From Cory Doctorow's 11-2-17 Boing Boing post entitled "The DHS Is Buying a New Database to Store Biometrics for 500 Million People":
"The
DHS's old 'IDENT' database is full, with 240,000,000 records in a
system designed to hold 200,000,000; so they're paying arms-dealers and erstwhile comic-book superheroes Northrop
Grumman $93,000,000 to develop a new system called Homeland Advanced
Recognition Technology (HART), which will grow to encompass biometrics
for 500,000,000 people, including hundreds of millions of Americans."
To read the rest of Doctorow's post, click HERE.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Monday, November 27, 2017
China in 2020
From Rachel Botsman's 10-21-17 Wired article entitled "Big Data Meets Big Brother As China Moves To Rate Its Citizens":
"On June 14, 2014, the State Council of China published an ominous-sounding document called 'Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System'. In the way of Chinese policy documents, it was a lengthy and rather dry affair, but it contained a radical idea. What if there was a national trust score that rated the kind of citizen you were?
"Imagine a world where many of your daily activities were constantly monitored and evaluated: what you buy at the shops and online; where you are at any given time; who your friends are and how you interact with them; how many hours you spend watching content or playing video games; and what bills and taxes you pay (or not). It's not hard to picture, because most of that already happens, thanks to all those data-collecting behemoths like Google, Facebook and Instagram or health-tracking apps such as Fitbit. But now imagine a system where all these behaviours are rated as either positive or negative and distilled into a single number, according to rules set by the government. That would create your Citizen Score and it would tell everyone whether or not you were trustworthy. Plus, your rating would be publicly ranked against that of the entire population and used to determine your eligibility for a mortgage or a job, where your children can go to school - or even just your chances of getting a date [...].
"For now, technically, participating in China's Citizen Scores is voluntary. But by 2020 it will be mandatory. The behaviour of every single citizen and legal person (which includes every company or other entity) in China will be rated and ranked, whether they like it or not."
To read the rest of Botsman's article, click HERE.
"On June 14, 2014, the State Council of China published an ominous-sounding document called 'Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System'. In the way of Chinese policy documents, it was a lengthy and rather dry affair, but it contained a radical idea. What if there was a national trust score that rated the kind of citizen you were?
"Imagine a world where many of your daily activities were constantly monitored and evaluated: what you buy at the shops and online; where you are at any given time; who your friends are and how you interact with them; how many hours you spend watching content or playing video games; and what bills and taxes you pay (or not). It's not hard to picture, because most of that already happens, thanks to all those data-collecting behemoths like Google, Facebook and Instagram or health-tracking apps such as Fitbit. But now imagine a system where all these behaviours are rated as either positive or negative and distilled into a single number, according to rules set by the government. That would create your Citizen Score and it would tell everyone whether or not you were trustworthy. Plus, your rating would be publicly ranked against that of the entire population and used to determine your eligibility for a mortgage or a job, where your children can go to school - or even just your chances of getting a date [...].
"For now, technically, participating in China's Citizen Scores is voluntary. But by 2020 it will be mandatory. The behaviour of every single citizen and legal person (which includes every company or other entity) in China will be rated and ranked, whether they like it or not."
To read the rest of Botsman's article, click HERE.
Alfred W. McCoy's "Exploring the Shadows of America's Security State"
From "Exploring the Shadows of America's Security State (or) How I Learned Not To Love Big Brother" by Alfred W. McCoy (author of THE POLITICS OF HEROIN: CIA COMPLICITY IN THE GLOBAL DRUG TRADE and IN THE SHADOWS OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF U.S. GLOBAL POWER):
"In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Washington pursued its elusive enemies across the landscapes of Asia and Africa, thanks in part to a massive expansion of its intelligence infrastructure, particularly of the emerging technologies for digital surveillance, agile drones, and biometric identification. In 2010, almost a decade into this secret war with its voracious appetite for information, the Washington Post reported that the national security state had swelled into a 'fourth branch' of the federal government -- with 854,000 vetted officials, 263 security organizations, and over 3,000 intelligence units, issuing 50,000 special reports every year.
"Though stunning, these statistics only skimmed the visible surface of what had become history’s largest and most lethal clandestine apparatus. According to classified documents that Edward Snowden leaked in 2013, the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies alone had 107,035 employees and a combined 'black budget' of $52.6 billion, the equivalent of 10% percent of the vast defense budget.
"By sweeping the skies and probing the worldwide web’s undersea cables, the National Security Agency (NSA) could surgically penetrate the confidential communications of just about any leader on the planet, while simultaneously sweeping up billions of ordinary messages. For its classified missions, the CIA had access to the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command, with 69,000 elite troops (Rangers, SEALs, Air Commandos) and their agile arsenal. In addition to this formidable paramilitary capacity, the CIA operated 30 Predator and Reaper drones responsible for more than 3,000 deaths in Pakistan and Yemen.
"While Americans practiced a collective form of duck and cover as the Department of Homeland Security’s colored alerts pulsed nervously from yellow to red, few paused to ask the hard question: Was all this security really directed solely at enemies beyond our borders? After half a century of domestic security abuses -- from the 'red scare' of the 1920s through the FBI’s illegal harassment of antiwar protesters in the 1960s and 1970s -- could we really be confident that there wasn’t a hidden cost to all these secret measures right here at home? Maybe, just maybe, all this security wasn’t really so benign when it came to us.
