Demonstraties VS #5: Een jaar na de 1ste tweet.

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Op maandag 3 september 2012 17:53 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[ The Fed Audit ]

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Why Chris Hedges Believes That Serious Revolt Is the Only Option People Have Left

Chris Hedges, a former New York Times reporter, has become perhaps the foremost media scribe and most prolific advocate of a need for revolutionary change in our current institutional oppression and control of the government by the oligarchical and political elite. Hedges writes with a reporter's detail, a prophet's eloquence and a compelling sense of urgency. This is evident in his latest book, which visits the "sacrifice zones" of America.

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FBI begins installation of $1 billion face recognition system across America

Birthmarks, be damned: the FBI has officially started rolling out a state-of-the-art face recognition project that will assist in their effort to accumulate and archive information about each and every American at a cost of a billion dollars.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reached a milestone in the development of their Next Generation Identification (NGI) program and is now implementing the intelligence database in unidentified locales across the country, New Scientist reports in an article this week. The FBI first outlined the project back in 2005, explaining to the Justice Department in an August 2006 document (.pdf) that their new system will eventually serve as an upgrade to the current Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) that keeps track of citizens with criminal records across America .

“The NGI Program is a compilation of initiatives that will either improve or expand existing biometric identification services,” its administrator explained to the Department of Justice at the time, adding that the project, “will accommodate increased information processing and sharing demands in support of anti-terrorism.”

“The NGI Program Office mission is to reduce terrorist and criminal activities by improving and expanding biometric identification and criminal history information services through research, evaluation and implementation of advanced technology within the IAFIS environment.”

The agency insists, “As a result of the NGI initiatives, the FBI will be able to provide services to enhance interoperability between stakeholders at all levels of government, including local, state, federal, and international partners.” In doing as such, though, the government is now going ahead with linking a database of images and personally identifiable information of anyone in their records with departments around the world thanks to technology that makes fingerprint tracking seem like kids' stuff.

According to their 2006 report, the NGI program utilizes “specialized requirements in the Latent Services, Facial Recognition and Multi-modal Biometrics areas” that “will allow the FnewBI to establish a terrorist fingerprint identification system that is compatible with other systems; increase the accessibility and number of the IAFIS terrorist fingerprint records; and provide latent palm print search capabilities.”

Is that just all, though? During a 2010 presentation (.pdf) made by the FBI’s Biometric Center of Intelligence, the agency identified why facial recognition technology needs to be embraced. Specifically, the FBI said that the technology could be used for “Identifying subjects in public datasets,” as well as “conducting automated surveillance at lookout locations” and “tracking subject movements,” meaning NGI is more than just a database of mug shots mixed up with fingerprints — the FBI has admitted that this their intent with the technology surpasses just searching for criminals but includes spectacular surveillance capabilities. Together, it’s a system unheard of outside of science fiction.

New Scientist reports that a 2010 study found technology used by NGI to be accurate in picking out suspects from a pool of 1.6 million mug shots 92 percent of the time. The system was tested on a trial basis in the state of Michigan earlier this year, and has already been cleared for pilot runs in Washington, Florida and North Carolina. Now according to this week’s New Scientist report, the full rollout of the program has begun and the FBI expects its intelligence infrastructure to be in place across the United States by 2014.

In 2008, the FBI announced that it awarded Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, one of the Defense Department’s most favored contractors, with the authorization to design, develop, test and deploy the NGI System. Thomas E. Bush III, the former FBI agent who helped develop the NGI's system requirements, tells NextGov.com, "The idea was to be able to plug and play with these identifiers and biometrics." With those items being collected without much oversight being admitted, though, putting the personal facts pertaining to millions of Americans into the hands of some playful Pentagon staffers only begins to open up civil liberties issues.

Jim Harper, director of information policy at the Cato Institute, adds to NextGov that investigators pair facial recognition technology with publically available social networks in order to build bigger profiles. Facial recognition "is more accurate with a Google or a Facebook, because they will have anywhere from a half-dozen to a dozen pictures of an individual, whereas I imagine the FBI has one or two mug shots," he says. When these files are then fed to law enforcement agencies on local, federal and international levels, intelligence databases that include everything from close-ups of eyeballs and irises to online interests could be shared among offices.

The FBI expects the NGI system to include as many as 14 million photographs by the time the project is in full swing in only two years, but the pace of technology and the new connections constantly created by law enforcement agencies could allow for a database that dwarfs that estimate. As RT reported earlier this week, the city of Los Angeles now considers photography in public space “suspicious,” and authorizes LAPD officers to file reports if they have reason to believe a suspect is up to no good. Those reports, which may not necessarily involve any arrests, crimes, charges or even interviews with the suspect, can then be filed, analyzed, stored and shared with federal and local agencies connected across the country to massive data fusion centers. Similarly, live video transmissions from thousands of surveillance cameras across the country are believed to be sent to the same fusion centers as part of TrapWire, a global eye-in-the-sky endeavor that RT first exposed earlier this year.

“Facial recognition creates acute privacy concerns that fingerprints do not,” US Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) told the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law earlier this year. “Once someone has your faceprint, they can get your name, they can find your social networking account and they can find and track you in the street, in the stores you visit, the government buildings you enter, and the photos your friends post online.”

In his own testimony, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Alessandro Acquisti said to Sen. Franken, “the convergence of face recognition, online social networks and data mining has made it possible to use publicly available data and inexpensive technologies to produce sensitive inferences merely starting from an anonymous face.”

“Face recognition, like other information technologies, can be source of both benefits and costs to society and its individual members,” Prof. Acquisti added. “However, the combination of face recognition, social networks data and data mining can significant undermine our current notions and expectations of privacy and anonymity.”

With the latest report suggesting the NGI program is now a reality in America, though, it might be too late to try and keep the FBI from interfering with seemingly every aspect of life in the US, both private and public. As of July 18, 2012, the FBI reports, “The NGI program … is on scope, on schedule, on cost, and 60 percent deployed.”

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Chicago teachers' strike continues as Emanuel scrambles to settle dispute

Unions and school board fail to reach a settlement over pay and conditions as teachers' walkout heads into second day

A strike by thousands of teachers in Chicago, the third-largest US school district, headed into its second day Tuesday, creating a political headache for Mayor Rahm Emanuel just as the former chief aide to President Barack Obama takes on a larger role in his former boss's campaign.

The walkout by 26,000 teachers and support staff forced hundreds of thousands of parents to scramble for a place to send children and created an unwelcome political distraction for Emanuel. In a year when labor unions have been losing ground nationwide, the implications were sure to extend far beyond Chicago, particularly for districts engaged in similar debates.

City officials acknowledged that children left unsupervised especially in neighborhoods with a history of gang violence might be at risk, but vowed to protect the nearly 350,000 students' safety.

The two sides resumed negotiations Monday but failed to reach a settlement, meaning the strike will extend into at least a second day.

Chicago school board president David Vitale said board and union negotiators did not even get around to bargaining on the two biggest issues, performance evaluations or recall rights for laid-off teachers. Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis said that was because the district did not change its proposals.

"This is a long-term battle that everyone's going to watch," said Eric Hanuskek, a senior fellow in education at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. "Other teachers unions in the United States are wondering if they should follow suit."

