- Clubs, Cartels, And Bilderberg
Authored by Binoy Kampmark via Oriental Review,
“After decades of neoliberalism, we are at the mercy of a cluster of cartels who are lobbying politicians hard and using monopoly power to boost profits.”
Joseph Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality (2012)
The emergence of think tanks was as much a symptom of liberal progress as it was a nervous reaction in opposition to it. In 1938, the American Enterprise Association was founded by businessmen concerned that free enterprise would suffer at the hands of those too caught up with notions of equality and egalitarianism. In 1943, it dug into the political establishment in Washington, renamed as the American Enterprise Institute which has boasted moments of some influence in the corridors of the presidential administrations.
Gatherings of the elite, self-promoted as chat shops of the privileged and monstrously well-heeled, have often garnered attention. That the rich and powerful chat together privately should not be a problem, provided the glitterati keep their harmful ideas down to small circulation. But the Bilderberg gathering, a transatlantic annual meeting convened since 1954, fuels speculation for various reasons, not least of all because of its absence of detail and off-the-record agendas.
C. Gordon Tether, writing for the Financial Times in May 1975, would muse that,
“If the Bilderberg Group is not a conspiracy of some sort, it is conducted in such a way as to give a remarkably good imitation of one.”
Each year, there are hushed murmurings and ponderings about the guest list. Politicians, captains of industry, and the filthy rich tend to fill out the numbers. In 2018, the Telegraph claimed that delegates would chew over such matters as “Russia, ‘post-truth’ and the leadership in the US, with AI and quantum computing also on the schedule.” This time, the Swiss town of Montreux is hosting a gathering which has, among its invitees, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The Bilderberg Summit begins at the driveway – this year in Switzerland, at the hotel “Montreux Palace”.
Often, the more entertaining assumptions about what happens at the Bilderberg Conference have come from outsiders keen to fantasise. The absence of a media pack, a situation often colluded with by media outlets themselves, coupled with a general holding of attendees to secrecy, have spawned a few gems. A gathering of lizard descendants hatching plans for world domination is an old favourite.
Other accounts are suitably dull, suggesting that little in the way of importance actually happens. That man of media, Marshall McLuhan, was appalled after attending a meeting in 1969 by those “uniformly nineteenth century minds pretending to the twentieth.” He was struck by an asphyxiating atmosphere of “banality and irrelevance”.
The briefings that come out are scripted to say little, though the Bilderberg gathering does come across as a forum to trial ideas (read anything significantly friendly to big business and finance) that may find their way into domestic circulation. Former Alberta Premier Alison Redford did just that at the 2012 meeting at Chantilly, Virginia. In reporting on her results after a trip costing $19,000, the Canadian politician proved short on detail.
“The Premier’s participation advanced the Alberta government’s more aggressive effort to engage world decision makers in Alberta’s strategic interests, and to talk about Alberta’s place in the world. The mission sets the stage for further relationship-building with existing partners and potential partners with common interests in investment, innovation and public policy.”
One is on more solid ground in being suspicious of such figures given their distinct anti-democratic credentials. Such gatherings tend to be hostile to the demos, preferring to lecture and guide it rather than heed it. Bilderberg affirmed that inexorable move against popular will in favour of the closed club and controlling cartel. “There are powerful corporate groups, above government, manipulating things,” asserts the much maligned Alex Jones, whose tendency to conspiracy should not detract from a statement of the obvious. These are gatherings designed to keep the broader populace at arms-length, and more.
The ideas and policies discussed are bound to be self-serving ones friendly to the interests of finance and indifferent to the welfare of the commonwealth. A Bilderberg report, describing the Bürgenstock Conference in 1960, saw the gatherings as ones “where arguments not always used in public debate can be put forth.” As Joseph Stiglitz summarises from The Price of Inequality,
“Those at the top have learned how to suck the money out of the rest in ways that the rest are hardly aware of. That is their true innovation. Policy shapes the market, but politics has been hijacked by a financial elite that has feathered its own nest.”
A nice distillation of Bilderbergism, indeed.
