Free Republic

Senator Chuck Schumer wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today calling for “increased scrutiny” of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in light of potential terrorist attacks against New York City. Pointing to NYPD’s director of intelligence warning that Iran is “essentially” the number one threat, Mr. Schumer argued these diplomats must ”be vigorously monitored.” “With Iran’s increasingly bellicose and threatening behavior, it’s imperative that agents of the Iranian government in the United States receive additional scrutiny to ensure that they pose no threat to New York or the rest of the country,” Mr. Schumer said...

WAKE UP AMERICA AT LOOK AT OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM!     Where do our "home grown: terrorists come from?  Just take a look at this video and you will have the answer.         This woman is a former Muslim convert to Christianity. Her life has been threatened as she speaks out.         Everyone needs to see this!!!     Who said this: "Give me the children and I will change society in 10 years?"  Adolph Hitler, and now, the Muslims!         PLEASE WATCH AND FORWARD:     http://bcove.me/07uefz8c ACT for America Foundation...

A recently issued lexicon from the Department of Homeland Security warns law enforcement personnel to be on the lookout for what it calls “militia extremists.” Militia extremists were described as “persons who exhibit an undue suspicion of government as manifested in statements that evince an inordinate reverence for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, especially provisions protecting the rights to freedom of speech, bearing arms, and bars to so-called unreasonable search.” Law enforcement officers were advised to “keep such persons under close surveillance” and to “not hesitate to act if they perceive a threat. Let’s not forget that the...

Looking ahead to DNC: The pitfalls of protest preparationby BRUCE HENDERSON / Charlotte Observer WCNC.com Posted on February 12, 2012 at 11:42 AM **SNIP** Among recent conventions, St. Paul saw the most discord in the streets. Anarchists flung sand bags and traffic signs from an overpass onto the roof of a delegate bus and smashed the windshield of another, a city commission reported. Downtown building windows were broken, police car tires slashed, and feces and urine hurled at officers. Police responded appropriately, the report concluded. But numerous residents, it added, complained of the appearance of a police state. "The difference,...

Love the Constitution? Hate government regulations? New DHS "lexicon" brands you a "militia extremist." A recently published “lexicon” distributed to thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) targets citizens concerned about their Second Amendment rights and the steady encroachment of the federal government, categorizing such as “militia extremists.” The “lexicon,” marked Unclassified/For Official Use Only (FOUO), is dated November 10, 2011, and was sent out by email to law enforcement and homeland security agencies on November 14 by LaJuan E. Washington of the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis. We have...

A developing Senate plan that would bolster the government's ability to regulate the computer security of companies that run critical industries is drawing strong opposition from businesses that say it goes too far and security experts who believe it should have even more teeth. Legislation set to come out in the days ahead is intended to ensure that computer systems running power plants and other essential parts of the country's infrastructure are protected from hackers, terrorists or other criminals. The Department of Homeland Security, with input from businesses, would select which companies to regulate; the agency would have the power...

Representative John Mizuno (D-Oahu) is sponsoring a bill that would require all web sites to keep records of who visits their sites. “The government has a right to know who is reading/viewing what,” Mizuno insisted. “A lot of the stuff on the Internet is not supportive of the government’s efforts to provide a safer and better life for the people. This could inspire mentally unbalanced persons to take dangerous actions that could interfere with these goals. We need to be able to spot this in advance if we are to avert an unwelcome turn of events.” The bill is opposed...

America's public school teachers are seeing their generations-old tenure protections weakened as states seek flexibility to fire teachers who aren't performing. A few states have essentially nullified tenure protections altogether, according to an analysis being released Wednesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality. The changes are occurring as states replace virtually automatic "satisfactory" teacher evaluations with those linked to teacher performance and base teacher layoffs on performance instead of seniority. Politically powerful teachers unions are fighting back, arguing the changes lower morale, deny teachers due process, and unfairly target older teachers. Teachers in Wisconsin have historically been granted what...

A heckler was kicked out after disrupting Newt Gingrich’s jam-packed rally in Coral Springs on Wednesday and making it difficult for the GOP presidential candidate to continue his long-anticipated speech.Standing among a crowd of 1,200, the protester made sure she got the attention she was seeking, positioning herself right in front of a stage where dozens of photographers and reporters were set up, making her an irresistible part of the story.

