Thursday, July 18, 2013

Welfare is Destroying America. Thanks, LBJ, for your vision and generosity!

Verne Strickland July 18, 2013

Some Americans believe that their government should be a charity for citizens who have fallen on hard times. They support the idea that hard-working taxpayers have a responsibility to pay for the unemployed’s food, shelter, clothes, and more. They will tell you that if the government didn’t use our tax dollars for welfare, then some people would be left to starve in the streets.

The problem with this line of thinking is that it’s simply not true. In fact, welfare is destroying this country from the inside out.

Government handouts enable millions of people to abuse the system with absolutely no accountability. Welfare recipients never have to look a taxpayer in the eye when their check comes in the mail every month. They do not have to humbly thank someone for feeding their children or giving them a warm bed to sleep in. If those on welfare had to come into your home and actually take the food off your children’s plates, they would be much more apt to start looking for a way to support themselves.

The current system makes the American taxpayer an anonymous victim.

The solution is simple. Our government needs to stop acting as a charity, and to encourage those in need to seek out help locally. By cutting taxes and encouraging people to donate more to their local church or food bank, it will foster a better sense of community and appreciation for our neighbors.

The generosity of the American people is second-to-none. Whether it’s a tsunami thousands of miles away, or a tragic event within our borders, Americans have proven time and time again that we are willing to help those in need. However, government programs that threaten to put us in prison if we refuse to donate cause animosity between neighbors and are ripping a hole through our great country.

It’s time for the government to take a step back. Let the American people show their true colors, and stop forcing us to pay into a mismanaged, corrupt welfare system. Let those who need help shake the hand and personally thank those who can provide it. Let our communities grow again through personal relationships, and not through government programs.

Is this what America needs? Let us know in the comments below!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Muslim Terrorism – False Flag Operation Sponsored by Russia?

Verne Strickland / July 18, 2013

17 Jul 2013

Muslims, Russia, terrorists

by James Simpson

Photo Credit: Earls37a

Following World War II, practically every terrorist organization in the world, whether it be Islamist or Communist, was financed, trained, armed and advised by Soviet intelligence or one of its proxies. There is nothing new or even noteworthy about this fundamental fact. I have written about it for years, most notably regarding Yasser Arafat, al Qaeda and radical Islam in general. The theme was covered exhaustively last summer in a conference sponsored by Cliff Kincaid’s America’s Survival.org. I wrote about that conference in a two part report, here and here.
The story below by J.R. Nyquist, reprinted here with permission, is one in a series and picks up on that theme, but adds new dimension and depth. J.R. is one of the most brilliant and knowledgeable geopolitical analysts in the United States and you will thank me for introducing him to you. Unfortunately, his analysis is seldom politically correct or convenient for the chattering classes, so our nation suffers, feted instead with fact-free.tripe from DC insiders and other fools with all kinds of ulterior motives.

