Friday, May 16, 2014

Police State

Article explains the word games NSA uses to lie about spying on Americans.
"It's what Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper meant when he lied to Congress. When asked, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" he replied, "No sir, not wittingly." To him, the definition of "collect" requires that a human look at it. So when the NSA collects—using the dictionary definition of the word—data on hundreds of millions of Americans, it’s not really collecting it, because only computers process it."
Like that matters, and like moving the data from an NSA computer to a telecom company computer in a phony reform matters.

Spying is meant to crust dissent, and it's very effective, at least overtly.

The FBI always justifies killing people.
"Last summer, after the in-FBI-custody shooting of Ibragim Todashev, a friend of the elder Boston bomber, the Bureau told the same story they have been telling since 1993 – this was justified. Furthermore, documents acquired by The New York Times last June showed that there were more than 150 FBI shootings by agents in the last 20 years – almost half fatal – and every single one was ruled justified after internal investigations. "
Imagine that, when the same organization investigating the shooting, perform the shooting.
"This week the Boston Globe finally revealed the identity of the FBI agent who shot Todashev as Aaron McFarlane, 41. McFarlane, turns out is a former Oakland, California police officer who had a concerning and controversial career at that concerning and controversial police department. Shooting Todashev after he reportedly flipped a table and attacked agents with a metal broom handle could have been justified in the moment. But it’s a hell of a lot harder to feel sure about that after months of lying and evasion by the FBI about the case, as well as their continued refusal to release unredacted documents or Agent McFarlane’s name."
I'm skeptical too.

About the FBI shooter.
"Now, in an excellent piece of investigative journalism, the Boston Globe has uncovered the identity of the agent, 41-year-old Aaron McFarlane, who joined the Bureau in 2008 after retiring on a $52,000 lifetime annual disability pension from a short stint as an officer in the Oakland Police Department."
He was also a defendant in corruption and brutality trials. The corruption runs deep and wide.
"McFarlane’s record of apparent brutal behavior as a cop in Oakland is relevant to the Todashev case because it could explain why Todashev, who had agreed to talk with McFarlane in Todashev’s apartment, but later, according to Agent McFarlane, jumped up, ran to the front of the apartment, and then allegedly returned from the foyer brandishing a broomstick. Unmentioned in the FBI’s story line of what happened, which was accepted at face value in the investigation conducted by the Orlando Florida State’s Attorney Jeffrey Ashton, was a bruise and a bloody contusion noted by the Orlando coroner on Todashev’s left cheek, right on the outside of the eye socket. The coroner said that injury was evidence of a “hard blow” to the head." 

Apparently the coroner wasn't in on the corruption.

"As I wrote earlier, the pattern of bullets that McFarlane fired at Todashev — three to the upper middle of his back, one to the chest, two to the upper left arm and one into the top of the head, slightly to the rear of the crown, suggest not that he was shot in defense while charging at McFarlane and a Boston State Trooper also in the room, but that he was shot in the back multiple times while in the foyer attempting to flee the apartment — perhaps from a brutal beating."

So the rest of the shots came after he was down?

"As a police detective I showed the coroner’s report to pointed out, the bullets to the raised arm suggest that Todashev, hit three times in the back, may have realized he could not escape, and that he had turned, raising his left arm either defensively (he was a skilled martial arts expert and was right-handed), or along with his other arm in a sign of surrender. The last two shots had to have been the one to the chest, which blew out his aorta and would have been instantly fatal, and the shot to the head, which went straight through the center of the brain lodging in the cerebellum area — also a shot that would have been instantly fatal."

Too much speculation for me.

"Neither Ashton nor the FBI are commenting on the Globe’s article. Ashton never did actually interview McFarlane or the other FBI agent who, inexplicably and in violation of FBI procedure, was not even in the apartment, but was outside during the entire interrogation, keeping a friend of Todashev’s from witnessing anything that was going on with his friend. Ashton instead had to rely on written answers about what happened provided by the FBI from the two men."

That doesn't sound suspicious.

Jury finds former Georgia football coach not guilty on 41 counts related to investment fraud. Where will this guy go to get is reputation back?

You are significantly more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist.

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