The more one listens to the news these days, it seems something is going wrong with the human race, and the demons are being set free to do their final finish work, just as the Book of Enoch said. The final destruction of mankind’s global civilization is just ahead. The signs are everywhere.
With Israel being set up to attack Iran, she must also attack Syria and Damascus in order to survive, as these are just proxies of Iran. Obama appears to be just sitting back and forcing the Israeli hand – as we have said, their public announcements appear to be much more than just rhetoric, but genuine threats. And they should be, because Israel stands alone. Very alone. The entire world is now uniting against her, and against the Lord and His anointed. Psalm Two is coming to life rapidly for the final battle, and that means that the NIGHT IS FALLING. The two hours of Gross Spiritual Darkness are now just ahead. Are you ready?
“City lights shine on the harbour,
Night has fallen down,
Through the darkness
And the shadow
I will still go on.
Long, long journey
Through the darkness,
Long, long way to go;
But what are miles
Across the ocean
To the heart that’s coming home?”
as the song goes.
China has now issued several major threats of nuclear attack against America. Obama is making sure we are hated around the world. Russia has warned of WWIII. It will come out of the blue, with no warning UNLESS you are watching. Make sure you are watching. There is a great reward for all of those watching.
The night soon comes when no man can work. True Christianity is hated now the world over – without cause, I might add. True Christianity is about love, true love. A love so radically different than the human race has been and is now cut off from it, cannot know it. A love type we lost at the fall. It is not a part of the human experience – not part of our nature, for we are a fallen race.
When you speak to people about the fallen ones, they DO NOT include themselves in that. It is demons, fallen angels, the jinn and such like, NOT US. But IT IS us as well – as Jesus said, we are all PRISONERS, locked up, not free unless the Son of Man sets us free. While Satan may be the jail keeper, it is Jesus Christ who will sneak in and set a prisoner free – if you will but search Him out. Seek, ask, knock, strive, labor. Leave the world behind, your job behind. Think of work as a total inconvenience, as a great interference, not as a career where you build your earthly fortune – for no wealth can buy the beauty of pure Divine Love, the currency of heaven. In other words, a total shift in priorities. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, I think the Good Book says. It implies it elsewhere many, many times.
The HOPI said it well, that mankind has lost their spiritual connections. They have become materialistic, mad upon material things. Black Friday’s are a perfect example of people mad upon their idols, and in this case, their idols of “things”. Football, baseball, hockey, basketball, all things material. That is going to all change soon – and the people of America are going to have most of their “things” taken away. Not going to be good when it happens.
So ask yourself, could you live in a tent if you had to? A teepee? A mud hut? Could you give up your home? It is not that the Lord minds good things, He minds that we grow so attached to them – so could you leave your home in a moment’s notice, and walk away? You need to really examine yourself to find the answer. You need to be able to totally say YES.
I know that I can – I’ve walked away before – left everything behind. Could I live in a tent – you bet I could. Teepee? Better than a tent – mud hut – Igloo? Life is not about any of these things, TRUE LIFE is about LOVE. There is, in the end, nothing but love or the total absence of it. It goes both ways.
But in the final end, it is the Divine Love of God that settles the issue between man and God, not faith, not belief, not rituals, not good works, not church, etc. It is this indescribable Divine Love issue that must be settled for that is the only issue between us and the Creator. There is nothing else – remember what Jesus said about all of this. There is only ONE condemnation. Not two, not three, not sins, not anything else, only one – that Divine Love had come into the world (Light), and that man would not come to the Light to have their deeds reproved. Please, come to the light, enter in, it is hard, but it is worth all of it – Jesus has your back, He has you covered, He is not into partial birth abortions.
John 3:19-21
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
How does ritual bring you to the light? How does good works? They move you further and further from the light of Christ, not closer. “If I do good, if I think right thoughts, if I keep this ritual, or that one, then God will approve of me.” NO, NO, NO A MILLION TIMES NO. If that were true, then Jesus did not have to come here. There is no justification for us, none, zero, notto. No matter what you do, you will never be justified. Why? Because that is not the issue – it never was in the Church age.
All the Lord wants from us is an admission of what and who we really are, from the heart of hearts. The strait gate and narrow way are the way in. It takes time. Lots of time, but I have a feeling that the Lord is going to hurry up the process for all those who have entered in and searching the Lord out with all due diligence. Like Stephen, who saw the Lord as the rocks were falling. Jesus Loves you, He has your back. No matter what.
LIGHTGATE BLOGGER
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November 22, 2013
War Fears Rise After China Missile Tests Over Oregon
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) is reporting today that the Vityaz early-warning radar system deployed along the entire Russian border has confirmed the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) launching from their Type 092 Xia-class nuclear ballistic-missile submarine (SSBN) of two atomic JL-2 missiles off the Northeast American coastline near the State of Oregon on Wednesday 30 October and Wednesday 20 November.
According to this report, these two latest sub-launched nuclear ballistic tests by China off the west coast of the United States were preceded by a similar test conducted on Monday 10 November 2010 when a Chinese Navy Jin class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, deployed secretly from its underground home base on the south coast of Hainan island, launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from international waters off the southern California coast in full view of Los Angeles.
As the Pentagon and their US mainstream media sycophants covered up the 10 November 2010 China missile launch, this MoD report continues, they have likewise labeled the 30 October missile launch as a fireball-meteor and the 20 November one as ‘maybe’ another fireball-meteor or contrail.
Important to note, Russian intelligence analysts in this report say, was that China “cryptically warned” the US about its planned 30 October launch test when on Sunday 27 October the world was given a rare glimpse into China’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet, with State-owned media carrying extensive coverage of the previously mysterious strategic deterrence force.
The unprecedented revealing of the underwater fleet was a demonstration of China’s confidence in its sea-based nuclear strike capability and serves as a deterrent to any attempted provocation amid the changing geopolitical situation, said military observers.
Starting on Sunday 27 October, China Central Television carried serial coverage two days in a row on the submarine force of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s Beihai fleet in its flagship news program Xinwen Lianbo.
The People’s Daily, the PLA Daily and the China Youth Daily on Monday all carried front-page stories, features and commentaries on the submarine force, applauding its achievements since the launch of China’s first nuclear-powered submarine in December 1970.
To the most chilling warning to the Obama regime from China regarding these missile tests the Washington Times News Service further reports:
“Chinese calculations for nuclear attacks on the U.S. are chillingly macabre.
“Because the Midwest states of the U.S. are sparsely populated, in order to increase the lethality, [our] nuclear attacks should mainly target the key cities on the West Coast of the United States, such as Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego,” the Global Times said.
“The 12 JL-2 nuclear warheads carried by one single Type 094 SSBN can kill and wound 5 million to 12 million Americans,” the Global Times reported.
China also has developed land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles — notably the DF-31A, which has a range of 7,000 to 7,500 miles.
“If we launch our DF 31A ICBMs over the North Pole, we can easily destroy a whole list of metropolises on the East Coast and the New England region of the U.S., including Annapolis, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Portland, Baltimore and Norfolk, whose population accounts for about one-eighth of America’s total residents.”
All the state-run press reports stressed the point that the PLA’s missile submarines are now on routine strategic patrol, “which means that China for the first time has acquired the strategic deterrence and second strike capability against the United States.”
Though the American people themselves have been kept in near total ignorance of the coming war between them and China, the same cannot be said of the rest of the world, including Doug Saunders of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s leading newspaper, who reported in its 15 July edition that the United States and China have been preparing for an all-out war and which we, in part, quote from The Nation News Service:
“Both the Pentagon and the People’s Liberation Army are building up their military strategies. It appears that a global war is in the making.
Saunders wrote that the Pentagon is proceeding with war preparations without oversight from the White House or Congress. This gives the impression that the Pentagon is operating as an independent state within the state. The Pentagon is relying on the AirSea Battle strategy, in which the US Army and Air Force will stand ready to support 320,000 military personnel in a simultaneous land and air attack against China in the event of a spillover war in the South China Sea or surrounding areas.
