Collaboratively Reporting On,
And Peacefully Fighting The
Corporate-Industrial Complex
Definition: The Wiki World Order
Jul 22nd
Raw full-quality file: http://wikiworldorder.com/video/Wiki_World_Order-Episode_Template.divx
Audio-only podcast version: http://wikiworldorder.com/music/Wiki_World_Order-Episode_1.mp3
We are stuck in a truly epic saga between “good and evil”, but almost all sides believe they work for some greater good…so I am searching for perspectives beyond what we know, and fresh chess moves on the grand board. I’m generally trying to avoid one-dimensional analysis where discussions get a severe bipolar disorder. Nonetheless, these battles might be best reduced to transparency against secrecy.
Many of us see true beauty in all of humanity and want to minimize oppression, while unlocking and unleashing the inner passion and genius inside of each and every one of us. But very clearly, there exist those who consciously seek to mold humans into sheeple, even cattle, treating the masses with great contempt, both publicly and privately, both with words and laws.
Open source software is really built by communities of end-users, so on a long enough time-scale, these solutions better meet the needs of these end-users. And they are also not built to break a few months after a warranty expires. The level of bottom-up collaboration humans have achieved in Wikipedia alone is wildly impressive, but it is only the first step. I want to see almost EVERY industry start trending much faster towards open source domination.
You might have seen some TED talks, where many very powerful solutions are presented to some of the world’s most urgent problems. One key way I envision us surviving here is if some of those technologies of a certain societal significance are not made patentable, but instead made free for reuse and remix under open source or creative commons licensing. Such open source blueprints will be translated into languages and materials of people around the world.
We urgently need to replace greed with collaboration for sustainable energy, food and water technologies. These will all inevitably be issues of life and death for our species on this planet…or anywhere we travel. So screw trinket capitalism, boycott it! And why build up a police state instead of preventing these inevitable crises. Let’s replace the CIA and privatized/corporate intelligence with open source intelligence.
Oh and did I ask you, “Who killed the electric car?” Oh, WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?!?!
Would the electric car have been killed in an open source paradigm? I don’t think so. I will discuss this in an upcoming episode, in a thought experiment posing:
What If we had British Petroleum and General Motors give up any and all intellectual property rights related to alternative energy creation, storage and usage…and then re-released it under some kind of Open Source/Creative Commons license? Don’t they both owe us enough?
We do not go along with solutions A or B: both promoted, bought and paid for by the same set of corporate interests with the most hide or gain. Campaign finance reform is an absolute LYNCHPIN which could open up countless legislative avenues for us, but the Supreme Court sure hasn’t been helping there. Therefore, we really need to step it up and start focusing more on voting DAILY with our dollars to de-fund the mega-corporations which own our governments.
At this point in my studies of various slivers of the world, the only solutions I can consistently support are open source and/or increase transparency. It is for this reason that I’m naming this growing counter-force to oppression, the ‘Wiki World Order.’ Infinitely boosted by the internet, this global movement has already taught me a great deal, collaboratively shedding light on the darkest of blind spots and promoting solutions from the bottom-up.
BUT my time and perspective cannot report on this progress alone, it is collaborative by definition. So just in case any one of YOU out there want to start a little web-base show on related issues, you are free to reuse and remix my episode template graphics and music (please see link in video notes). Anyone can upload their own reports to You Tube and email the link for the video and/or podcast or blog/transcript to reports~AT~WikiWorldOrder.com, and I will be happy re-post all your work on WikiWorldOrder.com. I welcome you to this experiment, and a huge Thank You in advance to anyone who takes me up on this offer, or even lends their ear to this Morgan’s random ideas.
But to avoid getting too heavy in my first episode, I will leave you with these quotes used in the theme song in the background, “And You’ve Got To Let Freedom Ring,” which is based on some of my favorite tasty beats by Alex Gopher, Demon and Squarepusher.
Because the alternative is too bleak, we will remain optimistic and envision the win, as we make it happen together. Please be the change you want to see in the world. Thank You.
Alex Gopher & Demon - The Shell
http://s23.last.fm/preview/2514216/499/0007260637/13/746899790.mp3
Squarepusher – Iambic 5 Poetry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUXWLGz2Eqw
With some inspiring quotes laid on top…
“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus. And you’ve got to make it stop, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all.”
- Mario Savio: Sproul Hall Steps, December 2, 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcx9BJRadfw
“Let freedom ring. And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring. From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring.”
- Martin Luther King Jr: I Have a Dream speech, August 28, 1963
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AItMg70kg
“I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the streets. All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad! You’ve got to say, I’m a human being, goddamn it! My life has value!”
- Peter Finch in Network (MGM, 1976)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ELleCQvew
“Well up next on world business today, you may not have heard of it, but some say Bilderberg is secretly trying to take over the world. We’re trying to find out why some of the biggest names in business and politics are currently meeting very discretely in Germany.”
- Charles Hodson, CNN: Bilderberg Group News Report, 2007?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I3sqpRtKUA
“We have the opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations, a New World Order…”
- George H W Bush: New World speech (one of them), January 16, 1991
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc7i0wCFf8g
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant, in a free and open society.”
- John F Kennedy: Secret Societies speech,
American Newspaper Publishers Association,
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City, April 27, 1961
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhZk8ronces
“In other news, LeBron James is moving to Florida to play for the Miami Heat, and that fact will not affect your life in any way.”
James Corbett: Internet Strikes Back, LeBron Who?, Israeli Nukes
Sunday Update, July 11, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ymmWFcixME
“So of the various kinds of state capitalism that are around, which are the best? I don’t honestly think that’s the kind of question we should be asking. Like in the 18 – Suppose you’re in the 18th century, should you be asking ‘Which is the best kind of feudalism?’ I mean that’s all it was. So which is the best kind of feudalism, and slavery and monarchy and so and and so forth? That just wasn’t the right question. I mean the right question is, ‘Is there something better, like say, parliamentary democracy?’ Even there were no examples of it.”
Noam Chomsky: Alternatives to Capitalism
Source unknown, removed from YouTube, backed up on AltBib.Com:
http://altbib.com/bak/youtube/swf/1761.swf
“But today we might better look at geopolitics in the world as the same globe with roughly 200 countries and huge clouds drifting around it, knowing no national borders, following no specific sets of laws. These are the big corporations. They strike deals with the Chinese, and the Taiwanese, and the Tibetans, and the Israelis and the Arab nations. They strike deals with anybody who has resources or markets that they covet. And they have really taken over the planet. They are calling the shots. Wherever you go, the big corporations are calling the shots, make no mistake about it. And the good news is, that the big corporations are totally dependent on you — or your tax dollars. They can’t survive without you. And the marketplace is democratic, if we only choose to make it such.”
“Every time you buy something, or don’t, you’re casting vote. And it’s a very important vote, in fact, I would dare say it’s equally important as or maybe more important than any vote in the voting polls.”
“Let’s change this world! Let’s create a sustainable, just and peaceful world! Let’s not just talk about it, let’s not just look at movies about it, let’s not just theorize about it, LET’S DO IT!”
“This empire has been created without most of us realizing that it’s been happening, and I think that’s extremely dangerous. We claim to be a democracy, and yet a democracy is built on the premise that you have an informed electorate.”
“..he can’t possibly hope to inherit a sustainable, just and peaceful world unless every child growing up in Botswana and Bolivia and Indonesia and Palestine AND Israel has that same expectation. We MUST realize this. We have to understand that we can’t have homeland security here, until we recognize that the whole planet is our homeland. We are truly one people.”
“We know there are conspiracies. There was a conspiracy to keep us all in the dark about weapons of mass destruction.”
“You know the most important thing that you can do, is to follow your passion.”
John Perkins: Economic Crisis – The Hit Men Strike Home
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center, Walnut Creek, CA, February 22, 2010
Side-Note: I attended and gave Mr. Perkins a copy of my DVD with an offline backup of InfowarDocs.org.
http://fora.tv/2010/02/22/John_Perkins_The_Hit_Men_Strike_Home
Even Further Beyond Left and Right
Jun 29th
A Thought Experiment Ending with Transparency and Social Businesses
We can see Americans increasingly rebelling against both the establishment left and the right. Even the mainstream media has had to cover this aspect of the transitions which both political parties are going through during this decade of endless predictable crises.
Acknowledgment of the corruption found on both sides of the political aisle is one of the core concepts which amazing outlets like We Are Change, Infowars and the Corbett Report attempt to spread. I have always found the current two-party system completely inadequate for aggregating the will of the people, and have long adored the idea of either more parties or no parties. So I am very excited to see this reach an ever more conscious level of the national dialogue, but I want to tease the ball a few steps further to help expand the range of potential solutions we consider for upcoming debates.
