Congress shocker. Democrats buck Obama, introduce bill to repeal NAFTA!
Finally!
A group of 28 diverse House members, ranging from conservatives, to moderates, to leftists, are sponsoring a bill to repeal NAFTA. Opposing NAFTA was one of the first major issues of the CofCC, and an issue in the CofCC statement of principals. As recently as 2008, conservatives were still being ridiculed by the left-wing media for calling for the repeal of NAFTA.
It’s encouraging to see left-wing Democrats co-opting one of our issues!
NAFTA is the free trade agreement that has devastated American jobs. It was pushed by left-wing Democrats and Neo-Conservative Republicans. It was pushed through congress by Bill Clinton.
The introduction of the bill comes at a time when Obama’s own Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is campaigning for expanding NAFTA (which would violate Obama’s own campaign promise not to do so).
There have been efforts to repeal NAFTA in the past, however this one has the potential to go much further. The reason is unemployment. In the past it has been a few conservative Republicans alone calling for the repeal. This time a much broader coalition is forming because of rising unemployment in the US.
The bill was introduced by four senior members of the House representing different corners of the US. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) and Congressmen Gene Taylor (D-MS), Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Walter Jones (R-NC). They had ten more co-sponsors
From FoxNews
A Democratic congressman from Mississippi introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday that would provide for the withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
Rep. Gene Taylor, who also serves on the House Armed Services Committee, called the 29 percent loss of jobs in US manufacturing since 1993 a matter of national defense and pointed to a number of companies who have moved their production to Mexico as cause for concern.
The agreement was signed by the governments of the United States, Canada and Mexico and implemented in 1994, and was designed to promote free trade between the three North American countries.
Twenty-six members of Congress have already signed onto the plan to abandon NAFTA, including Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak.
“The trade deficit with Mexico and Canada has quadrupled since NAFTA went into effect,” he said.
The Teamsters Union issued a press release from president Jim Hoffa endorsing the bill! Click Here.
Current Sponsors. Call your Congressman now and tell him to cosponsor this bill!
Rep Taylor, Gene [MS-4] (introduced 3/4/2010)
Rep Arcuri, Michael A. [NY-24] – 3/4/2010
Rep Baca, Joe [CA-43] – 3/4/2010
Rep Bartlett, Roscoe G. [MD-6] – 3/4/2010
Rep Braley, Bruce L. [IA-1] – 3/4/2010
Rep Capuano, Michael E. [MA-8] – 3/4/2010
Rep Costello, Jerry F. [IL-12] – 3/4/2010
Rep DeFazio, Peter A. [OR-4] – 3/4/2010
Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] – 3/4/2010
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] – 3/4/2010
Rep Hare, Phil [IL-17] – 3/4/2010
Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY-22] – 3/4/2010
Rep Jones, Walter B., Jr. [NC-3] – 3/4/2010
Rep Kagen, Steve [WI-8] – 3/4/2010
Rep Kaptur, Marcy [OH-9] – 3/4/2010
Rep Kildee, Dale E. [MI-5] – 3/4/2010
Rep Kissell, Larry [NC-8] – 3/4/2010
Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] – 3/4/2010
Rep Massa, Eric J. J. [NY-29] – 3/4/2010
Rep McIntyre, Mike [NC-7] – 3/4/2010
Rep Michaud, Michael H. [ME-2] – 3/4/2010
Rep Paul, Ron [TX-14] – 3/4/2010
Rep Schauer, Mark H. [MI-7] – 3/4/2010
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13] – 3/4/2010
Rep Stupak, Bart [MI-1] – 3/4/2010
Rep Visclosky, Peter J. [IN-1] – 3/4/2010
Rep Wilson, Charles A. [OH-6] – 3/4/2010
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] – 3/4/2010
Alex Jones exposes attempt to demonize 9/11 Truth on Geraldo following Pentagon incident
Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
March 7, 2010
Alex Jones exposes key information about the Pentagon shooting and the Christmas Day Bombing during a live segment with Geraldo Rivera on FOX News this Saturday. Geraldo asks if the Pentagon shooting incident “will stick to the 9/11 Truther people”, almost as if someone had intended a smear. Alex responds in anger about why the media moved so quickly in attempt to demonize 9/11 Truthers– who broadly include, polls show, a majority of Americans and 6 out of 10 9/11 Commissioners who question the official story.
