U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Iran is prepared to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States in response to perceived threats from America and its allies, the U.S. spy chief said Tuesday.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said in prepared testimony that an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington that was uncovered last year reflects an aggressive new willingness within the upper ranks of the Islamist republic to authorize attacks against the United States.

Highlights from a series of potentially volatile incidents

That plot “shows that some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime,” Clapper said in the testimony, which was submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee in advance of a threat assessment hearing Tuesday. “We are also concerned about Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests overseas.”

The assessment signals a potentially dire new direction in the adversarial relationship between the United States and Iran, at a time when there are indications that a covert campaign is already underway to thwart Iran’s alleged ambition to develop a nuclear weapon.

Clapper’s warning about Iran was delivered as part of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual overview of the nation’s most serious national security concerns. As the hearing got underway, Clapper signaled that the United States is seeking to avoid a violent confrontation with Iran, instead pushing for more and more sanctions while also monitoring the possibility of a preemptive strike by Israel.

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Man gets the stun gun treatment for walking his dogs off-leash.

A Montara man walking two lapdogs off leash was hit with an electric-shock gun by a National Park Service ranger after allegedly giving a false name and trying to walk away, authorities said Monday.

The park ranger encountered Gary Hesterberg with his two small dogs Sunday afternoon at Rancho Corral de Tierra, which was recently incorporated into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, said Howard Levitt, a spokesman for the park service.

Hesterberg, who said he didn’t have identification with him, allegedly gave the ranger a false name, Levitt said.

The ranger, who wasn’t identified, asked Hesterberg to remain at the scene, Levitt said. He tried several times to leave, and finally the ranger “pursued him a little bit and she did deploy her” electric-shock weapon, Levitt said. “That did stop him.” . . .

Witnesses said the use of a stun gun and the arrest seemed excessive for someone walking two small dogs off leash.

“It was really scary,” said Michelle Babcock, who said she had seen the incident as she and her husband were walking their two border collies. “I just felt so bad for him.”

Babcock said Hesterberg had repeatedly asked the ranger why he was being detained. She didn’t answer him, Babcock said.

After shocking him, the ranger did at least call paramedics. Then she arrested him. The park only recently started requiring dogs to be on a leash. Apparently, the ranger was merely trying to provide the man a service.

The ranger was trying to educate residents of the rule, Levitt said.

Lesson learned, I guess. Note too that the ranger is the only person in the story not mentioned by name.

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Think SOPA and PIPA have been buried?  Think again.  The federal government is NOT going to give up until they get full congressional approval on internet censorship measures and open legal license to enforce those measures.  For now, they have relegated their attacks to a relatively small number of sites, mostly dealing in downloadable media.  However, as SOPA went down the tubes due to mass civil fury, the feds have come back more quietly with the ACTA, an international treaty which would actually create an unelected unaccountable regulating body like the WTO to govern the spread of “copyrighted material”.  This is nonsense of course.  The true goal of SOPA, PIPA, and now the ACTA, is to destroy the creative commons known as the internet and replace it with a bureaucratically controlled facsimile.  The issue of copyright infringement is a civil affair, not a federal one, and should have nothing to do with the federal government, but they have latched onto creative piracy as a false rationalization for web regulation.  This cannot be allowed to stand.  Once this kind of control is given strong enough precedence, things will never be the same.  The internet and the alternative media is all we have left to fight the information war, and it must be protected at all costs.

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There was found an irrational fear of imaginary Witches, now we have irrational fear of propagandized terrorists. (911, preemptive wars)  Then torture was used to extract confessions, now “enhanced interrogation”( torture) is used to extract confessions (Patriot Acts). Then a person could be arrested and sent to the dungeon for undetermined lengths without due process of law, now a person can be arrested and detained indefinitely without due process (Military Commission Act nullifying Habeas Corpus and the National Defense Authorization Act 2012)

Then the military was used to enforce laws, now the military can be used to enforce domestic laws, as well as martial law (John Warner National Defense Authorization Act 2007).  Then a person could be put to death on the whim of the ruler, now a person can be assassinated on the whim of the ruler (Obama/Anwar al-Awaki).

Then the ruler had his own court and was never found guilty of anything, now the ruler is never even questioned by his court, therefore never found guilty of anything (Bush/illegal war, Obama/illegal war and eligibility for presidency).  Then the ruler lived in lavish luxury, the finest clothing, jewelry, cuisine, none of which he earned, now the ruler lives in even more lavish luxury doing nothing to earn it honestly.

Then the ruler travelled by the finest of carriages, noblest of steeds, surrounded by knights/guards of the fiercest, now the ruler flies in numerous extravagant, finely appointed Jets almost on a daily basis, surrounded by untold guards with the highest tech, expensive equipment imaginable.

Then the ruler entertained with lavish, extravagant parties and sorties, now the ruler entertains with unbelievable abandon and piles of confiscated cash.

