What does the smart criminal justice consumer do?

[msfreeh]

http://www.madcowprod.com/2015/11/13/ba ... more-11017" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Barry Seal wasn’t starring in a Jason Borne movie
Posted on November 13, 2015 by Daniel Hopsicker

255170

As MCA Universal prepares a preemptive strike against America’s most important recent history—the public assassination of one of the original American Drug Lords in a movie starring a world- famous Scientologist playing a man outweighing him by a good hundred pounds—it may be time to stand up for what's left of the truth.

[msfreeh]

Column

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la ... olumn.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Despite sound bites, presidential candidates are resisting the urge to polarize on police violence

In August, Sen. Marco Rubio called growing resentment in the African American community toward the criminal justice system "a legitimate issue." (John Raoux / Associated Press)

Are we heading back to the 1960s, when cities and campuses spiraled into chaos and conservatives won elections by demanding law and order? In a period that has seen riots over police conduct in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, attacks on police officers in New York and other cities, and now student protests, it sometimes feels that way.

Last week, several Republican candidates sounded as if they were reviving the tough justice theme that helped Ronald Reagan and Richard M. Nixon rise to power almost half a century ago. Donald Trump derided university presidents who bow to student demands as “weak, ineffective people,” and said he wouldn't have quit if he had been in charge at the University of Missouri. Ben Carson warned that if society coddles students, “We will move much further toward anarchy than anybody can imagine.” And Chris Christie said it was all President Obama's fault: “This is a product of the president's own unwi

[msfreeh]

https://www.aclu.org/feature/aclu-apps- ... ce-conduct" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


ACLU Apps to Record Police Conduct | American Civil Liberties Union
https://www.aclu.org/feature/aclu-apps- ... ce-conduct" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Justice is within your reach. Take the ACLU on the go, for free. Download the Mobile Justice app now on your iOS or Android device.

[msfreeh]

A large body of evidence exists that local,state and Federal law
enforcement has worked closely with the CIA to destabalize our cities
by bringing heroin and cocaine into our cities and towns


just Google CIA heroin cocaine


couple of stories, one about a DEA agent
one about a FBI agent


1.


Retired lawmen aid in defense of former federal agent

http://www.tbo.com/news/crime/retired-l ... -20151122/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Published: November 22, 2015

TAMPA — Former federal agent Robert Quinn pleaded guilty to a federal crime on Friday, but he still has the admiration and loyalty of fellow retired lawmen.

About 20 federal agents — most of them retired admire and respect Quinn so much, they chipped in to pay for Quinn’s legal defense, according to Bob Mazur, a retired U.S. Customs and Drug Enforcement Administration agent who organized the collection.

Retired DEA Agent Quinn, 58, of Largo admitted he lied to FBI agents to cover up the possible crimes of a friend who was another retired DEA agent. The friend had been handed a shopping bag with more than $200,000 in cash to help a convicted marijuana importer win release from prison, according


2.


Justice For John
Justice for wrongfully convicted retired FBI agent John Connolly


http://justiceforjohn.com/background-of-john-connolly/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Bio of John Connolly




John Connolly is proud of his having grown up in South Boston in a hard-working family of very modest means. Under such circumstances, he greatly appreciated the opportunity to attend and graduate from Boston College, to attend Suffolk Law School, and earn a graduate degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Today he is married to a wonderful supportive wife, and is the proud father of three terrific teenage boys. It should be of no surprise given his background, that he became a highly decorated and respected FBI Special Agent for approximately 23 years. John retired from the FBI honorably in 1990, accepting the position of being the Director of Government Affairs for one of New England’s largest utilities.

John Connolly retired from the FBI with numerous commendations for his investigative accomplishments in the field of organized crime. These numerous commendations, documented in court records, included eight (8) personal commendations from every FBI Director, from J. Edgar Hoover to Judge William Sessions. To read the commendations click here.

John Connolly, for the majority of his FBI career, was a street agent who put his life on the line by dealing – at the behest of the U.S. Department of Justice – with some of the most dangerous individuals in the world. In 1973, John first became assigned to the FBI office in Boston, and remained in this assignment until his retirement in 1990. He was primarily charged with developing so-called Top Echelon Criminal Informants, and this effort was particularly successful in New England.

The FBI’s Top Echelon Criminal Informant Program was at the time relevant to John’s career deemed to be a secret FBI program. It was designed by the FBI to recruit high-ranking criminals as informants in the U. S. Justice Department’s war on the American Mafia.

John Connolly was advised by FBI headquarters that he had developed more “member sources,” actual Mafia members, as Top Echelon informants, than any other FBI Agent and was periodically assigned to lecture to other FBI agents at the FBI Academy



Google CIA heroin cocaine

[msfreeh]

a couple of stories about FBI racism and science


1.

USDOJ/OIG FBI Labs Report
https://oig.justice.gov/special/9704a/02newrud.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In 1991, the FBI OPR opened an investigation concerning Rudolph after Whitehurst ... leave, and that Rudolph and his technician Edward Bender were racists.




2.

http://www.ccenterdispatch.com/news/nat ... 55da1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Convict in 3 sex crimes freed by DNA tied to fugitive rapist
: Monday, November 23, 2015 9:46 pm

Attorneys, Alex Simpson, left, and Raquel Cohen representing Luis Vargas, not seen, who has been in prison for 16 years, take questions from the media outside Los Angeles Superior court, after Vargas was exonerated Monday, Nov. 23, 2015, in Los Angeles. A judge exonerated Vargas, who was convicted of three rapes, after DNA evidence linked the crimes to a serial rapist on the FBI's most wanted list. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)



3.

Former Los Alamos Scientist Wen Ho Lee Criticizes FBI of Racism ...
http://www.civilrights.org/.../former-l ... icizes-fbi.." onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
Former Los Alamos Scientist Wen Ho Lee Criticizes FBI of Racism. Feature Story by Celeste Berry - 1/28/2002. Dr. Lee was terminated from his job as a physicist ...
FBI director says racism not epidemic in police but is 'cultural ...
http://www.theguardian.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; › US News › FBI
Feb 12, 2015 - In the most sweeping remarks about police and racial tensions from a top US law enforcement official since a spate of controversial killings, the ...
The FBI Laboratory: An Investigation Into Laboratory Practices and ...
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0788170872" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Michael R. Bromwich - 1998
An Investigation Into Laboratory Practices and Alleged Misconduct in ... by FBI OPR substantiated the allegation that Rudolph made racist remarks at work or ...

[msfreeh]

http://www.latimes.com/local/education/ ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


UC system divests $30 million in prison holdings amid student pressure



Inmates from California pass through a metal detector at the Florence Correctional Center, a prison operated by Corrections Corporationp of America in Florence, Ariz., in 2007

The University of California system has sold about $30 million of its holdings in companies that operate private prisons after students voiced their opposition to such investments.

The move, which did not require regent approval, came after system administrators met with students this month and as undergraduates throughout the nation have been pushing administrators to sell interests in fossil fuels and companies that aid Israeli occupation of the West Bank. In June, Columbia University divested from private prison companies after student pressure.

The total amount of the UC system prison sell-off is small compared with the system's nearly $100 billion portfolio, but students and alumni who have been advocating for the move say it is significant, at least symbolically.

"By selling their shares they're sending a message ... that the UC system is against human rights abuses," said Kamilah Moore, who graduated from UCLA in 2014 and is a field organizer for the Afrikan Black Coalition, a student advocacy group.

See more of our top stories on Facebook >>

Many students pushing for divestment are involved with black advocacy groups and say prisons have a large, adverse impact in their communities. African Americans make up nearly 40% of the U.S. incarcerated inmates even though they account for about 12% of the total population, accor

[msfreeh]

L.A. County jail inmates were handcuffed to a wall for hours on 'potty watch'


http://www.latimes.com/local/countygove ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

L.A. County Jail in Castaic

The North Facility of the Pitchess Jail in Castaic

One jail inmate, clad only in boxer shorts and socks, was handcuffed to a wall for up to 11 hours.

