RT: WORLDWIDE LOBBYING FOR MON(STER)SANTO AND OTHER AGRIBUSINESS

May 29, 2013 By Joseph P. Farrell

There’s more news, some good, some bad, on the GMO battlefront. First the good news, because after all, the bad news is predictable(more government corruption and collusion with the corporate world. Remember what Honest Abe said: that government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations, shall not perish, etc etc and… oh, wait, he didn’t say that? How do you know? I read it in my American History textbook…what? You found the true version of his words online? Oh that’s just the internet, I don’t believe anything it says. I believe Congress, the FDA, SeeBS).
Anyway, here’s the good news:
Peru bans GMOs Read more: http://www.trueactivist.com/peru-bans-gmos/
That’s right: yet another “backward” South American country has enough common sense to realize that the whole GMO idea is just plain bad: there has not been adequate testing, and as the article points out, there’s another danger lurking in the wings that inevitably accompanies the allowance of GMOs, and that’s the lack of a diverse bio0culture:

“’They’re a big monoculture, which is why people usually end up using GMOs,’ says Chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino about the detriments of factory farming, as quoted by CSMonitor.com. Schiaffino owns two restaurants in Lima that serve clean, native foods, including many unique varieties found only in the Amazon rainforest. ‘[W]hen you have monocultures, the crops end up getting diseases, and you have to look for these extreme ways to fix them.’
“So to prevent the complete loss of a farming tradition that has long incorporated the diverse cultivation of a plethora of native and indigenous crops, Peruvians have decided to simply disallow the raping and pillaging of their rich soils with toxic GMOs. And in the process, this embargo will help perpetuate the native biodiversity practices that have sustained Peruvians since the days when the Incan Empire reigned supreme.”

To put it a bit more plainly and irreverently, the reason GMOs are bad can easily be seen by examining the marriage practices of the power elites, who marry into the same families over and over again, continue to go to the same schools, over and over again, joining the same secret societies and participating in the same naked wrestling in the mud initiation rituals over and over again, with the results of declining intelligence. Just look, for example, at the Bush family. Or look at the intelligence of yesteryears’ banksters, compared to the current generation.

But there’s even more good news. In the state Vermont, where people can apparently still read and think, a state GMO labeling law has been passed:

Breaking: Vermont House Passes GMO Labeling Bill

Actually, that’s probably not as good news as it may seem at first glance, for one can imagine what corporate screws might be turned if state agriculture departments started doing health studies on GMOs, or if they were to start banning targeted GMO products.

The bad news is this:

New cables ‘expose’ US govt lobbies worldwide for Monsanto, other GMO corps

Or maybe that’s actually good news, in that it means that in the wake of increasing international concerns and mounting opposition to GMOs and the heavy-handed tactics and mercantilism with which they have been imposed thus far, it now requires an international army of lobbyists and payoff money to force them into “new markets”, i.e., new human bellies. Having introduced new health concerns, pharmaceutical companies can then move into the same markets and sell their “miracle drugs”. What is really of concern here is the following statement:

“In a cable sent from the Slovakian consulate in 2005, the State Department is told that the local post ‘will continue its efforts to dispel myths about GMOs and advocate on behalf of Monsanto.’”

That’s right, the agribusiness giant – and one can only assume its few competitors – has grown to the point that, like I.G. Farben, it can call on the Foreign Ministry of the Reich…er…the State Department, to exert diplomatic pressure. We can imagine what comes next: Heimatsicherheitshauptamt drones spying on people raising unregistered petunias or storing heirloom seeds, or raising an illegal tomato plant, patdowns for a bag of seeds.   Rest assured, if we can think of it here, they’ve already thought of it at Mon(ster)santo and probably discussed it at the Blunderberg meetings.

