Border Patrol agents seized over 8,754 pounds of marijuana valued at $7,003,176 and over 17 pounds of heroin valued at $1,405,300. Agents arrested 14 criminal aliens and 11 gang members. There were 10 rocking incidents.

*This overview is compiled from incidents reported to the Office of Border Patrol and is not intended to reflect all Border Patrol enforcement actions. Most arrests and seizures fail to meet the requirements for mandatory reporting to the Office of Border Patrol.

Reported on May 7, 2009

El Centro Sector – A Border Patrol agent reported that three subjects on the U.S. side of the international border assaulted him with rocks near Calexico, California. The agent deployed a Pepperball Launching System, and the subjects fled into Mexico.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents rescued 12 illegal aliens after one of them placed a 911 call near Hickiwan, Arizona. The caller stated the group had been without food or water for three days. The group was located after a search by agents and Customs and Border Protection Air assets. One of the subjects was transported via air ambulance to a local hospital and admitted for treatment of dehydration.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Sasabe, Arizona. The subject became combative and actively fought with agents by striking them and throwing a rock. Agents subdued and arrested the subject.

Reported on May 8, 2009

El Paso Sector – Border Patrol agents assisted local law enforcement officers with a forest fire near Timberon, New Mexico. Agents helped evacuate residents, provided security, and set up a temporary shelter.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Tucson, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a previous conviction of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in prison. He also had a previous conviction of threatening to terrorize and was sentenced to 92 months in jail.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents seized 1,912 pounds of marijuana valued at $1,529,920 and a 2001 Chevrolet Suburban near Cockleburr, Arizona. While conducting patrol duties, an agent found an abandoned vehicle hidden in a wash. A search revealed 105 bundles of marijuana inside the vehicle.

Reported on May 9, 2009

Laredo Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from El Salvador near Freer, Texas. While in custody the subject admitted to being a member of the Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang. Records checks revealed he had a previous conviction for assault and domestic violence.

Rio Grande Valley Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from El Salvador near Falfurrias, Texas. While in custody, the subject admitted that he is a member of the Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang. Records checks revealed he had previous convictions for burglary and grand theft auto.

Rio Grande Valley Sector – Border Patrol agents seized 1,734 pounds of marijuana valued at $1,386,800, a 2001 Freightliner tractor-trailer, and arrested a United States Citizen (USC) at the traffic checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas. The subject presented himself and the tractor-trailer for inspection, and a Border Patrol canine alerted to the vehicle. A subsequent search revealed the marijuana concealed in a false compartment.

Reported on May 10, 2009

El Paso Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien near El Paso, Texas. During processing, the subject was identified as a Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang member. Records checks revealed he had an extensive criminal history.

Rio Grande Valley Sector – Border Patrol agents seized 1,322 pounds of marijuana valued at $1,057,600 near Hidalgo, Texas. While conducting patrol duties, agents found the marijuana abandoned in thick brush.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested nine illegal aliens from Mexico near Tucson, Arizona. The subjects claimed that several armed bandits robbed them of 14 bundles of marijuana in the United States.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien near Amado, Arizona. During the arrest, the subject was non-compliant and attempted to strike an agent. The agent deployed his collapsible straight baton and took the subject into custody without further incident. Records checks revealed the subject had previous convictions for selling amphetamines and possessing a weapon.

Yuma Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from El Salvador near Yuma, Arizona. During processing, the subject admitted to being a Mara Salvatrucha 13 gang member. Records checks revealed the subject had an active warrant issued in the State of New York for dangerous drugs.

Reported on May 11, 2009

El Centro Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Calexico, California. Records checks revealed the subject is a registered sex offender in the State of California and was previously removed from the United States.

Reported on May 12, 2009

San Diego Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Honduras near Jacumba, California. The subject attempted to abscond and assaulted an agent, but was subsequently subdued. Records checks revealed the subject was previously removed from the United States and has an extensive criminal history.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents rescued three illegal aliens from Mexico after receiving information that they were lost in the desert near Gila Bend, Arizona.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Nogales, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject was a convicted sex offender in the State of California, and was previously removed from the United States.

Reported on May 13, 2009

Laredo Sector – Border Patrol agents reported that four unidentified subjects on an island in the Rio Grande River used slingshots to shoot rocks at a National Guard helicopter near Laredo, Texas. An agent onboard the helicopter deployed less lethal munitions and the subjects fled into Mexico.

Rio Grande Valley Sector – Border Patrol agents seized 16 pounds of heroin valued at $512,000, a 1993 GMC truck, and arrested a national of Mexico at the traffic checkpoint near Falfurrias, Texas. The subject presented himself for inspection, and a Border Patrol canine alerted to the vehicle. A search of the vehicle revealed four bundles of heroin concealed in both rear brake drums.

Rio Grande Valley Sector – Border Patrol agents seized 3,099 pounds of marijuana valued at $2,479,040, a 1986 tractor-trailer, and arrested a USC at the traffic checkpoint near Sarita, Texas. The subject presented himself for inspection, and a Border Patrol canine alerted to the vehicle. A search of the trailer revealed the marijuana commingled in a load of corn husks.

Rio Grande Valley Sector – Border Patrol agents seized 3,883 pounds of marijuana valued at $3,106,560 and a 2000 Ford F-250 near La Rosita, Texas. Agents observed the driver of the truck acting suspiciously, and attempted to conduct a vehicle stop. The driver failed to yield and agents later encountered the vehicle abandoned. Agents searched the area and found bundles of narcotics leading to an abandoned shed.

Tucson Sector – Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Elfrida, Arizona. During processing, the subject admitted to being a Sureno 13 gang member. Records checks revealed he is also the subject of an active warrant issued by the State of Colorado for failure to comply/contempt of court.

