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Post by auntym on Jan 19, 2017 15:42:21 GMT -6
time.com/4638617/chelsea-manning-commutation-obama-whistleblower-legacy/ unfortunately there is no pardon for Snowden... He should pardon Edward Snowdenby Dinah PoKempner / time.com/author/dinah-pokempner/ / Dinah PoKempner is the general counsel at Human Rights Watch. 1-19-2017 President Obama did a compassionate and good deed in commuting Chelsea Manning’s 35-year sentence—the longest by far for leaking U.S. government secrets to anyone, for any reason. Manning has suffered torture, prolonged solitary confinement (as a person at risk of suicide) and a constant struggle to obtain appropriate, affirming treatment for gender dysphoria in the all-male Fort Leavenworth military prison. Manning’s disclosures to WikiLeaks in 2010 were voluminous, but she had no chance to argue at her trial that they were in the public interest or exposed wrongdoing, and the government never had to prove that the leaks did serious harm. (It still hasn’t.) That’s because the benefit/harm question is irrelevant to the antiquated 1917 Espionage Act, which was designed to punish people who leaked government secrets to a foreign government, not to the media. Obama’s good deed, however, should not obliterate his otherwise awful legacy on whistleblowers and leakers. Under Obama’s administration, more people were investigated and prosecuted for leaks than under all other U.S. presidents combined. Journalists were harried to rat out their sources until then-Attorney General Eric Holder finally conceded that reporters shouldn’t be punished for just doing their job. The administration never attempted to fix the Espionage Act. A former Assistant Inspector General in the Pentagon disclosed that, far from being protected when using “official channels,” National Security Agency whistleblowers were subject to retaliation and punishment—making Snowden’s decision to go straight to the media a wise one. The Insider Threat Program, implemented by Obama, further dried up sources of even unclassified information by requiring federal officials to report on each other’s suspicious behavior. Why doesn’t Obama pardon Edward Snowden? Officials have told the media that Manning at least “expressed remorse,” and went through the criminal justice system. Snowden believes he did the right thing, and an awful lot of people—in this country and around the world—agree that it was vital to expose the mass surveillance and invasion of privacy the NSA was committing behind the backs of most of Congress and the American public. Even Obama, in announcing a wide swath of reviews and reforms in response to the global debate Snowden ignited, said “One thing I’m certain of: This debate will make us stronger.” Snowden conditioned his disclosures to experienced journalists on their releasing only what was in the public interest, keeping individuals from harm and consulting on possible harm with the U.S. government before publication. He wasn’t heading to Russia—he was stranded there on his way to South America when the U.S. cancelled his passport. And despite various unfounded allegations, there is no evidence he gave the Russians any secrets. Indeed, journalists saw him delete files from his devices before he left, and he has since robustly criticized Russia’s policies on human rights, poking the bear. Snowden has not taken up the invitation to return to the U.S. to face trial. That trial would in all likelihood be as unfair as Manning’s, his sentence probably as egregious, and he would not get to explain why he made disclosures or argue that the benefit to all of America outweighed any harm. Snowden has not taken up the invitation to return to the U.S. to face trial. That trial would in all likelihood be as unfair as Manning’s, his sentence probably as egregious, and he would not get to explain why he made disclosures or argue that the benefit to all of America outweighed any harm. Snowden never asked for his own pardon (though he eloquently urged clemency for Manning). But major human rights groups have, along with more than a million people who petitioned President Obama. And no, you don’t have to file a bunch of paperwork to get pardoned—the power of pardon is not bureaucratic. Presidents can, and have, pardoned people who have never been tried, such as Vietnam draft resisters, indeed often when it would serve the public interest. At the least, pardoning Snowden would signal that protecting whistleblowers in the intelligence community is critical to a democracy. It would underscore the need for real protections and real reforms, and it would bring him safely home. It would broadcast to the rest of the world that that the U.S. does care about rights—even the rights of people beyond its borders—and that real national security is tied inextricably to taking rights seriously. Do the right thing, Mr. President. There isn’t much time left. time.com/4638617/chelsea-manning-commutation-obama-whistleblower-legacy/Obama commutes 330 drug sentences on last day as president www.apnews.com/965eeb2830bd4f84811b684567c9b897?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics
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Post by jcurio on Jan 20, 2017 11:14:56 GMT -6
Auntym, I'm still looking for your comments on the movie "Snowdaen".
🙂
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Post by auntym on Jan 20, 2017 14:28:30 GMT -6
Auntym, I'm still looking for your comments on the movie "Snowdaen". 🙂 jc...i've not had the chance to see it yet...i just noticed yesterday that it was on amazon... hopefully, sometime soon, maybe this week i'll sit down & watch it...i do want to see it and i know it got great reviews... when i do watch it, i'll let you know...
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Post by auntym on May 2, 2017 16:10:27 GMT -6
exopolitics.org/goode-secret-space-program-claims-go-viral-critics-attacks/ As Corey Goode Secret Space Program Claims go Viral Critics Step up AttacksWritten by Dr Michael Salla / exopolitics.org/author/dr-michael-salla/on May 2, 2017. Posted in Featured, Space Programs Corey Goode has had a remarkable rise to public prominence since first appearing in late 2014 as a whistleblower offering detailed testimony about his term of service in multiple secret space programs for 20 years. Since July 2015, he has been featured on Gaia TV’s weekly Cosmic Disclosure series episodes where he answers questions by the host, David Wilcock, about his past service and his ongoing current experiences as a liaison with a variety of secret space programs, national security leaders and extraterrestrial visitors. Goode’s Facebook page now has over 80,000 followers, his Youtube videos often gain hundreds of thousands of viewers, and his conference presentations meet sold-out crowds where he usually receives standing ovations. His testimony has been featured in two books, both authored by this writer (see here and here), which became Amazon best sellers. Goode recently did interviews for the History Channel’s popular Ancient Aliens series which reaches millions of mainstream American households. A good percentage of the Ancient Aliens audience are likely to be intrigued by this shy Texan’s claims of multiple secret space programs and alien visitation stretching back to the dawn of history. You would think that the celebrity status Goode has attracted would be manna from heaven for long-suffering UFO researchers marginalized by the mainstream media when it comes to claims about the reality of extraterrestrial visitation, and the secret government/military projects this has spawned. However, not all are happy about Goode’s remarkable rise and the widespread public attention he has gathered with his ground breaking testimony. UFO researchers, wanting to make their field as scientific as possible, have a long history of attacking anyone unable to back up their claims with hard evidence. If I had a dollar for every time Carl Sagan’s famous dictum, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof” was cited, I would gladly pay up front for the first all-electric flying car now under development. Rather than name any of Goode’s critics, I will summarize their main arguments against him. The first is that he has not submitted one iota of hard evidence for his claims. Two, he is developing a cult of personality where he is milking a gullible public to enrich himself. And, three, he has been disingenuous about his past and the circumstances that led him to become a whistleblower in the first place. Regarding the first criticism, it would make a UFO or exopolitics researcher’s life much easier if whistleblowers or witnesses had hard evidence for what they have seen or experienced. Sometimes, there is hard evidence that whistleblowers can provide. This is best illustrated in the case of former FAA Division Chief for Accidents and Investigations, John Callahan, who kept documents concerning a large UFO witnessed by the crew of a Japanese 747 aircraft on November 17, 1986. His documents not only corroborated the UFO sighting, but years later helped the pilot get reinstated by the airline that had grounded him for talking to the press. Unfortunately, it is rare for hard evidence to be available to directly support a whistleblower’s testimony. That is especially so when we are talking about Unacknowledged Special Access Programs where possession of hard evidence proving a specific program exists is a crime that can quickly lead to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and other significant penalties. Nevertheless, there are a variety of research tools available to social scientists wanting to evaluate whistleblower or witnesses testimony. Learning about their motivation for coming forward, the sincerity of their claims, their background, any circumstantial evidence supporting them, and cross comparison with other whistleblowers or witnesses are all helpful tools. I used these research tools in my book, Insiders Reveal Secret Space Programs and Extraterrestrial Alliances (September 2015) examining Goode’s claims and concluded he was very credible. CONTINUE READING: exopolitics.org/goode-secret-space-program-claims-go-viral-critics-attacks/
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Post by skywalker on May 2, 2017 18:17:17 GMT -6
Auntym, I'm still looking for your comments on the movie "Snowdaen". 🙂 jc...i've not had the chance to see it yet...i just noticed yesterday that it was on amazon... hopefully, sometime soon, maybe this week i'll sit down & watch it...i do want to see it and i know it got great reviews... when i do watch it, i'll let you know... Did you ever get to watch the Snowden movie? Has anybody seen it?