Read more: RT: WORLDWIDE LOBBYING FOR MON(STER)SANTO AND OTHER AGRIBUSINESS

Britain’s Security Service: More Questions about MI5’s Relations with the Woolwich Killers

By Julie Hyland

Global Research, May 29, 2013

World Socialist Web Site

Region: Europe

Theme: Intelligence, Police State & Civil Rights

Questions continue to pile up over the security services’ familiarity and contact with the two killers of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, southeast London.
Rigby was hacked to death on a public high road, near Woolwich army barracks. His killers, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, made no attempt to flee the scene, instead talking to members of the public and giving video statements justifying their savage assault as revenge for the killings of Muslims by the British army in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For days the media and political elite sought to deny that their gruesome assault has any connection with British foreign policy. Initially they also denied that the two were known to the security services, portraying them as “clean skins.”
This quickly unravelled. It been confirmed that both were under surveillance for years—in Adebolajo’s case, since at least 2005. In addition, at the weekend, the Kenyan authorities finally admitted they had detained Adebolajo in November 2010 as part of a group attempting to cross the border into Somalia to join the Al Qaeda-aligned al-Shabaab.
In a statement, the Kenyan government confirmed his arrest under the name of Michael Olemindis Ndemolajo. He appeared in court and was handed over to British authorities, after which “he seems to have found his way to London. The Kenyan government cannot be held responsible for what happened to him after we handed him to British authorities.”
Details of Adebolajo’s arrest first came to light in an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight programme last week by Adebolajo’s close friend, Abu Nusaybah. He reported that Adebolajo had been detained, and physically and sexually tortured in Kenya, before being deported to the UK. He also reported that MI5 had made repeated approaches to Adebolajo on his return, attempting to recruit him to infiltrate jihadist groups in the UK.
In extraordinary development, Nusaybah was arrested by intelligence officers at the studio immediately following his recorded interview, and remains in detention on unspecified charges.
Speaking to ITV news, Nusaybah’s account was confirmed by Adebolajo’s brother-in-law. Immediately on hearing of his arrest in Kenya, the family “contacted the British government and essentially, they refused to do anything and the Kenyans were saying they were going to kill him, behead him,” he said. “We had clear proof that he was being tortured … violently and sexually.”
On his return, Adebolajo had changed and become “a lot quieter and quite bitter towards the fact that he wasn’t getting any help from anyone,” his brother-in-law continued. “They [the British authorities] did the opposite of what they were doing really. If they wanted help [with information on jihadists], surely they would have given him some support first?”
The security services had approached Adebolajo to work for them, his brother-in-law continued. “They obviously asked him would he be a spy for them … You’d expect maybe they’d say ‘Can you tell us about Kenya, can we do anything for you?’ But instead you know, they basically pestered him for years, when he was trying to recover from something psychologically damaging.”
Allegations that MI5 “pestered” Adebolajo are backed up by the Guardian, which disclosed that he had seen lawyers last year to complain of harassment by the security services.
According to the Independent, however, Britain’s security services “sought to recruit” Adebolajo while he was being held by the Kenyan authorities. The Foreign Office would only confirm that he had received “consular assistance … as is normal for British nationals detained.”
Adebolajo was held in custody for several days in Mombasa. When he appeared in court he complained of severe mistreatment, including being denied food for days. If the accounts by family members and the Independent are true, it would mean that the British authorities were aware of his abuse and did nothing to stop it. Given allegations that the security services were trying to recruit him, this can only be because they hoped such mistreatment would break him and make him amenable to approaches.
Adebolajo returned to the UK without any reported follow-up investigation, let alone charges, as to his suspected activities in Kenya. This was despite the fact, again according to the Independent citing “Whitehall sources”, that Adebolajo “also made a second attempt to travel to Somalia last year but was stopped by MI5 and warned he would be detained once more by the Kenyans.”
These accounts refute claims that, despite eight years of surveillance and two occasions in which he had presented himself as someone actively seeking to engage in terrorist-related activities, Adebolajo was considered a “peripheral” figure, or a “non-risk”. This claim is made all the more suspect because the ruling elite has continuously cited terrorist activities in Somalia as a major threat, warranting British involvement in the impoverished African country.
It was only on May 7 that Prime Minister David Cameron hosted the second “UK-Somalia Conference” in London, where he warned that Somalia mattered “because when young minds are poisoned by radicalism and they go on to export terrorism and extremism, the security of the whole world is at stake.”
As regards Adebowale, Sky News revealed that he had recently been reported to police by a local shopkeeper for “grooming” a 12-year old schoolboy into jihadi politics. The shopkeeper, who spoke anonymously, said that he was told Adebowale “was being monitored by security services and his movements were being monitored.”
While the extent of MI5’s involvement with the Woolwich killers is concealed, public revulsion generated by the horrible death is being used to further attack civil liberties.
In what amounts to a form of collective punishment, this assault targets Muslims—although its broader aim is to undermine the democratic rights of all working people.
Home Secretary Theresa May has set out new measures to prevent the “radicalisation of British Muslims”, including “pre-emptive” censorship of the Internet, banning radical Muslim groups even if they disavow terrorism and violence, and a further crackdown on freedom of speech, especially on university campuses.
Exact details have yet to be announced, but indicating the open-ended character of the intended measures, May argued, “There is no doubt that people are able to watch things through the Internet which can lead to radicalisation.”
May made clear that she intends to revive the Communications Data Bill, dubbed the “snoopers’ charter” because of the wide-ranging powers it seeks to give to police, security services and the authorities to intercept all electronic communications.
The Conservative Party had been forced to retreat from the bill after protests by civil liberty organisations and sections of the Liberal Democrats, with which it is in coalition. But two former Labour home secretaries, Lord Reid and Alan Johnson, have backed the measures, while former Conservative Home Secretary Lord Howard called on Cameron and May to form a bloc with Labour to get the measures through Parliament.