"From my own personal experience over the past half-century, and my family’s history over three generations, I’ve found out in the most personal way possible that there’s a real cost to entrusting our civil liberties to the discretion of secret agencies. Let me share just a few of my own 'war' stories to explain how I’ve been forced to keep learning and relearning this uncomfortable lesson the hard way."
To read the rest of McCoy's article, click HERE.
"In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Washington pursued its elusive enemies across the landscapes of Asia and Africa, thanks in part to a massive expansion of its intelligence infrastructure, particularly of the emerging technologies for digital surveillance, agile drones, and biometric identification. In 2010, almost a decade into this secret war with its voracious appetite for information, the Washington Post reported that the national security state had swelled into a 'fourth branch' of the federal government -- with 854,000 vetted officials, 263 security organizations, and over 3,000 intelligence units, issuing 50,000 special reports every year.
"Though stunning, these statistics only skimmed the visible surface of what had become history’s largest and most lethal clandestine apparatus. According to classified documents that Edward Snowden leaked in 2013, the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies alone had 107,035 employees and a combined 'black budget' of $52.6 billion, the equivalent of 10% percent of the vast defense budget.
"By sweeping the skies and probing the worldwide web’s undersea cables, the National Security Agency (NSA) could surgically penetrate the confidential communications of just about any leader on the planet, while simultaneously sweeping up billions of ordinary messages. For its classified missions, the CIA had access to the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command, with 69,000 elite troops (Rangers, SEALs, Air Commandos) and their agile arsenal. In addition to this formidable paramilitary capacity, the CIA operated 30 Predator and Reaper drones responsible for more than 3,000 deaths in Pakistan and Yemen.
"While Americans practiced a collective form of duck and cover as the Department of Homeland Security’s colored alerts pulsed nervously from yellow to red, few paused to ask the hard question: Was all this security really directed solely at enemies beyond our borders? After half a century of domestic security abuses -- from the 'red scare' of the 1920s through the FBI’s illegal harassment of antiwar protesters in the 1960s and 1970s -- could we really be confident that there wasn’t a hidden cost to all these secret measures right here at home? Maybe, just maybe, all this security wasn’t really so benign when it came to us.
"From my own personal experience over the past half-century, and my family’s history over three generations, I’ve found out in the most personal way possible that there’s a real cost to entrusting our civil liberties to the discretion of secret agencies. Let me share just a few of my own 'war' stories to explain how I’ve been forced to keep learning and relearning this uncomfortable lesson the hard way."
To read the rest of McCoy's article, click HERE.
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Project Pandora
From Sharon Weinberger's 8-25-17 Foreign Policy article entitled "The Secret History of Diplomats and Invisible Weapons":
"In 1965, medical workers began showing up at the American embassy in Moscow, drawing blood from the employees inside. The American diplomats were told that doctors were looking for possible exposure to a new type of virus, something not unexpected in a country known for its frigid winters.
"It was all a lie. The Moscow Viral Study, as it was called, was the cover story for the American government’s top secret investigation into the effects of microwave radiation on humans. The Soviets, it turned out, were bombarding the embassy in Moscow with low-level microwaves. The 'Moscow Signal,' as officials in Washington called the radiation, was too low to do any obvious harm to the people in the building. At five microwatts per square centimeter, the signal was well below the threshold needed to heat things, as a microwave oven does. Yet it was also a hundred times more powerful than the Soviets’ maximum exposure standards, which were much more stringent than those of the United States. That was cause for alarm.
"The intelligence community was worried that the Soviets knew something about non-ionizing radiation that the United States did not. With research into the effects of low-level radiation still in its infancy, one of the first theories forwarded by the CIA was that the Soviets were trying to influence the behavior or mental state of American diplomats, or even control their minds. The United States wanted to figure out what was going on without tipping off the Soviets that they knew about the irradiation, and so the diplomats working in the embassy—and being exposed daily to the radiation—were kept in the dark. The State Department was responsible for looking at biological changes associated with microwaves, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects, a division of the Pentagon, was assigned to look at the possible behavioral effects of microwaves.
"In October 1965, Richard Cesaro, the DARPA official in charge of the project, addressed a secret memo to the agency’s director, Charles Herzfeld, explaining the justification for this new research effort. The White House had charged the State Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon to investigate the microwave assault in secret. The State Department was the lead on the program, code-named TUMS, and DARPA’s responsibility, Cesaro explained, was 'to initiate a selective portion of the overall program concerned with one of the potential threats, that of radiation effects on man.'
"Thus was born DARPA Program Plan 562, better known by its code name, Project Pandora, an exploration of the behavioral effects of microwaves and one of the more bizarre episodes in the history of Cold War science."
To read the rest of Weinberger's article, click HERE.
"In 1965, medical workers began showing up at the American embassy in Moscow, drawing blood from the employees inside. The American diplomats were told that doctors were looking for possible exposure to a new type of virus, something not unexpected in a country known for its frigid winters.
