In The News:

Hamas Vows To End West Bank Security Cooperation With Israel

Hamas will not agree to the continuation of Palestinian security cooperation with Israel once it teams up with the Fatah movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to form a unity government.

Senior Gaza official and deputy Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said Saturday that Hamas had reached no understanding with Fatah regarding the issue of security cooperation with Israel, and that the Islamist movement would not allow it to continue, Israel Radio reported.

Abu Marzouk said the Palestinian unity government would be unveiled early this week, on Monday or Tuesday. He added that Hamas had also removed its objections to Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki remaining in the post.

Meanwhile Saturday, top Hamas official Muhammad Nazal was quoted by the organization’s official organ as saying that Hamas would not abandon the path of “resistance,” or violence against Israel — a path the Islamist group shares with the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Nazal said Hamas would remain committed to resistance “in all its forms” until Palestine becomes “free.”

Israel suspended peace talks with Abbas over the unity pact, saying it would not negotiate with a government supported by Hamas, which calls for Israel’s destruction.

Unprecedented Strength: Israel's Air Force Capabilities To Increase 400%

According to the Israel Air Force chief, the IDF’s offensive capabilities will quadruple by the end of 2014. In a single day, Israeli planes can strike thousands of terror targets and exceed the IDF’s achievements during extended operations. 

Major General Amir Eshel, Commander of the Israel Air Force, spoke last week at the Tenth Annual Conference for National Security on the contribution of air power to Israel’s strategic capabilities. Maj. Gen. Eshel discussed the air force’s attack and defensive capabilities during times of war and routine operations.

“I believe our capabilities are only second to the United States – from both an offensive and defensive standpoint,” the IAF commander said, referring to a significant leap in capabilities over the past two years. The commander based his assessment on an evaluation of IDF abilities and conversations with officials from foreign militaries.

“We have an unprecedented offensive capability, which allows us to accurately strike thousands of targets in one day. We have doubled our abilities twice in the past two years. By the end of 2014, we will see an improvement of 400 percent to our offensive capabilities relative to the recent past, as a result of a long improvement process.”

To illustrate Israel’s advancements, the IAF Commander compared the air force’s new efficacy to other achievements in recent years. “The air force at the end of 2014, in less than 24 hours, can do what it did in three days during the Second Lebanon War, and can do in 12 hours what it did in a week during Operation Pillar of Defense.”

Maj. Gen. Eshel stated that “Israel can not afford lengthy attacks. We need to win quickly. A short time, in my opinion, is a few days. I do not believe in conducting long wars.”

The air force chief argued that accurate and quality firepower is the main variable in achieving victory. To do so, he said, “It’s not enough to have just technical ability – we need to adopt an approach. We’re talking about an operation with full power, all of the air force, all encompassing, from the opening of the offensive effort in order to strike as powerfully as possible and shorten the war.”

How Bad Of A Nightmare Are Middle East Christians Living?

A recently released infographic from The Huffington Post underscores how deadly the plight of Christians in the Middle East has become in the last decade.

The populations of Iraq, Egypt, and Syria — arguably the Middle East's three most volatile countries in the 21st century — suggest that their turmoil has had especially devastating effects on the Christian population. Syria, for instance, boasted a population of one million Christians in 2010. Today, only 550,000 remain - a drop of nearly 50 percent.

Prior to the U.S. 2013 invasion of Iraq, the country was home to 1.5 million Christians. Today, only about 500,000 remain, just a third of the previous Christian population.

In Egypt, a country whose Copt population has lived for hundreds of years in the region and has long made up 10 percent of the nation's population, 93,000 of the 4.1 million people have fled the country since 2011.

That the population of these Christians has so dwindled is not surprising given the extent to which they have been targeted by Islamists within their countries.

On Christmas Day in 2013, nearly 40 Iraqis were killed after two car bombs targeted a church and a marketplace.

In Egypt, following the deposal of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, many of the Copt's countrymen themselves wrecked dozens of churches and institutions in Minya, turning the Christian population into scapegoats for Morsi's removal from power. According to a Human Rights Watch report following last summer's violence, 37 churches had been either destroyed or badly damaged, and at least five others were attacked, in fighting that left four people dead.

In Syria, many Christians have been subject to kidnappings and invasions in their village from extremist rebel fighters who have picked on the ancient communities, in some cases for their support of the Bashar Al-Assad government.

