HOT AIR DENNIS BLAIR
I wish someone could tell me why it was so hard for me to believe a word of
Blair's babble.
But seeing no one is allowed to blog with me, perhaps your freedom of speech is a threat to "their"national security, I'll have to continue with my monologue.I don't feel safe with a director of national intelligence who does not sound very intelligent, his favorite word usage being "UH, UH, UH"
Just as I feel the word Holocaust has been over used by tyrants to justify their treachery, I find Bl airs abuse of words equally frightening.
Such as:
Patriot
Threat to national security
Homeland security Keeping us safe
Terrorist
American values
American dream
For the greater good
Why does the American dream have to be someone Else's nightmare.
Our chief spy is only interested in other nations language better to spy on them, not their culture.
What can not accomplish by spying, buying or bribery then brutality is resorted to.
He quotes other only to disagree.
Propaganda is the first refuge of the scoundrel.
The closest he came to the truth was in his Freudian slip, APPEARING rather than ADHERING, said it all.
- posted by Frank @ 2:19 PM

 
It's the occupation Stupid
Did I hear Warlord Hillary call someone a Coward?

What would she call someone who hides in the safety of a cubical with his belly full of "big macs" and with a finger detonates a Drone WMD on innocent women and children, Hovering over their heads for hours, days, terrorising whole villages.
Why does our media never show the carnage they inflict?
OH yes, I know they are just collateral damage while attempting to assassinate a suspect, yes suspect, what happened to our democratic system of trial by jury?
No, some poor desperate misdirected soul with nothing left to give or live for, offers his or her life. Why?
Because they are sick and tired of the lies that flow from the mouths of politicians bent on world domination.
You call them cowards? No you can call them anything but cowards.

Your Willie is a coward, not man enough to admit he inhailed, not man enough to take responsibility for his behavior in the Oral Office. How quickly we forget.
Our men and women in uniform who take their own lives because the can no longer endure the hardships you heap on them, should be accorded the highest respect but their commander in chief does not find them worthy of a letter of sympathy to their serviving kin.
Justice Goldstone's report of Israel's war crimes is dismissed by warlord Netanyahu calling him a traitor? because Goldstone happens to be a Jew and a Zionist he is expected to cover up war crimes?
Netenyahu spewing smoke about the Holocaust, yes we know about the Holocaust that was then this is now with the worlds biggest concentration camp called Palestine. You have been hiding behind the tragedy of lost lives while your tactics are no more respectable than that of Nazi swine.

Before strutting around the globe wasting tax payer dollars with our economy in shambles and the filthy rich, which includes our corrupt politicians and bankers getting richer. Before dictating to others what to do, first clean your own dirty nickers and establish some credibility .

Stop sacrificing our nations youth for your personal greed.
Get you axis out of Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan et al. Share the wealth.
The world is watching and waiting.

Your rage lures you from your hole of lies and your revenge leaps forth from behind your word "JUSTICE"
- posted by Frank @ 10:24 AM

 
WHY DO THEY HATE US?
The Prince of Darkness

In Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats
In sworn statements, two ex-employees claim Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince, murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. One also charged Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.” We speak with investigative journalist and bestselling author Jeremy Scahill, who broke the story for The Nation magazine.
Murder, destruction of evidence, weapons smuggling, corruption–those are just some of the explosive allegations made by two former employees of the private military contractor formerly known as Blackwater. The claims were made in sworn statements filed on August 3rd in federal court in Virginia.
The two men claim Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. One also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”
The identities of the two men–a former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company–were sealed out of concerns for their safety.
In their testimony, both men also allege that Blackwater was smuggling weapons into Iraq. One of the men alleges that Prince turned a profit by transporting “illegal” or “unlawful” weapons into the country on Prince’s private planes. They also charge that Prince and other Blackwater executives destroyed incriminating videos, emails and other documents and have intentionally deceived the US State Department and other federal agencies.
The allegations, and a series of other charges, are contained in sworn affidavits, given under penalty of perjury, as part of a seventy-page motion by lawyers for Iraqi civilians suing Blackwater for alleged war crimes and other misconduct. Blackwater now operates under the name Xe–spelled X E.
We contacted the company about the allegations but they did not return our calls. Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill broke the story in The Nation Magazine yesterday. Jeremy is the author of the bestseller, “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.” His writing and reporting is also available at RebelReports.com.
Jeremy Scahill, award-winning investigative journalist and author of the bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. His writing and reporting is available at RebelReports.com. His latest article is online at TheNation.com.
- posted by Frank @ 11:52 AM

 
OBAMAGATE
For openerers we lact a system of journalism that has integrity.
Our government is spying on us from every sector and we are all busy nit picking.

