Terrorist Identification Chart

image via The Radical Libertarian

Drones Killing the Wrong People?

Not only is our money being spent on drone strikes to take out low level militants while Osama Bin Laden runs free, but our drone strikes are a major sore spot for relations between the US, Pakistan and Yemen. Firedoglake's Marcy Wheeler weighs in.



Killing the wrong people? No, the United States government loves murder, is a mass murderer, and its Great Leader even makes jokes about murder:




"The Jonas Brothers are here. (Applause.) They're out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But, boys, don't get any ideas. (Laughter.) I have two words for you -- predator drones. (Laughter.) You will never see it coming. (Laughter.) You think I'm joking. (Laughter.)" -- Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, May 1, 2010

The most serious problems with their deployment, however, arise from the criteria for determining the targets against which they are properly deployed. In the language of artillery, sometimes targets are designated as “free fire” zones, where any human within that vicinity is considered to be a legitimate target. That works when the enemy is clearly defined and geographically prescribed. In the case of guerilla (or “irregular”) warfare, however, there are neither uniforms to identify the enemy nor territorial boundaries to distinguish them, as is the case in Iraq and Afghanistan, where virtually any group of individuals, no matter how innocuous they may turn out to be, tends to be regarded as “fair game” for drone attack. In military language, of course, it’s all readily excusable as “collateral damage”.

How many wedding parties are we going to take out because the drone saw group behavior that it had been programmed to hit? How often do we have sufficient information to know that we are actually targeting insurgents and not innocents? Surely I am not alone in finding our actions repugnant when I read, “Over 700 killed in 44 drone strikes in 2009” taking out 5 intended targets —140 to 1 — and 123 civilians were killed for 3 al-Qaeda in January 2010. The headlines are ubiquitous: “CIA chief in Pakistan exposed. Top spy received death threats; U.S. drones kill 54”, Wisconsin State Journal (18 December 2010), where the American government claims, just as it did in Vietnam, that every dead body was a ”suspected militant”: none were innocent men, women, or children. Even The Washington Post (21 February 2011) seems to perceive that something is wrong with killing so many people and hitting so few targets.

We are now invading Pakistani airspace in our relentless determination to take out those who oppose us. From the point of view of the countries that we have invaded and occupied, they might be more aptly described as “freedom fighters”. Since we invaded these countries in violation of international law, the UN Charter and the US Constitution, we appear to be committing crimes against humanity. And the risk posed by our own technology is now extending to the USA itself. A recent article found in Software 26th August 2010 12:26 GMT, “ROBOT KILL-CHOPPER GOES ROGUE above Washington DC!” by Lewis Page, describes a perceived threat to the nation’s capitol as attributable to “software error”. No deaths resulted from this infraction, but perhaps the next time a mistake of this kind will lead to the deaths of members of Congress or of “The First Family” on a picnic outing in the Rose Garden, which will make for spectacular headlines. Yet we don’t even pause to ask ourselves, “What’s wrong with collateral damage?”-On the Ethical Conduct of Warfare: Predator Drones

The Terrorism Quiz

Misconceptions about terrorism, regularly promoted by the mainstream media, have facilitated harmful US government actions — two wars, domestic legislation that curtailed civil liberties, excessive national security spending. That basic, factual information about terrorism is so rarely reported thus serves to reinforce the power of those who benefit from a fearful population.


Can You Pass The Terrorism Quiz?

Is Rudy Giuliani A Terrorist?

“We’re going to make this much more difficult for you if you don’t cooperate.”

The FBI is a criminal organization and needs to be abolished. It's been a menace to liberty since it was created (and it's history under just its first Director , J. Edgar Hoover, who "served" from 1935-1972, was appalling).

There was a recent black-robed tyrant ruling that said it's legal "for federal agents to secretly plant a GPS locator on your car in the middle of the night, even if it’s parked in your driveway, and then use said locator to track your movements as they see fit. Even without a warrant."

Well, the FBI is making use of this to track whoever the hell they want:

A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.

It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted its expensive device back...(Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back)

But at first the guy considered selling the thing on Craigslist , but then members of the criminal gang FBI showed up:

The agent who initially spoke with Afifi identified himself then as Vincent and told Afifi, “We’re here to recover the device you found on your vehicle. It’s federal property. It’s an expensive piece, and we need it right now.”

Afifi asked, “Are you the guys that put it there?” and the agent replied, “Yeah, I put it there.” He told Afifi, “We’re going to make this much more difficult for you if you don’t cooperate.



