Gitmo prisoner describes pain of forced feedings

Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel in The New York Times on his detention at Guantánamo Bay “I’ve been detained at Guantánamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial,” expalins Yemeni detainee Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, who was captured in Pakistan under the suspicion that he served as a guard for Osama bin Laden. Henceforth denied a trial, he describes, through a translated phone call to his lawyers, the disturbing treatment he undergoes in retaliation for the ongoing hunger strike at the prison: “I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose. I can’t describe how painful it is to be force-fed this way. As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before.” He places specific blame on President Obama, who promised to close the Gitmo prison: “The only reason I am still here is that President Obama refuses to send any detainees back to Yemen. This makes no sense. I am a human being, not a passport, and I deserve to be treated like one.” Glenn Greenwald called the letter “one of the most powerful Op-Eds ever.”…

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/04/five-best-monday-columns/64221/

US Department of Defense doctors and psychologists at Guantanamo Bay have covered up evidence of torture at the facility, the authors of a new study say. Former and current detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba have been repeatedly abused and tortured, according to a new study published online on Tuesday in the open-access journal PloS Medicine.  The two non-governmental experts who wrote the report found that medical and psychological evaluations basically proved the allegations of torture and abuse going on at Gitmo.  Study author Vincent Iacopino, the senior medical adviser to the non-profit Physicians for Human Rights, said that broken bones and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder were consistently glossed over by Department of Defense medical professionals at the camp.  “The pattern of neglecting the physical and psychological evidence of torture is striking. It appears to us that this was an essential component of enabling torture,” Iacopino stated.

via PressTV

June 24, 2007: The Associated Press’s Elizabeth White reports on a speech by Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, then a junior Illinois Senator, to a crowd in Texas. “We’re going to close Guantanamo. And we’re going to restore habeas corpus,” Obama says. “We’re going to lead by example—not just by word but by deed. That’s our vision for the future.”

January 22, 2009: Freshly inaugurated President Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility within one year. He says the action is meant to “restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great even in the midst of war, even in dealing with terrorism.” In the summer of 2009, he grants a six-month extension to the Guantánamo closing commission.

December 15, 2009: The President tells federal authorities to acquire a prison in Thompson, Illinois as Guantánamo’s replacement. The idea is to transfer Gitmo prisoners to this super-maximum security facilites and shut down the controversial Cuban prison. Not-in-my-backyard rage and fear over terrorists within U.S. borders ensues.

May 19, 2010: The House Armed Services Committee rejects the Obama administration’s plan to bring Guantánamo detainees into domestic prisons by approving legislation that prohibits detention centers inside the U.S.

March 7, 2011​: President Obama signs another executive order, this one focussed on creating a review process for detainees. The goal is to “establish, as a discretionary matter, a process to review on a periodic basis the executive branch’s continued, discretionary exercise of existing detention authority in individual cases.” In the same breath, he re-institutes military tribunals for detainees.

April 23, 2011: The plan to prosecute September 11th mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in federal court falls apart, with Attorney General Eric Holder informing the president that KSM would be returned to Guantánamo Bay for trial. A report in The Washington Post claims this move will “mark the effective abandonment of the president’s promise to close the military detention center.”

Septemberg 29, 2012: The last westerner held at Guantánamo, Omar Khadr, is sent back to Canada after serving eight years for murder in violation of the law of war and other charges.

January 28, 2013: The State Department shuts down the office of the envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/01/obama-closing-guantanamo-timeline/61509/

Obama at first thought the President of the USA was a powerful person. He had big plans. Then he found out that he is a tool. That’s the way it seems. Someone much more powerful wanted Gitmo open, so it still is.

N. Korea approves nuclear strike on United States

North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric on Thursday, warning that it had authorised plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States.

“The moment of explosion is approaching fast,” the North Korean military said, warning that war could break out “today or tomorrow”.

Pyongyang’s latest pronouncement came as Washington scrambled to reinforce its Pacific missile defences, preparing to send ground-based interceptors to Guam and dispatching two Aegis class destroyers to the region.