 

Judicial Watch Forces Release of Bank Bailout Documents

 

 

 

 

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Foreclosure filings in the U.S. rose to a record for the second consecutive month in April as banks increased efforts to seize homes from delinquent borrowers.

A total of 342,038 properties received a default or auction notice or were seized last month, RealtyTrac Inc. of Irvine, California, said today in a statement. One in 374 households got a filing, the highest monthly rate since the property data service began issuing such reports in 2005.

“What you’re seeing is the inevitable result of severe job losses,” Nicolas Retsinas, director of housing studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in an interview. “Until we stem the job losses, we can expect to see continuing foreclosures.”

Unemployment is hampering the housing market as property prices fall. The U.S. jobless rate rose to 8.9 percent, the highest in more than a quarter century, the Labor Department said May 9. Home prices fell the most on record in the first quarter to a median $169,000 amid sales of foreclosure properties, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday.

Foreclosure filings jumped 32 percent from the year-earlier period, RealtyTrac said. Filings were little changed from March as some states delayed seizures. Ten states accounted for three- quarters of all foreclosures in April, with California leading the nation.

Declines Slowing?

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said yesterday there are signs the real estate market is recovering.

“Since January we’ve seen both home sales moving up and down around a relatively stable number and we are seeing the first signs that the rapid decline in home prices is starting to abate,” Donovan said at an NAR conference in Washington.

March prices fell less than in February and 17 states showed sales increases, yesterday’s NAR report showed, as buyers took advantage of mortgage rates below 5 percent. The Federal Reserve is purchasing mortgage-backed securities to spur lower rates.

While price declines are slowing, it’s likely bank seizures will increase in the coming months, RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer James Saccacio said.

“Lenders and servicers are beginning foreclosure proceedings on delinquent loans that had been delayed by legislative and industry moratoria,” Saccacio said.

California was No. 1 in April with 96,560 filings, a 42 percent increase from a year earlier, RealtyTrac reported. Florida climbed 75 percent to 64,588, Nevada rose 111 percent to 16,266 and Arizona rose 40 percent to 16,245.

State Rankings

Illinois ranked fifth in filings with 13,647, up 54 percent from a year earlier. Other states among the top 10 were Ohio with 12,324, Georgia with 11,521, Texas with 11,314, Michigan with 10,830 and Virginia with 6,254.

Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate as one in 68 households there received a filing, more than five times the national average. Bank seizures dropped 44 percent from the previous month, RealtyTrac said.

Florida had the second highest rate at one in 135 households, almost three times the national average, and bank seizures fell 7 percent from March. California ranked third at one in 138 households, and Arizona was fourth at one in 164.

Utah, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and Ohio were among the other with the 10 highest foreclosure rates.

Connecticut had the 19th highest rate, one in 662 households. Filings rose 25 percent from a year earlier to 2,174.

New Jersey’s Rate

New Jersey had the 22nd highest rate, one in 695 households, and filings fell 4 percent to 5,034. New York ranked 36th at one in 1,420 households, and filings fell 1 percent to 5,591.

Las Vegas had the highest rate for metropolitan areas with populations of 200,000 or more. A total of 14,073 properties, or one in 56 households, received a filing, almost seven times the national average, RealtyTrac said.

Cape Coral-Fort Myers in Florida ranked second at one in 57 households. The city also had the steepest price decline in the first quarter, down 59 percent from a year ago, the NAR said yesterday. Miami and Orlando ranked ninth and tenth.

California cities ranked third through eighth: Merced, Modesto, Riverside-San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Vallejo- Fairfield, and Stockton, according to RealtyTrac, which collects default data from 2,200 U.S. counties representing about 90 percent of the population.

“The housing problem is now an economic problem,” Retsinas said. “On the margins you have some investors who think they may have found the bottom, but on the other side are foreclosures.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Levy in San Francisco at dlevy13@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 13, 2009 00

 

By Brian Moss and Fiona Shaikh

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. consumers took the wind from the sails of optimists looking for a swift end to the recession on Wednesday as April retail sales fell, signaling they are not yet ready to lead the world back to growth.

Following a report of diving European industrial output and a Bank of England forecast saying Britain needed a long period of healing, hopes slipped for a quick rebound for the global economy.

"This would deal a considerable blow to the 'green shoots' talk and it's possible that would hit some of the recent optimism in the markets and hurt risk appetite," said Robert Blake, senior currency strategist at State Street Global Markets in Boston.

In a speech in Washington, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the U.S. financial system is starting to recover and lending is starting to improve. He said he would soon propose a fund backed by large financial institutions that cover the risk of some of those companies failed.

"We have already seen a substantial amount of adjustment in our financial system," Geithner told an audience of community bankers. "The more vulnerable parts of the nonbank financial system no longer exist."

CONFOUNDED

Sales at U.S. retailers fell for a second straight month in April, government data showed. This confounded analysts' forecasts of no change, and even a small rise when disastrous motor vehicle sales were excluded.

Total sales, which had earlier shown signs of revival, dropped 0.4 percent. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, the fall was even bigger at 0.5 percent, the Commerce Department said.

"The back-to-back gains we had in January and February, which had helped inspired hopes that we were getting out of this recession, just got dealt a significant blow," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities in New York.

As if to reinforce the data, big, midpriced U.S. department store chain Macy's Inc (M.N) posted a quarterly loss and stuck to its full-year forecast of a sales decline.

World stocks were down, while the dollar gained against most major currencies on safe-haven buying.

Euro zone industrial output plummeted by more than 20 percent in March, official data showed, pointing to a sharp contraction in first-quarter economic output.

"There are no green shoots here; everything is either a quarter or a fifth down on the year," said Stuart Bennett, European economist at Calyon. "This sure is a horrible number," added Kenneth Broux, economist at Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets.