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Post by auntym on Nov 13, 2017 14:26:19 GMT -6
jc...i've not had the chance to see it yet...i just noticed yesterday that it was on amazon... hopefully, sometime soon, maybe this week i'll sit down & watch it...i do want to see it and i know it got great reviews... when i do watch it, i'll let you know... Did you ever get to watch the Snowden movie? Has anybody seen it? i just found this post...
jc and sky...yes, i did get to watch this film...it was excellent...it left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach...i have always thought of snowden as a hero and i hope someday he is able to come back home safely... everything this man lost because he was trying to inform us, is stuff nightmares are made of... he is a hero in every sense of the word...
if you haven't seen this film...i highly recommend it...
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Post by skywalker on Nov 14, 2017 14:30:09 GMT -6
I would like to watch it one of these years. I think the dude did what needed to be done.
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Post by auntym on Dec 2, 2017 14:31:23 GMT -6
Edward Snowden Leaks BIG NEWS! Antarctica Hidden Secrets Exposed!! 3/17/2017
Published on Mar 16, 2017
Edward Snowden Leaks BIG NEWS! Antarctica Hidden Secrets Exposed 3/17/2017 Snowden thinks aliens may be talking to us now, but we're missing it thanks ... use a UFO conspiracy to coverup a real military defense secret.
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Post by auntym on Dec 2, 2017 14:57:09 GMT -6
What Really Is Happening Below Antarctica? Whistleblower Corey Goode Explains! 2017Published on Jul 9, 2017 What Really Is Happening Below Antarctica? Whistleblower Corey Goode Explains! 2017 What Really Is Happening In Antarctica?Ancient Alien Atlantis City! www.spherebeingalliance.com/ Life Inside The Secret Space Program! A truly remarkable insider and whistleblower, Corey Goode comes forward to give accurate information about what is going on behind the scenes of the secret military space program, the secret government and their development of the industrialization of our solar system. In a narrative that to some might read like fiction, Corey reveals the true story of humanity’s celestial presence and the details of an extraterrestrial message which conveys details of the coming collective ascension for humankind. The Sphere Being Alliance is here to guide us through the ascension process, but it is up to us to enact the changes that will lead to full disclosure. Corey Goode relays the spiritual message from the Blue Avians which details the spiritual advancement that we are to make. #1 Most Viewed UFO Youtube Channel Thirdphaseofmoon Shares Your Incredible UFO Videos To the World! Upload your UFO Video To Youtube, Then Copy Paste The Link To My Email! cousinsbrothersproductions@gmail.com Keep Your Eyes on the Skies! We are not Alone!
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Post by auntym on Dec 20, 2017 16:46:01 GMT -6
foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/20/a-crisis-of-leadership-at-the-military-intelligence-agencys-watchdog-office/ Edward SnowdenVerified account @snowden
Edward Snowden Retweeted Jenna McLaughlin
Jenna is all over this story. Worth following for sure.***************************************************** A Crisis of Leadership at the Military Intelligence Agency’s Watchdog OfficeSince two whistleblowers stepped forward two years ago, morale at the Defense Intelligence Agency Office of the Inspector General has plummeted.By Jenna McLaughlin / foreignpolicy.com/author/jenna-mclaughlin/ December 20, 2017 (Defense Intelligence Agency/Foreign Policy illustration) Sitting in the lobby of a hotel near the Pentagon’s intelligence agency headquarters, David Steele, a nearly 40-year military and intelligence veteran, took out a list of the members of the unit he once led and highlighted name after name until it was nearly all bright yellow. They were the names of people who’ve left their jobs at the Defense Intelligence Agency, or who have been trying to find new ones in the last two years. Almost everyone who once worked for Steele in the Office of the Inspector General has fled the agency, or is looking to leave, an exodus he attributes to the toxic atmosphere created by the official in charge. “They’re all fleeing like rats,” Ron Foster, former head of investigations at the intelligence agency’s Inspector General’s Office, told Foreign Policy during the same interview. Foster, also a longtime military and intelligence employee, with experience in the FBI, said investigations and law enforcement are his bread and butter. He brought to the meeting a carefully wrapped stack of gold medals in wooden frames, awards he’s received for outstanding service. Both Steele and Foster said Kristi Waschull, the inspector general of the Defense Intelligence Agency and a former manager at the human resources department at the DIA, repeatedly asked him and his team to soften language in inspection and investigative reports about problems and crimes within the agency, lied, stanched the flow of published reports, and retaliated against them and several colleagues when they challenged her ability to conduct independent investigations of agency management. Waschull did not respond directly to a request for comment. The Defense Intelligence Agency, through its press office, declined to answer specific questions but denied any wrongdoing in the Inspector General’s Office. “The DIA IG office has a long-established record of distinguished service,” James Kudla, a DIA spokesperson, told FP. Steele and Foster can’t discuss some of the details of their investigations and inspections, because that information is classified. But they were cleared to discuss the broad strokes of their ongoing saga. Foster and Steele were fired, or involuntarily reassigned, along with the staff director on the same day with no warning, according to descriptions and emails provided to FP. Now, Waschull’s employees live in perpetual fear that if they cross her, they could be next, Steele and Foster said, after having spoken with a number of current and former employees. Waschull has come up with different reasons, like career opportunity and poor performance, for why she forced Steele and Foster out. They have meticulously documented her allegations and why she is wrong, they said. Yet their complaints have languished for over two years now, and in the meantime, no one is policing the Defense Intelligence Agency. “There is no oversight,” Steele continued. Whistleblower protection laws “assume the [inspectors general] are the good guys. What happens when your inspector general is a bad guy?” Kristi Waschull, who Foster said inspires fear among personnel, rose in the Defense Intelligence Agency over the years to become the deputy director for human capital in 2010 — though Foster said she was removed from that position and shuttled over to the FBI before returning to lead the Inspector General’s Office in the summer of 2014. The DIA inspector general is not a presidentially appointed position, and thus not subject to a confirmation hearing. Waschull was entering an office that was host to investigators who’d written negative reports about her performance — including Ron Foster. In 2011 and 2012, the inspector general had investigated her former directorate, the Office of Human Capital. She was already predisposed to treat her own employees as adversaries. According to Steele and Foster, Waschull never attended the training course provided for inspector general-related work. Over the next year, Foster and Steele noticed Waschull would often question investigation results and tell them to alter the wording of reports that contained criticism of agency officials. Steele, who came up in the Air Force before spending 17 years at the Inspector General’s Office, recalled Waschull telling him she didn’t want to “poke DIA management in the eye.” In one program his team reviewed, they found “pretty much incompetence,” Steele said. Waschull forced them to change it. “We really whitewashed that,” he said. Foster said Waschull repeatedly interfered with an investigation that dealt with her former mentor, a DIA official. According to filed descriptions of his complaints, she also worked to find a job for a DIA employee whose spouse was going overseas, which goes against agency policy. Then, in August 2015, Waschull sent identical emails to Steele, Foster, and Gary Hill, a staff director at DIA, asking to meet with them individually. In those meetings, she said each had been performing excellently, but she wanted to rotate them out of their positions. Steele was permanently reassigned to another department in DIA in 2016, while Foster still plans to return to the IG’s office — though he expects he’ll meet resistance. “She wiped out over 40 years of inspector general experience before lunch,” Steele said. An official familiar with the matter said Waschull was acting within her rights to reassign personnel in order to achieve her goals for the office, to become “more strategic,” though the official did not elaborate on what those reasons or goals were. “The intention was not to harm the individuals,” said the official, who asked that their name not be used. Both men have lodged a series of complaints with different offices, starting with the Office of Human Resources, where each filed a discrimination complaint; news of that complaint was leaked to Waschull within days. They ultimately escalated the disclosures to the Department of Defense Inspector General, where it has stalled, and the Intelligence Community Inspector General, which is responsible for acting as an objective third party in cases of potential retaliation across the intelligence community. Some of the disclosures have made it to Congress. While the Intelligence Community Inspector General was originally responsive to Steele, that office has gone through its own turmoil in recent months. The official in charge of whistleblowing at that office, Dan Meyer, has since been suspended pending investigation, as FP previously reported. “Ever since they neutered Dan Meyer, the program is ineffective,” Steele said. The DIA Inspector General’s Office, while declining to elaborate on privileged personnel information and matters still under review, told FP the issue was resolved last year, when employee complaints were referred to a body known as