Below is a more relaxed, long-brewing brainstorm on a couple of paradigms I think might also contribute to paralyzing, if not controlling or co-opting, our best courses of action. These could hypothetically be highlighted to help divide and conquer the masses.
In some cases, the polarizing effect of having primarily two extreme camps to choose from on sub-issues may be hurting more than helping. We also sometimes see the negative effects of such polarization skyrocket when single ideologies are be forced on all scenarios, instead of a more flexible case by case basis. Fortunately the movement has loud voices warning people not to follow any one ideology.
So this is a humble request for the movement to keep pushing past the confines separating us to keep finding increasingly targeted solutions to counter-offer those provided from the top-down system. The better we can hone our arguments and improve our messaging to newcomers to alternative analysis and deep politics.
More VS Less Government? Quality NOT Quantity.
This is a simpler example, and relates to many of my good patriot friends who stand firmly with slogans for “Less Government.” To my eyes or ears, such statements feel a bit counterproductive to our shared goals for a few reasons, but maybe it only irks me.
“Less Government” is vague enough to be co-opted by almost any harmful solution provided. It is also not a rule/ideology you can always follow, unless you’re an anarchist…but then your sign should probably read, “No Government.” This formula should not be endlessly applied, and our libertarian friends sometimes take this mantra too far too blindly.
But more importantly, it implies that the size of government has a causal relationship with its level of corruption or negative impact. In my book, this feels quite unfair.
Larger organizations of any type may have more room for bad apples to hide and prosper. But our society’s policies, manufactured culture and promoted incentives have a far greater influence the positive or negative nature of the impact of organizations (governmental or not).
In a similarly apathetic political climate, a given corporation might have even less trouble buying out a smaller government than our current monstrosity. At the same time, there is a real threat of “Big Government” when corporations can entrench departments and pro-actively using government to directly enact corporate agenda, find ways to increase their budgets to keep expanding their government cloaked work, as we saw more publicly during George W Bush’s military-industrial reign. In the same administration we saw other corporate owned departments strip themselves down as much as possible, completely disassembling any form of meaningful regulation over themselves.
Our current [predictable] economic bubble burst could have been avoided/postponed if trillions of dollars in profit incentives not been allowed to manifest in the first place as derivatives, sub-prime mortgages and other legal Ponzi schemes. That scale of money is not just a motive with a universal adapter on it, but also notably contributes to increasing the vast wealth disparity.
Along these lines, and somewhat ironically, many of those using the “Less Government” slogan might also likely be in favor improving/returning real banking regulations to once against prevent these abuses which the world people and economies are suffering. I assume that a ban on toxic financial products (or any other way to regulate them) would generally be interpreted as “More Government” on this scale.
But if the incentives of our culture were shifted enough, and procedures were made ~100% transparent to the public, we might be able to find some government G spot where the government reflects the public’s interest. This might be theoretical, but it should be nearly attainable, not even requiring a revolution but incremental changes in the correct direction for a change. And seems to be what we should be striving for…ever more pure realization of those ideals inspiring us as youth learning about our republic/democracy (sorry, still insufficient understanding of that paradigms).
The causality implied in this association between more government and bad government also does not seem theoretically sound. With a truly responsible government, an increase in its size could simultaneously increase citizen freedoms. In conclusion, I argue we need to focus on uprooting the incentives for corruption in government, perhaps via campaign finance reform and revolving door protections, instead of just saying we want to change the size. A wise woman once told me it is not really the size of your government that matters, it’s all about how you use it.
The Capitalism VS Socialism Paradigm
This is a case with much graver polarization, and it might be totally unnecessary. One of my dad’s core mantras is all about looking for the right questions to ask. Despite Chomsky’s blind spots or self-censoring on select topics, he is of course brilliant, inspiring and an early influence of mine. So I really like his approach on this here (click here for video).
“Suppose you’re in the 18th century. Should you be asking, ‘Which is the best kind of feudalism?’ I mean that’s all it was. So which is the best kind of feudalism, and slavery, and monarchy and so on and so forth. It just wasn’t the right question. I mean the right question is, ‘Is there something better?’ Like say, parliamentary democracy. Even though there were no examples of it. There were seeds of it, but no functioning examples. I mean seeds of had it been developed and usually crushed, as in England, but these were legitimate struggles. And you know, they succeeded. I mean by now you have parliamentary democracies, which aren’t fantastic but are better than feudalism.” – The World: The Noam Chomsky Sessions
Suppose you’re in the 21st century, what is the best kind of capitalism? The best socialism? Is capitalism better than socialism? What blend of the two would be best? Why are we limited to these questions?
Capitalism or socialism often represent the two main options offered to us in response to most problems, but we don’t even consider trying to come up with any new forms of national economic or governmental organization. Case by case, those rooting for capitalism might tend to dismiss socialist solutions, and vice versa, mostly to stay loyal to their dominant ideology. But as humans we sometimes get trapped into acting like these ideologies are the mythical unified theory of everything in physics, applying it to every aspect of society.
An occasionally mentioned aspect to the discussion is how many ‘socialized’/nationalized services and industries, most people have long approved of like THE MILITARY, Highway System, Federal Waterways, FBI, Bureau of Prisons, Census Bureau, National Park Service, Social Security and all the other free services provided by the executive and legislative branches. So it seems we could have been considered a part-capitalist, part-socialist country for decades. Even better are the number of recent cases we see where the profits privatized while the risks a nationalized, like the painful bank bailouts and Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The point of terms like ‘crony capitalism,’ is to point out just how far we are from the pure idealized form touted by talking heads. In fact, it seems the bigger mutant capitalist corporations have become so efficient at their business that they went ahead and took over our government, saving us the trouble of regulating them. But if we reign the beast in soon, we may yet have a chance to replace weapons research budgets by incentivizing less harmful technologies across the board.
Unfortunately these ‘ism’s may be false options on yet another level, given another alternate analysis arguing that our country has been best defined as fascist for decades now. This is rooted in the comprehensive corporate influence on most important functions of government, controlling both candidates in a single-party state. A plutocracy (or corpocracy, corporatocracy) has emerged very clearly, along side some of the largest and most offensive wealth inequities in modern history.
It is also bizarre that there is such passion for either of these economic systems, as we have seen examples of both producing failed states when inappropriately implemented…bringing us back my focus on quality over quantity. Our capitalist experiment has been going for just a few hundred years, and this current incarnation of crazed crony-capitalism has clearly dominated at least the past century. It seems clear the technological advances provided by our capitalism incentivized by wealth has potential for enormous net benefits for our species in the long run…but the judge is still out, between our food mono-cultures, biodiversity, GMOs, nuclear and biological weapons.
Another large unmentioned issue when debating socialist versus capitalist solutions is the source of the taxes. An interesting thought experiment is to first ask some one if they would favor socializing some service, perhaps health care. Then ask them if they would still be opposed to it if typical citizens once again did not pay any income tax, while the Fortune 500 moves out of the Cayman Islands to start correcting the record wealth disparities. The nature of who or where the finances come from to run all nationalized services should be a critically important factor in what people think is worth paying for.
The final problem I have with these false options is that they don’t seem to be completely mutually exclusive. As Chomsky says later in the video above, there is no reason businesses cannot be managed democratically controlled by their workers and community, and compete with other businesses managed the same way and others. But there are other ways to improve the capitalism formula without giving up the typical management hierarchy of today.
Capitalism doesn’t say businesses must compete by maximizing-profits, which is very selfish and short-sighted, that’s just how we’ve been playing. If more large-scale businesses stop going public to make them legally bound to maximize profits for shareholders, they will be free to be the best business they can be across all dimensions which humans care about.
If customers and investors take more initiative to carefully vote daily with their dollars for social-benefit-maximizing businesses, which show enough conscience to mitigate their externalities while provide the world beneficial products and services. Dollar votes are currently the most powerful form of voting we have, far better than the false choice A or B every 4 years. More resources for the information required to educate these daily decisions are likely to emerge, like The Better World Handbook. But this social-benefit-maximizing business model is a marvelous idea champions by Muhammad Yunus, the Social Business. I strongly recommend you explore this concept and this man more, here is an except to wet your appetite:
Muhammad Yunus – The Social Business Model
This general concept of a social business is also finally catch hold in America. This is possibly a side-effect of the long-awaited liberal pendulum swing, and the tough economic times of our decade. Yunus was just last year awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama.
His microcredit banks have brought millions out of poverty in Bangladesh over the past four decades — side-note: this should theoretically be a plus for eugenicists because population naturally stabilizes as a country develops, and this may be the most natural, positive and creative method being successfully tried. A few test-runs of similar microcredit banks are finally being started up in America.
