The Establishment

There is something creepy and un-American about such clandestine and underhanded behavior. To those of us who have lived under a totalitarian regime, there is an eerie feeling of déjà vu. This case, if any, deserves the comprehensive, mature and diverse consideration that an en banc panel can provide. We are taking a giant leap into the unknown, and the consequences for ourselves and our children may be dire and irreversible. Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we're living in Oceania.
--Kozinski Chief LOLcat of the 9th Circuit

Via Chief Judge of 9th Circuit: “1984 here at last,” especially for poor. | Dailycensored.com -

So frequently these authoritarians schemes get one greenlight after another. This dissent nails down a wide variety of problems, from GPS spying to the distinct pattern of only appointing rich people with rich friends to the judiciary. This is a really nice dissent from Chief Judge Kozinski, who is regarded apparently as a bomb-throwing libertarian.

I'll post it in full, because we gotta pay some respect when one of these cats actually earns his paycheck.

******

VIA Laws, Life, and Legal Matters - Court Cases and Legal Information at Leagle.com - All Federal and State Appeals Court Cases in One Search

See also: Judges Divided Over Growing GPS Surveillance - NYTimes.com

U.S. v. PINEDA-MORENO

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
JUAN PINEDA-MORENO, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 08-30385.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Filed August 12, 2010.

Before: Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain and N. Randy Smith, Circuit Judges, and Charles R. Wolle, Senior District Judge.[1 ]

Order; Dissent by Chief Judge Kozinski, Dissent by Judge Reinhardt.

The petition for rehearing en banc is DENIED.

ORDER

Judges O'Scannlain and N.R. Smith have voted to deny the petition for rehearing en banc, and Judge Wolle has so recommended.

The full court was advised of the petition for rehearing en banc. A judge requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc, and the matter failed to receive a majority of the votes of the nonrecused active judges in favor of en banc consideration. Fed. R. App. P. 35.

Chief Judge KOZINSKI, with whom Judges REINHARDT, WARDLAW, PAEZ and BERZON join, dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc:

Having previously decimated the protections the Fourth Amendment accords to the home itself, United States v.Lemus, 596 F.3d 512 (9th Cir. 2010) (Kozinski, C.J., dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc); United Statesv. Black, 482 F.3d 1044 (9th Cir. 2007) (Kozinski, J., dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc), our court now proceeds to dismantle the zone of privacy we enjoy in the home's curtilage and in public. The needs of law enforcement, to which my colleagues seem inclined to refuse nothing, are quickly making personal privacy a distant memory. 1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last.

The facts are disturbingly simple: Police snuck onto Pineda-Moreno's property in the dead of night and attached a GPS tracking device to the underside of his car. The device continuously recorded the car's location, allowing police to monitor all of Pineda-Moreno's movements without the need for visual surveillance. The panel holds that none of this implicates the Fourth Amendment, even though the government concedes that the car was in the curtilage of Pineda-Moreno's home at the time the police attached the tracking device. The panel twice errs in very significant and dangerous ways.

1. The opinion assumes that Pineda-Moreno's driveway was part of his home's curtilage, yet concludes that Pineda-Moreno had no reasonable expectation of privacy there. Curtilage is a quaint word most people are not familiar with; even among judges and lawyers, the word is seldom well understood. Yet, it stands for a very important concept because it rounds out the constitutional protections accorded an individual when he is at home.

Curtilage comes to us by way of Middle English and traces its roots to the Old French courtillage, roughly meaning court or little yard. In modern times it has come to mean those portions of a homeowner's property so closely associated with the home as to be considered part of it. The walkway leading from the street to the house is probably part of the curtilage, and the stairs from the walkway to the porch almost certainly are, as is the porch where grandma sits and rocks most afternoons and watches strangers pass by. The attached garage on the side of the house is part of the curtilage, and so is the detached shed where dad keeps his shop equipment and mom her gardening tools—so long as it's not too far from the house itself. The front lawn is part of the curtilage, and the driveway and the backyard—if it's not too big, and is properly separated from the open fields beyond the house.

Whether some portion of property—the porch, the stairs, the shed, the yard, the chicken coop—is part of the curtilage is sometimes a disputed question. But once it is determined that something is part of the curtilage, it's entitled to precisely the same Fourth Amendment protections as the home itself. How do we know? Because the Supreme Court has said so repeatedly.

In Oliver v. United States, the Court said as follows:

[O]nly the curtilage . . . warrants the Fourth Amendment protections that attach to the home. At common law, the curtilage is the area to which extends the intimate activity associated with the "sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of life," and therefore has been considered part of home itself for Fourth Amendment purposes. Thus, courts have extended Fourth Amendment protection to the curtilage.

466 U.S. 170, 180 (1984) (quoting Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 630 (1886)) (emphasis added). Three years later, the Court reiterated the same view in United States v. Dunn, 480 U.S. 294, 300 (1987):

[In Oliver] we recognized that the Fourth Amendment protects the curtilage of a house and that the extent of the curtilage is determined by factors that bear upon whether an individual reasonably may expect that the area in question should be treated as the home itself.

(Emphasis added). See also Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, 476 U.S. 227, 231 (1986) (citing Oliver, 466 U.S. at 170). There's no disputing that the Court considers the curtilage to stand on the same footing as the home itself for purposes of the Fourth Amendment.

While it can be unclear whether a particular portion of the homeowner's property is part of the curtilage, there's no doubt here because the government concedes that Pineda-Moreno's driveway is a part of his curtilage, and the panel expressly assumes that it is. United States v. Pineda-Moreno, 591 F.3d 1212, 1214-15 (9th Cir. 2010). Having made that assumption, Oliver and Dunn require the panel to "treat[ ] [it] as the home itself." Dunn, 480 U.S. at 300. Instead, the panel holds that Pineda-Moreno was required to separately establish a reasonable expectation of privacy in the curtilage. That— according to Oliver and Dunn—is like requiring the homeowner to establish a reasonable expectation of privacy in his bedroom. We are often reminded that we must follow Supreme Court precedent, see, e.g., Winn v. Ariz. Christian Sch. Tuition Org., 586 F.3d 649, 658-59 (9th Cir. 2009) (O'Scannlain, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc), but the panel here forgets this advice.

The panel does cite California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207 (1986), but that case undermines its position. Ciraolo held that a homeowner has no reasonable expectation of visual privacy in his property as to activities that might be seen from a low-flying airplane. The activity there in question— cultivation of marijuana—took place in the homeowner's yard, so the Court could have limited its discussion to the curtilage. Instead, Ciraolo quoted a passage from Katz v.United States, 389 US. 347, 361 (1967), to the effect that "a man's home is, for most purposes, a place where he expects privacy, but objects, activities, or statements that he exposes to the `plain view' of outsiders are not `protected' because no intention to keep them to himself has been exhibited." Ciraolo, 476 U.S. at 215 (quoting Katz,389 U.S. at 361). This passage applies equally to a person's yard as his porch and his bedroom window: If what you do in your home is visible to the public, you have no reasonable expectation that it will remain private. Ciraolo citesOliver and follows its analysis by treating the curtilage and the home as exactly the same for Fourth Amendment purposes.

The panel's rationale for concluding that Pineda-Moreno had no reasonable expectation of privacy is even more worrisome than its disregard of Supreme Court precedent: According to the panel, Pineda-Moreno's driveway was open to the public in that strangers wishing to reach the door of his trailer "to deliver the newspaper or to visit someone would have to go through the driveway to get to the house." Pineda-Moreno, 591 F.3d at 1215. But there are many parts of a person's property that are accessible to strangers for limited purposes: the mailman is entitled to open the gate and deposit mail in the front door slot; the gas man may come into the yard, go into the basement or look under the house to read the meter; the gardener goes all over the property, climbs trees, opens sheds, turns on the sprinkler and taps into the electrical outlets; the pool man, the cable guy, the telephone repair man, the garbage collector, the newspaper delivery boy (we should be so lucky) come onto the property to deliver their wares, perform maintenance or make repairs. This doesn't mean that we invite neighbors to use the pool, strangers to camp out on the lawn or police to snoop in the garage. See United States v. Hedrick, 922 F.2d 396, 400, 402 (7th Cir. 1991) (Cudahy, J., dissenting).

