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8/17/2002



Professor Jonathan Turley Wrote Back

I CCed him on an email I sent to the U.S. Department of Justice with regard to planned detention camps for American Citizens. Let's keep in mind that Mr. Turley is a respected professor at a respected university. He is to be commended for his courage. It's one thing for a freak like me to rave like lunatic. Who am I? Just some guy with a web site. It's an entirely different matter for someone in his position to say what he did. If more people like him don't start speaking out, we're doomed. Oh, no word, as of yet, from the DoJ. I'm getting many more hits from airforce.mil, however, and my old friend, 198.26.132.99 WCS3.NORFOLK.NIPR.MIL.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Turley [mailto:jturley@law.gwu.edu]
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 2:59 PM
To: Kevin F
Subject: RE: USDOJ Comments

I'm sorry for the delay but I am on vacation with my family. The quick answer to your question is that no formal policy has been issued. The disclosure of the proposal first appeared in the Wall Street Journal on August 8th with confirmation from various unnamed aides to Ashcroft. Since the op-ed in the LA Times, various newspapers have confirmed the story. The WSJ article has never been denied. There was no formal statement issued by Ashcroft and members of Congress are now inquiring into the status of the proposal. I hope that this helps in your own research.

Best,

Jonathan Turley





Ultimate Airport Security: Mind Reading Device? :.

There's good news and bad news. The bad news is that the government is making an active attempt to read peoples' minds. The good news is that it's never going to work---if the description in this article is any indication of how they're going to go about it.

How could I possibly know it's not going to work? Well, let's just say I worked for a company that burned up millions of dollars attempting to do something FAR less ambitious than these bozos at NASA have set out to do. We were using essentially the same techniques as described in the article, with one incredible difference. THE NASA THING IS NOT GOING TO TOUCH YOU. BAA HAAA HAAAAA! I nearly broke a rib when I read they're going to gather the EEG signals---I have to steady myself from laughing so hard as I type---without placing a "cap" on the subject. Wait, can you hear that? It's the sound of my former co-workers laughing their asses off. What is the NASA team going to do *I'm still chuckling*, have every airline passenger step inside a Faraday cage packed with room temperature, superconductive sensors built by little gnomes at Area 51!?

We've been there, we've tried this....well, minus the full body Faraday cage and extraterrestrial sensors. That is, we had the luxury of actually using a standard EEG headset to collect the data. And it was still difficult to JUST GET QUALITY DATA. EEG is the biggest pain in the ass to work with. Ask ANYONE who's ever dealt with it.

Well, say NASA can wave a magic wand and somehow collect the data, then what? Predict high order human behaviors and thought processes by analyzing EEG with some other special herbs and spices thrown in for good measure? It may sound good on paper, but I'm here to tell ya: It's bullsh*t. No, it's double bullsh*t. Two years and millions of dollars later, I'll tell you what we got: Snake Eyes. Nothing. Jack. Nil. And I can assure you that we weren't going for anything remotely as hard as this NASA thing. We had lots of PhDs, freaks, nerds, experts, etc. It didn't matter. The feds would have a better chance of getting at the intent of an individual if they would let a circus macaque run loose in the terminal, randomly identifying "terrorists" in the crowd!

In case you think I'm kidding about all of this, that's me in the pictures. Pic1 Pic2 Pic3

Oh these remind me of another funny situation. The researchers used to run analysis jobs that were massively CPU intensive. It got to the point where literally every machine I could lay my hands on was pressed into service. And they still needed more power. Well, check out my solution. HA!


8/16/2002



New INS Rules Don't Affect Saudis or Pakistanis :.

I'm going to make this as simple as possible.

Question: What nationality were the 9/11 hijackers?

Answer: Of the 19 hijackers, 15 were Saudi citizens. Source

Question: Who wired Mohammed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker, $100,000?

Answer: The head of Pakistan's national intelligence agency (ISI), General Mahmoud Ahmad. Source

Question: Citizens from which two states are NOT going to receive increased scrutiny as a result of the INS' new policies to prevent terrorists from entering the U.S.?

Answer: SAUDI ARABIA and PAKISTAN.

We're being set up. Again.

WASHINGTON � The United States plans to impose significant restrictions on people seeking to enter the U.S. from a list of Middle East countries that does not include Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Officials said the greatest restrictions will be imposed on those who seek to enter the United States from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria. They said the new regulations will begin by October.

The new rules come under the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, Middle East Newsline reported. Under the system, the Immigration and Naturalization Service will monitor all those who enter or exit selected border points and land and sea ports.





