Liberty Minute August 2 2013

New York Republican Congressman Peter King, a one-time fundraiser for the terrorist Irish Republican Army, has criticized Barack Obama?s decision to seek congressional approval of any military action against Syria. King lamented that Obama is ?undermining the authority of future presidents? by allowing Congress to have a say regarding a decision to commit the US government to a foreign war.

Speaking on Face the Nation, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain offered a similar criticism, claiming that Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad is ?euphoric? that Obama didn?t order a strike unilaterally. On Fox News, former Connecticut Senator and Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman said that he is ?sure our enemies are cheering? because of Obama?s qualified concession to Congress?s constitutional authority in matters of war.

Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hasn?t commented publicly on the matter, Uri Ariel, who is a minister for housing in Netanyahu?s cabinet, complained that ?in Tehran, they?re opening the champagne, and switching into a higher gear en route to nuclear weapons? because of Obama?s decision to seek congressional support.

Obama, to be clear, still claims he has authority to act without Congressional sanction.  It is telling, however, that so many war-crazed figures ? both here and abroad -- embrace a dictatorial view of presidential war powers.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. 

LibertyMinute August 6 2013

Joshua Hill didn?t know that his July 25 visit with his daughter Alexandria would be the last he would enjoy.  Four days later the two-year-old child was killed by the state-licensed foster mother who had been given custody after Joshua?s daughter was seized by the Texas Child Protective Service.

Neither Hill nor his wife ever harmed or neglected Alexandriain any way. That wasn?t true of the government-licensed foster mother. Hill recalls that when he and his wife were allowed temporary visits with their daughter, she frequently showed up with bruises on her body and other signs of abuse and neglect. He told a local TV station that ?It got to a point where I actually told CPS that they would have to have me arrested because I wouldn?t let her go back.?

Why was this child taken away from loving and capable parents? Last November, the state confiscated the infant from her home because the parents admitted to using marijuana on occasion. This was described as ?neglectful supervision,? a charge that permitted the child-snatchers to deliver the infant into the hands of an aggressively abusive individual who would eventually kill her.

The so-called child protectors who abducted Alexandria Hill are accomplices in her murder.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. 

Liberty Minute August 5 2013

According to legal scholar Harvey Silverglate, each day the typical American commits three acts that could be treated as felonies by a sufficiently creative federal prosecutor. On a typical day the FBI formally authorizes informants and provocateurs on its payroll to commit fifteen unambiguous crimes.

In 2006, following revelations about the FBI?s relationship with Boston crime boss James ?Whitey? Bulger, the Justice Department ordered the Bureau to submit an annual report tabulating the number of crimes committed each year by its corps of 15,000 paid informants. Bulger, who had been a federal asset since the 1950s, was allowed to operate a murderous national crime syndicate in exchange for information about his underworld competition.

The Bureau claims that its informants aren?t permitted to commit crimes of violence or other serious offenses. However, it refuses to provide a detailed public accounting of the operations involving informants. The ATF and DEA also run huge networks of informants, but those agencies will not disclose any information about the number of undercover operatives they employ or the criminal activities in which they may be involved.

In his book ?Our Enemy, the State,? Albert Nock observed that government doesn?t seek to abolish crime, but rather to monopolize it. What rational person could reject that conclusion?

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. 

Liberty Minute August 2 2013

Acting on the principle that government?s chief function is to terrify its subjects into submission, the State Department announced the closure of embassies in the Middle East and issued a worldwide travel alert to all Americans that would run through August 31. This was done in response to an unspecified threat by what was described as ?al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations [who] continue to plan terrorist attacks in both the region and beyond.?

Those of a cynical ? which is to say, realistic ? disposition might suggest that this is a public relations exercise intended to demonstrate the damage supposedly done by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who disclosed the agency?s illegal surveillance operations. Assuming that there is any truth to the terrorism advisory, the American public can blame the government that supposedly protects us for keeping the threat alive. John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, has compiled a report documenting that the Pentagon has 43 contracts with al-Qaeda supporters in that country. The agency responsible for administering that program insists that it would be a violation of ?due process? to cut off taxpayer money to the same terrorist network being cited in the State Department?s advisory.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. 

LibertyMinute August 1 2013

Opponents of civilian disarmament frequently point out that a firearm is simply a tool that can be used or abused depending on the intentions of its owner.

The City government of Oakland, California seems to appreciate that logic, but is using it in a novel way: Rather than lifting restrictions on firearms, the Oakland City Council is considering a measure that would criminalize possession of tools. Specifically, the proposed ordinance would ban any object that could be employed as a ?tool of vandalism? ? which would include not only slingshots and clubs but also useful implements such as hammers, wrenches, garden rakes, and shovels.

According to Councilman Noel Gallo, who sponsored the measure, recent demonstrations prompted by the George Zimmerman acquittal demonstrated that ?the Oakland Police Department needs additional tools to help protect life and property in our city? ? and in this case, the metaphorical ?tool? would be a law forbidding possession of literal tools in some circumstances.

During one of the recent protests, some vandals used household tools to inflict property damage. In one incident, a demonstrator attacked a waiter with a hammer. It is criminal intent that turns such otherwise harmless instruments into weapons used to harm others. The same thing is true of firearms.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. 