The panel authorizes police to do not only what invited strangers could, but also uninvited children—in this case crawl under the car to retrieve a ball and tinker with the undercarriage. But there's no limit to what neighborhood kids will do, given half a chance: They'll jump the fence, crawl under the porch, pick fruit from the trees, set fire to the cat and micturate on the azaleas. To say that the police may do on your property what urchins might do spells the end of Fourth Amendment protections for most people's curtilage.

The very rich will still be able to protect their privacy with the aid of electric gates, tall fences, security booths, remote cameras, motion sensors and roving patrols, but the vast majority of the 60 million people living in the Ninth Circuit will see their privacy materially diminished by the panel's ruling. Open driveways, unenclosed porches, basement doors left unlocked, back doors left ajar, yard gates left unlatched, garage doors that don't quite close, ladders propped up under an open window will all be considered invitations for police to sneak in on the theory that a neighborhood child might, in which case, the homeowner "would have no grounds to complain." Id.

There's been much talk about diversity on the bench, but there's one kind of diversity that doesn't exist: No truly poor people are appointed as federal judges, or as state judges for that matter. Judges, regardless of race, ethnicity or sex, are selected from the class of people who don't live in trailers or urban ghettos. The everyday problems of people who live in poverty are not close to our hearts and minds because that's not how we and our friends live. Yet poor people are entitled to privacy, even if they can't afford all the gadgets of the wealthy for ensuring it. Whatever else one may say about Pineda-Moreno, it's perfectly clear that he did not expect— and certainly did not consent—to have strangers prowl his property in the middle of the night and attach electronic tracking devices to the underside of his car. No one does.

When you glide your BMW into your underground garage or behind an electric gate, you don't need to worry that somebody might attach a tracking device to it while you sleep. But the Constitution doesn't prefer the rich over the poor; the man who parks his car next to his trailer is entitled to the same privacy and peace of mind as the man whose urban fortress is guarded by the Bel Air Patrol. The panel's breezy opinion is troubling on a number of grounds, not least among them its unselfconscious cultural elitism.

2. After concluding that entering onto Pineda-Moreno's property and attaching a tracking device to his car required no warrant, probable cause, founded suspicion or by-your-leave from the homeowner, the panel holds that downloading the data from the GPS device, which gave police the precise locus of all of Pineda-Moreno's movements, also was not a search, and so police can do it to anybody, anytime they feel like it. Contra United Statesv. Maynard, No. 08-3030, slip op. at 19 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 6, 2010). Our panel relies on United States v. Knotts, 460 U.S. 276 (1983), a case from the early 1980s, which involved very different technology.

The Knotts Court refers to the device used there as a "beeper" and describes it as "a radio transmitter, usually battery operated, which emits periodic signals that can be picked up by a radio receiver." Id. at 277. The beeper helped police follow a vehicle by emitting a signal that got stronger the closer the police were to it. The Court considered the beeper to be an aid to following a vehicle through traffic: "The governmental surveillance conducted by means of the beeper in this case amounted principally to the following of an automobile on public streets and highways." Id. at 281. Individuals traveling on streets and highways can be seen by the public, so they have no reasonable expectation that they won't be followed. The beeper helped the police follow the suspect more effectively—the way binoculars enhance the ability to see what is otherwise visible. But the beeper could perform no tracking on its own, nor could it record its location. If no one was close enough to pick up the signal, it was lost forever.

The electronic tracking devices used by the police in this case have little in common with the primitive devices inKnotts. One of the devices here used GPS satellites to pinpoint the car's location on a continuing basis—much like the electronic maps that are now popular in cars. The other type of device was, essentially, a cell phone that tracked the car's movements by its proximity to particular cell towers.

Beepers could help police keep vehicles in view when following them, or find them when they lost sight of them, but they still required at least one officer—and usually many more—to follow the suspect. The modern devices used in Pineda-Moreno's case can record the car's movements without human intervention—quietly, invisibly, with uncanny precision. A small law enforcement team can deploy a dozen, a hundred, a thousand such devices and keep track of their various movements by computer, with far less effort than was previously needed to follow a single vehicle. The devices create a permanent electronic record that can be compared, contrasted and coordinated to deduce all manner of private information about individuals. By holding that this kind of surveillance doesn't impair an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy, the panel hands the government the power to track the movements of every one of us, every day of our lives.

The Supreme Court has recognized that advances in "police technology [can] erode the privacy guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment." Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 34 (2001). To guard against this, courts "must take the long view, from the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment forward." Id. at 40. Kyllo followed a line of cases going back to United States v. Karo, 468 U.S. 705 (1984), Katz, 389 U.S. at 353, and Silverman v. United States,365 U.S. 505, 512 (1961), which stemmed the erosion of personal privacy wrought by technological advances.

In Kyllo, the Court held that use of a thermal imager to detect the heat emanating from defendant's home was a search for purposes of the Fourth Amendment because the then-new technology enabled police to detect what was going on inside the home—activities the homeowner was entitled to consider private. Any other conclusion, the Court noted, "would leave the homeowner at the mercy of advancing technology—including imaging technology that could discern all human activity in the home." Kyllo, 533 U.S. at 35-36 (citing Karo, 468 U.S. at 705). "While the technology used in the present case was relatively crude," the Court continued, "the rule we adopt must take account of more sophisticated systems that are already in use or in development." Id. at 36. In determining whether the tracking devices used in PinedaMoreno's case violate the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of personal privacy, we may not shut our eyes to the fact that they are just advance ripples to a tidal wave of technological assaults on our privacy.

If you have a cell phone in your pocket, then the government can watch you. Michael Isikoff, The Snitch in Your Pocket, Newsweek, Mar. 1, 2010, available at http:// www.newsweek.com/id/233916. At the government's request, the phone company will send out a signal to any cell phone connected to its network, and give the police its location. Last year, law enforcement agents pinged users of just one service provider—Sprint—over eight million times. SeeChristopher Soghoian, 8 Million Reasons for Real Surveillance Oversight, Slight Paranoia (Dec. 1, 2009) http://paranoia/dubfire. net/2009/12/8-million-reasons-for-real-surveillance.html. The volume of requests grew so large that the 110-member electronic surveillance team couldn't keep up, so Sprint automated the process by developing a web interface that gives agents direct access to users' location data. Id. Other cell phone service providers are not as forthcoming about this practice, so we can only guess how many millions of their customers get pinged by the police every year. See Justin Scheck, Stalkers Exploit Cellphone GPS, Wall St. J., Aug. 5, 2010, at A1, A14 (identifying AT&T and Verizon as providing "law-enforcement[ ] easy access to such data").

Use LoJack or OnStar? Someone's watching you too. E.g., OnStar Stolen Vehicle Assistance, http://www.onstar.com/ us_english/jsp/plans/sva.jsp (last visited July 17, 2010). And it's not just live tracking anymore. Private companies are starting to save location information to build databases that allow for hyper-targeted advertising. E.g., Andrew Heining, What's So Bad About the Google Street View Data Flap?, Christian Sci. Monitor, May 15, 2010, available at http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0515/What-s-sobad-about-the-Google-Street-View-data-flap. Companies are amassing huge, ready-made databases of where we've all been. If, as the panel holds, we have no privacy interest in where we go, then the government can mine these databases without a warrant, indeed without any suspicion whatsoever.

