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Tag Archive: FOIA

Declassified But Still Redacted CIA Report That Launched Invasion Of Iraq Released

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Filed under: Foreign Policy, Islam, Military, Surveillance, Terrorism, War, Weaponry — Leave a comment

March 23, 2015

After 12 Years, CIA Releases Classified Document Used To Justify Invasion Of Iraq

” John Greenewald, the operator of The Black Vault, a hub for declassified government documents, contacted the CIA in 2014, requesting an updated version of the NIE that contained more details. The CIA provided Greenewald with a newer version in Jan. 2015, which he first shared with VICE News.

VICE News noted that the release of this document marks the first time the public has access to the “hastily drafted CIA document that led Congress to pass a joint resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq.”

While the newly released version of the NIE still keeps some details from the public, it provides more information about the intelligence the US claimed to have when choosing to invade Iraq, and it points out some holes in the stories of the US officials who were justifying the invasion to the American public.

When presenting the war on March 19, 2003, Bush stated that the United States’ goals were to disarm Iraq of its supposed weapons of mass destruction, to overthrow Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, and to free the Iraqi people.”

Ben Swann has more

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Tags: CIA Iraq Documents, FOIA, Iraq War, John Greenewald, Justification, Redacted, The Black Vault, VICE News

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Investigative Reporter Uncovers Extensive Surveillance Program At Colorado Post Offices

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Filed under: Arrogance, Civil Discord, Civil Liberties, Conspiracy, Constitution, Corruption, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Liberty, Nanny State, Police State, Privacy, Shame, Statism, Surveillance — 2 Comments

March 13, 2015

Mysterious Spy Cameras Collecting Data At Post Offices In Colorado

” Within an hour of a KDVR reporter discovering a hidden camera, which was positioned to capture and record the license plates and facial features of customers leaving a Denver post office, the device was ripped from the ground and disappeared.

Investigative reporter Chris Halsne confirmed the hidden camera and recorder is owned and operated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement branch of the U.S. Postal Service.

The recording device appeared to be tripped by any vehicle leaving the property on Johnson Road, but the lens was not positioned to capture images of the front door, employee entrance, or loading dock areas of the post office.

A customer first noticed the data collection device, hidden inside a utilities box, around Thanksgiving 2014. It stayed in place, taking photos through the busy Christmas holidays and into mid-January.”

While the Postal Service tried to maintain that the surveillance was just a “routine security measure” privacy groups see it a bit differently , and rightly so …

” Lee Tien, an attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, says more and more federal agencies are getting away with conducting surveillance and collecting personal data of citizens without a warrant signed by a judge.

“ Part of being a responsible, constitutional government is explaining why it is doing surveillance on its citizens,” Lee told Halsne. “The government should not be collecting this kind of sensitive information. And it is sensitive! It`s about your relationships, your associations with other people, which can be friendship or political or religious. The idea that we give up that privacy simply because we use the U.S. mail is, I think, a silly idea.” “

As if the Postal Service wasn’t endangered enough , now they are actively driving their ever-dwindling customer base further into the arms of private delivery services by spying on them … Read it all and head to your nearest UPs/Fedex office to send your mail .

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Tags: Colorado, Denver, FOIA, Golden, Government Spying, Hop-On Incorporated, Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne, KDVR News, Pamela Durkee, Post Office Surveillance Cameras, Postal Inspection Service Surveillance Program, Privacy, U.S. Postal Service, USPIS

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Clarice Feldman At American Thinker On clintonemail@com

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Filed under: Arrogance, Benghazi, Corruption, Election, Elitism, Fail, Fraud, Hypocrisy, Leadership, Lies, Politics, Shame — Leave a comment

March 8, 2015

Benghazibabeatclintonemaildotcom

” You can say this about the Clintons; they fill our desire for drama in the annual breaks between episodes of TV serials. “Downton Abbey” ends for the season and Clinton Follies is on tap again as the New York Times reports as old news, something known for at least two years: Hillary never used the Department of State’s official email account

If you’ve been busy leading a full and rich life and missed this week’s excitement here it is in a nutshell: on the day of her confirmation hearing for the position of secretary of state, Hillary Clinton set up an internet server in her home (purchased under an apparent pseudonym “Eric Hoteham”). Perhaps the domain was even run out of two commercial web hosting firms, instead of the home server:

For her entire term at the department she exclusively used this unprotected email server, utilizing at last count about 9 different email addresses for all her Internet communications. These entire addresses end in clintonemail@com, which signaled to anyone reading the message that this was not, sent on a government server.

This tactic allowed her to avoid disclosure of her correspondence to Freedom of Information Act and other document production requests, including Congressional inquiries.

Can she claim she didn’t know this violated Federal laws and regulations requiring this correspondence be kept where it can be archived and, if required, disclosed? Hardly. All officials are routinely warned about such things. In fact, she ordered our ambassador to Kenya fired for failing to use a government server for his communications.

In connection with Congressional hearings the department was asked to provide her email correspondence and, so the story goes, they had none, so Hillary had her staff go through her records and late last year provided 50,000 emails, and claimed others might be found in the recipients’ files.

There is also little doubt, given this functional definition, that e-mail has been covered by the Federal Records Act since its adoption by the federal government during the Clinton administration. As Ian Tuttle correctly notes, the State Department’s own manual has plainly provided, since 1995, that e-mail records must be preserved under the Federal Records Act.”