J.R.tells the story of Victor Kalashnikov, a former KGB agent who has bravely spoken out against his former boss, and he and his wife have apparently been poisoned with mercury for their trouble. The opinions of other former KGB officers add further weight, especially that of Alexander Litvineko, poisoned in London with Polonium 210 after he revealed that Ayman al Zawahiri, number 2 in al Qaeda at the time, was in fact an old KGB agent who trained in the former Soviet Union. Read the analysis below; also read parts I and II, and spread this far and wide.
Part 3: Former KGB Colonel Victor Kalashnikov on the Dangers of Putin Worship, Russia’s anti-Western Alliance with Islam, and the Kremlin’s grand strategy.
By J.R. Nyquist
The following paragraphs serve as “background support” for Victor Kalashnikov’s thesis. Many readers of Part 2 may not have understood Victor Kalashnikov’s statement about the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001. So it is time to review and explain. It is necessary to remind readers of the ABM Treaty and of the military strategy of the old Soviet Union which remains the policy of Russia today.
At the end of Part 2, in the course of our discussion, former KGB officer Kalashnikov offered the following observation. “What happened on 9/11 was just an omen of things to come,” he warned. “At the time of 9/11America’s dispute with Russia had reached its peak. George Bush was going to leave the ABM Treaty.”
The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty restricted the number and placement of units for intercepting ICMBs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) and SLBMs (submarine launched ballistic missiles). Since Russian military power largely depends on ICBMs and SLBMs, the mass deployment of ABMs would effectively reduce Russia to a third rate military power. Kalashnikov points to Russian President Putin’s warning about Bush’s announced intention to exit from the ABM Treaty by the end of 2001. At the time Putin warned, “If you do this you will not be able to defend against new threats.” According to Kalashnikov, “You had been warned that new security challenges will emerge. But you did not listen in the summer of 2001.”
Kalashnikov’s strategic interpretation of 9/11begs a subtle question. There is no reason a nuclear attack requires an ICBM or an SLBM. A nuclear weapon might be delivered by a terrorist rather than a missile. The United States has fairly open borders. Drugs and people are regularly smuggled across that border. And readers will note that as early as 1999 the name of Osama bin Laden was associated with nuclear terrorism (since terrorism expert Josef Bodansky’s claim that al Qaeda had as many as twenty nuclear weapons “stolen” from the former Soviet Union).
Kalashnikov’s suggestion of a Russian connection to 9/11 is far from whimsical. And he is not the first former KGB official to see a connection. In the summer of 2005 a former KGB/FSB officer named Alexander Litvinenko said he had firsthand knowledge of a connection between Russian intelligence and al Qaeda. In fact, he identified the second highest official in al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as a “longtime agent of Moscow.” In July 2005 a Polish journalist sent me the following translation of Litvinenko’s interview with fakt.pl, which took place after a terrorist attack on the London subway.
FAKT: Alexander, who, in your opinion, is the originator of this [London] terrorist attack?
A. Litvinenko: You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization that has made terrorism the main tool of solving political problems. It is the Russian special services. The KGB was engaged in terrorism for many years, and mass terrorism. At the special department of the KGB they trained terrorists from practically every country in the world. These courses lasted, as a rule, for a half-year. Specially trained and prepared agents of the KGB organized murders and explosions, including explosions of tankers, the hijacking of passenger airliners, strikes on diplomatic, state and commercial organizations worldwide.
FAKT: Could you name … some of the terrorists prepared at the “special courses” of the KGB-FSB?
A. Litvinenko: The bloodiest terrorists in the world were or are agents of the KGB-FSB. These are well-known, like Carlos Ilyich Ramiros, nicknamed “the Jackal,” the late Yassir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Adjalan (he is condemned in Turkey), Wadi Haddad, the head of the service of external operations of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hauyi, the head of the communist party of Lebanon, Mr. Papaionnu from the Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland and many others. All of them were trained by the KGB, received money from there, weapons and explosives, counterfeit documents and communication equipment for carrying out of acts of terrorism worldwide.
FAKT: Some may object that each of the listed figures, and the forces supporting them, were engaged in solving their own political problems.
A. Litvinenko: Certainly, all these figures and movements operated under their own slogans; however, none of them especially hid their “intimate” … relationship with the Kremlin and Lubyanka. There is a simple question: whether the Russian special services would train and finance people and groups that were not supervised by Lubyanka and did not serve the interests of the Kremlin? You understand perfectly, they would not. Each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out as an assignment and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR. And [the terrorism] … is not casual after the disintegration of the USSR and [reform of the KGB]….
FAKT: Every terrorist you have named is from ‘the old staff’ of the KGB. Could you name someone from recent history?
A. Litvinenko: Certainly, here it is. The number two person in the terrorist organization al Qaeda, who they are crediting with the series of explosions in London, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is an old agent of the FSB. Being sentenced to death in Egypt for terrorism and hunted by Interpol, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in 1998, was in the territory of Dagestan, where for half a year he received special training at one of the educational bases of the FSB. After this training he was transferred to Afghanistan, where he had never been before and where, following the recommendation of his Lubyanka chiefs, he at once … penetrated the milieu of bin Laden and soon became his assistant in al Qaeda.
FAKT: Could you hint at least, where this data comes from?
A. Litvinenko: I can. During my service in one of the most secret departments of the FSB, top officials from the UFSB of Dagestan, who had directly worked with Ayman al-Zawahiri … were called to Moscow and received high posts.
FAKT: What can you say concerning the acts of terrorism in London ? From what region and with what forces was this strike directed?
A. Litvinenko: In reply to this question I can definitely say that the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorist infection is spread worldwide from Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin cabinet. And until the Russian special services are outlawed, dispersed and condemned, the terrorism will never stop: bombs will blow up and blood will be shed. Terrorism has no expiration date…. I would like to repeat, that all the terrorists, whom I have named, were supported by the heads of the Soviet and Russian special services – Yuri Andropov, Vladimir Putin, Nikolay Patrushev and others. These people are the main terrorists…. And until we condemn them … global terrorism will continue.
