Identity Dominance: The U.S. Military’s Biometric War in Afghanistan

 

For years the U.S. military has been waging a biometric war in Afghanistan, working to unravel the insurgent networks operating throughout the country by collecting the personal identifiers of large portions of the population.  A restricted U.S. Army guide on the use of biometrics in Afghanistan obtained by Public Intelligence provides an inside look at this ongoing battle to identify the Afghan people.     

Mohammad Zahid was not the target of a joint military operation that came through his village in Khost Province in late February 2012.  However, that day the twenty-two year old man who claimed to be a student was arrested and eventually convicted in an Afghan court because his fingerprints reportedly matched those found on an improvised explosive device (IED) cache that had been discovered the previous year.

Zahid was one of more than a hundred military-age males that were scanned that day by the joint coalition forces and Afghan National Army operation.  As part of its effort to combat insurgent forces interspersed within an indigenous population, the use of biometrics has become a central component of the U.S. war effort.  Having expanded heavily since its introduction during the war in Iraq, biometric identification and tracking of individuals has become a core mission in Afghanistan with initiatives sponsored by the U.S. and Afghan governments seeking to obtain the biometric identifiers of nearly everyone in the country.

Though there is no formal doctrine or universally accepted tactics, techniques, and procedures for using biometrics throughout the U.S. military, a 2011 U.S. Army handbook and several other documents obtained by Public Intelligence provide insight into the practical use of biometrics in Afghanistan, showing both the level of collection and the functional use of the data for intelligence gathering, force protection and even obtaining criminal convictions.  By collecting vast amounts of information on the population of Afghanistan, including both friend and foe alike, the U.S. military has sought to achieve identity dominance by undermining the fluid anonymity of terrorist and criminal networks and attaching permanent identities to malicious actors.

What is biometrics?

While the use of biometrics has become an increasingly important part of the war in Afghanistan, there is a fundamental lack of agreement about the doctrine surrounding the collection and use of biometric information.  An introduction to the 2011 U.S. Army Commander’s Guide to Biometrics in Afghanistan states that there is “no formal doctrine; universally accepted tactics, techniques, and procedures; or institutionalized training programs across the Department of Defense” for biometric capabilities.  Despite this lack of formal doctrine, the U.S. military is currently using more than 7,000 devices to collect biometric data from the Afghan population.  Though biometrics can take the form of any “measurable biological (anatomical and physiological) and behavioral characteristic that can be used for automated recognition,” the biometric identifiers being collected in Afghanistan consist primarily of fingerprints, iris scans and facial photographs.  Other biological characteristics, which are referred to as modalities, that can be used to identify a person include certain types of voice patterns, palm prints, DNA, as well as behavioral characteristics such as gait and even keystroke patterns on a keyboard.

The U.S. military currently uses three devices for collecting the bulk of the biometric data harvested in Aghanistan: the Biometrics Automated Toolset (BAT), Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE) and Secure Electronic Enrollment Kit (SEEK).  The BAT is used primarily by the Army and Marine Corps and consists of a laptop computer and separate peripherals for collecting fingerprints, scanning irises, and taking photographs.  The HIIDE is more mobile, providing a handheld device capable of collecting fingerprints, scanning irises and taking photographs.  Like the BAT, the HIIDE can connect to a network of approximately 150 servers throughout Afghanistan to upload and download current biometric information and watchlists.  The SEEK is also a handheld device with many of the same capabilities of the HIIDE, though it also has a built-in keyboard for remotely entering biographical information on the subject.  Used primarily by special operations forces, the SEEK will eventually replace the HIIDE as the standard collection device for the Army and Marine Corps.

Airman 1st Class Michael Vue, 455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron entry controller, scans an Afghan woman’s iris in the waiting area of the Egyptian Hospital at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, on April 16. Medical teams use biometrics to identify and track the records for all incoming patients by scanning their iris and fingerprints and then inputting the information into a database. Photo via U.S. Air Force.

Data from these devices is stored in local and national databases which can be searched and compared with other intelligence information to help identify enemy combatants.  All biometric data collected in Afghanistan is ultimately sent back to the DOD’s Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) located in West Virginia, where it is stored and also shared with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI.  Partnerships with other nations also allow the DOD to run data against biometrics collected by foreign governments and law enforcement.

Enroll Everyone

Though the use of biometrics is relatively new for U.S. forces, collection efforts in Afghanistan have become ubiquitous, taking in data on large swaths of the population from government officials to local villagers.  In 2009, it was reported that even foreign journalists covering the war in Afghanistan would be required to provide their biometric data before being accredited and provided access to military facilities.  The collection of biometric data is viewed as being so essential to the war effort that the Afghan Ministry of Interior was enlisted to help run a program called Afghan 1000, which provides a comprehensive framework for collecting biometric data on the citizens of Afghanistan.  The program established a goal of enrolling eighty percent of the country’s population by 2012, covering nearly 25 million people.  While the actual enrollment numbers are not public, the Afghan 1000 program has been in operation for several years, collecting data for every traveler passing through Kabul International Airport, border crossings and Afghan Population Registration Department offices throughout the country.

