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Distinguished Toastmaster
BUSINESS & BRANDING COACH . LIFE & LEADERSHIP STRATEGIST MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER SERVING ENTREPRENEURS & MAIN STREET |
SECURITY ONLINE & OFF IS A GONER [ You Are This CLICKs Page ]
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THE SENATE BILL QUESTION SHOULD HAVE BEEN 'WHO ISNT A JOURNALIST' IN THE INTERNET AGE (c) Carrie Devorah :
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Senator Dianne Feinstein wants to define :What is a Journalist.” Senator Dick Durbin agrees. So do Legislators House side.
What Is A Journalist is no longer a matter of opinion. If properly researched it is understood that borders are blurred both with the aide of the Internet and with Activism. As a result, media who are real and qualified are dessimated by Fraud Journalist the Senate Bill language gave legitimacy to. How so? Tools of the Fraud- website, photoshop, stock photos, hot chicks, fancy card, and for the low price of $79 - $108 the promise of access to events working photogs and Journalists WORK at with little concern for free food, parking and photos taken with celebs.
What Is A Journalist is no longer a matter of opinion. If properly researched it is understood that borders are blurred both with the aide of the Internet and with Activism. As a result, media who are real and qualified are dessimated by Fraud Journalist the Senate Bill language gave legitimacy to. How so? Tools of the Fraud- website, photoshop, stock photos, hot chicks, fancy card, and for the low price of $79 - $108 the promise of access to events working photogs and Journalists WORK at with little concern for free food, parking and photos taken with celebs.
Oh Diane and Dick. What have you done!
The timing for addressing what is a Journalist is coming at a time when danger for Legislators has never been greater, when your reliance on the WHO not the WHAT is crucial in the Bill.
The timing for addressing what is a Journalist is coming at a time when danger for Legislators has never been greater, when your reliance on the WHO not the WHAT is crucial in the Bill.
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Anyone can pick up a pen and write. Anyone can write an opinion or a fact doing it day after day maybe making something of themselves. Drudgereport did it. So did TMZ. Drudge aggregates headlines. TMZ aggregates people with Cameras and video aspiring to hit the Money Shot that will go viral. News photogs tend to follow rules as not to lose their credentials while Paparazzi… that’s a whole other conversation that should be included in this Bill.
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There is NOTHING that offends a Senate credentialed news photographer more than being called by Sir Paul McCartney’s ex “a paparrazi.” Cant blame her though as the Camera lens is seen long before a real Congressional Hard Pass that is being parodied by entities creating business models from People wanting to Hob Nob with politicos and Celebs. Some people do go on to create relevant careers or gather “war stories” to impress friends with. But for real journos? Faux media create a living hell and then some. PR people have no real training on identifying real media. Sad fact is with the Internet playing the great equalizer in that ten different photographers images of the same event on line all have equal opportunity to become a portfolio piece and stepping stone to a new career.
Journalism as an industry died four years ago, 2009. The market crashed in 2008. News agencies pink slipped employees out on a shoot. The Internet was the turn to place for pink slipped formerly credentialed media to showcase themselves. Electronics prices had dropped. Celebrity buzz was at a high. Sites like Meet-The-Famous popped up. Meetthefamous.com CEO said it best “"What I've done is created a home for everybody to be the paparazzi," said Meet the Famous CEO Jordan Osher, who underscores his contributors ability to go where the real paparazzi can't follow stars.” (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2009/03/meet_the_famous_and_make_a_few.html)
Try being a credentialed photog the day Obamacare was signed in the White House East room. Photogs who spent a half day positioning for the moment were shut out of their shots because every audience member, including legislators, held their PDAs high in the air closing out the shot of the media locked into unmovable space behind. Formally? That was the day, Journalism died.
Journalism hasn’t got better. Congress has been part of the problem. It used to be media and agencies were the source for photos of Hearings on Capitol Hill. Legislators have chosen to send interns and staffers to ‘cover’ events. There is nothing sadder than a dime saving Legislator posting wobbly, fuzzy and unfocused shots to their home site. Sticking to the Bill defining Journalism, technically, the Hill staffers are doing exactly what the House and Senate are legislating against…. ‘what is a Journalist’ is now a staffer turned photographer. And journalist aka Communications director. Where is the divide to draw the line through. And if the staffer is inappropriate on Legislative time as has happened, who then answers for them? Recalling Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz’s staffer Dani Gilbert Dani Gilbert, Facebook photos with her friends holding dollar bills and referring to themselves as “Jewbags” and the “Jew cash money team”? The Legislator….. a quasi editor-in-chief of content leaving that Hill office on the Legislator’s behalf.
The Definition of What is A Journalist is far more dire than either House or Senate are looking at. Journalists are no longer just published in print. Give or take a little while longer, print will be replaced with online until someone decides to revolutionize ‘online’ with something called ‘newspaper’, life is cyclical that way.
It boggles the mind of REAL Senate and House credentialed media, the hearing rooms have become fair game for Faux Journalists. There is only so much Senate Credentialed photogs can do without harming their own access but there have been multiple occasions where Hill credentialed media have called out people that should not be in the well. It is the responsibility of the Committee staff to check credentials. It is the responsibility of the Committee to provide a handbook to new staff as to who has been background checked to be between Legislators and Witnesses. It’s a Catch-22 when it comes to Capitol Police, Senate credentialed photogs have learned. The USCP cannot act until the familiar ‘someones’ do something allowing them to be removed from the room. The Code Pink activist who shoved red painted hands in Condi Rice’s face was more shaken by Rice remaining unflinched, than having been arrested for that stunt. And then there is that thing about Capitol Hill being the People’s place? Not the well. There are rules. For Congress at least, the take-away should be a ‘Handbook’, a style guide, that remains for each new Staffer to review when they come on the job. Lord know, I have volunteered to write it before. No no no no, this is not a job for the Republican or Democrat study Committee to pen since they haven’t got this right, yet.
Congress would have done best to meet and speak with the Hill Committee’s before Legislating a Bill that destroys what is left of my colleagues careers. And lives. Fake journalists scare real journalists more than getting credit for. Real journalists want to know who they are standing next too. It can be a matter of life and death
The better question asked is Who Today Isn’t A Journalist? Meetthefamous.com contributor Brandon Downey posting on Meethefamous as LaBellaVida7, is a part-time subsitute teacher hangs out in New York and Philadelphia. Five years ago, Downey turned down $30,000 for a photo he took of a drunk Britney Spears. Meetthefamous.com provides Downey and other wannabee photographers Media Letters for Access if an event host makes the request, a danger too, since editors themselves are often freelancers as was Tina Dupuy “I’ve been an editor at FishbowlLA for over three years–the longest I’ve ever worked anywhere (I am a freelancer)–I wanted to pen my own exit interview” (http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/author/tinad)
The United Press Agency and International Freelance Photographers Organization, housed at a PO Box in Hamptonville, NC says “… become a part of something that spans more than 80,000 members in more than 140 countries,” sell lifetime memberships for under $100 along with hats, T’s, car placards, patches, press credentials for FPO - IFMO/American Image, Inc., American International News Service, I.F.P.O. International Freelance Photographer, International Freelance Photography Organization, Todays Photographer Magazine, American International News Service and USPRESSCORPs.org, photographers Forms. There are Gold Press Credentials, Universal Press Credentials, US Press Corp Credentials, title of Master Photographer Credentials, an Honor Roll and Hall of Fame, a Members Guide and a Lifetime membership for the price of “Only $74,” paid through Paypal. IFPO replacement cards can be bought for $19.95 a set with “ Extra Sets With Different Titles,” “Extra Sets For Each Car-Briefcase-Purse” and “Custom Title Choices” for “FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER,” “FREELANCE VIDEOGRAPHER,” FREELANCE PHOTOJOURNALIST,” “FREELANCE JOURNALIST,” “FREELANCE REPORTER,” “FREELANCE CAMERAMAN,” “FREELANCE PRODUCER,” “PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER,” “TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER,” “NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER,” “OTHER Title Choices may be approved on a case-by-case basis. Call 1-800-654…”
There are “testimonials” of alleged Users of the service. Gregory Coats, a baby and wedding photographer, shows his ‘membership’ got him access to Air Force One and the Obamas and other events. “Imagine me… up clost to President Obama and Air Force One, thanks to IFPO US Press Corps Credentials.” I seem to recall the photo of Flotus and Potus was a photo the White House posted to FLICKR for free…
Anyone can pick up a camera and take a photo. Even a monkey. Grin, even Senator Leahy… (love you Leahy) Monkeys don’t get BBB Ratings of A+. Senator Leahy, should, wink.
Scarier, considering the Senate definition of Journalist, is the connected site CLICKS Partnerships linking the German based source for “Journalist” credential- USPA, General Press Agency of America, UPA-News, NewsmexXTV, UJPA, Press Pass, Reporters. The last CLICK “reporters?” Takes the viewer to Reporters Without Borders.
One testimonial should chill the Senate and House…. USPA Testimonials (www.unitedstatespressagency.com/en/testimonials.html), Peter Muller a “photographer”’s testimonial states, “… This press pass has allowed me to gain access and take photographs at many military installations in the USA, Germany and France which would have been impossible without it…”
To drive the message home, Ramona Schneller allegedly a blogger from Berlin writes: “…I’ve been blogging for many years…I had been denied access to trade shows… Since becoming a member of the USPA, the tide has turned... enjoy free access wherever I want…”
Other entities sell “media credentials on line too” complete with ‘pages’ to post ‘articles’ and photos’ the Senate Bill is using as a benchmark to determine What A Journalist Is.
The “United Press Agency” (UPA) shows a Las Vegas Nevada adress, affiliates in Miami, England and Germany. The affiliate shows an adress in Florida, too. UPA links to International Freelance Photographers Organization in Florida which links to Germany, the German Daily News, GNA2.com, US Press Corps, Press-Press and England too. USPA alleges to have a Europe office, UPA Offices Europe located in the Federal Republic of Germany that affiliates with United Press Association Inc, European Support and Mail Service. The site says its Alliance Partners are General News Agency of America and German Daily News. Principals named on the masthead are named on the alleged International affiliate, International Association Of Press Photographers (www.ia.pp.com) shows a Miami adress, this time. A testimonial “written” by Michael Warren allegedly a CEO in his testimonial sends readers to a linked site Press-Pass (http://www.press-pass.us/) Press Pass Dot US appears to be located in the UK, United Kingdom.
United States Press Agency’s site is slick, as are the affiliated sites. A listed membership benefit is scary “… most organizations assume that this card means that you have a journalistic background without asking questions…” or “when using a press vehicle ID for journalistic work, you’ll get access to blocked-off areas and use of special parking spots…” or “The ID cards are entered into a central register using a special code. Each member of the United States Press Agency may enter his or her own information…” Prequisite is a one-time registration fee of $108 and an annual membership fee of $48…”
General News Agency provides letters of Accreditation for events from the “American Journalist Legitimization” usable at multiple events “signed by the Editor In Chief”, “Agency letterhead related design” and. The Vehicle Pass has a USPA press seal, Registered ID number, states it is a German Daily News affiliate. The site which offers “free promotion of photos and articles” says it best “The actual confirmation lists the focus of your reporting and thus guarantees unhindered practice of your journalistic work.”
German News Daily lists its Affiliates. Bottom of the list is a link for Reporters. CLICK. Reporters Without Borders. The impression given is a relationship. All it took was time on line to locate Reporters Without Borders, along with a minute to send off an email asking of or if there is a relationship between Reporters Without Borders and GNA, USPA or its other affiliates. DC based head of Reporters Without Borders US Director Delphine Halgand emailed back Reporters Without Borders has no connection to German News Daily.
That my dear Senators is what makes a real journalist... vetting facts not flaunting papers and passes that can be bought cheap on the Internet. Cost of real Journo? Priceless- integrity.
The sites are well coordinated using “testimonials” to send “Users” to “better” sites, integrated under one umbrella it seems, a Social Networking site…. “NewsmexX - International Press Community is a Investor Relations & Trade Mark of UJPA Media Group NewsmexX - International Press Agency is an international registered trademark” (http://www.newsmexx.com/pages/view/id/3) a Social Networking Site operating out of Vegas, Senator Harry Reid’s jurisdiction…
The site describes, “What kind of portal is NewsmexX? NewsmexX is an international media platform for journalists, photo and videographers of the International Association of Press Photographers Inc. The NewsmexX press community posts editorial content online daily including: press photos, videos, news, reports and factual articles. Is NewsmexX really free? Yes. NewsmexX is absolutely free. The members of the International Association of Press Photographer Inc. can upload videos, photos and reports for free .They can communicate with colleagues as well.” (http://www.newsmexx.com/)
Slick sites. Big bucks. So now what is Congress going to do. What should be done? When an artery is bleeding, clipping it will stop the bleeding. The artery here is the Search Engines and the ISPs. Clip them, the issue of Copyright Theft, Identity Theft will benefit. Do something, just don’t shoot the messenger or my industry I love… Take out the Techies, wink… What I wouldn’t do is issue the Bills as they stand now. Would rewrite them to adress the Paparazzi problem before someone gets killed because once someone gets killed being chased by photographers or Everyday People With Cameras The Congress Coronated Media… then the matter will be back before Congress. A question I heard a Legislator from Texas ask in another matter was How Does Congress Get Ahead of the Problem? This is how. Do It Right…. And back away from the College Professors, Lobbyists and Wonks when you need advice… Call Gwyneth or Jen Affleck or Ben or Lilly …. And totally call my colleagues to a round table. Oh, yeah. Count me in. The Handbook Person, grin….
The FAIR USE illustrations will educate Legislators the Bill’s requirements of Editors Letters, passes, proof of publication even payments are a thing of the past to define journalism by. Even editors. Plagiarism. New York Times. Jayson Blair. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Ponta. Oprah’s fave author, too. That is some people’s nature in a world that moves fast and a world that lost a sense of history and research. With a PC, paste up, Photoshop and printer, everything can be made to meet the Bill’s definition. Even holograms.
HR 1962, the House Bill requiring that such an individual engage in “journalism” for “financial gain or livelihood,” and S 987, the Senate Bill defining a “covered person” as one who “regularly gathers, prepares, collects, photographs, records, writes, edits, reports or publishes” on “local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest” are dead before breaking the door.
Three hundred years or so later, after the first known use of “Journalist” in 1693, the industry has died. Senator Feinstein’s Bill and the House Bill are Journalism’s headstones. Congress, here is what Journalism used to be, before the Internet and Online Universities came along, The Journalist’s Creed written by Walter Williams in 1906.
The Journalist’s Creed:
I believe in the profession of Journalism.
I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of responsibility, trustees for the public; that all acceptance of lesser service than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.
I believe that clear thinking, clear statement, accuracy and fairness are fundamental to good journalism.
I believe that a journalist should write only what he holds in his heart to be true.
I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is indefensible.
I believe that no one should write as a journalist what he would not say as a gentleman; that bribery by one’s own pocket book is as much to be avoided as bribery by the pocketbook of another; that individual responsibility may not be escaped by pleading another’s instructions or another’s dividends.
I believe that advertising, news and editorial columns should alike serve the best interests of readers; that a single standard of helpful truth and cleanness should prevail for all; that supreme test of good journalism is the measure of its public service.
I believe that the journalism which succeeds the best-and best deserves success-fears God and honors man; is stoutly independent; unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of power; constructive, tolerant but never careless, self-controlled, patient, always respectful of its readers but always unafraid, is quickly indignant at injustice; is unswayed by the appeal of the privilege or the clamor of the mob; seeks to give every man a chance, and as far as law, an honest wage and recognition of human brotherhood can make it so, an equal chance; is profoundly patriotic while sincerely promoting international good will and cementing world-comradeship, is a journalism of humanity, of and for today’s world.
As for Coats and the Germans? Don’t waste time going after individuals. The problem is larger. To be honest, America has people doing the same impacting Germany, England and elsewhere. Talk to Angela and Cameron. This issue is their worry too. Liability? Don’t get me started. Search Engines and ISPs. Without them it would not be that easy to set up the scam. Posh, claims of Safe Harbor. This is truly a “Free Flow of Information Act of 2013” albeit deceptive information. WHATEVER you do, don’t ask advice of College Professors. Would you really ask a grocer how to deliver a baby? Then why would you ask a Professor what life of a Journalist whose career has been torpedoed by the Internet is like…..!
‘Nuff said…
Journalism as an industry died four years ago, 2009. The market crashed in 2008. News agencies pink slipped employees out on a shoot. The Internet was the turn to place for pink slipped formerly credentialed media to showcase themselves. Electronics prices had dropped. Celebrity buzz was at a high. Sites like Meet-The-Famous popped up. Meetthefamous.com CEO said it best “"What I've done is created a home for everybody to be the paparazzi," said Meet the Famous CEO Jordan Osher, who underscores his contributors ability to go where the real paparazzi can't follow stars.” (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2009/03/meet_the_famous_and_make_a_few.html)
Try being a credentialed photog the day Obamacare was signed in the White House East room. Photogs who spent a half day positioning for the moment were shut out of their shots because every audience member, including legislators, held their PDAs high in the air closing out the shot of the media locked into unmovable space behind. Formally? That was the day, Journalism died.
Journalism hasn’t got better. Congress has been part of the problem. It used to be media and agencies were the source for photos of Hearings on Capitol Hill. Legislators have chosen to send interns and staffers to ‘cover’ events. There is nothing sadder than a dime saving Legislator posting wobbly, fuzzy and unfocused shots to their home site. Sticking to the Bill defining Journalism, technically, the Hill staffers are doing exactly what the House and Senate are legislating against…. ‘what is a Journalist’ is now a staffer turned photographer. And journalist aka Communications director. Where is the divide to draw the line through. And if the staffer is inappropriate on Legislative time as has happened, who then answers for them? Recalling Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz’s staffer Dani Gilbert Dani Gilbert, Facebook photos with her friends holding dollar bills and referring to themselves as “Jewbags” and the “Jew cash money team”? The Legislator….. a quasi editor-in-chief of content leaving that Hill office on the Legislator’s behalf.
The Definition of What is A Journalist is far more dire than either House or Senate are looking at. Journalists are no longer just published in print. Give or take a little while longer, print will be replaced with online until someone decides to revolutionize ‘online’ with something called ‘newspaper’, life is cyclical that way.
