Dave Emory’s entire lifetime of work is available on a flash drive that can be obtained here. (The flash drive includes the anti-fascist books available on this site.)
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Introduction: We continue our analysis of the players in Eddie the Friendly Spook’s psy-op. In this program, we analyze the political views and backing of Snowden himself, an exponent of the political, economic and social ideology of the 1%. Snowden is deeply involved with the milieu of Ron and Rand Paul, the former being his Presidential candidate of choice. This broadcast highlights the virulent fascism that is part and parcel to “The Paulistinian Libertarian Organization.
In this post, we update the gathering domestic fascist phalanx mustering on behalf of Eddie the Friendly Spook and, in turn, positioning to hand the 2014 and 2016 elections to the Nazified GOP. Expect to see L’Affaire Snowden play into the Republican theme of Obama/Democrats as sponsors of “big government” etc., etc.
Although a congressional coalition of so-called progressives and right-wingers is gathering to take measures to “rein-in” NSA vacuum cleaning operations, the genesis, substance and intent of this “op” is undeniably and completely fascist.
It is only too typical of the so-called “progressive” sector to ally themselves with those who intend their destruction. We will discuss this more in our summary analysis of this operation.
Chronicling the fascists, white supremacists, Nazis and Underground Reich forces to which the elements in our analysis track back, we noted that Snowden’s Presidential candidate of choice was crypto-Nazi Ron Paul. Paul’s super PAC was capitalized by apparent Underground Reich operative Peter Thiel, whose Palantir firm developed the PRISM software.
NOTE: Palantir officially claims that “their PRISM” is NOT the same PRISM in the focal point of the Snowden/NSA imbroglio. We feel this claim is laughable, frankly. The notion that the intelligence services are using TWO counter-terror software programs with identical names is not credible. Had a company developed a counter-terror software program for use by the intelligence community and called it “PRISM,” there would have been litigation. The major tech companies are NOTHING if not litigious, and Thiel and company have PLENTY of money!
Recently, Snowden’s father Lon has joined the fray, joining forces with elements associated with both Ron Paul and his son, Rand–a bird of the same feather as his Nazi father.
The political front taking shape against Obama at one level, and U.S. internet and media business at another, is inextricably linked with the Nazi/fascist milieu of Ron Paul.
Program Highlights Include:
- Ron Paul’s son Rand Paul is leading the political charge over the Snowden “disclosures” (note the quotes.) Rand Paul is lining up as a GOP Presidential hopeful for 2016, looking to capitalize on libertarian populism as a vehicle for achieving victory. Again, expect to see L’Affaire Snowden play into the Republican theme of Obama/Democrats as sponsors of “big government” etc., etc. (Both the above-mentioned Peter Thiel and Glenn Greenwald–Snowden’s leaking journalist of choice–network with the Koch brothers funded Cato Institute, an epicenter of libertarian ideology.) (See text excerpts below.)
- We have noted in past discussion that one of the goals of this “op” is to alienate younger, more idealistic voters from the Democratic party. That appears to be one of Rand Paul’s stratagems in his campaign bid. (See text excerpts below.)
- Rand Paul’s key staffer Jack Hunter is a former chairman of The League of the South, a racist neo-Confederate organization that advocates the secession of the South and has links to the milieu behind the assassination of Martin Luther King. Sarah Palin’s political milieu also has links to the League of the South. (See text excerpts below.)
- Jack Hunter is the former blogger for–Ron Paul, Snowden’s Nazi Presidential candidate of choice. (See text excerpts below.)
- Snowden’s father Lon Snowden has formed a political organization with Bruce Fein, a Ron Paul backer in 2008. (See text excerpts below.)
- Bruce Fein is also, apparently, the lawyer for Edward Snowden as well, handling legal maneuvering for Eddie the Friendly Spook while he is in Russia. (See text excerpts below.)
- Fein was a counsel for Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign in 2012. (See text excerpts below.)
