A Baffling Case... What Really Happened to D.A. Ray Gricar?

Submitted by SadInAmerica on Thu, 02/09/2012 - 3:32am.

http://www.knowthelies.com/node/6978 

STATE COLLEGE, Penn.—Nearly seven years ago, Ray Gricar—Centre County, Pa.’s District Attorney for two decades—vanished into thin air. According to law enforcement officials, he hasn’t been seen since. Yet, is this official verdict accurate, or does the missing D.A.’s disappearance have direct ties to high-ranking politicians, Jerry Sandusky’s Penn State child molestation scandal, and even federal officials who are involved in the cover-up? ~ Victor Thorn

The Mystery Begins...
On Apr. 15, 2005, Gricar told his live-in girlfriend that he intended to take a day off work so that he could take a leisurely drive out of scenic Happy Valley in his beloved Mini Cooper automobile.
Hours later he wound up in Lewisburg, Pa.—about an hour away from their residence—where it’s believed Gricar shopped at local antique stores, intermittently in the company of a woman that wasn’t his girlfriend.
However, although shop owners and area residents claimed to have seen Gricar that morning, the details are only circumstantial.
On Jan. 25, this writer interviewed a researcher that, for personal reasons, would only go on the record if anonymity were insured. The source began,

“There is no physical evidence of Gricar’s visit to Lewisburg. Granted, people did see him, but none of them personally knew Gricar. Plus, nothing can be concretely confirmed because there were no photographs, surveillance videos, credit card receipts or a money trail.
Further, the mystery woman in his presence remains unidentified and has never stepped forward, even though this was the area’s highest profile case in recent memory.”

When Gricar didn’t return to his home in Bellefonte that evening, panic arose. After discovering his vehicle the following day in a parking lot near the Susquehanna River, a string of peculiarities began to unfold.
The source continued,

“When search dogs were brought in on Apr. 17, they couldn’t locate Gricar’s scent at the Street of Shops or around the river. Then, only two days after he went missing, Gricar’s Mini Cooper was returned to his girlfriend instead of being held as evidence. This point is important because Gricar’s car withheld a secret compartment that had not been searched.”

In ensuing weeks, fishermen found Gricar’s laptop computer in the Susquehanna. Except, its hard-drive had been deliberately removed and only located months later.
Investigators added more intrigue when revealing that Gricar had purchased software enabling him to “wipe clean” a hard-drive in addition to performing Google searches on “how to fry a hard-drive.”
Did Gricar’s county-issued computer contain incriminating evidence, or did he purposefully leave these obvious clues to make it appear as if foul play had been involved?

Murder, Suicide, or a Missing Person?...
Although Gricar’s daughter pushed to have her father officially declared dead in July 2011, a question remains: could the D.A. still be alive? The source told AFP,

“In the two-and-a-half years before his disappearance, Gricar withdrew over $16,000 in cash from ATM machines. Plus, nothing was in his name. Gricar lived in his girlfriend’s house, his car was in her name, plus his assets were surprisingly low for a man of his stature and age.”

Indeed, Gricar’s total assets were barely above $100,000 despite a yearly six-figure income. Moreover, he had no investment accounts, no stocks, plus he maintained a joint checking account with his daughter who lived on the west coast. Had Gricar been planning this event for some time, thereby protecting his assets?
20/20 Vision...
This writer’s source next explained a little known fact.

“In the late 1990s a woman named Pamela West approached Gricar with information relating to the infamous 1969 murder of Penn State student Betsy Aardsma in the university’s campus library. With Gricar’s encouragement, West proceeded to write a fictionalized science-fiction novel entitled 20/20 Vision.”

What makes this book important are striking similarities to Gricar’s disappearance. The source continued,

“Gricar and West’s main character both disappeared on nearly the same dates of April 14 and April 15. The setting for each was State College, Pa.
Both Gricar and her detective drove sporty cars with personalized license plates. Both Gricar and West’s protagonist were soon about to retire, and ashes were found in both vehicles. Lastly, West’s detective proceeded to fake his own death.
The way I see it, there are no coincidences. What are the chances that so many things lined up in this way? Pam West was so freaked out that she contacted the authorities with this information.”

Interestingly, cigarette ashes on the passenger seat and a faint smell of tobacco smoke were the only physical evidence found inside Gricar’s Mini Cooper. Being an ardent non-smoker, Gricar adamantly refused to ever allow anyone to smoke inside his car.
The source picked up the story from here. “After Gricar vanished, Pamela West came forward and said that Gricar knew about her book. A state police trooper confirmed that Gricar had read it. West was startled by how closely Gricar’s case mimicked details in her novel.
On top of that, West theorized that a policeman or an influential member of the Penn State community had murdered Aardsma. So, Gricar told her to write the book, but suggested that she fictionalize it and not name any names.”
Was Somebody Being Protected?...
During a Jan. 26 interview, reporter Torsen Ove of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette told AFP more about the Betsy Aardsma murder.