It boggles the mind of REAL Senate and House credentialed media, the hearing rooms have become fair game for Faux Journalists. There is only so much Senate Credentialed photogs can do without harming their own access but there have been multiple occasions where Hill credentialed media have called out people that should not be in the well. It is the responsibility of the Committee staff to check credentials. It is the responsibility of the Committee to provide a handbook to new staff as to who has been background checked to be between Legislators and Witnesses. It’s a Catch-22 when it comes to Capitol Police, Senate credentialed photogs have learned. The USCP cannot act until the familiar ‘someones’ do something allowing them to be removed from the room. The Code Pink activist who shoved red painted hands in Condi Rice’s face was more shaken by Rice remaining unflinched, than having been arrested for that stunt. And then there is that thing about Capitol Hill being the People’s place? Not the well. There are rules. For Congress at least, the take-away should be a ‘Handbook’, a style guide, that remains for each new Staffer to review when they come on the job. Lord know, I have volunteered to write it before. No no no no, this is not a job for the Republican or Democrat study Committee to pen since they haven’t got this right, yet.
Congress would have done best to meet and speak with the Hill Committee’s before Legislating a Bill that destroys what is left of my colleagues careers. And lives. Fake journalists scare real journalists more than getting credit for. Real journalists want to know who they are standing next too. It can be a matter of life and death
The better question asked is Who Today Isn’t A Journalist? Meetthefamous.com contributor Brandon Downey posting on Meethefamous as LaBellaVida7, is a part-time subsitute teacher hangs out in New York and Philadelphia. Five years ago, Downey turned down $30,000 for a photo he took of a drunk Britney Spears. Meetthefamous.com provides Downey and other wannabee photographers Media Letters for Access if an event host makes the request, a danger too, since editors themselves are often freelancers as was Tina Dupuy “I’ve been an editor at FishbowlLA for over three years–the longest I’ve ever worked anywhere (I am a freelancer)–I wanted to pen my own exit interview” (http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/author/tinad)
The United Press Agency and International Freelance Photographers Organization, housed at a PO Box in Hamptonville, NC says “… become a part of something that spans more than 80,000 members in more than 140 countries,” sell lifetime memberships for under $100 along with hats, T’s, car placards, patches, press credentials for FPO - IFMO/American Image, Inc., American International News Service, I.F.P.O. International Freelance Photographer, International Freelance Photography Organization, Todays Photographer Magazine, American International News Service and USPRESSCORPs.org, photographers Forms. There are Gold Press Credentials, Universal Press Credentials, US Press Corp Credentials, title of Master Photographer Credentials, an Honor Roll and Hall of Fame, a Members Guide and a Lifetime membership for the price of “Only $74,” paid through Paypal. IFPO replacement cards can be bought for $19.95 a set with “ Extra Sets With Different Titles,” “Extra Sets For Each Car-Briefcase-Purse” and “Custom Title Choices” for “FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER,” “FREELANCE VIDEOGRAPHER,” FREELANCE PHOTOJOURNALIST,” “FREELANCE JOURNALIST,” “FREELANCE REPORTER,” “FREELANCE CAMERAMAN,” “FREELANCE PRODUCER,” “PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER,” “TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER,” “NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER,” “OTHER Title Choices may be approved on a case-by-case basis. Call 1-800-654…”
There are “testimonials” of alleged Users of the service. Gregory Coats, a baby and wedding photographer, shows his ‘membership’ got him access to Air Force One and the Obamas and other events. “Imagine me… up clost to President Obama and Air Force One, thanks to IFPO US Press Corps Credentials.” I seem to recall the photo of Flotus and Potus was a photo the White House posted to FLICKR for free…
Anyone can pick up a camera and take a photo. Even a monkey. Grin, even Senator Leahy… (love you Leahy) Monkeys don’t get BBB Ratings of A+. Senator Leahy, should, wink.
Scarier, considering the Senate definition of Journalist, is the connected site CLICKS Partnerships linking the German based source for “Journalist” credential- USPA, General Press Agency of America, UPA-News, NewsmexXTV, UJPA, Press Pass, Reporters. The last CLICK “reporters?” Takes the viewer to Reporters Without Borders.
One testimonial should chill the Senate and House…. USPA Testimonials (www.unitedstatespressagency.com/en/testimonials.html), Peter Muller a “photographer”’s testimonial states, “… This press pass has allowed me to gain access and take photographs at many military installations in the USA, Germany and France which would have been impossible without it…”
To drive the message home, Ramona Schneller allegedly a blogger from Berlin writes: “…I’ve been blogging for many years…I had been denied access to trade shows… Since becoming a member of the USPA, the tide has turned... enjoy free access wherever I want…”
Other entities sell “media credentials on line too” complete with ‘pages’ to post ‘articles’ and photos’ the Senate Bill is using as a benchmark to determine What A Journalist Is.
The “United Press Agency” (UPA) shows a Las Vegas Nevada adress, affiliates in Miami, England and Germany. The affiliate shows an adress in Florida, too. UPA links to International Freelance Photographers Organization in Florida which links to Germany, the German Daily News, GNA2.com, US Press Corps, Press-Press and England too. USPA alleges to have a Europe office, UPA Offices Europe located in the Federal Republic of Germany that affiliates with United Press Association Inc, European Support and Mail Service. The site says its Alliance Partners are General News Agency of America and German Daily News. Principals named on the masthead are named on the alleged International affiliate, International Association Of Press Photographers (www.ia.pp.com) shows a Miami adress, this time. A testimonial “written” by Michael Warren allegedly a CEO in his testimonial sends readers to a linked site Press-Pass (http://www.press-pass.us/) Press Pass Dot US appears to be located in the UK, United Kingdom.
United States Press Agency’s site is slick, as are the affiliated sites. A listed membership benefit is scary “… most organizations assume that this card means that you have a journalistic background without asking questions…” or “when using a press vehicle ID for journalistic work, you’ll get access to blocked-off areas and use of special parking spots…” or “The ID cards are entered into a central register using a special code. Each member of the United States Press Agency may enter his or her own information…” Prequisite is a one-time registration fee of $108 and an annual membership fee of $48…”
General News Agency provides letters of Accreditation for events from the “American Journalist Legitimization” usable at multiple events “signed by the Editor In Chief”, “Agency letterhead related design” and. The Vehicle Pass has a USPA press seal, Registered ID number, states it is a German Daily News affiliate. The site which offers “free promotion of photos and articles” says it best “The actual confirmation lists the focus of your reporting and thus guarantees unhindered practice of your journalistic work.”
German News Daily lists its Affiliates. Bottom of the list is a link for Reporters. CLICK. Reporters Without Borders. The impression given is a relationship. All it took was time on line to locate Reporters Without Borders, along with a minute to send off an email asking of or if there is a relationship between Reporters Without Borders and GNA, USPA or its other affiliates. DC based head of Reporters Without Borders US Director Delphine Halgand emailed back Reporters Without Borders has no connection to German News Daily.
That my dear Senators is what makes a real journalist... vetting facts not flaunting papers and passes that can be bought cheap on the Internet. Cost of real Journo? Priceless- integrity.
The sites are well coordinated using “testimonials” to send “Users” to “better” sites, integrated under one umbrella it seems, a Social Networking site…. “NewsmexX - International Press Community is a Investor Relations & Trade Mark of UJPA Media Group NewsmexX - International Press Agency is an international registered trademark” (http://www.newsmexx.com/pages/view/id/3) a Social Networking Site operating out of Vegas, Senator Harry Reid’s jurisdiction…
The site describes, “What kind of portal is NewsmexX? NewsmexX is an international media platform for journalists, photo and videographers of the International Association of Press Photographers Inc. The NewsmexX press community posts editorial content online daily including: press photos, videos, news, reports and factual articles. Is NewsmexX really free? Yes. NewsmexX is absolutely free. The members of the International Association of Press Photographer Inc. can upload videos, photos and reports for free .They can communicate with colleagues as well.” (http://www.newsmexx.com/)
Slick sites. Big bucks. So now what is Congress going to do. What should be done? When an artery is bleeding, clipping it will stop the bleeding. The artery here is the Search Engines and the ISPs. Clip them, the issue of Copyright Theft, Identity Theft will benefit. Do something, just don’t shoot the messenger or my industry I love… Take out the Techies, wink… What I wouldn’t do is issue the Bills as they stand now. Would rewrite them to adress the Paparazzi problem before someone gets killed because once someone gets killed being chased by photographers or Everyday People With Cameras The Congress Coronated Media… then the matter will be back before Congress. A question I heard a Legislator from Texas ask in another matter was How Does Congress Get Ahead of the Problem? This is how. Do It Right…. And back away from the College Professors, Lobbyists and Wonks when you need advice… Call Gwyneth or Jen Affleck or Ben or Lilly …. And totally call my colleagues to a round table. Oh, yeah. Count me in. The Handbook Person, grin….
The FAIR USE illustrations will educate Legislators the Bill’s requirements of Editors Letters, passes, proof of publication even payments are a thing of the past to define journalism by. Even editors. Plagiarism. New York Times. Jayson Blair. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Ponta. Oprah’s fave author, too. That is some people’s nature in a world that moves fast and a world that lost a sense of history and research. With a PC, paste up, Photoshop and printer, everything can be made to meet the Bill’s definition. Even holograms.
HR 1962, the House Bill requiring that such an individual engage in “journalism” for “financial gain or livelihood,” and S 987, the Senate Bill defining a “covered person” as one who “regularly gathers, prepares, collects, photographs, records, writes, edits, reports or publishes” on “local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest” are dead before breaking the door.
Three hundred years or so later, after the first known use of “Journalist” in 1693, the industry has died. Senator Feinstein’s Bill and the House Bill are Journalism’s headstones. Congress, here is what Journalism used to be, before the Internet and Online Universities came along, The Journalist’s Creed written by Walter Williams in 1906.
The Journalist’s Creed:
I believe in the profession of Journalism.
I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of responsibility, trustees for the public; that all acceptance of lesser service than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.
I believe that clear thinking, clear statement, accuracy and fairness are fundamental to good journalism.
I believe that a journalist should write only what he holds in his heart to be true.
I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is indefensible.
I believe that no one should write as a journalist what he would not say as a gentleman; that bribery by one’s own pocket book is as much to be avoided as bribery by the pocketbook of another; that individual responsibility may not be escaped by pleading another’s instructions or another’s dividends.
I believe that advertising, news and editorial columns should alike serve the best interests of readers; that a single standard of helpful truth and cleanness should prevail for all; that supreme test of good journalism is the measure of its public service.
I believe that the journalism which succeeds the best-and best deserves success-fears God and honors man; is stoutly independent; unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of power; constructive, tolerant but never careless, self-controlled, patient, always respectful of its readers but always unafraid, is quickly indignant at injustice; is unswayed by the appeal of the privilege or the clamor of the mob; seeks to give every man a chance, and as far as law, an honest wage and recognition of human brotherhood can make it so, an equal chance; is profoundly patriotic while sincerely promoting international good will and cementing world-comradeship, is a journalism of humanity, of and for today’s world.
As for Coats and the Germans? Don’t waste time going after individuals. The problem is larger. To be honest, America has people doing the same impacting Germany, England and elsewhere. Talk to Angela and Cameron. This issue is their worry too. Liability? Don’t get me started. Search Engines and ISPs. Without them it would not be that easy to set up the scam. Posh, claims of Safe Harbor. This is truly a “Free Flow of Information Act of 2013” albeit deceptive information. WHATEVER you do, don’t ask advice of College Professors. Would you really ask a grocer how to deliver a baby? Then why would you ask a Professor what life of a Journalist whose career has been torpedoed by the Internet is like…..!
‘Nuff said…
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THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF CHEMICAL WARFARE - GOVERNMENT APPROVED PATENTING OF DEATH (c) Carrie Devorah :
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gI would have figured it to be a no brainer in the rhetoric of Chemical Warfare for someone to get to the nucleus of How Things Get Made, things like Chemicals used in Warfare- that part of the process called Intellectual Property and Legislative Debates and Patent Offices. But amazingly with all the intellect online, focus has been repeats and retweets of what another entity or blogger then often cited by Legislators. OMG. What ever happened to digging deeper into dirt on what came first, the patented Intellectual property or the 1400 dead in Syria today with the guarantee of more tomorrow, or the next day or another after that. Oh come on- its called Coincidental Thought or two people who may never meet having a great idea at the same time. In different zipcodes. Under different governments.
The dead in Syria didn’t just fall off the back of a Turnip truck. Their deaths began in a lab somewhere, sometime ago. Frankestinian type mad scientists concocting brews? No. That is the fodder of movies guaranteed to make you pee in your pants from fear. Sometimes, like #*@T, Nerve Gas’ happen, most likely because somewhere some Legislative Body debated things back and forth before stamping the ‘something’ with a Seal of Approval. No. Not saying that Legislators approved Nerve Gas’ but sometimes, it wasn’t Nerve Gas they approved. Other times, it wasn’t only Nerve Gas they were looking at. But like quarters that fall into the pillowed seats of a sofa, that is until Bitcoins came along, facts and details slip between the cracks. You know, Rome wasn’t built in a day nor is a profile of people or a chemical too. Put them both together, sometimes we have a recipe for a Modern Day Maniac or, as in the case of VX, a guy that invented a landscaping chemical that just happens to knock people out a half hour or so after it touches their skin, they rub their eyes, they convulse and dead. Oh, not just them dead but everyone they have come in to contact with between location of contact and moment of Death from an odorless chemical that was intended to kill weeds.
I know, I know, things happen. But while Radio and TV are whipping people into a Frenzy of War just like the NSA built back doors into all the PDAs we use and can NO LONGER take the backs off or batteries or chips out of (ahem iPhone), some of the Big Dog and Poodle countries had back door dealings too which sort of make the postulating a bit of a giggle, gallows giggle that is, considering the consequence.
The Father of Nerve gas was a German Scientist. British Intelligence reportedly brought his gas to Porton Down after World War II. Allied Forces found the Nerve Gas in WWII, in Germany. The discovery excited them.
Now, Chemicals and Congress are not unknown bedfellows. 96% of manufactured consumer goods are produced with chemicals most of which are toxic. And what Congress does is Legislate things it has no clue about but gets ‘briefed on.’ Sit through a hearing or two of people pushing agendas without complete disclosure, one might share the cynicism. But there are legislators with good intentions that try their best to do good. Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and the late Frank Lautenberg co-sponsored S 1009, the Chemical Safety Improvement Act, a legislation to adress toxic chemicals in household and manufactured products. Lautenberg and Vitter wanted to shore up the Toxic Substances Control Act. The TSCA had not been amended in its thirty seven years. The TSCA was passed in 1976, intended to regulate existing and new chemicals. Whatever wasn’t on the list in 1976? Wasn’t going to be on the list of “Chemicals.” There wasn’t a list for Toxic. Nor is there a list for Non Toxic. There was clearly no Congressional “dunno list” for Chemicals that might be developed some time down the road. The Legislative oversight attempts to legislate no new chemical being used in manufacturing Consumer Goods or on imported for Consumer Goods.
Getting the picture? Good. So you wont lose your lunch when I tell you there are over 85,000 chemicals on the Market. And the EPA? The Agency knows the toxicity of about 200 of those chemicals. The EPA has only taken action against five chemicals or chemical classes? You see, the EPA only knows what the chemical’s manufacturer tells them about toxicity- whistleblowers and all….. In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security issued a rule called “Chemical Facility Security: Regulation and Issues For Congress”, a Summary, requiring chemical facilities with certain types and amounts of stuff the Secretary determined were hazardous to let the DHS know then undergo a screening process to determine the sites CVI, Chemical Terrorism Vulnerability Information category, which chemical facilities were high risk needing additional security. The sites were to provide the DHS with a site security plan and a vulnerability plan for the Secretary to approve or to disapprove. The Summary highlighted issues Congress had discussed. There was the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008. There were HR 1530, HR 1574 and HR 1633 that the House introduced for chemical site security. Then there was the 2007 Farm Bill S 2302 and HR 2419, the Appropriations Bills HR 2638 and S 1644, for starters.
Any wonder Legislative pocket change continues to fall out of pockets and in between sofa pillows? Hearings are held all the time. One can only legislate disclosed entities. The reality is that around the world there is someone, somewhere, in a lab, in a garage, in a home, on a farm not just in a multi dollar conglomerate looking to make product cheaper and better that will get government approval. Or not. It is the Or Not that is worrisome.
The disclosed entities let their chemicals go through test phases. Some of the chemicals make it on to the streets as product, some don’t. And some that do make the streets get clawed back for one thing or another. Usually for death(s) or causing disability. More often, at that put, claw back attempts are when it is too late to put the rabbit back in the box.
You see the process is the problem. Ideas are Intellectual Property. And Intellectual Property get protected, at least, with First to Claim Ownership. Over at the USPTO, papers are pushed forward from Application to Published Patent or IP, Intellectual Property. With the USPTO all online these days, anyone anywhere in the world can see what is being made or protection sought for AND how to do it better.
A patent is a patent is a patent whether the patent is for a new button, Google eyeglass or in the chemical or pharmaceuticals industry. No different legal requirements. EVEN if the end purpose or use is to kill people, eventually. Drugs, chemicals and medicines are easily imitated or tweaked in to Chemical Weapons. Definition?... any toxic chemical or its precursor that can cause death, injury, temporary incapacitation or sensory irritation through its chemical action.” Classified? By how they affect people.
There are the Choking Agents… they make breathing difficult… ie Chlorine gas. There are Blister Agents… they irritate skin and eye ie Mustard gas. There are the fast acting and lethal agents like Arsenic or cyanide. There are the Nerve agents like Sarin or VX. They disrupt the nervous system.
Then there are the Chemical Agents used to control crowds. Tear gas sound familiar? On the streets of America, tear gas is called a ‘riot control agent’ used for law enforcement. But if used in war, tear gas is termed a chemical weapon. There is White Phosphorus used both home and abroad. Incendiary as a weapon, it has its benefits, it seems.
