• Lucille

      Ron Paul Institute Neocon Watch: McCain Spends Memorial Day with Al-Qaeda Allies 

      by
      Lucille
      Published on 05-28-2013 07:38 AM


      http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives...da-allies.aspx

      "Senator John McCain snuck into Syria this Memorial Day to spend the day with the terrorist-affiliated Free Syrian Army, in violation of both Syrian Law and likely of international law. While meeting with the Syrian insurgents and FSA Commander, Gen. Salem Idris, McCain likely assured his allies that it was only a matter of time before the US began overtly transferring the weapons it is currently facilitating covertly.

      Gen. Idriss is the conduit for hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid, and untold millions in covert CIA and US Special Forces assistance. He swears he does not cooperate with the terrorist-designated Al-Nusra Front, but he only coordinates with the Al-Nusra-allied Arhar al Sham.
      [...]

      During McCain's secret and illegal visit, Idriss called for even more US intervention on the side of the insurgents:

      “The visit of Senator McCain to Syria is very important and very useful especially at this time. We need American help to have change on the ground; we are now in a very critical situation. What we want from the U.S. government is to take the decision to support the Syrian revolution with weapons and ammunition, anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons. Of course we want a no-fly zone and we ask for strategic strikes against Hezbollah both inside Lebanon and inside Syria.”
      As the New York Times has reported, the existence of a secular Syrian opposition force is a fantasy. We can extrapolate, therefore, that McCain either was duped into participating into a Potemkin-like excursion into an "It's a Small World" ride, or he knowingly met with extremist forces bent on exterminating what little is left of Christianity in Syria and imposing extreme Islamist rule over once-secular Syria.

      For his part, McCain urges the US to become even more entangled in the insurgency against the Syrian government, all the while complaining about Russian involvement.
      [...]

      No word as to whether while meeting with the Free Syrian Army, McCain also sat down with FSA Commander Abu Sakkar, recently famous for his ability to turn the organs of a dead Syrian solider into a battlefield snack... "

      Streamlining targeted killing - Obama will treat drones in US and Pakistan the same; institutionalizes drone killing without trial; says will move to close Guantanamo 

      by
      Lucille
      Published on 05-23-2013 11:51 AM


      "President Barack Obama announced drastic changes to the United States’ counterterrorism operations today, reforming the rules that guide America’s drone program while also expediting the release of Guantanamo Bay detainees....

      But although both the drone program and Guantanamo Bay have existed for more than a decade, calls for reform on both matters have increased severely in recent months as the number of civilian drone casualties soars. By many estimates, thousands of women, children and other innocent people have been killed during nearly a decade-long war dominated by drones. Meanwhile, Gitmo inmates — nearly all of them — remain committed to a hunger strike that has made the White House the object of international embarrassment and prompted them to start force-feeding prisoners.

      “Mr. Obama will sharply curtail the instances when unmanned aircraft can be used to attack in places that are not overt war zones, countries like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia,” wrote Charlie Savage and Peter Baker for the New York Times. “The rules will impose the same standard for strikes on foreign enemies now used only for American citizens deemed to be terrorists.”

      According to the Times writers, “Mr. Obama will also renew his long-stalled effort to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay” during Thursday’s address in Washington.

      Savage, the Times’ Washington correspondent, broke the news earlier that day that US Attorney General Eric Holder wrote Congress to inform them that the president approved a document that “institutionalizes the administrations’ exacting standards and processes for reviewing and approving operations to capture or use lethal force against terrorist targets outside the United States and areas of active hostilities.” ...

      Holder added that while the document approved recently by Obama remains classified, it largely stresses the importance of using drones as a last-ditch resort for taking out insurgents when capture is unreasonable and there is an immediate threat to the United States and its citizens.

      “For circumstances in which capture is feasible, the policy outlines standards and procedures to ensure that operations to take into custody a terrorist suspect are conducted in accordance with all applicable law, including the laws of war. When capture is not feasible, the police provides that lethal force may be used only when a terrorist target poses a continuing, imminent threat to Americans, and when certain other preconditions, including a requirement that no other reasonable alternatives exist to effective address the threat, are satisfied.”

      Elsewhere in the letter, Holder admitted officially for the first time that US drones have killed four American citizens abroad since 2009. The attorney general acknowledged, though, that only one of those victims was specifically targeted by the administration. "

      more at link: http://rt.com/usa/holder-obama-us-drone-694/



      more discussion of institutionalization of drone strikes here: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...-to-kill-lists

      Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform 

      by
      Lucille
      Published on 05-11-2013 06:32 PM

      Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform

      The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.

      Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf) is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.
      Continued:
      http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...form-dossiers/

      Tom Woods: Please Help Promote FIRST Liberty On Tour Event w Iowa GOP April 13 From 1-4 PM in Dubuque, Iowa FREE EVENT 

      by
      Lucille
      Published on 03-27-2013 11:20 AM   
      Article Preview

      RSVP:http://freedomontour.eventbrite.com/

      http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/please-help/
      I have a bunch of events coming up in the next several weeks, butI would be most grateful if you could help spread the word about this one in particular.

      In recent weeks I’ve told       ...
      Read More Read More

      Ben Swann currently BARELY in FIRST place for a Shorty Award 

      by
      Lucille
      Published on 01-24-2013 01:47 PM

      If you have a twitter, then you know what to do, so get to it!

      The #Journalist Shorty Award and nominate Ben by his twitter username: @Fox19BenSwann
      http://shortyawards.com/category/journalist

      Producer and Host of Reality Check, Anchor at Fox 19. Journalism is
      ...
      Read More Read More 7 Comments

      Who Killed Rudy Giuliani? How Ron Paul won the war for conservatism’s future 

      by
      Lucille
      Published on 11-08-2012 08:46 AM

      When Ron Paul leaves office in January, he will have been more successful than many of the legislators who spent decades maligning him. Paul’s ideas have gradually gone from marginal to mainstream, and his record shows how much even a single determined man of principle can do to change a movement. In foreign policy especially, the Texas congressman leaves behind a new generation of leaders, both libertarian and conservative, who challenge the disastrous bipartisan consensus.[...]

      As it turned out, Giuliani’s biggest moment in the 2008 primary campaign was an exchange with one of the two surviving antiwar Republicans in Congress. Ron Paul was then in his tenth House term, running for president as practically an asterisk candidate, receiving just 1 percent of the vote in national polls. Giuliani led nationally as late as November 2007, beating new entry Fred Thompson by nine points in Gallup’s polling.

      On May 15, 2007, the Republican contenders debated in Columbia, South Carolina. Paul argued that American intervention in the Middle East—bombings, sanctions, and efforts to destabilize foreign governments—helped turn local populations and their co-religionists against us, to the point that they would contemplate terrorist attacks like those on 9/11.

      “Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attacks, sir?” asked the Fox News moderator. Paul had said nothing of the sort, but neither did he react to the implication behind the question as forcefully as he might have. Giuliani pounced. “That’s an extraordinary statement, as somebody who lived through the attack of Sept. 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11.”

      Giuliani waited for the thunderous applause to die down, then demanded a retraction: “I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us he didn’t really mean that.” Paul didn’t budge.

      The optics were poor: a little-known congressman was standing against the GOP frontrunner on an issue where 90 percent of the party likely disagreed with him. Paul did not do enough to rebut the “blame America first” charge, while Giuliani hit all the right emotional notes. Predictably, there came calls from prominent Republicans over the next few days to exclude Paul from future debates and even throw him out of the party. Giuliani was judged the decisive winner of the exchange.

      But then something surprising happened: the encounter helped galvanize a movement behind Paul while Giuliani’s campaign died a slow, painful death. Paul outperformed Giuliani in most primaries and caucuses, wrapping up his first Republican bid for the White House with more than 1 million votes. Giuliani dropped out of the race after the Florida primary and received less than 600,000 votes.

      more...http://www.theamericanconservative.c...rudy-giuliani/

      Reason gets a shoutout from Reason.com of all places... 

      by
      Lucille
      Published on 01-28-2011 04:27 AM

      Our very own RPF member Reason provided us with a very popular thread on his Border Patrol checkpoint encounter a few months ago. It was picked up by by Matt Welch yesterday from Reason.com

      Thanks for the link to the RPF thread Matt and great work again Reason!

      Read his write up here.

      Forum discussion here.

      Judge grants bail to Julian Assange! 

      by
      Lucille
      Published on 12-14-2010 01:42 PM

      Prosecutors Appeal Bail for Assange

      Julian Assange has not been set free. He will be held at least another 48 hours.
      Guardian UK: Julian Assange granted bail over sexual crime allegations in Sweden

      Forum discussion: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...julian-assange ...
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