"It was all a lie. The Moscow Viral Study, as it was called, was the cover story for the American government’s top secret investigation into the effects of microwave radiation on humans. The Soviets, it turned out, were bombarding the embassy in Moscow with low-level microwaves. The 'Moscow Signal,' as officials in Washington called the radiation, was too low to do any obvious harm to the people in the building. At five microwatts per square centimeter, the signal was well below the threshold needed to heat things, as a microwave oven does. Yet it was also a hundred times more powerful than the Soviets’ maximum exposure standards, which were much more stringent than those of the United States. That was cause for alarm.
"The intelligence community was worried that the Soviets knew something about non-ionizing radiation that the United States did not. With research into the effects of low-level radiation still in its infancy, one of the first theories forwarded by the CIA was that the Soviets were trying to influence the behavior or mental state of American diplomats, or even control their minds. The United States wanted to figure out what was going on without tipping off the Soviets that they knew about the irradiation, and so the diplomats working in the embassy—and being exposed daily to the radiation—were kept in the dark. The State Department was responsible for looking at biological changes associated with microwaves, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects, a division of the Pentagon, was assigned to look at the possible behavioral effects of microwaves.
"In October 1965, Richard Cesaro, the DARPA official in charge of the project, addressed a secret memo to the agency’s director, Charles Herzfeld, explaining the justification for this new research effort. The White House had charged the State Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon to investigate the microwave assault in secret. The State Department was the lead on the program, code-named TUMS, and DARPA’s responsibility, Cesaro explained, was 'to initiate a selective portion of the overall program concerned with one of the potential threats, that of radiation effects on man.'
"Thus was born DARPA Program Plan 562, better known by its code name, Project Pandora, an exploration of the behavioral effects of microwaves and one of the more bizarre episodes in the history of Cold War science."
To read the rest of Weinberger's article, click HERE.
Ronald Reagan's Psyops
From Robert Parry's 10-13-17 Consortiumnews article entitled "The Legacy of Reagan's Civilian 'Psyops'":
"Declassified records from the Reagan presidential library show how the U.S. government enlisted civilian agencies in psychological operations designed to exploit information as a way to manipulate the behavior of targeted foreign audiences and, at least indirectly, American citizens.
"A just-declassified sign-in sheet
for a meeting of an inter-agency 'psyops' committee on Oct. 24, 1986,
shows representatives from the Agency for International Development
(USAID), the State Department, and the U.S. Information Agency (USIA)
joining officials from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense
Department.
"Some of the names of officials from the CIA and Pentagon remain classified more than three decades later. But the significance of the document is that it reveals how agencies that were traditionally assigned to global development (USAID) or international information (USIA) were incorporated into the U.S. government’s strategies for peacetime psyops, a military technique for breaking the will of a wartime enemy by spreading lies, confusion and terror.
"Essentially, psyops play on the cultural weaknesses of a target population so they could be more easily controlled or defeated, but the Reagan administration was taking the concept outside the traditional bounds of warfare and applying psyops to any time when the U.S. government could claim some threat to America.
"This disclosure – bolstered by other documents released earlier this year by archivists at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, California – is relevant to today’s frenzy over alleged 'fake news' and accusations of 'Russian disinformation' by reminding everyone that the U.S. government was active in those same areas."
To read Parry's entire article, click HERE.
"Declassified records from the Reagan presidential library show how the U.S. government enlisted civilian agencies in psychological operations designed to exploit information as a way to manipulate the behavior of targeted foreign audiences and, at least indirectly, American citizens.
"Some of the names of officials from the CIA and Pentagon remain classified more than three decades later. But the significance of the document is that it reveals how agencies that were traditionally assigned to global development (USAID) or international information (USIA) were incorporated into the U.S. government’s strategies for peacetime psyops, a military technique for breaking the will of a wartime enemy by spreading lies, confusion and terror.
"Essentially, psyops play on the cultural weaknesses of a target population so they could be more easily controlled or defeated, but the Reagan administration was taking the concept outside the traditional bounds of warfare and applying psyops to any time when the U.S. government could claim some threat to America.
"This disclosure – bolstered by other documents released earlier this year by archivists at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, California – is relevant to today’s frenzy over alleged 'fake news' and accusations of 'Russian disinformation' by reminding everyone that the U.S. government was active in those same areas."
To read Parry's entire article, click HERE.
Thought Identification
What follow are relevant excerpts from Wikipedia's entry on "Thought Identification," a term coined in 2009 by neuroscientist Marcel Just:
"Thought identification refers to the empirically verified use of technology to, in some sense, read people's minds. Advances in research have made this possible by using human neuroimaging to decode a person's conscious experience based on non-invasive measurements of an individual's brain activity.
"Professor of neuropsychology Barbara Sahakian qualifies, 'A lot of neuroscientists in the field are very cautious and say we can't talk about reading individuals' minds, and right now that is very true, but we're moving ahead so rapidly, it's not going to be that long before we will be able to tell whether someone's making up a story, or whether someone intended to do a crime with a certain degree of certainty' [...].
"With brain scanning technology becoming increasingly accurate, experts predict important debates over how and when it should be used. One potential area of application is criminal law. Haynes states that simply refusing to use brain scans on suspects also prevents the wrongly accused from proving their innocence. It has been argued that allowing brain scans in the United States would violate the 5th Amendment's right to not self incriminate. One of thousands of important questions is whether brain imaging is like testimony, or instead like DNA, blood, or semen. Paul Root Wolpe, director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University in Atlanta predicts that this question will be decided by a Supreme Court case.