According to the web site of B Corporation, a leading certification firm to certify businesses adhering to enough of these kinds of social business principles, over 300 companies have become certified with a branded B Corporation status since 2006, including Seventh Generation. The 300 represent $1.1 billion in revenues, 54 industries, and $750k in annual savings.
There is a parallel movement around the country to grant legal tax status to B Corporations which one assumes will offer various benefits back to these businesses. My home state of Maryland signed the nation’s first Benefit Corporation legislation on April 13th and Vermont passed it on May 19th, 2010. Whether or not their state is ready for it yet, businesses can start taking a confidential survey NOW to learn what areas they need improvement on, to work towards a longer-term goal of becoming fully certified.
Full disclosure: my very cool 9-5 work, Rescue Social Change Group, based in San Diego, is already looking into this process and looks forward to becoming certified without having to alter our existing small social business model infused from the beginning. What can I say other than, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Conclusions: Transparency and Social Businesses
Alone, neither left nor right, neither more nor less government, neither capitalism nor socialism can save us. So let us please not choose our preferred solutions solely because they fit into one ideology or another. Rationally look at the situation and find the longest-term good we can muster no matter what ‘ism’ it implies.
In place of protesting for less (or more) government, I would protest for transparent government. Any sized government can work for its people if they have information and access. What jerks in Congress can forever avoid voting for bills if they are specifically honed only on increasing transparency? As a general note, shorter bills in Congress may generally help both these issues and finding more worth-while common ground. Campaign finance reform is quite possibly the other most serious roadblock to real control over our own government.
‘Do you lean towards Capitalism or Socialism?’ – Maybe I’m into Social Businism!
Either ideology, taken to the extreme, becomes quite a scary beast, so please don’t use them as the primary basis for every decision. It’s just like being tempted to just vote down your party-line…what does that party stand for, exactly…and as related to a specific modern-day issue?
In this next economy transition, we could try to replace a portion of the 100% worthless trinket capitalism products and services with social businesses to compete on a few fronts with the corporate-industrial complex, targeting first the industries vital to human life an well-being. With the proper public education, product labeling and accessibility, we can gradually shift to only pay for products made with our long-term interest in mind, instead of someone else’s short-term bottom-line.
And it should turn out that plenty of industries and niche markets do not need to ditch their profit-maximizing models. Hopefully many key industries will end up dominated by social businesses and see a rebirth to provide options healthier for us, our neighbors and our planet. There will also always be room for profit-maximizing businesses to coexist even after this, but that decision would be in the hands of those markets.
So if enough people like this, it is one possible direction we could try to steer towards while we’re fighting the smaller battles: the widespread conversions and start-ups of real Social Businesses, followed up by communities supporting them simply with our patronage.
Why wait for Washington when we can make these moves ourselves?
InfowarDocs.org Renamed AltBib.Com, The Alternate Bibliography
Jun 28th
As a life-long activist, there came a point in my studies of alternative analysis of historical and current events when a need to act took hold: April 2009. One constant block in my progress was a the lack of a quick resource for the core source documents used to backup select so-called ‘conspiracy theories,’ spread and splintered across the net from various inspiring alternative media outlets. In discussing these ideas with my loved ones, having such mainstream articles to show how information presented through the exact same sources they trust could simultaneously be used to ‘prove’ a completely different narrative. This is difficult to do this quickly/instantly without memorizing hundreds of news headlines and efficiently finding the correct, full or ‘original’ (for the web) version. This was the personal need which sparked the first embryo of this concept, though it surely may not be novel.
Already having my hands full with plenty of after-hours activist work, it didn’t at first occur to me this should be my task. Instead the instinct to coach from the sidelines instead of dive in won the first round. I lazily sent an email to Infowars headquarters in Austin explaining my idea, curious if they knew of any existing solutions or would value dedicating some resources to it. One week later without response (no offense taken), it was clear to me that I needed to build this, if nothing other than a personal educational/research tool.
I consequently hope this can be a lesson to others who are temporarily paralyzed from action: If you are unsure how to help a issue, cause or situation so large no one individual has control over, try…
- Thinking about what you wish the leaders/titans of your movement were doing,
- Checking to make sure it isn’t already happening. – If it is, you can help if you’re motivated to.
- Just start doing it. – If you can’t do it, then why not and is it worth investing in getting to a point you can. Otherwise, keep thinking until you find something you can do and dip your toes in.
It has now been just over one year since the InfowarDocs.org research database was started, and it now contains 4,675 Reference Links, with 6,287 Tags/Keywords, with 45,692 Taggings! According to my basic statistics written in PHP (unintentionally almost three times larger than Google’s stricter Analytics), the database has been queried over 300,000 times by by 44,000 visitors. My very crude automated backup process has already successfully helped to preserve 43 documents which have been removed from their online location since being added to the database. I have nonetheless spent very little time over the last year improving the database’s usability and appearance, and as the site’s primary user became quite used to it. But the time has been overdue for some real improvements to try to open this resource to a wider audience’s interest, while still hoping to accommodate dorkier researchers like me.
The change of name comes largely just from a slow discovering of the identity of this database, there was not a full picture of the end result when it got started. I feel this new name of Alt Bib, the Alternate Bibliography does a much better job of encapsulating this somewhat weird research experiment of mine. For better or worse this lessens the association with Infowars/Prison Planet, possibly the most influential operation in the Alternative Media. I’m happy not to step on any such toes with the name, and really like removing “war” from my domain name as a pacifist.
So there’s no change in how the database is run or who is running it, this is just a re-branding before some much more exciting tools will be launched for much better interaction and collaborative knowledge sharing. Once the new functionalities are more settled, a professional graphic designer friend will be giving the site a visual face-lift. I’m so excited I want to spill those beans now, but please stay tuned for those to be announced in the coming few weeks, as they will truly start to tie together some of the core objectives of the resource.
A big Thank You to all of the visitors who have submitted links, added tags, and shares this resource with their networks. An extra HUGE Thank You to the anonymous artist who sent me the header graphic used for the past year, and the few people generous enough to donate a bit of fiat currency towards my effort. Your collaboration is priceless, here’s to blooming more in the next year as AltBib.Com, The Alternate Bibliography to Learn the New ABCs!
‘War on Terror’ Narrative Case Study: The Christmas Day Bombing Attempt
Apr 25th
aka Die Hard Like It’s 2009!
Essay – ↓ Assumptions – ↓ Data Dump – ↓ Stocks
A couple days after Christmas, a loved one asked me if my gut said this terrorist attempt was a false flag event or other not as officially covered. My reply was yes, but that much more research was needed for a more serious response. So the primary goal of this narrative case study is to clarify the kind of research and mental processes many alternative media followers and researchers use to read between the lines of mass media. This is always research in progress, and there is not yet any specific group(s) to blame beyond the obvious, but we can at least trace some indicators we see in many other narratives, past and present…
Essay – ↓ Assumptions – ↓ Data Dump – ↓ Stocks
A couple days after Christmas, a loved one asked me if my gut said this terrorist attempt was a false flag event or other not as officially covered. My reply was yes, but that much more research was needed for a more serious response. So the primary goal of this narrative case study is to clarify the kind of research and mental processes many alternative media followers and researchers use to read between the lines of mass media. This is always research in progress, and there is not yet any specific group(s) to blame beyond the obvious, but we can at least trace some indicators we see in many other narratives, past and present…
- Early planning and implementation stages of research, function and integration of new ‘security’ technologies
- Security versus privacy discussions with slow, gradual mental conditioning of the masses to accept the desired changes, whether or not the propaganda succeeds
- Testing implementation of technology and related propaganda in small locals long before creating a nationwide policy (no, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this process, but it does point to some level of conscious intent)
- The rarity of alternative analysis evidence breaking out for a full news cycle in the mainstream discussion, reaching echo chamber status and becoming a ‘valid’ talking point (all these seem to be relative whitewash in this case study)
- Parallel implementation, media spin and narratives in other ‘developed’ countries
- Sometimes finding the key differences in the coverage between the different ‘developed’ countries expand perspective on an issue ten-fold (nothing big in this case study)
Full disclosure: immediately after learning of these impressive naked x-ray body scanners in December, i fundamentally disagreed with widespread use of this new technology on moral and privacy grounds. As a Burner who does get nude when the time and place is right, it would surely be a different discussion if public nudity was not so taboo. But with today’s social norms it is definitely unreasonable (Fourth Amendment style) to perform any equivalence of a strip search on everyone boarding every plane, and it seems high standards of reasonable, documented suspicion should be required for boarding any plane or even passing through Customs.
