America’s Main Problem: Corruption

The Daily Sheeple

via

Washington’s Blog

The Cop Is On the Take

Government corruption has become rampant:

• Senior SEC employees spent up to 8 hours a day surfing porn sites instead of cracking down on financial crimes

• Nuclear Regulatory Commission workers watch porn instead of cracking down on unsafe conditions at nuclear plants

• An EPA employee who downloaded 7,000 porn files, then spent 2-6 hours each workday watching porn. He’s been doing it for years … but the EPA never fired him. Another EPA employee harassed 16 women co-workers … and then was promoted to a higher-paying job with more responsibility, where he harassed more women

• NSA spies pass around homemade sexual videos and pictures they’ve collected from spying on the American people

DEA And ATF Cooperated To Record Gun Show Attendee License Plates

Weasel Zippers

Tracking the movements of future domestic terrorists. Update to a previous story.

Via Guns

According to emails obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, federal authorities planned to monitor gun show parking lots with automatic license plate readers.

The insight comes from a damning report released by the ACLU this week on a secretive program by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to build a massive database of license plates images collected by automated license plate reader devices. As part of this investigation, emails released through the Freedom of Information Act detailed a planned cooperation between the DEA’s National License Plate Recognition initiative and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to scan and record the plates and vehicle images of gun show attendees.

“DEA Phoenix Division Office is working closely with ATF on attacking the guns going to [redacted] and the gun shows, to include programs/operation with LPRs at the gun shows,” reads an April 2009 email.

The time and place mentioned in the email coincides with known information on the Justice Department’s Fast and Furious operation, a controversial “gunwalking” scandal that possibly transferred as many as 2,000 guns to drug traffickers in Mexico. That program was run out of the Phoenix ATF Field Division office, just two miles from the DEA office.

However, DOJ officials were quick to issue denials this week following the release of the story, advising that the ATF did not in fact engage in tracking gun show attendees.

Keep reading

2 Afghan Policemen Working With DEA Vanish During Georgetown Visit

Weasel Zippers

Via WJLA

Two Afghan nationals, who were in the District to work with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, vanished during a visit to Georgetown over the weekend, officials confirmed Monday to ABC7 News.

On Saturday afternoon, a bus carrying 31 police officers from Afghanistan drove from the DEA’s Quantico, Va. facilities to Georgetown. DEA spokesman Rusty Pain said the group members—undergoing intense training—were driven to Georgetown to enjoy themselves. When it came time to get back on the bus, 22-year-old Mohammad Yasin Ataye and 24-year-old Mohd Naweed Samimi were missing.

Pain insists each member of the group has been vetted and polygraphed. However, given the war in Afghanistan and threats, D.C. tourists and locals alike expressed concern over the pair’s disappearance.[…]

The DEA says it collected everyone’s passports and visas when they arrived, as a precaution. So, presuming Ataye and Samimi fled intentionally, they will have some difficulties getting around. Some observers speculated the pair just doesn’t want to go back home.

“Typically, if I was [in Afghanistan], I’d probably want to be anywhere but there,” said Hunter Payne, of Woodbridge, Va.

“The minds of the people who live there, because it can be pretty violent over there,” said D.C. resident Shiva Vaid.

Whatever the reason these Afghan cops disappeared, Pain says they don’t pose any danger.

The DEA has not yet released photos of Ataye and Samimi.

DEA-AT&T partnership shows close ties between government and telco

Venture Beat

It seems the U.S. government and AT&T are much closer than we thought.  The Drug Enforcement Agency has access to 26 years of call data for all calls  that run through AT&T’s switches, according to leaked documents detailing the program.

The documents, acquired by the New York Times, reveal a program called  Hemisphere, which was formed in 2007. AT&T created a huge database of all  the calls that pass through its switches, including both customer and  non-customer calls. Through this program, the government is able to subpoena  that data and even pays AT&T employees to sit in drug enforcement offices to help with the data collection progress.

Judge Napolitano – Forget The Constitution: DEA’s Questionable Relationship with NSA

The Arrogance of Authority

(Texas) – A DEA officer stopped at a ranch in Texas , and talked with an old rancher. He told the rancher, “I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.”

The rancher said, “Okay , but don’t go in that field over there…..”, as he pointed out the location.

The DEA officer verbally exploded saying, “Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me !”

Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removed his badge and proudly displayed it to the rancher.

“See this badge?! This badge means I am allowed to go any damn where I want… no questions asked or answers given!! Have I made myself clear… do you understand ?!!”

The rancher nodded politely, apologized, and went about his chores.

A short time later, the old rancher heard loud screams, looked up, and saw the DEA officer running for his life, being chased by the rancher’s big Santa Gertrudis bull…

 

With every step the bull was gaining ground on the officer, and it seemed likely that he’d sure enough get gored before he reached safety. The officer was clearly terrified.

 

The rancher threw down his tools, ran to the fence and yelled at the top of his lungs…..

(I just love this part….)

“Your badge, show him your BADGE…….. ! !”

Source:

‘Fast and Furious’ docs reveal Holder was given multiple detailed accounts of gun program

Daily Caller

New Department of Justice documents the House Oversight Committee released  Thursday morning show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed on Operation Fast  and Furious many more times than previously discovered documents suggested. They also show  that Holder was given detailed information on what happened in Fast and  Furious.

These new documents show Holder received information and updates on Fast and  Furious in at least five weekly memos starting in July 2010 — including over  four consecutive weeks last summer.

Historical fact: Independence Day is a celebration of freedom from government tyranny

(NaturalNews)
Happy July 4th, my fellow Americans. It’s the Independence Day weekend!
Independence from what, you might ask? As even the somewhat revisionist history
taught in public schools readily admits, July 4th is a celebration of
independence from government tyranny under British rule.

And what
kind of government tyranny, specifically? Well, the kind that involves
warrantless searches of peoples’ homes, where government agents could just waltz
right into your private home for no reason and conduct a search without even
getting a court-issued warrant. That was a form of government terrorism
waged against the people, and when the USA declared its independence from
British rule, it adopted a new rule at home that specifically forbade such
tyrannical government actions.

Los Zetas drug cartel seizes 2 U.S. ranches in Texas

Examiner

In what could be deemed an act of war against the sovereign borders of the United States, Mexican drug cartels have seized control of at least two American ranches inside the U.S. territory near Laredo, Texas.
Two sources inside the Laredo Police Department confirmed the incident is unfolding and they would continue to coordinate with U.S. Border Patrol today. “We consider this an act of war,” said one police officer on the ground near the scene. There is a news blackout of this incident at this time and the sources inside Laredo PD spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Word broke late last night that Laredo police have requested help from the federal government regarding the incursion by the Los Zetas. It appears that the ranch owners have escaped without incident but their ranches remain in the hands of the blood thirsty cartels.