"In other countries outside the United States, thought Identification has already been used in criminal law. In 2008 an Indian woman was convicted of murder after an EEG of her brain allegedly revealed that she was familiar with the circumstances surrounding the poisoning of her ex-fiancé. Some neuroscientists and legal scholars doubt the validity of using thought identification as a whole for anything past research on the nature of deception and the brain."
To read the entire entry, click HERE.
"Thought identification refers to the empirically verified use of technology to, in some sense, read people's minds. Advances in research have made this possible by using human neuroimaging to decode a person's conscious experience based on non-invasive measurements of an individual's brain activity.
"Professor of neuropsychology Barbara Sahakian qualifies, 'A lot of neuroscientists in the field are very cautious and say we can't talk about reading individuals' minds, and right now that is very true, but we're moving ahead so rapidly, it's not going to be that long before we will be able to tell whether someone's making up a story, or whether someone intended to do a crime with a certain degree of certainty' [...].
"With brain scanning technology becoming increasingly accurate, experts predict important debates over how and when it should be used. One potential area of application is criminal law. Haynes states that simply refusing to use brain scans on suspects also prevents the wrongly accused from proving their innocence. It has been argued that allowing brain scans in the United States would violate the 5th Amendment's right to not self incriminate. One of thousands of important questions is whether brain imaging is like testimony, or instead like DNA, blood, or semen. Paul Root Wolpe, director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University in Atlanta predicts that this question will be decided by a Supreme Court case.
"In other countries outside the United States, thought Identification has already been used in criminal law. In 2008 an Indian woman was convicted of murder after an EEG of her brain allegedly revealed that she was familiar with the circumstances surrounding the poisoning of her ex-fiancé. Some neuroscientists and legal scholars doubt the validity of using thought identification as a whole for anything past research on the nature of deception and the brain."
To read the entire entry, click HERE.
Doug Poppa on the Las Vegas Massacre
What follow are relevant excerpts from a 10-3-17 Baltimore Post-Examiner article entitled "Horrific Night of Terrorism in Las Vegas" by Doug Poppa (a U.S. Army Military Police veteran):
"Fifty-nine dead and 527 wounded after the Sunday night massacre of innocent people who were attending a country music festival on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip.
"The concerts were going on for three days. I wonder if the shooter attended the concert at any time during that three-day period.
"Many questions are being asked to determine a motive for the shootings [...].
"The shooter planned his attack. He knew exactly who he was targeting and why. Somewhere out there are the answers and somebody has them.
"Sunday night as police responded to the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino where the shots were originating from a room on the 32nd floor, other calls went out over police radios.
"Calls that made me shudder. My worst fear. A terrorist attack in Las Vegas, like what occurred in Mumbai, India.
"As I listened to the police radio traffic the situation was escalating.
"Possible shots fired inside the New York New York Hotel, shooter at the front desk, many people down. Two shots fired on the casino floor.
"Possible car bomb at the Luxor Hotel valet area, vehicle with wires protruding.
"SWAT units were telling the dispatcher they were in the hallway near the suspect’s room on the 32nd floor at Mandalay Bay.
"The active shooter at New York New York possibly coming down the escalator headed to the Excalibur Hotel.
"Several subjects down at Club Zumanity at New York New York. No answer at New York New York Security. SWAT commander asking for officers to get to the surveillance cameras at New York New York to verify if it is a diversion.
"Dispatcher advises she is now getting information that there is an active shooter at the Tropicana Hotel.
"Have the bomb squad handle the device at the Luxor, another officer said.
"SWAT commander advises FBI SWAT, Henderson City Police SWAT and North Las Vegas Police SWAT enroute to staging area.
"Dispatcher advises they are getting multiple calls of active shooters at multiple locations, may be a diversion.
"Officer advises entering New York New York with strike team.
"Another officer advises he is outside the Tropicana Hotel and does not here any shots, may be a diversion.
"Dispatcher advises she is getting calls from people who are sheltering in place. Injured now calling in. Multiple locations are now sheltering in place.
"Person with a rifle entering the employee entrance of the Bellagio Resort.
"All the incidents other than the shooter at the Mandalay Bay were false thank God.
"Questions that remain to be answered are who was calling in all those false reports and why? The New York New York Hotel is north of the Mandalay Bay across Tropicana Blvd. Who was it that called police and stated an active shooter with people down was occurring inside the casino.
"When it was all over the shooter would be dead. He was acting alone according to the police."
To read Doug Poppa's entire article, click HERE.
"Fifty-nine dead and 527 wounded after the Sunday night massacre of innocent people who were attending a country music festival on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip.
"The concerts were going on for three days. I wonder if the shooter attended the concert at any time during that three-day period.
"Many questions are being asked to determine a motive for the shootings [...].
"The shooter planned his attack. He knew exactly who he was targeting and why. Somewhere out there are the answers and somebody has them.
"Sunday night as police responded to the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino where the shots were originating from a room on the 32nd floor, other calls went out over police radios.
"Calls that made me shudder. My worst fear. A terrorist attack in Las Vegas, like what occurred in Mumbai, India.
"As I listened to the police radio traffic the situation was escalating.
"Possible shots fired inside the New York New York Hotel, shooter at the front desk, many people down. Two shots fired on the casino floor.
"Possible car bomb at the Luxor Hotel valet area, vehicle with wires protruding.