- Fein’s association with Lon Snowden appears to have derived from the elder Snowden’s networking with Rand Paul’s organization.
- Fein also networked with the German-based Schiller Institute, run by the fascist organization of Lyndon LaRouche. (See text excerpts below.)
- Fein also works on behalf of Turkish interests, acting in conjunction with forces alleged by Sibel Edmonds to be involved with money laundering on behalf of interests that include Al-Qaeda. The probability is strong that Fein operates in conjunction with the Erdogan government and–possibly–Fetullah Gulen. (See text excerpts below.)
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange–joined at the hip with Eddie the Friendly Spook–has endorsed both Ron and Rand Paul.
- In a post, we note that Ron Paul will be attending a fund-raiser for a fascist splinter sect of Catholicism that endorses Holocaust denial, claims the Jews are trying to exterminate Gentiles and denies that the earth revolves around the sun. Paul’s association with this group goes back to 1998. (See text excerpts below.)
- Another post fleshes out Ron Paul’s racist associates and views. (See text excerpts below.)
- Yet another entry details some of the anti-democratic views of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, as well as its profound links to the neo-Confederate movement. Eddie Snowden’s economic views derive from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. (See text excerpts below.)
- We note that Walter Block, another of Paul’s supporters and a resident scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute is not only supportive of the neo-Confederate movement but advanced a theory of “voluntary slavery.” Voluntary slavery could be viewed as the ultimate collateralized debt obligation! (See text excerpts below.)
- The Von Mises Institute honored Otto von Habsburg, heir to the Autro-Hungarian Empire. His son Karl heads the UNPO, which (like the League of the South) seeks the fragmentation of the United States.
- Otto von Habsburg was a fascist, part of the Freedom for Rudolf Hess Society (Hess was one of Hitler’s top aides.) (See text excerpts below.)
The New York Times; 6/11/2013; p. A13.
. . . . It is not clear how Mr. Snowden managed to extract the secret documents, and the portrait of his transformation from a trusted National Security Agency contractor to a leaker is still impressionistic.
Last year, he donated money to the campaign of Ron Paul the libertarian ‑leaning Republican presidential candidate who was long critical of government’s growing reach. . . .
“Edward Snowden Better off in Russia than US, His Father Says” [AP]; The Guardian; 7/26/2013.
The father of the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden says his son has been so vilified by the Obama administration and members of Congress that he is now better off staying in Russia.
Lon Snowden had been working behind the scenes with lawyers to try to find a way his son could get a fair trial in the US. Edward Snowden has been charged in federal court with violating the Espionage Act by leaking details of NSA surveillance. . . .
. . . . Lon Snowden and his lawyer, Bruce Fein, released a letter on Friday asking Obama to dismiss the criminal charges against Edward Snowden and to support legislation “to remedy the NSA surveillance abuses he revealed”. . . .
. . . . Lon Snowden and Fein are starting a nonprofit group called the Defense of the Constitution Foundation to promote the issues his son has raised. . . .
Attorneys Alan P. Dye and Bruce Fein of Washington, D.C. have joined Congressman Ron Paul’s 2008
Presidential Exploratory Committee. Constitutional attorney Joseph Becker
of Denver, Colorado is the committee’s chief legal advisor. . . .
Last month, on August 23, Bruce Fein became Ron Paul’s Chief Legal Advisor. In other words, Ron Paul became Bruce Fein’s client. . . .
In a curious development, NSA traitor Edward Snowden’s father is being represented by attorney Bruce Fein, who appeared with Senator Rand Paul at his anti-NSA news conference on June 13. Fein says “someone in Senator [Rand] Paul’s office” recommended him to Edward Snowden’s father, Lonnie. . . .
. . . . .But his involvement in the Snowden case isn’t the only controversial aspect of Fein’s recent career moves. A well-respected constitutional lawyer whose books include American Empire: Before the Fall, Fein has appeared at two conferences this year sponsored by the Schiller Institute, a group started by political extremist and convicted felon Lyndon LaRouche. . . .