“It was a very surgical kind of killing—one knife wound directly through her heart. With this type of crime, there are usually multiple stab wounds.
Yet it became obvious that whoever did it was pretty skilled, like a military man trained to kill. There was even talk years later about Ted Bundy being the culprit, but it’s not really his MO.”

Ironically, in 1969 at the time of Aardsma’s murder, Bundy did indeed attend Temple University in nearby Philadelphia.
As previously noted, a Pa. State Trooper verified that Gricar had borrowed his copy of West’s 20/20 Vision. More peculiar, as Eric Weiss wrote for Onward State on Sept. 28, 2011,

“[Pa.] state police will not publicize any of their records that could assist in determining [Aardsma’s] killer, and The Daily Collegian [PSU’s campus newspaper] has removed all of their articles regarding the case from their public archives.”

Sightings...
Immediately, mainstream media sources pursued the angle that Gricar hadn’t been seen since his stroll through downtown Lewisburg on the morning of Apr. 15, 2005. Contrarily, the aforementioned source told AFP,

“At 3:00 pm on Apr. 15, an assistant D.A. named Carolyn Fenton swears she saw Gricar behind the Bellefonte Courthouse [where his office was located], and he wasn’t in his Mini Cooper. Fenton was very firm on the date.
Another colleague, Judge Jonathan Grine, also claimed to see him, but he wasn’t as firm on the timing. Both said Gricar drove a metallic-colored car that they had never seen before.”

When examined deeper, a plausible scenario surfaces. If Gricar deliberately intended to disappear, he needed an accomplice. Could this individual happen to be the woman seen intermittently strolling with him in Lewisburg?
After making certain that others saw him that morning, did Gricar use the metallic-colored car to slip away after covertly dropping his confidant back at the courthouse?
Once the FBI issued a “Missing Person” bulletin, on May 27, 2005, a retired Southfield, Michigan police officer said he saw Gricar.
Then, in Aug. 2005 a woman at a Texas Chili’s restaurant became so convinced that a fellow diner resembled Gricar that she secretly snapped a photo of him with her cell phone.
According to an Aug. 17, 2005 article by Paula Ward of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

“The woman noted that the man she saw had a small scar on his right cheek. Gricar had a similar scar. The hairline, age and body-type all match Gricar’s, too.”

Endangered...
In light of this intriguing data, skeptics may rightfully ask: why would a successful D.A. only eight months from retirement want to fake his own death? What would motivate him? Some in the media posit that Gricar had recently prosecuted a major drug dealer. Still, over the course of his career, Gricar never flinched from similar cases.
Or, had a more sinister message been delivered to Gricar—one with serious life-and-death ramifications? Namely, what if Gricar had uncovered incriminating evidence of such importance that it threatened the very existence of a nearby institution, as well as those employed there? Or, what if the repercussions stretched all the way to state, and even federal, government officials?
The invaluable source used for this article provided further insights.

“I really believe that law enforcement hasn’t thoroughly investigated the Gricar case. Somebody in a position of power knows what happened, but they’re allowing it to remain a ‘botched investigation.’
When Stacey Parks Miller became D.A. in 2010, she commented on learning how much the public didn’t know about Gricar’s case. They’ve only been give a tip of the iceberg, and homicide seems the least likely scenario.”

The source attributes this undisclosed evidence to a troubling possibility. “Did Gricar disappear because he realized what happened to people like him that knew too much? They get killed. Maybe that’s the real message.”
AFP readers understand this point. When considering the Clinton Body Count, dozens of whistleblower “suicides,” and umpteen political assassinations, did Gricar learn a valuable lesson by making his “disappearance” look like a murder? To complicate matters, Gricar’s brother committed suicide in 1996. Oddly enough, he did so by drowning in a river.
If Gricar voluntarily vanished because of damning information in his possession, or if he got an ominous tap on the shoulder, it then makes sense that elite politicians and members of law enforcement—as well as the mainstream media—would push the murder and suicide angles over him deliberately deciding to disappear.
In this sense, is Gricar in a quasi-witness protection program? Stated differently, in exchange for not blowing the whistle on some high crimes and misdemeanors, Gricar was permitted to escape with his life and live incognito at an undisclosed location.
On a final note, the source stated,

“My gut feeling is that Gricar—or someone associated with him—made his disappearance look like foul play by deliberately throwing his computer into the river after ripping out its hard-drive. Also, as a safeguard to add more confusion, they made it look remarkably like his brother’s suicide.”

When AFP inquired about Pamela West’s 20/20 Vision novel, the source remarked,

“Gricar had to be involved with all these similarities. He set it up. Although not many people read that book, it was his way of leaving a clue to let those closest to him realize the truth about what happened.”