Gauging the influence of the Bilderberg Group in an empirical sense is not a simple matter, though WikiLeaks has suggested that “its influence on postwar history arguable eclipses that of the G8 conference.” An overview of the group, published in August 1956 by Dr. Jósef H. Retinger, Polish co-founder and secretary of the gathering, furnishes us with a simple rationale: selling the US brand to sceptical Europeans and nullifying “anxiety”. Meetings “unofficial and private” would be convened involving “influential and reliable people who carried the respect of those working in the field of national and international affairs”.
Retinger also laid down the rationale for keeping meetings opaque and secret. Official international meetings, he reasoned, were troubled by those retinues of “experts and civil servants”. Frank discussion was limited for fear of indiscretions that might be seen as rubbing against the national interest. The core details of subjects would be avoided. And thirdly, if those attending “are not able to reach agreement on a certain point they shelve it in order to avoid giving the impression of disunity.”
A security guard is seen May 29 above the entrance of the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace hotel in the Swiss town of Montreux, which is set to host the annual Bilderberg Meeting.
Retinger was already floating ideas about Europe in May 1946 when, as secretary general of the Independent League for European Co-operation (ILEC), he pondered the virtues of federalism oiled by an elite cadre before an audience at Chatham House. He feared the loss of “big powers” on the continent, whose “inhabitants after all, represent the most valuable human element in the world.” (Never mind those of the dusky persuasion, long held in European bondage.) Soon after, he was wooed by US Ambassador W. Averell Harriman and invited to the United States, where his ideas found “unanimous approval… among financiers, businessmen and politicians.”
The list of approvers reads like a modern Bilderberg selection, an oligarchic who’s who, among them the banker Russell Leffingwell, senior partner in J. P. Morgan’s, Nelson and David Rockefeller, chair of General Motors Alfred Sloan, New York investment banker Kuhn Loeb and Charles Hook, President of the American Rolling Mills Company. (Unsurprisingly, Retinger would establish the Bilberberg Group with the likes of Paul Rijkens, President of the multinational giant Unilever, the unglamorous face of European capitalism.)
Retinger’s appraisals of sovereignty, to that end, are important in understanding the modern European Union, which continues to nurse those paradoxical tensions between actual representativeness and financial oligarchy. Never mind the reptilian issues: the EU, to a modest extent, is Bilderbergian, its vision made machinery, enabling a world to be made safe for multinationals while keeping popular sovereignty in check. Former US ambassador to West Germany, George McGhee, put it this way: “The Treaty of Rome [of 1957], which brought the Common Market into being, was nurtured at Bilderberg meetings.”
- Ranking The World's Best And Worst Passports
As of 2019, there are 195 countries in the world, all varying widely in terms of size, culture, prosperity and influence. Some allow wide access to foreign countries for their citizens, and some don’t.
Any would-be global citizens might wonder: While exploring the broader world, which passports offer the most opportunities, and which, well, don’t?
To try and quantify this, Nomad Capitalist has released its latest annual ranking of the best and worst passports. The consultancy based its ranking on five criteria: Visa-Free travel, taxation, perception, dual citizenship and personal freedom, with the goal of educating aspiring global citizens “about the true value of the world’s citizenships.”
First, a few highlights: The ranking hasn’t changed much from last year. Once again, EU, which grant holders untrammeled access to much of the Continent, occupied nine out of 10 of the top spots. Once again, the UK, which formerly possessed one of the world’s top passports, has fallen in the ranking, sliding to 27th place.
Once again, the US placed in the bottom end of the top 25th percentile, largely because of its low ranking on the taxation sub-index (US citizens are responsible for paying income taxes to the US Treasury even when that money is earned abroad).
Bringing up the rear were the usual suspects: Iraq ranked dead last, largely due to travel restrictions (Iraqi citizens can only easily visit 27 other countries). The second-lowest spot went to Afghanistan, followed by Eritrea, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Pakistan, Libya, Sudan and North Korea.
Once again, the No. 1 spot went to Luxembourg, which ranked high on both taxation (it’s low), dual citizenship, freedom, perception and travel (citizens of Luxembourg can travel to 186 countries using just their passports). It was followed by Switzerland (the only non-EU country in the top ten), Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Spain and France.
The takeaway: Benefits vary widely depending on which passport you hold – though to truly understand this, it helps to try and travel abroad.