President Obama has spoken of a pivot to Asia, followed by the US Defence Department’s plan to move most of the US naval capability to the Asia Pacific to counter the rise of China. We can feel that the US military, in spite of the turmoil in Syria, Egypt and the Middle East, is re-asserting its influence in the Asia-Pacific. The US and China are now engaging in a full-scale currency war. A physical war could be the inevitable course. A rise of China threatens the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and the US supremacy.
On China’s side, we can assume that the Chinese leadership has ordered a full preparation for a war with the United States. China has secretly built up its military capability, with modern weapons and sophisticated technology. China said it is ready to develop an anti-AirSea Battle strategy. China’s President has urged the military to prepare for the war and to fight to win.”
To how soon open warfare between China and the US will break out this report doesn’t say. However, it does note that China’s “bombshell move” against the US Dollar this week makes its likelihood much sooner than later.
In further reporting on China’s move against the US Dollar the dissident American website InfoWars.com states:
“China just dropped an absolute bombshell, but it was almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the United States. The central bank of China has decided that it is “no longer in China’s favor to accumulate foreign-exchange reserves”. During the third quarter of 2013, China’s foreign-exchange reserves were valued at approximately $3.66 trillion.
For years, China has been systematically propping up the value of the U.S. dollar and keeping the value of the yuan artificially low. This has resulted in a massive flood of super cheap products from across the Pacific that U.S. consumers have been eagerly gobbling up.
And now China has apparently decided that there is not much gutting of our economy left to do and that it is time to let the dollar collapse.”
November 22, 2013 © EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com. Freebase content licensed under CC-BY and GFDL.
[Ed. Note: Western governments and their intelligence services actively campaign against the information found in these reports so as not to alarm their citizens about the many catastrophic Earth changes and events to come, a stance that the Sisters of Sorcha Faal strongly disagrees with in believing that it is every human beings right to know the truth. Due to our missions conflicts with that of those governments, the responses of their ‘agents’ against us has been a longstanding misinformation/misdirection campaign designed to discredit and which is addressed in the report “Who Is Sorcha Faal?”.]
Police Shoot and Kill Man Watering His Lawn
Posted by: Kevin Lake Posted date: November 19, 2013 In: News
17.6K 65 Google +3 3 33
The shoot first and ask questions never attitude of many law enforcement officers (LEO’s) working within the United Police State of America has gone too far. This time, they’ve gunned down a man for watering his lawn.
Back in 2010, neighbors of Long Beach, California (are we surprised this happened here?) resident Douglas Zerby looked out their windows in the dim light of the setting sun and saw what they thought was a man standing in the yard waiving around a gun. They called police, who came and shot the man 12 times, without warning. Only after the man, Zerby, went down, did they realize he’d been watering his lawn, with this- exhibit A;
Zerby’s family sued and was awarded $6.5 million dollars in damages this week. However, it will never bring him back.
A quote from Zerby’s mother:
“I would just rather have Doug standing here next to me right now. But this is all we can hope for, and I’m very happy with the result.”
So, if you are in California, (or anywhere else in the U.S. it’s starting to seem) and you are watering your lawn, you’d better be careful. Unless of course, you are an illegal immigrant wanted for deportation for violent crimes, only then do you have sanctuary.
Mind Control? Scientists Have Discovered How To Use Nanoparticles To Remotely Control Behavior!
By Michael Snyder, on July 8th, 2010
Are we moving into a time when the extraordinary advances that have been made in the fields of nanotechnology, neurology, psychology, computer science, telecommunications and artificial intelligence will be used by governmental authorities to control the population? Already, governments around the world are using the threat of “terror” as an excuse to watch us, track us, scan all of our electronic communications and force us to endure “security measures” that are so extreme that even George Orwell could have never dreamed them up. So what is going to happen one day when some crazed individual actually does set off a weapon of mass destruction in a major city? The temptation to use these emerging technologies to control the public will become almost irresistible. At this point “mind control” is still a dirty word to many, but after the next couple of “9/11 style events” the general population will be crying out for something to be done to ensure their security. When society experiences a complete and total meltdown in the years ahead, governments around the world will be tempted to do just about anything, including using mind control, to restore order. That is why some of the most recent advances in the field on nanotechnology are so chilling.
In particular, what a team of researchers at the University at Buffalo have discovered is truly alarming. The following is an excerpt from their recent news release….
Clusters of heated, magnetic nanoparticles targeted to cell membranes can remotely control ion channels, neurons and even animal behavior, according to a paper published by University at Buffalo physicists in Nature Nanotechnology.
Using nanoparticles to remotely control animal behavior?
It doesn’t take a doctorate to understand the implications of such a technology.
What if “nanobots” that had the capacity to control human minds were programmed to search out and attach themselves to key areas of the human brain?
Such “nanobots” would be far too small to even be seen by the human eye, and people could become “infected” with these creatures without even knowing it.
Hordes of these nanobots could be released into the atmosphere or in public areas and infect thousands (or even millions) and nobody might even realize it.
If governments could find a way to use nanobots to remotely control the minds of the general population, a mass mind control program could be implemented without the general public even realizing what is going on.
Yes, this is just how scary this technology is.
But it gets even worse.
You see, when it comes to nanotechnology we are dealing with something far more dangerous than we can even imagine.
For example, if something goes horribly wrong and we develop speed-breeding self-assembling nanobots that get out of control, they could theoretically devour all life on Earth in fairly short order.
Think of the scene at the end of the recent Keanu Reeves movie entitled “The Day The Earth Stood Still” and multiply it by about a million.
But even if such a scenario never plays out, the mind control potential of nanotechnology is bad enough.
Not that other mind control technologies aren’t equally as dangerous.
The truth is that all kinds of mind control technologies are being developed.
Video game makers are busy developing games that you control not with a joystick or a gamepad but rather with your brain waves. So could such a technology someday be used in reverse?
Of course most people by now have heard of MK-ULTRA and other mind control programs that were developed by the CIA and other U.S. government agencies.
The U.S. government insists that all such programs have been discontinued.
But are they telling the truth?
And what are other governments around the world developing in secret?
There are other mind control technologies out there that are incredibly dangerous as well.
In fact, there are many who suggest that electromagnetic waves could potentially be used to control thoughts and influence behavior. Think of what just one terrorist could do with such technology.
But one of the most disturbing developments of all is the increasingly rapid merger of men and machines that is now taking place.
People have been looking for ways to stay more “connected” to the Internet for a long time, and now some are actually suggesting that we should find a way to directly connect our brains to the Internet. A recent article on the website of the Science Channel put it this way….
What if it were possible to connect your brain to the Internet, either wirelessly or through a cable, download digital information at high speed, and then translate it automatically into a chemical form that could be stored by your brain cells as memory?
The same article explained what some of the benefits from such a connection might be….
If you could pump data directly into your gray matter at, say, 50 mbps — the top speed offered by one major U.S. internet service provider — you’d be able to read a 500-page book in just under two-tenths of a second.
But what about the dangers?
What if the Internet could end up controlling you?
Or what if a really bad computer virus was downloaded into your brain?
Think it can’t happen?
Well, British researcher Mark Gasson infected an RFID chip in his hand with a computer virus and found that the virus-infected chip implanted in his hand was able to contaminate external systems.
Imagine if that started happening on a large scale.
And someday it might.
Especially as we approach the time that futurists refer to as “The Singularity”.
The Singularity is hard to define, but basically many futurists believe that the merging of man and technology is happening at such an increasingly rapid pace that at some point the new “transhumans” will become virtually incomprehensible to normal human beings. The idea is that by merging man and machines, transhumans will become smarter, stronger, healthier and more powerful than we could have ever dreamed possible.
So will men and computers fully merge someday?
Let’s hope not.
But even now, an increasing number of people are developing ways to tag humans with RFID microchips.
In fact, one company called Somark has developed a breakthrough in chipless RFID ink. Their “RFID tattoos” are applied using a geometric array of micro-needles and a reusable applicator with a one-time-use ink capsule.