Read the rest from Clarice Feldman at The American Thinker

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Tags: Benghazi, Chappaqua, Chris Stevens, clintonemail@com, Corruption, Eric Hoteham, FOIA, Glen Doherty, Hillary Clinton, Private Emails, Sean Smith, Secrecy, SecState, Tyrone Woods

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Judicial Watch Gets Closer To The Benghazi Truth With Pentagon Documents

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Filed under: Barbarism, Benghazi, Corruption, Election, Fail, Foreign Policy, Fraud, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Islam, Leadership, Lies, Military, Politics, Preparedness, Scandal, Shame, Terrorism, Video, War — 2 Comments

February 26, 2015

Pentagon Benghazi Documents Expose Administration Lies

” Scandal: Heavily redacted documents show a military response had been drafted in answer to the Benghazi terrorist attack by a group supporting “an Islamic state” in Libya. It also showed the attack wasn’t inflamed by a video.

It’s taken Judicial Watch two years to obtain from the most transparent administration in history the 486 pages of documents pertaining to the military response to the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on our Benghazi diplomatic mission. They confirm what we have said repeatedly, that the Benghazi tale spun by President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was indeed a lie agreed upon.

Despite heavy redaction, they show that the real “JV team” — a term applied by Obama to the deadly Islamic State — resides in the White House. The papers reveal, for instance, that at one point the military relied on a photo from a Twitter post to determine the status of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was killed with Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith in the first of two attacks.

Several hours later — hours during which a rescue or support attempt arguably could have been made — terrorists killed CIA contractors and former Navy SEALs Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.”

Lest we forget …

Read on

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Tags: Administration Lies, Benghazi, Chris Stevens, FOIA, Glen Doherty, Judicial Watch, Libya, Obama, Pentagon Documents, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, White House "JV" Team

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You Are Being Tracked: Fed License Plate Readers Building A National Database Of Cars/Drivers

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Filed under: Civil Discord, Civil Liberties, Conspiracy, Constitution, Corruption, Fail, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Individualism, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Liberty, Police State, Privacy, Shame, Statism, Surveillance, Technology — 3 Comments

January 27, 2015

U.S. Spies On Millions Of Cars

” The Justice Department has been building a national database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records about motorists, according to current and former officials and government documents.

The primary goal of the license-plate tracking program, run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, is to seize cars, cash and other assets to combat drug trafficking, according to one government document. But the database’s use has expanded to hunt for vehicles associated with numerous other potential crimes, from kidnappings to killings to rape suspects, say people familiar with the matter.

Officials have publicly said that they track vehicles near the border with Mexico to help fight drug cartels. What hasn’t been previously disclosed is that the DEA has spent years working to expand the database “throughout the United States,’’ according to one email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Many state and local law-enforcement agencies are accessing the database for a variety of investigations, according to people familiar with the program, putting a wealth of information in the hands of local officials who can track vehicles in real time on major roadways.

The database raises new questions about privacy and the scope of government surveillance. The existence of the program and its expansion were described in interviews with current and former government officials, and in documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. It is unclear if any court oversees or approves the intelligence-gathering.”

Read more

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Tags: ACLU, ALPR technology, Automatic License Plate Readers, DEA, FOIA, Government Surveillance, Justice Department, National Database, National License Plate Recognition Initiative, Vigilant Solutions

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Lois Lerner And DOJ Conspired Against Tea Party In The Months Before 2010 Midterms

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Filed under: Arrogance, Civil Liberties, Conspiracy, Constitution, Corruption, Election, Fraud, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Liberty, Politics, Scandal, Statism, Tea Party, Video — 1 Comment

December 10, 2014

Lerner Met With DOJ Month Before 2010 Elections

” Judicial Watch, a constitutionally conservative, non-profit educational foundation, has new evidence against Lois Lerner in the IRS Tea Party targeting case.

Documents they’ve just obtained from the Department of Justice show that the former IRS official met with Department of Justice’s Election Crimes Division one month before the 2010 elections.

The Justice Department has withheld more than 800 pages of documents in the Lerner investigation, citing “taxpayer privacy” and “deliberative privilege.”

” These new documents dramatically show how the Justice Department is up to its neck in the IRS scandal and can’t be trusted to investigate crimes associated with the IRS abuses that targeted Obama’s critics. And it is of particular concern that the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, which would ordinarily investigate the IRS abuses, is now implicated in the IRS crimes,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.

Chris Farrell, director of research and investigations for Judicial Watch, talked more about the significance of these newly discovered DOJ meetings, on CBN News Today, Dec. 9. “

Thanks to CBN News

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Tags: 2010 Election, Chris Farrell, Conspiracy, DOJ, Eric Holder, FOIA, Heather Sells, Interview, IRS, Judicial Watch, Justice Department, Lois Lerner, Tea Party

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Thousands Of Documents Leave Trail From IRS To White House

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Filed under: Arrogance, Civil Discord, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Corruption, Election, Fraud, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Politics, Scandal, Shame, Taxation, Tea Party — 2 Comments

November 25, 2014

2,500 New Documents ID’d In White House-IRS Taxpayer Harassment Cases

” In a shocking revelation, the Treasury Inspector General has identified some 2,500 documents that “potentially” show taxpayer information held by the Internal Revenue Service being shared with President Obama’s White House.

The discovery was revealed to the group Cause of Action, which has sued for access to any of the documents. It charges that the IRS and White House have harassed taxpayers.

In an email from the Justice Department’s tax office, an official revealed the high number of documents, suggesting that the White House was hip deep in probes of taxpayers, likely including conservatives and Tea Party groups associated with the IRS scandal.

In requesting a delay in the delivery date of the documents, Justice told Cause of Action, “The agency [Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration] has located 2,500 potentially responsive documents and anticipates being able to finish processing 2,000 of these pages by the December 1 date. It needs the additional two weeks to deal with the last 500 pages to determine if they are responsive and make any necessary withholdings.”