the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. “After reviewing the allegations,” and DIA’s written response to them, Kudla said, it determined that the inspector general had “sufficiently addressed the allegations” and “closed the complaint without further action” in March 2016. However, according to Foster and Steele, the council did not investigate the matter because it said it did not have jurisdiction over intelligence retaliation complaints, and the council never actually spoke to Foster or Steele. “How are you going to close [the investigation] by talking to the subject and no one else? Where’s the report?” Foster told FP. Waschull is a member of the council on the training committee. On Tuesday, Steele was told the complaint had been forwarded to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The Defense Department Inspector General declined to comment, while the Intelligence Community Inspector General did not respond to request for comment. According to Steele, the negative atmosphere has led to a real crisis in confidence of Waschull’s capabilities. In 2016, the agency didn’t publish the results of any new investigations, and if the systemic issues remain unaddressed or ignored by the agency, it could lead to an intelligence community-wide “vulnerability,” Steele told FP. The inspector general serves a critical role, Steele argues. “We’re the consciousness of the agency, we’re independent,” he said. “We have no dog in this fight.” As the office stands now, however, it’s not performing that role effectively. “The inspector general is incapable of policing itself,” he said. “Who’s watching the watchers?” foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/20/a-crisis-of-leadership-at-the-military-intelligence-agencys-watchdog-office/
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Post by auntym on Jan 5, 2018 18:24:17 GMT -6
www.wikitribune.com/story/2018/01/05/free_speech/qa-edward-snowden-on-rights-privacy-secrets-and-leaks-in-conversation-with-jimmy-wales/26810/ Q&A: Edward Snowden on rights, privacy, secrets and leaks in conversation with Jimmy Walesby Burhan Wazir and 4 collaborators www.wikitribune.com/user/burhan-wazir/ 05 Jan 2018 'We’re becoming less citizens and more subjects.' 'Privacy’s not about having something to hide, privacy’s about something to protect.' 'There would be no place to hide if this government ever became a tyranny' 'We have ultimately diminished the meaning of rights in the United States' 'Rights are for the powerless...They’re for the weak' WikiTribune founder and CEO Jimmy Wales recently interviewed former CIA employee Edward Snowden, whose revelations in 2013 exposed global surveillance programs, many run by the U.S. National Security Agency with the cooperation of other governments and telecommunications companies. This is an edited version of their conversation over Skype between London and Moscow where Snowden has been since his expose – unable to return to the United States for fear of prosecution. The discussion ranged across mass spying, journalism, leaking and the risks to privacy from online platforms like Facebook — let alone security agencies vacuuming up our communications. Jimmy Wales: Let’s begin by asking where you stand on organizations like Wikileaks releasing huge caches of unfiltered information? Edward Snowden Edward Snowden, the former CIA analyst who in 2013 leaked information on mass surveillance programs. Picture: Freedom of the Press Foundation. Edward Snowden: I don’t pass judgment on whether Wikileaks did the right thing or the wrong thing, because I think this kind of experimentation is important. We need to challenge the orthodoxy. We need to challenge the presumptions that whatever we’re doing right now, the status quo, is the best of all possible worlds. This is the best anybody could possibly do. Instead, we test our premises again and again in different ways, so what I did was I saw that inside the United States government, the National Security Agency had started violating the Constitution in a very unprecedented and indiscriminate way. ‘They have a bucket of everybody in the world’s private lives’ – Edward Snowden They were collecting the phone records, the internet records, all this transactional information about people’s private activities: the most intensely intimate and private details of their daily life, without any regard to whether or not they were actually criminal, without any regard to whether there was any problem caused for suspecting they were involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever. Instead, they had developed this new model. They call it the “collect it all” model (The Guardian), where they collect everything they can about every innocent person, so that they have a bucket of everybody in the world’s private lives that they can then later sort through and search through at their leisure, if you ever do come to their interest. If you become interesting, they have a kind of surveillance time machine, where they can wind it back, depending on the type of content, the size of it, anywhere from three days to about five years. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and WikiTribune Jimmy Wales – founder of WikiTribune and Wikipedia. WIKITRIBUNE/Francis Augusto JW: What do you think this kind of data-collecting does to the relationship between citizens and the government? ‘We’re becoming less citizens and more subjects’ – Edward Snowden ES: The bottom line here was that the American public was misled in a way that actually matters, because when we think about democracy, when we think about our system of government, every democracy is founded upon a single principle and that’s the legitimacy of its government is derived from the consent of the governed (Dictionary.com). We cast our votes to make clear our policy preferences, to steer the future of government, but if we’re being lied to and our understanding of how the process of government, how the operations of government are being carried out, when our understanding of what the government does in our name, and against us, is not correct, and we vote based on these premises, what’s happening is we’re starting to lose our seat at the table of government. We’re becoming less citizens and more subjects. JW: What are your concerns over the kind of surveillance in which the U.S. is actively engaged? ES: In the need to develop a capacity to know what potential enemies are doing, the United States government has perfected a technological capability that enables us to monitor the messages that go through the air (The Guardian). Now that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies. We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything, telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide if this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country. The technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny and there would be no way to fight back. That’s the abyss from which there is no return. JW: People seem to think that monitoring individuals is a recent development. But history has shown us that the U.S. government has long investigated those individuals it has deemed threats. ES: Two days after Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech, the FBI’s director of domestic intelligence made the judgment that Martin Luther King Jr. was the greatest national security threat facing the United States. This happened in secret. We didn’t find it out until years later in the Church Committee (The Washington Post). But this is the natural progression of unchecked, unrestrained intelligence agencies in any country. This is not a uniquely American problem. We’ve seen it happen in other countries before. So the question is, again, how do we do this? We need to have a system of checks and balances. So the idea of this grand bargain was they would create a secret court that would basically issue warrants for intelligence investigations, like they did for traditional criminal investigations. This would be a specialized court that would understand all the difficulties here. They would all have clearances. There would be no fears of leaks and, for a time, that worked. But the problem is, from the 1970s, when the applications that went to this court were few and they were very serious applications, these rule-breaking agencies started to figure out how to abuse the system of rules and the secret court went along with it. JW: What, if any, role does Congress play in all of this? ES: Many of the largest critics of surveillance in Congress now aren’t allowed to sit in the intelligence-oversight hearings. We have 535 members of Congress, but only roughly 20 of these folks are allowed to actually be briefed on these kind of domestic surveillance programs, and this is the central problem. You have an executive, a president who doesn’t want to be checked and again, this isn’t because they’re evil. That’s because that’s what every president does. They don’t want the senators sniffing around what they’re doing. They don’t want courts telling them what they can and can’t do. We see this quite recently with Donald Trump’s Muslim ban, which as soon as the courts got wind of it, and had a role and could say, “we have a role to play here,” said “look, we understand what you’re trying to do here, but it’s a violation of the Constitution and you can’t.” So presidents want to cut people out. The courts increasingly have gone, as long as the government’s said “it’s a secret and you can’t prove it’s actually happening,” sorry, we can’t help you. And the Congress has been trained over decades to think the best thing for you to do in your re-election campaign is to not look too closely and to open your pockets. [This has] resulted in a system that allowed more than a decade of operation of an unconstitutional domestic dragnet. JW: Prominent critics of leaks such as John McCain and Hillary Clinton have argued the disclosure of sensitive information puts people at risk. What do you think? ES: There has never been a case that the government has identified where somebody’s been hurt by one of these disclosures, but it’s at least theoretically possible. And this is the central question: how should we balance these hard decisions when, on the one hand, we’re talking about the theoretical risks of journalism in a free and open society, and on the other, we’re talking about the concrete, quantifiable harms of bad policy, of rights violations that are actually backed by evidence? ‘We have ultimately