Showing posts with label Michael Chertoff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Chertoff. Show all posts

Monday, July 23, 2012

Former Homeland Security head: Heated political rhetoric threatens public safety

The Hill

Editor's Note:  Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnick made the same statements shortly after the public learned that Jared Loughner was in police custody days prior to the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords.  Stemming political discourse seems to be the secondary goal in the establishment's bid to disarm the public.

Michael Chertoff: A man made richer
through the sale of state-mandated
TSA body scanning machines. 
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said Sunday the rise of incendiary political rhetoric in recent years threatens public safety.

“No one can say that any particular comment leads a madman to decide to do this but I do believe that the general coarsening and aggravation of the dialogue, the fact that disagreement is often characterized as a matter of people having enemies or wanting to commit acts of violence does affect some minority of individuals and that raises the danger to everybody,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

Chertoff made his comment in response to a 1995 quote from former President Bill Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing: “We hear so many loud and angry voices in America today whose sole goal seems to be to try to keep some people as paranoid as possible and the rest of us all torn up and upset with each other. They spread hate, they leave the impression that, by their very words, that violence is acceptable.”

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), a leading gun control advocate whose husband was killed in the 1993 Long Island Railroad shooting, endorsed Chertoff’s comments and admonished some of her colleagues.

“Since I’ve been in Congress I’ve seen over the last several years the deterioration of working with each other,” McCarthy said. “When you listen to the words of some of my colleagues, are inflammatory …. Just in the last past week a few of my colleagues came out with statements on other people, which are absolutely not true.”

Tea Party-favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) drew criticism from Republican colleagues last week for accusing Huma Abedin, a senior advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, of having family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized Bachmann’s claim on the Senate floor.
“When anyone, not least a member of Congress, launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation and we all grow poorer because of it,” he said.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

The Government Admits That TSA Body Scanners Are A Huge Waste Of Money

Business Insider
Michael Kelley

A new congressional report  highlights "serious inefficiencies" in the Transportation Security Administration’s "management and deployment of screening technology" at U.S. airports.

The report, published Wednesday and titled "Airport Insecurity: TSA’s Failure to Cost Effectively Procure, Deploy and Warehouse its Screening Technologies," states that the TSA "is wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars by inefficiently deploying screening equipment and technology to commercial airports."

The report comes days after the Electronic Privacy Information Center unearthed a November 2011 report by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that "identified vulnerabilities" in the scanners, which cost up to $200,000 each and are now being used as primary screening apparatus at 45 airports.
The federal government has invested $87 million so far into a fleet of 800 scanners, and the TSA plans to buy nearly 1,000 more in the next two years.


The disclosures seem to corroborate claims made in March by blogger Jonathan Corbett that the $1 billion dollar fleet of nude body scanners are worthless. Corbett posted a video showing him smuggling a metallic object through security at two airports, and subsequently interviewed a TSA whistleblower who admitted that the scanners routinely fail to pick up prohibited items.

The embarrassment for the TSA doesn't end there as Congress may force the TSA to test the scanners for problematic levels of radiation and multiple recent encounters have shown TSA personnel being grossly negligent and mistreating passengers.

The incidents include accusing a four-year-old girl of carrying a gun, breaking the $10,000 insulin pump of a diabetic Colorado teenager, allowing a man to fly after finding gun parts inside stuffed animals, removing an 18-month-old girl (of Middle Eastern descent) from a flight because she was on the no-fly list, allowing drugs through an LAX checkpoint in exchange for up to $2,400 and several cases in which passengers have allegedly been sexually groped during patdowns.

The TSA was created after 9/11 to "secure travelers through improved passenger and baggage screening operations" and its aviation security program received more than $5 billion in 2009.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

How to Beat a TSA Body Scanner [and Flush a Billion Dollars Down the Toilet] (*Video*)

SHTF Plan

What is the purpose of the TSA?
Our government has spent billions on homeland security and stripped Americans of their natural rights to be secure in their homes and their persons all in the name of safety and maintaining the perception of control.

In a demonstration that has no doubt led to a public relations nightmare for DHS and is sure to lead to calls of aiding and abetting terrorists, engineer Jon Corbett of TSA Out of Our Pants takes aim directly at TSA backscatter body scanners that are supposed to be the last line of defense for maintaining the safety and security of our public transportation systems.