"SOLID REASONS"

The Bank of England offered little relief in its quarterly economic forecast, predicting a slower British economic pickup than it had previously expected.

"Now the economy requires a period of healing. That will take time," Governor Mervyn King told a news conference.

Any recovery was far from certain to last despite all the emergency treatment given to economic and financial systems.

"There are pretty solid reasons for supposing that there will be a recovery next year, but also pretty solid reasons for questioning if that will be sustained," King said. "It would be extremely unwise for anyone to claim that they know what the future is to hold."

Industrial production figures from China, supposedly a beacon of light during the world recession, also proved a disappointment. But at least they showed growth.

Chinese shoppers seem to be pulling their weight. Retail sales grew 14.8 percent year-on-year in April, up slightly from 14.7 percent in March.

"It is important not to attach too much importance to one particular data point and to recognize that any recovery in China is not going to proceed in a straight line," said Brian Jackson, an economist with Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong.

German car-parts group Schaeffler said it may have to cut about 4,500 jobs as the global slump eats into sales. Schaeffler showed how long some big companies may need to recover, forecasting that its markets would take up to five years just to return to 2008 levels.

Overall, Europe produced mixed earnings reports, including a bigger-than-expected loss by Dutch financial group ING (ING.AS).

World stocks as measured by MSCI were down 1.7 percent after two consecutive days of moderate losses, hurt by the U.S. retail sales data. Leading Wall Street indices were down near 2 percent at midday.

(Reporting by Reuters correspondents worldwide; Editing by Dan Grebler)

 

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - Monsanto Co said on Wednesday that it expects its U.S. gross profit from sales of seeds and traits to double by 2012 from the 2008 level, while its international businesses should grow by 85 percent.

That would amount to a gross profit of $4.7 billion to $4.8 billion by 2012, up from the 2008 gross profit of $2.4 billion for Monsanto's U.S. seeds and traits business, according to Monsanto officials.

The international seeds and traits business should see gross profit grow to $2.6 billion to $2.7 billion by 2012, up from $1.45 billion in 2008.

St. Louis-based Monsanto, which is the world's biggest seed company, said as world population accelerates, it plans to launch a "high impact technology" product every one to two years, with the goal that each project will deliver more than $300 million in "gross revenue opportunities" by 2020 in the country where it is launched.

Among the company's top targeted product releases are its Genuity Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans and Genuity SmartStax corn, as well as a drought-tolerant corn and corn that uses nitrogen more efficiently, and an insect-protected soybean for Brazilian farmers.

Monsanto's sales of genetically modified trait developments in corn, soybeans and other crops have grown rapidly in the United States. But the company is increasingly looking for international growth as revenues from chemical herbicides peak.

The company's shares were down 18 cents at $89.90 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

 

 

 

 

US co-opts Pak for Predator strikes

 

 

WASHINGTON: In a new revelation, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the CIA of the United States and his country's ISI together created the Taliban. "I think it was part of your past and our past, and the ISI and CIA created them together," Zardari told the NBC news channel in an interview.  In the interview, which was given to the NBC on May 7, Zardari also accused the US of supporting the military rule of Pervez Musharraf who was alleged to be taking sides of the Taliban. He disagreed with the popular belief in the US that the Pakistan military and intelligent services still have sympathies for the Taliban. "I think General Musharraf may have had a mindset to run head and hand with the hound but certainly not on our watch. We don't have a tough process at all," Zardari said. Asked about the influential role of the Pakistan army, Zardari said he is in control of everything in the country, including the military. "The Parliament has final say. It's the Parliament form of government, and I am a product of the Parliament," he said. Earlier, Zardari in an another interview had said that India was not a "threat" to his country and that Pakistan had moved some of its forces from its Indian border to western frontier to eliminate Taliban in its tribal belt.

 

 

Source: Bloomberg

The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.

Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.

The World Health Organization received the study last weekend and is reviewing it, Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said in an interview May 11. Gibbs, who has studied germ evolution for four decades, is one of the first scientists to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus that was identified three weeks ago in Mexico and threatens to touch off the first flu pandemic since 1968.

A virus that resulted from lab experimentation or vaccine production may indicate a greater need for security, Fukuda said. By pinpointing the source of the virus, scientists also may better understand the microbe’s potential for spreading and causing illness, Gibbs said.

Possible Mistake

“The sooner we get to grips with where it’s come from, the safer things might become,” Gibbs said by phone from Canberra yesterday. “It could be a mistake” that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans, he said.

Gibbs and two colleagues analyzed the publicly available sequences of hundreds of amino acids coded by each of the flu virus’s eight genes. He said he aims to submit his three-page paper today for publication in a medical journal.

“You really want a very sober assessment” of the science behind the claim, Fukuda said May 11 at the WHO’s Geneva headquarters.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has received the report and has decided there is no evidence to support Gibbs’s conclusion, said Nancy Cox, director of the agency’s influenza division. She said since researchers don’t have samples of swine flu viruses from South America and Africa, where the new strain may have evolved, those regions can’t be ruled out as natural sources for the new flu.

No Evidence

“We are interested in the origins of this new influenza virus,” Cox said. “But contrary to what the author has found, when we do the comparisons that are most relevant, there is no evidence that this virus was derived by passage in eggs.”

The WHO’s collaborative influenza research centers, which includes the CDC, and sites in Memphis, Melbourne, London and Tokyo, were asked by the international health agency to review the study over the weekend, Fukuda said. The request was extended to scientists at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, the World Organization for Animal Health in Paris, as well as the WHO’s influenza network, he said.

“My guess is that the picture should be a lot clearer over the next few days,” Fukuda said. “We have asked a lot of people to look at this.”

Lab Escape

Gibbs wrote or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications on viruses during his 39-year career at the Australian National University in Canberra, according to biographical information on the university’s Web site.