Edward J. Snowden’s father and the family’s lawyer said Sunday that they had obtained visas to visit the former intelligence contractor in Russia and indicated that they would encourage him to return to the United States to face federal charges for revealing secret American surveillance programs to journalists, but only if acceptable trial conditions could be negotiated.
“What I would like,” said Lon Snowden, the father, “is for this to be vetted in open court, for the American people to have all the facts.” He said he favored his son’s return if a fair trial was assured. As for a possible plea deal, he said, “I’m not open to it, and that’s what I’ll share with my son.”
Appearing on the ABC News program “This Week,” Lon Snowden and the family’s lawyer, Bruce Fein, declined to say when they would visit, to avoid what Mr. Fein called a news media “frenzy,” but they said it would be soon.
In a criminal complaint filed in June, federal prosecutors charged Edward Snowden with theft, “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and willfully disclosing classified communications intelligence “to an unauthorized person.” The second and third charge were brought under the Espionage Act of 1917.
“We intend to visit with Edward and suggest criminal defense attorneys who’ve got experience in Espionage Act prosecutions,” said Mr. Fein, a well-known Washington lawyer who specializes in constitutional and international law. Such lawyers, he added, are uncommon, since prosecutions under the Espionage Act have been rare historically.
Mr. Fein noted that he has laid out his concerns about a potential trial, including its venue, in a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., but he insisted that the terms he discussed were not “ultimatums” but rather negotiating points. . . .
“Rand Paul: Youth with Me on NSA Issue” by: Jessie Markel; campaignforliberty.org; 6/24/2013.
Last week, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said, “I think as we have a fuller debate on these discussions you’re going to find that not only Republicans are with me on this issue, the youth are.” As a former Young Americans for Liberty Chairman for the State of Florida, I know that Rand Paul is 100% correct.
The youth in this country have an appreciation for privacy, especially Internet privacy, which the “national security over privacy” advocates don’t seem to understand. Young people are skeptics as to just how much safer going through our Internet searches of cats in funny hats and our Instagram pictures of food are making us. In a generation where everything is shared, young people certainly do not want the NSA reading their posts critical of ObamaCare and arming the Syrian “rebels.”
In a recent CNN/ORC International Poll, 61% of respondents said they disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling government surveillance of U.S. citizens (only 52% disapproved of President Bush in 2006, for comparison). If the poll had broken down into age groups, it’s likely the youth would have responded most negatively. . . .
Jack Hunter, a congressional aide to Sen. Rand Paul with a history of “neo-Confederate” and “pro-secessionist” views, has produced dozens of articles and video commentaries for The Daily Caller and appeared as what one Fox Business host termed a “regular” guest on that network. He also helped then-Sen. Jim DeMint (R‑SC), currently the president of The Heritage Foundation, write his most recent book.
The conservative Free Beacon reported today that Hunter, a “close” Rand Paul aide who also co-wrote the Kentucky Republican’s 2011 book, “spent years working as a pro-secessionist radio pundit and neo-Confederate activist ... Hunter was a chairman in the League of the South, which ‘advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern States from this forced union and the formation of a Southern republic.’” . . . .
. . . . Hunter still maintains a website, http://www.southernavenger.com, where he says he was the official blogger for the 2012 presidential campaign of former Rep. Ron Paul, R‑Texas, the father of the senator from Kentucky. . . .
“Bruce Fein & Turkey”; lukery.blogspot.com; 5/2/2009.
. . . . . Fein has another company called Bruce Fein & Associates, located at 1025 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 1000. Washington, D.C.. 20036, which incidentally shares that address with the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund — TALDF, where Bruce Fein is the main contact. A bunch of similar astro-trurf groups — including the Turkish Coalition of America, TCA — share the same address. Bruce Fein is ‘resident scholar’ at the Turkish Coalition of America. Fein’s Huffington Post bio also notes that he was previously ‘resident scholar’ at ATAA. According to Sibel Edmonds, the ATAA conducts “the dirty activities” of the Turkey/Israeli lobby — including delivering bribes and other forms of blackmail to congressmen like Hastert, Roy Blunt, Tom Lantos, Dan Burton and others. Phil Giraldi similarly fingers ATAA here.
