Sunday, January 18, 2015

IRS Scandal Is Back


JANUARY 16, 2015
The Obamacare-IRS Scandal
French Terror Attacks Tied To FBI Asset?
New Docs:  Top IRS official may have obstructed investigations into the IRS scandal

The Obamacare-IRS Scandal
There is a lawsuit that could bring President Obama’s federal healthcare crashing down under the weight of its own lawlessness. A few weeks ago, we filed an amicus brief in support of plaintiffs who are making the plain obvious point to the United States Supreme Court that President Obama (or any other president) should not be permitted to rewrite federal statues in brazen violation of the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers.
The plaintiffs in David King et. Al. v. Sylvia Burwell are appealing a July ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that found the broad application of Obamacare subsidies were proper and lawful. The suit names the IRS, the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Treasury Department as defendants.
At its heart, the lawsuit is over what words mean and whether the government can, under the logic of Orwellian doublethink, change the meanings of words such as “State.”  Under Section 36B of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, tax subsidies are restricted to individuals who purchase health insurance “through an Exchange established by the State under 1311 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” Similar wording occurs in eight other locations throughout the ACA. In establishing the regulations governing the tax subsidies, however, the Obama administration declared that the phrase “Exchange established by the State” refers to state exchanges, regional exchanges, subsidiary exchanges, and a federally-facilitated exchange. In our brief, we argue that the decision by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to extend ACA tax credits to individuals purchasing healthcare through federal exchanges “does not harmonize with the clear purpose of Congress” and could jeopardize the balance of powers.
Once again, the fundamental question here is should a president be permitted to ignore federal law? This question was addressed in a critical 2013 decision (In Re Aiken County) from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which said that “[u]nder Article II of the Constitution and relevant Supreme Court precedents, the President must follow statutory mandates so long as there is appropriated money available and the President has no constitutional objection to the statute.”
The DC Circuit opinion raised fundamental constitutional concerns about allowing a president to ignore federal law, and JW’s lawyers point to the Supreme Court to this key point from the decision:
It is no overstatement to say that our constitutional system of separation of powers would  be significantly altered if we were to allow executive and independent agencies to disregard federal law…Our decision today rests on the constitutional authority of Congress and the respect that the Executive and the Judiciary properly owe to Congress…
So, the stakes are clear. If the Obama administration has its druthers, our constitutional system could be significantly altered to the point where it longer has any meaning and our elected representatives in Congress no longer have any say in our public policy. Team Obama seeks to replace congressional policy choices about who is eligible to receive refundable tax credits with their own policy preferences. In our constitutional system, this kind of action should be a non-starter.  The plain language of the Obamacare law show there is no ambiguity as to what Congress intended, and we highlight that Congress’ decision to:
“provide refundable tax credits only to individuals who purchase health insurance coverage through an Exchange established by one of the states was Congress’ attempt to  strongly encourage states to establish Exchanges…Authorizing the receipt of refundable   tax credits to individuals who purchase health insurance through an Exchange established  by the federal government would not incentivize the states to create Exchanges;  quite the opposite in fact. Therefore, the IRS Rule therefore directly contradicts Congress’ policy  choice.”
If the Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration, an estimated 87 percent of individuals who enrolled through the Healthcare.gov website could lose their taxpayer-provided subsidies. Insurance on the Obamacare website is unaffordable to most without taxpayer subsidies. That’s why this case could deal a death blow to Obamacare.
Jonathan Gruber, the controversial Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist and Obamacare architect, has helped proponents of the truth.  Gruber spilled the beans during a January 18, 2012, presentation at a conference sponsored by Noblis (a non-profit government contractor). It was during this presentation that Gruber confirmed that if states did not set up their own exchanges, the federal government would not give their health care applicants income tax subsidies.
To quote another federal court which looked at this whole corrupt mess and also ruled against Obama’s lawless misuse of the IRS to dole out Obamacare exchange subsidies contrary to law, the Obama administration’s legal position “leads us down a path toward Alice’s Wonderland, where up is down and down is up, and words mean anything.”
Orwell and Lewis Carroll would both recognize and recoil in horror at the abuse of law, logic, and language by the Obama administration.  The dishonest despotism of the Obama presidency is now before the Supreme Court.  The High Court ought to consult Carroll’s work for how to describe this president’s absurd claim that “State” means “Federal”:
“Contrariwise,’” continued Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”
If “logic” holds any sway with its justices, the Supreme Court will uphold Obamacare against this president’s attack upon it. And in upholding Obamacare, a law based on lies and economic fantasies, the Supreme Court may help hasten its legitimate end.

