The NSA House Intelligence Committee Hearing: Softballs and Beer

Incredible.

If you were wondering how the NSA and FBI felt about the very friendly hearing the House Intelligence Committee invited them to today, a hot mic has your answer. “Tell your boss,” NSA Director Keith Alexander told the FBI deputy director, “I owe him another friggin’ beer.”

Ben Doernberg caught the exchange, which we’ve clipped below. Alexander, being photographed at bottom center, is speaking with FBI deputy director Sean Joyce, to his left.

Throughout the hearing the two worked together, with Alexander frequently setting up topics upon which Joyce expounded. When Alexander said that the government’s surveillance tools had stopped over 50 terror attacks, Joyce described four of them. And so on. Over the course of three hours, the two faced little in the way of critique.

Nonetheless, they were ready for a brew. Their more informal exchange came after Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan banged the gavel.

The easy line of questioning combined with the post-hearing frivolity shows that our Representatives and the NSA are not taking this seriously.  We realize that national security involves surveillance but when that power is abused by individuals who are not held accountable for their actions, we get justifiably pissed. General Alexander could have discussed those thwarted plots all by himself instead of using Joyce as a sock puppet. Any agency director worth their salt doesn’t rely on cheesy theatrics.

The whole thing was a rehearsed dog and pony show.

I’m trying to give General Alexander the benefit of the doubt, but it’s getting harder as time goes on.

Edward Snowden’s revelation about the wide sweeping PRISM program was justified in that he hasn’t, so far, revealed specifics, nor did he go full traitor like Bradley Manning.  Snowden’s comments about China, however, have put a dent in his credibility.   General Alexander’s honesty about the NSA’s intent and the protection of civil liberties just took a big hit.

It’s looking more and more like Snowden is just the lesser of two evils.

 

 

Related posts:
NSA Director Alexander: Surveillance Helped Prevent “Potential Terrorist Events” Over 50 Times Since 9/11 (sfcmac.wordpress.com)

NSA ‘Mistakenly’ Intercepted Private Email and Phone Calls of Innocent Americans  (sfcmac.wordpress.com)

NSA Director Alexander: Surveillance Helped Prevent “Potential Terrorist Events” Over 50 Times Since 9/11

From Fox News.

The National Security Agency and Justice Department mounted a vigorous defense of the government’s controversial surveillance efforts on Tuesday, with NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander claiming they have helped prevent “potential terrorist events” over 50 times since 9/11.

Officials insisted the programs protect Americans from unwarranted intrusion, as they began to shed light on the scope of the secretive effort in a rare public hearing.

Disclosing new details, a top FBI official claimed the surveillance efforts helped disrupt a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange. FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce said NSA officials discovered the scheme while monitoring a known extremist in Yemen, who was in contact with an individual in the U.S. After initiating surveillance, Joyce said, they were able to detect “nascent plotting” to bomb the stock exchange and ultimately disrupt the plot.

Joyce also discussed another case in which the NSA used the program to tip off the FBI about an individual’s “indirect contacts” with terrorists overseas. This “terrorist activity” was disrupted as well, he said, without going into detail.

The administration had not previously discussed those two cases. Joyce also confirmed prior claims that the program helped detect information about the 2009 plot to bomb the New York subway system and a plot involving a Chicago resident to bomb a Danish newspaper.

It’s unclear whether authorities might have been able to disrupt these plots without the help of the phone- and Internet-record collection programs. But Alexander staunchly defended those programs against mounting criticism, pushing back after a string of reports based on leaks of classified information raised widespread privacy concerns.

……Specifically, he said they helped prevent terror “events” more than 50 times in more than 20 countries since 2001. Alexander said he plans to provide details on all the cases to lawmakers in a classified setting on Wednesday.

So, they stopped about 50 “potential threats”. Great. Unfortunately, the NSA didn’t stop the attacks in Boston by Chechen muslim terrorists.

Productive surveillance can be accomplished without resorting to undisciplined, Orwellian collection methods. If I want to catch a Trout, I don’t use bait for Bass. Targeting should be based on indications, warnings, and intelligence that points toward actual threats.

Are the NSA employees under the same scrutiny as the rest of America? If General Alexander doesn’t have a problem with the government prying into his private emails and phone numbers, there’s something wrong with that picture. The excuse that “if you have nothing to hide, it shouldn’t matter”, is indicative of a mindless tool.

Americans by nature, are rebellious. We don’t like our liberties being stepped on, by anyone.

Any power created for clandestine use can be abused.  The NSA’s surveillance programs need to be closely supervised.  Going after the bad guys doesn’t mean shadowing everyone in America just because you can. Collecting my phone number or snatching my private emails isn’t going to make the country safe from muslim terrorists.

The Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR, Jamaat Al Fuqura, and the Arab-American Action Network,  are terrorist groups and facilitators that operate carte blanche within our borders.  With just those muslim extremists alone, the NSA should be as busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.

An ambiguous blanket of spying on the United States isn’t going to stop muslim terrorists that the government not only knows about but let into the country in the first fucking place.

