Category: Politics

It seems Intel sources fear terrorists can now make bombs as small as computer batteries, resulting in the ban on carry-on electronics at selected foreign airports.

“Intelligence sources say that the ban on carry-on electronics aboard U.S.-bound flights from 10 airports in North Africa and the Middle East was the result of information seized during a U.S. raid on Al Qaeda in Yemen in January. The United Kingdom joined the U.S. ban Tuesday.

Information from the raid shows al Qaeda’s successful development of compact, battery bombs that fit inside laptops or other devices believed to be strong enough to bring down an aircraft, the sources said. The battery bombs would need to be manually triggered, a source explained, which is why the electronics ban is only for the aircraft cabin not checked luggage.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security publicly cited two attacks on flights in the last two years, the downing of a Russian jet over the Egyptian Sinai in October 2015 and an attempt that nearly succeeded in bringing down a jet that had taken off from Mogadishu, Somalia last year and made an emergency landing after an explosion ripped open its cabin. The insurgent group Al-Shababb claimed credit for getting a laptop onboard the flight that had been rigged as a bomb.

“Since they weren’t high enough, the explosion wasn’t catastrophic to the plane and they were able to land,” one source told The Daily Beast. “The bomber got sucked out of the hole, but it was proof of concept.”

The chief bomb maker for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Ibrahim al-Asiri, has been working on packing even smaller devices.”

Be a real shame if a JDAM parked itself on Ibrhim’s passenger seat, while he was driving.

More here.

 

Bowe’s lawyers are at it again, filing yet another appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on the issue of President Trump’s undue command influence. The previous appeals were denied by lower courts because his remarks were made as a private citizen.

“Attorneys for accused Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl took their third shot Thursday at getting his case tossed, once again arguing that President Trump blew their client’s chance of a fair trial when he called the sergeant and former Taliban captive “a dirty, rotten traitor.”

In a 50-page appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, Bergdahl’s legal team argued that the “unprecedented circumstances” of then-candidate Trump calling Bergdahl a traitor and suggesting he should be executed create an “unlawful command influence.”

The term refers to a military legal concept in which someone in authority attempts to influence military judicial proceedings.”

Seems to me they’re grasping at straws, and this is the only argument the lawyers can make. Because Trump, “by not repudiating his earlier statements, President Trump brought them with him”  And “They cannot be scrubbed from the record as if he had simply put on a clean shirt for the Inauguration,” Bergdahl’s team wrote.

Pretty weak. Perhaps if Bowe had not deserted his post and sought out the enemy during a time of conflict, endangering his fellow troops, none of this would be occurring. My personal feelings aside, Bowe is most likely to receive a Dishonorable Discharge, reduction in to rate to E-1, and do some hard time. Despite the efforts of his lawyers.

My how times have changed. While searching for 250,000-year-old flint tools, Israeli archaeologists have discovered a a more modern find — century-old liquor bottles that belonged to British soldiers in World War I.  Of course, they were empty.

“Excavation director Ron Toueg says uniform buttons, belt buckles and riding equipment were found near the city of Ramle in addition to the bottles of gin, whiskey and wine. He said it offered a glimpse into “the everyday life and leisure of the soldiers.”

The items appear to have belonged to members of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force commanded by General Edmund Allenby.”

Back in the ancient days of Gulf War, Round I, I can neither confirm nor deny the traffic of contraband 1.75 liter jugs of vodka arriving via Navy P-3C Orion in what was termed, The Sensor One Station Duty Free Locker. Seems I was the Sensor One.

Zum Wohl!

http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/03/22/israeli-archeologists-uncork-liquor-bottles-abandoned-british-wwi-troops/

 

 

 

My elementary education began in 1958 in a wood framed single story schoolhouse holding grades 1 through 6. I recall my first day. There is not much else readily available in my memory of that time, but I remember that as clearly as I remember the day President Kennedy was assassinated which also happened while attending the same school.

There was no kindergarten. I was enrolled into the first grade just shy of my 6th birthday. I had never been on a playground with swing sets, teeter-totters, and sliding boards. To me, the sliding board looked very high. At the first opportunity, I darted up the ladder for a slide. It was thrilling as I recall and to the displeasure of my Mom, left the seat of my new school britches dirty and rust stained – another emotionally significant event.