diminished the meaning of rights in the United States’ – Edward Snowden When we hear people talking too much about how we should do journalism, and not enough about how we should curtail these harmful programs of policies that have been revealed by journalism, that is an indication that people are arguing perhaps less in good faith and are most interested simply in changing the topic of conversation away from what’s being done to your rights behind closed doors, as something they can just go “look, this is a political issue,” where there may not be any right answer, but we can argue about this until the end of the time, without actually having to confront the criticisms that are being made about how we have ultimately diminished the meaning of rights in the United States and around the world. JW: On a more meta level, what do you think is more concerning about the internet and the information we involuntarily disclose about ourselves? ES: We need ways of protecting ourselves from advertisers, as our communications are simply transmitting the internet and yes, it’s critically important, particularly in a moment where governments are increasingly unpredictable, unreliable and less representative of what the public actually needs, when governments are becoming less defenders of the public and unfortunately, more oppressors of the public, we need to start thinking about how we can protect our right to protest, how we can actually go to a protest without worrying about our phone, our cell phone, being shown on the roster of the cellphone towers around the protest sites, that the police can simply go “yup, yup, yup, we now have a perfect record of attendance for everybody who had a cellphone that was turned on there.” JW: What lessons can journalists learn from this? ES: A lot of people like to think of journalism and whistleblowing as two separate topics, but in reality, they are the same issue. We can’t have real journalism without informed, reliable sources being able to tell journalists what they need to know, rather than what they are permitted to know, either by policy or process or presidents, or by law. If the law is being broken, if the public’s rights are being violated, journalists have to be able to access that material. But if telling journalists about that is itself a crime, now you start raising real questions about all right, how do you actually ensure that this happens? This means, in our world today, whether we like it or not, doing real journalism increasingly relies upon technology and that trend is increasing over time and that means yes, embracing mechanisms like encryption. JW: What is the main difference in how private data is gathered these days, compared to the past? ES: Mass surveillance is what the controversy of the last several years is about and this means suspicion-less surveillance, whereas the government calls it “bulk collection” of people’s records without regard for whether or not they’ve done anything wrong. This is not normal. This is not something that’s happened historically. This is not something that previous societies did. The traditional means of investigation, that we know works, unlike this mass surveillance, which President Obama had two independent commissioners look into and they both said it doesn’t work. JW: There are a number of investigations currently going on into Russian malfeasance during the US election of 2016. (CNN) “Fake news” is an especially important topic in online news. Do you think censorship works? ES: Censorship does not do good. We might want to believe it does, and this gets into the fake news problem, for example, that if we just empower Facebook to decide what we can and can’t see and what is good and bad, the problem can be solved. But this is a mistake for a number of reasons. One, it creates a slippery slope where now we have private corporations deciding what can and cannot be said. But further, let’s say there are clear cases, we’re talking about things like Jihadist propaganda, we’re talking about fascist communities that are promoting ideas that are actively harmful, out in the public. The problem is, if you censor them, you don’t actually remove them. You don’t stop the idea from being spread. You just force them underground. It is underground where these ideas actually propagate best and most effectively. This idea that we can just stamp out ideas, we know does not work. This is the cause of every revolution in human history. ‘Privacy is the fountainhead of all other rights’ – Edward Snowden JW: Much of this debate seems to rest on the preconception that if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t mind any intrusion into your privacy. What do you think? ES: Privacy’s not about having something to hide, privacy’s about something to protect. Privacy is the fountainhead of all other rights. Privacy is where rights are derived from, because privacy is the right to the self. Privacy is the right to a free mind. Privacy is the ability to have something, anything, for yourself, for you. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean very much if you can’t have your own ideas and to have your own ideas, you have to have a safe space to develop these ideas, to figure out what it is that you actually believe in. Then to test these ideas selectively with people you trust, to determine whether this is actually a good idea or whether it’s stupid. If every idea that you had ever uttered was instantly captured and recorded and followed you around for the rest of your life, you would never outlive even the slightest mistakes that you’d made. Freedom of religion, of belief, is not meaningful, it doesn’t really exist, if you only inherit the beliefs that came from your family or the people before you or from the state. You have to actually have a chance to read, to look, to try, to experiment with new ideas, to figure out what this life of ours is really about for you. JW: In recent years we have also seen journalists around the world targeted for their access to confidential sources and information. What implications does this have for the freedom of the press? ES: Freedom of the press cannot truly, meaningfully exist, unless journalists can contact their sources in absolute confidence and privacy, to inform their understanding of what is actually going on. This goes from the highest levels to the lowest levels of our society. We’re not just talking about freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, by the way. It doesn’t matter if the Government is saying, well, we don’t listen to your phone calls, if they’re actually collecting records of them in the first place, because that seizure of those records itself is unconstitutional. Even again, our lexicon, the words we use, the phrases, private property means something that belongs to you rather than belongs to society. If we do away with privacy, we’re doing away with individuality, we’re doing away with the self, we’re saying that we don’t belong to ourselves, we belong rather to society and this is a fundamentally dangerous thing, because when you get into that mindset, where rights don’t matter because I’m not using them at this moment, you misunderstand why we even have rights. JW: Privacy has also allowed women and minorities to organize political campaigns for their rights. In many instances, this has had to be done outside of the eyes of the state. ES: The disenfranchisement of women, saying that they cannot vote, is not right, no matter what the justification, and every progress, every moment beyond then, always started as a minority idea, a minority opinion, and it was privacy that allowed these people to co-ordinate, that allowed them to develop these ideas and organize people who supported these ideas and to spread these ideas until they reached that point of critical mass that changed the world and made all of us a little more free, that made our lives more fair, that made our future brighter and without this, without privacy, you have created not just an anti-social world, you have created an un-free world and you have not become a bit more safe because of it. Even in prison, the most secured environments we have, people are still assaulted, people are still abused, people are still killed. ‘Rights are for the powerless. They’re for the minority. They’re for the different. They’re for the weak’ – Edward Snowden JW: Beyond the day-to-day implications, breaches of privacy and security have a more profound effect on the rights of citizens as individuals. Have you come to any conclusions on this issue? ES: Rights aren’t for the majority, rights aren’t for the privileged, rights aren’t for the powerful, because they don’t need them. Their access to influence allows them to shape what rights are. They allow them to shape what our laws are. They allow them to determine and influence the way society works. Rather, rights are for the least powerful. Rights are for the powerless. They’re for the minority. They’re for the different. They’re for the weak. This transcript has been edited for clarity. www.wikitribune.com/story/2018/01/05/free_speech/qa-edward-snowden-on-rights-privacy-secrets-and-leaks-in-conversation-with-jimmy-wales/26810/
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Post by jcurio on Jan 5, 2018 18:53:42 GMT -6
They call it the “collect it all” model (The Guardian), where they collect everything they can about every innocent person, so that they have a bucket of everybody in the world’s private lives that they can then later sort through and search through at their leisure, if you ever do come to their interest. If you become interesting, they have a kind of surveillance time machine, where they can wind it back, depending on the type of content, the size of it, anywhere from three days to about five years. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and WikiTribune Jimmy Wales – founder of WikiTribune and Wikipedia. WIKITRIBUNE/Francis Augusto Read more: theedgeofreality.proboards.com/thread/1293/whistleblowers?page=3#ixzz53MRLjSRn___________ Love how it all starts here....it’s a lot to think about. As if we really can predict from past behavior what any given human will do next........yet certain people WOULD LIKE HUMANS TO BE ROBOTIC then .... get this.... AI May develop a propensity to be less robotic....
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Post by jcurio on Jan 5, 2018 19:07:05 GMT -6
Keep reading. What is said about our privacy, our lives as individuals, is worth reading.