Thousands of teachers and their supporters took over several downtown streets during the Monday evening rush. Police secured several blocks around district headquarters as the crowds marched and chanted.

The strike in Obama's hometown quickly got caught up in election-year politics, as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Chicago teachers were turning their backs on thousands of students and accused Obama of siding with the striking teachers.

Obama's top spokesman said the president has not taken sides but is urging both the teachers and the city to settle quickly.

The strike's timing seems inopportune for Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff whose city administration was already wrestling with a spike in murders and shootings in some city neighborhoods before he agreed to take a larger role in fundraising for Obama's re-election.

Emanuel and the union officials have much at stake. Unions and collective bargaining by public employees have recently come under criticism in many parts of the US, and all sides are closely monitoring who might emerge with the upper hand in the Chicago dispute as election day.

The union had vowed to strike Monday if there was no agreement on a new contract, even though the district had offered a 16% raise over four years and the two sides had essentially agreed on a longer school day. With an average annual salary of $76,000, Chicago teachers are among the highest-paid in the nation, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality.

But negotiators were still divided on job security measures and a system for evaluating teachers that hinged in part on students' standardized test scores.
The strike in a district where the vast majority of students are poor and minority put Chicago at the epicenter of a struggle between big cities and teachers unions for control of schools.

Romney, who has been critical of public employee unions, said he was disappointed by the Chicago teachers' decision to walk out of negotiations and sides with parents and students over unionized teachers, in a statement released Monday hours before he was set to land in Chicago for fundraisers.

"Teachers unions have too often made plain that their interests conflict with those of our children, and today we are seeing one of the clearest examples yet," Romney said.

Emanuel, who said he would work to end the strike quickly, struck back at Romney's statement.

"While I appreciate his lip service, what really counts is what we are doing here," he told reporters. "I don't give two hoots about national comments scoring political points or trying to embarrass … the president."

Obama political aides in Chicago also criticized Romney for seeking political advantage and pointed to Romney's repeated campaign statements that class sizes do not impact students' education.

"Playing political games with local disputes won't help educate our kids, nor will fewer teachers," campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama was monitoring the situation in his hometown but was not eager to take on a role in the dispute.

"We hope that both sides are able to come together to settle this quickly and in the best interests of Chicago's students," Carney told reporters.

About 140 schools were being kept open between 8.30am and 12.30pm so the children who rely on free meals provided by the school district can eat breakfast and lunch, school district officials said.

The school district asked community organizations to provide additional programs for students, and a number of churches, libraries and other groups plan to offer day camps and other activities.

Police chief Garry McCarthy said he would take officers off desk duty and deploy them to deal with any teachers' protests as well as the thousands of students who could be roaming the streets.

Union leaders and district officials were not far apart in their negotiations on compensation, Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis said. But other key issues remain unresolved, she said.

Lewis said among the issues of concern was a new evaluation that she said would be unfair to teachers because it relied too heavily on students' standardized test scores and does not take into account external factors that affect performance, including poverty, violence and homelessness.

She said the evaluations could result in 6,000 teachers losing their jobs within two years. City officials disagreed and said the union has not explained how it reached that conclusion.

Obama has urged accountability in teachers moves that union leaders have opposed. For instance, Obama's administration has favored pilot programs that challenge current practices, rewarding schools who try new approaches and has pushed for longer school days.

Obama's education secretary, Arne Duncan, is a former head of Chicago public schools who pushed for changes that unions opposed.

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Occupy Wall Street invites you, the 99%, down to the Financial District for three days of education, celebration and resistance.

On #s17 Follow the Money, All Roads Lead to Wall Street

Last September 17th, as part of a wave of global protest, people from across the country raced to the heart of New York’s financial district to occupy Wall Street. In the face of big banks foreclosing on our homes, killing our jobs, buying up our democracy, and turning our environment into just another toxic asset, you showed up, and we became the 99%.

On September 15-17th, join us in this fight for our world – this fight for our lives.

For years, people all over the world have been crippled by the corporate greed of the 1%. They built their bonuses out of stolen pensions of teachers, civil servants, and our neighbors. We pay for their welfare. They bet and borrow against our future. We drown in debt. So who is really in debt to whom? Now our elected representatives want us to embrace austerity–work harder for less, retire later (if at all), and say goodbye to our fundamental labor protections. They’re betting on our obedience. They’re betting wrong.

Join us for three days of education, celebration and resistance to economic injustice with permitted convergences and assemblies, concerts, and mass civil disobedience.

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Activists, Journalists Celebrate as Judge Issues Permanent Injunction Against NDAA. Petitions President to Not Seek Appeal.

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[New York, NY] Judge Katherine Forrest ruled yesterday that the so-called “indefinite detention” provision (subsection 1021) of the fiscal 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) violates the Constitution and issued a permanent injunction against its application.

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REPORT: Obama Has Appealed Yesterday's Indefinite Detention Ruling

This sent a chill down my spine. In the midst of my interview with Tangerine Bolen, a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the NDAA's indefinite detention provisions & coordinator of StopNDAA.org, she received an email from her lawyer to inform her that the Obama administration has already appealed yesterday's historic court ruling. That court ruling found indefinite detention to be unconstitutional, and issued a permanent block of that provision. Listen to the full interview directly below.

For a man who doesn't want the ability to order the military to abduct and detain citizens - without charge or trial - it is quite odd that his administration is appealing yet again.

And, as stated in the interview, I would love to speak with someone from the administration on-record about this and hash it out. Why do you need this power?

Read more: http://www.businessinside(...)2012-9#ixzz26OFA3TxG

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Occupy Wall St activists to surround NYSE in effort to regain impetus

Group, which struggled to maintain momentum after initial flurry last autumn, to celebrate one-year anniversary on Monday

Activists plan to mark the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street on Monday by descending on New York's financial district in an attempt to rejuvenate a movement that has failed to sustain momentum after initially sparking a national conversation about economic inequality.

The group, which popularized the phrase "We are the 99%," will attempt to surround the New York Stock Exchange and disrupt morning rush hour in lower Manhattan, according to a movement spokeswoman.

Monday's protests will cap a weekend of Occupy seminars, music and demonstrations in New York, said Linnea Paton, 24, an Occupy Wall Street (OWS) spokeswoman. Demonstrations are also planned in other US cities, other OWS organizers said.

The grassroots movement caught the world by surprise last fall with a spontaneous encampment in lower Manhattan that soon spread to cities across North America and Europe.

Occupy briefly revived a long-dormant spirit of US social activism, and drew enduring attention to economic injustice.

But the movement's colorful cast of theatrical demonstrators struggled through last winter to sustain the momentum that first drew attention to its patchwork of economic grievances – including corporate malfeasance on Wall Street, crippling student debt and aggressive bank foreclosures on American homes.

On Sunday, organizers will provide live music, including a Foley Square concert featuring Tom Morello, guitarist for the rock band Rage Against the Machine.

At 7am Monday, some protesters will try to surround the NYSE, while others will engage in a loosely choreographed series of "sit-ins" at intersections throughout the financial district, according to OWS's website.

The tactics are designed to undermine New York police efforts to contain protesters on the narrow, winding streets of the financial district.

Last year's demonstrations featured the spectacle of activists breaking into sudden dashes down one narrow street or another, pursued by visibly frustrated police and television reporters tripping down cobblestone streets.