Victor Thorn - February 4, 2012 - AmericaFreePress

Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and the author of many books on 9-11 and the New World Order. These include 9-11 EVIL: Israel’s Central Role in the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks and Phantom Flight 93 and Other Sept. 11 Mysteries Explored.

Will The New Housing Bubble That Bernanke Is Creating End As Badly As The Last One Did?

By Michael, on April 30th, 2013

 

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has done it.  He has succeeded in creating a new housing bubble.  By driving mortgage rates down to the lowest level in 100 years and recklessly printing money with wild abandon, Bernanke has been able to get housing prices to rebound a bit.  In fact, in some of the more prosperous areas of the country you would be tempted to think that it is 2005 all over again.  If you can believe it, in some areas of the country builders are actually holding lotteries to see who will get the chance to buy their homes.  Wow - that sounds great, right?  Unfortunately, this "housing recovery" is not based on solid economic fundamentals.  As you will see below, this is a recovery that is being led by investors.  They are paying cash for cheap properties that they believe will appreciate rapidly in the coming years.  Meanwhile, the homeownership rate in the United States continues to decline.  It is now the lowest that it has been since 1995.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  Number one, there has not been a jobs recovery in the United States.  The percentage of working age Americans with a job has not rebounded at all and is still about the exact same place where it was at the end of the last recession.  Secondly, crippling levels of student loan debt continue to drive down the percentage of young people that are buying homes.  So no, this is not a real housing recovery.  It is an investor-led recovery that is mostly limited to the more prosperous areas of the country.  For example, the median sale price of a home in Washington D.C. just hit a new all-time record high.  But this bubble will not last, and when this new housing bubble does burst, will it end as badly as the last one did?
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has stated over and over that one of his main goals is to "support the housing market" (i.e. get housing prices to go up).  It took a while, but it looks like he is finally getting his wish.  According to USA Today, U.S. home prices have been rising at the fastest rate in nearly seven years...

U.S. home prices in the USA's 20 biggest cities rose 9.3% in the 12 months ending in February. It was the biggest annual growth rates in almost seven years, a closely watched housing index out Tuesday said.

In particular, home prices have been rising most rapidly in cities that experienced a boom during the last housing bubble...

Year over year, Phoenix continued to stand out with a gain of 23%, followed by San Francisco at almost 19% and Las Vegas at nearly 18%, the S&P/Case-Shiller index showed. Most of the cities seeing the biggest gains also fell hardest during the crash.

But is this really a reason for celebration?  Instead of addressing the fundamental problems in our economy that caused the last housing crash, Bernanke has been seemingly obsessed with reinflating the housing bubble.  As a recent article by Edward Pinto explained, the housing market is being greatly manipulated by the government and by the Fed...

While a housing recovery of sorts has developed, it is by no means a normal one. The government continues to go to extraordinary lengths to prop up sales by guaranteeing nearly 90% of new mortgage debt, financing half of all home purchase mortgages to buyers with zero equity at closing, driving mortgage interest rates to the lowest level in 100 years, and turning the Fed into the world's largest buyer of new mortgage debt.
Thus, with real incomes essentially stagnant, this is a market recovery largely driven by low interest rates and plentiful government financing. This is eerily familiar to the previous government policy-induced boom that went bust in 2006, and from which the country is still struggling to recover. Creating over a trillion dollars in additional home value out of thin air does sound like a variant of dropping money out of helicopters.

And the Obama administration has been pushing very hard to get lenders to give mortgages to those with "weaker credit".  In other words, the government is once again trying to get the banks to give home loans to people that cannot afford them.  The following is from the Washington Post...

The Obama administration is engaged in a broad push to make more home loans available to people with weaker credit, an effort that officials say will help power the economic recovery but that skeptics say could open the door to the risky lending that caused the housing crash in the first place.
President Obama’s economic advisers and outside experts say the nation’s much-celebrated housing rebound is leaving too many people behind, including young people looking to buy their first homes and individuals with credit records weakened by the recession.

We are repeating so many of the same mistakes that we made the last time.
But surely things will turn out differently this time, right?
I wouldn't count on it.
Right now, an increasingly large percentage of homes are being purchased as investments.  The following is from a recent Washington Times article...

Much of the pickup in sales and prices has been powered by investors who, convinced that the market is bottoming, are scooping up bountiful supplies of distressed and foreclosed properties at bargain prices and often paying with cash.
With investors targeting lower-priced homes that they intend to purchase and rent out, they have been crowding out many first-time buyers who are having difficulty getting mortgage loans and are at a disadvantage when competing with well-heeled buyers. Cash sales to investors now account for about one-third of all home sales, according to the National Association of Realtors.

And as we have seen in the past, an investor-led boom can turn into an investor-led bust very rapidly.
If this truly was a real housing recovery, the percentage of Americans that own a home would be going up.
Instead, it is going down.
As I mentioned above, the U.S. Census Bureau is reporting that the homeownership rate in the United States is now the lowest that it has been since 1995.
In particular, homeownership among college-educated young people is way down.  They can't afford to buy homes due to crippling levels of student loan debt...

