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Monday, 30 April 2012
Red Cross prepares Chicago for mass exodus during NATO Summit?
Chicago, Illinois is expected to swell with armed security forces during next month’s NATO Summit, but will that be enough to keep the Windy City under control? Officials are now readying a massive exit strategy to vacate the entire metropolis.
A memo has been sent out of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Red Cross office that confirms that officials are already taking measures to handle an emergency of epic proportions during the upcoming NATO Summit, scheduled for the week of May 20 in the city of Chicago, 70 miles to the south. In addition to armed security forces expected to begin patrolling Chicago as early as this week, authorities are now making plans to usher residents up to Milwaukee in case the planned NATO protests cause an emergency that warrants an immediate evacuation of the city.
“The American Red Cross in southeastern Wisconsin has been asked to place a number of shelters on standby in the event of evacuation of Chicago,” reads a recent email sent out to Milwaukee-area volunteers of the emergency assistance organization. Chicago’s WLS News reports that the email states that the reason for stand-by is that the NATO Summit “may create unrest or another national security incident.”
Explaining the call for volunteers to Newsradio 620 WTMJ, Milwaukee Red Cross spokeswoman Barbara Behling adds that the agency is treating next month’s conference as it would with any other emergency situation.
"It's like any situation where there would be an evacuation,” says Behling.
"If a tornado would hit Chicago, we're an evacuation area.If there would be a large scale power outage, we're an evacuation area.This isn't anything out of the normal for us,” she adds.
Given the security precautions that have taken place already, though, has given many the impression that the upcoming summit and the protests it is expected to spawn will be unlike anything Chicago has experienced before. Last week RT reported that the US Federal Protective Service will send armed agents into the downtown Chicago three weeks ahead of the NATO Summit to prepare for the swarm of protesters expected to arrive in time for the event. Both the NATO host committee executive director and the mayor of Chicago told reporters last week that they were not made aware of the deployment of armed agents until the story was picked up by local media.
Should emptying out one of the most populated cities in America in event of a national emergency seem too much for Chicago authorities to handle, Cook County, Illinois Sheriff Tom Dart has told the Sun-Times that he has another idea for any incidents that may arise. Sheriff Dart says that in case of a protest turned violent, law enforcement should send demonstrators to Cook County Jail, a massive price facility that has been vacant for over a decade.
“It’s empty and it will be empty. There are no issues with that. If it’s functional, it wouldn’t take a lot of manpower to monitor. Transportation would be a straight shot down I-55. Across the street is Stateville [Correctional Center] We’re going there anyway,” the sheriff tells the Sun-Times.
“The only thing everybody agrees is this is unpredictable. We’re trying to keep that in mind.”
Last month it was reported that authorities decided to move the G-8 Summit, originally scheduled to occur in the days before the NATO conference, out of Chicago to Camp David, Maryland.
Police vs Protester: Feds sending armed agents to Chicago three weeks before NATO Summit
May's NATO summit in Chicago is still weeks away, but residents of the Windy City can expect to see armed federal agents patrolling the streets in preparation much sooner than that.
Three weeks before international heads of state will converge in Chicago, Illinois for the annual NATO conference, the US Federal Protective Service will send armed officers into the city’s downtown district to prepare for the swarm of protesters expected to arrive in time for the event, slated for May 20 and 21.
Both the NATO and G-8 summits were initially scheduled to occur back-to-back in the major Midwest city, but the meeting between the world’s eight leading economies has since been relocated to Camp David, the fortified presidential retreat in Maryland used as a getaway destination for many of America’s past commanders-in-chief. As of now, however, the NATO summit will take place in Chicago and, citing concerns over how demonstrators may respond, law enforcement is being called in early to size up the city.
Beginning May 1, the Federal Protective Service agents will be in Chicago for “Operation Red Zone.” Although the officers will not necessarily be restricting residents from accessing any public spaces that they are normally permitted to enter, the agents will be patrolling — in complete battle gear.
