Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The Morning Call
The mother of a 14-year-old Dieruff High School student has filed a federal lawsuit claiming an Allentown police officer used excessive force when he shot her daughter in the groin with a stun gun during class dismissal in September.
Victoria Geist says her daughter, Keshana Wilson, had her arms raised high to indicate she surrendered when officer Jason Ammary pointed a Taser at her on Sept. 29 outside the high school and fired, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court by attorney Richard J. Orloski.
The suit claims Ammary fired the Taser directly at the teen's groin and he then filed retaliatory charges against the girl to justify using the Taser. The city is also named as a defendant for failure to control a rogue officer, says the suit, which seeks an unspecified amount of money...[Full Article]
Labels: Pennsylvania, taser
Friday, September 23, 2011
Raw Story
A bystander who suffered permanent hearing loss after Pittsburgh police deployed a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) against protestors during the 2009 G-20 Summit has filed a federal lawsuit against the city. The device emits pain-inducing sounds to disperse crowds and is also deployed on American warships.
Karen Piper, then a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University, tried to observe the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh as research for her book on globalization.
The G-20 represents the leaders of the world's most powerful economies and the group's summits attract a large crowds of anti-globalisation activists and others opposed to what they see as an undemocratic group promoting harmful free market policies.
While Piper was trying to leave the protest, without warning the police activated a LRAD a short distance away from her. She immediately became nauseous and dizzy, and felt fluid flowing from her ear.
"The intensity of being hit at close range by a high-pitched sound blast designed to deter pirate boats and terrorists at least a quarter mile away is indescribable," said Piper, now an English professor at the University of Missouri.
"The sound vibrates through you and causes pain throughout your body, not only in the ears. I thought I might die. It is shocking that the LRAD device is being promoted for use on American citizens and the general public."...[Full Article]
Labels: G-20, lawsuit, LRAD, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh
Sunday, July 24, 2011
PennLive.com
If Tara Keener had known that her 5-year-old son was only sleeping, she might not have acted this way.
But Keener, an emergency room nurse, didn’t know. All she knew was what she could see through the windows of a big yellow school bus as she walked down her Perry County driveway. Other kids were standing over the kindergartner’s assigned seat, yelling that Xander was slumped over.
“Help, he’s not moving,” she recalled during a recent court hearing. “We can’t wake him up.”
So she ran to the bus, up the steps and to the landing. The driver told her she couldn’t get on the bus. It’s against the law.
Keener kept going. “My focus was on my son,” she told a judge.
What happened on that bus Dec. 15 has earned Keener a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully entering a school bus. She’s now awaiting trial in Perry County Court...[Full Article]
Labels: big brother, bus, Pennsylvania, school
Friday, June 17, 2011
WTAE.com
PITTSBURGH -- A Bellevue family said it’s suing the FBI after agents mistakenly entered their home with guns drawn looking for a suspect who wasn’t there.
Attorney Tim O’Brien said 12 officers, including members of the FBI, entered the home with assault rifles in March looking for a woman who had moved out two years earlier and who was not related to the family currently living there., the Adamses.
Grandmother Denise Adams said she fell to the floor when agents entered her home.
“They had all these red dots everywhere … on the floor, on my face, on my chest. I was scared I was going to get shot,” she said.
There were also children inside the home at the time.[Full Article]
Labels: FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, lawsuit, Pennsylvania, police brutality, police state
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Fox News
A story in today's Philadelphia Daily News shows why it's so important that citizens be allowed to videotape cops - it can be citizens' only way to fight back against police abuse of power.
This incident happened several weeks ago in Philadelphia to Mark Fiorino, a 25-year-old IT worker who carries a gun on his hip at all times for self defense. He got the gun after several friends were mugged.
But he didn't count on attacks by police:
On a mild February afternoon, Fiorino, 25, decided to walk to an AutoZone on Frankford Avenue in Northeast Philly with the .40-caliber Glock he legally owns holstered in plain view on his left hip. His stroll ended when someone called out from behind: "Yo, Junior, what are you doing?"
Fiorino wheeled and saw Sgt. Michael Dougherty aiming a handgun at him.