Sound permits for Sunday's events have been secured, Paton said, but OWS has not sought permits for Monday's protests - which last fall led to mass arrests and clashes between police and protesters. Occupy Wall Street maintains about $50,000 in its bail fund, several organizers said.

NYPD spokesman Paul Brown confirmed that no OWS demonstration permit applications were submitted, but said police will be prepared for demonstrations.

"We accommodate peaceful protests and make arrests for unlawful activity," he said.

Brown said that based on previous experience with OWS, the NYPD expects that "a relatively small group of self-described anarchists will attempt unlawful activity and try to instigate confrontations with police by others while attempting to escape arrest themselves … we expect most demonstrators to be peaceful."

New York police have made a total of 1,852 Occupy arrests as of September 12 according to Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance's office, including the arrest of 700 protesters who spilled into the roadway while marching across the Brooklyn bridge last October.

On Friday, Twitter was ordered by a New York judge to turn over the tweets of one of the protesters arrested on the bridge. That case has emerged as a closely watched court fight over law enforcement access to users' social media content.

Six weeks after the Brooklyn bridge arrests, citing public health concerns, New York authorities entered the Manhattan OWS camp and dispersed protesters. The movement has never regained its initial momentum.

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Occupy Wall Street anniversary marred by arrests and weakening support

Activists determined to mark one-year landmark but tension with police and divided opinion give the day a sense of deja vu

Occupy Wall Street's one-year anniversary began with early morning protests at New York's financial centre, but the demonstrations were marred by numerous arrests as activists marched around lower Manhattan.

On 17 September 2011 hundreds had answered a call from Adbusters, the Canadian activist magazine, sparking demonstrations against failing financial systems and the influence of money in politics that spread around the globe. Thousands of protesters took to streets and encampments before high-profile police crackdowns in New York and Oakland signalled a lull that lasted through the winter and beyond.

But Occupy protesters were determined to come out in force to mark the movement's birthday, with protests over the weekend set to culminate in Monday's encircling of Wall Street.

People were gathering near Zuccotti park at 7am, and by 7.30am there were 300-400 people stationed opposite the famous former encampment, far fewer than in the movement's heyday, when more than 10,000 people regularly came out in support. It was a beautiful, warm September's morning, just like the days last autumn when protesters kicked off demonstrations that were reported across the globe. The nature of the protests were similar, too, as protesters attempted to "shut down" Wall Street, while their failure to achieve that goal also had a sense of deja vu.

The group at Zuccotti Park was set to be one of four meeting points around lower Manhattan, with the separate demonstrations intending to surround the city's iconic financial centre.

As it turned out, Wall Street remained open, although there was some disruption.

A large police presence nullified protesters' attempts to access Wall Street, with officers arresting dozens of people in the early actions. A repeated theme of the detentions was police rushing forward to seize people identified as agitators. By about 5pm, 150 people had been arrested in New York, a significant number for demonstrations attended by comfortably fewer than a thousand people. At the end of the night, close to 200 arrests had been made.

Only people with work ID cards were allowed on to the street, with financial workers, many disgruntled, having to negotiate the crowd.

"You know, I was just thinking it's getting a little tiresome," said one besuited man with a thick grey moustache. "I just had to walk half a mile to get into my building."

There were signs, however, that Occupy Wall Street still has mainstream support. "I think they're exercising what everyone is feeling – even though we have to go to work we're still supporting what they're protesting," said 50-year-old Gabriel Adeniyi, who was watching the procession close to Wall Street, where he works as an underwriting specialist for a trust company.

"The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer."

While people may empathise with the cause, however, there was a sense of frustration among some onlookers. One man who gave his name as Bill summed it up: "They've been around, I have some sympathy, but their message is really unfocused."

The game of cat and mouse with police was quite deja vu inducing, as protesters roamed the streets, changing course as officers appeared in front of them and being ordered to "keep on the sidewalk" repeatedly.

After the morning's excitement, protesters retired to Bowling Green park in lower Manhattan, then Battery Park, in pre-planned moves, before eventually marching to Zuccotti Park, which was surrounded by barriers, but private security personnel were allowing people in.

Once there, the celebratory aspect of Monday's events came to the fore as the "drummers' circle", which antagonised so many a local resident, was revived, while elsewhere a brass band and a lone bagpiper played. There were costumes too – a large, ghoulish Statue of Liberty that was a common sight in 2011, as well as a more topical "Bain Capital", a reference to Mitt Romney's former employers. The costume was based on the Batman comic book figure, outlandishly large with one particularly bulky hand labelled "Mitt's fist".

Later in the afternoon there were marches from Zuccotti towards Wall Street, and more sporadic arrests, including the independent journalist John Knefel, whose detention was described as "completely unprovoked" by his journalist sister Molly Knefel. The detention of journalists again brought back memories of last fall, when the NYPD on occasion arrested journalists wearing NYPD credentials.

This was a smaller protest than last year, however, and there was some frustration.

"Honestly? It's a bit dead," said Jefferson Moighan, who had travelled from an hour outside New York City to attend. Moighan was involved in Occupy in October and November 2011, he said, but his participation had dwindled since then, and he was unimpressed with both numbers and tactics.

"We planned too much in advance, so police know what we're doing," he said.

Kevin Limiti, a 22-year-old from Long Island, was more optimistic, describing the day as "extremely empowering", but he too was frustrated by the actual nature of the protests. "It's just hard to do anything with police up your ass. We don't seem like we get the chance to protest freely."

There was common agreement among protesters, however, that there was still a need to draw attention to the kind of issues that brought people to the streets a year ago.

"Our problems aren't solved, our problems are plaguing our society," said Kanene Holder, an educator living in Harlem who has been a part of Occupy since the early days.

"The reason Occupy started was because our systems were so broken," she added, citing the influence of money in government following the Citizens United ruling, a common Occupy gripe. "It doesn't matter how you protest your government, or demand what you think you deserve. Do it."

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Occupy Tea Party

OTP declaration of Occupation.

Imagine a time in this country when you could say you were proud to be an American without it sounding ironic. A time when hard work was all it took to be a success. A time when your government was some benevolent guardian, rather than a pervert peeping in your windows. That is no fantasy. It existed. We are citizens who remember that America, and we would like it back.

We feel our future and our freedom are being taken from us. And we don't feel that's right or fair. We are set up to become a lost generation, and we will not sit back and let it happen. We have witnessed the bankers destroying the global economy, after making billions off their deceit. The tea party was formed partially due to the TARP bailouts, which they were told were 800 billion dollars. What they didn't know at the time was that the Federal Reserve had decided on another 16 *trillion* dollars without bothering to tell us. Trillions of which, they gave to themselves. Trillions of which, they gave to their friends in foreign banks. While America's economy collapsed.

Over 90% of our senate ratified the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. Within that document are provisions that allow the capture, torture and imprisonment of American citizens without charge or trial. Those provisions were struck down as unconstitutional by Obama Appointee Judge Kathrine Forest. Obama himself is currently demanding those provisions be reinstated, and has filed an emergency injunction to overturn her decision.

Of further interest is the NDAA2013, legalizing and standardizing the use of propaganda on American citizens by the government. Because apparently even our thoughts can't be trusted without government intervention.