A heckler was kicked out after disrupting Newt Gingrich’s jam-packed rally in Coral Springs on Wednesday and making it difficult for the GOP presidential candidate to continue his long-anticipated speech.Standing among a crowd of 1,200, the protester made sure she got the attention she was seeking, positioning herself right in front of a stage where dozens of photographers and reporters were set up, making her an irresistible part of the story.

A third of Florida's nearly 3 million retirees, 65 and older, now rely entirely on Social Security, according to an analysis by AARP. "Folks have spent down their assets," said Jeff Johnson, AARP interim director in Florida. More Floridians are likely to end up only on Social Security than retirees in the rest of the country: A quarter of U.S. retirees, 65 and older, have only their monthly checks as income, Johnson said. Many of the most strapped are Florida's oldest, he added. Florida seniors, 80 and older, are about three times as likely to depend

White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt announced that plans are underway to create an Internet ID for everyone in the country. “Right now anyone can access the Internet, obtain information, disseminate opinions, and pretty much do whatever they want without the government knowing who they are and where they live,” Schmidt complained. “This is tantamount to anarchy. We have put up with it for far too long.” Under the ID plan, the US Department of Commerce would compel all Internet service providers to give it access to all user accounts, names, and passwords. “We’re not saying that the days of...

The emergence of peer competitors, not terrorism, presents the greatest long-term threat to our national security. Over the past decade, while the United States concentrated its geopolitical focus on fighting two land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, China has quietly begun implementing a strategy to emerge as the dominant imperial power within Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Within the next 2 decades, China will likely replace the United States as the Asia-Pacific regional hegemonic power, if not replace us as the global superpower.1 Although China presents its rise as peaceful and non-hegemonic, its construction of naval bases in neighboring...

Linky to Video Here

Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that emerged from the Department of Homeland Security in November, Washington has written permission to collect and retain personal information from journalists, news anchors, reporters or anyone who uses “traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed.” According to DHS, the definition of personal identifiable information can consist of any intellect “that permits the identity of an individual to be directly or indirectly inferred, including any information which is linked or linkable to that individual.”

It may have looked like they were ready for war or some deranged person looking for his late Social Security benefits. But it was only Federal Protective Service officers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who were conducting a random training operation early Tuesday morning when they surprisingly showed up at the Social Security Administration office in downtown Leesburg. With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications. And other officers, some with K-9s, sifted through the building. "I thought...

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the rollout of a new Spanish language campaign encouraging Hispanics to report suspicious threats to the United States Government. "Si ve algo, diga algo," warns the new TV spot. (Spanish for "If you see something, say something.")

When the Japanese fighters and bombers passed like shadows over the waters of Hawaii, they carried more than bombs and bullets, their fleeting shadows marked the end of over a century of security. The last time an enemy army threatened American territory was in the early nineteenth century, since then the closest thing had been the vicious clowning of Pancho Villa. But in the nineteenth century Commodore Perry had come calling to end Japan's isolation and nearly ninety years later, the Japanese warplanes came to end America's isolation. That isolation had been crumbling throughout the twentieth century as presidents began...

An unpatched security flaw in Apple’s iTunes software allowed intelligence agencies and police to hack into users’ computers for more than three years, it’s claimed. A British company called Gamma International marketed hacking software to governments that exploited the vulnerability via a bogus update to iTunes, Apple's media player, which is installed on more than 250 million machines worldwide. The hacking software, FinFisher, is used to spy on intelligence targets’ computers. It is known to be used by British agencies and earlier this year records were discovered in abandoned offices of that showed it had been offered to Egypt’s feared...

Occupy Billed $1,045 for Security Before ArrestsTRAVIS LOLLER | Associated Press Wednesday, November 30, 2011 Updated 3:43PM NASHVILLE (AP) – The state Department of General Services billed Occupy Nashville $1,045 to provide two troopers for security the night before they began arresting the protesters and clearing their encampment. The invoice was part of a public records request to the department from The Associated Press. **SNIP** They were told the state could not police their encampment and they would have to pay for security, she said.

PHOENIX – Arizona is taking on immigration once again, with lawmakers collecting donations from the public to put a fence along every inch of the state's border with Mexico. It is an unprecedented effort by a state that is the busiest U.S. gateway for both illegal immigrants and marijuana.