So how easy is it to apply one of these RFID tattoos?
Well, it takes about 5 to 10 seconds to tattoo an animal or a human. Once the tattoo has been applied, an RFID reader can read it from up to four feet away.
But who needs a tattoo? IBM has actually announced that they have developed a “bar code reader” that can read your DNA.
Very frightening stuff.
The truth is that the vast majority of people do not want their DNA scanned and they do not want RFID chips implanted into them.
But RFID chips are being implanted into people more than ever before.
The reality is that microchipping of humans is becoming quite commonplace in the United States. For example, RFID implants are being implanted in thousands of elderly Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease who are at risk of wandering off and getting lost. In addition, RFID chips are being implanted into many people who are chronically ill so that doctors can access their medical information quickly in an emergency.
The truth is that there are some people who are quite eager to be chipped. One columnist named Don Tennant recently published an article entitled “Chip Me – Please!” in which he expressed his excitement that Barack Obama’s new health law may include coverage for RFID chip implants that contain patient identification and health information. In fact, Tennant makes the following stunning admission in his article….
All I can say is I’d be the first person in line for an implant.
So is this our future?
Is everyone going to be taking lots of microchips and implants?
Will there come a day when microchips and implants are made mandatory?
After all, what better way to truly identify someone? Identification cards and papers can be forged or can get lost. But if you implant someone with a microchip how are they going to lose that?
However, we all know that the potential for abuse of all of the technologies mentioned in this article is just too great. If someday a tyrannical regime gets a hold of these kinds of ultra-powerful technologies the results could be absolutely nightmarish.
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Title: The Threat From the Military and Secret Police
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/11/ … the-gravest-threat-to-freedom/
Published: Nov 20, 2013
Author: Jack D. Douglas
Post Date: 2013-11-20 09:34:40 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 3412
Sacred Monarchs have been overthrown by military leaders throughout all 5,000 years of statism. Caesarism is ancient. Bonapartism is the modern version of Caesarism. We see it happening every day in the world’s media. The Egyptian Army and secret police just overthrew the first elected, democratic government in Egypt’s history. (I believe for many reasons the CIA is behind this and supplies the vital war materials and money and intelligence to the Egyptian Army, but the U.S. government is openly against the take-over in the Media.)
The vast secret police armies and their immense militias of former agents and contractors, about 5,000,000 of whom have secret clearance in the U.S., are far more dangerous to freedom and democracy and legitimate government than the professional military, especially when they have heavy weapons and Special Ops of their own, as the Gestapo, KBG, and CIA have had. Putin moved up to totalitarian power by combining power from the KGB, MVD, and Red Army. He pretends to be an “elected, constitutional” leader, but he is a modern Caesar Augustus, total ruler behind a front of republican government that is ultimately powerless. The Bushes did the same in the U.S.
The first real coup at the presidential level in the U.S. was the military-CIA coup during Iran-Contra. I think the military guys clearly took over and did what they wanted to do. Bush I, the CIA Director who decided to become Vice President and then President was almost certainly the point man running the coup, not Admiral Poindexter, et al. Reagan was out to lunch. The Special Prosecutor said in his book on it that he ran into Stone Walls in all directions–protecting Bush, the CIA, the Admirals and Captains, etc.
Patton and MacArthur were continually creating their own “orders.” General Eisenhower and the Dulles CIA brothers conspired to start WWIII–the Nuclear Cold War with Russia and ran assassination conspiracies around the world. They overthrew Iranian democracy and rulers and those in other nations. They murdered rulers from the Caribbean to Vietnam. JFK and his whole entourage kept finding the military were doing their own thing in the Cuban Missile Crisis and found it extremely difficult to stop them. The FBI-CIA were up to their necks in the JFK murder and worked closely with Oswald for years when he was a double agent. J. Edgar ran his own secret police at the secret core of the FBI and no president could stop him.The military and CIA hid the truth about Vietnam and fed DOD and the White House vast reams of statistical lies in body counts, etc. Dereliction of duty became treason in fact. When the CIA-FBI destroyed Nixon with their Watergate Conspiracy, all run by CIA-FBI agents, Nixon finally surrendered power secretly to a General. Clinton, Bush I, and Barry Soetero have been military-secret police front men. The military got all the wars they wanted and lost them all. The CIA is doing whatever it wants.
I don’t know specifically what is happening in these on-going purges of the military, but it looks like the secret police are getting rid of the top people who might oppose their total power, like the heads of ONI who are their main intelligence competitors [along with Army Intel., NRO, etc.], the top Generals, etc.
The military and secret police have been running things at the top in a loose, complex alliance for decades. Now they seem to be struggling for power in the usual ways used by totalitarians, using laws to purge enemies, etc. The same kind of political purge is going on in China now. It’s SOP.
If the military gives up and marches off to the prisons and old-age homes, the secret police will reign supreme. I think the military have been fighting back since the purge of the Generals and more and more of the Navy.
The Secret Police need heavy weapons and masses of boots on the ground. The CIA has developed its own Special Ops and murder squads. It’s likely some of the military Special Ops forces are working with the secret police, as the SS did in Germany (as Hitler planned they would do in such a conspiracy by the Wehrmacht General Staff) and special units of the military did in Russia around Moscow when there was any threat of Bonapartism, as they called military take overs, Bonaparte being the classic example. But many of the Special Ops seem angry at being run by the CIA, as in the Seals attack in Pakistan.
I think the intelligent people know the System is going to totally implode. It imploded at the top after Lehman in one weekend when the whole top of U.S. finance went down. This time it will be a general meltdown of finance. They will impose martial law. They are testing it out in huge exercises like that at Boston. I think they are struggling for control of that total power to come. Barry is not even in the loop.
The standing, professional military are always loyal to reigning regimes, until the day they take over. Caesarism is hardly new. That’s why the Founders were desperately against a professional military force and would have died fighting secret police.
America Has Entered a New Level of Tyranny
November 20, 2013 –
Dave Hodges
November 20, 2013
Information is gathered for a purpose. We attend school, gain knowledge and acquire employment. We gather knowledge about someone we are dating and then make a decision about the future of the relationship. When the government is gathering information on us which goes beyond the basic census information, then we should be asking a lot of questions along the lines of “When will the surveillance gathering being conducted by the NSA turn into outright persecution”?
The Unmistakable Pattern of Tyranny
Every advancing tyranny has two distinct stages. In the first stage, the “enemies” of the state are identified. Lists are created and distributed among law enforcement. These lists are often leaked to the public to serve as a deterrent against any thoughts of engaging in anti-government behavior. There is typically a prolonged period of demonization followed by formal labeling.
History is replete with examples when surveillance gathering turns into labeling followed by outright persecution. In fact, I cannot think of an accurate historical example of when a country engaged in a police state surveillance grid, did not eventually victimize a significant number of its own citizens.
In the second stage of tyranny, the identified groups are singled out for “corrective” action. Corrective action usually commences on an incremental basis. Following identification, enemies of the state are usually singled out for employment discrimination, travel restrictions, residency restrictions and then the inevitable incarcerations and worse begin to transpire. This pattern happens every time following the establishment of a police state in America. America does indeed meet the denotation of a police state according to the dictionary.
po-lice state
Noun
A totalitarian state controlled by a political police force that secretly supervises the citizens’ activities.
Once this process begins, the advancement of tyrannical persecution of the people is inevitable without a revolution. The whole process begins with unwarranted surveillance
Who Does Our Government Watch?
James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence recently released a series of declassified documents which demonstrates how the National Security Agency (NSA) has been granted carte blanche to spy on American citizens.
What can an American do to end up under the watchful eye of the NSA? The recent release of information with regard to this question led to the discovery that their agency concerns extended to those who worship in a mosque, people who write and read articles which criticizes the government, speaks publicly about their opposition to various government policies, publicly profess a belief in the First Amendment and anyone who works as a journalist.