On this day, September 17th, 1787, in Philadelphia, our founding fathers ratified our constitution. They warned us that the greatest threat to this document was greed and corruption. That corruption has festered like a cancer, infecting the values we were built upon. And we have decided that it's high time it's stopped.

We, members of both occupy and the tea party have decided that we have far more in common than the media has led us to believe. We have decided that there are many problems members of both parties have recognized and that the time has come they were dealt with. To that end, many of us have decided to join forces and discuss these common problems. Having identified those problems we will demand that the government recognize and fix them immediately. So far, we have agreed on the following.

1. We demand an immediate end to government corruption. No more lobbyists, no exceptions. It's legalized bribery and we will no longer tolerate it. No more PACS, SUPERPACS or any other kind of money in involved in politics. If you wish to invest in a candidate you believe in, you may do so, but only anonymously. There has been a system attempted where large donations were broken up so it was impossible to know who donated and when. If anyone wanted to donate to a judicial candidate they could do so whenever and wherever they wanted. But they were distributed at random points to the candidate, in random amounts. No one donated when they realized it was impossible to buy influence.

2. We demand an immediate end to all government infringements on the bill of rights. No trapwire. No NDAA. No Stellar wind. No nothing. The bill of rights are the rules our government was bound to abide by. And they have been breaking them left and right. Quietly, but they have been breaking them. You can hear it in Obama's speech. "My job is to make America safe." No, No it is not Mr President. Your job is to keep America free. We will no longer tolerate you infringing on the rules we made for you. And no longer will we sit idle while you rewrite them.

3. An end to the federal reserve, which is a private bank. They stole 16 trillion dollars (Nearly two times everything America makes in a year.) and gave it to themselves and foreign banks. Please. Explain to us why they're not in jail. Is it the numbers? Steal a few hundred bucks go to jail, but steal a few trillion and there's just no penalty? Is it the bribes? It's the bribes, isn't it?

4. We will no longer tolerate banks gambling with our money. Or gambling at all. Therefor we demand the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall act. These people have destroyed the global economy, damaging the lives of billions because we all subscribe to the economic system they control. And their control has led to what has to be the largest robbery in the history of the planet.

5. We will tolerate no more propaganda, or a media run by the advertizing industry. Caring nothing for informing us; only interested in keeping us compliant while American jobs are shipped overseas. We demand, in accordance to the media's agreement with the government, that they require one hour of news a night with the added statement that they no longer be allowed to advertize in any form during that hour. We want the news. Not the commercials. The advertizing is driving the content as stuffed shirts and talking heads race to see who can come up with the best line of sensationalist BS. They only care about getting the viewers, and care nothing for actually informing them. They are every bit as much to blame for this mess as anyone.

These solutions will naturally cause some situations as many of these cancers are deeply integrated within our government. There is a lot of damage that will need to be repaired. This cancer will take chemo to cure, and it's going to suck. But it has to be done.

Ending the lobbying industry means putting out of work literally thousands of people who have been barely scraping by making seven figures. The prostitution and strip club industries will take a massive hit. (Not to imply that all lobbyists are corrupt, lying sycophants. It's 98%, 99% tops.) And frankly there's no way the used car industry or legal system can handle that many applicants at once. But we will persevere regardless. These people bribe our government officials professionally. And that's got to stop.

Ending the federal reserve and fixing the banks isn't as simple as popping down to Bank of America and telling the executive who bought a seventy *thousand* dollar desk with your taxpayer money to pack it. Or going down to Ben Bernanke's office and telling him that he's fired for jacking up inflation to the point where poor people can barely afford to survive, let alone get out of poverty. If you want to know why we're paying 4$ a gallon for gas, he's the reason why. Print 16 trillion dollars without telling anyone, inflation skyrockets, meaning the value of a dollar plummets. It's not that gas is more expensive. It's that the value of the dollar is being destroyed. And this is one of the men destroying it. Every time he prints money, his friends make a killing, and 99.9999% of the country has to pay more and more to survive. He's decided to print another 400 billion over the coming months, but don't tell anyone because that's a secret.

People, it *can* be fixed. By standing together once again as Americans, we feel that any upheavel is a small price to pay for restoring the ideals our nation was founded on. A corrupt system often never sees its own corruption.

Our intent is not to harm anyone. Our intent is to ensure that the economic system that these corrupt individuals outright destroyed is allowed to be restored. And that once again individuals can have pride in their jobs, knowing for certain that the only thing between them and a bright and hopeful future is a good and honest work. We want a nation with an educational system that once again produces the smartest people on earth. A world where soldiers are honored as heroes rather than enforcers of a dictatorship. A world with a police force that can be respected as protectors of the peace rather than shock troops for the people paying off our government.

We are forming something new here, and both the left and the right have been heavily inundated with propaganda for years. We are effectively speaking two different languages. Because of this we are going to demand open and honest communication, tolerance, and politeness of all those participating. Understand that we have all been *lied* to.

Our intent is to foster communication between the left and the right in America, (both on and off line) to find policies and practices that appeal to both sides, then to demand that both parties in our government act on those policies. We will attempt to field candidates, once this platform has been further refined. We will meet together and through openness and honesty, discuss what else we all feel needs to be done to fix our nation. We will ignore the media, and if we want to know the "other side's" opinion on something, we will freaking ask them. And if we don't understand why they would feel that way, we will have them explain their viewpoint until we do. Kind of like how the government is *supposed* to function.

Over the next weeks and months we will be building a communication network designed to encourage everyone to discuss their real and honest viewpoints. We also think it would be very nice to start seeing some joint occupations, or rallies; but that may have to wait until more of the misunderstandings between the left and right have been resolved. We are going to focus on ignoring the mainstream media, because the job they've done has been appalling. Instead we will focus on verified and accurate information from independent sources. When in doubt, ask each other. We all have some very hard truths we are going to have to recognize, as we have been being lied to for a very, very long time. We will stand together, as American citizens, regardless of politics, religion, race or creed. A melting pot. That's what America's always been best at. It's time we got that back.

We will have no violence, no bickering and no fighting. We will be peaceful, polite and obey the law, beyond the exciting new ones outlawing the first amendment. We will not rest and we will not stop until the US government once again respects the will of its citizens. We want our country and our planet back.

What can you do? Stop believing your media for a start. Question everything. Listen to each other regardless of your politics. There are dire signs and warnings we all need to be aware of. Share your ideas and stop letting them divide us along stupid party lines. You don't have to agree on everything, nor will you. But that's ok. If you don't agree on a topic, move on to something else. Politely. As we progress we will find more and more issues we agree on, slowly field candidates for office and put pressure on our elected representatives to remind them that they work for *us*, not the other way around. Organize a massive bi-partisan write in campaign. March outside the homes and offices of these people until they finally realize that we will no longer tolerate their greed and lies. Everyone deserves a voice, but we must make sure what's said is true and accurate. Do not let them divide you any longer. We are all Americans.

Therefor, we, citizens of America, conservatives, liberals, democrats and republicans are proud to stand together. We hereby announce the Occupy Tea Party. We cordially invite all members of both movements to participate, along with any individual concerned about retaining their freedom and the sovergnity of the Bill of Rights. However, we would ask that they do so politely and while conducting themselves with honor, tolerance and integrity. We are not socialists, we are not anarchists, we are not racists, we're not hippies or rednecks. We are concerned citizens who have had enough of the government we put in power ignoring our voices.

