What People Say?Different people with different perspectives

Since September 11, 2001 the US government has been putting a lot more effort into identifying and tracking possible terrorists. To most Americans, the fact that the government is working so tirelessly to safeguard its citizens is a comforting notion, but what if the potential “terrorists” are the citizens themselves?

USA Today reported that the government’s terrorist watch list has reached 1 million entries, up 32% since 2007. The new figures were provided by the screening center and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in response to requests from USA TODAY.

The Washington Post reported that during a 12-month period ending in March 2009, 1,600 people were recommended daily by the U.S. intelligence community to be put on the list due to ‘reasonable suspicion.’ It’s important to know, each nomination does not necessarily represent a new individual, but may instead involve an alias or name variant for a previously named to the watch list.

The list kept by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) — created in 2004 to be the primary U.S. terrorism intelligence agency. The NSA is a key provider of information for the NCTC database, although officials refuse to say how many names on the list are linked to the agency’s controversial domestic eavesdropping effort. Under the program, the NSA has conducted wiretaps on an unknown number of U.S. citizens without warrants.

Though the FBI says that 95% of the names on the list are foreign, many Americans have been mistaken by intelligence and law enforcement agencies to be “on the list” due to the fact that their name is the same or similar to that of a foreign terrorists’ name. These people have been blocked from flying, stopped at borders and subjected to other harassment.

So the obvious question is if the names on the list are foreign, why are there so many mix-ups with Americans? Are American names really that common overseas?

CNN reported that in the fall of 2004, author James Moore released his latest book, “Bush’s War for Re-election”, critical of President Bush. Months later, on his first airline flight since the election, James Moore was told by the airline he was flying that his name matched a name on the government’s terrorist watch list.

CNN reporter Drew Griffin, who co-wrote the piece about James Moore, also matches a name on the FBI’s terror watch list.

James Moore? Drew Griffin? These don’t sound like names that could be commonly found in any other country but the U.S. CBS actually found and interviewed 12 average Americans on the “no-fly list”, one of them was even a military service member. Among them were names such as Robert Johnson and Gary Smithon the list. How many foreign potential terrorists could there possibly be with these names? Sure, it is possible, but the odds are not great. Now imagine how many innocent people in the US there are with that exact name or a close variation of it, a google search returns interesting results.

The Maryland State Police have admitted classifying 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists, including opponents of the war and the death penalty, and tracking them in state and federal “terrorism” databases. Cops infiltrated organizing meetings and rallies, and spied on political email lists, similar to the government infiltration of the RNC.

The groups targeted, including the Maryland Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, aren’t suspected of harming anyone, aren’t suspected of bombing anyone, and aren’t even suspected of vandalizing property.

They’re “fringe people,” says Thomas E. Hutchins, the former state police superintendent who authorized the operation. “I don’t believe the First Amendment is any guarantee to those who wish to disrupt the government,” he said.

One activist was described in police databases as having a “primary crime” of “terrorism-anti-government” and a “secondary crime” of “terrorism-anti-war protesters.” This wasn’t an isolated abuse of power, this is a coordinated campaign of harassment and intimidation.

So what it does it take to get on the infamous terrorist watch-list? The Department of Homeland Security drafted a domestic terrorism reference aid to be distributed among law enforcement agencies. The document outlines so many different classifications of terrorist extremism with such vague wording that it could include almost anyone including authors of “alternative media” themed websites and Christians.

The fact that so many Americans are being confused as terrorist is a scary thought considering the powers of the patriot act and an increasing decline in American liberty. Also consider the classifications of violent terrorists as drafted by the Department of Homeland Security and distributed to law enforcement agencies across the country.

Do you not believe everything the government tells you? You’re a terrorist.

Do you advocate second amendment rights or are you an NRA member? You’re a terrorist.

Are you a practicing Christian who lives by your faith? You’re a terrorist.

Are you a conspiracy theorist? You’re a terrorist.

Are you a peaceful protestor? You’re a terrorist.

Are you anti-abortion? You’re a terrorist.

The list goes on…

Terrorist Watch List originally posted at freedominacage.com by Byron Ruffin.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/terrorist-watch-list-homeland-security-defines-millions-of-americans-as-domestic-derrorists-1630266.html

In 1920, a representative of the US Government, Washington D. Vanderlip signed a sixty-year lease of the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula with the Russian Soviet regime. Officially, Vanderlip had been dispatched to Moscow by the State Department with instructions to secure important oil and mining concessions. But at the time, the decision was a matter of little significance for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), who only occupied but a small fraction of the dissolved Russian Empire, and because the territory was nominally controlled by a a bourgeois-democratic state, the Far Eastern Republic.