Another was cuffed to the wall for as many as eight or nine hours, causing bleeding and severe pain to

[msfreeh]

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sipsey Street Irregulars

The ORIGINAL gathering place for a merry band of Three Percenters. (As denounced by Bill Clinton on CNN!)
Monday, January 4, 2016
David Codrea: "Anti-Gun Political Clerk Admits to Lies, Terrorism and Racist Frame Job."
Although his former aide pleaded guilty on Dec. 16, Samad hasn’t said a word about it since then on his Facebook page and Twitter feed, or on the newsletter he released the day after the plea. That’s curious, since he had no problem claiming his share of the spotlight when he thought he had a grievance to exploit.
Posted by Dutchman6 at 7:03 PM No comments:
"How the ‘militia internet’ is responding to the standoff in Oregon."
Vanderboegh certainly considers the federal government the bigger threat, and also writes that “[w]e must get across to the Feds that if they do not end this peacefully, if they go for a dynamic raid that gets people killed, that they will start a national conflagration.” However, he also thinks “that the government has an absolute duty to see that the situation ends without violence,” and that people shouldn’t “ANSWER THE SIREN CALL AND GO [to Malheur]” (emphasis his).
Posted by Dutchman6 at 6:58 PM No comments:
ZeroHedge: "Oregon Standoff: A Terrible Plan That We Might Be Stuck With."
"Mike Vanderboegh has outlined similar thoughts expertly in this article. Everything he has written is exactly what was going through my own mind when I heard of the happenings in Oregon. Ammon Bundy and companions are not the tip of the spear. Not even close. What I do fear is that they are cannon fodder beckoning a nationwide government crackdown to which I and others will then be forced to personally respond to with equal f*cking measure. And all of this on the worst possible terms and at a very inconvenient time (executive actions on gun control mere weeks from now)."
Posted by Dutchman6 at 6:56 PM No comments:
So, since when has this anti-constitutional tyrant wannabe ever evinced an interest in what was "legal"?

Reuters: "Obama's gun control options each have legal pitfalls."

Posted by Dutchman6 at 9:15 AM 9 comments:
Esquire Magazine: "What's Happening in Oregon Is Nothing Less Than Armed Sedition."

Collectivist using the "S" word.

See also: Some “Armed” Protest Occupations Are More Equal Than Others. (Some of the comments are interesting.)

Posted by Dutchman6 at 9:11 AM

[msfreeh]

The Strangest FBI 302 of All Time: A Look Into How Weird the FBI Really Is. Whitey: The Joe Berlinger Film:
January 8, 2016


http://thetrialofwhiteybulger.com/the-s ... /#comments" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On October 17, 1984, James A. Ring, the supervisor of the FBI’s organized crime squad in Boston wrote a memorandum to the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) James W. Greenleaf. On October 18, 1984, Greenleaf responded to this memorandum.

Ring took over the supervision of the organized crime squad in 1983. His memorandum starts out by saying Flemmi is in a closed status but “information volunteered by this individual is accepted.” Figure that one out.

Flemmi is closed on their books. They are still using him as an informant as if he were not closed. If nothing else, this shows the FBI records are deliberately false. Both the SAC and supervisor don’t even blink an eye at this. Flemmi

[msfreeh]

see link for full story


http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/08/ ... rebellion/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Unhinged in Burns: Inside the Malheur Rebellion




Burns, Oregon.

A man who proclaims himself a member of the Alaska Militia limps up to you in a parking lot with a grey ponytail and an earring in his left ear. “We’re just here for our civil rights,” he assures you (and himself), “They’re coming at us from all sides, but then they’ll find we’re just businessmen.” He’s worked as a king crab fisherman for decades. “There are twenty more of us coming down. This should have happened a long time ago. I knew the Hammonds. I grew up with them.”

In Burns, the militiamen are present in visible numbers, having descended on the small town after the father-and-son Hammond duo was sent back to prison for an arson at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuse that surrounds their 12,000 acre ranch. The militiamen’s demeanor tends to bear similar traits, though not totally distinguishable from the locals in these parts. Many of them grey-bearded bespectacled men who seem out of joint and out of place, they come largely from a white working class background angered by the state of the US to the point of feeling completely lost and at odds with the modern world.

The presence of utter frustration is palpable and contagious. At times, one feels a sense of being at war, although the sides are indeterminable. In their martial struggle, the militias seem only partially conscious of a battlefield that they are imposing on the daily lives of the citizens of Burns, because for them it is their way of life. Yet, they do not seem to heed the concerns of other Patriot movement members like the Oath Keepers, nor does the denunciation of the Mormon Church seem to shake their will. That space of autonomy is crucial to the present moment.

Yet the frustration among locals, many of whom are Mormons, is perhaps greater than that of the militias giving press conferences at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and milling around Burns. We met briefly with an organizer in the area attending meeting after meeting of community members fed up with the chaos.

However, while the community appears to stand against the fiasco, there are important nuances.

“I don’t know what’s going on, I want to stay neutral,” one clerk told us. “You can mind your business all you like, and then somebody wants to come around and put you in theirs. I just run my shop, I’m a mom, and I don’t want anything to do with whatever’s going on.”

According to her, militia members called in a threat to the local schools stating that they would shoot the children of the BLM employees, so the district shut down schools for the day. The terror in her voice was palpable, and she had even considered joining the initial march that sparked the occupation of the wildlife refuge by a breakaway group led by the Bundy brothers.

Significant anger about the schools closing mixes in with the feeling that teenagers are being shown a terrible example, while the children have no place to go. Among three friends in Burns, two had been contacted by the FBI, and joked about being able to exchange numbers by phone or card.

“My company doesn’t have an opinion,” one of the local women declared, “but I have one. You know me.”

“I want to go somewhere were there are no reporters,” she declared, pausing for dramatic irony. “And there isn’t any! I want to go home.”

A History of Anger and Heartache

The last time Burns was “this popular,” one local explained, was the late 1980s when a large forest fire caused consternation among the community, and limited the supply of gasoline to a trickle. It is beautiful country in the low desert, rimmed by ridges and foothills. Sparsely populated Harney County has its origins as an illegal break-away from Grant County involving renegades who stole official records, and brought them to the new county sear in Burns, which today numbers around 2,700 people.

According to Charlotte Roderique, in her fifth year as chair of the Burns Paiute tribe, which comprises about 350 people in somewhere around 750 acres lying northwest of Burns, the local Natives have a history of abuse from both officials and vigilantes in the area. The Paiute lands, she stated at Wednesday morning’s press conference, have never been ceded to the government, and “we never gave up our rights to aboriginal territories from the Cascades to the Blue Mountains[.]”

The mood was tense and the room full at the Burns Paiute Tribal Center building during the conference. A video played on a large screen above the podium depicting traditional practices and lands of the Burns Paiute, and Roderique appeared confident, flanked on both sides by her comrades and supporters.

Although a treaty was signed in 1868 promising that the US federal government would ensure the rights of the Indigenous peoples, it was never ratified by the Senate, she explained. There is a tacit agreement, however, that the Paiute can use the Refuge for their own purposes, excluding hunting. The Wildlife Refuge contains artifacts dating back 15,000 years, and holds a vital position in the lives of the Paiute.

Among other things, the region served as a wintering ground for settlers, ranchers, trappers, and others in the area drawn in by the cold. It could be a place of community and prosperity, yet “by their actions,” Roderique explained, the militias “are desecrating one of our sacred sites, they are endangering our children and families… they do not belong here.”

When she heard that the militias insisted that they were giving the land back to those to whom it rightfully belongs, Roderique jokes, she immediately began preparing to write an acceptance letter on behalf of the Paiute. “We have no sympathy for those who are trying to take the land from their rightful owners.”

“[P]eople have to have a certain mind frame in order to do things like this,” she said, as the screen behind her showed a coyote slinking between sandhill cranes. “They have a mindset… They have already in their mind decided what they want to do. Any rational conversation I don’t think is going to sink in.”

The moment seemed evocative of a quote by the late poet John Trudell: “It’s like there is this predator energy on this planet, and this predator energy feeds on the essence of the spirit.”

Roderique expressed an inter-generational heartache and anger over the mistreatment of the Paiute people by the US government, as well as the dams and lack of wildlife caused by settler practices in the region. Another tribal member, Jarvis Kennedy, explained the history of displacement, when the Paiute were offered a mere 10 acres in the city dump in return for the theft of all their lands.

The occupiers, we were told, are not from the area, and most are from out of state—as far away as California, Idaho, Montana, and of course Nevada. These are people with a will to die for a cause, but nobody will give them the satisfaction. So their hangers-on exist in a kind of limbo here in Burns, a ghoulish plane between life and death for which Malheur (a French word meaning bad luck, trouble, grief, and woe) seems an appropriate place.

Refuge or Sanctuary

We approached the wildlife refuge at around 2pm, soon after a news conference had ended. As the media began to clear out, we entered the compound directly. A large pickup truck was parked with two men inside chatting with a group of people.

“Can we walk in?”

“Are you with media, supporters, militia?”

“We’re with media.”

“You’ve got a first amendment right,” one man told us. “I’m not going to tell you you can’t.”

Walking through the compound, we were surprised at its size. A small house marked museum, comfortable looking buildings with their shades drawn, and a considerable number of vehicles. As the Bundys were in a meeting, we decided to return to the people at the entrance, but then a truck emerged down the path.