Nomad Passport Index 2019 by Zerohedge on Scribd
- DARPA Can Exterminate Humanity: "You Could Feasibly Wipe-Out The Human Race"
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
One of the most dangerous experiments that mankind has ever embarked upon is DARPA’s desire for gene drive technology. Scientists now have the knowledge and the tools they need to create and deliver “Doomsday genes” which can selectively target and exterminate an entire species.
According to Sputnik News, and as previously reported by SHTFPlan, the United States highly-secretive and advanced military research body DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) announced that it will invest tens of millions of dollars into genetic extinction research. While the official aim of this research is said to be fighting harmful insects, like mosquitos which carry Malaria, there are significantly darker implications and speculations surrounding the possible use of such a tool.
Joe Joseph of The Daily Sheeple said a quick Google search would give you enough information to let you know how horrific this kind of technology can be.
“…and you’ll find it fascinating just at how unbelievable a weapon this could be, how unintentionally mistakes can be made that can cause irreversible damage… irreparable damage… to the human race. And I mean, FAST!” Joseph said.
“A gene drive… if let’s just say there’s a mistake, you could feasibly wipe out the human race in a very very short period of time. It’s an unbelievable tool at the disposal of madmen.”
Emails released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), suggest that the U.S.’s uber-secretive military body, DARPA, has become the world’s largest funder of this “gene drive” research.
Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America director of the ETC Group, an international organization dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights, said: “When it is developed under an umbrella of military research, you get a clear notion that there can be a dual purpose of this research.”
Jim Thomas, a co-director of the ETC group which obtained the emails, said the US military’s influence in furthering this technology would strengthen the case for a moratorium. “The dual-use nature of altering and eradicating entire populations is as much a threat to peace and food security as it is a threat to ecosystems,” he said. “Militarization of gene drive funding may even contravene the Enmod convention against hostile uses of environmental modification technologies.”
But while we are on the subject of UN bans, the sanctions they placed on North Korea are being willfully ignored by the rogue regime. It stands to reason that should a military seek the use of this technology, they will also defy the UN’s “authority.” –SHTFPlan
Humanity is known for making mistakes, but we can’t come back from an extinction of our own making. “You can call it a ‘tool’ all day, [but] it’s a weapon,” says Joseph.
- If You're A Millennial With Student Debt, Do Not Move To These Cities
As the businesses cycle is alive and well, despite central bank interventions, the global economy has recently cycled into a prolonged downturn expected to last throughout 2H19. This could be more disastrous news for heavily indebted millennials, who now owe approximately $1.6 trillion in student loans.
A new report from WalletHub, reveals which US cities millennials have the most difficult time paying off their student debt. In the last several years, student debt has ballooned to become the second highest form of household debt after mortgages. The average 2018 student loan debt was $37,000, equating to a $392 (5% interest rate for ten years) per month payment.
Even though college graduates earned significantly more than non-graduates, there hasn’t been a significant increase in earnings across some major cities to make their debt servicing manageable, thus hindering youngsters from buying homes and having families.
“High balances combined with a payoff timeline that lasts into middle age force many graduates to significantly delay or forego other financial goals such as saving for retirement or buying a home,” the report said.
While some cities offer better job opportunities and higher wages for millennials, many other metropolitan areas across the country have a jobs environment that makes it almost impossible for college graduates to pay off their debt.
Researchers used the median student loan balance against the median earnings of millennials (aged 25 and older) with a bachelor’s degree in 2,510 US cities to determine the worst areas for paying off student loans.
Here are WalletHub’s top ten cities where millennials shouldn’t move to if they have massive student debt loads:
10. Dacula, Georgia
- Median student debt balance: $20,655
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $26,250
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 78.69%
9. Austell, Georgia
- Median student debt balance: $25,146
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $31,935
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 78.74%
8. Murray, Kentucky
- Median student debt balance: $21,555
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $27,356
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 78.79%
7. Elizabeth City, North Carolina
- Median student debt balance: $24,339
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $30,172
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 80.67%
6. Lady Lake, Florida
- Median student debt balance: $27,290
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $33,675
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 81.04%
5. Waycross, Georgia
- Median student debt balance: $17,994
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $22,158
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 81.21%
4. East Liverpool, Ohio
- Median student debt balance: $18,466
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $22,222
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 83.1%
3. Palatka, Florida
- Median student debt balance: $21,487
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $25,772
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 83.37%
2. Green Valley, Arizona
- Median student debt balance: $20,464
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $24,250
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 84.39%
1. Sun City West, Arizona
- Median student debt balance: $17,771
- Median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: $21,046
- Ratio of student debt to median earnings of bachelor’s degree holders: 84.44%
- Ralph Nader: Society Is In Decay – When The Worst Is First & The Best Is Last
Authored by Ralph Nader via CommonDreams.org,
If you want to see where a country’s priorities lie, look at how it allocates its money
Plutocrats like to control the range of permissible public dialogue. Plutocrats also like to shape what society values. If you want to see where a country’s priorities lie, look at how it allocates its money.
