Secret Government Watchlist Criteria Revealed

Today the new First Look Media/Glenn Greenwald venture The Intercept published a story revealing a secret US government document outlining the rules - if you can call them such - governing the selection of individuals for the inclusion on terrorist watchlists. The story by Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux is entitled "Blacklisted: The Secret Government Rulebook for Labeling You a Terrorist" draws off of a "key government document obtained by The Intercept" that does not cite former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as the source. It has already been speculated that there is at least one additional leaker to Snowden and this document would appear to prove that much to the ongoing dismay of the lawless Obama regime.

The story hasn't really broken yet as it was just published a few hours ago and the entire western media is still focused on manufacturing a thick fog of bullshit and innuendo to tie Putin and Russia to the increasingly obvious shooting down of Malaysian Airlines MH17 by forces within the Kiev junta so I will go ahead and excerpt some of the more interesting bits of the Intercept story here but please go and read it yourself and forward the link along with the entire 166 page government "rulebook" entitled "March 2013: Watchlisting Guidelines" that is published in its entirety at The Intercept:

The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept.

The “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance,” a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government’s secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals to be designated as representatives of terror organizations without any evidence they are actually connected to such organizations, and it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to place “entire categories” of people the government is tracking onto the no fly and selectee lists. It broadens the authority of government officials to “nominate” people to the watchlists based on what is vaguely described as “fragmentary information.” It also allows for dead people to be watchlisted.

[This monstrosity can be parked directly on the doorstep of Obama’s Oval Office as well has his fiendish, longtime fixer Eric Holder’s office at DOJ – but Rachel Maddow and the rest of the liberal sellouts who would demand Bush’s head on a stick will still defend this gross violation of privacy rights – if they even bother mentioning it at all]

AND

The document’s definition of “terrorist” activity includes actions that fall far short of bombing or hijacking. In addition to expected crimes, such as assassination or hostage-taking, the guidelines also define destruction of government property and damaging computers used by financial institutions as activities meriting placement on a list. They also define as terrorism any act that is “dangerous” to property and intended to influence government policy through intimidation.

This combination—a broad definition of what constitutes terrorism and a low threshold for designating someone a terrorist—opens the way to ensnaring innocent people in secret government dragnets. It can also be counterproductive. When resources are devoted to tracking people who are not genuine risks to national security, the actual threats get fewer resources—and might go unnoticed.

“If reasonable suspicion is the only standard you need to label somebody, then it’s a slippery slope we’re sliding down here, because then you can label anybody anything,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent with experience running high-profile terrorism investigations. “Because you appear on a telephone list of somebody doesn’t make you a terrorist. That’s the kind of information that gets put in there.”

The fallout is personal too. There are severe consequences for people unfairly labeled a terrorist by the U.S. government, which shares its watchlist data with local law enforcement, foreign governments, and “private entities.” Once the U.S. government secretly labels you a terrorist or terrorist suspect, other institutions tend to treat you as one. It can become difficult to get a job (or simply to stay out of jail). It can become burdensome—or impossible—to travel. And routine encounters with law enforcement can turn into ordeals.

[For anyone who has been subjected to a pre-employment or contingent-employment “security” screening be aware that there is now a search of the “terrorist” database included so this has an enormous potential for essentially getting one trapped in the spider’s web essentially blacklisted for perpetuity]

AND

There are a number of loopholes for putting people onto the watchlists even if reasonable suspicion cannot be met.

One is clearly defined: The immediate family of suspected terrorists—their spouses, children, parents, or siblings—may be watchlisted without any suspicion that they themselves are engaged in terrorist activity. But another loophole is quite broad—”associates” who have a defined relationship with a suspected terrorist, but whose involvement in terrorist activity is not known. A third loophole is broader still—individuals with “a possible nexus” to terrorism, but for whom there is not enough “derogatory information” to meet the reasonable suspicion standard.

Americans and foreigners can be nominated for the watchlists if they are associated with a terrorist group, even if that group has not been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. They can also be treated as “representatives” of a terrorist group even if they have “neither membership in nor association with the organization.” The guidelines do helpfully note that certain associations, such as providing janitorial services or delivering packages, are not grounds for being watchlisted.

[Translation: If you happen to purchase gas at a convenience store owned by a Muslim using your credit card you may end up in the big government “terrorist database” and unlike the mafia who has a code of honor the USG will go after your family too]

AND

The guidelines provide the clearest explanation yet of what is happening when Americans and foreigners are pulled aside at airports and border crossings by government agents. The fifth chapter, titled “Encounter Management and Analysis,” details the type of information that is targeted for collection during “encounters” with people on the watchlists, as well as the different organizations that should collect the data. The Department of Homeland Security is described as having the largest number of encounters, but other authorities, ranging from the State Department and Coast Guard to foreign governments and “certain private entities,” are also involved in assembling “encounter packages” when watchlisted individuals cross their paths. The encounters can be face-to-face meetings or electronic interactions—for instance, when a watchlisted individual applies for a visa.