Urban Camouflage: Dressing for Success – The Success of Going Unnoticed

by TJ Miller
SHTF Plan

Editor’s Note: TJ Miller is the author of the incredibly informative book Beyond Collapse: Surviving and Rebuilding Civilization from Scratch and is a long-time contributor of survival related articles and insights in our community areas (under the moniker of Odd Questioner). You can keep up with TJ’s musings at the Beyond Collapse Website.
What follows is yet another of his unique perspectives on survival. Should an emergency or disaster strike, there is a real possibility that you may be out and about in the city, or travelling, leaving you far from home with only your skills and ‘get home bag’ as your available tools. Being stuck in an unfamiliar urban environment during times of stability is challenging enough. Imagine what it would be like should law and order break down. In such a scenario, your survival will depend on your ability to camouflage yourself in urban environments, something TJ provides detailed instruction and strategy for in the article below.
Don’t Be Seen When You Cannot Hide – wait, what?
Picture this: You’re in a big city. Excrement has struck the fan, and it’s beginning to splatter. No, wait. Picture that you’re trying to walk to work in a big city after your car broke down, a city large enough to have a huge and ongoing problem with crime (muggings, pickpockets or even excessive panhandling.) Or, picture both, or pick one. Makes no diff, because this little system I’ve figured down will work either way.
When most folks think of wearing camouflage, they think of some guy wearing some green splotchy thing as he creeps about the woods. Add the word urban to that, and you think of some guy wearing some gray and black splotchy thing as he creeps around the city. Well, toss those thoughts out, because what we’re gonna do is teach you how to get about town without becoming a target, yet blend in perfectly. Perfect example? Let’s pick on San Francisco. Why? Because, well, I’m currently typing this in SanFran, and it has all the elements we need for our discussion, so…
How To Be An Environmentalist Without Eating Granola
That’s right – we’re gonna study our urban environment. It pays to know what you’re going to be walking around in, after all.
First up, what do we have here, people-wise? We have tourists, homeless folk by the metric ton, wealthy folks wearing incredibly expensive clothing, normal working schmoes wearing everything from dirty clothes (manual labor) to 3-piece suits (executives) to funky/off-beat crap (programmers and artists). If you’re a guy, the short skirts and revealing clothing on the ladies also rank way up there (especially in summer…) A wide variety of people about, no? Now – who do you notice first? The flashy dressers and executive types, right? Well, if you’re desperately trying to get out of a city mid-disaster, or just trying to walk through one at night without getting mugged, you probably don’t want to be one of them. Take notes of that kind of stuff, because we’re not done studying things just yet.
Next up, what do the streets look like? Are there a lot of narrow streets, or is there enough room to walk near the curb without getting too close to a building corner or blind alley? Where do the homeless folks curl up at night? Believe it or not, this is actually easy enough to tell if you know where to look (and, let’s face it, smell). Building facades with a lot of nooks and crannies that are perfect for blocking wind are also perfect hidey-holes and sleeping-perches. Same with small blind alleys and parking/loading-dock entrances. They also happen to be perfect places for some unkind soul to lurk in wait for an unsuspecting victim, so learn to recognize where those potential spots are before you stroll up to them. If you walk certain routes frequently, get to know those spots intimately so that you’ll know when to get your butt out towards the curb or –if necessary– across the street. Also, while you’re peeking around, do you notice that some streets are natural for places like trucks and delivery vehicles to drive down, where loading docks and service entrances normally face? Yeah – may want to avoid those initially, but if you’re dressed and behaved right, you can put them to good use if needed. Be sure to keep tabs on buildings which are unoccupied, dilapidated, or worse – squatters (and folks with ill intent) like to put such places to use if they think they can do so without getting caught. Vacant lots are also places to keep a good, hard watch for.
Now, go back and check these places and routes out at different times of day and night (the latter only if you’re certain that you can safely do so). Notice that after a certain hour, the only tourists out on the street are either drunk, sniffing around for prostitutes, or sniffing around for some illicit substance (and yes all three types are idiots, but notice them anyway). During midday, you’ll likely notice a lot of working stiffs out there on lunch break. In-between, and depending on where in town you are, you’ll notice a mixture of just about everyone. Be sure to take notes on all of these and elsewise. You’ll get to know when the 5am deliveries start rolling in to the stores. You’ll get to know when the janitors finally call it a night. You’ll get to know all of this and more. Again, start taking notes, eh?
One other thing to note – obviously if you’re visiting on business, or vacation, you won’t have (or want to waste) time to do all this homework beforehand. Good news is, you don’t have to do it while you’re there. If there is another big city nearby you can take a few exploratory trips to (or you live in one), you can at least get a feel as to what to look out for, and catch up quickly.
Dressing For Success – The Success Of Going Unnoticed
Now – remember all that talk about clothing earlier? Well, let’s revisit that.
When you go to packing for a trip (or want to flesh out your get-home bag for those commutes downtown), that would be a very good time to look into what you intend to wear while you’re there. I have a few ideas you may want need to consider…