“Will you see a highly visible police force? Yes,” the FPS’ Cleophas Bradley told federal employees, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. “But we will not be preventing anyone from entering the red zone.”
Bradley adds that the officers on patrol will be outfitted with weapons that can fire off “non-lethal” projectiles, much like the firearm that cracked the skull of war veteran Scott Olsen during an Occupy Wall Street protest in Oakland, California last year.
The Sun-Times explains that the move is meant to ensure that a large section of the metropolis will be safe from unruly mobs during next month’s conference, but not even the city’s own elected officials and leaders were made aware of the agency’s plans to put fully equipped federal cops into town in advance.
“A lot of us were surprised to read that. Obviously, the federal government doesn’t consult with the city when they do this. Everybody was unaware of this,” NATO Host Committee Executive Director Lori Healey tells the Sun-Times.
Even at the top of the city’s political structure, Mayor Rahm Emanuel — a close, personal pal of US President Barack Obama and former White House chief of staff — was allegedly unaware of the government’s game plan.
“This was a security decision and we were not involved,” the mayor’s communications director, Sarah Hamilton, explains to the Sun-Times.
Failure by the Federal department to inform the host city of the security initiative is believed to be a pretty good indicator of what to expect. Although federal agents were assumed to be dispatched to Chicago for the conference, sending armed officers to patrol the city unbeknownst to the town’s own management sends a message that the government is not willing to give local law enforcement a chance to let any incidents upset the NATO Summit.
When the first agents roll into town next week, the Sun-Times say they will begin patrolling a perimeter in Chicago’s downtown “Loop” district that includes the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, the Kluczynski Building, the RH Metcalfe Building and the Metropolitan Correctional Center, as well as a handful of federally owned buildings located on what is called the “State Street cluster.”
The Sun-Times has also published an information sheet that outlines the agenda of “Operation Red Zone,” which includes preserving the peace, minimizing disruption, and protecting government property from damage and destruction. Also included on the list is the item “Ensure protection of individual rights to peacefully assemble and express opinions,” although some who plan on protesting the summit have expressed concern over how their First Amendment rights will be protected. In the state of Illinois, it is illegal to make any audio recording of a law enforcement officer without permission, essentially stripping away the right to film during the event.
Additionally, the recent passage of H.R. 347, the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 dubbed the “Trespass Bill” by some pundits, will make it a crime to engage “in disorderly or disruptive conduct” or“impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions” during the summit — even if one isn’t aware that they are doing so.Under H.R. 347, any event that the United States Secret Service is assigned to monitor is placed in a category where protesters arrested by the armed security unit could be lobbed with hefty criminal charges.
The Sun-Times adds that, in the event of “civil disobedience,” federal agents will shut down access to the “Red Zone” by putting the Loop in lock-down as authorities attempt to restore order.
“The reality is that FPS deals with protecting federal buildings, so they do have their work cut out for them,” Jeff Cramer of consulting firm Kroll Inc. adds to the paper. “There are a fair amount of federal targets for protesters to make a point with if they wanted.”
Earlier this year, the city issued property owners detailed instructions on how to handle mobs and riots expected for the event.
Friday, 27 April 2012
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Not Just Spain Cash Ban Spreads Around The World......?
A. M. Freyed
Infowars.comApril 24, 2012
Home Secretary Theresa May announced in January 2012 that the government would ban cash trading for scrap metal dealers under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. Under the proposals ‘rag and bone’ itinerant collectors who are registered with their local authority to trade scrap metal will still be able to pay cash for scrap. The move has drawn criticism from the BMRA, which claims that itinerant traders are getting ‘special treatment’ from the government. – Let’s Recycle.com
The death of cash is much in the news these days, following Spanish government’s abrupt announcement banning cash transactions over 2,500 euros.
But what is surprising is how far advanced this trend is. Cash is being done away with in both bites and gulps. There have been articles in the alternative media discussing this on occasion but the mechanism is both subtle and overt.