Such was the fakt.pl interview with former FSB-KGB officer Litvinenko, which corroborates Kalashnikov’s suggestion above, and helps to explain why Litvinenko was fatally poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006, and why Kalashnikov himself has suffered from mercury poisoning. (Please note: Kalashnikov’s wife also suffers from mercury poisoning, and the mix of symptoms suffered by the Kalashnikovs suggests the possibility of other, unidentified elements in their poisoning. In fact, if there are any medical doctors reading this who would take an interest in their case, please write to me at jrnyquist@aol.com.)
Strategists in the West have a blind spot, especially as Russian disinformation has been successful in diverting investigators and political analysts from investigating Litvinenko’s claims. After Litvinenko’s assassination by Kremlin agents in 2006, the major news media produced a series of documentaries about his background. None of these mentioned Litvinenko’s statements about the FSB connection to al Qaeda. None dared restate Litvinenko’s accusation that Putin was the chief terrorist, or that the FSB was the main headquarters of international terrorism.
Why was the media unwilling to discuss Litvinenko’s testimony (and the possible reason for his assassination)? The reason is instinctively grasped by anyone who has worked as a journalist writing about Russia. If your writing threatens to expose Russian machinations, your career is going to suffer. A journalist who doesn’t know this (is a journalist) who doesn’t know his journalistic ABCs. If you write about Russia, be careful not to touch on certain themes.
Another former KGB officer I recently interviewed was Konstantin Preobrazhensky, who wrote an intriguing article titled “Russia and Islam are not Separate: Why Russia backs Al-Qaeda.” According to Preobrazhensky:
Mohammed Atta, the pilot of the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, had met with a senior Iraq intelligence agent in Prague, Czech Republic, five months before the attack. But Iraqi intelligence was just a client of Russia’s intelligence service. It brings a new understanding to the fact that President Putin was the first foreign President to call President Bush on 9/11. One my conjecture that he knew in advance what was to happen.
In his article, Preobrazhensky credits Litvinenko’s testimony that Ayman al-Zawahiri and other al Qaeda terrorists were trained in Russia. (There is also Czech testimony that Atta was trained in Communist Czechoslovakia during the 1980s). Even more important, this training took place in secret and has been hidden from the world. Every journalistic attempt to expose this secret has resulted in no reaction, no further investigation from the journalistic community. We are left to suppose that Litvinenko’s claim and Preobrazhensky’s support for that claim are owing to the malice of two Russian malcontents. But this is far from the truth. The former head of Communist Romania’s foreign intelligence service, Ion Mihai Pacepa, made the following statement which was quoted in FrontPage Magazine on 1 March 2004:
September 11, 2001 was directly rooted in a joint Soviet/Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) operation conceived in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day Arab-Israeli War. The object of this joint operation was to repair Moscow’s prestige by turning the Islamic world against Israel and by creating a rabid and violent hatred for its main supporter, the United States. The strategy was to portray the US, this land of freedom, as a Nazi-style “imperial-Zionist country” financed by Jewish money and run by a rapacious “Council of the Elders of Zion” (the Kremlin’s epithet for the US Congress), the aim of which was allegedly to transform the rest of the world into a Jewish fiefdom. In other words, the heart of the joint plan was to convert the historical Arab and Islamic hatred of the Jews into a new hatred of the United States. We threw many millions of dollars at this gigantic task, which involved whole armies of intelligence officers.
Like other former Soviet bloc insiders, Kalashnikov emphasizes the connection between terrorism as a new form of warfare and Moscow’s overall strategy. “Lenin created a new kind of terror policy,” Kalashnikov explained. “Terror was the starting point for Bolshevik state strategy. Organized terror is the cornerstone of Soviet statehood.” Kalashnikov further stated, “Moscow wants the ABM Treaty back, otherwise you will face more trouble.”
Moscow’s message to Bush was misunderstood, however. For it was Bush’s curse to have, at his beck and call, a hapless and intellectually compromised set of advisors. With regard to terrorism, the American intelligence community has been clueless. The analysis of the CIA suffers from a general incompetence because American intelligence analysts are educated in graduate schools where a realistic appraisal of the Russian threat is generally frowned upon, and where neo-Marxism enjoys a veto over careers and advancements. American analysts are therefore indoctrinated to dismiss any notion of a Soviet policy of terrorist conspiracy, or to dismiss any claim of Russian involvement in the terrorist phenomenon of today. Just as journalists are trained to avoid a certain species of anti-Russian statements, so are the analysts of the CIA and Pentagon. In brief, there has been a tendency to willfully misinterpret Russian strategy, and this tendency has a common root in American academic culture.
With regard to American academic expertise, Kalashnikov told me, “I have a friend in America, a Russian journalist, Vladimir Baranov. And he is reporting on the Tsarnaev brothers [i.e., Boston Marathon bombers]. He mentioned this American anti-terror expert … who said the linkages between the Chechens and al Qaeda are unimportant. But this is total nonsense! Chechnya is under Russian military intelligence!”
Kalashnikov is disgusted by America’s analysts. “What I would suggest,” he said, “is that your anti-terror expert read Vladimir Lenin who provided the textbook for terrorists: How they should set up combat units; who is to be killed first and second; what strategy and tactics to adopt. Lenin developed a complete theory for using terrorism to take power and govern a huge state. That was the beginning of Soviet strategy, statehood and government, as well as international policy.”
Kalashnikov further warned against expert opinion. “Too much academic wording comes about when we use words like ‘socialism’ and ‘communism.’ Lenin was a practical politician who discovered new methods for power. He discovered that terror was the most effective tool in politics.”
And so the idea that Russia or the KGB could have no connection with 9/11 is absurd for someone who knows the role that terrorism plays in Soviet strategy.
Part I. Part II. Watch for Part 4 of this series to learn what Victor Kalashnikov has to say.
_______________________________________________________________________
James Simpson is an investigative journalist, businessman and former economist and budget examiner for the White House Office of Management and Budget. Mr. Simpson’s work is published at AIM.org, American Thinker, Breitbart, Capital Research Center, Washington Times, WorldNet Daily and elsewhere. He is also featured in Curtis Bowers’ award winning documentary Agenda: Grinding America Down.

