Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 13, 2012

In his diary for November 25, 1941, FDR?s Secretary of War Henry Stimson described a meeting that day of the administration?s ?War Cabinet? at the White House. The question discussed at that meeting was ?how we should maneuver [the Japanese] into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.?

By now it is indisputable that rather than seeking to avoid war with Japan, FDR deliberately facilitated the Pearl Harbor attack as a back door to war with the Axis. The Obama administration is following the same approach to Iran.  On December 31, Obama signed into law a package of economic sanctions against Iran. The death this week of an Iranian scientist in a car bombing is the latest in a series of mysterious assassinations carried out by either U.S. or Israeli intelligence.

Writing in The Jerusalem Post, former Israeli intelligence official Avi Perry predicts that this campaign of provocation will pay off when Iran attacks a U.S. aircraft carrier: ?The Iranian attack on an American military vessel will serve as a justification and a pretext for a retaliatory move by the US?.?

This ?`Pearl Harbor? scenario,? Perry concludes, would give Washington ?the perfect rationalization? for an entirely avoidable war ? and not for the first time.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 12, 2012

Former Republican Congressman Mark Siljander was sentenced to prison for offenses related to his work for a Muslim charity called the Islamic American Relief Agency.  The charges arose from Siljander?s efforts to circumvent sanctions imposed on Iraq during the 1990s.

Federal Judge Nanette Laughrey emphasized that Siljander did not provide material support for terrorism, and that his lobbying efforts were unsuccessful. However, she insisted that he had to be sent to prison as a ?deterrent? to others.

Meanwhile, revelations accumulate regarding the DEA?s material support for Mexican drug cartels, which includes laundering millions of dollars. The ATF has also pitched in to help the cartels by pressuring U.S. gun dealers to sell high-performance rifles to people suspected of working for those crime syndicates.

Dozens of prominent current and former officials are actively lobbying on behalf of the so-called Iranian People?s Mujahadeen, a listed terrorist group that has killed U.S. citizens. That same group is being supported by Washington as a covert asset to use against the current Iranian government.

When Siljander tried to break an embargo, it was considered a crime; when the U.S. government materially aids criminals and terrorists, it?s considered policy.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 11, 2012

Ten years ago today, the U.S. government opened the Cuban detention facility that has come to be known as ?Gitmo.? It was soon filled with hundreds of prisoners, many of whom were swept up by Pakistani bounty hunters eager to collect rewards offered by the CIA.

German citizen Murnat Kurnaz, who spent nearly five years in Gitmo without being accused of a crime, has described being tortured by interrogators, first in Afghanistan then in Gitmo: ?? they dunked my head under water and punched me in the stomach ? At one point, I was chained to the ceiling of a building and hung by my hands for days?. There were more beatings, endless solitary confinement, freezing temperatures and extreme heat, days of forced sleeplessness.?

Bosnian citizen Lakhdar Boumediene, another innocent detainee, likewise recalls being tortured through prolonged sleep deprivation and being forced to spend hours in painful stress positions. He points out that 171 men remain at Gitmo.

Gitmo has become a laboratory for indefinite detention and institutionalized abuse ? considerations that loom especially large now that Congress has authorized the military to detain any American suspected of being an enemy of the State.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 10, 2012

At about 2:30 in the morning of February 3, 2011, two Pennsylvania state troopers pulled over a vehicle driven by Jamie Cornell, who was suspected of driving while intoxicated. Cornell was arrested, and the troopers threatened to have the vehicle towed. Cornell?s passenger, Derena Marie Madison, exited the car to protest. She was arrested for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

Shackled at the wrists and ankles, Madison was taken to a nearby State Police barracks, where she was twice assaulted with pepper spray to the face, head, and body.

When Madison cried out for help, she was seized by several officers, taken outside, doused in cold water, and thrown face-down in the snow. She briefly lost consciousness; when she woke up, it was obvious that one of her captors had urinated on her.  She never received medical attention.

Responding to Miss Madison?s lawsuit, the State Troopers didn?t contest her account; instead, they claimed that their actions were taken pursuant to their duties, and therefore they were protected by ?sovereign immunity.? A federal judge rejected that claim ? but the fact it was made tells us volumes about the mindset of those who supposedly protect and serve us.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 9, 2012

A year ago on January 8, Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was among thirteen people attacked by a deranged gunman in the parking lot of a Safeway in Tucson. Six people, including a nine-year-old girl, were killed; Rep. Giffords was shot in the head and critically wounded. Thankfully, she has made a remarkable recovery, and was able to lead the Pledge of Allegiance during an event at the University of Arizona commemorating the anniversary of that horrible attack.

On May 5, Tucson will see the anniversary of another horrific shooting ? the murder of former Marine and Iraq combat veteran Jose Guerena by a Pima County SWAT team. Yes, it was murder. The SWAT team?s warrant was illegitimate; the SWAT operators allowed Guerena to bleed to death over the course of an hour when timely medical aid might have saved his life.

Guerena wasn't a politician married to an astronaut -- just a working-class former Marine with a young family. So there won't be a municipal rally on May 5 to remember the anniversary of his needless death at the hands of subsidized sociopaths in government-issued costumes.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 5, 2012

Austin, Texas resident Antonio Buehler was the designated driver on New Year?s Eve when he saw a woman being abused by police outside a convenience store.