We flagged down their truck, and asked if we could speak with the two men inside, both

[msfreeh]

see



couple of reads


1.






US Judge Names Ex-FBI Director to Help Settle Volkswagen Lawsuits
January 11, 2016

http://m.voanews.com/a/us-judge-names-e ... 41132.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


A federal judge in California overseeing more than 500 lawsuits filed against German automaker Volkswagen AG over its excess diesel emissions on Monday said he planned to name a former FBI director to help settle the cases.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said he would name Robert S. Mueller, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as "settlement master" in the VW lawsuits.

Mueller, a Washington lawyer, will "use his considerable experience and judgment to facilitate settlement discussions among the various parties in these complex matters," Breyer wrote on Monday.

Breyer said the need for a settlement adviser was "urgent" and will give VW and lawyers for all sides until Jan. 15 to object to the appointment.
FILE - A 2013 Volkswagen Passat with a diesel engine is evaluated at the California Air Resources Board emissions test lab in El Monte, California.

FILE - A 2013 Volkswagen Passat with a diesel engine is evaluated at the California Air Resources Board emissions test lab in El Monte, California.

VW potentially faces billions of dollars in claims from owners of vehicles with excess emissions. Separately, the Justice Department sued VW last week under the Clean Air Act seeking up to $46 billion.

VW has admitted to using software to allow 580,000 vehicles to emit up to 40 times legally allowable pollution. It also faces investigations by 47 state attorneys general.

Breyer said there are "few, if any, people with more integrity, good judgment, and relevant experience" than Mueller.

Breyer said Mueller is "uniquely qualified to work with and earn the trust of the parties, including the consumer and car dealer plaintiffs, the United States government, the Volkswagen defendants, and the interested state governments."

Last month, VW named its own adviser, lawyer Ken Feinberg, to create a VW diesel owner claims program. Feinberg sai





2.




The Fatal Flaw In The 911 Coverup - Rense.com
http://www.rense.com/general51/fatal.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Know how to tell the difference between the truth and lies of 9/11? ... Why did FBI director Robert Mueller say very publicly to the Commonwealth Club of San ...
Robert Mueller Archives - 911Truth.Org
http://www.911truth.org/tag/robert-mueller/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
FBI Director Robert Mueller promised that the FBI will provide their evidence to a ... FBI worked hard to cover up a 9-11 cover-up–and then hide it some more.
Outgoing Director Robert S. Mueller III tells how 9/11 reshaped FBI ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/...muell ... 70-0b54-11.." onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
Aug 22, 2013 - Outgoing Director Mueller talks about how 9/11 redirected FBI focus from domestic crime to terrorism.
9/11 Cover-up - WantToKnow.info
http://www.wanttoknow.info/911coverup10pg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
9/11 cover-up ten-page summary - Eye-opening 9/11 facts from mass media websites ... [Time, 5/21/02] FBI Director Mueller will later say "there was nothing the ...
Increasing Attention to Allegations of 9/11 FBI Cover-Up | 28Pages.org
28pages.org/2014/.../increasing-attention-to-allegations-of-911-fbi-cover-u...
Sep 19, 2014 - Increasing Attention to Allegations of 9/11 FBI Cover-Up ... obstruction of justice by George Bush, Dick Cheney and FBI Director Robert Mueller:.
DOJ-Judicial Crimes Against the People: - Google Books Result
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0932438946" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Captain Rodney Stich - 2014 - ‎History
Taus wrote (August 23, 2002): Getting back to FBI Director Mueller. He's implicated in the Boston FBI cover-up and trial of former FBI agent John Connolly back in May-June 2002. ... (Replaced by History ofAviation Disasters: 1950 to 9/11.) ...
Who Did It? - Conspirators - 9-11... Who really did it?
http://www.whodidit.org/cocon.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Robert Mueller — FBI director on 9-11; under his “leadership” FBI field agents' ... Philip Zelikow — led the 9-11 Cover-Up Commission; personally wrote the 9-11 ...
FBI Director Nominee Mueller Helped FBI and DOJ Cover Up ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/690785/posts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Aug 1, 2001 - FBI Director Nominee Mueller Helped FBI and DOJ Cover Up .... from FBI agents Coleen Rowley and Ken Williams before the 9/11 attacks ...

[msfreeh]

here: Home > Editorial > Current Article
2nd Amendment threatened

By Submitted / January 13, 2016 / Comments Off on 2nd Amendment threatened

http://www.atmorenews.com/2016/01/13/2n ... hreatened/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Since I was a young boy, some of the most enjoyable time with my family has been spent hunting. My dad and I didn’t bond on a golf course, instead we bonded in the backwoods of Southwest Alabama. This is the same tradition I have enjoyed with my sons.

My family, like most families in Southwest Alabama, has always owned firearms. While we mainly use our weapons for hunting, there is also a basic interest in having firearms to help protect our family.

The right to keep and bear arms is a right given to every American in the Second Amendment of the Constitution. I am deeply concerned by any efforts in Washington that would restrict South Alabamians right to own a firearm.

For example, last week President Barack Obama announced that he would be taking a series of executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence. In reality, these actions would have little to no impact on reducing violence, but they would infringe on our Second Amendment right to bear

[msfreeh]

January 16 2015




http://myinforms.com/en/a/21991865-sc-p ... ce-ruling/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US appeals court restricts police use of stun guns - Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/.../sns-b ... 15-story.h.." onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
1 day ago - Police should not use stun guns on people who try to evade custody but pose no ... a federal appeals court decided in a ruling that will affect law enforcement ... no threat to anyone when he was shot five times with a Taser by Pinehurst police.
Second City Cop: Taser Restrictions
secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2016/01/taser-restrictions.html?...
12 hours ago - Police officers lacked clear legal guidance on when they may zap people with Tasers, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decided on Monday, so it made a new rule ...
SC police told to adjust Taser policies after federal court's excessive ...
myinforms.com › Main › South Carolina (SC)
21 hours ago - South Carolina police agencies were told Friday to change their Taser policies after a federal court deemed it excessive force for officers to use stun guns on ...


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns- ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[msfreeh]

‘Nothing happens to the police’: forced confessions go unpunished in Chicago
A five-month investigation reveals five officers were accused of using torture to coerce 11 false confessions for murder – and remain on the force


Harold Richardson, Vincent Thames, Terrill Swift, MIchael Saunders, known as ‘the Englewood Four’, whose 1994 rape and murder convictions were overturned after new DNA evidence linked another person to the crime.
Thursday 28 January 2016 09.10 EST Last modified on Thursday 28 January 2016 10.43 EST



http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016 ... ns-torture" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



On a breezy June evening in 1995, twenty years before the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald would envelop Chicago in scandal, Derrick Flewellen hobbled into St Bernard’s Hospital on the south side of the city, seeking care for an open wound on his right foot. As the night progressed and Flewellen’s girlfriend kept him company, the 31-year-old was treated with antibiotics and pain medicine before being bandaged up and discharged around 2am the next morning.

The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive
The Guardian is counting the people killed by US law enforcement agencies this year. Read their stories and contribute to our ongoing, crowdsourced project
Read more
But soon after his departure from the hospital, Flewellen would again be in pain. Two Chicago Police detectives, Francis Valadez and Steve Buglio had arrived to St Bernard’s in search of Flewellen and allegedly intimidated the couple into heading straight to violent crimes unit headquarters from the hospital, for questioning. According to testimony from the criminal trial that eventually saw Flewellen’s acquittal for two murder charges, based on DNA evidence, he was heard screaming from inside a police interrogation room, in the hours that followed, after Valadez – now one of 22 district commanders leading the Chicago Police force – stomped on Flewellen’s injured foot and proceeded to crush the wheels of a metal chair into his wounds.

In all, Flewellen says in his lawsuit that seven detectives beat him over the course of 36 hours, ignoring his pleas for a lawyer, sleep and pain medication while threatening that the Department of Children and Family Services would take his girlfriend’s infant son away from her. Following the barrage, he “confessed”.

“My life totally changed,” said Flewellen, speaking to the Guardian by phone from the Chicago suburb where he now lives with his sister. “Being falsely accused of murder and having three, four detectives slapping me around to get a confession … It wasn’t pretty, I got beat up, tortured. I have been beaten up by inmates, I’ve been beaten up by Cook County Sheriff’s Police. I almost got stabbed in there after they posted my picture on the news.”