Tension was also high on the North’s heavily fortified border with South Korea, after Kim Jong-Un’s isolated regime barred South Koreans from entering a Seoul-funded joint industrial park on its side of the frontier.

In a statement published by the state KCNA news agency, the Korean People’s Army general staff warned Washington that US threats would be “smashed by… cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means”.

“The merciless operation of our revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified,” the statement said.

Last month, North Korea threatened a “pre-emptive” nuclear strike against the United States, and last week its supreme army command ordered strategic rocket units to combat status.

But, while Pyongyang has successfully carried out test nuclear detonations, most experts think it is not yet capable of mounting a device on a ballistic missile capable of striking US bases or territory.

Mounting tension in the region could however trigger incidents on the tense and heavily militarised border between North and South Korea.

The White House was swift to react to Pyongyang’s latest “unhelpful and unconstructive threats”.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said: “It is yet another offering in a long line of provocative statements that only serve to further isolate North Korea from the rest of the international community and undermine its goal of economic development.

“North Korea should stop its provocative threats and instead concentrate on abiding by its international obligations.”

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel earlier said Pyongyang represented a “real and clear danger” to the United States and to its allies South Korea and Japan.

“They have nuclear capacity now, they have missile delivery capacity now,” Hagel said after a strategy speech at the National Defense University. “We take those threats seriously, we have to take those threats seriously.

“We are doing everything we can, working with the Chinese and others, to defuse that situation on the peninsula.”

The Pentagon said it would send ground-based THAAD missile-interceptor batteries to protect military bases on the island of Guam, a US territory some 3,380 kilometres (2,100 miles) southeast of North Korea and home to 6,000 American military personnel, submarines and bombers.

They would complement two Aegis anti-missile destroyers already dispatched to the region.

The THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) is a truck-mounted system that can pinpoint an enemy missile, track the projectile and launch an interceptor to bring it down. …

via http://news.google.com

Probably another mistranslation. They actually threatened “expensive new clear sight”, not a “pre-emptive nuclear strike”.  Who is selling arms to both sides? Find the man behind the curtain.

DPRK’s “State of War” Declaration Is a Faulty Translation

… “from that time” becomes “from this time on” and “from this moment“… little change, big difference

As much as our leaders would like them to have taken the bait, North Korea has not declared war on the South or the U.S. in response to our unprecedented provocations. So when all else fails, leave it to yellow journalism like this piece of work from the New York Times or this obviously Photoshopped image that came out this past week.

The much touted “state of war” declaration is not a declaration of war from Kim Jung Un but rather a statement of support for whatever decision he has too make from the “the government, political parties and organizations of the DPRK.” It claims only they will declare themselves in a state of war WHEN their leader makes that decision showing they are completely behind him. It is a statement of support from the people and perhaps a warning to the South that the North will not fold under their attack. But not a declaration of war from Kim Jung Un. …

no one links to the actual original source of this statement. Also important to note, which is not being covered by most outlets, the statement is NOT from the usual official offices of the North Korean government but rather from “the government, political parties and organizations of the DPRK” and what that means is, it’s not so much a declaration of war as it is a statement to show  the unified resolve of the North Korean people against the aggressive stance and provocations undertaken by the South Koreans and their masters, the United States.

But with that in mind, it may not even be an accurate translation of the statement.

Ria Novosti, to their credit, caught the “mistake” from the AFP and published a retraction calling it a “faulty translation”. A noncommittal way of saying a “lie” I suppose. “Faulty” is right.

Later on Saturday, however, Russian media reported that a faulty translation might have been to blame for this apparent uptick in bellicose rhetoric.

The North Korean original statement apparently stressed that the country would act “in accordance with wartime laws” if attacked, and that “from that time, North-South relations will enter a state of war.” Ria Novosti

What they are saying is if they are attacked they will be ready to enter “the state of war”…

via » DPRK’s “State of War” Declaration Is a Faulty Translation: Not an Official Policy Statement Alex Jones’ Infowars: There’s a war on for your mind!.

Oops. Well, now you know the truth. I don’t understand war. For example, why do the hats need to be that big?