Thanks to Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner

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Tags: 2500 Documents, Cause of Action, Corruption, FOIA, IRS Emails, Law-Breaking, Scandal, Tea Party, Treasury Inspector General, White House

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FOIA Emails Reveal EPA Conspired With Green Activists On “Climate Change”

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Filed under: Conspiracy, Corruption, Environmentalism, Fraud, Hypocrisy, Law, Lies, Politics, Scandal, Shame, Statism — Leave a comment

September 16, 2014

Report – Emails Reveal ‘Collusion’ With Green Activist Groups Over EPA Climate Agenda

” collusion

noun

1.

a secret agreement, especially for fraudulent or treacherous purposes; conspiracy: Some of his employees were acting in collusion to rob him.

2.

Law. a secret understanding between two or more persons to gain something illegally, to defraud another of his or her rights, or to appear as adversaries though in agreement: collusion of husband and wife to obtain a divorce. “

” The Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) released a report today revealing and piecing together dozens of emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which lay out in detail EPA’s collusion with senior activists within environmentalist pressure groups, and proving the real thinking about the intent behind and impact of EPA’s “climate” regulations.

Far from the required recusing to avoid the appearance of a conflict, EPA filled its senior political ranks with green pressure group activists, continuing their life’s work and coordinating with former colleagues from their new positions in government. These emails show the groups sharing jokes about EPA assurances that it isn’t waging a war on coal, and gloating about the courts serially siding with EPA as it rewrites federal environmental law. More important, they show the special role and undue influence these relationships provided, the very sort of influence the Obama Administration once disavowed.

“ EPA is permitted to regulate; but, not these people, not this way,” said E&E Legal’s Chris Horner who filed the FOIA requests and related litigation which produced most of the emails set forth in the report, which also includes and discusses many emails extracted from EPA by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) adding context to E&E Legal’s findings.

The report details many instances of lobbyists for “green” special interest groups helping steer EPA regulations and permitting decisions, and providing advocacy materials for use by former colleagues now inside the EPA who then dutifully circulate the advocacy materials to colleagues. The collusion ranges from orchestrating public hearings, the EPA and Sierra Club teaming to write a U.S. Senator’s public statement on the shared agenda, and even specifically targeting individual power plants which green groups wanted to prevent under any new EPA standards.”

James Watt has much more

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Tags: aka “Richard Windsor”, Climate Control Agenda, Collusion, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Conspiracy, Corruption, E&E Legal, Energy & Environment Legal Institute, EPA, FOIA, Green Activists, Lisa Jackson, Watt's up with That

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FOIA Lawsuit Alleges Government Coverup Regarding OKC Bombing

Filed under: Barbarism, Conspiracy, Corruption, Fraud, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Lies, Politics, Scams, Shame, Statism, Terrorism — 1 Comment

July 28, 2014

Did The Oklahoma City Bomber Have Another Accomplice?

View this document on Scribd

” One man’s quest to explain his brother’s mysterious jail cell death 19 years ago has rekindled long-dormant questions about whether others were involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

What some consider a far-flung conspiracy theory will be at the forefront during a trial set to begin Monday in Salt Lake City. The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit was brought by Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue against the FBI.

He says the agency won’t release security camera videos that show a second person was with Timothy McVeigh when he parked a truck outside the Oklahoma City federal building and detonated a bomb, killing 168 people. The government claims McVeigh was alone.”

Even this federal judge has doubts about the veracity of the State narrative of the bombing …

” Unsatisfied by the FBI’s previous explanations, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups has ordered the agency to explain why it can’t find videos from the bombing that are mentioned in evidence logs, citing the public importance of the tapes.

Trentadue believes the presence of a second suspect in the truck explains why his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, was flown to Oklahoma several months after the bombing, where he died in a federal holding cell in what was labeled a suicide.

What do they know? The FBI claims Timothy McVeigh was alone when he planted the car bomb that killed 168 in 1995, but some conspiracy theorists believe Trentadue died as part of the agency’s investigation into a second man who was on the scene with McVeigh

His brother bore a striking resemblance to the police sketch that officials sent out after the bombing based on witness descriptions of the enigmatic suspect ‘John Doe No. 2,’ who was the same height, build and complexion. The suspect was never identified.

‘ I did not start out to solve the Oklahoma City bombing, I started out for justice for my brother’s murder,’ Jesse Trentadue said. ‘But along the way, every path I took, every lead I got, took me to the bombing.’ “

Read more

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Tags: FBI Stonewalling, FOIA, Jailhouse "Suicide", Jesse Trentadue, John Doe No. 2, Kenneth Trentadue, Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City Bombing, Surveillance Video, Terry Nichols, Timothy McVeigh, Unreleased CCTV

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Navy Yard Shooting Report: “160 Cameras And No One Watching”

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Filed under: Barbarism, Corruption, Crime, Fail, Hypocrisy, Police State, Shame, Surveillance, Video — 1 Comment

July 12, 2014

Excerpts Of Navy Yard Report: 160 Cameras And No One Watching; Facing Down Shooter

” Cameras showed the Navy Yard gunman’s every move, but arriving police didn’t know the control room existed. Employees who had cellphones locked away to protect military secrets had no way to dial 911. Arriving police were stuck outside security gates as the base went on lockdown. Aaron Alexis came face-to-face with several Navy Yard employees who survived, including one who threw a megaphone at the gunman and ran as a shotgun blast sailed by. These are among the dozens of details in a new report obtained by The Washington Post under a Freedom of Information Act request. The report was written by D.C. police to better understand how the shooting unfolded and what lessons they could take away.