Soon after the sliding board adventure, a loud bell rang. The teachers herded us together at the school’s entrance. As with other first graders, except for maybe a couple of repeaters, I did not know what was happening. Gathered up into the correct gaggle by our teacher Mrs. Davis, we were shown to put our right hand over our hearts and look toward the flag. It was the first time I ever heard the pledge of allegiance to the flag. At least it is the first time I remember. After that, we heard the older students sing the first verse of America. “My country tis of the, sweet land of liberty.” Over the next few weeks, Mrs. Davis would teach us the pledge and the song. In our classroom, it was how we began every morning followed by Mrs. Davis leading us in the Lord’s Prayer. The only other thing that comes to mind from that time was learning letters, numbers and reading.
Sometime beyond the first grade, we started learning about American history and government. Early, we learned the stark and frightening contrasts between American individual liberty Exceptionalism and dictators and Communism. We learned the evils of communism and they were imprinted on our young minds as something we should fear.

In my youth, I was as liberal minded as any other kid. Even with that, I never learned or experienced anything that would cause me to embrace communism. Hippies carrying and wearing communist flags, including the North Vietnamese flag during their anti-war protests only firmed my beliefs about communism. Our Soldiers were fighting, my brother included, and dying and these vermin marched under the flag of our communist enemy. One of the self-appointed leaders of their movement, Hanoi Jane Fonda, declared in 1970 to some University of Michigan students:

“If you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that one day we would become Communist.”

At other times, she also declared:

“I, a Socialist, think we should strive toward a Socialist society, all the way to Communism.”

The truth is if today’s undereducated and over indoctrinated American youth fully understood Communism, it would have no chance in America. Communism is the Godless antithesis of American Exceptionalism wherein freedom, what little of it there is, is parceled out by the government. It is an ideology with no qualms about mercilessly and abruptly ending your right to breath.

It struck me then and remained with me. In America, this desire for Socialism and Communism is preached by the wealthy and privileged and directed toward ignorant followers. This includes the poorly educated wealthy and politicians who wholly believe the government should supplant God and the individual. Followers of this idealism, excluding power wielding politicians, are willfully ignorant of the devastating effect Socialism and Communism have wherever practiced. Either that or they simply do not care. Anyone who could accept that Jane Fonda, or anyone like her, would forego wealth and redistribute it among the like-minded shows the level of their ignorance and dangerous naiveté. In Hollywood, Communism is not new and walks hand in hand with the dominant Hollywood political ideologies of progressivism and liberalism. Ronald Reagan battled it as a member and President of the Screen Actors guild. Ronald Reagan on Communism in Hollywood. This video about the beginnings of Communism in Russia, The Truth About Communism Narrated by Ronald Reagan, is also worth a listen.

A great source on the subject of Communism from its birth and beyond is the book, The Naked Communist (Political Freedom Series) (Volume 1) by W. Cleon Skousen. In the book, he listed the 45 Goals of Communism, a list first published in 1961. Another Skousen book well worth the time is The 5000 Year Leap.

As you peruse the list, take a minute to consider known examples – past and present – of these goals being met. Everything from removing prayer from schools, to promoting homosexuality and pornography, to fomenting riots and protests…. Examples supporting the goals are endless and it is plain to see that many if not most have been achieved – even evidenced in current events. The bought and paid for protestors we watch come straight from the Communist tool kit. This places freedom precariously clinging to the very edge of the Communist abyss. Communist tendencies and thought are prevalent in American politics making one seriously consider the goal to:

“Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.”

And the goal to:

”Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. (emphasis mine) Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the partly line in textbooks.”