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Post by jcurio on Jan 5, 2018 19:10:31 GMT -6
When we hear people talking too much about how we should do journalism, and not enough about how we should curtail these harmful programs of policies that have been revealed by journalism, that is an indication that people are arguing perhaps less in good faith and are most interested simply in changing the topic of conversation away from what’s being done to your rights behind closed doors, as something they can just go “look, this is a political issue,” where there may not be any right answer, but we can argue about this until the end of the time, without actually having to confront the criticisms that are being made about how we have ultimately diminished the meaning of rights in the United States and around the world. Read more: theedgeofreality.proboards.com/thread/1293/whistleblowers?page=3#ixzz53MWu5X76_________ 😄
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Post by auntym on Jan 12, 2018 14:53:46 GMT -6
exopolitics.org/has-extraterrestrial-manipulation-ended-making-possible-1000-years-of-human-freedom/ wouldn't this be wonderful... a 1000 years of peace... Has Extraterrestrial Manipulation Ended making possible 1000 years of Human Freedom?Written by Dr Michael Salla / exopolitics.org/author/dr-michael-salla/ January 12, 2018. A consortium of extraterrestrial races conducting long term genetic engineering of humanity has been told to end its historic interference according to Secret Space Program insider Corey Goode. As a result of this, and related “galactic diplomacy” developments, he says that humanity is about to embark on a thousand years of uninterrupted peaceful development as a fully autonomous member of the galactic community. Goode has just released an extensive update with his latest experiences involving extraterrestrials, Inner Earth entities and secret space programs in a joint article written with New York Times best selling author David Wilcock. While Goode’s update may read like a science fiction space opera, his Cosmic Disclosure Gaia TV interview series with Wilcock has generated hundreds of thousands of views, and a devoted following convinced of the veracity of his claims. In my own research of Goode’s claims since March 2015, I have not found any evidence of fraud or deception. Instead there has been much circumstantial evidence supporting his claims which have been detailed in a number of articles, and more extensively in a 2015 book comprehensively examining his claims in light of such evidence along with corroborating witness testimony. The most recent examples of circumstantial evidence concern Goode’s revelations of extensive underground facilities in the Moon where large bases had been secretly built. In 2017, scientists confirmed the existence of massive lava tubes in the Moon which could support large cities. The size of the Moon’s caverns were large enough to fit a large metropolitan city, as illustrated in the following diagram showing how Philadelphia could easily fit inside one of them. The city of Philadelphia is shown inside a theoretical lunar lava tube. A Purdue University team of researchers explored whether lava tubes more than 1 kilometer wide could remain structurally stable on the moon. (Purdue University/courtesy of David Blair) In his latest update, Goode discusses being taken into the Moon where he traveled through its network of lava tubes. There is an extensive amount of information in Goode’s portion of the joint article which is over 10,000 words. Given the extensive material, I will focus on arguably the most significant event, which concerns what he was told about the extraterrestrial consortium, the “Super Federation”, being compelled to end its long term genetic experiments. To read the other issues raised by Goode in his update, you can visit the latest post by Wilcock on his Divine Cosmos website. All quotes that follow are extracted from the joint Goode and Wilcock article. Goode begins by describing how he was taken to a Super Federation meeting: In one of these dream-state communications I was told that I should prepare for a series of meetings with the Super Federation and the “Council at Saturn” in the next few days. On Saturday, December 16, 2017, at a little after 3:30 AM, a blue orb appeared in my room. I got up and put on the nice clothes that I had laid out next to my bed the night before…. I then faced the orb and indicated that I was ready to be transported. Goode described being taken to a temporal anomaly near Jupiter housing a large diplomatic facility where the Super Federation conducts its regular Assembly. He has previously discussed participating in various roles as part of an Earth delegation in the Assembly. In his update, Goode discussed his new role where he would address the entire Assembly as a spokesperson for the Sphere Being Alliance, a recently arrived group of higher density extraterrestrials (6th-9th) whose abilities and technologies far exceed those of the extraterrestrials running the long term genetic programs on Earth. I was starting to get a bit shaky when I figured I would just get it over with. I thought to myself, “I am ready.” Immediately, Tear-Eir and the Golden Triangle Being were standing behind me, very much in the same manner as when they had first appeared with me in front of the SSP Alliance at the LOC. Corey Goode as he appeared at LOC in March 2015. Permission: Sphere Being Alliance.Goode has previously described Tear-Eir as a 6th density being who has mentored him since 2013, and appointed him to play the critical role as the Sphere Being Alliance’s delegate at a meeting at Lunar Operations Command (LOC) in March 2015, before a consortium of human space programs called the Secret Space Program (SSP) Alliance. Goode states that the process of appointing a normal citizen to represent the Sphere Being Alliance in diplomatic negotiations with the major space powers and extraterrestrial groups in a solar system has been repeatedly followed in our local stellar cluster of 52 star systems. It appears that this diplomatic formula has been used to overcome the usual power disparity where the will of normal planetary citizens are ignored by planetary elites and their extraterrestrial patrons. Goode certainly appears to be a good choice for such delegate as he has a common touch that appeals to many watching his interviews. Goode was chosen by the Sphere Being Alliance, to overcome this power disparity on Earth, and give the normal citizenry of our planet a voice in diplomatic negotiations concerning their future: Tear-Eir addressed me and said “Repeat everything exactly as I communicate it to you,” to which I nodded in agreement. I then turned to the delegation once more and began to speak. I then spoke the words “We greet you in the love and light of the one infinite creator” at which time both Tear-Eir and the Golden Triangle being put their palms forward and bowed. I mimicked what they did. I felt a very deliberate yet loving energy coming from Tear-Eir…. He was having me address groups of beings by both their name and where they came from. Tear-Eir began to discuss cosmic agreements over these programs that have been made and broken over oceans of time. It seems that each of the 52 stars in our local star cluster have gone through similar programs. Tear-Eir then announced that the Super Federation as they knew it would soon be disbanded, as had been done in countless other star systems in accordance with Comic Law. Tear-Eir further stated that soon 2 more Guardian Races would come to replace the Blue Avians and Golden Triangle Beings. At that point, the new Guardians would guide the Super Federation through consolidating and closing down these programs. Goode then described a vehement protest by the extraterrestrial races in the Assembly, who were then reminded of the superior technological power possessed by the Sphere Being Alliance (aka Guardian Group) that had been militarily exercised in previous past situations: Tear-Eir then had me say “remember the Ponce System.” I had a flash of some sort of military conflict between a few of the Super Federation groups and a Guardian group that was enforcing a similar situation in a far-away star system, long ago. The incident seemed significant to everyone present, except the Earth Delegation and myself. The delegates returned to their seats and waited for me to address them again. What Goode just described appeared to be a veiled threat by the Sphere Being Alliance/Guardians that basically forced the Super Federation to accept the terms that had been laid before them. He went on: Tear-Eir then had me state, “Humanity has had much to overcome. In this new phase, this council will soon disband. “Humanity’s “Cosmic Family” will assist them in healing and guiding them through the management of their own genetic and spiritual growth. “This council will attend to its members incarnated on Earth, until which time humanity requests that you remove them. “Humanity will be offered an official seat at a new Super Federation Council. “These Cosmic Family members will use their experiences as a part of these programs to help guide this council in further ongoing programs across this Galaxy.” Soon after, “Gonzales”, a pseudonym for a U.S. Navy officer that has worked closely with Goode in his space encounters since 2015, spoke about the significance of the development: He said “Do you know what this means?” I looked at him and said, “Humanity will not be controlled and experimented on by dozens of ET races who think they are gods?” He smiled and said, “They are the gods from our myths…. But, yes. And it means that the Galactic Federation, which the Sphere Being Alliance is a part of, will now assist us with the Draco Empire. “They will not remove them for us, but will provide support that allows us to clean up our own house. We will really only have to contend with the AI threat until the series of solar events clear them from the Sol System.” Goode was next informed about a 1000 year galactic energy anomaly that will make possible an era of unprecedented human evolution and development: I was shocked and said, “The Sphere Being Alliance is non-violent; how will they confront the reptilians?” He said, “I think we will have to watch that play out together. After the series of solar events, the Draco will be energetically expelled from this system. “An incompatible energy will emanate from the Sun for about a thousand years. “Many reptilians will try to remain hidden on Earth in temporal fields and within heavily shielded bases deep in the Earth, as they have for prior cycles. “Humans will be responsible for rooting them out of their hiding places. “During that time, the Draco will be unable to return to this system.” … I asked, “Why for only a thousand years?” Gonzales looked at me and said, “Sounds Biblical, doesn’t it? “The Earth is near a Super Gate. Those are quite special. The only alternative is to block their access to a system the super-gate is near. After Humanity has been through disclosure and the solar events, the reptilians will be of little threat.” I asked “Who manages this energy