As expected the Pearl video was taken off Yahoo Geocities..I’ll be putting it here or up at another Geocities site or somewhere else entirely. As a free people we must oppose all government intimidation and censorship. The Freedom of Speech is always tested by situations like this. This will have to wait until I get home tonight. I didn’t actually have a copy at home, so I had to email to my home address. There will be a link here.
General
24
May 02
Government Spooks Dropped the Ball
From the LA Times on FBI/CIA incompetence. Funny how John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial airlines when these memos were floating around. He had warning, but didn’t think the American public should enjoy the same privilege:
Agent Kenneth Williams suspected that a group of about eight Middle Eastern men in the Phoenix area were not merely studying at flight schools but also had shown a keen interest in airplane engineering and airport construction and security, according to sources familiar with the closed-door briefings Williams gave members of Congress this week.
- Bush Opposes Independent September 11 Probe
- Senate Adds ‘War on Terrorism’ to Trade Bill
- This amendment, introduced by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), has added a provision to the bill which will require that any country within this U.S./South American trade agreement, which does not support the U.S. ‘War on Terrorism’, will not receive the special trade status with the U.S. granted in the bill.
This amounts to nothing more than economically bribing and strong arming South American countries into helping the U.S. war machine attack and dominate the planet.
It is now DOUBLY important that the Senate version of the Andean Trade Act (H.R. 3009), must be struck down in BOTH its Republican and Democrat forms.
- FBI Agents Charged With Extortion, Manipulating Stocks
- US Looks to Africa for Oil, Troops to Get It No wonder people all over the world hate our country. People over there dying of aids and starvation and we’re stopping by to take some oil.
24
May 02
Right-wing Rag Run by Rev.
This is too funny. I forgot Rev. Sun Moon owns the conservative The Washington Times. This is kind of like how Rupert Murdoch owner of right-wing Fox News is a big supporter of the oppressive Communist Chinese government.
All I want is some consistency. Is this too much to ask?
At Tuesday night’s celebration of the Washington Times’ 20th anniversary, its founder, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, gripped a podium at the Washington Hilton and delivered an impassioned, hour-long evangelical sermon in Korean saying he established the newspaper “in response to heaven’s direction.”
During the sermon, he set the course for the Times’ next 10 years: “The Washington Times is responsible to let the American people know about God.” Later, he added: “The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world.” …
The charges were not helped by allegations of former reporters, who say stories were changed to favor conservatives; by editors who quit, claiming church tampering; or by obscurity surrounding the paper’s finances. It has been years since many of those incidents, though, and five years since Moon’s last mass wedding in Washington, which inevitably pulled the Times into scrutiny. For the past few years, the Times has enjoyed a relatively Moon-free zone.
Obviously, objectivity is nearly impossible. The best course is to dislike both sides.
24
May 02
FBI bullies ISPs to stop Pearl video
I’ve seen the Pearl execution video. As soon as I can I’ll make it available for downloading just because I don’t think the government should have any right to stop me from viewing what I want. Certainly, as horrible and disgusting as the video is you can see worse things on rotten.com, and it does reflect the horrors of violence. I think if we were confronted with the gruesome images of warfare and terrorism more often violent military or terrorist actions would lose support. Pearl’s Pakistani executioners certainly displayed an inhuman degree of brutality and cold-bloodedness. I’m curious as to why the FBI would try to stop this video when it does everything to galavanize the public against violent Islamic extremists. From the Wired News article:
Ted Hickman, the owner of Pro Hosters, said the FBI insisted the video be removed immediately and that agents also wanted the identity of the person who runs the ogrish.com site.
“I said that of course I can’t release anything without a subpoena,” Hickman said. “They said they needed the content offline as soon as possible. I called back and I spoke to both him and his supervisor. Both assured me that it was illegal to post anything related to obscenity.”
Sandra Carroll, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Newark office, said “the local office did investigate certain aspects” of the Internet distribution of the Pearl video.
Carroll said she was not that familiar with the investigation, and only knew that “some type of law was quoted in terms of a violation.”
Carroll said she would investigate what charges, if any, could be filed.
The contours of the FBI’s investigation are anything but clear. A 1996 federal obscenity law exists, but it only applies to work that “appeals to the prurient interest” — and Pearl’s video, as disturbing as it might be, is hardly sexual.
Until I can decide whether to put the video up on the website you can download it here. You should be forewarned that this is a video of a violent execution. Pearl is forced to tell the camera that he is a jew and that his parents are zionists and then he is killed and his corpse beheaded. This is powerful and brutal stuff. You might be better off not viewing it, but that decision is YOURS alone and not a decision of the government or the FBI. This is what goes on in this crazy world which has no respect for the sanctity of life or for liberty and brotherhood.
Seeking to spin the story Wired News received the following from an FBI spokesperson ie. a professional liar.
(Editor’s Note: After this story was edited, FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll called Wired News to say the bureau was merely giving advice to websites hosting the Pearl video — and was not threatening prosecution. She said: “Apparently the conversation with [FBI agent] Jay Kanetkar has been similar to other conversations with other website hosts, appealing to have various of those photos removed. Apparently there is another website here in the U.S. which Jay did not name, both of which were more than happy to voluntarily remove the photos without question.”) Julia Scheeres contributed to this report.
24
May 02
Thinking about joining the military?
The NY Times had a story today about how the Pentagon recently released documents detailing their spraying of nerve agents and biological agents on US servicemen. Classy. You join up for a shitty job in the military thinking you’re doing your patriotic duty and then your own government purposely acts with disregard for your life by using you as a human guinea pig.
Of the six tests, three used sarin, a nerve agent, or VX, a nerve gas; one used staphylococcal enterotoxin B, known as SEB, a biological toxin; one used a simulant believed to be harmless but subsequently found to be dangerous; and one used a nonpoisonous simulant.
18
May 02
Busting copy-protection
This german website details how to foil annoying audio copy-protection schemes using black markers and post-it notes. w00t!
18
May 02
‘Pirates’ get book thrown at them
As many people know government is the shadow of business, and when the corporate masters come calling the government gets in line. Instead of doing what’s right for all Americans they serve the interests of the powerful few. Members of DrinkOrDie one of the more prominent warez groups were sentenced to extreme prison sentences of 33-44 months in prison. This is disappointing in that rapists routinely get sentences lighter than this. Obviously, the intellectual property barons are eager to send a message to violators of copyright law. I have news for you. If you listen to mp3s, record tv shows, skip commercials, or borrow library books you may soon be a criminal. What can you do about it? Well, most importantly support people who oppose crap like this like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU. Also, try not to waste money on mofos like Disney and any other members of the MPAA. Basically, keep your money spending in check. They can’t live without you.
18
May 02
Dumpster Diving
An article here has some good general information on dumpster diving. I used to go dumpster diving when I was a kid. Got some books with the covers ripped off and some movie posters. This one time I even found an INVISIBLE DOG! Okay, well, to be honest it wasn’t really invisible..it was just a leash with a wire through it to look like you were walking an invisible dog. It was just about the coolest thing any kid could find.
18
May 02
Military Spending Clock
“The above figure represents U.S. military spending since the start of Fiscal Year 2001. Every minute the United States spends another $589,802 on the military, 51.3% of the discretionary federal budget.”
When I just checked it, it was up to 504 billion and counting. Watch money being pissed away on better ways to kill poor and innocent folk. View the Military Spending Clock.