The mission was supposed to be a textbook "controlled delivery" - a routine trap by law enforcement officers using a secret operative posing as a truck driver to bust drug traffickers when their narcotics are delivered to a rendezvous point. Instead, things spun out of control. Shortly before the marijuana delivery was to be made Monday afternoon, three sport-utility vehicles carrying Zetas cartel gunmen seemingly came out of nowhere and cut off the tanker truck as it rumbled through northwest Harris County, sources told the Chronicle. They sprayed the cab with bullets, killing the civilian driver, who was secretly working...

1. Introduction For many years people have wanted to protect their right to privacy. As technology changes, it seems that privacy evolves away more and more. I2P is a protocol used for an encrypted multi-proxy on the Internet. While, this sounds simple, there is actually a lot of work going on with I2P to achieve this. Unlike some multi-proxies, I2P will allow you to tunnel many more applications through it than just web browsing, making it a very robust protocol.I2P is available for all platforms, not just Linux. For this example I have used Debian Sid to perform the installation. With...

Remember when Obama said he wanted to have a civilian security force? If you forgot, here's the video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tt2yGzHfy7s Some might argue that he was only referring to citizens being alert, but why would he say they need to be just as powerful, strong, and well-funded as the military? However, the President did not need to authorize a civilian security force; his predecessor already set one up for him: the TSA. Americans have grown accustomed to the TSA's presence at the airport, even as it now involves a naked scan or molestation (but you get to choose which one!)...

Peshawar, Provincial government of KP Province has contact to Federal government for the help of Pakistan army units during Moharram. Pak Army will work together with Frontier Constabulary and police during the Holly Islamic Month Moharram Ul Haram. Interior Department has send letter to Corps Head Quarter and Federal Government that they sent Army for law & order situation of the province. Pakistan army units will be used in sensitive districts, where situation of the law and order is worst now. The Army units will be used in nine districts of the Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa Province during Moharram. Provincial government has...

The largest European hacker club, "Chaos Computer Club" (CCC), has reverse engineered and analyzed a "lawful interception" malware program used by German police forces. It has been found in the wild and submitted to the CCC anonymously. The malware can not only siphon away intimate data but also offers a remote control or backdoor functionality for uploading and executing arbitrary other programs. Significant design and implementation flaws make all of the functionality available to anyone on the internet. Even before the German constitutional court ("Bundesverfassungsgericht") on February 27 2008 forbade the use of malware to manipulate German citizen's PCs, the German...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: A question: If Barack Obama can use taxpayer money to invest in risky private sector investments like all of these fraudulent, phony, there-is-no-business-there green energy loans...? If Obama could do that, if he can use taxpayer money to invest in risky private sector investments that go belly up, shouldn't we be able to put our retirement money in a safer place than Washington? I personally don't mind risking my money on investments I trust. What I don't like is other people risking my own on investments only a fool would trust. Privatizing a portion of Social Security...

Social Security advocates are planning to protest Thursday at Social Security offices around the county. Thousands of American Federation of Government Employees Social Security employees, along with the Alliance for Retired Americans, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and the Strengthen Social Security Campaign are protesting recent proposals from Congress that would cut the Social Security Administration's operational budget.

Back in October 2010 I warned of the consequences of naming a stealth jihadist with ties to Islamic subversives whose stated goal is to "eliminate and destroy Western civilization from within and sabatoage its miserable house."more here ... Secretary Napolitano named devout Muslim Mohamed Elibiary to the Homeland Security Advisory Council (Department of Homeland Security.) Texas Department of Public Safety now says Homeland Security Advisory Council member Mohamed Elibiary may have been given access to a sensitive database of state and local intelligence reports, and then allegedly shopped some of those materials to a media outlet. Who else is the...

Just a precis: Drudge has a link to inforwars dot com's article on intellistreets, a hi tech surveillance system installed in streetlights. The assertion is that homeland security is paying to have these installed on city streets. There is also a link to the company website: http://www.intellistreets.com/Videos/English/IntelliStreetsEnglish.html

Several months ago a well-respected pastor was senselessly murdered in San Pedro. Initially it was reported that he was killed while walking his dogs by thieves who wanted his two Schnauzers, which reportedly have a value in Honduras of about US $500 each. Later it was reported by a witness that he was killed merely for his cell phone. Honduras President Pepe Lobo's first anniversaryThat murder seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back — for a few moments in time anyway. Thousands came out a week later in a silent protest to demand that something be done...