The stated goal of the Afghan effort is no less than the collection of biometric data for every living person in Afghanistan.  At a conference with Afghan officials in 2010, the commander of the U.S. Army’s Task Force Biometrics Col. Craig Osborne told the attendees that the collection of biometric data is not simply
about “identifying terrorists and criminals,” but that “it can be used to enable progress in society and has countless applications for the provision of services to the citizens of Afghanistan.”  According to Osborne, biometrics provide the Afghan government with “identity dominance” enabling them to know who their citizens are and link actions with actors.  “Your iris design belongs only to you and your left and right irises are different,” Osborne said at the conference.  “A name can be changed or altered illegally or even legally, but once your iris is formed at the age of six months, it cannot be altered, duplicated or forged.”

The U.S. Army Commander’s Guide to Biometrics in Afghanistan recommends that “all combat outposts and checkpoints throughout Afghanistan make it a priority to collect biometric data from as many local nationals as possible.”  During cordoning operations, the guide advises soldiers to “enroll everyone” including the dead, from which DNA is often collected using buccal swabs to capture the cells that line the mouth.  While Afghanistan offers “an extraordinarily complicated environment for the broad employment of biometrics,” the guide notes that the “payoff to U.S. and coalition forces is so great in terms of securing the population and identification of bad actors in the country, that commanders must be creative and persistent in their efforts to enroll as many Afghans as possible.”

U.S. Army Spc. Robert Irwin, serving with 2nd Platoon, D Company, 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, Task Force Gold Geronimo, uses his Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE) to scan a local Afghan man’s fingerprints, Paktya Province, Afghanistan, Jan. 30, 2012. Photo via U.S. Army.

In a section titled “Population Management,” the U.S. Army’s guide recommends that “every person who lives within an operational area should be identified and fully biometrically enrolled with facial photos, iris scans, and all ten fingerprints (if present).”  The soldiers must also record “good contextual data” about the individual such as “where they live, what they do, and to which tribe or clan they belong.”  According to the guide, popuation management actions “can also have the effect of building good relationships and rapport” by sending the message that the “census” is intended to protect them from “the influence of outsiders and will give them a chance to more easily identify troublemakers in their midst.”  A checklist included in the section includes the following instructions:

  • Locate and identify every resident (visit and record every house and business). At a minimum, fully biometrically enroll all military-age males as follows:
    • Full sets of fingerprints.
    • Full face photo.
    • Iris scans.
    • Names and all variants of names.
    • BAT associative elements:
      • Address.
      • Occupation.
      • Tribal name.
      • Military grid reference of enrollment.
  • Create an enrollment event for future data mining.
  • Listen to and understand residents’ problems.
  • Put residents in a common database.
  • Collect and assess civil-military operations data.
  • Identify local leaders and use them to identify the populace.
  • Use badging to identify local leaders, and key personnel.
  • Cultivate human intelligence sources.
  • Push indigenous forces into the lead at every possible opportunity.
  • Track persons of interest; unusual travel patterns may indicate unusual activities.

Widespread enrollment of the population or the “census” as the guide refers to it, is seen in Afghanistan “as supportive of the local government, particularly if accompanied with a badging program that highlights the government’s presence in an area.”  Tribal leaders and clan heads can use biometrics to control their local area which can lend “authority to tribal leadership by helping them keep unwanted individuals out of their areas.”

Biometric Watch Lists

One of the most essential products of the widespread collection of biometric data in Afghanistan is the Biometric Enabled Watch List (BEWL).  Known as “the watch list,” the BEWL is a “collection of individuals whose biometrics have been collected and determined by [biometrics-enabled intelligence (BEI)] analysts to be threats, potential threats, or who simply merit tracking.”  When loaded onto a biometrics collection device like the HIIDE, the BEWL “allows for instantaneous feedback on biometrics collections without the need for real-time communications to the authoritative biometrics database,” allowing the soldier to immediately identify persons of interest.

Once BEI analysts combine all of the data from biometric enrollments, forensic evidence, and other forms of intelligence they develop the BEWL in cooperation with numerous other intelligence agencies and organizations throughout the government.  At least twenty-nine dedicated BEI analysts located throughout Afghanistan work to create the BEWL and individual units can request that specific individuals be added or removed from the list.  When a person’s biometric data is collected in Afghanistan and they are not matched to an entity on the watch list, the data and “associated contextual information required for enrollment” are transmitted back to the ABIS in West Virgina for matching against all other collected biometrics, including the 90 million fingerprint entries collected by DHS and 55 million from criminal enrollments made by the FBI.  If a match is found there, the information is sent to the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) in Charlottesville, VA which generates a biometrics intelligence analysis report (BIAR) detailing the history and potential threat posed by the individual.  NGIC then contacts Task Force Biometrics in Afghanistan which notifies the proper unit in the operational environment.  Depending on the unit collecting the biometric data, this process can take anywhere from a few minutes to several days if the match is made against a latent fingerprint.  Whether a match is ultimately found or not, all information is stored for further use in the BEI process.

Biometrics exploitation and enrollment linkage

A figure from the U.S. Army Commander’s Guide to Biometrics in Afghanistan explaining the linkage between exploitation of biometric information and enrollment on the battlefield.

