US Department of Treasury
August 30, 2010
TG-839

Fact Sheet: New Executive Order Targeting Proliferation and Other Illicit Activities Related to North Korea

Today President Obama issued an Executive Order freezing the assets of certain persons with respect to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). This new Order expands the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13466 of June 26, 2008 and takes additional steps to address that national emergency. In the new Executive Order, the President finds that certain actions and policies of the Government of North Korea constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.

The Order targets the government of North Korea's continued involvement in a wide range of proliferation and other illicit activities in defiance of UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 1718 and 1874 and other illicit activities in defiance of international norms. The Order directs the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to target for sanctions individuals and entities facilitating North Korean trafficking in arms and related materiel; procurement of luxury goods; and engagement in illicit economic activities, such as money laundering, the counterfeiting of goods and currency, bulk cash smuggling and narcotics trafficking. This new Executive Order supplements existing U.S. sanctions targeting proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and those who support them, under which North Korean entities and individuals have been designated to date.

President Obama also identified the following entities and individual for sanctions by listing them on the Annex to the Order:

·   The Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), North Korea's premiere intelligence organization involved in North Korea's conventional arms trade;

·       RGB commander Lieutenant General Kim Yong Chol;

·   Green Pine Associated Corporation, a North Korean conventional arms dealer subordinated to the control of the RGB; and

·   Office 39 of the Korean Workers' Party, which provides critical support to North Korean leadership in part through engaging in illicit economic activities and managing the leadership's slush funds.

The U.S. government has longstanding concerns regarding North Korea's involvement in a range of illicit activities conducted through government agencies and associated front companies. North Korea's nuclear and missile proliferation activity and other illicit conduct violate UN Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874, and these activities and their other illicit conduct violate international norms and destabilize the Korean Peninsula and the entire region. In signing this Order, President Obama has frozen the property and interests in property of the three entities and one individual listed on the Annex. This Order provides the United States with new tools to disrupt illicit economic activity conducted by North Korea.

• Arms proliferation: North Korea has long been engaged in the sale of conventional arms to countries in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Since the 2009 adoption of UNSCR 1874, which bans all arms transfers from North Korea, authorities in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East have seized North Korean shipments suspected of carrying prohibited arms and related materiel.

• Narcotics trafficking: During the past three decades, North Korean citizens, diplomats and government officials have engaged in narcotics trafficking. Officials in Turkey, Egypt, Taiwan and Japan have linked North Korean officials to narcotics possession, distribution and smuggling.

• Counterfeiting currency: The United States continues to investigate North Korea's manufacture and distribution of the highly deceptive counterfeit of the U.S. $100 and $50 bills, also known as the "supernote." The United States Secret Service has made definitive connections between the supernote and the government of North Korea. Since its first detection in 1989, the Secret Service has seized approximately $63 million of supernotes globally.

• Procurement of luxury goods: UNSCR 1718 requires Member States to prohibit the direct or indirect supply, sale of transfer to North Korea of luxury goods, which North Korean leadership uses to secure the loyalty of elites and the military. In July 2009, Italian authorities prevented the sale of luxury yachts worth more than $15 million to an Austrian company because they were ultimately destined for North Korea.

• Deceptive financial practices: North Korea continues to engage in deceptive financial practices to disguise the true nature of its transactions, using government agencies and front companies to engage in WMD and missile proliferation-related and other illicit activities and to evade detection by financial institutions around the world. All of the conduct above is facilitated by the deceptive financial practices North Korea engages in to disguise the true nature of its transactions.

President Obama identified the following entities and individual for sanctions by listing them on the Annex to the Order:

The Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB)

The Reconnaissance General Bureau is North Korea's premiere intelligence organization, created in early 2009 by the merger of existing intelligence organizations from the Korean Workers' Party, the Operations Department and Office 35, and the Reconnaissance Bureau of the Korean People's Army. RGB trades in conventional arms and controls the North Korean conventional arms firm Green Pine Associated Corporation (Green Pine), which was also identified for sanctions by the President today for exporting arms or related materiel from North Korea.

The RGB is commanded by General Kim Yong Chol, who was also identified for sanctions today.

Green Pine Associated Corporation (Green Pine)

The conventional arms firm Green Pine Associated Corporation was subordinated to the control of the RGB in 2009 and has been identified for sanctions by the President for exporting arms or related material from North Korea. Green Pine specializes in the production of maritime military craft and armaments, such as submarines, military boats and missiles systems, and has exported torpedoes and technical assistance to Iranian defense-related firms.

Green Pine is responsible for approximately half of the arms and related materiel exported by North Korea and has taken over many of the activities of the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), which is listed in the Annex to Executive Order 13382 of June 2005. KOMID was also designated by the UNSCR 1718 Committee to be subject to the provisions of paragraph 8(d) of UNSCR 1718.

Office 39 of the Korean Workers' Party (Office 39)

Office 39 of the Korean Workers' Party engages in illicit economic activity to support the North Korean government. It has branches throughout the nation that raise and manage funds and is responsible for earning foreign currency for North Korea's Korean Workers' Party senior leadership through illicit activities such as narcotics trafficking.

Office 39 controls a number of entities inside North Korea and abroad through which it conducts numerous illicit activities including the production, smuggling, and distribution of narcotics. Office 39 has also been involved in the attempted procurement and transfer to North Korea of luxury goods.

·         Office 39 produced methamphetamine in Sangwon, South Pyongan Province and was also involved in the distribution of methamphetamine to small-scale North Korean smugglers for distribution through China and South Korea. Office 39 also operates poppy farms in North Hamkyo'ng Province and North Pyongan Province and produces opium and heroin in Hamhu'ng and Nachin. 

·         In 2009, Office 39 was involved in the failed attempt to purchase and export to North Korea -- through China -- two Italian-made luxury yachts worth more than $15 million. Halted by Italian authorities, the attempted export of the yachts destined for Kim Jong-il was in violation of United Nations sanctions against North Korea under UNSCR 1718, which specifically require Member States to prevent the supply, sale, or transfer of luxury goods to North Korea. 

Office 39 previously used Banco Delta Asia to launder illicit proceeds. Banco Delta Asia was identified by the Treasury Department in September 2005 as a "primary money laundering concern" under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act because it represented an unacceptable risk of money laundering and other financial crimes.