What happened next would be hard to believe, except that Fiorino audio-recorded all of it: a tense, profanity-laced, 40-minute encounter with cops who told him that what he was doing - openly carrying a gun on the city's streets - was against the law.
"Do you know you can't openly carry here in Philadelphia?" Dougherty asked, according to the YouTube clip.
"Yes, you can, if you have a license to carry firearms," Fiorino said. "It's Directive 137. It's your own internal directive."
Fiorino was right. It was perfectly legal to carry the gun. But that didn't matter to the cop:
Fiorino offered to show Dougherty his driver's and firearms licenses. The cop told him to get on his knees.
"Excuse me?" Fiorino said.
"Get down on your knees. Just obey what I'm saying," Dougherty said.
"Sir," Fiorino replied, "I'm more than happy to stand here -"
"If you make a move, I'm going to f------ shoot you," Dougherty snapped. "I'm telling you right now, you make a move, and you're going down!"
"Is this necessary?" Fiorino said.
It went on like that for a little while, until other officers responded to Dougherty's calls for backup.
Fiorino was forced to the ground and shouted at as he tried to explain that he had a firearms license and was legally allowed to openly carry his weapon.
"You f------ come here looking for f------ problems? Where do you live?" yelled one officer.
"I'm sorry, gentlemen," Fiorino said. "If I'm under arrest, I have nothing left to say."
"F------ a------, shut the f--- up!" the cop hollered.
The cops discovered his recorder as they searched his pockets, and unleashed another string of expletives.
Fiorino said he sat handcuffed in a police wagon while the officers made numerous phone calls to supervisors, trying to find out if they could lock him up.
When they learned that they were in the wrong, they let him go.
But only temporarily. Fiorino posted the audio recordings on youtube, and now they are harassing him again:
A new investigation was launched, and last month the District Attorney's Office decided to charge Fiorino with reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct because, a spokeswoman said, he refused to cooperate with police... He's scheduled for trial in July.
If one listens to the audiotapes, it's hard to imagine how a reasonable person could charge Fiorino (and not the cops) for disorderly conduct.
SHOCKING AUDIO: Philadelphia Police violate rights of open carrier at gunpoint
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-vUYeJXSrA
Uploaded by pistolpackintim on Mar 23, 2011
PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igt-vp7VF0E
PART 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFDBkHJZgi8
PART 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIu1_ieuzS0
Listen as a citizen exercising his 2nd amendment right to legally bear arms was violently assaulted by Philadelphia Police with no cause.
In Pennsylvania carrying a gun is not reasonable suspicion of a crime and not justification for a stop and search or a detainment.
Open Carry is legal in Philadelphia with a valid license to carry firearms; openly carrying on foot is legal without a license everywhere else in Pennsylvania.
"On a Sunday afternoon, a Pennsylvania resident was walking up Frankford Avenue in Philadelphia, bound for an auto parts store, and happened to be legally openly carrying a Glock pistol on his hip, under PA state law.
A passing Philadelphia Police officer saw his walking up the road, pulled over his squad car in the middle of the busy street, and drew his weapon on the man, threatening to kill him multiple times if he moved.
The man was arrested, stripped of his possessions, and thrown in the paddywagon, while several Philadelphia Police officers made multiple phones calls to try and find out what law they think he broke.
In the end, they discovered that he was in violation of no laws, and was sent on his way, after having been illegally arrested for 45 minutes and his 4th Amendment rights blatantly violated."
FILE COMPLAINT HERE:
http://www.phillypolice.com/forms/official-complaint-form/
Labels: 2nd amendment, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Friday, April 29, 2011
Cite interstate commerce violation
Washington Times
A yearlong sting operation, including aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, culminated in the federal government announcing this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its contraband to willing customers in the Washington area.
The product in question: unpasteurized milk.
It’s a battle that’s been going on behind the scenes for years, with natural foods advocates arguing that raw milk, as it’s also known, is healthier than the pasteurized product, while the Food and Drug Administration says raw milk can carry harmful bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.
