Showing posts with label Prison Planet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prison Planet. Show all posts

October 4, 2012

U.S. Army Characterizes People “Frustrated With Mainstream Ideologies” As Terrorists

*Source: Prison Planet

Individuals who “believe in government conspiracies” also framed as violent radicals.

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
October 2, 2012

A leaked U.S. Army document obtained by Wired Magazine characterizes people “frustrated with mainstream ideologies” as potential terrorists, while also framing those who “believe in government conspiracies” as violent radicals.

U.S. Army Characterizes People Frustrated With Mainstream Ideologies As Terrorists 021012shot

“These are some warning signs that that you have turned into a terrorist who will soon kill your co-workers, according to the U.S. military. You’ve recently changed your “choices in entertainment.” You have “peculiar discussions.” You “complain about bias,” you’re “socially withdrawn” and you’re frustrated with “mainstream ideologies,” writes Spencer Ackerman.

The manual (PDF) was produced in 2011 by the Asymmetric Warfare Group, a unit within the U.S. Army headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland. The document is intended to weed out “internal threats” within the ranks of U.S. soldiers.

Given that both the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have identified returning veterans as one of the primary domestic terror threats, the document is seemingly designed to spot such radical extremists well ahead of time.

Examples of behavior that is considered an indication of potential terrorism include the following;

- Complaining about bias;
- Being frustrated with “mainstream ideologies”;
- Being reclusive;
- Believing in government conspiracies “to the point of paranoia”;
- Visiting “extremist” websites or blogs;
- Altering your reading habits;
- Having “peculiar discussions”;
- Being “highly emotional”;
- Using “social networks”.

The Army manual is just one of numerous similar manuals and publications issued by military, law enforcement and the federal government over the last decade which define mundane behavior as extremist and a potential indication of terrorism.

As we reported earlier this month, a leaked training manual used in the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) program for law enforcement and funded by the Department of Justice lists political bumper stickers expressing opposition to the United Nations and support for the bill of rights as indications of terrorist activity.

The document also characterizes people who hold political opinions that “represent a fairly popular point of view” as terrorists. Anti-abortion activists are also listed as terrorists under this category.

The infamous 2009 MIAC report, published by the Missouri Information Analysis Center and first revealed by Infowars, framed Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who display bumper stickers, people who own gold, or even people who fly a U.S. flag, as potential terrorists.

Under the FBI’s Communities Against Terrorism program, the bulk purchase of food is also labeled as a potential indication of terrorist activity, as is using cash to pay for a cup of coffee, and showing an interest in web privacy when using the Internet in a public place.

A recent Department of Homeland Security-funded study produced by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland characterizes Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority,” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

September 24, 2012

Court Rules Motorists Can Be Detained For Paying By Cash at Toll Booths.

*Source: Prison Planet

Using cash increasingly seen as suspicious activity

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
September 24, 2012

The Eleventh Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that private contractors operating toll roads on behalf of the state have the power to detain and store records on motorists who pay by cash at toll booths – another example of how using cash is increasingly being treated as a suspicious activity.

Court Rules Motorists Can Be Detained For Paying By Cash at Toll Booths

Having been held hostage by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the private contractor in charge of the state’s toll road, Faneuil, Inc. at a toll booth last year for paying cash and refusing to have a report filled out on them and their vehicle, Joel, Deborah and Robert Chandler filed suit.

“Under FDOT policies in place at the time, motorists who paid with $50 bills, and occasionally even $5 bills, were not given permission to proceed until the toll collector filled out a “Bill Detection Report” with data about the motorist’s vehicle and details from his driver’s license. Many of those who chose to pay cash did so to avoid the privacy implications of installing a SunPass transponder that recorded their driving habits,” reports TheNewspaper.

“They were likewise unwilling to provide personal information to the toll collector, but they had no alternative because the toll barrier would not be raised without compliance. FDOT policy does not allow passengers to exit their vehicle, and backing up is illegal and usually impossible while other cars wait behind.”
The three-judge panel dismissed the suit, ruling that detaining motorists in order to record details about people who paid by cash was not a constitutional violation and that the state and the contractor could subject motorists to such treatment because, “In Florida, a person’s right and liberty to use a highway is not absolute.”

This is merely the latest example in a growing trend of authorities treating people who use cash to pay for goods, bills or services as suspicious. Given that the use of cash cannot be used to track purchases or movements of individuals, extra layers of bureaucracy and intimidation are becoming institutionalized in order to dissuade people from using hard currency as part of the move towards a cashless society.

Earlier this year we reported on how the FBI was telling businesses to treat people who use cash to pay for a cup of coffee as potential terrorists.

The flyer, issued under the FBI’s Communities Against Terrorism (CAT) program, lists examples of “suspicious activity” and then encourages businesses to gather information about individuals and report them to the authorities.