Fein’s Huffington Post bio also notes that he has been “a consultant to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.” Isn’t that odd. Just last month I noted that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was at the heart of Sibel’s money laundering claims ‑and that the TRNC was also at the heart of money laundering operations for Central Asian dictators, terrorists like Osama Bin Laden, and “US government agencies,” “certain US government people,” “certain non-profit organizations in the US,” “certain US institutions including banking institutions,” and “certain US-based organizations.”
So, yeah, Bruce Fein is a ‘resident scholar’ at the Turkish Coalition of America, which, as Mizgin notes, “is closely linked to the Deep State and has created and founded an “academic” program to officially deny the Armenian genocide.” . . . .
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gave a strong endorsement to the libertarian wing of the GOP on Thursday, praising Sen. Rand Paul (R‑Ky.) and his father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R‑Texas), for their political views.
“[I] am a big admirer of Ron Paul and Rand Paul for their very principled positions in the U.S. Congress on a number of issues,” Assange said during a forum hosted by Campus Reform and transparency organization OurSay.org. “They have been the strongest supporters of the fight against the U.S. attack on WikiLeaks and on me in the U.S. Congress.
Similarly, they have been the strongest opponents of drone warfare and extrajudicial executions.”
Assange went on to commend the libertarian ideal of “non-violence” with regards to military engagements, the draft and tax collection. He then put forth an argument against both established political parties in Washington, claiming that nearly all Democrats had been “co-opted” by President Barack Obama’s administration, while Republicans were almost entirely “in bed with the war industry.”The current libertarian strain of political thought in the Republican Party was the “the only hope” for American electoral politics, Assange concluded. . . .
In a heated September 5th interview with MSNBC’s Alex Wagner, Former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, who is currently surfing a wave of mainstream media appearances due to his strong criticism of the push from the Obama Administration for U.S. military intervention in Syria, defended his planned September 11th, 2013 keynote address at a “gala dinner fundraiser” to be held during a controversial [also see 1, 2] conference organized by a fringe, schismatic Catholic organization accused of virulent anti-Semitism, the Fatima Center.
According to a new report, Ron Paul’s association with Fatima Center leaders, including Fatima Center head Father Nicholas Gruner — who has espoused Holocaust denial, traces back at least as far as 1998.
During the September 5th interview, MSNBC’s Wagner confronted Paul with the fact that the Fatima Center has been called a “hard-core anti-Semite group” and has in the past published writing suggesting that Jews should be stripped of certain civil rights — a suggestion also once made by one of the speakers, Father Paul Leonard Kramer, who will join Ron Paul at the upcoming Fatima Center “Path To Peace” conference to be held September 8th to 13th in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Former Congressman Paul responded to MSNBC correspondent Wagner’s challenge by flatly refusing to reconsider his planned appearance at the Fatima Center conference and by accusing Wagner of “Catholic bashing.”
Also joining Former Congressman Ron Paul (R‑TX) at the event will be speakers who have promoted Holocaust denial and portrayed global warming as a hoax that will be used to justify a Jewish and Israeli-led genocide of most of the Earth’s population, and who reject the long-established scientific fact that the Earth orbits the Sun.
Fatima Center head Father Nicholas Gruner, and other top leaders associated with the center, have for over two decades promoted claims that a global conspiracy of wealthy “apostate Jews” and Freemasons — who are alleged to have financed Hitler and the Nazis and hold a “Hitler-like doctrine of exterminating the gentile races and repopulating the Earth with their own kind” — is plotting to institute a “New World Order” global government under the command of the anti-Christ.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks far-right, racist and anti-Semitic groups, identifies the Fatima Center as part of the “‘radical traditionalist Catholic’ movement, [which is] perhaps the single largest group of hard-core anti-Semites in North America.” . . . .