Identifying Information:

Entity:                         Reconnaissance General Bureau

AKA:                          Chongch'al Ch'ongguk

AKA:                          RGB

AKA:                          KPA Unit 586

Location:                     Hyongjesan-Guyok, Pyongyang, North Korea

Alt. Location:              Nungrado, Pyongyang, North Korea

Individual:                  Kim Yong Chol

AKA:                          Kim Yong-Chol

AKA:                          Kim Young-Chol

AKA:                          Kim Young-Cheol

AKA:                          Kim Young-Chul

Location:                     Pyongan-Pukto, North Korea

DOB:                          circa 1947

Alt. DOB:                   circa 1946

Entity:                         Green Pine Associated Corporation

AKA:                          Chongsong Yonhap

AKA:                          Ch'o'ngsong Yo'nhap

Location:                     c/o Reconnaissance General Bureau Headquarters,

                                    Hyongjesan-Guyok, Pyongyang, North Korea

Alt. Location:              Nungrado, Pyongyang, North Korea

Entity:                         Office 39

AKA:                          Office #39

AKA:                          Office No. 39

AKA:                          Bureau 39

AKA:                          Central Committee

AKA:                          Bureau 39

AKA:                          Third Floor Division 39

Address:                      Second KWP Government Building (Korean – CH'O'NGSA),

                                    Chungso'ng, Urban Town (Korean -- DONG),

                                    Chung Ward, P'yongyang, North Korea

Address:                      Chung-Guyok (Central District), Sosong Street,

                                    Kyongrim-Dong, Pyongyang, North Korea

Address:                      Changgwang Street, Pyongyang, North Korea 

###

LINKS

• Under Secretary Stuart Levey Remarks on New Executive Order on North Korea

by Chuck Baldwin
Aug 27, 2010

The elections of 2008 (and the early elections of 2010) produced two significant phenomena: the “Ron Paul Revolution,” and the “Tea Party Movement.” And, mark it down: both of them will have profound effects upon the upcoming November elections–and upon the 2012 elections as well. Call them what you want, however, America doesn’t need another movement; it needs a genuine revolution.

The Tea Party movement, while still a force with which to be contended, has already been diluted and compromised. The primary elections plainly reveal the reality of this fact. The high spots so far are the defeats of Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Bob Bennett in Utah. The low spots so far are the reelection of John McCain in Arizona and the election of Dan Coats in Indiana.

John McCain’s election, in particular, demonstrates how many conservatives and “revolutionaries” still don’t get it. If any State in the union should have an up-close-and-personal look at what we are up against, it would be the people of Arizona. After all, they are on the front lines in the fight of one of the most important battles currently being waged in our country: illegal immigration. And John McCain is one of the worst offenders in terms of facilitating and encouraging this illegal invasion. Yet the people of Arizona reelected McCain to the US Senate. (It would interesting to know how many illegal aliens voted for McCain, would it not?)

Then again, John McCain received the enthusiastic endorsement of former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin. This endorsement obviously brought McCain thousands of Tea Party votes that otherwise would have gone to his principal opponent, J.D. Hayworth. McCain is not the only Big-Government globalist neocon to receive Palin’s endorsement. Many of Palin’s endorsees are neocons; which leads to one of the biggest problems with any so-called conservative movement: allowing celebrity-type “conservatives” to become the de facto leaders and spokesmen for what should be a true grassroots, people-generated rebellion. Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are the two biggest culprits in this regard.

Mark my words: Palin and Beck may see themselves as part of a conservative “movement,” but they want nothing to do with an old-fashioned, honest-to-God, Patrick Henry-style revolution. In fact, they are doing everything in their power to keep such a revolution from taking place.

This does not mean that Palin and Beck do not contribute some good things to freedom’s fight. They do. The problem is, for every good thing they contribute they counterbalance it by supporting establishment principals, such as John McCain and Newt Gingrich, and attacking non-establishment players and ideas, which serves only to keep the Big-Government power structure firmly ensconced in Washington, D.C.

Get real, folks, and start thinking for yourselves. Ask yourself why Fox News never (or hardly ever) invites non-establishment patriots to appear on their network. Why do you not see former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts on Fox News? Why do you not see former Georgia congressman and Presidential candidate Bob Barr on Fox News? Why do you not see former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura on Fox News? Why do you not see former Director of the US Office of Economic Opportunity and Presidential candidate Howard Phillips on Fox News? Why do you not see Presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin on Fox News? The list is endless.

Fox News is not “fair and balanced.” It is as controlled and manipulated as any other media news network. The only thing it balances is the other networks’ infatuation with the Democrat Party, by promoting Republican candidates and ideas. What it does not do is educate and inform the American people with the truth as to what both major parties are doing to destroy our country. But remember, Fox News is owned by Keith Rupert Murdoch, the same man who helped finance Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the US Senate, and who is as much of a globalist as anyone in Washington, D.C., or New York City.

As an aside, and speaking of Hillary Rodham, I predict that she will replace Vice President Joe Biden BEFORE the 2012 elections. I’ve said that in private for many weeks, and now say it in this column–remember, you heard it here. The Clinton-Bush Crime Syndicate (CBCS) needs Hillary in the White House badly, and Obama has readily accepted a subservient role in the criminal affairs of CBCS (for very profitable reasons, no doubt). And with the CBCS bosses pretty much running things at the White House (they don’t worry about domestic or social issues, providing that these do not interfere with their international criminal activities), is it any wonder that Obama has already taken more vacations than most Presidents take during an entire term?

And it is the influence of globalists and neocons upon national and international politics that the likes of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck simply do not get–or do not want to get. And because many Tea Partiers are so enamored with these two (and allow them to do much of their thinking for them), they remain clueless as well.

Ladies and gentlemen, America is in the throes of socialist and Marxist political upheaval. The curtain could fall at any time. The American people need to wake up to this truism: a “conservative” movement–even a conservative Tea Party movement–will not save us. The only thing that will save us is an old-fashioned State revolt.

Arizona had the opportunity to become a modern-day version of 1775 Massachusetts. But Arizona has probably forfeited that leadership role by 1) reelecting John McCain, and 2) being willing to allow federal courts to dictate law to a sovereign State. Instead of taking its case to the federal courts, Arizona should simply tell the federal government that it will enforce its own State laws (including the newly enacted anti-illegal immigration law) regardless of what any federal court says or doesn’t say. At some point, that is exactly what some State (or group of states) in this union is going to have to do, or liberty will be forever lost.

As long as freedom lovers are content to remain satisfied with the status quo by allowing party politics and media celebrities to dominate their efforts, there will be no stopping this socialist avalanche that is crashing down upon us. The Tea Party movement of 2010 (if left free of Big-Government neocons) could certainly translate into positive developments this November; that is for sure. A revival of the “Ron Paul Revolution” in 2012 could also make a significant contribution, but it is going to take a State revolution to seal the deal. I, for one, am ready.

*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?page_id=19

(c) Chuck Baldwin

Published August 26, 2010
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Former Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman says in a magazine interview that he is gay.

Mehlman, who was campaign manager for President George W. Bush in 2004 and then RNC chairman after Bush's re-election, told The Atlantic in an interview published online Wednesday that he came to the conclusion he is gay recently and wanted to talk about it publicly because he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage. He also thought questions would arise when he participates in an upcoming fundraiser for the group challenging California's ballot measure opposing those marriages.

"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with that part of my life," said Mehlman, now an executive vice president with KKR, a New York City-based private equity firm. "Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues and current colleagues and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that has made me a happier and better person. It's something I wish I had done years ago."