Comparison of international media coverage before, during and after the event often teaches new facts and shines light if any narratives are being sold at home. This particular narrative is part of a 10 YEAR documented effort to trade new specific privacy concessions for new false senses of security when boarding planes. Testing in a few airports in a country at a time, [AP, 1999] we have gradually been prepared for this. They have used this time to hone their messaging and propaganda arguments for the inevitable nationwide discussion on whether the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) should even be using these. In different local trials, results are always promoted as very favorable. [London Guardian, Independent, CSMonitor] Manufacturers would also simultaneously discuss both how high-resolution details were required in order for the machines to be effective [Washington Times] and how they blur the images for privacy (presumably reducing their effectiveness). [UK Daily Mail] The manufacturers have gone through countless difference animation styles in search for the proper balance of security and privacy, [Global Security, London Telegraph] but either way, England has drawn a line where they consider its use child porn. [The Register, London Guardian] Promoters of the technology have always insisted that all the images captured are immediately destroyed, [CNN] like the London Evening Standard just days before a Bollywood superstar autographed print-outs for girls running his naked body scan in February. [ACLU]
To this day, naked x-ray scanning is voluntary in the places the machines are installed, and “more intense” pat-down searches are offered as the alternative, [AP] but given the decade of novel infringements of our rights, we cannot afford to give up any more fundamental ground we are pushed toward raising the bar yet another notch. [Chicago Tribune, BBC] A few years ago, the UK started the discussion of also adding similar x-ray scanners into their jaw-dropping arsenals of cameras on city streets! [BBC] The mainstream media is already starting to line up the next manufactured security need, as real terrorists can still take their cause one step forward by putting explosives in a body cavity. [UK Daily Mail, New York Post]
If they are implemented on a larger scale as an optional choice to a pat-down, then they can be avoided and are logically useless. Some experts have even demonstrated how these machines might be worked around by hypothetical terrorists. [The Register] If they will be required for all searches of that level, then would they want to use a virtual strip search to search many more people who they wouldn’t regularly strip search? So what, other than pure profit-maximizing greed, could the real motive of advance this security arms race? This seems at best a modest transfer of wealth, and at worst a self-fulfilling prophecy for increased terrorism and erosion of constitutional rights.
Comparison of international media coverage before, during and after the event often teaches new facts and shines light if any narratives are being sold at home. This particular narrative is part of a 10 YEAR documented effort to trade new specific privacy concessions for new false senses of security when boarding planes. Testing in a few airports in a country at a time, [AP, 1999] we have gradually been prepared for this. They have used this time to hone their messaging and propaganda arguments for the inevitable nationwide discussion on whether the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) should even be using these. In different local trials, results are always promoted as very favorable. [London Guardian, Independent, CSMonitor] Manufacturers would also simultaneously discuss both how high-resolution details were required in order for the machines to be effective [Washington Times] and how they blur the images for privacy (presumably reducing their effectiveness). [UK Daily Mail] The manufacturers have gone through countless difference animation styles in search for the proper balance of security and privacy, [Global Security, London Telegraph] but either way, England has drawn a line where they consider its use child porn. [The Register, London Guardian] Promoters of the technology have always insisted that all the images captured are immediately destroyed, [CNN] like the London Evening Standard just days before a Bollywood superstar autographed print-outs for girls running his naked body scan in February. [ACLU]
To this day, naked x-ray scanning is voluntary in the places the machines are installed, and “more intense” pat-down searches are offered as the alternative, [AP] but given the decade of novel infringements of our rights, we cannot afford to give up any more fundamental ground we are pushed toward raising the bar yet another notch. [Chicago Tribune, BBC] A few years ago, the UK started the discussion of also adding similar x-ray scanners into their jaw-dropping arsenals of cameras on city streets! [BBC] The mainstream media is already starting to line up the next manufactured security need, as real terrorists can still take their cause one step forward by putting explosives in a body cavity. [UK Daily Mail, New York Post]
If they are implemented on a larger scale as an optional choice to a pat-down, then they can be avoided and are logically useless. Some experts have even demonstrated how these machines might be worked around by hypothetical terrorists. [The Register] If they will be required for all searches of that level, then would they want to use a virtual strip search to search many more people who they wouldn’t regularly strip search? So what, other than pure profit-maximizing greed, could the real motive of advance this security arms race? This seems at best a modest transfer of wealth, and at worst a self-fulfilling prophecy for increased terrorism and erosion of constitutional rights.
These are some examples of the narrative’s red flags of consistent messaging/conditioning. These omissions of certain topics in the mainstream debate increases suspicion that this event was, in some way, staged by some [small] component[s] of the military-intelligence-industrial complex. The primary motives are assumed to at least be what we’ve historically seen: short and/or long-term profit while tip-toeing forward a reduction of individual privacy. It is also interesting that when state legislatures pass pro-active laws to protect from more widespread us of similarly invasive technologies, [Idaho Reporter] they are generally generalized as paranoid nuts or coverage focuses on straw man religious arguments instead of constitutional or law-based arguments. [MSNBC]
Since performing the majority of my historical narrative research on this topic in mid-January, a bit more information has been confirmed which seriously conflict with the official story still being referenced weekly. Alex Jones/Infowars/Prison Planet and his now rapidly increasing ~3 million weekly listeners have become something of a hub in the alternative media world, similar to WikiLeaks. One of his listeners was a lawyer from Michigan named Kurt Haskell was one of the first-hand eye-witnesses on the plan, and his story which after being shared with the Infowars audience was covered locally in Michigan Live on Dec 31, Jan 2 and others, but not picked up at all by any other mainstream media except 5 minutes on NPR. His story includes these highlights:
- There was initially a second man on the plane (his “man in orange”) who was arrested/being held and who allegedly videotaping the incident.
- A sharp dressed “Indian man” attempting to talk a ticket agent into letting a supposed “Sudanese refugee” (Abdulmutallab) onto flight 253 without a passport.
- If his eye witness account is false, it could easily be proven by releasing the Amsterdam airport video tapes showing the “sharp dressed man”.
His story was officially denied by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for about a month, until being confirmed in just a few mainstream places in the next month as the story faded and the presumed truth is used as justification for future measures. The Detroit News, Jan 27 covered some alternate aspect of this event, but has now taken this article down from their own web site, among others, Terror suspect kept visa to avoid tipping off larger investigation:
Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab’s visa wasn’t taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would’ve foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States.
ABC News, Jan 22 also gave it the final three short paragraphs in a two-page online article with the unrelated headline, Alert: Female Suicide Bombers May Be Heading Here From Yemen:
As part of the additional scrutiny, federal agents are conducting extensive background checks on every passenger who flew to Detroit on the Northwest flight in case one of them might have been sent as a “spotter” on the mission. Federal agents also tell ABCNews.com they are attempting to identify a man who passengers said helped Abdulmutallab change planes for Detroit when he landed in Amsterdam from Lagos, Nigeria. Authorities had initially discounted the passenger accounts, but the agents say there is a growing belief the man have played a role to make sure Abdulmutallab “did not get cold feet.”
The mainstream media brings up other obvious factors of the investigation related to previous knowledge and information gathering on this alleged terrorist, [ABC] or with his father alerting US officials in advance. [CNN, BBC] But currently, this alternative analysis of events does get a significant mention on Wikipedia, but it is not even being discussed enough to be denied by the mainstream media. It would be more satisfying if some of these harder questions were at least brought up by the US mainstream media, instead of this drum beat to trade more security for privacy. [McClatchy] In this case, and the status quo, the corporate media left and right usually aren’t interested in solve any underlying problems. They enjoyed focusing on things like…
- Whether or not the Obama administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DoJ) properly responded to the terrorist attempt
- Whether or not if he was read his Miranda rights [Democracy Now]
- Politicians running campaigns fear mongering fund-raising [MSNBC]
- His father alerted officials and Abdulmutallab was on intelligence lists before his terrorist attempt (but stop short of investigating intelligence complicity or enabling) [CNN]
Neither side wanted to ask: Should the less ethical parts of our government/security-complex have better planned or enabled this drill/false flag terrorist attempt in advance, for a faster roll-out of these shiny new machines we already budgeted and bought…to save our tax dollars on the psychological warfare convincing us we need all this? (*tongue, cheek*)
Similar to the sting felt every subsequent time the official story of 9/11 is used to justify policy, i will continue to cringe every time this Christmas Day Bombing Attempt is used as an example of recent terrorist attacks on the US which demand forcing solutions of varying oppression/freedom to people around the world.
↑ Essay – Assumptions – ↓ Data Dump – ↓ Stocks
General Background Assumptions
False flags and acts of treason stay quiet longest by requiring as few people involved as possible. So the benefit of the doubt is generally given to the vast majority of the people involved in such a ‘conspiracy,’ as they do not realize any involvement. Following the motive, money, media, name and organization trails, the owners, stakeholders of the suspicious organizations (and their associates who also profit) almost always have the most to gain, but does not make them guilty, even by association. Nonetheless, the question is important: Who has motives enough to justify such costs to innocent life, liberty or justice?