field for the thousand-year period?” He stated, “The thousand-year energy fields seem to be a natural part of the cosmic web’s cycles and energy flow.” He stated that according to his info, this thousand-year cycle is “not something set up by Galactic Federation assets.” Goode has not offered any hard evidence to support his claims. Aside from some circumstantial evidence and corroborating claims by insiders such as the recently deceased William Tompkins, Dr. Pete Peterson, and others known to David Wilcock, there appears little to corroborate his incredible claims. The lack of hard evidence has led to some critics claiming Goode is a fraud, and even led to an extreme form of character assassination against him and his closest associates. However, a close examination of two of the most well-known critics shows they deliberately omitted and skewed important background data that supported Goode’s professional background. This doesn’t prove Goode’s testimony to be genuine, only that persistent efforts to discredit or debunk him fail to be persuasive. Goode’s testimony is ground breaking and until there is clear evidence showing him misrepresenting or concocting events, he deserves to be taken seriously given the strong public interest in his case, and growing fan base. If his testimony is accurate, as I continue to believe is the case, then he may just have participated in major off-planet diplomatic meetings that directly impact humanity’s future, and ushers in an unprecedented 1000 year age of freedom from extraterrestrial interference. exopolitics.org/has-extraterrestrial-manipulation-ended-making-possible-1000-years-of-human-freedom/ Secret Space Programs Battle over Antarctic Skies During Global Elite Exodus Pt 1 exopolitics.org/secret-space-programs-battle-over-antarctic-skies-during-global-elite-exodus/Military Abduction & Extraterrestrial Contact Treaty – Corey Goode Briefing Pt 2 exopolitics.org/military-abduction-extraterrestrial-contact-treaty-corey-goode-briefing-pt-2/
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Post by auntym on Apr 2, 2019 13:27:57 GMT -6
mysteriousuniverse.org/2019/04/weirdness-and-ufo-whistleblowers/ Weirdness and UFO Whistleblowersby Nick Redfern / mysteriousuniverse.org/author/nredfern/ April 2, 2019 There can be absolutely no doubt at all that one of the most controversial of all the various whistleblowers who have come forward with startling revelations concerning Area 51 was a man named Boyd Bushman. He revealed data that was not just controversial, but arguably beyond controversial. You’ll soon see what I mean by that. Although many of Bushman’s claims stretched credibility to the absolute max, the intriguing fact is that he really was plugged into the secret world of Area 51 and advanced technologies. As we shall now see. Bushman, who died on August 7, 2014, left an amazing and controversial legacy behind him. It was a filmed statement from him on what he knew about an alien presence at Area 51, anti-gravity technology in the hands of personnel at the base, one on one contact with ETs, and much, much more. Was Bushman telling the truth? Was he nothing but an outright liar? Or, was he spreading disinformation on behalf of those who run Area 51 – and as a means to muddy the waters of what really goes on there? Or, do all three scenarios have some degree of validity attached to them? Let’s take a look at the life and work of Bushman and his incredible revelations – if that’s what they really were. First, it’s important to note that Bushman was no fantasist. He was a respected figure in the world of aviation, having worked as a senior scientist with Lockheed Martin. He also had more than a few patents to his name. He also claimed to have worked on top secret anti-gravity-based programs for the U.S. Government. To a degree this has been confirmed, since his heavily redacted, declassified FBI file references his research in the field of anti-gravity. Magnetic drives and a thermally energized electrical power source were also patented by Bushman. Bushman made a number of claims that sounded plausible, but he also revealed to the UFO research community and to the world’s media tales that were downright bizarre. In 2007 – which was seven years before he passed away – Bushman was filmed speaking about what he knew (or what he claimed to know) about all things alien, and a great deal about Area 51. According to Bushman, aliens were both working and living at Area 51. We’re not talking about just dead aliens recovered from crashed UFOs – such as those allegedly recovered from outside of Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947. This, to a degree, you may know, echoes a brief aside made by Bob Lazar back in 1989, when he claimed to have very briefly seen a small, humanoid figure at the S-4 site. It’s important to note that Lazar himself suspected that this may have been a deliberate, fabricated, stage-managed incident, designed to make Lazar think there were aliens at Area 51. Obviously, this has a bearing on the Bushman story, too, specifically in relation to the possibility that Bushman may also have been deliberately fed faked data by disinformation specialists at Area 51. Still on the matter of Bob Lazar, it’s intriguing to note that – to a degree – Bushman backed up Lazar’s claims of having worked on the anti-gravity systems of the alleged UFOs held at S-4. According to Bushman, such research was indeed actively and secretly underway at Area 51. Interestingly, Bushman also asserted that both the Chinese and the Russians had been brought into the fold, to a certain degree, anyway. This too mirrors the words of Bob Lazar, way back in the 1980s, when he said that while working at Area 51 he heard whispers of the Russians having been invited to work on the program, but who at some point were slung off the project. As for the aliens themselves, this is where Bushman’s story got really weird. He claimed they came from a planet called Quintumnia (on some occasions he called it Quintonia), which is said to be around sixty-eight light years away. Incredibly, Bushman maintained that the aliens were able to make the journey from their world to ours in less than an hour. Their lifespan, said Bushman, was far in excess of ours. Indeed, he said that the average Quintumnian lived on average to around 230 of our years. They were not too dissimilar to us, with hands and feet like ours. As for their height, it was around five-feet. They didn’t speak English, though. Or, in fact, any Earth-based language. They didn’t need to. They communicated solely by telepathy. Certainly, one of Bushman’s most controversial claims (and there were many of them…) was that he had interacted with the ETs personally, and to the extent that he said he gave them a camera so that the aliens could take pictures of their home planet and bring the pictures back to him! Whether Bushman preserved those priceless pictures in a dedicated photo album is anyone’s guess. He also maintained that the Quintumnians were the alien race responsible for the ongoing cattle-mutilation phenomenon on our world. Certainly, the most outrageous aspect of the Bushman affair came when he revealed a color photo of what was said to have been one of the Quintumnians. In no time at all, the UFO research was able to offer a definitive “Gotcha!” The photo which Bushman touted as proof of alien visitations to Earth in general and to Area 51 specifically, was not evidence of anything of an extraterrestrial nature at all. It was actually a picture of a quite sophisticated alien doll sold by none other than Wal-Mart! For many people in the field of Ufology, the issue of the “Wal-Mart alien” (as it quickly and inevitably became known) was enough for them to walk away from the controversy and brand Bushman as either a liar, a joker, or someone descending into a state of senility. Maybe, one of those scenarios was indeed the correct one. On the other hand, though, one has to give some thought to the distinct possibility that Bushman was still highly astute and not suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Significant thought must be given to a theory that cannot be ruled out. In fact, we might very wise to rule it in. It goes as follows. Let’s say that Area 51’s overlords were concerned by the ever-increasing attention paid to the secret base. After all, it had appeared in The X-Files, in Independence Day (something which senior personnel at the Pentagon were far from happy about), and in the movie, Area 51, which was released in 2015. Add to that, the growing number of people who have been detained and fined for getting too close to Area 51 and one can see that the personnel at Area 51 might have come up with an intriguing plan. Perhaps, a “plot” would be a far better term to use. It’s not at all unlikely or implausible that Bushman was groomed by personnel at Area 51 to divulge an amazing and astounding faked story of aliens at Area 51, of crashed UFOs, of cattle mutilations, and even of alien-human interaction at the installation. The staff at the secret facility would surely know how the UFO research community works. They could have made a good guess that certain elements of the more gullible and paranoid side of Ufology would be jumping up and down with excitement. More importantly, those same ufologists would likely spread the story here, there and everywhere on social-media and radio shows. Which is exactly what happened. But, then when the Wal-Mart angle surfaced, for many people in Ufology (if not the vast majority) the entire saga collapsed. The result? Ufologists were laughed at and derided by fellow ufologists. And, the mainstream media poked fun at the field of UFO research. That just may have been the desired result. All we can say for sure is that the Boyd Bushman revelations surfaced for a reason. Whether that reason was designed to shed further light on a genuine extraterrestrial presence at Area 51, or if the plan was to give Ufology a solid punch in the face – and to make the domain of UFO research look stupid – is still open to debate. Whatever Boyd Bushman really knew about Area 51 and its UFO links went with him in 2014. Just perhaps, this was Bushman’s “last hurrah,” still secretly working for his Area 51 masters to the very end – to confuse the truth of what really goes on at Area 51. mysteriousuniverse.org/2019/04/weirdness-and-ufo-whistleblowers/
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Post by auntym on Oct 24, 2019 13:03:58 GMT -6
Nick Pope @nickpopemod Is it significant that Edward Snowden found no evidence of aliens in his trawl of US government databases? Possibly. But let's not forget that he didn't find the Pentagon's AATIP program either. Not finding something doesn't mean it isn't there. Edward Snowden searched the CIA's networks for proof that aliens exist. Here's what he found READ ARTICLE: www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/us/edward-snowden-joe-rogan-conspiracies-trnd/index.html
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Post by jcurio on Oct 25, 2019 21:18:44 GMT -6
and...... if SOMEONE had already done some whistleblowing on this issue, why would it still be there...,.. ?