What they all have, Chemical Agents, is the Taboo Attitude on the impact of Chemical weaponry to civilian populations, dating a hundred years back. As Man evolved, or devolved, as the opinion might be, Technology advanced, as did man’s ability to impact foreign cultures. Hiroshima, ring a bell? Someone aught to remind Secretary Kerry. Post WWI, by the time of WWII, a lot of countries ‘volunteered’ to rule out chemical warfare on the battlefield. A lot of paper pushing and protocol which all looks good like the Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibiting poisonous gas as war weaponry. There was the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993 that took the 1925 agreement further… except not everyone signed on to that agreement a decade ago- Syria, North Korea, EGYPT and Angola.- not promising to voluntarily outlaw production, stockpile, transfer and use of chemical weapons.
Gerhard, was a German Biochemist. Full name Gerhard Schrader. In 1936, Gerhard was working on a pesticide. Instead or in addition, Gerhard discovered Organo- Phosphates and their effect on human beings. Gerhard was his own guinea pig, accidentally. A splish splash of some chemicals into each other and he wasn’t feeling so good. A day later, Gerhard had trouble breathing. His eyesight was on the fritz, no pun intended. He was spasming and his arm, within a week was paralyzed. Gerhard hit it out of the ballpark of inhumanity, discoverint the ancestor of Nerve Gases, that, depending on how much was used and absorbed through the skin, was fatal within 5 to 15 minutes. N Gas. That is what the Nazis called it, in 1936.
Yup.
Porton Down is a United Kingdom government military science park situated slightly northeast of Porton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. To the northwest lies the MoD Boscombe Down test range facility which is operated by QinetiQ. Porton Down, about 7000 acres in recent years, started out as a few cottages and farm buildings scattered on the downs at Porton and Idmiston. Porton Down opened as a test site for chemical weapons. It was called the Royal Engineers Experimental Station. Purpose? To study Chlorine, Phosgene and Mustard Gas in WWI. There were two huts. Two years later, there more over 1100 people at Porton Down, still focused on anti gas defense and breathing. Porton Down became a skeleton after the Armistice was signed.
Fourteen years after Schrader’s N Gas discovery, in 1952, British scientist Dr Ranajit Ghosh, working with JF Newman, at Britain’s Porton Down’s chemical warfare laboratory, patented diethyl S-2-diethylaminoethyl phosphono- thioate, November of that year. Gosh was working for ICI, Imperial Chemical Industries, a British firm, in their Plant Protection Land when Gosh focused on investigating Organophosate compounds, the same compounds Gerhard Schrader looked into in the ‘30s. ICI took one of Gosh’s compounds, Amiton, to market,only to withdraw Amition from market. It was too toxic, for home use, it seemed but perfect for warfare. Samples had been sent to the British Armed Forces Research facility, Porton Downs. The two Men had improved on Schrader’s N Agent. The scientists had developed V Agents, the newest Nerve Agents aka the Tammelin Esters named after Lars- Erik Tammelin of the SDRA, the Swedish Defense Research Agency. Patented. IP. Intellectual Property.The most famous one, code name Purple Possum?
As it turns out, a few years earlier, the Russians and other scientists, independent of each other or the companies they worked for, discovered more potent Nerve gases. That is how people are- even when something is bad, they play with ‘fire’ as the expression goes and come up with great ideas they may not be aware someone else had discovered. Scientists enamored with these deadly elements, continued their exploration going forward, discovering ways to make the chemicals less combustible and other challenges, normal people, outside of Government and Mad Scientists, would run from let alone trade in.
Come WWII, Porton Down focused on anthrax bio weaponry, botulinum toxins and nitgrogen mustard. The Allies learned about organophsorous nerve agents in Germany- Tabun, Sarin and Soman which springboarded research off the German Nerve Agents starting point. And VX was born. In Britain.
The government paid hospitals for skin removed from patients. The Scientists wanted Real McCoy test results not hypotheticals so what better to test a skin agent on but skin which, as it turned out, the patients had no clue they had donated. The practice of using patient skin began in 1995 and was stopped after the Alder Hey report was released. A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman, speaking on behalf of Dera, confirming the skin was used in chemical warfare tests said, "Most of the chemical tests done were for the benefit of civilians. They were with corrosive chemicals that are used in the home and work place, to see how the skin would be affected by a spillage." The Patient’s Consent form said ‘use in medical research…” which by the way, the hospital was paid dearly for, over 17,000 pounds, without any statement, wink, patients who went in for a tummy tuck and breast ‘nips’ or other vanity surgeries got a discount from the hospital for their hide, without explaining that it was being used by the Defense Evaluation and Research Agency, DERA, which runs the facilities on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Gets better. The Brits traded VX to the Yanks in exchange for information on thermo-nuclear weapons. That was in 1958. Technically, work on such agents stopped in 1955 when lethality of the research was acknowledged. Technically. The US began producing VX in 1961. Newport Chemical Depot. The known countries to have VX are Russia, France and the US. KNOWN being the operative word. Wishing to un-create VX is like a mom threatening her bad child she wishes she could put them back up inside. Not going to happen. VX, which is rumored to be the chemical that Sadaam lost into Syria back in the early 2000’s?
So what now…… there’s the ticker. You cant see VX, smell it, taste it but one half hour after contact one witnesses horrific devolution into death. The United Nations classified IUPAC, O-ethyl S-[2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl] methylphosphonothioate, the technical name for VX, as a Weapon of Mass Destruction in UN Resolution 687 then outlawed in the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993.
Arghhhh. Getting it yet? The old story, ten people can be working on the same thing at the same time and name it something different without the dots being connected until, it is, here in the case of Nerve Agents, too late. For all the protocol and hoopla about getting countries to stand down on Toxic time bombs… somewhere, around there world there is someone about to make the same discovery too, and somewhere, someone about to get a patent for their Intellectual Property of mass murder… again
What does one do? Pray is probably the best first answer. Second answer? Maybe committees will learn to dig deeper into the bad of the New Greatest Bestest idea being pitched at legislators, like THE INTERNET (cough)….boy, wasn’t that a rapid descent into the Devil’s Lair. Try grabbing that one by the tail and rolling things back to the way things used to be. With all good there comes bad and within all bad there is good. And that somewhere someone in a patent office saw the idea for Nerve Agents then rubber stamped it LIKE for a production go ahead. And with the USPTO racing to put everything online, good guess is more of these dastardly things people wish they could uninvent will be discovered by the next home grown terrorist on immigrant with a bone to pick with his mom he takes out on innocent people going for a run in the 5K.
The Holland Committee was set up by the War Office in 1919. The Cabinet decided a year later to continue building the Porton Down program. By 1922, there were 380 servicemen, and a mix of fifty or so civil servants and scientists. Three years later, there were even more. Britain ratified the Geneva Protocol of 1925, in 1930, which allowed Chemical Warfare agents only in retaliation. Around twenty to thirty years later, 1970, the renamed Porton Down, Chemical Defence Establishment, was paying attention to reports of chemical warfare by the Iraqis against their Kurdish population and Iran. Porton Down changed its name again in 2001- Defense Evaluation and Research Agency still so secretive Members of British Parliament are reported to have admitted they aren’t completely aware of what goes on there even after having visited the site. Although word is the site is working on medical strains of Cannabis and the related patents. The US Army’s early method of disposal of its stockpiled Agents was the CHASE technique- Cut Holes and Sink ‘Em. Old ships packed with nerve agents were sunk to the bottom of the sea. The SS Cpl Eric G Gibson was sunk 7200 feet deep of Atlantic City, New Jersey. There are over 7,000 VX rockets on board the Gibson. 124 tons of VX were sunk off the shores of New York, New Jersey and Florida, betweem 1919 and 1970- one land mine, over 1400 pounds of bulk contianer and about 22000 M55 rockets. Some sites incinerated VX as late as going in to Christmas Eve 2008. The Blue Grass Pilot Plant destruction of their VX is the last of the VX bunch waiting to be destroyed. If it wasn’t one thing or another causing the delays, it was one thing or another. Russia and America were working together to reduce Russias over 5900 tons of Nerve Agents stored a former chemical weapons depot. 14% o the chemical weapons there are from Russia.
As for the book the officer in the photo is reading? Probably a good idea to collect and destroy. The book, that is. Erroneous information. The author incorrectly listed America as the country that discovered VX. So much for experts on topics but in these days of War Crimes and War Tribunals…. Get my drift.
The dead in Syria didn’t just fall off the back of a Turnip truck. Their deaths began in a lab somewhere, sometime ago. Frankestinian type mad scientists concocting brews? No. That is the fodder of movies guaranteed to make you pee in your pants from fear. Sometimes, like #*@T, Nerve Gas’ happen, most likely because somewhere some Legislative Body debated things back and forth before stamping the ‘something’ with a Seal of Approval. No. Not saying that Legislators approved Nerve Gas’ but sometimes, it wasn’t Nerve Gas they approved. Other times, it wasn’t only Nerve Gas they were looking at. But like quarters that fall into the pillowed seats of a sofa, that is until Bitcoins came along, facts and details slip between the cracks. You know, Rome wasn’t built in a day nor is a profile of people or a chemical too. Put them both together, sometimes we have a recipe for a Modern Day Maniac or, as in the case of VX, a guy that invented a landscaping chemical that just happens to knock people out a half hour or so after it touches their skin, they rub their eyes, they convulse and dead. Oh, not just them dead but everyone they have come in to contact with between location of contact and moment of Death from an odorless chemical that was intended to kill weeds.
I know, I know, things happen. But while Radio and TV are whipping people into a Frenzy of War just like the NSA built back doors into all the PDAs we use and can NO LONGER take the backs off or batteries or chips out of (ahem iPhone), some of the Big Dog and Poodle countries had back door dealings too which sort of make the postulating a bit of a giggle, gallows giggle that is, considering the consequence.
The Father of Nerve gas was a German Scientist. British Intelligence reportedly brought his gas to Porton Down after World War II. Allied Forces found the Nerve Gas in WWII, in Germany. The discovery excited them.
Now, Chemicals and Congress are not unknown bedfellows. 96% of manufactured consumer goods are produced with chemicals most of which are toxic. And what Congress does is Legislate things it has no clue about but gets ‘briefed on.’ Sit through a hearing or two of people pushing agendas without complete disclosure, one might share the cynicism. But there are legislators with good intentions that try their best to do good. Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and the late Frank Lautenberg co-sponsored S 1009, the Chemical Safety Improvement Act, a legislation to adress toxic chemicals in household and manufactured products. Lautenberg and Vitter wanted to shore up the Toxic Substances Control Act. The TSCA had not been amended in its thirty seven years. The TSCA was passed in 1976, intended to regulate existing and new chemicals. Whatever wasn’t on the list in 1976? Wasn’t going to be on the list of “Chemicals.” There wasn’t a list for Toxic. Nor is there a list for Non Toxic. There was clearly no Congressional “dunno list” for Chemicals that might be developed some time down the road. The Legislative oversight attempts to legislate no new chemical being used in manufacturing Consumer Goods or on imported for Consumer Goods.
Getting the picture? Good. So you wont lose your lunch when I tell you there are over 85,000 chemicals on the Market. And the EPA? The Agency knows the toxicity of about 200 of those chemicals. The EPA has only taken action against five chemicals or chemical classes? You see, the EPA only knows what the chemical’s manufacturer tells them about toxicity- whistleblowers and all….. In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security issued a rule called “Chemical Facility Security: Regulation and Issues For Congress”, a Summary, requiring chemical facilities with certain types and amounts of stuff the Secretary determined were hazardous to let the DHS know then undergo a screening process to determine the sites CVI, Chemical Terrorism Vulnerability Information category, which chemical facilities were high risk needing additional security. The sites were to provide the DHS with a site security plan and a vulnerability plan for the Secretary to approve or to disapprove. The Summary highlighted issues Congress had discussed. There was the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008. There were HR 1530, HR 1574 and HR 1633 that the House introduced for chemical site security. Then there was the 2007 Farm Bill S 2302 and HR 2419, the Appropriations Bills HR 2638 and S 1644, for starters.
Any wonder Legislative pocket change continues to fall out of pockets and in between sofa pillows? Hearings are held all the time. One can only legislate disclosed entities. The reality is that around the world there is someone, somewhere, in a lab, in a garage, in a home, on a farm not just in a multi dollar conglomerate looking to make product cheaper and better that will get government approval. Or not. It is the Or Not that is worrisome.
The disclosed entities let their chemicals go through test phases. Some of the chemicals make it on to the streets as product, some don’t. And some that do make the streets get clawed back for one thing or another. Usually for death(s) or causing disability. More often, at that put, claw back attempts are when it is too late to put the rabbit back in the box.
You see the process is the problem. Ideas are Intellectual Property. And Intellectual Property get protected, at least, with First to Claim Ownership. Over at the USPTO, papers are pushed forward from Application to Published Patent or IP, Intellectual Property. With the USPTO all online these days, anyone anywhere in the world can see what is being made or protection sought for AND how to do it better.
A patent is a patent is a patent whether the patent is for a new button, Google eyeglass or in the chemical or pharmaceuticals industry. No different legal requirements. EVEN if the end purpose or use is to kill people, eventually. Drugs, chemicals and medicines are easily imitated or tweaked in to Chemical Weapons. Definition?... any toxic chemical or its precursor that can cause death, injury, temporary incapacitation or sensory irritation through its chemical action.” Classified? By how they affect people.
There are the Choking Agents… they make breathing difficult… ie Chlorine gas. There are Blister Agents… they irritate skin and eye ie Mustard gas. There are the fast acting and lethal agents like Arsenic or cyanide. There are the Nerve agents like Sarin or VX. They disrupt the nervous system.
Then there are the Chemical Agents used to control crowds. Tear gas sound familiar? On the streets of America, tear gas is called a ‘riot control agent’ used for law enforcement. But if used in war, tear gas is termed a chemical weapon. There is White Phosphorus used both home and abroad. Incendiary as a weapon, it has its benefits, it seems.
What they all have, Chemical Agents, is the Taboo Attitude on the impact of Chemical weaponry to civilian populations, dating a hundred years back. As Man evolved, or devolved, as the opinion might be, Technology advanced, as did man’s ability to impact foreign cultures. Hiroshima, ring a bell? Someone aught to remind Secretary Kerry. Post WWI, by the time of WWII, a lot of countries ‘volunteered’ to rule out chemical warfare on the battlefield. A lot of paper pushing and protocol which all looks good like the Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibiting poisonous gas as war weaponry. There was the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993 that took the 1925 agreement further… except not everyone signed on to that agreement a decade ago- Syria, North Korea, EGYPT and Angola.- not promising to voluntarily outlaw production, stockpile, transfer and use of chemical weapons.
Gerhard, was a German Biochemist. Full name Gerhard Schrader. In 1936, Gerhard was working on a pesticide. Instead or in addition, Gerhard discovered Organo- Phosphates and their effect on human beings. Gerhard was his own guinea pig, accidentally. A splish splash of some chemicals into each other and he wasn’t feeling so good. A day later, Gerhard had trouble breathing. His eyesight was on the fritz, no pun intended. He was spasming and his arm, within a week was paralyzed. Gerhard hit it out of the ballpark of inhumanity, discoverint the ancestor of Nerve Gases, that, depending on how much was used and absorbed through the skin, was fatal within 5 to 15 minutes. N Gas. That is what the Nazis called it, in 1936.
Yup.
Porton Down is a United Kingdom government military science park situated slightly northeast of Porton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. To the northwest lies the MoD Boscombe Down test range facility which is operated by QinetiQ. Porton Down, about 7000 acres in recent years, started out as a few cottages and farm buildings scattered on the downs at Porton and Idmiston. Porton Down opened as a test site for chemical weapons. It was called the Royal Engineers Experimental Station. Purpose? To study Chlorine, Phosgene and Mustard Gas in WWI. There were two huts. Two years later, there more over 1100 people at Porton Down, still focused on anti gas defense and breathing. Porton Down became a skeleton after the Armistice was signed.
Fourteen years after Schrader’s N Gas discovery, in 1952, British scientist Dr Ranajit Ghosh, working with JF Newman, at Britain’s Porton Down’s chemical warfare laboratory, patented diethyl S-2-diethylaminoethyl phosphono- thioate, November of that year. Gosh was working for ICI, Imperial Chemical Industries, a British firm, in their Plant Protection Land when Gosh focused on investigating Organophosate compounds, the same compounds Gerhard Schrader looked into in the ‘30s. ICI took one of Gosh’s compounds, Amiton, to market,only to withdraw Amition from market. It was too toxic, for home use, it seemed but perfect for warfare. Samples had been sent to the British Armed Forces Research facility, Porton Downs. The two Men had improved on Schrader’s N Agent. The scientists had developed V Agents, the newest Nerve Agents aka the Tammelin Esters named after Lars- Erik Tammelin of the SDRA, the Swedish Defense Research Agency. Patented. IP. Intellectual Property.The most famous one, code name Purple Possum?
As it turns out, a few years earlier, the Russians and other scientists, independent of each other or the companies they worked for, discovered more potent Nerve gases. That is how people are- even when something is bad, they play with ‘fire’ as the expression goes and come up with great ideas they may not be aware someone else had discovered. Scientists enamored with these deadly elements, continued their exploration going forward, discovering ways to make the chemicals less combustible and other challenges, normal people, outside of Government and Mad Scientists, would run from let alone trade in.
Come WWII, Porton Down focused on anthrax bio weaponry, botulinum toxins and nitgrogen mustard. The Allies learned about organophsorous nerve agents in Germany- Tabun, Sarin and Soman which springboarded research off the German Nerve Agents starting point. And VX was born. In Britain.
The government paid hospitals for skin removed from patients. The Scientists wanted Real McCoy test results not hypotheticals so what better to test a skin agent on but skin which, as it turned out, the patients had no clue they had donated. The practice of using patient skin began in 1995 and was stopped after the Alder Hey report was released. A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman, speaking on behalf of Dera, confirming the skin was used in chemical warfare tests said, "Most of the chemical tests done were for the benefit of civilians. They were with corrosive chemicals that are used in the home and work place, to see how the skin would be affected by a spillage." The Patient’s Consent form said ‘use in medical research…” which by the way, the hospital was paid dearly for, over 17,000 pounds, without any statement, wink, patients who went in for a tummy tuck and breast ‘nips’ or other vanity surgeries got a discount from the hospital for their hide, without explaining that it was being used by the Defense Evaluation and Research Agency, DERA, which runs the facilities on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Gets better. The Brits traded VX to the Yanks in exchange for information on thermo-nuclear weapons. That was in 1958. Technically, work on such agents stopped in 1955 when lethality of the research was acknowledged. Technically. The US began producing VX in 1961. Newport Chemical Depot. The known countries to have VX are Russia, France and the US. KNOWN being the operative word. Wishing to un-create VX is like a mom threatening her bad child she wishes she could put them back up inside. Not going to happen. VX, which is rumored to be the chemical that Sadaam lost into Syria back in the early 2000’s?