Historically, those most effectively controlling populations almost always use The Hegelian Dialectic, [Wikipedia] aka the Problem Reaction Solution paradigm, to progress their agendas generally in three steps:
1. Create or exploit a problem, blaming it on others
2. The people react by asking for help, and are willing to trade something
3. Offer the solution that was planned long before the crisis
2. The people react by asking for help, and are willing to trade something
3. Offer the solution that was planned long before the crisis
Deconstructing A Narrative: Data Dump
I’ve cataloged over 200 mainstream articles here in my documentation database beyond the highlights in the data dump below:
http://InfoWarDocs.org/?s=x-ray+airports
The media coverage of the privacy debate on these naked x-ray scanners goes back over 10 years. Here is a simplified time line of personal highlights, mingling multiple sides to this narrative with articles in GREEN if they are generally supporting/within the official narrative/discussion, and in RED if they contradict/hurt at least some aspect of the promoted narrative. This is a crude 0/1 spectrum, but also just the first experiment, advice welcome.
Washington Post Dec 30, 1999 – 6 international airports in the US start offering naked x-ray scanners as alternative to a pat-down search. The ACLU raises flags immediately. American Science and Engineering Inc was building them.
Seattle Times Oct 23, 2001 – Mentioned, post-9/11, as another security option. ACLU advocates a go-slow approach, “If there is a less-invasive alternative, it should be used.”
Seattle Times Oct 23, 2001 – Mentioned, post-9/11, as another security option. ACLU advocates a go-slow approach, “If there is a less-invasive alternative, it should be used.”
New York Times Aug 8, 2002 – Bob Barr, John Edwards and Charles Schumer request a programming change to blur body parts but still detect weapons.
London Telegraph Aug 11, 2002 – First mention found of Rapiscan/OSI Systems building and supplying naked x-ray scanners for TSA. First UK media hit.
Wall Street Journal July 3, 2003 – Mission Accomplished a year and a half after Richard Reid’s Shoe bombing attempt… “Ever since Richard Reid was caught on an airliner trying to detonate plastic explosives in one of his shoes, passengers have had to endure occasional footwear inspections in the airport.”
New Scientist July 12, 2004 – Announcement that Smiths Detection (of Smiths Group) is starting to work on the naked x-ray scanners, later purchased by TSA.
London Times Nov 7, 2004 - First time naked body scanners used in random UK airport security searches in London Heathrow. Default search, with an opt-out for a hand search.
Boston Globe Dec 28, 2004 – “The technology has proven itself in prisons and among Customs and Border Protection agents who use it to search for drugs, illegal weapons, and contraband.” But what would happen, he wondered, if people began outsmarting the technology? ”It would be easy for people to start wearing clothes that are hard to X-ray. If so, then, what’s the point?”
Baltimore Sun Dec 31, 2004 – “For most people, even frequent flyers, this low exposure is probably safe – it would take at least 2,500 scans a year to reach the maximum recommended exposure. In fact, it’s less than the background radiation from the cosmic rays that you get from flying cross-country, far less than a dental X-ray, hundreds of thousands of times less than a whole body CT scan and millions and millions of times less than X-rays used to treat, say, prostate cancer.”
The Register (UK) July 11, 2005 – Report says the naked x-ray machines made by QinetiQ in the UK, at the time, would probably not have stopped the 7/7 London Underground bombings.
Washington Post Mar 4, 2007 – “When American Science and Engineering, which makes the backscatter machines, introduced the technology in prisons nine years ago, the point was to replace strip searches.” reprints in a few local papers
Technology Review Oct 30, 2009 – How some of these Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA A new model of the way the THz waves interact with DNA explains how the damage is done and why evidence has been so hard to gather.
ATW Dec 14, 2009 (airline industry news outlet) – Transportation Security Administration buy Rapiscan Systems and Smiths Detection machines in the next 30 days, but already had some steps in motion.
Smiths Group Dec 23, 2009! (Press Release) – Pitch for Smiths Medical, but mentions their Smiths Detection branch. This timing is curious, but may be for the ‘coincidence theorists’.
Dec 25, 2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s crotch bombing attempt
London Times Nov 7, 2004 - First time naked body scanners used in random UK airport security searches in London Heathrow. Default search, with an opt-out for a hand search.
Boston Globe Dec 28, 2004 – “The technology has proven itself in prisons and among Customs and Border Protection agents who use it to search for drugs, illegal weapons, and contraband.” But what would happen, he wondered, if people began outsmarting the technology? ”It would be easy for people to start wearing clothes that are hard to X-ray. If so, then, what’s the point?”
Baltimore Sun Dec 31, 2004 – “For most people, even frequent flyers, this low exposure is probably safe – it would take at least 2,500 scans a year to reach the maximum recommended exposure. In fact, it’s less than the background radiation from the cosmic rays that you get from flying cross-country, far less than a dental X-ray, hundreds of thousands of times less than a whole body CT scan and millions and millions of times less than X-rays used to treat, say, prostate cancer.”
The Register (UK) July 11, 2005 – Report says the naked x-ray machines made by QinetiQ in the UK, at the time, would probably not have stopped the 7/7 London Underground bombings.
Washington Post Mar 4, 2007 – “When American Science and Engineering, which makes the backscatter machines, introduced the technology in prisons nine years ago, the point was to replace strip searches.” reprints in a few local papers
Technology Review Oct 30, 2009 – How some of these Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNA A new model of the way the THz waves interact with DNA explains how the damage is done and why evidence has been so hard to gather.
ATW Dec 14, 2009 (airline industry news outlet) – Transportation Security Administration buy Rapiscan Systems and Smiths Detection machines in the next 30 days, but already had some steps in motion.
Smiths Group Dec 23, 2009! (Press Release) – Pitch for Smiths Medical, but mentions their Smiths Detection branch. This timing is curious, but may be for the ‘coincidence theorists’.
Dec 25, 2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s crotch bombing attempt
CNN Dec 26, 2009 – Passenger: Terror suspect seemed ‘stunned’. A man, sitting three or four rows behind Jafry jumped over a group of seats, tackled the suspect and put him in a headlock.
Associated Press Dec 26, 2009 – “US officials knew name of terror suspect who tried to blow up airliner in Detroit – King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said no federal air marshals were on the flights from Nigeria to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Detroit. Abdulmutallab did not go through full-body image screening at either airport, the congressman said.”
Michigan Live Dec 26, 2009 – First coverage of Kurt Haskell’s story: Flight 253 passenger: Sharp-dressed man aided terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab onto plane without passport (MLive.com exclusive)…While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, ‘He’s from Sudan and we do this all the time.’”
BBC Dec 27, 2009 – Summarizes the official corporate media whitewash analysis of this story: “Father alerted US about Nigerian plane bomb suspect.”…”US sources confirm a file was opened, but say the information did not warrant placing the accused on a “no-fly” list. Airports worldwide have increased security after the alleged attack.”
Time Dec 28, 2009 – This really shows the system worked because he had to smuggle a bomb that was so difficult to ignite.
National Public Radio Dec 28, 2009 – NPR Interviews Mark Haskell! “Did someone help Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab get onboard the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit? Well, according to two American passengers on Flight 253, an older man – tall and elegantly dressed – accompanied the young Nigerian to a counter before boarding. And they say the older man explained to a woman at the counter that the younger man had no passport.”
Michigan Live Dec 29, 2009 – Kurt and Lori Haskell talk Flight 253, passport ‘accomplice’ and FBI questioning – This week, he and his wife shared their story with several national media outlets.
The Detroit News Dec 30, 2009 – One of a few mainstream acknowledgments of Kurt Haskell’s account: ‘Ron Smith, chief Customs and Border Protection officer in the Detroit field office, said passengers from Flight 253 are likely giving accurate accounts when they say they saw dogs sniffing bags in the luggage area and a man led away in handcuffs shortly after they got off their Christmas Day flight on which a man created a small fire while trying to detonate explosive chemicals hidden under his clothes. ‘There was a second person taken into custody, but it had nothing to do with Flight 253,’ Smith said. ‘They did see dogs, but again, it was a totally different incident.’”
– I am also very pleased to announce that it is the first interesting article quickly removed by a mainstream news source which my InfoWarDocs database has been able to archived here via its automated backup. My crude script often gives this very rough layout, but all the original text content has been preserved.
Xinhuanet (China) Dec 30, 2009 – One of only a few articles found mentioning the stocks of any related companies, who benefits. Almost only in international news, and Business Week. Thanks China.