The people, united, will never be defeated. There is no problem this country has that we can not solve, provided we work together.

Expect us.

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Secretive TrapWire company's affiliations revealed

Just discovered documentation concerning the TrapWire secret surveillance system suggests that the San Diego-based Cubic Corporation did have a direct connection with the program, despite repeated attempts to dismiss allegations of their involvement.

Although Cubic has gone on the record on several occasions to refute claims that they have at one time or another been directly tied to the Abraxas Applications, the Northern Virginia company believed to have developed TrapWire, a post published this week on the PrivacySos.org blog discusses evidence that links the two firms to one another. Cubic has repeatedly insisted that it has no link to TrapWire, a widespread, international surveillance and intelligence system brought to light in emails distributed by WikiLeaks, but new revelations expose a relationship between the two that was documented on a federal website as recently as February of last year.

As RT unraveled the TrapWire saga earlier this year, investigations into both Cubic and Abraxas revealed a number of associations among the two. In an August 13, 2012 press release, Cubic came forth and admitted to acquiring Abraxas Corp in December of 2010, but insisted, “Abraxas Corporation then and now has no affiliation with Abraxas Applications now known as Trapwire, Inc.” The latest revelation directly discredits that claim.

PrivacySos reports that a website maintained by the US Homeland Security Department’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) includes TrapWire as a product for sale to law enforcement agencies and first responders. It’s there that the background and operational concept of the system are described in detail and direct curious customers to AbraxasCorp.com for more information. When a link to the URL is clicked, the banner at the top of the developer’s homepage described Abraxas as “A Cubic Company.” On the FEMA page, the product information is detailed as provided directly by Abraxas Applications

"The Products Section includes commercially available product information that has been uploaded directly and voluntarily by the manufacturer,” the FEMA page acknowledges.

If that is indeed the case, either the federal government is hosting falsified information about TrapWire to prospective customers, or else the program was overseen to a degree by Cubic as previously suspected. If it’s the latter, then the August 13 statement was a downright lie.

On the PrivacySos post, published Tuesday, its acknowledged that Cubic has previously been confirmed as operating fare systems for major mass transit programs and Anonymizer, an IP-masked tool described by its publicists as “the leader in consumer online anonymity solutions.”

“If the government's facts are correct, the Abraxas Corporation was managing sales for the TrapWire system at least as recently as February 2011 – meaning Cubic had its hands on both highly sensitive private information on millions of ordinary people and a networked surveillance system sold to governments,” PrivacySOS notes.

In addition to the press release that attempted to distance Cubic from TrapWire, activist and Project PM founder Barrett Brown uploaded a phone call to YouTube he alleged to be between himself and Cubic Corp. Communication Director Tim Hall. In the clip, published August 21, Mr. Hall denied his company’s involvement with TrapWire and also insisted that Cubic has never been tied to Ntrepid, a separate corporation that was awarded $2.76 million worth of taxpayer dollars to create phony Internet “sock puppets” to propagate US support.

“There is no connection at all with Abraxas Applications and Trapwire and or Ntrepid,” the man perpetrated to be Hall explains in the clip. Research into the entities, however, led to the discovery of Abraxas Corporation’s tax filings from late 2011, and with it, a common bond: TrapWire Inc. was registered in 2009 to a Margaret A Lee from Virginia, who also served on the Ntrepid board of directors.

“Since the government's intelligence and data management contracting operations are so secretive and opaque, we may never know what's really going on – whether Cubic in fact operates transit data systems, so-called IP anonymizers and surveillance systems sold to governments,” the PrivacySOS post reads. “[It] doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. That's because we know more than enough to be convinced that we need a mass movement for privacy in the United States, whether or not these connections are real.”

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Occupy activists commandeer anti-Occupy Wall Street rally

Protest backed by billionaire Koch brothers fizzles out as Occupiers match numbers and attend with host of satirical signs

A conservative rally billed as an opportunity to "stand up to Occupy Wall Street extremists" fell flat on Thursday when it was co-opted by members of Occupy Wall Street.

Supporters of Americans for Prosperity, a Tea Party-esque group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, gathered at the Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan to demonstrate against both Occupy Wall Street and President Obama.

But almost half of the sparse crowd were Occupy Wall Street protesters, smartly dressed and bearing signs parodying Americans for Prosperity's ultra-conservative message.

"My sign says: 'I'm dreaming of a white president, just like the ones we used to have,'" said Stan Williams, a labour organiser and member of the Occupy movement.

"There were some people, with my sign especially, who said why are you bringing race into it," said Williams, who is black. "But there were about five or six people who said: 'That's a great sign.'"

Warren Bancroft, co-founder of the satirical group Americans for Inequality, whose Facebook page describes the organisation as a "group of concerned citizens who cherish America's history of vast inequalities", was drawing approving nods from the Americans for Prosperity crowd as he loudly criticised the Occupy movement, arguing that "inequality plays a positive role".

"We're committed to reversing the narrative of inequality in this country," Bancroft said. "For the last year it's been dominated by the problems of inequality and the perils of inequality, but the truth is if you look at economic history, inequalities signal incentives to everyone in a dynamic market economy."

The dozen or so Americans for Prosperity supporters were almost matched in number by attendees pretending to be from Americans for Prosperity. Among other Occupy signs in the crowd were "Let them eat cake," and "I hate libraries", while a woman dressed in business attire had a piece of cardboard bearing the message "Every man for himself" – the quote attributed to Jesus Christ.

"There's a tradition of this," said a woman called Frances, an Occupy demonstrator who did not want to give her last name.

"There was a group called Billionaires for Bush that would dress up and they would come to demonstrations, and they would do a little skit about how they were billionaires and how they were very happy with the Bush tax cuts and the wars for oil.

"There's a tradition of street theatre and this was a little bit of street theatre."

Not all the parodists were necessarily affiliated with Occupy, however, with the Americans for Prosperity rally seemingly acting as a dog whistle for satire.

"I'm sick of the Occupy Wall Street protests … I'm sorry that I was born to a certain family and that I make more money than you. Maybe you should go and get a job," said a man who gave his name as John Wilker, who was clad in business attire and insisted he worked in the financial district.

"These are true patriots here. They're fighting the good fight to still make sure Americans such as myself are still given the opportunities that we've had for decades and decades and decades."

Wilker said he was not a part of the Occupy movement, but he and his companion Robert Stetson appeared to be engaging in the 'street theatre' Frances had mentioned.

"I think it's fine that the 1% earns far more than the 99%, that's how it should be. There should be a group of people that has worked hard, that has been able to set themselves apart. It's America," Stetson said. He and Wilker, like the Occupy infiltrators, were repeatedly questioned by the green T-shirt wearing Americans for Prosperity, rather derailing the rally and distracting from speakers.

The event had been organised as part of the group's "Failing Agenda" bus tour across the US. Americans for Prosperity has three coaches crossing the country, drawing attention to what it sees as Obama's failings on the economy, and Steve Lonegan, the organisation's New Jersey state director had described its stop outside the Rockefeller Center in New York as having an anti-Occupy theme.