In addition to data like fingerprints, travel itineraries, identification documents and gun licenses, the rules encourage screeners to acquire health insurance information, drug prescriptions, “any cards with an electronic strip on it (hotel cards, grocery cards, gift cards, frequent flyer cards),” cellphones, email addresses, binoculars, peroxide, bank account numbers, pay stubs, academic transcripts, parking and speeding tickets, and want ads. The digital information singled out for collection includes social media accounts, cell phone lists, speed dial numbers, laptop images, thumb drives, iPods, Kindles, and cameras. All of the information is then uploaded to the TIDE database.

Screeners are also instructed to collect data on any “pocket litter,” scuba gear, EZ Passes, library cards, and the titles of any books, along with information about their condition—”e.g., new, dog-eared, annotated, unopened.” Business cards and conference materials are also targeted, as well as “anything with an account number” and information about any gold or jewelry worn by the watchlisted individual. Even “animal information”—details about pets from veterinarians or tracking chips—is requested. The rulebook also encourages the collection of biometric or biographical data about the travel partners of watchlisted individuals.

[Not that it should be a surprise but the cheap feeling up of cute women or children along with the bonus of humiliating hapless travelers aren’t the only thing that TSA goons are getting over on – they are stealing EVERYTHING for inclusion into that massive storage facility out in Utah]

As for any more just go and read the entire piece because it's huge.  I tried to only grab some of the more relevant pieces that affect everybody but the devil is in the details – and in the White House – since this is Obama’s baby.

A Pall of Shame on America as Neocon Cookie Crumbles in Ukraine

You just had to know that the neocons weren't going to go quietly into the good night after Sunday's overwhelming vote in East Ukraine. Anti-fascist, anti-austerity citizens turned out in droves to send a message to the illegitimately installed puppet regime in Kiev that rule by foreign backed fascist and neo-Nazi goons is unacceptable. What was truly remarkable as well as being the utmost of irony is that the professional regime changers - whose enduring presence within the domestic corridors of power have eaten away at the very foundations of American democracy like a colony of Formosan termites -accidentally managed to bring real "democracy" to Ukraine after usurping it in February. Now in their typical keening outrage they are apoplectic that their version was rejected by the actual people on the ground who would be the ones having to live in it.

The ballyhooed spreading of western "democracy" - which when applied on foreign soil always amounts to something more akin to the spreading of fresh manure - always serves as the rallying cry for the neoconservative chickenhawks as they pursue the holy grail of global hegemony at the point of a gun. In the true vision of the founding fathers one would think that Sunday's referendum would have been hailed as a proud moment when America actually practiced what she preached by seeing those who are oppressed rising up at the ballot box to exercise their God given right of self-determination. Instead, they have managed to even further inflame the derangement of the neocons and are treated like ants with the audacity to try to avoid being stomped by the big red, white and blue jackboot of Uncle Scam.

Immediately erupting forth from the sewer of criminality and lies over at Foggy Bottom that serves as headquarters for the bumbling Skull and Bones alum John Kerry, a buffoon of the highest order as well as the ever crass Victoria "f*ck the EU" Nuland was a braying of childish outrage, whining, lies and cheap propaganda that is the hallmark of sore losers. The State Department rapidly issued an official "press release" screed calling out the anti-fascist referendum as illegitimate. There was of course no mention of the illegally installed "Yats" regime being the true source of illegitimacy but that can be expected from an institution that has come to oppose anything that even remotely represents morality and traditional American values. The official diatribe is excerpted here:

As the United States has said, the referenda being planned for May 11 in portions of eastern Ukraine by armed separatist groups are illegal under Ukrainian law and are an attempt to create further division and disorder. If these referenda go forward, they will violate international law and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The United States will not recognize the results of these illegal referenda.

In addition, we are disappointed that the Russian government has not used its influence to forestall these referenda since President Putin's suggestion on May 7 that they be postponed, when he also claimed that Russian forces were pulling back from the Ukrainian border.

Unfortunately, we still see no Russian military movement away from the border, and today Kremlin-backed social media and news stations encouraged residents of eastern Ukraine to vote tomorrow, one even offering instructions for polling stations in Moscow. Russian state media also continue to strongly back the referenda with no mention of Putin's call for postponement.