The implications of the above mentioned groups which warrant NSA surveillance are stunning as well as frightening. Does anyone else find this very unsettling, that one can become an enemy of the state for professing a belief in the First Amendment? Imagine that you are a victim of health insurance dumping and Obamacare incompetence has left you without medical insurance, you are labeled a dissident for speaking out. What about the government which claims that it doesn’t racially profile? Tell that to people of Islamic faith who have done nothing wrong and love being an American.
Ask the Question
With all the historical precedents, it is amazing that nobody seems to be asking the question, “When does all of this intelligence gathering become actionable”? In other words, what is the government going to do with all the surveillance data that they have acquired? Is this an exercise in mental masturbation, or is the NSA and ultimately the government going to do something with this vast amount of personal information? Why isn’t anyone asking these questions? Once again, the answer to the first question is that there never has been a police state that did not act upon the information it gathered on the people, and I believe that time is upon America. Below, I have listed three examples of encroaching tyranny, with each example more pronounced in its intrusion into civil liberties.
The TSA and the Increase In Their Incremental Level of Tyranny
Every totalitarian government tries to make it difficult to travel and the TSA is fulfilling their role to this end. For over a decade, the TSA has become the symbol of the state’s superiority over the individual. With the unwarranted second sexual assault practices being committed against the flying public every day, the TSA is taking their tyranny to a new level.
Have you heard about the new mini-jails that the TSA has placed at Syracuse Airport? Passengers are forced into a bottleneck as they pass through what are called pods as they leave the terminal. A futuristic, female voice gives instructions to wait inside the pod until a green light is shown and the door opens. Travelers can become electronically trapped or detained at the whim of the TSA. This is just one more example of the conditioning that the TSA provides for the establishment which is teaching the American people that your body does not belong to you, it belongs to the state.
“We were conditioned by the TSA”
The pods are part of a $60 million dollar renovation. The installation of these pods are most certainly headed to other major airports as well. While in the pods (i.e. jail) a passenger can be detailed for further interrogation (i.e. molestation). Some of the passengers exiting through the pods at the Syracuse airport thought the machines were performing x-ray body scans. If one is lucky enough to exit the pods, they are not permitted to re-enter the terminal. I view these pods as conditioning for future FEMA camp deportation and incarceration.
Syracuse Airport Commissioner, Christina Callahan said, “We need to be vigilant and maintain high security protocol at all times. These portals were designed and approved by TSA which is important.” Christina is also partaking in the TSA tyrannical Kool-Aid as well. Not only is this going to cause the price of flying to skyrocket, it is turning our airports into being more like prisons than ever before.
Agenda 21, Wildlands and Drones
As most awake people are aware of, Agenda 21 poses a grave threat to property rights, freedom to travel and livelihoods of many Americans. Agenda 21 advocates won’t be satisfied until all humans are living in stack and pack cities and the rural areas are devoid of all people.
Hunger Games drone patrolling the Agenda 21 wildlands
n a page right of the movie, Hunger Games, Ecologist Lian Pin Koh is making a case for using drones to protect the world’s forests and wildlife. Do you remember the opening scene of the movie, Hunger Games, where a drone is patrolling a forbidden wildlands area where humans are expressly forbidden to hunt game or even cross in to the area?
Unlike the Hunger Games, you will not be able to hide from the drone and its thermal imaging surveillance.
Under Koh’s proposal, drones will be used to track animals in their natural habitat, monitor the health of rainforests, even combat crime by detecting poachers via thermal imaging. Poachers? Is that what the UN Agenda 21 crowd is going to call me as I remain in my rural home?
Koh expands conservation efforts by promoting the use of low-cost autonomous aerial vehicles. The forces of oppression are lining up against you America.
The above two examples demonstrate how tyranny is slipped in one step at a time on multiple fronts. However, when the following is acted upon, the Great American Genocide will begin.
The NDAA
The NDAA, the ultimate police state weapon
It is amazing how many Americans have never heard of the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA). Under the NDAA, a person can be snatched off the street without cause, not allowed access to an attorney, held indefinitely, never charged with a crime and never released. An NSA identified enemy of the state could presumably be murdered and who would know?
I recently had a colleague tell me that my claims that America has become a police state were overblown. His logic consisted of the belief that if one is not doing anything wrong, then one should not mind being under constant surveillance. With the hundreds of billions being spent by the NSA to gather information combined with the unconstitutional NDAA legislation, speaks clearly to the fallacy that it does not hurt anything to have the government constantly spying on you. These unwarranted and unconstitutional practices have made enemies of the state out of tens of millions of Americans. Since Congress only has a 9% approval rating and Obama has slipped to a 37% approval rating, what does this say about how the matrix of the NSA will judge the majority of us?
We have entered a time when the NSA enemies list of First Amendment supporters, government critics and Muslims can just disappear just like what happened with the Gestapo and KGB of the totalitarian regimes of the past.
Conclusion
I do not think most people know how close we are to living in an absolute tyranny. Can you imagine what life would have been like if Hitler, Stalin or Mao had the technology which is at the disposal of today’s despots?
For the first time, I truly feel I am risking my life to write these words and you are taking the same risk by visiting websites such as mine. All of us are now labeled. It does not matter whether you agree with what is written on my website, or not. You have been judged and labeled by the mere fact that you are here. It does not matter if you never visit another alternative media website or not. There is now a definitive record of your disloyalty to the state. I seriously doubt if the system perceives a citizen any differently with regard to whether we write the words of disloyalty to the state, or we merely read them. Both groups have sinned against the almighty state in word and deed and they aim to stop you before you might act against this police state.
House To Vote On Bill That Would Impose $5,000 Fee For Protesting Drilling Projects
By Emily Atkin
on November 18, 2013 at 3:05 pm
CREDIT: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
The House is likely to vote on a number of GOP bills this week related to the oil and gas industry, arguably the most sweeping of which is the Federal Lands Jobs and Energy Security Act.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), is broad legislation designed to make it much easier for oil and gas companies to obtain permission to drill on public lands. If signed into law, the legislation would automatically approve onshore drilling permits if the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) failed to act on them in 60 days.
If an individual does not like a proposed drilling project and wanted to oppose it, he or she would have to pay a $5,000 fee to file an official protest.
In addition, Lamborn’s proposed bill would direct the DOI to begin commercial leasing for the development of oil shale, a controversial type of production that has been largely banned by the United States since President Herbert Hoover prohibited the leasing of federal lands for oil shale. Oil shale — which should not be confused with the more common “shale oil” — is a type of rock that needs to be heated to nearly 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit to produce crude oil, which then has to be refined.
Jessica Goad, research manager of the Center for American Progress’ Public Lands Project has said the process of producing oil shale “takes a large amount of energy and money, as well as 3-5 barrels of water per barrel of oil produced, a dangerous issue in the parched West.” The Natural Resources Defense Council calls it “the dirtiest fuel on the planet.”
Nonetheless, the largest deposits of oil shale in the world are in the United States in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming — 70 percent of which is on land owned by the federal government. Under Lamborn’s bill, the government would be required to offer 10 leases on federal lands in 2014 for oil shale research and demonstration projects. And before 2016, the government must hold at least 5 commercial lease sales of federal lands for oil shale development, each no less than 25,000 acres.
The oil produced from the oil shale could provide the United States with energy for the next 200 years, the bill says, and create an estimated 350,000 jobs. But according to the NRDC, oil shale production would emit four times more carbon pollution than producing conventional gasoline, credited to the amount of energy it takes to get hydrocarbons out of the rock.
“This bill is not simply anachronistic; it is dangerous,” a group of Democratic Representatives said in their dissent of the bill. “It would harm the environment, short-circuit critical reviews, and establish barriers to people wishing to challenge decisions on oil and gas development in their backyards.”
The entire bill, along with amendment votes and dissents, can be read here.