For more how the state of the region as a whole, take a look below. Their data is taken from Pew, the Associated Press, The New York Times, PBS, the Jerusalem Post and Voice of America.

The Dangerous Divided Jerusalem Fantasy

47 years ago this week Israeli forces ended the division of Jerusalem.

The city had been split during the Arab siege of the capital in 1948 and it remained cut in half by an ugly wall as well as by dangerous no-man's-land zones.

The victory in the Six-Day War ended an illegal occupation of the eastern portion of the city as well as the walled Old City by Jordan that had lasted for 19 years but was not recognized by the world.

In breaking down the barriers, the Israelis not only reunited the city but opened access to its religious shrines—including the Western Wall and the Temple Mount—which had been off limits for Jews during the Jordanian occupation.

Highlighting a complicated scheme put forward by a Jerusalem architectural firm, the paper asserted that most Jerusalemites wouldn't even notice the difference if their city was re-partitioned.

On the surface the plan, which has been funded by a variety of left-wing sources, seems practical if complicated and expensive. But it is not only completely unrealistic; it is based on a fantasy that the real problem in Jerusalem is primarily one of engineering, aesthetics, and logistics.

Like every other element of other utopian peace plans that are sold to both the Israeli and Western publics as the solution that "everybody knows" must eventually happen, this vision of Jerusalem ignores the fundamental problem of peace: the fact that the Palestinians don't want it.

The conceit of the divided Jerusalem scheme is that the old "green line" that once cut through the city as well as the West Bank is alive and well. Since the second intifada, Jews largely avoid Arab sectors of the city and Arabs do the same in Jewish sections.

The only problem then is how to "soften" the appearance of a division so as to codify the reality of a divided city without actually reinstating the ugly and perilous military fortifications that served as the front lines for the Arab-Israeli wars from 1949 to 1967.

There is some truth to the notion that Jerusalem is currently divided in this manner. But it is a fallacy to assert that it is anything as absolute as the authors of the plan and their media cheerleaders claim. Contrary to the notion popularized by the terminology used by the media, there is no real east or west Jerusalem. The city is built on hills with much of the "eastern" section actually in the north and south where Jewish neighborhoods on the other side of the green line have existed for over 40 years.

The idea that this can all be easily sorted out by handing out the Jewish sections to Israel and the Arab ones to "Palestine" won't work.

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How many deaths could result from failure to act on climate change?

A recent OECD study concludes that outdoor air pollution is killing more than 3.5 million people a year globally. The OECD estimates that people in its 34 Member countries would be willing to pay USD 1.7 trillion to avoid deaths caused by air pollution. Road transport is likely responsible for about half.

A 2012 report by DARA calculated that 5 million people were dying each year from climate change and carbon economies, mostly from indoor smoke and (outdoor) air pollution.

Back in 2012, a Reuters report calculated that this could add up to a total number of 100 million deaths over the coming two decades. This suggests, however, that failure to act on climate change will not cause even more deaths due to other causes.

Indeed, failure to act on climate change could result in many more deaths due to other causes, in particular food shortages. As temperatures rise, ever more extreme weather events can be expected, such as flooding, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, and subsequent crop loss, famine, disease, heat-stroke, etc.

So, while currently most deaths are caused by indoor smoke and outdoor air pollution, in case of a failure to act on climate change the number of deaths can be expected to rise most rapidly among people hit by famine, fresh water shortages, as well as wars over food, water, etc.

How high could figures rise? Below is an update of an image from the earlier post Arctic Methane Impact with a scale in both Celsius and Fahrenheit added on the right, illustrating the danger that temperature will rise to intolerable levels if little or no action is taken on climate change. The inset shows projected global number of annual climate-related deaths for these two scenarios, i.e. no action and little action, and also shows a third scenario of comprehensive and effective action that would instead bring temperature rise under control.

[ click on image to enlarge ]

For further details on a comprehensive and effective climate plan, see the ClimatePlan blog.

Post by Sam Carana.

The Coming Collapse Of The Global Monetary System

'Death Of Money' Author Predicts Collapse Of Global Monetary System

The collapse of the monetary system awaits the world in the near future, says financial expert James Rickards. Russia and China's desire to rid the US dollar of its global reserve currency status is an early sign of the “increasingly inevitable” crisis.