While teachers and nurses earn comparatively little for performing critical jobs, corporate bosses including those who pollute our planet and bankrupt defenseless families, make millions more. Wells Fargo executives are cases in point. The vastly overpaid CEO of General Electric left his teetering company in shambles. In 2019, Boeing’s CEO got a bonus (despite the Lion Air Flight 610 737 Max 8 crash in 2018). Just days before a second deadly 737 Max 8 crash in Ethiopia.
This disparity is on full display in my profession. Public interest lawyers and public defenders, who fight daily for a more just and lawful society, are paid modest salaries. On the other hand, the most well compensated lawyers are corporate lawyers who regularly aid and abet corporate crime, fraud, and abuse. Many corporate lawyers line their pockets by shielding the powerful violators from accountability under the rule of law.
Physicians who minister to the needy poor and go to the risky regions, where Ebola or other deadly infectious diseases are prevalent, are paid far less than cosmetic surgeons catering to human vanities. Does any rational observer believe that the best movies and books are also the most rewarded? Too often the opposite is true. Stunningly gripping documentaries earn less than 1 percent of what is garnered by the violent, pornographic, and crude movies at the top of the ratings each week.
On my weekly radio show, I interview some of the most dedicated authors who accurately document perils to health and safety. The authors on my program expose pernicious actions and inactions that jeopardize people’s daily lives. These guests offer brilliant, practical solutions for our widespread woes (see ralphnaderradiohour.com). Their important books, usually go unnoticed by the mass media, barely sell a few thousand copies, while the best-seller lists are dominated by celebrity biographies. Ask yourself, when preventable and foreseeable disasters occur, which books are more useful to society?
The monetary imbalance is especially jarring when it comes to hawks who beat the drums of war. For example, people who push for our government to start illegal wars (eg. John Bolton pushing for the war in Iraq) are rewarded with top appointments. Former government officials also get very rich when they take jobs in the defense industry. Do you remember anyone who opposed the catastrophic Iraq War getting such lucrative rewards?
The unknown and unrecognized people who harvest our food are on the lowest rung of the income ladder despite the critical role they play in our lives. Near the top of the income ladder are people who gamble on the prices of food via the commodities market and those who drain the nutrients out of natural foods and sell the junk food that remains, with a dose of harmful additives. Agribusiness tycoons profit from this plunder.
Those getting away with major billing fraud grow rich. While those people trying to get our government to do something about $350 billion dollars in health care billing fraud this year – like Harvard Professor Malcolm K. Sparrow – live on a college professor’s salary.
Hospital executives, who each make millions of dollars a year, preside over an industry where about 5,000 patients die every week from preventable problems in U.S. hospitals, according to physicians at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The watchdogs who call out this deadly hazard live on a fraction of that amount as they try to save lives.
Even in sports, where people think the best athletes make the most money, the reverse is more often true. Just ask a red-faced Brian Cashman, the Yankees GM, who, over twenty years, has spent massive sums on athletes who failed miserably to produce compared to far lesser-paid baseball players. Look at today’s top ranked Yankees – whose fifteen “stars” are injured, while their replacements are playing spectacularly for much smaller compensation than their high priced teammates.
A major reason why our society’s best are so often last while our worst are first is the media’s infatuation with publicizing the worst and ignoring the best. Warmongers get press. The worst politicians are most frequently on the Sunday morning TV shows – not the good politicians or civic leaders with proven records bettering our society.