“It is the FDA’s position that raw milk should never be consumed,” said Tamara N. Ward, spokeswoman for the FDA, whose investigators have been looking into Rainbow Acres for months, and who finally last week filed a 10-page complaint in federal court in Pennsylvania seeking an order to stop the farm from shipping across state lines any more raw milk or dairy products made from it.
The farm’s owner, Dan Allgyer, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment, but his customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland were furious at what they said was government overreach.
“I look at this as the FDA is in cahoots with the large milk producers,” said Karin Edgett, a D.C. resident who buys directly from Rainbow Acres. “I don’t want the FDA and my tax dollars to go to shut down a farm that hasn’t had any complaints against it. They’re producing good food, and the consumers are extremely happy with it.”...[Full Article]
Labels: Amish, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, investigation, Pennsylvania, raw milk, sting
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Pirates Fan Tasered and Beat by Pittsburgh Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAVoU_UXgQI
Labels: beating, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, police brutality, taser, video
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Anthony Antonello asks Donald Rumsfeld if he ever found that missing $2.3 Trillion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUi7JsH4Xb8
Anthony Antonello and Danny Panzella wait to ask Donald Rumsfeld if he ever found that $2.3 Trillion that he said was unaccounted for at a press conference the day before 9/11.
Labels: Donald Rumsfeld, Pennsylvania, video, We Are Change, WeAreChange
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Ex-judge Mark Ciavarella Found Guilty in 'Cash for Kids' Trial - Confronted by Mother of Victim
Philadelphia Enquirer
SCRANTON - A federal jury Friday found former Luzerne County Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. guilty of racketeering in one of the nation's worst judicial scandals, a crime in which prosecutors said the former judge used children "as pawns to enrich himself."
In convicting Ciavarella of racketeering, the jury agreed with prosecutors that he and another corrupt judge had taken an illegal payment of nearly $1 million from a juvenile detention center's builder and then hidden the money.
The panel of six men and six women also found Ciavarella guilty of "honest services mail fraud" and of being a tax cheat for failing to list that money and more on his annual public financial-disclosure forms and on four years of tax returns. In addition, they found him guilty of conspiring to launder money...
[Full Article]Judge behind ‘cash for kids’ scheme confronted by mother of victim
Daily Paul
A judge is found guilty in a "kids-for-cash scheme" where he sent juveniles to detention centers owned by friends.
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2011/02/19/exp.nr.kids...
Audio: Mother of alleged Ciavarella victim speaks to Times Leader (WARNING: explicit language)
Sandy Fonzo, mother of an alleged "Kids for Cash" sentencing victim, speaks to Times Leader reporter Terrie Morgan-Besecker follwing the verdict in the corruption case of former Luzerne County judge Mark Ciavarella.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf2hBgmN1cE
Heartbreak and frustration after verdict comes in - VIDEO
The Times Leader
SCRANTON – The distraught mother of a man who was jailed as a juvenile by former Judge Mark Ciavarella angrily confronted him outside a federal courthouse Friday, accusing him of being responsible for her son’s suicide.
Sandy Fonzo of Wilkes-Barre interrupted a press conference Ciavarella and his attorneys held after a jury rendered its verdict in his corruption trial, hurling expletives at him and telling him she hopes he “rots in hell.”“My kid’s not here anymore. My kid’s not here anymore because of him. He ruined by (expletive) life,” Fonzo screamed through sobs shortly after Ciavarella’s attorney, Al Flora, began speaking.
Fonzo, who stood amid a crush of media interviewing Ciavarella, continued the verbal assault, pushing toward Ciavarella, who appeared stunned.
“Do you remember me? Do you remember my son? He was an all-star wrestler and he’s gone. He shot himself in the heart,” she screamed, her voice hoarse with emotion. “You scumbag. You ruined my (expletive) life.”
Fonzo was escorted away by security after she pushed forward and poked Ciavarella with her finger. She continued to yell at Ciavarella from across the street, gasping as she choked back tears.
“He was my son. I don’t have kids now. I don’t have anything. I’m not a mother. I’m not anything,” she sobbed...