Even when it is obvious that the people being enrolled have no connection to the insurgency, the Commander’s Guide to Biometrics in Afghanistan emphasizes that “all collections are important.”  The guide states that identification of the “population in a particular area is essential to effective counterinsurgency operations” and essential to a unit’s capacity for “owning ground” in a combat zone.  Units must know “who lives where, who does what, who belongs, and who does not.”  Mapping the “human terrain” is described as key to security, allowing U.S. forces to know “who they are, what they do, to whom they are related” and to help “separate the locals from the insurgents.”  To aid this effort, the guide recommends demonstrating the “value of biometrics” to subordinates and having a “belief in biometrics” so that the “support staff and leaders do not treat biometrics operati
ons as a check-the-block activity.”

Obtaining Convictions

While biometrics are best known for helping U.S forces identify and locate suspected insurgents in Afghanistan, battlefield forensics has become an increasingly important part of the Afghan justice system, helping to convict individuals of aiding the Taliban by hiding weapons caches or constructing roadside bombs.  The U.S. Army’s guide notes that forensics are “being used at an increasing rate by the Afghan criminal justice system, and convictions are now occurring in the Afghan courts based solely on biometric evidence.”  The U.S. Army’s Afghanistan Theater of Operations Evidence Collection Guide advises soldiers on how to collect various forms of biometric evidence for forensic investigators to provide to Afghan prosecutors in the hopes of obtaining a conviction.  This reliance on criminal convictions is part of a “transition from law of war-based detentions to evidence-based criminal detentions” where U.S. and coalition forces must “coordinate with the relevant local, provincial, or national prosecutors and judges to determine the specific type and amount of evidence deemed credible” by providing “evidence and witness statements for use in an Afghan court of law to enable the National Security Prosecutor’s Unit (NSPU) or a provincial criminal court to prosecute and convict criminal suspects.”  The guide advises soldiers to “enroll all subjects on-site” following a criminal activity and “ensure that a full enrollment is collected, to include iris scans, ten digit fingerprints, a full facial photograph, and other biometric data.”  Complex instructions are included on collecting latent fingerprints from pieces of evidence and collecting DNA samples from potential suspects.  The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Guide to Evidence Collection also contains similar instructions including how to make plaster casts of footprint and tire tracks to provide to investigators.

A summary of the conviction of an Afghan man last year for building and emplacing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that was based entirely upon biometric evidence.

A study in the January 2014 issue of National Defense University’s Joint Force Quarterly found that Afghan courts are increasingly looking for “biometrics as a component of the prosecution’s case.”  Focusing particular attention on the Afghan National Security Court located at the Justice Center in Parwan (JCIP), which is described as a “model for successful use of biometric evidence in criminal prosecutions,” the study describes the “prominent role” that biometrics now play in obtaining convictions at the facility.  In fact, the Afghan National Security Court has obtained convictions in “almost every case where a biometric match has been made between the defendant and the criminal instrument.”  The study also found that sentences are consistently longer for individuals convicted using biometric evidence like fingerprints or DNA.  “Collections and enrollments matter and increase the effectiveness of all other operations” the authors state at the conclusion of the study, instructing their readers to “treat every event as a means to collect additional biometrics.”

The number of convictions in Afghan courts based solely on biometric evidence is unknown, as is the accuracy of the systems used for determining a biometric match.  However, we do know that the number of prosecutions is going up.  One such example is the case of Mohammad Zahid, the twenty-two-year-old man arrested in Khost Province in February 2012.  Zahid was arrested with nothing on his person.  He claimed to be a student and said he had no connection with the Taliban, yet a latent fingerprint from an IED found in a cache the previous year along with cell phones, battery packs and other bomb-making supplies reportedly matched his own.  Zahid was one of over a hundred military-age males enrolled in that village in Khost on February 23, 2012.  Now, he will spend years in prison and, according to his testimony, does not know why his fingerprints were found on the bomb-making equipment discovered by coalition forces.

Identity Dominance: The U.S. Military’s Biometric War in Afghanistan
Public Intelligence
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 01:55:45 GMT

TiLTNews Network

Allen West: Power plant attack a 'dry run'

 

Former U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla.

Former Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., says an attack one year ago on a power plant in California was a “dry run” for something bigger, and American needs to be paying attention.

WND reported the utility company, whose operation was disabled in the attack, has offered a $250,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators.

According to authorities, a team of attackers apparently cut a series of underground fiber optic telephone lines then fired guns at 17 transformers and shot out their cooling systems.

Experts have called the attack an act of terrorism, and West agrees.

He wrote on his website that just a year ago Americans were riveted by the Islamic terror attack at the Boston Marathon.

“But a year ago, there was another attack that while not horrific, was disturbing, and has gone largely unnoticed,” he wrote.

“On April 16, 2013, snipers waged a 52-minute attack on a central California electrical substation. According to reports by Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, the sniper attack started when at least one person entered an underground vault to cut telephone cables, and attackers fired more than 100 shots into Pacific Gas & Electric’s Metcalf transmission substation, knocking out 17 transformers. Electric officials were able to avert a blackout, but it took 27 days to repair the damage,” he wrote.

He said while the FBI doesn’t consider the incident terrorism, the chief of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time, Jon Wellinghoff, does.

“Wellinghoff … based his conclusion that this was terrorism on the analysis of experts he brought to the crime scene. The analysis pointed to the shell casings having no fingerprints and evidence that the shooting positions had been pre-arranged. No arrests have been made in the case,” West wrote.

“You have to wonder if this is even being pursued by the Obama administration?

“My concern is that this may have been a dry run for something far bigger. We should be demanding an update on the investigation as to the perpetrators of this attack who escaped without detection,” he said.

