KNOW THE LEDGE TV PRESENTS ALI MUHAMMED & ASEER THE DUKE OF TIERS-HANCOCK/OBAMA DECODED

know the ledge tv -MORROCCO BAMA

VIDEO:KNOW THE LEDGE TV PRESENTS ASEER THE DUKE OF TIERS

THIS IS THE 1ST INSTALLMENT OF OUR COLLOSAL VIDEO SERIES,STAY TUNED FOR MOOR!!!
 

IRAN CONTRA'S LOST CHAPTER:HOW REAGAN GOT USA HOOKED ON PROPAGANDA

Iran-Contra's 'Lost Chapter'

By Robert Parry (A Special Report)
June 30, 2008

As historians ponder George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency, they may wonder how Republicans perfected a propaganda system that could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs.
Share this article


To understand this extraordinary development, historians might want to look back at the 1980s and examine the Iran-Contra scandal’s “lost chapter,” a narrative describing how Ronald Reagan’s administration brought CIA tactics to bear domestically to reshape the way Americans perceived the world.

That chapter – which we are publishing here for the first time – was “lost” because Republicans on the congressional Iran-Contra investigation waged a rear-guard fight that traded elimination of the chapter’s key findings for the votes of three moderate GOP senators, giving the final report a patina of bipartisanship.

Under that compromise, a few segments of the draft chapter were inserted in the final report’s Executive Summary and in another section on White House private fundraising, but the chapter’s conclusions and its detailed account of how the “perception management” operation worked ended up on the editing room floor.

The American people thus were spared the chapter’s troubling finding: that the Reagan administration had built a domestic covert propaganda apparatus managed by a CIA propaganda and disinformation specialist working out of the National Security Council.

“One of the CIA’s most senior covert action operators was sent to the NSC in 1983 by CIA Director [William] Casey where he participated in the creation of an inter-agency public diplomacy mechanism that included the use of seasoned intelligence specialists,” the chapter’s conclusion stated.

“This public/private network set out to accomplish what a covert CIA operation in a foreign country might attempt – to sway the media, the Congress, and American public opinion in the direction of the Reagan administration’s policies.”

However, with the chapter’s key findings deleted, the right-wing domestic propaganda operation not only survived the Iran-Contra fallout but thrived.

So did some of the administration’s collaborators, such as South Korean theocrat Sun Myung Moon and Australian press mogul Rupert Murdoch, two far-right media barons who poured billions of dollars into pro-Republican news outlets that continue to influence Washington’s political debates to this day.

Before every presidential election, Moon’s Washington Times plants derogatory – and often false – stories about Democratic contenders, discrediting them and damaging their chances of winning the White House.

For instance, in 1988, the Times published a bogus account suggesting that the Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis had undergone psychiatric treatment. In 2000, Moon’s newspaper pushed the theme that Al Gore suffered from clinical delusions. [For details, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege.]

As for Murdoch, his giant News Corp. expanded into American cable TV with the founding of Fox News in 1996. Since then, the right-wing network has proved highly effective in promoting attack lines against Democrats or anyone else who challenges the Republican power structure.

As President George W. Bush herded the nation toward war with Iraq in 2002-03, Fox News acted like his sheep dogs making sure public opinion didn’t stray too far off. The “Fox effect” was so powerful that it convinced other networks to load up with pro-war military analysts and to silence voices that questioned the invasion. [See Neck Deep.]

Seeds of Propaganda

The seeds of this private/public collaboration can be found in the 84-page draft Iran-Contra chapter, entitled “Launching the Private Network.” [There appear to have been several versions of this “lost chapter.” This one I found in congressional files.]

The chapter traces the origins of the propaganda network to President Reagan’s “National Security Decision Directive 77” in January 1983 as his administration sought to promote its foreign policy, especially its desire to oust Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government.

In a Jan. 13, 1983, memo, then-National Security Advisor William Clark foresaw the need for non-governmental money to advance this cause. “We will develop a scenario for obtaining private funding,” Clark wrote.

As administration officials began reaching out to wealthy supporters, lines against domestic propaganda soon were crossed as the operation took aim at not only at foreign audiences but at U.S. public opinion, the press and congressional Democrats who opposed funding Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras.

At the time, the contras were earning a gruesome reputation as human rights violators and terrorists. To change this negative perception of the contras, the Reagan administration created a full-blown, clandestine propaganda operation.

“An elaborate system of inter-agency committees was eventually formed and charged with the task of working closely with private groups and individuals involved in fundraising, lobbying campaigns and propagandistic activities aimed at influencing public opinion and governmental action,” the draft chapter said.

Heading this operation was a veteran CIA officer named Walter Raymond Jr., who was recruited by another CIA officer, Donald Gregg, before Gregg shifted from his job as chief of the NSC’s Intelligence Directorate to become national security adviser to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.

[The draft chapter doesn’t use Raymond’s name in its opening pages, apparently because some of the information came from classified depositions. However, Raymond’s name is used later in the chapter and the earlier citations match Raymond’s role.]

According to the draft report, the CIA officer recruited for the NSC job had served as Director of the Covert Action Staff at the CIA from 1978 to 1982 and was a “specialist in propaganda and disinformation.”

“The CIA official [Raymond] discussed the transfer with [CIA Director William] Casey and NSC Advisor William Clark that he be assigned to the NSC as Gregg’s successor [in June 1982] and received approval for his involvement in setting up the public diplomacy program along with his intelligence responsibilities,” the chapter said.

“In the early part of 1983, documents obtained by the Select [Iran-Contra] Committees indicate that the Director of the Intelligence Staff of the NSC [Raymond] successfully recommended the establishment of an inter-governmental network to promote and manage a public diplomacy plan designed to create support for Reagan Administration policies at home and abroad.”

Raymond “helped to set up an elaborate system of inter-agency committees,” the draft chapter said, adding:

“In the Spring of 1983, the network began to turn its attention toward beefing up the Administration’s capacity to promote American support for the Democratic Resistance in Nicaragua [the contras] and the fledgling democracy in El Salvador.

“This effort resulted in the creation of the Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Department of State (S/LPD), headed by Otto Reich,” a right-wing Cuban exile from Miami.