The 34-year-old Buehler, a combat veteran of Kosovo and Iraq and West Point graduate, recalls that he and his friend saw ?the cop violently yanking the female out of the car onto the ground.? Another officer joined in and ?grabbed her arms. Her hands were behind her back straight out and they lifted her up by her arms."

With the help of a friend, Buehler began to document this act of "street justice" with his cell phone. One of the cops waddled over to Buehler and ordered him to leave, a demand the cop had no authority to make. He kept advancing until he had pinned the witness up against a truck, getting so close that Buehler actually breathed on him ? which gave him a pretext to accuse the witness of "spitting" on him. Buehler was charged with "harassing a public servant" ? a third-degree felony ? and "resisting arrest."

The Austin PD claims that Beuhler was the aggressor, but video evidence corroborates the witness?s account of the event.

Antonio Beuhler?s actions on the morning of New Year?s Day did more to defend freedom than anything he did in Kosovo or Iraq.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 4, 2011

Carlos Arrendondo and his wife Victoria are still trying to absorb the loss of their son, Brian, who took his own life on December 19. Brian, 24, had been left inconsolable and incurably depressed by the death of his older brother, Alexander, a Marine who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

At the time Carlos learned of Alexander?s death in Iraq, the family lived in Hollywood, Florida. When he received a visit from a Marine Corps ?Casualty Assistance Team,? Carlos suffered an epic breakdown.

Momentarily deranged, Carlos went into his garage and grabbed a container of gasoline and a welding torch, which he used to set the Marine Casualty Assistance Team?s van on fire ? igniting himself in the process. Fortunately, the Marines were able to extinguish the flames and get Carlos medical attention.

Three years later, during  an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C., Carlos was surrounded by pro-war counter-protesters, beaten, and kicked, after one of them had presumptuously seized a photograph of Alexander that Carlos had brought to illustrate his family?s loss in that stupid and senseless war ? which continues to inflict death and misery, despite being officially ?over.?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 3, 2012

Under Title 18, Chapter Seven, section 703 of the Idaho State Code, it is a crime for a law enforcement officer to arrest or detain a citizen, or deprive him of any property right, ?without regular process or other lawful authority?.?

Under Section 706 of the same chapter, a police officer can be imprisoned up to a year, and face a $5,000 fine, for assaulting an individual ?without lawful necessity.? However, Section 705 makes it a crime for citizens in any circumstance to ?resist? or ?obstruct? officers ? even when their conduct is unlawful.

This untenable contradiction is easy to repair. Simply add the following language to Section 705: ?Citizens have the right to use such reasonable force as is necessary to prevent an illegal attachment and to resist an illegal arrest." [After all, a police officer who acts without legal authority is merely an armed intruder ? and should be resisted as such.]

At present, the laws of thirteen states explicitly protect the ancient and indispensable right of free citizens to resist unlawful arrest. That right, which has roots in Anglo-Saxon Common Law predating the Magna Carta, was recognized throughout the United States until the 1960s. Sobering and unwelcome as the thought may be, that right is more relevant now than ever before.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 2, 2012

Conservative legal activist Larry Klayman insists that a genocidal nuclear attack on Iran is necessary in order to prevent genocide. In a December 30 WorldNetDaily essay entitled ?Time to Nuke Iran,? Klayman declares:

?We ? must NOW take drastic measures to remove these vile and evil Islamic terrorists from the face of the earth[, if for no other reason than to allow us to deal with other matters and get on with business].?

Without bothering to explain how he supposedly knows such things, Klayman claims that ?an increasing number of Iranian-Americans now understand that war with Iran will entail significant civilian casualties in their native country. And, while many Iranian-Americans still have loved ones there, they are increasingly willing to accept the consequences of all-out war with the Islamic regime.?

Another WorldNetDaily contributor, conservative activist Star Parker, complains that the growing lack of eagerness on the part of college-age Republicans to wage war on Iran is a symptom of ?moral relativism.?

Ironically, Tamir Pardo, the head of Israel?s Mossad intelligence agency, recently admitted that a nuclear-armed Iran would not be an existential threat to his country. What do Klayman, Parker, and their ilk supposedly know that Pardo doesn?t?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

December 30, 2011

Newt Gingrich, lapsed adulterer and impenitent warmonger,http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/27/gingrich-wouldnt-vote-for-ron-paul/?iref=allsearch has presumed to excommunicate Ron Paul and his supporters from the ranks of human decency.

"I think Ron Paul's views are totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent American," insisted Gingrich in a CNN interview. Although Gingrich alluded to the manufactured controversy over decades-old newsletters published by Dr. Paul that contained supposedly offensive material dealing with matters of political correctness, Gingrich?s genuine complaint ? which he has reiterated on many occasions ? is that Dr. Paul seeks to end America?s interventionist foreign policy and avoid needless foreign wars.

Gingrich has also dismissed Dr. Paul?s constituency as being limited to ?people who want to legalize drugs.? [Unlike Gingrich ? who used narcotics as a young adult ? Ron Paul has never used them nor condoned their use, while understanding that no government has the moral right or constitutional authority to prohibit their use. In 1988 ? at a time when, according to Gingrich and his other detractors, Paul was peddling racist propaganda ? Dr. Paul was denouncing the racist roots of the so-called War on Drugs.]

Gingrich, on the other hand, has endorsed the execution of first-time drug offenders who possess trivial amounts of narcotics.

For Gingrich and other proto-totalitarians, decency is supposedly measured by one?s desire to kill and oppress other human beings.

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