Swine flu has infected 5,251 people in 30 countries so far, killing 61, according to the WHO. Scientists are trying to determine whether the virus will mutate and become more deadly if it spreads to the Southern Hemisphere and back. Flu pandemics occur when a strain of the disease to which few people have immunity evolves and spreads.

Gibbs said his analysis supports research by scientists including Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, who found the new strain is the product of two distinct lineages of influenza that have circulated among swine in North America and Europe for more than a decade.

In addition, his research found the rate of genetic mutation in the new virus outpaced that of the most closely related viruses found in pigs, suggesting it evolved outside of swine, Gibbs said.

Some scientists have speculated that the 1977 Russian flu, the most recent global outbreak, began when a virus escaped from a laboratory.

Other Theories?

Identifying the source of new flu viruses is difficult without finding the exact strain in an animal or bird “reservoir,” said Jennifer McKimm-Breschkin, a virologist at the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization in Melbourne.

“If you can’t find an exact match, the best you can do is compare sequences,” she said. “Similarities may give an indication of a possible source, but this remains theoretical.”

The World Organization for Animal Health, which represents chief veterinary officers from 174 countries, received the Gibbs paper and is working with the WHO on an assessment, said Maria Zampaglione, a spokeswoman.

The WHO wants to know whether any evidence that the virus may have been developed in a laboratory can be corroborated and whether there are other explanations for its particular genetic patterns, according to Fukuda.

‘Wild Idea’

“These things have to be dealt with straight on,” he said. “If someone makes a hypothesis, then you test it and you let scientific process take its course.”

Gibbs said he has no evidence that the swine-derived virus was a deliberate, man-made product.

“I don’t think it could be a malignant thing,” he said. “It’s much more likely that some random thing has put these two viruses together.”

Gibbs, who spent most of his academic career studying plant viruses, said his major contribution to the study of influenza occurred in 1975, while collaborating with scientists Graeme Laver and Robert Webster in research that led to the development of the anti-flu medicines Tamiflu and Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

“We were out on one of the Barrier Reef islands, off Australia, catching birds for the flu in them, and I happened to be the guy who caught the best,” Gibbs said. The bird he got “yielded the poo from which was isolated the influenza isolate strain from which all the work on Tamiflu and Relenza started.”

Gibbs, who says he studies the evolution of flu viruses as a “retirement hobby,” expects his research to be challenged by other scientists.

“This is how science progresses,” he said. “Somebody comes up with a wild idea, and then they all pounce on it and kick you to death, and then you start off on another silly idea.”

 

 

UK releases al-Qaeda operatives who plotted to bomb shopping centers

"If such a plot was carried out, it would almost certainly have been Britain's worst terrorist attack, with the potential to cause more deaths than the suicide attacks of July 7, 2005, when 52 people were murdered" (from this story). "Pakistani men 'part of al-Qaeda network planning attacks in Britain," by Duncan Gardham for the Telegraph, May 12:

Ten Pakistani men released without charge after an investigation into an alleged plot to bomb shopping centres in Manchester were part of an al-Qaeda network planning attacks in Britain and should be deported, a tribunal has heard.

The men were arrested on April 8 after former Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick entered Downing Street with details of the operation against the men visible under his arm.

None of the men were charged with any crime but the government launched an attempt to have the men deported. ?THIS OK?

Their lawyers are objecting to the deportation orders, arguing that they should be freed to continue their studies.

Robin Tam QC for the Home Secretary told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in London: "All the applicants were members of a UK based network linked to al-Qaeda involved in attack planning.

"Each therefore poses a risk to national security and deportation would be considered in the national good."

Mr Tam said there was a "high risk they would re-engage in their former activity to the detriment of national security" and there was a risk they would abscond if granted bail.

All the group were "young single men with no close family ties to the UK and each claims to have been a student", Mr Tam added...

 

 

 

 

DO YOU THINK OBAMA MIGHT NOT BE WHAT HE SAYS HE IS?

 

By Dr. Laurie Roth
May 8, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

“I am a Christian, never a Muslim.” It’s incredible to me as I revisit the emotional and spiritual seduction so many millions had when Obama was running for office. So many were sick of globalist Bush, the Iraq war and Republicans in general. We found ourselves with a handsome, young, rock star black guy who was vividly democrat and liberal competing against the usual Rhino type conservative who was older and was proud of being a compromiser and frankly a globalist, McCain. I had a little hope when they brought in Sarah Palin, a real woman, wife, mom and servant to the people of Alaska who could speak. However, they quickly and stupidly pulled her back and like McCain they tried to moderate her. Bad and fatal move to the campaign interviews and debates!

Like so many others in conservative talk radio and journals, I studied Obama’s voting record and associations pitting them against his articulate and entertaining speeches staring at the prompters. I was stunned that so many, though obviously sick of the Iraq struggle and mad at Bush would think that this empty shirt, Obama could actually bring the change America needed! NO, I won’t call him an empty shirt because he has nasty things in all his pockets. “Empty” at least reflects ignorance that would be bad but more understandable.

Just the facts please

Is Obama the sincere Christian so many believe he is?

He told the G 20 folks in his last big overseas series of meetings that WE WERE NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION.

He gladly bowed low to the King of Saudi Arabia, something a U.S. President has never done.

He broke a long-standing tradition when the White House demanded that the symbol of Jesus Christ be covered up before his speech at Georgetown University on April 24th. This was unprecedented by and American President. Most recently, former President Bush and Laura Bush spoke at the same podium and never asked for the symbol of Jesus Christ to be covered up. Obviously, someone has a little issue with Jesus……….hmm.

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Now we have him refusing to even attend the National Day of Prayer gathering on May 11th, 2009.