Derrick Flewellen Photograph: Courtesy of Derrick Flewellen
Unable to afford bond, Flewellen languished for four-and-a-half years in Cook County Jail before a judge would find him not guilty, even after each of the officers who interrogated Flewellen testified against him. Six months after he was set free, Flewellen

[msfreeh]

http://reason.com/blog/2016/02/09/fusion-center-replies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Fusion Center Issues New Statement on Its Warning That Police Should Watch Out for Don't-Tread-on-Me Flags
Many unanswered questions remain about both the bulletin and the DHS-funded intelligence-sharing operation that produced it.




|Feb. 9, 2016 2:33 pm

ProblematicToday the Utah Statewide Information and Analysis Center, a "fusion center" partly funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, responded to the controversy over a bulletin it sent to law enforcement officers last week.

The bulletin, which was first covered here at Reason, had been distributed in anticipation of last Friday's funeral for LaVoy Finicum, the rancher killed during the occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. The document warned that "[c]aravans of individuals traveling to the funeral services may be comprised of one or more armed extremists," and it displayed several "visual indicators" that an officer might be dealing with "extremist and disaffected individuals." These images ranged from the Gadsden flag (a popular patriotic symbol featuring a rattlesnake and the slogan "Don't Tread on Me") to an altered version of the skull-and-lightning-bolt logo favored by fans of the Grateful Dead.

Today the fusion center issued this statement:

The Utah Statewide Information and Analysis Center released an officer safety bulletin on February 3, 2016, regarding events surrounding the funeral of LaVoy Finicum. The bulletin was intended to inform law enforcement officers of the funeral and potential safety concerns based on recent events in Oregon and Nevada.

The bulletin contains symbols that may or may not be espoused by criminal extremist individuals or groups. We understand that law-abiding citizens also espouse these symbols, and we acknowledge so in the bulletin. Public safety personnel are always expected to evaluate and utilize all information in the context of their training in Constitutional Law and rules of criminal procedure.

There was no intent to offend or single out individuals and groups who use these symbols for historical or legitimate purposes. We will attempt to articulate those distinctions clearer in the future.

A few follow-up questions come to mind:

"How to tell a sovereign citizen from a Deadhead..."1. Precisely how does the center intend to "attempt to articulate those distinctions clearer in the future"? It's true that the bulletin acknowledged that "law-abiding citizens also espouse [sic] these symbols," and we mentioned that fact in our story. It's just that the agency's acknowledgement consisted, in its entirety, of this poorly worded and perfunctory aside:

[T]hough some or parts of these symbols are representative of patriotic and American revolutionary themes[,] they are often associated with extremism[.]

There was no breakdown of which symbols had multiple meanings or what different contexts they might be expected to appear in. The information that was included was often extremely limited: The Gadsden flag, for example, was simply identified as an image "commonly displayed by sovereign citizen extremists." So: What exactly do they plan to change?

2. Does the agency plan to address any other criticisms? The Utah bulletin didn't just do a poor job of explaining what the symbols it included might mean, thus making it more likely that a driver might be mistaken for an "extremist." It also failed to discuss what a cop should do if he does come across a bona fide "extremist." As former FBI agent Mike German complained to me last week, "What will the officers know after reading this that they didn't before? Here all they know is to be afraid if they see a Gadsden flag, which could result in an unnecessarily hostile encounter that would increase the chances of violence. There's nothing here that would help them correctly identify someone who held these beliefs, understand what might trigger hostile reactions, or how to talk to them in a way that would defuse any unnecessary tension." The statement released today does not deal with these issues.

3. Is there a larger pattern here? It would be comforting to think this was just one poorly drafted document. But fusion centers across the country have a history of producing work with similar problems, including an infamous "strategic report" in Missouri that identified the Gadsden flag as "the most common symbol displayed by militia members and organizations." More broadly, a 2012 congressional investigation concluded that the centers' output was "oftentimes shoddy, rarely timely, sometimes endangering citizens' civil liberties and Privacy Act protections, occasionally taken from already-published public sources, and more often than not unrelated to terrorism." According to the congressional investigators, nearly a third of these reports weren't even circulated after they were written—sometimes because they contained no useful information, sometimes because they "overstepped legal boundaries."

Four years later, is this Finicum bulletin typical of the Utah agency's work? Is it typical of fusion centers in general? Is any sort of review process underway?

These are among the issues I wanted to raise with the agency after I acquired its document last week, but at the time it didn't respond to my calls and emails. And today? Sgt. Todd Royce, the public affairs officer who sent me the statement, tells me "there will be no further comment on the report."

[msfreeh]

5 or 6 stories




Judge Tosses Police Investigator's Lawsuit
By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a former Chicago police investigator cannot sue his supervisors for accusations that they fired him after ordering him to reverse findings of police misconduct.
No Immunity for Cop Who Killed Elderly Man
By ZACK HUFFMAN

A Framingham, Mass., police officer will have to face trial after accidentally shooting and killing an unarmed, elderly black man, the First Circuit ruled.




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Courthouse News Service
Wednesday, February 10, 2016Last Update: 11:59 AM PT

Drone Records


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WASHINGTON - A federal judge granted the FBI summary judgment in the case Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington brought for records concerning drone and unmanned aerial vehicles.



1.
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Courthouse News Service
Courthouse News Service
Courthouse News Service
Wednesday, February 10, 2016Last Update: 7:06 AM PT

Prosecutor's Capital-Case Disbarment Upheld
By DAVID LEE

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AUSTIN, Texas (CN) - A former Texas prosecutor was correctly disbarred for his role in the wrongful death sentence of a black man who was exonerated after spending 18 years in prison, 12 of them on death row, the Texas Supreme Court Board of Disciplinary Appeals ruled Monday.
In a 12-0 ruling that is not appealable, the board affirmed the disbarment of former Burleson County District Attorney Charles Sebesta.
The State Bar of Texas revoked Sebesta's law license in June 2015 after concluding he engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by withholding evidence as lead prosecutor in the murder conviction of Anthony Graves.
The board of appeals' Monday ruling called Sebesta's conduct "egregious" and said that "quasi-estoppel is not available to parties with unclean hands."
Sebesta is accused of failing to disclose to Graves' attorneys a confession by Robert Carter that he had murdered six people in 1992 alone.
Carter had implicated Graves but no physical evidence linked Graves to the murders.
Graves was released in 2010 and filed a disciplinary complaint against Sebesta four years later.
Sebesta argued in January that the State Bar decided in 2007 not to disbar him and that it cannot change its mind in pursuing Graves' complaint. He cited changes to disciplinary rules in 2004 that result in disciplinary findings now having a res judicata effect - that they cannot be adjudicated again.
The appeals board disagreed, saying the summary disposition panel that dismissed the accusations against Sebesta in 2007 has fewer investigatory tools than grievance committees before 2004, that did not have res judicata effect.
"The Summary Disposition Panel has no subpoena power to compel production of documents or to compel testimony; and it hears no witnesses," the Opinion and Judgment on Appeal states. "The pre-2004 grievance committees had subpoena power to gather documents and to require testimony; and they had the opportunity to hear and cross-examine witnesses under oath. The Summary Disposition Panel has fewer tools than the pre-2004 grievance committees to attempt any adjudication of merits, and the Summary Disposition Panel is not charged with any adjudicatory function."
The 2004 changes did not "transform the role of the screening entity into an adjudicatory body" with res judicata effect, the board said.
The board also concluded it is "not unconscionable" for a screening entity to reach one conclusion in 2007 and another in 2014. The latter included a 2010 affidavit from a special prosecutor stating his belief that there was no credible evidence of Graves' involvement in the murders.
Sebesta said Monday that he is still believes Graves was correctly convicted.
"My opinion is that we presented the evidence we had and felt like it was sufficient," Sebesta told Re

2.

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Molly Martens denies killing Limerick man Jason Corbett
Andrew Carey | February 10, 2016

Molly Martens was arrested along with her father and retired FBI agent Thomas Martens on Tuesday and charged with the killing of Jason Corbett



MOLLY Martens and her father have pleaded NOT guilty this Wednesday to the charges of second degree murder and the voluntary manslaughter of Limerickman Jason Corbett at his North Carolina home last August.

The 32-year-old second wife of Jason, together with her father, Thomas Martens (65) – a former FBI agent – were charged last month following their arrest. Both were released on a $200,000 bail bond.

Jason, a 39-year-old father of two was bludgeon to death at his home in Wallburg, North Carolina, on August 2 last year.

imagePost mortem reports revealed that Jason died from head injuries allegedly suffered when he was struck with a baseball bat and paving stone following what authorities described at that time as a domestic disturbance.

US reports said that Davidson County Assistant District Attorney Greg Brown requested Superior Court Judge Mark E Klass to issue a court order to obtain copies of Mr Martens’ personnel file from the FBI.