General Franks on U.S. Imperialism :.

The U.S. is seizing control of Central Asia and parts of the Middle East. Have no doubt about it, Afghanistan was only the beginning. They might as well rename the entire Central Asian region Pipelineastan. (I think Mike Ruppert coined that term.)

The article states:

American troops will be needed in Afghanistan for many years to ensure that the war-ravaged country does not revert to a haven for terrorists, the U.S. war commander says.

That should read, "American troops will be needed in Afghanistan for many years to ensure that the Unocal pipeline, being built by Dick Cheney's former employer, Halliburton, remains safe and sound."

They don't even bother trying to be subtle about this stuff anymore. "It does not surprise me that someone would say, 'Oh gosh, the military is going to be in Afghanistan for a long, long time.' Sure we will be," Franks said. The delivery boy Franks will be saying the same thing about Iraq in a couple of months. And where will the next conquest take us? Maybe they'll get a Rommel urge and fire up the Afrika Korps. Libya? Sudan? Somalia? You know, the Axis of Evil really is everywhere...


8/15/2002



Brent Scowcroft Warning: Armageddon :.

In 1991, during the first Gulf War, Israel stayed out of the fight. Now, with Israel's nuclear missiles cocked and locked, it will take a miracle for the world to get through this insane adventure without a cataclysm:

The retired general, who also advised Presidents Nixon and Ford, predicted that an attack on Iraq could lead to catastrophe.

"Israel would have to expect to be the first casualty, as in 1991 when Saddam sought to bring Israel into the Gulf conflict. This time, using weapons of mass destruction, he might succeed, provoking Israel to respond, perhaps with nuclear weapons, unleashing an Armageddon in the Middle East," Mr Scowcroft wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

The Israeli government has vowed it would not stand by in the face of attacks as it did in 1991, when Iraqi Scud missiles landed on Israeli cities. It claims it has Washington's backing for retaliation.





Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision :.

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be "enemy combatants" has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional menace.

Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants.


If anyone can point me to the original sources in which that dangerous lunatic calls for detention camps, I'd appreciate it. Here's a copy of the email I just sent to the U.S. Department of Justice, with a CC to Professor Jonathan Turley, the author of the L.A. Times piece:

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin F [mailto:kevin@cryptogon.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 6:40 PM
To: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Cc: JTURLEY@main.nlc.gwu.edu
Subject: USDOJ Comments

Dear U.S. Department of Justice,

I just read a commentary piece, that appeared in the August 14, 2002 Los Angeles Times, in which the author, Jonathan Turley, states that Attorney General Ashcroft has called for detention camps to house U.S. citizens that have been classified as "enemy combatants."

The piece states:

"Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants."

What exactly does "Ashcroft's plan" entail? Are Mr. Turley's comments above correct? Please provide any information or URLs related to plans to classify American citizens as enemy combatants and incarcerate them in detention camps.

My readers and I are very interested in this topic. We would appreciate a thoughtful response.

Thank you,
Kevin

(Enclosed complete text of L.A. Times story.)

Research credit: TR





Bush to the Arab World: "There will be no turning back from the military option, make your time." :.

Diplomacy has returned to its pre-20th Century status. That is, the purpose of the diplomat is simply to be a formal messenger of kings and warlords. Now that the bad old days are back, there's no need to bother with negotiation or bargaining. Might for Right? F*ck that, man. Might makes Right! The U.S. is going to do this thing, no matter what anyone thinks about it.

Diplomatic sources said the Bush administration has sent letters to the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states in the Middle East. The letters, said to be nearly identical, assert that Washington is determined to topple the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The letters reported that the United States was deploying soldiers in the region and transporting a range of unspecified weapons for the attack on the Saddam regime.

"There will be no turning back from the military option," Al Hayat quoted the letters as saying.


Though I cannot reveal my sources and methods, I have obtained the actual text of the diplomatic communication! I know, it's amazing:

In A.D. 2101 2002

War was beginning.

How are you gentlemen !!
All your base are belong to us.
You are on the way to destruction.
You have no chance to survive make your time.
HA HA HA HA ....


8/14/2002



Helping the Blind to See :.

Nope, this isn't about the political sophistication of average Americans, or lack thereof. This article, which stood the hair on my arms on end, is one of the most incredible things I've ever read. Researchers, through the use of digital cameras, computers and electronics, have allowed a blind man to see. Not glimmers of light against a sea of black. The guy went from being completely blind to driving a convertible automobile in a parking lot---once the system was turned on. His cyborg vision is nothing like normal human vision, of course, but considering that this is something like version 1.0, it's pretty incredible. (That system isn't running Microsoft Windows, is it?) What will things be like in one hundred years, if the human race can manage to survive that long?