By tracking and recording the movements of millions of individuals the government can use computers to detect patterns and develop suspicions. It can also learn a great deal about us because where we go says much about who we are. Are Winston and Julia's cell phones together near a hotel a bit too often? Was Syme's OnStar near an STD clinic? Were Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford at that protest outside the White House? The FBI need no longer deploy agents to infiltrate groups it considers subversive; it can figure out where the groups hold meetings and ask the phone company for a list of cell phones near those locations.

The panel holds that the government can obtain this information without implicating the Fourth Amendment because an individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements through public spaces where he might be observed by an actual or hypothetical observer. But that's quite a leap from what the Supreme Court actually held inKnotts, which is that you have no expectation of privacy as against police who are conducting visual surveillance, albeit "augmenting the sensory faculties bestowed upon them at birth with such enhancements as science and technology afford[s] them." 460 U.S. at 282.

You can preserve your anonymity from prying eyes, even in public, by traveling at night, through heavy traffic, in crowds, by using a circuitous route, disguising your appearance, passing in and out of buildings and being careful not to be followed. But there's no hiding from the all-seeing network of GPS satellites that hover overhead, which never sleep, never blink, never get confused and never lose attention. Nor is there respite from the dense network of cell towers that honeycomb the inhabited United States. Acting together these two technologies alone can provide law enforcement with a swift, efficient, silent, invisible and cheap way of tracking the movements of virtually anyone and everyone they choose. See, e.g., GPS Mini Tracker with Cell Phone Assist Tracker, http://www.spyville.com/passive-gps.html (last visited July 17, 2010). Most targets won't know they need to disguise their movements or turn off their cell phones because they'll have no reason to suspect that Big Brother is watching them.

The Supreme Court in Knotts expressly left open whether "twenty-four hour surveillance of any citizen of this country" by means of "dragnet-type law enforcement practices" violates the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of personal privacy. 460 U.S. at 283-84. When requests for cell phone location information have become so numerous that the telephone company must develop a self-service website so that law enforcement agents can retrieve user data from the comfort of their desks, we can safely say that "such dragnet-type law enforcement practices" are already in use. This is precisely the wrong time for a court covering one-fifth of the country's population to say that the Fourth Amendment has no role to play in mediating the voracious appetites of law enforcement. But see Maynard, slip op. at 19.

* * *

I don't think that most people in the United States would agree with the panel that someone who leaves his car parked in his driveway outside the door of his home invites people to crawl under it and attach a device that will track the vehicle's every movement and transmit that information to total strangers. There is something creepy and un-American about such clandestine and underhanded behavior. To those of us who have lived under a totalitarian regime, there is an eerie feeling of déjà vu. This case, if any, deserves the comprehensive, mature and diverse consideration that an en banc panel can provide. We are taking a giant leap into the unknown, and the consequences for ourselves and our children may be dire and irreversible. Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we're living in Oceania.

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge, dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc:

I concur in Chief Judge Kozinski's dissent.

I have served on this court for nearly three decades. I regret that over that time the courts have gradually but deliberately reduced the protections of the Fourth Amendment to the point at which it scarcely resembles the robust guarantor of our constitutional rights we knew when I joined the bench. See Fisher v. City of San Jose, 558 F.3d 1069, 1089 (9th Cir. 2009) (en banc) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting); United States v. Ankeny, 502 F.3d 829, 841 (9th Cir. 2007) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting); United States v. Crapser, 472 F.3d 1141, 1149 (9th Cir. 2007) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting); United States v. Gourde, 440 F.3d 1065, 1074 (9th Cir. 2006) (en banc) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting);United States v. Kincade, 379 F.3d 813, 842 (9th Cir. 2004) (en banc) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting); United States v. Hudson, 100 F.3d 1409, 1421 (9th Cir. 1996) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting); Acton v. Vernonia Sch. Dist. 47J, 66 F.3d 217, 218 (9th Cir. 1995) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting); United States v. Barona, 56 F.3d 1087, 1098 (9th Cir. 1995) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting); United States v. Kelley, 953 F.2d 562, 566 (9th Cir. 1992) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting);United States v. Alvarez, 899 F.2d 833, 840 (9th Cir. 1990) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting); United States v. Flores, 679 F.2d 173, 178 (9th Cir. 1982) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting).

These decisions have curtailed the "right of the people to be secure . . . against unreasonable searches and seizures" not only in our homes and surrounding curtilage, but also in our vehicles, computers, telephones, and bodies — all the way down to our bodily fluids and DNA.

Today's decision is but one more step down the gloomy path the current Judiciary has chosen to follow with regard to the liberties protected by the Fourth Amendment. Sadly, I predict that there will be many more such decisions to come.

I dissent.

Special greetings to Rule of Law Radio / Axxiom for Liberty listeners! We had a great time chatting last Friday for moar than an hour about every cutting edge dimension of the military-industrial police state, hosted by Kaye Beach and her friend (nickname Matrix? I forget). Get the live recording of all 2 hours here (110MB) or 13MB lo-fi version. I joined about a half-hour in, but in the first minutes they talked about being Ron Paul delegates at the 2008 RNC, thoroughly abused by the Man, and leaving as changed people. A great springboard into fusion centers, the NAFTA superhighway and more, with a guest from OK SAFE as well. [I forget her name right now as well but she was kewl!]*******
I've been there and back again lately, leaving far too little time to check in. We are expecting new videoz to leakify from points interesting Real Soon Here. Stay tuned for that one... And now, my video exposé of the Fort Snelling Undercover - in all his epic fail glory:

Intrusive photographer admits it: a government employee spies on rallies against Fort Snelling & immigration policies at the Whipple Federal Building. He gets a "thumbs up" from Haukoos, lead Department of Homeland Security/Federal Protective Service security officer. At Fort Snelling, the photographer admits he's a government employee but won't say if he's a federal employee, then refuses to show his lanyard (even though he says it has his ID) and he promptly runs away in his blue truck.  Same logic of "Federal Control" persists for centuries, but this video shows everyone can deal with sleazy spy photographers: block them, tape them, confront them about their chain of command. Organizers try to mitigate his efforts to collect intelligence on rally participants. Another element: Homeland Security radio transmission seems to order operations "systematically". Could this man be photographing everyone for addition to federal facial recognition databases? What data practices rules apply to this man's camera and his taxpayer-financed salary? Amazingly, some people do not realize this conduct & aggressive spying on political dissent happens all the time even under a Democratic presidency. Video edited by Dan Feidt for Twin Cities Indymedia - http://tc.indymedia.org Video shot by Dan Feidt & Sally Jo Sorensen - http://bluestemprairie.com (Sally Jo clips of him @ Whipple Building) LICENSE: This video is licensed Creative Commons/ShareAlike. Please remix and share!!

Helen Thomas, who gave em hell consistently for decades, got knocked out of the Capitol Press Corps in favor of the hard working White House Beach Party krew - warning you may spit on yr kbd at this: Our hard-core, adversarial press corps - Glenn Greenwald.

Here was the transcript of the whole Helen Thomas clip, which of course was released in a heavily spun way [via Balloon Juice » You Got Played]

Q: Any advice for these young people over here for starting out in the press corps?

Thomas: Go for it. You’ll never be unhappy. You’ll always keep people informed, you’ll always keep learning. The greatest thing of the profession is you’ll never stop learning.

Q: Today they are covering the Jewish Heritage Month.

Thomas: ... and meet the President.

A: Any comments on Israel? We’re asking everyone today, any comments on..

Thomas: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.

Q: Oooh. Any better comments?

Thomas: Remember, these people are occupied, and it’s their land. It’s not German and it’s not Poland.

Q: So where should they go, what should they do?

Thomas: They can go home.

Q: Where is home?

Thomas: Poland. Germany.

Q: So you are saying Jews should go back to Poland?