“Why is there such vitriol by the establishment against 9/11 truth?” Alex asked.
After all, Alex makes clear in the segment, it was no more than one hour after the incident that major national news outlets were reporting the connection– how were they so ready to report, and why were they so focused on Bedell’s apparent postings about 9/11? What makes the establishment so uncomfortable about 9/11 questions that its media tools work overtime to denounce it? Pundits like Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck and Chris Matthews constantly hype up the “hurt feelings” the movement causes or its alleged potential for violence. Then when random, lone nut acts occur, news teams dash to explain the supposed anti-government motivation behind the acts, whether seeking to link it 9/11 truth in this case, or to the Tea Party movement in the case of the IRS plane crash mentioned by Geraldo.
How can they have any idea if Bedell’s reported belief in 9/11 truth motivated his behavior? Geraldo asked what aspect of his life motivated his behavior? It may as well have been some prescription drug he was on after being diagnosed as manic depressive.
The snap-reaction of reporting Bedell to be a 9/11 truther within one hour of the incident is a smoking gun that media forces intentionally sought in order to link “violence” with those asking questions about 9/11 (who have been demonstrably non-violent) and to damage the movement via induced public anger over the incident.
Alex also exposes, for the first time on national television, how the Underwear Bomber was helped onto the plane prior to his attempted Christmas day bombing and given clearance by the U.S. State Dept. on orders of intelligence officials– despite the fact that his father had warned government authorities well in advance that his son posed a danger. Though outrageous, this behavior is part of a pattern, and frankly, part of history. From the staged Gulf of Tonkin incident that led to the Vietnam War to the now declassified Operation Northwoods documents and more, the U.S. government has proposed and carried out deceptions– including deadly lies that cost Americans lives– in order to sell the public on an agenda.
Side-pundit Kimberley seemed altogether ignorant of the very existence of false-flag terror.
“No,” she said to the entire array of declassified U.S. staged-terror. “What evidence do you have to support any of that?” Any of that, as if history itself can be shelved and packaged into the same ‘kooky, insane’ category as allegations that the 9/11 atrocity was a false-flag event. It demonstrates the frightening societal ignorance of our own history, for after all, those ignorant of history are said to be doomed to repeat it. With hundreds of incidents on the books and new suspicious events happening day by day, it is time to learn the truth and stop what is happening.
For his part, Geraldo was fair in giving Alex Jones time to speak, and even stepped in to back up Alex when Kimberley questioned “what evidence” he had for his serious allegations that the U.S. had carried out false flag attacks in the past. The “Gulf of Tonkin is very well documented,” Geraldo points out.
TRANSCRIPT:
Geraldo: Once a star student at San Jose State, 36 year old John Patrick Bedell, the man who opened fire in front of the Pentagon last week was a manic depressive pothead fascinated with conspiracy theories involving 9/11. We still don’t know why he shot two Pentagon guards before being shot and killed himself. But we do know a blog connected to him suggests that a criminal enterprise run out of the government could have staged the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. And that connection to the so-called 9/11 truthers is making their movement seem even more like a part of the lunatic fringe. But is that fair?
Geraldo: Joining Kimberley and me from Austin, Texas, the same town, incidentally where a tax protester recently crashed his plane into the IRS building is radio host and a leader of the ‘9/11 was an inside job’ movement, Alex Jones. Welcome.
Geraldo: The tea party people shook off that IRS plane crash incident after a couple of days. Do you think you’ll be similarly successful or will Bedell’s misdeeds stick to the 9/11 Truther people?