“Top 10 Racist Ron Paul Friends, Supporters” by Casey Gane-McCalla”; News One; 12/27/2011.
. . . . 10. Willis Carto
Willis Carto is a holocaust denier, Hitler admirer and a white supremacist. A former campaigner for segregationist candidate George Wallace, Carto founded the National Alliance with William Pierce, the author of the “Turner Diaries,” which is credited for inspiring Timothy McVeigh. Carto founded the Populist Party in 1984 and ran David Duke as a presidential candidate. Carto also founded the American Free Press, which is labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), where Paul’s column runs. Paul has not sued Carto for running his column or explained how it wound up in a white supremacist publication. The New York Times writes that Paul used the subscription list to a white supremacist publication of Carto’s to solicit donations. . . .
. . . . 8. Don BlackDon Black is a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, a current member of the American Nazi Party, and the owner and operator of the white supremacist site Stormfront. Black regularly organizes “money bombs” for Ron and Rand Paul and has even taken a picture with Ron Paul, who refused to return donations from Black and Stormfront even with the political tradition of not accepting donations from people who seem unfit. Black, who was sentenced to three years in jail for trying to overthrow the Caribbean country of Dominica in 1981, supports Paul through his Twitter account and on message boards for Stormfront.
Black told the New York Times that it was Paul’s newsletters that inspired him to be a supporter:
That was a big part of his constituency, the paleoconservatives who think there are race problems in this country.7. Lew Rockwell
Lew Rockwell is a close friend and adviser of Paul’s who served as his congressional chief of staff between 1978 and 1982, worked as a paid consultant for Paul for more than 20 years, and was an editor and alleged ghost writer for his racist newsletters. Rockwell formed the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, which Paul still has a close working relationship with.The Ludwig Von Mises Institute is listed by the SPLC as a neo-Confederate organization. They also add that Rockwell said that the Civil War “transformed the American regime from a federalist system based on freedom to a centralized state that circumscribed liberty in the name of public order” and that the Civil Rights Movement was the “involuntary servitude” of (presumably white) business owners. Rockwell was listed as one of the racist League of the South’s founding members but denies membership. Rockwell regularly posts articles on his website, attacking a New World Order conspiracy.
6. David Duke
David Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and candidate for Governor of Louisiana. Duke is also a New World Order conspiracy theorist who believes that Jews control the Federal Reserve. On his website, Duke proudly boasts about the endorsements and kind words that Paul gave him in his newsletters and in turn endorses Paul for president:Duke’s platform called for tax cuts, no quotas, no affirmative action, no welfare, and no busing…
To many voters, this seems like just plain good sense. Duke carried baggage from his past, the voters were willing to overlook that. If he had been afforded the forgiveness an ex-communist gets, he might have won.…David Broder, also of the Post and equally liberal, writing on an entirely different subject, had it right: ‘No one wants to talk about race publicly, but if you ask any campaign consultant or pollster privately, the sad reality that a great many working-class and middle class white Americans are far less hostile to the rich and their tax breaks than they are to the poor and minorities with their welfare and affirmative action programs.”
Liberals are notoriously blind to the sociological effects of their own programs. David Duke was hurt by his past. How many more Dukes are waiting in the wings without such a taint?
“Duke lost the election,” it said, “but he scared the blazes out of the Establishment.” In 1991, a newsletter asked, “Is David Duke’s new prominence, despite his losing the gubernatorial election, good for anti-big government forces?” The conclusion was that “our priority should be to take the anti-government, anti-tax, anti-crime, anti-welfare loafers, anti-race privilege, anti-foreign meddling message of Duke, and enclose it in a more consistent package of freedom.”
