Thursday, January 08, 2009

police state int'l: protests, paranoia & the persistence of resistence

video: police execute unarmed man in public; shot in back
from mercury news: A BART police officer struggling to handcuff a 22-year-old man, stood up over the facedown Hayward resident and fired a single shot into his back while a handful of officers watched, a video taken by a train passenger apparently shows. The attorney for the family of Oscar Grant III, fatally shot by an unidentified BART officer early New Year’s Day, said Sunday he plans to file a $25 million lawsuit against the department and asked prosecutors to consider filing murder charges against the officer.

oakland turns violent over shooting
oakland turns violent over shootingfrom nytimes: Protesters angry over a deadly New Year’s Day shooting of a young black man by a transit police officer erupted into violence in downtown Oakland on Wednesday night while investigators struggled to determine what prompted the officer to fire his gun into the unarmed man’s back.


update: officer johannes mehserle resigns over murder

muslim family: 'paranoid' people got us booted from plane
from raw story: Nine Muslims, including three children, were ordered off a domestic US flight after two other passengers heard them making what they thought were suspicious remarks about security, media said Friday [jan2]. The group, eight of whom are US citizens, was in Washington Thursday afternoon on an AirTran flight bound for Orlando, Florida where they were to attend a religious retreat, and were eventually cleared for travel by the FBI, according to the Washington Post. The airline and FBI characterized the incident as a misunderstanding, but AirTran reportedly refused to rebook the passengers, who paid for seats on another carrier.

airplane cigarette break sparks in-air brawl
from threat level: You know all those warnings not to smoke in the airplane lavatory? Delta-owned Comair takes that very seriously. When a flight attendant caught a passenger lighting up on a November flight from New York to Savannah, Georgia, the pilot diverted to Raleigh to have the nicotine addict removed from the plane. The passenger, Henry McDowell, Jr., had already drawn the ire of his fellow travelers by being loud and aggressive before the flight, according to an FBI affidavit [44kb PDF], and for grumbling that the "airplane sucks." So when the plane changed course, the other passengers blamed McDowell. That's when things devolved into a flying cage match... McDowell was charged this week with interfering with a flight crew. I'd have just let the guy smoke.

massachusetts bank requires fingerprint to cash check
massachusetts bank requires fingerprint to cash checkfrom metrowest: Ariel Sarousi felt surprised and dismayed when asked to provide a fingerprint to cash a check at a Framingham Bank of America branch on Monday. The 25-year-old Framingham native, who lives in Virginia, brought a rent check to the Bank of America branch on Beacon Street. He does not have an account with the bank, but the check came from a Bank of America account. "They asked for an ID, which I provided, and after that they brought out an ink pad," Sarousi said. "I asked why, and they said they wanted to take a fingerprint. I said, 'Get out! Please!' and they said, 'No, we're serious."' Sarousi said he had other forms of identification and that should be enough to cash a check. "I said, 'You can't expect me to provide fingerprints to cash a check,"' Sarousi said. "I took my check and left.

cell phones can & are being used as bugs
from nearing midnight: Cell Phones are being used as bugs, taps, tracking, spying …Dr. Alfred Adams, Author of the books Nearing Midnight, has put together some clips about how it works. and what you can do to stop it.

uk police placed in all city schools
uk police placed in all city schoolsfrom bbc: Every secondary school in Leeds is to have a dedicated police officer as part of a drive to cut crime. Eight of the city's 38 schools will have a full-time police presence. Another 16 officers will cover the remaining 30 schools. More than 250 offences were committed in Leeds schools in 2008, figures show. Although officers will be able to arrest and search pupils, West Yorkshire Police stressed they would focus on education not enforcement. The 24 officers involved in the project will support lessons on weapons and drugs awareness, citizenship and personal safety as well as tackling issues like bullying, absenteeism and truancy.

wanted: 850 new fbi agents
from cnn: Despite a bleak economic environment featuring wide-ranging layoffs and rising unemployment, the nation's premier law enforcement agency is touting "one of the largest hiring blitzes in our 100-year history."

