US -- Police State?

FBI Secret Agent - County Commissioner Tammy Hall [NaplesNews]

Click here for related story [USAToday] [@DHogan@News-Press.com]

We've been inundated with monitoring by NSA via their SIGINT [Signals Intelligence] and COMINT [Communications Intelligence], but now, we're learning of a new intrusion HUMINT [Human Intelligence] by none other than our friendly FBI -- which, along with DHS is "protecting" us from "terrorists" by spying -- not on them, but on us.

We just don't realize that since 9/11, all US citizens, especially our combat Veterans, are now designated as "potential terrorists".

So, what's going on now?

According to USA Today, Tammy Hall was the Lee County [FL] Commissioner, who got caught pilfering $33,000 in campaign donations, struck a plea bargain with the FBI to reduce her jail term, and became a Human Intelligence recruited asset apparently to spy on her colleagues, political candidates, contractors, and "... public issues the FBI is known to be examining." 

Details of her activities have been sealed, but, here's some informed information which might make you uneasy.

1) She was the County's dispute negotiator over Fort Myers' city officials the issue of impact fee credits to a developer widening State Road #82.  Subsequently, the FBI and US Attorney Nicole Waid gave city officials the third degree on the land deal, apparently using information supplied by Hall on the negotiations.

a) A Commissioner who preceded Tammy's term regarded her covert operations as a potential violation of her fiduciary responsibility to her constituents -- by extension, a criminal action which, under a normal DOJ, would likely be prosecuted.

Stasi Symbol

b) One concern is that the FBI's recruitment of elected officials on the public payroll -- even in plea bargain deals -- is "troubling" and goes beyond the facts of individual cases.  Having public officials spying on each other is the first step on the proverbial legal "slippery slope".  At what point do we institute a reporting system of officials spying on each other, and neighbors reporting on each other, and children reporting on their parents. 

---- Extreme?  Absolutely.  Read up on the Communist East German Stasi,
the national police organization which recruited everyone to spy on each other - creating a paralyzing national paranoia.




c)  According to a former prosecutor turned defense attorney
"If it wasn't for informants, law enforcement would have a great deal of trouble solving crimes. Simply put, they don't know what they don't know."  But, he added "Some jurors just won't trust a snitch, and informant".
--With good reason since the informant receives benefits for testifying on behalf of the prosecution.

[TeaPartyChief.blogspot.com]

So, is an informant a good asset -- or a liability.

Generally speaking, if the informant is on the public payroll, but being "handled" by an FBI agent, there's a direct conflict of interest, and a violation of federal law by both the FBI and the public servant.  That's covered in the US Attorney General Guidelines Regarding Use of FBI Confidential Informants. 


An informant in these circumstances should be used solely to alert the FBI to suspected criminal activities, and then removed from the reporting chain and replaced with FBI legal tools to complete the investigation to maintain the integrity of the rules of evidence during the prosecution -- if any.

------

Now, you may wonder why I'm reaching across the line to discuss the Law Enforcement world when I normally focus on the Intelligence Community.

1)  NSA has abused its position and resources as an agency authorized to collect foreign intelligence and has gathered masses amounts of metadata on the majority of US citizens.  In turn, they have provided access to this data to the Law Enforcement Community with explicit explanations of the intelligence collection programs, the sources and methods, and how to access and exploit the collected information -- an absolute violation of NSA's charter and a complete and unauthorized invasion of the privacy of US citizens.

2) Here's my main problem:
The Law Enforcement Community has become a conduit for recruiting by the Intelligence Services; it appears the CIA, for one, is now heavily populated by former DEA, ATF, and FBI agents, as well as state troopers and even street cops.  Their amateurish approach to espionage is to treat recruited assets in the same manner as their confidential informants, frequently leaving them in the cold, or burning them when the immediate collection task is over.  That, of course, violates the basic tenets of espionage, and Intelligence Services become little more than national police organizations.  Ultimately, no foreign citizens in their right mind would risk their lives working for US Intelligence under these conditions.