Mehlman's leadership positions with the Republican Party came at a time when some in the party were working to put anti-gay ballot measures before the public in several states. He has said he tried to convince Republican officials privately not to attack gay marriage, The Atlantic reported. He also said that, as a solitary Republican, he could not go against the party consensus...

By Chuck Baldwin
August 24, 2010

Anyone paying attention knows that John McCain has been a Big-Government Globalist Neocon (BGGN) for virtually his entire senatorial career. As with many BGGNs hiding out in the Republican Party, McCain likes to talk about smaller government, but his track record is littered with the promotion of one big government program after another. But, what else would one expect from a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)?

Lately, however, McCain has outdone himself. He has introduced two bills in the US Senate that are about as Machiavellian as they could be. I am referring to S.3081, a bill that would authorize the federal government to detain American citizens indefinitely without trial, and S.3002, a bill that would authorize the federal government to regulate vitamins, minerals, and virtually all health and natural food products.

According to Examiner.com, “John McCain introduced a bill into the U.S. Senate which, if passed, would actually allow U.S. citizens to be arrested and detained indefinitely, all without Miranda rights or ever being charged with a crime.”

The Examiner report continued by saying “This bill, introduced by McCain, who despite overwhelming evidence, claims to be a ‘conservative,’ would not only take away our right to a trial, but would also allow the federal government to arrest and imprison anyone the current administration deems hostile.

“Of course, that would be the same administration whose Homeland Security Secretary has classified veterans, retired law enforcement, Ron Paul [and Chuck Baldwin] supporters, and conservatives as ‘terrorists.’”

The Examiner report concluded by saying “If it was not clear before, it should be now that John McCain has as little respect for the Constitution as he does for our borders.”

Amen!

If McCain gets his way, your constitutional right to a speedy trial by jury is gone, as well as your constitutional right to Habeas Corpus. But, of course, they would attempt to justify this by claiming it is being done in the name of national security and the war on terrorism.

See the Examiner report at:

http://tinyurl.com/examiner-mccain-s3081

Regarding McCain’s desire for the federal government to take over the vitamin industry, attorney Jonathan Emord wrote, “If you had any doubt about whether John McCain is a limited government conservative, you may put that doubt to rest–he is not. On February 3, 2010, John McCain introduced to the United States Senate the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010. Reflecting upon this poorly written bill, I am struck by the fact that John McCain apparently sees little difference between fissile material and dietary supplements. He is intent on regulating supplements as if they were radioactive enriched uranium rather than bioactive vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and botanicals that more often than not help people.

“The Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 enjoys support from the most liberal members of Congress. It is an invitation for the FDA to assume broad new powers and replicate here the system now operating in Europe over dietary supplements where dietary ingredients are presumed adulterated and unlawful to sell unless pre-approved by the government. In short, good bye free enterprise, good bye limited government, and hello more heavy handed, arbitrary and punitive FDA bias against the beleaguered dietary supplement industry.”

See Emord’s column at:

http://www.newswithviews.com/Emord/jonathan118.htm

Please remember, this is the same John McCain who, during the 2008 Presidential campaign, said he would “order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America.” Of course, McCain didn’t explain where this authority would come from, because such a proposal has no legal or constitutional authority. And, by the way, this one little sentence, if implemented, would cost taxpayers some $300 billion.

McCain also said he wanted to tap Mr. Climate Change Wacko himself, Al Gore, “to work in his administration on developing a new and much tougher U.N.-sponsored global warming treaty.”

(Source: Cliff Kincaid. See his column at:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Kincaid/cliff260.htm )

This is the same John McCain who addressed the Hoover Institution on May 1, 2007, and said if he were elected President, he would create a new international organization known as the “League of Democracies” (LD).

In advancing the LD, McCain said, “We should go further and start bringing democratic peoples and nations from around the world into one common organization, a worldwide League of Democracies.” He then added, “The new League of Democracies would form the core of an international order . . .”

See McCain’s speech to the Hoover Institution at:

http://www.cfr.org/publication/13252/

If McCain and his CFR buddies get their way, this new LD would be a United Nations on steroids! As I said all over America on the campaign trail in 2008, “John McCain is a globalist.” Of course, so is Barack Obama. In fact, every President since (and including) George H.W. Bush has been a full-fledged, rotten-to-the-core globalist.

And, yes, this is the same John McCain who was one of the primary movers and shakers (along with Obama, Lindsey Graham, and G.W. Bush) who attempted (and would again) to provide amnesty to illegal aliens and open America’s borders to illegal immigration.

And now McCain wants the federal government to take over the vitamin industry, and he wants to give the federal government the power to jail American citizens indefinitely without trial.

The citizens of Arizona can do the American people–and liberty itself–a great favor this year by giving Senator John McCain his walking papers. Big-Government dinosaurs like McCain are an albatross around the neck of freedom and constitutional government. If we don’t send them packing now, the shackles they put around our throats will become insufferable.

*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?page_id=19

(c) Chuck Baldwin

Now the addict count has been cut nearly in half. HIV infections from drug use have fallen more than 90 percent. And the policy shift responsible for such a dramatic improvement in Portuguese life is something U.S. lawmakers -- watching an escalating drug war on their southern border -- might consider worthy of some attention: decriminalization.

Ten years ago this summer, Portugal became the first country in Europe to decriminalize all illegal drugs -- marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and even heroin. Hefty fines and prison sentences still await drug traffickers and dealers, but users caught with less than a 10-day supply of any drug are no longer considered criminals. Instead, they're referred to a panel comprised of a drug-treatment specialist, a lawyer and a civil servant, who usually recommend treatment -- and pay for it, too. If the users decline treatment and go back to abusing drugs, that's their prerogative.

Gael Cornier, AP

Men shoot-up together in the slum of Casal Ventoso, in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1999. Since then, the country has embarked on a unique take on its war on drugs.

But statistics show they're not doing that. Instead, about 45 percent of the 100,000 heroin addicts Portugal's Health Ministry recorded in 2000 had by 2008 decided to at least try to quit the habit, without the threat of jail time. And the number of new HIV cases among users fell from 2,508 in the year 2000 to 220 cases in 2008, Alun Jones, a spokesman for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told AOL News. "This was a major success," he said.

Some Americans have noticed. "The data show that, judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success," according to a 2009 report from Washington-based Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "None of the nightmare scenarios touted by pre-enactment decriminalization opponents -- from rampant increases in drug usage among the young to the transformation of Lisbon into a haven for 'drug tourists' -- has occurred."

The law's passage 10 years ago and implementation on July 1, 2001, was a surprising twist for Portugal, a traditionally conservative Catholic country that by the 1980s had unwittingly found itself at the crossroads of major drug trafficking routes between North Africa, South America and Europe. Even the Netherlands' drug laws are not as liberal as Portugal's. There's been a dramatic shift in the way Portugal and a growing number of other countries view drug abuse -- as a public health issue rather than a law enforcement one...