The US co




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http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/02/10/fighti ... h-science/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Threats to Democracy
February 10, 2016 | Jimmy Chin
Fighting for Election Transparency — With Science
Portrait of an E-Voting Skeptic


Most of us are convinced that we, as individuals, cannot make a dent
in the scheme of things. Given all of the injustices in the world, it
can seem near impossible to create any sort of meaningful change. It’s
hardly surprising that we become hopeless or indifferent, or, at best,
resign ourselves to the push-button comfort of online “slacktivism.”

But there are people who are different. People who not only believe
they can make the world a better place, but also have the resolve to
turn their convictions into actions. WhoWhatWhy will try to find these
individuals and bring their stories to our readers.

Here is one such story:

————————————————————————————————————

For most of the week, Beth Clarkson is a professional statistician.
She tweaks statistical models and delves into the mysteries of
composite materials. But at home on the weekend, she puts on her
second hat — trying to keep American elections honest.

Clarkson is fond of saying, “Data has a story to tell,” and she likes
nothing better than digging out that story. But she had never applied
her skills to politics — until a few years ago..

She avoided anything to do with politics, she wrote on her blog,
“because I am so bad at storing and accessing that sort of information
in my head.” But that hands-off attitude changed when she began to
suspect a threat to our electoral system.

Her conversion to vote fraud activism began more or less by accident.
An Amazing Discovery

To enliven the statistics classes she used to teach at Wichita State
University, Clarkson started discussing real-life data from the 2000
election. You remember that one: it was a cliffhanger, and ended with
the Supreme Court anointing George W. Bush as president.

Over the next decade, Clarkson’s expert eye meticulously analyzed
election after election, and to her surprise, found some interesting
voting patterns. Clarkson found statistical anomalies that kept
appearing here and there, but she thought that they could have simply
been just that: anomalies or outliers.
This Chart illustrates the breakdown of the Republican vote by voting
machine type in a cumulative sum model for 2014 Wisconsin Governor's
race. Photo credit: Beth Clarkson / Stats Life

This Chart illustrates the breakdown of the Republican vote by voting
machine type in a cumulative sum model for 2014 Wisconsin Governor’s
race. Photo credit: Beth Clarkson / Stats Life

At the time, she was an instructor in WSU’s math department while also
working on her Ph.D. in statistics. In 2006, she became chief
statistician of WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR)
where she completed her degree and now produces reports for regulatory
agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration and other
businesses.

Then something happened in 2012 that shook her world. One day,
Clarkson came across a statistics paper on the internet titled
“Republican Primary Election 2012 Results: Amazing Statistical
Anomalies.”

The authors of the paper found that in elections all over the country
where electronic voting machines were used, a strange pattern kept
appearing: the larger the number of registered voters in the voting
precinct, the larger the Republican vote. Since precinct size should
have no effect on the vote distribution, the authors concluded that
the data “indicates overwhelming evidence of election manipulation.”

Clarkson said she was astonished. She proceeded to reproduce the
results of the study — she called it essentially a peer-review — and
began to seriously question the trustworthiness of our electoral
system.
Doing Something About It

The paper galvanized her to take action. First, she went to the local
elections office to inquire about the voting machines in Sedgwick
County, Kansas.

“While [the election officials] were very nice and very open about
what they were doing, I was pretty much appalled at their lack of
quality assurance, in terms of how the machines were accurately
recording people’s votes and reporting the summaries of those votes,”
she said. (Clarkson is a certified quality engineer.)

This motivated Clarkson in 2013 to sue for access to election records
in her precinct so she could verify the accuracy of the vote.

“I was pro se, meaning I was representing myself, and it was pretty
easily defeated,” she said. The judge claimed that if people were
allowed access to the vote, they could tie a particular voter to a
particular ballot. Clarkson responded: “not really very reasonable,
but it is plausible, I guess.”

Far from being discouraged, she stepped up her efforts. Clarkson
started a blog, wrote an article spelling out her voting analysis,
and, most recently, sued election officials again. This time she
amended her proposal to include safeguards for voter privacy, but
unsurprisingly she has faced more pushback. Officials remain steadfast
in their opposition.

The Elections Commissioner of Sedgwick County, Tabitha Lehman, claims
that Clarkson doesn’t need the documents in question — paper records
created by the electronic voting machines and known as Real Time Audit
Logs (or RTALs) — to check the election results, and besides, the
audit process would be too burdensome.

Clarkson contends RTALs are in fact the only way to conduct a reliable
recount and that the burden of the request should fall on her, not
Lehman or her staff. Lehman did not respond to requests for comment.

Lehman, as well as Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, have also
argued that they cannot honor Clarkson’s request because the law
forbids it. Clarkson thinks this argument amounts to a Catch-22:
“Basically they’re saying they can’t open the records because it’s
forbidden by law without a judge’s order. It’s true, but that’s why
I’m suing. It’s not a reason for them to say no,” she said.
Who Gets to Look at the Records and When? If Ever

Clarkson said it makes little sense that the records, which are there
to ensure election integrity, are safeguarded so tightly.

“If I’m not allowed to, as an academic researcher, look at this and
publish the results, who is ever going to look at this?” she said.
“You’re not allowed to look at them during a recount. When can you
look at them? What are they there for?”

Despite her growing frustration, Clarkson says there is no reason to
assume the stonewalling officials are “in the know” — that is, parties
to some kind of fraud. They may be simply bureaucrats defending their
turf.

Clarkson is encouraged by the outpouring of support on the Internet
prompted by her blog, She says some correspondents have taken it upon
themselves to contribute to and advance her election analysis.

Media coverage has also been positive (though she admits that she
sometimes feels uncomfortable in the spotlight). She has been
interviewed multiple times on the radio, there have been editorials
supporting her efforts, and she even scored a television spot on Thom
Hartmann’s cable TV program,The Big Picture.

Eventually, the attention drew the interest of an attorney, who
offered his services to Clarkson pro bono. To help defray some of her
legal expenses in preparation for her March trial date, she founded
the Show Me The Votes Foundation and set up a gofundme site.
The Fight Yields Results

Whatever the outcome of the current lawsuit, Clarkson has already had
an impact on the national conversation about voting integrity.
Secretary of State Kobach, who has faced criticism for his opposition
to opening up Sedgwick County voting records, has proposed legislation
that would mandate post-election audits starting in 2017 — a move
directly in response to the lawsuit.

Clarkson is optimistic that her case will prevail in court. But even
if that happens, she expects that the county will appeal, in order to
delay handing over the data for as long as possible. If so, she
intends to keep up the pressure for full disclosure.

“I feel like it’s just too important to drop. When we don’t have
everybody represented in our voting process then the people who win
those elections are not necessarily representative of the average of
what the country wants,” she said.

Clarkson sees her crusade as a simple matter of good citizenship.

“We all want to make the world a better place, right? That’s kind of a
universal desire,” she said. “It’s not necessarily that people want to
spend all of the time, effort, and energy in activism of whatever
nature, but we all like to think that our presence makes a difference
and that the world is better for us having been here.”

[msfreeh]

Secret discipline in cop’s sexual misconduct case no barrier to job


http://m.wcvb.com/news/secret-disciplin ... b/37972324" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Published On: Feb 12 2016 11:17:25 PM EST Updated On: Feb 12 2016 11:53:18 PM EST
NEWBURYPORT, Mass. -

After a months-long public records battle with the city of Newburyport, 5 Investigates uncovered an internal affairs investigation into an embarrassing and potentially criminal act committed by a Newburyport police sergeant.

But charges were never pressed, and after failing a lie detector test and confessing, Newburyport police Sgt. Stephen Chaisson was allowed to quietly resign, records obtained by 5 Investigates Mike Beaudet show.

Watch 5 Investigates' report

That apparently helped him land a sensitive job as director of compliance and investigations for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's medical marijuana division.

It was a fortunate landing for a cop whose own supervisors were prepared to criminally charge him.

Chaisson's troubles started in September 2013 when a woman told police that she spotted a man masturbating in his truck parked on Newburyport's Water Street.

The woman told police that the man saw her looking at him and continued masturbating for a short time. She only got a partial license plate as he drove away, according to a police report.

Days after the incident, the witness returned to the police station, surprised to see that same truck outside

Her comments are recorded in a police report: "She asked did you get him???'
Soon after, Chaisson changed his license plate.

In a videotaped interview with police -- part of the records the city unsuccessfully fought from being released -- he denied it was him.

"I wasn't there that day," he said.

"So you didn't commit any sexual acts on Water Street?" he is asked by a police investigator.

"Absolutely not," he replied.

The video, which along with more than 100 pages of records were repeatedly ordered released by the secretary of state, show just how close Chaisson was to being charged.

"Minus the polygraph you were going to get charged today with a crime. We were going to charge you," the investigator told him, referring to his agreeing to take a lie detector test.