Thomas: And America and everywhere else. Why push people out who have lived their for centuries? See?

Q: Now, are you familiar with the history of that region and what took place?

Thomas: Very much. I’m of Arab background.

{It goes on for a little while with friendly banter about languages they both speak with words I can not even begin to spell.}

Q: Thank you.

Thomas: All the best to you (directed at the Jewish students). Go for it- go for journalism, you’ll never regret it.

Rabbi Nesenoff himself has very few offensive or dubious clips out there himself -- oh wait: Rabbi Who Brought Down Helen Thomas Has Great ‘Mexican’ Impression | RaceWire. A Helen Thomas gallery.

*******

AUTHORITARIAN ESCHATON == ARTILECT OF DOOM!: Last night I remembered that the Roomba cleaning robot is made by a company that also makes killer robots. A review of what they're up to now: the scary wikipedia page, PackBot, iRobot Negotiator , & more. "Chembot is a DARPA-funded prototype of a shape-shifting robot without motors, wheels or any rigid elements. It runs on chemical power and is made using dielectric elastomers, which are extremely flexible and can alter their shape in electric or magnetic fields. Ultimately, the program aims to build a robot that is completely squishy and able to squeeze through a hole 'the size of a 10 pence piece'.when was this made"

What will control these killer robots in 80 years or so? Via cryptogon.com, The spooky new idea to check out is the ARTILECT -- aka the bossy killer super-intelligence that will wipe us all out like ants. Now some guy who's leading the charge to build China's artificial brain has actually considered the implications of his work. From the fine new Technofascism blog, Hugo de Garis and The Coming Artilect War:

If you haven’t heard of Hugo de Garis, AI researcher and Professor at China’s Xiamen University, then you’ve probably never heard of an Artilect either. A contraction of Artificial Intellect, the Artilects are future creations that, according to de Garis, will be immortal, godlike robotic beings that, due to being built on a substrate of nanoscale computer chips, will have billions of times the intelligence of the average human. Needless to say, these Artilects would not for a second hesitate in wiping out the entire human species if their need dictates; much like a human wouldn’t trouble themselves over running over an ant colony on their way to work.

It’s important to listen to de Garis because he is one of those rare scientific researchers that actually considers the implications of his work. In de Garis’ view, in the late 21st century humanity will have the technological ability to create the Artilects. At that point, humans will be divided into three camps: the Terrans, who will attempt to violently prevent the creation of the Artilects; the Cosmists, who think building them is a good idea; and the Cyborgists, who will attempt to merge with the Artilects to preserve some shred of their humanity.   These three camps will fight it out and the winner will decide the fate of the planet.   Since the war will be fought with late 21st century weaponry, the death toll is expected to be in the billions.

Check the wiki profile And more in that Forbes article The Coming Artilect War - Forbes.com

Considering all this, I predict that humanity will split into three major philosophical, ideological, political groups, which I label as follows.

--The Cosmists (based on the word "cosmos") will be in favor of building these godlike machines (the artilects), who would be immortal, think a million times faster than humans, have unlimited memory, go anywhere, do anything and take any shape. The Cosmists would take a quasi-religious view that they are god builders. Privately, I am a Cosmist, but publicly, I have mixed feelings about the rise of the artilect.

--The Terrans (based on the word "terra," meaning the earth) will be opposed to the construction of artilects, fearing that in a highly advanced form, the artilects may decide to wipe us out. To ensure that the probability that this might happen is zero, the Terrans will insist that the artilects are never built in the first place. But this strategy runs utterly contrary to what the Cosmists want. The Terrans will be prepared to go to war against the Cosmists to ensure the survival of the human species.

--The Cyborgists (based on the word "cyborg," meaning cybernetic organism that is part machine, part human) will want to become artilect gods themselves by adding artilectual components to their own brains, thus avoiding the bitter conflict between the Cosmists and the Terrans.

Photo of MAARS Robot with M240B machine gun, via CommonDreams.org / 2009 McClatchy: Pentagon Exploring Robot Killers That Can Fire on Their Own | CommonDreams.org

*******

1985 GANDER FALSE FLAG AIR CRASH CONCEALS NEUTRON BOMB TEST etc: Moving right along, I would like to add something about a 1985 false-flag plane crash. aka: Arrow Air Flight 1285 - Wikipedia.

A while ago I ran into someone who was involved with this. A private transport plane carrying lots of military personnel and cargo from Cairo to the US crashed near Gander, Canada in 1985. It obviously exploded somehow, and actually for once the National Transportation Safety Board failed to unanimously peddle the establishment coverup.

This was actually a false-flag bombing carried out by people friendly with Oliver North & the Usual Suspects of Iran-Contra fame. It was a bombing "required" to advance numerous coverups, included a need to get rid of bodies from dead illegal Special Forces operations in Lebanon, and also the remains of illegal neutron bomb testing in the Sinai Peninsula. [US military personnel cooked with neutrons were murdered en route rather than risk public exposure after reaching a stateside medical facility]

The records of the Gander Crash have been sealed for 70 years because it was a false-flag coverup -- and additionally there has been at least one direct death threat from a 'credible source' to shut people up.

I was pleased to find a surprisingly good video about it, from a show on Spike TV no less? For students of conspiracy video styles, I thought the editing on this segment was concise & excellent as well:

Congressional speakers on the coverup - circa 1989: GANDER, NEWFOUNDLAND, CRASH REMAINS A MYSTERY TO CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PUBLIC. etc. Anyway, add this one to the list of murderous crimes of state within the Iran-Contra/Octopus criminal complex -- quite from the thick of it, really. Be sure to look @ the transcript of this video program for more on how the overall coverup commenced. [PDF]. Memorial video. Kind of a Loose Change style video.

*******

Bilderberg 2010 is ON baby! I like the Charlie Skelton coverage News blog + Charlie Skelton's Bilderblog | News | guardian.co.uk. And lol he found Dutch Queen Beatrix, a key globalist in the old skewl style. Bilderberg 2010: Help us identify the delegates. Gallery! "Picture 1: He’s a big Swede, he’s on the board of Coca-Cola, and he’s a Knight of the Order of the Seraphim. But who is he?" Nicely done. Bilderberg 2010: Plutocracy with palm trees. Bilderberg 2010: Why the protesters are your very best friends | World news | guardian.co.uk

Let's include a list of these rockstars, via where else, Cryptome.org! Bilderberg Participants 2010 and another one here.

Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 14:11:39 +0100

To: pepis[at]googlegroups.com,pepis[at]yahoogroups.com

From: Tony Gosling <tony[at]cultureshop.org.uk>
Subject: [PEPIS] Leaked participants of 2010 meeting?
Bilderberg participants 2010 (in alphabetic order)
(Present) Occupation
BEL Davignon, Etienne F. Honorary Chairman, Bilderberg Meetings; Vice Chairman,
Suez Tractebel
DEU Ackermann, Josef Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive
Committee, Deutsche Bank AG
USA Alexander, Keith B. Director, National Security Agency
GRC Alogoskoufis, George Member of Parliament
USA Altman, Roger C. Chairman and CEO, Evercore Partners, Inc.
GRC Arapoglou, Takis Chairman and CEO, National Bank of Greece
TUR Babacan, Ali Minister of State and Deputy Prime Minister
GRC Bakoyannis, Dora Minister of Foreign Affairs
NOR Baksaas, Jon Fredrik President and CEO, Telenor Group
PRT Balsemão, Francisco Pinto Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime
Minister
FRA Baverez, Nicolas Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
ITA Bernabè, Franco CEO Telecom Italia SpA
SWE Bildt, Carl Minister of Foreign Affairs
SWE Björklund, Jan Minister for Education; Leader of the Lìberal Party
CHE Blocher, Christoph Former Swiss Counselor; Former Chairman and CEO, EMS Group
FRA Bompard, Alexandre CEO, Europe 1
USA Boot, Max Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, Council
on Foreign Relations
AUT Bronner, Oscar Publisher and Editor, Der Standard
FRA Castries, Henri de Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, AXA
ESP Cebrián, Juan Luis CEO, Grupo PRISA
BEL Coene, Luc Vice Governor, National Bank of Belgium
USA Collins, Timothy C. Senior Managing Director and CEO, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC
GRC David, George A. Chairman, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. (H.B.C.) S.A.
GRC Diamantopoulou, Anna Member of Parliament
ITA Draghi, Mario Governor, Banca d'Italia
USA Eberstadt, Nicholas N. Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy, American
Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
DNK Eldrup, Anders President, DONG Energy A/S
ITA Elkann, John Chairman, EXOR S.p.A.; Vice Chairman, Fiat S.p.A.
DEU Enders, Thomas CEO, Airbus SAS
ESP Entrecanales, José Manuel Chairman, Acciona
AUT Faymann, Werner Federal Chancellor
USA Ferguson, Niall Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University
IRL Gleeson, Dermot Chairman, AIB Group
USA Graham, Donald E. Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company
NLD Halberstadt, Victor Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former
Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings
NLD Hirsch Ballin, Ernst M.H. Minister of Justice
USA Holbrooke, Richard C. US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
NLD Hommen, Jan H.M. Chairman, ING N.V.
INT Hoop Scheffer, Jaap G. de Secretary General, NATO
USA Johnson, James A. Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC
USA Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC
FIN Katainen, Jyrki Minister of Finance
USA Keane, John M. Senior Partner, SCP Partners; General, US Army, Retired
USA Kent, Muhtar President and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company
GBR Kerr, John Member, House of Lords; Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc
DEU Klaeden, Eckart von Foreign Policy Spokesman, CDU/CSU
USA Kleinfeld, Klaus President and CEO, Alcoa Inc.
TUR Koç, Mustafa V. Chairman, Koç Holding A.S.
DEU Koch, Roland Prime Minister of Hessen
TUR Kohen, Sami Senior Foreign Affairs Columnist, Milliyet
USA Kravis, Henry R. Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Inc.
INT Kroes, Neelie Commissioner, European Commission
GRC Kyriacopoulos, Ulysses Chairman and Board member of subsidiary companies
of the S&B Group
FRA Lagarde, Christine Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment
INT Lamy, Pascal Director General, World Trade Organization
PRT Leite, Manuela Ferreira Leader, PSD
ESP León Gross, Bernardino General Director of the Presidency of the Spanish
Government
DEU Löscher, Peter CEO, Siemens AG
GBR Mandelson, Peter Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory
Reform
INT Maystadt, Philippe President, European Investment Bank
CAN McKenna, Frank Former Ambassador to the US
GBR Micklethwait, John Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
FRA Montbrial, Thierry de President, French Institute for International Relations
ITA Monti, Mario President, Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi
ESP Moratinos Cuyaubé, Miguel A. Minister of Foreign Affairs
USA Mundie, Craig J. Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation
CAN Munroe-Blum, Heather Principal and Vice Chancellor, McGill University
NOR Myklebust, Egil Former Chairman of the Board of Directors SAS, Norsk Hydro ASA
DEU Nass, Matthias Deputy Editor, Die Zeit
NLD Beatrix, H.M. the Queen of the Netherlands
ESP Nin Génova, Juan Maria President and CEO, La Caixa
FRA Olivennes, Denis CEO and Editor in Chief, Le Nouvel Observateur
FIN Ollila, Jorma Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc
GBR Osborne, George Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
FRA Oudéa, Frédéric CEO, Société Générale
ITA Padoa-Schioppa, Tommaso Former Minister of Finance; President of Notre Europe
GRC Papahelas, Alexis Journalist, Kathimerini
GRC Papalexopoulos, Dimitris Managing Director, Titan Cement Co. S.A.
GRC Papathanasiou, Yannis Minister of Economy and Finance
USA Perle, Richard N. Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public
Policy Research
BEL Philippe, H.R.H. Prince
PRT Pinho, Manuel Minister of Economy and Innovation
INT Pisani-Ferry, Jean Director, Bruegel
CAN Prichard, J. Robert S. President and CEO, Metrolinx
ITA Prodi, Romano Chairman, Foundation for Worldwide Cooperation
FIN Rajalahti, Hanna Managing Editor, Talouselämä
CAN Reisman, Heather M. Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc.
NOR Reiten, Eivind President and CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA
CHE Ringier, Michael Chairman, Ringier AG
USA Rockefeller, David Former Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank
USA Rubin, Barnett R. Director of Studies and Senior Fellow, Center for
International Cooperation, New York University
TUR Sabanci Dinçer, Suzan Chairman, Akbank
CAN Samarasekera, Indira V. President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Alberta
AUT Scholten, Rudolf Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische
Kontrollbank AG
USA Sheeran, Josette Executive Director, UN World Food Programme
ITA Siniscalco, Domenico Vice Chairman, Morgan Stanley International
ESP Solbes, Pedro Vice-President of Spanish Government; Minister of Economy and
Finance
ESP Sophia, H.M. the Queen of Spain
USA Steinberg, James B. Deputy Secretary of State
INT Stigson, Bjorn President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
GRC Stournaras, Yannis Research Director, Foundation for Economic and Industrial
Research (IOBE)
IRL Sutherland, Peter D. Chairman, BP plc and Chairman, Goldman Sachs International
INT Tanaka, Nobuo Executive Director, IEA
GBR Taylor, J. Martin Chairman, Syngenta International AG
USA Thiel, Peter A. President, Clarium Capital Management, LLC
DNK Thorning-Schmidt, Helle Leader ofThe Social Democratic Party
DNK Thune Andersen, Thomas Partner and CEO, Maersk Oil
AUT Treichl, Andreas Chairman and CEO, Erste Group Bank AG
INT Trichet, Jean-Claude President, European Central Bank
GRC Tsoukalis, Loukas President of the Hellenic Foundation for European and
Foreign Policy (ELlAMEP)
TUR Ugur, Agah CEO, Borusan Holding
FIN Vanhanen, Matti Prime Minister
CHE Vasella, Daniel L. Chairman and CEO, Novartis AG
NLD Veer, Jeroen van der Chief Executive, Royal Dutch Shell plc
USA Volcker, Paul A. Chairman, Economic Recovery Advisory Board
SWE Wallenberg, Jacob Chairman, Investor AB
SWE Wallenberg, Marcus Chairman, SEB
NLD Wellink, Nout President, De Nederlandsche Bank
NLD Wijers, Hans Chairman, AkzoNobel NV
GBR Wolf, Martin H. Associate Editor & Chief Economics Commentator, The Financial
Times
USA Wolfensohn, James D. Chairman, Wolfensohn & Company, LLC
USA Wolfowitz, Paul Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute for Public
Policy Research
INT Zoellick, Robert B. President, The World Bank Group
GBR Bredow, Vendeline von Business Correspondent, The Economist (Rapporteur)
GBR McBride, Edward Business Editor, The Economist (Rapporteur)
• AUT Austria
• BEL Belgium
• CHE Switzerland
• CAN Canada
• DEU Germany
• DNK Denmark
• ESP Spain
• FRA France
• FIN Finland
• GBR Great Britain
• GRC Greece
• IRL Ireland
• INT International
• ITA Italy
• NOR Norway
• NLD Netherlands
• PRT Portugal
• SWE Sweden
• TUR Turkey
• USA United States of America
--
Please consider seriously the reason why these elite institutions are not
discussed in the mainstream press despite the immense financial and political
power they wield?

