Just over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote a friend that, “The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.” Only when we again adopt this spirit will we be able to end the empire. Meanwhile, the wolf we have been feeding so generously is now powerful, arrogant and angry at its first real hunger pang.

In the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, an order circulated among New Orleans police authorizing officers to shoot looters, according to present and former members of the department. “We have authority by martial law to shoot looters,” Captain James Scott told a few dozen officers in a portion of the tape viewed by reporters. Scott, then the commander of the 1st district, is now captain of the special operations division. A documentary detailing several of the NOPD shootings airs tonight, Wed. Aug. 25th, at 8PM on PBS. It is also being streamed online for free.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday defended his decision to ban private security contractors from operating in public in Afghanistan.
Hayden’s Note:
Well….duh! What did you expect? It took about .04 days after Hurricane Katrina for New Orleans Police and private contractors to start looting and killing. It’s Afghanistan and BlackWater. What do you think will happen?

The CNN opinion poll found that 62 percent of the American people now think that the war in Afghanistan neither can be won, nor should it be fought at all. The poll also found that 69 percent of the Americans are now opposed to the US war in Iraq and favored the US President Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw 50,000 US troops from the country.

Operation Northwoods, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.

The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an “unprovoked attack” against a U.S. destroyer on “routine patrol” in the Tonkin Gulf on Aug. 2 — and that North Vietnamese PT boats followed up with a “deliberate attack” on a pair of U.S. ships two days later.

The truth was very different.

Republican Congressman Ron Paul is pointing to a recently released study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as more evidence that rising “collateral damage”, specifically in Afghanistan, fuels anti-American violence. This data would appear to confirm former General Stanley McChrystal’s “insurgent math” in which, according to the former Afghan War Commander, for every one insurgent killed, ten more are recruited to the cause as a result of collaterally-related civilian deaths.

So now the cheerleaders for war would have us believe that they are more concerned for the welfare of Afghan civilians than are those who wish to end the US occupation. Just as US military occupation in the Middle East has been a boon for recruitment among Islamic extremist groups, the US bombing of neutral Cambodia during the Vietnam War inspired many in that country to support the radical communist Khmer Rouge, giving it the support necessary to take control of that country and ultimately inflict horrors. *** To suggest we are in Afghanistan to protect and defend women’s rights is simply absurd. Violence against females has increased since the invasion. Terrorist recruitment has increased since the invasion. The quality of life has decreased since the invasion. More and more civilians are being extremists since the invasion. Did you forget about the $3 trillion worth of exotic and precious metals discovered under Afghanistan soil? Strategic position for Middle East domination? Women’s rights…hah!

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday to face him in a televised one-on-one debate to see who has the best solutions for the world’s problems. Ahmadinejad suggested such a debate last September, which was not taken up by Washington. He said Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, had declined similar invitations because he was “scared”. **[ Bush never entered debates because he couldn't even offer short, domestic interviews with the media without bumbling his thought process, confusing his scripts and coining his now famous "Bush'isms." Scared? More like too stupid.]

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s Internet activity without a court order or Judge’s approval if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

Secret Police:
Instead of transparently enforcing the rule of law and being subject to public scrutiny as ordinary police do, secret police organizations are specifically intended to operate beyond and above the law in order to suppress political dissent through clandestine acts of terror and intimidation targeted against political enemies of the ruling authority.
See also: US Constitution, 4th Amendment