Monday, July 15, 2013

The Obama administration scandals that won't go away: Benghazi and the IRS have staying power as Congress gears up for yet another series of public hearings

Verne Strickland July 14, 2013

By David Martosko In Washington
PUBLISHED: 20:10 EST, 12 July 2013 | UPDATED: 20:10 EST, 12 July 2013

President Barack Obama's second-term scandals have become catnip for Republicans, but not all scandals are equal - and there's only so much mind-share to go around

Congressional Republicans will re-open two of the Obama administration's most persistent wounds the week of July 15, refocusing public scrutiny on the State Department's failures in Benghazi and the Internal Revenue Service's reputation for unfairly targeting conservatives.
House committees controlled by the GOP have regularly torn off the White House's rhetorical band-aids on the IRS and Benghazi, refusing to let the administration claim the healing power of closure.
The third of the mid-spring troika of scandals that beset the administration - the Justice Department's apparent pattern of spying on reporters, following government employees' leaks of classified information to the press - may, however, be well past the bloodletting stage.
Attorney General Eric Holder's office circulated a draft Friday afternoon of a report that he presented to the president. It outlines a narrowed set of circumstances under which the administration would be permitted to collect communications records from journalists.
The report capped a good will tour by Holder that included contentious meetings with journalists and a less antagonistic rap session - attended by MailOnline - with media executives.
Barely two months after the disastrous disclosure that the DOJ collected telephone records from the Associated Press and a variety of phone records and emails from Fox News reporter James Rosen, that embarrassing episode appears to be winding down. Main Justice also labeled Rosen a criminal 'co-conspirator' in an argument to a judge related to an investigation into a national security leak.

AG Eric Holder (R) announced new Justice Department guidelines on Friday that are designed to keep the government on a short leash when it wants to snoop on reporters

Attorney General Eric Holder (R) announced new Justice Department guidelines on Friday that are designed to keep the government on a short leash when it wants to snoop on reporters

I'm from the government and I'm here to help: IRS charity chief Lois Lerner refused to testify before Congress, and was put on paid leave. The House oversight committee later voted that when she offered an opening statement defending herself, she waived her Fifth Amendment right not to testify

But Holder later conceded in his June 4 meeting with media executives that Rosen 'wasn't aiding the enemy - he was just reporting news.'
Holder said Friday that the reforms he's now advocating 'will make a meaningful difference,' adding that 'there are additional protections that only Congress can provide. For that reason, we continue to support the passage of media shield legislation.'

More...

Holder's tactical about-face in Friday's report to the president, paired with journalists' waning interest in a subject that was initially laced with personal affront and righteous anger, has pushed the DOJ to the scandal back-burner.
Not so with the IRS or Benghazi.
Rep. Ed Royce, a California Republican who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, will gavel in a hearing on July 18, focusing on what he has characterized as a lack of accountability inside the State Department for the Sept. 11, 2012 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Republicans are eager to reclaim momentum targeting Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, for security lapses before the attack and a post-attack response that appeared universally deceptive to those on the political right.