Related post:

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/nsa-mistakenly-intercepted-private-email-and-phone-calls-of-innocent-americans/

Obama to Start ‘Peace Talks’ With Taliban

Well, since B. Hussein thinks the Taliban is “not the enemy”, what could go wrong?

From France24.

Senior US officials said on Tuesday that representatives will begin formal talks with the Taliban “within a few” days at a new office in Doha, Qatar.

The Afghan Taliban opened the office to help restart talks on ending the 12-year-old war, saying it wanted a political solution that would bring about a just government and end foreign occupation.

Senior Barack Obama administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the record, described the office opening to AP as a stepping stone to full Taliban renouncement of al Qaeda.

Like its sister organization, al Qaeda, the Taliban is involved in world-wide terrorism.  They are connected and have conducted joint training and terrorist operations.
Obama thinks the Taliban will divorce its like-minded comrades in Al Qaeda. But then, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.

While he plays patty cake with the bad guys, they continue to attack American troops and NATO facilities.

A dicked up ROE, pussified, politically correct regulations, and portraying the enemy as less of an enemy isn’t a war. It’s a clusterfuck.  But then, “victory isn’t necessarily the goal.”

Trying to win the hearts and minds of a gutter culture stuck in the perverted philosophy of a 7th century Islamic zealot, won’t stop them from jihad.  Killing them will. We should be sending them to hell, not shaking their hands.

The so-called partnership between American Soldiers and Afghan troops is an epic fail. The Taliban and Al Qaeda have infiltrated the Afghan forces and most certainly have influence in Karzai’s regime.

Obama’s asinine announcement of complete troop withdrawal in 2014, has the Taliban giddy with anticipation. They can hardly wait. Not only do they get the benefit of knowing when we will leave Afghanistan, they get the green light to pick up where they left off before we invaded.

You don’t negotiate with the enemy, you annihilate them.  You don’t give them office space, you crush them to the point where they will never again have the ability to  do harm.

The whole point of going into Afghanistan was not just to get Bin Laden, (even though he escaped to Pakistan), but to defeat one of the enemies responsible for the 9/11 atrocities.  They have not been defeated, they’ve been propped up by a SCOAMF who is totally incapable of making good decisions.

Yep, the country’s in good hands.

 

 

Related post:

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/the-punchline-to-obamas-afghanistan-joke-the-taliban-gets-an-office-in-doha/

Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers Says His Pal Obama Should Be Tried for War Crimes

Bill Ayers discusses Obama’s presidency with Tom Bevan and Charlie Stone, as part of a Morning Commute interview. (Video at the link)

Ayers calls for B. Hussein Obama to be tried for war crimes, even though he ‘liked Obama personally and thinks ‘he’s a really good guy’.

Ayers says that ‘every president in this century should be put on trial’.  There’s only been 2 presidents in the 21st century so far, each with two consecutive terms, so I’m assuming he means all the ones in the last century starting with LBJ. He admits hating LBJ, Nixon, and Bush (GW), but Obama is ‘engaged in terrorist activity’ because of our Drone program.

Ayers declares: “Every one of them goes into office, an office dripping with blood, and adds to it. And yes I think these are war crimes. They are acts of terror.”

When it comes to dripping blood and acts of terror, the mutherfucker oughta know.

Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist and a former member of the Weather Underground, a radical leftwing group that went on a bombing spree in the 1960′s which included the Pentagon, The Capitol Building, Police stations, and the home of a New York State Supreme Court justice.

The motley crew of unwashed miscreants also planned on killing 25 million people deemed as “diehard capitalists”, once they established their communist utopia.

Some excerpts from his Weather Underground manifesto, “Prairie Fire”:

We are a guerrilla organization. We are communist women and men, underground in the United States for more than four years. We are deeply affected by the historic events of our time in the struggle against U.S. imperialism.
Our intention is to disrupt the empire, to incapacitate it, to put pressure on the cracks, to make it hard to carry out its bloody functioning against the people of the world, to join the world struggle, to attack from the inside.

———————————————————————

“Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents—that’s where it’s really at.”

———————————————————————

The little revolutionary dirtbag has no regrets:

This—violence, death, and white-hot rhetoric—is his past and Ayers insists he has no regrets. “I acted appropriately in the context of those times,” he says. But it’s hard to reconcile this quick-witted man with that revolutionary. Today Bill Ayers seems too happy to have ever been so angry.

In 1980, Ayers and (Bernadine) Dohrn turned themselves in. …..By then they had had two children together, and the bombing conspiracy charge against the couple had been dismissed due to government misconduct. (A technicality)

Dohrn plea-bargained to charges of inciting to mob action and resisting police officers. She was sentenced to three years’ probation and a $1,500 fine. Ayers was not charged. Even then he showed a way with words: “Guilty as hell, free as a bird—America is a great country,” he said.

———————————————————————-

”I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said. ”I feel we didn’t do enough.”

Unremorseful, guilty, unpunished, and a friend of B. Hussein Obama.