For the average homeowner, the worst news is that these overleveraged and defaulting young borrowers no longer qualify for other kinds of loans — particularly home loans. In 2005, nearly nine percent of 25- to 30-year-olds with student debt were granted a mortgage. By late last year, that percentage, as an annual rate, was down to just above four percent.
The most precipitous drop was among those who owe $100,000 or more. New mortgages among these more deeply indebted borrowers have declined 10 percentage points, from above 16 percent in 2005 to a little more than 6 percent today.
"These are the people you'd expect to buy big houses," said student loan expert Heather Jarvis. "They owe a lot because they have a lot of education. They have been through professional and graduate schools, but their payments are so significant, they have trouble getting a mortgage. They have mortgage-sized loans already."

And the truth is that there simply are not enough good jobs in this country to support a housing recovery.  In a previous article, I used the government's own statistics to prove that there has not been a jobs recovery.  If we were having a jobs recovery, the percentage of working age Americans with a job would be going up.  Sadly, that is not happening...

And as I mentioned above, the "housing recovery" is mostly happening in the prosperous areas of the country.
In other areas of the United States, the devastating results of the last housing crash are still clearly apparent.
For example, the city of Dayton, Ohio is dealing with an estimated 7,000 abandoned properties.
As I wrote about the other day, there are approximately 70,000 abandoned buildings in Detroit, Michigan.
And all over the nation there are still "ghost towns" that were created when builders abruptly abandoned housing developments during the last recession.  You can see some pictures of some of these ghost towns right here.
So the truth is that this is an isolated housing recovery that is being led by investors and that is being fueled by very reckless behavior by the Federal Reserve.  It is not based on economic reality whatsoever.
In the end, will the collapse of this new housing bubble be as bad as the collapse of the last one was?
Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below...

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German Bundeswehr soldiers ‘for hire as mercenaries’

Source: TheLocal
German soldiers are moonlighting illegally at private security firms while off-duty, a newspaper revealed on Monday. Working as heavily armed guards on freighters or in war-zones, some do it for the cash and others for the adrenaline kick.
As members of the German army, Bundeswehr, soldiers are not allowed to work as mercenaries for private companies – yet many are doing it, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) found out.
Exact figures on how many of Germany’s soldiers, or former soldiers, work the private security circuit are unknown. According to the FAZ’s research, the field is growing and critics are warning of a “mercenary renaissance”.
In response to a written request for information from the Green Party last year, the government revealed that there were at least a dozen registered mercenary companies in the country alone.
One such firm told the paper that although they did not advertise jobs, it received three applications each day – mostly from soldiers. Those given a job are often sent to guard ships or to pick up the slack in combat zones.
The paper said guarding German freighters off Africa, where piracy is rife, was a common gig. Last spring the government passed a law saying its country’s ships were allowed to have armed protection – but the idea was not that German soldiers should do it in their spare time.
And though ships can be owned by German companies, many fly under a different national flag – largely Liberia, Antigua or Barbuda, which have different laws on what weapons guards can use.
Identified only as Till, an ex-Bundeswehr soldier turned ship security guard told the FAZ that when working at sea he worked with automatic weapons that are banned from German-flagged ships.
“With an AK47 and a PKM you are the king of the sea,” he told the paper.
Till, like others working the ship scene, earns around €6,000 for a six-week trip – far more than he would have for the same tour of duty with the Bundeswehr. He is no longer in active service due to post traumatic stress syndrome, but by law soldiers have to tell the army if they are working for a private security firm for five years after leaving.
An army paramedic identified as Marcel K., told the FAZ that when working on ships his colleagues had included soldiers, police officers and customs workers. Most were, he said, looking to make extra money. He soon found that he could earn more money working freelance on land – being a “combat medic” in a war zone could get him €8,000 per month.
He added that in his experience, mercenary soldiers did not fill the testosterone-fuelled, trigger-happy image portrayed in the media. Rather, most tended to be family men out to earn extra money, or adventurous types in it for the experience.
Outside of Germany, security firms in Britain and the US are said to be fond of hiring German military personnel – particularly elite soldiers – although the country’s defence ministry denied knowledge of this.
A spokesman from the ministry contradicted the newspaper, saying it knew of “no active soldiers working for private firms.” But while soldiers are well-informed of what they may and may not do, the army does not keep tabs on them during leave.
Soldiers wishing to work elsewhere may only do so with permission from their superiors, but since the defence ministry said there were none registered this suggests that the “dozens” cited by the FAZ were doing so illegally.

Boston Bombings: Detonator to Mobilize the Entire US Security Apparatus. May Change the World for the Worse!

