Category: Crimes

Now This is Reassuring

Seymour Hersh is now saying that Bush and His Evil Minions turned the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) into a personal assassination squad reporting directly to Dick Cheney. (see also here and here):

Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us.

Seeing as how it was Dick Cheney calling the shots, let’s be glad that it wasn’t unleashed against inconvenient people in the USA.

Or, at least, I don’t think so. I’ve always wondered about J. Clifford Baxter.

Sweet

Hats off to Patrick Rosario, who was in his basement when two people broke into his home and started stealing his stuff.

They didn’t see him, he was in his basement, and so he called 911, and got out of the house, and then he noticed that the perp’s van was there, unattended, with the motor running, so he stole their getaway van:

Meanwhile, back at his home, a passing driver visiting an across-the-street neighbor saw the burglars exit the house. According to the detectives’ report, “the males looked back … and appeared startled.”

“I wish I could have seen the look on their faces,” Rosario said.

The two fled the house toward busy Southeast Newport Way, leaving a pile of flat-screen TVs by the door, along with Rosario’s laptop, game consoles and his wife’s jewelry box.

Even as detectives took Rosario’s report, the story apparently was making the rounds. Rosario said he received more than a few high-fives from other responding officers.

“Two pulled up, and they looked over at me and go, ‘You stole their car — way to go, dude. That’s awesome.’ Another told me that I just made her month.”

I am amused, but this was a really really stupid thing to do.

H/T Mithras.

More on the Spam Factory Shut Down

I’ve been thinking about the case of MyColo Corp., which got shut down, and about 2/3 of all spam stopped.

Think about this: one server farm, operated by one bad actor, was, at least in the short term, responsible for the majority of the spam on the internet.

In the world of internet spam, phishing, and other bits of the dark side, a remarkably small number of people, possibly fewer in number than the fingers on Rahm Emanuel’s hand, are responsible for most of it.

This problem is thus more manageable than I would have thought.

OK, Me Bad. Maybe the Navy DOES Care About Piracy

At least when it involves a ship carrying $30 million worth of, “grenade launchers, piles of ammunition, even battle tanks.”

Looks like the Russians are pursuing the pirates too, in the spirit of international cooperation…or maybe just because it was their schwag that got taken.

But according to diplomats and the Russian Interfax news agency, the cargo was 33 T-72 refurbished tanks, “quite a significant amount of ammunition” and grenade launchers. The supplier was a state-owned Ukrainian company. Ukrainian and Kenyan officials emphasized that the arms deal was perfectly legal.

To be fair, three of the crewman were Russian, and I’m sure that the Russians were offended…After all, no one gets to steal and threaten the citizens and businesses of their former republics but them.

UK Court Rules that British Government Must Provide Gitmo Defendant With Evidence of His Own Torture

This is good news from a legal perspective, but it bothers me, because the circumstances are so Kafkaesque:

A British court ruled on Thursday that the government must disclose evidence to a defendant being held at Guantanamo Bay, a decision that carried with it implicit criticism of U.S. government detention policies.

In its ruling, the High Court said Britain’s Foreign Office must provide Binyam Mohamed, a British resident detained in Pakistan in 2002 and now held at Guantanamo, with information relating to his time in detention.

His lawyers say the material supports his claim to have been “extraordinarily rendered”, tortured and forced into a confession on terrorism charges.

Arkansas State Democratic Party Chair Shot and Killed

I’m not claiming a conspiracy, after all, if you were going to do this, you would not choose someone in Arkansas like Bill Gwatney, which is not a likely location for a Republican pickup in Congress or an Obama victory in November.

I will say, however that the tenor of political discourse, with such things as David Boehner calling for Pelosi’s lynching contributes to these events.

With it increasingly looking like Obama will take the White House, there is a growing segment of the Republican base, who believe that God intends them to rule forever, who will be willing, even eager, to use terrorism in furtherance of their cause.

Seriously, I am NOT Making this Sh*# Up!

Normally, when some women wants to clone her pit bull, and pays something in excess of 50 grand to a Korean cloning lab to do so I kind of shrug my shoulders, and figure, “another idiot with more money than brains”.

This is further reinforced by the fact that the dog’s name is “Booger”.

However, the case of Bernann McKinney, the coverage of her dog cloning brought her, and her photograph to the attention of a number of people who say that she bears a disturbing similarity to one former Miss Wyoming, Joyce McKinney (see also here and here), who achieved some noteriety in the 1970s in the UK:

For those whose knowledge of news stretches back no further than the launch of Eudora, Joyce McKinney was the former Miss Wyoming who was accused in 1977 of stalking Kirk Anderson, young Mormon Missionary, all the way from Utah to Ewell in Surrey, before kidnapping him and spiriting him away to a cottage in Dorset. There, she allegedly chained him to a bed and forced herself upon him – three times – while wearing a see-through negligee. (Her, not him. He was apparently wearing a Mormon chastity garment, and presumably a pained expression.)

The object of Joyce McKinney’s affections eventually escaped her mink-lined handcuffs. She and an accomplice were charged with kidnapping, but she insisted it was consensual. Joyce escaped the UK using a false passport and disguised as a member of a mime troupe, but not before declaring in court that her love for the mink-restrained Mormon was such that: “I’d ski naked down Mount Everest with a carnation up my nose if he asked me.”