French Terror Attacks Tied To FBI Asset?
One awful truth behind the headlines about the Islamic terrorist attack on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, France:  the United States government could have stopped it.  How?   By taking off the streets, rather than using as an asset, Anwar al-Aulaqi, the Al Qaeda leader that is the seeming godfather of the Islamic terrorist movement.  As the Daily Beast reported yesterday:
…there is now little question that New Mexico-born Anwar al-Awlaki, who was drone-whacked by the Central Intelligence Agency in September 2011, inspired, directed, and probably provided the initial funding for the murderous Jan. 7 attack on the satirical    tabloid weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, the media leader on the al-Aulaqi scandal reported exclusively:
Said Kouachi, one of the two brothers who massacred the staff at Charlie Hebdo, met with the American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in 2011 in Yemen at an Al Qaeda camp east of the capital Sana’a, a Yemeni government official briefed on the terrorist investigation  told Fox News.
President Obama assassinated al-Awlaki through a drone strike in Yemen on September 30, 2011, the first American ever acknowledged to have been subject to a targeted killing.  Problem is the FBI probably had been using this terrorist for years as a source, asset, or confidential informant.  Take a quick look at the search results on his name over on JW’s website. The links that pop up ought to horrify and outrage you:
New Documents Show FBI Kept Channels Open to Al-Aulaqi Despite Terrorist Designation
Declassified Docs Reveal FBI Identifying Anwar al-Aulaqi as a Terrorist Day before He Spoke at Pentagon Luncheon
New Docs Reveal FBI Surveillance Team Trailed Terrorist al-Aulaqi to Pentagon for His Luncheon Speech to DOD Brass
Weekly Update: Free Pass for Terrorist?
Docs Indicate FBI Knew Terrorist Anwar al-Aulaqi Purchased Airline Tickets for 9/11 Hijackers
FBI Documents Raise Questions about Saudi and al-Aulaqi Connections to 9/11 Attacks
Former Muslim Cleric in Custody Multiple Times and Released Prior to Assassination
JW Obtains FBI Records Detailing Banking Activity and Purchases Linking Anwar al-Aulaqi and 9/11 Hijackers
Weekly Update: Bin Laden Cover Up?
FBI Followed Terrorist Killed by Drone to Pentagon Luncheon
Judicial Watch has forced the release of more information about this al-Aulaqi, it is fair to say, than anyone in the world.  Reporting on documents Judicial Watch obtained showing that this terrorist was close enough to the FBI to have called an agent to complain about his press coverage(!), Fox News outlined the scandal thusly:
The documents further support claims that Awlaki, who eventually went overseas and linked up with an Al Qaeda affiliate, worked with the FBI and was likely a U.S. government asset.
“I have little doubt that President Obama assassinated a terrorist that was an asset of the U.S. government,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
He added: “There have been so many missed opportunities in getting the bad guys, but it’s one thing to have a bad guy working with you and for you and actually in your custody and then letting them go.”
Fitton questioned whether Obama was even aware of al-Awlaki’s connections to federal law enforcement. “These unanswered questions cast President Obama’s decision to assassinate [al-Awlaki] in a disturbingly different light,” he said.
****
Fitton claims federal law enforcement had al-Awlaki in their custody, until the FBI let him walk — and in the years before he was killed by a CIA drone in 2011, al-Awlaki pioneered the digital jihad, now being capitalized upon by the Islamic State, or ISIS.
“ISIS took that and ran with it –who knows, maybe if we had gotten al-Awlaki and kept him off the streets and in jail or in prison where he belonged that there would have been a much more slower development of the Internet jihad that we’re all facing worldwide.”
You can look it all up on our site, but as I detailed in one of the links above, your Judicial Watch has provided an ugly roadmap of FBI and other government reckless endangerment that has had deadly consequences:
FBI documents show that al-Aulaqi was tied to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  The FBI listed him as a member of a terrorist organization.  The FBI had al-Aulaqi “dead to rights” on federal sex trafficking charges.  The FBI refused to enforce an arrest warrant against him for passport fraud.  Despite all of this, al-Aulaqi was never detained or prosecuted.  And he went on to a leadership role in al Qaeda and other terrorist activities that lead to the deaths of Americans.
This is a scandal that spans both the Bush and Obama administrations.  Unfortunately, the president we now have is ignoring the lessons of al-Alwaki. His frenzied efforts to release, in contravention of law, as many terrorists as possible are bound to set up more situations similar to al-Alwaki. Senator Lindsey Graham (S-SC) suggests that Obama is “delusional” in releasing these terrorists.
This Islamist terrorist threat is being exacerbated by a national security establishment that tries to hide the truth about terrorists working for it, by a White House that can’t manage to utter the phrase “radical Islam,” and by a corrupted Washington that can’t bother to rein in a president who releases terrorists who are almost certain to kill more innocents.
Please educate yourself and then your elected representatives about the results of Judicial Watch’s historic investigation and litigation that have uncovered our government’s reckless mishandling of the al-Alwaki terrorist threat.  Let’s work to make sure there are no more al-Alwaki’s being protected by the FBI.
And I can tell you this: Obama may not want to go to France to take a stand against the jihadist threat – but if French law enforcement would like to use our information to figure out how to better protect their citizens, your JW will be on a plane in a heartbeat.