There are sick and evil occultists running the Western World. They are power
mad lunatics like something from a kid's cartoon with their fingers on the
nuclear button! Armageddon is closer than you thought. Only God can save our
souls from their clutches, at least that's my considered opinion - Tony

Wolfowitz & Perle be plottin a comeback, watch yo self ....plus the new site? http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/index.html

*********

Can has Drupal 7? In Drupal news, well the Drupal community is slowly chugging through to Drupal 7, and there are a few things people can do to help - see Drupal core improvements | drupal.org for a roundup on that. It is currently on Drupal 7.0 Alpha 5 released as of May 23. There are 67 critical issues right now; when that hits zero it's release time.

*********

I know that LRAD! Russia Today has done a fine job covering the latest developments in crushing North American dissent - what nice LRAD footage from Chicago Indymedia (provided courtesy Glass Bead Collective :-D )

When facing the police state, badass military sunglasses from WileyX might do the job? It's impossible to puncture them with .22 ammo even!
Gizmodo on the photographer crackdown: Are Cameras the New Guns? Wowz: DHS Testing 360-Degree Video Camera

That's all for now - don't let the oilpocalypse get you down!

"....we will suggest below that if the hard core arises for certain identifiable reasons, it can be broken up or at least muted by government action." .... "We suggest a role for government efforts, and agents, in introducing such diversity.  Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action."

SSRN-Conspiracy Theories by Cass Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule

This is one hell of a chestnut. It seems obvious, in retrospect, the best way to conceal the truth of establishment shady business and institutionalized crime is to mix in a ton of bullshit in order to turn all the skeptics and inquirers against each other. Only now it's Obama's dang 'information czar' pitching the strategy!

Interestingly, the more I broaden my sources, the more I appreciate the broad spectrum of people that have cancelled their subscriptions to Establishment Bollox and the Lies of the Mighty Wurlitzer. It's amazing how so many features of Establishment Reality are so widely loathed from within so many different worldviews.

This important fact is what people like Cass Sunstein don't understand. Like faux Establishment 'Centrists', they believe that ontological truth, or even the 'optimal' policy outcome, is like @ the 50% mark between where the dialectical left & right goalposts are placed.

It's like Howard Fineman - accurately dubbed the Weathervane because you only have to look which way he's pointing to determine what reassuring centrist reality is today's hot item. Howard Fineman is the precise opposite of a 'conspiracy theorist' in Sunstein's world.

The Establishment's Hegelian social control techniques are obvious: just set the left and right goalposts, stir and repeat. Problem-reaction-solution. If one can influence both the left and right goalposts in the great false dichotomy, it makes the product of "centrists" far more acceptable. Everything floating around outside this parlor game is the prima materia of 'conspiracy' that the State should attack professionally, Sunstein says!

Sunstein's tidy worldview brushes over the complex role of deceptive bullshit operatives around there, laying the groundwork for stupid establishment narratives. For example, what are we to make of the ever-shady Gerald Posner, spoonfed the FBI goodies on China? Or Adam Ciralski, helping Blackwater's Erik Prince perpetrate some classic exposure-threatening graymail about U.S. covert ops. Are these merely products of rotten epistomology? [PD Scott with a solid takedown of Posner - Scott's the real deal with The War Conspiracy and more here.]

*****

Anyhow Cass Sunstein was appointed by President Obama as some kind of info czar. Interestingly he wrote a paper about how to manipulate conspiracy theorists by attempting to throw their groups off the Hegelian deep end, thus opening an opportunity for defamatory information warfare. Fascinating stuff, and it's got Alex Jones incensed!!

More links, then some snippets: Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech, Sunstein’s Paper Provides More Evidence COLINTELPRO Still Operational, etc.

This whole thing reminds me of how the JFK conspiracy scene is managed as "A Story/B Story" wherein there are two alternate, mutually irreconcilable narratives. Dribs and drabs of facts supporting A and B (roughly, CIA/Mafia and Lone Gunman, usually) can be offered and safely paddle around on the History Channel.

Let us share a few choice links about how the CIA type control system AKA the Intelligence Power controls the World of Conspiracy. This is good stuff -- this is exactly how Mama Cass wants the world of conspiracies organized.

For The Win: Fintan Dunne called the Sunstein approach years ago!

My favorite all-in-one shotgun approach comes from Fintan Dunne of BreakForNews.com: BreakForNews.com : The CIA's Internet Fakes

Bravo, Mr. Dunne, Bravo. You scored big on this one... A general roundup to be found @ The Next Level :: View topic - Uncovered: The Rat's Nest of 9/11 of effective gatekeepers -- and its true that his set of people, in aggregate, has the 9/11 conspiracy topic cornered and setup a certain way.
More along these lines: 9/11, 7/7 & the War on Freedom :: View topic - The Planned Demolition of Alex Jones, The COUP had foreknowledge of 9-11 (YES!), the criticism about Sibel Edmonds, Scheuer, Ray McGovern, etc: WagNews: Our Good Friends in the CIA - NOT !, (i.e "The alternative media is ridden with ex-FBI, ex-CIA, ex-NSA, ex-MI5 people who are on "our side". It's all total BS.") WagNews: Alex Jones, Hopsicker & the 9/11 CIA Fakes -Audio.

This one is suddenly salient: WagNews: Ellsberg, Sibel Edmonds & The Secret Team:
WHAT FLAVOR CONSPIRACY YOU WANT?

One big corner of that overall 9/11 picture is formed by four disparate-seeming individuals: a veteran whistleblower, an attractive novice whistleblower, a campaigning journalist and a reputed lingerie model; jigsaw peices called Ellsberg, Edmonds, Hopsicker and Keller. Ellsberg supports Edmonds, confirmed by Hopsicker --backed by eyewitness accounts from Keller. But they're all telling different flavors of the same story.

To specify which story that is, let's take a look at the popular tales of 9/11. The notorious main division is between LIHOP and MIHOP. But it's much more detailed than that. Explanations come in a full range of flavors --starting with the official story:

A. Official story:

CIA/FBI were incompetent; Bush and/or Clinton were complacent.

B. Official Lame Conspiracy:

CIA/FBI were incompetent; Bush/Cheney maybe let it happen; Israelis Knew.

C. Official LIHOP Conspiracy:

CIA/FBI were compromised; Bush/Cheney did let it happen; Israelis Helped.

D. Official LIHOP Wild Conspiracy:

CIA/FBI compromised; Bush/Cheney/Neocons let it happen; Israelis Did It.

E. Official LIHOP Tinfoil Conspiracy:

Israelis/Neocons/Bush/Cheney Did It; CIA/FBI looked the other way.

F. Official MIHOP 'Serious' Conspiracy:

Israelis/Neocons/CIA/FBI/Bush/Cheney/Military-Industrial-Complex Did It.

G. Official Loony Conspiracies:

Rothschilds and/or Rockefellers and/or CFR and/or Bildebergers did it.
Globalists who want to run everything in a World Government did it.
Jews and Jewish bankers -who already run everything- did it.
Satanists, Opus Dei or Reptilians did it.

It's a terrific variety of theories.
It plays out something like this:

• The mainstream media push version A; hint at B; sneer at G.
• The controlled right/intellectual media pushes version B.
• The controlled left/intellectual media pushes version C.
• The 'moderate' Fake internet sites push versions C and D.
• The 'softcore' Fake internet sites push versions D and E.
• The 'independent' Fake internet sites push version F.
• The 'loony' Fake interent sites push variations of version G.

But every single one, from A to G are OFFICIAL versions, sanctioned and promoted by the 9/11 intelligence coverup operation and their CIA Fakes network. They have a flavor for every market.

The creation of this multiplicity of explanations is a core element of the coverup. Left to their own devices, people on the Internet might have figured out the truth themselves. But with this circus in action, there is always plenty of distraction and lots of division in opinion.

The intelligence coverup is not trying to stop 9/11 conspiracy theories on the internet. It's creating them. Then playing off supporters of the different theories against each other. That's a classic Cointelpro-style tactic.