So what now…… there’s the ticker. You cant see VX, smell it, taste it but one half hour after contact one witnesses horrific devolution into death. The United Nations classified IUPAC, O-ethyl S-[2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl] methylphosphonothioate, the technical name for VX, as a Weapon of Mass Destruction in UN Resolution 687 then outlawed in the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993.
Arghhhh. Getting it yet? The old story, ten people can be working on the same thing at the same time and name it something different without the dots being connected until, it is, here in the case of Nerve Agents, too late. For all the protocol and hoopla about getting countries to stand down on Toxic time bombs… somewhere, around there world there is someone about to make the same discovery too, and somewhere, someone about to get a patent for their Intellectual Property of mass murder… again
What does one do? Pray is probably the best first answer. Second answer? Maybe committees will learn to dig deeper into the bad of the New Greatest Bestest idea being pitched at legislators, like THE INTERNET (cough)….boy, wasn’t that a rapid descent into the Devil’s Lair. Try grabbing that one by the tail and rolling things back to the way things used to be. With all good there comes bad and within all bad there is good. And that somewhere someone in a patent office saw the idea for Nerve Agents then rubber stamped it LIKE for a production go ahead. And with the USPTO racing to put everything online, good guess is more of these dastardly things people wish they could uninvent will be discovered by the next home grown terrorist on immigrant with a bone to pick with his mom he takes out on innocent people going for a run in the 5K.
The Holland Committee was set up by the War Office in 1919. The Cabinet decided a year later to continue building the Porton Down program. By 1922, there were 380 servicemen, and a mix of fifty or so civil servants and scientists. Three years later, there were even more. Britain ratified the Geneva Protocol of 1925, in 1930, which allowed Chemical Warfare agents only in retaliation. Around twenty to thirty years later, 1970, the renamed Porton Down, Chemical Defence Establishment, was paying attention to reports of chemical warfare by the Iraqis against their Kurdish population and Iran. Porton Down changed its name again in 2001- Defense Evaluation and Research Agency still so secretive Members of British Parliament are reported to have admitted they aren’t completely aware of what goes on there even after having visited the site. Although word is the site is working on medical strains of Cannabis and the related patents. The US Army’s early method of disposal of its stockpiled Agents was the CHASE technique- Cut Holes and Sink ‘Em. Old ships packed with nerve agents were sunk to the bottom of the sea. The SS Cpl Eric G Gibson was sunk 7200 feet deep of Atlantic City, New Jersey. There are over 7,000 VX rockets on board the Gibson. 124 tons of VX were sunk off the shores of New York, New Jersey and Florida, betweem 1919 and 1970- one land mine, over 1400 pounds of bulk contianer and about 22000 M55 rockets. Some sites incinerated VX as late as going in to Christmas Eve 2008. The Blue Grass Pilot Plant destruction of their VX is the last of the VX bunch waiting to be destroyed. If it wasn’t one thing or another causing the delays, it was one thing or another. Russia and America were working together to reduce Russias over 5900 tons of Nerve Agents stored a former chemical weapons depot. 14% o the chemical weapons there are from Russia.
As for the book the officer in the photo is reading? Probably a good idea to collect and destroy. The book, that is. Erroneous information. The author incorrectly listed America as the country that discovered VX. So much for experts on topics but in these days of War Crimes and War Tribunals…. Get my drift.
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GOOGLE THIS Lawsuits Against Googles Adwords For Advertising Practices (c) Carrie Devorah :
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Google Adwords has lawsuits against it by advertisers alleging CLICK FRAUD on behalf of GOOGLE possibly making the Internet Giant the next stop 4 Legislators looking in2 FACEBOOK privacy issues.
Advertisers complain of issues including but not limited 2 finding their credit cards are being OVERCHARGED even though setting a budget for CLICKS only 2 have that budget reset NOT by the advertiser then discovering increasing charges on their Credit Cards a matter the card companies recommends resolving warning the advertisers that Card Holders GOOGLE will get their demanded payment- justified or not- from the Card Holder & the Googles Adwords client. Back in 2006 GOOGLE settled paying $90 million 2 advertisers who complained about being overcharged for online ads.
The settlement was paid in advertising credits to online retailers and other advertisers.GOOGLE settled a second suit for $20mil http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/settlements/13311/google-class-action-lawsuit-adwords.html
Advertisers complain of issues including but not limited 2 finding their credit cards are being OVERCHARGED even though setting a budget for CLICKS only 2 have that budget reset NOT by the advertiser then discovering increasing charges on their Credit Cards a matter the card companies recommends resolving warning the advertisers that Card Holders GOOGLE will get their demanded payment- justified or not- from the Card Holder & the Googles Adwords client. Back in 2006 GOOGLE settled paying $90 million 2 advertisers who complained about being overcharged for online ads.
The settlement was paid in advertising credits to online retailers and other advertisers.GOOGLE settled a second suit for $20mil http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/settlements/13311/google-class-action-lawsuit-adwords.html
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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SAY LITTLE & LESS IS MORE
(c) Carrie Devorah :
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The White House is the only building in the world where simultaneously a Head of state the Executive office of a head of state is home regularly open 2 the public 4 tours http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/tours-and-events/ .
Google & the WH teamed up to launch GOOGLE ART PROJECT WHITE HOUSE TOURS. Google announced the project has new partnerships with 29 partners in 16 cities across the country. The new White House tour is part of a global expansion of the Google Art Project. Google Art Project launched February 2011 using Google technology lets users view museum objects in high resolution. Mrs. Obama says in the video welcoming digital users to explore the White House via the Google Art Project . “The White House isn’t simply a home to First Families or meeting space for world leaders, it’s also known as ‘The People’s House,’ a place that should be open to everyone. And that’s why we’ve made it a priority to invite young people, military families, and Americans of all ages to join us here at the White House,” “Thousands of people ... imagined the history that’s unfolded here. And now you can do all of that without leaving your home. So go ahead, look around, enjoy the history and the beauty of these rooms. Because after all, this is your house, too.”
President & Mrs. Obama teamed up w Google Art Project 2 make the White House More Accessible in an at-home 360-degree tour of the White House’s public rooms at www.GoogleArtProject.com they say is their effort 2 make 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue “The People’s House" w Google Art Projects virtual 360-degree tour of the White House’s public rooms. For each & every president mof visitors walk through the gates of The People’s House, including Tourists Guests White House Easter Egg Roll attendees Fall &Spring Garden Tours,State or Official Arrival Ceremonies guests & School group tours... now there is an even greater security concern if not 4 this but 4 future presidents.
Whatever happened 2 Less Is More....
Google & the WH teamed up to launch GOOGLE ART PROJECT WHITE HOUSE TOURS. Google announced the project has new partnerships with 29 partners in 16 cities across the country. The new White House tour is part of a global expansion of the Google Art Project. Google Art Project launched February 2011 using Google technology lets users view museum objects in high resolution. Mrs. Obama says in the video welcoming digital users to explore the White House via the Google Art Project . “The White House isn’t simply a home to First Families or meeting space for world leaders, it’s also known as ‘The People’s House,’ a place that should be open to everyone. And that’s why we’ve made it a priority to invite young people, military families, and Americans of all ages to join us here at the White House,” “Thousands of people ... imagined the history that’s unfolded here. And now you can do all of that without leaving your home. So go ahead, look around, enjoy the history and the beauty of these rooms. Because after all, this is your house, too.”
President & Mrs. Obama teamed up w Google Art Project 2 make the White House More Accessible in an at-home 360-degree tour of the White House’s public rooms at www.GoogleArtProject.com they say is their effort 2 make 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue “The People’s House" w Google Art Projects virtual 360-degree tour of the White House’s public rooms. For each & every president mof visitors walk through the gates of The People’s House, including Tourists Guests White House Easter Egg Roll attendees Fall &Spring Garden Tours,State or Official Arrival Ceremonies guests & School group tours... now there is an even greater security concern if not 4 this but 4 future presidents.
Whatever happened 2 Less Is More....
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sNOPES APPROVED ? NOT ! CHECK IT OUT FIRST (c) Carrie Devorah :
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IF YOU PASSED FORWARD THE SNOPES APPROVED ALERT ON ATM PIN #s BACKWARDS SCAM YOU HAVE BEEN SCAMMED: Quick search SNOPEShttp://www.snopes.com/business/bank/pinalert.asp The scam is emails you sent the FALSE ALERT forward 2 collected your emails. NO Typing your ATM PIN # in backwards does NOT automatically alert police. All it took was a second 2 google SNOPES & read.
DON’T FALL 4 SCAMS.
Due your diligence. STOP THINK GOOGLE & DONT PASS FORWARD.... delete delete delete
DON’T FALL 4 SCAMS.
Due your diligence. STOP THINK GOOGLE & DONT PASS FORWARD.... delete delete delete
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LEGISLATE RELIGIOUS HATE & ABUSE GUIDES MARKETED THROUGH THE INTERNET (c) Carrie Devorah :
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A Toronto bookstore cant keep on its shelves a 160 page book from New Delhi india sold online in ISLAMIC BOOKSTORES & through EBAY written by the described PROLIFIC WRITER ON ALMOST EVERY TOPIC OF ISLAMIC LEARNING Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi guiding Muslim Men “it might be necessary to restrain her with strength or even to threaten her” also advising “the husband should treat the wife with kindness and love, even if she tends to be stupid and slow sometimes” & that the “husband may scold her, “beat by hand or stick,” withhold money from her or “pull (her) by the ears,” but should “refrain from beating her excessively.” Eric Brazau who reported the book after seeing it on the bookshelves a month ago said “… I thought, radical Islam is not coming to Canada, it is already here.”
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ABUSERS OF WORDS (c) Carrie Devorah :
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Hearings have been tossed in2 the hopper on the HILL… democratic agenda or not…. Words are being parsed… Racial & Profiling. TEACHERs LESSON- when TARGET promises a chance to win $500 soliciting customer participation w surveys asking Ethnicity- all of the usual- White Pink Blue Yellow- ISNT THAT RACIAL PROFILING? When PIER 1 promises a chance @ winning a shopping spree if questions are answered like- age of the participant- ISNT THAT PROFILING? When CVS survey promises a chance @ their store win if questions are answered like- household income- ISNT THAT PROFILING 2? Lower the temperature of the debate b4 it hits the Hill by pulling out the word RACE….. focus on PROFILING… changes the debate n’est ce pas 2 a worthwhile conversation a la Rodney King style CANT WE ALL JUST GET ALONG
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SNOOGLING COPYRIGHT COMMERCE OFFSHORE IN THE CAYMANS c) Carrie Devorah :
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Facebook is OFF-SHORING to the CAYMANS via IRELAND. Quelle surpris!!!! Owning 503.6 million FB shares Mark Zuckerberg became one of the youngest billionaires in a day valued at $19.25 million able of eliminating the US projected $16 trillion dollar with the stroke of a pen or in these days a PAY PAL transfer to the US Treasury. If MARK ZUCKERBERG was truly charitable & LIKEd America that is. It is all about He Who Has More Dies Like The Rest Just With A lot More Stuff Left Behind.
Darn thing is about Presidents & THEIR fiscal planning is that the John & Jane Doe public are told the POTUS account is held BLIND TRUST in the hands of another while POTUS serves his term. BLIND TRUST? Or three blind NICE… good people who are accepting the manager of the BLIND TRUST is Deaf Dumb too when it comes to financial news rocking the markets. In the matter of POTUS 44 there is the coincidence that former Communications dude GIBBS sidestepped to FB after serving as the BEARER OF GLAD & BAD TIDINGS to the bodies sitting before him in the Brady Briefing Room.
The IRELAND CONNECTION has long been a favorite of money squirreling away. Ride up & down Capitol Hill elevators enough one is almost surely going to hear that is where someone or other Madoff & OJ are presumed to have green stashed there. Talk about Four Leaf Clovers waiting to happen. Facebook Ireland posted a loss of £15million for the year. Hundreds of millions had been routed to their subsidiary in the Cayman Islands and to its US parent company. £440m was moved into an Irish sister company before being diverted to a subsidiary company in the Cayman Islands
Horse racings Oregon hub connected through to Europe. A PADDY who worked on that system set up had said technology was ahead of the average man. Adressing horseracing the PADDY said bets were being dropped on races seconds after the race started. Races only last 6-7 seconds in the average sprint. A bet dropped after the start is almost a sure thing. NYRA challenged a PUNTERS a few years back for dropping bets after horses broke the gate. Quelle supris!!!!
The tax avoidance loophole small enough to slip through one of the snakes St Patricks is said to have banished from Ireland is used by 40 some odd other global corporations including Google & Starbucks. Irish are up in arms at Starbucks paying on 8.6 million pounds corporation tax despite hauling in more than billions of pounds in sales over th past 14 years. Starbucks paid nothing in the last three years of UK trading. Protesters are threatening to close Starbucks branches at a time Starbucks announced a plan to open 1600 more across American in a short enough period. Starbucks is best loved for free accessible bathrooms everywhere around the world for locals & tourists. Lines move fairly quickly at most providing relief beyond a Java Jolt.
Google has been SNOOGLING over 10 billion pounds of pre-tax profits into Atlantic Island a Bermuda based shell company to avoid paying over topping 1 billion a tax maneuver used to bring down the MITT ROMNEY presidential run with a NO LIKE while Google which employs OBAMA administration advisors & former staffers & consultants continuing to effect into INTERNET OVERSIGHT ways to access users IP & ID & private content for maximum profits still rating a LIKE from users… despite.
Irelands threat to GO AFTER multinational companies dodging taxes may just be a valueless Shot Across The Bow for posturing purposes in that one does not need to be in IRELAND to poach IRISH TAX DOLLARS for good use in Hibernia. Keep in mind America professed to be MOST POPULAR PRESIDENT EVER discovered Irish roots in 2007 during the time Obama began his presidential bid. Thing is no one else of his Irish family tree has any knowledge of THOSE EARS anywhere else in the family way. By coincidence neither does the said to be does the American side of the family way have those ears either..... just saying....
Obama administration friend Mark Zuckerberg became a multi billionaire in one day with FACEBOOK floating $104 billion shares under its problem laden IPO offering the SEC continues to question.
Darn thing is about Presidents & THEIR fiscal planning is that the John & Jane Doe public are told the POTUS account is held BLIND TRUST in the hands of another while POTUS serves his term. BLIND TRUST? Or three blind NICE… good people who are accepting the manager of the BLIND TRUST is Deaf Dumb too when it comes to financial news rocking the markets. In the matter of POTUS 44 there is the coincidence that former Communications dude GIBBS sidestepped to FB after serving as the BEARER OF GLAD & BAD TIDINGS to the bodies sitting before him in the Brady Briefing Room.
The IRELAND CONNECTION has long been a favorite of money squirreling away. Ride up & down Capitol Hill elevators enough one is almost surely going to hear that is where someone or other Madoff & OJ are presumed to have green stashed there. Talk about Four Leaf Clovers waiting to happen. Facebook Ireland posted a loss of £15million for the year. Hundreds of millions had been routed to their subsidiary in the Cayman Islands and to its US parent company. £440m was moved into an Irish sister company before being diverted to a subsidiary company in the Cayman Islands
Horse racings Oregon hub connected through to Europe. A PADDY who worked on that system set up had said technology was ahead of the average man. Adressing horseracing the PADDY said bets were being dropped on races seconds after the race started. Races only last 6-7 seconds in the average sprint. A bet dropped after the start is almost a sure thing. NYRA challenged a PUNTERS a few years back for dropping bets after horses broke the gate. Quelle supris!!!!
The tax avoidance loophole small enough to slip through one of the snakes St Patricks is said to have banished from Ireland is used by 40 some odd other global corporations including Google & Starbucks. Irish are up in arms at Starbucks paying on 8.6 million pounds corporation tax despite hauling in more than billions of pounds in sales over th past 14 years. Starbucks paid nothing in the last three years of UK trading. Protesters are threatening to close Starbucks branches at a time Starbucks announced a plan to open 1600 more across American in a short enough period. Starbucks is best loved for free accessible bathrooms everywhere around the world for locals & tourists. Lines move fairly quickly at most providing relief beyond a Java Jolt.
Google has been SNOOGLING over 10 billion pounds of pre-tax profits into Atlantic Island a Bermuda based shell company to avoid paying over topping 1 billion a tax maneuver used to bring down the MITT ROMNEY presidential run with a NO LIKE while Google which employs OBAMA administration advisors & former staffers & consultants continuing to effect into INTERNET OVERSIGHT ways to access users IP & ID & private content for maximum profits still rating a LIKE from users… despite.
Irelands threat to GO AFTER multinational companies dodging taxes may just be a valueless Shot Across The Bow for posturing purposes in that one does not need to be in IRELAND to poach IRISH TAX DOLLARS for good use in Hibernia. Keep in mind America professed to be MOST POPULAR PRESIDENT EVER discovered Irish roots in 2007 during the time Obama began his presidential bid. Thing is no one else of his Irish family tree has any knowledge of THOSE EARS anywhere else in the family way. By coincidence neither does the said to be does the American side of the family way have those ears either..... just saying....
Obama administration friend Mark Zuckerberg became a multi billionaire in one day with FACEBOOK floating $104 billion shares under its problem laden IPO offering the SEC continues to question.
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CAMELOT LOST: Think 9/11 (c) Carrie Devorah :
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Think 9/11 and the image of people falling from the sky is burned in America’s collective memory. A loss not of the same level but a loss the same is of original negatives of CAMELOT a presidential moment of Americas effort at Royalty. Original negatives were stored in a World Trade Center bank vault. The traveling photo show CREATING CAMELOT was scheduled to tour. They were lost in the collapse of the WTC. Jacques Lowe the photographer had contact sheets and prints stored in another location. The Jacques Lowe estate and the Newseum worked together on the 70 images slated for tour reconstructing them from the marked up prints digitally restored to museum quality for the exhibit. Jacqueline Kennedy a celebrity in her own right was a photographer. Shots include family shots along with early campaign shots of the Kennedy’s before their myth began with the First Lady becoming a global fashion icon of mythic & movie proportions. The estate of Jacques Lowe loaned his logbook and cameras for the exhibit of CREATING CAMELOT The Kennedy Photography of Jacques Lowe.