1. U.S Acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U. S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength,
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet Satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition to Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U. N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the U.S. has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand it be set up as one-world government with its own independent armed forces.
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decision of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the partly line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, and policy-making positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “Censorship” and violation of free speck and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, and healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a world-wide basis.
30. Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of “the big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socials movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC).
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family and an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use “united force” to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally Reservation so the U.S. cannot prevent the World Court for seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

In M. Stanton Evers book, Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies, you can quickly learn that, proven by Russian KBG documents, Senator Joe McCarthy was right and that Communist agents infiltrated the highest levels of our government. Do not make the mistake of believing there are none left. These days they call themselves Progressives. What is just as striking is the level at which the Muslim Brotherhood has been able to accomplish much the same. While the Washington establishment, fearful of being labeled racists or Islamaphobes have done little to stop it. Screaming racism, bigotry, and Islmaphobia is no different from the squeals of McCarthyism still bantered about by today’s media and progressives who were yesterday’s liberals who were yesterday’s communists. They have the same affect of shutting down debate and sending scared to death Washington politicians toward the hills and away from serious national security issues.

Another book that shines light on Communism or maybe more appropriately its methods especially used by the Russians is Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism by Soviet defector Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest ranking Soviet bloc intelligence official ever to defect to the West.

“During the Cold War, more people in the Soviet bloc worked for the disinformation machinery than for the Soviet army and defense industry put together. The bloc’s intelligence community alone had well over one million officers and several million informants around the world.”

Simplistically and in a nutshell, according to the General, dezinformatsiya built a false history (a past) then leaked information to spur the media into a feeding frenzy in order characterize a perception of the target. Boy, does that not seem too familiar? Then just at the appropriate time the “real” bombshell proof finally emerges verifying what most people have been conditioned to believe. It is more complex than that involving many real players and dupes, but that is the general picture. We are seeing something very similar every day, from our media, “Intelligence Sources”, and politicians.

“Specifically, the idea is to fabricate a new past for enemy targets in order to change how the world perceives them.”

“The truth is, The Western media are quite easily manipulated, for they often craft their stories from press releases and tend, on the whole, to be indiscriminate about the nature and reliability of their sources.”

One example of a Soviet/Communist disinformation operation almost everyone can recall is the black church fire hoax.

“The National Council of Churches (NCC) and the Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR), two secretly Marxist organizations headquartered in the United States, held a joint press conference to announce a “huge increase” in the number of arson cases against black churches in the United States.”

President Clinton recounted his own:

“vivid and painful memories of black churches being burned in my own state when I was a child.”

Afterwards two hundred federal agents were assigned to investigate black church fires.

“… accounts of arson against black churches snowballed, with more than twenty-two hundred articles appearing in the press to condemn what the CDR called “a well-organized white-supremacist movement.”

“Then the bubble burst. It was eventually established by a private group, the National Fire Protection Association, that in recent years there had been far fewer church fires than usual, and law enforcement officials in the South could not confirm any as having been racially motivated. No church burning had occurred in Arkansas during Clinton’s childhood, in spite of his “vivid and painful” memories, and the NCC was accused of fabricating “a great church-fire hoax.”

In a disinformation campaign, it does not matter that the information is false, it only needs a “kernel of truth” to proliferate. Besides by the time it is discovered that it is a hoax the political damage is already done. I do not recollect our media rushing to correct the record.

Well, it took some time to get here from there. Without putting on a tinfoil conspiracy hat, here are some things that bother me. Communism and the Russian way did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall. I do not accept the premise put forth by the United States media and suspect and politicized “Intelligence Sources” that Putin – always a KGB man – preferred to have Trump as President. Why would he want to spoil a relationship with the person responsible for giving him 20 percent of our uranium? A person who has practically proven she could be bought? Or a relationship with a Democratic administration who told him not to worry we can be more flexible after the election? Why would Putin want an American President determined to rebuild the US military with full knowledge of the Democrat failures in that area? None of it adds up to me. Not one bit of it.

No one has provided evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians and our outgoing politicized Intel bosses were the first to declare it. The media however, and politicians and the FBI are keeping the story alive bit by bit building that perception and spreading it across our country and worldwide. They breathlessly wait for that bombshell piece of evidence that seals the deal. Although they have yet to find it, the FBI must have an inkling it is forthcoming. What could cause them to believe such a thing?

There is little doubt that the Russians meddle in our affairs. That is what they do. We also meddle in theirs. But, from my country boy perspective if the Russians are colluding, it is not with the Trump Administration. They are playing as they have always played. Build the history, leak some information, spread the perception, lead investigators to proof….

I believe we are in a more precarious situation than most realize.

© 2017 J. D. Pendry