The capitalist impressario Vanderlip had exceeded his authority, intending to gift the peninsula to President Harding in the manner of an Oriental Monarch. Even when the Moscow authorities insisted on a lease, rather than a purchase, he exclaimed gleeful “I have joined the frontiers of Russia and America!”. And yet from a military perspective, it was a smart move for Bolshevist Premier Lenin (pictured) who wanted to stave off war with Japan. America also saw a cut-price opportunity for building a deep-water port at Petropavlovsk. This geopolitical reality was openly acknowledged at the Eighth All-Russia Congress of Soviets on December 7th, when Lenin declared that the United States required a base in Asia “in view of an eventual war with Japan”.

In fact, Imperialists had recognised the military value of the peninsula for over seventy years. In 1854, the French and British, who were battling Russian forces on the Crimean Peninsula, attacked Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. During the Siege of Petropavlovsk, 988 men with a mere 68 guns managed to defend the outpost against 6 ships with 206 guns and 2,540 French and British soldiers.

Trouble was, the lease did spark a four-year long Pacific War between Japan and America. Because in 1937, Admiral Isoroku Yamomoto designed a pre-emptive strike on Petropavlovsk, which the Imperial Japanese Government considered to be an unacceptable strategic threat, “a dagger to our throat”. With the blessings of the Prime Minster Tojo, Yamomoto put the plan to attack Petropavlovsk into motion. Yamomoto selected Vice Admiral Chuich Nagumo to lead the fleet. The fleet consisted at its core of six aircraft carriers: Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga, Shokaku, Soryu and Zuikaku. The six carriers had 420 planes between them. Escorting the six carriers were eleven destroyers, two battleships, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, three submarines and eight tankers. Twenty other submarines joined the group before they arrived at their destination at Petropavlovsk.

Whilst America was fully engaged in the Far East, Nazi Germany was expanding unchecked. Having hardly advanced in twenty turbulent years, by 1941, the RSFSR was still a malformed state, not much bigger than one of its predecessor states, the Principality of Muscovy. Unable to resist the Wehrmacht, the RSFSR collapsed, and Western Russia was annexed by Hitler.

History runs along a different line in Today In Alternate History, a site which chronicles “important events in history that never occurred today”.

Editor, Today in Alternate History
A Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today
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Email althistorian@gmail.comArticle Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/the-vanderlip-concession-an-alternate-history-1626435.html

THE governor of the southern Colombian province of Caqueta, Luis Francisco Cuellar, has been found dead less than a day after he was kidnapped by suspected rebels, authorities say.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) quoted Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe as saying that the kidnappers had cut Cuellar’s throat as they were being chased by security forces.

Cuellar was seized from his house on Monday in the provincial capital.

Officials are blaming the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrillas for his killing. Cuellar was the most high-profile politician abducted since Uribe came to power in 2002.

“The terrorists burned the vehicle in which they kidnapped the governor, further ahead they killed him, they slit his throat, they killed him miserably,” said President Uribe, in a nationally televised address.

“They slit his throat to avoid making noise because they knew that the armed forces were in the surrounding area.

“In the midst of pain, we reiterate today all our determination to defeat these terrorists.”

Earlier, Uribe, whose father was killed in 1983 during a botched kidnapping by rebels, had said Colombia could not be “held captive by the whim of terrorists, terrorists who bathe the country in blood and who trick us every day”.

The late Cuellar was taken from his home by about 10 gunmen, who lobbed grenades at the building. One policeman was killed in the attack and two more were wounded.

More than 2,000 military personnel had been deployed in the search for the kidnappers. The authorities had also offered 1bn pesos ($500,000; £312,000) to anyone giving information leading to Cuellar’s safe return.

But his body was found hours later, close to a burnt-out vehicle on a road about 15 kilometres (9 miles) outside Florencia.

He had been bound and gagged and had several bullet wounds in his body. Explosives had been placed around him.

It remains unclear whether the kidnappers initially intended to kill Cuellar, s the BBC reported.

In the past, high-profile figures have been kidnapped to try to force the government to make prisoner exchanges.

Cuellar had previously been kidnapped four times in the past 23 years, but for ransom, his wife told the Associated Press news agency.

Caqueta has been a stronghold of the Farc - Colombia’s oldest and largest left-wing rebel group - for many years.