Alex Jones: Well, the plane crash guy had been a Democrat and was angry at the government, and this Bedell guy, look he had hundreds of different beliefs and some polls show half of Americans, 6 of the 10 9/11 commissioners question the official story. There’s a wide spectrum of different beliefs. Most people just question the official story, prior knowledge and other issues. But the bigger question is, why within one hour was national news reporting that the Pentagon shooter was a 9/11 truther? I mean, why is there such vitriol by the establishment against 9/11 truth? Right here I have ABC News U.S. Military wanted to provoke war with Cuba; U.S. military drafted plans to terrorize U.S. cities, stage terror attacks.
Alex: We know the Gulf of Tonkin was staged. So we know governments allow attacks to happen, we know that governments sometimes stage attacks. We know that the Underwear Bomber on Christmas day, the State Dept. admits they were ordered by U.S. Intelligence to let him on the plane, and helped him get on the plane. So, in a lot of cases they open the door. That’s what 9/11 truth is saying is that this is being used to demonize us. So we don’t know what the truth is about this guy. He was into marijuana…
Geraldo: Ok, let’s bring Kimberley into the discussion. The guy was into pot, he was a manic depressive, but is Alex over-reacting or is the 9/11 connection relevant?
Kimberley: Right. I think its an over-reacted, but also you’re making some serious allegations against the U.S. government saying that they stage attacks, they allow them to occur in the United States against U.S. citizens.
Alex: That’s declassified.
Kimberley: No. What evidence do you have to support any of that.
Geraldo: Well, Gulf of Tonkin is very well documented, but–
Alex: I mean, what are you talking about. Hold on. It’s in Army Field Manuals to stage false-flag attacks, declassified 2004. But separately, why, within 1 hour were scores of newspapers and TV,
Geraldo & Kimberley: Why?
Alex: Why within 1 hour of the shooting–
Kimberley: What’s the answer?
Alex: They were demonizing 9/11 truth. Why are they so scared about 9/11 truth? Why did they do that? Why within one hour did they bring 9/11 truth out? Why did they blame the plane crash with Joe Stack on the Tea Parties.
Geraldo: Alex, just back up a second and take a deep breath. Why would he attack the Pentagon? What aspect of his life what make him manifested with that kind of violence against the Defense Department establishment. Why? Why there. Why not the Health and Human Services Department?
Alex: Let me tell you. Here’s FOX News. His parents, two weeks before, warned the government, nothing was done. Same thing with the Fort Hood shooter, same thing with the Underwear Bomber. I mean, the guy was obviously a complete lunatic. Look at video of the guy. He looks like a nut from central casting. He obviously had millions of screws loose here, okay. Maybe he was a lone nut, maybe he is. The point is, within one hour, to try and demonize 9/11 truth. This stinks to high heaven. That’s what we cover at Infowars.com, Geraldo, and I’m glad you covered this.
Geraldo: Ok, Alex. We’ll continue to stay in touch. Kimberley, thank you, see you tomorrow night.
Local Muslim leaders on Sunday applauded the arrest of Adam Gadahn, a U.S. citizen who worked as a propagandist for Al Qaeda.
“It’s good for us, good for the country,” said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, an umbrella group for mosques and Muslim organizations in the region. “Any person who is engaged in any unlawful and illegal activity needs to be held accountable.”
Syed said people who lack knowledge of the religion are easily manipulated and develop their own logic and ideology. “He has demonstrated to have mastered that twisted logic,” Syed said.
Gadahn’s path from Orange County to Pakistan, where he was arrested, makes the work of the council more important, Syed said. “It even further strengthens us to continue the work we are doing, which is to share objective information on our faith and our community with all people,” he said.
The head of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles said his organization welcomed the arrest of Gadahn, a Riverside County native who appeared in videos defending Al Qaeda, including the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
“We welcome the arrest,” said Salam Marayati. “This is one step closer to defeating Al Qaeda and defeating the mentality of death and despair, which is alien to Islam.”