What is President Obama’s goal in leadership?

Obama wants and plans for the U.S. to submit to international leadership and the UN.

It doesn’t take a great IQ to see the over reach of Obama and this administration trying to force our country into submission with the International community and UN. He is supportive and so are many liberal members of this congress, of the U.N. Rights of the Child (UNCRC). It sounds at first glimpse innocent until you study what they want to do. It would render the rights of all parents to raise their children, impotent. There could be no more love pats, or swats, don’t be thinking about forcing little Suzie to church. If she was distressed about going to church one Sunday and told a school counselor it would be a violation of the rights of your child to make her go. Foster care and authorities might just show up at your door. Don’t mess with the rights of your child with the Internet either….. on and on.

For that matter, with Barney Frank’s Hate Crimes bill, protecting pedophiles and over 500 different sexual absurdities, crimes and much deviance, don’t be thinking you can bonk a pedophile over the head if he is attacking your young daughter. You could be committing a felony and hate crime and he could be committing a misdemeanor. Isn’t that precious?

We have also seen Obama and his administration pushing FOCA, the freedom of Choice Act which would force all Doctors, hospitals, Christian/Catholic or not and all states (even if laws were on the books against abortion) to give abortions on demand. Maybe that is why one of the many things listed in the Homeland Security Report, the day before the April 15th Tea Parties as a potential domestic terror danger were people who believed in state and federal sovereignty.

We have seen Obama and his administration recently pressuring and allegedly threatening many lenders who didn’t want to sell Chrysler. They were threatened with ruination if they didn’t cooperate and sell. GM will even be more complicated and horrific as they fall apart and the Government swoops in to control them.

We have already heard of and I have spoken and written about in previous articles, the many banks who did not want the bail out money. They were all pressured to take at least 5 billion each or none would get it. I talked directly with two high up banking contacts that were straight up and verified that. Then when the banks tried to pay it back as soon as possible congress would not take the funds back.

The only thing you can figure with this ridiculous scenario is that Obama and this administration want total control of the banking industry, auto industry, if he has his way, parental rights. The control attempts and plans continue on. We will see a strong push for forced gun registration and manipulated environmental controls and taxation. You know, the huge worldwide, global warming melt down that doesn’t really exist?

What can one assume from the first 100 days in this administration?

Obama is NOT a Christian.
Obama is NOT a Capitalist but a totally dedicated socialist/Marxist.
Obama is in love with being popular to the world but hates the US and its sovereignty.
Obama has little or no loyalty at all to our best allie in the Middle East, Israel.
Obama believes in big Government control in all areas of our lives.

This is not my vision for America; I hope to God it isn’t yours. Organize and plan LARGER Tea Parties July 4th. Work very hard to find and back REAL leaders to run in each of your states and get behind them in an assertive way. Let’s regain the House in the mid term elections and work on getting back the Senate. Finally, let’s vote this nightmare out of office after 4 years and start to repair the damage!

© 2009 Dr. Laurie Roth - All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

THE ESSENTIAL SERVICES CLUE

 

By Nancy Levant
May 8, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

For years we’ve been bombarded by the term “essential services”. In war and crisis-based economics, the term offers great insight into governmental crystal balls. The essential services list appears to be fairly consistent and looks something like this:

1. Government and Government Agencies
2. Emergency/Crisis Services
a. The Department of Homeland Security
b. FEMA
c. CERT/First Responders
d. Medical Entities and Personnel
e. Law Enforcement and Fire Departments
f. Teachers/Schools
g. National Service Volunteers
h. Infrastructure Builders
3. National/Federal Banks
4. Food and Drug Administration
a. Agriculture
5. Transportation
6. Postal Service
7. Power Grid
8. Water

Now, tell me if I’m wrong, but it appears that government always is essential in our current state of government-controlled affairs. Equally, it would appear that crisis looms large as the essential footprint of this all-encompassing control. But what is far more telling, is this list’s direct connection to martial law executive orders. If there are any readers who have yet to have read all martial law executive orders, please do so now. And I would also recommend that everyone reread them and get them implanted into your brain for they are explicitly related to today’s government-imposed essential services.

Now, we must consider the crisis scenarios that our government advertises 24/7.

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1. Global Warming/Storms/Forest Fires
2. Pandemic
3. Terrorism (Foreign and Domestic)
4. The Economy
5. Bad Food/Animals
6. Health Care
7. Failed Education System
8. Open Borders/Crime/Kidnapping/Pandemics
9. National Service/Mandatory Civilian Labor
10. Suspended Constitution/Military Rule/Martial Law
11. The Auto Industry and Bank Failures/Transportation Control/High-Tech Superhighways

The obvious connection to crisis and martial law are clear. Now, one of the most disturbing aspects of such connection is martial law Executive Order #11000 which tells us that families can be forced into work details and that families can be split up and, clearly, this means adults from children.

One of the infrastructure goals to jumpstart the economy is to build high-tech schools. Let us, therefore, consider some of our new high-tech school campuses across the country. We see very large multi-district campuses with most built in more rural areas with surrounding acreages. We see very few windows in these new schools and they are, indeed, high-tech with campus surveillance and private law-enforcement personnel. One might say they are remarkably akin to prison compounds. And they also seem to have the capacity to contain many hundreds of children. They all have large food service capacities, large gymnasiums, and they are literally full of government-trained employees with government grantee mandates. If, under martial law, children can be separated from parents, are high-tech campus schools the holding tanks for our children? And are they capable of securing children from their parents?

Also think, if you will, of your community’s and regional food banks. FEMA, Red Cross, Salvation Army, other local food bank charities, and our faith-based government soldier churches, many of which now are housing food banks, or are in partnership with bulk food companies. It’s a funny thing how 501(c)3 non-profit faith-based Christians who are, themselves, partners with the Department of Homeland Security and government grants, still dare to claim moral authority and to judge. Money talks, doesn’t it folks? Money tied to crisis really talks.