We're watching the US become a police state, just one step at a time, as our judicial system turns a blind eye by breaches of integrity, and even criminal actions by our Law Enforcement Community -- but, as the lines between the Law Enforcement Community and the Intelligence Community become blurred -- or non-existent, we will become that police state epitomized by East Germany's Stasi.

Ping Honors Wounded Warriors

Wounded Warriors in Sports Training                    [NelsonCountyLife.com]

Click here for related story [Times-Union]

Somehow, the Network News didn't quite cover this remarkable story; we decided it needed visibility; please feel free to share it.

Disabled Sports, USA [DS/USA], founded in 1967, has more than 100 chapters in 37 states and is a partner of the Wounded Warrior Project, based in Jacksonville, Florida.  Together, they assist Wounded Warriors in their recovery process and have helped more than 1,200 wounded veterans, holding clinics in 40 sports, to include golf, sailing, climbing, track and field, kayaking, and winter sports.  Advanced training is also available to assist competitors in Paralympic events and advanced competitions.

Ping Trainee         [BoozAllen.com]

Ping is a Gold Sponsor of DS/USA and partners with the PGA to offer eight-week golf lessons by a PGA pro who has been trained in adaptive teaching techniques.  For the Wounded Warriors who have a severe, permanent disability and have attended six of these sessions, Ping contributes a set of custom-fit, custom-built golf clubs, with bag.  Included in this elite group are Vets in wheelchairs, amputees, and blind golfers.

Ping contributes about 50 sets of its clubs to these Wounded Warriors, and it also gives rebates to other Vets as a "thank-you" for their Service.

Two soldiers we're proud of

Other Gold Sponsors to this program include:
Advocator Group
Anthem Life
Beaver Run Resort
Bob Woodruff Foundation
Breckenridge Ski Resort
The Hartford Foundation
Heisman Trust
Fluor
Oshkosh Defense
Simonize,
Trijicon
Tee It Up for the Troops

We recommend you patronize the organizations on
this list.

Feinstein: Vets Are Dangerous!

Vets all have PTSD; Don't Let Them Have Guns!                                                   [TonyRogers.com]

Click here for related article [InfoWars.com]

In the wake of Mr obama's 2014 State of the Union speech, Conservatives [and even Joe Biden] were stunned that the President could stand before the world and attempt to lie so eloquently that his audience would not notice.  But, the Congressional audience of Democrat Congresspersons and Senators appeared positively in rapture, as they swooned and appeared almost orgasmic as they cheered each new phrase that the reincarnation of Jim Jones read from his teleprompters.

But, subsequently, analysts began picking his speech apart, identifying all the fabrications in the speech, but we'll let you read through those at this link.

In the meantime, Conservatives, in preparation for the 2014 elections, are preparing a list of positions and statements by prominent Democrats which may enlighten voters about the dangers posed by these charlatans.

In this post, we highlight Senator Diane Feinstein's declaration that our Military Veterans, who include myself and other members of my family, are by her definition, mentally unfit and thus should not be allowed to own guns of any sort.

She was/is concerned that our Vets are all impaired by PTSD, a unique disorder arising from the perils of war, which include seeing their comrades wounded, maimed, and/or killed, or, participating in the wounding, maiming, and/or killing of enemies or even innocent by-standers in combat.

Tom Lea's The Thousand Yard Stare

As one Vet advised, Democrats have re-labeled a temporary [and sometimes permanent] condition which has been around since Man first waged battle against others.  In past wars, there were other labels, such as battle fatigue or the thousand-yard stare, etc.  PTSD results from exposure to the brutality of war; having experienced war, Vets tend to seek a non-violent resolution to conflict.  They leave it to Democrats to seek violent solutions.


Folks, War ain't pretty.  