Democracy Now Dec 30, 2009 – A Look at Obama’s Handling of the Case and the Media’s Coverage. President Obama has acknowledged that a “systemic failure” of the nation’s intelligence and security measures paved the way for last week’s aborted bomb attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Boston Globe Jan 2, 2010 – A more heavily covered aspect: The Chertoff Group, Michael Chertoff’s security consulting agency, includes a client that manufactures the machines. In the summer, TSA purchased 150 more machines from Rapiscan with $25 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.
HomelandDefenseStocks.com Jan 4, 2010 – American Science and Engineering announces $39 million dollar govt contract for cargo x-ray machines.
St Petersburg Times Jan 5, 2010 – The Transportation Security Administration last week awarded a contract to L-3 Communications to buy up to $165 million worth of its ProVision scanners. The TSA recently said it ordered 150 Rapiscan scanners to be installed this year and had funding for an additional 300 from an unidentified source.
MSNBC Jan 5, 2010 – Olbermann – Detroit bomber intel failure: ‘Conspiracy or cock up?’ “That has got to be an area that the White House is looking into and, you know, motives can be hard to assess because it’s not clear that this person was easily identified as a terrorist. Even with the father coming forward saying they had concerns, was that more of a family concern or were there enough fingerprints here about the radicalization of this individual to suggest that it should have been taken to a different level – at the very least a security level beyond more than a nominal sharing of information. That’s where this inquiry, this internal inquiry, for the moment, has to go.”
Toledo Blade Jan 8, 2010 – Obama orders $1B spent in advanced-technology equipment, including body scanners, for screening passengers at airports.
McClatchy Jan 12, 2010 – Poll: Most Americans would trim liberties to be safer – The survey found 51 percent of Americans agreeing that “it is necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism.” At the same time, 36 percent agreed that “some of the government’s proposals will go too far in restricting the public’s civil liberties.”
CNN Jan 22, 2010 - Authorities were watching different Nigerian on Christmas Day flight – Emmanuel Chukwu shared the same travel itinerary with Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the suspect in the unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Amsterdam, Netherlands-to-Detroit flight. Both men were originally from Nigeria and had studied as engineers. – Federal agents pulled Chukwu aside for several hours of intense screening when Northwest 253 landed in Detroit, shortly after authorities say AbdulMutallab tried to set off an explosive device concealed in his underwear.
London Guardian Jan 26, 2010 – UK goes ahead and announced the pat-down will NOT be an alternative to the naked x-ray when it goes on trial a week from now in Heathrow airport.
Xinhuanet (China) Dec 30, 2009 – One of only a few articles found mentioning the stocks of any related companies, who benefits. Almost only in international news, and Business Week. Thanks China.
Democracy Now Dec 30, 2009 – A Look at Obama’s Handling of the Case and the Media’s Coverage. President Obama has acknowledged that a “systemic failure” of the nation’s intelligence and security measures paved the way for last week’s aborted bomb attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Boston Globe Jan 2, 2010 – A more heavily covered aspect: The Chertoff Group, Michael Chertoff’s security consulting agency, includes a client that manufactures the machines. In the summer, TSA purchased 150 more machines from Rapiscan with $25 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.
HomelandDefenseStocks.com Jan 4, 2010 – American Science and Engineering announces $39 million dollar govt contract for cargo x-ray machines.
St Petersburg Times Jan 5, 2010 – The Transportation Security Administration last week awarded a contract to L-3 Communications to buy up to $165 million worth of its ProVision scanners. The TSA recently said it ordered 150 Rapiscan scanners to be installed this year and had funding for an additional 300 from an unidentified source.
MSNBC Jan 5, 2010 – Olbermann – Detroit bomber intel failure: ‘Conspiracy or cock up?’ “That has got to be an area that the White House is looking into and, you know, motives can be hard to assess because it’s not clear that this person was easily identified as a terrorist. Even with the father coming forward saying they had concerns, was that more of a family concern or were there enough fingerprints here about the radicalization of this individual to suggest that it should have been taken to a different level – at the very least a security level beyond more than a nominal sharing of information. That’s where this inquiry, this internal inquiry, for the moment, has to go.”
Toledo Blade Jan 8, 2010 – Obama orders $1B spent in advanced-technology equipment, including body scanners, for screening passengers at airports.
McClatchy Jan 12, 2010 – Poll: Most Americans would trim liberties to be safer – The survey found 51 percent of Americans agreeing that “it is necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism.” At the same time, 36 percent agreed that “some of the government’s proposals will go too far in restricting the public’s civil liberties.”
CNN Jan 22, 2010 - Authorities were watching different Nigerian on Christmas Day flight – Emmanuel Chukwu shared the same travel itinerary with Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the suspect in the unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Amsterdam, Netherlands-to-Detroit flight. Both men were originally from Nigeria and had studied as engineers. – Federal agents pulled Chukwu aside for several hours of intense screening when Northwest 253 landed in Detroit, shortly after authorities say AbdulMutallab tried to set off an explosive device concealed in his underwear.
London Guardian Jan 26, 2010 – UK goes ahead and announced the pat-down will NOT be an alternative to the naked x-ray when it goes on trial a week from now in Heathrow airport.
The Detroit News Jan 27, 2010 – Admission that AbdulMutallab was more than just on a list, but actively being used in part of a larger project. “Revocation action would’ve disclosed what they were doing,” Kennedy said in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Allowing Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, “rather than simply knocking out one solider in that effort.”
Kurt Haskell via Prison Planet Jan 30, 2010 – “Since our flight landed on Christmas Day, Lori and I have been doing everything in our power to uncover the truth about why we were almost blown up in the air over Detroit. The truth is now finally out after the publication of the following Detroit News article”
UK Daily Mail Jan 30, 2010 – “Terrorists ‘plan attack on Britain with bombs INSIDE their bodies’ to foil new airport scanners”
BBC Feb 1, 2010 – “‘No scan, no flight’ at Heathrow and Manchester”…”It is now compulsory for people selected for a scan to take part, or they will not be allowed to fly. The new security rules have been introduced following the attempt to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day.”
Bloomberg Feb 5, 2010 – Airport Body Scanning Raises Radiation Exposure, Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety says
Times of India Feb 9, 2010 – Australia to introduce body scanners after failed US attack
IBN Live Feb 10, 2010 – New 3D scanner at airports not to show body parts – Canada has also ordered installation of 44 scanners at all its important airports.
American Civil Liberties Union Feb 10, 2010 – Body Scanner = Naked Movie Star Pictures; That Didn’t Take Long – We’re not the type to say “I told you so.” Alright maybe we are. In this case we just couldn’t help ourselves.
NPR Feb 17, 2010 – Accused Christmas Bomber Listened to Music, Slept – “Well, I mean, it was a threat, of course, it was a threat because initially, he was trying to blow up the plane but he didn’t succeed. I mainly treat him this way because of how he reacted towards what he was doing. And what his actions told me on the plane was that he was in over his head, and that he didn’t exactly know what he was doing would entail.”
Reuters March 16, 2010 – U.S. air travelers complain about body scans
Chicago Tribune March 16, 2010 – Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says – Currently, air travelers have the option to submit to a pat-down and metal-detecting wanding. – “We expect at some point all passengers will receive a body scan”
CNN April 21, 2010 – Groups ask DHS to suspend full-body imagers – More than 30 privacy and civil liberties groups are asking the Department of Homeland Security to suspend the use of full body imagers at airports, saying there is evidence that privacy safeguards don’t work and the devices are not effective.
So it was announced on Dec 14th that the companies building and selling the selected machines, Rapiscan Systems (interestingly run by Deepak Chopra) and Smiths Detection (British company), that the TSA would buy their machines in the next 30 days {ATW}, and i performed many thorough Google News searches in January to compile a history of this shorter narrative. Starting with a more general searches like: “X-ray body scanners terrorists“, sorted by date, then start filtering by eye for articles related to this kind of x-ray technology. Google News archive searches were also done, sorted by date, for each of the companies now making the x-ray naked scanning machines for airports, and each of the terrorists.
Though i was later able to find some more articles with different searches, this acted as one benchmark of how likely most people had heard the news on this terrorism narrative around Christmas. Google News, Default (Recent) Searches done in mid-January:
Rapiscan – 13 Pages, but only one article before Christmas, on Dec 14th
Smiths Detection – 6 Pages, about a dozen articles before Christmas mostly on announcement of new VP, earliest was Dec 14th
American Science and Engineering – 4 Pages, all after Christmas, earliest Dec 28, 2009
ICx Technologies – 8 Pages, all after Christmas, earliest Dec 30, 2009
Smiths Detection – 6 Pages, about a dozen articles before Christmas mostly on announcement of new VP, earliest was Dec 14th
American Science and Engineering – 4 Pages, all after Christmas, earliest Dec 28, 2009
ICx Technologies – 8 Pages, all after Christmas, earliest Dec 30, 2009
You might notice how parallel the United Kingdom paths on homeland security and privacy, it’s often described as the Anglo-American Empire, they’re usually a few years ahead of us. Also notice (by article tags) how long the ACLU has been fighting this.