So here’s the deal: “You are either with us, or you’re against us.” No truer words ever came out of the mouth of a D.C. politician. For you to be an essential servant, to do as told, think as told, be as told, and to go as told, your kids will be in school and guaranteed for a 12 month school year. Crisis is, after all, your duty, your moral authority, and your purse. Your essential/national service, no matter how involuntary, is not an option. Reread your 13th Amendment, won’t you?

Join us this week on the Govern America radio broadcast. Govern America is broadcast every Saturday morning from 8AM to 11AM Eastern time on the Republic Broadcasting Network. Click here to listen live.

© 2009 Nancy Levant - All Rights Reserve

 

 

 

Jim Kouri Go to Jim's Home Page  Law Enforcement Examiner

 

On April 24, as I was waiting in the San Francisco Hall of Justice to cover a murder case involving members of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), a small group of BLA supporters was beginning to gather. Convicted lawyer Lynne Stewart greeted Ward Churchill, after the lanky and long-haired former Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder strolled down the hallway. "Congratulations," she said, embracing him and referring to a jury verdict that he was wrongly fired. "Will you be reinstated?" Churchill answered, "It remains to be seen."

Stewart was convicted of aiding a terrorist group while representing Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, himself convicted of several terrorism charges relating to attacks planned on the United States and now serving time in the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina. Stewart's guilty verdict is on appeal.

Churchill, who taught "ethnic studies," got into trouble after he wrote an essay describing 9/11 victims as Nazis. University administrators had charged him with shoddy research and plagiarism.

It looks like Churchill will either get his job back, or the university, which mishandled the case, will have to pay him not to show up for class after a judge forces his reinstatement.

Interestingly, a letter asking for his reinstatement is signed by "William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago," who is better known as Bill Ayers of the Communist terrorist group known as the Weather Underground.

 

National Police Week

But why are these people coming out in support of accused cop-killers? It's a question worth answering, considering that May 10-16 is National Police Week and that Attorney General Eric Holder, who was involved in the Clinton pardons of members of two major terrorist groups, is speaking at the National Law Enforcement Memorial on Wednesday night. Holder will lead the lighting of candles and read the names of law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty.  

The Holder pardons involved members of the Weather Underground and Puerto Rican FALN, groups which killed police officers and many others.

Stewart and Churchill were at the San Francisco hearing to show solidarity with Herman Bell and Anthony Bottom, members of the Black Liberation Army accused of killing San Francisco Police Sergeant John Young in 1971. One flashed a clenched fist to Stewart, Churchill and the others in the audience seated behind the defense table.

Already in prison for their role in the murder of two New York City police officers, Bell and Bottom are two members of the "San Francisco 8" alleged to be involved in numerous terrorist attacks on police and police facilities in the San Francisco area in the early 1970s.

Some of the evidence in the case is expected to come from Ruben Scott, a former BLA member with inside information about the group. The preliminary hearing in the case begins on June 8.  

The BLA worked with the Weather Underground organization, and Ayers himself is under scrutiny for his alleged role in a 1970 bombing murder of San Francisco Police Sergeant Brian V. McDonnell at the Park Police Station near Golden Gate Park. Former FBI informant Larry Grathwohl, who has testified under oath that Ayers told him that Bernardine Dohrn had planted that bomb, met with San Francisco Police homicide investigator Joe Engler on April 24 about the case.

But before charges can be brought in the Park Police Station bombing case, some observers think that significant progress has to be made in the "San Francisco 8" case. And that will be a formidable challenge, considering that supporters of the terrorists such as Churchill, Stewart and others have mobilized on a national basis, have held protests outside the courtroom, and have even launched a website for the accused that is sponsored by a so-called "Committee for the Defense of Human Rights."

 

Disinformation Campaign

Hence, the plan is to portray the victims-the police-as the criminals.

Interestingly, the charges in the BLA case have been brought by the office of California Attorney General Jerry Brown, a liberal Democrat who has had major disagreements with the California Democratic Party and is considering another run for governor. 

BLA lawyers in the courtroom numbered at least seven and they included Stuart Hanlon, who has won an award from the National Lawyers Guild. This group is so far left that it was officially described as a communist front organization during the Cold War and continues to be the U.S. affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the old Soviet front. Its next international conference is scheduled for Hanoi. One of the IADL's current causes is to use the United Nations to investigate and punish Israel for alleged war crimes.

Hanlon has gone on far-left shows like Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! radio/TV program to claim that evidence in the case has been obtained through torture. Goodman's show is funded by Bill Moyers and his Schumann Center for Media and Democracy and other "progressive" foundations.

The San Francisco Labor Council, which is the local body of the AFL-CIO, has been enlisted in the campaign to sabotage a guilty verdict and issued a resolution calling for all of the charges against the BLA to be dropped. Labor Council executive director Tim Paulson has attended and spoken at anti-Iraq War demonstrations staged by the Act Now to Stop War and Racism (ANSWER) group, a front of the communist Workers World Party, and was the Labor Caucus Chair of the California Democratic Party at its recent state convention.  

"The resolution offered by the SF Labor Council stretches truth and glamorizes Sergeant Young's slayers not as fugitive conspirators, but as heroes of the local oppressed," commented an outraged Gary Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association. "In actuality, they are thugs, murderers, and thieves; self-glorified members of the Black Liberation Army, a fringe organization whose sole purpose was to spread hateful and racist ideology through violence, urban terrorism, and death."

It is clear that the far-left campaign, which specifically urges Brown to drop the charges, is designed to poison the jury pool, so that one or more members of the jury will consider the BLA to be a civil rights organization that was subjected to unwarranted investigations and government misconduct.