It was where French-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped in 2002.

The Farc has not claimed responsibility for the attack on Cuellar, but is widely thought to have been behind it.

www.fastonnews.blogspot.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/kidnapped-colombian-governor-found-dead-1622379.html

Close on the heels of Copenhagen drama - an exercise in absurdity - and a X’mas as usual albeit amidst much fanfare, festivities and hopes, now enters a new dawn of a NewYear- 2010.

Are you as a world citizen, especially as an angry young Indian citizen appalled and enraged with the way our World moves on.

A save the earth campaign reaching nowhere, are you environmentalists the world over disillusioned and disappointed or nurturing an “eternally hopeful” attitude, if so very good and all best wishes. To hope for the best is human nature and without a spark of hope mankind is doomed, thus say the divine beings and those in the corridors of power. Because we consider them great we are tempted to deposit our trust in them. No trust-deficit. As long as they are enconsced in their musical chairs in the air-conditioned cabins we can move ahead with a relaxed mood -‘blessed lot’ they are and so each of us.

1. Are you angry young men shivering with rage while billionaires and millionaires among them are cold-blooded criminals with umpteen cases pending in courts occupying chairs in our Parliament and State assemblies preaching the need for a welfare state and to facilitate the forming of such a welfare state they appeal to us fools to strengthen their tainted hands from public platforms flanked by black-cats with full-throated sermons and we never forget to provide them whole-hearted support in ample measure. How many of us have cared to find out the way they lead their lives in pomp and pageantry? How many of us are aware of them spending millions to turn-court journalists - most unethical of media world both print and visual to enlighten us - flattery is the apt word- pages and visuals idolizing them while their bankrupt rival candidates finding it hard to keep pace with these billionaire candidates Have you heard about a new term fondly and simultaneously with sarcasm ‘package journalism’ on the rise in India especially during the election season? This lucrative dirty business has become a blot on the face of ethical journalism in the raging competition in the media world. A nasty exercise indeed. While not claiming to be a professional journalist- praise the Lord - as one who is a Post-Graduate Diploma holder in Journalism this sort of dirty ‘politricks’ were unheard of during those times. A much acclaimed journalist of that time Arun Shourie who brought out many a ‘Skeletons in the cupboard’ of corrupt politicians through investigative journalism is unfortunately in the political arena now. However   he has kept his hands clean not allowing them to be dirtied and in the media world barring numerous pestering insects bent upon destroying a good harvest, a number of dedicated journalists like P.Sainath, Kuldeep Nayar, N.Ram, Nirupama Subramaniam, Vidya Subramaniam etc much to our relief. Politics need not be counted as the last resort of a scoundrel, as Samuel Johnson defined it, If he or she stands by integrity, dedication and devotion to his or her society as a whole. But how many of those category are left in the picture must become a subject of hot debate across the world. During the Iraq war while the forces of George Bush and Tony Blair and other such imperialist countries were pounding that country without break there were umpteen allegations of international journalists who nursed a grudge against Saddam Hussein, spreading disinformation information around the world through their biased reporting which was notoriously termed “Embedded Journalism”. The true picture emerged before the world much later which was sordid and blood-chilling. Crores of innocent civilians fell to the bullets, bombs and grenades of allied forces. The much cherished and well-known Mesopotamian culture along the banks of Euphrates-Tigris rivers was literally wiped out. It is absolutely shocking that Mr.George W Bush and Mr.Tony Blair have not an iota of remorse or repentance even after it was revealed before the world that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Really deserving candidates for Nobel prize for peace at least belatedly.

While writing about “Package Journalism”, incidentally I was compelled to pen a few lines about this still prevailing “embedded journalism” by the so called unbiased correspondents of worlds’ popular international media.

In our nation India, ie. Bharat the other day results of an election in the State of Jharkhand came out. To the chagrin of all parties including Indian National Congress (our Grand Old Party) and Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional entities it was a fractured verdict meaning no party can form a government of its own. Sorry, don’t term it ‘unfortunate’. Because hope has come to the rescue here also in the form horse-trading. Of course no dearth of money for this arrangement. Dearth of money becomes a nagging question tormenting our political leaders only when the demands of alleviation of poverty, malnutrition, habitats, sanitary facilities- they are innumerable- of the poor are persistent. What I am driving home is the stark truth that a government in Jharkhand is a near certainty depending upon ‘who comes first in the horse race’.