Duke also gave advice to Paul on his website, saying:
What must Paul do to have any real chance of winning or making a bigger impact? I think he should do exactly what I did in Louisiana, and for Ron Paul to follow exactly the same advice Ron Paul gave in his newsletters for others, take up my campaign issues with passion and purpose.
Could it be that Paul is taking Duke’s advice by hiding the racist “baggage from his past” in a more consistent package of “freedom?”
5. Thomas DiLorenzo
Thomas DiLorenzo is another neo-Confederate who believes the South was right in the the civil war and that Abraham Lincoln was a wicked man who destroyed states’ rights. DiLorenzo is listed as an affiliated scholar with the racist League of the South, which promotes segregation and a new southern secession. Paul invited DiLorenzo to testify before congress about the Federal Reserve and is close friends with Paul and works for the Ludwig Von Mises Instiute. Paul cited DiLorezno’s book when telling Tim Russert that the North should not have fought the Civil War.4. James Von Brunn
James Von Brunn was a white supremacist and anti-Semite who opened fired at the Holocaust museum, killing an African-American security guard. Von Brunn was an avid Paul supporter who posted a message on the Ron Paul Yahoo Group, saying, “HITLER’S WORST MISTAKE: HE DIDN’T GAS THE JEWS.” In 1983, Von Brunn was convicted of kidnapping members of the Federal Reserve Board, a common target of Paul’s, and was sentenced to six years in prison.Von Brunn died while awaiting sentencing for his crime.3. William Alexander “Bill” White
Bill White is a neo-Nazi who is a former member of of the neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Movement and founder of his own Nazi group, the National Socialist Worker’s Movement. He has called for the lynching of the Jena 6 and the assassination of NAACP leaders. White previously campaigned for Pat Buchanan and the Reform party. This year, White was convicted of threatening a juror but then freed by a judge who called the threats free speech. White is a former Ron Paul supporter who became disenfranchised with Paul, when a Paul spokesman called white supremacy “a small ideology.” Here is what White wrote about Paul on a popular white supremacist website:I have kept quiet about the Ron Paul campaign for a while, because I didn’t see any need to say anything that would cause any trouble. However, reading the latest release from his campaign spokesman, I am compelled to tell the truth about Ron Paul’s extensive involvement in white nationalism.
Both Congressman Paul and his aides regularly meet with members of the Stormfront set, American Renaissance, the Institute for Historic Review, and others at the Tara Thai restaurant in Arlington, Virginia, usually on Wednesdays. This is part of a dinner that was originally organized by Pat Buchanan, Sam Francis and Joe Sobran, and has since been mostly taken over by the Council of Conservative Citizens.
I have attended these dinners, seen Paul and his aides there, and been invited to his offices in Washington to discuss policy.
For his spokesman to call white racialism a “small ideology” and claim white activists are “wasting their money” trying to influence Paul is ridiculous. Paul is a white nationalist of the Stormfront type who has always kept his racial views and his views about world Judaism quiet because of his political position.
I don’t know that it is necessarily good for Paul to “expose” this. However, he really is someone with extensive ties to white nationalism and for him to deny that in the belief he will be more respectable by denying it is outrageous – and I hate seeing people in the press who denounce racialism merely because they think it is not fashionable
Bill White, Commander
American National Socialist Workers PartyRon Paul has not sued White for libel, which would be in his rights to do if White’s statement’s were lies. White is out of jail and has not lost credibility in the white supremacist world, writing for the neo-Nazi website the American Free Press and the same paper that used to carry Paul’s column.
2. Richard Poplawski
Richard Poplawski is a neo-Nazi from Pittsburgh who regularly posted on the neo-Nazi website Stormfront. Poplawski would post videos of Ron Paul talking about FEMA camp conspiracy theories with Glenn Beck.Polawski was afraid of a government conspiracy to take away people’s guns and wound up killing three police officers who came to his house after his mother made a domestic dispute call. . . .
“Ludwig von Mises Institute”; Wikipedia.