A private security guard was in an office with monitors showing the feeds from 160 security cameras while the shootings occurred. Those cameras, police now know, covered almost every inch of Building 197 and were documenting in real time every move by gunman Aaron Alexis. But the guard locked the door, hid and notified no one that he was there with access to the information. “

The report is a damning indictment of security at the Navy Yard as well as the performance of the Metro DC police and various Federal law enforcement agencies with allegations of many DC officers “self-dispatching” themselves to the scene and thus leaving large swathes of the city unprotected along with mentions of numerous “private photographers” on the scene representing different law enforcement entities .

The whole episode calls to mind a free-for-all of law enforcement , more interested in covering themselves in glory , securing larger operating budgets and documenting it all for the media than in protecting public safety a la the Dorner affair , Ruby Ridge and Waco .

Read the whole thing at the Washington Post

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Tags: "Self-Dispatched", 160 Cameras, Aaron Alexis, Building 197, FOIA, Mass Shooting, Metro DC Police, No One Watching, Washington Navy Yard

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Massachusetts SWAT Units Claiming Immunity From FOIA Requests Because They Are “Private” Entities

Filed under: Arrogance, Corruption, Fail, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Police State, Privacy, Shame — 2 Comments

June 28, 2014

Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim They’re Private Corporations, Immune From Open Records Laws

” As part of the American Civil Liberties Union’s recent report on police militarization, the Massachusetts chapter of the organization sent open records requests to SWAT teams across that state. It received an interesting response.

As it turns out, a number of SWAT teams in the Bay State are operated by what are called law enforcement councils, or LECs. These LECs are funded by several police agencies in a given geographic area and overseen by an executive board, which is usually made up of police chiefs from member police departments. In 2012, for example, the Tewksbury Police Department paid about $4,600 in annual membership dues to the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, or NEMLEC. (See page 36 of linked PDF.) That LEC has about 50 member agencies. In addition to operating a regional SWAT team, the LECs also facilitate technology and information sharing and oversee other specialized units, such as crime scene investigators and computer crime specialists.

Some of these LECs have also apparently incorporated as 501(c)(3) organizations. And it’s here that we run into problems. According to the ACLU, the LECs are claiming that the 501(c)(3) status means that they’re private corporations, not government agencies. And therefore, they say they’re immune from open records requests. Let’s be clear. These agencies oversee police activities. They employ cops who carry guns, wear badges, collect paychecks provided by taxpayers and have the power to detain, arrest, injure and kill. They operate SWAT teams, which conduct raids on private residences. And yet they say that because they’ve incorporated, they’re immune to Massachusetts open records laws. The state’s residents aren’t permitted to know how often the SWAT teams are used, what they’re used for, what sort of training they get or who they’re primarily used against.”

This is arrogance of the highest order . For any organizations funded by the taxpayers to claim to be private corporations is beyond the pale .

” From the ACLU of Massachusetts’s report on police militarization in that state:

Approximately 240 of the 351 police departments in Massachusetts belong to an LEC. While set up as “corporations,” LECs are funded by local and federal taxpayer money, are composed exclusively of public police officers and sheriffs, and carry out traditional law enforcement functions through specialized units such as SWAT teams . . .

Due to the weakness of Massachusetts public records law and the culture of secrecy that has infected local police departments and Law Enforcement Councils, procuring empirical records from police departments and regional SWAT teams in Massachusetts about police militarization was universally difficult and, in most instances, impossible . . .

Police departments and regional SWAT teams are public institutions, working with public money, meant to protect and serve the public’s interest. If these institutions do not maintain and make public comprehensive and comprehensible documents pertaining to their operations and tactics, the people cannot judge whether officials are acting appropriately or make needed policy changes when problems arise . . . “

This situation cannot be allowed to stand . ALL public servants MUST be held accountable for their actions or are we to believe that these “mercenary” SWAT units are merely rogue privateers issued Letters of Marque ? If such is the case then they are no more than pirates and as such must be fought with all possible means .

Food for thought: If the SWAT teams are private corporations/private contractors , ala Blackwater , then they do not enjoy the legal immunities offered to employees of the State and thus should be subject to civil lawsuits and thus the discovery process … Let the flood gates open .

Read the rest from Radley Balko at the Washington Post.

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Tags: ACLU, Arrogance, FOIA, Massachusetts, Militarization Of Police, Open Records, Radley Balko, SWAT Corporations

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FBI Wastes Time/Money Studying Twitter Acronyms

Filed under: Budget Cuts, Crime, Debt, Fail, Hope and Change, Internet Freedom, Law, Police State, Politics, Privacy, Shame, Social Media, Spending, Statism, Surveillance, Waste — Leave a comment

June 18, 2014

9 Unbelievably Absurd Acronyms the FBI Is Tracking On Twitter, Or 9UAATFBIITOT

” In this week’s stranger news, an 83-page document was procured by self-proclaimed “FOI Geek” Jason Smathers under the Freedom of Information Act. The document, created by the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence Research Support Unit, features an “extensive—but far from exhaustive—list of shorthand and acronyms used on Twitter and other social media venues.”

The list contains more than 2,800 entries (you read that correctly) which the FBI asserts you “should find useful in your work or for keeping up with your children and/or grandchildren.” In case your child decides to tell you, “HGH”, during in the middle of a conversation, fret not, for now you can just pull out your handy dandy 83-page guide to internet slang and see that they’re obviously telling you “Haters Gonna Hate.” Duh.