Editor's note: Robert Calderisi has 30 years of professional experience in international development, including senior positions at the World Bank. He is the author of "The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working." He writes for CNN as part of Africa 50, a special coverage looking at 17 African nations marking 50 years of independence this year.

Friday, Charles Abugre of the UN Millennium Campaign writes for CNN about why aid is important for Africa and how it can be made more effective.

(CNN) -- The World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, recently asked the grand old man of Singapore's success, Lee Kuan Yew, to help the bank make greater progress in Africa. He declined. "The trouble with African presidents," he said, "is they believe the work is done when they've stopped talking."

That, in a nutshell, has been the problem of Africa. Very few African governments have been on the same wavelength as Western providers of aid.

Aid, by itself, has never developed anything, but where it has been allied to good public policy, sound economic management, and a strong determination to battle poverty, it has made an enormous difference in countries like India, Indonesia, and even China.

Those examples illustrate another lesson of aid. Where it works, it represents only a very small share of the total resources devoted to improving roads, schools, heath services, and other things essential for raising incomes.

Aid must not overwhelm or displace local efforts; instead, it must settle with being the junior partner.

Because of Africa's needs, and the stubborn nature of its poverty, the continent has attracted far too much aid and far too much interfering by outsiders.

From the start, Western governments tried hard to work with public agencies, but fairly soon ran up against the obvious limitations of capacity and seriousness of African states.

Early solutions were to pour in "technical assistance," i.e. foreign advisers who stayed on for years, or to try "enclave" or turn-key projects that would be independent of government action.

More recently, Western agencies have worked with non-government organizations or the private sector. Or, making a virtue of necessity, they have poured large amounts of their assistance directly into government budgets, citing the need for "simplicity" and respect for local "sovereignty."

Through all of this, the development challenge was always on somebody else's shoulders and governments have been eager receivers, rather than clear-headed managers of Western generosity.

In the last 20 years, some states -- like Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Mali -- have broken the mould, recognized the importance of taking charge, and tried to use aid more strategically and efficiently. Some commentators would add Benin, Zambia, and Rwanda to that list.

But most African governments remain stuck in a culture of dependence or indifference. There are still too many dictators in Africa (six have been in office for more than 25 years) and many elected leaders behave no differently...

Published August 10, 2010
Reuters

by Chuck Baldwin
August 6, 2010

The GOP is frantically searching for the person who will lead them to the Promised Land (translate: White House) in 2012. Barack Obama is leaving a death stench so heavy that even most of the political allies in his own party are asking him to stay away from their reelection campaigns. You gotta give it to Obama: he has done in one term what most Presidents cannot accomplish until their second (lame duck) term. The problem is, the GOP just can’t seem to find their Moses (or even their Ronald Reagan). That means, as far fetched as it sounds now, Obama has a good chance of being reelected. And, once again, when any Democrat candidate for President wins, the GOP will have no one to blame but themselves. 2012 could be another example.

You see, the GOP (including their lackeys at Fox News) either really don’t know what a constitutional conservative looks like, or they do know what he or she looks like and don’t want them leading the party. I believe the answer is the latter, but in either case, the GOP continually does nothing to groom constitutionalist conservatives for leadership. Just the opposite: such people are routinely ignored, shunned, besmirched, or impugned. (Can anyone say, “Ron Paul”?) Is it any wonder that by the time the general election comes around, the GOP candidate for President is usually nothing more than a Democrat-lite, or a “Democrat in Drag” to borrow from Steve Farrell.

That brings me to one of the people that the talking heads at Fox News and other GOP propaganda centers are routinely discussing as their 2012 Presidential hopeful: former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.

According to Reuters News, “Republican former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Sunday [July 25th] he will decide after November’s congressional elections whether he will make a run for the White House in 2012.”

Here’s what Gingrich is looking at: he wants to see if the GOP makes significant gains in both houses of Congress in the November elections. If the GOP wins one house (especially if enough real conservatives win), I predict Gingrich will enter the race. So he can ride a conservative wave into the White House in 2012? No! So he can derail any potential conservative momentum that the Tea Parties might be able to create in this year’s November elections. You see, Newt Gingrich is the Grinch Who Stole Conservatism from the GOP.

Some of us are old enough to remember Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” that produced huge Republican victories in both houses of Congress back in 1994. However, what did that “Conservative Revolution” (as it was called then) actually produce? The answer: NOTHING! Newt’s promise of smaller government was immediately forgotten. Instead, Gingrich, along with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, facilitated and helped orchestrate further expansion of the federal government. The “less government” theme that swept house freshmen such as Joe Scarborough, Steve Largent, Sonny Bono, Bob Barr, Helen Chenoweth, John Shadegg, and J.C. Watts into Congress quickly evaporated and this new neocon Republican Party was born.

Mark it down, if Newt Gingrich is the Republican Party’s Presidential nominee in 2012, he will do to whatever grassroots conservative momentum is brought about by this year’s congressional victories what he did to the “Conservative Revolution” in 1994: DESTROY IT!

Newt’s track record is there for anyone to see. So, why does Fox News continue to promote him as a leader of smaller government or constitutionalism? Does Fox News even have a clue as to what limited government really means? Apparently not.

Remember, Newt Gingrich is a long-standing member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which is a notorious proponent of globalism and archenemy of national independence, State sovereignty, and limited government. Does anyone at Fox News recall what Admiral Chester Ward said about the CFR? (Plus, how many of the Big Shots at Fox News are themselves members of the CFR?)

Rear Admiral Chester Ward, who was the Judge Advocate General of the Navy from 1956 to 1960 and a former member of the CFR who pulled out after realizing what they were all about, warned the American people about the dangers of this and similar organizations (such as the Trilateral Commission). He said, “The most powerful clique in these elitist groups have one objective in common–they want to bring about the surrender of the sovereignty and the national independence of the United States. A second clique of international members in the CFR . . . comprises the Wall Street international bankers and their key agents. Primarily, they want the world banking monopoly from whatever power ends up in the control of global government.”

Admiral Ward also said, “The main purpose of the Council on Foreign Relations is promoting the disarmament of U.S. sovereignty and national independence and submergence into an all powerful, one world government.”

Accordingly, as a loyal CFR elitist, Gingrich has supported Big Government programs and policies all of his political life. Gingrich is also an ardent disciple of Alvin Toffler, who is the guru of “The Third Wave” politics. That’s why Gingrich refers to himself as a “conservative futurist.”

Webster’s (1992) Dictionary defines “Futurism” as: “Study of, and interest in, forecasting or anticipating the future, or theorizing on how to IMPOSE CONTROLS ON EVENTS.” (Emphasis added.)

Steve Farrell rightly notes that “futurism is a head-in-the-clouds political philosophy, complete with theories and forecasts, which envisions the use of force to insure that those theories and forecasts come to pass.” Farrell summarizes “conservative futurism” as “communism with economic vision.”