The subtle part comes from the way cash is being whittle away at in certain industries. The US for instance has no overt , national cash bans in place but plenty of businesses are making it harder and harder to pay in cash.
US states have gotten into the act too. Louisiana, for instance, last year banned cash transactions for second-hand merchandise – making flea markets problematic.
In many states, pawn shops are under strict scrutiny when it comes to cash transactions, with a good deal of paper work now demanded.
In some Central and South American countries, finger-printing is required by certain stores and businesses if one pays in cash with US$100 or more. Western Union has certain policies in place that require finger-printing outside the US.
Then there are countries themselves. Mexico, for instance, has restrictions on numerous cash transactions including the purchase of real estate with cash. And there are restrictions on how much cash one can spend on vehicles, boats, airplanes and luxury goods.
Here’s something from the Economic Policy Journal back in February:
It’s Really, Really Getting Crazy: [Bloomberg has reported that] Italians Banned from Cash Transactions of More than 1,000 Euros … “Prime Minister Mario Monti, in office just over a month, wants landlords, plumbers, electricians and small businesses to stop conducting large transactions in cash, which critics say helps them evade taxes. The government on Dec. 4 reduced the maximum allowed cash payment to 1,000 euros from 2,500 euros” … The noose is tightening, everywhere. The elitists and banksters are clearly going for the big play. They want to monitor every transaction you make and they want to monitor you.
Greece, Italy, Spain … The idea, repeated over and over is that cash is for criminal activity and that it is often used to evade taxes.
But these days, so much is being criminalized that one begins to lose track. What is one to think when something that has been legal for centuries is suddenly deemed “criminal?”
In Spain, many are said to pay as much as half of the cost of a house in cash, thus diminishing tax liability a good deal. This is the practice in other high-tax European regions.
The higher the taxes, the more prevalent these gray and black-market transactions become. This is simple logic.
Lawmakers have forgotten (long ago, in fact) that the “best” laws are best applied within the ambit of natural law.
When government continually seeks to go perniciously against the wishes and practices of the governed people, nothing good can result. Inevitably, laws will be broken.
The more unreasonable the laws, the more law- breaking there will be. This becomes a vicious feed-back loop that conditions people to break laws, which leads to contempt for government activities generally.
Lawmakers may believe they are taking stances for “the greater good.” But the more they depart from reasonableness and common sense, the more difficulties they are likely storing up for civil society generally. It cannot end well.
As cash is continually restricted, if indeed it continues to be, people will turn to barter. If their actions are subject to scrutiny, the state will become increasingly intrusive, leading in turn to increased resentment.
The Internet is a factor in this as well, informing people of how others feel about unjust legislation and the moves they are taking to counteract the worst of it.
All of this has a deleterious effect on society. At some point such governmental actions become significantly counterproductive.
The global elites – those shadowy dynastic families behind much of this mischief – may wish to continue this process to consolidate the world government they apparently seek.
They are obviously not averse to provoking violence as it provides an excuse for further crackdowns and overt social and economic control. Time will tell if they are correct or are misjudging.
NGO crackdown: Gagging democracy or national self-defense?
Egypt has denied licenses to eight US-based non-profit groups, saying they violated the country’s sovereignty. Many states are concerned that foreign government-backed NGOs are really agents for their sponsors, rather than independent action groups.
Among the organizations banned from continuing their work in Egypt are the Carter Center for Human Rights, set up by former US President Jimmy Carter, Christian group The Coptic Orphans, Seeds of Peace and other groups.
Egyptian authorities warned that if the NGOs try to work without a license, Cairo would “take relevant measures”.
Local media speculate that the rejection may be temporary, and licenses could be granted later, after the presidential election due on May 23 and 24.
Monday’s move revives a crackdown by the Egyptian authorities on foreign-funded NGOs, which recently provoked a serious diplomatic row with long-term ally US. In late December 2011, security forces raided offices of a number of groups suspected of receiving money in violation of Egyptian legislation.
In February, prosecutors charged 43 people with instilling dissent and meddling in domestic policies following last year’s mass protests, which resulted in the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak. Among them were citizens of the US, Germany, Serbia, Norway and Jordan.