***********More from good Ol L Fletcher Prouty on CIA / Ellsberg limited hangout type conspiracy control!
Let's get to the brand-new material from the White House info czar, it's wild!!...... Conspiracy Theories by Cass Sunstein & Adrian Vermeule:

Our main though far from exclusive focus – our running example – involves

conspiracy theories relating to terrorism, especially theories that arise from and post-date

the 9/11 attacks. These theories exist within the United States and, even more virulently,

in foreign countries, especially Muslim countries. The existence of both domestic and

foreign conspiracy theories, we suggest, is no trivial matter, posing real risks to the

government’s antiterrorism policies, whatever the latter may be. Terrorism-related

theories are thus a crucial testing ground for the significance, causes, and policy

implications of widespread conspiracy theorizing. As we shall see, an understanding of

conspiracy theories has broad implications for the spread of information and beliefs;

many erroneous judgments are a product of the same forces that produce conspiracy

theories, and if we are able to see how to counteract such theories, we will have some

clues about how to correct widespread errors more generally.

Part I explores some definitional issues and lays out some of the mechanisms that

produce conspiracy theories and theorists. We begin by discussing different

understandings of the nature of conspiracy theories and different accounts of the kinds of

errors made by those who hold them. Our primary claim is that conspiracy theories

typically stem not from irrationality or mental illness of any kind but from a “crippled

epistemology,” in the form of a sharply limited number of (relevant) informational

sources. Those who hold conspiracy theories do so because of what they read and hear. In

that sense, acceptance of such theories is not irrational from the standpoint of those who

adhere to them. There is a close connection, we suggest, between our claim on this count

and the empirical association between terrorist behavior and an absence of civil rights

and civil liberties.10 When civil rights and civil liberties are absent, people lack multiple

information sources, and they are more likely to accept conspiracy theories.

Part II discusses government responses and legal issues, in light of the discussion

in Part I. We address several dilemmas of governmental response to conspiracy theories,

such as the question whether it is better to rebut such theories, at the risk of legitimating

them, or to ignore them, at the risk of leaving them unrebutted. Conspiracy theories turn

out to be especially hard to undermine or dislodge; they have a self-sealing quality,

rendering them particularly immune to challenge. We suggest several policy responses

that can dampen the supply of conspiracy theorizing, in part by introducing diverse

viewpoints and new factual assumptions into the hard-core groups that produce such

theories. Our principal claim here involves the potential value of cognitive infiltration of

extremist groups, designed to introduce informational diversity into such groups and to

expose indefensible conspiracy theories as such.

Tell me this, Sunstein: how does all that drug money get through the Federal Reserve System? Everyone has been so eager to confront that 'conspiracy theory,' haven't they?

Blah blah blah... let's get to the good stuff: [Below the fold - favorite chunks of much of the crazy essay]

There was a quip about this a while ago, now it is more established. Posted in full cause it's a big deal.... via Agonist .

These people are criminals!

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor

Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions

• The Observer, Sunday 13 December 2009

Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.

Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.

"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.

"That was the moment [last year] when the system was basically paralysed because of the unwillingness of banks to lend money to one another. The progressive liquidisation to the system and the progressive improvement by some banks of their share values [has meant that] the problem [of illegal money] has become much less serious than it was," he said.

The IMF estimated that large US and European banks lost more than $1tn on toxic assets and from bad loans from January 2007 to September 2009 and more than 200 mortgage lenders went bankrupt. Many major institutions either failed, were acquired under duress, or were subject to government takeover.

Gangs are now believed to make most of their profits from the drugs trade and are estimated to be worth £352bn, the UN says. They have traditionally kept proceeds in cash or moved it offshore to hide it from the authorities. It is understood that evidence that drug money has flowed into banks came from officials in Britain, Switzerland, Italy and the US.

British bankers would want to see any evidence that Costa has to back his claims. A British Bankers' Association spokesman said: "We have not been party to any regulatory dialogue that would support a theory of this kind. There was clearly a lack of liquidity in the system and to a large degree this was filled by the intervention of central banks."

*****

Thanks Costa!!

Because ur not quite bored of it yet... Deepwater exp0sed! via cryptome.org (along with that awesome Kissinger "bloated war criminal" photo above)

This is hugely damaging to the defense industry, and most damaging to Lockheed Martin who may end up having to pay the U.S. Government several billions of dollars due to their fraud, and executives within the defense industry could go to prison for the rest of their lives over this.

I understand that the case was filed quite some time ago, but that it was just unsealed last week, and that most of the case has already been proven in other venues.

Procurement fraud and government abuse at it's finest. http://cryptome.org/deepwater-fraud.pdf

More on this here. The main thing is that signals from systems like SIPRNET -- the main military/government Secret Internet -- was leaching out all over the ocean because Lockheed and Northrop Grumman didn't get shielded wires. HUGE security breach - bigger than a bunch o' spies!

To the average person not using shielded cable may not seem like a big thing. However, in reality it is almost like a bank employee who is tasked with locking up the bank at night but fails to close the vault, fails to lock the front door and declines to set the alarm systems. If nothing happened, it would still be grounds for immediate dismissal. If something did happen and funds were stolen, then he could be sued by the bank for recovery on the grounds of his willful negligence.

In the case of TEMPEST, they have left secure communication systems open to virtually anyone with a modicum of intelligence and technical equipment. To me, it raises concerns as to why there has been no action by the FBI and/or NCIS(NIS) on the grounds of national security. Whichever way you cut it, it comes off as willful misconduct and perhaps criminal negligence. Whatever the case, it just reminds me of Toshiba. Corporate types who would sell their soul for a dollar or, as alleged, sleeper agents posing as dishonest business types.

Either way, they should have been executed. It is ridiculous for people like Martha Stewart and Conrad Black to be doing federal prison time for what was quesionable conduct at worst, while people like those involved with TEMPEST are allowed to walk.

THE IAEA CASE: (or, Doc Brown & finding nuclear items: I traded them a case of pinball machine parts!!)The feds gave away quite a chestnut! Obama IAEA nuclear sites declaration for the United States, draft, 267 pages, 5 May 2009 - Wikileaks. My favorite notes on the IAEA doc were in NPR and Ars Technica, a lot of bearing on how these documents go around on the internet nowadays. SECRECY NEWS WIN! ;-)

Sibel Edmonds on 123 Real Change - Expose the MSM Mainstream Media dorks... Sibel set up a site to list all the bad journalists that have screwed whistleblowers. Michael Isikoff is her personal target. That guy is sketch. Etc Etc. Project Expose MSM Reports What is this about? 123 Real Change: Announcement. It was on Bradblog. Also how Edmonds got screwed by the Dems in US Congress. Couple notes from Coleen Rowley on it.

It goes like this, as Sibel posts:

Turner: “they’ve got all of it”
Higgins: “What did you do?”
Turner: “I told them a story, you play games, I told them a story”
Higgins: “Ah you, you poor dumb son of a bitch”, “You’ve done more damage than you know”
Turner: “I hope so”
Higgins: “You’re about to be a very lonely man”, “It didn’t have to end this way”
Turner: “Sure it did”
Higgins: “Hey Turner”, “How do you know they’ll print it?” “You can take a walk, but how far if they don’t print it?”
Turner: “They’ll print it”
Higgins: “How do you know?”

As it turns out the New York Times didn't usually print a damn thing. Terrible choice to trust.

More stuff....

Messing with Critical Mass riders in NYC, tactical media defenders savin the day! Video: Cops Ticket More Critical Mass Cyclists, Drive on Bike Path - Gothamist

Why did Porter Goss finger Jane Harman? | Capital J | JTA - Jewish & Israel News (See Hongpong.com on the Scandalplex for the early take on this AIPAC espionage story)

An excited busybody attempts to fix North Minneapolis: The Adventures of Johnny Northside

Hilarious voting system results in nothin but marijuana and birth certificate conspiracies. Damn you Internet!! :-D Open Government Brainstorm - by IdeaScale

Unbelievably bad Eurotrash video! People with more awesome desks than me.