This is why Gingrich went along with Clinton’s Big Government agenda, and supported the unconstitutional faith-based subsidies, public-private “partnerships,” etc. Gingrich’s brand of “conservatism” spawned another Big Government neocon’s (Karl Rove–another favorite son at Fox News) “Compassionate Conservative” movement of the G.W. Bush White House, which at the time led to the biggest expansion of the federal government since Lyndon Johnson.

Gingrich’s infatuation with “conservative futurism” also helps explain his support for NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, and virtually every other policy promoting globalism and interdependence. It also helps explain why Gingrich and former Vice President Al Gore have worked so closely together in globalist organizations such as the now-defunct Congressional Clearing House on the Future (once chaired by Gore).

See Steve Farrell’s column at:

http://tinyurl.com/gingrich-toffler-gore

Gingrich was also a major proponent of the federal Department of Education, continually supports unconstitutional foreign aid, even to the Soviets and other unfriendly governments, through the Export-Import Bank. In one year (1994-1995) Gingrich voted for nearly $45 billion in foreign aid. He also helped push through federal loan guarantees to Communist China.

Gingrich was the Grand Old Pal of President Bill Clinton. He supported Clinton’s unconstitutional wars (as he did Bush’s); he supported Clinton’s welfare programs, education programs, labor programs, and environmental programs, as well as most of his foreign affairs programs. Gingrich supported spending $30 billion for the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 that shackled gun owners with new restrictions, federalized a number of crimes, and handed the feds police powers that the Constitution reserves to the states. (I guess the NRA forgot all about that, too.)

Gingrich voted to give billions of dollars to United Nations “peacekeeping” operations; he supported the National Endowment for the Arts; he supports giving illegal aliens amnesty; and he has continually supported increased federal spending and higher taxes.

Campaign for Liberty has an excellent exposé on Newt Gingrich that I encourage everyone to read. See it at:

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=36799

Also, John McManus has an outstanding video exposing Newt Gingrich as a traitor to conservatism and constitutional government that everyone should watch. See it at:

http://vimeo.com/6445068

In spite of overwhelming evidence that Newt Gingrich is a scheming, double-talking, duplicitous Big-Government globalist of the highest order, many conservatives continue to listen to pro-Gingrich propaganda coming from Fox News and other “conservative” outlets.

If true conservatism has any chance of reemerging within the sheepfold of what is known as the national Republican Party, that fox, Newt Gingrich, must not be allowed to be anywhere near it. Unfortunately, thanks to Fox News (pun too easy to pass up), Gingrich is prowling around the barnyard and doubtless licking his chops at the prospect of having another opportunity to feast on the flesh of unsuspecting conservative sheep that foolishly believe him to be one of them.

P.S. My office has been inundated with business owners wishing to be added to our new PATRIOT BUSINESSES web directory. Hopefully, most of these early participants will be uploaded to the web page by the end of the workday today (Friday). But as we are still receiving the names of those who want to be included, this process will doubtless continue into next week. Please keep watching the page, and if you own a business and want to be included, send us the information requested. To see the PATRIOT BUSINESSES web page, go here:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?page_id=1921

*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?page_id=19

(c) Chuck Baldwin

by "NHMI"
August 2, 2010

I know there is legislation being drawn to limit the internet making it illegal to put anything up that makes our Govt look bad, even real US History sites that say the real history, vs what they are teaching in school, they will be removed as well. The 2nd bill I am sure of is a bill to give Obama a kill switch. The 2nd law states he can kill the net without approval and the house and senate cannot investigate the reason of its' termination for 4 months after it is shut down.

So it is likely that they would create a basic internet that we have to pay to access and then sites not included in the package will be individual pay per click, so it will be the end of all free sites online and would essentially be the end of us as well....since our Govt wants the economy to fail so they can impliment a one world currency and a world bank....plus when things get really bad people are willing to run to the arms of the Govt and forfeit their rights in the name of feeling safe. The problem is this has been done so many times we have given up the majority of our freedoms. If you would have ever told the founding fathers that you needed a license to have a gun to protect your home they would have laughed at you...we have gone so far backwards in such a short time, yet we are stupid enough to think it is progress when it isn't....we are repeating the same mistakes made by the Romans in the 1st few centuries AD and several others over the years that ultimately went from superpower to socialism and it was the end of prosperity and freedom in EVER SINGLE case....so how can we do it and expect anything different...especially since we are doing shit that Nazi Germany and Communist Russia were known for...and it worked so well for them.

You wonder why they re-wrote history? It is cuz the truth makes it so obvious what is going to happen if we keep on this course that they know the people will not stand for it if they are aware, but if you play on their humanity and mix socialism and communism in with progression, then people will consider it progress to support the poor or give everyone healthcare, they just tend to forget that someone has to pay the bill for the services and ultimately there will be only 2 classes of people if that happens, the super rich and the poor.

When imigrants came here 100yrs ago they got nothing, but had the opportunity to make whatever they wanted for themselves. This was only possible due to free market capitalism. I don't see why anyone would want to come here now, it isn't the land of opportunity anymore, at least not like it was before politicians hijacked the country with the help of lawyers and bankers.

The irresponsibility needs to stop...and while there is free speech, communist, marxist and socialist ideology shouldn't EVER be considered here, being a Constitutional Republic. It doesn't matter what it has become, we can restore the Republic but we need to stand together. Forget party politics, just remember the Constitution and the REAL vision our founders had for this nation. History shows us where we went wrong, it would be very easy to fix it but the problem is the people in power who have driven us into the ground aren't willing to give up the power.

I think the electoral colledge should be done away with, even though it offers some protection against mob rule, the people should get their way....as long as it fits within the confines of the Constitution as it was intended in the context it was written. Not as it is newly re-interpreted, as it was meant to be. The Supremem Court was clear that it was a solid , unchanging document, so anyone with the belief it is liquid and changing needs to drop it cuz it isn't about what you want, or think it should be, it is about what it is and it was made for that purpose and since that is documented why have we allowed the left to argue interpretation at all. The proof is in the Courts own Words from the 1800's...and if the original specifically forbids something, even an amendment can't remove it, it is what it is and it was to protect the people from a corrupt Govt that they knew would develop if the Constitution ever lost its' pre-eminence over all other laws....had we stuck to that from the beginning we wouldn't be dealing with recession right now....but our Govt was hijacked by bankers in 1913. I can't believe we would be stupid enough to allow private world bankers to charge us to print money when we can do it for free, not to mention the lie perpertrated on the people that the Fed Reserve is owned by the Govt, when it isn't...so ya, I think we really need to audit the FED Res.

If people were serious about fixing the economy they would go back to the only proven solution...go back to the way it was in the 1870's, wipe all the laws after that off the books and start over keeping the Constitution in mind...otherwise civil war is unavoidable as they will pass cap and trade and the START treaty that bans all guns that fire more than a single shot...eventually we will only be allowed rubber pellet rifles like in China.