OBAMAGATE

Racism, ego or class struggle

At the beginning of the Obama-McCain campaign, I sent an e-mail to Tavis Smiley. He was to host the presidential debate between the candidates. I asked Mr. Smiley if he would ask the candidates a question from me as a retired police detective and expert on the subject of police corruption. I wanted to know what either of the candidates planned to do about police/community relations. Neither he nor his staff found my question worthy of neither mention nor my request warranting a response.
When a white policeman recently shot and killed Omar Edwards, a black police officer in civilian clothes, people asked if the shooting was racially motivated. A young, dedicated police officer last his life. To my knowledge Mr. Obama chose to remain silent.
When Henry Gates, a prominent black Harvard professor had difficulty opening the door to his home, a concerned citizen notified the police of a possible burglary in progress. The responding officer, Sgt. James Crowley, followed proper police procedure. The police report indicates that Mr. Gates became indignant and that the officer was subjecting him to this treatment only because he was a black man in America. When Crowley asked Gates to come outside, he replied, “I’ll talk to your mama outside.”
Can we really believe that if the police were responding to a similar situation and the subject was white that the police would not follow the same procedure and ask the subject to identify himself?
Phillip Martin, former NCAR race relations correspondent and friend of Gates also living in Cambridge said the president acted instinctively. Martin also had occasion to deal with the Cambridge police. When his burglar alarm went off accidentally he was confronted by police. He cooperated fully, providing the police with his id and the situation was diffused.

Mr. Gates however chose to pull the race card. Mr. Gates not only pulled the race card, he pulled the privilege card by providing his Harvard id card, telling officer Crowley, “You don’t know who you’re messing with” while attempting to reach the Cambridge chief of police by phone.
The key phrase in this dispute is Harvard professor. As if a professor is entitled to special privileges under the law.
.
Police officers who risk their lives every day should not be subject to threats and abuse when they are just doing their job. Any law abiding citizen, let alone a Harvard professor, should know this.

There may be a question of racism, but on whose part?

In this case the situation escalated. Mr. Gates was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct charges that were later dropped when cooler minds prevailed. If the situation could not have been averted, it should have at least been minimized. But Mr. Gates, a member of the Harvard Old Boy’s Club reached out to his cronies for support, one being the President of the united States. With the economy in shambles, mr. Obama found the time to intercede, weighing in on a racial issue that was so non-racial that it was ridiculous. The Gates case has become the first significant racial issue created by Mr. Obama since becoming the nation’s first African-American president.

The president was personally outraged by the arrest of his Harvard crony but to my knowledge silent on the death of officer omar Edwards. Another club member to weigh in was the president of Harvard himself, feeling obliged to come to the rescue of Mr. Gates. Perhaps officer Crowley who has “a fine track record on racial sensitivity” could have been more tolerant, but he chose to arrest him.

Professor Gates, a prominent black scholar, could have been more cooperative, but the President of the United States should have known better than to have gotten drawn into a local-level issue, commenting that the police acted stupidly.

The police were not as the media, stoking the fire as usual, suggest breaking into a home in a prominently white neighborhood. Rather, they were simply investigating a report that a possible burglary was in progress. The police would have responded no matter what the color of the suspect.

I was honored to lecture at Harvard Law School on the subject of integrity, and quite frankly, I saw no difference between a Harvard faculty or a City College faculty other an elitist attitude.

Yes, I voted for Obama. Yes, African-Americans are sensitive to racial issues as are white Americans. We all have our own moods, emotions and frustrations, but I expected more from the leader of the free world than to get involved in a cronies personal dispute.
But it seems as exemplified in this case, that the problems we face in America go far beyond race to an issue of class and privilege. There are black Americans wrongfully accused languishing on death row. Mr. Obama I would venture to say would never have gotten into this self=created national drama if Mr. Gates were the average hard-working class laborer, white or black.
May I suggest that Mr. Obama begin by taking his own advice, “instead of flinging accusations,” “be a little more reflective in terms of what we can do to contribute to more unity,” before crying wolf.
- posted by Frank @ 1:48 PM

 
OBAMAGATE
RACISM, EGO OR CLASS STRUGGLE

I am currently working on an article under the above title.
- posted by Frank @ 2:15 PM

 
I am sure the officer who shot Omar Edwards did not intent to kill an innocent man, blake or white, let alone a fellow officer.
He shot his victim out of fear.
Fear has been the accepted justification for taking another persons life.
The officers responsible for the death of Amado Diallo testified or testilied that the saw a gun and feared for their lives, justifying the firing 51 shots and the death of Diallo.
The question should arise, what is the basis of this "fear"? Word has it that Commissioner Kelly is bring in an outside shrinke to analys the problem.
He is also revamping a ten year old traing film.
But the problem lies in the training itself and the failure of the police to integrate within their own department and the community."us against Them" as if they are drafted from an alien planet and not the very neighborhoods that weined them.
The code of silence or the blue wall is real, it exists.
We cover up no matter what, we don't testify against the uniform even if the man in the uniform commits a crime punishable by law if committed by a civilian.(At least not if you want back up when needed.) We clean our own laundry, no oversight agency needed we police ourselves.