Ciavarella speaks after verdict (WARNING: explicit language)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCExlbGTX_M
Former Luzerne County judge Mark Ciavarella and his attorney, Al Flora, speak to reporters following the announcement of a verdict in Ciavarella's corruption trial on Friday, February 18, 2011. A bystander can be heard shouting explicit language at Ciavarella following the remarks.
Video by Times Leader employee Gerard Hetman.
Audio: Mother of alleged Ciavarella victim speaks to Times Leader (WARNING: explicit language)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf2hBgmN1cE
Sandy Fanzo, mother of an alleged "Kids for Cash" sentencing victim, speaks to Times Leader reporter Terrie Morgan-Besecker follwing the verdict in the corruption case of former Luzerne County judge Mark Ciavarella.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Son died after his detention
When Sandy Fonzo chided Mark Ciavarella following the verdict in the disgraced judge’s trial Friday, Karen Adamski knew too well the anguish the mother was experiencing.
“I know exactly what that mom was going through (Friday) when she was screaming and yelling about her son that committed suicide,” Adamski said. “It’s just the most horrible thing ever.”
Like Fonzo’s son, Adamski’s child, Brandyn Robbins, was incarcerated at the PA Child Care juvenile detention center, was sentenced by Ciavarella, and later committed suicide. Adamski, of Larksville, said Friday that while she can’t say precisely why her son killed himself, his brush with Ciavarella was a turning point for the worse in his life.
“I don’t know why he took his own life, but I know that had an impact on him,” Adamski said. “He was a very outgoing kid; always lit up a room, had a smile on his face, active in sports, and it just, it changed him.”...
Labels: Cash for Kids, Mark Ciavarella, Pennsylvania, trial, video
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
In the We Are Change video below, Marxist converted into card-carrying neocon David Horowitz reveals something not really surprising – he knows very little about September 11, 2001, or at least claims to know very little.
The events of September 11, 2001, define the pro-war, anti-Muslim agenda of the neocons, and yet Horowitz comes off as completely clueless. He is like a deer caught in the headlights. He is like a babe in the woods without his soap box at Fox News.
He feigns ignorance of the established fact that Mahmood Ahmed, then director of Pakistan’s ISI, ordered Saeed Sheikh to wire $100,000 to hijacker Mohamed Atta. On the morning of the attacks, Ahmed had a breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C., with House and Senate Intelligence Committee chairmen, Rep. Porter Goss and Senator Bob Graham.
Horowitz is also clueless about the fact that six out of ten 9/11 commissioners doubt the official story and some suspect they were deceived by the Pentagon. The co-chairs of the Commission, Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton, said that the CIA and the Bush neocons “obstructed our investigation.”
The co-chairs of the Commission admitted that their report was driven by political considerations. In other word, it was steered by neocons in the Bush administration for the sake of creating an excuse to invade small countries and wantonly slaughter Muslims.
David Horowitz is a member of the neocon intelligentsia. It is difficult to believe he has no knowledge of the event that literally defines the neocons and their illegal wars against Arabs and Muslims, so far resulting in over a million and half calculated murders.
Of course, we have to take into consideration that Horowitz’s main obsession is attacking people he was once associated with as a Marxist, so knowledge about the facts surrounding 9/11 come in at best as a distant second. He is also an enemy of libertarians and especially Ron Paul because Paul is opposed to the total warfare state and the neocon mass murder campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Horowitz may be dismissed as just another ideologue on the CIA’s payroll. Horowitz’s operation has taken money from Richard Scaife, the “philanthropic” billionaire who worked with the CIA. Scaife’s Forum World Features, a foreign news service, was a CIA front that disseminated propaganda around the world.
In short, Horowitz indirectly works for the same people who pulled off the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Labels: David Horowitz, Kurt Nimmo, Pennsylvania, We Are Change
Thursday, January 20, 2011
WEST PHILADELPHIA - January 19, 2011 (WPVI) -- A doctor whose abortion clinic was described as a filthy, foul-smelling "house of horrors" that was overlooked by regulators for years was charged Wednesday with murder, accused of delivering seven babies alive and then using scissors to kill them...