How did $300M minesweeper become scrap metal? Navy wants answers

The commanding officer and three crewmembers aboard a U.S. Navy minesweeper have been relieved of their duties amid an investigation into how the $300 million ship got stuck on a reef near the Philippines and had to be scuttled.

The USS Guardian became stuck on a reef in the Tubbataha National Marine Park, a World Heritage Site in the Sulu Sea some 400 miles southeast of Manila in January.

The Navy said in a statement that the officer and crewmembers were relieved because the ship’s grounding did not comply with its navigation procedures and accountability standards.

Last week, the Navy chopped the ship up into sections and removed it, turning a valuable ship into scrap metal.

“We’re paid to make sure that both the crew and that ship comes through harm’s way alright,” said Joe Sestak, a former Democrat Congressman from Pennsylvania and retired three-star admiral. “A mistake was made here.”

On Sunday, workers removed the last major part of the ship, and experts there are now assessing possible damage to the reef. Meanwhile, Navy investigators want to know what went wrong on Jan. 17. Initially the ship sustained minor damage, but before it could be towed off the reef, waves pushed the hull further onto the coral.

The guardian is one of only eight sweepers in the U.S. fleet. So far, the Navy blames faulty navigational maps for causing the ship to run aground. Its captain, Mark Rice, took command of the ship just three months before the accident. …

via How did $300M minesweeper become scrap metal? Navy wants answers | Fox News.

Monopoly’s Hidden Maps Help World War II POWs Escape

It’s a story that will forever change the way you think of the phrase, “Get Out of Jail Free.”

 

During World War II, as the number of British airmen held hostage behind enemy lines escalated, the country’s secret service enlisted an unlikely partner in the ongoing war effort: The board game Monopoly.

It was the perfect accomplice.

Included in the items the German army allowed humanitarian groups to distribute in care packages to imprisoned soldiers, the game was too innocent to raise suspicion. But it was the ideal size for a top-secret escape kit that could help spring British POWs from German war camps.

The British secret service conspired with the U.K. manufacturer to stuff a compass, small metal tools, such as files, and, most importantly, a map, into cut-out compartments in the Monopoly board itself.

“It was ingenious,” said Philip Orbanes, author of several books on Monopoly, including “The World’s Most Famous Game and How it Got That Way.” “The Monopoly box was big enough to not only hold the game but hide everything else they needed to get to POWs.”

British historians say it could have helped thousands of captured soldiers escape. …

 

 

 

Silk Maps Were Key Escape Kit Elements

 

Of all the tools in a military-grade escape kit, the most critical item was the map. But paper maps proved too fragile and cumbersome, said Debbie Hall, a cataloguer in the map room at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England.

 

t’s a story that will forever change the way you think of the phrase, “Get Out of Jail Free.”

During World War II, as the number of British airmen held hostage behind enemy lines escalated, the country’s secret service enlisted an unlikely partner in the ongoing war effort: The board game Monopoly.

It was the perfect accomplice.

Included in the items the German army allowed humanitarian groups to distribute in care packages to imprisoned soldiers, the game was too innocent to raise suspicion. But it was the ideal size for a top-secret escape kit that could help spring British POWs from German war camps.

The British secret service conspired with the U.K. manufacturer to stuff a compass, small metal tools, such as files, and, most importantly, a map, into cut-out compartments in the Monopoly board itself.

“It was ingenious,” said Philip Orbanes, author of several books on Monopoly, including “The World’s Most Famous Game and How it Got That Way.” “The Monopoly box was big enough to not only hold the game but hide everything else they needed to get to POWs.”

British historians say it could have helped thousands of captured soldiers escape.

So how did a simple board game end up in a position to help out one of the most powerful military forces on the planet? Silk and serendipity.

Silk Maps Were Key Escape Kit Elements

Of all the tools in a military-grade escape kit, the most critical item was the map. But paper maps proved too fragile and cumbersome, said Debbie Hall, a cataloguer in the map room at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England.

For hundreds of years, even before World War II, silk was the material of choice for military maps, Hall said, because it wouldn’t tear or dissolve in water as easily as paper and was light enough to stuff into a boot or cigarette packet. Unlike maps printed on paper, silk maps also wouldn’t rustle and attract the attention of enemy guards, she said.