By Prof. James Petras

Global Research, April 30, 2013

Region: USA

Theme: Intelligence, Police State & Civil Rights

The relation between the suspected Boston Marathon bombers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) and the Boston Police (BP) is a point of contention and controversy.
The FBI, at first, claimed no knowledge of the bombing suspects but later was forced to admit having received at least two sets of intelligence reports, one from Russian officials and another from the CIA, identifying one of the suspected bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as a potential security threat -linked to a Chechen terrorist organization.
Testimony from Tsarnaev’s mother and father indicates that the FBI was active in following, harassing and interrogating the suspect before the bombing.  Despite general directives from the US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security mandating US security to aggressively pursue ‘Islamist terrorists’, the FBI claims to have made no effort to follow-up on the Russian and CIA security alerts, especially after Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned from Russian state of Dagestan last year where he allegedly met six times with a known Chechen terrorist, Gadzhimurad Dolgatov, in a fundamentalist Salafi mosque.
The official government and corporate media versions claim the FBI may have ‘over-looked’ the security risk posed by Tsarnaev.  Congressional critics argue that the FBI was ‘negligent’ in following up leads provided by the Russians and the CIA.  A more likely explanation is that the FBI was actively engaged with Tsarnaev and deliberately encouraged the conspiracy for self-serving purposes.
The most benign hypothesis is that the FBI was using Tsarnaev as a means of infiltrating and securing intelligence on other possible ‘terrorists’.  A more plausible hypothesis is that the Boston office of the FBI had set the pair of brothers up for a sting operation in order to enhance their anti-terrorist credentials – and that the ‘operation’ got out of hand – with Tamarlan having his own agenda.  The most likely hypothesis is that the FBI facilitated the bombing in order to revive the flagging fortunes of the ‘war on terror’ foisted on a war-weary and economically depressed American public.
The FBI in Boston has a long and notorious history of working with and protecting certain leaders of organized crime in return for information about targeted rivals:  The most notorious example is the FBI’s 20-year ‘partnership’ with one of Boston’s most feared gangland killers, James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, where the mobster was provided with protection and collaboration in return for his information about a rival crime family and other competitors.  In 2012, Bulger was finally indicted for 19 murders mostly committed under FBI ‘protection’ – although one of his closest mob-partners claims he murdered 40 people in his lifetime.
The ‘Boston Bombings’ served as a detonator to mobilize the entire US security apparatus; it has led to the suspension of constitutional guaranties.  It has been accompanied by an intense mass media campaign glorifying police state operations and the imposition of virtual martial law in the Boston metropolitan area of over 4.5 million inhabitants.  The military police operation and media campaign aroused fear and terror among the public.  Instant psychodrama produced mass worship of the ‘heroic’ police:  they were portrayed as having saved the public from unknown numbers of armed terrorists lurking in their neighborhoods.
The police, the FBI and the entire Security Apparatus – were repeatedly ‘honored’ at public spectacles, sports and civic events, lauded as ‘guardians’ and ‘saviors’.   The sordid role of FBI in organizing entrapment operations was never mentioned.  The hundreds of billions wasted in futile overseas ‘wars against terror’ went down the memory hole.  The opposition to Washington’s cuts in social programs was diverted almost overnight to support new funding for US military intervention in Syria and North Korea, a greater arms build-up in Israel and domestic security.
The ‘Boston Bombings’ coincided with the White House dictating a new round of domestic police state measures and launching a series of aggressive military moves in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.  The Pentagon has organized its biggest and most threatening air, sea and land military exercises right on the borders of North Korea .  The White House has encouraged and promoted Japan ’s belligerent military posture toward China regarding disputed islands in the South China Sea .  Secretary of State Kerry has increased military aid to the Syrian terrorists by at least $130 million and dispatched hundreds of Special Forces to Jordan to train the jihadi-mercenaries against the Syrian government.  The White House concocted charges that Damascus deployed chemical weapons against the rebels to justify direct US military intervention in Syria .  Closer to home, the White House has given unconditional support to the violent Venezuelan opposition’s post-election campaign designed to provoke a civil war– while refusing to recognize the internationally certified election victory of President Maduro.
It is very clear the Obama regime wants to turn the clock back a decade to recreate the terrible political climate of 2001 – 02.  He seeks to fabricate a sense of an imminent terrorist threat based on the ‘Boston Bombings’ in order to re-launch another global military campaign.  Instead of Iraq – the ‘threat’ is now Syria , Iran and Lebanon . Today, the threat is North Korea – tomorrow it could be China .  Today, it is Venezuela – next it could be Argentina , Bolivia and Ecuador …and the entire edifice of Latin American regional integration.
The civilian casualties and deaths resulting from the ‘Boston Bombings’, linked to the US backing and sheltering of Chechen terrorists, are a small price for Washington to pay if it results in escalating global wars and greater impunity for the National Police State.
Re-launching a new and more virulent version of militarized global empire building is of the highest priority.  The targeted countries have global significance:  Venezuela and Iran are oil producing giants, the backbone of OPEC and adversaries of Israel .  China is the second biggest economy in the world and the principle challenger to US economic dominance.  Cowering and confusing millions of downwardly mobile Americans weakens the principle domestic obstacle to bigger and more comprehensive cuts in social programs in order to finance global wars.
Indeed, the ‘Boston Bombings’ have larger political and economic consequences; they set the stage for a new round of wars abroad and regressive (and repressive) changes at home.