He was asked why he changed his plates.

"You've done some pretty weird things since this has came about," he was told.
"I changed my plate just 'cause she came in here," he said. "I just wanted it over with."

The records reveal that, days after that interview, Chaisson backed out of the lie detector test, only to agree to it later after being granted immunity.

He then proceeded to fail the test, and then in another recorded interview made a partial confession.

"It's embarrassing, but I had my belt undone," he said.

Chaisson admitted he was in the truck, but stopped short of saying he was masturbating.

"The only way I can really put it is I was playing with myself," he said. "I've undone my pants before, just usually on long drives, but I had a big breakfast."

"I wasn't looking to show anybody anything," he said.

The police investigation noted "there is enough circumstantial evidence to move forward with a criminal complaint" and the department "recommended that he be terminated."

But Chaisson was never charged or fired. He was allowed to resign.

"Why did the city fight so hard to keep this information secret?" Beaudet asked Newburyport Mayor Donna Holaday.

"I don't think we fought hard to keep it secret. We were just following advice of counsel," she replied.

Beaudet asked City Marshal Mark Murray if Chaisson got special treatment because he was a police officer.

"Absolutely not," Murray replied.

"But there's no criminal charge. Isn't that special treatment?" Beaudet asked.
"No," Murray replied.

"Why not?" Beaudet asked.

"Because we didn't have the evidence to go forward," Murray replied.

The records include a detailed interview with the alleged victim, who was described as "very credible," but officials said she wouldn't testify in court, making the odds of a guilty verdict unlikely.

"What do you say to the public who sees this and says, 'Why wasn't he charged?’" Beaudet asked Murray. "I would have been charged."

"I can charge you, it doesn't mean I'm going to win in court," Murray said.
"If you had this same evidence with an average citizen, would that person be charged?" Beaudet asked.

"I can't answer that," Murray replied.

Mayor Holaday defended giving Chaisson immunity and letting him resign, saying it allowed the city to remove him from the force quickly. She also pointed out Chaisson never admitted to anything until after he was granted immunity.

"Any police officer who is found to be a liar, which is what ultimately came through in this case, is useless to the department," Holaday said.

But Chaisson is not useless to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he landed on the payroll in the sensitive job of policing the state's medical marijuana program.

Newburyport Police tell 5 Investigates the state never called for a reference.
"Is he really being held accountable fo

[msfreeh]

Donald Trump’s Palm Beach Homies



http://www.madcowprod.com/2016/03/09/do ... more-11478" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Relying on the Mob for support in Atlantic City and during construction of his signature New York projects is certainly lamentable. But Trump’s questionable early partners are only half of the story.

At a moment when Americans have begun registering their anger at having been swindled financially, Trump’s ‘homies’ in Palm Beach, whose exploits have victimized entire nations, could provoke real outrage. If, that is, they ever receive exposure.

There’s a corrupt nursing home magnate, at least one Russian Mobster, and a serial thief who may have “hidden out on a Trump property in Palm Beach” while INTERPOL was looking to serve a criminal warrant for looting a big bank in Thailand.

icahnThere’s Trump buddy, and favorite for a Cabinet post in a Trump Administration, shady financier Carl Icahn, whose checkered career may finally get the attention it deserves.

Example: Icahn made a $100 million investment in a bogus St. Petersburg Florida company whose only “product” turned out to be 5.5 tons of cocaine busted on a company plane. The plane, a DC-9, was also used to give illegal free rides during the 2000 election to soon-to-be Florida Senator and later nationwide GOP Campaign Finance Chair Mel Martinez.

adnan2And there’s Saudi wheeler-dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who sold Trump his yacht at a bargain-basement price, winters in Palm Beach, and is similarly fabulous.

While Khashoggi specializes these days in robbing banks from the inside, (PDF, pg 8), and evading INTERPOL arrest warrants, he periodically rapes the American financial system for hundreds of millions of dollars—with STOCKWALK, for example, a scam that cost Deutsche Bank $278 million in fines.

Trump’s Palm Beach homies may be slightly more genteel… But they’ve stolen far more money than Trump’s Mob partners back in Jersey ever dreamed possible.

[msfreeh]

http://www.madcowprod.com/2016/03/17/do ... alm-beach/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Donald Trump, Dirty Money, & the Filthy Rich in Palm Beach
Posted on March 17, 2016 by Daniel Hopsicker

d-trumpIs he really doing it without dirty money?

When asked to describe what they like most about Donald Trump, supporters usually say “He’s been doing it all without dirty money.” They mean his campaign is self-funded, and takes no money from lobbyists, special interests, and Republican Party kingmakers.

But what if Trump’s own money is dirty? Could a sizable chunk of Trump’s net worth come from selling real estate to drug lords, mobsters, and international financial criminals?

The answer is: There’s no way to tell. Secrecy hides the identity of the crooked, violent and corrupt who invest cash in U.S. real estate through shell companies registered in Delaware, managed by a bank in the Grand Caymans for a trust in Guernsey. And its all perfectly legal.

Even Swiss banks these days have to know who their customers are. Not American real estate developers. There’s no legal requirement whatsoever that U.S. real-estate developer Donald Trump know who his clients are. Probably, he couldn’t care less. Or even worse, he’d rather not know.



“The Great Circle of Life,” Trump-Style

ConnectedA closer look at Trump reveals names which recur with his—and with each other—in odd and unexpected places. It’s as if Trump belongs to the “Great Circle of Life” from a “Lion King” movie shot in an alternative Universe.

From Palm Beach, winter home to well-known and well-heeled scammers from around the world, here’s a thumbnail sketch of “The Great Circle of Life,” Trump-Style.

Donald Trump has repeatedly taken advantage of this huge loophole in American law, never more blatantly than when he made a cool $90 million dollar profit on a Palm Beach mansion he sold to a man who someone must have worked really hard to convince the American mainstream media to identify as a “Russian businessman,” or “Russian fertilizer oligarch.”

dimitriHe wasn’t. Dmitry Rybolovlev is a Russian Mobster, who was indicted for rubbing out his chief business rival in what Russian news agency TASS called a “contract hit.”

Yet the Donald was pocketing $90 million of dirty cash from the Russian Mob at the same time a minor politician in California was taking tons of heat for accepting—from that same Russian Mobster—a $400 pen.

For his part, Rybolovlev liked the U.S. media’s characterization of him as a Russian “businessman” so much that four years ago he splurged on the most expensive condominium ever sold in Manhattan ($88 million).

As for Trump, there’s no way of knowing if he’s used any dirty money from the Russian Mob to fund his campaign. In fact, there’s no way of knowing so much about Donald Trump’s business career that the best way to get a clearer picture of who he is may be to check out who he does business with.


How Donald Trump became Donald Trump

LIFESTYLES-OF-THE-RICH-AND-FAMOUSFor anyone lucky enough to have never seen

[msfreeh]

Top adviser to Richard Nixon admitted that ‘War on Drugs’ was policy tool to go after anti-war protesters and ‘black people’

Updated: Tuesday, March 22, 2016, 9:28 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... -1.2573832" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nixon aide: 'War on Drugs' was tool to target 'black people'

The “War on Drugs” was actually a political tool to crush leftist protesters and black people, a former Nixon White House adviser admitted in a decades-old interview published Tuesday.

John Ehrlichman, who served as President Richard Nixon’s domestic policy chief, laid bare the sinister use of his boss’ controversial policy in a 1994 interview with journalist Dan Baum that the writer revisited in a new article for Harper’s magazine.

“You want to know what this was really all about,” Ehrlichman, who died in 1999, said in the interview after Baum asked him about Nixon’s harsh anti-drug policies.

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying,” Ehrlichman continued.

“We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Ehrlichman served 18 months in prison after being convicted of conspiracy and perjury for his role in the Watergate scandal that toppled his boss.
John D. Ehrlichman (l.), a top adviser to former President Richard Nixon (r.) is seen here in a 1972 photo. Ehrlichman, who died in 1999, admitted that the administration’s "War on Drugs" was actually a ploy to target left-wing protesters and African-Americans. ASSOCIATED PRESS
John D. Ehrlichman (l.), a top adviser to former President Richard Nixon (r.) is seen here in a 1972 photo. Ehrlichman, who died in 1999, admitted that the administration’s "War on Drugs" was actually a ploy to target left-wing protesters and African-Americans.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said Ehrlichman’s comments proved what black people had believed for decades.

“This is a frightening confirmation of what many of us have been saying for years. That this was a real attempt by government to demonize and criminalize a race of people,” Sharpton told the Daily News. “And when we would raise the questions over that targeting, we were accused of all kind of things, from harboring criminality to being un-American and trying to politicize a legitimate concern.”