“China has three trillion dollars, but they are buying gold as fast as they can. China worries that the US is going to devalue the dollar through inflation so they want to have a hedge if the dollar goes down, so the gold will go up,” Rickards told RT.

Rickards’ book about the demise of the dollar was released in April under quite an apocalyptic name – 'The Death of Money.' However, the author is surprised that the events are unfolding much faster than he predicted.

“If anything, the tempo of events is faster than expected. Therefore, some of these catastrophic outcomes may come sooner than I wrote about.”

Last Wednesday, China and Russia signed a historic US$400 billion gas deal which will provide the world's fastest growing economy with the natural gas it needs to keep pace for the next 30 years. Experts say this could be the catalyst that dethrones the greenback as the world's reserve currency.

The best-selling author writes that the “linchpin” of the collapse is the approaching failure of the dollar since it is at the foundation of the system. Powerful countries such as Russia, China, Iran, and India do not rely on the US in their national security and would benefit from the US economy being weaker, thus desiring to break free from the dollar standard.

He elaborates that the dual collapse “looks increasingly inevitable.”

“The mistakes have already been made. The instability is already in the system. We’re just waiting for that catalyst that I call the snowflake that starts the avalanche,” he said, as quoted by ETF.

There are three big international factors that are pressuring the dollar right now – Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia. 

The threats to the dollar are “ubiquitous,” the author states in his book. The only way the US can pay off its $17 trillion debt is with inflation, which would drive other countries away from the dollar while the accumulation of gold by Russia and China presages the shift to a new reserve asset.

“The next time we will have a liquidity crisis in the world it’s going to be bigger than the ability of central banks to deal with it. The IMF will basically have to bail out the world by printing the SDRs (an international reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries' official reserves). By that time, you will see the SDR emerge as the new global world currency,” Rickards told RT.

U.S. Money Slump Flashes Warnings As Economy Contracts

The US economy contracted sharply in the first quarter and bond yields have been falling at the fastest rate since the recession scare two years ago, in signs that bond tapering by the Federal Reserve is biting more than anticipated.

The slowdown comes as a key indicator of the US money supply flashes slowdown warnings, though the picture remains murky after extreme weather conditions over the winter.

Professor William Barnett, a former Fed official now at the University of Kansas, said the weak M4 figures are a sign that the US is not recovering properly, leaving the Fed with a grim choice as it tries to wean the economy off emergency policies that are themselves causing havoc. “The Fed faces a 'Catch 22' decision. I am glad I am no longer on the Board's staff,” he said.

The Fed has cut its bond purchases from $85bn to $45bn a month, and is expected to halt quantitative easing altogether by October as it pares back $10bn at each meeting. The taper is clearly chipping away at a key prop of the economy. The stock of narrow M1 money has not grown for four months, and M1 velocity has fallen to an all-time low of 6.3.

The Fed fears it has exhausted its arsenal. “It is too awful to think about what will happen in the next recession, so nobody does,” said Mr Achuthan.

World Bank Sounds Alarm On Rising Global Food Prices

According to the World Bank, internationally traded food prices increased by a sharp 4.0 percent. The leap was led by wheat and maize, up 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

As a result, international food prices in April were only 2.0 percent lower than a year ago and 16 percent below their record level in August 2012, the bank's quarterly food price report said.

"Increasing weather concerns and import demand -- and, arguably, to a lesser extent, uncertainty associated with the Ukraine situation -- explain most of the price increases," the report said.

Overall, international wheat prices soared by 18 percent quarter-over-quarter.

"Such a steep price increase had not occurred since the months leading to the historical peak in the summer of 2012," the report said.

International maize prices rose by 12 percent, with Ukraine, the third-largest exporter of maize, experiencing a 73 percent rise in domestic prices because of delayed plantings and increasing costs.

The United Nations reported last month that world food prices reached their highest level for 10 months in March due to poor weather in major producing countries and the crisis in Ukraine.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said its monthly food price index in March rose by 2.3 percent from February to the highest level since May last year.

Experts are concerned that rising prices will hurt the world's most vulnerable and could foment food riots and other social unrest.

In 2007 and 2008, soaring food prices had sparked dozens of riots across the globe, including in Haiti, Cameroon and India.