Marayati said Gadahn ended up under the influence of the wrong Muslims and had used the religion to make political statements for Al Qaeda. “I don’t think that what he has been saying has any merit in Islam,” he said. “It is a political ploy.”
Gadahn prayed at the Islamic Society of Orange County mosque as a teenager but was barred in 1997 after hitting one of the organization’s leaders, according to Muzammil Siddiqi, religious director of the organization.
"We called Garden Grove police and we did not allow him to come back,” Siddiqi said Sunday afternoon. “This is very unfortunate that he came here and did not learn anything good.”
Gadahn pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to two days in jail and ordered to perform community service, which he did not complete, according to court records.
Siddiqi said Sunday that he didn’t know how Gadahn ended up with Al Qaeda but said he and the terrorist group have done a lot of harm to Islam, to Muslims and to the United States.
Siddiqi welcomed the arrest but said he hoped that the news would be confirmed. There were false rumors last year that he had been killed, he said.
“I hope they caught the right person,” he said. “Any success to eliminate the evil of terrorism from the world is welcome news.”
Gadahn is wanted in the U.S. for treason. He became a Muslim after he moved to Orange County.
Gadahn's aunt, Nancy Pearlman, who is on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, declined to answer any questions about Gadahn.
Told about the arrest, which was announced by Pakistani authorities Sunday, she said, “You know more than I do.”
The Afghan Mujaheddin, Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, and the current regime in Iran were all “CIA assets” at one time. Not a very good track record. The CIA could not even stop 911 despite very specific warnings from Egypt, Jordan, Russia, and Israel between July and August of 2001.
Note: Other parts of the documentary make the case that Donald Rumsfeld lied about the existence of the Tora Bora mountain complex and that Bin Laden and Al Quaida have been greatly exaggerated by the FBI and CIA to justify both foreign and domestic US policies. It also discusses the Bush administrations alleged “victories” in stopping domestic terrorist plots, which all turn out to be big nothings.
Hillary Clinton, in an effort to pander to the Turkish government, denied the holocaust of Armenian and Greek Christians that occurred at the end of the Ottoman Empire.
Yesterday the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 23 to 22 to recognize the Christian Holocaust in Turkey as “genocide.”
Today the BBC reports that Hillary Clinton is denying that the mass slaughter constitutes genocide and has called on the House to scuttle the resolution. Hillary also stated that the “Obama administration” opposes recognizing the slaughter as “genocide” and will seek to prevent a full vote on the House floor.
During the presidential election campaign, Obama promised to recognize the mass killings as “genocide.” Obama attacked the Bush administration for not supporting the resolution during his administration. If Hillary’s comments represent the official position of the Obama administration then he has completely reneged on his campaign promise. Which would be no surprise since he has completely reneged on every other promise. It would be far more shocking if Obama actually kept a campaign promise!
The main groups who have lobbied against the resolution are the ADL, AIPAC, and the Turkish diplomatic team.
Click Here for BBC article.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8553013.stm
The new issue of the so-called “Intelligence Report,” sent out for free to thousands of law enforcement addresses because none would actually pay for it, is out. The free rag is main fund raising tool of the group. They constantly scream that armies of “skinheads and neo-nazis” are poised to take over the US in an orgy of violence. Then suckers send them money to fight this eminent threat. The money is mostly put into an “endowment” known to critics as the “Morris Dees Retirement Fund.” They group spends a tiny portion of the money on an occasional lawsuit against an impoverished target who lacks the means to defend himself. The group has massed $150 million and counting by not actually doing much of anything to fight anything. It has been denounced as a con job not just by the left, but by major newspapers and major left-wing publications like Harpers Magazine. Click here for expose in Harpers Magazine by Ken Silverstein.