Obama launched his career from the living room of domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and his wife/sidekick Bernadine Dohrn. Obama also had ties to the Midwest Academy and Ayers’ Annenberg Fund.

His association with Ayers was a logical step.  He was schooled in Marxism from an early age and was mentored by communist radicals like Frank Marshall Davis.  His indoctrination was complete by the time groups like ACORN helped him get elected as Illinois Senator. He’s been groomed for this his whole life; to reach the most powerful position in the world and do the most damage to freedom and democracy as possible.

Obama is more  likely to align himself with Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals than the U.S. Constitution.

And now, one of his former radical best buddies has lumped him in the same category as the evil capitalists and warmongers they once teamed up against.

That’s funny as hell.

Related articles

• Bill Ayers: Our Bombs Weren’t Like the Boston Bombers’ Bombs At All (pjmedia.com)
• Kent State Welcomed Terrorists to Shooting Remeberance (grumpyelder.com)
• Busted: Obama Lied about Bill Ayers (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
• http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/306221-ayers-obama-should-be-put-on-trial-for-war-crimes

14 Year Old Faces Fine, Jail Time for Wearing NRA T-Shirt to School (UPDATED)

This is just a latest in a rash of jackbooted craziness on the part of school and government officials.

UPDATE: Jared returned to school wearing his NRA shirt. Some of his fellow students wore NRA shirts as well to show support.

Jared Marcum, the eighth grade Logan, West Virginia student who was suspended and arrested after refusing to change his NRA t-shirt at school, was met by several supporters Monday morning outside of Logan Middle School.

Jared returned to class, fresh off of suspension, wearing the same exact shirt that initiated the “t-shirt control” controversy in the first place.

“There’s a lot of people wearing this same exact shirt, showing great, great support and I really appreciate it,” Jared said just before walking into school.

Original story:
Suspended and arrested after refusing to change his NRA shirt.

Today, 14-year-old Jared Marcum appeared before a judge and was officially charged with obstructing an officer.
A $500 fine and up to a year in jail, that’s the penalty that Jared could face, now that a judge has allowed the prosecution to move forward with it’s obstructing an officer charge against him.
“Me, I’m more of a fighter and so is Jared and eventually we’re going to get through this,” Jared’s father Allen Lardieri said.  ”I don’t think it should have ever gotten this far.”
The Logan County Police Department initially claimed that the at-the-time 8th grade Logan Middle School student was arrested for disturbing the education process, obstructing an officer and Lardieri says that officers even went as far as threatening to charge Jared with making terroristic threats.
“In my view of the facts, Jared didn’t do anything wrong,” Ben White, Jared’s attorney said.  ”I think officer Adkins could have done something differently.”
Prosecuting attorney Michael White refused to respond to any questions, as did Logan Police.
We obtained official court documents from both sides of this case.  On one hand, the arresting officer from the Logan City Police Department, James Adkins, claims that when Jared refused to stop talking, that hindered his ability to do his job, hence, the obstruction charge.  On the other side, Ben White points out that nowhere in the arresting officer’s petition, does it mention Jared ever making any threats or acting in a violent manner.
“Every aspect of this is just totally wrong,” Lardieri said.  ”He has no background of anything criminal, up until now and it just seems like nobody wants to admit they’re wrong.”

The goons in the police department, especially James Adkins, need a refresher course on the First and Second amendments. Apparently, Adkins thinks that verbal defense of ones’ rights is a “terroristic threat”.  I hope Jared’s father fights this shit tooth and nail.

Drop a line to the Logan Police Department on their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/City-of-Logan-West-Virginia/544570278916293

The reaction to real threats posed by deranged wackjobs who use schools, movie theaters, and other public places to rampage, is knee jerk stupidity.

Children who have cupcakes decorated with toy Soldiers, shape a Pop-Tart into a gun, play “Rescue the World” by throwing a fake grenade at “evil forces”, point a Hello Kitty bubble gun at a classmate, play with water pistols, or make a gun gesture with their little hands, are considered armed and dangerous.

Out of control paranoid zealots that have taken over the American school system and law enforcement.  They are incapable of making reasoned, common sense decisions.

But pushing radical leftwing propaganda, taking away a child’s homemade lunch, teaching the art of “fisting”, sexual positions, porn stars and bestiality as part of “sex education”, and the indoctrination of Islamofascism, are all part of academic life in American schools.

The State knows how to raise your children better than you.

Dear Leader said  that he can’t confiscate your guns because he’s  “constrained by a system our founders put in place”, yet he’s been trampling all over the constraints since he took office.

Had Jared worn a Che T-shirt, they wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

 

 

Related post:

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/backlash-against-obamas-anti-second-amendment-crusade/

Related articles:

http://www.wowktv.com/story/22029456/questions-remain-unanswered-for-8th-grade-student-arrested-over-shirt
https://tarpon.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/west-virginia-14-year-old-boy-who-refused-to-remove-nra-shirt-in-school-facing-1-year-in-jail-after-prosecutor-moves-forward-with-case/