. . . . The Institute is critical of democracy, which authors in Mises Institute publications have called coercive,[22] incompatible with wealth creation,[23] replete with inner contradictions,[24] and a system of legalized graft. . . .
. . . . Institute scholars have condemned Abraham Lincoln’s conduct of the American Civil War (e.g. suspending habeas corpus), asserting that his policies contributed to the growth of statism in the United States. Senior faculty member Thomas DiLorenzo, in his critical biographies The Real Lincoln and Lincoln: Unmasked, argues that the sixteenth president substantially expanded the size and powers of the federal government at the expense of individual liberty. Adjunct faculty member Donald Livingston shares a similar view, blaming Lincoln for the creation of “a French Revolutionary style unitary state” and “centralizing totalitarianism.”[28]
LvMI’s Thomas DiLorenzo’s references to the American Civil War as the “War to prevent Southern Independence” and Mises faculty member Thomas Woods’s presence at the founding of the League of the South were cited by James Kirchick, writing for the New Republic, as suggesting a “disturbing attachment to the Confederacy.”[29] Woods has stated that he was present at the meeting at which the organization was founded,[30] and later contributed to its newsletter,[31] . . .
. . . . Sill another board member [of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity] is Walter Block, a fellow at the Mises Institute, who, The Daily Beast said, “believes the wrong side won the ‘war against Southern secession’ and blames most of America’s problems on ‘the monster Lincoln.’ ” . . . .
“Otto von Habsburg, RIP” by Llewellyn H. Rockwell,Jr.; LewRockwell.com; 7/4/2011.
The classical liberal scholar, who should have been emperor of Austria-Hungary, has died at 98. . . . It was an honor for the Ludwig von Mises Institute, though controversial in the Beltway, to welcome him to Auburn in 1999 as the first recipient of the Schlarbaum Prize. . . .
The final escalation was reserved for Otto von Hapsburg, a CSU delegate to the European parliament and the son of the last Austrian emperor; since 1973 he has also been president of the ultra-right Pan-Europa Union and a member of the Freedom for Rudolf Hess Committee . . . .
. . . . Walter believes voluntary slavery contracts ought to be enforceable in a private law society, and in this I believe he is in the minority of libertarians. . . .
http://pjmedia.com/blog/intelligence-chairman-suggests-snowden-may-not-have-acted-alone/?print=1
Intelligence Chairman Suggests Snowden May Not Have Acted Alone
Posted By Rodrigo Sermeño On October 7, 2013 @ 12:27 am In Politics | 13 Comments
WASHINGTON – A top lawmaker said Thursday that former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden might not have acted alone when he leaked information about U.S. surveillance programs.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R‑Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said that Snowden’s leaks have inflicted “significant” and, in many cases, “irreversible” damage to U.S. national security.
“We have seen certain al-Qaeda affiliates already change the way that they communicate,” Rogers said at a Washington Post Live panel on cybersecurity. “That means now we have a gap that we’re gonna have to fill. Anytime we get a gap in coverage it becomes incredibly dangerous.”
These changes have spread to at least three other terror organizations, which has dampened the ability to detect and disrupt threats against the U.S., Rogers said.
Rogers did not say directly whether he suspects Snowden had help. But after the panel’s moderator, the Post’s David Ignatius, asked the congressman to clarify his remarks, he said: “There may have been help in his search queries and some of the security measures that he circumvented in the process of taking and running to China.”
“It raises more questions than it answers in how he got around certain things and the kinds of queries he was doing would have been beyond what he knew existed and what his assignments were,” he said.
His “smash-and-grab” and run to “the bastions of Internet freedom, China and Russia” has left some things that do not add up quite yet, Rogers said.
The U.S. weaknesses in cyber defense have only been exacerbated by Snowden’s leaks, which have shattered public trust in the intelligence community, he said.
Gen. Michael Hayden suggested there was another explanation for Snowden’s access. He said Snowden was not “suddenly offended by something he came across”; in fact, he had undertaken a “sustained, long-term campaign” to obtain information from the NSA.