In this issue:
1. The SPLC finally admits that their golden boy Hal Turner was a paid FBI provocateur. No longer will the SPLC be able to pretend that Hal Turner is a major figure and use him to vilify other people. Yet in the same article the SPLC points to an even more obscure weirdo who has no following whatsoever and tries to paint him as a major figure. A man named Bill White, who like Hal Turner, is on trial for thinly veiled deaths threats posted on the internet. White is a slum lord from Virginia that runs his own self-styled “nazi” group. Watch out! He may actually have five or six real members! The SPLC needs money to fight this major threat.
2. The rag contains a entire article attacking people who think FEMA should be required to fully disclose what it does with the tax payers money. The horror! Glen Beck is attacked in this article.
3. An article bashing Lou Dobbs.
4. An article bashing a laundry list of mainstream organizations that advocate for a secure border.
5. An official SPLC enemies list that targets very mainstream organizations like The John Birch Society, The Constitution Party, and a state sanctioned volunteer disaster relief group in Ohio.
6. An entire article attacking the National TEA Party convention and it’s keynote speaker Sarah Palin.
7. An article that completely distorts the facts about interracial crime. Astronomically downplaying black on white crime. The SPLC makes it’s own rules when it comes to reporting crime. They have also claimed that rapists are not motivated by a hatred of women.
After flipping through the rag it seems that based on the information in this issue alone, over 75% of the US public would be considered an enemy of the SPLC.
A soul-less being has no empathy for others. Lose your empathy, and you've lost your soul.
There is a "great divide" forming amongst mankind, and it's often war that most often triggers that divide.
Once a combat soldier kills a defenseless non-combatant, he either likes it or feels remorse. If he likes it, he kills more non-combatants, many more. If he feels remorse, he's likely to kill more non-combatants to anesthetized or deaden his feelings of moral anguish for having initially killed an innocent human being. In either case, such wanton killing is encouraged by "command intention," from above, for a variety of reasons; but mainly, it's done to spread the contagion of universal madness: a people without empathy.
In such a mad society, Israeli citizens justify burning alive Palestinian children, while American republicans still support Bush's torture and murder of about two million innocents, and democrats overlook Obama's expanded war and torture in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan.
Soon our madness - absence of empathy - spreads throughout the Middle East, and then around the world in the form of justifying or overlooking all governmental crimes as we are now emotionally invested in them, with our lack of empathy.
A lack of empathy blinds human beings to justice, liberty, and personal discernment, rendering them soulless - a major reason for all wars.
J. Speer-Williams
http://www.rense.com/general90/soul.htm
Companies Vying To Build NSA Data Center In Utah
By Paul Foy
Last Edit: Mar 2 2010 - 2:58pm
SALT LAKE CITY -- A partnership has identified itself as in the running to build a sprawling electronic data center for the nation's intelligence agencies in Utah.
Salt Lake City-based Jacobsen Construction is teaming up with New York-based Turner Construction Co. and Kiewit Co. of Omaha, Neb.
The partners say that building the 1 million-square-foot data center in less than three years will be a monumental undertaking.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it isn't releasing the names of any companies who submitted qualification proposals Feb. 24 on the $1.7 billion construction project for the National Security Agency.
Full story - http://www.standard.net/topics/business/2010/03/02/
companies-vying-build-nsa-data-center-utah
Now, take a look at this -
1. Jacobsen Construction is very closely tied to the LDS Church - in fact, Jacobsen built the LDS Conference Center, as well as the vast majority of chapels and 23 temples. http://www.jacobsenconstruction.com/portfolio/religious
2. Kiewit Co. of Omaha Nebraska is a key player in John DeCamp's story of Satanism, Ritual Abuse, and child sex slaves and drug running centered in: Omaha Nebraska - the book: The Franklin Coverup.