Former Deputy Training Commissioner James Fyfe alegedly was "an expert on the use of force" and "developed methods for armed plaincloths officers to identify themselves"This Desk Jockeys' doctoral disitation led to rules forbiding the firing of warning shots.
His amazing method was for police to simply shout "police don't move" upon hearing that challenge, Fyfe said, plainclothes and off duty officers should identify themselves by shouting "I'm on the job"I personally never heard police say "police don't move" I have heard "freeze mother______" and it seemed to work quite well.
The code is not nationaly respected inter agency wise, it is more city wide code.
In the case of the "dirty Thirty" The 30th pct's rouge cops headed by ptl.Dowde who snorted coke of the dashboard of his police cruiser.
The NYPD higher ups dragged their tail but the culprits were arrested by the Suffolk police outside the city limits.Fyfe, whom Ray Kelly said," left his mark for the better on the NYPD and many police departments which sought to emulate it"
Fyfe testified40 times against the Philidelfia police.He testified in a Rode Island Federal civil rights trial for a mother whose off duty Sgt son was shot dead by fellow officers as he tried to break up a fight.
He testified that Providence Police Bosses failed to train their officers on how to preventfriendly fire."Mistakes are most likely to happen when officers are not well trained and these officers were not well trained."Well said.
Odly Fyfe never, to my knowledge, ever testified against any NYPD cops.
He was however a witness for the four cops in the Diallo case.
Mr. Fyfe is credited with covering up the facts leading up to my being shot in a bungled "buy and bust" narcotics operation.
The details of which are cronicled in his book which is required reading in Law School.and dedicated to Police Commissioner Patrick V.Murphy.
The very man who put me in harms way.Go figure.
For the "that was then this is now Apoligist"The NYPD "has to stop assuming that every black male with a gun is a perpitrator" was said by the Commanding Officer of a Brooklyn Precinct, not then but now the year 2009.
- posted by Frank @ 4:42 PM

 
What troubles me
The fact that troubles me is that of all the responces to my blog at HUFF, no one seems to be aware or care that Edwards whether white or black cop or civilian was a mortally wounded human being and lay dying with his hands shackled behind his back while three of New York's finest stood over him, as a friend of mind stated,"like a big prised 8 point buck".
He was a human being and should have been accorded the dignity as such. What crime was he guilty of?
He was someones son, father, husband, brother, in this particular case a brother officer.
This is the issue that must be addressed if we are to call ourselves civilised.
- posted by Frank @ 4:25 PM

 
NEW BLOG
Greetings
I will be blogging on www.huffingtonpost.com
under frank serpico in black and white
Below are my unedited versions

TO PROTECT AND SERVE; LET'S GET REAL

"What did you think of the shooting in the city the other day" my friend on the other end of the line asked.He a retired NYPD Lieut.with 20 years of service."What shooting I asked, me a retired NYPD detective shot in the line of duty in a bungled buy and bust narcotics operation."Where the cop shot the other cop" he said matter of factly.
"What!" I exclaimed expecting to hear some bizarre tail of how some psycho cop went postal.
NOT! It was another case of white cop shoots black man and not the first time in NYC the black man turns out to be another cop.
"What do you think" I queried back."Well," after a pause, "another inexperienced young Turk, lacking, discretion and judgement assigned to an Anti Crime Unit.Where its' members may come across a tight situation that requires intelligent Police action,restraint and not reaction out of fear"
Bringing to mind the Diallo debacle, where four white cops assigned to a Street Crimes Unit panicked and fired 41 shots at an unarmedblack man standing in the doorway of his home in the Bronx.SCU, ACU, the name may change but the game is the same, it's a numbers game where it's members have, off the record, cart blancby the Mayor and his Commissioner to "toss" search suspects at will (allegedly with probable cause) and make arrests where applicable.
Most white plainclothes cops patrolling the streets of Harlem or the Bronx seem to assume or take for granted that every black or Hispanicmale "knows" they are cops.
At the same time, more often than not, assuming that just about every black or Hispanic male is a likely suspect of some misdeed or other,especially if he has a gun, real or imagined.
( In the Diallo case the officers on trial for manslaughter at their change of venue trial, testified they saw a gun where there was no gun.) In a partial attempt to cover up their blunder, among other lame excuses, the officers claimed from their car, they saw that Diallo resembled a rapist they were searching for. Diallo, a black man, resembled a photo of a black rapist in the hour after midnight?. It seems no mention was made at the trial of the officers cunning ability to discern a black man's features under such extraordinary circumstances.

