Drones Officially Take Flight For Domestic Law Enforcement, Heralding a New Level of the Police State

Predator B drone

Michael Edwards  
Activist Post

It is a sign of just how fast the police state is advancing that drones in American skies have gone from conspiracy theory to admitted fact in about a year. 

In a precedent-setting event, local law enforcement in North Dakota nabbed three suspected armed men with the help of a Predator B unmanned drone.  It was only after the drone confirmed that the men were unarmed that police moved in to make the arrest.

It has now become clear that, as we have written and warned about for the past year, the drones that were supposedly commissioned strictly as tools for border control will now patrol inland for suspected criminals on American soil, heralding a new level of police state oppression.

In April I wrote about the future expansion of unmanned drones over America based on the admissions made by two-star General, John Priddy, from the U.S. National Air Security Operations Center, evidenced in the video below, that the continued expansion of predator drone surveillance was a stated goal for the coming years.

Colorado Marijuana legalization has more projected votes than Obama and Romney

Jesse Warren image

J.G. Vibes

The debates may still be on every television channel and the artificially generated hype may be just as heavy as every other election year, but more and more people are starting to see the two major political parties as being just two heads on the same beast. 

Just this week Time‘s Mark Halperin published a copy of the 21-page agreement that the Obama and Romney campaigns negotiated establishing the rules for this month’s debates, further exposing the fraud of the electoral system.

People are beginning to understand that fundamental changes need to take place in society for any kind of peace or freedom to be achieved, and that those changes are not going to come from the top down, they can only come from the bottom up. However, there are some states where people have the ability to vote to repeal certain oppressive laws in regards to the drug war, and these measures are actually becoming more popular than the candidates themselves. 

Why Tony Blair Is A War Criminal Who Should Be On Trial In The Hague

Brit Dee, Contributor

Archbishop Desmond Tutu's recent condemnation of Tony Blair's role in the invasion of Iraq, and his refusal to attend a summit with the former British prime minister, increases the pressure on war criminal Blair.

In a searing written indictment published on Sunday, Tutu slammed Blair for the devastating war. He criticised Blair's fabrications which led to the invasion of Iraq, including his lies about the country's supposed weapons of mass destruction, and his refusal to allow UN inspectors more time to establish whether or not Saddam Hussein posed a genuine threat to world peace.

He described Blair and Bush as immoral playground bullies, whose reckless warmongering has caused extensive suffering and loss of life, further polarised the world, and helped normalise a climate of Western aggression that currently threatens formerly stable, sovereign, and peaceful Iran and Syria.

Here are five reasons why Tony Blair is a war criminal, who should be on trial in The Hague.

Defense Science Board report: DoD should ‘more aggressively use autonomy in military missions’

Image credit: ACQ.OSD.mil

Madison Ruppert, Contributor

In a recently released report made publicly available by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientistsentitled, “The Role of Autonomy in DoD Systems,” the Defense Science Board (DSB) sets forth recommendations for an increased use of autonomous systems in drones and other unmanned systems utilized in Department of Defense (DoD) missions.

Aftergood brings out some of the more disturbing details in the report including the Board recommending the DoD “more aggressively use autonomy in military missions.” Thankfully autonomous doesn’t mean completely autonomous just yet, or as Aftergood humorously puts it, “The Board is not calling for the immediate development of Skynet at this time.”

This should indeed be quite concerning for Americans considering that we’re seeing a massive expansion of the use of military drones in concert with law enforcement in the United States, not to mention a plethora of potential or current drone bases across the nation. Indeed, the use of drones is becoming so appealing even television news networks may have their own drone fleets in the near future.

The report, produced by the DSB which describes itself as “a Federal Advisory Committee established to provide independent advice to the Secretary of Defense,” is dated July 19, 2012 and is unclassified. The DSB Task Force on The Role of Autonomy in DoD Systems actually finished the information gathering process for the report in October of last year.

Obama and Netanyahu Lay Out Plans to Strike Iran

Susanne Posel, Contributor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come out publicly to state that he will authorize a military strike on Iran before US elections in November. With the Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, this is viewed as a preparatory strategy as the operation to destabilize and takeover Syria and Iran is prime on Israel’s colonization agenda to control the Middle East.

