Terrorist groups raise funds by many illegal means. Few people realize that the terrorist groups such Hezbollah and Hamas actually have at least hundreds, possibly thousands, of people operating in the US, many of them raising funds. This goes back to at least 1995 if not earlier. If it's stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid.
Moonlighting from his job as a deputy sheriff, Sgt. Bob Fromme was working security one day at JR Discount, a tobacco wholesaler in Statesville, N.C., when he saw three Arabic-speaking men buying a huge stash of cigarettes--300 cartons apiece. But what really caught Fromme's eye was how the men paid. They reached into shopping bags and pulled out wads of cash, bound in rubber bands. The men soon became regular customers at JR, shoving pallets of Marlboros and Winstons into waiting vans.
That was back in 1995. Over the next four years, Fromme worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in tracking the men. His suspicions would ultimately prove dead-on. The investigation revealed a multimillion-dollar tobacco smuggling ring. Copying an old Mafia scam, the men ran truckloads of North Carolina smokes--taxed at only 50 cents a carton--to Michigan, where the tax was $7.50 a carton, and illegally pocketed the difference....
Some of those arrested in the bust have links to Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik, and Rashid Baz, who opened fire on a van of Yeshiva students on the Brooklyn Bridge, killing Ari Halberstam. ‘We're concerned because similar schemes have been used in the past to help fund terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah,’ says Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
The ideals of people like John Locke and Thomas Jefferson have never been more relevant than they are today.
One of Thomas Jefferson's ideas when he was President was to defend Americans from being killed, taken as slaves, or held for ransom by the Barbary Pirates that attacked and enslaved according to their religious principles - the Muslim threat of his day. I can't imagine you standing for Jefferson's actions even if it meant massive violations of the rights of Americans by being killed or made slaves. Some Americans are more equal than others, apparently.
"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." -- The cry of a free people that grows fainter as time passes. First it will be tribute, then chains. May they rest lightly upon you.
People do other things with gasoline besides put it in cars. Some of those things tend to be messier than an ordinary car refuel with a standard pump hose.
Sorry A., but I think NZ could have very easily said "No" if the request came from the US. I don't think this was an especially high profile case, and NZ has mapped its own path before. You may recall their ban on nukes, and the NZ governments being open to stronger ties to China?
If NZ is cooperating with the US, it is because it because it finds it to be in its interest, not because it "knows it place." There is, no doubt, considerable advantage to having good relations with the rest of the Anglosphere.
Generally you see a line between law enforcement "signals intelligence" and national security signals intelligence. I would expect that the use of national security assets for ordinary law enforcement would be limited. I have a hard time seeing that it would be justified in this case.
I'm afraid you're confused. You seem to think that every action of the intelligence agencies is criminal, and that exposing them has no consequence. Both of those ideas are wrong.
You fundamentally misunderstand al Qaida's motivation. Their ideology is that of aggressive imperialism. They are out to convert the world to Islamic belief and all the nations to rule by strict Islamic governments according to their strict interpretation of Sharia law. They understand this will be a long term struggle. If they are successful they will eventually come for everyone. At its heart this has nothing to do with the Anglosphere or Europe, and everything to do with them. To not understand that and be ready to defend yourself and Western civilization is a fundamental error that could prove costly in the long run. Crippling intelligence agencies will prove to be foolish.
It's just as well. I'm reasonably certain you won't be doing anything to prevent truck bombs from exploding at shopping malls. Might as well have someone around that will.
GCHQ has been known to have at least one listening post in that region for some time. I believe it has even made it to the papers before, not to mention books. I can't imagine Greenwald showing that much restraint.
The Snowden leaks at this point are well past issues of Constitutional rights in the US. His leaks are directly damaging to the intelligence agencies of the US and its allies. The cover story of "whistle blower" is pure genius, it divides and confuses the public which gives him cover. It might even encourage copycats for additional damage. That is before you get to the question of friction between the US and its allies and trading partners, or the domestic political turmoil. It is truly a brilliant instance of political warfare. Soon we'll no doubt get to see Greenwald add to the damage.
You're changing the subject. The issues was the treatment of prisoners, not the incarceration rate. Do you want to argue that the US has prisons so bad that the prisoners resort to cannibalism to stay alive, or that guards force women to drown their own children? If not, then the list is still nonsense. The US treats its prisoners to a higher standard.
"Only" two. Why is it that the US claims to be the best country in the world, but it comfortable sharing a list mainly populated by other shining examples of leading countries, such as North Korea, Thailand and Rwanda?
You're joking, right? Some random person makes up a list based on unknown data, criteria, and extremely dubious fairness, and the US as a nation should feel humiliated by it? In one of those prisons people were claimed to be engaging in cannibalism. The North Korean prison system is a study in atrocity. US prisons are nothing like that. I'm reasonably certain that an honest list would have quite a few more prisons on it before getting to US prisons.
But to help clarify things, let's try a thought experiment:
A thought experiment list of the worst people that ever lived: Stalin Pol Pot Mao SleazyRidr
Should you feel humiliated? Ashamed? No? Of course you shouldn't! Why? Are you a mass murderer responsible for the death of millions? No. So you don't really fit on that list, do you? Well guess what? Including the US prisons on that list is equal nonsense.
Slashdot Mirror
Employ Mentats. Problem solved.
You might like this: Star Trek, "The Doomsday Machine" Revealed
I think it is safe to say that they'll mostly ignore Enterprise, just like everybody else on Earth.
Terrorist groups raise funds by many illegal means. Few people realize that the terrorist groups such Hezbollah and Hamas actually have at least hundreds, possibly thousands, of people operating in the US, many of them raising funds. This goes back to at least 1995 if not earlier. If it's stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid.
