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Posts tagged Eric Holder
Pathocracy in Action: US supreme court finalizes gift of immunity to the telecom giants
17 months ago
Source: http://www.sott.net
Glen Greenwald
The Guardian
© GettyThe telecom giant has another big win in US cou
Yet again, the Congress, courts, executive branch and the establishment media work together to protect the nation’s most powerful actors
So pervasive and reliable is the rule of elite immunity – even in the face of the most egregious crimes – that one finds extreme examples on a weekly basis. Six weeks ago, the Obama justice department forever precluded the possibility of criminal accountability for Bush torturers by refusing to bring charges in the only two remaining torture cases, ones involving the deaths of the detainee-victims by torture.
The Obama campaign is now running a new campaign ad against Mitt Romney that rails against a litany of Wall Street “criminals” and “gluttons of greed”, but as David Dayen astutely notes, those examples were all imprisoned during the Bush era because the Obama administration has prosecuted no significant Wall Street executives for the 2008 financial collapseand thus have none of their own examples to highlight:
“So the Obama campaign could not fill a list of three Wall Street criminals that the Obama Justice Department actually sent to jail. Heck, they couldn’t fill a list of one!
“This is despite Eric Holder telling students at Columbia University in February of this year that his Justice Department’s record of success on fighting financial fraud crimes ‘has been nothing less than historic.’ But not historic enough that his boss could point to, well, one Wall Street criminal behind bars as a result of DoJ’s actions.
That’s painfully telling. Nobody from Bank of America or Wells Fargo or Citigroup or JPMorgan Chase or Goldman Sachs or Bear Stearns or Morgan Stanley or Merrill Lynch or even Countrywide or Ameriquest was available to stand in as a ‘glutton of greed’ in this advertisement. Literally no major figure responsible for the financial crisis has gone to jail. So the campaign has to use two CEOs from a decade-old accounting scandal, and a garden-variety Ponzi schemer.”
And now, the US supreme court just consecrated one of the most corrupt acts of the US government over the past decade: its vesting of retroactive legal immunity in the nation’s telecom giants after they had been caught red-handed violating multiple US eavesdropping laws. Just as the Obama DOJ forever precluded any legal accountability for Bush-era torturers, the supreme court on Tuesday forever precluded any legal accountability for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and other telecoms for their crucial participation in the illegal Bush NSA warrantless eavesdropping program (the Obama DOJ, needless to say, supported the position of the telecoms).
When the New York Times revealed on 16 December 2005 that the Bush administration was spying on the telephone calls and emails of American citizens without the warrants required by the criminal law, it exposed lawbreaking not only by government officials but also by the nation’s largest telecoms. Multiple laws were in place at the time imposing both criminal and civil liability on telecoms for enabling government spying on the communications of their customers without warrants or other legal authority, and that is exactly what these telecoms did. One former AT&T employee, Mark Klein, publicly described how AT&T had even built a separate room with no purpose but to permit the National Security Agency unfettered access to all of its customers’ communications.
Issa Confirms Fast & Furious Wiretaps
010 months ago
Source: http://www.prisonplanet.com
By Kurt Nimmo
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa has confirmed that wiretap applications reveal in-depth detail on the Fast and Furious operation, including evidence showing that “agents were well aware that large sums of money were being used to purchase a large number of firearms, many of which were flowing across the border.”
Roll Call reports today that Issa released details concerning the wiretaps in the House. His disclosure is protected by the Speech or Debate Clause in the Constitution, which offers immunity for Congressional speech on the floor.
According to Darrell Issa’s letter sent to Maryland Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings on May 24, not only did ATF officials know about the purchases, they oversaw activity by straw purchasers and ended their surveillance without interdicting the guns.
“Although ATF was aware of these facts, no one was arrested, and ATF failed to even approach the straw purchasers,” Issa’s letter states. “Upon learning these details through its review of this wiretap affidavit, senior Justice Department officials had a duty to stop this operation. Further, failure to do so was a violation of Justice Department policy.”