“Initially, they had some problems printing on silk,” Hall said. “It’s quite technically challenging.” … then MI9, the British secret service unit responsible for escape and evasion, found the one British company that had mastered printing on silk: John Waddington Ltd., a printer and board game manufacturer that also happened to be the U.K. licensee for the Parker Bros. game Monopoly.

via Monopoly’s Hidden Maps Help World War II POWs Escape – ABC News.

U.S. deploys stealth fighter jets to South Korea

The United States deployed stealth fighter jets to South Korea on Sunday as part of ongoing joint military exercises between the two countries, a senior U.S. defense official said.

The F-22 Raptors were sent to the main U.S. Air Force Base in South Korea amid spiking tensions on the Korean peninsula. The U.S. military command in South Korea said they were deployed to support air drills as part of the annual Foal Eagle training exercises, which are carried out in accordance with the armistice that put an end to armed hostilities in 1953.

North Korea has been ramping up its rhetoric and military show of force in response to the annual joint military exercises, declaring the armistice invalid on March 11, 10 days after Foal Eagle began. It is something Pyongyang has done before during heightened tensions.

The United States’ participation in Foal Eagle is intended to demonstrate the country’s “commitment to stability and security in the Asia-Pacific Region,” the U.S. military command in South Korea said in a statement that also urged North Korea to tone down its rhetoric.”The (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) will achieve nothing by threats or provocations, which will only further isolate North Korea and undermine international efforts to ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia,” the statement said. “The North Korean leadership is urged to heed President Obama’s call to choose the path of peace and come into compliance with its international obligations.”

The deployment follows fresh insults over the weekend from Pyongyang’s propaganda machine comparing the U.S. mainland with a “boiled pumpkin,” unable to endure an attack from a foreign foe, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. North Korea, on the other hand, could withstand an offensive from the outside, the report said, thanks to shelters that the government had built around the country.

But the Pentagon and the South Korean government have said it’s nothing new.

… The United States will continue to update its capabilities against any military threat from the North, which includes plans to deploy missile defense systems.

In an added slap, North Korea has declared that it had entered a “state of war” with neighboring South Korea, according to a report Saturday from KCNA. “The condition, which was neither war nor peace, has ended,” North Korea’s government said in a special statement carried by KCNA.

Saturday’s reports also asserted any conflict “will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war.” …

South Korea has not treated its neighbor’s latest threat as imminent danger. …

“The announcement made by North Korea is not a new threat, but part of follow-up measures after North Korea’s supreme command’s statement that it will enter the highest military alert” on Tuesday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said in a statement. …

A day earlier, the same official North Korean news agency reported its leader Kim Jong Un had approved a plan to prepare standby rockets to hit U.S. targets in the Pacific, including in Hawaii, Guam, and South Korea.

Behind North Korea’s heated words about missile strikes, one analyst said, there might not be much mettle.

“Unless there has been a miraculous turnaround among North Korea’s strategic forces, there is little to no chance that it could successfully land a missile on Guam, Hawaii or anywhere else outside the Korean Peninsula that U.S. forces may be stationed,” …
via U.S. deploys stealth fighter jets to South Korea – CNN.com.

The war game scenarios don’t end well for North Korea. Have U.S. spy satellites detected a reduction in activity at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor that might indicate the North Koreans are withdrawing spent fuel rods to reprocess them into fissile material for nuclear weapons? That happened back in 2005. The article concludes that the threat of North Korea selling a nuke to terrorists is serious.

… At some point the North Koreans may decide they have more than enough nuclear weapons for their own purposes and sell the extras for cash. The longer North Korea keeps producing nukes, in other words, the greater the likelihood that one will find its way to New York or Washington. …

North Korea says in 2013 that it would not do this, however:

… A top North Korean decision-making body issued a pointed warning Sunday, saying that nuclear weapons are “the nation’s life” and will not be traded even for “billions of dollars.”

The comments came in a statement released after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over the plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party. The meeting, which set a “new strategic line” calling for building both a stronger economy and nuclear arsenal, comes amid a series of near-daily threats from Pyongyang in recent weeks, including a vow to launch nuclear strikes on the United States and a warning Saturday that the Korean Peninsula was in a “state of war.”