[Full Articles]
Labels: abortion, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Monday, January 17, 2011
Some citizens outraged, calling probe 'illegal search and invasion' of property
A sanitation district in Pennsylvania has notified homeowners that its representatives will be making personal visits to every structure served by its network of drainpipes because that's what the federal Environmental Protection Agency is demanding.
The letter informs homeowners the inspections will probably take only about 15 minutes, but that all properties "will be considered a source of clear water discharges until an inspection can be conducted."
The effort, according to officials at the Coplay Whitehall Sewer Authority, is to prevent water from sources such as sump pumps or downspouts from being channeled into a water treatment process.
But homeowners are concerned about the mandatory government inspections of their properties...
[Full Article]Labels: big brother, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Pennsylvania
Monday, December 6, 2010
In Philly, You Don’t Have To Go To The Airport To Be Molested By The Government
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, December 6, 2010
In Philadelphia, you don’t have to visit the airport to have the government molest you, TSA-style “stop, question and frisk” pat downs are already being conducted by police on the streets targeting people who act suspicious, by doing things like putting their hands in their coat pocket.
As we have repeatedly warned, everything unfolding in the airports, from naked radiation body scanners to pat downs, is now being implemented on mass transit as well as every major street corner in America. Constitutional protections of privacy and immunity from unreasonable search and seizure have been abolished, replaced with guilty until proven innocent.
As Judge Napolitano reports, residents in the “city of brotherly love” are being patted down by police officers on the streets as part of an aggressive “stop, question and frisk” policy instituted by Mayor Nutter. The program is now the subject of a class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU which accuses police of routinely violating civil rights, including those of Rep. Jewell Williams, a former Temple University police officer, who was handcuffed and bundled into a squad car after enquiring about the safety of two elderly men police had detained and then threatened to beat up.
In the video, Philadelphia radio host Dom Giordano attempts to defend the unconstitutional policy by claiming residents were “happy” with being treated like criminals by “specially trained squads” who target people for “holding their hands in their coat on a street corner.”
Confronted with the fact that such policies are right out of North Korea or East Germany and have no place in a free country, Giordano invoked the non-existent “constitutional right to not have your kid shot,” which could also be enforced if authorities simply placed the entire population under house arrest and prevented them from ever going outside.
Much to Giordano’s chagrin, Napolitano responded by paraphrasing the most famous Philadelphian of all, founding father Benjamin Franklin, who said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
The stops have increased from 102,319 in 2005 to 253,333 in 2009 – an increase of 148 percent – with just 8 per cent of all stops leading to arrests. An alarming one in six residents of the entire city of Philadelphia has been stopped and frisked under the program, far more than would ever be subjected to a TSA groping at an airport.
“These unconstitutional actions have had and continue to have a devastating effect on the lives of many Philadelphians,” attorney Paul Messing said. “Beyond that, these police practices have had no real impact on stemming criminal conduct in our city. They just subject innocent people to humiliating and degrading treatment.”
“Most of those arrests had nothing to do with the reason they were stopped,” Messing said. “The charges were often for disorderly conduct because they complained they were stopped for no reason.”
By harassing people for putting their hands in their pockets, US authorities are mimicking the British stop and search policy, which by no coincidence has become notorious for its failure to catch any real criminals.
Indeed, in 2008 our own writer Steve Watson was stopped by goons in yellow jackets who proceeded to bark orders at him while standing at a bus stop in Trafalgar Square, London. His crime? He adjusted his clothing and put his hand in his pocket, an action that put him into the category of a potential terrorist, according to section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
In Britain, stop and search powers have been routinely abused to intimidate political protesters and break up demonstrations. Out of the hundreds of thousands of stop and search incidents, not one has led to the arrest or apprehension of a terrorist, and the powers have recently been ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights.
Americans who believe they can avoid being molested by the authorities by simply not flying are going to be in for a rude awakening when they find that body scanners and pat downs have become mandatory to enter shopping malls, sports events, or to simply walk down the street.
Unless we stand up in unison and revolt against such unconstitutional intrusions no matter where they take place, America will increasingly resemble the former Soviet Union, where agents of the state ceaselessly demand to see our papers and feel us up as part of the process of humiliation that trains the slaves to fawn over and acquiesce to the orders of their masters.