"SWAT units were telling the dispatcher they were in the hallway near the suspect’s room on the 32nd floor at Mandalay Bay.
"The active shooter at New York New York possibly coming down the escalator headed to the Excalibur Hotel.
"Several subjects down at Club Zumanity at New York New York. No answer at New York New York Security. SWAT commander asking for officers to get to the surveillance cameras at New York New York to verify if it is a diversion.
"Dispatcher advises she is now getting information that there is an active shooter at the Tropicana Hotel.
"Have the bomb squad handle the device at the Luxor, another officer said.
"SWAT commander advises FBI SWAT, Henderson City Police SWAT and North Las Vegas Police SWAT enroute to staging area.
"Dispatcher advises they are getting multiple calls of active shooters at multiple locations, may be a diversion.
"Officer advises entering New York New York with strike team.
"Another officer advises he is outside the Tropicana Hotel and does not here any shots, may be a diversion.
"Dispatcher advises she is getting calls from people who are sheltering in place. Injured now calling in. Multiple locations are now sheltering in place.
"Person with a rifle entering the employee entrance of the Bellagio Resort.
"All the incidents other than the shooter at the Mandalay Bay were false thank God.
"Questions that remain to be answered are who was calling in all those false reports and why? The New York New York Hotel is north of the Mandalay Bay across Tropicana Blvd. Who was it that called police and stated an active shooter with people down was occurring inside the casino.
"When it was all over the shooter would be dead. He was acting alone according to the police."
To read Doug Poppa's entire article, click HERE.
Friday, November 24, 2017
The Last Words of Lee Harvey Oswald
Fifty-four years ago today Lee Harvey Oswald was assassinated in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters in Dallas, Texas.
What follows is an excerpt from the introduction to Mae Brussell's "The Last Words of Lee Harvey Oswald" (courtesy of David Ratcliffe's Ratical.org):
Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone in shooting Pres. John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, or did he conspire with others? Was he serving as an agent of Cuba's Fidel Castro, himself the target of American assassins? Or in squeezing the trigger of his carbine was he undertaking some super "dirty trick" for a CIA anxious to rid itself of a president whose faith in the "company" had evaporated in the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco? Or was he representing a group of Cuban exiles, the Teamsters Union, the Mafia? Indeed, was it Lee Harvey Oswald at all who killed JFK? Or was there a double impersonating Oswald? These questions continue to nag many people more than a decade and a half after that dreadful day in Dallas, in spite of the 26 volumes of hearings and exhibits served up by the Warren Commission, the congressional investigations, the release of heretofore classified FBI documents.
Almost everyone, it seems, has been heard from on the Kennedy assassination and on Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt or innocence, except one person—Lee Harvey Oswald himself. From the time of Oswald's arrest to his own assassination at the hands of Jack Ruby, no formal transcript or record was kept of statements made by the alleged killer. It was said that no tape recordings were made of Oswald's remarks, and many notes taken of his statements were destroyed.
Determined to learn Oswald's last words, his only testimony, The People's Almanac assigned one of the leading authorities on the Kennedy assassination, Mae Brussell, to compile every known statement or remark made by Oswald between his arrest and death. The quotes, edited for space and clarity, are based on the recollections of a variety of witnesses present at different times and are not verbatim transcripts. "After 14 years of research on the JFK assassination," Mae Brussell concludes, "I am of the opinion that Lee Harvey Oswald was telling the truth about his role in the assassination during these interrogations."
Click HERE to read Mae Brussell's "The Last Words of Lee Harvey Oswald."
What follows is an excerpt from the introduction to Mae Brussell's "The Last Words of Lee Harvey Oswald" (courtesy of David Ratcliffe's Ratical.org):
Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone in shooting Pres. John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, or did he conspire with others? Was he serving as an agent of Cuba's Fidel Castro, himself the target of American assassins? Or in squeezing the trigger of his carbine was he undertaking some super "dirty trick" for a CIA anxious to rid itself of a president whose faith in the "company" had evaporated in the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco? Or was he representing a group of Cuban exiles, the Teamsters Union, the Mafia? Indeed, was it Lee Harvey Oswald at all who killed JFK? Or was there a double impersonating Oswald? These questions continue to nag many people more than a decade and a half after that dreadful day in Dallas, in spite of the 26 volumes of hearings and exhibits served up by the Warren Commission, the congressional investigations, the release of heretofore classified FBI documents.
Almost everyone, it seems, has been heard from on the Kennedy assassination and on Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt or innocence, except one person—Lee Harvey Oswald himself. From the time of Oswald's arrest to his own assassination at the hands of Jack Ruby, no formal transcript or record was kept of statements made by the alleged killer. It was said that no tape recordings were made of Oswald's remarks, and many notes taken of his statements were destroyed.
Determined to learn Oswald's last words, his only testimony, The People's Almanac assigned one of the leading authorities on the Kennedy assassination, Mae Brussell, to compile every known statement or remark made by Oswald between his arrest and death. The quotes, edited for space and clarity, are based on the recollections of a variety of witnesses present at different times and are not verbatim transcripts. "After 14 years of research on the JFK assassination," Mae Brussell concludes, "I am of the opinion that Lee Harvey Oswald was telling the truth about his role in the assassination during these interrogations."
