I'll save this thread, and remind you of it the next time there is another terror attack on our shores. It's going to happen, I just pray it's not as intense or as significant as I fear.
On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 10:17 AM, plainolamerican <[email protected] > wrote: > The U.S. is now in full-scale retreat from what used to be called the war > on terror, with new limits on the use of drones in Pakistan, new curbs on > the National Security Agency, and now this. If there is another attack, the > American public should know who was responsible for the policy retreat that > made it harder to prevent. > --- > LOL! > > it's fun to watch the warmongering interventionists scramble. > > On Tuesday, April 22, 2014 9:02:38 AM UTC-5, KeithInTampa wrote: > >> >> >> http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230431120457950 >> 7393976730268?mod=Opinion_newsreel_4 >> >> *NYPD Blind New York Dismantles Another Post-9/11 Antiterror Policy* >> >> New York’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio, has an interesting sense of timing. >> Tuesday was the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, in which >> two Muslim brothers from Cambridge murdered four people and injured nearly >> 300. The same day, Mr. de Blasio’s new police commissioner, William >> Bratton, announced that his department is formally disbanding an antiterror >> surveillance unit started in the wake of 9/11. >> >> This is being hailed by the usual suspects as a triumph for civil >> liberties, but it’s really a bow to political correctness that removes an >> important defense for a city that has stopped at least 16 terror plots >> since 9/11. It’s also more fallout from a series of sensationalist >> Associated Press stories from 2011 that were riddled with distortions and >> have since been rebuked by a federal judge. >> >> Some background: After the attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 and >> 2001, the NYPD concluded that it couldn’t rely on the FBI and CIA to do its >> antiterror work. New York was the target of choice for Islamist terrorists >> and sometimes also their home. “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was a >> spiritual leader to the 1993 bombers, preached from three mosques in New >> York. Several of the 9/11 hijackers lived in Paterson, N.J., only miles >> from the George Washington bridge. >> >> The result was a strikingly successful effort, under former police >> commissioner Ray Kelly, to keep all New Yorkers safe. Part of that effort >> involved a small “Demographics Unit” (later renamed the “Zone Assessment >> Unit”) to keep an eye on “hot spots” and “venues of radicalization,” >> including mosques, bookstores, barbershops and other public places. The >> point wasn’t to spy on entire communities, which the unit—with never more >> than 16 officers—lacked the resources to do in any case. It was to keep an >> eye on places where terrorists would seek to blend in. >> >> Such police work might seem like ordinary prudence, but critics alleged >> the program was unconstitutional and ineffective. The first claim stems >> from ignorance of the “Handschu” rules on police surveillance, overseen by >> a federal judge, which note that to prevent terrorist acts “the NYPD must, >> at times, initiate investigations in advance of unlawful conduct” and >> permits officer “to visit any place and attend any event that is open to >> the public.” >> >> >> >> The NYPD has never been charged with violating the Handschu rules. In >> February, federal Judge William Martini dismissed a lawsuit brought by >> several Muslim associations and businesses claiming they had been >> stigmatized by the surveillance. The judge noted that whatever harm >> suffered by the plaintiffs “flow from the Associated Press’s unauthorized >> disclosure” of the work of the Demographics Unit. “The harms are not >> ‘fairly traceable’ to any act of surveillance.” >> >> Also false is the claim that the unit was ineffective. “The Demographics >> Unit was critical in identifying the Islamic Books and Tapes bookstore in >> Brooklyn as a venue for radicalization,” Mitchell Silber, a former NYPD >> director of intelligence analysis, noted in Commentary magazine. >> “Information the unit collected about the store provided a predicate for an >> investigation that thwarted a 2004 plot against the Herald Square subway >> station.” >> >> Critics of the program claim that the Demographics Unit never contributed >> to direct “leads,” but this ignores the painstaking process of evidentiary >> accretion, which is how all law enforcement, particularly of the preventive >> kind, has always worked. >> >> After the Boston bombings, we learned that one of the bombers, Tamerlan >> Tsarnaev, had twice had outbursts in his Cambridge, Mass., mosque, in one >> case denouncing a speaker as a kafir, or