As we noted on June 22, Obama lied to the American people on March 23, 2011, when he said that neither he nor Attorney General Holder authorized the effort to arm the drug cartels in Mexico. Several weeks later, on May 3, Holder lied to Congress. He said he did not know who approved Fast and Furious. He also lied when he said he “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”
Issa talks about contempt and criminal case against Holder.
On Thursday, House Republicans held Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. The House made the historic move after Holder refused to divulge additional documents on the gun-running operation and Obama invoked executive privilege in an attempt to block the request for more information.
Fast and Furious rhetoric insensitive to whistleblowers and victims
0Source: http://www.examiner.com
The House Committee on Oversight and Government reform votes to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt in the Fast and Furious scandal.
Photo credit:
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Certain reporters in the mainstream media and progressive politicians in Washington have engaged in rhetoric that exhibits a marked insensitivity to the whistleblowers and victims in the Fast and Furious scandal.
In the aftermath of the vote Wednesday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, certain mainstream reporters and progressive politicians went on a spree of hurling inflammatory statements at Republicans in the House and some of the reporters who broke the Fast and Furious story.
The hate spree has had the net effect of slamming and insulting the whistleblowers and victims who through no fault of their own found themselves caught up in a sordid scheme of illegal activity including gun and drug smuggling and murder, perpetrated by the Obama Justice Department and its agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
Judge Napolitano: Executive Privilege Only Applies If Obama Involved
0
So what was Obama’s level of involvement in the incident and the cover-up?
Related post:
Attorney General Eric Holder, “Fast & Furious”, Contempt and Executive Privilege
Attorney General Eric Holder, “Fast & Furious”, Contempt and Executive Privilege
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J. Scott Applewhite / AP
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., center, considers whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 20.
Well, is the heat being turned up on Attorney General Eric Holder regarding operation Fast & Furious today, and what will the resulting outcome be? The House Committee holds Holder in Contempt. The party-line vote was 23-17. The controversy goes next to the full House, which is to vote next week unless there is some resolution in the meantime.
The vote followed a decision by President Barack Obama earlier in the day to assert executive privilege for the first time in his administration in order to protect the confidentiality of the documents.
There is committee chairman, Darrell Issa of California,heading the investigation in Arizona of gun-running into Mexico, called Operation Fast and Furious. This operation resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Agent Terry was shot on December 14, 2010 and he died the following day. Fast & Furious has also claimed the lives of over 300 Mexicans.
Issa said that “more than eight months after a subpoena and clearly after the question of executive privilege could have and should have been asserted, this untimely assertion … falls short of any reason to delay today’s proceedings.”
According to the DOJ, In Fast and Furious, agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Arizona abandoned the agency’s usual practice of intercepting all weapons they believed to be illicitly purchased. Instead, the goal of gun-walking was to track such weapons to high-level arms traffickers, who had long eluded prosecution, and to dismantle their networks.
If you believe that at face value I have property on the most pristine oceanfront beach locations in Arizona I would love to sell you, along with a few bridges, lol.
Add to this the President calling for executive privilege to what appears a power play to keep the Legislative branch along with the American people from every finding out the truth. So what is Obama’s role and involvement with this more than shady operation. The president is doing his best to avoid accountability, so why?
The last Cabinet member to be cited by a congressional committee for contempt was Attorney General Janet Reno in President Bill Clinton’s administration.
Zombies, Deniers, Sociopaths, Schemers and Protectors
0Source: http://www.naturalnews.com
Another great article by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles…)
Zombies, Deniers, Sociopaths, Schemers and Protectors: The five dominant personalities you’ll encounter in a world gone mad
(NaturalNews) What the heck is going on with our world? Why are people such lying betrayers? Why do the most evil people (like Eric Holder) rise to the top of the corporate-run fascist government? Why are homeless zombies eating human flesh?
In answering those questions, I’ve assembled the five archetypes of a society in collapse. These are the five dominant personalities we all see around us right now:
• Zombies
• Deniers
• Schemers
• Sociopaths
• Protectors
Which one are you?
Check the descriptions below to find out. You may also come to discover the true archetype of your boss, your spouse, your coworker or even your Congressman!
Zombies
Zombies are the brain dead masses, the TV-watching fluoride heads who believe the mainstream media and dutifully vote for the next globalist puppet President. They live their lives without consciousness or awareness, sleepwalking through day after day, job after job, drinking diet soda and eating GMO.