In New York, at the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu and Obama discussed their plans to use military and propaganda to justify and cover their agenda against Iran.

Tom Donlion, National Security Advisor to Obama and Ron Demer, senior advisor to Netanyahu are devising a “four-point plan” to implement Israeli strategies into US foreign policy concerning Iran.

US Veterans Suffering From Head Trauma May Become Violent and Dangerous, Says DoD

Susanne Posel, Contributor

US Army statistics show that the suicide rate among military personnel is rising exponentially. Last July, an estimated 38 suicides were “confirmed or suspected” by soldiers making that month the deadliest time in Army history.

Active duty suicides have climbed up to 22% with 116 deaths so far in 2012. Veterans are in most danger of committing suicide. While the Army has traditionally viewed younger soldiers as “at risk” for suicide, since the majority of deaths are occurring with veteran and older soldiers, that assumption is shifting.

Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, US Army vice chief of staff, said:

Suicide is the toughest enemy I have faced in my 37 years in the Army. And, it’s an enemy that’s killing not just soldiers, but tens of thousands of Americans every year. That said, I do believe suicide is preventable. To combat it effectively will require sophisticated solutions aimed at helping individuals to build resiliency and strengthen their life coping skills. As we prepare for Suicide Prevention Month in September we also recognize that we must continue to address the stigma associated with behavioral health. Ultimately, we want the mindset across our force and society at large to be that behavioral health is a routine part of what we do and who we are as we strive to maintain our own physical and mental wellness.

Anders Breivik Norway Attack: Police & Intelligence Criticised

Anders Breivik

Brit Dee, Contributor
Activist Post

Norwegian police have been heavily criticised by an independent commission, who have concluded that Anders Breivik's bomb attack could have been prevented, and his mass shooting on the island of Utøya stopped much earlier.

Breivik's July 22nd 2011 bomb attack on the government building in Oslo could have been prevented, states the government-appointed commission report, "through effective implementation of already adopted security measures".

Breivik was able to park a van containing a fertiliser bomb outside the building, which exploded killing 8 and injuring many more. The report says that a scenario envisaging a car bombing at the government complex and several coordinated attacks have been recurring scenarios in threat assessments as well as for safety analyses and exercise scenarios for many years.

Today's report also criticises the police response to Breivik's subsequent gun rampage on Utøya, where he was able to spend well over an hour killing 69 members of the Labour Party youth organisation. 

10 Ways the War on Drugs is a Wild Success

Dees Illustration

Eric Blair
Activist Post

For all the evidence of how the War on Drugs has failed society, there's equally as much evidence of how it is a great success to those who continue to support it.  The drug war has many advantages if you wish to control society and expand your empire.  It also enriches several industries that would otherwise have a very difficult time staying solvent without it.

Here are ten ways the War on Drugs is a wild success:

Military-Industrial Profits: As the Vietnam War came to an end, it struck fear into the military-industrial machine that enjoyed great profits from that conflict.  In a world where contrived enemies were needed to keep a constant funding of weapons, Richard Nixon declared drugs "Public Enemy Number 1".  Thus, domestic armies were erected to combat the illegal drug trade, delivering consistent cash flow to weapons manufacturers.  These companies make money, not just from the needs of the DEA, border patrol, and local police forces, but also from drug traffickers. Win-win and profits all around.

Huge Boon to Private Prisons: The private prison industry thrives off long sentences for drug offenders.  At least 25% of their profits come from these nonviolent criminals.  A great number more are held on "drug related" charges that may have resulted in drug violence.  However, the current trend shows that three-quarters of new inmates admitted to state prisons are nonviolent offenders. Private prisons clearly depend on arresting pot smokers and addicts of more severe drugs.

Thyroid cancer, fracking and nuclear power

An Activist Post Special Report, please share.

Rady Ananda
Activist Post

Thyroid cancer cases have more than doubled since 1997 in the United States, while deadly industrial practices that contaminate groundwater with radiation and other carcinogens are also rising.