From a few steps closer, I see that the wires plug into Patient Alpha's head like a pair of headphones plug into a stereo. The actual connection is metallic and circular, like a common washer. So seamless is the integration that the skin appears to simply stop being skin and start being steel.

"It's called a percutaneous pedestal," Dobelle tells me.

All I can do is stare. The man has computer jacks sunk into both sides of his skull.

On the far side of the pedestal, buried beneath hair and skin, is the wetware: a pair of brain implants. Each one is the size of a fat quarter, a platinum electrode array encased in biocompatible plastic.

Dobelle has designed a three-part system: a miniature video camera, a signal processor, and the brain implants. The camera, mounted on a pair of eyeglasses, captures the scene in front of the wearer. The processor translates the image into a series of signals that the brain can understand, then sends the information to the implant. The picture is fed into the brain and, if everything goes according to plan, the brain will "see" the image.


Patient Alpha is a rather incredible character. After needlessly blinding himself in two separate incidents (eye protection anyone?), he managed to find a wife, help spawn eight kids (delivering six at home because established medicine is a fraud), build a totally off grid house and learn to program computers! Forget about being able to memorize entire classical piano scores. That's just crazy. I'm feeling pretty dense, sitting here with the full use of both eyes.... No wife, no spawn, no off grid house, and only questionable programming skills at best. Well, if anyone knows where guys can find women who are agreeable to living off grid lifestyles, please let me know.


8/13/2002



Here We Go: U.S. to Begin Fingerprinting Aliens :.

And what will THEY say when the next "terrorist" incident happens? "Woops, the boogiemen must have already been in the U.S. We will just have to fingerprint/photograph/implant/etc. everyone in order to defend the homeland!" And all the imbecile soccer moms and people with Chinese made American flags dangling from their SUVs will grin just a little bit and think, "Now we'll be safe."

Nobody in the upper echelons of the U.S. government is serious about actually stopping terrorism. (Forget about even examining the causes of terrorism.) If there was no terrorism, how could THEY justify the diabolical police state plans that have been set in motion? The War to Save the Homeland/War on Terror is a twisted/bizzarroland version of the New Deal, designed to give unemployed people something to do with their time so they don't get hungry and start actually examining the core issues. Second, the War to Save the Homeland/War on Terror, like the War on Drugs and the Cold War, serves to further enrich the richest 1% if the population. Finally, the crooks running the show get millions of minions to do their bidding. Fear not, as the bewildered sheeple stumble around, tattling on each other and chasing shadows, the rare scotch and fine cigars will not be in short supply in and around the mansions, yachts and private clubs.

If you think the above analysis is BS, why, for example, is the U.S. border with Mexico wide open? Iraq could move the entire Republican Guard into San Diego if it chose to. Osama bin Laden could be picking strawberries in Central California right now. But, we are led to believe, in the event that some of these serious characters (shooters, bombers, hijackers, etc.) decide to enter the U.S., they will make sure to walk right through an airport interrogation for finger printing and a photo session!? Like Atta and his crew....who had green lights from U.S. Immigration, despite being on terrorist watch lists!? People, wake up. The government is turning the screws, slowly getting us used to very ugly things. That's the purpose behind all of this garbage.

WASHINGTON �� The Justice Department has chosen Sept. 11 as the starting date for a new program that will require tens of thousands of foreign visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed at the border, U.S. officials announced Monday.

The security program, developed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, will begin at several unnamed ports of entry and will mostly affect those from Muslim and Middle Eastern countries.

After a 20-day testing period, all remaining ports of entry will implement the new system on Oct. 1, 2002.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the program will correct some of the problems that led to the Sept. 11 attacks.





America's Own Banana Republic :.

Some people think the capital of corruption in the U.S. is Arkansas. Well, I wouldn't even want to fly over Louisiana, much less visit. Barry Seal was from Louisiana, and that's where he learned about the power of bribing state and federal employees.

NEW ORLEANS -- A man was annoying Judge Ronnie Bodenheimer, getting in the way of a little business deal. "Aggravate the little [expletive] as much as you can," the judge told a flunky.