1. Muted colors are your best friends. Avoid stuff that burns the retinas, and stick with grays, blacks, faded colors, or the like.
2. Get comfy – unless there is something dressy that you absolutely have to wear (like at some kind of ceremony or sales presentation), stick to well-worn and comfy clothing. If you have to wear a suit okay, but stick with clothing that you would wear if you were mowing the yard, or working on your car. Keep it clean and serviceable, but make sure it’s not new or crisp. The nearest thrift store is a goldmine of clothes like this – I strongly suggest availing yourself of one.
3. Logos and controversial sayings are bad, so don’t wear any. This goes for your jackets, shoes and outerwear too. Aside from the whole gang-sign thing (which can be an issue), a logo often betrays a lot more about you than you would like, and a logo unfamiliar to the area will advertise that you’re not from around here. If you otherwise think you must, stick with neutral and non-specific stuff, preferably faded.
4. Speaking of shoes, always include a pair of worn, comfy but dirty shoes or boots. Something that you can (literally) walk for miles in. Be sure that you can walk for miles in them, because you just may have to, you know? By the way – this means that unless you’re going to be on a beach, open-toed shoes, sandals, or flip-flops are also out.
5. Ladies? I know you like to look sexy (and Lord knows I like the sight of sexy women!) but… skip the revealing and “cute” crap if you can. Stick with “sensible” wherever possible. Let’s talk about why for a moment: The idea in a potentially dangerous situation is to be ignored, not to wear clothing that screams “rape me!” to the wrong people. It doesn’t matter how big and strong your spouse/boyfriend/whatever is; it only takes seconds to slit his throat from behind, leaving you rather defenseless. Suffice it to say that revealing clothing in a bad place (and/or bad time) puts you and your man-friend in potential mortal danger, so, well… don’t.

Next up, let’s talk about your grooming habits.

1. leave the hair spray at home, or keep it to a minimum. Your hair will thank you, and fly-away hairs leave you slightly unkempt, increasing your odds of being ignored, or being thought of as not a worthy target.
2. Gents- thinking about shaving? Maybe every other day, or perhaps get a beard going. Again, the unkempt thing.
3. Certainly keep your teeth brushed and suchlike, but avoid strong-smelling mouthwashes, as they tend to impede your sense of smell of up to an hour or two after brushing.
4. Don’t do cologne and perfumes. It makes no sense to look like an ordinary impoverished schmuck if you smell like you just stepped out of a ritzy perfume shop from half a block away.
5. Same with bright or stand-outish makeup, ladies. Keep it muted and light. Let your natural beauty shine through instead, so you can avoid standing out or looking like a wealthy target.
6. Yes, shower regularly while you’re traveling… duh. It’s the best way to keep clean and avoid a lot of germs. However, avoid strong-smelling armpit deodorants and such. Same reason as #4, eh?