New information released by the U.S. National Cancer Institute(NCI) estimates that 56,460 people will develop thyroid cancer in 2012 and 1,780 will die from it.

That’s up from 16,000 thyroid cancer cases in 1997 – a whopping 253% increase in fifteen years, while the US population went up only 18%.

From 1980 to 1996, thyroid cancer increased nearly 300%, while the population increased by (again) 18%.

Most thyroid cancers don’t develop for 10-30 years after radiation exposure, but the monstrous spike in thyroid cancer from 1980-2012 is only partly the result of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 (TMI).

Pennsylvania, with its nine nuclear reactors, does have the highest incidence of thyroid cancer across nearly all demographics among 45* states, reports epidemiologist Joseph Mangano, MPH MBA, of the Radiation and Public Health Project. In 2009, he analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control’s national survey of thyroid cancer incidence for the years 2001-2005 and compared it with proximity to nuclear power stations, finding:

[M]ost U.S. counties with the highest thyroid cancer incidence are in a contiguous area of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and southern New York. Exposure to radioactive iodine emissions from 16 nuclear power reactors within a 90 mile radius in this area … are likely a cause of rising incidence rates.

Congress rethinking their approval of expanding domestic drone usage?

Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

It appears that some members of Congress are beginning to see the glaring error in their move to pass the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill which allowed for the massive expansion of the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), better known as drones, here in the United States by both the military and law enforcement.

It is not just the glaring privacy concerns (which will onlycontinue to grow as cutting edge technology is deployed) posed by drones which seem to be troubling Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican.

Referring to the FAA reauthorization bill, Burgess stated that it included “this very simple language allowing for the expansion of unmanned aerial vehicles in the national airspace.”

In the Congressional record from June 27 posted by the Federation of American Scientists, Burgess introduced an amendment to the Transportation Appropriations bill which would prevent armed drones from being used in the United States.

Democide Mass-Murder and the New World Order

A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. -- Joseph Stalin

In earlier times it was easier to control a million people than physically to kill a million people. Today it is infinitely easier to kill a million people than to control a million people. --  Zbigniew Brzezinski

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Paul Adams, J.D. 

Activist Post

Many people believe that governments are too bureaucratic, incompetent and lazy to accomplish anything substantial.  However, history has demonstrated that powerful elites have used governments to do one thing extremely efficiently: Democide.

According to Professor R.J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii, Democide is the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.  Democide does not include soldiers killed in battle.  During the 20th Century (1900s) alone, Rummel calculates that government power was used to murder approximately 262,000,000 people.

Soviet Union

Approximately 61,911,000 people, 54,769,000 of them citizens, were murdered by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1987. Rummel writes:

Key US Senate panel backs limited Libya conflict

Libyan rebels capture a network of bunkers
in the desert around 25 kilometres (15 miles)
from the hilltown of Zintan
© AFP Florent Marcie

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A key US Senate panel voted Tuesday to authorize limited US strikes on Libya as part of a NATO-led campaign against Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi but to forbid the deployment of ground troops.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's 14-5 vote set the stage for what was sure to be a volatile full Senate debate as early as this week, with lawmakers deeply divided on whether President Barack Obama's Libya policy flouts US law.

The panel heard earlier from US State Department legal adviser Harold Koh, who argued Obama's approach did not violate the US Constitution or the 1973 War Powers Resolution that aims to constrain presidential war-making authority.

Kerry to visit Afghanistan after bin Laden raid

US Senator John Kerry
© AFP/File Jewel Samad

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Senior US Senator John Kerry said Tuesday he would travel to Afghanistan in mid-May to weigh the effects of Osama bin Laden's death on the US-led struggle to rout Islamist fighters there.

"With the death of bin Laden, some people are sure to ask, 'Why don't we just pack up and leave Afghanistan?'" Kerry, a Democrat, said as he led a hearing of his Senate Foreign Relations Committee on US policy in Afghanistan.

The lawmaker said he was going to Afghanistan the weekend of May 14 "and hope to be able to get a good sense from the Afghans, from President (Hamid) Karzai and others, what their take is on where we are as well as the events that have taken place in Pakistan and how that might affect some of their calculations."