The California man who lives part of his life as an “adult baby” and collects Social Security disability payments says the federal agency has cleared him of wrongdoing and will continue sending checks. Stanley Thornton Jr. now wants an apology from Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who called for the benefit review because the investigation disrupted the final months of life for his roommate Sandra Dias, who playacted as his mother, spoon-feeding him and helping him into his baby clothes until her death in July. “We recently reviewed the evidence in your Social Security disability claim and find that...

We've seen before that organizations don't seem to react well to outside security folks pointing out vulnerabilities in their systems. They very often take a "blame the messenger" approach -- as if pointing out a flaw suddenly makes that flaw come into existence. But one company seems to be taking it to another level. That Anonymous Coward points us to a story in which a security professional found a big and ridiculously obvious bug in the website of an Australian investment fund, First State Superannuation. Apparently you could see other people's accounts by merely changing the account numbers in the...

On September 12, the pioneering Rep. Thaddeus McCotter introduced trailblazing legislation providing workers the freedom to choose personal savings and investment accounts to finance half of their future Social Security benefits. This legislation would completely solve the future Social Security financing problem, without cutting benefits or raising taxes, as officially scored by the Chief Actuary of Social Security. Indeed, because standard, long-term market investment returns are so much higher than what Social Security even promises, workers with personal accounts will enjoy higher rather than lower benefits. Moreover, the legislation would result in the greatest reduction in government spending in world...

Impressed by early deliveries and the aircraft’s performance in recent operations, the Indian air force (IAF) is actively considering a proposal to acquire more than the 12 Lockheed-Martin C-130J Super Hercules tactical special mission aircraft already expected. With the last of six C-130Js from an original 2008 contract to be delivered in November, and a follow-on order for six more to be signed shortly, the IAF has lavished unusual praise on the program and indicated it will ultimately need more than a dozen. The IAF has not released an official figure, but Indian sources have said it could be as...

This Iraqi Security Force (ISF) update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during September 2011. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle is updated as of 30 September 2011. Highlights in this update include: * Final M1A1 Tanks arrive; Southern Iraq Iranian-border regions reinforced; Generals transferred. * IqAF not ready; Pilot training; Down-payment on 18 F16s.

Facebook has admitted that it has been watching the web pages its members visit – even when they have logged out. In its latest privacy blunder, the social networking site was forced to confirm that it has been constantly tracking its 750million users, even when they are using other sites. The social networking giant says the Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2042573/Facebook-privacy-issues-Social-network-watching-youre-logged-out.html#ixzz1ZFhVmCuT

We have all heard about the sex gap in voting patterns. This is the phenomenon whereby, in every election, women are far more likely to support liberal candidates than men are. For instance, in 1996, Bill Clinton captured 54 percent of the women's vote but only 43 percent of the men's. And in subsequent elections, the male-female gap has been as follows: in 2000, Al Gore, 42-54; in 2004, John Kerry, 41-51; and in 2008, Barack Obama, 49-56. In fact, even in the watershed election of 2010, during which we heard about the rise of the conservative woman, the fairer...

by John HillStand With ArizonaWe have covered the disgraceful sham of "anchor babies" and birthright citizenship for a long time - illegal aliens using America's current misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment to obtain citizenship for their illegal babies - just by getting inside our borders prior to the birth. You have seen the Mexican women who come across the Rio Grande in labor, to have babies in Texas hospitals. Like this woman, who did just that, failed to pay her hospital bill, and just "doesn't understand the anger" of Americans at her willful disregard for our laws or her personal...

Cars fitted with OnStar's technology will be tracked even if the owners don't sign up to the service, in a change to the company's policy that will kick in come December. OnStar is a service offered by General Motors USA, which inserts a mobile phone, along with telemetry tracking kit, into cars sold by the company. Owners are then offered the option to sign up to the navigation and automatic crash reporting, but in a policy change the company will start collecting data from drivers even if they haven't signed up for the service. In the notice being sent out...

Researchers have discovered a serious weakness in virtually all websites protected by the secure sockets layer protocol that allows attackers to silently decrypt data that's passing between a webserver and an end-user browser. The vulnerability resides in versions 1.0 and earlier of TLS, or transport layer security, the successor to the secure sockets layer technology that serves as the internet's foundation of trust. Although versions 1.1 and 1.2 of TLS aren't susceptible, they remain almost entirely unsupported in browsers and websites alike, making encrypted transactions on PayPal, GMail, and just about every other website vulnerable to eavesdropping by hackers who...