‘Retract Peace Prize’: Russian NGOs blast Obama over ‘killing people’ confession
Published time: November 19, 2013 10:10
Edited time: November 20, 2013 13:43
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U.S. President Barack Obama.(AFP Photo / Michael Francis McElroy)
Two major military-related groups, Officers of Russia and Soldiers’ Mothers, have addressed the Nobel Committee with a request to evaluate the inhumane statements made by the US president about drone warfare.
“I would like to bring to your attention that [we] were surprised and outraged by the statement made by the Nobel Prize laureate and US President Barack Obama quoted in the book ‘Double Down’ by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann,” the head of the Officers of Russia NGO, Anton Tsvetkov, wrote in the letter to the committee, Infox.ru quoted.
“While discussing the use of drones in counter-terrorist operations in a closed conference with his aides, Barack Obama cynically noted he was ‘very good at killing people.’ In connection with this we ask you to give an official legal and moral assessment of Barack Obama’s words concerning their compatibility with the high title of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate,” he added.
Tsvetkov told reporters at a press conference in Moscow that military professionals in his organization were strongly against the use of drone aircraft in combat as this weapon often causes casualties among civilians. He claims the Officers of Russia possess information proving that Obama personally sanctioned the combat use of drones during missions in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and other countries.
The chairwoman of the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, Flora Salikhovskaya, said that her group supports this address, adding that solving all problems through military force has become Obama’s trademark.
“As a mother and a Human Rights advocate, I cannot understand his drive. I cannot understand the statement by the president of a nation that he can kill people. Obama must either apologize before everybody for his statement or give the [Peace] prize back and admit that he has not yet grown up to bear this high title,” she noted.
A high-placed member of Officers of Russia, Aleksandr Mikhailov, noted that in Russia even military snipers never boasted about their proficiency in killing.
“They usually say that they work with targets. One should never brag of such things!” Mikhailov told a news conference.
Both NGO leaders said they hope the Nobel Committee members will heed their letter. They added that many pundits had noted that the Peace Prize handed to Obama was a sort of ‘advance’ given in return for promises and press statements made during the previous election campaign. But in reality the deeds of the US leader contradict his earlier rhetoric and this means that the ‘advance’ can be rescinded, the activists underlined.
Since taking office in 2008, and winning the Peace Prize in 2009, Obama has greatly expanded the use of drones and targeted killings in foreign nations. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London earlier reported that he had authorized 326 strikes in Pakistan alone. It also estimates that, since George W. Bush took office for his second term in 2004, the strikes have killed anywhere between 2,500 and 3,600 individuals, and that between 416 and 948 of those individuals were civilians.
The White House claims the number of civilians killed by drones is much lower than that, but it has never released its own figure. Obama himself justified the drone program earlier this year, saying that it prevented the deaths of even more civilians at the hands of terrorists.
The official position of the US side is that all ‘military-age males’ within a strike zone should be considered combatants and treated accordingly.
Sun fires off powerful solar flare, triggering radio blackout
Miriam Kramer Space.com
NASA / Solar Dynamics Observatory
An X1-class flare erupts from the right side of the sun in this image captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on Tuesday.
The sun unleashed a powerful solar flare early Tuesday, the latest in a series of intense storms this month from Earth’s closest star.
While the powerful solar flare was not aimed directly at Earth when it erupted, it did trigger a radio blackout at 5:26 a.m. EST, officials with NOAA-led Space Weather Prediction Center said. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught sight of the solar flare and captured a high-definition video of the solar eruption.
The solar flare ranked as an X1-class event, one of the strongest types of storms the sun can have. It erupted from an active sunspot region called 1893, and space weather experts suspect it may have produced a coronal mass ejection (CME) — an explosion of solar plasma freed during a flare. Usually material from a CME takes some time to reach Earth if it is aimed toward the planet. [Major X-Class Solar Flares Unleashed by the Sun (Photos)]
“This impulsive flare may have an associated CME, but early indications are it will not have a significant impact on the geomagnetic field,” SWPC center officials wrote in an update Tuesday.
SDO / NASA
A powerful X-class solar flare erupts from the sun on Tuesday. It erupted from an active sunspot region called 1893, and space weather experts suspect it may have produced a coronal mass ejection
X-class solar flares are the most powerful types of solar storms, and when directed at Earth, the powerful outbursts can put satellites and astronauts in orbit at risk. At the moment, the sun is currently going through the peak of its 11-year solar cycle — named Solar Cycle 24.
Earlier this month, an active sunspot produced the most powerful solar flare of 2013. The X3.3 solar flare shot out from the sun on Nov. 5, but Earth was not in its direct path and therefore the flare did not cause any major issues on the planet.
An X2 flare is two times as intense as an X1 flare, so an X3 is three times as intense as an X1, according to NASA.
“Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment, since the sun’s normal 11-year activity cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum conditions,” NASA officials said in an update about the Tuesday flare. “Humans have tracked this solar cycle continuously since it was discovered in 1843, and it is normal for there to be many flares a day during the sun’s peak activity.”
Air Force Seeks Laser Weapons for Next Generation Fighters
By: Dave Majumdar
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
This is a Lockheed Martin concept for a sixth-generation concept aircraft to replace the F-22 Raptor. The Air Force released a request to arm its next generation fighters with offensive lasers. Lockheed Martin Illustration
The U.S. Air Force has released a new request for a high-powered laser weapon that could be mounted on a next-generation air dominance fighter in the post-2030 era.
“The emphasis of this effort is to identify potential laser systems that could be integrated into a platform that will provide air dominance in the 2030+ highly contested Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) environments,” the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) said in a Request for Information document posted on FEDBIZOPPS last week.
The AFRL is particularly interested in lasers that would be at technology readiness level four (TRL4) by October 2014. That means the basic components are already integrated enough to work together in a lab. But the USAF wants the laser to be at TRL5 or better by 2022, which means the system’s components could be integrated with “reasonably realistic supporting elements” to be tested in a simulated environment.
“Laser and beam control systems are being investigated independent of platform in the flight regime from altitudes Sea Level to [65,000ft] and speeds from Mach 0.6 to 2.5,” the AFRL posting states.
The USAF is interested in three categories of lasers. These include low-power lasers for illuminating, tracking, targeting, and denying/defeating enemy sensors. The AFRL is also interested in moderate-power laser protective weapons system, which would presumably eliminate incoming missiles and high-powered lasers for offensive operations against other aircraft or ground targets.
The development of directed energy weapons are an ongoing trend with the Department of Defense. The U.S. Navy has been working on a shipboard solid-state laser that would be demonstrated onboard the USS Ponce (AFSB-(I)-15) in fiscal year 2014 to defend the vessel against threats like small boats.
In the past, the Missile Defense Agency and USAF tested a large chemical laser onboard a modified Boeing 747 to conduct boost phase intercepts of ballistic missiles. Similarly, the USAF tested a chemical-laser weapon from a Lockheed C-130H in 2009. If the AFRL’s project bears fruit, the new laser weapons could find themselves on a next-generation F/A-XX replacement for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
In the FEDBIZOPPS posting, the USAF requests that any companies that are interested in responding to the RFI provide a detailed description of their technologies “in a militarily useful configuration”. The companies are also asked where potential pitfalls might lie and how best to address those.
The AFRL is also looking for a rough cost estimate for developing offensive laser systems
Crime
‘School Is Out – My Kids Are to Be Given to Me’: Dad Arrested After Objecting When School Says He Must Wait to Take His Children Home – The blaze
Nov. 19, 2013 7:46pm Jason Howerton
A Tennessee father was arrested for disorderly conduct last week after objecting to an official school policy that apparently prohibited him from picking up his children on foot ahead of the majority of parents picking their children up in their cars.
The new student pick-up policy, which reportedly started last week, says that parents can only pick up their children after 2 p.m. by waiting in a line of cars until everyone is released at 2:35 p.m. In this particular case, the parent was walking, so it wouldn’t make much sense to wait in the line of cars.