Though Secretary of State George Shultz wanted the office under his control, President Reagan insisted that Reich “report directly to the NSC,” where Raymond oversaw the operations as a special assistant to the President and the NSC’s director of international communications, the chapter said.

“At least for several months after he assumed this position, Raymond also worked on intelligence matters at the NSC, including drafting a Presidential Finding for Covert Action in Nicaragua in mid-September” 1983, the chapter said.

In other words, although Raymond was shifted to the NSC staff in part to evade prohibitions on the CIA influencing U.S. public opinion, his intelligence and propaganda duties overlapped for a time as he was retiring from the spy agency.

Key Player

Despite Raymond’s formal separation from the CIA, he acted toward the U.S. public much like a CIA officer would in directing a propaganda operation in a hostile foreign country. He was the go-to guy to keep the operation on track.

“Reich relied heavily on Raymond to secure personnel transfers from other government agencies to beef up the limited resources made available to S/LPD by the Department of State,” the chapter said.

“Personnel made available to the new office included intelligence specialists from the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army. On one occasion, five intelligence experts from the Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, were assigned to work with Reich’s fast-growing operation. …

“White House documents also indicate that CIA Director Casey had more than a passing interest in the Central American public diplomacy campaign.”

The chapter cited an Aug. 9, 1983, memo written by Raymond describing Casey’s participation in a meeting with public relations specialists to brainstorm how “to sell a ‘new product’ – Central America – by generating interest across-the-spectrum.”

In an Aug. 29, 1983, memo, Raymond recounted a call from Casey pushing his P.R. ideas. Alarmed at a CIA director participating so brazenly in domestic propaganda, Raymond wrote that “I philosophized a bit with Bill Casey (in an effort to get him out of the loop)” but with little success.

The chapter added: “Casey’s involvement in the public diplomacy effort apparently continued throughout the period under investigation by the Committees,” including a 1985 role in pressuring Congress to renew contra aid and a 1986 hand in further shielding S/LPD from the oversight of Secretary Shultz.

A Raymond-authored memo to Casey in August 1986 described the shift of S/LPD – then run by neoconservative theorist Bob Kagan who had replaced Reich – to the control of the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, which was headed by Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, another prominent neoconservative.

Another important figure in the pro-contra propaganda was NSC staffer Oliver North, who spent a great deal of his time on the Nicaraguan public diplomacy operation even though he is better known for arranging secret arms shipments to the contras and to Iran’s radical Islamic government, leading to the Iran-Contra scandal.

The draft chapter cited a March 10, 1985, memo from North describing his assistance to CIA Director Casey in timing disclosures of pro-contra news “aimed at securing Congressional approval for renewed support to the Nicaraguan Resistance Forces.”

North’s Operatives

The Iran-Contra “lost” chapter depicts a sometimes Byzantine network of contract and private operatives who handled details of the domestic propaganda while concealing the hand of the White House and the CIA.

“Richard R. Miller, former head of public affairs at AID, and Francis D. Gomez, former public affairs specialist at the State Department and USIA, were hired by S/LPD through sole-source, no-bid contracts to carry out a variety of activities on behalf of the Reagan administration policies in Central America,” the chapter said.

“Supported by the State Department and White House, Miller and Gomez became the outside managers of [North operative] Spitz Channel’s fundraising and lobbying activities.

“They also served as the managers of Central American political figures, defectors, Nicaraguan opposition leaders and Sandinista atrocity victims who were made available to the press, the Congress and private groups, to tell the story of the Contra cause.”

Miller and Gomez facilitated transfers of money to Swiss and offshore banks at North’s direction, as they “became the key link between the State Department and the Reagan White House with the private groups and individuals engaged in a myriad of endeavors aimed at influencing the Congress, the media and public opinion,” the chapter said.

In its conclusion, the draft chapter read:

“The State Department was used to run a prohibited, domestic, covert propaganda operation. Established despite resistance from the Secretary of State, and reporting directly to the NSC, the [S/LPD] attempted to mask many of its activities from the Congress and the American people.”

However, the American people never got to read a detailed explanation of this finding nor see the evidence. In October 1987, as the congressional Iran-Contra committees wrote their final report, Republicans protested the inclusion of this explosive information.

Though the Democrats held the majority, the GOP had leverage because Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, the House chairman, wanted some bipartisanship in the final report, especially since senior Republicans, including Rep. Dick Cheney, R-Wyoming, were preparing a strongly worded minority report.

Hamilton and the Democrats hoped that three moderate Republicans – William Cohen of Maine, Warren Rudman of New Hampshire and Paul Trible of Virginia – would break ranks and sign the majority report. However, the Republicans objected to the draft chapter about Ronald Reagan’s covert propaganda campaign.

As part of a compromise, some elements of the draft chapter were included in the Executive Summary but without much detail and shorn of the tough conclusions. Nevertheless, Cohen protested even that.

“I question the inordinate attention devoted in the Executive Summary to the Office of Public Diplomacy and its activities in support of the Administration’s polices,” Cohen wrote in his additional views. “The prominence given to it in the Executive Summary is far more generous than just.”

Long-Term Consequences

However, the failure of the Iran-Contra report to fully explain the danger of CIA-style propaganda intruding into the U.S. political process would have profound future consequences. Indeed, the evidence suggests that today’s powerful right-wing media gained momentum as part of the Casey-Raymond operations of the early 1980s.

According to one Raymond-authored memo dated Aug. 9, 1983, then-U.S. Information Agency director Charles Wick “via Murdock [sic] may be able to draw down added funds” to support pro-Reagan initiatives.

Raymond’s reference to Rupert Murdoch possibly drawing down “added funds” suggests that the right-wing media mogul was already part of the covert propaganda operation.

In line with its clandestine nature, Raymond also suggested routing the “funding via Freedom House or some other structure that has credibility in the political center.”

Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, publisher of the Washington Times, also showed up in the Iran-Contra operations, using his newspaper to raise contra funds and assigning his CAUSA political group to organize support for the contras.

In the two decades since the Iran-Contra scandal, both Murdoch and Moon have continued to pour billions of dollars into media outlets that have influenced the course of U.S. history, often through the planting of propaganda and disinformation much like a CIA covert action might do in a hostile foreign country.