Homegrown terrorists - How a Hezbollah cell made millions in sleepy Charlotte, N.C. - Posted 3/2/03
Moonlighting from his job as a deputy sheriff, Sgt. Bob Fromme was working security one day at JR Discount, a tobacco wholesaler in Statesville, N.C., when he saw three Arabic-speaking men buying a huge stash of cigarettes--300 cartons apiece. But what really caught Fromme's eye was how the men paid. They reached into shopping bags and pulled out wads of cash, bound in rubber bands. The men soon became regular customers at JR, shoving pallets of Marlboros and Winstons into waiting vans.
That was back in 1995. Over the next four years, Fromme worked with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in tracking the men. His suspicions would ultimately prove dead-on. The investigation revealed a multimillion-dollar tobacco smuggling ring. Copying an old Mafia scam, the men ran truckloads of North Carolina smokes--taxed at only 50 cents a carton--to Michigan, where the tax was $7.50 a carton, and illegally pocketed the difference....
Cigarette Smuggling Linked to Terrorism - 2004;
Terrorists may get money from regional, cheap cigarette smuggling ring: Ray Kelly
Some of those arrested in the bust have links to Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik, and Rashid Baz, who opened fire on a van of Yeshiva students on the Brooklyn Bridge, killing Ari Halberstam. ‘We're concerned because similar schemes have been used in the past to help fund terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah,’ says Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
The ideals of people like John Locke and Thomas Jefferson have never been more relevant than they are today.
One of Thomas Jefferson's ideas when he was President was to defend Americans from being killed, taken as slaves, or held for ransom by the Barbary Pirates that attacked and enslaved according to their religious principles - the Muslim threat of his day. I can't imagine you standing for Jefferson's actions even if it meant massive violations of the rights of Americans by being killed or made slaves. Some Americans are more equal than others, apparently.
"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." -- The cry of a free people that grows fainter as time passes. First it will be tribute, then chains. May they rest lightly upon you.
Are you proud to be trolled?
People do other things with gasoline besides put it in cars. Some of those things tend to be messier than an ordinary car refuel with a standard pump hose.
I didn't write any of that. That post is a troll.
Sorry A., but I think NZ could have very easily said "No" if the request came from the US. I don't think this was an especially high profile case, and NZ has mapped its own path before. You may recall their ban on nukes, and the NZ governments being open to stronger ties to China?
If NZ is cooperating with the US, it is because it because it finds it to be in its interest, not because it "knows it place." There is, no doubt, considerable advantage to having good relations with the rest of the Anglosphere.
Generally you see a line between law enforcement "signals intelligence" and national security signals intelligence. I would expect that the use of national security assets for ordinary law enforcement would be limited. I have a hard time seeing that it would be justified in this case.
That seems a bit excessive.
That speaks volumes about you, and nothing about me.
Of course I didn't write any of that. Do you really think that troll will fool many people?
I'm afraid you're confused. You seem to think that every action of the intelligence agencies is criminal, and that exposing them has no consequence. Both of those ideas are wrong.
You fundamentally misunderstand al Qaida's motivation. Their ideology is that of aggressive imperialism. They are out to convert the world to Islamic belief and all the nations to rule by strict Islamic governments according to their strict interpretation of Sharia law. They understand this will be a long term struggle. If they are successful they will eventually come for everyone. At its heart this has nothing to do with the Anglosphere or Europe, and everything to do with them. To not understand that and be ready to defend yourself and Western civilization is a fundamental error that could prove costly in the long run. Crippling intelligence agencies will prove to be foolish.
That ruling was for one program. NSA has a LOT more than that going on. The leaks have not been limited to that.
But I don't want the budget fatter. ;)
It's just as well. I'm reasonably certain you won't be doing anything to prevent truck bombs from exploding at shopping malls. Might as well have someone around that will.
GCHQ has been known to have at least one listening post in that region for some time. I believe it has even made it to the papers before, not to mention books. I can't imagine Greenwald showing that much restraint.
The Snowden leaks at this point are well past issues of Constitutional rights in the US. His leaks are directly damaging to the intelligence agencies of the US and its allies. The cover story of "whistle blower" is pure genius, it divides and confuses the public which gives him cover. It might even encourage copycats for additional damage. That is before you get to the question of friction between the US and its allies and trading partners, or the domestic political turmoil. It is truly a brilliant instance of political warfare. Soon we'll no doubt get to see Greenwald add to the damage.
So, where is Snowden at these days?
You're changing the subject. The issues was the treatment of prisoners, not the incarceration rate. Do you want to argue that the US has prisons so bad that the prisoners resort to cannibalism to stay alive, or that guards force women to drown their own children? If not, then the list is still nonsense. The US treats its prisoners to a higher standard.
The correct answer is: the list is bogus.
"Only" two. Why is it that the US claims to be the best country in the world, but it comfortable sharing a list mainly populated by other shining examples of leading countries, such as North Korea, Thailand and Rwanda?
You're joking, right? Some random person makes up a list based on unknown data, criteria, and extremely dubious fairness, and the US as a nation should feel humiliated by it? In one of those prisons people were claimed to be engaging in cannibalism. The North Korean prison system is a study in atrocity. US prisons are nothing like that. I'm reasonably certain that an honest list would have quite a few more prisons on it before getting to US prisons.
But to help clarify things, let's try a thought experiment:
A thought experiment list of the worst people that ever lived:
Stalin
Pol Pot
Mao
SleazyRidr
Should you feel humiliated? Ashamed? No? Of course you shouldn't! Why? Are you a mass murderer responsible for the death of millions? No. So you don't really fit on that list, do you? Well guess what? Including the US prisons on that list is equal nonsense.
Much to his distress.
Loretta, is that you?