New Docs:  Top IRS official may have obstructed investigations into the IRS scandal
The IRS scandal is just beginning.  And Lois Lerner is in the news again as we begin 2015.
She was the director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who is at the center of the 2013 IRS scandal. That was the one that involved the outrageous IRS scrutiny of Tea Party groups and other conservative critics of Obama. In May 2013, the Treasury Inspector for Tax Administration released an audit report confirming that the IRS used inappropriate criteria to identify conservative organizations that are not in favor of the administration. In 2014, Lerner was held in contempt of Congress after refusing to testify at a congressional hearing.
We have just released a new batch of IRS documents that include a series of emails between Lerner and then Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) Division Deputy Director Joseph H. Grant in which she strongly objected to his planned visited to the agency’s Cincinnati office.
Here’s a brief sample of the exchange between Lerner and Grant:
We just gor an very extensive information request from Imraan [Imraan Khakoo, TE/GE   official] –sure looks like op review material. I’m especially concerned that information about pipeline is being asked about … Add to that the fact tha cincinnati is smack dab in    the middle of the c4 Congressional inqueries and is about to get a request from TIGTA on all of that, this is NOT a good time to be asking them for anything or to be talking to them about issue in their work. Everyone is stressed to the max and at their wits end, so can we put this off please? [Typos in originals]
It is a visit, not an OP review … I am also interested in the questions Imraan sent to them. Some answers should be readily at hand. Others certainly won’t be … The questions just serve as a framework for a broader conversation about how things are going and what is on our respective minds.
I get that–but timing would be bad if we have to go to Cincy now. So, I will assume we can go over this here as I get the information I’ve already asked for? Thanks.
I think we are in agreement, but just to be sure. I am planning to go to Cincy at the end of the month. I am travelling with Nan Marks and Imraan.
Fine with me–just trying to keep the stress level manageable in Cincinnati–they are pretty  freaked. Please don’t ask them about closures, pipelines, wait time for full development cases, or the c4 application letters. I know Imraan is really interested in that stuff in general—I promise to give him info—that just wouldn’t be the best place to ask. Thanks.
Noted.
It is also worth “noting” that on May 8, 2013, which was just a few days before the IRS scandal broke, then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller promoted Mr. Grant to TE/GE Commissioner, where he was assigned to “oversee the administration of tax law relating to employee plans, tax-exempt organizations and various government entities.” Miller announced his resignation on May 15, 2013 and Grant announced his retirement the next day.
Another email we’ve obtained that goes back to February 2012 demonstrates that the Exempt Organizations (EO) Technical was deeply involved with advocacy organization applications.  An IRS bulletin states “The EO Technical office is located in Washington, DC.”
Here’s the email from and IRS official named Holly Paz that she sent to Lerner.
Lois, EO Determinations noticed an uptick in applications from advocacy organizations    early in 2010. The first case was referred to EO Technical in…2010. That case was an application for…status. It closed…2010 when the… At that time, EO Technical requested another…from an…be transferred to EO Technical. Such a case was transferred in…2010. That case also closed…2012 after the… EO Technical also requested an application from a…be transferred from Determinations. A case was transferred in…2010. It is still being developed by EO Technical. To give you a sense of the growth in the number of these cases, in October 2010, we had identified             approximately 40 advocacy cases.
That’s your federal government at work.  And it’s zeroing in on those of you who are rather keen on the idea of constitutional limited government and advocacy efforts that use to enjoy First Amendment protections.  (BTW, there was no uptick in “applications from advocacy organizations” – the number actually declined that year.)
There’s more in this batch, and I encourage you to review more details here.
Our litigation continues and more IRS documents continue to come our way.  Be sure to check back here for further details.
Until next week…
Posted by Freewill at 6:39:00 PM 0 comments

John Gotti Jr. writes tell-all mob book...

The son of late John (Dapper Don) Gotti bares all — from his childhood to his initiation into the Gambino crime family to his plea deal — in his tell-all memoir, 'Shadow of My Father.'

special to the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, January 18, 2015, 12:01 AM
 