How To (Properly) Walk The Streets
This part is harder than it looks, but if you’ve been following the advice in the book, you’ll find it much easier to do. Here’s a few good, hard rules of etiquette when you’re walking the city streets. There’s a lot of them, so take your time…

• Unless a cop is giving you an order, never ever answer a voice spoken in your direction, even if you know it’s you being spoken to. From panhandlers to criminals and con-men, all they need is for you to grant them a moment’s attention, then they have you. Ignoring the voice lets you keep walking. Be sure to keep an eye in the speaker’s general direction just in case, but 99 times out of 100 during the day you’ll be able to keep walking without incident. Night carries a different ruleset, but only insofar as you need to start thinking about weapons and escape if you hear that call and it’s not coming from a panhandler. Note that in a pure SHTF situation, if a cop is giving you an order, you may want to start thinking immediately about escape as well, but use your judgment.
• If you bump into someone gently, just keep walking, muttering an “excuse me” as you pass.
• If you bump into someone hard or anyone bumps into you at all, immediately (but discreetly!) put a hand over your wallet, grip your purse tight against you, and insure that any luggage (e.g. backpack) you’re carrying is still secure (as you’re still walking!). Inspect of any suddenly opened zippers on that backpack.
• Keep your wallet in your front pants pocket if possible, otherwise in a jacket or folded over your pants front. You’ll know immediately if someone is reaching for your chest or your crotch long before you’ll notice someone reaching for your back pocket.
• Ladies – you probably already know about safely carrying a purse, but as a reminder? In the city, it’s not a purse, it’s a football, and you’re the linebacker. Short straps are better than long, and thick better than thin.
• Backpacks? Wear both straps, like it was built for. use a twist-tie (same color as the backpack material) to keep the zippers tightly closed while walking through dangerous areas – that way you’ll know if someone is trying to get into it from behind while you walk. Wearing the backpack on fully also prevents someone from snatching the thing off your shoulder. As a bonus, it’s more comfortable over long distances. If you insist on wearing it over one shoulder (because everyone else is), keep a very tight grasp on the strap, and use you’re non-dominant hand/shoulder to hold it – this frees your dominant hand to fight back (grab, punch, etc) if someone tries to grab it.
• Always keep a look out ahead of you, on the sides, and occasionally behind you. Increase those looks back if the situation turns to crap.
• Walk confidently, always. A confident walk means you’re not a timid target.
• Never, ever, ever look lost. Go over your route beforehand – in the age of maps-on-a-phone, you have no excuse anymore, and paper maps are still very plentiful.
• If you do think you’re lost? Duck into a nearby store if one is open, and only then get out your phone or map, checking it while inside. This camouflages the idea that you’re lost, and helps you get your bearings in a relatively safe place. If nothing is open, find a safe indoor place to check (bodega, hotel, gas station, whatever) – be sure to buy something if it’s a small shop, so you don’t arose the suspicion and/or ire of the clerk.
• Don’t buy anything with a bill larger than a $20, and never keep cash in your wallet (keep the cash in a front pocket or something.)
• Standing around (let alone sitting) is a really bad idea. If you have to rest, do it in a shop, store, or restaurant.

…there’s lots more, but this should be a good start.
So Far So Good
So far, I’ve stuck to these rules, and they’ve worked out very well – I’m scruffy-looking enough to be mistaken for a local homeless guy (thus ignored) by tourists and petty thieves, but not enough so as to fool the local constabulary (The cops can see the fact that I bathe daily and am well-nourished, don’t look down-and-out attitude-wise, and don’t hang around in any one spot). With my worn clothes, old shoes, and old, dirty (but solid) dark and nondescript backpack, there’s no hint as to what I’m actually carrying – let alone what I do for a living (nearly half of the people I interact with have the letter “C” in their titles). I can actually wander around a lot of places that a tourist shouldn’t go, and have so far been mistaken for a local by most of the locals working in the shops (well, until I open my mouth and let the Ozarker drawl fly forth, but that’s a different story. )

(Pictured: Your humble author, out where he shouldn’t be.)