To date the government has spent some $1 billion dollars to implement this technology across the United States – all of it now rendered useless by an extremist alternative news blog.
Via Info Wars:
The video shows Corbett carrying a metal case through the scanner, away from his body in his side pocket. Corbett explains that because metallic objects appear as black on the image the scanners produce, the machines do not pick up such objects if they are obscured by the background, which is also black.
“The scanners are now effectively worthless, as anyone can beat them with virtually no effort.” Corbett writes on his blog. “The TSA has been provided this video in advance of it being made public to give them an opportunity to turn off the scanners and revert to the metal detectors. I personally believe they now have no choice but to turn them off.” he adds.
Within hours of the video being uploaded, blogs and news sites, including Yahoo News and the Mail Online had begun to pick up an the video, saying it was sure to go viral.
Now, despite the fact that the video contains no nudity, violence, abuse or other explicit content, YouTube has placed it behind an age restriction wall, meaning anyone who wants to view it on YouTube has to login or sign up for an account and verify their age.
Watch: 
Youtube: “This video has been age-restricted based on our Community Guidelines
Can’t access via Youtube? Watch at Disclose TV





Thursday, February 23, 2012

Flashback: The 9/11 Cover Up - The Destruction of the Steel Evidence

Christopher Bollyn

(Added material on Olmert connection to Eisenberg and Zionist terror groups)

"We've never made the case, or argued the case that somehow Osama bin Laden was directly involved in 9/11. That evidence has never been forthcoming."
—Dick Cheney, "Interview of the Vice President by Tony Snow", March 29, 2006

For more than three months, structural steel from the World Trade Center has been and continues to be cut up and sold for scrap. Crucial evidence that could answer many questions about high-rise building design practices and performance under fire conditions is on the slow boat to China, perhaps never to be seen again in America until you buy your next car. … The destruction and removal of evidence must stop immediately.
- Bill Manning, “Selling Out the Investigation”, Fire Engineering, January 2002

My opinion is, based on the videotapes, that after the airplanes hit the World Trade Center there were some explosive devices inside the buildings that caused the towers to collapse…It would be difficult for something from the plane to trigger an event like that.
- Van Romero, explosion expert, “Explosives Planted In Towers, N.M. Tech Expert Says”, Albuquerque Journal, 11 September 2001

 The explosive demolitions of the Twin Towers pulverized all 220 concrete floors leaving nothing but steel and dust.  The dust contained large amounts of molten iron and a sophisticated form of thermite made using nanotechnology.  Thermite creates molten iron when it reacts.


 "The concrete was literally pulverized; all you're left with is steel and dust," said Robert Kelman of Hugo Neu about the rubble of the World Trade Center.  Because the remaining steel could reveal how the Twin Towers were destroyed, the architects of terror had set up a secure network to destroy this crucial evidence before it could be examined.
A DECADE OF DECEPTION AND WAR

The terror atrocity of 9/11 is a wicked criminal deception that is not meant to be solved, which is why sincere efforts to solve the crime, like mine, encounter such vicious opposition. 9/11 is a textbook example of an elaborate criminal deceit known as "false-flag terrorism" in which the perpetrators designed the crime and spent years preparing the atrocity with the intention that a targeted group, in this case Osama Bin Laden and his nebulous band of Islamic fighters, Al Qaida, would be wrongly blamed. In an act of false-flag terrorism, placing the blame on the targeted entity is the primary motive for the crime. For an act of false-flag terrorism to succeed it is essential that crucial evidence be removed and destroyed to protect the fraud, and the criminals behind it, from being exposed. The destruction of the evidence and the promotion of the deception are intrinsic parts of the crime. The people behind the destruction of the 9/11 evidence are equal partners in crime along with the terrorists who planned and executed the attacks. 
The main purpose of the 9/11 terror spectacle was to shock and scare the nation to sway public opinion to support the preplanned Zionist fraud known as the "War on Terror" and the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. In the aftermath of the terror atrocity the unproven assertion that Al Qaida was behind the attacks became political dogma, the unchallengeable "party line" of both parties – and the controlled press. Although there were clearly a number of serious problems with the explanation that Al Qaida was behind the attacks, such as the unexplained explosive demolitions of the three towers at the World Trade Center, these issues were never discussed in the mainstream media. By ignoring the many unanswered questions about 9/11 the masters of the controlled media sought to marginalize those who pointed out the glaring problems with the “politically correct” explanation that blamed Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida.
SHOCK AND AWE
 
The real masterminds of 9/11 designed the attacks to be a shocking spectacle of terror that would profoundly affect the American psyche and change the general perception of the Middle East. In order to scare the public and subjugate reason to fear, the architects of terror employed the psychological tactic of war known as “shock and awe.” The explosions that accompanied the aircraft crashing into the towers and the apocalyptic scenes of the buildings' collapses were meant to create frightening images of “Islamic terrorism” to be seared into the consciousness of every American.