As Jim Howe made his case to South Cumberland Elementary School Resource Officer Avery Aytes, the man’s fiancé recorded the entire exchange. In the roughly 6 minute discussion captured on video, Howe does not appear to seriously raise his voice or make any threatening gestures. It should be noted that there could be more to the video, however, the moment that Aytes arrests Howe appears to be shown in full context.
“I’m not raising my voice, I’m not confrontational, I want my kids,” Howe said in the YouTube video, later adding, “I can’t stand in line — I’m walking. Picking my kids up.”
“You’re trying to be difficult. You’re being childish,” Aytes replied.
Howe then referenced Tennessee state law and argued the school’s policy is illegal, further aggravating the school resource officer.
“School is out – My children are to be given to me,” the dad said.
“It doesn’t say when!” Aytes shot back. “School is out, they will give you your child, but it doesn’t say when now does it?”
“Tennessee state law says within a reasonable amount of time, that is 15 minutes,” Howe says in the video, seconds before being put in handcuffs.
“Put your hands behind you back!” Aytes said as he detained the father. “I’m not staying here and arguing with you. You’ve been disorderly.”
The officer then placed Howe in a police vehicle after threatening to arrest his fiancé as well if she blocked traffic while filming him.
Watch the full YouTube video below:
Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess told WATE-TV Aytes was only doing his job by “enforcing the law.” However, the sheriff also said he agrees with the father on principle, saying the policy is creating safety concerns because it has created a line of cars along the highway outside of the school.
Burgess said he is reviewing the policy and will make some recommendations this week as to what changes should be made to ensure student safety.
Howe is outraged that he was arrested for trying to pick up his kids. He says he doesn’t need a reason to pick up his own kids from school.
“You don’t need a reason as a parent to go get your children. They are our children,” Howe told WATE-TV.
North Texas Drivers Stopped at Roadblock Asked for Saliva, Blood
Fort Worth police apologize for its role in federal survey
By Scott Gordon
| Wednesday, Nov 20, 2013 | Updated 7:18 AM CST
Scott Gordon, NBC 5 News
Some drivers in North Fort Worth on Friday were stopped at a police roadblock and directed into a parking lot where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of their breath, saliva and even blood. The request was part of a government research study aimed at determining the number of drunken or drug-impaired drivers.
**UPDATE TO THE VIDEO ABOVE** Fort Worth police initially said they could not immediately find any record of their officer’s being involved in the roadblock, but on Tuesday police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Peel said Tuesday that the department’s Traffic Division coordinated with the NHTSA on the use of off-duty officers after the agency asked for help with the survey.
“We are reviewing the actions of all police personnel involved to ensure that FWPD policies and procedures were followed,” he said. “We apologize if any of our drivers and citizens were offended or inconvenienced by the NHTSA National Roadside Survey.”
Some drivers along a busy Fort Worth street on Friday were stopped at a police roadblock and directed into a parking lot, where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of their breath, saliva and even blood.
It was part of a government research study aimed at determining the number of drunken or drug-impaired drivers.
“It just doesn’t seem right that you can be forced off the road when you’re not doing anything wrong,” said Kim Cope, who said she was on her lunch break when she was forced to pull over at the roadblock on Beach Street in North Fort Worth.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is spending $7.9 million on the survey over three years, said participation was “100 percent voluntary” and anonymous.
But Cope said it didn’t feel voluntary to her — despite signs saying it was.
“I gestured to the guy in front that I just wanted to go straight, but he wouldn’t let me and forced me into a parking spot,” she said.
Once parked, she couldn’t believe what she was asked next.
“They were asking for cheek swabs,” she said. “They would give $10 for that. Also, if you let them take your blood, they would pay you $50 for that.”
At the very least, she said, they wanted to test her breath for alcohol.
She said she felt trapped.
“I finally did the Breathalyzer test just because I thought that would be the easiest way to leave,” she said, adding she received no money.
Fort Worth police earlier said they could not immediately find any record of officer involvement but police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Peel said Tuesday that the department’s Traffic Division coordinated with the NHTSA on the use of off-duty officers after the agency asked for help with the survey.
“We are reviewing the actions of all police personnel involved to ensure that FWPD policies and procedures were followed,” he said. “We apologize if any of our drivers and citizens were offended or inconvenienced by the NHTSA National Roadside Survey.”
NBC DFW confirmed that the survey was done by a government contractor, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, which is based in Calverton, Md.
A company spokeswoman referred questions to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
An agency spokeswoman sent an email confirming the government is conducting the surveys in 30 cities across the country in an effort to reduce impaired-driving accidents.
She did not respond to another email from NBC DFW asking specific questions about the program..
But a Fort Worth attorney who is an expert in civil liberties law questioned whether such stops are constitutional.
“You can’t just be pulled over randomly or for no reason,” said attorney Frank Colosi.
He also noted the fine print on a form given to drivers informs them their breath was tested by “passive alcohol sensor readings before the consent process has been completed.”
“They’re essentially lying to you when they say it’s completely voluntary, because they’re testing you at that moment,” Colosi said.
He also questioned the results of the “voluntary” survey — speculating that drivers who had been drinking or using drugs would be more inclined to simply decline to participate.
Cope said she is troubled by what happened.
“It just doesn’t seem right that they should be able to do any of it,” she said. “If it’s voluntary, it’s voluntary, and none of it felt voluntary.”
Asked Tuesday if she accepted the police department’s apology, Cope said she would wait to see what the review showed.
“They need to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” she said.
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November 20, 2013 – GUATEMALA – Two lava flows are active on the upper slopes of the volcano at the moment, to the Taniluya (south) and Ceniza canyon (SE). The effusive activity started on 11 Nov and increased on 18 November, reaching a length of 600 m. Constant avalanches detach from the flow fronts. At the same time, explosive activity at the summit crater remained at low to moderate levels, with strombolian explosions that produce ash plumes of up to 800 m height and incandescent jets visible from distance. Some of the explosions generate shock waves that can be felt and heard in up to 15 km distance, causing roofs, doors and windows of houses to rattle. Fine ash fall occurred in Panimaché, Morelia abd Sangre de Cristo. –Volcano Discovery
Weak explosions at Yasur: Geohazards reports that the volcano continues to produce near-continuous ash emissions while explosions are relatively weak at the Yasur volcano on Vanuatu. This phase of ash emissions began on 3 November and are likely to continue into the coming days and weeks. Yasur Alert Level is still maintained at Level 1. Villages and communities located close and far away from the volcano, especially those in the prevailing trade winds direction (NW) are likely to receive ash falls. –Volcano Discovery
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SIMI VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — A Simi Valley pastor says he found several Bibles labeled as “fiction” at a Ventura County Costco store.
Caleb Kaltenbach was shopping
at Costco, 2660 Park Center Drive, on Nov. 15 when he noticed the peculiar labeling of the holy book.
Kaltenbach, a pastor at the non-denominational Discovery Church, took a picture of the “$14.99 Fiction” Bible, and tweeted it out to his nearly 1,300 followers.
“Costco has Bibles for sale under the genre of FICTION. Hmmmm,” he said.
Costco officials declined to comment on the matter when questioned by CBS2/KCAL9.
(AP) Ohio court upholds firing in school Bible case
COLUMBUS, Ohio
Ohio’s highest court says a school district was legally justified in firing a science teacher who refused orders to remove classroom displays of religious materials.
With three justices dissenting, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Mount Vernon district had grounds to fire John Freshwater for insubordination for keeping religious books and a poster of a president praying.
The court says the district infringed on Freshwater’s First Amendment rights by ordering the removal of his personal Bible but found he was insubordinate for keeping other items.
The court didn’t address whether Freshwater unconstitutionally taught his religious beliefs.
Freshwater’s attorney says she was disappointed but couldn’t comment further because she hadn’t discussed the decision with Freshwater.
Messages were left for the superintendent of the school district, about 40 miles northeast of Columbus, and its attorneys.