Sorry, bub, but if I find something on my vehicle, it's mine, and you can talk about "Federal property" all you want (there's no such thing as federal "property", only a bunch of gangsters who have stolen by force what belongs to others) but you have no right to demand a goddamned thing back. The student should have kept it (or at least until speaking with a lawyer, as Roderick Long suggests).

Someone identified the device as an Orion Guardian ST820, made by Cobham , which only sells them to "law" enforcement. So this private company is not a free market enterprise, it's making money directly off the taxpayers. Worse, it's manufacturing equipment that is used to violate basic rights. It is another corporate statist whore, and a perfect example of how the fascist capitalist system works.

Double Standard on Terrorism

Ever think while you were on the beach enjoying your vacation that a convicted terrorist could be sitting right next to you? Raul Diaz Pena the once escaped convict is now a political prisoner living a luxurious life in the US. Jihan Hafiz explains how his freedom can be seen as a double standard when it comes to America's war on terror.


Any person, organization or government that supports, protects or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.-George W. Bush

America Is Now A Police State

The FBI raided the homes of a number of anti-war activists in Chicago and Minneapolis. The Activists are planning demonstrations against the FBI. Is this a sign of a growing American police state? Former Reagan official Paul Craig Roberts argued that the US government is establishing in the mind of the public that anyone who criticizes the War on Terror is aligned with terrorists. He further argued that under the rubric of terror the government has stripped American's of their civil liberties.

video via Radio's Preparedness subculture blog

Anti-war activist Mick Kelly whose home was raided, sees the FBI raids as harassment to intimidate those who organize war protests. I wonder if Kelly is underestimating the threat. The FBI’s own words clearly indicate that the federal police agency and the judges who signed the warrants do not regard antiwar protesters as Americans exercising their Constitutional rights, but as unpatriotic elements offering material support to terrorism.

“Material support” is another of those undefined police state terms. In this context the term means that Americans who fail to believe their government’s lies and instead protest its policies, are supporting their government’s declared enemies and, thus, are not exercising their civil liberties but committing treason.

As this initial FBI foray is a softening up move to get the public accustomed to the idea that the real terrorists are their fellow citizens here at home, Kelly will get off this time. But next time the FBI will find emails on his computer from a “terrorist group” set up by the CIA that will incriminate him. Under the practices put in place by the Bush and Obama regimes, and approved by corrupt federal judges, protesters who have been compromised by fake terrorist groups can be declared “enemy combatants” and sent off to Egypt, Poland, or some other corrupt American puppet state – Canada perhaps – to be tortured until confession is forthcoming that antiwar protesters and, indeed, every critic of the US government, are on Osama bin Laden’s payroll.-
It Is Official: The US Is a Police State

James Bovard: Freedom and the War on Terrorism

Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil

Government Sued Over No Fly List

A former Air Force officer will be one of 10 plaintiffs included in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union today against the U.S. government challenging the country's no-fly list.

Steve Washburn, 55, an American citizen, learned he was placed on the no-fly list when he and his wife attempted to fly home to New Mexico from Dublin, Ireland.

"When we went to board the plane they told me 'I'm sorry, we can't let you get on the plane. You're on the U.S. no-fly terrorist watch list,'" said Washburn. Now Washburn, who made it home after a carefully scripted 72 hour journey through Germany, Brazil, Peru and Mexico to avoid U.S. airspace - and others are a part of the ACLU lawsuit that charges the government of violating their constitutional rights.

U.S. Government Sued by ACLU Over No Fly List

This Washburn fellow really needs to talk to Ginx. Then he would learn to stop whining and know that he's not being oppressed just simply for being American. Poor baby, didn't he ever hear of the Social Contract? He gave his consent to such things as No-Fly lists by living in America. Love it or leave it, anarchist!

U.S. Supreme Court: Verbal Support Of "Terrorist" Makes YOU A TERRORIST!

The traitorous black-robed tyrants on the Supreme Court have done it again, coming down on the side of the Fascist State against the rights of the people to free speech and association.

In a case pitting free speech against national security, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld a federal law that makes it a crime to provide “material support” to foreign terrorist organizations, even if the help takes the form of training for peacefully resolving conflicts.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority in the 6-to-3 decision, said the law’s prohibition of providing some types of intangible assistance to groups the State Department says engage in terrorism did not violate the First Amendment.

...