Further, to soften up the Washington press corps, Reich’s S/LPD targeted U.S. journalists who reported information that undermined the pro-contra propaganda. Reich sent his teams out to lobby news executives to remove or punish out-of-step reporters – with a disturbing degree of success. [For more, see Parry’s Lost History.]

Some U.S. officials implicated in the Iran-Contra propaganda operations are still around, bringing the lessons of the 1980s into the new century.

For instance, Elliott Abrams. Though convicted of misleading Congress in the Iran-Contra Affair and later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush – Abrams is now deputy adviser to George W. Bush’s NSC, where he directs U.S.-Middle East policy.

Bob Kagan remains another prominent neocon theorist in Washington, writing op-eds for the Washington Post. Oliver North was given a news show on Fox.

Otto Reich now is advising Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Latin American affairs. Lee Hamilton is a senior national security adviser to Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Enduring Skills

Beyond these individuals, the manipulative techniques that were refined in the 1980s – especially the skill of exaggerating foreign threats – have proved durable, bringing large segments of the American population into line behind the Iraq War in 2002-03.

Only now – with more than 4,100 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead – are many of these Americans realizing that were manipulated by clever propaganda, that their perceptions had been managed.

For instance, the New York Times recently pried loose some 8,000 pages of Pentagon documents revealing how the Bush administration had manipulated the public debate on the Iraq War by planting friendly retired military officers on TV news shows.

Retired Green Beret Robert S. Bevelacqua, a former analyst on Murdoch’s Fox News, said the Pentagon treated the retired military officers as puppets: “It was them saying, ‘we need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.’” [NYT, April 20, 2008, or see Consortiumnews.com’s “US News Media’s Latest Disgrace.”]

Bush’s former White House press secretary Scott McClellan described similar use of propaganda tactics to justify the Iraq War in his book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception.

From his insider vantage point, McClellan cited the White House’s “carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval” – and he called the Washington press corps “complicit enablers.”

None of this would have been so surprising – indeed Americans might have been forewarned and forearmed – if Lee Hamilton and other Democrats on the Iran-Contra committees had held firm and published the scandal’s “lost chapter” two decades ago.

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' are also available there. Or go to Amazon.com.

1,000's OF WILDFIRES BURN THROUGH NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

EDITORS NOTE:NOT ONLY IS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BURNING UP BUT OREGON,PHOENIX,VEGAS & NEW MEXICO WTF??? ARE YOU SERIOUS IT SEEMS RATHER ODD THAT THE MEDIA ISNT GIVING THIS ARTICLE MORE COVERAGE

SAN FRANCISCO — Firefighters in Northern California battled more than a thousand wildfires to a stalemate by Sunday, but forecasters said dangerous conditions would not relent anytime soon.

No new major fires had broken out Sunday as fire crews inched closer to getting some of the largest blazes surrounded, according to the state Office of Emergency Services.

But a "red flag warning" _ meaning the most extreme fire danger _ was still in effect for Northern California until 5 a.m. Monday. And the coming days and months are expected to bring little relief.

Forecasters predicted more thunderstorms and dry lightning through the weekend, similar to the ones that ignited hundreds of fires a week ago. Meanwhile, a U.S. Forest Service report said the weather would get even drier and hotter as fire season headed toward its traditional peak in late July and August.

Lower-than-average rainfall and record levels of parched vegetation likely mean a long, fiery summer throughout Northern California, according to the Forest Service's state fire outlook released last week.

The fires burning now could take weeks or months to bring under full control, the report said.

Those blazes were mostly sparked by lightning storms that were unusually intense for so early in the season. But summer storms would probably be even fiercer, according to the Forest Service.

"Our most widespread and/or critical lightning events often occur in late July or August, and we have no reason to deviate from that," the agency's report said.

The blazes have scorched more than 550 square miles and destroyed more than 50 buildings, said Gregory Renick, state emergency services spokesman.

A wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest has forced the closure of a scenic stretch of a coastal highway and driven away visitors at the peak of the tourist season.

Air quality districts from Bakersfield to Redding issued health advisories through the weekend, urging residents to stay indoors to limit exposure to the smoky air.

On Saturday, President Bush issued an emergency declaration for California and ordered federal agencies to assist in firefighting efforts.

But California emergency officials said state and local governments would also need federal financing to cover the costs of fighting so many fires this early in the year.

Federal aid now includes four Marine Corps helicopters, remote sensing of the fires by NASA, federal firefighters, and the activation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In Arizona, residents of a remote mountain community north of Phoenix left their homes voluntarily ahead of a slow-moving fire, officials said Sunday. Fueling the blaze were trees killed by a beetle infestation, said Debbie Maneely, spokeswoman for the Prescott National Forest.

And firefighters southwest of Phoenix allowed evacuated residents living near a fire in the dry Gila River bed to return home Saturday. The fire was not contained but was no longer advancing.

Evacuation orders were lifted Sunday morning for residents of Tajique in central New Mexico, where a blaze has destroyed six homes. The fire, sparked by lightning June 23, was more than 60 percent contained.

In Guffey, Colo., about 40 miles west of Colorado Springs, most of the 100 residents who fled a fire were allowed back home Sunday.

A small-plane crash that killed four people touched off a wildfire northwest of Las Vegas on Saturday. Firefighters ordered the evacuation of a subdivision but expected to have the fire under control soon.

___

Associated Press writer Don Thompson in Sacramento contributed to this report

VIDEO:FOOTAGE OF FUTURE DETENTION CAMPS(DEATH CAMPS) & UNDERGROUND BUNKERS & EMPTY WALMARTS

LIVERPOOL UNDER THREAT OF ALIEN INVASION

London, June 26 (ANI): Reported UFO sightings in Liverpool have sparked fears that the city is on the brink of facing an alien invasion.

Former policeman Steve Rafferty, 50, and his daughter Emma, saw 13 orange orbs and filmed the unexplained phenomena on a mobile phone.

Another witness captured footage and radio stations were jammed with callers reporting sightings.

They looked as if they were searching for somewhere to land. Liverpool could face an alien invasion, The Sun quoted one witness, as saying.

The sightings came as three soldiers reported seeing UFOs spinning over an army base in Shropshire, in the west of the country.

The 13 flying objects were captured on film and are now reportedly being investigated by army officials.