cia preparing to install military government in greece?
cia preparing to install military government in greece?from paul joseph watson: The increasingly violent riots in Greece could be the curtain raiser for a military coup d’etat and the installation of a new government more friendly to U.S. hegemony as a countermeasure to increasing Russian influence over the Balkan state. It wouldn’t be the first time the CIA has assisted in such a venture - they aided the 1967 installation of a U.S. friendly military junta known as the Regime of the Colonels ostensibly to prevent Greece from falling under Soviet control, a fascist cabal which was later overthrown in 1973. The coup was achieved with the active support of such groups as the LOK Special Forces, which was part of Operation Gladio, NATO-controlled black-ops forces that carried out false flag attacks across Europe to eliminate left-wing political organizations. Gladio tactics are again being employed with the current riots following the revelation that police masquerading as anarchists were committing acts of wanton violence to enflame tensions and provide a pretext for a brutal crackdown on legitimate demonstrators protesting against police brutality and the mishandling of the economic crisis. The agenda is again likely to be related to fears over increasing Russian influence in the region.

research related articles:
violent attacks erupt in greece*
greece-style riots coming to US*
US 'spy' ship leaves sevastopol for greece*
greek riots: banks & cars burned by greek mob*
greece violence targets police*
uk government preparing extra graves for pandemic?*
neo-cons still preparing for iran attack*
russian combat aircraft to join military drills with belarus*
pentagon preparing for afghan surge*
georgian military build up, bully on border with south ossetia: russian mfa*
evidence of US military presence in georgia*
are the greek riots a taste of things to come?*

US soldier ordered to leave canada
US soldier ordered to leave canadafrom ap: The first woman soldier to flee the U.S. military for Canada to avoid the Iraq war has been ordered deported along with her husband and children. Kimberly Rivera said Wednesday her requests to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds were rejected. Rivera served in Iraq in 2006 and came to Canada the following year after she refused redeployment. She lives in Toronto with her husband and three children - the youngest is six weeks old and Canadian born. Rivera says she'll discuss her options with her husband and supporters but feels she's come to the "end of the road." The family must leave Canada by Jan. 27 unless the order is reversed. The group War Resisters Support Campaign says four other resisters and their families face deportation in January alone.

more evidence of pentagon war against the internet
from kurt nimmo: Further evidence has emerged revealing how the Pentagon is in the business of responding to blog posts critical of the U.S. government. Noah Shachtman, writing for Wired, posts an Air Force flowchart used for “counter-blogging” purposes. “In a twelve-point plan, put together by the emerging technology division of the Air Force’s public affairs arm, airmen are given guidance on how to handle ‘trolls,’ ‘ragers’ — and even well-informed online writers, too. It’s all part of an Air Force push to ‘counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force,’ Captain David Faggard says,” Shachtman writes. In the case of the Infowars and Prison Planet websites, Centcom operatives do not respond to trolls and ragers. In fact, many of them seem to be the most vociferous trolls and ragers. On October 16, 2006, Raw Story reported that the United States Central Command sent an email to bloggers on the subject of the GWOT, or so-called “global war on terror,” as part of the Pentagon’s “engagement operations.”

trans-texas corridor dead in name only
from statesman: The Trans-Texas Corridor, as a name and as a guiding concept of the state's transportation future, is dead, Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Amadeo Saenz told an audience of more than a thousand people Tuesday at an Austin hotel. But Saenz acknowledged that all elements of the original plan, including a tollway twin to Interstate 35, could be built as stand-alone projects if and when they are deemed necessary. Gov. Rick Perry in 2002 unveiled with great fanfare the corridor plan as an almost $200 billion blueprint for the state's transportation future and then took withering criticism for it in a tough 2006 re-election race. On Tuesday, he said, "The days of the Trans-Texas Corridor are over."

army sends 'dear john doe' letter to families of war dead
from afp: The US Army apologized Wednesday for mistakenly sending letters to 7,000 families of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan with the salutation "Dear John Doe." The letter, which was mailed December 20, contained information about private organizations offering assistance to families who lost a soldier, but omitted specific names and addresses. "The salutation says 'Dear John Doe,' which was basically sort of a placeholder where the name of the individual or the recipient was supposed to be," said Paul Boyce, an army spokesman. Boyce said the error was not caught when the 7,000 letters were printed, sorted and sent out to family members.

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