With over 2,800 abbreviations on the list, there are understandably some strange ones which, based on a quick internet search, have literally never even been used. Imagine employing any of these in daily conversation, not to mention trying to memorize them:

From Reason:

IOKIYAR, “It’s okay if you’re a Republican”

ALOTBSOL, “Always look on the bright side of life”

BTDTGTTAWIO, “been there, done that, got the T-shirt and wore it out”

EOTWAWKI, “end of the world as we know it”

HCDAJFU, “He could do a job for us”

IITYWTMWYBMAD, “If I tell you what it means will you buy me a drink?”

LFBBEG, “Looking for big bad evil guy”

KTBSPA, “Keep the backstreet pride alive”

PMIGBOM, “Put mind in gear before opening mouth”

Our tax dollars at work … Jeez . One would think that with all the threats to our way of life from those evil “right-wing extremists” , the need to change illegal’s diapers , arming terrorists and such that the Feds would have enough to do without spending a fortune studying social media acronyms … but one would be wrong , wouldn’t one ?

In Obama’s Amerika no job is to small for the hand of big government .

Read more here and here:

FBI Releases 83-Page Guide to Social Media Slang, Acronyms

FBI’s Amusing ‘Twitter Speak’ Dictionary Revealed

WTF FBI? Agency Has Huge List of Twitter Slang (and Some of It’s Fake)

FBI discovers Twitter-speak, starts a dictionary

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Tags: 9UAATFBIITOT, “FOI Geek”, Directorate of Intelligence Research Support Unit, FBI, FOIA, Jason Smathers, Tracking Twitter Acronyms, Twitterspeak

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Feds Seize Police Records On Stingray Tracking Device To Foil ACLU FOIA Requests

Filed under: Arrogance, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Corruption, Fraud, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Liberty, Police State, Privacy, Shame, Statism, Surveillance, Video — 4 Comments

June 5, 2014

U.S. Marshals Seize Cops’ Spying Records To Keep Them From The ACLU

” A routine request in Florida for public records regarding the use of a surveillance tool known as stingray took an extraordinary turn recently when federal authorities seized the documents before police could release them.

The surprise move by the U.S. Marshals Service stunned the American Civil Liberties Union, which earlier this year filed the public records request with the Sarasota, Florida, police department for information detailing its use of the controversial surveillance tool.

The ACLU had an appointment last Tuesday to review documents pertaining to a case investigated by a Sarasota police detective. But marshals swooped in at the last minute to grab the records, claiming they belong to the U.S. Marshals Service and barring the police from releasing them.

ACLU staff attorney Nathan Freed Wessler called the move “truly extraordinary and beyond the worst transparency violations” the group has seen regarding documents detailing police use of the technology.

“ This is consistent with what we’ve seen around the country with federal agencies trying to meddle with public requests for stingray information,” Wessler said, noting that federal authorities have in other cases invoked the Homeland Security Act to prevent the release of such records. “The feds are working very hard to block any release of this information to the public.”

Stingrays, also known as IMSI catchers, simulate a cellphone tower and trick nearby mobile devices into connecting with them, thereby revealing their location. A stingray can see and record a device’s unique ID number and traffic data, as well as information that points to its location. By moving a stingray around, authorities can triangulate a device’s location with greater precision than is possible using data obtained from a carrier’s fixed tower location.”

We’ve posted about the Stingray tracking devices and the company’s harassment of citizen journalists and now we have the Feds stepping in to further prevent the public from learning the truth about this Statist tool .

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Tags: 4th Amendment, ACLU, Florida, FOIA, Harris Corporation, IMSI Catchers, Sarasota, Seizure Of Records, Statism, Stingrays, Tyranny, Unconstitutional Searches, US Marshals

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The Obama’s Are The Undisputed “Vacation Kings”

Filed under: Arrogance, Budget Cuts, Civil Discord, Corruption, Debt, Economy, Elitism, Entitlements, Fraud, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Leadership, Monetary Policy, Politics, Scandal, Shame, Spending, Statism, Taxation, Travel, Waste — 2 Comments

April 30, 2014

Obama Family Sets All-Time Record For Travel Expenses

” Judicial Watch reported that the Obamas have set a new record for vacations on the backs of Americans taxpayers. Remember, this included an extended stay in Hawaii for one Michele Obama, who wished to celebrate her 50th b-day at Oprah’s home there.

The conservative action group had to file a lawsuit to obtain the records from the US Air Force, marking a new low for US politics. The Obamas spent over $7.4 million during 2013, merely for flight expenses

Via JW:

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in August 2013, after being repeatedly beat back by the White House. The group reported:

* The outbound flight to Honolulu for the Obamas’ 2012-13 Christmas vacation cost taxpayers $2, 214, 393.60. The return flight to Washington cost $1,871,961.60. Flight expenditures alone came to $4,086,355.20.

* The outbound flight to California in August, 2013 for Obama to dine with Katzenberg and appear on the “The Tonight Show” cost taxpayers $1,209,926.40. The return flight to Washington cost $935,980.80. Flight expenditures alone came to $2,145,907.20.

* The outbound flight to Martha’s Vineyard for the Obama family’s August vacation cost taxpayers $890,323.20. The return flight to Washington cost $273,945.60. Flight expenditures alone came to $1,164,268.80.

* The grand total of $7,396,531.20, Judicial Watch pointed out, only accounted for flight expenses for the three trips.

“The fact is, the Obamas are abusing the public trust and the taxpayers with unnecessary luxurious vacations and travel,” Judicial Watch said. “These staggering costs show why these documents were covered-up and we had to sue in federal court to get them. Another transparency fail for the Obama gang, but thanks to our federal lawsuit it is another accountability win for the American taxpayer.”