NHTSA May Mandate That New Cars Broadcast Location, Direction and Speed
November 19, 2013 – 4:10 PM
By Terence P. Jeffrey
(CNSNews.com) – Before the end of this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will decide whether or not to begin the rulemaking process to mandate that newly manufactured cars include what is being called “vehicle-to-vehicle” (V2V) communications technology that constantly broadcasts via radio wave the car’s location, direction, speed and, possibly, even the number of passengers it is carrying.
“NHTSA expects to make a decision on V2V technology by the end of the year,” a spokesman for the agency told CNSNews.com.
That point was reaffirmed by NHTSA Administrator David Strickland in testimony in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee today, where he said the agency will “decide this year whether to further advance the technology through regulatory action, additional research, or a combination of both.”
“We expect to issue decisions on light duty vehicles this year, followed by a decision on heavy-duty vehicles in 2014,” he said.
NHTSA sees this technology as the first step on a “continuum” of automotive evolution that will ultimately lead to fully automated vehicles navigated by internal electronics linked to external infrastructure, communications and database systems.
The upside of a government-mandated movement toward cars that are not controlled by the people riding in them is that it could make transportation safer, allow people to use time spent in a vehicle for work, rest or entertainment, and give people who are currently incapable of driving because of age or disability the opportunity to move as freely as those who can now drive.
The downside is that such a transportation system would give the government at least the capability to exert increasing control over when, where, if–or for how much additional taxation–people are allowed to go places in individually owned vehicles. It could also give government the ability to track where people go and when.
The Obama administration says this is something it has “no plans” to do even if it does mandate V2V technology in all new cars.
“NHTSA has no plans to modify the current V2V system design in a way that would enable the government or private entities to track individual motor vehicles,” a NHTSA spokesman told CNSNews.com.
In October 2011, the Department of Transportation (DOT) published a plan for researching the safety applications of this technology. It summarized how the technology would work and the information it could transmit from vehicles.
“V2V communication for safety refers to the exchange of data over a wireless network that provides critical information that allows each vehicle to perform calculations and issue driver advisories, driver warnings, or take pre-emptive actions to avoid and mitigate crashes,” said the DOT plan. “Data that may be exchanged includes each vehicle’s latitude, longitude, time, heading angle, speed, lateral acceleration, longitudinal acceleration, yaw rate, throttle position, brake status, steering angle, headlight status, turn signal status, vehicle length, vehicle width, vehicle mass, bumper height, and the number of occupants in the vehicle.”
Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report noting that NHTSA could act this year to mandate V2V in new cars and describing the “challenges” deploying these technologies would present.
“The continued progress of V2V technology development hinges on a decision that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to make in late 2013 on how to proceed with these technologies,” said the GAO report. “One option would be to pursue a rulemaking requiring their inclusion in new vehicles.”
The report summarized six components that would be deployed in vehicles equipped with V2V. These included: 1) a Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) radio that “receives and transmits data through antennae,” 2) a GPS receiver that “provides vehicle position and time to DSRC radio” and “provides timekeeping signal for applications,” 3) an “internal communications network” that incorporates the “existing network that interconnects components” in the vehicle, 4) an electronic control unit that “runs safety applications,” 5) a driver-vehicle interface that “generates warning[s] issued to driver,” and 6) a memory that “stores security certificates, application data and other information.”
The proper functioning of these components in helping a driver safely operate a vehicle, according to the GAO, would depend on a “communication security system” that “provides and verifies V2V security certificates to ensure trust between vehicles.”
In August 2012, then-Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood initiated the “Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Model Deployment,” the main phase of which was completed in August of this year. In this pilot program, conducted in Ann Arbor, Mich., DOT partnered with divisions of eight automobile companies—Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen—to road test V2V systems.
A total of 2,700 vehicles participated in the test, according to GAO. Each of the eight automobile manufacturers provided eight automobiles a piece with fully integrated V2V systems of the type that would be installed in new cars. Additionally, according to the GAO, 79 commercial vehicles in Ann Arbor and 88 mass transit vehicles were equipped with V2V.
The rest of the cars were retrofitted with the sort of V2V equipment that would go into cars that were already on the road before the technology became available.
“What was once previously thought of as science fiction and decades away from reality may now appear to be just around the corner,” NHTSA Administrator Strickland told the Senate Commerce Committee in written testimony in May.
Two weeks later, Strickland’s agency released “A Preliminary Statement of Policy Concerning Automated Vehicles.” It said NHTSA believed the U.S. was heading down a “continuum” of vehicle development that would end with fully automated vehicles. V2V was a step on this continuum.
“NHTSA finds that it is helpful to think of these emerging technologies as part of a continuum of vehicle control automation,” said NHTSA. “The continuum … runs from vehicles with no active control systems all the way to full automation and self-driving.
John Lee, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin, testified in the same Senate Commerce Committee hearing as the NHTSA administrator.
“We think of cars as mechanical systems, but they are actually rolling computers,” said Lee in his written testimony. “These computers are changing what it means to drive.”
“Moore’s law suggests the capacity of automation and entertainment systems will change rapidly, doubling every 18 months,” Lee said. “This exponential increase means that in fifteen years we are likely to be discussing whether people should be allowed to drive–because autonomous vehicles may be much less error prone than people.”
In preparing its report on V2V, the GAO surveyed a group of 21 experts on this technology and related issues. It also interviewed representatives of public interest groups.
The GAO asked the experts to rate various potential challenges to deploying V2V on a scale that ran from no challenge, to slight challenge, to moderate challenge, to great challenge, to very great challenge.
“Of the 21 experts we interviewed, 12 cited the technical development of a V2V communication security system as a great or very great challenge to the deployment of V2V technologies,” said the GAO report. “One expert told us that it is challenging to establish technical specifications for a system that attempts to maintain users’ privacy while providing security for over-the-air transmission of data.
“Another expert noted that a public key infrastructure system the size of the one needed to support the nationwide deployment of V2V technologies has never been developed before,” said the GAO, “the sheer magnitude of the system will pose challenges to its development.”
Six experts said that establishing “acceptable end use privacy” would be a “very great” challenge.
“Public interest groups we interviewed said that overcoming concerns about privacy under a system that involves the sharing of data among vehicles will pose a challenge,” said the GAO. “One group suggested that the possibility that V2V data could be obtained by third parties such as law enforcement agencies could harm the deployment of these technologies. Similarly, one expert suggested that public acceptance of V2 V technologies might be limited without rules prohibiting the use of vehicles’ speed and location data to issue tickets or track drivers’ movements.
“Three experts we interviewed suggested that legislation may be needed to limit the potential use of V2V data,” said the GAO.
“Further,” said the GAO, “one automobile manufacturer … said that it could be difficult to explain how V2V technologies work to the public without raising concerns related to privacy.”
Like any inanimate tool, V2V and automated vehicle technology can be used for good or ill, depending on the aims and intentions of those who use it.
The Obama administration has included at least two senior officials who have expressed a desire to use government power to curb the use of vehicles.
John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, co-authored a 1973 book—Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions—with population-control advocates Paul and Anne Ehrlich.
In this book, Holdren and his co-authors said a “massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States.” Part of their vision involved automobiles.
“We believe,” wrote Holdren and the Ehrlichs, “a Federal task force should be established immediately to do the planning and lay the groundwork for dealing with the automobile problem without great disruption of the national economy. Such a task force might be part of a larger institution with the responsibility to devise policies for making the transition to a stable, ecologically sound economy. The task is enormous but it is both possible and necessary.”
“In the short term,” wrote Holdren and his co-authors, “alternative activities must be found for various industries, including those related to the automobile.”
Holdren and the Ehrlichs wrote that action would be needed in the “political arena.”
“And when solutions to the problems of human ecology are considered, all roads seem to lead to the political arena,” they wrote.
“If you … decided to buy a small car that would last 30 years, be easily repairable and recyclable, and have a low-compression engine, you would find it impossible to do,” they wrote. “A manufacturer who wanted to produce such a car today probably could not; no one would put up the huge amount of capital required for fear that the ‘Eco-special’ would not sell. Only when society makes other kinds of cars illegal (or too expensive) will the money become available for such ventures.”