3. Turner Construction is wholly owned by none other than Hochtief AG - Adolph Hitler's construction giant. All of the Nazi defenses on both the Eastern and Western Fronts were built by Hochtief - including Hitler's infamous "Wolf's Lair", his Berghoff castle retreat, the "Fuherbunker" in Berlin, equipped with numerous hidden exit tunnels, and of course all of the concentration camp labor was used free of charge by Hochtief. Seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hochtief Funny how Turner Construction handled the cleanup of the World Trade Center, as well as Oklahoma City's Murrah building. They built the United Nations building! I think it's safe to say that Hochtief AG/Turner is the Illuminati's contractor.
This gives more credibility to my Nano-tech paper -- especially where General Gehlen/James Woolsey is concerned.
WAKE UP AMERICA! How can ANYTHING about the NSA Utah Data Center be good??
HA! This guy looks like Leon Trotsky got his head stuck in an elephant's ass!
Anti-patriot propaganda has reached a fevered pitch in the corporate media. In the MSNBC segment below, Contessa Brewer interviews Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Brewer prefaces her interview with Potok — who is now a fixture of the ongoing propaganda campaign — by stating that opposition to the government is “fueled in part by anger over the troubled economy,” the fact Obama is African-American, and “immigration issues” (in other words, illegal aliens streaming across the border).
Brewer’s subtext (undoubtedly written for her and read from a teleprompter) is that people upset with the government are a bunch of racists. Of course, if she was a real reporter instead of an info babe put before the camera because she is attractive and can read a teleprompter, she just might elaborate on this and say people are upset with the government because it is increasingly authoritarian and violates the Constitution and the Bill of Rights on multiple fronts — from Obamacare at gunpoint to illegal wars and the pervasive surveillance grid intruding upon our lives.
Dead-pan Potok is amazed at the “scope” of the growth of groups on the “radical right” (that is to say anybody who is not a Republican neocon or Democrat). Potok conflates the patriot movement with the “militias from the 1990s” (does he mean the government created militia at Elohim City, including the government agent Timothy McVeigh, or the militia operatives dispatched by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the FBI?). Potok says 363 new “radical right” groups have formed in the last year. Is it possible these new groups include those created by the Republican compromised Tea Party movement? Potok does not say.
Potok tells Ms. Brewer patriot groups see the federal government as their primary enemy and believe “the government is involved in all kinds of nefarious plots to bring us into the New World Order, so called and so on.”
So called by Henry Kissinger, Gordon Brown, Bush Senior, and no shortage of economists and assorted establishment politicos over the last one hundred years or so. (and so on).
Patriot groups, Potok insists, are responsible for criminal violence. He then effortlessly connects Joe Stack to the patriot movement, but for some reason neglects to mention that Stack’s alleged manifesto referenced communism, hardly considered a “radical right” philosophy.
In addition, Potok says the widely held belief that the income tax is unconstitutional has “raised a lot of havoc” (and so did strapping British tax collectors to Liberty Poles in the 1770s by American revolutionaries).
Ms. Brewer then says the attack on the IRS building in Austin was similar to the attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City. She may be right — evidence indicates the latter attack was staged by the government and it may eventually come out that Stack’s attack was too. Ms. Brewer would not report this in a month of Sundays, not if she values her career.
Potok concludes by stating his concern that “hate groups” (the ticker below him exclaims) may engage in violence, mostly because there is a black man in the White House and the “demographic change” in the country. He stops short of demanding anybody who believes in less government and adherence to the Constitution should be rounded up and thrown in a re-education camp.
It seems Potok and Brewer were reading from the Department of Homeland Security’s “rightwing” extremism report because their conversation came off like a carbon copy of the now infamous report (especially Potok’s assertion that patriot groups hate Obama because of his skin pigmentation).
It is indeed surreal that such nonsense about violence should be aired on a network that is jointly owned by a corporation founded by a eugenicist (Bill Gates, the former CEO of Microsoft) and the notorious death merchant General Electric (manufacturer of military aircraft, tankers, helicopters, surveillance aircraft and bombers used most recently to subdue recalcitrant Muslims).