In March, an Egyptian court revoked the travel ban for 17 indicted Americans following Washington’s threat to withdraw $1.3 billion annual military aid to Cairo. The decision provoked a wave criticism of the ruling military council in Egypt. Many activists accused them of betraying national interests under American pressure.
But shortly after the suspected Americans left the country, Cairo’s prosecutors decided to target more people allegedly involved in the case, who were not in Egypt when the charges against their colleagues were made. Egypt asked Interpol to issue “red notices” for 15 NGO workers, including 12 Americans, two Lebanese and a Jordanian.
On Monday, Interpol’s French headquarters announced that the Egyptian request had been turned down, because it contradicted rules that strictly forbid the organization “to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.”
Not so non-government
There may be a good reason why national governments in troubled countries mistrust US-funded NGOs. For instance, NATO’s intervention in Libya was partially justified by exaggerated reports of human rights organizations alleging that Muammar Gaddafi’s forces committed crimes against humanity and breached international law in other ways, reports RT’s Maria Portnaya. After the war some of them admitted to giving ungrounded reports.
Powerful NGOs like Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International are supposed to be objective monitors and not take sides, but in reality they “enter into an excessively cozy relationship with for example the United States government, but also other powerful Western allies, over Libya and over other issues,” John Laughland from the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation told RT.
This is what happened in Libya and is now happening in Syria, he added.
“The equivalent, if you like, of the Libyan League of Human Rights, which is called the Damascus Centre for Human Rights, has played exactly the same role. They’ve alleged crimes against humanity. They’ve called for safe havens, and armed intervention in that country. And they are quite clear political lobbyists, who are trying to secure a military intervention against Syria along the lines of the one approved last year against Libya,” Laughland explained.
Another example is the group behind the Kony 2012 initiative. The California-based NGO Invisible Children is calling to stop the use of child soldiers and is promoting peace in the Ugandan civil war. But the same organization provided Uganda’s authorities with intelligence that led to the arrest of several regime opponents, as a US embassy cable published by WikiLeaks revealed.
“I’m willing to believe that was not the one time that Invisible Children provided information to the Ugandan authorities. What else do we not know, in terms of their relations with the Ugandan Government?” asks Milton Allimadi, Editor-in-chief of the Black Star News.
The viral video calling on a campaign to stop Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army appeared just months after President Obama decided to send 100 US military advisors to the region to help local governments remove Kony “from the battlefield”. Some human rights organizations criticized the move, saying among those receiving American aid is South Sudan’s People’s Liberation Army, which is known to exploit child soldiers just like Kony does.
NGOs are not currently held accountable for the information they publish, no matter how much collateral damage false facts may cause. Critics say some of those organizations actually pave the way for conflict rather than advocating peaceful solutions.
Monday, 23 April 2012
Homeland Security Buys Enough Ammo For A 7 Year War With The American People..........?
Department of Homeland Security buying up enough ammo to wage seven-year war against the American people
Mike Adams
April 23, 2012
(NaturalNews) As we recently reported, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an agency that says its main purpose now is to thwart “homegrown terrorism,” has awarded a contract to ammunition manufacturer ATK for acquiring 450 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammo. You can view the announcement of the ammunition purchase at this press release:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/atk-secures-40-caliber-ammunition-co…
Our initial coverage of the story is at:
Many NaturalNews readers may not know this, but “hollow point” ammunition is never purchased for practice or training. This ammunition is purchased for the sole purpose of being used in active fighting. At the same time, it is a violation of the Geneva Convention to use hollow point ammunition on the battle field.
This is crucial to understand. It means the occupying federal government is acquiring this ammunition to be used against the American people. Furthermore, DHS does not fight wars overseas. It is a domestic agency with domestic responsibilities. Its purchase of .40 ammunition is a clear and obvious indication that DHS plans to wage war on the American people.
How big of a war? Here’s where this investigation gets really interesting.