The focus of the international community must now be on supporting the Ukrainian government's consistent efforts to hold a presidential election on May 25. International observers note that preparations for these elections are proceeding apace and in accordance with international standards, which will allow all Ukrainian people a voice in the future of their country. According to recent independent polls, a substantial majority of Ukrainians intend to vote on May 25. Any efforts to disrupt this democratic process will be seen clearly for what they are, attempts to deny the rights of Ukraine's citizens to express their political will freely.

As President Obama and Chancellor Merkel stated on May 2, the Russian leadership must know that if it continues to destabilize eastern Ukraine and disrupt this month's presidential election, we will move quickly to impose greater costs on Russia.

The Russian government can still choose to implement its Geneva commitments, as well as follow through on President Putin's statement of May 7. We call on them to do so.

This is totally laughable in that the now flogged to the brink of death fake devil Putin has once again been formally warned not to "disrupt" the upcoming presidential "election" which has always been a farce and a rigged game staged strictly for the benefit of The Empire. When you are choosing between such luminaries as the "The Chocolate King" and the "Gas Princess"you are pretty well fucked. Ukraine gets it but a similar concept just doesn't seem to resonate in a land where our own fine and vaunted choices come November 2016 will in all probability be named Clinton and Bush. The Ukrainian people are not stupid enough to just sit back and get it rammed up their asses by two corrupt oligarchs working for the same interests like the sheep here in the land of the free and the home of the brave (ha ha ha - sardonic laughter). That official US State Department statement, given the quality of the lunatics running the asylum under the 'leadership' of Kerry might as well be used as kitty litter box liner.

Then there is the missing airplane network that is CNN dutifully parroting the neocon propaganda as is typical with lurid tales of voter fraud at the polls. One would think that after being humiliated over having aired that embarrassing graphic showing that the geographic location of East Ukraine was in Pakistan that they would just stick to the panty-sniffing celebrity scandals and other tawdry sleaze like milking the suffering of family members of MH370. But hey - it is America's NUMBER ONE name in news and as such serves as a testament to the triumph of the willfully ignorant.

It is a sign of these sick and bizarre times in which the Obama regime and the state-corporate media continue to peddle their lies that according to a poll conducted by political scientists that "The less Americans know about Ukraine's location, the more they want U.S. to intervene"- you just can't make stuff like this up. Then there is the aforementioned CNN map fiasco that erroneously showed the location of Ukraine in Pakistan as exhibit A in the gallery of American dumbassery. Such a silly blunder would normally result in least some domestic ridicule but at CNN it goes with the territory. So far has the media in this country descended into the morass of mental mediocrity that is the new normal for the American mind. It is as though we are in the early stages of becoming the society that was the subject of Mike Judge's cult classic comedy film Idiocracy.

The plot for Idiocracy features a US Army dim bulb named Joe Bauers, a man alleged to be of average intelligence as well a prostitute named Rita who are the subjects of a secret US military hibernation experiment of what was to be of limited duration. Things naturally go awry when the officer in charge is ensnared by a sex scandal bringing shame and a base closure along with a much longer nap for Joe and Rita who sleep until they are freed from their test pods during the great garbage avalanche of 2505. They wake up to find a world that is totally FUBAR, the infrastructure is crumbling and looks as though it were designed by idiots (or contracted out to politically connected cronies under the guise of privatization), the commercialization of American society has accelerated with corporate logos everywhere and characters that have been named after fast food items and other products like Dr. Lexus and Beef Supreme. I actually know people who name their pets after corporate brands so it isn't a reach to expect that actual human babies are far behind.

The populace speaks in crude tongues, hurl insults and pejoratives at everything and everyone and berate Joe for the way he talks because in the future even speaking in the current dumbed-down lingo sounds makes one sound like one of the eggheads that the right-wing cultural populists have made hay out of for decades. It is the ultimate victory of Sarah Palin style anti-intellectualism. as the entire population has become twentieth generation white trash who in a gross parody of reverse American eugenics have outbred those with any intelligence or discretion like practicing birth control. The opening few minutes that show how it happened are classic as they are scary with the educated putting off reproduction while the rednecks multiply like rabbits. This is particularly so in the present tense down in Dixie behind the cornbread curtain which is an always fertile hunting ground for Koch Brothers front groups that rely on race-baiting and religious nonsense to whip up the rabble and need the help of those with limited intelligence to pull if off.

But I digress...