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Post by auntym on Mar 11, 2020 13:53:04 GMT -6
mysteriousuniverse.org/2020/03/when-a-whistle-blower-proves-to-be-useful/ When a Whistle-Blower Proves to be Usefulby Nick Redfern / mysteriousuniverse.org/author/nredfern/March 11, 2020 Now and again, I find myself crossing paths with what we might well call whistle-blowers. For example, there is the matter of my 2005 book, Body Snatchers in the Desert. It detailed a controversial theory for the Roswell, New Mexico affair of July 1947. It’s a book that suggests the event actually involved not a UFO, but a huge high-altitude balloon with a human crew. Guinea pigs, we might say. One of the criticisms of the book was that, to quote one reviewer, “all of the information comes from anonymous interviewees.” Nonsense. Only two people in the book are unnamed. I refer to them as “the Black Widow” and “the Colonel.” Everyone else appears with their real names. There is, however, nothing at all anonymous about either “the Black Widow” or “the Colonel.” When the book was at editing stage, the legal people at Simon & Schuster (the company that published Body Snatchers) requested that I provide them with the relevant information (names, backgrounds, etc.) on the interviewees, which I did, fully. So, my sources in Body Snatchers were not anonymous sources. They were unnamed sources, which is an altogether very different thing. One year later, in 2006, I penned a book titled On the Trail of the Saucer Spies. A significant amount of material in the book was provided by a retired employee of the British Police Force’s Special Branch. He was adamant that he did not want his name to appear in the book so, instead, I referred to him as “the Sandman.” He made a number of intriguing (and lengthy) statements to the effect that, back in the 1990s, certain British-based UFO investigators were secretly watched by Special Branch. The reason for watching those same researchers was not for their UFO studies, however. Rather, it was because Special Branch feared they were using their UFO investigations as a cover for far more nefarious matters that might have had a bearing on national security, such as spying on military bases for potentially hostile organizations and nations. Two British researchers, in particular, that the Sandman referenced as being very closely watched were Matthew Williams and Robin Cole. At the time Saucer Spies was published, certain people in Ufology said it was utterly laughable to think that Special Branch might have been involved in watching Williams and Cole (even tangentially). And, yet again, I was criticized for using an unnamed source. Well, the doubters were finally made to shut up in July 2012 (six years after Saucer Spies was published), when – under the terms of the British Freedom of Information Act – the British Government released certain papers on Cole and Williams, showing that both men were secretly watched by Special Branch in the 1990s and for the very reasons “the Sandman” maintained. Here, below, is the British Government’s summary on the files on Williams and Cole: “File DEFE 24/1984/1 (p294) contains a 1996 Parliamentary Question from Martin Redmond MP asking on how many occasions MI6 and GCHQ have monitored UFO investigations. This was interpreted to mean ‘have the agencies been keeping watch on UFOlogists.’ A background briefing says ‘neither agency in fact undertakes such activity, though GCHQ cannot rule out the possibility’ they had monitored ‘in other contexts individuals who have made a study of UFOs’. The MP was told the government do not comment on the intelligence and security agencies (p298). “File DEFE 24/1987/1 (p262-65) reveals that in 1997 Special Branch took an interest in a UFOlogist who became obsessed with rumors of a secret UFO facility beneath RAF Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire. The base had become known as the British equivalent of the secret US military airbase ‘Area 51’ among conspiracy theorists. An internal note said ‘Special Branch…do not believe he poses a specific threat to security, but they are alert to the risk that others may use him as a conduit for their activities.’” It was Cole who caught the attention of Special Branch and GHCQ and who was duly “monitored” (as the file notes), while Williams was watched for poking his nose around RAF Rudloe Manor. And, note the final words of the summary document on Williams: “‘Special Branch…do not believe he [Williams] poses a specific threat to security, but they are alert to the risk that others may use him as a conduit for their activities.’” This, you will note, is exactly what “the Sandman” told me more than half a decade before these documents even surfaced: namely, that Special Branch didn’t care, at all, about Williams’ UFO studies, but were more concerned he could be used by hostile groups and individuals not having the best interests of the UK at their heart, which is very understandable. So, what’s my point? Well, I’ll tell you. So-called “Anonymous sources” are rarely 100 percent that. The unnamed people I interviewed for Body Snatchers certainly aren’t anonymous, as their identities are known to the publisher’s legal people. And, for all the criticism I got for using the claims of “the Sandman” in Saucer Spies back in 2006, his story was totally (and finally) validated in 2012. In conclusion, just because someone (a) asks for their identity to be withheld or (b) surfaces wholly anonymously, does not mean they lack credibility, are lying, or don’t even exist. Those who are quick to criticize those of us who do, from time to time and when circumstances dictate, use unnamed sources, can learn a lot from all of the above. Whether they actually bother to learn or not, however, is a very different issue… mysteriousuniverse.org/2020/03/when-a-whistle-blower-proves-to-be-useful/
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Post by auntym on Mar 31, 2020 12:20:58 GMT -6
( Richard Dolan interviews Abductee-Military #Whistleblower Niara Isley
Formerly of the USAF, she discusses her abduction experiences, both apparent ET and military.
She talks about three months of missing time while stationed at the Nevada Test Site. Her book, Facing the Shadow, Embracing the Light, is available at:
amzn.to/2uw8PaR
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Post by jcurio on Apr 2, 2020 7:09:48 GMT -6
So, what’s my point? Well, I’ll tell you. So-called “Anonymous sources” are rarely 100 percent that. The unnamed people I interviewed for Body Snatchers certainly aren’t anonymous, as their identities are known to the publisher’s legal people. And, for all the criticism I got for using the claims of “the Sandman” in Saucer Spies back in 2006, his story was totally (and finally) validated in 2012. In conclusion, just because someone (a) asks for their identity to be withheld or (b) surfaces wholly anonymously, does not mean they lack credibility, are lying, or don’t even exist. Those who are quick to criticize those of us who do, from time to time and when circumstances dictate, use unnamed sources, can learn a lot from all of the above. Whether they actually bother to learn or not, however, is a very different issue…
(From article above; on today’s page) __________________________________
My own commentary:
He HAS to say this. Can’t assume that we all think that publishers “legally have to....”
Who are the book police that decide if something can be labeled nonfiction??
Skepticism is healthy. The other word is guillible; and I’ve never felt that was a complement.
Even when some of us get that “gut” feeling, we still need to portray healthy skepticism 🤗.
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Post by jcurio on Apr 2, 2020 7:12:22 GMT -6
( Richard Dolan interviews Abductee-Military #Whistleblower Niara Isley
Formerly of the USAF, she discusses her abduction experiences, both apparent ET and military.
She talks about three months of missing time while stationed at the Nevada Test Site. Her book, Facing the Shadow, Embracing the Light, is available at:
amzn.to/2uw8PaR (Note to self to make time to listen to this). I AM getting better about turning on the sound when watching videos 😉😁
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Post by jcurio on Jul 30, 2021 18:24:28 GMT -6
Despite the normal “hype” of these videos, Snowden comes across as calm; thoughtful
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Post by jcurio on Jul 30, 2021 21:33:53 GMT -6
THe thing about this is who believes him? I do. About seeing a dime on your house floor is a technology these aliens have. They know what room and who is in it. That is how they get to you in broad daylight in your home. No one could understand how I could of been taken in the middle of the room sweeping the floor in my second story home at 12 pm. Where was the ship. Hidden somehow. They could see my son go to his bed when they turned the beam on me. It was not hard to figure out. What else will mankind be able to do just in the next ten years. Thanks for posting. I did not know about his death. How old was he or did I miss something? What else will mankind be able to do in 10 years, indeed.
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Post by auntym on Oct 15, 2022 13:15:56 GMT -6
www.liberationtimes.com/home/exclusive-more-ufo-hearings-are-coming-as-whistleblowers-are-called-forward-and-legacy-programs-are-verified-by-congressExclusive: More UFO Hearings Are Coming As Whistleblowers Are Called Forward And Legacy Programs Are Verified By Congress by Christopher Sharp / 14 October 2022 *Some insiders have told Liberation Times that new UAP whistleblower language could be signed into law “in weeks” and after upcoming midterm elections. *Corbell comments: “The Silver Bullet is coming.” *Once National Defense Authorization Act 2023 becomes law, it is expected that public Congressional hearings will take place, and whistleblowers have already been requested to testify. *It has also been confirmed by multiple sources that information relating to alleged secretive UAP retrieval and reverse-engineering programs has now been verified by Congress. *There is now some urgency from Congress to provide transparency and some insiders hope that any released information can potentially bring people together at a time when the likelihood of nuclear conflict has risen. Liberation Times has learned that new public Congressional Unidentified Aerospace-undersea Phenomena (UAP) hearings can be expected once National Defense Authorization Act 2023 (NDAA) UAP language is signed into law. As reported by Dean Johnson, Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) 2023 language is now wrapped up within the NDAA and includes important whistleblower protections. Sources have told Liberation Times that the NDAA could be passed “in weeks”, after upcoming midterm elections in November. Although it is cautioned that there are no certainties with regard to the exact timeline due to political divisions, changes in political composition following midterms and the Ukranian situation. However, sources have stated that public hearings can be expected after the NDAA is signed into law and that whistleblowers have already been contacted to speak before Congress. Liberation Times understands that the best-case scenario could see such hearings occur before Christmas. There has been some doubt whether any whistleblowers testifying could back-up their claims. However, Liberation Times understands from multiple political and defense sources that a substantial amount of information involving secretive UAP retrieval and back-engineering programs has been verified by Congress. Speaking to Liberation Times, journalist and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell commented: "Regarding the mystery of UFOs, the Silver Bullet is coming. The moment it is understood by the public that not only have we obtained spacecraft - fabricated by a non-human intelligence - but that we have also been attempting to reverse engineer that technology for decades… Pandora's box is finally open. “This new legislation to provide amnesty and immunity for those involved in these programs to come forward is a potential game changer. I have personally spoken with numerous individuals who have had roles in these legacy UFO exploitation programs. There have also been reports of a major pushback within some quarters of the DoD, from those who are against whistleblowers speaking out and further information being made public. Although it now looks like a chain of events has now been put into motion, which may lead to a flurry of information coming forwards. Regarding reprisals, Corbell commented: “The fear has always been reprisal, and that fear has always been justified. Pushback has occurred against these people as recently as this year. And as has been predicted - the closer the public gets to the good stuff - the more the pushback has increased. make no mistake... the world is creaking under the stress and the weight of the UFO reality. And now we have an opportunity for this truth to be revealed, and our society will forever be changed by it." CONTINUE READING: www.liberationtimes.com/home/exclusive-more-ufo-hearings-are-coming-as-whistleblowers-are-called-forward-and-legacy-programs-are-verified-by-congress