Thanks to Rand Paul Review

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Tags: Flight Costs, FOIA, Judicial Watch, Obama, Record Expenditures, Taxpayer Money, Travel Expenses, Vacations, Waste

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RNC Files Suit Against The IRS … On Tax Day

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Filed under: Civil Liberties, Constitution, Corruption, Election Fraud, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Lies, Politics, Scandal, Shame, Statism, Tax Reform Now, Tea Party, Video — 1 Comment

April 16, 2014

Happy Tax Day: RNC Files Lawsuit Against IRS For ‘Illegal Stonewalling’ Of Scandal Documents

” The Republican National Committee, just in time for Tax Day, is filing a lawsuit against the IRS over what it calls “illegal stonewalling” of its request for documents related to the agency’s targeting of conservative groups.

The RNC called the agency’s refusal so far to produce the documents “unacceptable and inexcusable.”

” We’re filing this suit because the Obama administration has a responsibility to be transparent and accountable to the American people. The IRS has a legal obligation to answer our inquiry for these records,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “If the IRS and the Obama administration don’t have anything to hide, why not answer the request?” “

Fox News has more

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Tags: Emails, FOIA, IRS, Lawsuit, Lois Lerner, Obama administration, Reince Priebus, RNC, Stonewalling, Tea Party, Transparency

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With The Stroke Of His Mighty Pen Lord Obama Effectively Guts FOIA

Filed under: Arrogance, Civil Discord, Conspiracy, Corruption, Culture, Fraud, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Leadership, Lies, Politics, Scandal, Shame, Statism — 5 Comments

March 20, 2014

“Most Transparent” White House Ever Rewrote FOIA To Exclude Its Docs

” That’s right, the Obama White House has quietly rewritten a portion of the Freedom Of Information Act to exclude what it calls “White House equities” from being released without a White House review. The rewrite was inspired by a 2009 memo by then White House counsel, Greg Craig:

The Greg memo is described in detail in a new study made public today by Cause of Action, a Washington-based nonprofit watchdog group that monitors government transparency and accountability.

How serious an attack on the public’s right to know is the Obama administration’s invention of the “White House equities” exception?

“ FOIA is designed to inform the public on government behavior; White House equities allow the government to withhold information from the media, and therefore the public, by having media requests forwarded for review. This not only politicizes federal agencies, it impairs fundamental First Amendment liberties,” Cause of Action explains in its report.

The equities exception is breathtaking in its breadth. As the Greg memo put it, any document request is covered, including “congressional committee requests, GAO requests, judicial subpoenas and FOIA requests.”

And it doesn’t matter what format the documents happen to be in because, according to Greg, the equities exception “applies to all documents and records, whether in oral, paper, or electronic form, that relate to communications to and from the White House, including preparations for such communications.”

What this effectively does is stop federal agencies from answering FOIA requests which might include “White House equities” within the 20 days required by law. There is no apparent limit to the review time the White House can take with its “review” of such requests. Since the White House gets to decide what are “White House equities” and how long it will take to review requests which include them, the change effectively neuters the intent of the FOIA law. “

Hot Air has more on this gutting of the Freedom Of Information Act

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Tags: FOIA, Greg Memo, Gutting Of The FOIA, Most Transparent Administration, Secrecy, White House, White House Equities

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About That “Most Transparent Administration” … Nevermind

Image

Filed under: Arrogance, Corruption, Cronyism, Culture, Election, Fraud, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Leadership, Lies, Media Bias, Politics, Scams, Shame, Statism — 2 Comments

March 18, 2014

Obama Denies Freedom Of Information Requests At Record Rates

” President Obama was swept to office amidst his pledge that he’d run the “most transparent administration in history.” A new report out finds that he hasn’t even run the most transparent administration since the previous one.

The Associated Press analyzed the federal government’s own Freedom of Information Act data and found that federal agencies under President Obama have been as uncooperative as ever:

The government’s own figures from 99 federal agencies covering six years show that halfway through its second term, the administration has made few meaningful improvements in the way it releases records. In category after category — except for reducing numbers of old requests and a slight increase in how often it waived copying fees — the government’s efforts to be more open about its activities last year were their worst since President Barack Obama took office.”

Townhall has more

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Tags: FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, Most Transparent Administration, National Security Exceptions, Obama administration, Record Denials, Secrecy

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Holder Justice Dept Accused Of Condoning Prosecutorial Misconduct

Filed under: Arrogance, Barbarism, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Corruption, Crime, Cronyism, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Police State, Scandal, Shame, Statism — 1 Comment

March 14, 2014

Watchdog: Holder Lets Prosecutors Get Away With Misconduct

” A government watchdog group has attacked the Justice Department for failing to discipline hundreds of federal prosecutors who have committed serious misconduct during their cases, The Washington Times reported.

The Project on Government Oversight revealed that there were 650 cases of mostly “reckless” or “intentional” infractions from 2002 to 2013, including one incident in which a prosecutor actually had a “close personal relationship” with a defendant.

Calling them “bad apples,” POGO claimed that the Justice Department has declined to name the government attorneys involved, allowing them to get away with and continue their actions.

Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Democratic Montana Sen. John Tester introduced a bill on Thursday calling for closer scrutiny of possible prosecutorial misconduct by handing Justice’s independent inspector general the authority to examine such cases.”

Read on . This is no surprise coming from the most corrupt Justice Department ever .

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Tags: 650 Cases Documented, Eric Holder, FOIA, Justice Dept., POGO, Project on Government Oversight, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Un-Disciplined, Widespread Abuse

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Another Slap At Obama And Statism … Judge Rules Against Executive Privilege Claims

Filed under: Arrogance, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Corruption, Founding Fathers, Hypocrisy, Law, Liberty, Politics, Shame, Statism — 4 Comments

December 19, 2013

Court Rejects Obama Admin Executive Privilege Arguments

” A federal judge Tuesday rejected the Obama administration’s sweeping claims of executive privilege and ordered the disclosure of a foreign aid directive signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 but never publicly released.