“If this ends up being a dry hole and just the work of some bad apples, I’ll accept that conclusion. However, I cannot accept the blatant disregard of a deliberate, well planned and executed attack on an electrical substation that left not a trace of evidence — that my friends is not amateurish. Nothing in this day and age of the new 21st Century battlefield can be taken for granted – nothing.”

Read the book that’s documenting the worry about the EMP threat, “A Nation Forsaken.”

See a report on the attack:

A spokesman for the utility, Gregg Lemler, said he would like to see the attackers identified and brought in.

The attack came one day after the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and wounded 264 others. The Boston Marathon suspects are from the Russian North Caucasus, which prompted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to get involved in the investigation of the sniper attack on the transformers.

There is a large community of Chechen and North Caucasus immigrants in the San Jose area.

Not easily replaced

The goal of shooting out the 17 large transformers in San Jose apparently was to cause the coolant to drain and the substation’s transformers to burn up and create a major blackout in the area.

In the attack, one or two individuals also went down manholes at the suburban San Jose facility and cut fiber cables that knocked out 911 and landline service to the power station.

Depending on their size, larger transformers are imported and are specially designed, which means they are not easily replaced. Some take up to three years to swap out under normal circumstances.

Video indicates there was more than one shooter. The snipers shot out 17 transformers with AK-47, 7.62x39mm rounds, causing some $15 million in damage and taking a month to repair.

Quick action following the attack allowed officials to reroute power to avoid a blackout.

Dress rehearsal?

In a recent interview with WND, former SEAL operator Christopher Heben said the method by which the transformers were attacked is exactly how the SEALs would have done it.

As a SEAL, Heben said that he and others practiced a takedown of grid systems similar to the one in San Jose to assess vulnerability.

Heben also called the episode a terrorist attack, saying it was possibly practice for larger attacks on the electrical grid system across the country.

Wellinghoff called the attack “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred, and opined that it was a “dress rehearsal to a larger terrorist attack.”

As WND reported last year, former Central Intelligence Agency Director James Woolsey said the San Jose incident was a terrorist attack that could be replicated around the country by lone wolves or organized crime or terrorist groups to cripple the vulnerable national electrical grid system.

Woolsey said the San Jose episode showed that a few determined individuals could attack the grid and affect critical life sustaining interdependent infrastructures that affect millions of Americans.

Chad Sweet, a former Central Intelligence Agency official in the directorate of operations who served as chief of staff to former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, told Fox News “you can’t rule it out” that the San Jose attack was a “preparation for an act of war.”

Sweet, a co-founder of the Chertoff Group who advises the electric power industry on security, believes, however, it is “premature” to call it a terrorist attack, as does the FBI.

Sweet said it is possible, given the sophistication of the attack, that it was an “insider” job. He explained it required knowledge of the location of the fiber phone lines and where to shoot into the transformers from a distance.

If that’s the case, it would coincide with Woolsey’s concerns and with warnings the FBI has given separately to be aware of the prospect of “lone wolves” undertaking terrorist.

The still unsolved San Jose sniper attack also has been followed by a recent report from the New Jersey Regional Operations Intelligence Center that electric grids across the country have faced unauthorized intrusions, making the U.S. grid “inherently vulnerable” to widespread sabotage.

The report said there had been eight intrusions at electrical grids just in New Jersey from October 2013 to January 2014.

The report said that such attacks could knock out power over widespread geographical areas of the country.

There is speculation that the incidents outlined in the NJROIC report may be a prelude to a large, coordinated physical attack on the grid, a view shared by former CIA Director Woolsey and ex-SEAL Heben.

The report also pointed out that very sensitive areas of the electrical grid were found to be lightly monitored, leaving them vulnerable to attack.

“The electrical grid – a network of power generating plants, transmission lines, substations, and distribution lines – is inherently vulnerable,” the report said.

“Transmission substations are critical links in the electrical grid, making it possible for electricity to move long distances and serving as hubs for inter
secting power lines,” according to the report. “Many of the grid’s important components sit out in the open, often in remote locations, protected by little more than cameras and chain-link fences.”

New standards

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, has proposed new standards to enhance the grid’s resilience by requiring physical security for the facilities most critical to the reliable operation of the bulk-power system.

Acting FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur said that because the grid is “so critical to all aspects of our society and economy, protecting its reliability and resilience is a core responsibility of everyone who works in the electric industry.”

Under the proposed FERC regulations, the facilities must take at least three steps to provide physical security.

Owners and operators will need to perform a risk assessment of their system to identify facilities which, if damaged or inoperable, could have a critical impact on the bulk-power system.

The overseers also must evaluate potential threats and vulnerabilities and develop and implement security plans.

NERC has 90 days to submit the proposed standards.

The proposal apparently does not include provisions for utilities to harden facilities to resist natural or man-made electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, attacks on the grid.

Allen West: Power plant attack a ‘dry run’
-NO AUTHOR-
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 01:06:16 GMT

TiLTNews Network

McDonald's profit falls, U.S. diners not 'lovin' it'

 

(CNBC) — McDonald’s posted a lower quarterly profit on Tuesday as high beef costs bit into margins and fewer customer visits resulted in a bigger-than-expected decline in sales at the fast-food chain’s established U.S. restaurants.