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TRENDING HATE ONLINE (c) Carrie Devorah :
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Hashing it out used 2 B colloquialism 4 working through things. Nowadays HASHTAGGING IT OUT has become the newest norm 4 spreading hate by PDA the targeted tool in the advertising mobile world. AFP reports French anti-racist & Jewish organizations condemned a wave of anti-Semitism sweeping over Twitter using the hashtag #unbonjuif (a good jew) one of the recent top trending French language tweets THEN followed by offensive comments. Come on CONGRESSMEN. Step up 2 deciphering FREE SPEECH that is hate speech comes w a PRICE TAG & legal repercussion that has impact in AMERICA in a universal conversation that can be pursued everywhere & anywhere including the Halls of Congress JE SUIS UNE JUIF
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MORE ABOUT HACKING Ethically That Is (c) Carrie Devorah :
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Ethical Hacking Boot Camp security and hacking training teaching in-depth techniques used by malicious black hat hackers w attention getting lectures and hands-on lab exercises teaching hacking attacks in classroom labs including Penetration testing methodologies: Stealthy network recon: Passive traffic identification: Remote root vulnerability exploitation: Privilege escalation hacking: IPv6 Vulnerabilities: Remote access trojan hacking: Running shellcode in RAM vs. on disk: Wireless insecurity: Breaking IP-based ACLs via spoofing: Abusing Windows Named Pipes for Domain Impersonation: Evidence removal and anti-forensics: Attacking network infrastructure devices: Hacking by brute forcing remotely: Hiding exploit payloads in jpeg and gif image files: Hacking Web Applications: Breaking into databases with SQL Injection: Cross Site Scripting hacking: Hacking into Cisco routers: Justifying a penetration test to management & customers: CEH/CPT review: Defensive techniques: Abusing DNS for host identification: Leaking system information from Unix and Windows: Windows 2003 Server & Vista DNS Cache Poisoning Attacks: Unix, Windows and Cisco password cracking: Remote buffer overflow exploit lab - heap vs. stack overflows: Attacking Kerberos Pre-Auth Hashes: Spoofing endpoints of communication tunnels: Impersonation of other Users- Hijacking kernel tokens: Attacking RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) in Windows XP, 2003 & Vista: Remote keylogging: Data mining authentication information from clear-text protocols: Sniffing and hijacking SSL encrypted sessions: Breaking wireless security via hacking: Malicious event log editing: Client side IE & Firefox exploits: Tunneling through IPSec VPNs by abusing ESP: Data retrieval with SQL Injection Hacking: Calculating the Return on Investment (ROI) for an ethical hack …
BECOME A CERTIFIED ETHICAL HACKER APPROVED BY THE GSA
BECOME A CERTIFIED ETHICAL HACKER APPROVED BY THE GSA
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TERRORISM FEAR GRIPS LONDON TRANSPORT MUSEUM
(C) Carrie Devorah [ archival ] :
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Terrorism fear grips London Transport Covent Garden Museum visitors might have more than tube history in mind when visiting the Museum for research. Librarians refuse permission to electronically copy downloads, sitting on the Centers Spartan shelves, in binders, formerly available on the Museum’s website, instead telling visitors to hand copy ‘as long as it takes’ data discussing tube facts and history, 1993-1998.
Did you know, in the mid 90’s, London’s busiest tube station for passenger journey, starts and ends per year, was Victoria Tube Station claiming 64 million and that detail can no longer be read on the Museum’s website?
The London Transport Museum media representative, requested anonymity, acknowledging Orwellian laws are reviewed daily. Profiles of library visitors requesting tube information and descriptions of information they request, are forwarded, she believed, citing the Data Protection Act, to the Department of Transport and the Chancellor’s Office.
The Chancellor’s Office deny they ordered monitoring conducted by the Museum, suggested, 1970’s IRA bombings, and the Anti-Terrorism Act, not the Data Protection Act, factors in removing select UK transportation data from public access.
1998 Data Protection Act, effected March 1, 2000, sets rules for digitally processing personal information, restricting individual rights. It stipulates data handling practices. The Anti-Terrorism Act allows Internet Service Providers to retain customer’s traffic data including web sites visited, geographical locating of mobile phones, recipients of emails. David Blunkett failed to gain access to actual content in emails. Links from Transportation London website advise Information Padlock symbols must be visibly alert people information is collected. No padlock is visible on London Transport Museum’s site.
Both Chancellor’s Office and Department of Transport concede despite decisions to withdraw information, somewhere, already downloaded, in a book in another museum or library, the information is probably available, beyond their control, potentially dangerous to British lives.
Did you know, in the mid 90’s, London’s busiest tube station for passenger journey, starts and ends per year, was Victoria Tube Station claiming 64 million and that detail can no longer be read on the Museum’s website?
The London Transport Museum media representative, requested anonymity, acknowledging Orwellian laws are reviewed daily. Profiles of library visitors requesting tube information and descriptions of information they request, are forwarded, she believed, citing the Data Protection Act, to the Department of Transport and the Chancellor’s Office.
The Chancellor’s Office deny they ordered monitoring conducted by the Museum, suggested, 1970’s IRA bombings, and the Anti-Terrorism Act, not the Data Protection Act, factors in removing select UK transportation data from public access.
1998 Data Protection Act, effected March 1, 2000, sets rules for digitally processing personal information, restricting individual rights. It stipulates data handling practices. The Anti-Terrorism Act allows Internet Service Providers to retain customer’s traffic data including web sites visited, geographical locating of mobile phones, recipients of emails. David Blunkett failed to gain access to actual content in emails. Links from Transportation London website advise Information Padlock symbols must be visibly alert people information is collected. No padlock is visible on London Transport Museum’s site.
Both Chancellor’s Office and Department of Transport concede despite decisions to withdraw information, somewhere, already downloaded, in a book in another museum or library, the information is probably available, beyond their control, potentially dangerous to British lives.
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A RECEIPT FOR PROTECTING SPEAKERS AT AN EVENT FROM AGGRESSIVE GUESTS (c) Carrie Devorah :
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DC has an industry of Think Tanks and Foundations where men and women are entertained for free with lunch and sodas following. Themes include human rights, law, tort, reform, religion, airline security, terrorism, health care, poverty, peace, war, equity and justice for all depending on who’s interpreting the First Amendment. Forums include book signings, lectures, fireside chats without a fire. Guests include authors, scholars, radio show hosts, diplomats, newspaper columnists, the occasional celebrity of the traditional kind, current and retired government officials. Attendees include everyone and anyone…. Phantoms and Anonymous signed up through E-vites and group lists and E-mail blasts and walk ins. No one checks ID. Just sign in at the door, if that.
Calendars of public affairs are available in print and online. Anyone can come. And they do. Audience attendees include media, policy makers, aides to legislators, students and general public. Some audience guests are wanted. Others aren’t.
At one recent event, an older woman ran in 2/3rds of the way through the discourse between two world renowned former senior ranking government officials. The harried woman sat silently until the Q&A. Rushing the stage, she approached one speaker. He did not recognize her. She knew exactly who he was, unhappy with his having responded to her correspondence, before this event, he could be of no assistance. The concern in the distinguished man’s face was apparent as he began edging away from the woman seguying her conversation to talks she had with police. In Boston. She said.
One event co-ordinator concerned with the need for heightened security wants to mitigate future situations on handling attendees he feels pose a potential threat to speakers, without inviting litigation or unwarranted negative media attention. He said, “If speakers don’t bring their own aides, they are pretty much on their own if there is a problem. Our people, focused on their event assignmen,t are untrained in security.”
Here are Ten Preparedness Steps Of Action to be distributed to guest speakers and all employees prior to their arriving at the event:
1- Assign one primary employee, an event “shadow” to each panel guest introducing them before the event.
2- Create signals guests can summons emergency aid with. Signals must be obvious, distinct, even silly. No coughing three times or wiping eyeglasses which are easy to misinterpret as normal behaviors. Carol Burnett’s ear tugging at the end of each television show was an “I love you” signal for her grandmother.
3- Script the “shadow” with a simple phrase to distract the problem audience member from their talk with the guest speaker. An example of what the “shadow” can say forcefully to separate the speaker from the audience member can be “Thank you so much for being patient while speaker finishes their answer to me. Sir/madam speaker do you mind talking with me over here to the side, now, where I can hear you better without all the background distraction.”
4- Move the official to the pre-arranged exit door isolating them from the audience guests.
5- Escort the official to his/her transportation. In this case, the guest speaker stood unescorted on the sidewalk risking a second confrontation from the aggressive audience member.
6- Recommend event photographers and videographers take crowd shots of event attendees for a pictorial record. At another event, a rude audience member kept placing her hat before her face whenever the camera panned audience her way. Days later, sans hat, she used paper handouts as blockers whenever the camera panned her way.
How does one photograph guests who mask their face? In the case of this audience member, her face was uncovered when she used both hands to fill her plate with free food.
7- Provide photos of the confrontational event guest to management, a second photo to security and local PD, possibly a third photo to the official themselves to share with security at other events they speak at. Some event audience attendees “make the rounds.”
8- Rehearse all employees on the Ten Steps of Action.
9- Rehearse the guest on the order of the steps of actions: “If you feel threatened, you will pull your ear, Sally will come over, interrupt and you will begin to walk ahead with Sally to the door stage left.”
10- Provide employees with cell phones or walkie talkies connected to building security if assistance or rapid response is needed.
Therein lies the high cost of free events.
Calendars of public affairs are available in print and online. Anyone can come. And they do. Audience attendees include media, policy makers, aides to legislators, students and general public. Some audience guests are wanted. Others aren’t.
At one recent event, an older woman ran in 2/3rds of the way through the discourse between two world renowned former senior ranking government officials. The harried woman sat silently until the Q&A. Rushing the stage, she approached one speaker. He did not recognize her. She knew exactly who he was, unhappy with his having responded to her correspondence, before this event, he could be of no assistance. The concern in the distinguished man’s face was apparent as he began edging away from the woman seguying her conversation to talks she had with police. In Boston. She said.
One event co-ordinator concerned with the need for heightened security wants to mitigate future situations on handling attendees he feels pose a potential threat to speakers, without inviting litigation or unwarranted negative media attention. He said, “If speakers don’t bring their own aides, they are pretty much on their own if there is a problem. Our people, focused on their event assignmen,t are untrained in security.”
Here are Ten Preparedness Steps Of Action to be distributed to guest speakers and all employees prior to their arriving at the event:
1- Assign one primary employee, an event “shadow” to each panel guest introducing them before the event.
2- Create signals guests can summons emergency aid with. Signals must be obvious, distinct, even silly. No coughing three times or wiping eyeglasses which are easy to misinterpret as normal behaviors. Carol Burnett’s ear tugging at the end of each television show was an “I love you” signal for her grandmother.
3- Script the “shadow” with a simple phrase to distract the problem audience member from their talk with the guest speaker. An example of what the “shadow” can say forcefully to separate the speaker from the audience member can be “Thank you so much for being patient while speaker finishes their answer to me. Sir/madam speaker do you mind talking with me over here to the side, now, where I can hear you better without all the background distraction.”
4- Move the official to the pre-arranged exit door isolating them from the audience guests.
5- Escort the official to his/her transportation. In this case, the guest speaker stood unescorted on the sidewalk risking a second confrontation from the aggressive audience member.
6- Recommend event photographers and videographers take crowd shots of event attendees for a pictorial record. At another event, a rude audience member kept placing her hat before her face whenever the camera panned audience her way. Days later, sans hat, she used paper handouts as blockers whenever the camera panned her way.
How does one photograph guests who mask their face? In the case of this audience member, her face was uncovered when she used both hands to fill her plate with free food.
7- Provide photos of the confrontational event guest to management, a second photo to security and local PD, possibly a third photo to the official themselves to share with security at other events they speak at. Some event audience attendees “make the rounds.”
8- Rehearse all employees on the Ten Steps of Action.
9- Rehearse the guest on the order of the steps of actions: “If you feel threatened, you will pull your ear, Sally will come over, interrupt and you will begin to walk ahead with Sally to the door stage left.”
10- Provide employees with cell phones or walkie talkies connected to building security if assistance or rapid response is needed.
Therein lies the high cost of free events.
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IDENTIFICATION BADGES PUTTING DC AT RISK (c) Carrie Devorah
[ Archival ] :
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Long before gangs were using Social Networkings like Pinterest to target cops in the streets, America’s post 911 fears are bordering paranoia. Good reason. White House and District security is breached daily. Guards are compromising the security.
The same morning a West Point graduate Muslim cleric was arrested for treason at Guantanamo Bay, President Bush’s life was endangered at the White House, soon after he safely returned from escaping Hurricane Isabel. A gate guard failed to inspect a jeep and driver entering his parking lot, bordering the White House. The driver delivered a package to a man dressed in a guard’s uniform inside the White House perimeter. The guard slipped the package into his backpack. No one investigated the package contents.
Saturday, October 4th, three men were photographed exiting the White House front gate. They wore earphones similar to those worn by security guards. One man’s ID card flapped as he walked. His details could be seen, both by the naked eye and by a long lens camera. America’s security is anything but secure.
“I am not at liberty to say if White House staffers must remove their picture ID cards upon exiting the grounds,” said Secret Service Inspector Bob Smith. He continued, “Nor am I at liberty to say if White House entry guards must exit booths to examine car interiors and undercarriages.”
Thousands of DC workers wear their identification badges, outside of their workplace- in the streets, in the Metro, in the market, walking dogs, thoughtless putting the country at risk. Names and personal information are printed on ID cards displaying levels of security clearance; CNN, FTC, ABC, VOA, DOH, 108th Congress. The list seems endless. Badges, in this city are “a capitol way of life.” Even, specially trained K-9’s wear badges identifying their duties, primarily accompanying human companions with illnesses.
Badges are worn from doorstep to work, for convenience, one man said, “I am just lazy,” exposing his badge to public view, open to being replicated. FTC employees admitted they did not think twice about layering badges prominently on their shirt fronts, suit jackets, even clipped to belt loops on pants. A DOH employee said, “If I don’t put the badge on first thing in my morning, I will forget to take it with me to work and I won’t get into the building.”
ID cards rank the wearers status within the social scene. A DC columnist badge boasts his White House security clearance badge. He wears his badge, tightly around his neck, close to the top of his tie, short chained, right under his chin. He said he sleeps with his badge next to his bed, in ready position, in the event he is called to a emergency press conference at the White House, “Otherwise, I will forget to take it with me.” A CNN camera man, interviewed standing on Union Station upper level restaurant line, compromised his special White House security clearance, volunteering the information, to a stranger. White House access is “special” insider DC. He became conscious of the cards on his clip, the moment, he was asked if their photo could be taken, with or without his face in the picture. ‘No,’ he would not allow his picture to be taken. ‘Nothing I can do if in fact you did take a picture when I wasn’t looking.” His hand flew to his chest, encasing his badges. “I will not tell you my name.” It was too late. Dave’s name was read from his badge, long before permission was denied. He was too slow to cover his faux pas. A well dressed man, in a business suit, told the female guard, outside the SEC, “I forgot my card.” Non the less, she waved him in. She is supposed to refuse him entry to the building for not having ID on him. “Face value,” she said. “He didn’t ‘look the type,’ like a hooligan.” She thinks she recognized him entering the building another time. She was not sure. In this day and age, familiarity breeds content. One week later, a 26 year old female lawyer blew herself up in a Haifa restaurant. The suicide bomber did not look threatening, either.
Military personnel, all over DC, are targets for terrorists on home shores. An airman, was not bothered his cap and jacket made him an easy target for terrorists. He said the US Government manual advises him, if dressing as an American soldier makes him a target on foreign shores, he is to wear civvies. He said, “I am in my home. I am proud to walk freely on the streets of my Capitol even if it means dying for my country. I am not afraid. I will not change my clothing,” even though, 911, brought terrorism home.
A soldier, on the Metro, was identified by his clothing as well as his first name, engraved on his breast pin, though, parents are warned by police, not to put their children’s names on clothing, mitigating the chance a child will be lured into danger, their names read off hats, shirts or shoes. Parker was “busted.” Though he was wearing an ID card, one did not need to read it to know who he worked for. All one had to do was look at his uniform. The five digit identification number, on his ID badge, gave a little more information than the greens he wore. Jutting his jaw outwards, Parker refused saying a word. The commuter next to him was verbally abusive Parker would not answer to obvious fact, “Call him the mute from the Military. My ID is where it belongs. In my pocket. It goes on at work and not on the streets. I am a private person.” The same sentiment echoed by a temporary accountant at Capitol police. He said he hangs his badge around his neck before leaving home, tucking his ID card into his left breast pocket where “it cannot be seen. I prefer no one knows my business.”
A Smithsonian gate guard, said he read in a local paper, the security of pictures badges identification cards is being reviewed in DC. He isn’t sure where he heard the whispers from. He is sure he did not hear it from his employer.
Wearing a 108th congress badge , makes Congressional intern Sophia Green, feel she is part of a “select club.” At first, reluctant to discuss her badge swinging into the salad section of the café’s refrigerator, she relaxed when she was addressed by name. It could not be missed. It was prominently printed on her badge. As the conversation progressed, she became delighted to pose, for a member of the press, approving her digital pictures, visible camera back. Her interning boss had not given her any restrictions pertaining to name badges. Nor, she said, was she given restrictions on talking to press or a Congressional Employee Handbook to read. “What is an employee handbook?” she asked, genuinely interested to learn more about her prestigious placement.
Sophia is not alone, in being ignorant of details of her employer’s handbook on security and badges. Few people approached knew if their employer had a handbook to read. Even fewer read it. Some did not know what an employee handbook is. One gentleman said his employers handbook security section dealt with rape, mugging and being alone in the office after hours. The manual , more often, says nothing about badges being hidden from public view because today’s digital wizadry, can create digital duplicates, for devious use, within minutes.