Click HERE to read Mae Brussell's "The Last Words of Lee Harvey Oswald."
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Dave Emory Interviews Edward T. Haslam
Recommended Listening: On the August 18th, 1996 episode of his radio show For the Record, political researcher Dave Emory interviews Edward Haslam, author of DR. MARY'S MONKEY, regarding the link between the JFK assassination and the bizarre 1964 murder of cancer researcher Dr. Mary Sherman....
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Mae Brussell on Charles Manson
In Chapter One of my first book, Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form, I wrote the following about the late Mae Brussell (1922-1988), sometimes referred to as "the Queen of Conspiracies":
Brussell’s skills as a political researcher were beyond reproach. Brussell wrote about Watergate before The Washington Post.[1] I refer interested researchers to the compilation The Mae Brussell Reader, released by Prevailing Winds in 1991, if you wish to judge Brussell’s reportage for yourself. As famed investigative journalist Seymour Hersh once said of Brussell, “She’s crazy, but she’s right.” Alas, mainstream publications are very often neither crazy nor right.
If you would like to know more about Brussell and her groundbreaking work, I recommend listening to her 10-13-71 radio broadcast about Charles Manson and his followers:
Brussell’s skills as a political researcher were beyond reproach. Brussell wrote about Watergate before The Washington Post.[1] I refer interested researchers to the compilation The Mae Brussell Reader, released by Prevailing Winds in 1991, if you wish to judge Brussell’s reportage for yourself. As famed investigative journalist Seymour Hersh once said of Brussell, “She’s crazy, but she’s right.” Alas, mainstream publications are very often neither crazy nor right.
If you would like to know more about Brussell and her groundbreaking work, I recommend listening to her 10-13-71 radio broadcast about Charles Manson and his followers:
Monday, November 20, 2017
Quote of the Day
"Ah, I begin to understand," said the Wizard, nodding his head. "But I have another question to ask: How does it happen that the Thists have no King to rule over them?"
"Hush!" whispered the High Coco-Lorum, looking uneasily around to make sure they were not overheard. "In reality, I am the King, but the people don't know it. They think they rule themselves, but the fact is I have everything my own way. No one else knows anything about our laws, and so I make the laws to suit myself. If any oppose me, or question my acts, I tell them it's the law, and that settles it. If I called myself King, however, and wore a crown and lived in royal state, the people would not like me, and might do me harm. As the High Coco-Lorum of Thi, I'm considered a very agreeable person."
"It seems a very clever arrangement," said the Wizard.
"Hush!" whispered the High Coco-Lorum, looking uneasily around to make sure they were not overheard. "In reality, I am the King, but the people don't know it. They think they rule themselves, but the fact is I have everything my own way. No one else knows anything about our laws, and so I make the laws to suit myself. If any oppose me, or question my acts, I tell them it's the law, and that settles it. If I called myself King, however, and wore a crown and lived in royal state, the people would not like me, and might do me harm. As the High Coco-Lorum of Thi, I'm considered a very agreeable person."
"It seems a very clever arrangement," said the Wizard.
--L. Frank Baum, THE LOST PRINCESS OF OZ, 1917
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Dr. Ewen Cameron and MK-Ultra
From Joe O'Connor's 11-13-17 National Post article entitled "'What They Did To My Mother Was Torture': The Daughter of a CIA Brainwashing Victim Looks For Justice":
"On October 9, 1957, Dr. Ewen Cameron, a Scottish-born psychiatrist and director of the Allan Memorial Institute at McGill University in Montreal noted that his 33-year-old patient, Jean Steel, was on her 23rd day of drug-induced sleep.
"Steel had undergone four electroconvulsive shock-therapy treatments. Several more were planned. In previous days, while awake, she had shown some aggressiveness toward staff, behaviour Cameron felt needed to be 'broken up.'
"He wondered whether it might be useful for her to watch a 'movie where hostility was well expressed,' as a way of working out her own 'hostilities.' A librarian was tasked with finding something suitable. She had not been weighed in several weeks. Temperature recordings were taken of her 'earlobes and feet.'
"'Once the patient is de-patterned we will start psychic driving,' Cameron wrote. 'She is rather restive and antagonistic when awake, but not nearly as difficult as she was when she started.'
"Garnet Steel met Jean Watts in Montreal in the 1940s. He was in the army. She liked to dance. He called her 'Jeanie.' They fell in love, married, honeymooned in New York City and settled in the Eastern Townships south of Montreal. They played bridge, curled and had loads of friends.
"The couple had a child who died a few months after birth, but in 1952 they had another, a daughter named Alison. She was healthy and gorgeous, but Jeanie found she couldn’t cope. She sank into a sadness that wouldn’t lift. Her parents back in Montreal began asking around. They heard about this Dr. Cameron at the Allan, a past-president of the American Psychiatric Association. They heard he was the best. Jeanie Steel was admitted to the AMI for treatment on May 1, 1957.
"'What they did to my mother was torture,' Alison Steel, now 65, says from Knowlton, Que. 'It is horrific. It is unbelievable.'"
"What wasn’t publicly known in 1957, and what would not be revealed until decades later, was that Cameron’s work at AMI was funded in part by the Central Intelligence Agency as part of Project MK-Ultra, a covert program in human mind control — brainwashing."
To read the rest of O'Connor's article, click HERE.