By Jana Winter
Published July 29, 2010
| FoxNews.com

For the Afghan soldiers who have gone AWOL from an Air Force base in Texas, there's no place like Canada.

Since 2002, 46 Afghans have deserted their armed forces while in the U.S. for language and military training. Of those 46, roughly half--at least 22--have found their way north of the border. 

They made the trip with the help of a network of people, including Afghans who left Lackland Air Force Base before them; a group of naturalized and undocumented Mexican women in Texas; relatives of current and former Afghan military students living in the West; and at least one Iranian taxi driver who runs a human smuggling business at the Canadian border.

The Afghans who have made it to Canada appear to be living comfortably there -- and many have put themselves on Facebook, where they connect with other Afghan dissenters and active U.S. and Afghan military personnel, including members of the Afghan military currently attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland or receiving training at other military bases in the U.S. 

Based on interviews with U.S. and Afghan military personnel, civilian and military sources at the Defense Language Institute, interviews with some of the AWOL Afghans and information gleaned from their online profiles, FoxNews.com has exclusively uncovered details of a pipeline that runs from San Antonio to Toronto.

The first leg of the pipeline involves a group of women, some of whom are believed to be Mexicans illegally in the U.S., who pick up the men outside Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and drive them to their next stop. Often, that’s a bus station or airport, but sometimes the women drive them farther. In at least two instances, they accompanied the Afghans all the way to Canada...

by Chuck Baldwin
July 27, 2010

The Monday, July 19, 2010, edition of The Washington Post featured an investigative report entitled “Top Secret America,” with the subtitle, “A hidden world, growing beyond control.” The report begins, “The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.

“These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

“The investigation’s other findings include:

*Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.

*An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.

*In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings–about 17 million square feet of space.

*Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.

*Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year–a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.”

On the surface, the Post report appears to be a valiant effort by a major mainstream newspaper (second in influence to only the New York Times) to expose widespread government abuse and chicanery. But don’t get too excited yet.

In Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (July 23, 2010), Skousen writes, “The [Post] series has just enough tantalizing information to sell a lot of papers, but almost nothing that exposes the illicit side of US operations–a large portion of which is involved in recruiting, training, and running covert agents–only a small portion of which are spying on real enemies. A lot of spying targets our allies and patriotic Americans who the government worries could someday provide a source of rebellion against the growing totalitarian state.”

Skousen further charges that there is a “dark side” to “each agency of [federal] law enforcement.” This “dark side” involves “a lot of compartmentalization, front activities, hidden budgets and false stories in order to keep honest government employees and agents from knowing what’s going on behind their backs.”

Skousen continues: “What few do get a glimpse into government’s dark side are warned off with threats, some subtle and some lethal–threats which send a chilling message to others to not ‘ask too many questions.’” Skousen then quotes the Post report as saying that since 9/11, the NSA (National Security Agency) has grown to where it now consumes “1.7 billion pieces of intercepted communications every 24 hours: emails, bulletin board postings, instant messages, IP addresses, phone numbers, telephone calls and cellular conversations.”

Concerning all those government organizations and private companies working on counterterrorism projects that the Post report refers to, Skousen writes, “Once again, the series tells us nothing about the substance of what they do, much of which is unsavory and illegal.”

Skousen goes on to say, “What [the Post report] won’t tell you is that almost a third of these [NSA] operations are dedicated to black operations against Americans and other Western governments who need to be surveilled in order to control them and keep them from resisting the agenda of the New World Order. Much expense is allocated to spying on the unsavory private behavior of Congressmen, and even State officials–building compromising dossiers on people who influence the political process so they can be coerced into compliance when necessary.”

Skousen also chides the Post report for failing “to show how connected certain companies are to the mercenary contractor explosion that is growing into a force that will eventually be used to threaten individual liberties at home. The Powers That Be don’t need to hire foreign armies to clamp down on American dissidents. They are training hundreds of thousands of mercenary Americans to do it and using foreign wars to sort out who is ruthless enough or unprincipled enough to take orders without questions–similar to the way the Nazis sorted and selected those who would form the Brownshirt and SS brigades.”

See Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief at:

http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com/

See The Washington Post report at:

http://tinyurl.com/washpost-hidden-world

In short, while claiming to expose the federal government’s “hidden world,” the Post report actually does little to uncover the illegal and dark activities that Washington employs against the US citizenry, and by so doing serves more to cover up this sinister activity. Even so, do you not find it more than a little interesting just how few media sources did anything to pick up the Post report? Did you read any of this in your local paper? Did you see anything of this on CNN or Fox News? Come on, folks! You are aware that most of the media outlets (including network television) in this country obtain the vast majority of their “news” from The New York Times and The Washington Post, are you not? So, how convenient is it that this report (such as it is) was virtually ignored?

As I’ve said in speaking engagements–both large and small–all over America, We have more to fear from Washington, D.C., than from Tehran or Baghdad, or from any other foreign entity. America’s founders understood this and tried to warn the American people accordingly. For example, Daniel Webster warned, “There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence. I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men and become the instruments of their own undoing.”

The protection of the people from the totalitarian tendencies of their own central government in Washington, D.C., is why the framers of the Constitution included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment was never about duck hunting or target shooting; it was all about the American citizenry being prepared to defend itself against its own federal government. The founders’ distrust of the central government is why they attempted to divide the power and authority of government into three separate branches. They expected the three branches to compete against each other and to hold each other in check and balance against governmental abuse. And this is also why the individual states each maintained their own sovereignty and independence when creating the central government in 1787, because, at the end of the day, it is going to be the states that form the final fortress for freedom.

For all intents and purposes, the three branches of the federal government have done nothing to prevent the massive expansion of unconstitutional governance by Washington, D.C. The passage of the Seventeenth Amendment was the beginning of the end, as far as separated power was concerned. Neither has it made much difference which political party was in power in DC. The unlawful expansion of federal power has continued under both. This means that there are only two remaining protections against absolute federal tyranny: 1) strong, independent, and defiant State governments, and, 2) a determined and fully armed citizenry...

By David Goldman, staff writer
July 26, 2010: 7:14 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- IPhone users can now legally hack their phones to download applications that aren't in Apple's App Store.

The U.S. Copyright Office, a division of the Library of Congress, has authorized several new exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), one of which will allow mobile phone users to "jailbreak" -- or hack into -- their devices to use apps not authorized by the phone's manufacturer. The new rules will be published on Tuesday in the Federal Register.

Jailbreaking iPhones in order to download apps that are unavailable in Apple's App Store had been a legal gray area: Apple technically had the right to request a $2,500 government fine for damages every time a user violated the law that bans "circumvention of technological measures" controlling access to copyrighted works -- in this case, the iPhone's iOS software.

Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) never actually requested that a fine be levied on an iPhone customer. But it fought to preserve its right to: Apple filed an objection last year to the rule the Copyright Office has now adopted.

