Category: News

Video Conference: Tuesday, November 10, 2pm EST (11am PST)

• Robert Scheer: Editor-In-Chief of Truthdig & Professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication
• Gareth Porter: Independent Investigative Journalist & Historian
• Heather Hurlburt: Director of New Models of Policy Change at New America
• Robert Naiman: Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy
• Charles Knight: Senior Fellow at Center for International Policy & Co-Founder of Project on Defense Alternatives
• Peter Leyden: Founder of Reinvent

What are America’s core national security interests, and what are the real security threats we face in coming decades?

As we move into an era of increasing global integration and challenges that defy national borders, it may be time to reevaluate the ways we determine our national security priorities and protect our interests abroad. This roundtable will step back, look to the future, and talk about about the big picture. How should we adjust our foreign policies now to fit the new realities going forward?

Policing the world is expensive, ineffective, and undercuts America’s ability to deal with our real security needs. Can America become more humble in its foreign policy aspirations? How can we build a more effective foreign policy and move away from a foreign policy based on military interventions and support for tyrannical regimes? How do we mobilize an American public that’s tired of expensive, counterproductive wars but still wants to feel secure?

What would a foreign policy that emphasizes cooperation and collective action look like? In this roundtable, our participants will think critically about reimagining our foreign policy goals.

Tune in here on Tuesday, November 10, 2pm EST (11am PST).

The same ridiculed and useless techniques used by the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to not find terrorists at America’s airports are now being used at Orlando theme parks, including Disney World, Sea World, and Busch Gardens, to not find terrorists.

A Billion Dollars Hits the SPOT

The Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, program is TSA’s one billion dollar “behavioral detection” scheme. SPOT requires TSA staff to be on the lookout for indicators, “tells” to you poker players out there, that give away bad guys. Some of the actual indicators are listed on the graphic, above.

There are actually 92 individual indicators (terrorists are sneaky!), divided into various categories with a point score assigned to each. Those categories include a preliminary “observation and behavior analysis.” Those passengers pulled over for additional inspection are scored based on two more categories: whether they have “unusual items,” like almanacs and “numerous prepaid calling cards or cell phones,” and a final category for “signs of deception,” which include “covers mouth with hand when speaking” and “fast eye blink rate.”

Continue reading “TSA-Trained Disney World in Goofy ‘Terrorist Detection’ Methods”

As the US State Department goes around the world lecturing other countries about how they must adhere to the rule of law, the White House again proves it is one of the most lawless entities on earth. The Constitution is clear; the War Powers Resolution is clear: the president is not allowed to commit the US military to combat without a Congressional declaration or at least authorization. Yet the president has been bombing Syria for a year and now is sending in US ground troops with no legal authority to do so. Congress is the president’s partner in crime and we are the victims – today on the Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Okinawa – Around one hundred and fifty Japanese protesters gathered to stop construction trucks from entering the U.S. base "Camp Schwab," after the Ministry of Land overruled the local Governors’ decision to revoke permission for construction plans, criticizing the "mainland-centric" Japanese Government of compromising the environmental, health and safety interests of the Islanders.

Riot police poured out of buses at six a.m., outnumbering protesters four to one, with road sitters systematically picked off in less than an hour to make way for construction vehicles.

All the mayors and government representatives of Okinawa have objected to the construction of the new coastal base, which will landfill one hundred and sixty acres of Oura Bay, for a two hundred and five hectare construction plan which will be part of a military runway.

Marine biologists describe Oura Bay as a critical habitat for the endangered "dugong" (a species of manatee), which feeds in the area, as well as sea turtles and unique large coral communities.

Continue reading “Henoko Takes on US Imperialism”

You know when you go to a baseball game and invariably during some inning break the team points out a group of soldiers or national guard members in the stands and tries to get a big round of applause going? That doesn’t just happen.

A new report from Sens. John McCain (R – AZ) and Jeff Flake (R – AZ) revealed that the Pentagon has spent over $10 million in recent years to keep those “shows of patriotism” active across sporting events.

Whether it’s paying for special VIP parking for generals or for some team to show the military’s logo on their jumbotron, these programs are overwhelmingly pay-to-play sponsorship schemes. If 20 members of the military are getting the “Richard Petty ride-along experience,” it comes as part of a $1.5 million annual expenditure.

Interestingly, Congressional leaders seem to be of two minds about this heavily subsidized pretense of a pro-military environment, insisting it is a waste of money but largely expecting the teams to continue the programs irrespective of whether they pay for them.

That’s probably not going to be realistic, particularly in the long run, and while it’s certainly a waste of taxpayer money to have the National Guard buying a block of Red Sox tickets, Congress may be about to learn that in the absence of “paid patriotism” there’s going to be a lot less VIP treatment coming the military’s way.