But after Lonegan kicked off the rally just after 10.30am, summarising Obama's "failing agenda" and describing the need to "return ourselves to free market capitalism", bickering swiftly broke out in the crowd as Americans for Prosperity supporters sensed they were being infiltrated.

A red-haired Americans for Prosperity supporter was among the more vocal. "I built my own business, OK? Nobody gave it to me. I built it. What about you, who paid for your shoes? Who paid for your shoes?," she inquired as she tailed an Occupier bearing a "Let them eat cake" sign through the crowd.

"I was letting her know that my family, my mother – a single mother – had to support us," the red-haired woman told the Guardian. "That my mother took care of us and she was very poor. That when I was a little girl, we had to eat oatmeal, and our desert was a piece of toast with a little sugar on it. I let her know that my family had nothing and we boot-strapped our way up on our own."

TARU NYPD Video Leak Det. Pierre Broadway & Cortland

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This video is part of the Anonymous leak from the #N15 #OWS raid and eviction. Det. Pierre is filming a clearing of the sidewalk of Broadway and Cortland just North of Zuccotti/Liberty Park

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Anonymous Releases Sixty Hours of NYPD Footage from Occupy Wall Street Raid

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Members of the hacktivist group Anonymous have released sixty hours of footage of the raid by the New York Police Department against Occupy Wall Street on November 15, 2011. The footage posted is from the NYPD’s Technical Assistance Research Unit (TARU), a surveillance unit that is regularly present at political demonstrations to film police actions.

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To use a term writer Glenn Greenwald has used, this act of forcible radical transparency was couched as a response to the NYPD’s decision to deny freedom of the press during the raid. The right people have to view this footage, according to Anonymous, stems from the fact that the police would not let people film or record what was unfolding the day of the raid so, in order for the public to see the truth of what happened, obtaining and releasing the NYPD’s own footage had to be done for the sake of freedom and liberty.

Incredibly, NYPD chief spokesperson Paul Browne, whose job it is to lie and spin what the NYPD does in the city in order to prevent controversy or scrutiny, told Politicker:

. It was not ‘leaked,’ and does not show any misconduct by police. Contrary to the narrator’s account, there were scores of protesters who took video with no attempts by the police to confiscate it…I saw one protester standing near me who videotaped the same opening scene in the YouTube video of officers sawing a chain that two protesters used to chain themselves to a tree in the park. Further, the west side of Zuccotti Park on Church Street was lined with television news personnel and satellite trucks, many of whom filmed events that night.

First, Browne referred to the clip online, not the eleven gigabyte torrent online with video from Detective Pierre, Detective Lombarid, Detective Rivera, Detective Cannizzaro, Detective Livingston, Detective Bellinger, Detective Cruz, and Detective Sciacca. Each were TARU officers recording video at the scene.

Second, Browne suggested to Politicker the footage was “not ‘leaked’ by the police, but possibly by someone suing us” and that it was “not much of a leak since it’s part of the court record.” If the footage was indeed “leaked” by someone with either of the lawsuits against the NYPD, that would mean someone was taking steps that could seriously compromise these efforts. The “leak” would only be able to come from individuals with suits, such as the Occupy Wall Street Library or four New York City lawmakers and several journalists.

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Third, Browne wildly claims there was no misconduct by police and no effort to confiscate any video from members of the press. But Free Press’ Josh Stearns put together a Storify documenting journalist arrests that shows this could not be more untrue.

According to Stearns, November 15 was the “single worst day for journalist attacks and arrests to date.” NPR freelancer Julie Walker was arrested. She had NYPD credentials dangling around her neck. Jared Malsin, working for the New York Times‘ Local East Village identified himself as press, showed his credentials but was still handcuffed and arrested. Jennifer Weiss, videographer and journalist for Agence France Presse, and Karen Matthews and Seth Wenig of the Associated Press were arrested.

Patrick Hedlund, DNAinfo.com news editor and Paul Lomax, freelance photographer, were both arrested. So, too, was Doug Higginbotham, “a freelance video journalist working for TV New Zealand” who Stearns writes, was surrounded by police and “arrested as he was ‘standing on top of a phone booth trying to get a wide shot of the scene.’”

The New York Times reported on the NYPD-enforced media blackout. Members of the media said, “They were shoved by the police.” They shared how the NYPD had not distinguished between protesters and members of the press and had even put a New York Post reporter in a “choke-hold.” Gabe Pressman, president of The New York Press Club, wrote a letter to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, stating, “The brash manner in which officers ordered reporters off the streets [on the night of the eviction] and then made them back off until the actions of the police were almost invisible” was “outrageous.”

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There's something happening here

^{Steven Ashby is a professor of labor relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.}

Teachers go on strike in Chicago and Lake Forest. Chicago symphony musicians walk out. Machinists walk picket lines in Joliet, and Wal-Mart warehouse workers stop working in Elwood. Gov. Pat Quinn gets chased from the state fair by angry government workers, and talk of a state workers strike is rumbling.

"There's something happening here. What it is, ain't exactly clear," wrote Stephen Stills in a 1968 song that came to symbolize the 1960s as a decade of social movements and rapid change.

The same words aptly describe labor relations in the United States today. It seems, as 1960s icon Bob Dylan sang in 1964, "the times they are a-changin'."

In February 2011 we witnessed the Wisconsin workers' uprising. When Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature passed unprecedented anti-union legislation that also deeply cut social services, hundreds of thousands of people came to the state capital to protest, and several thousand occupied the Capitol for two weeks.

That movement ended with the governor beating a recall effort. Similar legislation in Ohio, though, was overturned when, instead of a recall, organizers turned to a referendum and won 61 percent of the vote in support of workers' rights.

Then in September 2011 the Occupy Wall Street movement erupted and rapidly spread to hundreds of cities across the country. Tens of thousands of previously uninvolved young people took to the streets — and tents—– to protest the Great Recession and income inequality, and made "1 percent" and "the 99 percent" part of our national discourse. That movement dissipated as winter weather hit and police tore town tent cities.

Things turned quiet again, leading pundits earlier this year to suggest that Wisconsin and Occupy were blips on an otherwise quiet labor relations landscape.

Then the Chicago Teachers Union strike happened. What was most notable was that this was not a typical strike of recent years, where a small number of strikers passively picket a site and the real action is going on at the bargaining table. Instead, the CTU mobilized nearly all of its 26,000 members in daily mass rallies and marches, and drew in large numbers of supporters.

Historical change is often best understood by looking at turning points — key moments when history began to dramatically change. Three citywide labor strikes in 1934 ended a period of relative passivity and heralded the country's largest and most successful worker uprising. The 1955 Montgomery bus boycott initiated the nation-changing civil rights movement.

So are Wisconsin, Occupy and the CTU strike another turning point that future historians will see as the beginning of a new mass workers' movement demanding social change?

If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on it. One key ingredient in the making of historical turning points is that people begin to view street protests as normal instead of weird. Instead of viewing a mass march on TV or the occupation of a building as strange and scary, many people watch those same events and think to themselves, "Good for them. That's what it takes to get anything done in this country. Maybe I'll join them."

You could feel that if you picketed or marched with the Chicago teachers — the constant horn honking in solidarity, the waves and smiles of people from building windows or porch stoops, even the nods of approval from police officers.