All the while pictures of badge wearers were snapped in midtown DC, only one person, amid mad morning rush asked out loud “what is she doing,” why was their picture were being taken. Confronted, shown the photographic evidence, some clutched their badges, too late, flipping them picture down or even removing the badge from around their neck, stuffing it in their pant pocket. Most photographed, were too busy talking with friends or chatting on cell phones to care. More than a few removed their ID after being approached. Others refused to answer questions. One man wearing a badge said “Sure, I have no problem, telling you who I am or letting you take my picture but I wont tell you where I work.” He was shown, his picture was already taken.
The solution to improving DC security might be as simple as taking a page from the example set by a South American family touring the city on “See DC by Duck,” giving DC employees to duck whistles bearing their IDS to identify themselves with to enter and exit work. Hazarding a guess, few lives would be risked, as fewer, including terrorists, would publicly, wear the identifying yellow markers the foreign guests appear delighted leaving their ride with, still hanging from around their necks.
Security is never a joking matter. In DC and in the homeland, it appears security is not all the White House wants to “quack it up” to be.
The same morning a West Point graduate Muslim cleric was arrested for treason at Guantanamo Bay, President Bush’s life was endangered at the White House, soon after he safely returned from escaping Hurricane Isabel. A gate guard failed to inspect a jeep and driver entering his parking lot, bordering the White House. The driver delivered a package to a man dressed in a guard’s uniform inside the White House perimeter. The guard slipped the package into his backpack. No one investigated the package contents.
Saturday, October 4th, three men were photographed exiting the White House front gate. They wore earphones similar to those worn by security guards. One man’s ID card flapped as he walked. His details could be seen, both by the naked eye and by a long lens camera. America’s security is anything but secure.
“I am not at liberty to say if White House staffers must remove their picture ID cards upon exiting the grounds,” said Secret Service Inspector Bob Smith. He continued, “Nor am I at liberty to say if White House entry guards must exit booths to examine car interiors and undercarriages.”
Thousands of DC workers wear their identification badges, outside of their workplace- in the streets, in the Metro, in the market, walking dogs, thoughtless putting the country at risk. Names and personal information are printed on ID cards displaying levels of security clearance; CNN, FTC, ABC, VOA, DOH, 108th Congress. The list seems endless. Badges, in this city are “a capitol way of life.” Even, specially trained K-9’s wear badges identifying their duties, primarily accompanying human companions with illnesses.
Badges are worn from doorstep to work, for convenience, one man said, “I am just lazy,” exposing his badge to public view, open to being replicated. FTC employees admitted they did not think twice about layering badges prominently on their shirt fronts, suit jackets, even clipped to belt loops on pants. A DOH employee said, “If I don’t put the badge on first thing in my morning, I will forget to take it with me to work and I won’t get into the building.”
ID cards rank the wearers status within the social scene. A DC columnist badge boasts his White House security clearance badge. He wears his badge, tightly around his neck, close to the top of his tie, short chained, right under his chin. He said he sleeps with his badge next to his bed, in ready position, in the event he is called to a emergency press conference at the White House, “Otherwise, I will forget to take it with me.” A CNN camera man, interviewed standing on Union Station upper level restaurant line, compromised his special White House security clearance, volunteering the information, to a stranger. White House access is “special” insider DC. He became conscious of the cards on his clip, the moment, he was asked if their photo could be taken, with or without his face in the picture. ‘No,’ he would not allow his picture to be taken. ‘Nothing I can do if in fact you did take a picture when I wasn’t looking.” His hand flew to his chest, encasing his badges. “I will not tell you my name.” It was too late. Dave’s name was read from his badge, long before permission was denied. He was too slow to cover his faux pas. A well dressed man, in a business suit, told the female guard, outside the SEC, “I forgot my card.” Non the less, she waved him in. She is supposed to refuse him entry to the building for not having ID on him. “Face value,” she said. “He didn’t ‘look the type,’ like a hooligan.” She thinks she recognized him entering the building another time. She was not sure. In this day and age, familiarity breeds content. One week later, a 26 year old female lawyer blew herself up in a Haifa restaurant. The suicide bomber did not look threatening, either.
Military personnel, all over DC, are targets for terrorists on home shores. An airman, was not bothered his cap and jacket made him an easy target for terrorists. He said the US Government manual advises him, if dressing as an American soldier makes him a target on foreign shores, he is to wear civvies. He said, “I am in my home. I am proud to walk freely on the streets of my Capitol even if it means dying for my country. I am not afraid. I will not change my clothing,” even though, 911, brought terrorism home.
A soldier, on the Metro, was identified by his clothing as well as his first name, engraved on his breast pin, though, parents are warned by police, not to put their children’s names on clothing, mitigating the chance a child will be lured into danger, their names read off hats, shirts or shoes. Parker was “busted.” Though he was wearing an ID card, one did not need to read it to know who he worked for. All one had to do was look at his uniform. The five digit identification number, on his ID badge, gave a little more information than the greens he wore. Jutting his jaw outwards, Parker refused saying a word. The commuter next to him was verbally abusive Parker would not answer to obvious fact, “Call him the mute from the Military. My ID is where it belongs. In my pocket. It goes on at work and not on the streets. I am a private person.” The same sentiment echoed by a temporary accountant at Capitol police. He said he hangs his badge around his neck before leaving home, tucking his ID card into his left breast pocket where “it cannot be seen. I prefer no one knows my business.”
A Smithsonian gate guard, said he read in a local paper, the security of pictures badges identification cards is being reviewed in DC. He isn’t sure where he heard the whispers from. He is sure he did not hear it from his employer.
Wearing a 108th congress badge , makes Congressional intern Sophia Green, feel she is part of a “select club.” At first, reluctant to discuss her badge swinging into the salad section of the café’s refrigerator, she relaxed when she was addressed by name. It could not be missed. It was prominently printed on her badge. As the conversation progressed, she became delighted to pose, for a member of the press, approving her digital pictures, visible camera back. Her interning boss had not given her any restrictions pertaining to name badges. Nor, she said, was she given restrictions on talking to press or a Congressional Employee Handbook to read. “What is an employee handbook?” she asked, genuinely interested to learn more about her prestigious placement.
Sophia is not alone, in being ignorant of details of her employer’s handbook on security and badges. Few people approached knew if their employer had a handbook to read. Even fewer read it. Some did not know what an employee handbook is. One gentleman said his employers handbook security section dealt with rape, mugging and being alone in the office after hours. The manual , more often, says nothing about badges being hidden from public view because today’s digital wizadry, can create digital duplicates, for devious use, within minutes.
All the while pictures of badge wearers were snapped in midtown DC, only one person, amid mad morning rush asked out loud “what is she doing,” why was their picture were being taken. Confronted, shown the photographic evidence, some clutched their badges, too late, flipping them picture down or even removing the badge from around their neck, stuffing it in their pant pocket. Most photographed, were too busy talking with friends or chatting on cell phones to care. More than a few removed their ID after being approached. Others refused to answer questions. One man wearing a badge said “Sure, I have no problem, telling you who I am or letting you take my picture but I wont tell you where I work.” He was shown, his picture was already taken.
The solution to improving DC security might be as simple as taking a page from the example set by a South American family touring the city on “See DC by Duck,” giving DC employees to duck whistles bearing their IDS to identify themselves with to enter and exit work. Hazarding a guess, few lives would be risked, as fewer, including terrorists, would publicly, wear the identifying yellow markers the foreign guests appear delighted leaving their ride with, still hanging from around their necks.
Security is never a joking matter. In DC and in the homeland, it appears security is not all the White House wants to “quack it up” to be.
________________________________________________________
NOT IF BUT WHEN (c) Carrie Devorah :
________________________________________________________
A month before Sir Bob Geldoff raised awareness and sales for Live 8’s participating talent, ten or so London EMT service stations local were shut down due to lack of funding. Days after Geldoff’s “not for money but to shift G8 policy” concerts were held in ten cities around the world, the knighted musician released for sale, Live 8’s original concert 20th anniversary DVD. Within 72 hours of that announcement, less than 24 hours after London was awarded the Olympic games, a series of bombs tore open the holes in Britian’s homeland security system. Outside of the UK, countries presented displays of disaster preparedness. 35 simulated victims, in Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium, presented faux injuries generally seen at terrorist bomb attacks. For contrast and comparison, there were hundreds of victims, respectively in Russia’s subway attack, almost 1000 in Madrid, 9/11 almost 3000 were murdered in the Twin Towers attack, 200 plus at the Pentagon.
DC Mayor Tony Williams, conveying the District is prepared for attacks in this nation’s Capitol, said the District “understands how [Brits] are feeling at this time of terrible tragedy and uncertainty.” While I can recall the National Air and Space Museum’s sepia archive photos from WWII on display I looked at during the Memorial dedication last year, showing London after the Blitz. A man lies in a street. Bombing cut him in half.
I worked in London for a bit covering horseracing and local news. It was my time to return to America, summer of 2003. I left London shortly after No.10 Downing cancelled a disaster re-enactment at London’s deepest tube station, without a reason or re-schedule date. Between visits to the Tube Museum and local fire stations, I understood why the re-enactment was cancelled. A successful rescue could most likely not be done. The rescue workers I interviewed explained to me mathematics of rescue. Rescue time is limited by how much air their apparatus contains. Calculating the time it would take rescuers to travel from the sidewalk surface to the deepest part of the Tube tracks, they knew there was no way they would make it down and back to fresh air before their breathing supply ran out. HAZMAT educated me the success of a HAZMAT response happens only when the exact toxin is known before they reach the site. Until then, there are more chances for being wrong until the pharmacology of the poison is figured out, with response trucks to disaster scenes challenged by narrow streets, pedestrians, stubborn drivers and more, they can arrive too late. DC enforcement acknowledged their 911 problem was the length of time it took drivers to exit the city, over four hours. It is now 2005, normal commuter traffic departure time has increased.
It was the late night tea talks with EMT firemen near the Edgware Road neighbourhood I lived in that taught me the most about Britain’s disaster unpreparedness witnessed this morning. And their consciences. In the event of bio terrorism, I was told, a “shoot to kill” policy would be in the hands of the military. UK Intel, I was told, got word about fake arms dipped in poisons that could be dragged on Underground banisters where commuters would touch the railings, then their face, eyes and so on. Contamination would occur after leaving the contact point, poisoning others encountered along the way. Containing the toxin would be late. Hence kill the few to save the many is the operative theory.
Not much one can say when hit with that revelation. Other than tell my editor and look into the matter further. I did. I discovered Covent Garden’s Transporation Museum forbids Xeroxing of transportation maps but one can sit for as many hours as it takes to faithfully render the travel routes. Of course, ID was required for access to the Museum library. ID’s can be faked. No. 10 refused to discuss the policy coupled with knowledge maps of the Underground, before limited to public access, were saved as tourist momentos, preserved on home library bookshelves, or sold by peddlers near Picadilly and elsewhere.
Then I found a fact and figures resource to calculate the probability of Rescue Math from with the chaps over night’s tea in the Firehouse. I looked at the numbers, and then at the Fireman. “You may die?” I didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already know. He said if on strike when disaster occurs, his team would do what they are trained for, “we’ll throw the Grey Book away.” The Grey book, their bible of government rules established to mitigate firemen’s legal liability would not matter to them, lives would, at any cost, even that of their own life. I often think of these men ready to die for strangers who too often treat them with disrespect. I recall Metro Center, DC 9-11-04. I was one of three commuters applauding an EMT team who saved the life of a churlish tween who brought on his attack by his own negligence. I think of the civilian in NW DC who stood in front of a cop car responding to a woman-in-distress call during Hurricane Isabel. Or police officers sued for doing their jobs.
I am known to say, there is only one wheel just variations, thereof. While people would like to believe America is different from other countries around the world, people are pretty much the same everywhere, culturally, politically, pretty much just the zipcodes change.
I meet talking heads in DC, unaware of situations in Europe I’ve photographed yet they continue to set policy or issue press releases based on few facts. The push to blame fanatical attacks continues to be towards Osama, the man can only be blamed for so much. It is time to admit, the greatest threat is not Muslim terrorists but people we meet in our daily lives. Like the college coeds accepting upwards of $1800 a person to ferry illegal immigrants across America’s borders in the trunks of their cars past border guards relying on visuals of car passengers without searching the vehicle. One need only to look at Pershing Square in downtown DC to recall Muslim terrorism did not begin on 911. Today, though, Pershing’s technique of educating the enemy he was not to be reckoned with, would have been challenged by left wingers defending the rights of people who murder.
A US police officer told me his department assigned flak vest corrodes from body sweat. My tears are because I want him to live forever along with all the officers and firemen around the world willing to put their lives on the line for strangers. Will the likes of Sir Geldoff and Bono hold concerts to raise funds for military serving God and country. Or for my officer who paid hundreds of dollars from his pocket for a vest we both hope works when he needs it to.
The lesson this officer teaches is what we all need to learn. The safety of our lives is on our own hands. Not in government’s. Officers are responders. They do their job with our help as their eyes and ears. The world is too big for peace officers to be everywhere before. They will be there after the event happens.
A second insight into personal responsibility in these technological days and times is simpler. My advice comes from a member of “The God Squad.” We talk about the event Intel knows will come, not “if” but when.” His words are direct, “let the little things slide.” “Let loved ones know you love them as often as you can.” And then the Padre told me, “wake up in the morning, Carrie. Put on that smile, go out and make each day your best day ever.” So I head to work where I photographically archive policy makers with security teams sweeping buses and Undergrounds they travel on, don’t share the same risks civilians do.
I know what to do to mitigate disaster or how to be found if caught in one. Dental records. ID bracelets. Letting people know where I am going at all times but then like Natalie Holloway, the teen feared dead in Aruba, I am human, like Intel, preferring to see the best in people rather than the worst.
The only truth I can share is that there never is a way to 100% vet people. Who they are today may not be who they are tomorrow. One only need look at BTK. His wife lived with him 20 years alleging she never had clues to his being a cold blooded murderer. The Edgware Road bombing took out a wall not near the trucks. More than likely, the explosives at root for the bombings were set in place long ago, triggered by remote. For almost two years, I walked by that wall, by workers, by crewmen, we since learned could buy accreditation and identification at one of several pubs in North East London.
Of course I can provide more details on how the attacks may be motivated and by whom, but there is one bit of advice I think would better be served. Pick up the phone and tell someone how much you love them. Then step out into the world, focused on living life to the fullest. And smile, even at a cop…
DC Mayor Tony Williams, conveying the District is prepared for attacks in this nation’s Capitol, said the District “understands how [Brits] are feeling at this time of terrible tragedy and uncertainty.” While I can recall the National Air and Space Museum’s sepia archive photos from WWII on display I looked at during the Memorial dedication last year, showing London after the Blitz. A man lies in a street. Bombing cut him in half.
I worked in London for a bit covering horseracing and local news. It was my time to return to America, summer of 2003. I left London shortly after No.10 Downing cancelled a disaster re-enactment at London’s deepest tube station, without a reason or re-schedule date. Between visits to the Tube Museum and local fire stations, I understood why the re-enactment was cancelled. A successful rescue could most likely not be done. The rescue workers I interviewed explained to me mathematics of rescue. Rescue time is limited by how much air their apparatus contains. Calculating the time it would take rescuers to travel from the sidewalk surface to the deepest part of the Tube tracks, they knew there was no way they would make it down and back to fresh air before their breathing supply ran out. HAZMAT educated me the success of a HAZMAT response happens only when the exact toxin is known before they reach the site. Until then, there are more chances for being wrong until the pharmacology of the poison is figured out, with response trucks to disaster scenes challenged by narrow streets, pedestrians, stubborn drivers and more, they can arrive too late. DC enforcement acknowledged their 911 problem was the length of time it took drivers to exit the city, over four hours. It is now 2005, normal commuter traffic departure time has increased.
It was the late night tea talks with EMT firemen near the Edgware Road neighbourhood I lived in that taught me the most about Britain’s disaster unpreparedness witnessed this morning. And their consciences. In the event of bio terrorism, I was told, a “shoot to kill” policy would be in the hands of the military. UK Intel, I was told, got word about fake arms dipped in poisons that could be dragged on Underground banisters where commuters would touch the railings, then their face, eyes and so on. Contamination would occur after leaving the contact point, poisoning others encountered along the way. Containing the toxin would be late. Hence kill the few to save the many is the operative theory.
Not much one can say when hit with that revelation. Other than tell my editor and look into the matter further. I did. I discovered Covent Garden’s Transporation Museum forbids Xeroxing of transportation maps but one can sit for as many hours as it takes to faithfully render the travel routes. Of course, ID was required for access to the Museum library. ID’s can be faked. No. 10 refused to discuss the policy coupled with knowledge maps of the Underground, before limited to public access, were saved as tourist momentos, preserved on home library bookshelves, or sold by peddlers near Picadilly and elsewhere.
Then I found a fact and figures resource to calculate the probability of Rescue Math from with the chaps over night’s tea in the Firehouse. I looked at the numbers, and then at the Fireman. “You may die?” I didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already know. He said if on strike when disaster occurs, his team would do what they are trained for, “we’ll throw the Grey Book away.” The Grey book, their bible of government rules established to mitigate firemen’s legal liability would not matter to them, lives would, at any cost, even that of their own life. I often think of these men ready to die for strangers who too often treat them with disrespect. I recall Metro Center, DC 9-11-04. I was one of three commuters applauding an EMT team who saved the life of a churlish tween who brought on his attack by his own negligence. I think of the civilian in NW DC who stood in front of a cop car responding to a woman-in-distress call during Hurricane Isabel. Or police officers sued for doing their jobs.
I am known to say, there is only one wheel just variations, thereof. While people would like to believe America is different from other countries around the world, people are pretty much the same everywhere, culturally, politically, pretty much just the zipcodes change.
I meet talking heads in DC, unaware of situations in Europe I’ve photographed yet they continue to set policy or issue press releases based on few facts. The push to blame fanatical attacks continues to be towards Osama, the man can only be blamed for so much. It is time to admit, the greatest threat is not Muslim terrorists but people we meet in our daily lives. Like the college coeds accepting upwards of $1800 a person to ferry illegal immigrants across America’s borders in the trunks of their cars past border guards relying on visuals of car passengers without searching the vehicle. One need only to look at Pershing Square in downtown DC to recall Muslim terrorism did not begin on 911. Today, though, Pershing’s technique of educating the enemy he was not to be reckoned with, would have been challenged by left wingers defending the rights of people who murder.