PROTESTERS RIP DEA OVER 'WASTEFUL' DRUG WAR, IMPRISONMENTS

In 1971, Nixon labeled drug abuse “Public Enemy No. 1” and signed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, putting into place several new laws that cracked down on drug users. He also created the Drug Enforcement Administration.

By 1973, about 300,000 people were being arrested every year under the law — the majority of whom were African-American.
18695 Charles Tasnadi/AP
Anti-war demonstrators in 1970 image.

The drug war was continued in various forms by every President since, including President Ronald Reagan, whose wife Nancy called for people to “Just say no.”

Ehrlichman’s 22-year-old comments resurfaced Tuesday after Baum wrote about them in a cover story for the April issue of Harper’s, titled “Legalize It All,” in which he argues in favor of legalizing hard drugs.

The original 1994 interview with Ehrlichman was part of Baum’s research for his 1997 book, “Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure,” in which Baum laid bare decades of unsuccessful drug policy.

But the quotes never appeared in the book.

Baum said Tuesday he excluded the jaw-dropping quotes because they “didn’t fit.”
NYPD arrests a member of the Black Panthers for refusing to clear a sidewalk during a demonstration.
Steve Starr/AP
NYPD arrests a member of the Black Panthers for refusing to clear a sidewalk during a demonstration.
Enlarge
18695
Charles Tasnadi/AP
Anti-war demonstrators in Washington on May 9, 1970.
Enlarge

“There are no authorial interviews in (‘Smoke and Mirrors’) at all; it’s written to put the reader in the room as events transpire,” Baum told The Huffington Post via email. “Therefore, the quote didn’t fit. It did change all the reporting I did for the book, though, and changed the way I worked thereafter.”

The shocking interview with Ehrlichman later surfaced in a 2012 compendium of “wild, poignant, life-changing stories” from various writers titled “The Moment,” but the quotes received little media attention.

Many politicos have surmised that Ehrlichman, who would die five years later, made the stark revelations because he was angry Nixon never pardoned him of his Watergate-related offenses.

[msfreeh]

Greetings All!

I am sending you this email to cover all bases. Just in case you haven't
heard by now it is important to make sure you are in the loop and please
share this information with your various email lists, facebook, twitter
and the good ole grapevine.

Massachusetts is one of only 6 states that does not have a method to
decertify police officers ie revoke their license to practice law
enforcement after an egregious offense just like lawyers, doctors,
accountants, barbers, contractors, etc. This is a winnable situation in
this state as so many legal experts, politicians and even law
enforcement agree with it. We have the rare issue where politicians,
police, preachers and protesters can all agree on this common sense
reform. In fact, I am happy to report we just got a letter of support
from The International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement
Standards and Training (IADLEST) who maintains the current National
Decertification Index (NDI) which currently contains 20,570 actions
reported by 39 states.

* On *Monday 3/28* We are having a *Town Hall Forum at RCC Media Arts
Bldg* (6 - 8:30 pm)
Keynote presenter: Prof. Goldman
Moderated by: Rahsaan Hall (Dir. Racial Justice Program ACLU of MA)
Panelists: Rep. David Vieira (R-East Falmouth), Ivan Espinoza Madrigal
(Ex. Dir. Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights), Howard Friedman (Civil
RIghts / Police Misconduct Attorney)

* On *Tuesday 3/29* We are having a *Legislative Briefing at the MA
State House* Senate briefing rm. 428 (11 - 12 noon)
Keynote presenter: Prof. Goldman
Hosted by: State Senator Jamie Eldridge & MA Black & Latino Legislative
Caucus

Please see attached flyer (JPG and PDF) and share

/Also see the following links//:/
*
EVENTS ON FACEBOOK*
*3/28 RCC Town Hall RSVP via Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/events/1564168007237052/3/29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; State House
Legislative Briefing RSVP via Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/events/1025908497482875/*PRESS*" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; **Rahsaan Hall
(Dir. Racial Justice Program ACLU of MA) on *BNN-TV w/Chris Lovett*-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJp79HNQsEY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"LICENSE AND REGISTRATION
PLEASE: ON POLICE CERTIFICATION" ***Dig Boston *-
https://digboston.com/license-and-regis ... ification/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
*Thank You

[msfreeh]

http://www.thesullenbell.com/2016/04/24 ... struction/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

attraction destruction

Barack Obama ended opium eradication efforts in Afghanistan in 2009, effectively green lighting Afghan opium production and the Afghan heroin trade. By 2010, all US efforts to eradicate Afghan opium ceased. It has been US policy to allow Afghan opium growing and the heroin trade since. US heroin deaths tripled from 3,036 in 2010 to 10,574 in 2014 as a result.

{**} https://www.youtube.com/music" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; audio {**}

Vanda Felbab-Brown at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank that often writes reports supporting the Obama Administration, penned “No Easy Exit: Drugs and Counternarcotics Strategies in Afghanistan” in advance of the April 2016 UN Summit on Drugs (UNGASS). No way out for Uncle Sam is more like it. The report is notable for what it omits, which is any mention of the heroin epidemic, the deadliest illicit drug epidemic in history, or any of the tens of thousands of Americans killed by heroin since Obama took office.

The Bush Administration had an Afghan opium eradication program in effect, carried out by DynCorp. Obama didn’t renew DynCorp’s eradication contracts, effectively ending all US efforts to eradicate opium. (Afghan government eradication efforts in 2014, resulted in 1.1% of the Afghan opium crop being eradicated. The NY Times reported that the Afghan government will no longer eradicate opium crops as of 2016.) Heroin is made from opium.

Ms. Felbab-Brown might as well have said “let them eat cake” to the tens of thousands of Americans killed by heroin since 2009, the millions now hooked on heroin and the tens of millions living in terror because of loved ones now hooked on this deadly poison.

US policy changed to permit opium growing and the heroin trade during Obama’s first year in office, as a way to minimize US troop casualties in Afghanistan. And to maximize US civilian casualties in the US from heroin.

The CIA defines blowback as the ‘consequences at home of operations overseas.’

Since ending eradication efforts, US heroin deaths shot up from 3,036 (2010) to 5,925 (2012) to 10,574 in 2014. The heroin death toll continues to shoot up as does the number of heroin users, from the 1,500,000 US heroin users in 2010 to 4,500,000 users in 2015. As heroin deaths under Obama tripled, so has heroin usage.

There were 7,600 hectares of Afghan opium poppies when the War in Afghanistan began in 2001. (1 hectare = 2.5 US acres.) In 2009, there were 123,000 hectares. By 2014, Afghan poppy fields spread to 224,000 hectares resulting in a bumper crop of 6,400 tons of opium, enough to make 640,000 kilograms of heroin, thanks to Obama. Opium yields far greater profit than foods like wheat or corn, so opium production will continue to rise without serious eradication efforts.

Afghanistan is by far the number one producer of opium and heroin. Total worldwide opium production was 7,554 tons in 2014, of which 85% came from Afghanistan. The remaining 1,154 tons are primarily from Myanmar, Laos, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam.

Mexico produced 162 tons of opium in 2014, enough to make 16,200 kilograms of heroin. An average heroin addict takes 0.15 kg of heroin a year, meaning Mexican heroin could only supply 108,000 heroin addicts. Heroin from Mexico cannot supply even 10% of US heroin demand.

Yet the DEA claims most heroin in the US is from Mexico. I asked Barbara Carreno and Russell Baer at the DEA questions like how such a mathematical impossibility was told by the DEA. They dodged many questions, claiming only 4% of heroin is from Afghanistan and the rest is mostly from Mexico. Carreno and Baer acknowledged 90% of heroin in Canada is from Afghanistan, but wouldn’t acknowledge that the USA has a border with Canada, only with Mexico.

We’re getting hit with the largest ever illicit drug epidemic in American history and the DEA is asleep at the wheel.

USA’s now #1 for heroin use. US heroin demand is 415,000 kilograms a year. The whole world, except Afghanistan, could only produce 115,400 kilograms of heroin (2014), not enough for even a third of the mushrooming US demand. Most heroin in the US is coming from US-occupied Afghanistan, there is no other mathematical possibility. There is no other physical possibility.

Carreno and Baer stated “we are a small press office with many queries to answer, and your line of questioning is expanding. I’m sorry to have to say that we will not able to assist you further.” I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about what the DEA has been doing (if anything) about Afghan opium and heroin.

I also asked the DEA people if they know how bad the heroin epidemic’s gotten or have any sense of urgency about it, they dodged these questions too. An American now gets killed every 32 minutes by heroin. Carreno and Baer seemed like they couldn’t care less and they don’t feel like answering most questions asked.

Perhaps the DEA people would answer questions (or plead the 5th) at Congressional Hearings.