Pyongyang is angry over annual U.S.-South Korean military drills and a new round of U.N. sanctions that followed its Feb. 12 nuclear test, the country’s third. …

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com

Obama: ‘Shame on us’ if Newtown doesn’t bring new gun laws

President Barack Obama tried to shame the nation and Congress into action against gun violence Thursday, saying it is time to pass new laws after the tears and grief of tragedies like the Newtown massacre in December that killed 20 first-graders.

“We need everybody to remember how we felt 100 days ago and make sure that what we said at that time wasn’t just a bunch of platitudes, that we meant it,” Obama said at a White House event on a national day of action by supporters of tougher gun laws.

His voice both somber and angry, Obama told the audience, which included family members of Newtown victims, that “we’ve cried enough” and it is time now for Americans to pressure their elected leaders to pass a package of laws proposed by Senate Democrats.

The proposals, all recommended by the president in the aftermath of the killings at an elementary school in Connecticut, include expanded background checks, tougher laws against gun trafficking and straw purchases, and improving safety at schools.

Fierce opposition led by the influential National Rifle Association and conservative politicians has made passage of the measures uncertain.

In addition, polls conducted over the past few weeks suggest that more than three months after the Newtown killings, public backing for major new gun laws has dropped.

Obama noted the political challenge as well as the poll numbers.

“There are some powerful voices on the other side who are interested in running out the clock, or changing the subject,” the president said, adding that “their assumption is that people will just forget about it.”

If that happens, Obama said, then “shame on us if we’ve forgotten.”

In trying to rally further public outcry, he declared that “nothing is more powerful than millions of voices calling for change.”

Along with the White House event, the national day of action included rallies and other gatherings in cities across the country by supporters of new gun legislation.

“There are 80 million moms in this country,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, after the White House event. “This is a non-partisan issue. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or if you’re a Democrat. We need to come together under one umbrella and say ‘enough.’”

In addition, a group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns launched a $12 million ad campaign targeting members of Congress in 10 states to act on the legislation backed by Obama and approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on mostly partisan lines. …

via Obama: ‘Shame on us’ if Newtown doesn’t bring new gun laws – CNN.com.

Some believe the country is running out of oil, that the USA will financially collapse as Russia did and there will be chaos. In that scenario, they’d want to have all the guns and have unarmed citizens they could count on to cooperate during the relocation to special camps that FEMA has set up. For your own safety, you would not be permitted to leave the camp once you were protected inside. Well, that’s what some believe. According to a web page I found, Pam Schuffert claims to have inside information about the coming apocalypse in the USA.

… MARINE CONFIRMS PRISONER BOXCARS PREPOSITIONED EVERYWHERE FOR MARTIAL LAW-

HE ADMITTED (actually, BOASTED would be more appropriate) that there were INDEED PRISONER BOXCARS PREPOSITIONED EVERYWHERE THROUGHOUT MONTANA where I interviewed him(and nationwide)…that the military has properly assessed the civilian resistance/militia threat under martial law, and hence had everything in place for a military takeover USING US MARINES HEAVILY.

Quote:
“WHY do you THINK that they have the Marines in place in Billings, Montana, ” he bragged. He explained that MARINES would be used most heavily in Montana(and NATIONWIDE) under martial law…and he was evidently quite proud of their role. He admitted they had been hardened to kill…and that killing women and children would be a part of their agenda wherever deemed necessary.

WHY? He said that under a state of war or martial law, it is a known fact that women can be used and even children to convey information to”the enemy.” (OR to combat US forces.)

He shared then how many men in his platoon stationed overseas had been killed or hurt because a Marine refused his orders, to fire on an eight year old child. The child was suspected to be a courier for the Mujahideen, transporting information about Marine logistics and whereabouts,to the Moslems they were fighting. And as a result of enemy information getting thru, many men in his platoon were injured or killed by resultant Moslem attack.

