other officials from Maidan Wardak presented evidence against US forces at the national security council meeting. The presidential palace later issued a statement saying: 'After a thorough discussion, it became clear that armed individuals named as US special forces stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people.

"'A recent example in the province is an incident in which nine people were disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force and in a separate incident a student was taken away at night from his home, whose tortured body with throat cut was found two days later under a bridge,' the statement added" . . . .

"Aimal Faizi, spokesman for Karzai, said the decision came after of months of reports of abuse.

"'People have been complaining about US special forces units torturing people, killing people in that province, and nine individuals were taken from their homes recently and they have just disappeared and no one knows where they have gone,' Faizi said."

Since Sunday, the New York Times' Matthew Rosenberg has written two detailed articles on these events. On Monday, he noted that the Karzai spokesman specifically cited "a raid on a village on 13 February, when American troops and Afghans working with them detained a veterinary student. 'His dead body was found three days later in the area under a bridge," the spokesman said." This morning, Rosenberg noted that the student was actually beheaded.

Motevalli noted that "US military officials have rejected the allegations". Rosenberg also notes that military officials express bewilderment over the allegation that these abuses are being "committed by Afghan irregulars who worked with elite American forces" and that "some Afghan officials believe the suspects are part of a force whose existence has been kept secret by the Americans." And a NATO spokesman said that it was unable to confirm past claims of torture on the part of their Afghan forces.

But there's no question, as Rosenberg notes, that "throughout the war, the United States military and the CIA have organized and trained clandestine militias. A number still operate, and remain beyond the knowledge or control of the Afghan government." Recall that the CIA got caught making payments for years to Karzai's suspected drug-running brother, Ahmed, "for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the CIA's direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar". These are the US-controlled militias, beyond the authority of the Afghan government, on which the US intends to rely if and when it "withdraws" from that country.

It may very well be that US military officials are telling the truth when they claim they are not involved with these specific units, but that the Afghan grievances are completely accurate. That is because, as Rosenberg explains:

"One possibility that would match the descriptions of attackers offered by local Afghan officials and, at the same time, exclude American military forces would be that the suspects were working with the Central Intelligence Agency, whose operatives run militias in a number of provinces. A spokesman for the CIA refused to comment on the issue.

"One senior Afghan official said it was possible: Afghans, he said, make no distinction between military-type outfits. Americans with weapons, high-end gear and facial hair were 'all special forces. It's a phrase that catches all.'"

What is absolutely certain is that what Rosenberg calls the "aggressive tactics" of US special forces have previously "resulted in abuses, and attempted cover-ups" of exactly the type being alleged now.

As but one illustrative example: in 2010, as I wrote at the time, US forces in the Paktia Province, after surrounding a home where a celebration of a new birth was taking place, shot dead two male civilians (government officials) who exited the house in order to inquire why they had been surrounded, and then shot and killed three female relatives (a pregnant mother of ten, a pregnant mother of six, and a teenager). When local villagers loudly complained, the Pentagon lied about what happened, claiming that the dead males were "insurgents" or terrorists; the bodies of the three women had been found by US forces bound and gagged inside the home, and suggested that the women had already been killed by the time the US had arrived, likely the victim of "honor killings" by the Taliban militants killed in the attack. US media outlets, needless to say, mindlessly recited the US government's claims (CNN: "Bodies found gagged, bound after Afghan 'honor killing'"), but the Pentagon was finally forced to admit that its Special Forces had killed the women and then covered-up and lied about what happened.

Whatever is true about these latest human rights abuses, the perception is widespread in Afghanistan that the US is responsible and that the militias it is training are no better than the Taliban. From Rosenberg:

"The action also reflected a deep distrust of international forces that is now widespread in Afghanistan, and the view held by many Afghans, President Hamid Karzai among them, that the coalition shares responsibility with the Taliban for the violence that continues to afflict the country. . . .

"But Afghan officials cited as even more troubling American Special Operations units' use of Afghan proxy forces that are not under the government's control. Afghan civilians and local officials have complained that some irregular forces

have looked little different from Taliban fighters or bandits and behaved little differently

."

So that's where the US is after almost 12 years of waging war in that country, the longest war in its history. The US is blamed on equal terms with the Taliban, at least. It maintains and supports (if not directs) non-government militias which are perceived, with ample evidence, as being death squads and torture units. Thus do we find, yet again, that the fruits of US humanitarian interventions - liberating the oppressed and bringing freedom and democracy to the world - are little more than replicating the abuses of the tyrannical regime it targeted, just under a different owner. Most amazing of all, the next time a new "Good War" is proposed, none of this will stop large numbers of Americans from believing that both the goals and the likely outcome will be beneficent.

UPDATE

A 2009 Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, found as follows regarding Afghanistan:

That last line is key: "in the name of restoring the rule of law, heavily-armed internationals and their Afghan counterparts are wandering around conducting raids that too often result in killings and being held accountable by no one."