McDonald’s has reported roughly two years of turbulent sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months, due to sluggish economic growth, stiffer competition and internal missteps that have complicated menus and slowed service. (Click here to get the latest quotes for the fast-food giant.)

Chief Executive Don Thompson, who is likely to come under more pressure to improve McDonald’s results nearly two years into his term, said in a press release that he expects same-restaurant sales in April to be “modestly positive.”

McDonald’s profit falls, U.S. diners not ‘lovin’ it’
-NO AUTHOR-
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 16:23:19 GMT

TiLTNews Network

Clinton lawyer named top Obama counsel

 

(THE HILL) President Obama on Monday said he has selected W. Neil Eggleston to become chief counsel, adding the expertise of a veteran attorney who was involved in some of the most heated legal battles of the Clinton administration.

Eggleston, a white-collar defender who is now at Kirkland & Ellis, will replace departing White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler in mid-May.

“Neil brings extraordinary expertise, credentials, and experience, to our team,” Obama said in a statement. “He has a passion for public service, is renowned for his conscientiousness and foresight, and I look forward to working closely with him in the coming years.”

Clinton lawyer named top Obama counsel
-NO AUTHOR-
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 14:52:27 GMT

TiLTNews Network

40 Oklahoma Sheriffs Asked To Disarm – They Leave Instead

 

This article was originally published at The Right To Bear Gun-grabbing fever has finally reached the conservative stronghold of Oklahoma. An annual meet-and-greet at the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City turned sour when an anonymous senator demanded that the 40 sheriffs in attendance remove their firearms. But rather than disarm, the sheriffs voluntarily walked out. When given the […]

40 Oklahoma Sheriffs Asked To Disarm – They Leave Instead
Brandon
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 10:33:54 GMT

TiLTNews Network

Federal Agencies Choking-Off The Farming Industry

 

This article was written by Austin Hill and originally published at Canada Free Press Good news: the U.S. Department of Agriculture has published research indicating that there are lots of un-filled jobs and career opportunities in the farming industry. Bad news: the Obama Administration has been cannibalizing the nation’s farmers for the […]

Federal Agencies Choking-Off The Farming Industry
Brandon
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 10:15:44 GMT

TiLTNews Network

Hey Harry, What About Elijah Cummings and Lois Lerner and Americans Not Getting Away with Breaking the Law?

 

irs

By Fred DeRuvo

Harry Reid is confused. He believes that the premeditated murders of service personnel at Ft. Hood to be rightly classified as “workplace violence,” in keeping with the Obama administration’s rule to not bring negative attention to Islam and Muslims. At the same time, Reid also believes that those who stand against the federal government in a display of patriotism against the overreach of that federal government are “domestic terrorists.”

When you let Saul Alinsky’s words of advice loose on society, directed and used by people of no moral character, what you wind up with is a nation of leaders who are little more than treasonous cowards. They say one thing and do another, like the Pharisees of old with whom Jesus was constantly at odds. The fact that they did everything they could to kill Him is no different from all the rumors swirling around many of those politicians who live on the left side of aisle. Whether they are killing businesses or ruining the lives of patriots, nothing is beneath them in order to obtain their agenda.

Yet, we have people like Elijah Cummings and Lois Lerner who also live in a different legal sphere. They believe (or at least, want us to believe) that what they do is in the best interest of America. This is in spite of the fact that they break the law routinely, yet rail against those who try to bring those episodes of law-breaking to the surface.

Since nearly the beginning of the Congressional hearings related to the alleged IRS abuses, Cummings has done everything he can to close things down. He has been vocal in his disappointment and frustration regarding Issa’s handling of the matter. For a short time, it appeared as though Cummings was going to get his wish, but then – unfortunately for him and Lois Lerner – emails bubbled to the surface pointing to a collusion between Cummings’ office, the IRS, the DOJ, and conservative groups seeking non-profit status – specifically 501 (c) 4 status).

The tragedy here is that Cummings will continue to insist that neither he nor his staff have done anything wrong at all. But the emails may prove otherwise and, at the very least, appear to indicate that Lois Lerner’s IRS office funneled information about True the Vote directly to Cummings’ office. Baltimore Sun columnist David Zurawik noted this about the situation.

“As I watched Tuesday while the anchors on “Fox & Friends” leveled unsubstantiated charges against Rep. Elijah Cummings as if they were facts, I couldn’t help thinking how much more dangerous Sen. Joe McCarthy might have been in the 1950s if there had been a show like this to amplify his reckless allegations.”

Sounds like Mr. Zurawik places no faith in those emails and believes they are fake/phony unless proven otherwise. Yeah, there’s some great journalism there, Mr. Zurawik. Thank you for helping us see your bias. Zurawik went onto liken the recent email revelations with accusations made by Steve Doocy (anchor) regarding an alleged quote from Barack Obama making it sound as though Obama was assailing Mitt Romney’s character.

The problem, of course, is that in this case, we appear to have actual emails written by Lerner to Cummings’ office. But since Cummings is also from Baltimore, I can certainly see why Zurawik would want to go to bat for him. Zurawik concludes with the following statement. “[W]hat the full range of emails, which were made available by the IRS in response to requests from the committee, actually shows is Cummings staffers asking for “publicly available information” on True The Vote. That would be information available to anyone.”