Basic math shows that Mexico cannot produce enough heroin for even 1/10th of US demand. Besides 4,500,000 American heroin users (2,500,000 addicts and 2,000,000 casual users) and 10,000+ US heroin deaths a year, are the tens of millions of loved ones and neighbors living through hell because of this biggest ever drug epidemic in history.

One New Yorker summed it up “with heroin addicts on every block now, it’s like a zombie invasion.” One small American town has 190 HIV+ people due to IV narcotics use. The War in Afghanistan is the longest ever war in US history and the “collateral damage” of Americans being killed by Afghan heroin is shooting up.

Afghanistan has been known as the Graveyard of the Empires since Alexander the Great. Afghan heroin may yet destroy the American Empire. Since Obama green lighted Afghan opium and heroin, crime’s been shooting up in many places like Baltimore, considered to be ground zero for the heroin epidemic and the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the nation.

False narratives have proliferated recently about the heroin epidemic. One such narrative is ‘the Mexicans did it.’ Mexico, producing enough opium for 16.2 tons of heroin (2014), has enough for only 4% of current US heroin demand. The Mexicans didn’t do th

[msfreeh]

Couple of stories


1.
FBI arrests five in a Texas ISD test-rigging scandal orchestrated by ex-DISD officia


http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/201 ... ndal.html/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Published: April 27, 2016 1:25 pm
After a 5 1/2-year investigation, the FBI arrested five current and former El Paso ISD educators on Wednesday morning on federal charges related to alleged attempts to defraud state and federal accountability


2.







22 FBI agents cheated on exam on counterterrorism - Washington Post
Washington Post › Metro
Sep 28, 2010 - 22 FBI agents cheated on exam on counterterrorism ... "We believe the extent of the cheating related to this test was greater than the cases we detailed in this report," Justice ...
FBI Test Scandal Explodes: Investigation Finds Widespread Cheating On Domestic Spying Exam - Huffington Post
Huffington Post › 2010/09/27 › cheaters-...
Sep 27, 2010 - The FBI's Inspector General has found evidence of widespread cheating on an exam intended to test ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 06371.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Justice IG: FBI cheated on test of rules - Washington Times
Washington Times › news › sep › fbi-ag...
Sep 27, 2010 - Hundreds of FBI agents, including the head of the Washington field office and several ... In the latest report, regarding cheating on the guide exam, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine's ...



The FBI Used to Have Integrity. Now Agents Lie, Cheat, and Break the Law. ...
Reason.com › not-your-grandfathers-fbi
Apr 23, 2015 - Will FBI agents who lie, cheat, break the law, and testify falsely be brought to justice? Will their ...

[msfreeh]

Obituaries




1.


http://clashdaily.com/2016/05/breaking- ... ound-dead/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
[http://clashdaily.com/wp-content/upload ... .38-AM.jpg]<http://clashdaily.com/2016/05/breaking- ... ound-dead/>

BREAKING: Blogger Who Tried To Connect CRUZ'S DAD With Lee Harvey Oswald Found DEAD<http://clashdaily.com/2016/05/breaking- ... ound-dead/>
clashdaily.com
The blogger who claimed that Ted Cruz's dad was in connection with John F. Kennedy's murder has been found dead in his home..
2.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obitu ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Mark Lane, 89; lawyer offered evidence for Kennedy conspiracy

 MAY 13, 2016
NEW YORK — Mark Lane, the defense lawyer, social activist, and
best-selling author who concluded in a blockbuster book in the
mid-1960s that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have acted alone in killing
President John F. Kennedy, a thesis supported in part by the House
Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979, died Tuesday at his home
in Charlottesville, Va. He was 89.

The cause was a heart attack,


In its final report in 1979, the House committee went further than any
branch of government to support the central points of Mr. Lane’s
thesis about Kennedy’s murder. It concluded that the FBI and the
Warren Commission investigations of the assassination were flawed.

The committee also found that while Oswald fired three shots, one of
which killed Kennedy, a “high probability” existed that a second
gunman was present and that the president “was probably assassinated
as a result of a conspiracy.” The committee, though, was “unable to
identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy.”



Also see
http://www.commercialappeal.com/busines ... 15341.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



historic zoning by planning board

Landmark zoning to preserve the home of photographer Ernest Withers
received the backing of the Land Use Control Board. (By Thomas
Bailey/The Commercial Appeal).
 
Ernest Withers, who covered many of the major events in the civil
rights movement of the 1950's and 60's, in his studio in February
1990.
By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

Updated: 5:55 p.m. 0
The longtime home of photographer Ernest Withers is well on its way to
becoming only the third single-lot historic district in Memphis.

The Land Use Control Board on Thursday voted to recommend that the
City Council give final approval for the designation.

The action would preserve for posterity what appears as just a typical
ranch-style home of white brick built 63 years ago at 480 W. Brooks
Road in South Memphis' Walker Estates neighborhood.

The landmarks designation also could set the stage for the family's
plan to open the home for tourism. 


Withers, who died in 2007 at age 85, was a prolific photographer of
more than six decades of black history in the segregated South.

His images chronicled the Montgomery bus boycott, the Emmett Till
case, sanitation workers strike, Negro League baseball and Memphis
blues and soul musicians. The pictures also captured the more ordinary
lives of black Memphians. 

Withers' body of work seems to have outweighed any taint from the
three-year-old revelations that he also worked as a paid informant for
the FBI's investigation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference.


link du jour




http://www.sharonherald.com/community/e ... 417f4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/0 ... ok-tirade/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;







http://www.postandcourier.com/20160512/ ... h-children" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

May 12 2016 6:26 pm  May 12 6:29 pm

A former Lowcountry police officer was sentenced to five years in
federal prison Wednesday for after trying to line up sex with
children.

According to District Judge Richard Gergel’s sentencing order, Ernest
Christopher Limehouse of Summerville was a North Charleston police
officer when he posted ads seeking “taboo fun” and “pics of any kids
or hot siblings.”


NH ANGLE


http://www.unionleader.com/section/AGGREGATION" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Rapist deputy asks Belknap County cases to be dismissed
LACONIA — Convicted rapist and former sheriff's deputy Ernest Justin
Blanchette has asked that a Belknap County Superior Court judge
dismiss the four cases he faces locally because he wasn't employed by
the Department of Corrections  





Follow
The FBI Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny Wiretapping Your Amazon Echo

http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-fbi- ... 1776092971" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



May11 2016

An Amazon Echo, which the FBI can neither confirm nor deny has ever
been hacked during an investigation (Gizmodo)
Back in March, I filed a Freedom of Information request with the FBI
asking if the agency had ever wiretapped


May 12, 2016 - 06:59 PM EDT
Overnight Cybersecurity: Mozilla presses FBI to disclose hacking trick

BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity ... ue-in-mass" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





Privacy
by Tim Cushing
Thu, May 12th 2016 3:33pm

 https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160 ... base.shtml

Filed Under:
biometric database, biometrics, fbi, fingerprints, ngis, privacy

Permalink.
FBI Doesn't Want Privacy Laws To Apply To Its Biometric Database
from the
and-doesn't-want-to-let-citizens-know-how-THEIR-privacy-is-affected
dept
The FBI has been building a massive biometric database for the last
eight years. The Next Generation Identification System (NGIS) starts
with millions of photos of criminals (and non-criminals) and builds
from there. Palm prints, fingerprints, iris scans, tattoos and
biographies are all part of the mix.

Despite having promised to deliver a Privacy Impact Assessment of the
database back in 2012, the FBI's system went live towards the end of
2014 without one. That's a big



http://www.commercialappeal.com/busines ... 56671.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FBI joint training at UT Memphis prepares for bioterrorism threat

May 12, 2016 -- A representative of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention presents a case study during the Memphis Joint
Criminal-Epidemiological Investigations Workshop at the University of
Tennessee Health Sciece Center.
By Kevin McKenzie of The Commercial Appeal

Updated: 5:10 p.m. 0
The law enforcement, public health, emergency responders and others
who might play a role






http://news.trust.org/item/20160512214753-14m2x/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



U.S. Senator Rand Paul to back bill blocking FBI hacking expansion
by Reuters
Thursday, 12 May 2016 21:42 GMT
By Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) - Kentucky Senator Rand Paul plans to
become the first Republican co-sponsor of legislation to block a
pending judicial rule change that would let U.S. judges issue search
warrants for remote access

[msfreeh]

I'd love it if you could circulate the following link. The FBI is trying to exempt itself from the Privacy Act, with respect to its biometric database. The public comment period ends June 6. There are only 6 comments so far so a push from likeminded people could really send a strong message.

https://www.regulations.gov/#!documentD ... _0001-0170" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;