Quote:
“The child may not have even known what he was transporting,” the Marine told me, “But the damage to our men occurred regardless…all because one man refused his orders and failed to take out this threat…”

We discussed the BOXCARS AND SHACKLES and MILITARY DETENTION CAMPS under MARTIAL LAW issue. A knowing smile broke out on his face as I described to him my research on future MARTIAL LAW and the role of PRISONER BOXCARS WITH SHACKLES.

When I mentioned how my research on this subject brought me to the HIGHLINE (the railroad tracks that run parallel to HIGHWAY 2 in northern Montana) and northern Montana, he admitted…

Quote: “The boxcars are NOT just up there…we have them spread out ALL OVER MONTANA…Billings…Bozeman…” He went on to name city after city in Montana.

TERMINATION IN THE PRISONER BOXCARS, MARINE STYLE-”LIKE SHEEP LED TO SLAUGHTER”

We discussed what would happen ONCE people were arrested under martial law and brought into these boxcars. MARINE style.

…He said, “In many cases they won’t even waste a bullet on them. MANY WILL NEVER REACH THE CAMPS ALIVE. They have this thing we called a ‘staple gun’…” I asked him to elaborate. “This ‘gun’ shoots out a long metal rod that hits another piece of metal…they just hold that to someone’s head like a gun and….”

He was in fact describing a STUN GUN, the same kind used to stun cattle and sheep in slaughterhouses prior to processing.

I understood. With the same effect that a BULLET THRU THE HEAD, favored by military for dispatching people under such circumstances, would have. Only THIS way, the American people will become LIKE SHEEP LED TO SLAUGHTER…literally.
… like dumb sheep led to slaughter, civilians arrested under martial law are not even considered worth the cost of a bullet…

… We discussed various LISTS or status of people, once arrested, under MARTIAL LAW would have. You know, like FEMA RED-BLUE lists, etc. He responded by admitting that FEMA WAS ONLY A FRONT FOR SUCH OPERATIONS, and that IN FACT IT WOULD BE THE US MILITARY (with foreign troop assistance, UN/NATO/Pfp etc.,) OPERATING THE BOXCARS AND DEATHCAMPS.

He said that the Marines had their RED FLAGGED people and BLACK FLAGGED people. When people come up RED FLAG on their computerized list, it is a person that will be arrested and taken to military camps, but may be “salvageable” (or can be rehabilitated, re-educated, etc.)

But when people come up BLACK FLAGGED, they will be arrested and PUT TO DEATH.
NO questions asked.

via http://www.freedomfiles.org/war/fema.htm

Probably just some creative writing, or someone in the military pulling the woman’s leg, right?

How your movements create a GPS ‘fingerprint’

Can you be identified only by where you take your phone? Yes, according to a new study, which finds it’s not very hard at all.

While most of us are free to go wherever we want, our daily and weekly movement patterns are pretty predictable. We go to work, to school, to church, to our neighborhood gym, grocery store or coffee shop, and we come home — all quietly tracked by the GPS in our phone.

And with nothing more than this anonymous location data, someone who wanted to badly enough could easily figure out who you are by tracking your smartphone. Patterns of our movements, when traced on a map, create something akin to a fingerprint that is unique to every person.

Those are the findings of a report by researchers from MIT and elsewhere, published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

They say that, throughout history, people have always yearned for some degree of privacy, and there have always been others who wanted to keep an eye on them. With modern technology, they say, tracking people is easier than ever.

“Modern information technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones, however, magnify the uniqueness of individuals, further enhancing the traditional challenges to privacy,” they wrote. “Mobility data is among the most sensitive data currently being collected. Mobility data contains the approximate whereabouts of individuals and can be used to reconstruct individuals’ movements across space and time.”

The growing push to track your location indoors

For the study, the research team studied 15 months of anonymous mobile data for roughly 1.5 million people. What they found was that, if they got accurate hourly updates on a person’s whereabouts, tracked by their mobile carrier’s cell towers, four “data points” were all they needed to figure out the person’s identity 95% of the time.

That’s the sort of thing that has privacy advocates, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, worried.

In a wrap-up of last year’s developments in mobile privacy, the group’s Hanni Fakhoury and Marcia Hofmann noted that, in multiple cases, law enforcement has approached wireless carriers for mobile data to track users. At least one court has ruled that users have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding their cell phone data.