The decision was a victory for Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who argued the case in February and whose confirmation hearings for a seat on the court are scheduled to start next week.

Oh yes, Obama's pick for the court will fit right in, won't she?

The law was challenged by, among others, Ralph D. Fertig, a civil rights activist who has said he wanted to help the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey find peaceful ways to achieve its goals.

On Monday, Mr. Fertig said the decision, which effectively ended 12 years of litigation, was a grave disappointment. “This is a very dark day in the history of the human rights struggle to assist groups overseas that are being oppressed,” he said.

The other plaintiffs were a doctor and six domestic organizations. Some of them said they had sought to help the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a group that seeks to create an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.

Both groups, along with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Khmer Rouge and some 30 others, were designated as terrorist organizations by the State Department. The United States says the Kurdish group, sometimes called the P.K.K., has engaged in widespread terrorist activities, including bombings and kidnappings. The Tamil group, the government said, was responsible for a 1996 bombing that killed 100 people and injured more than 1,400.-Court Affirms Ban on Aiding Groups Tied to Terror

But the U.S. Government, through it Imperial Military, kills civilians in the hundreds of thousands, so wouldn't that be...oh my God! That makes all supporters of the United States Government...terrorists!

The Terrorist Mindset of Red State Fascism

Thomas DiLorenzo on the "Faux News Channel-brainwashed neocons":

One thing these people had in common is that, despite not personally knowing any Muslims, they all expressed a grotesque hatred for Muslims, cheered the U.S. military’s often indiscriminate bombings in the Middle East, and happily endorsed the nuking of Iran (for starters). They tend to believe every tall tale the neocon establishment invents, especially the WMD lie that even the CIA admits is a lie. They also react violently and abusively to anyone like myself who suggests that military occupation, bombing, and killing civilians by the thousands in foreign countries makes enemies, some of whom become terrorists. Every Muslim in the world hates us and wants to murder all of us, they informed me. We need to kill them before they kill us, I was told. It’s World War IV!

Terrorist Ideologues

Real Conservatives Oppose the War on Terror

By Philip Giraldi

Benjamin Franklin once observed that those who would trade their liberties for security will wind up losing both. James Madison stated that no nation can preserve freedom in the midst of perpetual warfare. Few can question that America's Founding Fathers epitomize true conservatism. There is something seriously wrong in America today precisely because the elites from both political parties have forgotten about Franklin and Madison and ignored their wise counsel.

No one should doubt that ill-conceived security measures and the greatly exaggerated fear of terrorism have driven much of both foreign and domestic policy since 9/11 -- it was undeniably a horrific experience for this nation, but it did not threaten the survival of the American Republic. Its perpetrators and their heirs do not do so today. Only we Americans can do that and we are doing so by overreacting to the danger and compromising our own liberties.

The War on Terror Is Anti-Conservative

Philip M. Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served 19 years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

h/t Liberty Pulse

CPAC 2010: "Why Real Conservatives Are Against the War on Terrorism, Part 1" from The Future of Freedom Foundation on Vimeo.

CPAC 2010: "Why Real Conservatives Are Against the War on Terrorism, Part 2" from The Future of Freedom Foundation on Vimeo.

Videos via Antiwar.com blog

Terror TV

Congress passed a bill to label certain Middle Eastern satellite providers of 'anti-American' programming as terrorist organizations...

Smell that?

It's the stench of Bill O'Reilly's hard-core fascism. Bob Barr plays the sane one.

As Paul Craig Roberts put it:

Republicans and American conservatives regard civil liberties as coddling devices for criminals and terrorists. They assume that police and prosecutors are morally pure and, in addition, never make mistakes. An accused person is guilty, or government wouldn't have accused him. All of my life, I have heard self-described conservatives disparage lawyers who defend criminals. Such "conservatives" live in an ideal, not real, world.

Obama Commits More War Crimes

Shocking, I know.

But I certainly hope our readers weren't expecting any better from the vile institution known as the presidency. If so, SE and I haven't been doing our job.

Rand Paul: Neocon Totalitarian

Ron Paul's son goes neocon:

BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY – Leading United States Senate candidate Rand Paul today criticized the Obama administration’s decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center and try terrorism suspects in United States Civil Courts.

“Foreign terrorists do not deserve the protections of our Constitution,” said Dr. Paul. “These thugs should stand before military tribunals and be kept off American soil. I will always fight to keep Kentucky safe and that starts with cracking down on our enemies.”