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.
Labels: pat-down, Paul Joseph Watson, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, police state
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Police Kill Men with Tasers in Pennsylvania and Delaware
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. -- A Lancaster County man died after being tased by police early Saturday morning.State police said Robert Neill, Jr., died after he was tased twice and maced...
[Full Article]
Police Used Tasers On Del. Man Who Died
Delaware State Police say a man went into cardiac arrest and died after two different officers used a Taser on him while he was resisting arrest...
[Full Article]
Labels: Delaware, Pennsylvania, police brutality, taser
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Emails recently released from a Right-To-Know request show that the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security monitored the twitter activity of law-abiding citizens.
The emails, obtained by the website PARevolution.com, show that a private firm used twitter to collect intelligence on anti-war protests as a part of their contract with the department...
[Full Article]Labels: big brother, Department of Homeland Security, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Homeland Security, Pennsylvania, surveillance, Twitter
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
13WMAZ
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A Philadelphia-area school district will pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops.
The Lower Merion School District admits it captured thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots from student laptops in a misguided effort to locate missing computers.
Harriton High School student Blake Robbins says the district photographed him 400 times in a two-week period, sometimes as he slept in his bedroom.
District officials voted Monday to pay Robbins $175,000, a second student $10,000 and their lawyer, Mark Haltzman, $425,000.
The district's insurer will pay $1.2 million toward legal and settlement costs.
The FBI investigated but declined to bring a criminal wiretap case.
Labels: laptop, lawsuit, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, spying
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
September 21, 2010
Last week it was reported that Tea Party activists had made the Pennsylvania terror threat list generated by an Israeli company. Now we learn that Second Amendment as well as anti-tax activists were also snooped by the state with the assistance of he Institute of Terrorism Research and Response.
 | |
 | |
| The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response warned that police would have to use “crowd control” on Second Amendment activists. Photo: Kevin Stanchfield. | |
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports today that a state lawmaker has demanded answers from the Rendell administration on why a taxpayer-financed bulletin intended to identify terror-related threats included two Capitol rallies he organized this year. “This is the type of activity you hear so many people talk about when they say what they think is wrong with government,” said Republican Rep. Daryl Metcalfe. Metcalfe’s annual Second Amendment rally draws activists and gun owners from around the state.
“Pennsylvania militia groups apparently are planning on attending” the event, the Israeli company, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, said in the bulletin. It warned law enforcement might have to provide “crowd control.”
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the event was peaceful and there was no evidence of militias in attendance.
Metcalfe said that the Israeli company issued a bulletin about his anti-tax group in June. It mistakenly said the Constitutional Organization of Liberty (COOL) was sponsoring the rally, Metcalfe said. “That’s news to me,” Metcalfe said. “COOL did not help me organize it. I am not sure if anyone from COOL attended.” COOL, an educational, non-partisan group is based in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
Rep. Daryl Metcalfe said he was meeting with House Republican lawyers to determine what can be done about the state and an Israeli company teaming up to snoop on constitutuioanlly protected dissent. “Did they tap anyone’s phone?” Metcalfe asked. “Have I been investigated since the rally?”
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI discovered an espionage ring that had penetrated the wiretapping system of U.S. law enforcement. The espionage operation reportedly included employees of two companies, Comverse Infosys and Amdocs. Comverse Infosys and Amdocs are based in Israel.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Rendell administration does not intend to remove security bulletins from its website.
Michael Perelman, a former York police commander, heads up the shadowy Institute of Terrorism Research and Response with Aaron Richman, a former Israeli police captain. Over the weekend Perelman asked the Rendell administration to remove the bulletins from its website. Perelman told state officials the information could be used by terrorists.
Labels: Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, Israel, Kurt Nimmo, Pennsylvania
Friday, September 17, 2010
Pennsylvania Homeland Security Hires Israeli Co. to Spy on Activists Exercising Their 1st Ammendment Rights
An activist who believes he was improperly included on a state terror threat list said this morning he is preparing a federal lawsuit.
"When people's civil rights are trampled it's a federal issue," said Gene Stilp of Harrisburg, who holds a Virginia law license but does not practice as an attorney...