A schoolboy photographed a UFO on the same day that three soldiers reported their mystery sighting.

Shaun Williams, 12, went out to snap a light aircraft performing stunts above his home in Llanelli, South Wales.

Later, he looked at the pictures on his digital camera and realised he had also captured a saucer shape against a clear blue sky.

I couldnt believe it when I looked back at my pictures and this strange object was there, Shaun said. (AN

E.U. CONSTITUTION KINGPIN WILL IGNORE REFERENDUMS AND MOVE THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE FORTH

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, author of the rejected European Constitution, has effectively stated that the votes of citizens in EU member states will have no bearing on the future actions of the European Parliament.

The former President of France has told media that referendums, such as last week's key Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty, will simply be ignored by bureaucrats in Brussels as they may hinder the progress of European integration.

A London Telegraph report detailed the EU kingpin's comments:

"We are evolving towards majority voting because if we stay with unanimity, we will do nothing," he said.

"It is impossible to function by unanimity with 27 members. This time it's Ireland; the next time it will be somebody else."

"Ireland is one per cent of the EU".

(Article continues below)

d'Estaing also told the Irish Times that after the rejection of the original EU Constitution in 2005 by Dutch and French voters, The Lisbon Treaty was a deliberate attempt to repackage the constitution in a more confusing format.

"What was done in the [Lisbon] Treaty, and deliberately, was to mix everything up. If you look for the passages on institutions, they're in different places, on different pages," he said.

"Someone who wanted to understand how the thing worked could with the Constitutional Treaty, but not with this one."

What kind of parliament completely ignores the will of the people, sets out to intentionally confuse the public into accepting legislation, flouts its own laws, and does whatever it wants without accountability?

The only reason the Irish were even allowed a referendum in the first place was due to the fact that Ireland's national constitution mandates that any amendment must be put to a vote, the country remained the only bulwark against the EU's final stumbling block to creating a federal superstate and completely eliminating all remaining vestiges of sovereignty. Other countries, including Great Britain were simply denied a national vote altogether.

Under EU laws, if one of its member states rejects a treaty, the EU is mandated to scrap the bill. But the European Union's contempt for direct democracy is likely to lead them to ignore the Irish referendum and pursue the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty anyway - underscoring the fact that the EU is nothing more than an illegitimate autocracy of manufactured consent.

The usual tactic of the EU is simply to keep repeating a referendum until they achieve the result they desire.

In 2001 the Irish voted No to the Nice Treaty and were simply asked to vote again a year later. That time they said Yes. In 1992 Denmark voted No to the Maastricht Treaty - and voted Yes a year later. The French and Dutch rejected the constitution in 2005 and the EU architects designed the Lisbon Treaty instead.

But this time the EU is set to go a step further and simply ignore the decision of the Irish people and the will of any future dissenting members, while breaking their own laws - proving once and for all that the body is completely illegitimate, dangerous to democracy and a de-facto federal dictatorship.

GORE VIDAL:IN THE NAME OF WAR BUSH HAS ENDED USA AS A REPUBLIC

Gore Vidal, US novelist, historian and social critic says the Bush regime has killed all of the constitutional links that made the US a republic.

On early Friday morning Iran time, in an exclusive interview with Press TV, Vidal said that President Bush has rid the country of the Bill of Rights, habeas corpus and the entire legacy of the Magna Carta in the name of war on terror.

He also criticized the House of Representatives for not impeaching President Bush, over a wide array of subjects such as disclosure of CIA agent Valerie Plame's covert status. Vidal did however single out Rep. Dennis Kuchinich for drawing up articles of impeachment against the president.

Vidal, long strongly critical of the Bush administration, said the administration has both an an explicit and covert expansionist agenda.

In his writings he has made the assessment that for several years, the administration and its associates, many of whom are magnets in the oil and gas industry have had clear aims to control the oil of Central Asia which is to follow on the heels of gaining effective control of the oil of the Persian Gulf--a project that took a new twist with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991.

That event inadvertently served as the basis for the neo-conservative American Project for the 21st Century document and policy guideline that has been the hallmark of the Bush-Cheney years.

Regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks, Vidal has written the American intelligence community clearly warned it was coming but the event provided political cover and pretext for the plans that the administration already had in place for invading Iraq--plans that can be traced to the waning days of the first Bush family presidency. .

IOWA FLOOD AREAS NOW UNDER MARTIAL LAW

REPORT:IRAQI WAR BURIED BY US MEDIA

EDITORS NOTES: 2 MINUTES A DAY WORTH OF COVERAGE??? MAKES YOU WONDER WHAT ARE THEY HIDING??? click title for more IRAQ images

NASA:MARTIAN SOIL CAN SUPPORT LIFE

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Flabbergasted" NASA scientists said on Thursday that Martian soil appeared to contain the requirements to support life, although more work would be needed to prove it.

Scientists working on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, which has already found ice on the planet, said preliminary analysis by the lander's instruments on a sample of soil scooped up by the spacecraft's robotic arm had shown it to be much more alkaline than expected.

"We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past present or future," Sam Kounaves, the lead investigator for the wet chemistry laboratory on Phoenix, told journalists.

"It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us."

The 1 cubic meter (35 cubic feet) of soil was taken from about 1 inch below the surface of Mars and had a pH, or alkaline, level of 8 or 9. "We were all flabbergasted at the data we got back," Kounaves said.

Pressed on whether there was still any doubt that life existed on Mars in some form, Kounaves said the results were "very preliminary" and more analysis was needed.

But he added: "There is nothing about the soil that would preclude life. In fact, it seems very friendly ... there is nothing about it that is toxic."

The $420 million Phoenix lander touched down in the north pole region of Mars on May 25 after a 10-month journey from Earth. It is the latest NASA bid to determine whether water -- a crucial ingredient for life -- ever flowed on the planet and whether life, even in the form of mere microbes, exists or ever existed there.

Scientists said last week they had definitive proof that ice was on the planet after eight dice-sized chunks were seen melting away in a series of photographs.

Analysis in the past 24 hours of soil placed in the spacecraft's wet chemistry laboratory showed it to be less acidic than many scientists expected. It also contained traces of magnesium, sodium, potassium and other elements, they said.