 

Going After Ayers and Dohrn

But if law enforcement authorities can convict the BLA in the Young case, can they also get Ayers and Dohrn-and perhaps other members of the Weather Underground or the BLA-in the Park Police Station bombing case?

Interestingly, a key individual involved in the murder of Sgt. Young was Marilyn Buck, active in both the Weather Underground and the BLA. Buck, serving time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, for her convictions in other terrorist acts, cased the Ingleside police station before the BLA attacked it.

All of these individuals, in turn, are linked to another cop-killing.

One of Buck's terrorist convictions involved the 1979 escape from prison in New Jersey of Assata Shakur, convicted of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster. Shakur fled to Cuba and received political asylum from the Castro government and continues to live in Cuba. The attack on Foerster also took the life in a gun battle of Shakur's terrorist associate, Zayd Shakur.

Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn named one of their children after Zayd Shakur. He goes under the name of "Zayd Dohrn" and is a playwright.

 

Cuba Hosts Cop-Killer

As President Obama moves toward normalization of relations with Castro's Cuba, the communist regime's protection of the terrorist could become a major problem.

Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, who was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Cuba, gave a major speech on March 2 on the Senate floor warning against recognizing and working with the Castro regime. "Some suggest that there be cooperation with Cuba on narcotics trafficking," he said. "Well, let them hand over the 200 fugitives from the United States that the FBI knows are in Cuba, including Joanne Chesimard, the convicted killer of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster. Let her come back to the United States and face justice. There are 200 of them."

New Jersey State Senator Sean T. Kean agrees, and has written an April 17 letter to Obama demanding that Chesimard be returned to the U.S.

"I am sure you would agree that this murderer of a dedicated law enforcement officer should be made to face the consequences for her cowardly actions that took the life of this brave man," Kean declared. "Further, by aiding and abetting this cold-blooded killer, Cuba has insulted our State Police and all members of the law enforcement community. As such, for the United States to enter into normal relations with Cuba without requiring Chesimard's extradition sends the message to the world that we are not committed to pursuing just ice for a police officer who was savagely gunned down in the line of duty."

The FBI is currently offering a $1 million reward for information directly leading to her apprehension.

What, if anything, will Holder and Obama have to say about this? Will the media even bother to ask them during National Police Week?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tillman's parents want general's record reviewed

Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2009-05-13 13:20.

• Afghanistan

 

 

US reporter in Iran 'held secret report on Iraq war'

Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2009-05-13 13:24.

• Iran

 

 

 

 

Cheney to Mainstream Media: Terrorists Blew Up WTC

Mark Anderson
American Free Press
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld each have made curious 9-11 statements on camera that are well worth pondering. Two particular video clips (see links at bottom) have some observers saying that these comments constitute 9-11 “blurt outs” suggesting inside knowledge of what actually happened on 9-11—Freudian slips, if you will.

While this phenomenon of slippery lips regarding 9-11 is not altogether new, Cheney’s statement was on Mother’s Day on national television, a day when many moms remember their soldier-sons who died in the war on terror inspired by 9-11.

Cheney, in his May 10 interview with Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer, a veteran CBS journalist, defended the Bush Administration’s water-boarding torture of al Qaeda suspects and other policies that he insists gleaned sensitive information and kept the nation safe for the eight years since Sept. 11, 2001.

While recalling that President Bush in his final days as president was quiet regarding the Obama administration’s possible actions to overturn Bush-era national security policies, Cheney said he chose to be outspoken in his final days as VP, to make the case that the Bush administration did things right and that he has “no regrets” about using torture to get information.

(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Cheney told Schieffer that Obama should not change these policies. And while Cheney noted that there are “two memos that I know of, written by the CIA, that point out the success of those policies,” he went on to say that these memos are classified but should be released to the public and the press, so that the claimed effectiveness of Bush-era national security policies can be evaluated.

“The memos do exist, I’ve seen them, I had them in my files at one time,” Cheney told Schieffer, after the host said that the attorney general “says he does not know of such memos.”

In the course of the discussion, Cheney used the exact words “blew up the World Trade Center” in reference to the al Qaeda network which, according to the official version, masterminded the 9-11 operation but absolutely did not “blow up” the World Trade Center since that implies implanted explosives and an inside job of some kind.

“Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the man who killed 3,000 Americans on 9-11, blew up the World Trade Center, attacked the Pentagon, tried to blow up the White House and the Capitol Building . . . an evil man,” said Cheney to Schieffer, who did not react to the words “blew up.”

Mohammed did not spill the beans on his 9-11 role, claimed Cheney, “until after water boarding.” He also claimed that other planned attacks against the United States were stopped by so-called enhanced interrogation methods—a euphemism for torture.

However, Osama bin Laden—long pitched as the poster boy of terror and mastermind of 9-11—was not even mentioned by Cheney. The U.S. government has never captured bin Laden in its vast war on terror with hugely expensive, prolonged military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars have killed tens of thousands of overseas civilians and killed, sickened and maimed many thousands of U.S soldiers, with fatalities well beyond the official war dead of some 4,200 because most battle-sickened troops who die later are not counted as “killed in action.” American Free Press in previous reports has estimated the real war dead, conservatively, at 80,000, based on Veterans Administration GWVIS figures online.

“I am . . . absolutely convinced that we saved thousands or hundreds of thousands of [American] lives,” Cheney told Schieffer, reflecting on the domestic effects of Bush’s policies. Cheney also said these policies compliment the day that he raised his right hand to take an oath “to defend the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic” and that there was nothing “devious, dishonest, illegal or deceitful” about what was done.

