This Is The World’s First Entirely 3D-Printed Gun (Needs a Nail for the Firing Pin)
May 5th, 2013Via: Forbes:
Eight months ago, Cody Wilson set out to create the world’s first entirely 3D-printable handgun.
Now he has.
Early next week, Wilson, a 25-year-old University of Texas law student and founder of the non-profit group Defense Distributed, plans to release the 3D-printable CAD files for a gun he calls “the Liberator,” pictured in its initial form above. He’s agreed to let me document the process of the gun’s creation, so long as I don’t publish details of its mechanics or its testing until it’s been proven to work reliably and the file has been uploaded to Defense Distributed’s online collection of printable gun blueprints at Defcad.org.
All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS plastic with a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company Stratasys, with the exception of a single nail that’s used as a firing pin. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.
U.S. Judge Receives 28-Year Jail Term for His Role in Private Prison Kids-for-Cash Scheme
May 5th, 2013Via: Independent:
An American judge known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom manner was jailed for 28 years for conspiring with private prisons to hand young offenders maximum sentences in return for kickbacks amounting to millions of dollars.
Mark Ciavarella Jnr was ordered to pay $1.2m (£770,000) in restitution after he was found to be a “figurehead” in the conspiracy that saw thousands of children unjustly punished in the name of profit in the case that became known as “kids for cash”.
…
Federal prosecutors accused Ciavarella Jnr and a second judge, Michael Conahan, of taking more than $2m in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centres and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities’ co-owner. Ciavarella Jnr filled the beds of the private prisons with children as young as 10, many of them first-time offenders convicted minor crimes.
Former FBI Agent: U.S. Government Recording All Telephone Calls, Internet Activity; ‘There’s a Way to Look At Digital Communications in the Past… No Digital Communication Is Secure’
May 5th, 2013Well, Cryptogon readers have only been aware of this for about a decade.
Via: Guardian:
The real capabilities and behavior of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly spontaneous admission this week by a former FBI counterterrorism agent provides a rather startling acknowledgment of just how vast and invasive these surveillance activities are.
…
On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:
BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It’s not a voice mail. It’s just a conversation. There’s no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?
CLEMENTE: “No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It’s not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.
BURNETT: “So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.
CLEMENTE: “No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.”
“All of that stuff” – meaning every telephone conversation Americans have with one another on US soil, with or without a search warrant – “is being captured as we speak”.
On Thursday night, Clemente again appeared on CNN, this time with host Carol Costello, and she asked him about those remarks. He reiterated what he said the night before but added expressly that “all digital communications in the past” are recorded and stored:
Let’s repeat that last part: “no digital communication is secure”, by which he means not that any communication is susceptible to government interception as it happens (although that is true), but far beyond that: all digital communications – meaning telephone calls, emails, online chats and the like – are automatically recorded and stored and accessible to the government after the fact. To describe that is to define what a ubiquitous, limitless Surveillance State is.
Family Visits Hydroponic Store, Cops Raid Family’s House for Drugs… Find Tomatoes
May 5th, 2013Via: Kansas City Star:
It took eight months for authorities to decide to raid the Leawood home of Robert and Adlynn Harte for drugs.
And then it took a year for the Hartes to find out why sheriff’s deputies thought they had drugs in the first place.
Banana Republic: Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Husband Wins CA Rail Contract
May 5th, 2013Via: California Political Review:
U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum won the first-phase construction contract for California’s high-speed rail.
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.
If I didn’t witness the insanity and corruption in politics every day, I wouldn’t have believed this.
“The Perini-Zachary-Parsons bid was the lowest received from the five consortia participating in the bidding process, but “low” is a relative term,” the Laer Pearce, author of Crazifornia wrote. ”The firms bid $985,142,530 to build the wildly anticipated first section of high speed rail track that will tie the megopolis of Madera to the global finance center of Fresno. Do the division, and you find that the low bid came in at a mere $35 million per mile.”
Former Bush Regime Official: Chemical Weapons Use in Syria May Be Israeli False Flag Operation
May 5th, 2013Update: UN Has Testimony that Syrian Rebels Used Sarin Gas
Via: Reuters:
U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria’s civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.
The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.
“Our investigators have been in neighbouring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.
“This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities,” she added, speaking in Italian.