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Post by auntym on Oct 20, 2022 20:57:31 GMT -6
www.unknowncountry.com/headline-news/the-silver-bullet-is-coming-protections-expected-to-shield-uap-whistleblowers-in-upcoming-hearings/‘The Silver Bullet is Coming’: Protections Expected to Shield UAP Whistleblowers in Upcoming HearingsOctober 19, 2022 Protections for whistleblowers that reportedly have knowledge of research being conducted on recovered non-human craft are expected to be in place before the end of the year once the National Defense Authorization Act 2023 (NDAA) is signed into law, an event expected to happen before the end of November. Some of these whistleblowers have already been approached to speak before Congress. According to filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, their experiences reportedly include programs that attempted to back-engineer spacecraft of unconfirmed origin. According to sources in contact with the Liberation Times, while “there are no certainties with regard to the exact timeline,” NDAA 2023 is expected to be signed into law shortly after the conclusion of the November midterm elections; following that, Congressional hearings into “secretive UAP retrieval and back-engineering programs”—programs that have been verified by Congress—could begin “before Christmas” if all goes well. Individuals that claim to have worked on such secretive programs would be legally bound by non-disclosure agreements (NDA), and a culture of reprisal against anyone that attempts to leak such information has kept many that might be involved from divulging what they know; the upcoming provisions in NDAA 2023 are expected to protect potential whistleblowers from roadblocks to disclosure such as these. “The fear has always been reprisal, and that fear has always been justified,” explains Corbell. “Pushback has occurred against these people as recently as this year. And as has been predicted—the closer the public gets to the good stuff—the more the pushback has increased. Make no mistake… the world is creaking under the stress and the weight of the UFO reality. And now we have an opportunity for this truth to be revealed, and our society will forever be changed by it.” Corbell says that the knowledge held by at least some of the whistleblowers goes beyond simply working on scraps of anomalous materials; rather, they have been involved in efforts to recover and back-engineer full-blown non-human vehicles. “Regarding the mystery of UFOs, the Silver Bullet is coming,” according to Corbell. “The moment it is understood by the public that not only have we obtained spacecraft—fabricated by a non-human intelligence—but that we have also been attempting to reverse engineer that technology for decades… Pandora’s box is finally open. “This new legislation to provide amnesty and immunity for those involved in these programs to come forward is a potential game changer. I have personally spoken with numerous individuals who have had roles in these legacy UFO exploitation programs.” The provisions being made in NDAA 2023 are apparently not simply included in the hopes that Congress’s efforts might just happen to dredge some useful information out of the depths of UFO secrecy; rather, the language included in the Act has been chosen specifically to unveil secret programs that representatives in the House and Senate have already been briefed on. According to one Department of Defense insider: “Laws are not written in a vacuum. Behind closed doors, lawmakers have met with current and former government insiders who have provided multi-source and verifiable information that has shaped the language we are seeing today. “The wording is very specific, and many who are aware of the history of this subject will immediately understand why January 1, 1947, is the date to which the Comptroller General must use as “day one” of their compiled intelligence review and report that is due to Congress.” “It’s clear that somebody has been sharing information with [Congress],” investigative journalist George Knapp remarked during a recent Coast-to-Coast AM broadcast. “I can tell for sure that there are people who have met with them and have told them not only that there are these legacy programs that have materials, and by materials I don’t mean just scraps of metal from the ground, but intact craft, remains—physical remains—of beings. “Those stories have been floating around for a long time,” Knapp continued. “I know that there are a couple of people in particular who know about this stuff, down to the point of the buildings where this stuff is stashed, who are willing to come forward if they are protected. And now this legislation indicates they will be protected as whistleblowers, that their security clearances will not be revoked, and it’s pretty exciting.” www.unknowncountry.com/headline-news/the-silver-bullet-is-coming-protections-expected-to-shield-uap-whistleblowers-in-upcoming-hearings/
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Post by auntym on Dec 27, 2022 12:26:10 GMT -6
thedebrief.org/858-billion-defense-bill-signed-into-law-by-biden-includes-unprecedented-legislation-on-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena/$858 BILLION DEFENSE BILL SIGNED INTO LAW BY BIDEN INCLUDES “UNPRECEDENTED” LEGISLATION ON “UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA”
by MICAH HANKS / thedebrief.org/author/micah-hanks/DECEMBER 24, 2022 On Friday, President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year (FY) 2023 into law, providing a total of $816.7 billion to the Pentagon and setting the course for the U.S. national defense strategy for the coming year. www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3252968/biden-signs-national-defense-authorization-act-into-law/Among key provisions contained within the bill are pay raises for military and civilian service members, along with funds in support of Ukraine and Taiwan, and several programs related to national security within the Department of Energy, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, and other related activities. President Biden said in a statement that this year’s bill “provides vital benefits and enhances access to justice for military personnel and their families, and includes critical authorities to support our country’s national defense, foreign affairs, and homeland security.” The bill also contains a few controversial items that include a requirement that the DOD rescind a mandate that armed forces personnel be vaccinated against COVID-19, a law which Pentagon officials have said they will “fully comply” with, adding that the DOD “remains committed to the health and safety of the force and to ensuring we are ready to execute our mission at all times.” However, another controversial portion of the bill signed into law on Friday that few in the media have covered relates to what the Pentagon now calls unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, encountered by the military. Specifically, the FY 2023 NDAA includes provisions that could open doorways to greater transparency in government on the issue by providing protections for whistleblowers, in addition to expanding the scope of current investigations by the DOD’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). “This is arguably the biggest story mainstream news organizations have ever failed to cover,” said Chris Mellon, a former Minority Staff Director of the Senate Intelligence Committee and also former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, in a statement on his website where he characterized the UAP-related language within the FY 2023 NDAA as “unprecedented.” Among the elements contained within the relevant portion of the bill are additions to the scope and authority of AARO, with Congress now directing the Office to report directly to Defense and Intelligence Community leadership. The bill also directs AARO to extend the scope of its inquiries further back into history to review potentially relevant government records dating as far back as 1945. Complimenting the historical review AARO will be undertaking is language that calls for any non-disclosure agreements related to UAP in past or existing DOD, DHS, and other programs to be shared with AARO leadership. Significantly, Sec. 1673 of the FY 2023 NDAA also outlines protections for U.S. personnel that have signed any such agreements, allowing them to come forward with any information and report their involvement with such programs to AARO, and to Congress. Douglas Dean Johnson, an independent researcher who tracks legislation related to UAP and reports on related developments on his website, called the relevant portion of Sec. 1673 “a sweeping anti-reprisal clause, applicable both to government employees and contractors.” “Sec. 1673(b)(1) provides that those bringing information forward into the new system are not thereby committing any violation of the laws,” Johnson wrote in early December, adding that provisions within the bill prevent those coming forward with information from being “impeded from that disclosure by any previously applicable non-disclosure agreement.” CONTINUE READING: thedebrief.org/858-billion-defense-bill-signed-into-law-by-biden-includes-unprecedented-legislation-on-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena/
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Post by auntym on Apr 13, 2023 14:34:00 GMT -6
Uncovering the Truth: A Live Look at the Senate Hearing on UFOs / UAPs w/ Professor Dr. Garry Nolan
The Good Trouble Show with Matt Ford
In this Livestream, Stanford Professor Dr. Garry Nolan joins us to discuss the upcoming hearings on UFOs / UAPs scheduled on April 19th in the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee under the Senate Armed Services Committee to be chaired by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. We discuss what is happening on Capitol Hill with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and Congressional efforts to get to the bottom of UAPs / UFOs.
April 13, 2023
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Post by swamprat on Jun 21, 2023 8:23:04 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Jul 20, 2023 20:40:15 GMT -6
The UFO Men - Hearings Disclosure Whistleblowers
Cristina Gomez / 7-20-2023
UFOs Another Special Episode of Mysteries with a History. We look into individuals from within the Government and Military, both active and retired, as well as other key official figures in the ongoing pursuit of truth and transparency regarding the UFO / UAP mystery from 2017 through to the present day.
TIMELINE INDEX 00:00 - Intro 01:58 - How It all Started 09:57 - 2017 New York Times Article 14:19 - To The Stars Academy 19:03 - 2017 and The UFO Conversation 23:56 - The Gimbal and the Go-Fast Footage 28:06 - The UFO Reports 50:38 - The UFO Hearing 01:05:40 - Ryan Graves 01:13:26 - David Fravor 01:21:49 - David Grusch 01:32:35 - Outro and Credits
The UFO Men - Hearings Disclosure Whistleblowers
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