Really? If that was true, then I cannot imagine True the Vote’s legal counsel being so stupid as to complain about Cummings and Lerner if in fact, what Cummings asked for and received was perfectly legal. It also has to do with the fact that Cummings intentionally stated that neither he nor his staff had made any inquiries to the IRS about True the Vote. In essence, Cummings lied during a Congressional hearing. I’m sure that’s no big deal to Mr. Zurawik, but in lying, Cummings broke the law since it was later determined that he had in fact, inquired of the IRS.

As True the Vote’s legal counsel indicated, there is “information shows the IRS and Cummings’ staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.”

The legal counsel for True the Vote accuses Cummings of asking for and receiving information that was confidential. This means that if it was truly confidential, then John Q. Public cannot simply go in and obtain that information. Either True the Vote’s counsel is wrong or Zurawik is wrong. I’m guessing the latter.

“The first contact between the IRS and Cummings’ staffers about True the Vote happened in August 2012. In January 2013, staff asked for more information from the IRS about the group. Former head of tax exempt groups at the IRS Lois Lerner went out of her way to try and get information to Cummings’ office.The information Cummings received was not shared with Majority Members on the Committee.”

Again, the information Cummings received was deliberately not shared with the rest of the committee investigating the IRS situation. Apparently, columnist David Zurawik has no problem with that. I do. It shows a desire to keep hidden things that should become public.

At the very least, Cummings lied and then deliberately kept critical information about his communication with the IRS a secret. People who wrongly believe there is nothing wrong with this are simply part of the problem. No wonder Lerner has been busy pleading the fifth.

I wonder though what Harry Reid might say to Elijah Cummings about Americans not getting away with breaking the law? So far, we’ve heard nothing because Reid is too busy focusing on the Bundy situation and there is likely much more to be uncovered there. Harry Reid has his hands full most likely trying to cover his own tracks.

Let’s work hard to get these peons out of office once and for all.

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple


Contributed by Freedom Outpost
of www.FreedomOutpost.com.

Hey Harry, What About Elijah Cummings and Lois Lerner and Americans Not Getting Away with Breaking the Law?
Freedom Outpost
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 19:00:51 GMT

TiLTNews Network

NASA Expert: Chemtrails Are Real and Rogue Geoengineers Could Blackmail Earth

 

chemtrailsnasa

A NASA expert has warned that geoengineering is inevitable and mad scientists controlling the weather could use the technology to blackmail the planet.

Droughts, famine, chemtrails and the global game of risk: geoengineering is real, and inevitable part of the future, when science tries to orchestrate nature in the name of taming climate change, while experts argue over who will make the rules in the global governance of weather modification and geoengineering.

Could a rogue billionaire tinker with the delicate balance of our Earth? Might a mad scientist even “weaponize” weather control to wield power over the planet? Who calls the shots, and who watchers the modifiers?

Everything is possible, warns Riley Duren, Chief Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs. Chemtrails and geoengineering are no longer the things of conspiratorial speculation or retro science fiction – they are the scenarios shaping the world to come as science contemplates how far is too far for man to go in the name of a global environmental crisis?

Watch the full NASA JPL presentation (Geoengineering at 32m): Geoengineering and Climate Change –February 14, 2013 at 8:54pm on NASA JPL Live (USTREAM)

NASA Admits To Chemtrails As They Propose Spraying Stratospheric Aerosols Into Earths Atmosphere

Truthstream Media – ‪Chemtrails? Watch This! Then Try to Deny It‬

Scientists: “Exclusive Club” To Assume Command Of Global Geoengineering

CIA co-sponsoring geoengineering study to look at reversing global warming options

Scientists: “Exclusive Club” To Assume Command Of Global Geoengineering

Unilateral Geoengineering Non-technical Briefing Notes for a Workshop – At the Council on Foreign Relations Washington DC, May 05, 2008

World’s biggest geoengineering experiment ‘violates’ UN rules

Government Response to the House of Commons (Science and Technology Committee 5 Report of Session 2009-10): The Regulation of Geoengineering

Strategic incentives for climate geoengineering coalitions to exclude broad participation (Ricke, Moreno-Cruz & Caldeira)

Scientists: “Exclusive Club” To Assume Command Of Global Geoengineering

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple


Contributed by Truthstream Media of TruthstreamMedia.com.

Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton created Truthstream Media.com as an outlet to examine the news, place it in a broader context, uncover the deceptions, pierce through the fabric of illusions, grasp the underlying factors, know the real enemy, unshackle from the system, and begin to imagine the path towards taking back our lives, one step at a time, so that one day we might truly be free…

NASA Expert: Chemtrails Are Real and Rogue Geoengineers Could Blackmail Earth
Truthstream Media
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 19:25:41 GMT

TiLTNews Network

US govt must provide details to justify drone killing of American – judge

 

judge-anwar-aalaki-drone-disclosure.si

The US Department of Justice must turn over important details from a key memo which the government has used to justify targeted killings across the Middle East – including the drone strike that killed an American who joined Al-Qaeda, a US judge has ruled.

The three-judge 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a previous ruling that would have allowed the federal government to keep the rationale behind drone killings classified. The New York Times – two reporters in particular, Charlie Savage and Scott Shane – fought for the release of a Justice Department “White Paper” that contains a detailed explanation of why the controversial killings were legal.

Included in the so-called White Paper are details on the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen who intelligence officials have said joined Al-Qaeda and became the terrorist organization’s de facto propagandist.