Another ingredient in the making of historical turning points is the creation of hope. Occupy and Wisconsin inspired hundreds of thousands of people — but neither succeeded in making change. But the Chicago teachers strike was a clear victory for the union.

Teachers nationwide watched this strike closely and drew hope. The success of the seven-day CTU strike will undoubtedly encourage teachers unions across the country to stand their ground and escalate their efforts to defend public education.

And unionists across the country noted that the foundations for the teachers' victory were laid over the past two years, as the CTU launched a "contract campaign" to educate, organize and mobilize its members. Every school established an organizing committee. Every member was talked to, their concerns discussed, their activism encouraged. In May the union put 6,000 teachers in the streets of downtown Chicago. In June the union overcame a unique anti-CTU law, Senate Bill 7, and turned out 92 percent of its members to nearly unanimously give the leadership strike authorization.

And during the strike, nearly all of the 26,000 teachers participated in enthusiastic, daily marches; picketed daily at schools; and met regularly to discuss strike issues and actions. They were joined by sizable numbers of supporters who came as a result of two years of the union building strong ties with community and parent organizations, and honing the message that the union fought first and foremost to defend a quality public education for every student.

This is the template for successful organizing. This is the soup from which hope emerges.

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Court declares 92 Occupy Chicago arrests unconstitutional

A judge in Cook County, Illinois on Thursday dismissed over 90 cases against Occupy Chicago activists on the grounds that they violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Judge Thomas Donnelly declared that the city’s park curfew law that was used to arrest activists in Grant Park last October was “unconstitutional both on its face and as applied and all complaints in this case are dismissed with prejudice,” according to the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).

“The Occupy Chicago demonstrators were subject to constantly changing rules and regulations that ended in a directive that they had to be constantly moving in order to protest,” the judge explained in his 37-page opinion (PDF). “Viewed in isolation the rules and regulations appear reasonable, but viewed in the larger context of the Occupy movement’s presence in Chicago, they give rise to the inference that the City was attempting to discourage this particular protest.”

“The police would promulgate a rule; when the protesters would comply, the police would change the rule,” he added. “These facts, together with the clear pattern of selective enforcement of the Curfew, support a finding that the city intended to discriminate against the Defendants based on their views.”

NLG attorney Sarah Gelsomino, who represented the activists, said that Donnelly “made the right decision by declaring the city’s ordinance unconstitutional and by dismissing the remaining cases brought by the city against activists legitimately engaged in free speech.”

Chicago Law Department spokesperson Roderick Drew told the Chicago Tribune that the city would appeal the ruling.

Raw Story (http://s.tt/1oxS9)

twitter:

AnonymousPress twitterde op maandag 01-10-2012 om 23:07:41 WTF? -> @Walmart has brought out a fully armed private security force, resembling that of #NATO #walmartstrikers http://t.co/TClu5bX8 reageer retweet

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Occupy activists fight with Ben & Jerry’s founder over The Illuminator

Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are at odds with one of the co-founders of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company after both parties failed to find common ground with how to use a piece of machinery that has become an icon of the protest movement.

Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s agreed to help out the Occupy cause back in January by vowing to contribute as much as $65,000 to be used towards developing and operating a vehicle that would light up the skyline of Lower Manhattan with messages synonymous with the movement. With the assistance of his generous contribution, a Ford Econoline van was modified into a mobile message machine powerful enough to project “We are the 99 percent” and other slogans across the city.

That was the plan, at least. Sadly, it wasn’t exactly the way the cookie dough crumbled.

Although Cohen and company managed to “The Illuminator” project off the ground, a rift has since driven the ice cream king apart from the occupiers, a group he suggests have co-opted the project he has financially backed to use it to advertise other left-leaning ideals that aren’t necessarily synonymous with OWS.

Not before long, Cohen became concerned over how The Illuminator wasn’t just lighting up New York with Occupy slogans, but was being used to advertise an array of other causes, including issues involving Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks whistleblower site and Russian punk band Pussy Riot. When he wasn’t willing to have his van used for other lines of activism, Cohen objected and a custody battle over the vehicle ensued.

“He didn’t want to have to bother with the messy part of being in a democracy,” Mark Read, the activist who claims to have initially proposed The Illuminator idea, tells DNAInfo.com.

“He’s a 1 percenter,” Read, 46, adds to the website, “telling the 99 percent, ‘I’m your boss.’”

As the disagreement between parties heated up, the Occupiers agreed to abandon ownership of the Illuminator effective October 1.

“After we put in all those hours and put ourselves at risk as activists, we had [Cohen], who had not been in the van, come in and critique us,” Read says. “To a person, I think we all feel kind of betrayed and disappointed.”

Now Cohen has once again assumed control over the cargo van, but that doesn’t mean upcoming OWS demonstrations will be without a big, generator-powered, electrical advertising machine. Occupiers have opened up a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign to collective funds for The Illuminator 2.0, a ramped-up re-do of the old Cohen van that they hope to use this season — without fearing repercussions from any future ice cream investors.

“We are the 99%, and we will be our own superhero,” OWS says in a statement to DNAInfo

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Supreme Court Terminates Warrantless Electronic Spying Case

The Supreme Court closed a 6-year-old chapter Tuesday in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s bid to hold the nation’s telecoms liable for allegedly providing the National Security Agency with backdoors to eavesdrop, without warrants, on Americans’ electronic communications in violation of federal law.

The justices, without comment, declined to review a lower court’s December decision (.pdf) dismissing the EFF’s lawsuit challenging the NSA’s warrantless eavesdropping program. At the center of the dispute was 2008 congressional legislation retroactively immunizing the telcos from being sued for cooperating with the government in a program President George W. Bush adopted shortly after the September 2001 terror attacks.

After Bush signed the legislation and invoked its authority in 2008, a San Francisco federal judge tossed the case, and the EFF appealed. Among other things, the EFF claimed the legislation, which granted the president the discretion to invoke immunity, was an illegal abuse of power.

The New York Times first exposed the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping of international phone calls to and from Americans in 2005. A former AT&T technician named Mark Klein later produced internal company documents suggesting that the NSA was surveilling internet backbone traffic from a secret room at an AT&T switching center in San Francisco, and similar facilities around the country. Klein’s evidence formed the basis of the now-dismissed suit, Hepting v. AT&T.

Cindy Cohn, the EFF’s legal director, said the group was “disappointed” with the outcome because “it lets the telecommunication companies off the hook for betraying their customers’ trust.”

The Bush administration, and now the President Barack Obama administration, have neither admitted nor denied the spying allegations — though Bush did admit that the government warrantlessly listened in on some Americans’ overseas phone calls, which he said was legal.

But as to widespread internet and phone dragnet surveillance of Americans, both administrations have declared the issue a state secret — one that would undermine national security if exposed.

After six years of legal jockeying, the merits of the allegations have never been weighed in the litigation. But some portions of them still might.

That’s because litigation on the surveillance program continues. After U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker tossed the case against the telcos, the EFF sued the government instead. Walker dismissed that case, too, ruling that it amounted to a “general grievance” from the public and not an actionable claim. But a federal appeals court reversed, and sent it down to a trial judge in December.

Judge Margaret McKeown, of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that the EFF’s claims “are not abstract, generalized grievances and instead meet the constitutional standing requirement of concrete injury. Although there has been considerable debate and legislative activity surrounding the surveillance program, the claims do not raise a political question nor are they inappropriate for judicial resolution.”