According to the lender, 51 food riots have occurred in 37 countries since 2007, most of them linked to a jump in food prices and aimed at local authorities.

This was the case in the crises in Tunisia in 2011 and in South Africa in 2012, the bank said.

"Food price shocks can both spark and exacerbate conflict and political instability, and it is vital to promote policies that work to mitigate these effects," the report warned.

Iranian Commander Says Collapse Of U.S. Empire Is Near

The deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami said that the US’s status in the world has deteriorated and that its collapse is near.

“Today nowhere in the Muslim world” does anyone pull out “a red carpet for American officials and that’s why [US President Barack] Obama secretly” showed up at Bagram military base in Afghanistan without first letting President Hamid Karzai know, said Salami according to a report by Iran’s Fars news agency.

“And this shows that the US empire is coming to an end,” he said.

Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday and spoke to the Afghan president, but did not meet with him.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed Israel’s attempts to set redlines on the country’s nuclear program at a ministerial conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Algeria on Wednesday.

“Is this not insolence towards the international law and the Non-Proliferation Treaty that [Israel], a non-member of NPT, which has massive nuclear arsenals and poses major existential threats to the entire Middle East region, sets redlines on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program?” asked Zarif, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.

PA Official: U.S. Recognizes Palestinian Unity Government, Invites New PM To Meeting In Washington

A senior Palestinian Authority official announced that the US has invited the new Palestinian unity government's prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, to an official visit in Washington.

According to a report by Maariv on Friday, a Palestinian official stated that the invitation is a declaration of American recognition for the unity government . The official added, "The visit will take place in June, during which Hamdallah will meet with American president and visit the US Congress."

Head of the Fatah reconciliation team , Azam al-Ahmad said that, "The US administration has renounced its previous disapproval of the national unity government and will now support the new government."

Washington has previously announced that it expects any Palestinian government to  refrain from violence as well as recognize Israel and agreements.

A US official has previously stated that the United States would have to reconsider its assistance to the Palestinians if Islamist group Hamas and the Palestinian Liberation Organization form a government together.

Meet Directive 3025.18 Granting 'Authorities' To Use Military Force Against Civilians

While the "use of armed [unmanned aircraft systems] is not authorized," The Washington Times uncovering of a 2010 Pentagon directive on military support to civilian authorities details what critics say is a troubling policy that envisions the Obama administration’s potential use of military force against Americans. As one defense official proclaimed, "this appears to be the latest step in the administration’s decision to use force within the United States against its citizens." Meet Directive 3025.18 and all its "quelling civil disturbances" totalitarianism...

Directive No. 3025.18, “Defense Support of Civil Authorities,” was issued Dec. 29, 2010, and states that U.S. commanders “are provided emergency authority under this directive.”

In these circumstances, those federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the president is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances” under two conditions.

The conditions include military support needed “to prevent significant loss of life or wanton destruction of property and are necessary to restore governmental function and public order.” A second use is when federal, state and local authorities “are unable or decline to provide adequate protection for federal property or federal governmental functions.”

“Federal action, including the use of federal military forces, is authorized when necessary to protect the federal property or functions,”the directive states.

Military assistance can include loans of arms, ammunition, vessels and aircraft. The directive states clearly that it is for engaging civilians during times of unrest.

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Bilderberg Globalist Planning Meeting

If you have followed this story for a period of years, it is actually humorous to reflect on how at one time, anyone who discussed a Bilderberg group and their meetings was immediately labeled as a "conspiracy theorist" and ridiculed by those who primarily received their news from the MSM. This scenario was similar to the labeling of those who discussed government research leading to the HAARP program. Both are now disclosed in the public record as fact and obviously no longer considered as "conspiracy theory". It's funny how these things change and one has to wonder just how many current news stories which are discussed in the "alternative media" are reflexly dismissed by the MSM and their followers as conspiracy for political reasons and censorship. Sadly, as pertaining to the Bilderberg story and the HAARP program story, I don't see any apologies being issued by the thought-police of the MSM/followers. 