When it rains, it pours. And there ain’t a big enough umbrella for all President Obama’s cronies and fixers to crowd under these days. While the Solyndra BGB (big green boondoggle) continues to blow up on Capitol Hill, the White House faces another pay-for-play backlash — this time from his own left flank. The liberal Daily Beast reports on a broadband project backed by a frequent Obama White House visitor and donor that has Pentagon officials concerned over potential military GPS interference. The Obama FCC took the lead in intervening on the donor, billionaire hedge fund manster Philip Falcone’s, behalf...

Shakeup at the Ministry of Security! Honduran newspapers are reporting that both the Minister of Security, Oscar Alvarez, and the Vice Ministers Armando Calidonio and Roberto Romero Luna have been removed from their offices. La Tribuna is reporting that Alvarez is currently meeting with Porfirio Lobo Sosa. Also removed was the head of the Police in San Pedro Sula, Hector Ivan Mejilla, and the head of the traffic police (Transitos) for northwest Honduras, Guillermo Arias. The head of the northwest (San Pedro Sula) sector of the DNIC-- the national investigative police, equivalent to the FBI-- Oscar Garcia Mendez also is...

Fresh off Sunday night’s taser-fueled fan violence at Metlife Stadium in New Jersey, the NFL will conduct pat downs from the ankles up this season. In the past, the pat downs went from the waist up. “The enhanced security procedures recommended by our office before the start of the season will further increase the safety of fans but will require some additional time,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told USA T0day in a statement Thursday. “We encourage fans to come early, enjoy their tailgating tradition, and be patient as they enter the stadium.”

I like Freeman's idea of providing each individual with a trust fund when young rather than retirement benefits when old, but we had better realize that this is a significant change in the character of the social insurance system. Social Security is structured from the point of view of the recipients as if it were an ordinary retirement plan: what you get out depends on what you put in. So it does not look like a redistributionist scheme. In practice it has turned out to be strongly redistributionist, but only because of its Ponzi game aspect, in which each generation...

(Reuters) - Security officers raided the offices of an Al Jazeera channel in Egypt and detained some of its staff, the Qatar-based broadcaster said on Sunday, describing the move as an attempt to drive the channel off the air. State news agency MENA said it had shut down a company that provided facilities to the channel Al Jazeera Mubasher (Live), which broadcasts live international events. MENA said the Al Jazeera unit did not have a proper licence. Since it was launched in 1996, Al Jazeera has become the highest-profile satellite news broadcaster in the Middle East. It has frequently had...

The Israeli Shin-Bet security service foiled a suicide terrorist attack last month in Jerusalem, it emerged Wednesday. An explosive belt was seized only 24 hours before the planned attack, after it was already smuggled into Jerusalem. The interception of the planned attack was part of a large-scale operation by the Shin Bet, the IDF and the police against the Hamas military infrastructure in the West Bank and Jerusalem. During the operation, dozens of Hamas activists – operating in alleged 13 separate units – were arrested.

WASHINGTON – Surveillance cameras in public places? Sure. Body scans at airports? Maybe. Snooping in personal email? Not so fast. The same Americans who are increasingly splashing their personal lives across Facebook and Twitter trace a meandering path when asked where the government should draw the line between protecting civil liberties and pursuing terrorism. Ten years after the 9/11 attacks led to amped-up government surveillance efforts, two-thirds of Americans say it's fitting to sacrifice some privacy and freedoms in the fight against terrorism, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A slim majority —...

This Iraqi Security Force (ISF) update provides a summary of changes to the ISF during August 2011. The article Iraqi Armor Armor Status August 2011 was published separately and will not be addressed here. The Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle is updated as of 31 August 2011. Highlights in this update include: * 4 more Regional Guards Brigades; Manila Training Center transferred to Kurdish Regional Guards; Regional Guards Brigades in north Diyala working with IA and US forces. * M1A1 tanks completing delivery; Howitzer deliveries; 10th Iraqi Army All Inclusive Training; Logistics increase in south; additional ILAV purchases; T72...

In the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. has failed to make sufficient progress on nine counterterrorism actions, ranging from border screening to terrorist-detention standards, according to the former leaders of the commission that investigated the hijackings. Areas of success include reducing impediments to intelligence-sharing and airline-passenger screening, according to former 9/11 Commission co-chairmen Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, who issued a report Wednesday on the commission's recommendations. "We're better off than we used to be," Mr. Kean said in an interview Tuesday. "But there are glaring gaps." Journal Community Nine of the 41 recommendations haven't been fully...