When told the pH levels, one colleague "jumped up and down as if he had the winning lottery ticket," mission soil analysis specialist Michael Hecht told a telephone news conference.

"It is a huge step forward," Hecht said, adding the "wet chemistry" technique, which involves mixing Martian soil with water brought from Earth, was aimed at discovering what native Martian microbes might be able to live, survive and grow in the soil.

The mission scientists said levels of salt were reasonable and the calcium levels appeared to be low but they warned that the composition of the soil could change at deeper levels below the surface.

They also would not be drawn on what form of life the Martian soil might have supported.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

VIDEO:TALIB KWELI-EAT TO LIVE

4TH AMMENDMENT ABOLISHED!!! HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SAYS OK TO WARRANTLESS SPYING/WIRETAPPING ON AMERICANS

OBAMA IS ASKED WHETHER HE IS A MEMEBER OF CFR & NAFTA..AND LIES ABOUT IT

EDITORS NOTE:WOW IT SEEMS LIKE EVERYBODY IS PLAYING POLI-TRICKS THESE DAYS,THIS IS A FOLLOW UP TO MY PREVIOUS POST WHERE I WAS PRESENTING THE MOUNTING ARGUMENTS ABOUT THE LEGITIMACY AND VALIDITY OF OUR FUTURE PRESIDENT BARRACK HUSSEIN OBAMA..THIS VIDEO IS FURTHER PROOF THAT WE NEED TO DO MORE RESEARCH INTO THE MAN OF THE MOMENT, HE DENIES THE FACT THAT THE COUNCIL OF FOREIGN RELATIONS EVEN EXISTS WITH A STRAIGHT FACE THEN IN THE SAME SENTENCE DENIES THE EXISTENCE OR PLANNED PROJECT OF THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION AND THE AMERO?? DONT DRINK THE KOOL AID PEOPLE..


ANOTHER Q&A WITH OBAMA WHERE HE'S ASKED SOME "REAL QUESTIONS"

OBAMA:THE IMPERIALIST HAWK AND EXPANSIONIST,CFR MEMBER,NEW ZIONIST GOLDEN BOY,ROCKERFELLER PATSY

EDITORS NOTE:IN THE TRADITION OF REPORTING BOTH SIDES OF THE COIN I PRESENT SCATCHING EVIDENCE AND INSIGHT INTO THE PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULL AND NEWLY CROWNED "BLACK LEADER" BARRACK HUSSIEN OBAMA OR SIMPLY BARRY O'-HOPEFULLY EMOTIONS WONT RESTRICT YOU FROM BECOMING OPEN MINDED WHEN VIEWING THE VIDEO AND/OR READING HE ARTICLE,IM NOT INDICTING OR BETTER YET DENOUNCING & REJECTING THE MAN BUT IF IT IS TRUTH THEN THE PROPHESIE OF THE FALSE MESSIAH IS BEING FULFILLED BEFORE YOUR EYES,I DONT KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I LIVE FOR LOVE,PEACE,UNITY,JUSTICE AND FREEDOM FOR MY PEOPLE!!NO COMPROMISE



Truly exciting and historic moments have been fabricated around US presidential campaigns for as long as I can recall, generating bullshit on a grand scale

In 1941, the editor Edward Dowling wrote: "The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it." What has changed? The terror of the rich is greater than ever, and the poor have passed on their delusion to those who believe that when George W Bush finally steps down next January, his numerous threats to the rest of humanity will diminish.

The nomination of Barack Obama, which, according to one breathless commentator, "marks a truly exciting and historic moment in US history", is a product of the new delusion. Actually, it just seems new. Truly exciting and historic moments have been fabricated around US presidential campaigns for as long as I can recall, generating what can only be described as bullshit on a grand scale. Race, gender, appearance, body language, rictal spouses and offspring, even bursts of tragic grandeur, are all subsumed by marketing and "image-making", now magnified by "virtual" technology. Thanks to an undemocratic electoral college system (or, in Bush's case, tampered voting machines) only those who both control and obey the system can win. This has been the case since the truly historic and exciting victory of Harry Truman, the liberal Democrat said to be a humble man of the people, who went on to show how tough he was by obliterating two cities with the atomic bomb.

Understanding Obama as a likely president of the United States is not possible without understanding the demands of an essentially unchanged system of power: in effect a great media game. For example, since I compared Obama with Robert Kennedy in these pages, he has made two important statements, the implications of which have not been allowed to intrude on the celebrations. The first was at the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the Zionist lobby, which, as Ian Williams has pointed out, "will get you accused of anti-Semitism if you quote its own website about its power". Obama had already offered his genuflection, but on 4 June went further. He promised to support an "undivided Jerusalem" as Israel's capital. Not a single government on earth supports the Israeli annexation of all of Jerusalem, including the Bush regime, which recognises the UN resolution designating Jerusalem an international city.

His second statement, largely ignored, was made in Miami on 23 May. Speaking to the expatriate Cuban community - which over the years has faithfully produced terrorists, assassins and drug runners for US administrations - Obama promised to continue a 47-year crippling embargo on Cuba that has been declared illegal by the UN year after year.

Again, Obama went further than Bush. He said the United States had "lost Latin America". He described the democratically elected governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua as a "vacuum" to be filled. He raised the nonsense of Iranian influence in Latin America, and he endorsed Colombia's "right to strike terrorists who seek safe-havens across its borders". Translated, this means the "right" of a regime, whose president and leading politicians are linked to death squads, to invade its neighbours on behalf of Washington. He also endorsed the so-called Merida Initiative, which Amnesty International and others have condemned as the US bringing the "Colombian solution" to Mexico. He did not stop there. "We must press further south as well," he said. Not even Bush has said that.

It is time the wishful-thinkers grew up politically and debated the world of great power as it is, not as they hope it will be. Like all serious presidential candidates, past and present, Obama is a hawk and an expansionist. He comes from an unbroken Democratic tradition, as the war-making of presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton demonstrates. Obama's difference may be that he feels an even greater need to show how tough he is. However much the colour of his skin draws out both racists and supporters, it is otherwise irrelevant to the great power game. The "truly exciting and historic moment in US history" will only occur when the game itself is challenged.

http://www.newstatesman.com/media/2008/06/pilger-obama-truly-bush

See also:
From Kennedy to Obama: False Hopes

http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=489

John Pilger, renowned investigative journalist and documentary film-maker, is one of only two to have twice won British journalism's top award; his documentaries have won academy awards in both the UK and the US. In a New Statesman survey of the 50 heroes of our time, Pilger came fourth behind Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. "John Pilger," wrote Harold Pinter, "unearths, with steely attention facts, the filthy truth. I salute him."