Hollywood's version of war - which the Democrats promote - is that soldiers take a bullet, clutch their chest, and murmer "Momma" and die quietly.  Or, they hold their hand over the hole in their side and gamely say, "Don't worry about me, I'll be ok!" and then they miraculously recover-- which makes it easy for politicians who are not Vets to approve limited actions or "interventions", etc., and to approve the appointment of political hacks such as Leon Panetta to make strategic decisions involving our troops and diplomats.

What Hollywood omits, of course, is all the shrieking, crying, scrambling, shaking, crawling and wailing as combat victims announce to their comrades that they have just lost an arm, a leg, an eye, or their lower jaw to a bullet or shrapnel, or try to stop the blood spurting from severed arteries, and their comrades attempt, often helplessly, to respond in any manner, often in more shock than their injured comrades.  Witnessing the impact of heavy weaponry is also a fairly devastating event, such as watching live humans shriek while they melt in front of you after being covered with a fresh coat of flaming napalm, or, as in Rwanda, watching locals butcher each other with machetes, or being ground into the mud by passing UN tanks.

These are scenes the average American, particularly Senator Feinstein, is likely not going to witness in a lifetime, but, the average combat Veteran will more than likely witness, or become a part of, during his or her Service deployment.

Let's keep in mind that it is the politician, like Feinstein and her Democrat colleagues, who have been so anxious to send our troops into combat -- most recently, we witnessed their eagerness to engage in Syria.  

And, once we deploy, it is difficult to convince our politicians to recall our troops from combat since these politicians get so many campaign contributions from our very patriotic Defense Contracting Community [populated with so many Academy grads (many of whom are awarded combat medals by their USMA classmates for non-participation in combat], so very anxious to generate profits from weaponry and services to support these wars -- the objectives of which have been so elusive to those who study them.

We sacrificed thousands of our troops in Iraq to return Kuwait's oil wells, and then to overthrow Saddam, who dared to threaten our rather questionable [Israeili] ally in the Middle East, and then to replace our highly effective A-Teams in Afghanistan with a huge US/NATO presence to hunt down Osama bin Laden [who actually died many years ago] with a massive military presence which has indiscriminately killed thousands of Afghans and Pakistanis.

Of late, our fearless Leader From Behind ordered the invasion of Libya to overthrow Qaddafi [once an ally, but more recently the purveyor of useful intelligence on terrorist organizations -- but immune from Saudi influence] most recently declared the need to send in US troops to Syria to ally them with al Qaeda -- our sworn enemy, against a dictator who is waging a war against his citizens.

Now, we thought that nonsense had been put to rest, but, we've learned that, even after a massive protest by the American people against such a deployment, the Administration is now supplying weapons to al Qaeda rebels, and sending in "advisors" to assist them in overthrowing the Syrian dictator -- who, by the way, the Saudis are interested in displacing.

And, after all that expense and human sacrifice, 

the Iraqis hate us, 

the Afghans hate us, 

the Libyans hate us, and now, 

the Egyptians - our strongest supporters and allies in the Middle East distrust us because Mr obama supported and manipulated the successful election of President Morsi with the assistance of the Muslim Brotherhood -- represented in key positions throughout this Administration, to include [former] Secretary of State Clinton's personal advisor.

But, we've digressed.

Feinstein, Boxer, and Pelosi         [ThreatQuality.com]

Returning to Senator Feinstein, we think the voters of California [at least those who are registered and US citizens] should take note of the utterings of this hateful shrew and her cohorts [Pelosi and Boxer] who gather with her to stir the cauldron of hate so appropriately depicted in that memorable scene from MacBeth.







No, Senator, we disagree with you and your repeated Gun Control proposals, and particularly your declarations that all our Veterans likely suffer from PTSD and should therefore be barred from purchasing or owning a firearm.

We suggest instead you resign your seat in the Senate and spend some time as a volunteer at a VA hospital to learn first-hand from Veterans what PTSD is, and what the effects of war are.  You'll find very few Vets with violent tendencies -- well, at least not as violent as yourself or Hillary Clinton.