John A. (Junior) Gotti is seen in 2009 outside his Oyster Bay home. stephen Barcelo for new york daily news John A. (Junior) Gotti is seen in 2009 outside his Oyster Bay home.
The feds tried to throw the book at him. Now, John A. (Junior) Gotti is releasing his own.
The son of late John (Dapper Don) Gotti bares all in his tell-all memoir, “Shadow of My Father.”
From his father’s love of the life to what it was like growing up Gotti, Junior’s tome provides a rare, stunning window into America’s most notorious mob family.
I was about seven at the time I visited my father in Lewisburg Penitentiary. He was there on a hijacking bid; and my mother, my brother Frank, and my two sisters were there to see him. I didn’t understand the concept of jail, so seven-year-old me believed my father when he told me that the place was a barracks and he and his friends there with him were constructing it. He would be home when the construction was finished.
With him in jail were his lifelong friend Angelo Ruggiero, as well as Frank DeCicco, Mickey Boy Paradiso, and George Remini. When I went there to visit, it was like a family reunion. As kids, we were allowed to visit from table to table in the visiting area, which you can picture as being similar to a school lunchroom type setup.
It was around Halloween and my father asked me during the visit, what I was going to be — for Halloween.
READ MORE: John (Junior) Gotti on why he authored tell-all book — EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
“Officer Mike, down the block is going to let me use his nightstick and policeman’s hat. I’m going as a cop, dad.”
I saw his entire expression change — wide eyed, he bit his fist, which I came to learn was a gesture indicating, shall we say, extreme displeasure. He looked at my mother, who already knew what the gesture meant.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” he asked my mother. “What have you done to my kid? He wants to become a cop?”
'Shadow of My Father,' copyright John Angelo Gotti, available Monday on Amazon Kindle. Provided by John Angelo Gotti 'Shadow of My Father,' copyright John Angelo Gotti, available Monday on Amazon Kindle.
“Johnny,” my mother said, “he’s just a kid.”
“If I ever hear you let my son or any of my kids, or you for that matter, talk to that cop, or any other cop, I’ll kill you.”
My mother tried to placate him. “Relax, he’s just being nice to your son.”
“Butch,” he said looking at my mother, “don’t make me repeat myself, I have my standards, and that’s that.” (“Butch” was the nickname my father had given my mother after they saw the movie, ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’)
Then it was my turn. He gave me the cold angry stare. “You don’t dress like a cop, you don’t act like a cop, you don’t talk like a cop — understand?” He gripped my forearms so tightly and I was so scared, I wet my pants.
THE DENTIST
In the 1970s, John Gotti Sr. was granted a furlough for a dental appointment after meeting inmates at Green Haven who were able to set up “dentist” appointments out of jail:
He would be escorted by marshals from the prison to the building in New York City where his dentist was located. Someone would be waiting for his arrival, and then give my father several hundred dollars to give to the guards, while my father enjoyed his furlough. My father would go up to the dentist’s office, open his mouth, and then go out the back of the building where one of the fellows would drive him away.
When it was time to return to the prison, my father’s man would drive him back to the dentist’s building, and he would emerge from the front entrance back into the custody of the marshals.
Junior (second from left) and his brother Frankie (third from left) pal around with John and Anna Maria Ruggiero in 1971. Junior (second from left) and his brother Frankie (third from left) pal around with John and Anna Maria Ruggiero in 1971.
I remember once my mother had put out a big spread of food for my father, who was coming home. At the time, I misunderstood, and thought he had been released from prison, but I didn’t know he was only free for a day.
So in comes my father. He spent some quality time with my mother, spent some time with us kids in the back yard. He comes in with a green jumpsuit from prison and changed his clothes.
At the conclusion of the family visit, he took a shower, put his prison clothes in a bag, and, prior to returning to Green Haven, managed to kill an individual who was a last piece of business left over...
ON HIS FAMILY
My father’s “work schedule” caused a lot of friction between my father and mother. They fought a lot. He would come home at 4 in the morning, and sometimes not until the next day. Clubbing, gambling, doing what men in his position do … In the end my mother accepted it. Didn’t like it, but accepted it.
My father and I didn’t have all of that usual “throw the ball around” time. Quite frankly, he preferred street life to home life. They’d go to the candy store, the racetrack and one of the social clubs.
After Junior got in a fight at school, he writes that his father told him: “Good. Anybody bad-mouths your family, or picks his hands up to you, you leave him there. If they’re too big for you, pick up a bat or a stick and hit them in the head with it.” (Words to live by, I thought at the time.)
He writes that he paid the mailman two bucks a shot to not deliver the school mail home, and a teacher said he’d pass him if he didn’t go to class. He was kicked out anyway and sent to New York Military Academy — Donald Trump’s school — at age 14.
He first learned who his father was when watching a football game there, when surveillance video came on and the reporter referred to his dad as “a rising star in the Gambino Crime Family.”
Former Mafia boss John Gotti  is shown arriving at New York State Supreme Court in this photo from Feb. 9, 1990. STR/REUTERS Former Mafia boss John Gotti  is shown arriving at New York State Supreme Court in this photo from Feb. 9, 1990.
ON DEATH OF BROTHER, FRANKIE
Charlie Dicanio came to get Junior and took him home. There were cars surrounding his house. Junior writes:
We kissed each other in greeting, then my father said, “C’mon you gotta walk with me. I gotta tell you some bad news. Your brother is dead.”
Frankie was 12. His mother broke a mirror in her rage. Gotti Sr., Junior writes, was inconsolable:
Angelo Ruggiero said, “Who knows why God does these things?”
“Don’t ever say that again, there ain’t no God, my son doesn’t even have hair on his p---- yet, and he’s lying dead here.”
I heard him crying alone in his den.
ON NEIGHBOR JOHN FAVARA
Was he a victim of my father’s vengeance? What I don’t know for sure, is if my father was involved. After all I was only 16 … what I do know for sure, is it was something my father could have done — you hurt one of his, he’s going to hurt you.
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View Gallery Never before seen Gotti photos
ON CHIN GIGANTE
The influence of my father over so many families made some in the Life uncomfortable.
Vincent (Chin) Gigante was a man who was used to being in control. With a whispered voice and a point to his chin to signal that orders came from him, Gigante ruled over the Genovese family. Members, when referring to him, would point to their chins, so that all would know who was the voice behind the orders being given.
My father was up front and out there with his people. He was accessible, out in the field every day, while Gigante, enshrouded in his bathrobe, played the part of the crazy man. Men in the Life could see and touch my father; he was a real leader, and not hiding behind any facade.
“I would rather be doing life,” my father would say, “Than be like him.”
ON JOHN ALITE
The man who is now “an authority” on the Gottis and is cashing in on a book was just a hanger-on who cut a deal with the feds and is living the good life, Gotti writes.