Globalist Cabal Meets For Secretive Bilderberg Summit

The New American

A collection of around 150 of the most powerful and influential globalists is quietly converging on the Danish capital today for the annual Bilderberg summit this weekend to discuss your future. Despite the lack of attention from the mischaracterized “mainstream” press, the controversial meeting brings together much of the top echelon of the global establishment — bankers, royalty, military bosses, Internet titans, politicians, corporate chieftains, central bankers, academics, media bosses, intelligence officials, and more. Protesters and alternative media reporters are also descending on Copenhagen for the secretive confab. 

While the shadowy gathering is off the record and rarely attracts much public scrutiny, Bilderberg attendees have in the past revealed that the self-appointed global elites make decisions there with far-reaching implications for humanity. From hatching the radical plot for a single currency in Europe to supercharging the careers of little-known politicians such as then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton willing to do their bidding, anecdotal evidence and even statements from insiders suggest that the annual meetings play a crucial role in mapping out the globalist agenda. One attendee recently told the German publication Cicero that the Bilderberg meeting was more important than the much more well-known Davos summit.

This year’s Bilderberg gathering — the 62nd so far — again brings together a virtual who’s who of establishment-minded powerbrokers or their minions, more than a few of whom have deeply controversial records. Among those attending this year: Former Secretary of State Henry “New World Order” Kissinger; NATO boss Anders Fogh Rasmussen; former Treasury Secretary and co-chair of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations Robert Rubin; Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz; Google Chairman Eric Schmidt; Neocon extraordinaire and Goldman Sachs International Advisors Board Chairman Robert Zoellick; former CIA boss David Petraeus; IMF chief Christine Lagarde; and many more.

As in past years, there will undoubtedly be other top globalists in attendance who are not listed — preferring to remain anonymous, perhaps, due to concerns about the Logan Act, which could make some Americans in attendance into felons. Still, the publicly available list includes a prominent roster of U.S. so-called “neo-conservatives;” the globalist pseudo-conservatives who plagued the world with the unconstitutional Iraq war and “pre-emptive” war doctrines. Also on the list are CEOs of some of the world’s top corporations and mega-banks such as Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, TD Bank Group, the European Central Bank (ECB), and more.

However, mixed in with all the crony capitalists and their Western government lackeys are plenty of socialists and communists, too. Even the mass-murdering Communist regime ruling over mainland China will have operatives there. Chinese Communist Party Central Committee member He Liu, who leads the ruthless party’s “financial and economic affairs group office,” will be in attendance; as will a Chinese professor and banker with myriad ties to the dictatorship in Beijing. A Socialist Party Parliamentarian from Portugal, Inês de Medeiros, is on the list as well.

The establishment media — becoming increasingly discredited in the United States, where just one in five Americans express confidence in the institution — will also be well represented at the summit. As usual, for example, the globalist magazine The Economist will have Editor-in-chief John Micklethwait there. Chief economics commentator Martin Wolf with The Financial Times will be present as well. Other “mainstream” media figures include political editor-in-chief Tove Lifvendahl for one of Sweden’s top newspapers, senior columnist Cengiz Çandar with Al Monitor and Radika, Austrian newspaper Der Standard publisher Oscar Bronner, editor-in-chief Monica Maggioni with Italy’s Rainews24 and RAI TV, French paper Le Monde executive editor Natalie Nougayrède, and more. Whether any of those supposed “media professionals” will do their duty and inform the public on the gathering remains to be seen, but few expect to see Bilderberg covered in those outlets — much less the real agenda.

In the past, the meetings have not even been publicly acknowledged, with the increasingly unpopular establishment press usually ignoring or demonizing anyone who criticizes or even questions why global policymakers meet in secret behind a virtual army of taxpayer-funded security forces. Virtually none of the pseudo-journalists in attendance have informed their readers or audiences of the summit’s existence — much less what is discussed. More recently, though, thanks largely to the efforts of the alternative media, the Bilderberg has become slightly more transparent — although not much. At least now, the organizers release a partial list of attendees as well as the supposed “key topics for discussion.”

In a press release dated May 26, Bilderberg claimed that the major subjects on the agenda would include the alleged “economic recovery” and whether it is “sustainable,” shifts in technology and jobs, Ukraine, current events, the “new architecture of the Middle East,” and more. “Who will pay for the demographics?” is also listed as a discussion topic, along with “What [sic] next for Europe?” and “How special is the relationship in intelligence sharing?” The “future of democracy” and the “middle class trap” will supposedly be discussed, too, as well as China’s “political and economic outlook.” Multiple insiders and Bilderberg attendees have in the past suggested that the murderous regime in Beijing would help lead what they refer to as the “New World Order.”