A US police officer told me his department assigned flak vest corrodes from body sweat. My tears are because I want him to live forever along with all the officers and firemen around the world willing to put their lives on the line for strangers. Will the likes of Sir Geldoff and Bono hold concerts to raise funds for military serving God and country. Or for my officer who paid hundreds of dollars from his pocket for a vest we both hope works when he needs it to.
The lesson this officer teaches is what we all need to learn. The safety of our lives is on our own hands. Not in government’s. Officers are responders. They do their job with our help as their eyes and ears. The world is too big for peace officers to be everywhere before. They will be there after the event happens.
A second insight into personal responsibility in these technological days and times is simpler. My advice comes from a member of “The God Squad.” We talk about the event Intel knows will come, not “if” but when.” His words are direct, “let the little things slide.” “Let loved ones know you love them as often as you can.” And then the Padre told me, “wake up in the morning, Carrie. Put on that smile, go out and make each day your best day ever.” So I head to work where I photographically archive policy makers with security teams sweeping buses and Undergrounds they travel on, don’t share the same risks civilians do.
I know what to do to mitigate disaster or how to be found if caught in one. Dental records. ID bracelets. Letting people know where I am going at all times but then like Natalie Holloway, the teen feared dead in Aruba, I am human, like Intel, preferring to see the best in people rather than the worst.
The only truth I can share is that there never is a way to 100% vet people. Who they are today may not be who they are tomorrow. One only need look at BTK. His wife lived with him 20 years alleging she never had clues to his being a cold blooded murderer. The Edgware Road bombing took out a wall not near the trucks. More than likely, the explosives at root for the bombings were set in place long ago, triggered by remote. For almost two years, I walked by that wall, by workers, by crewmen, we since learned could buy accreditation and identification at one of several pubs in North East London.
Of course I can provide more details on how the attacks may be motivated and by whom, but there is one bit of advice I think would better be served. Pick up the phone and tell someone how much you love them. Then step out into the world, focused on living life to the fullest. And smile, even at a cop…
________________________________________________________
CONNECTION THE DOTS Herold Tries To Keep MPDC Ahead Of Terrorists (c) Carrie Devorah :
________________________________________________________
Connection the dots
Herold tries to keep MPD ahead of terrorists
(Published September 20, 2004)
By CARRIE DEVORAH Jeff Herold is a difficult man to get hold of.
When he finally sits, for an interview, he is candid about being an officer in one of the country’s finest branches, the Metropolitan Police Department's Special Operations Unit. His job keeps him traveling around the country, giving him "a chance to learn and train best practices of police." Herold’s lessons can be a matter of life and breath.
"Officers know the unknown is always ahead of them in these days of terrorism, unsure if they will live or die in a situation threatening the District," he says.
The nation's capital after 1 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Herold recalled, was a ghost town. When the plane hit the Pentagon, "I was sitting right here," he said, pointing to his chair. His desk is covered with manuals and papers related to terrorism and disaster mitigation. Visibly affected, Herold whispered, "the whole building shook."
Herold looks out his shuttered window at civilians walking about. "That’s why I don’t have a problem with what happened in Iraq -- or any other actions against any other Middle East country, wishing death or destruction to any other person because of their beliefs," he says.
Herold offered me a seat and a cold soda from the machine outside his office. He says with conviction: "I’ve become more aggressive than I was prior to 9/11."
Herold spoke last fall at a D.C. disaster mitigation conference. He told the audience that on 9/11, when the feds left the city, his unit was left responsible for commuters wanting to get home. A show of hands responded to his Q & A as to the length of time it took commuters to get home.
"More than four hours?" he asked.
"It was inexcusable," he apologized. "It won’t happen again."
He left the dais, rushing for another commitment. I secured his business card and the promise he would sit with me for an interview. Several months later, we were sitting in Herold’s office at Special Operations. By then, I knew more about terrorism, Mideast terrorism. My youngest brother was murdered by a suicide bomber in Israel last Jan. 29. Small world that it is, Herold’s boss, Commander Cathy Lanier, was in Jerusalem the day Chezi and 10 other commuters on Egged Bus 19 were brutally murdered.
At first, Herold and I talked about 9/11. I was a crime analyst working at the UCLA Police Department that day. He asked about my department’s experience. I told him we had been ordered off the air. We knew the country had been attacked. We were told to anticipate a West Coast attack. Herold said his men were not ordered off line. "Cell phones stopped working because the network was just used up. Radios became pretty much unusable because of the increase in traffic." Nextel, the network the department used, failed. Herold has since found another way of working with police and emergency managers around the country.
"The only thing that really worked for us, and we’re still using them now -- they’ve issued them to most of the officers -- are Blackberries. We type our messages in back and forth." I told Herold a friend of mine was one of several ham radio operators who played a role in transmitting communications in 9/11’s wake.
"There is a group called REACT in Washington," he said. "We didn’t use them here."
Found to be effective for communicating on and post 9/11, when other systems failed, the military appropriations provided $300,000 to expand ham radio operations.
Herold is concerned with developing a disaster plan for the District. A lot of what is known about human reaction to toxins is theory from results produced in testing on animals. More was learned about human exposure to nerve agents after the Tokyo subway station tragedy and from the gas chambers in Nazi Germany.
Developing a foolproof disaster plan is challenging. Herold acknowledges he does not know the type of weapons Iraq posseses. He does know they had nerve agents because they used them against their own population about 10 years ago, he says. MPD learned a lot about anthrax after the postal contamination in 2001. He knows the danger of anthrax is when people re-aerosolize spores. "All that’s needed," he says, "is between 700 to 1,500 spores."
Officers are issued suits to wear during a biological or chemical attack. The suits have an air life of 20 minutes that may diminish based on the permeation factor of the suit’s material and breathing devices filtering biological substances.
"So, I just can’t say it will work for 15 minutes. Just can’t say," Herold says.
He swivels in his desk chair to show me "Smart Suit," the computer program he will rely on when the department responds to an emergency "weapons of mass destruction" call. Herold said "we wouldn’t know that this stuff is in the environment until people got symptomatic or we got lucky and found it." Herold explains once the substance is determined, its name is entered into the program. He will be provided details such as breathing time, exposure to the chemical, how to kill the chemical, how to protect the chemical.
Israel is sophisticated in civilian preparation for WMD’s. WMD-prepared "safe rooms" are built into new homes. Residents are issued gas masks along with antidotes for known biological and chemical toxins. WMD preparedness can be guesswork. There isn’t a preparedness formula for unknown toxins under development. Herold asks that my line of questioning be changed. Answering a question about a painful inevitability is etched in his face. He is an officer sworn to preserve life, at all cost to his own life. Herold’s considerations are "more feet on the ground" than a spiritual approach to a disaster.
"We do what we can to assure that the civilian population is as safe as it can be. We cannot protect them from the event. We can mitigate the event to the point we lessen the impact on society," he says.
Lack of intelligence sharing from the federal government is Herold’s biggest stumbling block to developing an effective disaster plan for D.C. Foreign policies "don’t drift down to our level," he says. "Some of the complaints that we’ve had are not with Intel -- it's more with what we get out of the federal government in the U.S. What threats do you have? How can I design a response with the police department, which is what I do, if I don’t know what the threat is? They’ve gotten much better at it. They’ve gotten clearances for a lot of us so that that complaint is lessened to a great extent than it was a year and a half and two years ago."
"The (federal government's) roadmap, although I am aware of it, has not changed any of our philosophies or deployments or response to a terrorist event. …What really changed our way of thinking in response and prevention was 9/11. And," says Herold, "it took a 9/11 for us to start to realize more that we also can become victims here. A lot of us were banging the table going as far back as 1995. Saying we really need to start concerning ourselves with these kinds of things, with those types of events."
The federal government, he continued, sponsored a bill that put out several million dollars to help municipalities get ready for a terrorist type of event. In 1995, Am Shrikiyo, the terrorists released toxins in the Japanese underground.
Herold, openly Jewish, was raised by practicing Jews, to believe he is no different than anyone else. He is proud of his fairly thick skin, his family’s beliefs, his history, being and refusal to be discriminated against.
"It’s the way I was brought up. If you don’t like it, its just too … bad," he says. "When my family came from Europe they were all reform, even at that point when they first came over. They’re mostly from Austria. A lot of my family was put to death in Bavaria."
Herold’s experience with the Middle East is limited, at this time, to details his commanding officer brought back from Jerusalem. He intends to go to Israel. Plane tickets sit in his drawer, waiting for his boss to let him get out of town. His intention is to cross over into the territories, to learn about terrorism, firsthand.
"Of course, I would cross over but I would be doing it as an American, a guest of the Israeli government at that point. I don’t know how well I would be accepted. I don’t think they would like me too much." He didn’t know if he will even be allowed to cross into the territories without the protection of the Israeli military. "In that part of the world, they do not differentiate between a municipal police officer and a government law enforcement official."
Herold thinks the left-wing Muslims are "more mainstream Western than we think they are." Referring to one of the last female suicide bombers in Israel, killing herself and Israeli soldiers at a check point. I told Herold, in Israel, a version of her story I heard was her husband, while fighting with her, told her to go blow herself up. Her friends told media that she thought her husband would stop her, apologize for what he said, and they would live happily ever after. Her husband, cradling his motherless children, was beside himself for what he said to her in anger. A little too late.
I told Herold the residents of my brother’s community in Betar Ilit expressed to me, Jews are taught to pray for hope; Muslims are taught to pray for hate. "I would tend to agree with that," he said. Herold has seen videos of the teachings in Mideast Muslim communities. He shakes his head at what he viewed, 3 year olds being taught to become a suicide bomber is a rite of passage. "I don’t see how you can change that mindset. It’s innate. It’s ingrained in their psyche," he said.
Herold challenges the statistic that 85 percent of suicide bombers are prevented from entering Israel to carry out their attacks. He looked at pictures of the Wall that Commander Lanier brought back with her from Israel. Herold feels lengthening or shortening the Wall "may make a difference. It will follow people through so that people could be checked moving from the territories into Israel." Someone determined to attack Israel will find a way around it, he said.
Lanier and other police commanders from across America were in Israel to observe strategies Israeli police enforce to combat terrorism. Lanier and fellow officers viewed Bus 19’s detonation site after the dead, injured and wreckage were removed.
"I don’t know what the answer is in that region," said Herold, "I do understand the mindset to some extent of the Palestinian, to some extent." His understanding came from a briefing presented by a former CIA employee working for Rand Corp, "a security company, 'beltway bandits' employed by the federal government." 'Beltway bandits,' he explains, are the organizations around the Capitol Beltway that prosper off government contracts. The government "outsources almost everything. Weapons systems. A lot of their intelligence gatherings. RAND, SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation)."
"The briefing that was put out by the gentleman from Rand said the Middle Eastern mindset is mainly comprised of everything that has ever happened to that population from the time of Mohammed to today, compressed into one small little capsule, so to speak. … Yeah, they have baggage going back thousands of years and every one of their people have that baggage, so whatever happened back in Mohammad’s times happened to them personally to each one of those people in that society," he said.
Rand, a government "think tank," has contributed thoughts on child welfare, justice, education, drug policy, social welfare and national security since 1948. Clients include the United Nations, World Bank, European Commission and Heinz Endowments, chaired by Teresa, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry. Frank Carlucci, founder of Carlyle Group, sits on RAND’s Board of Trustees. George Bush Sr.’s relationship with Carlyle began in 1990. He was compensated in shares. He resigned his seat from networking and speaking for Carlyle in October 2003. Binladin Group was among investors in the $13 billion company.
Rand’s latest fiscal year budget, $160 to $170 million dollars, was split 50-50 between defense and domestic issues. RAND grew out of the Army Air Corps, says company spokesman Warren Roback. During WWII, the air corps became the Air Force. The military foresaw rapid changes in the military’s future. To prepare for the changes and have an outside perspective, RAND was developed with Douglas Aircraft. The company continued to expand. Rand's deputy director of external communications says, "At any given time, RAND has hundreds of research projects going on. Rand is an independent research organization. We provide research to many groups including the government, helping them address research and difficult issues."
"Rand research should help intelligence," says Roback. He hopes clients use RAND research to address their issues whether deciding to train individually in the law enforcement agency to deal with terrorism or health issues, RAND’S areas of expertise.
Herold picks up a copy of THOR. THOR, an anacronym named after the mythical Norse god of war, thunder and strength, published in 2002, "intended to give first response personnel operational direction at terrorism incidents." THOR was out of date when it was written. The munitions chapter does not address train bombings such as occured internationally in Russia and Madrid. Nor does the handbook address suicide bombers. Israel began suffering from bomb murderers in 2000.
Herold shakes his head at the notion of using the FBI profilers to profile bomb murderers. "You look at the profile that was created for the sniper murderers two years ago. The profile done by the FBI was completely opposite to the people committing the murders. Some people are completely outside the profile. Women are outside our profile," said Herold, noting bomb murderers include children and women. The reality is America’s at danger from other ethnicities as evidenced with the arrest by FBI agents of Portland, Ore., caucasian attorney Brandon Mayfield, reported by CNN to be an Islam convert, possibly involved in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 190 people. Herold is not concerned that bomb murderers blend or that anyone approaching him might be "it." "You are always aware or alert for things like that. I couldn’t say for sure just because that is an African American walking towards me that he is not a Muslim trained in the Middle East, schooled in the Middle East to be the first murder bomber in the U.S."
"We actually are more challenged. We have more assets concentrating on murder bombings. I think that since there’s no real profile of a murder bomber that technology is going to have to be used to detect these folks."
Herold is a little concerned over things he has heard through Boston and New York police departments, such as Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army, being funded with "fees" for speaking engagements and by the Ancient Order of the Hibernia, American Irish descendants, allegedly using the money for terrorist training in Europe. "They either have proof or it is just supposition on their part," he says. Herold says the department sees Ireland as a minor player in terrorism. "They may be a little bit more effective in the training area -- we know that they are in South America training terrorists in South America, in the Middle East and Asia." Herold points at Bali as new ground terrorists discovered. Herold does not know details of the IRA being linked to events. Herold’s personal thought is that some of these folks may just be anarchists in philosophy and they may just do anything essentially to degrade the effectiveness of government. I tell him about the sign in Northern Ireland that I photographed. Pictured are an IRA soldier and a PLO soldier. The words in between them say, "Two people, one cause." His eyebrows raise. No words were said.
Herold says the problem for a U.S. response to bus bombings is that America’s never had one so there is nothing to gauge it or consider it, until it happens. The risk of being involved in a situation like that in the U.S. is considered pretty much non-existent. "We’re real good at slamming a door after an event in the U.S.," he said. "The one you didn’t slam is the one that is going to get you. The event that is going to occur is going to get you through the door you didn’t even think about. 9/11 happened -- we just didn’t slam all the doors."
Lanier is one of almost 20 officers in five separate groups the Metropolitan Police Department has sent over the last two years to Israel, learning about terrorist mitigation riding with and working with the Israeli national police force. The officers don’t travel Israeli buses while they are visiting there. "To be perfectly honest," said Herold, "if I was in Israel, I’m not going to ride a bus either. It’s risky traveling into areas like that." Definitely, it's still relatively safe to travel a bus in Israel, however if you want to cut your risk even less you stay out of the areas where there is risk. Even though it's a slight chance of getting murdered by a bomber because buses run thousands of people a day, and we lose a few a year.
The Israeli government's limited dissemination of terror attack scenes is challenging D.C.’s ability to prevent similar disasters. "Pictures of victims are going to help us. Pictures of scenes may. Victims at scenes may. Blast patterns may. However for a bombing, it is better to prevent because you are not going to mitigate a bombing." Herold said the problem with bomb murders is they happen in a blink of an eye. Jerusalem Post reporter Erik Shacter survived Bus 19’s explosion. He wrote about hearing a whine and seeing a flash before realizing he was injured in a bus bombing.
Lanier deferred comment on Bus 19 or D.C. officers' ability to handle a second terrorist strike in the nation’s capital to the department’s press officer, Sgt Joe Gentile. Gentile said that "the reality is that we remain on a heightened level of alert. That has been the case since Sept 11 after the terrorist attack. We work very closely with other city and federal agencies to keep as informed as possible about possible terrorists." Gentile stated citizens are assisting the department, daily reporting calls for something suspicious. "Today we went out on a call that turned out to be a briefcase left on a street corner. Even if it turns out to be nothing, call. We encourage citizens to contact the police immediately."
I forgot to ask Gentile what will happen to District civilians during an attack if the new government Internet service provider is not working, again. After 9/11, I was speaking with an officer in the Capitol Police. He told me, then, their system was down around 9/11. A virus, I recall. Twice, in the month, when I had been speaking with sworn officers, the department was experiencing computer problems. Someone in authority ordered the government put on one line. I could not send Gentile an email. He said there was a virus, a worm, preventing him from accessing his emails. He was still waiting for his new password to be given to him.
MPD is working to assist the local community prepare for an "event," as he calls it. "We’re doing everything we can to prepare it from happening. And if we cannot prevent it, like 9/11, we couldn’t prevent it, we will do our best to mitigate the outcome." He clarifies "mitigate": "Lessen the impact of the outcome."
Herold is reworking the plan for the strategic national stockpile of medicine, prophylactic type drugs available throughout the country. Herold points to a binder dealing with a biological attack, laying on his bookshelf under D.C.’s Snow Emergency Plan. "If you have an event, (enforcement word for terror attack), that’s (the stockpile) moved into your area, distributed by the Department of Health." Herold recently worked alongside the National Research Cap Council, getting academia talking about risk communication for a day. Herold says academia recommends not discussing percentages of "the chance of something happening." He confides there is a 3 to 6 percent risk of a biological or chemical event happening. "Too low on the level," he says, pointing out WMD is the correct term to cover both potentials of attack.
MPDC is considering the ripple effect of a terrorist attack, beyond the dead, on to the living at the scene, witness to body mutilation, covered in blood. MPDC has used grief counselors to fill in the city’s events emergency plans like the Ballou Senior High School shootings. Herold is convinced they have not dealt with terrorist response. Assistance is available from the faith community. He does not know if they have put things in place to deal with such massive events.