Alite was an Albanian. He was a non-Italian associate, basically the bottom of the totem pole, and he could never be made. Alite was not a denizen of the Bergin … After seeing all of the surveillance tapes taken of the Bergin, you would see Alite once or twice going around the corner of the club — and we’re talking from ’84-’91.
ON HIS WEDDING
Mafia boss John Gotti (left) never backed down, according to his son, who is seen with his notorious dad, his mom Victoria and brother Frankie (in his dad’s arms) in a photo from 1970. Mafia boss John Gotti (left) never backed down, according to his son, who is seen with his notorious dad, his mom Victoria and brother Frankie (in his dad’s arms) in a photo from 1970.
The reception in 1990 at the Helmsley Palace cost $1,000 a plate in 1990s money. Gotti writes that $350,000 of the wedding gift money was in a safe that was forfeited to the feds.
One thing you had to say about Leona Helmsley, she had guts. She was tough, and stuck by her guns. For my reception she flew a twenty-foot square Italian flag from the hotel, something normally reserved for diplomats … she took some flack for that. She didn’t care. She flew the flag and kept the cops out.
ON GETTING MADE
No. You don’t have to kill somebody. You do have to have a history of loyalty, of doing whatever it takes for the family. But killing someone as the price of admission — no ...
When first approached by an uncle to become “made” my response, which today seems incredible to me, was, “Okay, let us know.” (The chutzpah of the young knows no bounds, apparently.)
Normally we would spend part of the evening at the Ravenite Social Club in Manhattan, and I would be dressed up for the holidays. We would pay respect to Neil Dellacroce, say hello to the rest of the “fellas” and then make our way back to the Bergin Club in Ozone Park. The guys love the holidays, over 100 people at the Bergin, same with the Ravenite.
But for this particular Christmas Eve, when I was hanging out at the BSC the night before, my Uncle Gene advised me to “Make sure tomorrow, you are wearing a red tie and pocket square for good luck.” I knew then that the next day was the day of my initiation.
So on Christmas Eve, I wore a good black suit, white shirt and the red tie and pocket square.
At an apartment on Mulberry Street, owned by Joe (Butch) Corrao. There were to be five of us initiated that night. One of them was Michael (Mickey Scars) Dileonardo, who was to later testify for the government as to the ceremony.
Junior holds an umbrella over his father in a photo from 1989.
Junior holds an umbrella over his father in a photo from 1989.
Previous Next
  • A photo featured in the book Shadow of My Father by John Gotti, Jr. Pictured L-R: John Gotti, Jr. and John Gotti. Surveillance photo, 1989. -- Photo courtesy of John Gotti, Jr.
  • In photo from self-published book, Junior (above) holds umbrella for his father in 1989. Teflon Don’s son (right, in 2009 photo) took plea deal 16 years ago after dad visited him in prison.
  • (Photo at top r., from l.) Peter Gotti, John Gotti Jr. and John Gotti (Front row, from l.) Angel Gotti, Kimberly Albanese (Gotti) and Victoria Gotti at the wedding of John Gotti Jr. in 1990. At right, John Gotti Jr. with his son and daughter at Ray Brook prison. Inset, John Gotti Jr. mugshot.
Enlarge
THE ACTUAL CEREMONY
There were roughly a dozen men sitting around a table…open seats for the new inductees. Around the table sat various capos in the Gambino family. My father was not there. There would be no show of nepotism here, and there could be deniability if needed later — my father was not to be the one who had straightened me out?
In the front of the room, he stood, and was asked, “Do you know everybody here?”
I said yes.
“How do you feel about them?”
I replied I liked them.
“Do you know who we are?”
“I have an idea,” I said. They confirmed my idea.
“We are a society and we live by our rules. We are a brotherhood. We honor and give loyalty to each other. We wonder if you want to be part of us?”
Junior is pictured in 2002 in a photo from his book. Junior is pictured in 2002 in a photo from his book.
I replied yes.
“You didn’t choose us, we chose you,” they told me. “We have watched you all these years, and we chose you…”
A pin pricked my “trigger” finger. A drop of blood was put on a picture of a saint, which was then burned in my hand. I moved the flaming picture from hand to hand, until it was totally consumed by the fire.
ON TAKING A PLEA
“Look at me,” joked my father. “Like I was Hannibal Lecter or something,” referring to the excess of guards and restraints. The voice was raspy from the disease and the treatments.
I tried not to stare.
“The f---ing trifecta,” he continued. “Jaw, throat and neck cancer. But despite the cut and paste job they’ve done on my face, I’m still me. Still standing. Still motherf---ering them at every turn.”
I smiled. Until he showed me the huge scar on his chest where flesh had been removed to graft on to his face.
“I got tits on my face now. Have to do one armed pushups now, ’cause they took the whole muscle.”
John A. (Junior) Gotti's mug shot. John A. (Junior) Gotti's mug shot.
It was getting tougher to keep smiling.
“F---ing government butchers.” I couldn’t help saying.
“Bullshit,” he said. “Cancer has maybe made my body betray me, but not my mind.” He pounded his chest like a gorilla. “Not my heart either. Never happen.”
He had stared directly into the prison video camera when he said that last part. He turned back to me. “What’s up?”
I looked at the camera, then looked down at the conference table. Couldn’t find any additional courage in these places. So I returned my gaze to my father’s eyes. Eyes that knew me as only a father and a boss in the Life could know me. I was expecting the lion to roar — when I said what I had to say. ...
I had to decide between my blood family and the one I was sworn into. I began pulling back in ’95, ’96 ’97, and then I was arrested in 1998.
My father remained ever steadfast due to his belief in the Life, fueled by his hatred for the government. I was wavering due to my love for my family.
“I’m thinking of taking a plea, making a deal.” Sometimes silences can be deafening.
“If I robbed a church and the steeple was sticking out of my ass, I would deny it. First of all John, what are their expectations of you in this plea?”
Junior is seen with his son and daughter at Ray Brook Prison in 2000. Junior is seen with his son and daughter at Ray Brook Prison in 2000.
“Five and a half to seven years,” I said.
My father looked at me sideways, “five and a half to seven? Which the f--- is it?”
I shrugged.
“I go buy a house. I asked the guy selling how much. Does he tell me somewhere between five hundred and fifty and seven hundred thousand?” My father shook his head. “What number you think he’s going to want?”
“They want their pound of flesh, that’s all they want,” I said, then realized that this expression had a literal meaning in this conference room for my father.
My father contained himself, but I could see the anger inside of him.
“I don’t want you should do one motherf---ing day in jail. I’d rather have this cancer than you have a cold.”
I began to reply but he cut me off with a wave of his hand. ...
“A f---ing plea?”
“My sons are kids. I do this deal I’m back with them with they’re teenagers. I lose at trial, I’m doing 20 years. Like they never had a father. Remember Neil’s kid Buddy? How he got f---ed up? I can still be there for my kids.”
“Sometimes you got to do things that f---ing hurt. Part of living like a man, not some guy who is looking for closure. My freedom and my life take a back seat to my duty and manhood. These are my standards John … Remember when you told me that you’d follow me off a cliff?”
“Sure dad.”
He leaned back and said nothing else
Posted by Freewill at 6:04:00 PM 0 comments