Fireworks or duds? Victoria Nuland, Obama's nominee to be Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, testified Thursday in her confirmation hearing. But the expected blistering attacks about Benghazi from Republicans failed to materialize

A militant reacts as the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Republicans haven't let up in targeting Hillary Clinton (R), who was Secretary of State when heavily armed terrorists attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton is expected to contend strongly for the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nomination

Clinton, considered the favored contender for the Democrats' 2016 presidential nomination, is vulnerable on Benghazi, polls show, owing to the remaining unanswered questions about how far up the State Department's chain of command the scandal will ultimately reach.
Royce said Friday that the hearing will focus on an Accountability Review Board (ARB) report from inside the State Department, one that he called 'incomplete.'
'The Board declined to interview the Department’s senior-most officials,' he said, 'including former Secretary Clinton.'
The hearing, he continued, 'will examine the State Department’s ARB inadequacies, including whether the appropriate employees have been held responsible for the security failures in Benghazi.'
The foreign affairs committee hearing will feature testimony from Raymond Maxwell, a former Assistant Secretary of State for Maghreb Affairs, Royce's office said Friday.
The Maghreb is a region traditionally understood to include North African nations that are west of Egypt.
Maxwell was placed on administrative leave following the release of the ARB report. He says he was wrongly accused for the substandard security conditions at the Benghazi diplomatic outpost where U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American personnel were killed.
Ronald Neumann, a former U.S. ambassador to Algeria, Bahrain and Afghanistan, will also testify. He leads the American Academy of Diplomacy.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA)

Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA Fullerton) Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee

Reps. Darrell Issa (L) of the House oversight committee and Ed Royce (R) of the House government affairs committee will chair hearings next week on the IRS and Benghazi, respectively

Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings (L) has crossed swords with Issa (R), the House oversight committee chairman, since Republicans began investigating the IRS

Beginning a half-hour earlier next Thursday, and just a minute's walk down the hall in the Rayburn House office Building, Issa's oversight committee will reconvene what has become a cottage industry of hearings on the IRS's partisan malfeasance.
It was Issa who pushed for a vote - which passed along party lines - on whether or not IRS exempt organizations chief Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment right to withhold testimony after she gave a self-serving opening statement during a May 22 hearing.
And as Issa's dogged investigative staff finds ever-newer angles from which to approach the IRS's targeting of conservative groups during and after the 2010 election season, a picture has emerged of a both impatient and unflagging GOP eager to leverage the public's distaste for the IRS into political scorn.
His oversight committee's July 18 witness list will include IRS employees from both Cincinnati, Ohio and Washington, D.C. A committee spokesman told MailOnline on Friday that a witness list wouldn't be announced before the weekend.
But Issa said in a statement that the IRS employees 'will be asked to explain why, even as dozens of applications for progressive groups were being approved, orders from senior levels within the IRS resulted in inappropriate and disparate treatment for Tea Party applications.'
'While President Obama has already dismissed the head of the IRS in the wake of this scandal,' Issa added, 'this hearing will examine why decisions to elevate cases to more senior levels of the IRS led to unjust delays and unfair treatment of Tea Party applications.'

Raymond D. Maxwell, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Maghreb Affairs

Ronald Neumann (L) and Raymond Maxwell (R) will testify next Thursday about Benghazi. Maxwell contends he became a convenient scapegoat for the State Department's failure to adequately protect its LIbya mission

The one that won't get away? Tea party groups and other conservatives have kept the IRS's political partisanship on the front burner for months, and show no sign of letting up

'The evidence gathered in this investigation makes clear that had Washington IRS officials simply kept their hands off these cases and allowed employees in the Cincinnati office to process applications independently, instead of facing excessive delays, these cases would have been processed just like other advocacy cases.'
Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking oversight committee Democrat, fired back Friday with a letter asking Issa to recall Treasury Department inspector general J. Russell George for more testimony.
George, he said, failed to tell Congress during his earlier hearing appearances that his own lead investigator reviewed 5,500 emails from IRS employees and concluded that there was 'no indication that pulling these selected applications was politically motivated.'
Tax-exempt status applications from tea party groups, Cummings alleged, were held up only because IRS workers in Cincinnati were unsure about how to handle them.
He also unveiled an IRS PowerPoint presentation file from an agency 'screening workshop' which seemed to indicate that both 'tea party' and 'progressive' groups were subject to some level of screening when they applied for favored tax status.
Cummings did not suggest, however, that left-wing organizations were targeted as aggressively, or in numbers as great, as their right-wing counterparts.
An email to Cummings' office Friday afternoon was not answered.

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