Boston Marathon Bombing And Every Day Terror in America

By Margaret Kimberley

Global Research, April 30, 2013

Black Agenda Report 24 April 2013

Region: USA

Theme: 9/11 & 'War on Terrorism'

Every year, 4,600 Americans are killed in work place related accidents. Every 28 hours a black person is killed by police, corrections officers, security guards or vigilantes. Every year more than 30,000 people are killed by gun violence in this country. The odds of being killed by a terrorist are only 1 in 20 million.

These statistics are rarely mentioned and never had a chance to be addressed after two bombs were exploded during the Boston marathon. Death under horrific but commonplace circumstances attracts scant media attention or political action. Acts labeled as terrorism, which are unlikely to kill anyone, bring an inordinate amount of hysteria among the populace and cynical attention from press and politicians.

Just two days after the Boston marathon a fertilizer plant in West, Texas exploded, killing 14 people, most of them the much worshipped “first responders.” The risk of dying in an industrial accident is far greater than the odds of being killed by a terrorist, but no matter. The people were whipped into a frenzy and told to cast their eyes in the place where they should pay less attention rather than more.

It is frightening that the risks which Americans are subjected to on a daily basis are ignored as if they are unwanted background noise. Some of the passivity is understandable. Black people in particular are able to function in large part because the ever present risk of stop and frisk, false arrest, and police brutality are difficult to bear. There is a thin line between being conscious and losing one’s mind.

All Americans’ behavior is understandable if one acknowledges that we are constantly subjected to propaganda of various kinds. We have been propagandized to believe that some lives, white Americans’, are more valuable than others, namely anyone not white nor from the United States. There is no other way to explain why the government’s killing of thousands of people abroad is met with a shrug, if it is acknowledged at all. Americans are like spoiled children, whining over their suffering, while showing no empathy for anyone else’s. They feel that only their victimization is worthy of note, and in fact many of them support their government’s acts of violence carried out around the world.

That feeling of entitlement is a direct result of centuries of white supremacy which has never been examined or challenged. It has been fed as corporate power has grown and corrupted the media who now aren’t even very good at the basics of their profession. CNN, NPR, the Associated Press and other supposedly reputable news organizations reported wrongly on basic facts of the case such as the number of suspects, whether arrests had been made or not, or who was or wasn’t a person of interest. A “dark skinned man” was said to be under arrest but actually wasn’t. An Indian student missing since March was named as a suspect on social media and his family were threatened as a result.

After the wave of manufactured hysteria an easily frightened people were then convinced to accept tanks in their streets and heed government calls to “shelter in place.” The nonsensical overreaction was superseded only by the use of Orwellian jargon used to create an even more compliant public.

The predictably maudlin moments of silence weren’t restricted to Boston. More than $20 million in monetary contributions were raised without the donors knowing who needed it or for what purpose. Tributes flowed along with money and no one ran a race anywhere on earth without mentioning the bravery of Bostonians. The president showed up and as always on such occasions uttered words seemingly written by his worst speechwriters. The full force of the government would catch the cowards and the people would not be frightened because they are the best and freest in the world and the prayers of the nation went out to them because of democracy and the whole world stood beside them. Amen.

There is another kind of terror that goes on continually. Most reported terror plots of recent years were created entirely by government agents. The FBI had some contact with Tamerlan Tsarnaev who was killed by police in the bombing after math. It is possible that the FBI moved from creating phony terror plots to actually carrying one out. The likelihood that there will ever be impartial fact finding on this and other questions are slim to none.

Dzokhar Tsarnaev now [April 24] lies in a hospital wounded by police gunfire and questioned without being read his rights. That treatment is a result of an Obama executive order which states that in cases of a “public safety exception” we have no such rights. Now that is everyday terror.

Margaret Kimberley‘s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as athttp://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

Symbolic Pics of the Month (05/13)

Apr 30th, 2013 | Category: Featured, Pics of the Month |94 Comments

In this edition of SPOTM: Courtney Stodden, Tilda Swinton, Rita Ora and a bunch other pics proving that what is discussed on this site is all too real.