Ever see Congressman Pascrell (Dem. N.J.) on the Sunday morning news shows? Probably not. He’s a leader who is trying to reform Congress so that it is open, honest, capable and represents you the people. Surely you have heard of Senator Lindsey Graham (Rep. S.C.) who is making ugly excuses for Donald Trump, always pushing for war and bloated military budgets, often hating Muslims and Arabs and championing the lawless American Empire. He is always in the news, having his say.
Take the 162 people who participated in our Superbowl of Civic Action at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. in May and September 2016. These people have and are changing America. They are working to make food, cars, drugs, air, water, medical devices, and drinking water safer. Abuses by corporations against consumers, workers and small taxpayers would be worse without them. Our knowledge of solutions and ways to treat people fairly and abolish poverty and advance public services is greater because of their courageous hard work. (see breakingthroughpower.org).
The eight days of this Civic Superbowl got far less coverage than did Tiger Woods losing another tournament that year or the dismissive nicknames given by the foul-mouth Trump to his mostly wealthy Republican opponents on just one debate stage.
All societies need play, entertainment, and frivolity. But a media obsessed with giving 100 times the TV and radio time, using our public airwaves for free, to those activities than to serious matters crucial to the most basic functioning of our society is assuring that the worst is first and the best is last. Just look at your weekly TV Guide.
If the whole rotted-out edifice comes crashing down, there won’t be enough coerced taxpayer dollars anymore to save the Plutocrats, with their limitless greed and power. Maybe then the best can have a chance to be first.
- In "Jaw-Dropping" Speech Malaysian PM Says "No Evidence" Russia Shot Down MH17
In unexpected statements Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has questioned the methodology behind Dutch investigators who produced what the West considers the authoritative report on the tragic shoot down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 while flying over war-torn eastern Ukraine. He criticized that the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) seems “to be concentrated on trying to pin it on the Russians”.
The Malaysian leader told reporters at the Japanese Foreign Correspondents Club (FCCJ) in Tokyo on Thursday “They are accusing Russia but where is the evidence?” Mahathir said his country accepted that a “Russian-made missile” shot down its civilian airliner, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board, but that “You need strong evidence to show it was fired by the Russians.”
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (left) shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Friday. Image source: AFP He ultimately questioned the objectivity of the investigators in what major regional media described as a “jaw dropping speech”.
Australia’s prime state run news service ABC News noted the Malaysian PM’s speech has sent shock waves through the region as it questioned everything Australia’s own leaders have said. “From the very beginning we see too much politics in it,” Mahathir said in reference to the official Dutch-led investigation.
A total of 38 Australians were killed in the Boeing-777 shoot down and crash, and the majority were Dutch nationals. The ABC report summarized of the “bombshell” charges leveled by PM Mahathir:
“Based on these findings, the only conclusion we can reasonably now draw is that Russia was directly involved in the downing of MH17,” Australia’s then-prime minister and foreign minister Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop said in a joint statement.
“The Russian Federation must be held to account for its conduct in the downing of MH17 over eastern Ukraine, which resulted in the tragic deaths of 298 passengers and crew, including 38 people who called Australia home.”
But in a bombshell speech to the Japanese Foreign Correspondents Club (JFCC) on Thursday, Dr Mahathir was having none of it, accusing those who blamed Russia of scapegoating the nation for “political” reasons.
The Malaysian PM further went so far as to point to Ukrainian pro-government forces as being prime suspects: “It could be by the rebels in Ukraine; it could be Ukrainian government because they too have the same missile,” he said.
Interestingly, this has been Russia’s position all along, which has already led some international media sources to suggest of the deeply contrarian Friday speech, “Dr Mahathir is known to enjoy a good conspiracy theory.”
Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 – amid heavy fighting in Ukraine’s civil war. Mahathir further slammed the decision to exclude Malaysian investigators from the black box examination: “We may not have the expertise but we can buy the expertise. For some reason, Malaysia was not allowed to check the black box to see what happened,” he said.
“We don’t know why we are excluded from the examination but from the very beginning, we see too much politics in it and the idea was to find out how this happened but seems to be concentrated on trying to pin it to the Russians.”
The Malaysian PM’s headline grabbing comments were made in English in response to a reporter’s question:
He concluded that, “This is not a neutral kind of examination” — again questioning the basis on which suspicions of pro-Kiev forces appeared to have been superficially ruled out from the start.