A seven-year war with America.
How much ammunition is 450 million rounds, exactly? To answer that question, I searched the internet for testimony from U.S. military brass who might give us a glimpse into the number of rounds fired in an active war.
This information was remarkably difficult to find, but I eventually located testimony by Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III, given in 2004 before the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives. You can read this testimony yourself at this government website:
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/security/has176250.000/has176250…
This testimony reveals that:
• In active battle operations in Iraq, ammunition is expended at the rate of 5.5 million rounds per month.
That’s 66 million rounds in a year. The General’s testimony states that the “past year” in Iraq “resulted in the expenditure of 72 million rounds,” which isn’t too far off from 66 million. I’ll use 70 million as a rough figure for annual ammo usage in an active war zone.
This is 70 million rounds of all types, including rifle rounds such as 5.56, .308, .50, etc. Pistol rounds most likely include 9mm (the common NATO round) and .45. There isn’t much .40 pistol ammo used by soldiers serving overseas, by the way. That round is only popular in the United States. For example, several cops I know prefer to carry the .40 instead of a 9mm. They feel it “stops bad guys” more quickly, meaning it causes more skeletal and tissue damage upon impact.
7+ years of war with the American people?
So if an active shooting WAR between two nations uses roughly 70 million rounds of ammunition a year, if you look at the DHS acquisition of 450 million rounds of .40 ammo, you quickly come to realize this is enough for 6.4 years of active war with the American people. But wait! There’s more…
Because, you see, there are other contracts out there where the government is purchasing large quantities of rifle ammo such as 5.56, 7.62 and .308. In all, thenon-military branches of the federal occupying government are acquiring enough ammo to wage what can only be called a long-term domestic war.
An active war uses a variety of rounds, not just one type. As war is usually fought with rifles, not pistols, rifle rounds (like 5.56) are actually expended at a much higher rate than pistol rounds (.40), meaning that these 450 million rounds of pistol ammo are more than sufficient to provide the pistol ammo needed for a ten-year war against the American people when combined with a supply of rifle rounds, too.
(I use the term “occupying” because our current federal government has been infiltrated and overrun by Goldman Sachs operatives, non-U.S. citizens with falsified citizenship documents, and agents who openly serve foreign interests such as the United Nations.)
Remember, again, that this is all ammo to be used domestically, against the American people. None of this ammo goes into the hands of the military fighting wars overseas.
I have no doubt that the ultimate plan here is to arm TSA agents and unleash them across the USA as a new storm trooper force to put in place total tyranny across the country. The military will be kept out of it precisely because most soldiers would refuse to participate in tyranny, as they actually have morals and ethics.
TSA agents, on the other hand, are child porn distributors, pimps, drug runners, child molesters, thieves, felons and perverts. They are the security force that has no moral bounds — they will do ANYTHING to another person as long as they get a paycheck. These are the pot-bellied government thugs who will happily torture, rape and murder innocent Americans if they are ordered to do so. They are the “Brownshirts” of Amerika. They are the most pathetic human beings working in government today, and in their hearts and minds they are demonic criminals just waiting to be given yet more power so they can sexually molest little children, supermodels and elderly grandmothers.
The next logical step in the downward spiral of oppression is to arm these agents and use them to slap down total police state tyranny across America. At the first opportunity — probably after a government-staged false flag attack involving a dirty bomb or a bioweapons release — these TSA goons will be set up on every major road and highway, using their new bulletproof roadway checkpoints and their .40 caliber hollow point ammo to put America into a complete Martial Law clamp down where everybody is considered a possible terrorist, and secret arrests (torture, interrogations, beatings, etc.) are commonplace.
What happens from there is anyone’s guess, but I can’t help but think such a plan might be deliberately designed to start a shooting war with the American people, because at that point armed TSA agents can be unleashed to just kill and rape anyone they want under the banner of “protecting the homeland.” (Hence the name “Homeland Security” which is, of course, intentionally borrowed straight out of Nazi Germany and its term “Heimatland.”)