“It is inexplicable as to how someone of his background would have access to so much information until you then begin to add in some of the specifics,’ Hayden said. “He had moved from job to job in order to facilitate his taking of this information.”
That explanation did not prove but was “not inconsistent” with Rogers’ concerns about Snowden receiving help, Hayden noted.
He said what makes Snowden a particular threat to the intelligence community is that he is “someone who’s not leaking particular secrets, but he’s leaking how it is we gain these secrets.”
“This is going to be the gift that keeps on taking from the American intelligence community over a very long period of time,” he said.
Hayden, who headed the CIA and the NSA at different times, said the leaks will lead to a lack of trust in the U.S. government’s ability to keep secrets.
“Why would anyone, domestic or foreign, be willing to have confidence in the United States to undertake anything that requires any kind of discretion … in order to go do things that are lawful, appropriate, effective, but edgy?” he said.
Hayden also joked about putting Edward Snowden on a target list, referring to the recent announcement Snowden has been shortlisted for the EU’s top human rights award.
“I must admit in my darker moments over the past several months, I’d also thought of nominating Mr. Snowden, but it was for a different list,” Hayden said.
He added the emerging cyber threat is from a kind of digital mass shooter, a dangerous hacker able to obtain cyber weapons only available to organized crime or national governments.
“They’re just mad, they’re mad at the world,” Hayden said. “They may have demands that you or I cannot understand.”
Within five years hackers will acquire the capabilities that we now associate with criminal gangs or nation states to conduct cyber-attacks like sabotaging power plants, factories, and utilities, he warned.
The former CIA chief said Snowden had a role to play in the stagnant cybersecurity legislation. The House passed a version of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) earlier this year, co-sponsored by Rogers.
“One of the long-term ill effects of Snowden was that it was tough enough for the chairman to get CISPA through when the waters were calm. And now he is trying to do it in white water rapids. And it is not going to happen,” Hayden said.
A previous version of the bill failed to gain traction in the Senate last year and many lawmakers have said that CISPA in 2013 is dead. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, announced last month she is working on a draft bill that will complement CISPA.
But one thing that is moving forward in Congress is legislation to improve transparency at the NSA.
Rogers said he will introduce legislation this month to increase transparency at the NSA and restore confidence in the U.S. intelligence programs. His bill would allow NSA to declassify information that would better inform the American public about the scope of the agency’s operations.
“We are trying to find some confidence builders that we think can address the public’s concerns and still protect these programs,” Rogers said.
He said the NSA is subject to full oversight by Congress and the administration and defended the agency’s record of violations, noting that in the last 10 years there were 12 violations, all of which have been dealt with.
“There is no system in the United States government – and, I would argue, state government – that is more overseen than these programs,” Rogers said.
Article printed from PJ Media: http://pjmedia.com
URL to article: http://pjmedia.com/blog/intelligence-chairman-suggests-snowden-may-not-have-acted-alone/
Father, like son, likes Yoho:
So Ted Yoho is Rand and Ron Paul’s clear congressman of choice from Florida. Since that’s the case, it’ll be interesting to learn just how well the Pauls actually know Yoho:
So will Rand stick with his Yoho endorsement now that we’ve learned a little more about Yoho’s views on voting rights? We might have to give Rand some time on this one...
The congressional Black Caucus is incapable of opposing wars on principle. They only do it to secure more money for welfare. It’s totally true...in Ron Paul’s strange little world:
Well that was shocking. The White Supremacy themes were typical, but wow, who knew Ron Paul was so bad at math.
Still, it was good to hear Ron Paul reiterate his opposition to war. Let’s hope that opposition to war includes the war Ron Paul’s friends want to wage against the United States:
“I would like to start off,” Paul declared, “by talking about the subject and the subject is secession and, uh, nullification, the breaking up of government, and the good news is it’s gonna happen. It’s happening...”