Centuries of consumerism and way too much television have reduced the citizenry to moronic zombies and the greatest advances in technology are huge multi-screened HDTVs that allow for a number of reality trash programs to be shown simultaneously while the viewer is ensconced upon a huge plush chair that doubles as a toilet where one can enjoy the cultural delights of fare the likes of "Ass", "Ow! My Balls" and the "Masturbation Channel", three examples of the evolution of programming like American Idol, Dancing With the Stars and Duck Dynasty. You don't need a time machine to witness the degradation from the explosion of potty humor as entertainment that have made even our 2014 society shallower and dumber. In Idiocracy corporations like Starbucks offer sexual favors on their menu next to the latte and the automated Carl's Jr. order system spews insults and cheats customers. The scene that takes place at St. God's Memorial Hospital with the health care system being reduced to a combination fast food joint/casino is down and out classic for all of those whose lives are devoted to bitching about Obamacare.

The society that Joe finds himself in is mean, greedy and stupid and the police are drooling overly aggressive thugs (much like they are now) who must have viewed Judge Dredd as a training film. After a series of mishaps and an IQ test he is summoned to the updated for the times White House by President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho (Obama can only dream of being such a bad-ass motherf*cker) because he is now the most intelligent man on the planet and more than up to the task of solving the food crisis that plagues America. The crops are dying because instead of using water (that stuff in the toilet) they are irrigated by mega selling sports drink Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator. Joe suggests using actual H2O and is met with incredulity by cabinet members reciting Brawndo's slogan of "It's got electrolytes as a mantra."After setting off massive social unrest and unemployment after replacing Brawndo which just happens to be the nation's biggest employer as an irrigation source, Joe is taken to an arena for a gladiatorial style event that is a wild combination between Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and the local monster truck extravaganza that is televised on FOX - which to no surprise is not much different than it is in 2014. Joe eventually triumphs and saves the day when the crops grow again and becomes a truly honored hero of Uh-merica. His best advice is to turn off the TV and read something once in awhile and everyone lives happily ever after.

Alas, life in The Homeland isn't a movie and there is not going to be a happy ending to this ongoing nightmare as our long, slow crawl towards Idiocracy continues. As for the movie, the biting anti-corporate satire is as darkly hilarious as such critical analysis of the long-term effects are absent from the media and society today because the joke is on us all already. There was a damned good reason why Twentieth Century Fox suppressed the original theatrical release but it lives on as an invaluable source of mirth at our national plight for those with a certain sense of humor. 

So we will continue to be fed bullshit biscuits by our corrupt, immoral war criminal leaders and their rotten to the core institutions as well as their now full blown parody of a media machine. Just how long will it take until those who live here in America finally stand up on their own damned hind legs and bite back against their exploiters and oppressors just like the freedom loving people in East Ukraine are doing?

The clock is ticking.....

Benghazi Again? Investigate the Damned NSA!

Speaker of the House John Boehner on Friday announced that the Republicans will soon be setting up a special investigative tribunal to once again flog that long dead horse that is the Benghazi scandal. Now that the corporate scam that is the Affordable Health Care Act aka Obamacare is pretty much dead as a campaign issue the GOP is going to count on once again going back to the future in rolling out the blatant election year scam of yet another investigation into what it is that happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. You have to give it to the sleazy Republicans, they are predictable to a fault and whether it be hundreds of symbolic votes wasting taxpayer money to nullify Obamacare or exhuming the rotting corpse of Ronald Reagan to drag around as a prop like a Weekend at Bernie's sequel they never change which is why they keep losing presidential elections. This is by no means to excuse the equally rotten (although smarter and less overtly fascist) Democrats because when it comes to systemic corruption it is a bipartisan con that is run down on the American people.

In the  latest conjuring of Benghazi from the grave it is only more evidence at the party's complete bankruptcy and thorough selling out because there has NEVER to this day been any effort made by that party to mount a serious and concerted attempt to hold hearings - including special investigative committee ones - over the ongoing travesty of the unconstitutional surveillance and data-mining programs of the NSA Stasi. The cover-up continues over what the hell exactly has been going on for years at Ft. Meade, the secret courts and the bowels of both the Obama and the Bush-Cheney White House regimes and the inevitable and the worst is yet to be revealed if you believe journalist Glenn Greenwald and former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. You would think that this gross violation of the civil liberties of Americans at least deserves SOME attention from Boehner and the oily Darrell "Congressman Grand-Theft Auto" Issa but nothing doing there. It is always best to just set up their smoke and mirror machines and whip out shovelfuls of bloody red meat to the Fox News lobotomized party base to get them to the polls in November. Total horseshit but that is standard for the GOP in their desperation to gain more control in the House and retake the Senate before the Hillary Clinton tidal wave washes it all away for good with the massive female voter turnout in 2016. What a pack of fucking idiots.