Note in that photo above, your author is sporting the latest in OPSEC fashion. We begin with the used gray hoodie-wear (the hood comes up in cold or rainy weather, or when I really don’t want to be noticed). We continue with a faded old black t-shirt and faded, ratty-cuffed jeans (note that you do not see the layered shirts underneath for warmth, or the – well, I’ll stop there). Completing the ensemble is a pair of dirty old shoes that are still in perfect working order, and are rubber-soled for long-distance walking comfort on concrete (and more importantly for walking silently if need be). The beard and 5 o’clock shadow complete the air of ‘ignore-me-I’m just part of the furniture here’, and the tousled wind-styled hair shouts both sex appeal and (more importantly) non-wealth. Photo was graciously taken by a kindly hotel concierge who was at first rather amazed at what he thought to be some panhandler wanting his picture taken with a pricey smartphone. After I unlocked the phone, he relaxed a bit and obliged me. Kinda cool how that works out, no?

May 29, 2013

TJ Miller is the author of the incredibly informative book Beyond Collapse: Surviving and Rebuilding Civilization from Scratch and is a long-time contributor of survival related articles and insights in our community areas (under the moniker of Odd Questioner). You can read an excerpt from the book here and you can follow with TJ’s musings at the Beyond Collapse Website.

Copyright © 2013 TJ Miller

Whistleblower Exclusive: Benghazi cover-up is the proxy battle with the war with Iran

28 May 2013 http://www.marinkapeschmann.com/2013/05/28/whistleblower-exclusive-the-benghazi-cover-up-is-the-proxy-battle-with-the-war-with-iran/