WHY AMERICA WILL INEVITABLY ATTACK IRAN

EDITORS NOTE: THIS VIDEO IS PROBABLY THE "REALEST CONVO" COMING FROM A SILVER HEAD CAUCASIAN SINCE NEVER ,LISTEN TO THIS MAN PAINT A PERFECT PICTURE ABOUT THE DISMAL & HIGHLY DANGEROUS STATE OF AFFAIRS WE CURRENTLY ARE EXPERIENCING..


PART 1

PART 2

OKLAHOMA DECLARES SOVEREIGNTY

With conditions at their worst and 81% of Americans feeling like the US is headed in the wrong direction it comes as no surprise that States are making rash decisions to protect their citizenship. Case in point, even though it was grossly under-reported the State of Oklahoma passed legislation declaring their Sovereignty. Not quite sure if this means they intend to secede from the Union but they are using some pretty inflammatory language in their paperwork.

They cite the 10th Amendment of the Constitution for grounds to invest the power in the ‘people’ as opposed to the federal government which doesn’t have Sovereignty over a State’s sovereign rights to self-determine their destiny. Interesting, we’ll keep you posted as the story develops. Worst-case scenario? I hope the Southern states don’t try to pull this stunt after Obama slides in to practically create the “two” America’s that preachers have come under fire for talking about. Look at their flag for christ sakes! Were they ever fully integrated into the Union by paying homage to the indigenous inhabitants of their state (the real sovereigns)?

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AND THE SENATE OF THE 2ND SESSION OF THE 51ST OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:
THAT the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all
powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal
government by the Constitution of the United States.
THAT this serve as Notice and Demand to the federal government,
as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates
that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated
powers.

AMERICA'S MILITARY GEARING UP FOR TOTAL WAR

What the British are reading now about credit, housing, inflation and employment projections are what Americans heard in January and February. The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets. So far, it is a carefully programmed and artfully implemented design.

Bush's European tour put other Western players into orientation - England and Germany , especially - to what is ahead. But it will be more than financial shocks, it will be an invasion of the Middle East and subsequent Arab retaliation. The Arabs defeated the British Empire in the last Century and may defeat the American Empire in these decades. The world's people will be poor, starving and helpless to change matters.

The Democrats have handed Bush the money for continued war after posturing against it for two years. Obama is the man of the financial and power elite and is wearing the costume necessary to convince Liberals, Blacks and those Left-of-Center that there really is a two-party system. The Socialists and "Comrades" of a more revolutionary sort are mounting an incursion into the minds of Europeans (they will never convince the American worker of Marxism, however, though they think they can).

America is gearing for total war, feeding its military machine and may starve people unaligned with the Pentagon, if necessary, as it does other nations. The people have no political candidates and options remaining to stop the bloodbath they are conducting in the Middle East , not to mention the worldwide dislocations produced from their hegemonic megalomania and lawless rogues on Wall Street. The Beast grows in destructive capacity when sensing death approaching. But this bloodbath and these actions may return to America in the forms of Marshall Law, mass hunger, crushed revolts and civil war - as they are returning now in forms of economic disintegration.

What may lie ahead is America 's Karma, which it builds upon and sentences itself to with each passing day. Induction says the body count will be high here after the stakes are finally realized by those who will decide to join in battle for the American Dream of world domination through "any means possible", and those who will resist or remain neutral. For the uncooperative nations of the world, it can only be a future of America against it; and for Americans, an international "endless war" together with a domestic one of Brother against Brother.

While there will be banking collapses, rampant unemployment and homelessness, hunger, social malaise, civil disobedience and revolts, there will be no shortage of funding for the Pentagon and its megalithic welfare system of transnational corporations, soldiers, mercenaries and veterans. Will Gold Bullion be used to buy bread in such a military state, or buy one's freedom instead, I ask the Ron Paul devotees?

In all probability, Western governments will find it necessary to initiate internet censorship and periodic periods of total blackout in the foreseeable future. This is a logical certainty for anyone still using their powers of reason. Though this leaves the question: What substitute alternatives have been established to ensure continued communications between parties? The answer is none. And that was and is in the blueprint behind this technology built by the Pentagon, that it be totalitarian.

What new forms of economic exchange and bartering will take the place of worthless paper money and Gold that is not redeemable by the local grocer, farmer or landlord? These and more questions remain to be answered in the turbulent years ahead.

In this past week, Thursday, June 19 was a benchmark day for those in America who are political benchsitters. Obama revealed yet another reversal and inconsistency, and Pelosi's Democrat House yet again rubber-stamped the President by granting immunity to Telecom spying and, after two years of faux battles, endorsed the continuation of war funding.

It is no surprise that Senator Obama is freeing himself from Federal monies to insure his campaign coffers are not limited. After all, he is the chosen one of Warren Buffett, George Soros and others. Need I say more? The Obama cult and image were finely tuned to insure that his "cover" (populism) did not reveal all that he is and stands for (and must stand for to be elected). But can anyone see? Can he see?

The Liberals have worked and will work hard to rationalize the Obama reversals, contradictions and double standards, if only to protect their euphoria from deflating into despair. Rest assured, though, whoever wins in November will deliver the same package to the same door: Militarism, Poverty and Depression; it is after-all a one-party system in America . In truth, Mssrs Obama (Mr Teflon II) and McCain (George Bush III) were chosen some time ago for this hour, and make no mistake about it, this "hour" was chosen too.

By now, it should be perfectly clear that Americans live with a one-party system that represents money and war, period! Whoever so-called "wins" in November will deliver the same grueling package: Militarism, Poverty, Depression and - quite possibly - civil war. The system is broken along with the banks. Democracy is dead. Corruption is systemic. "The People" have no options left. It is as simple as that.

By Michael T Bucc

THE TWO OBAMA'S-ARE WE WITNESSING THE JECKELL & HYDE OF POLITICS??