“(T)he government claims that cell phone users give up their privacy rights because they have voluntarily disclosed their physical location to the cell phone providers every time a phone connects to the provider’s cell tower,” EFF said in a statement related to an October court case. “… However, this theory undermines privacy in nearly any networked communication.”

Increasingly, the makers of mobile operating systems are opening up anonymous location data to developers designing apps that do things like target local advertising to the users. Apple, for example, states in its privacy policy that it can share anonymous mobile data with “partners and licensees.”

The study’s authors said keeping data anonymous is not necessarily enough to ensure real privacy.

“A simply anonymized dataset does not contain name, home address, phone number or other obvious identifier,” they wrote. “Yet, if individual’s patterns are unique enough, outside information can be used to link the data back to an individual.”

So, for example, say that you wake up at home every morning, head to the office five days a week, then hit the gym on three of those days. That’s three data points already. Then maybe you go to the same church, or restaurant for brunch, every Sunday. There’s the fourth — plenty to figure out who you are, the authors say.

Every additional location you hit regularly just makes it that much easier.

Like EFF, the study’s authors said that has troubling implications.

“These findings represent fundamental constraints to an individual’s privacy and have important implications for the design of frameworks and institutions dedicated to protect the privacy of individuals,” they wrote. …

via How your movements create a GPS ‘fingerprint’ – CNN.com.

Knowing who and where everyone is a great first step to an apocalyptic genocide … or just highly targeted advertising.

I now, reluctantly, accept that it is possible with drugs to remove a person’s free will and also to wipe their memory of having being drugged. I know this sounds absurd, but check out this video documentary about scopolamine.

The drug is dangerous, however, and can result in death if the wrong dose is used. It seems logical, therefore, that a weaponized non-deadly way to remove free will has already been investigated using this drug along with brain scans. The goal would be to figure out what areas need to be stimulated to remove the person’s will and turn them into a human drone. Research on humans is not cool. Since some die during testing, so it would have to be done in secret. Secret research on humans has never been a problem for governments, however. I have no doubt that this practice continues today.

Have they already figured out how to get scopolamine effects without the drug? If they could send out commands via cell phones, what do you supposed they’d have people do?

If you have drones, it is important to know where they all are so you can turn the right ones on at the right times.

Don’t Freak Out If You See A B-52 Bomber Targeting Your Home

The following short video shows a B-52 Stratofortress during a standard training mission of the War Week, an exercise which incorporates Aerial Refueling, Weapons Tactics and High Altitude Maneuvering.

The iconic bomber can be seen taking off, cruising, releasing simulated bombs, taking fuel midair from a KC-135 Stratotanker refueler and landing at Barksdale Air Force Base, Lousiana.

As some viewers have noticed with a bit of concern on Youtube, the B-52 used what appears to be the garden of a civil house as the target of its simulated bombing run.

via » Don’t Freak Out If You See A B-52 Bomber Targeting Your Home Alex Jones’ Infowars: There’s a war on for your mind!.

That looks like my garden… wait a minute, it IS, it is my garden, what the heck?! No, just kidding.

FAA Predicts 10,000 Drones Could Be In the Skies By 2020

 

Image of a low tech drone control solution via http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002674703

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts 10,000 commercial drones could be in the skies by 2020 after guidelines are approved. For now, Congress has asked the FAA to write regulations on civil operation of small unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace and submit them by 2015.

“Once enabled, commercial UAS markets will develop. There are many potential ways for a company to generate revenue from UAS applications, whether from new markets or more efficient applications in established markets. Based upon the expected regulatory environment, FAA predicts roughly 10,000 active commercial UASs in five years,” states the FAA Aerospace Forecast for Fiscal Years 2012-2032.

Phil Finnegan, director of corporate analysis at the Teal Group, which monitors the aerospace industry says when rules are written, law enforcement will be first in line, followed by civilian applications. According to an FAA document, which references the Teal Group, it is estimated $94 billion will be spent over the course of 10 years for Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

 

via FAA Predicts 10,000 Drones Could Be In the Skies By 2020 | CNS News.