NSA preps for future wars in which Internet plays critical role...

The Digital Arms Race: NSA Preps America for Future Battle

By Jacob Appelbaum, Aaron Gibson, Claudio Guarnieri, Andy Müller-Maguhn, Laura Poitras, , Leif Ryge, and
Photo Gallery: 'Controlled Escalation' Photos
The NSA's mass surveillance is just the beginning. Documents from Edward Snowden show that the intelligence agency is arming America for future digital wars -- a struggle for control of the Internet that is already well underway.
Normally, internship applicants need to have polished resumes, with volunteer work on social projects considered a plus. But at Politerain, the job posting calls for candidates with significantly different skill sets. We are, the ad says, "looking for interns who want to break things."
ANZEIGE
Politerain is not a project associated with a conventional company. It is run by a US government intelligence organization, the National Security Agency (NSA). More precisely, it's operated by the NSA's digital snipers with Tailored Access Operations (TAO), the department responsible for breaking into computers. Potential interns are also told that research into third party computers might include plans to "remotely degrade or destroy opponent computers, routers, servers and network enabled devices by attacking the hardware." Using a program called Passionatepolka, for example, they may be asked to "remotely brick network cards." With programs like Berserkr they would implant "persistent backdoors" and "parasitic drivers". Using another piece of software called Barnfire, they would "erase the BIOS on a brand of servers that act as a backbone to many rival governments."
An intern's tasks might also include remotely destroying the functionality of hard drives. Ultimately, the goal of the internship program was "developing an attacker's mindset."
The internship listing is eight years old, but the attacker's mindset has since become a kind of doctrine for the NSA's data spies. And the intelligence service isn't just trying to achieve mass surveillance of Internet communication, either. The digital spies of the Five Eyes alliance -- comprised of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand -- want more.
The Birth of D Weapons
According to top secret documents from the archive of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden seen exclusively by SPIEGEL, they are planning for wars of the future in which the Internet will play a critical role, with the aim of being able to use the net to paralyze computer networks and, by doing so, potentially all the infrastructure they control, including power and water supplies, factories, airports or the flow of money.
During the 20th century, scientists developed so-called ABC weapons -- atomic, biological and chemical. It took decades before their deployment could be regulated and, at least partly, outlawed. New digital weapons have now been developed for the war on the Internet. But there are almost no international conventions or supervisory authorities for these D weapons, and the only law that applies is the survival of the fittest.
Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan foresaw these developments decades ago. In 1970, he wrote, "World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation." That's precisely the reality that spies are preparing for today.
The US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force have already established their own cyber forces, but it is the NSA, also officially a military agency, that is taking the lead. It's no coincidence that the director of the NSA also serves as the head of the US Cyber Command. The country's leading data spy, Admiral Michael Rogers, is also its chief cyber warrior and his close to 40,000 employees are responsible for both digital spying and destructive network attacks.
Surveillance only 'Phase 0'
From a military perspective, surveillance of the Internet is merely "Phase 0" in the US digital war strategy. Internal NSA documents indicate that it is the prerequisite for everything that follows. They show that the aim of the surveillance is to detect vulnerabilities in enemy systems. Once "stealthy implants" have been placed to infiltrate enemy systems, thus allowing "permanent accesses," then Phase Three has been achieved -- a phase headed by the word "dominate" in the documents. This enables them to "control/destroy critical systems & networks at will through pre-positioned accesses (laid in Phase 0)." Critical infrastructure is considered by the agency to be anything that is important in keeping a society running: energy, communications and transportation. The internal documents state that the ultimate goal is "real time controlled escalation".
One NSA presentation proclaims that "the next major conflict will start in cyberspace." To that end, the US government is currently undertaking a massive effort to digitally arm itself for network warfare. For the 2013 secret intelligence budget, the NSA projected it would need around $1 billion in order to increase the strength of its computer network attack operations. The budget included an increase of some $32 million for "unconventional solutions" alone.
NSA Docs on Network Attacks and Exploitation
In recent years, malware has emerged that experts have attributed to the NSA and its Five Eyes alliance based on a number of indicators. They include programs like Stuxnet, used to attack the Iranian nuclear program. Or Regin, a powerful spyware trojan that created a furor in Germany after it infected the USB stick of a high-ranking staffer to Chancellor Angela Merkel. Agents also used Regin in attacks against the European Commission, the EU's executive, and Belgian telecoms company Belgacom in 2011. Given that spies can routinely break through just about any security software, virtually all Internet users are at risk of a data attack.
The new documents shed some new light on other revelations as well. Although an attack called Quantuminsert has been widely reported by SPIEGEL and others, documentation shows that in reality it has a low success rate and it has likely been replaced by more reliable attacks such as Quantumdirk, which injects malicious content into chat services provided by websites such as Facebook and Yahoo. And computers infected with Straitbizarre can be turned into disposable and non-attributable "shooter" nodes. These nodes can then receive messages from the NSA's Quantum network, which is used for "command and control for very large scale active exploitation and attack." The secret agents were also able to breach mobile phones by exploiting a vulnerability in the Safari browser in order to obtain sensitive data and remotely implant malicious code.
In this guerilla war over data, little differentiation is made between soldiers and civilians, the Snowden documents show. Any Internet user could suffer damage to his or her data or computer. It also has the potential to create perils in the offline world as well. If, for example, a D weapon like Barnfire were to destroy or "brick" the control center of a hospital as a result of a programming error, people who don't even own a mobile phone could be affected.
Intelligence agencies have adopted "plausible deniability" as their guiding principle for Internet operations. To ensure their ability to do so, they seek to make it impossible to trace the author of the attack.
It's a stunning approach with which the digital spies deliberately undermine the very foundations of the rule of law around the globe. This approach threatens to transform the Internet into a lawless zone in which superpowers and their secret services operate according to their own whims with very few ways to hold them accountable for their actions.
NSA Docs on Malware and Implants
Attribution is difficult and requires considerable forensic effort. But in the new documents there are at least a few pointers. Querty, for example, is a keylogger that was part of the Snowden archive. It's a piece of software designed to surreptitiously intercept all keyboard keys pressed by the victim and record them for later inspection. It is an ordinary, indeed rather dated, keylogger. Similar software can already be found in numerous applications, so it doesn't seem to pose any acute danger -- but the sourcecode contained in it does reveal some interesting details. They suggest that this keylogger might be part of the large arsenal of modules that that belong to the Warriorpride program, a kind of universal Esperanto software used by all the Five Eyes partner agencies that at times was even able to break into iPhones, among other capabilities. The documents published by SPIEGEL include sample code from the keylogger to foster further research and enable the creation of appropriate defenses. 'Just a Bunch of Hackers'
The men and women working for the Remote Operations Center (ROC), which uses the codename S321, at the agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, work on one of the NSA's most crucial teams, the unit responsible for covert operations. S321 employees are located on the third floor of one of the main buildings on the NSA's campus. In one report from the Snowden archive, an NSA man reminisces about how, when they got started, the ROC people were "just a bunch of hackers." Initially, people worked "in a more ad hoc manner," the report states. Nowadays, however, procedures are "more systematic". Even before NSA management massively expanded the ROC group during the summer of 2005, the department's motto was, "Your data is our data, your equipment is our equipment."
NSA Docs on Exfiltration
The agents sit in front of their monitors, working in shifts around the clock. Just how close the NSA has already gotten to its aim of "global network dominance" is illustrated particularly well by the work of department S31177, codenamed Transgression. The department's task is to trace foreign cyber attacks, observe and analyze them and, in the best case scenario, to siphon off the insights of competing intelligence agencies. This form of "Cyber Counter Intelligence" counts among the most delicate forms of modern spying.
Posted by Freewill at 5:57:00 PM 1 comments