The official 9-11 story stubbornly maintains that terrorists flew two commercial jetliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) and that the impacts and fires brought on a gravitational collapse of the 110-story, steel-framed buildings. The third building that collapsed in the WTC complex was Building 7, which was not hit by a plane but was supposedly damaged to some extent by fires and debris.

The federal government and big media have always denied that an inside job of any kind took place in these three buildings or in the rest of the broad 9-11 crime, even though building 7 came down in a little under seven seconds into its own footprint like a controlled demolition.

In December 2004, Rumsfeldstated the following from a podium when visiting Iraq, as excerpted in a brief video clip: “And I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon. . . .”

The official story is that Islamic terrorists hijacked the plane, Flight 93, and forced it to the ground in rural Shanksville, Pa., merely by seizing control of the cockpit. The claims by some independent researchers that the real plane was shot down at a different, but nearby, location in Pennsylvania have always been dismissed by higher-ups in government and big media. Some say a cruise missile or similar device was shot into the ground, as a diversion, at the official “crash scene” in Shanksville, which left no distinct plane wreckage behind.

Also, in an Oct. 12, 2001, statement by Rumsfeld in Parade magazine, he refers to “the missile” that damaged the Pentagon, even though the official story says Islamic terrorists flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, and there was no missile. Again, there was no discernable commercial airliner wreckage. Even the lawn by the impact site was undisturbed.

“Here we’re talking about plastic knives and using an American Airlines flight filled with our citizens, and the missile to damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the World Trade Center. The only way to deal with this problem is by taking the battle to the terrorists, wherever they are, and dealing with them,” said Rumsfeld, according to Parade, some six months before any missile theories arose among alternative media. Critics, however, claim Rumsfeld was misunderstood and meant the AA flight and missile were one and the same, not separate.

But Cheney’s new statement is a fresh example of an unguarded moment in which the truth could have slipped out. Is this an admission of guilt or inside knowledge? No. But it may be a good reason to bring these former Bush boys into court or before congressional committees for detailed questioning, as architects, engineers, aeronautics specialists, attorneys, former military and intelligence personnel and other credible people question the official 9-11 story in growing numbers.

——————————————————————————–

The videos of Cheney and Rumsfeld can be watched at the below links:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5004452n

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Xoxaf1Al0

 

 

 

 

Jim Kouri Go to Jim's Home Page  Law Enforcement Examiner

 

The following report is based on documents submitted to the National Association of Chiefs of Police for dissemination to police commanders throughout the nation.

Significant drug and weapons seizures by the Tucson-based, multi-agency Border Enforcement Security Task Force or BEST, are on the rise, a trend Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials attribute to heightened cooperation and information sharing fostered by the investigative task force among law enforcement agencies in southern Arizona and Mexico.

Last month, for example, the Tucson BEST netted sizeable caches of illegal weapons as well as a 40-pound load of methamphetamine. Both seizures were the result of leads developed by the task force, which is made up of officers from six federal, state and local law enforcement agencies operating in southern Arizona as well as the federal police from Mexico.

The methamphetamine seizure occurred April 20, after BEST agents received information that led them to a California truck reportedly being used to smuggle narcotics. Agents followed the truck to a residence on South Snapdragon Street in southeast Tucson. As the truck sped away from the house, BEST investigators pulled it over and located two hidden compartments in the vehicle's undercarriage. Inside, investigators found almost 20 pounds of methamphetamine. Another 20 pounds of the substance was discovered in a search of the residence on Snapdragon. The BEST's investigation into this drug smuggling scheme is ongoing.

Two weeks earlier, on April 5, BEST agents investigating possible smuggling activity observed a white Ford F-150 pickup arrive at a 300-acre ranch in Sonoita, Ariz. and back-up to a large metal shed. Agents followed the truck as it left the property and traveled north on Highway 83. At that point, BEST agents coordinated with the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) to attempt a traffic stop.

Upon seeing the agents, the truck accelerated and eluded law enforcement. A short time later, a DPS helicopter reached the scene and spotted the vehicle north of the location of the attempted traffic stop. BEST and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agents responded and recovered 722 pounds of marijuana from the pickup. Subsequently, investigators executed a federal search warrant at the ranch where they located and seized 27 firearms, 2,295 rounds of ammunition, 1,318 pounds of marijuana, and a stolen all-terrain vehicle.

"These enforcement actions show how the BEST is proving to be a worst case scenario for criminal organizations attempting to smuggle dangerous contraband through southern Arizona," said Matt Allen, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Arizona. "The success of the BESTs in combating drug-related crime and violence is the reason the Department of Homeland Security has announced plans to double the number of agents assigned to the BESTs along the southern border."

In addition to ICE, the agencies on the Tucson BEST include U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Pima County Sheriff's Office, the Arizona National Guard and the Mexican Federal Police. Formed in 2006, the Tucson task force is the oldest of the three BESTs now based in Arizona. The other Arizona BESTs are located in Phoenix and Yuma.

 

 

JERUSALEM – Unlike the Bush administration, the staff of President Obama is not coordinating its policy on Iran or the greater Middle East with Israel and has not been informing the Jewish state of its plans or recent diplomatic developments in the Mideast, according to sources in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. 

The silence extends to U.S. talks with the Palestinians, the sources said.

"Our intention and our hope as we go to Washington is to establish close intimate cooperative relationships on these sensitive matters," a top Netanyahu official told WND yesterday.

The official was speaking about Netanyahu's May 18 visit to the White House.

According to other sources in the prime minister's office, Israel has been obtaining the vast majority of its information regarding U.S. plans and advances for the Middle East from third parties, mostly European diplomats.

This is in stark contrast to Bush's eight-year presidency, during which the White House and State Department routinely briefed Israeli counterparts on Middle East affairs to the extent that the majority of official U.S. and Israeli statements on various policy issues were heavily coordinated.

[Read Full Article]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97693