Thirty five years after Holdren and the Ehrlichs published this book, President Obama named Holdren his science and technology adviser. He also named Ray LaHood, who had been a Republican congressman from Illinois, his transportation secretary.
A month after Obama’s inauguration, LaHood told the Associated Press: “We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled.”
At that time, however, White House press spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the administration would not pursue the policy of taxing people by the mile.
LaHood, nonetheless, soon announced the DOT’s “livability initiative,” which was designed to get people to live in denser housing near public transit lines.
At a May 21, 2009 appearance at the National Press Club, LaHood was asked: “Is this an effort to make driving more torturous and to coerce people out of their cars?
“It is a way to coerce people out of their cars,” said LaHood, adding a moment later that “we have to create opportunities for people that do want to use a bicycle or want to walk or want to get on a streetcar or want to ride a light rail.”
LaHood was asked a follow-up: “Some conservative groups are wary of the livable communities program, saying it’s an example of government intrusion into people’s lives. How do you respond?”
“About everything we do around here is government intrusion in people’s lives,” said LaHood. “So have at it.”
The GAO report on V2V said that the Department of Transportation saw a need for the system to “identify bad actors” but wanted to “minimize risks to privacy.”
“DOT officials have emphasized the need to distinguish between the ability to identify bad actors through a V2V communication security system and the ability to monitor the movements of individual vehicles,” said the GAO report. “DOT stated that as currently conceived, a V2V communication security system would contain multiple technical, physical, and organizational controls to minimize privacy risks—including the risk of vehicle tracking by individuals and government or commercial entities.”
In a speech in New York in April, NHTSA Administrator Strickland said his agency believed V2V technologies and the eventual automation of automobiles could help manage traffic and preserve the environment.
“In addition to the potential safety impact of V2V and automation, the agency is also aware that these technologies have significant added potential to contribute to intelligent management of roadway traffic and reduce the burden of highway traffic on the environment,” he said. “These potential benefits are additional reasons why the continued exploration of these technologies is an extremely worthwhile endeavor.”
CNSNews.com contacted David Wise, director of the physical infrastructure team at GAO that conducted the study of V2V, and asked him two questions raised by this technology.
Question: “Is it true that V2V technology and the communication system that goes with it, would at least give the government the potential to track the movement of vehicles if that is what it wanted to do?”
Wise: “It would depend on the specific design of the security communications system which, as we say in the report, is not finalized. As we state in our report, according to automobile industry representatives, the security system now under development is being designed to ensure data privacy structure that prevents the association of a vehicle’s V2V communication security certificates with any unique identifier of drivers of their vehicles. In addition, according to DOT, as currently conceived, a V2V communication security system would contain multiple technical, physical, and organizational controls to minimize privacy risks—including the risk of vehicle tracking by individuals and government or commercial entities. DOT officials also told us that the department will continue to assess any risks to privacy posed by the introduction of V2V technologies and identify mitigation measures to minimize those risks as more aspects of a system of V2V communications are defined.”
Question: “DOT’s indication that it wants to distinguish between the ability to identify ‘bad actors’ and ‘the ability to monitor movements of individual vehicles’ indicates there is already an interest by the government in using this emerging technology to track ‘bad actors’”?
Wise: “Yes. However the term ‘bad actors’ refers to vehicles and their devices that are misbehaving or potentially misbehaving. According to CAMP VSC 3 officials [the eight auto companies that joined in the Ann Arbor pilot test], in-vehicle V2V equipment must be able to detect and automatically report potentially misbehaving devices—such as devices that are malfunctioning, used maliciously, or hacked—to a communication security system. The communication security system must also detect and automatically revoke certificates from vehicles with such devices. This is so that vehicles can be sure that the data they receive from other vehicles is valid and can be trusted.”
Wise also said: “I think it is fair to add that DOT and industry are taking steps to try to minimize privacy risks. Also, while we do not explicitly say this in our report, we did not see or hear any indication that DOT has any plan or desire to use V2V to track peoples’ movements.”
CNSNews.com also contacted NHTSA to ask why DOT wanted the “ability to identify bad actors” in a V2V system, and whether DOT was permanently ruling out developing any system that would track individual vehicles on any basis or developing any system that would allow any agency of government to remotely control or deactivate an individual’s or individuals’ vehicles?”
“At the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), safety is our top priority, and we are always looking for ways that innovative technology can be harnessed to improve driver safety,” said a NHTSA spokesman. “As we look ahead to the next stage of roadway safety in America, connected vehicle technology has the potential to significantly reduce injuries and fatalities from crashes.
“NHTSA would seek to develop a V2V system that increases consumer safety, while protecting privacy,” said the spokesman. “Identifying ‘bad actors,’ which could include anything from malfunctioning vehicles to intentional malfeasance (such as hacking), is crucial to ensuring that the V2V security system functions properly.
“The design under consideration for a security system does not collect any personally identifying information, nor does it enable real-time tracking of individual vehicles,” said the spokesman. “NHTSA has no plans to modify the current V2V system design in a way that would enable the government or private entities to track individual motor vehicles. The V2V requirements that NHTSA is currently exploring only involve warnings to drivers to help them avoid crashes.
“The information collected from the year-long model deployment and additional research will be used by NHTSA to determine the best course of action for proceeding with additional V2V communication activities, including possible future rulemakings, additional research, or a combination of both,” said the spokesman. “NHTSA expects to make a decision on V2V technology by the end of the year.”
– See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/nhtsa-may-mandate-new-cars-broadcast-location-direction-and-speed#sthash.xGvISzsH.dpuf
Spy court says NSA exceeded bounds, but judges approved all data requests anyway
By Shaun Waterman and Stephen Dinan
–
The Washington Times
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
The federal government used the Patriot Act more than 500 times from 2005 through 2011 to secretly obtain records from businesses, including bulk telephone and Internet data, and never once did the secret court charged with oversight turn them down, according to the latest document dump from U.S. spy agencies.
More than 1,000 pages of documents released late Monday show the secret court repeatedly chastised the government for overstepping its authority in collecting data on Americans’ emails, but never shut down the program.
The National Security Agency “exceeded the scope of authorized acquisition continuously during the years of acquisition under these orders,” Judge John D. Bates wrote in a heavily redacted, 117-page opinion released as part of the documents.
The email program was revealed by former government contractor Edward Snowden, but the latest declassified records shed new light on the legal basis for it, including NSA collection of the addresses of senders and recipients, and the subject line and time of each email.
The secret court said that for a period of time, virtually every record generated by the email program included data that hadn’t been authorized. At the beginning, the NSA failed to properly control the information it obtained on Americans, allowing it to be shared outside of the small group that was supposed to have access.
“The government has provided no meaningful explanation why these violations occurred, but it seems likely that widespread ignorance of the rules was a contributing factor,” Judge Bates concluded.
Despite those criticisms, he allowed the program to continue.
It was shut down in 2011, reportedly because President Obama concluded it wasn’t producing enough valuable intelligence. Just months before that decision, the documents show, the intelligence community was still assuring judges that the program was vital to national security.
Michael Birmingham, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Security, said there were several reasons for ending the program.
“The decision was made in 2011 to cease collecting email and Internet content from Americans in bulk due to operational and resource reasons,” he said.
In his opinion, Judge Bates attributed the consistent failures of NSA officials to abide by the rules to “poor management, lack of involvement by compliance officials, and lack of internal verification produces — not bad faith.”
The NSA did not respond to requests for comment.
Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s national security program, said the revelations show an agency that has systematic trouble following the rules.
“Either the NSA is trying to comply with the court’s order and it’s absolutely incapable of doing so, which quite worries us, or it’s not really trying that hard,” she said. “None of those answers really inspires a lot of confidence.”
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., the federal government has claimed broad legal authority to collect records in its hunt for terrorists, including the power to demand that major Internet and telephone companies turn over records on their customers’ communications.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/19/secret-surveillance-court-says-nsa-exceeded-bounds/#ixzz2lCblgqzZ
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