(emphasis mine)

BTW, she has now admitted that the is, in fact, that Joyce McKinney.

Seriously, if someone wrote this in a novel, the editor would send it back with a not saying that it was simply too weird to be believable.

Unintentionally Funny Line of the Day

Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick was sent to the county jail for violating his bond by going to Windsor, Ontario without the court’s permission.

Hizonner Kilpatrick is on trial for perjury and other charges as a result of a sex scandal with his assistant.

Kilpatrick’s office said that his chief of staff, would serve as acting mayor, so that:

Residents can be assured government will continue to operate as usual.

In Detroit…..Somehow….Not so reassuring.

McCain’s Fundraising Corruption

Hmmmm….It appears that one of McCain’s major campaign bundlers, Harry Sargeant III, is using straw donors to funnel money to the campaign from non-US citizens in the Middle East, which is a felony.

Actually it’s two, straw donors and foreign campaign donations.

Read the article. Many of the donors don’t make much money, and many of them are not even registered to vote.

And all the contributors in the story have Arab names, which when juxtaposed with Sargeant’s statement that, “I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in the Middle East. I’ve got a lot of friends,” does lead one to wonder what’s going on here.

Head of Unscom Bio Weapons Said, Ivins Couldn’t Have Done It

Richard Spertzel, head of the biological-weapons section of Unscom from 1994-99, nd a member of the Iraq Survey Group, wrote an Op/Ed in the Wall Street Journal that I highly recommend.

Basically, he says that Bruce Ivins, and everyone at the lab, worked on the bacteria in growth media, and did not have the equipment to make the weaponized form, which is powdered and given coatings to create a static charge to further spread the powder:

From what we know so far, Bruce Ivins, although potentially a brilliant scientist, was not that man. The multiple disciplines and technologies required to make the anthrax in this case do not exist at Army’s Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Inhalation studies are conducted at the institute, but they are done using liquid preparations, not powdered products.

(emphasis mine)

Impeachable Offense

Ron Suskind, in his latest book, the Way of the world, says that the White House ordered that the CIA forge a back-dated letter between the head of Iraqi security and Saddam Hussein showing al Queida ties after the fall of Baghdad to deflect attention away from the lack of WMDs.

The National Security Act of 1947 specifically forbids the CIA from taking actions that have their primary intent of deceiving the American People.

So, what will happen?

Nothing.

NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!

Military Stonewalling on Rape

This is a serious problem, but ordering your top official on sexual abuse to ignore a Congressional subpoena only makes it look like you are trying to cover up the problem….because you ARE covering up the problem.

The only real question is whether this is a systemic problem with the military, or an artifact of the military being broken by Iraq.

Still the statistics, 41% of female veterans saying that they have been raped and an 8% prosecution rate, are mind boggling if only half accurate.

McClellan Says White House Plame Coverup is Ongoing

I am not surprised, except for the fact that Congress has been so complicit in this coverup:

“The continuing cloud of suspicion is not something I can remove because I only one part of the story,” McClellan said in his opening statement before the House Judiciary Committtee this morning. “Only those who know the underlying truth can bring this to an end. Sadly, they remain silent.”

Dang, No Lawsuit Against MediaDefender

You may recall that I wrote about MediaDefender’s terrorist DDOS attack on internet TV station Revision3 last Friday.

As promised, I sent Revision3 an email saying that if they wanted to sue, and set up a legal fund, I’d throw in a few bucks.

Well they got back to me, and they are not suing, at least not now.

reprinted with permission

Jim Louderback <@@@@@@@@> Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 3:24 PM
To: @@@@@@@@@

Ha, that’s a good idea. Probably won’t do it, but I appreciate the thoughts!

jim

–snipped forward form support email—

—– Forwarded Message —–
From: “Matthew Saroff” <@@@@@@@@>
To: @@@@@@@@
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 12:10:55 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: The MediaDefender DDOS Attack, Will You Set Up a Legal Fund?

Have you considered putting up a link for a legal fund to sue those folks?

If you did, I’d throw in a few bucks.


Matthew Saroff
Standard Disclaimer Applies
Yadda, Yadda, Yadda, I Gotta Blog
http://40yrs.blogspot.com

Poppy Cultivation Makes for Tough Choices in Afghanistan

Found in a rather odd place, specifically an Aviation Week defense blog, is the realization by experts that the poppy eradication program is bolstering the Taliban.

Seeing as how the current plan is to threaten people and burn their crops if they are caught with poppies again, I can’t imagine why this would be a problem.

This really needs to be addressed on the demand end, but with the biggest market for Heroine, the USA, hopelessly mired in a punitive “war on drugs”, that ain’t happening in the foreseeable future.

Texas Appeals Court Rules Revokes Texas Custody In Raid on Polygamy Compound

I already noted that the original complaint call leading to the raid was a hoax, and now the appeals court has ruled unanimously that, “the the state did not establish proper grounds to remove the children from their families.”

The ruling — an unusual mandamus opinion granting relief in a case not yet decided — came on the application of 38 women who challenged state custody and another 54 who filed a second action. But lawyers said the burden was on the state to show why it should not apply to the rest of the children as well.

It sounds to me like someone was cowboying way too much on this.

Someone screwed up, big time.