“I don’t think a very highly disciplined party is responsible for launching the missile,” he added, according to Australia’s ABC.
MH17 reconstruction, via Reuters Russia has also rejected the conclusions of the European JIT report, saying the missile that struck the civilian airliner was manufactured in the Soviet Union in 1986, and was part of the Ukrainian army arsenal at the time of the shoot down.
- "Extreme Vetting" Begins: U.S. Visa Applicants Must Now Turn Over Their Social Media History
The Trump administration has implemented a new policy, effective Friday, that asks most US visa applicants to provide information on their use of social media. Even temporary visitors will be required to list their social media identifiers in a drop-down menu, along with other personal information, when applying according to The Hill. Applicants for visas will be given the option to say that they don’t use social media, but if they are found to be lying, they could face “serious immigration consequences”, according to a U.S. Department of State official.
A spokesperson for the Department of State said: “This is a critical step forward in establishing enhanced vetting of foreign nationals seeking entry into the United States. As we’ve seen around the world in recent years, social media can be a major forum for terrorist sentiment and activity. This will be a vital tool to screen out terrorists, public safety threats, and other dangerous individuals from gaining immigration benefits and setting foot on U.S. soil.”
These identifiers will be incorporated into more traditional background checks and examined against watchlists that are generated by the US government. In the future, applicants are also going to be required to disclose more extensive information on their travel history. These two changes result from a March 2017 executive order targeting “extreme vetting”, issued by President Trump. The state department had since noted its intent to implement the policy in March 2018.
The order is partly the result of the deadly shooting of 14 people in San Bernardino, California in 2015. The Obama administration faced criticism after the shooting since the shooter’s wife, Tashfeen Malik, had declared “terrorist sympathies” on social media before she was granted a U.S. visa.
Trump’s executive order is called “Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States.”
- Police To Use TSA-Style Scanners To Spy On People In Public Places
TSA-style body scanners are coming to public spaces, and that should scare the hell out of everyone.
If you thought the NYPD’s Z-Backscatter vans and police mini-Z’s were intrusive, you have not seen anything yet.
Soon, nowhere will be safe from Big Brother’s prying eyes, as police prepare to use HEXWAVE to spy on people in public spaces.
Last week the Salt Lake Tribune revealed that the Utah Attorney General and law enforcement are partnering with Liberty Defense, a 3D image scanning company that makes its money from scanning the public in real-time. (3D means capturing rich information (size, shape, depth) about the detection space. It can detect any material that has a physical form.)
Let’s start with their name — calling yourself Liberty Defense is an affront to liberty-minded Americans who do not want to be secretly spied on by Big Brother. Their tag line “Protecting Communities And Preserving Peace of Mind” is the exact opposite of what this device does.
Any device that is used to spy on the public is just that: a surveillance device. It is not a Defense of our Liberty.
As Fox Now 13 reported, police will use Liberty Defense’s, HEXWAVE to spy on people at mass gatherings like concerts, malls and stadiums.
“HEXWAVE could be deployed at mass gatherings like concerts, malls, stadiums, public transit stops and government buildings” Bill Riker, Liberty Defense’s CEO, said.
Over the past two years, I have warned people that TSA-style body scanners were turning public transit into mirror images of our airports by watchlisting and flagging suspicious people. But I could never have imagined that law enforcement would be putting them in malls and places of worship.
If you do not believe Fox News, then perhaps you will believe Liberty Defense, which openly admits that they want governments and businesses to put their 3D scanners in every public venue.
If you are still not sure about law enforcement’s plans to scan the public, then perhaps you will take the Utah AG’s office word for it.
According to the AG’s “Memorandum of Understanding” police plan to use HEXWAVE to scan the public for two years, in but not limited to:
1. Sporting & Concert Arenas, Stadiums and Olympic Venues;
2. Primary, Secondary and Higher Education Facilities;
3. Places of Worship, Facilities and Property Owned by or Affiliated with Faith Entities;
4. Government Offices, Buildings and Facilities;
5. Amusement Parks; and
6. Entertainment Events, Conventions, Shows & Festivals
Police will also use HEXWAVE to spy on the public during “non-business hours to get system exposure to the full range of potential operating conditions to include environmental, frequency/volume of use or other operating conditions to which HEXWAVE would be subjected.”