I do not however completely discredit that there was something seriously wrong going on in Benghazi the day that the embassy was attacked and Ambassador Christopher Stephens and others killed. It just isn't what Boehner, Issa and their fellow liars and swine will be focused on. I would love to see an investigation based on what Seymour Hersh wrote about in his banned from the US media article "The Red Line and the Rat Line" from which I excerpt:

The full extent of US co-operation with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in assisting the rebel opposition in Syria has yet to come to light. The Obama administration has never publicly admitted to its role in creating what the CIA calls a ‘rat line’, a back channel highway into Syria. The rat line, authorised in early 2012, was used to funnel weapons and ammunition from Libya via southern Turkey and across the Syrian border to the opposition. Many of those in Syria who ultimately received the weapons were jihadists, some of them affiliated with al-Qaida. (The DNI spokesperson said: ‘The idea that the United States was providing weapons from Libya to anyone is false.’)

In January, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on the assault by a local militia in September 2012 on the American consulate and a nearby undercover CIA facility in Benghazi, which resulted in the death of the US ambassador, Christopher Stevens, and three others. The report’s criticism of the State Department for not providing adequate security at the consulate, and of the intelligence community for not alerting the US military to the presence of a CIA outpost in the area, received front-page coverage and revived animosities in Washington, with Republicans accusing Obama and Hillary Clinton of a cover-up. A highly classified annex to the report, not made public, described a secret agreement reached in early 2012 between the Obama and Erdoğan administrations. It pertained to the rat line. By the terms of the agreement, funding came from Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar; the CIA, with the support of MI6, was responsible for getting arms from Gaddafi’s arsenals into Syria. A number of front companies were set up in Libya, some under the cover of Australian entities. Retired American soldiers, who didn’t always know who was really employing them, were hired to manage procurement and shipping. The operation was run by David Petraeus, the CIA director who would soon resign when it became known he was having an affair with his biographer. (A spokesperson for Petraeus denied the operation ever took place.)

The operation had not been disclosed at the time it was set up to the congressional intelligence committees and the congressional leadership, as required by law since the 1970s. The involvement of MI6 enabled the CIA to evade the law by classifying the mission as a liaison operation. The former intelligence official explained that for years there has been a recognised exception in the law that permits the CIA not to report liaison activity to Congress, which would otherwise be owed a finding. (All proposed CIA covert operations must be described in a written document, known as a ‘finding’, submitted to the senior leadership of Congress for approval.) Distribution of the annex was limited to the staff aides who wrote the report and to the eight ranking members of Congress – the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, and the Democratic and Republicans leaders on the House and Senate intelligence committees. This hardly constituted a genuine attempt at oversight: the eight leaders are not known to gather together to raise questions or discuss the secret information they receive.

The annex didn’t tell the whole story of what happened in Benghazi before the attack, nor did it explain why the American consulate was attacked. ‘The consulate’s only mission was to provide cover for the moving of arms,’ the former intelligence official, who has read the annex, said. ‘It had no real political role.’

Washington abruptly ended the CIA’s role in the transfer of arms from Libya after the attack on the consulate, but the rat line kept going. ‘The United States was no longer in control of what the Turks were relaying to the jihadists,’ the former intelligence official said. Within weeks, as many as forty portable surface-to-air missile launchers, commonly known as manpads, were in the hands of Syrian rebels. On 28 November 2012, Joby Warrick of the Washington Post reported that the previous day rebels near Aleppo had used what was almost certainly a manpad to shoot down a Syrian transport helicopter. ‘The Obama administration,’ Warrick wrote, ‘has steadfastly opposed arming Syrian opposition forces with such missiles, warning that the weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists and be used to shoot down commercial aircraft.’ Two Middle Eastern intelligence officials fingered Qatar as the source, and a former US intelligence analyst speculated that the manpads could have been obtained from Syrian military outposts overrun by the rebels. There was no indication that the rebels’ possession of manpads was likely the unintended consequence of a covert US programme that was no longer under US control.

If Hersh is in any way correct what we may really have here is Iran-Contra II and it could bring down the entire Obama administration - which the Republicans really don't want because they have gotten immense political mileage out of demonizing the "Kenyan" in the WHITE House to the knuckle-dragging dregs of society that is their base. If they really want Obama's head on a stick then investigate based on Hersh's story - or even better on the NSA and the ongoing abuse of power that Obama is deeply involved in. Don't hold your breath though because Jesus will return and $100 bills will rain from the sky before anything like that ever happens.

Only in America circa 2014 can you continue to serve up crazy and have people begging for seconds.. or as far as the Republican Benghazi farce goes hundredths.