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle ruled the presidential order is not within the bounds of executive privilege and called the government’s arguments in favor of secrecy “troubling.”

“The government appears to adopt the cavalier attitude that the President should be permitted to convey orders throughout the Executive Branch without public oversight … to engage in what is in effect governance by ‘secret law,’” Huvelle said. “

This ruling goes nicely with the previous finding by Judge Richard Leon earlier in the week regarding the unconstitutionality of the NSA spying program . Finally our resident “Constitutional Scholar” is getting a well-deserved lesson on the Constitution .

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Tags: Barack Obama, Center for Effective Government, Ellen Segal Huvelle, Executive Privilege, FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, Public Citizen, U.S. District Court

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Washington Times Engages Government In War Against Journalists

Filed under: Arrogance, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Corruption, Guns, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Police State, Politics, Privacy, Shame, Statism, Whistleblowers — 3 Comments

October 26, 2013

Armed Agents Seize Records Of Reporter, Washington Times Prepares Legal Action

” Maryland state police and federal agents used a search warrant in an unrelated criminal investigation to seize the private reporting files of an award-winning former investigative journalist for The Washington Times who had exposed problems in the Homeland Security Department’s Federal Air Marshal Service.

Reporter Audrey Hudson said the investigators, who included an agent for Homeland’s Coast Guard service, took her private notes and government documents that she had obtained under the Freedom of Information Act during a predawn raid of her family home on Aug. 6.

The documents, some which chronicled her sources and her work at the Times about problems inside the Homeland Security Department, were seized under a warrant to search for unregistered firearms and a “potato gun” suspected of belonging to her husband, Paul Flanagan, a Coast Guard employee. Mr. Flanagan has not been charged with any wrongdoing since the raid.

The warrant, obtained by the Times, offered no specific permission to seize reporting notes or files.

The Washington Times said Friday it is preparing legal action to fight what it called an unwarranted intrusion on the First Amendment.”

We posted about this blatant , illegal fishing expedition yesterday . This piece offers considerably more detail than was available yesterday , including the fact the Mr Flanagan has been arrested on “gun charges” more than once , but more importantly , that Ms Hudson has been the cause of numerous governmental investigations and much embarrassment over the course of her career in DC . She is certainly an enemy of the State .

” Mrs. Hudson has been a reporter in Washington, D.C. for nearly 15 years, and covered Homeland Security for the Times after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks through December 2009.

Her investigations have sparked numerous congressional investigations that led to laws signed by former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. She has won numerous journalism awards for her investigations, including the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi bronze medal for public service, the Society of Professional Journalists Dateline Award in Investigative Reporting, and was nominated twice by The Times for the Pulitzer Prize.”

Another battle in the war on whistleblowers/journalists is enjoined.

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Tags: Audrey Hudson, “potato gun”, Capt. Tony Hahn, Coast Guard investigator Miguel Bosch, Confidential Sources, DHS, Federal Air Marshal Service, First Amendment, FOIA, Fourth Amendment, Illegal Search And Seizure, Maryland State Trooper Victor Hodgin, Search warrant, USCG

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Judicial Watch Sues Over Fast And Furious Stonewall

Filed under: Arrogance, Barbarism, Civil Liberties, Corruption, Crime, Fast & Furious, Gun Control, Gun Rights, Guns, Hope and Change, Hypocrisy, Law Enforcement Thuggery, Lies, Police State, Scams, Scandal Of The Day, Shame, Statism — 1 Comment

September 19, 2013

Seeks Docs About DOJ’s Legal Fight Over Holder Contempt Of Congress Citation

” Judicial Watch announced today that on September 5, 2013, it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, against the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking access to all records of communications between DOJ and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform relating to settlement discussions in the Committee’s 2012 contempt of Congress lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder. The contempt citation stemmed from Holder’s refusal to turn over documents to Congress related to the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal (Judicial Watch v. DOJ (No. 1:13-cv-1344)).

Judicial Watch filed the FOIA lawsuit as part of its continuing investigation of the Fast and Furious scandal, where the Obama administration allowed weapons to “walk” across the border into the hands of Mexican drug cartels directly resulting in the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and countless Mexican citizens. On August 13, 2012, the House Oversight Committee sued Holder to enforce subpoenas in its probe of the Fast and Furious operation. On March 18, 2013, after a breakdown of settlement talks between the Committee and DOJ, a federal judge ordered the two sides to enter into mediation.”

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Tags: ATF gunwalking scandal, Brian Terry, Eric Holder, Fast & Furious, FOIA, Hundreds of Dead Mexicans, Jaime Zapata, Judicial Watch

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The Journal-News Is After Gun Owners Once Again

Filed under: Arrogance, Civil Liberties, Conspiracy, Constitution, Corruption, Elitism, Gun Control, Gun Rights, Guns, Hypocrisy, Internet Freedom, Law, Media Bias, Politics, Privacy, Shame — Leave a comment

July 11, 2013

FOIAed Again: ‘Gun Map’ Newspaper Seeks More Info On Firearms Owners
Janet Hasson
” The suburban New York newspaper that created a firestorm earlier this year when it published the names and addresses of gun permit holders has requested more data regarding legal owners of firearms, apparently to determine if handgun ownership patterns have changed in the last six months.

The Journal News, a Gannett-owned paper that covers suburban counties just north of New York City, requested more personal information in May. This time, it included statistical data, as well as names and addresses of gun permit holders from Rockland, Putnam and Westchester counties. Out of the paper’s reach are the names of those that opted out of the public records under the NY SAFE law, passed after the Journal News published an interactive map showing the address of every registered handgun owner in two counties it covers.”