Most zombies are incapable of holding down paying jobs, although a few have managed to find employment at the local DMV. The lower strata of zombies tend to be unemployed and even homeless, wandering the streets and snorting “bath salts” designer drugs that make them want to snack on each other’s flesh.
When not snarling at police and barbequing their best friends, these zombies are frequently panhandling at street intersection, holding signs that read, “Out of work. God bless” or whatever text best works to get them more money for booze and drugs. Four years ago, their signs read, “Hope and Change.” Change did come, of course, but not the kind of change they had hoped for.
The Zombie population is rapidly growing in America, thanks to the economic implosion and the continued assault on cognitive sanity via chemicals found in food, water, air and medicine. Many gun owners are locking and loading with Hornady’s “ZombieMax Ammo” in preparation for the coming Zombie apocalypse. Remember: If it’s eating the face off another person, it’s okay to shoot it.
Summary of the Zombie Archetype:
Cognitive capabilities: Insane.
Moral compass: Non-existent.
Desired agenda: Self-entertainment.
Worships: Nothing.
Typical dress: Rags.
When you’re not looking, they will: Eat your face.
Deniers
With slightly more cognitive capability than Zombies, Deniers are the functional but ignorant masses who live out their meaningless lives in total denial of reality. They can still manage to hold down jobs and even dress themselves, so most Deniers are middle-class working people you might find employed at the local Wal-Mart, insurance company or TSA hub. Unlike Zombies, Deniers can speak in partial sentences and order from fast food menus. (“Idiocracy” speak.)
Astonishingly, Deniers watch network news and literally believe what they are watching. To the Deniers, there are no “conspiracies.” All governments are good. Drug companies are trying to help people, not exploit them for profit. U.S. Senators are “honorable” and the War on Drugs is a huge success!
Deniers believe there is no such thing as black market organ trafficking, child sex slave trafficking in the USA, child kidnapping by CPS workers, or government-run false flag attacks on civilian populations. Deniers are completely unaware that U.S. troops literally help grow the opium crops in Afghanistan, that vaccines are laced with cancer-causing stealth viruses, or that the so-called “fluoride” dumped into the municipal water supply is actually a deadly cocktail of industrial chemicals and neurotoxic heavy metals.
Holder’s Lies Exposed By DOJ Document Leak
0Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com
By Doug Book
Photo Credit: The Aspen Institute (Creative Commons)
Wiretap applications obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform prove Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant AG Lanny Breuer lied to Committee members when they claimed DOJ personnel knew nothing of the tactics used by the ATF during Operation Fast And Furious.
Wiretap applications are forms that must be filled out and submitted to a judge, asking permission to perform a wiretap. As these requests may only be made if all other information-gathering techniques have been tried and found wanting, the applications are completed in extraordinary detail, listing all prior methods employed by law enforcement to gather existing evidence. In short, the entire history of the efforts put forth by law enforcement during a particular case or investigation are presented in writing to the court.
According to Committee chair Darrell Issa, six wiretap applications are now in Committee possession, all presented to the court between March and June of 2010 and all having been approved by Department of Justice officials. In fact, “each application included a memorandum from Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer to Paul M. O’Brien, Office of Enforcement Operations, authorizing the wiretap applications on behalf of the Attorney General.” “The memoranda from Breuer are marked specifically for the attention of Emory Hurley, the lead prosecutor for Operation Fast and Furious.”
Rep. Issa releases draft resolution accusing Holder of contempt
0Source: http://www.rawstory.com
By Agence France-Presse
A key Republican lawmaker released a draft resolution Thursday accusing US Attorney General Eric Holder of contempt of Congress for allegedly failing to cooperate with a probe into a botched government effort to track arms flows into Mexico.
Darrell Issa, head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that last year probed the arms scandal, said the Justice Department as a whole was guilty of refusing to cooperate with congressional investigations of the Operation Fast and Furious, but singled out Holder.
Holder has faced Republican calls for his resignation and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), a division of the Justice Department, has been in the spotlight since the failure of the program, originally intended to build cases against Mexican gang members.