Techbit: Google Releases Dev Chrome For Mac And Linux. But Doesn’t Want You To Use It. GIMME Google Wave API and Testing Google Wave: This Thing is Tidal. I wish I could goto DrupalCampWI | June 5th and 6th, 2009, Madison, WI

xkcd - A Webcomic - IN UR REALITY

For more: I'm In Ur

Cracked.com is nice: The 7 Most Bizarrely Unlucky People Who Ever Lived and 17 Great Historical Moments Ruined by Modern Technology

I ran into these devices the other day XBee-PRO 802.15.4 OEM RF Modules - Digi International- they are freakin awesome when applied!

Alt-economics: Organizing for a Better Economy And bookporn #41: books from heaven, books from earth « a historian’s craft.

Some random stuff from the huffpo that seems relevant somehow: An earned moment for Michael Moore, he calls for saving the industrial tools and building clean techs in the old GM factories: Michael Moore: Goodbye, GM

Yuck: Gov. David A. Paterson: The Moment for Public-Private Partnerships Is Now // Avarice! Washington politicos dish on summer plans

Drugz: They're trying to nix Murtha's bullshit drugz fusion center: House GOP Wants Cuts To Drug War also Daily Kos: States Leading Way on Industrial Hemp!

Submedia is at it again! ‘Hopium’ takes the West Coast by storm at subMedia

Nice Video: Who's culture jamming the Mexican election? Annul the vote!

Viddy: Dan Dennett on dangerous memes | Video on TED.com

This was snarky but pretty funny: Rantings of a Sandmonkey » The speech!

For everything including intel, oil and other items, you can't miss Sic Semper Tyrannis including Korea War - Round 2 part 2 by Neil Richardson and the referenced article about the new DARPA-drawn tactics such as secret tracker chips at "A New Kind of War Part 1" Richard Sale.

Bloody New Battles Suit Israel by Mel Frykberg -- Antiwar.com

For more on the Israel stuff, DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security is annoyed. DEBKA is written by weird Israeli intelligence people or something -- its a classic grains of salt source.

DEBKA on Lebanon spy rollup: This is a funny story about the Lebanese using fancy French gear to bust up the Israeli spies in Lebanon:

Tuesday, June 2, Beirut announced 9 more suspected spies had been detained with another haul of communications equipment and encoded computers. Western intelligence experts say all the Lebanese counter-espionage officers have to do is install the French bugs in one sector after another, wait for it to signal the presence of electronic gear and then pick up its holder. This accounts for their sudden success in rounding up alleged spies. Suspects who have dumped their equipment in time have managed to escape detection.

The harm to Western intelligence from Lebanese president's breach of promise to Paris has ramifications: Beirut has just passed its findings together with the captured electronic paraphernalia to Syrian and Iranian intelligence, handing them the data for overhauling their defenses against foreign espionage.

Urgent inquiries are now flying between Washington and Paris to find out how Western spy agencies operating in Lebanon came to relax their guard and failed to discover their exposure to the French bugs misused against parties against which Sakrozy meant no harm.

Either way, both Washington and Paris are forced to admit that, in the final reckoning, no office-holder in Lebanon may be trusted.

So it was OK for the French bugs to be used against Hezbollah, a domestic force, but foreign spies were supposed to be unbothered. That seems like a really fair deal.

The Egyptians also rolled up a bunch of sketchy Russians too, before Obama's speech. Another false flag possibility, or just another WMR conspiracy theory? June 1, 2009 - Did Egypt roll up a plot directed against Obama? - Wayne Madsen Report

The students rounded up in Egypt were asked about the sources of their money. It appears that the Russian students apprehended were not part of an official Russian and Egypt student program. The Council of Muftis of Russia stated that none of the Russian students taken into custody by the Egyptians were at Al-Azhar as part of any officially-sanctioned program of the council. Many of the students detained were at the university in violation of the visa regime in place and were not registered with Russian Muslim authorities. [.......]

On January 11, 2009, we reported on the supply of weapons to Hamas from Russian-Israeli mafia circles in Israel. WMR also reported on the strong links between Russian-Israeli mob tycoon Boris Berezovsky and the late Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London from polonium-210 poisoning, and Chechen guerrillas who were responsible for a number of terrorist attacks aimed at destabilizing the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, Berezovsky, in a major false flag operation, funded Chechen guerrillas by having Chechen warlords Shamil Basayev, Movladi Udugov, and Salman Raduyev kidnap people so that Berezovsky could finance them through the payment of ransoms totaling into the millions of dollars. Western intelligence linked "Al Qaeda" units to the Chechens funded by Berezovsky, providing yet another link between the Russian-Israel Mafia and "Al Qaeda." Berezovsky was also accused by Chechen leaders of financing extreme Wahhabi Kavkaz-TV television broadcasts designed to stir up anti-Russian passions among Chechen's Muslims. The Russian-Israeli fugitive billionaire, who enjoys asylum in Britain, was also linked to various Chechen terrorist attacks in Moscow. Berezovsky also supported Islamist radicals in the neighboring Russian Republic of Ingushetia, where some of the Chechen guerrillas found refuge.

The involvement of Russian Muslims in the Egyptian investigation of a potential threat against Obama, at the same time of souring relations between the Obama administration and Israel's government, which includes the extreme right-wing Moldovan-Israeli mob boss Avigdor Lieberman as Foreign Minister, is a strong indication that whatever the Egyptians uncovered about a threat against the President may have had "false flag" fingerprints all over it.

Using Russian and central Asian Muslims in Cairo in a false flag operation diected against Obama would have generated a backlash against Muslims and Arabs, something that Obama is trying to reverse by his speech and very presence in Cairo, and engendered both sympathy for Israel's Likud government and hostility towards Muslims from Egypt and Palestine to central Asia.

It is also likely that the Egyptian security services were tipped off by their American counterparts before the raid on Al-Azhar students. The question posed by the Egyptians to the Russians and other central Asians whether they planned a repeat of the Hussein Square bombing in February was likely prompted by either signals intelligence (SIGINT) intercepts by the National Security Agency (NSA), human intelligence evidence, or a combination of the two. A bombing anywhere in Cairo during Obama's visit would create a media frenzy that would place Egypt and Obama's wider Muslim and Arab audience in a bad light.

WHO CARES ABOUT OBL?! MORE FAKE PSYOPS VIDEO FOR FUN?: Plus just this week there were some videos supposedly from Osama bin Laden but it's kinda funny that nobody cares because the videos seem vaguely fake or irrelevant. Even gung-ho CNN seems depressed about the info punch -- an increasing trend as the War on Terror info memes burned themselves out. See Hongpong.com post on Anomalies with videos like this from exactly a year ago!

Obama took his shots at 9/11 Islamic conspiracy theories. As Jon Stewart aptly pointed out Thursday evening, he's trying to ease aside the militants in order to get engagement going with these societies. [So let's just lay conspiracies aside, and git er done... why not?]

Surely these awesome videos no one looks at anymore do not have watermarks from the IntelCenter, a shady op setup by one of Rumsfeld's go-to PSYOPS dudes, Jim Melnick. (as WIRED reported they got caught layering/messing with video logos apparently, see PrisonPlanet for a big pile of stuff on how this works, earlier Rummy stuff. etc etc)

[[Vague Backstory: Entities like IntelCenter are 4th Generation Information Warfare Fake News Machine or something, like MEMRI and the "SITE Institute", two spots that also peddle info products designed to suit the Beltway Hawk / neocon intel treadmill in Washington [PSYOPS agenda, stovepiping etc]. Slashdot last August on Tracking the Terrorists Online (in a bullshit way, it turns out).]]

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