God, Republicans are saps. They think that they’re running against some academic liberal who wouldn’t wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife isn’t proud of America and who went to some liberationist church where the pastor damned his own country. They think they’re running against some naïve university-town dreamer, the second coming of Adlai Stevenson.

But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes.

This guy is the whole Chicago package: an idealistic, lakefront liberal fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator. He’s the only politician of our lifetime who is underestimated because he’s too intelligent. He speaks so calmly and polysyllabically that people fail to appreciate the Machiavellian ambition inside.

But he’s been giving us an education, for anybody who cares to pay attention. Just try to imagine Mister Rogers playing the agent Ari in “Entourage” and it all falls into place.

Back when he was in the Illinois State Senate, Dr. Barack could have taken positions on politically uncomfortable issues. But Fast Eddie Obama voted “present” nearly 130 times. From time to time, he threw his voting power under the truck.

Dr. Barack said he could no more disown the Rev. Jeremiah Wright than disown his own grandmother. Then the political costs of Rev. Wright escalated and Fast Eddie Obama threw Wright under the truck.

Dr. Barack could have been a workhorse senator. But primary candidates don’t do tough votes, so Fast Eddie Obama threw the workhorse duties under the truck.

Dr. Barack could have changed the way presidential campaigning works. John McCain offered to have a series of extended town-hall meetings around the country. But favored candidates don’t go in for unscripted free-range conversations. Fast Eddie Obama threw the new-politics mantra under the truck.

And then on Thursday, Fast Eddie Obama had his finest hour. Barack Obama has worked on political reform more than any other issue. He aspires to be to political reform what Bono is to fighting disease in Africa. He’s spent much of his career talking about how much he believes in public financing. In January 2007, he told Larry King that the public-financing system works. In February 2007, he challenged Republicans to limit their spending and vowed to do so along with them if he were the nominee. In February 2008, he said he would aggressively pursue spending limits. He answered a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire by reminding everyone that he has been a longtime advocate of the public-financing system.

But Thursday, at the first breath of political inconvenience, Fast Eddie Obama threw public financing under the truck. In so doing, he probably dealt a death-blow to the cause of campaign-finance reform. And the only thing that changed between Thursday and when he lauded the system is that Obama’s got more money now.

And Fast Eddie Obama didn’t just sell out the primary cause of his life. He did it with style. He did it with a video so risibly insincere that somewhere down in the shadow world, Lee Atwater is gaping and applauding. Obama blamed the (so far marginal) Republican 527s. He claimed that private donations are really public financing. He made a cut-throat political calculation seem like Mother Teresa’s final steps to sainthood.

The media and the activists won’t care (they were only interested in campaign-finance reform only when the Republicans had more money). Meanwhile, Obama’s money is forever. He’s got an army of small donors and a phalanx of big money bundlers, including, according to The Washington Post, Kenneth Griffin of the Citadel Investment Group; Kirk Wager, a Florida trial lawyer; James Crown, a director of General Dynamics; and Neil Bluhm, a hotel, office and casino developer.

I have to admit, I’m ambivalent watching all this. On the one hand, Obama did sell out the primary cause of his professional life, all for a tiny political advantage. If he’ll sell that out, what won’t he sell out? On the other hand, global affairs ain’t beanbag. If we’re going to have a president who is going to go toe to toe with the likes of Vladimir Putin, maybe it is better that he should have a ruthlessly opportunist Fast Eddie Obama lurking inside.

All I know for sure is that this guy is no liberal goo-goo. Republicans keep calling him naïve. But naïve is the last word I’d use to describe Barack Obama. He’s the most effectively political creature we’ve seen in decades. Even Bill Clinton wasn’t smart enough to succeed in politics by pretending to renounce politics.

PRESUMED GUILTY:MOORISH AMERICAN DOC SAGA

The year was 1997. New York City was more than five years away from the devastation and destruction of the World Trade Center.

Yet, brewing inside the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) was a hysteria that would that would erupt into an insidious disease: the paranoia that New York City Department of Corrections (DOC) employees who had adopted the Moorish-American religion (also referred to as the “Beys” and “Els”) posed a “security threat” or a “security concern” to that Department.

Incredibly, despite the Bill of Rights and individual liberties embodied in the freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of speech and due process, among other things, members of the Moorish American religion were accused of posing a “security concern” to the DOC merely because of their membership in the Moorish Nation. Meritless accusations that Moorish Americans posed a security concern resulted in the recommendation of discharge for at least 22 DOC employees despite their long and faithful service to the Department and, in some cases, despite their honorable discharges from branches of the United States military. At least 18 employees were fired. DOC Moorish Americans were presumed guilty of engaging in unlawful conduct without an ounce of proof in the name of “security concerns.”

More than 10 years have passed since the DOC snatched hardworking corrections officers from their posts, without warning, suspended them for 30 days without pay and ultimately fired them. December 2007 marked the 10 year anniversary of a dark point in the history of New York City’s public employees.

The union to whom these officers paid dues to protect their rights, the Correction Officers Benevolent Association (COBA) readily sacrificed them on the altar of this, the new McCarthyism. Basic constitutional rights were trampled upon and discarded. As new allegations of termination for mere association have recently surfaced in news reports, it is appropriate to review the real story behind the case of the “Beys” and “Els.”

Many readers will recall the infamous “tax fraud” investigation into City employees led by the Department of Investigations (DOI). In April 1996, the DOI received a tip that numerous DOC employees submitted federal and state tax forms to the DOC claiming “99” exemptions in an effort to avoid paying income taxes. The practice of submitting tax forms to the DOC claiming 99 exemptions was nothing new. Since at least 1991, DOC employees regularly claimed “99” or “exempt” on tax forms submitted to the DOC Payroll Department.

Then-Inspector General, Michael Caruso, spearheaded an investigation of DOC employees to determine whether corrections employees had engaged in misconduct with respect to tax documentation submitted in connection with their City employment. A check of the payroll management system showed that 1,214 DOC employees had supplied the Department with what Caruso determined to be “false tax information,” that is, tax forms claiming “99", “exempt”, or exempt because of “foreign status”, including but not limited to disgraced former Correction department Commissioner Bernard Kerik’s lover, Jeannette Pinero and Moorish American employees. The tax documents submitted by the “Bey” and “Els” were never processed by the DOC Personnel Division.