Recalling a similar situation I once found myself in, one of four white cops in an unmarked car patrolling the streets of Harlem, when one of the occupants shouted "Stop the car!" racing up the stoop to a black man, standing in his doorway, without exhibiting a badge, they proceeded to violate his rights to unlawful search. Myself, feeling embarrassed at this unnecessary intrusion in another man's life, attempted to resolve the situation, while giving the other officer's an opportunity to save face. "Wait!" I said, looking the suspect in the face. "He doesn't fit the description" as if we were looking for a suspect at large. In so doing, I turned and said "I will be in the car."
When my colleagues returned, they reprimanded me "Some back up you are!" "Back up for what?" I smirked. Their lame excuse did not surprise me. "You know these niggers, you toss them good enough you will come up with something." On more than one occasion, responding to a citizen's call for police assistance in a dispute, where the suspects in question were a white and a black man, the officers would invariably approach the white guy, asking "What's the problem sir?" "I am the one who called" answered the black man, shyly.
I am sure the officers responsible for the gunning down of "one of their own," are not feeling good about their blunder, even though, one of their own, turned out to be a black cop. But a dying black officer or a dying black or white civilian, have the same feelings, and one would hope in the eyes of the law and a civilized society, a mortally wounded human being would be accorded the dignity as such, that the injured could feel secure in the fact that an agency that has "to protect and serve," as its motto, would make an attempt at saving their life.
But Officer Omar J. Edwards was given no such consideration, as he lay bleeding to death in the Harlem street, mentally teetering between life and death. He was not consoled and encouraged to "hold on, you're gonna make it" as I was not consoled by my "fellow officers," as I lay bleeding on a filthy tenement landing.
No, the assurance came from an old man of color, to me a white man, and it felt good, soothing me, encouraging me to hold on.
But Officer Omar J. Edward, father of two, young, proud, dedicated, still wearing his police academy tee shirt, after two years on the job, lay dying on a New York City street, hands shackled behind his back while his assailants stood by. Just another black "perp" victim of police indiscretion, and the higher commands inability or smug unwillingness to properly train and assign its officers.
Omar cannot speak for himself. He has been forever silenced. He is unable to defend himself against the unfair slights of posthumous revisionism.
Sure, I know what the patrol guide says and what it doesn't say, and I also know what the academic desk jockeys will say. But no self respecting police officer is going to see his personal effects riffled and not take immediate action and, as the report seems to indicate, Officer Edwards shield was properly displayed.

In my day, I was taught to take cover first, and on one occasion as I confronted an armed assailant holding a gun in each hand, that had just killed a man, I took cover behind a parked car. I was armed with my S&W snub nose five-shot revolver and with no extra rounds. I hollered "POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" As he turned, yes, I fired, a warning shot, leaving me with four live rounds but I was in control of the situation. My next two rounds would be center mass, not a reckless volley. But the assailant was not game for a shoot out. He turned and ran. I apprehended him without much of a struggle.

Let's get real. In real life, no one reacts that quickly to a command. Sure, the patrol guide mandates you "Remain motionless, when so ordered." The average person is going to look to acknowledge who is giving the order. Each case is different. One night, I was on my post wrestling a burglar to the ground, when an unmarked car swerved around the corner. I thought they were coming to assist me, but the two clowns who called themselves "cops" opened fire without saying a word. It was only their bad shooting and my quick response in hitting the ground, thanks to my military training, that saved my life. In the aftermath, after some clever writing and rewriting, they were promoted to detectives and I got zilch.

In the end, the responsibility must fall on the shoulders of the high command. It is time that the men and women entrusted with the responsibility to protect and serve, be adequately and appropriately trained, assigned and compensated for the task at hand. The question remains, was Officer Edwards given the chance to drop his gun before he was cut down in a hale of bullets. Sure, Officer Edwards is being posthumously promoted to Detective First Grade. Great. Perhaps to placate his widow and his two children. Perhaps to discourage a wrongful death suit.
I am sure Officer Omar Edwards and his kids would say "Shove it. I want my daddy back."
- posted by Frank @ 3:56 PM