I’m not gonna lie. Tilda Swinton creeps the hell out of me. Her recent photoshoot for W Magazine fully exploits that creepiness and even takes it to another level as it is permeated with MK/Illuminati symbolism. Here, Tilda is oddly standing next to birdcage (symbol used to represent Monarch slaves). She apparently caught the bird herself. Why Tilda? Why?? Let the bird fly! While this pic alone might not be MK-related, the combination of this image with the others below reads as Illuminati Mind Control 101.

This image is all about the occult concept of duality, represented by the checkerboard pattern of Masonic ceremonial floors. The pattern is found on the floor of this picture and Tilda is literally draped in it. The setting also includes religious/spiritual items, giving the shot an ethereal feel.

Here, Tilda goes all one-eyed Illuminati with it. The images she is holding of an eye and a mouth appear to be a of a different person, hinting to the concept of programmed alter personality in Mind Control (you see what you are programmed to see and say what you are programmed to say).

Two Tildas, separated by a “fracture” of the image represent the fracturing of a MK slave’s psyche into alter personas.

This Vogue Italia photoshoot is also all about with Monarch Programming symbolism. Here, we see the concept of multiple personas.

Silenced by a butterfly (Monarch programming).

Blinded by a butterfly (Monarch programming).

Multiple personalities facing/mirroring each others.

The lipstick that is hiding one of the model’s eyes is a way of telling you “Hey, this is all about Illuminati MK”.

Model Daisy Lowe shows her support to “Earth Hour” with…what else…a one-eyed salute. Why? Because these “Earth” events are sponsored by the elite.

Daisy does the one-eyed thing again in High Life magazine.

I mentioned in previous articles how Courtney Stodden acts like a  Sex Kitten slave. As if to confirm all of that, here she is on the cover of “Girls and Corpses”, a magazine about…girls and corpses. The magazine even promises “real corpses in every issue”. It truly takes a programmed Sex-Kitten to be doing that crap…and smiling.

Pia Mia used to work with Disney. Now she’s doing the one eye thing and pointing a fake gun to her head. Considering Disney’s relation with the MK-industry, this makes perfect sense.

Speaking of Disney, Mickey Mouse ears are “codes” in the entertainment industry representing MK Mind Control. Here’s Rita Ora on the cover of ELLE wearing gigantic ears.

This photoshoot in Vestal, appropriately named “Pop Queen”, is all about Mickey Mouse programming.

On the left, the “pop queen” wears a variety of occult symbols, including an inverted pentagram (symbol of Black Magick) and an inverted cross. On the right, Mickey Mouse ears. Yup, that’s the crap you need to do and wear to be a “pop queen”.

Damn, Nike, that’s some hardcore Illuminati symbolism for some golf balls.

Speaking of Nike, this shirt was on sale in the Boston area before the Boston bombings. In a news article about the shirt, a Nike Outlet employee was quoted saying “We’ve been taking them down…But somehow they keep ending up back on the rack”. While the shirt is supposed to refer to the rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox, this odd “premonition” is reminiscent to the Oscar Pistorius’ Nike ad entitled “I am the bullet in the chamber”, which appeared before the athlete got charged for the murder of his girlfriend.

Speaking of the bombings, the immediate result of the event was the imposition of Martial Law and a temporary police state – as seen in numerous disaster movies created to train people to accept this course of event. Whether you believe that it was all necessary or not… It happened.  And it set a precedent for future “crises”.

Under Martial Law, private property doesn’t exist anymore and troops have the right to storm into civilians’ homes.

ZENITH 2016
Did Something Begin In 2012...
That Will Zenith In 2016?
Posted: April 30, 2013
http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/Zenith-1.htm

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PART 1: THE FOURTH TURNING

A New Investigation by Tom Horn

I learned this week that our good friend Sue Bradley has gone home to be with Jesus. She went into the Lord's arms early in the morning on April 26, 2013.

In 2008 and again in 2012 with input from Steve Quayle and I, Sue began working on one of her last articles titled The Fourth Turning: The Protocols and The Gray Champion. A couple months back, she had emailed me from her hospital room and said she was about to expand this Fourth Turning work based on some “Zenith 2016” material I had just shared with her. Unfortunately, like with the passing of David Flynn, the world will probably never know what Sue was about to reveal. What we do know is her work was partially based on a book published in 1997, The Fourth Turning, which describes itself as “a book that turns history into prophecy.” It explains cycles of life and generational archetypes through the examination of Western historical paradigms over the past five centuries. By surveying the past and identifying contemporary markers, William Strauss and Neil Howe, the authors of the work determined an astoundingly prescient forecast in which they saw a cascade of incidents that would ultimately lead to chaos and the “Fourth Turning.” Keep in mind they made these predictions over sixteen years ago, long before the September 11, 2001 attacks on America or the financial issues of today. Among the scenarios they foresaw were:

The first could be economic distress with a government beset by fiscal crisis, the state laying claim to federal tax monies, federal marshals enforcing orders, tax rebellions, special forces and an ensuing constitutional crisis:

The second is a terrorist attack, involving an airliner, a military response, authorization for house to house searches and false flag accusations against the administration;

A third scenario is an economic disaster involving Wall Street and a federal budget impasse which results in a stalemate;

The fourth consideration is Eco-environmental malaise with the Centers for Disease Control announcing the spread of a new communicable virus with quarantines and relocations;

The fifth projection is geopolitical in nature with growing anarchy throughout the former Soviet republics prompting Russia to conduct training exercises around its borders, a Russian alliance with Iran, soaring gold and silver prices and global military responses.