The 9/11 attacks employed a tactic of psychological warfare known as "Shock and Awe."
The attacks had to be seen as being the work of Arab Muslim terrorists in order for the terror deception to succeed and achieve the desired effect on public opinion. It was essential that the blame be put on the targeted scapegoat as quickly as possible to preclude any serious doubts or questions being raised about who was behind the atrocity. Getting the interpretation desired by the terror masterminds to the global public required having “terrorism experts" such as Ehud Barak, the Israeli commando leader-cum-prime minister, ready in a BBC television studio in London immediately after the attacks to present a plausible explanation blaming Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida - and calling for U.S. intervention in Afghanistan. The Israeli military chief's interpretation, the first to accuse Osama Bin Laden, was bolstered by bits of incriminating evidence such as the pristine passport of an alleged Arab hijacker “found” near the rubble of the World Trade Center and a terrorist handbook on how to hijack airplanes supposedly left behind in one of the terrorists’ rental cars.
 
Although the government collected all the evidence from the 9/11 crime scenes, including confiscated video tapes, black boxes, pieces of the aircraft, and human remains, it has never presented any evidence to identify the aircraft or support its assertion that Al Qaida was responsible for the attacks. It was, therefore, based on nothing more than fabricated evidence, but with the controlled media and public opinion solidly behind him, that President George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan in October 2001.
 
If the government had real evidence that would conclusively prove its case for waging war, why has it not presented the evidence in a federal court after 10 years? The only logical explanation for this failure is that the government does not have any solid evidence to support its allegations.  Vice President Dick Cheney admitted as much in an interview with Tony Snow on 29 March 2006:  "We've never made the case, or argued the case that somehow Osama bin Laden was directly involved in 9/11. That evidence has never been forthcoming."  It has been argued that Cheney made a slip of the tongue, but it is a matter of fact that evidence linking Osama bin Laden to 9/11 has never been forthcoming.
 
If the attacks were truly carried out by Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida there would be no reason to hide any of the evidence because it should serve to corroborate and confirm the official version. If, on the other hand, 9/11 was a false-flag terror deception it would be absolutely imperative for the perpetrators to confiscate and destroy any evidence that could disprove their interpretation of events and expose their fraud.
 
This is exactly what happened when, for example, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confiscated video recordings from privately-owned cameras overlooking the Pentagon. These video tapes have never been shown to the public. Likewise, the FBI collected many numbered aircraft parts which could identify the specific plane they came from, yet none of these parts has ever been presented to support the official version. The failure of the government to use the evidence in its possession to prove its version suggests that the aircraft used in the 9/11 attacks were not the planes that are said to have been involved.

Why has the FBI not presented the numbered parts from this engine that would identify the specific aircraft it came from?
Understanding that 9/11 is an act of false-flag terrorism is the first step in comprehending the nature of the crime and identifying the real perpetrators. This is not an easy task because it requires thinking counter-intuitively about the crime and looking at it from a completely different angle than how it has been explained by the government and controlled media. This is very difficult for people who have a great deal of trust invested in what the government and media say. It also means understanding that the criminal cover up and destruction of evidence continued long after the attacks.
 
Finding those responsible for the destruction of the evidence requires investigating a most unlikely set of suspects, including current and former officials of the U.S. government, law enforcement, and military, and ascribing to them criminal behavior quite unlike what one would expect of such people. This means recognizing that the highest officials in the Department of Justice, for example, whose obligation it was to investigate the crime and prosecute those responsible, actually oversaw the confiscation and destruction of crucial evidence.
 
A proper criminal investigation has to begin with and proceed from the evidence. Any inquiry that does not examine and consider all the evidence is not an investigation, but a fraud. Rather than a federal investigation of 9/11, there was a "non-investigation" that allowed crucial evidence, such as the structural steel from the World Trade Center, to be destroyed before it could be examined. Instead of solving the crime and bringing those responsible to justice, people in positions of power participated in a criminal conspiracy to destroy the evidence and obstruct justice.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Federal Court Rules TSA Violated Law By Introducing Body Scanners

Freedom4um

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that the TSA violated federal law by rolling out radiation firing body scanners in airports without soliciting public comment. The court will allow use of the scanners to continue, however.

A unanimous three-judge panel ruled that the TSA’s failure to provide notice and allow sufficient time for comment before adopting the technology as a primary passenger-screening tool was unlawful.
“[M]uch public concern and media coverage have been focused upon issues of privacy, safety, and efficacy, each of which no doubt would have been the subject of many comments had the TSA seen fit to solicit comments upon a proposal to use [advanced imaging technology] for primary screening,” the court said.

Specifically, the TSA’s actions violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires federal agencies to provide notice and opportunity for comment when implementing a rule that affects the rights of the public.

Judge Douglas Ginsburg found there was “no justification for having failed to conduct a notice-and-comment rulemaking,” and said, “few if any regulatory procedures impose directly and significantly upon so many members of the public.”


The court said that the roll out of body scanners could not be “merely interpretive, procedural, or a general statement of policy.”