The existence of the Justice Department’s White Paper has been no secret, and has been the subject of extensive debate for years. Parts of the memo were leaked before John Brennan was sworn in as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency in March of last year, with lawmakers staging a filibuster that delayed Brennan’s ceremony by 13 hours.

Savage, Shane, the Times’ legal team, and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in an attempt to learn more about Awlaki’s death. The appeals court ruled in their favor, declaring that the Obama administration had undermined its claim that the document could not be made public because of national security concerns, because a number of public officials had spoken publicly about US drone activity.

Whatever protection the legal analysis might once have had has been lost be virtue of public statements of public officials and official disclosure of the DOJ White Paper,” Circuit Judge Jon Newman wrote, as quoted by Reuters.

The decision went on to say that any claim that military plans, intelligence activity, or essential foreign relationships would be damaged is no longer valid. Judges cited a number of public statements made by the likes of Brennan, US Attorney General Eric Holder, and US President Obama.

Still, part of the memo and part of the panel’s decision were kept classified.

The court reaffirmed a bedrock principle of democracy: the people do not have to accept blindly the government’s assurances that it is operating within the bounds of the law; they get to see for themselves the legal justification that the government is working from,” Times lawyer David McCraw said in a statement to reporters.

The decision did not include any timeline about when the White Paper will actually be released. The Justice Department can still appeal for a ruling either from the full appeals court or the US Supreme Court.

Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, told the Times that the decision is a clear “rebuff to the administration’s secrecy policy.”

What makes it particularly significant is that it applies not just to a single document but to a habitual practice of government officials,” he said, “which is to say, ‘I’m going to talk about something that’s classified, but I’m not going to give you the underlying records.’”

Awlaki, born in New Mexico, is said to have used his popular blog and YouTube presence to recruit and motivate aspiring members of Al-Qaeda. Awlaki wrote openly about his email correspondence with Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who was charged with killing 13 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. He was killed along with Samir Khan, an American born in Saudi Arabia, and Awlaki’s son was killed two weeks later.

The killing of an American citizen with a drone, like other drone killings, was immediately condemned by civil liberties advocates inside and outside the US. Then-Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald accused the Obama administration of violating Awlaki’s right to free speech under the First Amendment and his right to due process under the Fourth Amendment.

Yet the 2nd Circuit was careful to note that the plaintiffs were not challenging the legality of the drone program with their FOIA request, only the secrecy surrounding it. Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, was jubilant when speaking to the Times.

This is a resounding rejection of the government’s effort to use secrecy, and selective disclosure, as a means of manipulating public opinion about the targeted killing program,” he said. “The government can’t pretend that everything about its targeted killing program is a classified secret while senior officials selectively disclose information meant to paint the program in the most favorable light.”

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple


Contributed by RT of RT.com.

US govt must provide details to justify drone killing of American – judge
Contributing Author
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 23:00:09 GMT

TiLTNews Network

Facebook Pulls Everytown for Gun Safety Page after Pro-Gunners Grabbed It before Bloomberg

 

Earlier this week, I reported on how ex-NYC Mayor and Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is starting up a new $50 million anti-gun group with all new propaganda and the intent to get a million voters to the polls in pro-2nd Amendment states like Texas. (I wonder how much votes are going for these days, anyway?)

The magical endeavor is to be called, “Everytown for Gun Safety”. Cute, huh?

Well, before Bloomberg and his new club could nab the official Facebook page thus named, a pro-gun group grabbed it first:

everytownfb

everytownc

This was the new page’s profile picture:

enhanced-15072-1397681263-7

I’m writing “was” because it has already been taken down.

tweetfbgungroup

That’s right. Facebook pulled the page right quick, as The Truth About Guns reported:

Well that didn’t take long. Facebook has pulled the plug on the page Everytown for Gun Safety. You may recall that pro-gun forces assumed control of the page last week, after Mayor Bloomberg launched his Everytown for Gun Safety anti-NRA lobby group. The Mayor’s majordomo laughed off the missing link, challenging the page’s [temporary] owners to a duel. While we expected the billionaire anti-ballistics bully boys to prevail, what with trademark lawyers parachuting in to rectify the oversight, we didn’t expect the Everytown page to last long. It didn’t. However . . . there are now dozens of local Everytown for Gun Safety pages run by gun rights advocates. All of which are still on-line. For now.

Bloomberg’s pals did actually challenge the pro-gunners, which they called “cybersquatters”, to a duel:

“Maybe they’d like to duel for it,” said Mark Glaze, the executive director of Everytown for Gun Safety. “I hear every person on our staff of 85 is a better shot than Wayne LaPierre. Or maybe a bidding war!”

On a serious note, Glaze said they are in the process of acquiring trademark protection.

“Once that happens, we expect Facebook to shoo these cybersquattters politely off this name/page,” he said.

So it isn’t over a trademark either, as one commenter pointed out:

fbx

Nope, no announcement has been made on exactly what rule the group broke by putting up the page (unless “pissing off the establishment and its agenda” is an official FB no-no)…but if Facebook is anything like our public schools in this country, displaying pictures of guns and American flags are a surefire way to get instantly censored.

Yep, it is as if those in power everywhere want to take away not only our 2nd Amendment, but apparently our 1st Amendment if we choose to use it to even discuss our 2nd Amendment.

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple


Contributed by Melissa Melton of The Daily Sheeple.

Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple and a co-creator of Truthstream Media. Wake the flock up!

Facebook Pulls Everytown for Gun Safety Page after Pro-Gunners Grabbed It before Bloomberg
Melissa Melton
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 22:56:31 GMT

TiLTNews Network

Released! Clinton files on media enemies

 


WASHINGTON – If you want to learn what Hillary Clinton meant by “the vast right-wing conspiracy,” part of the extensive collection of dossiers the Clinton White House kept on its media enemies was released today by the Clinton Library.
The most important of the documents, “The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce,” originally some 331 pages, was reduced to only 28 pages in the sanitized and heavily redacted version posted by the presidential library.
“The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce refers to the mode of communication employed by the right wing to convey their fringe stories into legitimate subjects of coverage by the mainstream media,” explains the report. “This is how the stream works: Well-funded right wing think tanks and individuals underwrite conservative newsletters and newspapers such as the Western Journalism Center, the American Spectator and the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Next, the stories are reprinted on the Internet where they are bounced into the mainstream media through one of two ways: 1) the story will be picked up by the British tabloids and covered as a major story, from which the American right-of-center mainstream media, (i.e. the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times and New York Post) will then pick the story up; or 2) The story will be bounced directly from the Internet to the right-of-center mainstream American media. After the mainstream right-of-center media covers the story, congressional committees will look into the story. After Congress looks into the story, the story now has the legitimacy to be covered by the remainder of the American mainstream press as a ‘real’ story.”
What makes a book about Bill and Hillary Clinton so explosive that someone would steal it? It’s all here in “Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton” (Hardcover)
The operation launched by the Clinton administration in response to this conspiracy theory was designed to prevent so-called “mainstream media” from picking up such stories. That effort came in several parts:

  • The original 331-page report was distributed by the White House and the Democratic National Committee to select reporters in an effort to discredit those behind the critical reports on the Clinton White House – namely billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, journalist Joseph Farah, political activist Floyd Brown and the American Spectator.
  • Hillary Clinton’s public relations effort to vilify what she called “the cast right-wing conspiracy.”
  • A pattern of politically motivated audits of individuals and organizations by the Internal Revenue Service.

“It’s quite an amazing story,” said Farah, founder and editor of WND whose Western Journalism Center was audited after the White House sent a letter from a constituent calling for an investigation to the IRS. “It may all have a familiar ring to the tea party groups of the 21st century. Clinton got away with it, so it was bound to happen again – and it most assuredly has.”
In Bill Clinton’s memoir, curiously little is said about the many women whose lives he upended and changed forever. That’s remedied in “Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine” (Hardcover)
The document dump today included some 7,500 pages in all, but the focus of attention has been the mysterious Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce, as it was dubbed by the Clinton White House.
Most notable in the sections of the report released publicly is the concern the White House had for the impact of the new media, hearkening back to Hillary Clinton’s concern about the Internet that there were “no gatekeepers.”
“The Internet has become one of the major and most dynamic modes of communication,” the report warns. “The Internet can link people, groups and organizations together instantly. Moreover, it allows an extraordinary amount of unregulated data and information to be located in one area and available to all. The right wing has seized upon the Internet as a means of communicating its ideas to people. Moreover, evidence exists that Republican staffers surf the Internet, interacting with extremists in order to exchange ideas and information.”
Four of the 28 pages in the redacted report released today focus on Farah – his history running daily newspapers, his religious views and his investigations into official corruption.
“Some time back in 1994 or 1995, Bill and Hillary Clinton had what I would now describe as ‘a prophetic nightmare.’” explains Farah. “Everyone who was conscious back then will remember Hillary talking about this bad dream in a television interview in which she explained that her husband’s problems were all manufactured by ‘a vast right-wing conspiracy.’ This nightmare is chronicled the complete version of the Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce, which I intend to publish later this year in its entirety. This was a report distributed to select U.S. reporters in an effort to discredit a new breed of investigative journalism into what was, until now, already emerging as the most scandal-plagued administration in the history of the United States.”
Farah points out that that this concern by the White House was very early in the history of the Internet.
“No one had yet heard of Matt Drudge,” Farah says. “No one knew about the ‘blue dress.’ This was before WND, or WorldNetDaily as it was originally known 17 years ago. To keep things in perspective, I think Monica Lewinsky was a teenage undergraduate student at the time.”
Farah notes the concern expressed in the report about “unregulated data.”
“That’s Hillary, right there,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she wrote that section herself. A few years later she deplored the fact that the Internet lacks ‘any kind of editing function or gatekeeping function.’”
Catching Our Flag: Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Impeachment – (Autograped, Hardcover). It’s the ultimate insider’s story on what led a very reluctant House of Representatives to impeach a then-very-popular American president.
To put things in perspective, when this report was distributed to a few dozen key reporters by the White House, there were approximately 1 million computers connected to the Internet.
“I think the Clintons saw what was coming and feared it,” said Farah. “The free market, working through the Internet was addressing longstanding institutional problems in the media, as well as exposing fraud, waste, corruption and abuse at the highest levels of government. This was a crisis for them.”
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah about this story can contact media@wnd.com.

Released! Clinton files on media enemies
-NO AUTHOR-
Fri, 18 Apr 2014 20:34:32 GMT

TiLTNews Network

THE HUMAN STORY