All this was and is done with total disdain for the serfs who provide the wherewithal that makes that lifestyle possible.  The serfs were/are to ask no questions, submit to whatever indignities they are subjected (TSA), fork over their hard-earned money (IRS), send their children to fight senseless wars, and if they don’t, they will be punished severely, even unto death.

Welcome to the new Dark Ages.

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A clandestine Washington visit by Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo, in which he privately met with multiple Senators and other top officials, was revealed in testimony  during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence attended by CIA director David Petraeus and Intel Chief James Clapper.

Apparently Pardo and the Senators who secretly met with him believe it imperative to met in secret to discuss Americas backing of an Israeli strike on Iran regardless of the opinion of the American people.

Israeli mainstream media giant Haaretz recently reported on these startling revelations:

Mossad chief Tamir Pardo held secret talks with top U.S. officials in recent days, cursory comments made during a public Senate hearing indicated on Tuesday.

The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel.

During the meeting, Feinstein asked Clapper whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, with the top U.S. intelligence official answering that he would rather discuss the issue behind closed doors.

Feinstein then indicated that she had met Mossad chief Pardo earlier in the week in Washington, with Petraeus adding that he too met Pardo and cited what he called Israel’s growing concern over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

During the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, US Intel Chief James Clapper also attempted to change the terrorism narrative, shifting the blame from al Qaeda to Iran.

In an article published by Kurt Nimmo for Infowars.com, this fact was outlined in detail as well as completely debunked:

“We are also concerned about Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests overseas. Iran’s willingness to sponsor future attacks in the United States or against our interests abroad probably will be shaped by Tehran’s evaluation of the costs it bears for the plot against the ambassador as well as Iranian leaders’ perceptions of U.S. threats against the regime,” Clapper testified.

Other alleged terrorist threats were sidelined during the hearing, including discussion of al-Qaeda, which officials claim “has been badly degraded.”

It is clear that the war drums have intensified and the probability of an attack on Iran by US and Israeli forces has increased exponentially.

Consider this – Right now a nuclear submarine is heading to the Persian Gulf and at least 100,000 US troops are ready to take part in a ground attack on Iran at any moment.

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Recently, I published an article covering the January 22-26multi-agency exercises being conducted in the Los Angeles area.

As I outlined in the article, this is in fact part of a broader trend of joint military-police drills (which often include other agencies, hence the “multi-agency” label) that have been occurring across the United States.

It seems hard to ignore the fact that the armed forces of the United States are training for urban warfare, not urban warfare in the Middle East, but instead here in our own nation.

This is becoming painfully clear due to the fact that the military trains for what they think they’re going to do.

If they are planning to fight in the desert, they would train in the desert and obviously if they are going to be fighting in a metropolitan setting in the United States, they would train in an American city.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what we are witnessing: increasing amount of training in urban American environments.

The Los Angeles drill is just a microcosmic example of this, and one of the more disturbing developments is the announcement of a “mock city roughly the size of downtown San Diego” which has been erected recently at the Twentynine Palms military base.

This is located northeast of San Diego and cost the taxpayer $170 million with the intention of training American military forces to wage urban warfare.

According to the Marine Corps, the facility boasts a staggering 1,560 buildings.

Read the rest by clicking here.

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Let’s start this out with an attention grabber.  Out there, somewhere is a photograph of Osama bin Laden and George H. W. Bush, shaking hands in the White House.  It exists.  There is this and more, so much more, that would make America’s heads spin.

The actual trained journalists around me beat this into my head. OK, here it is.

Those who follow rumors, which means every single one of us, know that former President George H. W. Bush worked with the bin Ladens, a wealthy and respected Saudi family that invests in a group of military companies called The Carlyle Group, headed by many former world leaders.

When Osama bin Laden, the short haired young Saudi millionaire CIA agent visited Bush in the White House, he came there, not just as an important part of our intelligence infrastructure at the end of the Cold War, but as a good friend of George H. W. Bush, a man who was  practically an uncle to him.

Wait a minute, wouldn’t that make George “W” Bush Osama bin Laden’s brother?  Well, not a real brother, not like Jeb anyway. Bin Laden was taller and better looking and, as the CIA transcript below indicates, certainly better educated and more honest.  Be sure to read the only certified statement ever made by Osama bin Laden about 9/11 and compare it to what you are told he had said.

Then rememer the last 10 years how many times you have been told bin Laden claimed credit for 9/11.  Each of those video and audio recordings were presented to news agencies by proven agents of the Israeli government and have, after examination, all been shown to be counterfeit.

The news has refused to report either of these facts.

Read more at this link.

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Over and over again in the Middle East, we see the same pattern
repeating itself:

An oil-rich country takes control of its own oil fields and cuts out
the Western oil companies.

What follows as the night the day, the western countries overthrow the
offending government and reinstall their favorite oil companies.

This has happened in both Iran and Iraq.

Right now, the U.S. is threatening Iran with war on grounds that it is
making a nuclear weapons.