The TSA, currently operating close to 500 scanners in 78 airports and planning to add 500 more scanners by the end of 2011, must now receive comment on it’s continued deployment of the technology and respond accordingly by law, finally giving critics an official voice on the issue.
The case was brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which argued in its brief that body scanners are “invasive, unlawful, and ineffective,” and that the TSA’s deployment of the devices violated the U.S. Constitution and several other federal statutes.

The rights group is pursuing a case to completely suspend use of the scanners in airports.
EPIC president Marc Rotenberg described the court’s ruling as a “very good decision with far-reaching implications.”

Rotenberg said in a statement that the TSA “is now subject to the same rules as other government agencies that help ensure transparency and accountability. Many Americans object to the airport body scanner program. Now they will have an opportunity to express their views to the TSA and the agency must take their views into account as a matter of law.”


EPIC also argued that the scanners violate the Fourth Amendment by allowing for unreasonable searches, noting that a scan “is more invasive than is necessary to detect weapons or explosives”.

The court stopped short of ruling the scanners unconstitutional, however, noting “we are not persuaded by any of the statutory or constitutional arguments against the rule.”

The panel concluded that use of the scanners by the TSA should continue.

“Due to the obvious need for the TSA to continue its airport security operations without interruption, we remand the rule to the TSA but do not vacate it,” the court said in its ruling.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Formal calls for probe into reporter's name on no-fly list

CNN

A House representative said Thursday she is requesting an investigation after learning a CNN reporter was put on the federal no-fly list shortly after his investigation of the Transportation Security Administration.
Michael Chertoff:  Has a stake in the TSA machines
Sheila Jackson Lee
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff about "a curious and interesting and troubling phenomenon" that CNN Investigative Correspondent Drew Griffin was added to the list.

"My question is, why would Drew Griffin's name come on the watch list, post-his investigation of TSA?" Jackson Lee said.

"What is the basis of this sudden recognition that Drew Griffin is a terrorist? Are we targeting people because of their critique or criticism?"

In response, Chertoff said it was "not my understanding the reporter was put on," but that Griffin may share a name with someone put on the list.

"We do have circumstances where we have name mismatches," he said.
Griffin learned in May he was on the list, about two months after he reported on the federal air marshals program.

In a March story, Griffin reported that of the 28,000 commercial flights taking off in the United States every day, fewer than 1 percent have on-board, armed federal air marshals on board.
In response to Griffin's story, TSA said on its Web site that it would not disclose the number of air marshals flying on a daily basis so as not to "tip our hand to terrorists."

"The actual number of flights that air marshals cover is thousands per day," read a statement on the Web site.

Jackson Lee said she was using Griffin as an example. Committee members noted during the meeting that Congressman John Lewis, D-Georgia, is also on the no-fly list and has been trying for years to get removed.

"He's still having trouble," said committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, showing a letter from Lewis.

"And according to this letter, it's still not happening," Thompson said, "even to the point that the department gave him a letter attesting that he was John Lewis and he should be allowed to get on planes."

He asked Chertoff to "find out how many other John Lewises are out there, who are having difficulty explaining to the department who they are so they can get off this no-fly list. We see more and more of it happening and I know Sen. Kennedy had a problem with it, and for whatever reason it was worked out."

Chertoff said he would be "happy" to help Lewis in his efforts to get removed from the list.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Michael Chertoff's Company Manufactures TSA Naked Scanners

Boston.com

WASHINGTON - Since the attempted bombing of a US airliner on Christmas Day, former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff has given dozens of media interviews touting the need for the federal government to buy more full-body scanners for airports.

What he has made little mention of is that the Chertoff Group, his security consulting agency, includes a client that manufactures the machines. Chertoff disclosed the relationship on a CNN program Wednesday, in response to a question.
An airport passengers’ rights group on Thursday criticized Chertoff’s use of his former government credentials to advocate for a product that benefits his clients.
“Mr. Chertoff should not be allowed to abuse the trust the public has placed in him as a former public servant to privately gain from the sale of full-body scanners under the pretense that the scanners would have detected this particular type of explosive,’’ said Kate Hanni, founder of FlyersRights.org, which opposes the use of the scanners.
Chertoff’s advocacy for the technology dates to his time in the Bush administration. In 2005, Homeland Security ordered the government’s first batch of the scanners - five from California-based Rapiscan Systems. Rapiscan is one of only two companies that make full-body scanners in accordance with current contract specifications required by the federal government.
Currently 40 body scanners are in use among 19 US airports. The number is expected to skyrocket, at least in part because of the Christmas Day incident. The Transportation Security Administration has said it will order 300 more machines.
In the summer, TSA purchased 150 more machines from Rapiscan with $25 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. Rapiscan was the only company that qualified for the contract because it had developed technology that performs the screening using a less-graphic body imaging system, which is also less controversial. (Since then, another company, L-3 Communications, has qualified for future contracts, but no new contracts have been awarded.)