Since Christmas, the media coverage of course skyrockets, but the basic discussion is the same as it has been for 10 years. But now it is in all major headlines everywhere, and not just more local mentions for the areas with airports testing the technology. All the aspects and arguments summarized above were out there, but whichever ones you remember hearing from the mainstream is likely the version of the narrative desired at the top.
From reading through its media history, and reviewing the full time line generated on my database, it seems clear that elements of the military-industrial complex have been building and consistently pushing a wide variety of these naked x-ray scanners. But since such security equipment manufacturing corporations are lawfully required to maximize their profits for their shareholders, can we really even blame them if they did orchestrate this one? Brutal.
Stock Prices: Scratching One More Surface
Given the potential contract with TSA, the high predictability of a rise in the stock price immediately after the bombing attempt is itself an opportunity for anyone with foreknowledge to profit on the short-term. But even if nobody took advantage of their foreknowledge, there’s a clear long-term benefit for shareholders and helping secure their next round of government contracts.
So it was announced on Dec 14th that the companies building and selling the selected machines, Rapiscan Systems (interestingly run by Deepak Chopra) of OSI Systems and Smiths Detection (British company), that the Transportation Security Administration would buy their machines in the next 30 days {ATW}
…without major change in OSI Systems stock price,
…then a negligable rise after a press release from Smiths Group on Dec 23rd
…and finally jumping from 22.02 just before the bombing, to 32.64 by Jan 8th, just shy of a 50% increase, and is the highest point in their 12 year history!
Smiths Detection, part of Smiths Group, is on the British market and while it did have some gains following the attempt, it was no outlier in the big picture of their stock.
Given the way in which this terrorist attempt should help solidify their pending contract with TSA and is likely to continue inflating their stock, i would be completely happy if i at least heard a US mainstream media outlet MENTION this obvious potential motive. But it seems possible that the TIMING of the bombing attempt could not have been any better for Rapiscan and Smiths.
…then a negligable rise after a press release from Smiths Group on Dec 23rd
…and finally jumping from 22.02 just before the bombing, to 32.64 by Jan 8th, just shy of a 50% increase, and is the highest point in their 12 year history!
Smiths Detection, part of Smiths Group, is on the British market and while it did have some gains following the attempt, it was no outlier in the big picture of their stock.
Given the way in which this terrorist attempt should help solidify their pending contract with TSA and is likely to continue inflating their stock, i would be completely happy if i at least heard a US mainstream media outlet MENTION this obvious potential motive. But it seems possible that the TIMING of the bombing attempt could not have been any better for Rapiscan and Smiths.
Another company, though not mentioned as part of this month’s purchase is American Science and Engineering Inc, first mentioned regarding naked x-rays in airports in October 2001, but had been building these devices for PRISONS at least since 1998:
…ASEI had its first big stock doubling immediately after 9/11, with an August high of ~6 and September high of ~15
…with slow decline until the second half of 2004 when it rose to an all-time high in March ’06 of ~93
…waffling until a low of ~58 in March ’09, and rising steadily since then
…Dec 24th closed at 71.70, rising five points alone on the 28th, then announcing another $39 million govt contract for cargo x-ray machines on Jan 4th [HomelandDefenseStocks.com]
…then rising up to 83.53 by Jan 8th.
And the final company, which i learned of at the very end of this phase of the research, ICx Technologies, who makes other security devices:
…with slow decline until the second half of 2004 when it rose to an all-time high in March ’06 of ~93
…waffling until a low of ~58 in March ’09, and rising steadily since then
…Dec 24th closed at 71.70, rising five points alone on the 28th, then announcing another $39 million govt contract for cargo x-ray machines on Jan 4th [HomelandDefenseStocks.com]
…then rising up to 83.53 by Jan 8th.
And the final company, which i learned of at the very end of this phase of the research, ICx Technologies, who makes other security devices:
…while closing it’s first day in Nov ’07 at 12.60, dropping to 4.39 in Mar ’08, rising for a year then sharing ASEI’s Mar ’09 drop bringing them back down to 4.12
…they close at 4.98 on Christmas Eve, and close out 2009 at 9.52, nearly doubling!
Interestingly, the deal merging Northwest Airlines with Delta Airlines had also just been completed and is in the final steps. [ABC] But Delta’s stock appeared unaffected by the incident.
…they close at 4.98 on Christmas Eve, and close out 2009 at 9.52, nearly doubling!
Interestingly, the deal merging Northwest Airlines with Delta Airlines had also just been completed and is in the final steps. [ABC] But Delta’s stock appeared unaffected by the incident.
But again, many defense contractor stocks increased in response to this terrorist attempt, as most such companies and government directly benefit from 9/11. This is just meant to demonstrate how tangible and concrete this motive is, both for these companies and financial speculators with inside information. After all, Wall Street is where the largest sum of wealth and power in world history are currently being consolidated.
Corrections, Additions, Feedback
Open Source Intelligence. I am 100% open to receiving constructive criticisms of this analysis in progress, and will incorporate anything else interesting learned into the essay to keep improving it (maybe until some massive new development in the story). So please teach me more, and add your comments on this essay with help like…
- Other articles or documents deserving highlights in the streamlined data dump, for any side of any sub-topic
- Important sub-topics missing from discussion
- Finding any more info on how the stocks lay over the narrative
- Suggest corrections to clarify phrasing, if mine is ‘fact’ually inaccurate
Revolving Door Reversal! Brief Case Study with Swine Flu
Feb 4th
Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, until just a few months ago he was a leader of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, the oldest institution uniting Europe since 1949, now representing 47 countries. He obtained his postgraduate qualifications in internal medicine and pneumology, in public health, social medicine, hygiene and environmental medicine in Germany and further training in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University.
After resigning he immediately joined the fraud investigation regarding the Swine Flu Panic of ’09, he pushed it to the Council, and received their consensus in confirming various acts of corruption. In part, this must be due to the dozens of independent journalists around the world who have been collecting information since the months before the flu even started. Their flags of interest were raised by the FEMA/military preparations for pandemics and/or the growing billions of dollars of vaccine stockpiles approaching their expiration date.
We must encourage more of this kind of Revolving Door Reversal, where people leave to fight for justice, instead of succumbing to the greedy gravitation towards corporations. Push 100% for rational discussion and debate on any topic upon leaving, as we have been at a loss for checks and balances. Perhaps this can be the more typical Revolving Door of the next century, thank you Dr. Wodarg!
Key Points Now Officially Confirmed:
- World Health Organization (WHO) drastically changed the definition of “pandemic”
- Mass produced vaccine was not nearly adequately tested, and used adjuvants with unknown side-effects
- Officials received alternate vaccines without adjuvants
- Vaccines were patented, so supply and profits bottle-necked through a few big Pharma giants. He argues the better alternative is to allow no patents and share the process everywhere to enable local production.
- Some WHO officials were paid off to help promote the panic
- Poland, France and Germany were right not to take the vaccine
- Japanese already bought the vaccines, but now know, and aren’t sure whether to administer them
- One of his stated goals in pushing for this justice is to repair the WHO and restore its honor and trust with the world’s people
Full Interview from Feb 3rd. It’s in 3 parts, 30 minutes total:
…please start with 5 minutes if you’re nervous, and hopefully you’ll be interested
Part 1:
Part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=x7xy1cM45XI
Part 3: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xqOX8Q-Y4h4
There are layers of scandals i will not go into detail on, but each of the pharmaceutical companies making the vaccines have an offense track record to be chosen again by WHO. There was lots of obvious media to prepare our minds to accept martial law, quarantines and forced inoculations as the logical reactions to such a pandemic.
My foreknowledge of almost all of this fraud since the beginning, because Alex Jones/ Prison Planet/ Infowars is ONE OF my sources for news…
For two years, I have learned a lot from watching nearly every episode of Rachel Maddow, The Daily Show, Colbert Nation, many Democracy Now and Infowars broadcasts. A few times a month, Infowars will break a story they have received from listeners, then verified, by the over 3 million awakening people a week between radio, internet broadcast and people re-post on YouTube, etc. Then two or three weeks later the online buzz from inescapable facts covered by alternative media forces the information into the mainstream. We are often validated again by being able to accurately predict the narrative for the reaction to these facts, as presented in the mainstream media. Once you get the feel of their narratives, you’ll give the movie three thumbs down for predictability and unnecessary gore.