[Full Article]Rendell: "Deeply embarrassed" over spying on peaceful groups
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell apologized Tuesday to groups whose entirely lawful events were the subject of regular anti-terrorism reports provided by a Philadelphia-based Israeli-American outfit to state law enforcement agencies, the AP reports:
An embarrassed Gov. Ed Rendell apologized Tuesday to groups whose peaceful protests or events, from an animal rights demonstration to a gay and lesbian festival, were the subject of regular anti-terrorism bulletins being distributed by his homeland security director.
Rendell said that the information was useless to law enforcement agencies and that distributing it was tantamount to trampling on constitutional rights. ...."This is ludicrous," Rendell said. "And I apologize to any of the groups who had this information disseminated about their activities. They have the right to protest."
Rendell said he was "deeply embarrassed," and said the fact that the state was paying for such rudimentary information was "stunning."
Rendell said he ordered an end to the $125,000 contract with the Philadelphia-based organization, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, that supplied the information, but said he was not firing his homeland security director, James Powers. ...
Here's a link to the firm, which has contracts with several other law enforcement agencies across the country...
[Full Article]Pennsylvania Homeland Security Employed Israeli Company to Suppress American Political Dissent
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
September 17, 2010
On the Alex Jones Show yesterday, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen discussed the involvement of a shadowy Israeli company in an effort by Pennsylvania’s Homeland Security to spy on activists exercising their First Amendment.
On Wednesday, Infowars.com reported that Pennsylvania paid a Philadelphia-based nonprofit $125,000 to compile a list of activists as part of the state Homeland Security’s federally mandated mission to protect public infrastructure. Madsen, citing a story published on late Wednesday by the Philadelphia Citypaper, revealed that the “non-profit” operates not only out of Philadelphia, but Israel as well.
Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen talks about the scandal on the Alex Jones Show on September 16.
Research conducted by Citypaper journalist Isaiah Thompson shows that the company, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR), in fact does not operate under non-profit status, as reported yesterday by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Although the group claims nonprofit status on its website and is listed as a nonprofit corporation by the Pennsylvania Department of State, a search on websites Guidestar.org and IRS.gov yielded no indication that the organization enjoys tax-exempt status. An email seeking clarification of the group’s nonprofit status was not returned,” writes Thompson.
ITRR’s website describes the company as “the preeminent Israeli/American security firm providing training, intelligence and education to clients across the globe.” ITRR categorizes itself as a “Targeted Action Monitoring Center” that does not function as a “clipping service, but a powerful fusion center of battle-tested operatives, analysts, and researchers who have real-life experience fighting both terrorists and criminal entities [...] distinguished among other agencies by its access to a vast network of on-the-ground key-sources in virtually every region of the world.”
For a company boasting specialized counter-terror services, there is virtually no information available on it in the mainstream media. Citypaper’s research turned up a scattering of lackluster ITRR reports published in trade publications, primarily dealing with international terrorism. One report, authored by an intern, details the use of Twitter by “religious, anarchists, anti-government, and anti-globalization” activists who are described as extremists.
In addition, ITRR participated in a 2008 Philadelphia “Emergency Preparedness and Prevention and Hazmat Spills Conference” sponsored by the EPA.
According to the ITRR website, courses offered by the company “are approved by the Israeli Department of Defense (note: this page has since been removed from the website) and ITRR shares a relationship with the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, an organization promoting trade opportunities, joint ventures, and strategic alliances between international businesses and Israeli companies. Interestingly, ITRR also shares a partnership with Philadelphia University.
ITRR’s two principles are Aaron Richman, a former Israeli police captain, and Michael Perelman, a former York police commander. The Associated Press yesterday cited an interview conducted in 2007 with Perelman where he admitted ITRR information came from news and internet sites, as well as “on the ground” sources who check on travel routes used by company clients including Harvard University and the United Nations.
The ITRR, however, does more than scour the internet and news services and repackage information for its clients. Pennsylvania Homeland Security director James F. Powers Jr. told the Philadelphia Inquirer in July that ITRR operatives posed in chat rooms as people opposed to last year’s G-20 summit in Pittsburgh and compromised the Pittsburgh Organizing Group, an anarchist organization. “We got the information to the Pittsburgh Police, and they were able to cut them off at the pass,” Powers told Inquirer columnist Daniel Rubin.