Do you feel ashamed of our politicians and bureaucrats or do you get angry when they boast about the surge in economic growth to 9% in the near future while teeming millions starve and perish under the searing Sun, unable to find a way out of this pathetic situation? While Manufacturing and Services sector register enormous growth, thus they boast at the top of their voice, they can very well reduce the volume when lamenting about only 0.09 percent growth in the agriculture sector which is the backbone of our nation. How nice. A ‘negative growth’ down 2.2% to 0.09%.

But we must keep our hope, always alive and kicking. Thus we are advised by the good Samaritans.

Certainly a very, very happy and prosperous ‘NewYear’ ahead as usual. 

At the very outset,let me introduce myself to you. My name is K.R.Surendran,hailing from a village called Pulluvazhy near Perumbavoor.Five books in Malayalam are there to my credit now,and they are “Pooviriyumkunninte- Santhathikal”(Stories),Gloriyayude Dinarathrangal”(Stories), “Mumbai- Sketchukal”(Novelettes), and “Indiayude Bhoopadam” (Novel).A novel “Pulluvazhy” was published recently.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/a-merry-xmas-and-newyear-as-usual-1625594.html

The last material attack at Mr.Silvio Berlusconi has raised among Italian politics a strong debate on the “climate of hate” that has been created against the Prime Minister and his government. Actually, the smash on Silvio’s face is a good representation of Italian politics, nevertheless not of this imaginary “climate”, but rather of a political and economical impasse.

In few words, what the man with psychiatric problems have done to Silvio is basically what Italy is doing to itself in this very moment. There is no need to worry, this is not governmental propaganda, but a attempt to fairly explain what is actually going on.

The decision of the Constitutional Court on the so called “Lodo Alfano”

In October, the Italian supreme Court had to pronounce itself on a law (better known has “Lodo Alfano”) which has passed in the Italian Parliament. Basically, the Lodo Alfano is a set of regulations which would have allowed the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the President of the “House of Commons” to continue their mandate if charged of allegations by freezing the trial till the end of their office.

Unfortunately nothing new to Italian politics, this time the difference has been played by the Supreme Court which has declared illegitimate this regulation on the grounds of the Constitution. This very decision has created high tensions both in the leading coalition, which has accused the judges of having expressed a political opinion and in the opposition-civil society, which has perceived this regulation as the umpteenth attempt to preserve the Prime Minister from a trial. In this context the mad man has kicked in raising the debate on the already abused rethoric on “hate”.

The effects of the financial crisis

Italy has not been affected by the financial crisis as other EU economies. Its relatively closed and cautious credit system has allowed to smooth the impact of the crisis. In addition, Italians traditionally invest on the real estate market to grant themselves the property of the house. These particularities of the Italian system have allowed a fair impact of the crisis.

Nevertheless, Italy has not yet been able to solve a number of problems which have been lasting for years before the financial turmoil. The lost of competitiveness due to the introduction of the euro, the lack of coordination between the educational system and the economic one, some fiscal imbalances as tax evasion and the division of the country between the developed north (and in some case also the centre) and the south are still evident.

In addition, the sum of this structural problems and the impact of the crisis have led the credit system to act cautiously. As a result, Italy is suffering from a lack of confidence and firms, especially small and medium, are facing great difficulties to gather liquidity, notably not a secondary problem in order to challenge the future.

The discrepancies between politics and society

The Italian political system ,as others, is suffering of a lack of adherence to the society’s needs. Nevrtheless, Italy has the particularity of concentrating and personalising the debate. The figure of Silvio Berlusconi and the cotroversies on its conflict of interests couple with an opposition which, for various reasons, is not able to conquer consensus have made non parliamentary movement emerge.

The so called “V-day” of the comedian Beppe Grillo and the recent “No Berlusconi day” have been only partially organised by opposition political parties. Basically, a wave of the so called “anti-politics” movement (essentially civil movements not lead by any party represented in the parliament) has grown.

In few words, Italian politics has not only been able to attract nor the agreement and neither the disappointment mostly due to the stagnation of structural reforms which are urgently needed.

Conclusions

Roughly speaking, Italy can be described by the comparison with the Greek and the German case. The country is in fact in the middle of a storm which could theoretically led to both a political situation in which great a coalition politics could make Italy benefit or to a situation in which social conflict and controversies can explode. The attack to Silvio is thus just the tip of the iceberg of what is actually occurring in the “Bel Paese”.

European Nationality Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/whats-going-on-in-italy-1622625.html