The Copyright Office's decision means that jailbreakers will not face legal sanctions, but phone makers are still free to fight back technologically against the practice. Apple typically voids the warranty on iPhones that owners have hacked. The company maintains that tampering with the iPhone can introduce bugs and glitches.

"Apple's goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone, and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience," a company spokeswoman said in response to the Copyright Office ruling. "The vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones."

The Copyright Office also renewed and expanded its 2006 decision allowing mobile phone users to jailbreak their phones in order to switch carriers. Previously, the office allowed firmware updates to enable network-switching; this week, it added a provision allowing software hacks as well. In other words, iPhone users can now legally download software that will enable their phones to join a non-AT&T (T, Fortune 500) network...

By John R. Quain
Published July 22, 2010
FoxNews.com

Has search and advertising giant Google been tracking you just to sell you stuff -- or is it because the U.S. government asked it to? A congressional hearing later today may raise more questions than answers.

Since May, Google has been in hot water worldwide over the information it collected during its street-mapping projects. European regulators have been pressing the company since it was revealed that Google collected information from Wi-Fi networks as its street-view vans cruised neighborhoods around the globe. The information Google gathered included e-mail fragments and passwords, alarming politicians and privacy and security advocates in Germany, France, and Spain.

Recently, the Washington Post noted as part of a two-year investigation into America's intelligence community that Google supplies special mapping and search products to the U.S. military and intelligence community, with some Google employees enjoying top secret clearance to work with the government. That news has consumer advocates and politicians asking exactly what information Google has collected -- and why.

"Is there some relationship between Google and the NSA (National Security Agency)?" asked Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. "Was this data shared with intelligence agencies in America? It's a question. We just want a straight answer." The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) civil-liberties organization has also weighed in, demanding that Google "grow up."

If there is such a connection, it would explain why there has been little federal government reaction. Representatives would be extremely reluctant to call for an investigation if they felt it might compromise national security, Court noted.

Still, there has been pressure from state governments. A group of 38 state attorneys general led by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has asked Google for detailed information on what it gathered, how the software was tested (if it was inadvertent), and who at the company was responsible for the Wi-Fi spying. The state AGs have also asked the Energy and Commerce Committee to hold hearings on the issue and said they could take legal action if it doesn't get answers.

For Google's part, a company spokesperson reiterated the search engine giant's official position to FoxNews.com in an e-mail:

"As we’ve said before, it was a mistake for us to include code in our software that collected payload data, but we believe we did nothing illegal. We’re continuing to work with the relevant authorities to answer their questions and concerns."...

July 15, 2010 - 4:49 PM | by: Jamie Colby

Last August, the Obama administration pledged to overhaul how those entering the U.S. illegally would be held and treated at detention centers across the country. Many who enter illegally but have not committed other crimes, are housed at Level 1 facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE while those here illegally who have committed crimes are at more secure ICE detention centers classified as Level 2 or 3.

According to ICE, sometimes facilities provide housing for both but these populations are never mixed. The non-criminal, lower risk detainees could soon see the biggest changes in living conditions– 28 changes proposed in total – while even those at more secure detention facilities could see some, like improved access to legal libraries and other changes that will not however, according to ICE, put the public at risk.

News of the proposed changes came when The Houston Chronicle published a leaked, internal email from Corrections Corporation of America or CCA, a private contractor working for ICE. Check out the email below that lists the changes proposed. ICE confirms to Fox these are the improvements proposed by CCA that it is now considering.

The ACLU and other immigrant activist groups say upgrading conditions for detainees is a start, but most working on behalf of illegal immigrants want more sweeping reform. ACLU staff attorney Vanita Gupta tells Fox “some of them actually will make a difference in the living conditions of detainees, who I have to remind everyone, are not criminals."

But Chris Crane the president of AFGE 118 Council, the union representing ICE officers says “we have to take every precaution possible to make sure that they are safe and that our employees and officers inside these facilities are safe". Again, ICE tells Fox it hasn’t decided yet which of the CCA proposals will be approved and any that are, ICE insists will not put the public at risk. How about the cost of making these upgrades to detention? CCA picks up the cost, not taxpayers...

By RICHARD A. VIGUERIE | 7/16/10 4:26 AM EDT

Richard A. Viguerie says Bob Inglis (above) and like-minded Republicans have passively, and actively, contributed to big government. AP

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39835.html#ixzz0ttfirZ28

Tuesday, 13 Jul 2010 11:04 AM

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By: Arnaud De Borchgrave

There is no better illustration of the futility of the $1 trillion Iraq war than news photos of a long line of gasoline tankers lined up bumper to bumper as they leave Iraq to enter Iran.

The U.N. Security Council’s decision to strengthen economic measures against Iran and President Barack Obama’s signing into law draconian new legislative sanctions against Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions leave Iraq's defeated government unable to act.

The Iraq Study Group, led by Lee Hamilton, the prominent Democrat who heads the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and James Baker, whose Institute for Public Policy is at Houston's Rice University, warned in 2006 that Iran, now rid of erstwhile enemy Saddam Hussein, already was wielding more influence in Iraq than the United States.

The only sanction that would undermine the mullah's military regime seriously is a severe shortage of gasoline. Iran is awash in oil but lacks refining capacity and has to import 60 percent of its gasoline. A lack of governance in Baghdad has allowed Iran to strike a sub-rosa deal for gasoline imports.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition government narrowly lost national elections (89 to 91 seats, both rivals short of the 163 seats needed to govern alone) in March. Endless palavers since then have failed to produce a new coalition. With suicide bombers trying to reignite a bloody trail of sectarian violence, Joe Biden flew into Baghdad over the Fourth of July weekend for his fifth visit since becoming vice president. He urged Iraq's political leaders to form an all-party coalition ASAP.

On his first night there, sirens wailed and a voice shouted over an extensive loudspeaker system: "Duck and cover." Five mortar rounds exploded in the Green Zone, a large maximum-security area in the heart of Baghdad that houses the $700 million, 100-acre U.S. Embassy, now the world's largest.

There was a time when Hussein, the dictator who was executed on Dec. 30, 2006, was the most effective barrier to Iran's regional ambitions. In 1980, he launched an invasion of Iran that led to a Mexican standoff that lasted eight years and caused 1 million deaths on both sides.

Iranian teenagers were pressed into service as "suicide volunteers" with a golden key around their necks — for the gates of paradise that would allow them to meet up with 72 virgins.

Until now those advocating military action against Iran's nuclear installations were found mostly in Israel and among the "neocon" lobby in Congress, and its sympathizers in think tanks and the media. In recent weeks, the ranks of those who now concede the inevitability of a military showdown with Iran's theocracy-cum-military regime have widened to include normally less bellicose politicians and their military friends...

Published July 13, 2010
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY -- A list containing the names and personal information of 1,300 people an anonymous group contends are illegal immigrants has been mailed around Utah, terrifying the state's Hispanic community.

Republican Gov. Gary Herbert wrote in a tweet Tuesday that he has asked state agencies to investigate the list -- sent anonymously to several media outlets, and law enforcement and state agencies. A letter accompanying the list demands that those on it be deported immediately.