"On October 9, 1957, Dr. Ewen Cameron, a Scottish-born psychiatrist and director of the Allan Memorial Institute at McGill University in Montreal noted that his 33-year-old patient, Jean Steel, was on her 23rd day of drug-induced sleep.
"Steel had undergone four electroconvulsive shock-therapy treatments. Several more were planned. In previous days, while awake, she had shown some aggressiveness toward staff, behaviour Cameron felt needed to be 'broken up.'
"He wondered whether it might be useful for her to watch a 'movie where hostility was well expressed,' as a way of working out her own 'hostilities.' A librarian was tasked with finding something suitable. She had not been weighed in several weeks. Temperature recordings were taken of her 'earlobes and feet.'
"'Once the patient is de-patterned we will start psychic driving,' Cameron wrote. 'She is rather restive and antagonistic when awake, but not nearly as difficult as she was when she started.'
"Garnet Steel met Jean Watts in Montreal in the 1940s. He was in the army. She liked to dance. He called her 'Jeanie.' They fell in love, married, honeymooned in New York City and settled in the Eastern Townships south of Montreal. They played bridge, curled and had loads of friends.
"The couple had a child who died a few months after birth, but in 1952 they had another, a daughter named Alison. She was healthy and gorgeous, but Jeanie found she couldn’t cope. She sank into a sadness that wouldn’t lift. Her parents back in Montreal began asking around. They heard about this Dr. Cameron at the Allan, a past-president of the American Psychiatric Association. They heard he was the best. Jeanie Steel was admitted to the AMI for treatment on May 1, 1957.
"'What they did to my mother was torture,' Alison Steel, now 65, says from Knowlton, Que. 'It is horrific. It is unbelievable.'"
"What wasn’t publicly known in 1957, and what would not be revealed until decades later, was that Cameron’s work at AMI was funded in part by the Central Intelligence Agency as part of Project MK-Ultra, a covert program in human mind control — brainwashing."
To read the rest of O'Connor's article, click HERE.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
DEEP STATE BLUES REDUX
On Monday, November 13th, I returned to the DEEP STATE BLUES radio show hosted by Badbaby and Steve Olson to discuss the genesis of my latest book UNTIL THE LAST DOG DIES, a darkly satirical novel about a young stand-up comedian who must adapt as best he can to an apocalyptic virus that affects only the humor centers of the brain. We explore the real world inspirations for this novel which include such delightful cryptoscatological topics as mass government surveillance run amok, covert CIA mind control programs that can be traced at least as far back as WWII, the ongoing War Against the Imagination, brainwashing in the American educational system, the historical connection between psychological warfare and science fiction, the questionable suicide of an FBI agent investigating the Democratic National Committee's fundraising scandal, the mysterious suppression of Hunter S. Thompson's final book of letters, and the misadventures of an underage male prostitution ring in the White House. This interview is about eighty minutes long. If you want to hear it, simply click on the link below....
Monday, November 13, 2017
A Box of Dead Dogs!
A package overbrimming with copies of my latest book, UNTIL THE LAST DOG DIES, has just arrived in the mail. I'm told that those of you who pre-ordered the book are already receiving their copies. Since the novel is not officially released until November 21st, that means there's still time for you stragglers out there to pre-order this beast. (The world is veritably TREMBLING in anticipation!)
Click HERE to pre-order your copy of UNTIL THE LAST DOG DIES!
Here's the back cover copy ballyhoo:
A young stand-up comedian must adapt to an apocalyptic virus affecting people’s sense of humor in this darkly satirical debut novel.
What happens when all humor is wiped off the face of the Earth?
Around the world, an unusual viral plague is striking the population. The virus attacks only one particular section of the brain. It isn’t fatal, but it results in the victim’s sense of humor being obliterated. No one is immune.
Elliot Greeley, a young stand-up comedian starving his way through alternative comedy clubs in Los Angeles, isn’t even certain the virus is real at first. But as the pandemic begins to eat away at the very heart of civilization itself, the virus affects Elliot and his close knit group of comedian friends in increasingly personal ways. What would you consider the end of the world?
Until the Last Dog Dies is a sharp, cutting satire, both a clever twist on apocalyptic fiction and a poignant look at the things that make us human.
“Taps into the cultural zeitgeist . . . A nihilistic satire that takes the idea that death is easy and comedy is hard to a whole new level.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Guffey’s sardonic, cleverly written comedic debut relies heavily on absurd synchronicity, bold characterization, and heavy irony to make its points about the apocalyptic nature of American humorlessness.”—Publishers Weekly
“A playful amalgam of Andy Kaufman and Philip K. Dick by way of Shaun of the Dead.” —Damien Lincoln Ober, author of Doctor Benjamin Franklin's Dream America
“This satirical tale explores the role of comedy in maintaining a healthy democracy. . . . A clever concept.”—Kirkus Reviews
Click HERE to pre-order your copy of UNTIL THE LAST DOG DIES!
Here's the back cover copy ballyhoo:
A young stand-up comedian must adapt to an apocalyptic virus affecting people’s sense of humor in this darkly satirical debut novel.
What happens when all humor is wiped off the face of the Earth?
Around the world, an unusual viral plague is striking the population. The virus attacks only one particular section of the brain. It isn’t fatal, but it results in the victim’s sense of humor being obliterated. No one is immune.