The flyer aimed at Internet Cafe owners characterizes customers who “always pay cash” as potential terrorists. Given that some retail outlets don’t even accept card payments for amounts lower than $10 dollars, this would put millions of innocent people under the spotlight.

We also recently highlighted the case of Texas resident Julia Garcia, who was falsely imprisoned and harassed by Wal-Mart employees for attempting to buy goods with a $100 dollar bill the Wal-Mart cashiers erroneously claimed was fake.

The Wal-Mart cashier ripped the $100 dollar bill in half before taking another in Garcia’s possession and doing the same. Despite a counterfeit detection test proving the bills were genuine, the Wal-Mart employees tried to hide the fact and told Garcia they were keeping the money. Only after police were called was the Wal-Mart store ordered to replace the stolen bills.

Wal-Mart is part of the Department of Homeland Security’s See Something Say Something campaign, which encourages shoppers and Wal-Mart employees to report suspicious activity. In a PSA for its snitch program, the DHS characterizes using cash as a suspicious activity and a potential indication of terrorism.

Earlier this year a Tennessee man was charged and jailed by police after using an old $50 bill to pay for goods at a Quik Mart store. Two banks analyzed the bill and confirmed it was genuine. Police apologized to Lorenzo Gaspar and he was subsequently released from prison.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

April 11, 2012

Army Stockpiles Anti-Radiation Pills To Protect Against Fukushima Fallout

*Source: Prison Planet

Defense Logistics Agency cites ongoing crisis in Japan as reason behind bulk purchase

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Troop Support branch of the Defense Logistics Agency has decided to replenish its stockpiles of anti-radiation pills, citing the ongoing crisis at Fukushima and the potential for nuclear fallout as a primary reason behind the bulk purchase.

Army Stockpiles Anti Radiation Pills To Protect Against Fukushima Fallout

According to a solicitation on the FedBizOpps.gov website, the DLA is looking to finalize the purchase of almost $400,000 dollars worth of potassium iodide pills, which work by helping the the body’s thyroid gland block cancer-causing radioiodines.

The posting states that the DLA requires 75,000 blister packs of pills, each of which contain 14 potassium iodide tablets, enough to last 2 weeks for one adult. The solicitation specifies the need to “ensure that critical operational forces are protected in the event of nuclear fallout,” as the reason behind the purchase, adding that, “The recent earthquake in Japan in March of 2011 and the resultant nuclear crisis has renewed interest in this item.”

Despite the mainstream media’s disinterest in the ongoing Fukushima crisis, now into its 14th month, experts have warned that the situation at the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is at its most critical phase.

As we reported last week, according to insiders the Japanese government has drawn up contingency plans for the potential evacuation of Greater Tokyo’s 39 million residents due to the threat posed by the potential meltdown of Fukushima’s reactor number 4, which holds 75% as much nuclear fuel as the entire Chernobyl complex did prior to its meltdown.

“The worse-case scenario drawn up by the government includes not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but the disintegration of spent fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors. If this were to happen, residents in the Tokyo metropolitan area would be forced to evacuate,” according to a Mainichi Daily News editorial by senior writer Takao Yamada which cited defense insiders.

Diplomat Akio Matsumura went further, warning that the collapse of reactor number 4 would “certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced,” adding that the 11,138 spent fuel assemblies stored at the Fukushima plant contain “134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident.”

Matsumura chillingly cautioned that should the worst case scenario unfold, the resulting radioactive fallout “would destroy the world environment and our civilization.”

Radiation from the Fukushima plant was recently detected on the west coast of the United States by marine biologists who found giant kelp collected along the coast from Laguna Beach to as far north as Santa Cruz to be contaminated with radiation as high as samples found in British Columbia, Canada, and northern Washington State in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

In the immediate aftermath of the beginning of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, there was a run on potassium iodide pills as panic buying exhausted stocks, prompting some retailers to demand up to $300 dollars for packs of the medication which would normally sell for just $15 dollars.

The U.S. Army is seemingly treating the threat of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear plant with much more seriousness than health authorities in Fukushima itself. As we highlighted recently, almost a quarter of residents who attempt to receive treatment for radiation poisoning are instead being treated for “psychiatric disorders,” with fear of contamination being characterized by as a mental illness.

As the Business Insider website points out, the DLA purchase could also be related to an upcoming attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities which threatens to disperse radiation over a wide area.

“Destroying one of the most likely Iranian targets, the 1000-megawatt Bushehr nuclear plant, would create just such a concern,” write Eloise Lee and Robert Johnson. “When Israel destroyed Iraq’s Osiris 70-megawatt nuclear reactor in a bold 1981 attack, the plant hadn’t yet been stocked with nuclear fuel so there was no risk of radiation.
But an attack on Iran’s Bushehr plant, which has been stocked with radioactive fuel rods since 2010, would be an incalculable mess.”

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.