To begin with, Iran is a peaceful country. It hasn’t started a war in
hundreds of years.  It only fought when Iraq invaded it in 1980.

In that war, Iraq used chemical weapons that it got from the United
States—so here we have an example of an American attack by proxy on
Iran without any provocation.

But the United States attacked Iran on its own without using
intermediaries in 1953 and overthrew the legitimate government.

Most Americans don’t know about that overthrow. It was engineered by
the Central Intelligence Agency.

Since Iran did not even have a nuclear facility in 1953, what could
have been the excuse for the attack?

The answer is oil. Iran kicked out the British oil company it felt was
cheating it out of a fair profit for the oil it was extracting and
took the oil field over from the British.

The British tried to overthrow the “insolent” Iran government but
failed. Iran kicked the British spies out of the country.

So Britain asked the American CIA to overthrow the government and the
U.S. did, deposing Prime Minister Mossadegh and putting a king on the
throne.

And guess who got the contracts? The western oil companies:  Gulf,
Standard Oil of New Jersey, Texaco and Mobil—got a 40 percent share
of the new National Iranian Oil Company.

And what happened in Iran in 1953 was also going to happen in Iraq in
2003—- the U.S. attacked Iraq after which the western oil companies
got the plum contracts.

“Prior to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, US and other
western oil companies were all but completely shut out of Iraq’s oil
market,” industry analyst Antonia Juhasz told Al Jazeera wire service.
“But thanks to the invasion and occupation, the companies are now back
inside Iraq and producing oil there for the first time since being
forced out of the country in 1973.”

And, adds Business Week magazine, “Western producers like BP,
ExxonMobil, and Shell are enjoying their best access to Iraq’s
southern oil fields since 1972,” 1972 was the year Saddam Hussein
nationalized Iraq’s oil fields. Another big winner of the U.S.
invasion: Hunt Oil Co., of Dallas, Tex., run by  Ray Hunt,  President
George W. Bush’s friend and fund-raiser.

Oil industry analyst Juhasz says that ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell
aggressively lobbied their governments “to ensure that the invasion
would result in an Iraq open to foreign oil companies” and that “they
succeeded.” Sure they succeeded. Because the Pentagon works
hand-in-glove with the oil industry.

So what we have here is history repeating itself. Whenever Iraq or
Iran have been attacked by the U.S. in the past it’s been over oil.
That’s the record. Those are facts. But if you like you can believe
the U.S. and Israel are threatening to attack only because they’re
trying to stop Iran from getting a nuke. That’s an echo of President
George Bush’s lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

There’s an inscription from Shakespeare etched on the National
Archives building in downtown Washington, D.C.  It says, “What’s past
is prologue.”  Shakespeare was right. Better believe it. And history
will repeat itself with a new U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran unless the
American people rise up and declare: “No blood for oil.”   I’m
Sherwood Ross. Good night to every one of you—and, oh, good
luck.

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CBS News‘ Scott Pelley appears to be one of the very few American journalists bothered by, or even interested in, the fact that President Obama has asserted and exercised the power to target U.S. citizens for execution-by-CIA without a shred of due process and far from any battlefield. It was Pelley who deftly interrogated the GOP presidential candidates at a November debate about the propriety of due-process-free assassinations, prompting Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Michele Bachmann to applaud President Obama for assassinating U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki (just as Rick Perry, Dick and Liz Cheney, and Bill Kristol had done). Last night, Pelley did the same when he interviewed Defense Secretary and former CIA chief Leon Panetta on 60 Minutes. It’s well worth watching this three-minute clip because, although Panetta doesn’t say much that is new (he simply asserts the standard slogans and unproven assertions that Obama defenders on this topic always assert), watching a top Obama official, under decent questioning, defend the power to target U.S. citizens for assassination viscerally conveys the rigidly authoritarian mindset driving all of this:

Read the rest at this link.

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Freddie began increasing these bets dramatically in late 2010, the same time that the company was making it harder for homeowners to get out of such high-interest mortgages.

No evidence has emerged that these decisions were coordinated. The company is a key gatekeeper for home loans but says its traders are “walled off” from the officials who have restricted homeowners from taking advantage of historically low interest rates by imposing higher fees and new rules.

Freddie’s charter calls for the company to make home loans more accessible. Its chief executive, Charles Haldeman Jr., recently told Congress that his company is “helping financially strapped families reduce their mortgage costs through refinancing their mortgages.”

But the trades, uncovered for the first time in an investigation by ProPublica and NPR, give Freddie a powerful incentive to do the opposite, highlighting a conflict of interest at the heart of the company. In addition to being an instrument of government policy dedicated to making home loans more accessible, Freddie also has giant investment portfolios and could lose substantial amounts of money if too many borrowers refinance.

“We were actually shocked they did this,” says Scott Simon, who as the head of the giant bond fund PIMCO’s mortgage-backed securities team is one of the world’s biggest mortgage bond traders. “It seemed so out of line with their mission.”

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