The same cartels that control both parties are still in power. Electing someone from the same 2 party system,
will not change anything. It hasn't changed anything in 150 years, and it will not change anything now. It was
once said, that the true definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over, and expecting a different
outcome. The American people are still far too stupid to take back the Republic. Electing a republican senator,
or representative in 2010 will make no difference. Electing a democrat will make no difference. You will still have
the same result, the same taxes, the same system. Nothing will change. Changing presidents in 2012 will make
no difference either. You will still get the same thing. More than likely, if the American people are stupid enough
to elect another republican, you will get one that is far worse than Bush was. The same as the idiot liberals elected
a fool that is far more dangerous to America than Clinton ever was.
If the Patriot Act hadn’t been approved for another year, Sunday would have looked much different.
Sunday could have meant the government was no longer given permission to wiretap the phones of Americans and seize their records and property.
But since the bill was approved by Congressional Democrats earlier this week and signed into law by President Obama on Saturday, this Sunday is just another Sunday for Americans living with the Patriot Act.
To be fair, many Democrats asked for additional protections for the privacy rights of American citizens.
But Republicans said that would detract from the ability of the country’s intelligence agencies to track down terrorists. Lacking a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate to pass the bill with the extra provisions, Democrats left them out.
Obama gives Patriot Act another year with no privacy protections 190110banner4
Democratic Rep. Jane Harman opposed the House’s approval of the extension, citing abuses during the administration of President George W. Bush.
“While I strongly support using the most robust tools possible to go after terrorists, Congress must revise and narrow — not extend — Bush era policies,” Harman said.
Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com had the following to say of the overwhelming support of the law’s extension:
One of the strangest prongs of conventional Beltway wisdom is the lament that there is not enough bipartisanship. The opposite is true: many of the most damaging acts inflicted on the country by Washington are enacted on a fully bipartisan basis — the most destructive political act of this generation, the invasion of Iraq, was fully bipartisan, as were most of the post-9/11 civil liberties abuses and other Bush-era initiatives– and, at least in certain areas, the harmonious joining together of Republicans and Democrats continues unabated.
Most publications and politicians expected Obama to sign the Patriot Act.
The president would have the power to safeguard essential federal and private Web resources under draft Senate cybersecurity legislation.
According to an aide familiar with the proposal, the bill includes a mandate for federal agencies to prepare emergency response plans in the event of a massive, nationwide cyberattack.
The president would then have the ability to initiate those network contingency plans to ensure key federal or private services did not go offline during a cyberattack of unprecedented scope, the aide said.
Ultimately, the legislation is chiefly the brainchild of Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, respectively. Both lawmakers have long clamored for a federal cybersecurity bill, charging that current measures — including the legislation passed by the House last year — are too piecemeal to protect the country's Web infrastructure.
Their renewed focus arrives on the heels of two, high-profile cyberattacks last month: A strike on Google, believed to have originated in China, and a separate, more disjointed attack that affected thousands of businesses worldwide.
Rockefeller and Snowe's forthcoming bill would establish a host of heretofore absent cybersecurity prevention and response measures, an aide close to the process said. The bill will "significantly [raise] the profile of cybersecurity within the federal government," while incentivizing private companies to do the same, according to the aide.
Additionally, it will "promote public awareness" of Internet security issues, while outlining key protections of Americans' civil liberties on the Web, the aide continued.
Privacy groups are nonetheless likely to take some umbrage at Rockefeller and Snowe's latest effort, an early draft of which leaked late last year.
When early reports predicted the cybersecurity measure would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," online privacy groups said they felt that would endow the White House with overly ambiguous and far-reaching powers to regulate the Internet.
The bill will still contain most of those powers, and a "vast majority" of its other components "remain unchanged," an aide with knowledge of the legislation told The Hill. But both the aide and a handful of tech insiders who support the bill have nonetheless tried to dampen skeptics' concerns, reminding them the president already has vast — albeit lesser-known — powers to regulate the Internet during emergencies.