On Thursday, the scandal widened when Pittsburgh officials refused to comment on the role ITRR played in tracking and disabling activist groups that planned to protest the 2009 G20 summit in their city. Police Chief Nate Harper and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s spokeswoman, Joanna Doven, said they could not talk about information provided by ITRR, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The evolving scandal reveals how far the state of Pennsylvania and apparently the city of Pittsburgh will go in order to deny citizens their First Amendment right to protest and petition the government and demonize disfavored political groups.
ITRR’s connection to Israel also raises the specter that the company is a front for an Israeli intelligence operation and the Israelis gained more than they gave in the relationship with Pennsylvania’s Homeland Security and apparently the city of Pittsburgh.
The use of an Israeli company is especially egregious considering the track record of Israel in violating the civil and human rights of the Palestinians and its far reaching global intelligence operations, including the assassination of activists in foreign countries.
From dancing Israelis on September 11, 2001, to Israeli spies posing as art students and Israeli intelligence operatives shadowing and presumably handling Mohammad Atta and other supposed hijackers in Florida, there is evidence of Israel spying on Americans and running intelligence operations on U.S. soil.
The Lawrence Franklin espionage scandal, otherwise (and more accurately) known as the AIPAC espionage scandal, remains largely unpunished to this day. Lawrence Franklin, a policy analyst under Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz — both key pro-Israel neocons in the Bush administration — passed on a classified presidential directive and other sensitive documents pertaining to U.S. deliberations on foreign policy regarding Iran to AIPAC and subsequently to the Israeli government.
False flag events staged by Israel against the United States are legendary. In fact, the Israeli Mossad admits it uses false flag in most of its operations to cover its tracks.
On June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel directly attacked a United States Navy technical research ship, the USS Liberty, and killed 34 crew members and wounded 170. The attack was swept under the rug and never appropriately investigated.
Less deadly instances of Israeli treachery continue unabated. On September 7, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee accused Israeli agents of posing as FBI agents in an effort to harass and intimidate Muslims. The ADC called on the Department of Justice, Department of State, and other federal agencies to investigate.
“Israel’s undercover operations here, including missions to steal U.S. secrets, are hardly a secret at the FBI, CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. From time to time, in fact, the FBI has called Israeli officials on the carpet to complain about a particularly brazen effort to collect classified or other sensitive information, in particular U.S. technical and industrial secrets,” Jeff Stein wrote for the Washington Post on September 2. Stein quotes a CIA official as stating that Israeli intelligence operatives are “all over the place” in the United States.
Labels: Homeland Security, Israel, Kurt Nimmo, Pennsylvania
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The federal prosecutor investigating the case of a Pennsylvania school district that spied on its students via remote-controlled laptop cameras says the school district won't face criminal charges in the case.
US Attorney Zane David Memenger said in a statement that there is no evidence the Lower Merion School District, in suburban Philadelphia, had any criminal intent when it remotely activated cameras on laptops issued to students.
"For the government to prosecute a criminal case, it must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person charged acted with criminal intent," Memeger said, as quoted at Information Week. "We have not found evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent."
The issue came to light in February, when the parents of Harriton High School student Blake Robbins filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the school district invaded Robbins' privacy by filming him in his home through his school-issued laptop. It emerged later that the school district photographed Robbins 400 times in a two-week period, in various states of undress and even during his sleep.
Investigators found that the remote-controlled cameras took some 56,000 pictures of Lower Merion School District students over a two-year period, with the cameras sometimes left on for weeks at a time...
[Full Article]
Labels: cameras, education, laptop, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, privacy, school, spying
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Orwellian Tax Collection Commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2un7emwP_0
swidd2 — April 30, 2010 — Creepy ass PA State Collections. This is aired regularly in Pennsylvania. No wonder there's a million armed Pennsylvanians roaming the woods for food, after all the money they lose in state taxes.
Labels: Pennsylvania, taxes, video
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