—
Via: Jerusalem Post:
A former senior official in the Bush administration said on Thursday the use of chemical weapons in Syria might have been a “false flag operation” of Israel, meant to implicate Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“We don’t know what the chain of custody is. This could’ve been an Israeli false flag operation, it could’ve been an opposition in Syria… or it could’ve been an actual use by Bashar Assad. But we certainly don’t know with the evidence we’ve been given. And what I’m hearing from the intelligence community is that that evidence is really flakey,” retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, told Cenk Uygur in an interview with Current TV.
Israel Attacks Syria Again
May 5th, 2013Via: CNN:
A Syrian official called an attack Sunday on the nation’s military research facility a “declaration of war” by Israel.
In an interview with CNN, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al Mekdad said the attack represented an alliance between Islamic terrorists and Israel.
He added that Syria would retaliate against Israel in its own time and way.
Early Sunday morning, a series of massive explosions illuminated the predawn sky in Damascus, prompting more claims that Israel has launched attacks into the war-torn country.
Syria accused Israel of firing rockets into the Damascus suburb of Jamraya, striking the research center, Syrian state-run TV reported. The report claimed that the rocket attack on the research center aided rebels, who have been battling government forces in the region.
The Israeli military would not confirm nor deny the Syrian TV claim that Israel had launched rockets.
“We do not comment on these reports at all,” an Israeli military spokesperson said.
An Israeli Army official told CNN that two rocket interception batteries have been deployed to northern Israel.
Coincidence: Alleged Bomber’s Widow Is Granddaughter of Skull & Bones Member
May 5th, 2013Ok, I tried to verify this, because none of the sources that mention it cite references to link it all up.
But, yes, I think it’s true.
Let’s take it from the top:
1. Richard W. Russell (Katherine Russell’s grandfather), is mentioned on Eric Samuelson’s Skull & Bones membership list, which might be a list similar to the one Anthony Sutton mentioned but never published. Scroll down to, “Russell, Richard Warren 1951.” (Coincidence/Factoid: Skull & Bones was co-founded by William Huntington Russell, although I have no idea if Richard is related.)
2. Richard W. Russell had a son named, Warren Russell:
He is survived by Katherine Wehmann Russell, his wife of 56 years; his children Dr. Warren King Russell II, Elizabeth Suzanne Russell, Margaret Warburg and Richard Andrew Russell…
3. Dr. Warren Russell is Katherine Russell’s father:
Russell grew up in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, the oldest of three girls. Her father, Dr. Warren Russell, is an emergency physician; her mother, Judith, is a nurse.
Wow. That’s a pretty good one.
Via: 21st Century Wire:
Another incredible coincidence?
As more insights into the life and death of dead Boston Bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev continues to unfold, based on the available evidence – it’s becoming more and more obvious that he was either an FBI and/or CIA informant (or both), who was chosen to be set up as a fall guy, or patsy for the Boston Bombings. In this instance, he would also have needed a “handler” – someone who could help to steer and influence his day-to-day decision making. That person could be someone was very close to him. This leak appeared on Brasscheck TV’s Facebook page a few days ago:
“CONFIRMED: Katherine Russell (alleged bomber’s wife) is granddaughter of Richard Warren Russell, Skull and Bones member and entrepreneur in the energy industry.
In Other News: ‘Uncle Ruslan’ Aided Terrorists from CIA Official’s Home
Research Credit: conceptualdecay
‘Uncle Ruslan’ Aided Terrorists from CIA Official’s Home
May 5th, 2013Via: Mad Cow Productions:
The uncle of the accused Boston Marathon bombers incorporated, in 1995, a company called the “Congress of Chechen International Organizations.”
Even as the company was sending aid to Islamic terrorists in Chechnya, its listed address was in the home of former top CIA official Graham Fuller.
Ruslan Tsarni was listed as the company’s resident agent. The company’s address was 11114 Whisperwood Ln in Rockville MD., the home of Graham Fuller, the one-time Vice-Chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA under President Reagan.
Texas: Company Collects Half Billion Dollars in Bogus Taxes from Customers
May 5th, 2013Via: CBS:
CBS 11’s I-Team has obtained a study that says Oncor, the giant electric utility company in North Texas, is collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from customers for federal taxes that don’t exist.
“Since 2008, they have collected $500 million for the purpose of paying taxes on their income,” said Randy Moravec, executive director of the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power, a coalition of member cities – including Arlington, Plano and Frisco – that works toward finding the lowest rates for residents.
Asked how much of that money has actually reached the Internal Revenue Services, Moravec said: “None … not a penny.”
“Those taxes that are collected from the consumer never end up getting paid to the federal government,” he said, adding, “It’s an unfair levy on consumers.”