Herold supports the Patriot Act. He believes it gives enforcement a little bit more authority. Herold emphasizes the Act is not as far reaching as to violate the constitution, as argued by presidential opponents. The standard of balance and checks law enforcement follows to prevent improper enforcement or detention is "reasonable suspicion."
President Bush called Congress to renew and strengthen. Bush addressed the need for removal of legal and bureaucratic restrictions on information sharing between law enforcement, intelligence and national security officials. The President said the restrictions made it difficult to "get a complete picture of the terrorist threats preventing law enforcement from having all the pieces of the puzzle in one place." "Now," the President said, "FBI agents, Federal prosecutors, and intelligence officials can protect our communities by "connecting the dots" to uncover terrorist plots before they are completed while respecting constitutional rights."
Herold’s candor is typical of MPDC officers, willing to sacrifice their own lives for strangers. Profiling terrorists concerns officers. Herold said, "There is always going to be the one profile we haven’t developed yet that is going to surprise us. Anything is possible at anytime."
"I think the cells," said Herold, "are already here, waiting to be awakened."
Herold tries to keep MPD ahead of terrorists
(Published September 20, 2004)
By CARRIE DEVORAH Jeff Herold is a difficult man to get hold of.
When he finally sits, for an interview, he is candid about being an officer in one of the country’s finest branches, the Metropolitan Police Department's Special Operations Unit. His job keeps him traveling around the country, giving him "a chance to learn and train best practices of police." Herold’s lessons can be a matter of life and breath.
"Officers know the unknown is always ahead of them in these days of terrorism, unsure if they will live or die in a situation threatening the District," he says.
The nation's capital after 1 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, Herold recalled, was a ghost town. When the plane hit the Pentagon, "I was sitting right here," he said, pointing to his chair. His desk is covered with manuals and papers related to terrorism and disaster mitigation. Visibly affected, Herold whispered, "the whole building shook."
Herold looks out his shuttered window at civilians walking about. "That’s why I don’t have a problem with what happened in Iraq -- or any other actions against any other Middle East country, wishing death or destruction to any other person because of their beliefs," he says.
Herold offered me a seat and a cold soda from the machine outside his office. He says with conviction: "I’ve become more aggressive than I was prior to 9/11."
Herold spoke last fall at a D.C. disaster mitigation conference. He told the audience that on 9/11, when the feds left the city, his unit was left responsible for commuters wanting to get home. A show of hands responded to his Q & A as to the length of time it took commuters to get home.
"More than four hours?" he asked.
"It was inexcusable," he apologized. "It won’t happen again."
He left the dais, rushing for another commitment. I secured his business card and the promise he would sit with me for an interview. Several months later, we were sitting in Herold’s office at Special Operations. By then, I knew more about terrorism, Mideast terrorism. My youngest brother was murdered by a suicide bomber in Israel last Jan. 29. Small world that it is, Herold’s boss, Commander Cathy Lanier, was in Jerusalem the day Chezi and 10 other commuters on Egged Bus 19 were brutally murdered.
At first, Herold and I talked about 9/11. I was a crime analyst working at the UCLA Police Department that day. He asked about my department’s experience. I told him we had been ordered off the air. We knew the country had been attacked. We were told to anticipate a West Coast attack. Herold said his men were not ordered off line. "Cell phones stopped working because the network was just used up. Radios became pretty much unusable because of the increase in traffic." Nextel, the network the department used, failed. Herold has since found another way of working with police and emergency managers around the country.
"The only thing that really worked for us, and we’re still using them now -- they’ve issued them to most of the officers -- are Blackberries. We type our messages in back and forth." I told Herold a friend of mine was one of several ham radio operators who played a role in transmitting communications in 9/11’s wake.
"There is a group called REACT in Washington," he said. "We didn’t use them here."
Found to be effective for communicating on and post 9/11, when other systems failed, the military appropriations provided $300,000 to expand ham radio operations.
Herold is concerned with developing a disaster plan for the District. A lot of what is known about human reaction to toxins is theory from results produced in testing on animals. More was learned about human exposure to nerve agents after the Tokyo subway station tragedy and from the gas chambers in Nazi Germany.
Developing a foolproof disaster plan is challenging. Herold acknowledges he does not know the type of weapons Iraq posseses. He does know they had nerve agents because they used them against their own population about 10 years ago, he says. MPD learned a lot about anthrax after the postal contamination in 2001. He knows the danger of anthrax is when people re-aerosolize spores. "All that’s needed," he says, "is between 700 to 1,500 spores."
Officers are issued suits to wear during a biological or chemical attack. The suits have an air life of 20 minutes that may diminish based on the permeation factor of the suit’s material and breathing devices filtering biological substances.
"So, I just can’t say it will work for 15 minutes. Just can’t say," Herold says.
He swivels in his desk chair to show me "Smart Suit," the computer program he will rely on when the department responds to an emergency "weapons of mass destruction" call. Herold said "we wouldn’t know that this stuff is in the environment until people got symptomatic or we got lucky and found it." Herold explains once the substance is determined, its name is entered into the program. He will be provided details such as breathing time, exposure to the chemical, how to kill the chemical, how to protect the chemical.
Israel is sophisticated in civilian preparation for WMD’s. WMD-prepared "safe rooms" are built into new homes. Residents are issued gas masks along with antidotes for known biological and chemical toxins. WMD preparedness can be guesswork. There isn’t a preparedness formula for unknown toxins under development. Herold asks that my line of questioning be changed. Answering a question about a painful inevitability is etched in his face. He is an officer sworn to preserve life, at all cost to his own life. Herold’s considerations are "more feet on the ground" than a spiritual approach to a disaster.
"We do what we can to assure that the civilian population is as safe as it can be. We cannot protect them from the event. We can mitigate the event to the point we lessen the impact on society," he says.
Lack of intelligence sharing from the federal government is Herold’s biggest stumbling block to developing an effective disaster plan for D.C. Foreign policies "don’t drift down to our level," he says. "Some of the complaints that we’ve had are not with Intel -- it's more with what we get out of the federal government in the U.S. What threats do you have? How can I design a response with the police department, which is what I do, if I don’t know what the threat is? They’ve gotten much better at it. They’ve gotten clearances for a lot of us so that that complaint is lessened to a great extent than it was a year and a half and two years ago."
"The (federal government's) roadmap, although I am aware of it, has not changed any of our philosophies or deployments or response to a terrorist event. …What really changed our way of thinking in response and prevention was 9/11. And," says Herold, "it took a 9/11 for us to start to realize more that we also can become victims here. A lot of us were banging the table going as far back as 1995. Saying we really need to start concerning ourselves with these kinds of things, with those types of events."
The federal government, he continued, sponsored a bill that put out several million dollars to help municipalities get ready for a terrorist type of event. In 1995, Am Shrikiyo, the terrorists released toxins in the Japanese underground.
Herold, openly Jewish, was raised by practicing Jews, to believe he is no different than anyone else. He is proud of his fairly thick skin, his family’s beliefs, his history, being and refusal to be discriminated against.
"It’s the way I was brought up. If you don’t like it, its just too … bad," he says. "When my family came from Europe they were all reform, even at that point when they first came over. They’re mostly from Austria. A lot of my family was put to death in Bavaria."
Herold’s experience with the Middle East is limited, at this time, to details his commanding officer brought back from Jerusalem. He intends to go to Israel. Plane tickets sit in his drawer, waiting for his boss to let him get out of town. His intention is to cross over into the territories, to learn about terrorism, firsthand.
"Of course, I would cross over but I would be doing it as an American, a guest of the Israeli government at that point. I don’t know how well I would be accepted. I don’t think they would like me too much." He didn’t know if he will even be allowed to cross into the territories without the protection of the Israeli military. "In that part of the world, they do not differentiate between a municipal police officer and a government law enforcement official."
Herold thinks the left-wing Muslims are "more mainstream Western than we think they are." Referring to one of the last female suicide bombers in Israel, killing herself and Israeli soldiers at a check point. I told Herold, in Israel, a version of her story I heard was her husband, while fighting with her, told her to go blow herself up. Her friends told media that she thought her husband would stop her, apologize for what he said, and they would live happily ever after. Her husband, cradling his motherless children, was beside himself for what he said to her in anger. A little too late.
I told Herold the residents of my brother’s community in Betar Ilit expressed to me, Jews are taught to pray for hope; Muslims are taught to pray for hate. "I would tend to agree with that," he said. Herold has seen videos of the teachings in Mideast Muslim communities. He shakes his head at what he viewed, 3 year olds being taught to become a suicide bomber is a rite of passage. "I don’t see how you can change that mindset. It’s innate. It’s ingrained in their psyche," he said.
Herold challenges the statistic that 85 percent of suicide bombers are prevented from entering Israel to carry out their attacks. He looked at pictures of the Wall that Commander Lanier brought back with her from Israel. Herold feels lengthening or shortening the Wall "may make a difference. It will follow people through so that people could be checked moving from the territories into Israel." Someone determined to attack Israel will find a way around it, he said.
Lanier and other police commanders from across America were in Israel to observe strategies Israeli police enforce to combat terrorism. Lanier and fellow officers viewed Bus 19’s detonation site after the dead, injured and wreckage were removed.
"I don’t know what the answer is in that region," said Herold, "I do understand the mindset to some extent of the Palestinian, to some extent." His understanding came from a briefing presented by a former CIA employee working for Rand Corp, "a security company, 'beltway bandits' employed by the federal government." 'Beltway bandits,' he explains, are the organizations around the Capitol Beltway that prosper off government contracts. The government "outsources almost everything. Weapons systems. A lot of their intelligence gatherings. RAND, SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation)."
"The briefing that was put out by the gentleman from Rand said the Middle Eastern mindset is mainly comprised of everything that has ever happened to that population from the time of Mohammed to today, compressed into one small little capsule, so to speak. … Yeah, they have baggage going back thousands of years and every one of their people have that baggage, so whatever happened back in Mohammad’s times happened to them personally to each one of those people in that society," he said.
Rand, a government "think tank," has contributed thoughts on child welfare, justice, education, drug policy, social welfare and national security since 1948. Clients include the United Nations, World Bank, European Commission and Heinz Endowments, chaired by Teresa, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry. Frank Carlucci, founder of Carlyle Group, sits on RAND’s Board of Trustees. George Bush Sr.’s relationship with Carlyle began in 1990. He was compensated in shares. He resigned his seat from networking and speaking for Carlyle in October 2003. Binladin Group was among investors in the $13 billion company.
Rand’s latest fiscal year budget, $160 to $170 million dollars, was split 50-50 between defense and domestic issues. RAND grew out of the Army Air Corps, says company spokesman Warren Roback. During WWII, the air corps became the Air Force. The military foresaw rapid changes in the military’s future. To prepare for the changes and have an outside perspective, RAND was developed with Douglas Aircraft. The company continued to expand. Rand's deputy director of external communications says, "At any given time, RAND has hundreds of research projects going on. Rand is an independent research organization. We provide research to many groups including the government, helping them address research and difficult issues."
"Rand research should help intelligence," says Roback. He hopes clients use RAND research to address their issues whether deciding to train individually in the law enforcement agency to deal with terrorism or health issues, RAND’S areas of expertise.
Herold picks up a copy of THOR. THOR, an anacronym named after the mythical Norse god of war, thunder and strength, published in 2002, "intended to give first response personnel operational direction at terrorism incidents." THOR was out of date when it was written. The munitions chapter does not address train bombings such as occured internationally in Russia and Madrid. Nor does the handbook address suicide bombers. Israel began suffering from bomb murderers in 2000.
Herold shakes his head at the notion of using the FBI profilers to profile bomb murderers. "You look at the profile that was created for the sniper murderers two years ago. The profile done by the FBI was completely opposite to the people committing the murders. Some people are completely outside the profile. Women are outside our profile," said Herold, noting bomb murderers include children and women. The reality is America’s at danger from other ethnicities as evidenced with the arrest by FBI agents of Portland, Ore., caucasian attorney Brandon Mayfield, reported by CNN to be an Islam convert, possibly involved in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 190 people. Herold is not concerned that bomb murderers blend or that anyone approaching him might be "it." "You are always aware or alert for things like that. I couldn’t say for sure just because that is an African American walking towards me that he is not a Muslim trained in the Middle East, schooled in the Middle East to be the first murder bomber in the U.S."
"We actually are more challenged. We have more assets concentrating on murder bombings. I think that since there’s no real profile of a murder bomber that technology is going to have to be used to detect these folks."
Herold is a little concerned over things he has heard through Boston and New York police departments, such as Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army, being funded with "fees" for speaking engagements and by the Ancient Order of the Hibernia, American Irish descendants, allegedly using the money for terrorist training in Europe. "They either have proof or it is just supposition on their part," he says. Herold says the department sees Ireland as a minor player in terrorism. "They may be a little bit more effective in the training area -- we know that they are in South America training terrorists in South America, in the Middle East and Asia." Herold points at Bali as new ground terrorists discovered. Herold does not know details of the IRA being linked to events. Herold’s personal thought is that some of these folks may just be anarchists in philosophy and they may just do anything essentially to degrade the effectiveness of government. I tell him about the sign in Northern Ireland that I photographed. Pictured are an IRA soldier and a PLO soldier. The words in between them say, "Two people, one cause." His eyebrows raise. No words were said.
Herold says the problem for a U.S. response to bus bombings is that America’s never had one so there is nothing to gauge it or consider it, until it happens. The risk of being involved in a situation like that in the U.S. is considered pretty much non-existent. "We’re real good at slamming a door after an event in the U.S.," he said. "The one you didn’t slam is the one that is going to get you. The event that is going to occur is going to get you through the door you didn’t even think about. 9/11 happened -- we just didn’t slam all the doors."
Lanier is one of almost 20 officers in five separate groups the Metropolitan Police Department has sent over the last two years to Israel, learning about terrorist mitigation riding with and working with the Israeli national police force. The officers don’t travel Israeli buses while they are visiting there. "To be perfectly honest," said Herold, "if I was in Israel, I’m not going to ride a bus either. It’s risky traveling into areas like that." Definitely, it's still relatively safe to travel a bus in Israel, however if you want to cut your risk even less you stay out of the areas where there is risk. Even though it's a slight chance of getting murdered by a bomber because buses run thousands of people a day, and we lose a few a year.
The Israeli government's limited dissemination of terror attack scenes is challenging D.C.’s ability to prevent similar disasters. "Pictures of victims are going to help us. Pictures of scenes may. Victims at scenes may. Blast patterns may. However for a bombing, it is better to prevent because you are not going to mitigate a bombing." Herold said the problem with bomb murders is they happen in a blink of an eye. Jerusalem Post reporter Erik Shacter survived Bus 19’s explosion. He wrote about hearing a whine and seeing a flash before realizing he was injured in a bus bombing.
Lanier deferred comment on Bus 19 or D.C. officers' ability to handle a second terrorist strike in the nation’s capital to the department’s press officer, Sgt Joe Gentile. Gentile said that "the reality is that we remain on a heightened level of alert. That has been the case since Sept 11 after the terrorist attack. We work very closely with other city and federal agencies to keep as informed as possible about possible terrorists." Gentile stated citizens are assisting the department, daily reporting calls for something suspicious. "Today we went out on a call that turned out to be a briefcase left on a street corner. Even if it turns out to be nothing, call. We encourage citizens to contact the police immediately."
I forgot to ask Gentile what will happen to District civilians during an attack if the new government Internet service provider is not working, again. After 9/11, I was speaking with an officer in the Capitol Police. He told me, then, their system was down around 9/11. A virus, I recall. Twice, in the month, when I had been speaking with sworn officers, the department was experiencing computer problems. Someone in authority ordered the government put on one line. I could not send Gentile an email. He said there was a virus, a worm, preventing him from accessing his emails. He was still waiting for his new password to be given to him.
MPD is working to assist the local community prepare for an "event," as he calls it. "We’re doing everything we can to prepare it from happening. And if we cannot prevent it, like 9/11, we couldn’t prevent it, we will do our best to mitigate the outcome." He clarifies "mitigate": "Lessen the impact of the outcome."
Herold is reworking the plan for the strategic national stockpile of medicine, prophylactic type drugs available throughout the country. Herold points to a binder dealing with a biological attack, laying on his bookshelf under D.C.’s Snow Emergency Plan. "If you have an event, (enforcement word for terror attack), that’s (the stockpile) moved into your area, distributed by the Department of Health." Herold recently worked alongside the National Research Cap Council, getting academia talking about risk communication for a day. Herold says academia recommends not discussing percentages of "the chance of something happening." He confides there is a 3 to 6 percent risk of a biological or chemical event happening. "Too low on the level," he says, pointing out WMD is the correct term to cover both potentials of attack.
MPDC is considering the ripple effect of a terrorist attack, beyond the dead, on to the living at the scene, witness to body mutilation, covered in blood. MPDC has used grief counselors to fill in the city’s events emergency plans like the Ballou Senior High School shootings. Herold is convinced they have not dealt with terrorist response. Assistance is available from the faith community. He does not know if they have put things in place to deal with such massive events.
Herold supports the Patriot Act. He believes it gives enforcement a little bit more authority. Herold emphasizes the Act is not as far reaching as to violate the constitution, as argued by presidential opponents. The standard of balance and checks law enforcement follows to prevent improper enforcement or detention is "reasonable suspicion."
President Bush called Congress to renew and strengthen. Bush addressed the need for removal of legal and bureaucratic restrictions on information sharing between law enforcement, intelligence and national security officials. The President said the restrictions made it difficult to "get a complete picture of the terrorist threats preventing law enforcement from having all the pieces of the puzzle in one place." "Now," the President said, "FBI agents, Federal prosecutors, and intelligence officials can protect our communities by "connecting the dots" to uncover terrorist plots before they are completed while respecting constitutional rights."
Herold’s candor is typical of MPDC officers, willing to sacrifice their own lives for strangers. Profiling terrorists concerns officers. Herold said, "There is always going to be the one profile we haven’t developed yet that is going to surprise us. Anything is possible at anytime."
"I think the cells," said Herold, "are already here, waiting to be awakened."
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