From 2009 to 2010, ATF agents knowingly allowed cartels to purchase about 2,000 assault weapons in the United States, and then sought to trace those weapons to crime scenes in Mexico.
But most of the weapons were never traced, while two of them showed up at the scene of the murder of a US border patrol agent, which led to the program’s suspension.
Issa said the draft resolution and an accompanying briefing paper describes “the Justice Department’s refusal to cooperate — including the hardships the family of a fallen Border Patrol agent have faced in seeking the truth, and retaliation against agents who blew the whistle on gunwalking.”
Holder denies knowing anything about the operation before February 2011.
A vote has not yet been scheduled on the resolution.
Fast and Furious: The Hidden History of the Drug War
0Source: http://www.corbettreport.com
Posted by Corbett
As US troops deploy to the Mexican border to deal with the fallout of Fast and Furious, details continue to emerge about this flagrantly illegal operation to arm Mexican drug lords in a supposed sting operation. But as veteran investigative journalist Bill Conroy points out, operations like this were going on years prior to Fast and Furious and this latest scandal is just another example of a drug war that is not what it is believed to be. This is the GRTV Feature interview with your host James Corbett and our special guest, Bill Conroy.
[CIM Comment]
If you want honest reporting I would highly recommend The Corbett Report!
10 Reasons Why Nothing You Do On The Internet Will Ever Be Private Again
01 year ago
Source: http://www.activistpost.com
Anthony Freda Art
The Internet is rapidly being transformed into a Big Brother control grid where privacy rights are being systematically strangled to death. The control freaks that run things have become absolutely obsessed with watching, tracking, monitoring and recording virtually everything that you do on the Internet. One thing that you can count on is that nothing you do on the Internet will ever be private again. In fact, if you are obsessed with privacy then the last place you want to be is on the Internet.
Most Americans have absolutely no idea how far Internet surveillance has advanced in the past few years. At this point, it would be hard to imagine any place less private than the Internet. Do not ever put anything on the Internet that you would not want the authorities or your employer to hold you accountable for.
Basically, the Internet is creating a permanent dossier on each one of us, and we contribute to this process by freely posting gigantic volumes of information about ourselves on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The Internet is the greatest tool for mass communication that the world has perhaps ever seen, and it gives average citizens the ability to communicate with each other like never before, but there is also a downside to using the Internet. Everything that we do on the Internet is being watched, monitored and recorded and there is no longer any such thing as Internet privacy. If you think that you still have any privacy on the Internet, then you are either ignorant of what is going on or you are being delusional. The following are 10 reasons why nothing you do on the Internet will ever be private again….
#1 The Federal Government Can Now Retain Your Internet Activity For Five Years – Even If You Have No Links To Terrorism
In the past, the National Counterterrorism Center could only retain information about you for 180 days if you did not have any links to terrorism.
Well, that has now completely changed.
Attorney General Eric Holder has signed new guidelines which will now allow the National Counterterrorism Center to hold on to your private information (including your Internet activity) for five years.
But an extra four and a half extra years is no big deal, right?
#2 Potential Employers Are Demanding To See Your Internet Activity
In the past, potential employers would pull up the social media profiles of job candidates in order to get a better idea of who they might be hiring.
But now, many potential employers are actually demanding the passwords to the Facebook accounts of job applicants.
The following comes from a recent CBS News report….
The bad news is that employers are increasingly asking job seekers for their Facebook and other social-media passwords as part of the process of vetting them.
While it’s unclear how widespread that practice is, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that it is happening with increasing frequency, as CBS MoneyWatch’s Suzanne Lucas details. You can, of course, refuse to give a job interviewer your passwords. But expect your employment application to hit the round file, or the trash, if you don’t cooperate.
This is a work in progess, a self learning tool and fun little project. Please excuse the slow development as it seems the needed proper time is always lacking. It is my hope that the combination of content and links to other sources of information in this simple blog may help awaken a few of the sleeping masses and encourage and inspire others to initiate their own research, ultimately for each person to be a light to help awaken others. Opinions expressed belong to me, myself and I. Also, a big thank you to all that take the time to visit, it is appreciated :)