“Does privacy exist?” is another one of the key topics, according to the release. The question is ironic considering the paranoid and secrecy-obsessed nature of the Bilderberg meeting, which treats non-establishment reporters and public scrutiny as pests to be avoided. The agenda topic is even more ironic in light of the role played by key Bilderberg attendees in attempting to shred every remaining vestige of your privacy via unlawful and immoral spying on citizens. Former National Security Agency (NSA) director and ex-commander of the U.S. Cyber Command Keith Alexander, for example, is among the “intelligence” bosses listed as attending the confab.

Of course, the NSA was exposed recently by a whistleblower for unconstitutionally vacuuming up information on hundreds of millions of Americans without a warrant. Another former NSA boss, Michael Hayden, also confessed publicly last month that the Obama administration has been murdering people around the world based solely on “metadata” gathered by the controversial agency. Also in attendance at this year’s summit will be U.K. “Secret Intelligence Service” boss John Sawers. Previous Bilderberg attendees such as Bill Gates, Obama, and Louis Gerstner, Jr. have also played a critical role in imposing Common Core and the accompanying espionage apparatus aimed at shredding your children’s privacy rights.

In a brief statement, the recently established official Bilderberg website offered some bland and almost certainly misleading comments about itself and its controversial meetings. “Founded in 1954, Bilderberg is an annual conference designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America,” it said in the press release. “Every year, between 120-150 political leaders and experts from industry, finance, academia and the media are invited to take part in the conference. About two thirds of the participants come from Europe and the rest from North America; approximately one third from politics and government and the rest from other fields.”

It then elaborates slightly on what Bilderberg wants the public to think about the nature of its gatherings. “The conference is a forum for informal discussions about major issues facing the world,” the press release claims. “The meetings are held under the Chatham House Rule, which states that participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s) nor of any other participant may be revealed. Thanks to the private nature of the conference, the participants are not bound by the conventions of their office or by pre-agreed positions. As such, they can take time to listen, reflect and gather insights. There is no desired outcome, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.”

In other words, if Bilderberg’s official statement is to be believed — that would be rather foolish, considering many attendees’ long and dangerous track records of deception — the gathering is little more than an opportunity to freely discuss important issues. However, even recently, a top Bilderberg operative, Etienne Davignon — a former EU commissar and current Belgian minister of state — hinted at the summit’s influence when he told the EU Observer that the summits played a major role in foisting the euro on the formerly sovereign nations of Europe. Davignon will be in attendance again this year, the public list shows.

Meanwhile, news from what used to be America:

DoD Directive Grants Military Authority To 'Quell Large-Scale, Unexpected Civil Disturbances'

Despite President Obama going to great lengths to assuage the American people’s concerns with the increased militarization of federal agencies, a recently disclosed military directive suggests those fears could be legitimate.

Yesterday, The Washington Times disclosed a disturbing Department of Defense directive detailing which instances may be appropriate for the government to use lethal military force on dissenting civilians.

In a December 2010 directive entitled, “Defense Support of Civil Authorities” (DSCA), the DoD discusses plans “regarding military support for civilian law enforcement,” which would go into effect if authorized by the President, Secretary of Defense, civil authorities or other qualifying entities.

“Federal action, including the use of federal military forces, is authorized when necessary to protect the federal property or functions,” Directive #3025.18 states.

Under the directive, additional authority is also granted to military commanders. From the directive:

“Federal military commanders are provided EMERGENCY AUTHORITY under this Directive. Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the President in accordance with applicable law.. In these circumstances, those Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances…”

Not surprisingly, the DoD order does little to quell the fears of Americans worried over various governmental agencies arming to the teeth, as well as those concerned with increasingly hostile rhetoric geared to demonize Tea Party supporters, liberty lovers, returning military veterans and law abiding gun owners.

Past military literature also outlines several groups the DoD expects to confront in said “unexpected civil disturbances.”

A DoD training manual disseminated last year, for instance, listed people who embrace “individual liberties,” and honor “states’ rights,” among other characteristics, as potential “extremists” likely to be members of “hate groups.”