BBC news: Shots fired outside Joe Biden's house in Delaware


So, are they going to use this to garner sympathy or pass more laws???? Also, ANY car that passed by on that road would be photographed by security cams.
Susoni
Snip
Joe Biden and his wife Jill were not in residence at their lakeside house in Delaware on Saturday
Shots were fired near US Vice-President Joe Biden's house in the state of Delaware, but he was away at the time, a Secret Service official has said.
The shots were fired on Saturday from a public road in Greenville, outside a security perimeter, Robert Hoback said.
The road is several hundred metres from the house, and officials were searching to see if the shots had hit anything.
The incident, which happened at about 20:25 on Saturday (01:25 GMT Sunday), is under investigation.
The Secret Service said the vehicle from which the shots were fired "drove by the vice president's residence at a high rate of speed".
"The shots were heard by Secret Service personnel posted at the residence, and a vehicle was observed by an agent leaving the scene at a high rate of speed," it said.
Mr Biden's office says the vice-president and his wife, Jill, were later briefed on the incident.
One man was arrested later nearby but it is not known if he was directly involved in the shooting. Read More
Posted by Freewill at 5:45:00 PM 0 comments

Is the current POTUS the manifestation of a multi-generational plot to bring America to her knees?


Lots of mind-blowing connections and ideas to wrap your head around here...this is just a sample.
The Outrageous Way Obama Became President
Dave Hodges
The Common Sense Show
Jan 18, 2015
http://bit.ly/15g7XII
[snip]
The Final Stages of Training the Manchurian Candidate
...It is interesting to note that both Senior White House Advisers, David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett were both also “Red Diaper Babies, in which they were the sons and daughters of well-to-do parents who desired communism and lived out their dreams through their children’s revolutionary activities. Other notable red-diaper babies also include such notables as Rahm Emanuel and Eric Holder. Jarrett’s situation is particularly interesting in that her family and the Ayers family have been multi-generational friends which also included a marriage between the two families. Much of the Obama administration is a nest of well-established communists...
Following the nine years of mentoring and parenting by Frank Davis, Obama made some very important communist connections which ultimately led to him obtaining an impressive college education financed by some very familiar communist activists, namely, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. You remember Bill and Bernardine, don’t you?
The Prairie Fire book was co-authored by Dohrn and Ayers, and, quite unbelievably, it was dedicated to Sirhan Sirhan, Robert Kennedy’s [alleged] assassin. A former FBI informant, while appearing on The Common Sense Show, Larry Grathwohl, revealed that he testified in a court of law that Ayers and Dohrn had direct involvement in a terrorist plot which killed San Francisco police sergeant, Brian V. McDonnell, by a bomb made and planted by these Weathermen Underground terrorists. How are Bernadine Dohrn and husband Bill Ayers not in prison? The only logical explanation is that Ayers and Dohrn are and were CIA assets whose mission it was consisted of guiding the young communist, Barack Obama, and his legal education and later, launching his political career. If Dohrn was not a CIA asset, then how can anyone explain how she teaches at a prominent university [Northwestern] with her felony background, conviction and the time she briefly served in prison?
Grathwohl also revealed on The Common Sense Show that he asked Ayers, in a meeting of about 25 well-to do Weatherman, most with advanced degrees from Ivy League Universities, what the Weathermen planned to do when they achieved their goal of a communist take over the government. Grathwohl stated that Ayers paused for a moment and then said that it was likely that about 50 million Americans will have to be re-educated in concentration camps located in the American Southwest and that about 25 million would have to be eliminated, meaning that they would have to be murdered... FULL REPORT

Posted by Freewill at 5:42:00 PM 0 comments

WHAT IS THAT STORY ABOUT THE 72 'VIRGINS'??!!