Edited February 27, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ??

Obama’s Track Record

An Extensive Shopping List of " Political Achievments"

By Washington's Blog

Global Research, March 06, 2013

#####################################

We’ve previously documented that Obama has redistributed wealth to the super-rich and trampled civil liberties even more than Bush. That Obama has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined … but fewer financial crimes than President Reagan, Clinton or either of the Bush presidents.

Redditor n3uromanc3r adds the following round up of Obama’s track record.

Obama extends Patriot Act without reform – [1]

http://articles.nyda...ce-surveillance

Obama sends more troops to Afghanistan – [2]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8389778.stm

Obama signs NDAA 2011 – [3]

http://www.forbes.co...n-act-now-what/

Obama appeals the Federal Court decision that “indefinite detention” is unconstitutional – [4]

http://www.businessi...a-ruling-2012-9

Obama uses his Presidential Drone “Kill List” to kill American cleric without trial -[5]

http://www.nytimes.c....n.html?_r=2

and his 16 year old son in a separate strike – [6]

http://www.washingto...FssL_story.html

Continues to approve drone strikes that kill thousands of innocent civilians including women and children in Pakistan, Yemen, and other countries that do not want the US intervening – [7]

http://www.telegraph...ort-claims.html

Protects Bush’s war crimes as State Secrets – [8] [9] [10]

http://www.salon.com...9/08/obama_138/

https://www.eff.org/...worse-than-bush

http://washingtonind...-toes-bush-line

Support for countries use of child soldiers -[11]

http://thecable.fore..._child_soldiers

Appointing Monsanto, GMO company with multiple unsafe practice violations, lobbyist to head the FDA – [12]

http://www.washingto...9dZcQ_blog.html

Continuing prohibition and Federal attacks on legal marijuana dispensaries – [13]

http://www.liveleak....=685_1342311527

Protects AG Holder from Congressional “Fast and Furious” gun walking investigations – [14]

http://abcnews.go.co...ious-documents/

Bringing no charges against bank executives that misused bailouts – [15]

http://www.nytimes.c...punishment.html

Engaging in a war on whistleblowers – [16]

http://dailycaller.c...whistleblowers/

Grants immunity to CIA torturers – [17]

http://www.guardian....sh-cia-torturer

Quadrupling the numbers of warrantless wiretapping since Bush era – [18]

http://www.breitbart...ntless-Wiretaps

Continuing military tribunals he vowed to end – [19]

http://articles.cnn....?_s=PM:POLITICS

Failing to close gitmo – [20]

http://www.washingto...R5XE_story.html

Allowed innocent man to die at gitmo – [21]

http://www.huffingto..._b_1878375.html

Violating the War Powers Act of 1973 – [22]

http://www.nytimes.c...21Ackerman.html

Signed Anti-protest law – [23]

http://rt.com/usa/ne...ama-secret-227/

Deported more immigrants than any other president – [24]

http://www.politifac...e-any-other-pr/

Increasing Drug War budget – [25]

http://www.whitehous...ding-highlights

Defends raids on Amish raw milk farmers – [26]

http://reason.com/bl...ty-czar-defends

Granting the FBI access to private electronic communication without warrant – [27]

http://www.nytimes.c...0fri1.html?_r=3

Building an even more intrusive TSA – [28]

http://www.presstv.i...ail/218543.html

Says it’s legal to track individuals by pinpointing their cellphone without warrant – [29]

http://www.businessi...-phones-2012-10

Renewing FISA and NSA’s unregulated spying and banking of all wireless communication – [30] [31]

http://truth-out.org...is-watching-you

http://www.democracy...nsa_is_lying_us

Appeals SCOTUS ruling that warrantless installation of tracking devices on cars is unconstitutional – [32]

http://www.thenewame...ing-of-citizens

###################

MANY DIFFERENT THINGS SAID ABOUT WITHDRAWAL

Conflicting reports on Afghanistan troop withdrawal - Salon.com

www.salon.com/.../conflicting_reports_on_afghanistan_troop_withdr...Cached

1. 
   You +1'd this publicly. Undo Feb 22, 2013 – Conflicting reports on Afghanistan troop withdrawal ... President Barack Obama has said that the last combat troops will leave Afghanistan ... But Panetta, speaking to reporters later, called de Maiziere's comments inaccurate.
   

Edited March 10, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

Lefty Obama ??

U.S. to let spy agencies scour Americans’ finances

March 13, 2013

Source: Reuters

The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies to spot and track down terrorist networks and crime syndicates by bringing together financial databanks, criminal records and military intelligence. The plan, which legal experts say is permissible under U.S. law, is nonetheless likely to trigger intense criticism from privacy advocates.

Financial institutions that operate in the United States are required by law to file reports of “suspicious customer activity,” such as large money transfers or unusually structured bank accounts, to Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Read More...