unbeliever, for comparing Martin >> Luther King Jr. to the Prophet Muhammad. A spokesman for the mosque later >> told the Boston Globe that he didn’t think the comment merited police >> attention; perhaps a policeman in the mosque would have reached a different >> conclusion. >> >> The U.S. is now in full-scale retreat from what used to be called the war >> on terror, with new limits on the use of drones in Pakistan, new curbs on >> the National Security Agency, and now this. If there is another attack, the >> American public should know who was responsible for the policy retreat that >> made it harder to prevent. >> >> >> On Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 4:01 PM, plainolamerican <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> demanded that spying on mosques be stopped because >>> --- >>> NEW YORK (AP) — In more than six years of spying on Muslim >>> neighborhoods, eavesdropping on conversations and cataloguing mosques, the >>> New York Police Department's secret Demographics Unit never generated a >>> lead or triggered a terrorism investigation, the department acknowledged in >>> court testimony unsealed late Monday. >>> >>> The Demographics Unit is at the heart of a police spying program, built >>> with help from the CIA, which assembled databases on where Muslims lived, >>> shopped, worked and prayed. Police infiltrated Muslim student groups, put >>> informants in mosques, monitored sermons and catalogued every Muslim in New >>> York who adopted new, Americanized surnames. >>> >>> Police hoped the Demographics Unit would serve as an early warning >>> system for terrorism. And if police ever got a tip about, say, an Afghan >>> terrorist in the city, they'd know where he was likely to rent a room, buy >>> groceries and watch sports. >>> >>> But in a June 28 deposition as part of a longstanding federal civil >>> rights case, Assistant Chief Thomas Galati said none of the conversations >>> the officers overheard ever led to a case. >>> >>> "Related to Demographics," Galati testified that information that has >>> come in "has not commenced an investigation." >>> >>> The NYPD is the largest police department in the nation and Mayor >>> Michael Bloomberg has held up its counterterrorism tactics as a model for >>> the rest of the country. After The Associated Press began reporting on >>> those tactics last year, supporters argued that the Demographics Unit was >>> central to keeping the city safe. Galati testified that it was an important >>> tool, but conceded it had not generated any leads. >>> >>> "I never made a lead from rhetoric that came from a Demographics report, >>> and I'm here since 2006," he said. "I don't recall other ones prior to my >>> arrival. Again, that's always a possibility. I am not aware of any." >>> >>> Galati, the commanding officer of the NYPD Intelligence Division, >>> offered the first official look at the Demographics Unit, which the NYPD >>> denied ever existed when it was revealed by the AP last year. He described >>> how police gather information on people even when there is no evidence of >>> wrongdoing, simply because of their ethnicity and native language. >>> >>> As a rule, Galati said, a business can be labeled a "location of >>> concern" whenever police can expect to find groups of Middle Easterners >>> there. >>> >>> Galati testified as part of a lawsuit that began in 1971 over NYPD >>> spying on students, civil rights groups and suspected Communist >>> sympathizers during the 1950s and 1960s. The lawsuit, known as the Handschu >>> case, resulted in federal guidelines that prohibit the NYPD from collecting >>> information about political speech unless it is related to potential >>> terrorism. >>> >>> Civil rights lawyers believe the Demographics Unit violated those rules. >>> Documents obtained by the AP show the unit conducted operations outside its >>> jurisdiction, including in New Jersey. The FBI there said those operations >>> damaged its partnerships with Muslims and jeopardized national security. >>> >>> In one instance discussed in the testimony, plainclothes NYPD officers >>> known as "rakers" overheard two Pakistani men complaining about airport >>> security policies that they believed unfairly singled out Muslims. They >>> bemoaned what they saw as the nation's anti-Muslim sentiment since the 2001 >>> terrorist attacks. >>> >>> Galati said police were allowed to collect that information because the >>> men spoke Urdu, a fact that could help police find potential terrorists in >>> the future. >>> >>> "I'm seeing Urdu. I'm seeing them identify the individuals involved in >>> that are Pakistani," Galati explained. "I'm using that information for me >>> to determine that this would be a kind of place that a terrorist would be >>> comfortable in." >>> >>> He added, "Most Urdu speakers from that region would be of concern, so >>> that's why it's important to me." >>> >>> About 15 million Pakistanis and 60 million Indians speak Urdu. Along >>> with English, it is one of the national languages of Pakistan. >>> >>> In another example, Galati said, eavesdropping on a conversation in a >>> Lebanese cafe could be useful, even if the topic is innocuous. Analysts >>> might be able to determine that the customers were from South Lebanon, he >>> said, adding, "That may be an indicator of possibility that that is a >>> sympathizer to Hezbollah because Southern Lebanon is dominated by >>> Hezbollah." >>> >>> After the AP began reporting on the Demographics Unit, the department's >>> former senior analyst, Mitchell Silber, said the unit provided the tip that >>> ultimately led to a case against a bookstore clerk who was convicted of >>> plotting to bomb the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan. Galati >>> testified that he could find no evidence of that. >>> >>> Attorney Jethro Eisenstein, who filed the Handschu case more than 40 >>> years ago and questioned Galati during the deposition, said he will go back >>> to court soon to ask that the Demographics Unit be shut down. It operates >>> today under a new name, the Zone Assessment Unit. It recently stopped >>> operating out of state, Galati said. >>> >>> "This is a terribly pernicious set of policies," Eisenstein said. "No >>> other group since the Japanese Americans in World War II has been subjected >>> to this kind of widespread public policy." >>> >>> try again ... >>> >>> >>> On Monday, April 21, 2014 2:26:10 PM UTC-5, Travis wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> "Garbage Bag Gertie" >>>> BareNakedIslam posted: " Like many participants in the Boston >>>> Marathon on Monday, Leanne Scorzoni will be running to honor the victims of >>>> last year’s bombing. But Scorzoni will also be running in a hijab: she >>>> converted to Islam after the attack, and wants her participation to em" >>>> New post on *BARE NAKED ISLAM* >>>> <http://www.barenakedislam.com/?author=1> BOSTON MARATHON: Woman who >>>> converted to Islam in honor of the Boston bombings is running the race this >>>> year wearing a Muslim >>>> headbag<http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/04/21/boston-marathon-woman-who-converted-to-islam-in-honor-of-the-boston-bombings-is-running-the-race-this-year-wearing-a-muslim-headbag/> >>>> by >>>> BareNakedIslam <http://www.barenakedislam.com/?author=1> >>>> >>>> Like many participants in the Boston Marathon on Monday, Leanne >>>> Scorzoni will be running to honor the victims of last year’s bombing. But >>>> Scorzoni will also be running in a hijab: she converted to Islam after the >>>> attack, and wants her participation to emphasize that Boston’s Muslim >>>> community was also hurt by the bombings. (Gee, […] >>>> >>>> Read more of this >>>> post<http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/04/21/boston-marathon-woman-who-converted-to-islam-in-honor-of-the-boston-bombings-is-running-the-race-this-year-wearing-a-muslim-headbag/> >>>> *BareNakedIslam <http://www.barenakedislam.com/?author=1>* | April >>>> 21, 2014 at 2:23 pm | Categories: >>>> EnemyWithin-American<http://www.barenakedislam.com/?taxonomy=category&term=enemywithin-american>| >>>> URL: >>>> http://wp.me/p276zM-13wE >>>> >>>> >>>> Comment<http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/04/21/boston-marathon-woman-who-converted-to-islam-in-honor-of-the-boston-bombings-is-running-the-race-this-year-wearing-a-muslim-headbag/#respond> >>>> See all >>>> comments<http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/04/21/boston-marathon-woman-who-converted-to-islam-in-honor-of-the-boston-bombings-is-running-the-race-this-year-wearing-a-muslim-headbag/#comments> >>>> >>>> >>>> Unsubscribe<https://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=7f89380f46003915c34c2cdd2b126a38&email=bovinescatologists%40gmail.com&b=DDDlLTRoL%2CQSR1gDkPx.Y%26U51z%5DPWPn%3F.liw%2Clpyt51tZLrbMM>to >>>> no longer receive posts from BARE NAKED ISLAM. >>>> Change your email settings at Manage >>>> Subscriptions<https://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=7f89380f46003915c34c2cdd2b126a38&email=bovinescatologists%40gmail.com>. >>>> >>>> >>>> *Trouble clicking?* Copy and paste this URL into your browser: >>>> http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/04/21/boston-marathon-wom >>>> an-who-converted-to-islam-in-honor-of-the-boston-bombings- >>>> is-running-the-race-this-year-wearing-a-muslim-headbag/ >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>> -- >>> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. >>> For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum >>> >>> * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ >>> * It's active and moderated. 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