It didn't work. Something harsher was needed. Judge Bodenheimer, tough-guy dispenser of justice in the white-flight suburbs, pronounced the pipsqueak's downfall: "You know, this boy, you know, the sad part, he ain't got a shot, he ain't got a chance." And then the judge signed off on a plan, beautifully simple, that inscribes a new chapter in the annals of Louisiana sleaze, according to a federal indictment: plant illegal drugs in the man's pickup truck, then have him arrested.

"You know, he ain't gonna know what's hit him," chuckled Bodenheimer, a son of the rough-edged 9th Ward of New Orleans, according to transcripts of an FBI wiretap of his phone.


8/12/2002



Cryptogon.com Removed from Altavista.com Search Engine

I'm on Google's sh*t list, and they have almost definitely instructed their bot to avoid my site. Yes yes, I know, you think I'm insane, but I've submitted the site to be crawled several times and I'm listed on a couple of other political indexes (here's one) that are definitely hit by google. And now, it appears that I've been removed from Altavista's index! I started noticing several referrals from Altavista searches. So I searched cryptogon on there and, sure enough, the site was listed. Search cryptogon on Altavista now. If anyone knows anything about this nonsense, please let me know.





Cheney, Rumsfeld and the CIA Murder that Just Won't Die :.

The death of CIA employee Frank Olson is one of the most researched incidents related to the CIA's MKULTRA programs. This little tidbit is new:

But newly obtained documents show that the Ford administration continued to conceal information about Olson -- particularly his role in some of the CIA's most controversial research of the Cold War, on anthrax and other biological weapons.

The documents show that two of the key officials involved in the decision to withhold that information were White House aides Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, today the nation's vice president and secretary of defense.

``These documents show the lengths to which the government was trying to cover up the truth,'' said the scientist's son, Eric Olson, who gave them to the Mercury News. ``For 22 years there was a coverup. And then, under the guise of revealing everything, there was a new coverup.''


Research credit: TR





Protesters Tear Up Japan ID Numbers :.

The Japanese don't protest much of anything. It's considered impolite. So, what does it indicate when there is more outrage in Japan over Big Brother tactics than in the allegedly freedom loving U.S.?

TOKYO (AP) - Protesters tore up government notices assigning them ID numbers at Japan's Public Management Ministry in downtown Tokyo on Monday, the latest civil disobedience against the new nationwide resident registry system.

Outfitted in prison stripes and cow costumes, the demonstrators denounced the "Juki Net" residents network set up last week, implying that it treats them like convicts or cattle. It links all citizens' personal data on a national computer network.

The protesters decried it as a "Big Brother" system.

"We don't want to be administered by numbers or have our information monitored!" read one banner. Some of the protesters had bar codes painted on their faces.


Research credit: JH





May I Have My Mylar Bag, Please? :.

Perhaps the Mylar bag can also be fashioned into an attractive headpiece---as an alternative to the more traditional Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie. HA!

The traffic sensor system, which should begin operating next month, will make it possible to provide realtime information about some of the nation's worst congestion to drivers through their cell phones, over the airwaves and on the Internet, and gather better data for transportation planners.

Similar to systems in Houston and New York, the project will track electronic toll payment devices affixed to the windshields of more than 250,000 vehicles, using radio-based sensors mounted on highway signs every few miles.

And to the dismay of some FasTrak users, it's not optional -- the only way to avoid triggering the sensors throughout nine Bay Area counties is to stash the transponder in Mylar bags, which will be provided to nervous motorists.





More SUVs! :.

Forget the reports that indicate the planet will be uninhabitable within a few decades. The wolf is at the door right now:

(CNN) -- A dense blanket of pollution, dubbed the "Asian Brown Cloud," is hovering over South Asia, with scientists warning it could kill millions of people in the region, and pose a global threat.

In the biggest-ever study of the phenomenon, 200 scientists warned that the cloud, estimated to be two miles (three kilometers) thick, is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths a year from respiratory disease.

By slashing the sunlight that reaches the ground by 10 to 15 percent, the choking smog has also altered the region's climate, cooling the ground while heating the atmosphere, scientists said on Monday.


NOTE: If you know anything about engineering or electronics, you might try slapping together one of these babies! And why are we fighting wars for oil!?




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Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell Readers will come to see that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest" - fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate farms.

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross This is a relatively short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward; the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.

The Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing
Helen and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating, timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.

Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd In Silent Theft, David Bollier argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs, software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often, however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps give away our assets. Amazingly, the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed because we have lost our ability to see the commons.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.

When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten When Corporations Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It documents the devastating human and environmental consequences of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their own narrow ends.

The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener This expansion of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables, with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock, the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other topics.