Elliot Greeley, a young stand-up comedian starving his way through alternative comedy clubs in Los Angeles, isn’t even certain the virus is real at first. But as the pandemic begins to eat away at the very heart of civilization itself, the virus affects Elliot and his close knit group of comedian friends in increasingly personal ways. What would you consider the end of the world?
Until the Last Dog Dies is a sharp, cutting satire, both a clever twist on apocalyptic fiction and a poignant look at the things that make us human.
“Taps into the cultural zeitgeist . . . A nihilistic satire that takes the idea that death is easy and comedy is hard to a whole new level.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Guffey’s sardonic, cleverly written comedic debut relies heavily on absurd synchronicity, bold characterization, and heavy irony to make its points about the apocalyptic nature of American humorlessness.”—Publishers Weekly
“A playful amalgam of Andy Kaufman and Philip K. Dick by way of Shaun of the Dead.” —Damien Lincoln Ober, author of Doctor Benjamin Franklin's Dream America
“This satirical tale explores the role of comedy in maintaining a healthy democracy. . . . A clever concept.”—Kirkus Reviews
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Stranger Things and The Montauk Project
If you would like to see what the infamous Montauk military base looked like, inside and out, watch Preston Nichols' The Montauk Tour video (filmed in January of 1993) directly below. Such controversial figures as Al Bielik and Duncan Cameron are also featured in this video:
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Jon Rappoport's "In the Year 2052 No One Can Read"
Recommended Reading: Jon Rappoport's 11-5-17 No More Fake News post entitled "In the Year 2052 No One Can Read." The piece begins as follows:
Continue reading HERE.
In
the year 2052, no one can read. Well, those who can, can’t handle more
than 50 or 60 words at a time. And they certainly don’t know what
fiction is. Or if they do, they don’t like it. It bothers them. WHAT
ALREADY EXISTS is so much more compelling. Fiction seems ridiculous. Who
cares what might be? Who cares about something someone made up?
Courtroom; the year 2052; the defendant was locked up hundreds of miles away; he did not appear at his trial.
JUDGE: What is the charge against John Doe?
PROSECUTOR: Espousing freedom. Claiming he is a free man.
JUDGE: He knows freedom is an illusion. Our schools teach that above all else.
PROSECUTOR: We have no record of him attending schools.
JUDGE: How is that possible?
PROSECUTOR: Unknown at this time. John Doe is a builder.
JUDGE: What does he build?
PROSECUTOR: Shrines to freedom.
JUDGE: Hmm. Sounds to me like a verdict of life without parole or death is in order.
PROSECUTOR: The psychiatrists want to go to work on him. They say he’d make a fine test subject. Because of his extreme views and actions. If they can turn him into a model citizen, they’d advance the research significantly.
JUDGE: However, there is the contagion factor. John Doe is infected with a freedom plague. No telling what he might transmit.
Monday, November 6, 2017
From Beyond
From a 10-26-17 NASA.gov article entitled "Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System":
"A small, recently discovered asteroid -- or perhaps a comet -- appears to have originated from outside the solar system, coming from somewhere else in our galaxy. If so, it would be the first 'interstellar object' to be observed and confirmed by astronomers.
"This unusual object – for now designated A/2017 U1 – is less than a quarter-mile (400 meters) in diameter and is moving remarkably fast. Astronomers are urgently working to point telescopes around the world and in space at this notable object. Once these data are obtained and analyzed, astronomers may know more about the origin and possibly composition of the object.
"A/2017 U1 was discovered Oct. 19 by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii, during the course of its nightly search for near-Earth objects for NASA. Rob Weryk, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA), was first to identify the moving object and submit it to the Minor Planet Center. Weryk subsequently searched the Pan-STARRS image archive and found it also was in images taken the previous night, but was not initially identified by the moving object processing.
"Weryk immediately realized this was an unusual object. 'Its motion could not be explained using either a normal solar system asteroid or comet orbit,' he said. Weryk contacted IfA graduate Marco Micheli, who had the same realization using his own follow-up images taken at the European Space Agency's telescope on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. But with the combined data, everything made sense. Said Weryk, 'This object came from outside our solar system.'"
To read the entire article, click HERE.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEVE DITKO!
The legendary comic book creator Steve Ditko (co-creator of SPIDER-MAN, creator of DR. STRANGE, THE QUESTION, MR. A., THE MOCKER, STATIC, THE MISSING MAN, THE CREEPER, and so many other classic characters) turns 90 years old today. Ditko is still producing comic books on a regular basis. The 26th issue of his most recent ongoing series was released just a few days ago. If you would like to order a copy of this comic, simply click HERE.
If you would like to know more about Ditko's lengthy--and often controversial--career, I suggest taking a look at Jonathan Ross' excellent 2007 BBC documentary entitled IN SEARCH OF STEVE DITKO, which can be seen directly below....
Also highly recommended: DITKO UNLEASHED by Florentino Florez and Frederic Manzano (IDW, 2016), a well-written, insightful Museum catalogue that accompanied a comprehensive exhibition of Ditko's work in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in the Fall of last year.
Also highly recommended: DITKO UNLEASHED by Florentino Florez and Frederic Manzano (IDW, 2016), a well-written, insightful Museum catalogue that accompanied a comprehensive exhibition of Ditko's work in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in the Fall of last year.
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