SUICIDE BOMBER GETS THE SURPRISE OF HIS LIFE



 
 
An 18-year-old suicide bomber blew himself up and appeared before allah. He said, "Oh, allah, I did your bidding, but I have a request. Since I'm only 18 and spent all my time in terrorist training school, I have never been with a woman. So, instead of 72 virgins, who also won't know what to do sexually, can I have 72 whores?"

allah regarded him for a moment, then replied, "Actually, the 72 virgins are here in heaven because assholes like you murdered them before they could experience the pleasure of sex. So you're here to service them. Since they're virgins, they're quite sexually ravenous and, frankly, you'll be on constant exhausting duty."

The bomber responded, "Well, I guess I can live with that. How hard can it be to keep 72 women satisfied for all eternity?"

And allah replied, "Who said they were women?"
 

 
SURPRISE!!!!!!!
 
Posted by Olive Oyl at 5:00:00 PM 6 comments

OBAMA 'ELITES' IN HORROR AS AMERICAN PEOPLE PREPARE TO RESTORE REPUBLIC


 

 “No doubt the people know they can have their Republic back if they want it enough to fight for it and pay the price.”
 
 Garet Garrett (19 February 1878 – 6 November 1954),
one of the most influential American libertarian writers of the 20th century

Special Report from Sister Ciara
 
At 14 minutes past midnight on 30 July 1945, the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the United States Navy occurred when the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, sinking in 12 minutes. 
 
Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks while floating with few lifeboats and almost no food or water. The US Navy learned of the sinking when survivors were spotted four days later by the crew of a PV-1 Ventura on routine patrol. Only 317 survived. 
 
Among those who perished was Lt. Thomas Michael Conway, a Catholic priest from Buffalo, New York, who for three nights swam to the aid of his shipmates, reassuring the increasingly dehydrated and delirious men with prayers until he himself expired, the last Catholic chaplain to die in World War II.
 
 
 
This past week, however, the last measure of earthly devotion Lt. Conway had towards those who needed him most in their greatest hour of need was deemed by the Obama administration as unworthy when the US Navy refused to award this true hero the Navy Cross. 
 
Even worse, the reason for the Obama administration refusing to award the Navy Cross to Lt. Conway wasn’t because his acts of bravery and devotion weren’t well documented, but rather because the hundreds of enlisted men who survived, and testified of his heroism, were precluded from making award recommendations…in other words, the US Navy said they would only accept recommendations of his heroic acts if made by those of superior rank, all of whom had died. 
 
In this tragic story about Lt. Conway, though, lies the essence of the American character of the last century…and as it still exists today… “We Have Been Captured... We Are Parented, Not Represented”. 
 
From a unique nation ruled by its own citizens when it threw off the yoke of tyranny imposed upon it by the British in the late 1700’s, to what it has become today, proves true the words of Benjamin Franklin when asked about the kind of country the United States had become…“What have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it." 
 
With the “Imperial Presidency” now ruling America for the sole benefit of the elite classes, and with so many laws the United States government itself is unable to tell how many there are [ US Justice Department official Ronald Gainer “You will have died and been resurrected three times and still not have an answer to this question.”], it would be easy for anyone to say that the Republic is now dead, and will never be again.  They would be wrong, however, to say so because of the simple fact that the Republic is NOT the rulers of America, the people are!  And unless you kill all of the people, the Republic is as alive now as it ever has been.
 
Even better, by every metric one can use to measure by, the Republic is not only still alive, but it is actually growing at a greater pace and level than at anytime since the United States was first founded.  And therein lays the hope, and the danger.  Because as the Republic grows in strength, those elite rulers opposed to it (by whatever name you call them) institute new police state laws and crackdowns to stop it…and ALWAYS fail.
 
Remember…whenever you see a nation where the police begin to resemble the military, where the laws have become so ridiculous and onerous that every citizen is now a criminal, where ordinary life is lived in a constant state of fear, where everyone is spying on everyone else…all of these, and more, show one thing and one thing only…the rulers are in dire fear of the ruled, not the other way around.
 
In what you could call the “it’s always darkest before the dawn” scenario, history has long shown that when a government begins to crackdown on its own people, the closer to freedom these people really are!
 
And unlike nearly every other nation in the world, the American people are ALWAYS the closest to throwing off the yoke of oppression because their Republic has NEVER DIED because it lives within each and every single one of them!
 
So the only “weapon” the elites have left to counter the American people ready to restore their Republic is to lie and deceive them….IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE!
 
Lie to them about everything having to do with how the world really works, how economies work, how debt strangles the future of a country…and too many other things to write in just one sitting. Deceive them into believing their past is not real, their wars are just, the vast amount of wealth going to the elites is justified, and on, and on, and on. But most of all…DESTROY their will to fight by making them believe the falsehood that they are powerless! 
 
As all of you have noticed too, the charade of electing another American President (i.e. Imperial Ruler) is already beginning…in fact it never seems to end!  But do you ever ask yourself why? 
The reason for this “game” is simple…if one can keep a people divided they can conquer them.  In other words, if these elites can keep the American people arguing over guns, abortion, wages, you name it, they remain free to pillage and loot to their hearts content. 
 
And they do this all while instituting a child prison system (known as schools) intended to indoctrinate, not educate. 
 
That’s OK though, because as history has always shown, when the education system fails, the free press picks up the slack….unless…. 
 
And this is the point I’m trying to make today…without a free press, a press that educates, that puts everything into context, and most of all tells the truth, those seeking to restore the Republic will fail!
Even worse, with the CIA funded Facebook now about to destroy every independent news website in America, and with just 6 corporations controlling 90% of the media in the entire United States, those able and willing to protect and defend the Republic could very well awaken one day to find no true news or information at all!
 
Posted by Olive Oyl at 5:00:00 PM 1 comments
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