What does that mean? It means that law enforcement will be measuring public resistance to being scanned 24/7.
Liberty Defense CEO Bill Riker, worked for the Department of Defense and General Dynamics which speaks volumes about their desire to put 3D scanners everywhere.
It is unclear if Liberty Defense is a Homeland Security/DoD front, but one thing is certain: their desire to turn public venues into extensions of the police state could not be any clearer.
The spread of surveillance devices helps private corporations and law enforcement track and identify everyone; it does absolutely nothing to stop terrorism.
We must stop the spread of TSA-style body scanners before they are put in public transportation, convenient stores, public parks, etc.
- Police Identify Virginia Beach Shooter, Victims As Death Toll Climbs To 13
Police in Virginia Beach have delivered a more complete picture of Friday afternoon’s tragic shooting at a municipal building that has left 13 people dead, including the shooter, and four people injured, including a police officer who was reportedly saved by his bullet-proof vest.
During a Saturday morning news conference, Va. Beach Police Chief James Cervera identified the gunman as DeWayne Craddock, a civil engineer who was a 15-year employee of the city’s public utilities department. Craddock was armed with a .45 caliber handgun, and died after a long gun fight with police. Craddock died after a lengthy shootout with police. The weapon he used had been purchased legally, as Craddock had no criminal record to speak of.
Cervera also refused to speculate about a motive.
DeWayne Craddock
Craddock joined the army national guard after graduating from Denbigh High School in nearby Newport News, Virginia, in 1996. During his time in the national guard, he received basic military training and advanced individual training at Fort Sill in Oklahoma.
He eventually graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Old Dominion University, and worked a private firm for a few years before joining the town.
City Manager Dave Hansen said he had worked with Craddock for years. Others pointed out that his name frequently appeared on city notices.
“I have worked with most of them for many years,” said Dave Hansen, Virginia Beach City Manager. “We want you to know who they were so in the weeks to come you will learn what they meant to all of us, to their friends, to their families, and to their co-workers. They leave a void that we will never be able to fill.”
Craddock’s neighbors in the modest Va. Beach neighborhood where he had lived for at least 10 years told NBC News that he was quiet, mostly kept to himself, and that he was “jacked” from spending lots of time at the gym.
People who live near Craddock said police swarmed the small neighborhood of modest townhomes in Virginia Beach on Friday where some said he had lived for at least 10 years.
Several neighbors said Craddock was clean cut, a member of the neighborhood association board and spent time lots of time at the gym. But they also said he mostly kept to himself, especially after his wife left him some number of years ago.
Angela Scarborough, who lives in the neighborhood, said “he was very quiet. He would just wave.”
At one time, Craddock was married. But his wife apparently left him abruptly a few years back.
She said she knew his wife, but she left some time ago. “She just left,” Scarborough said. “Didn’t let us know or anything.”
“I’m very saddened because this is a great neighborhood,” Scarborough said. “It’s very sad to know that that’s the way he decided to resolve the situation. It’s just something I can’t believe.”
She added: “I would speak to him and he would speak back, but conversation-wise, I never had a conversation with him.”
Another neighbor said Craddock appeared to be awake at all hours of the night, occasionally dropping heavy objects and making other noises that sometimes disturbed his neighbors.
Finally, police have released the names of Craddock’s victims. 11 were city employees who worked with Craddock. The 12th was a contractor who was in the office applying for a permit. The full list can be found below:
The 11 city employees who died were identified as Laquita C. Brown of Chesapeake, Tara Welch Gallagher of Virginia Beach, Mary Louise Gayle of Virginia Beach, Alexander Mikhail Gusev of Virginia Beach, Katherine A. Nixon of Virginia Beach, Richard H. Nettleton of Norfolk, Christopher Kelly Rapp of Powhatan, Ryan Keith Cox of Virginia Beach, Joshua A. Hardy of Virginia Beach, Michelle “Missy” Langer of Virginia Beach and Robert “Bobby” Williams of Chesapeake. The 12th victim, Herbert “Bert” Snelling of Virginia Beach, was a contractor filling a permit.
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