Below are links to our posts on the controversy as it unfolded earlier this year…

Anyone know where to find CynDee Royle, Editor of the Journal-News?

In The Interest Of “Fairness” … A List Of Journal-News Users

Sauce for the goose or, home address and phone number of Journal-News publisher

Journal-News Idiots

So how does Journal – News reporter Dwight R. Worley rate a NYC pistol permit?

Contact info for the Gannett staff involved …

” White Plains newspaper The Journal- News, a Gannett publication, has published the full name and address of every licensed pistol permit holder in three New York counties. I don’t know whether the Journal’s publisher Janet Hasson is a permit holder herself, but here’s how to find her to ask:

(UPDATE: Uh oh – InstaPundit’s linked here. Hundreds of thousands of readers; Janet, you have a great Christmas Eve)

Janet Hasson, 3 Gate House Lane, Mamaroneck, NY 10534.

Phone number:

(914) 694-5204

Here’s a photo showing her Mamaroneck house – interior shots are on Zillow:

UPDATE: From reader RJS: Gannett’s CEO-

Gracia C Martore
728 Springvale Rd
Great Falls, VA 22066
(703) 759-5954

The reporter on the story is

Dwight R Worley
23006 139 Ave
Springfield Gardens, NY 11413 (718) 527-0832

UPDATE: Intrepid readers have come up with all sorts of contacts for these people:

EDITOR:

Miss Royle’s married name is Lambert. She lives in White Plains and here is her Facebook page complete with pictures of her and her kids. Hello Sanctimony.
http://www.facebook.com/CynDeeRoyle

Cynthia R Lambert
17 Mcbride Ave
White Plains, NY 10603 (914) 948-9388

Work: 914-694-5001
croyle@lohud.com
https://twitter.com/croyle1
https://www.facebook.com/cyndee.royle.7
https://www.facebook.com/CynDeeRoyle
Drives a red convertible:http://s13.postimage.org/k8ffnxuo7/cyndee_royle_aka_cynthia_lambert_red_convertible.jpg
Family photo: http://s7.postimage.org/dkqtytvyj/cyndee_royle_aka_cynthia_lambert_fb_alt_private.jpg

Reporter, Dwight R. Worley, 23006 139 Ave

Springfield Gardens, NY 11413

(718) 527-0832

The “Visual Editor” responsible for the map itself is:

Robert F. Rodriguez

Stephanie Azzarone
Home (212) 222-4566
420 Riverside Dr, Apt 7A
New York, NY 10025-7748

Publisher: Janet Hasson (@janhasson on twitter) 3 Gate House Rd, Mamaroneck, NY 10534

GANNET CEO:

Gracia C Martore 728 Springvale Rd Great Falls, VA 22066 (703) 759-5954

Janet Hasson herself is married with one child, and her personal interests, as culled from her credit card records, are noted below:”

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Tags: CynDee Royle, Dwight Worley, FOIA, Gannett Company, Gun Owner's Info, Janet Hasson, Journal News, Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant, Rockland, SAFE Act, Westchester

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Part 2 Of Ludwig von Mises’ Institute’s ” Ethics” Analysis

Filed under: Arrogance, Civil Discord, Civil Disobedience, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Corruption, Hypocrisy, Law, National Security, Police State, Politics, Property Rights, Shame, Statism — 2 Comments

July 9, 2013

Yesterday we brought to your attention part one of an article from the von Mises Institute ” The Ethics Of Whistleblowing “ . Today we are pleased to bring you part two …

The Ethics of State Secrecy

” The foregoing principles discussed in Part I of our analysis vitiate any allegation of criminal conduct by Snowden resting on his alleged contractual duties to the NSA. His disclosures of NSA documents were certainly “unauthorized disclosures” as has been charged, but there is no reason that any government authorization should be required. Indeed, it is quite absurd to suggest that government permission should be required to disclose evidence of government criminality. But what of the remaining property-based claim that Snowden’s actions involve the “theft” of government property?

This question can be dealt with in a similar manner, by consideration of the ordinary rules pertaining to the use of property in criminal dealings. When a private firm commits a crime using its own property as an instrument of wrongdoing it loses the right to claim ownership as a safeguard against investigation. If an investigator confiscates digging equipment and barrels of toxic waste from a private firm accused of dumping these on the property of others it is no bar to this action if the firm presents a receipt showing that the equipment belongs to them. (Indeed, this would be taken as further evidence linking them to the alleged crime.) The same applies to documentary evidence of a crime — it may legitimately be taken by an investigator as a means of proving criminal wrongdoing, notwithstanding the normal ownership claim that would apply to the item.[1] “

Read It All … part one , part two .

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Tags: Disclosure, Edward Snowden, FOIA, Government Surveillance, Ludwig von Mises Institute, NSA, PRISM, Privacy, Property Rights, Spying, The Ethics Of State Secrecy, The Ethics Of Whistleblowing

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Pentagon Buries Bin Laden Raid Files At Langley

Filed under: Military, Politics, Terrorism, War — Leave a comment

July 8, 2013

Bin Laden Raid Files Reportedly Purged From Pentagon Computers,

Sent To CIA

” The nation’s top special operations commander ordered military files about the Navy SEAL raid on Usama bin Laden’s hideout to be purged from Defense Department computers and sent to the CIA, where they could be more easily shielded from ever being made public.

The secret move, described briefly in a draft report by the Pentagon’s inspector general, set off no alarms within the Obama administration even though it appears to have sidestepped federal rules and perhaps also the Freedom of Information Act. “

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