Most of the names on the list are of Hispanic origin. The list also contains highly detailed personal information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, workplaces, addresses and phone numbers. Names of children are included, along with due dates of pregnant women on the list.

"My phone has been ringing nonstop since this morning with people finding out they're on the list," said Tony Yapias, former director of the Utah Office of Hispanic Affairs. "They're feeling terrorized. They're very scared."

The list's release comes as several conservative Utah lawmakers consider sponsoring a tough new illegal immigration law similar to the one passed recently in Arizona.

Arizona's law, which takes effect July 29, directs police enforcing other laws to ask about a suspect's immigration status if there is reason to believe the person is in the United States illegally.

Herbert has said a new immigration law likely will be passed when lawmakers convene in January, although he said it may be different from Arizona's. Herbert spokeswoman Angie Welling was traveling back from Washington, D.C., Tuesday and could not immediately be reached for comment.

The letter included a long recipient list, including newspapers, broadcast outlets, The Associated Press, law enforcement and state agencies, various Utah officials, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Salt Lake City. The letters began arriving in mailboxes in recent days.

Dave Lewis, communication director for the state Department of Workforce Services, said his agency didn't receive a copy of the list from the governor's office until late Tuesday.

"We've got some people in our technology department looking at it right now," he said. "It's a high priority. We want to figure out the how's and why's."

He said his agency is one of several with access to the information included in the list.

The letter says some names on the list were sent to the ICE office in Salt Lake City in April. It says the new list includes new names, for a total of more than 1,300.

Included with the new letter is one dated April 4 addressed to "Customs and Immigration" and from "Concerned Citizens of the United States."

In the April letter, the writers say their group "observes these individuals in our neighborhoods, driving on our streets, working in our stores, attending our schools and entering our public welfare buildings."

"We then spend the time and effort needed to gather information along with legal Mexican nationals who infiltrate their social networks and help us obtain the necessary information we need to add them to our list," the letter says.

A phone message left for the on-duty ICE spokesman was not immediately returned.

Published July 10, 2010
FoxNews.com

The Obama administration’s new approach to dealing with companies that hire illegal immigrants results in firings, not deportations, the New York Times reported Friday.

Instead of immigration sweeps at factories and farms which used to lead to illegal workers being shipped out of the country, the administration’s new policy—government conducted audits labeled “silent raids” by employers—usually only result in the workers losing their jobs, the Times said.

The Times article comes just over a week after the president delivered his highly anticipated speech on immigration reform, which was criticized on both ends of the political spectrum.

In these audits, federal agents examine company records to find illegal workers on the payroll, forcing “businesses to fire every suspected illegal immigrant… not just those who happened to be on duty at the time of a raid,” the Times said. This makes it more difficult for companies to hire undocumented workers to fill these positions in the future, the article explained.

These audits reach more companies than the Bush raids, employers said. This year alone, Immigration and Customs Enforcement have facilitated the firing of thousands of immigrants and “levied a record $3 million in civil fines,” the Times reported.

This ideology stands at the very center of the current battle between the federal government and the state of Arizona’s new immigration law. Arizona’s law makes not carrying the appropriate immigration documents a criminal offense and gives authorities the power to detain anyone they think is an illegal immigrant. Several lawsuits—including one filed against the state by the federal government— are now pending.

View the original story from The New York Times.

Published July 06, 2010
FoxNews.com

By Jay Bavisi co-founder of the EC-Council
Published July 02, 2010
FOXBusiness

Our complex system of usernames and passwords is astoundingly outdated and increasingly prone to security breaches and theft. Yet, so far it has been mostly up to the individual to protect himself against various forms of identity fraud—with larger corporations taking relatively little responsibility. 

But this could change in a big way. Right now the federal government is proposing a new system being referred to as the “Identity Ecosystem”—which was highlighted in the recently-released draft paper, “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace” [NSTIC]. 

The Identity Ecosystem would allow Americans to choose to obtain a single authenticated ID for online transactions. Like a passport, this single ID could travel with them online and be used to access everything from e-mail, to online health records and banking information. Furthermore, the Identity Ecosystem would only reveal the least amount of information necessary for each transaction. 

To highlight the potential consumer benefits of such a system, the White House’s proposal uses the example of an individual filling a prescription online. Under the “smart ID card,” the pharmacy would only receive proof that the individual is over 18 and that the prescription is valid. No other information like birth date or the reason for the prescription...

Thursday, 01 Jul 2010 07:48 PM

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By: John Rossomando

President Barack Obama’s zeal to give illegal immigrants amnesty is holding the nation’s border security hostage to his political agenda, says GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe.

As Obama called on Congress to tackle comprehensive immigration reform in a speech Thursday afternoon, Inhofe told Newsmax in an exclusive interview that the president clearly is using border security as a bargaining chip to obtain amnesty for millions of illegal aliens residing in the United States.

That was the same charge made by Inhofe’s friend and colleague, Arizona GOP Sen. John Kyl, who stirred controversy last week when he revealed a discussion in which Obama told him that taking action to secure the Mexican border “would remove the incentive for comprehensive immigration reform.” The White House has denied Kyl’s allegation.

Inhofe told Newsmax that he has total faith in Kyl’s assertion because he “has never told a lie” in the almost 25 years he has known him.

Consequently, he places more confidence in Kyl’s credibility than that of the White House.

Rumors in Congress suggest Obama will stop at nothing to achieve his goal of allowing millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the country, Inhofe said. The administration reportedly plans to use an executive order to circumvent Congress and block the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants.

Inhofe predicts the president will use his power to stop or delay the deportation of illegals to select a block of deportees — anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 at a time — and prevent them from being sent home.

“This is just a way for them to accomplish their agenda in this way to allow them to do what they have failed to accomplish in the legislature,” Inhofe says. ”It’s kind of the same they did unsuccessfully on the global warming and cap and trade.

“They tried to do it with the EPA and the Clean Air Act; they are trying to take everything over by the executive [branch].”

In his speech Thursday at American University in Washington, Obama seemed to suggest that border security isn’t that important in passing immigration reform. In fact, he raised doubts that the border could be secured at all.

America's borders are "just too vast" for the immigration problem to be solved with fences and border patrols alone, Obama said. He also slammed Arizona’s popular immigration law, which empowers police to arrest illegal aliens and has found majority support in polls across the country.

Obama took Republicans to task, in particular 11 GOP senators who supported recent efforts to improve the immigration system. He did not name any in particular but told his largely supportive audience at American University that those lawmakers had succumbed to the "pressures of partisanship and election-year politics."

In response, Kyl, one of the 11 Republican senators Obama alluded to, said he had a good reason for his position this time around.

"My constituents have said do everything you can to secure the border first," Kyl told Fox News Channel. "It's our job to secure the border, whether or not we end up passing so-called comprehensive immigration reform."...