A hearing on that case is scheduled next month in San Francisco federal court.

The Obama administration is again seeking it to be tossed, claiming it threatens to expose state secrets and would be an affront to national security. When the state secrets doctrine is invoked, judges routinely dismiss cases amid fears of exposing national security secrets.

On Monday, President Obama said that in the presidential contest with Republican challenger Mitt Romney: ”We haven’t talked about what’s at stake with respect to civil liberties.” One might say that hasn’t been heard in the courts, either, under Obama’s tenure.

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Walmart targeted as workers' group plans day of action on Black Friday

Walmart dismiss as 'publicity stunt' campaign group's attempt on busiest shopping day to push for improved conditions

Workers' rights groups behind a series of strikes at Walmart stores across the US are now targeting Black Friday for the next stage of a campaign they say is aimed at improving labour conditions and stopping alleged retaliation against their members.

In recent weeks, a wave of small walkouts have hit Walmart stores in at least 28 locations in 12 different states, as a union-supported campaign group, Making Change at Walmart, and other organisations agitate for improved wages, more flexible hours and an end to what they say are punishments – such as reduced shifts – handed out to workers seeking to organise themselves.

On a conference call with journalists hosted by MCW's director, Dan Schlademan, numerous Walmart workers who have taken part in strike actions outlined plans to try and disrupt Walmart's operations on November 23, the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year in the US.

Colby Harris, a full-time Walmart worker in Dallas, said that the action would involve demonstrations, strikes, leafleting and flashmob protests at stores all over the US. "We are going to do everything it takes to make sure change is made," Harris said. Fellow Walmart worker Evelin Cruz, who works at a store in California, said that workers would see to educate the millions of shoppers who flock to stores to snap up bargain goods as part of the holiday celebrations. "We are in this process because Walmart does not want to come to terms with what is going on in their stores," she said.

Union groups and other labour-sympathetic organisations have long seen Walmart – the biggest private employer in the world – as a major target. They say the firm pays low wages, does not offer enough benefits and is an implacable opponent of organised labour. Walmart insists that the protesters are a tiny minority of its 1.4 million workers in America, and that it pays solid wages at a time of economic hardship.

Walmart spokesman Dan Fogleman said that operations across the country had not been affected by the strike. "All of our stores are open. They are completely staffed up, and they are taking care of our customers," he said.

Fogleman added that the protests appeared to be a platform for labour unions to try to enter Walmart's workforce. "The unions have wanted to organise Walmart for years. This is just a publicity stunt," Fogleman said.

The recent strikes have been organised by a group called Our Walmart, which is closely linked to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Our Walmart, which has not sought union recognition from Walmart, is trying to organise thousands of employees to lobby and protest for higher wages and improved benefits.

The Black Friday action was decided upon by leaders of OUR Walmart on Tuesday night at a gathering in Walmart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, where the group is protesting senior Walmart executives. At the same time, pro-labour groups have taken out adverts in five local Arkansas newspapers featuring portraits of senior company figures and calling for them to improve labour conditions.

On Black Friday, Our Walmart is set to get support from various national bodies, including the National Consumers League, the National Organisation of Women (NOW) and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. "We are standing in solidarity with with the workers who walking off the job," said Terry O'Neill, the president of NOW, who promised her organisation's members would take action on the day, too.

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Third anarchist jailed for refusing to testify before secret grand jury

A third self-described anarchist from the Pacific Northwest has been jailed by federal officials for refusing to speak before a secretive grand jury that the accused have called a politically-motivated modern-day witch-hunt.

Leah-Lynn Plante, a mid-20s activist from Seattle, Washington, was ushered out of court by authorities on Wednesday after refusing for a third time to answer questions forced on her by a grand jury — a panel of prosecutors convened to determine if an indictment can be issued for a federal crime.

Plante was one of a handful of people targeted in a series of raids administered by the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force on July 25 of this year which the feds say were in conjunction with an investigation into acts of vandalism that occurred during May Day protests in Seattle nearly two months prior. As part of their probe, search warrants were issued at multiple residences of activists in the area, including Plante’s, demanding that dwellers provide agents with “anti-government or anarchist literature” in their homes and any flags, flag-making material, cell phones, hard drives, address books, and black clothing.

“As if they had taken pointers from Orwell’s 1984, they took books, artwork and other various literature as ‘evidence’ as well as many other personal belongings even though they seemed to know that nobody there was even in Seattle on May Day,” Plante recalls in a post published this week to her Tumblr page.

Only one week after the raid, Neil Fox of the National Lawyers Guild told Seattle Times that raids like this are create a “chilling effect” by going after lawful, constitutionally-allowed private possessions.

“It concerns us any time there are law-enforcement raids that target political literature, First Amendment-protected materials,” Fox said.

This week Plante still maintains her innocence, now she has reason to believe that the raid that has left her suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome may have been more than an investigation into an activity, but an ideology. Plante says a Freedom of Information Act request she filed in the months after her apartment door was broken down by armed officials reveals that the grand jury investigating her was first convened in March, two months before the vandalism she is being accused of even occurred.

“They are trying to investigate anarchists and persecute them for their beliefs. This is a fishing expedition. This is a witch hunt,” she says this week.

On the day of her third meeting with the grand jury on Wednesday, Plante wrote on her blog that she’d almost certainly be jailed on charges of contempt for refusing once again to testify about herself but said she was willing to face the consequences for exercising her right to remain silent.

“I do not look forward to what inevitably awaits me today, but I accept it,” she writes. “My convictions are unwavering and will not be shaken by their harassment. Today is October 10th, 2012 and I am ready to go to prison.”

Hours later, her Tumblr was updated with a note authored by one of her supporters confirming that Plante “was thrown into prison for civil contempt” after her court date. Plante is now the third anarchist to be imprisoned in the last month for refusing to answer questions about their belief and behavior before a grand jury.

Last month, Plante spoke openly about the grand jury before refusing their questioning for only her second time. “I believe that these hearings are politically motivated,” she wrote in a September 16 statement. “The government wants to use them to collect information that it can use in a campaign of repression. I refuse to have any part of it, I will never answer their questions, I will never speak.”

“While I hate the very idea of prison, I am ready to face it in order to stay true to my personal beliefs. I know that they want to kidnap me and isolate me from my friends and my loved ones in an effort to coerce me to speak. It will not work. I know that if I am taken away, I will not be alone.”

Katherine “KteeO” Olejnik, a fellow anarchist from the Seattle area, was taken into federal custody on September 28 for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury, a decision she said was based on humanity and her First Amendment protections.

“I cannot and will not say something that could greatly harm a person’s life, and providing information that could lead to long term incarceration would be doing that,” Olejnik wrote before being booked. “Icannot and will not be a party to a McCarthyist policy that is asking individuals to condemn each other based on political beliefs.”

On the No Political Repression blog, a support of Olejnik writes that she was prohibited from taking notes during her time on the stand, during which she says she resisted questioning.

Days before her imprisonment began, Matt Duran was also jailed for contempt. According to his attorneys, Duran was not only imprisoned by placed in solitary confinement, denied intimate contact with his lawyer, denied visitor requests forms, personal dietary requirements and sunlight an fresh air.