In describing these insightful scenarios, Strauss and Howe felt a catalyst would unfold as a result of a specific dynamic and, “An initial spark will trigger a chain reaction of unyielding responses and further emergencies” (the war on terror?).

According to Strauss and Howe in 1997, this chain reaction was already prepped to unfold as the result of natural cycles or “Turnings” in which generations are doomed to forget—and thus to repeat—the mistakes of the past. The authors describe a Turning as “an era with a characteristic social mood, a new twist on how people feel about themselves and their nation. It results from the aging of the generation [before it].” A society enters a Turning once every twenty years or so, when all living generations begin to enter their next phases of life. The living generations or “saeculae” comprise four cyclical “Turnings”, characterized as:

The First Turning (THE HIGH), an era of enthusiastic collective strengthening and civic development, having burned the brush and swept the ashes of preceding structure.

The Second Turning (THE AWAKENING), is built on the energies and accomplishments of the High but finds increasing yearning for introspection with a high tolerance for spiritual expression outside the parameters of predetermined standards.

The Third Turning (THE UNRAVELING), begins as the “society-wide embrace of the liberating cultural forces” loosed by the Awakening shows signs of civic disorder and decay, a heightened sense of self-reliance and an increasing withdrawal of public trust. This builds to a near crisis of downcast pessimism and a palpable pall that can only be remedied by yielding to the next.

The Fourth Turning (THE CRISES and the era we have now entered), is by far, the most perilous as societies pass through the greatest and most dangerous gates of history. As desperate solutions are sought for “sudden threats” on multiple cultural fronts, confrontation is passionate and decisions are often reactive, aggressive. “Government governs, community obstacles are removed, and laws and customs that resisted change for decades are swiftly shunted aside. .. A grim preoccupation with civic peril causes spiritual curiosity to decline… Public order tightens, private risk-taking abates, and... child-rearing reaches a smothering degree of protection and structure. The young focus their energy on worldly achievements, leaving values in the hands of the old. Wars are fought with fury and for maximum result.  [i]

Through the examination of an enormous amount of political and cultural history, Strauss and Howe processed over five hundred years of Anglo-American cultural nuance into remarkable, well-organized and predictable cycles and it is from this reservoir they finally stake an uncanny claim:

Just after the millennium, America will enter a new era that will culminate with a crisis comparable to the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II. The very survival of the nation will almost certainly be at stake. [ii]

Strauss and Howe saw the United States of that time (1997) in the Third Turning, “midway through an Unraveling,” roughly a decade away from the next Crisis or Fourth Turning:

America feels like it’s unraveling. Although we live in an era of relative peace and comfort, we have settled into a mood of pessimism about the long-term future, fearful that our superpower nation is somehow rotting from within.

      The next Fourth Turning is due to begin shortly after the new millennium… Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation, and empire…

     The very survival of the nation will feel at stake.

     Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.

     The risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and efforts — in other words, a TOTAL WAR. [iii]

The striking details contained within The Fourth Turning illustrate the precision that was distilled with a close examination of historical patterns and contemporary application.

Although the authors note that the events described are not absolute, they also insist that the cycles, these Turnings, cannot be interrupted. As summer follows spring, an Unraveling precedes a Crisis of Faustian proportions:

It will require us to lend a new seasonal interpretation to our revered American Dream. And it will require us to admit that our faith in linear progress has often amounted to a Faustian bargain with our children.

     Faust always ups the ante, and every bet is double-or-nothing. Through much of the Third Turning, we have managed to postpone the reckoning. But history warns that we can’t defer it beyond the next bend in time. [iv]

While a “Faustian bargain” sounds ominous, Sue wrote, there is little evidence that the Anglo-American “Dream” has undergone the introspection and discipline necessary to buffer the arrogant recklessness of this generation and its administration.

NBC’s Chuck Todd noted on the evening of November 4, 2008 that Barack Obama was a changing of the guard in the United States from the Baby Boomer presidencies of William Clinton and George W. Bush. The Toronto Globe and Mail referred to President-elect Obama as being a member of Generation X, being born in 1961. And Strauss and Howe assigned Generation X—the Thirteenth Generation—to those who would bring us to chaos and the start of the Fourth Turning . . . culminating in a Zenith of events scheduled for the year 2016.

Stay tuned. Part Two coming soon.

(endnotes will be provided in the final entry)