Thus watching the frequency of accurate analysis in my experience, the Infowars method is far more historically accurate for past, present and future events that the top-down media outlets, though the rest of those shows aren’t too terrible, they have topic limits. Alex Jones has evolving into more of a hub for this kind of information, and not some unilateral source. The bigger it gets, the more it becomes like a Wiki style media, collaborating with a broad variety of people with shared root concerns. And yes he can have a shock-style presentation sometimes, but given the gravity of his content i can rarely blame him for his passion. One should compensate for the bias behind any presentation of information, and even without any spin, the facts scream for themselves.
Here is a fairly clear prediction aired 11 months ago on the Alex Jones show…ONE MONTH before the flu startedand then hit the headlines. Dr. Rebecca Carley explains how she was already watching these companies because of the millions of vaccines about to expire. They also discuss some of the potential directions the conspirators could go with a consciously initiated pandemic, but there is more modern eugenics background needed to accept the possibility of those more hypothetical parts of their predictions. We can certainly now prove the basic fraud confirmed the Council of Europe this week.
Full disclosure on this doctor…this apparently happened: http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/carley.html
It looks like her license was revoked because people thought she was crazy, largely due to her vocal anti-vaccination position and trauma from her child’s vaccine reactions, “Dr. Labins also stated that the Respondent believes that the government is interested in pursuing all persons who are opposed to vaccinating children, which is part of a global government plot in collusion with the drug industry.” It is therefore ironic that almost a year after making these predictions she should be at least partially vindicated for her fears of vaccine conspiracies. She also charged fear of being discriminated against for her vaccine beliefs, which sounds like a discriminatory charge. I have not delved to her history, found this side-note interesting, and it does little to invalidate her now confirmed prediction in my mind.
Infowardocs.org also has over 200 articles chronicled, largely from those first months of Swine Flu Panic ’09:
http://infowardocs.org/index.php?allchron=1&x=OR&tag1=3366
And after watching media narratives and coverage trends for years, these are some more interesting articles which i felt were mentally preparing me/us for some kind of pandemic (dangerous or not) coming soon to a city near you…
Wired Mar 24, 2008 – flashback to March 24, 1976: Ford Orders Swine-Flu Shots for All – first observed at Fort Dix, New Jersey
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/dayintech_0324
Bloomberg Feb 10, 2009 – Panasonic Sends Workers’ Families Home on Flu Risk – Panasonic Corp. has instructed Japanese workers assigned to parts of Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and South America to send family members back to Japan because of the risk of outbreaks of new influenza strains, Nikkei English News said, without citing anyone.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aXjbg7pIcXo4&refer=japan
Bloomberg Feb 24, 2009 – Baxter Sent Bird Flu Virus to European Labs by Error – The contamination was discovered when ferrets at a laboratory in the Czech Republic died after being inoculated with vaccine made from the samples early this month – experts later explain how this could not possibly be an accident with much of the Biosafety Level 3 standards which were supposedly in place
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aTo3LbhcA75I
Times of India Mar 6, 2009 – Virus mix-up by lab could have resulted in pandemic – It’s emerged that virulent H5N1 bird flu was sent out by accident from an Austrian lab last year and given to ferrets in the Czech Republic before anyone realized. As well as the risk of it escaping into the wild, the H5N1 got mixed with a human strain, which might have spawned a hybrid that could unleash a pandemic.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health–Science/Science/Virus-mix-up-by-lab-could-have-resulted-in-pandemic/articleshow/4230882.cms
Scientific American April 2009 – Our Sick Farms, Our Infected Food – Congress and the FDA must upend the nation’s agricultural policies to keep its food supply safe – Graphic shows pigs, and explains how dirty farms can give humans diseases. Note that to make it in this issue, this was written before the outbreak.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sick-farms-infected-food
CNN Apr 22, 2009 – (Two days beforethe virus news breaks) 3 virus vials missing from Fort Detrick, MD – In 97 percent of cases, humans with the virus suffer flu-like symptoms, but it can be deadly in about 1 out of 100 cases, according to Caree Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for the Army’s Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/22/missing.virus.sample/index.html
Following these hints,the first big Swine Flu story of the year breaks on April 24, 2009:
http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=swine+flu&scoring=n&hl=en&ned=us&um=1&sa=N&sugg=d&as_ldate=2009/04&as_hdate=2009/04&lnav=dt
A CONCEPT: Wikication, a Wiki-Based Education Curriculum
Feb 3rd
So i had an idea this week which i’m throwing out there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikication, but they promptly notified that it would be deleted for not being a real thing so…
http://www.youthrights.net/index.php?title=Wikication
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Wikication
http://ideas.wikia.com/wiki/Wikication
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=283309491091
Here is a copy of how it’s been started…
Goals – Foster curiosity and ability to research and think critically, by allowing students wider flexibility in study topics. Develop a more balanced history of the world based on less biased minds, if enough schools in the world incorporated this simple idea into their curriculum. Empowers students by publishing their work to the world to submit it.
University/High School/Middle School Classes
Assignment Prerequisites: Basic knowledge on the process of researching (to level desired), both in the Card Catalog and the Google. The students are taught the basic syntax and method of properly documenting their writing, Wiki-style.
The concept is one assignment template which could be integrated once into a curriculum, of be used for most parts of a curriculum, as appropriate. Multiple assignments could focus on specific a range, or each assignment having its own range, as required.
Basic Assignment Template
- A broad range of topics is defined for the assignment, hypothetical examples:
- Any Biology subjects
- Any topics/events related to Political Science from the 1990s
- Any Physics topics related to centrifugal forces
- Any biographies of European fiction writers
- Select the appropriate Wiki on the Web
- Wikipedia – wikipedia.org – more for older students
- Simple English Wikipedia - http://simple.wikipedia.org – Intended for English as a Second Language, but maybe appropriate for younger students?
- Wikidia - http://wikidia.wikispaces.com – Another Wiki for young people
- Each student finds an article on the Wiki which is either
- Empty, or nearly empty
- Has some substance but could use more details and whole areas of discussion yet to be explored
- Has thorough documentation, but lacks a key perspective and/or contains significant, prolonged inaccuracies
- The teacher approves the topic or asks them to choose another, until it is appropriate
- Each student does research to write or modify the Wiki page and publishes their final work, giving their teacher:
- A link to the article on the Wiki
- A separate copy of their contribution
- After grading, the students would be expected to correct any [unintentional] misinformation they contributed to the Wiki
Homework Revisited – Even Better Media Tips
Feb 3rd
Over the last six months i have had deep, satisfying, and encouraging discussions with many of my friends and it seems that many ideas are just under the skin of many people. In this process, i have learned of more great options for media to help introduce these ideas to newcomers who have not already been hooked into researching random topics more deeply.
- The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (BBC 3 hours)
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-power-of-nightmares/
Wasn’t previously available online for free, but it is now, a big thank you to my hero at TopDocumentaryFilms.com! This explains how US intelligence created what is now called Al Qaeda using Bin Laden as a front to fight Russia in Afghanistan. Filled with history like how “Al Qaeda” roughly translates to “the database” and it was just the name of the database they had of these potential terrorists/assets in this fight. Also mind-blowing realization that these warmonger neocons Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz have been pulling this crap off for 3 decades. - David Ray Griffin: 9/11 The Myth and The Reality (99 min)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4069714733894389451
Steps through an amazing analysis of nine core myths of 9/11. Much less sensational presentation, and more scholarly. All sources mentioned here are also cataloged in infowardocs.org. - Fall Of The Republic: The Presidency of Barack H Obama (144 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU
Alex Jones’ latest and best, he finally took himself out of it much more…key as he has a tendency to turn off many liberals on first impressions. This is a thorough and sobering overview about the real geo-political structures running our world. It is much less about Obama himself, but about those above him. - The Pinky Show (on and off YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/user/pinkyshow
Much more liberal-biased presentation, but similar depth into many issues of imperialism and conspiracy. - Intelligence Squared Debates
I’ve cataloged many right here: http://infowardocs.org/about.php#iq2
But here are the official sites with more recent debates:
Intelligence Squared, Intelligence Squared US - Reflections And Warnings – An Interview With Aaron Russo (95 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGAaPjqdbgQ
Major interview with an outspoken rebel friend of one of the Rockefellers, about the ways in he woke up to the large-scale injustices of the world.
Welcome to InfoWar and Peace
Jun 5th
While I have not classically been a blogger, this blog will act as an outlet for any writings I have to complement my INFOWAR database:
This research database now has over 2,200 links to news articles, documents (government and corporate) and video clips, organized by over 1,700 keywords/tags and basic options to filter and search for specific topics. Thank you for your interest in these topics vital to this century!