Then, around July 12, 1996, Caruso read a fax from the New York Police Department (NYPD) concerning individuals with “Moorish National” license plates. The NYPD bulletin claimed, among other things, that members “of the Detective Bureau should use extreme caution and remain on alert when making car stops or when interacting with these individuals. Members of a group, known as ‘The Great Seal Association of Moorish Affairs’, have been previously arrested and are suspected of armed robberies and trafficking in high-powered automatic weapons.”

Members of the service were also advised to be alert to individuals that express “anti-government rhetoric,” and that these individuals should be reported to the intelligence division. The NYPD bulletin did not contain any information which could be independently verified. For example, the memorandum did not say when the car stop occurred; it did not name a single individual involved in the car stop; it did not state the name of anyone associated with the Great Seal who had been arrested and when they were arrested, and for what reason; and, it did not name anyone suspected of “armed robberies and trafficking in high-powered automatic weapons” who were associated with the Great Seal or the Moorish Nation. Finally, the NYPD bulletin did not identify the individual in the car stop as a law enforcement or corrections employee.

Despite the absence of credible information, widespread constitutional abuses engulfed the DOI’s efforts to ferret out Moorish Americans from the DOC’s ranks. The DOC, under the direction of the DOI, launched a policy to “get rid of the Moors.” Records were kept of employees who identified themselves as Moorish American. Beginning in mid-1995, DOC employees who had adopted the Moorish American faith advised the Department of that fact, by submitting “name change” forms and the supporting documents to formally use their Moorish names on DOC documents.

DOI staffers intensively searched through those documents and created a list of all DOC employees identified as “Moorish American.” DOI employees scoured filed lawsuits to determine who was claiming to be Moorish American. Pedigree sheets added “Moorish Nation member” as intelligence information. Terms such as “security risk,” “security threat,” and “security concern” were whispered and repeated.

Indiscriminate use of dubious “informers,” wiretapping, surveillance, neighborhood snooping and a sting operation of the Moorish Temple was employed. In their quest to obtain information, even DOC employees who were not members of the Moorish Nation were wiretapped.

Despite the covert operations, Caruso did not obtain evidence that any of the Moorish Americans now fighting in this litigation had been suspected of armed robberies or that they trafficked in automatic weapons. The investigation did not uncover information to show that the fired Moorish Americans organized or committed armed robberies or possessed the proceeds of armed robberies.

In short, Caruso could not prove that the targeted Moorish Americans had anything at all to do with the allegations in the NYPD bulletin. And, yet, because of their mere membership with the Moorish religion, Caruso hatched a plan to eliminate these employees from the DOC. Former DOC Commissioners Michael Jacobson, Bernard Kerik and William Fraser did not take a single step to remedy the flagrant constitutional abuses occurring under their noses.

Among other things, they were grossly negligent in supervising subordinates who committed the violations and were deliberately indifferent to the rights of the “Beys” and “Els.” The late Edward Kuriansky simply allowed Caruso to run amok in the DOI. Union officials provided inadequate representation, if any. Steven Issacs, at the time a union attorney, informed Caruso’s office of the activities of union members in the United States Constitutional Task Force, including “other unnamed,” dues-paying “Beys.”

Eventually, the Department of Taxation and Finance identified 85 individuals for arrest. Significantly, of the remaining 1,000-plus DOC employees not arrested, Caruso’s office wrote memoranda of complaints against only the 23 correction personnel who had submitted paperwork claiming exemption from tax withholding based on their membership in the Moorish Nation. DOC personnel not identified with the Moorish Nation but who nonetheless had submitted paperwork claiming exemption from tax withholding based on other theories, that is, they were “non-resident aliens,” immune/exempt from taxation, and not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and/or the State of New York, or some combination of these claims, were ignored until two years after the tax investigation closed in July 1999. Even then, the DOC did not demand their discharge.

On December 3, 1997, Caruso recommended the summary suspension and termination of the Moorish American employees based upon his receipt of the NYPD bulletin and the documents they submitted to the DOC to support their name change. But, these individuals were merely told that they were being suspended and ultimately charged for misconduct based upon their submission of “false tax information” to the NYC DOC. The fired Moorish Americans were never told that the NYPD bulletin played a role in the selective treatment they received. Caruso admits that Moorish Americans were not told that the NYPD bulletin was one of the factors considered in suspending and terminating them.

Before their discharge, these individuals were never told that they posed a “security risk,” a “security concern,” or a “security threat.” They were entitled to receive a presumption of innocence rather than to bear the presumption of guilt. No one from the DOI or the DOC ever interviewed them about the NYPD bulletin or submission of their tax documents. The presumption of guilt was manifested in a modified duty assignment in a rodent infested, abandoned building without co-worker contact. Indeed, co-workers, fueled by Caruso’s hysteria, ridiculed the “Beys” and the “Els” by writing “99 Club/Muslim” on locker room walls. Formal complaints were lodged. DOC officials never investigated the matter. DOC friends were terrorized into severing all ties to “the Beys” and “Els.”

The conduct of Caruso, the DOI and the DOC, among others, attached a negative stigma to the targeted Moorish Americans and destroyed family and personal associations not to mention professional careers. Their ultimate termination entailed serious economic consequences. Comparable employment has been impossible to find. The wheels of justice have been grinding slowly in this case. The City defendants are expected to use every avenue available under the rules of legal procedure to grind those wheels even slower, wreaking economic, psychological and emotional havoc.

One of the greatest travesties of justice in the “Beys’” ordeal was the lack of procedural due process – being the victim of a vicious whisper campaign by a faceless accuser spewing baseless charges. These former corrections employees never received an explanation of the real evidence against them, the NYPD memorandum, nor did they have an opportunity to respond to the baseless accusation.

An equally despicable travesty was the encroachment upon the right to freedom of association for the “Beys” and “Els” because of their adoption of the Moorish American religion. One of man’s most precious liberties is his or her right to work. When a person is deprived of this right by the defendants’ clinging to hysterical, unfounded accusations based solely on a person’s religious associations and by the silence of those who know the truth lest they be smeared and attacked, “presumed guilty” may become the norm.

"Speaking Truth To Power."