Liberty Minute July 31 2013

The City of Concord, New Hampshire is about to receive a $258,000 federal homeland security grant to purchase a BearCar armored vehicle for its police department.

In its application for the grant, the department claimed that the vehicle is necessary as a counter-terrorism tool, insisting that ?the threat is real and here.? The police cited ?groups such as the Sovereign Citizens, Free Staters and Occupy New Hampshire,? as well as ?several homegrown clusters that are anti-government and pose problems for law enforcement agencies.? 

In other words, the police wanted to acquire a paramilitary vehicle for the purpose of intimidating people who are critical of the militarization of the police.

Back in 1995, Tony Cooper, an instructor in terrorism negotiation at the University of Texas-Dallas, warned of what he called a ?curious crusading mentality among certain law enforcement agencies to stamp out what they see as a threat to government generally [and] an exaggerated concern that they are facing a nationwide conspiracy and that somehow this will get out of control unless it is stamped out at a very early stage."

In the age of the Homeland Security State, paranoia on the part of the police has become a lucrative procurement strategy.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. 

LibertyMinute July 30 2013

Private First Class Bradley Manning exposed war crimes. For this he has been convicted of 19 criminal counts, including five espionage charges. He was acquitted on a charge of aiding the enemy, which carried a life sentence. He still faces the prospect of years in prison.

Prior to his trial, Manning was held for nine months in an especially severe form of solitary confinement that involved forced nudity, sleep deprivation, and persistent abuse. His treatment was found by a judge to be illegal.

Like Private Manning, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins served inIraq. He committed war crimes of the kind Manning helped expose to the public. He led an eight-man squad that kidnapped an innocent Iraqi man from his home, took him to a ditch and shot him in the face. They then planted a gun and a shovel and claimed that the Iraqi, a retired police officer, was a suspected insurgent.

Hutchins was sentenced to 15 years for murder. A military appeals court has overturned that conviction, claiming that the Sergeant was unlawfully detained without a lawyer for seven days.

Under the Regime that rules us committing war crimes is a duty ? but reporting them is a felony.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. 

Liberty Minute July 26 2013

Joseph Grabko of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was briefly employed at a pizza restaurant called The Wild Tomato before quitting over issues of hygiene and finding drug paraphernalia on the premises. After leaving the restaurant, Grabko posted a critical review of the restaurant in the Yelp social network site. When it was deleted, he reposted it, and included pictures that he said supported his claims.

Shortly thereafter, Grabko ? who is autistic and lives with his parents ? started to receive threatening phone calls. The owner of the restaurant threatened Grabko with a ?harassment? charge if he didn?t take down the reviews within 24 hours. Shortly thereafter Grabko received a call from Officer Hallie Miller of the Lower Paxton Township Police Department, who told him that his online opinions ?can be construed as harassment? if they are considered ?derogatory.? The officer said that rather than expressing his opinions in public, Grabko should file a complaint with health inspectors and then ?you should probably drop it.?

Pennsylvania has a very vague harassment law, but it?s clear that it doesn?t apply to negative restaurant reviews. And enlisting the help of armed strangers to intimidate a critic isn?t merely harassment ; it could be considered a form of state-assisted terrorism.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Liberty Minute July 25 2013

While covering the elitist Bilderberg Conference in England, Luke Rudowski of the independent investigative group WeAreChange.org received an email from someone identifying himself as an anonymous whistleblower. The email, which arrived by way of an account Rudowski hasn?t used since high school, supposedly contained photographs from inside a confidential Bilderberg meeting.

Through a preview feature on Yahoo mail, Rudowski was able to determine that the attachment contained graphic child pornography that would have been revealed if his laptop had been searched upon returning to the United States. This would have resulted in felony charges that would have destroyed Rudowski?s reputation and his livelihood ? and, conceivably, his life.

Since then, Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, and Dan Johnson, founder of People Against the NDAA, have been targeted for the same attempted set-up. In this case, an anonymous e-mail was sent to Johnson from a tormail.org account by someone claiming to be Stewart.

All of this reeks of the FBI?s COINTELPRO operation from the 1950s and 1960s, which targeted political dissidents for disruption, harassment, and criminal frame-ups. Those tactics have taken on even more sinister forms in the age of totalitarian NSA surveillance.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. 

Liberty Minute July 24 2013

In May of last year, Los Angeles resident Veronica Cornejo called the Sheriff?s Office to report that her mentally ill brother was severely agitated and potentially dangerous to himself and his family. The department responded by sending three deputies to the residence, who broke into the home without warning, drew their firearms, and dragged all five members of the family outside.

Veronica was abused by a deputy when she pointed out that she was the one who had called for help. The father, 53-year-old Jorge Cornejo, who suffers from diabetes, cancer, and heart problems, was repeatedly punched in the face after he told the deputies he would sue the department for mistreating his daughter.

The lawsuit against the department reports says that after Veronica began to cry and plead with the deputy not to beat her ailing father, he threw the man on top of his daughter and then all three deputies began to beat both of them. Three members of the family were arrested for resisting arrest. The cases were dismissed seven months later.

During the family?s ordeal, Jorge Cornejo asked his daughter:  ?Why did you call the police? They don?t help you.? No rational person can dispute that assessment.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.