It is unclear when Rockefeller and Snowe will finish their legislation. And the ongoing debate over healthcare reform, financial regulatory reform, jobs bills and education fixes could postpone action on the floor for many months.
Both lawmakers heavily emphasized the need for such a bill during a Senate Commerce Committee cybersecurity hearing on Wednesday.
"Too much is at stake for us to pretend that today’s outdated cybersecurity policies are up to the task of protecting our nation and economic infrastructure," Rockefeller said. "We have to do better and that means it will take a level of coordination and sophistication to outmatch our adversaries and minimize this enormous threat."
REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 27, 2010 — Today at the Worldwide Public Safety Symposium, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer outlined the ways that the company’s innovative technology and vast partner ecosystem will tackle the 21st century’s four core emerging public safety technology trends: cloud-based solutions, cybersecurity, unified communications and social media in public safety. This includes news that Microsoft will begin exploring how to support its Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) in the cloud.
With the help of key organizations focused on crimes against children, Microsoft and its public safety partners will begin exploring together how they can put CETS, a unique software tool that helps governments search, share and analyze evidence in child exploitation cases across police agencies, into a cloud-based solution to reach more police organizations nationally and globally. Microsoft is working with current CETS users, public safety organizations, and international and national law enforcement agencies to see if this new area of technology can do even more for their fight to keep kids safe. ...
The Child Exploitation Tracking System contains powerful features that permit investigators to easily import, organize, analyze, share and search information, from the point of detection through the investigative phase. Using a cloud-based solution will help greatly expand the tool’s deployment, particularly into developing economies where cloud computing can address infrastructure challenges. It will also enhance how CETS is allowing governmental and law enforcement organizations to share, search and analyze evidence in child exploitation cases across police jurisdictions, cost effectively and quickly. Collaboration with the CETS community will also help identify and address key security and privacy issues that arise in cloud-based scenarios.
Transforming multiagency operational effectiveness, improving collaboration and information sharing, and building capacity in developing countries are the three key priorities in Microsoft’s approach to tackling these four core emerging trends. ...
Microsoft’s Fusion Core solution strengthens the ability of government to identify potential terrorist threats and respond accordingly. The Fusion Core solution accesses and aggregates data from multiple, disparate sources, and displays it in a way that makes information easier to access and analyze by local law enforcement agencies. Public safety agencies demand greater agility from the information systems supporting them now more than ever, and this will only increase in the future.
“Today’s police officer will look dramatically different in 2015, as law enforcement organizations turn to geospatial technologies to analyze patterns relationships for visualization that maps crime,” said T. Jeff Vining, vice president of Government Research at Gartner Inc. “At Gartner, we’re anticipating wearable computer platforms where authorized users can access any network immediately with the ability to transmit interactive multimedia and geo-reference communications.”
In addition to the adoption of social media, wiki, tweets and blogging technology as a way of sharing data between people and organizations, there is a requirement to secure the environment to protect law enforcement sensitive data, and ensure privacy within local law. The most important positive development in unified communications is the continued progress toward the adoption of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions and tools offering effective information sharing, augmented by security policy and technology, without compromising organizational security.
The Microsoft secured unified communications vision brings formerly separate channels of communication and messaging together in a single identity, giving users access to streamlined communications. With presence awareness at the core — including smart cards, fingerprints and retina scans — unified communications makes this set of communications capabilities available from within the business processes and applications that public safety professionals use most.
Knowing that technology will continue to play a major role in delivering enhanced capabilities for intelligence-gathering and investigation, emergency response, transportation and border control, physical security, and disaster and crisis management is just one piece of looking toward the future. Technology alone is not the answer. It takes strong partnerships between experts in those fields and technology experts like those at Microsoft and their partners, so that together they can help improve public safety and national security.
About Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Safety Symposium
Microsoft’s Worldwide Public Safety Symposium, running today through Jan. 28, 2010, brings together more than 500 national security operatives, public safety professionals and criminal justice officials.