Wow. Rand Paul is a fascist, and totally ignorant to boot. "Foreign terrorists do not deserve the protections of our Constitution" is a completely nonsensical statement. First, because we do not know they are terrorists (that would be the entire point of that pesky "trial" thing). Second, because there's no reason why "foreigners" should be denied the same protection as everyone else. Third, because it makes zero sense to try criminals in military tribunals.

Dr. Paul believes in strong national defense and thinks military spending should be our country’s top budget priority. He has also called for a Constitutional declaration of war with Afghanistan.

Yeah, a "Constitutional declaration" ought to make the bloodbath in Afghanistan A-OK.

Is this guy for fucking real?

Vile War Propaganda

Some conservative Republican I know on Facebook posted this despicable poster:



















Note the vile propaganda. The brown people having their heads blown off in ______ (fuck it, I can't even keep track of all the countries we're in anymore--fill in the blank yourself) are not civilians, insurgents, children, bystanders, or people using self-defense against a brutal occupying force. Certainly they are not human beings. No, no. They are "terrorists." History started on 9/11, doncha know (the terrorists just woke up one morning and decided that they hated freedom) and so now our brave, heroic "snipers" are out there shooting "terrorists" in the name of freedom!

In reality, the military is loaded with idiots who barely graduated high school, bullies who get off on harming others, murderous psychos (Timothy McVeigh, anyone?), control freaks, rapists, and other piss-ignorant yahoos and authoritarian types. The sniper in this picture would likely be scrubbing port-a-potties if he wasn't out randomly shooting "terrorists" on the taxpayer's dime. Hell, I wonder if he can even read.

The sniper is little else than a cold-blooded, murderous animal who loves killing, wounding and hurting others. He rationalizes his murders by deluding himself into thinking they are "terrorists." But they are real, living human beings.

The only terrorist is the coward hiding behind his gun in the hills.

Democrats: A Party of Wimps

While I don't support Obama's takeover of the healthcare system, I am nonetheless perplexed at what a bunch of wimps the Democrats are. They could pretty much ram this thing through if they wanted, but don't have the balls to do so (and thank goodness).

They're literally afraid to enact their own agenda!

Democrats: a party with no balls.

Perhaps if Americans weren't being taxed to soak foreigners with depleted uranium, there would be more resources available for healthcare? Perish the thought.

Progressive Nation: The Growing Rift Between Libertarians and Republicans

Although a tem­po­rary truce between Lib­er­tar­i­ans and Repub­li­cans has been in effect for the Tea Par­ties, divi­sions over legal­iz­ing mar­i­juana, domes­tic espi­onage, abor­tion, tor­ture, gay mar­riage, the sep­a­ra­tion of church/state, immi­gra­tion, and de-militarization are start­ing to take a toll. The schism between Lib­er­tar­i­ans and Repub­li­cans is widening.

Read the whole thing here. Good to see there are at least *some* progressives who understand that libertarianism and conservatism are not the same thing (at all).

U.S. Troops Invade Somalia

Antiwar.com reported yesterday that U.S. troops have invaded the southern portion of Somalia. This is following confirmation from the French military that they most definitely weren't in Somalia. U.S. military officials confirmed the news to the Associated Press that the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command were responsible for the attack on the village of Barawe. While they confirmed this, they did not give the reason for the invasion.

While government officials haven't publicly revealed anything, privately they have been quoted as saying the target was a Kenyan named Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, and that he was "'likely killed' in the helicopter-backed raid." Now, who exactly this guy is seems unclear. Many in the media, including the Associated Press, have claimed that he is "one of Africa's most wanted al-Qaida suspects." However, his affiliation with the group hasn't been verified at all, and his FBI wanted poster only lists him as "wanted for questioning," which hardly seems like grounds for assassination.

But as Antiwar.com reports, Obama signed an Execute Order ten days ago calling for the military to kill Nahban whenever they got the chance, and "sources close to the situation say the U.S. considers its attack a success since they recovered a body they think might be Nahban's."

Also, as reported in the Associated Press article I linked to above, Somali insurgents have now vowed to retaliate against the U.S. Hmmm, I wonder why they would possibly want to go and do something like that?

So much for peace. For anyone who continues to insist that Obama is somehow even vaguely anti-war, this is just another nail in an already battered coffin. But I'm sure we're ::this:: close to ending terrorism, right?

And then we wonder why Muslim populations continue to hate this country...