“Nowadays,” the manual explained, “instead of dressing in sheets or publicly espousing hate messages, many extremists will talk of individual liberties, states’ rights, and how to make the world a better place.”

The manual’s contents dovetails with previous government studies targeting similar groups, such as a study funded by the Department of Homeland Security which characterized Americans “suspicious of centralized federal authority” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists.

Then there are the more tangible threats, such as local police departments acquiring armored vehicles designed for warfare, and outrageous bullet solicitations by federal agencies tasked with providing public services, like the US Postal Service, the Dept. of Education, the Social Security Administration and others.

Labeling the DHS purchases a “glaring threat of war against our nation’s citizens,” Capt. Hestilow declared the DHS’s acquisitions “can only be understood as a tyrannical threat against the Constitution of the United States of America.”

The fact the military has constructed a $96 million training facility in Virginia designed to resemble an American city could also constitute a tangible menace.

While the DoD directive provides some solace for citizens, in the form of prohibiting “armed” drones from being used for domestic DSCA purposes, the concession is overshadowed by the fact that mere years ago the government completely denied the existence of a drone program.

Of course, now it’s just common knowledge that surveillance drones are being used to monitor the borderand are in use by the EPA to monitor farmers and ranchers, in addition to the fact that they were considered for use in the Bundy Ranch standoff last month.

At best, the language contained within the latest DoD directive provides an end run around posse comitatus; at worst, it can be construed as an admission by the feds that they anticipate a future quarrel with at least some portion of the American people, wherein military commanders may be required to make the call to aid local authorities in “controlling the situation.”

Lumber Union Protectionists Incited SWAT Raid On My Factory, Says Gibson Guitar CEO

“Henry. A SWAT team from Homeland Security just raided our factory!”

“What? This must be a joke.”

“No this is really serious. We got guys with guns, they put all our people out in the parking lot and won’t let us go into the plant.”

“Whoa.”

“What is happening?” asks Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz when he arrives at his Nashville factory to question the officers. “We can’t tell you.” “What are you talking about, you can’t tell me, you can’t just come in and …” “We have a warrant!” Well, lemme see the warrant.” “We can’t show that to you because it’s sealed.”

While 30 men in SWAT attire dispatched from Homeland Security and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cart away about half a million dollars of wood and guitars, seven armed agents interrogate an employee without benefit of a lawyer. The next day Juszkiewicz receives a letter warning that he cannot touch any guitar left in the plant, under threat of being charged with a separate federal offense for each “violation,” punishable by a jail term.

Up until that point Gibson had not received so much as a postcard telling the company it might be doing something wrong. Thus began a five-year saga, extensively covered by the press, with reputation-destroying leaks and shady allegations that Gibson was illegally importing wood from endangered tree species. In the end, formal charges were never filed, but the disruption to Gibson’s business and the mounting legal fees and threat of imprisonment induced Juszkiewicz to settle for $250,000—with an additional $50,000 “donation” piled on to pay off an environmental activist group.

With no clear legal standards, a sealed warrant the company has not been allowed to see too this day, no formal charges filed, and the threat of a prison term hanging over any executive who does not take “due care” to abide by this absurdly vague law, Gibson settled. “You’re fighting a very well organized political machine in the unions,” Juszkiewicz concluded. “And the conservation guys have sort of gone along.” Hey, what’s not to like about $50,000?

And this isn’t an isolated incident. Just ask Harvey Silverglate, Boston lawyer, activist, civil liberties advocate, and author of Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent. As he explains, the Feds routinely take advantage of the vagueness of many of our laws by starting from the target and working backwards, selectively prosecuting people they want to go after by charging them with crimes they often don’t even know exist.

“We are in terrible trouble as a nation under law,” he says. “When you have a system predicated on jurisdictional interests rather than on specific, identifiable, understandable, definable violations of law, there is a great opportunity for tyranny.” As a result, just about any businessperson, especially in highly regulated industries, can be construed by a prosecutor to have committed three or four arguable felonies a day. “If for some reason the authorities are eyeing you and they look closely enough at your daily activities, they can find something. That makes us all very vulnerable.”

Worse, 95 percent of federal cases never go to trial, because “Justice Department prosecutors have engineered the system to make it too risky to go to trial,” often railroading people who are innocent. “They have built a conviction machine, not a system of justice.”