Appearing in CFP.
The immediate concern for the Obama administration after the attack in Benghazi was to cover up the connection with Iran and Syria to Ansar al Sharia and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) according to my Benghazi whistleblower source. The attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, was not a terrorist attack; it was a nation-state attack, an escalation of war, and an opening of a new front in the tit for tat conflict with Iran and by extension their proxy partner Russia that is now being fought in Syria.
For anyone who thinks Americans will be told that Benghazi was a nation-state attack by ex-CIA chief David Petraeus in the near future they are in for a disappointment. He is part of the problem and has been for years. He sold his soul for shiny medals and financial perks and circuses long ago—and as his record shows, he will roll over again and again. Recall how Petraeus fell into lock-step rank-and-file with President Obama and Hillary Clinton when he joined them in falsely misleading America before the 2012 elections by blaming an “out-of-control demonstration prompted by a Youtube video” for the Benghazi attack to the House Intelligence Committee three days after the attack. He’s as dirty as they are.
In addition, tell me please, how can a man who sends troops to war, on multiple deployments, with duffle bags full of medications, under suicidal, unwinnable polices like catch and release and COIN, while watching the military suicide numbers soar (22 a day or one every 65 minutes) have a conscience or any sense of right and wrong? To be fair that question includes the morally bankrupt Congress, particularly the long serving members who have allowed these policies that are destroying America’s military to continue unabated for years through the Bush and Obama administrations. As I previously reported, Petraeus is getting off easy for simply apologizing about sex. Take the scales off your eyes, and stop idolizing this gravely flawed, evil man with blood on his hands—the “celebrated General,” as some media types call him. By their fruits you shall know them. Indeed, we know David Petraeus and his fruits are rotten to the core—unless Petraeus finds his soul, a conscience, and makes a deal in exchange for criminal leniency, he will keep toeing the line.
Moreover, freshman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx) is correct. You can’t trust the Republicans either. As I reported, the Republican Committee in their Benghazi Interim report already rolled over when they shockingly confirmed the administration’s dishonest story that no one was denied help during the Benghazi attack. As their report states: “No U.S. government element refused or denied requests for emergency assistance during the crisis (page 15),” which as previously reported was a lie and here’s why. The Republicans have yet to explain why they were wrong when they backed up the Obama-Clinton regime’s latest falsehood, and thus far have refused to answer my queries. Everyone makes mistakes but at least have the decency to admit it and explain what happened.
Therefore it is up to us, you and I, and all the brave whistleblowers and journalists, who at great risk must reveal the truth of Benghazi. “What difference does it make?” declared Hillary Clinton during the Foreign Relations Committee hearings—a big one because the truth of Benghazi affects not only America’s future but the entire world.
Here we go.
Let’s break it down. Remember the pictures of the three suspects that the FBI released in relation to the Benghazi attack on May 1? One of my sources with direct information on Benghazi informed me that of those three terrorists, the one on the right is a Yemeni national who was part of the jihadist group Ansar al Sharia. Ansar Al Sharia, according to Saudi intelligence, is backed, funded and directed by Iran. They are enemies of the Saudis and are trained by Iran’s Quods forces.
Photo credit FBI
Normally, if the FBI is trying to track down bad guys who are possibly involved in something like a terrorist attack that killed Americans, the FBI offers some sort of reward for any information that will lead to their arrest. Notice how that did not happen with the men in Benghazi? Where’s the incentive for anyone to cooperate? As my source explained, “The game was given away when they gave that picture out. They did the same thing with the Boston Marathon bombers—played dumb, even though we now know they knew who these guys were all along. They are doing the same thing with the Benghazi guys. Saudi intelligence and Western intelligence agencies are very aware of who they are.”
It was these Iranian-backed men in the FBI photos, Ansar al Sharia, who went to Benghazi to build up a militia and radicalized some locals. As my source explained, “when you have an Iranian funded group sent into Benghazi to radicalize the locals that means you are in a proxy battle with the war in Iran.” Why? That’s a two part answer.
First do you think Iran was happy when seven Iranian Red Crescent workers were kidnapped by gunmen in Benghazi on July 31, 2012? Recall how these Red Crescent workers (equivalent to the Red Cross) were still held captive during the Benghazi attack, were released less than a month after, and flown out of the Benghazi Benina International Airport. These weren’t your typical aid workers handing out food and supplies. According to my source; they were taken off the streets because they were probing the gunrunning operation into Syria when someone picked them up.
Next it’s been well documented that the Saudis have been heavily involved in everything in Benghazi and Libya in general, the Muslim Brotherhood in the region, as well as supplying arms to the rebels in Syria to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad—with US assistance despite the line drawn by Russia.
Who else was in Benghazi? A faction of AQIM Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb backed by Syria. Syria, like Iran was in Benghazi. What was going on in Syria? There was gunrunning and arms smuggling from Libya through Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan into Syria as well as bringing in fighters to engage in a war with Syrian President Assad—the backdoor to Iran.
Meanwhile shortly after the Benghazi attacks reports of secret meetings with Obama’s chief advisor, Valerie Jarrett, with representatives of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Qatar regarding Iran’s nuclear weapons program that had been going on before the Benghazi attack began to widely surface. The Obama administration wanted to announce a breakthrough agreement in Iran’s nuclear standoff— a diplomatic victory to ensure his reelection. While the Obama administration denied these reports, my source confirmed they are true. “The Iranians played them.”
Because the attack in Benghazi was a nation-state attack, with the 2012 elections coming up the Obama-Clinton regime did not want American voters to know that thanks to their under-handed policies of gunrunning into Syria to overthrow Assad with the Saudis that America was in a proxy war with Iran, and by extension their proxy partner Russia. Do you think American voters would have re-elected President Obama had they known that America is about to be pulled into another major conflict?
Nine months later, the administration still doesn’t want the public to know the truth about Benghazi which is why, as the Associated Press reported last week, despite the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) identifying five men who might be responsible for the attack no arrests have been made. “The men remain at large while the FBI gathers evidence”—the same FBI that the Obama-Clinton regime denied access to Benghazi for almost a month after the attack— the perfect way to thwart evidence collection and skew official conclusions as previously reported and documented here.
This is also why President Obama, last week during his speech at Ft. McNair’s National Defense University in Washington, called the attack in Benghazi a “localized” threat. Obviously he doesn’t want you to see the bigger picture that is literally unfolding in the Middle East before your eyes as you read this that his administration is responsible for, the so-called Arab Spring.
What is happening is America is the final stages of the run up to the next major military conflict coming up in the Middle East. But unlike Iraq and Afghanistan or the smaller operations in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, Syria won’t implode it will explode and spread throughout the region in an epic bloody, deadly Sunni-Shiite conflict. Christians, people of all faiths, non-believers will be persecuted if not outright slaughtered. Think Islamic Caliphate time.
The security and existence of Israel will also be in jeopardy. As Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz recently warned; Israel must prepare for a three-front war, presumably having to defend themselves from Syria, Lebanon, and Iran. Already sectarian violence is flaring up in Lebanon and Syria. On top of Iran’s nuclear program, Israel will have to defend herself from Syria’s massive weapons arsenal that includes “advanced anti-aircraft missiles, anti-ship missiles and surface- to-air missiles. Syria also has large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, advanced artillery as well as the other components of a large conventional military force,” reports Caroline Glick. In addition Israel could also become the target of the weapons that went missing from Libya and Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s vast weapons arsenal that the Obama-Clinton funded rebels looted from Gaddafi’s warehouses and includes the most advanced Russian surface-to air missiles, SA-24s that are easily launched from a person’s shoulder or a truck bed that can take down low-flying military and commercial aircraft.
I repeat massive bloodbath ahead, genocide and ethnic cleansing draws near if Obama’s underhanded policies are not stopped. As Time Magazine reported from Libya this magnified nightmare awaits the troops:

“Stockpiles of old Soviet artillery shells and land mines gave Iraqis enough car bombs, roadside bombs and suicide vests to run an eight-year insurgency that has killed thousands of Americans and many tens of thousands of Iraqis. “If you just take one of these, you have a car bomb,” [Tom Bouckaert of Human Right’s Watch during an interview in Libya] says, pointing to a box containing 130-mm antitank shells. There are hundreds more stacked in the same room.
A nearby sandy lot holds thousands more antipersonnel and antitank mines, with trip-wire triggers to rig booby traps already available nearby. Hundreds of such stockpiles have been located across Libya. Human Rights Watch found some 60 weapons warehouses in the eastern city of Ajdabiyah alone, all of them looted. “The storage facilities we found in Iraq were minuscule compared to what we’re finding here,” says Bouckaert (emphasis mine).”

One can’t help but ask what did the Obama-Clinton regime think would happen when they funded al Qaeda rebels to topple Gaddafi? Either they are dangerously stupid or this is what they wanted to happen considering they have been gearing up for the next stop Syria for well over a year now. As previously reported, the State Department will not provide an inventory or location of the weapons recovered in Libya as part of the MANPAD weapons recovery program that Hillary Clinton funded using $40 million tax dollars.
Are you awake yet? Is it becoming clear now? I repeat. According to my source, Benghazi was a nation-state attack—not simply a terrorist attack. There has been a U.S. proxy war with Iran since Benghazi. It is heating up by the day.
Look, events are confirming my source’s accuracy. Iranian soldiers and Hezbollah are fighting for Assad in Syria—even the State department had to recently, finally admit this.
Ding! Ding! Russian soldiers and the Syrian Army are fighting the Syrian rebels.
Cannibalism alert! A Syrian rebel, Al Hamad, a Sunni, with a sectarian hatred of Alawite Muslims (that would include Shiites and all other “infidels”), cuts out the heart and lung of a Syrian soldier and eats it.
Now do you understand why Russian President Vladimir Putin recently kept Secretary of State John Kerry waiting for three hours? You know the world is upside down when Putin rightfully distrusts the truth-challenged Kerry who already betrayed his own country and the troops during Vietnam. Moreover, Putin has been warning for over a year the “catastrophic” consequences that would befall if the West and Arab nations persist with their military intervention in Syria which will lead to war with Iran. Obviously, Putin does not want the Muslim Brotherhood on his doorstep either. Would you? (Incidentally, the FBI denied my Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on John Kerry prior to his Secretary of State confirmation. As previously reported, Kerry participated in the Benghazi cover-up as well.)
Still not awake or retreating into denial? Think about this. Could the Saudis, without the U.S./NATO intervention, have overthrown Assad by arming the Syrian rebels alone to install the Muslim Brotherhood and expand their reach? No, if the Saudi’s could have accomplished that, Assad would have been gone months if not over a year ago. The Saudis need U.S./NATO intervention. Do not be deceived. As reported here, the same applied for Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Col. Muammar Gaddafi in Libya—two leaders who had banned the Muslim Brotherhood in their countries. Are you awake yet?
Remember when the Benghazi nation-state attack that killed four Americans happened, America was in the final weeks of the 2012 presidential election cycle. A proxy war with Iran could not be known to the public. It was unacceptable for Americans to know that at any time troops could be sent into Syria which will explode into Iran. This is the reason why the Obama-Clinton regime pulled out this obscure Youtube video as the chief culprit to blame for the attack in Benghazi— a YouTube video that doesn’t appear anywhere in their infamous “Talking points” that were repeatedly edited to deceive Americans. The Youtube video was intended to distract the public’s attention to what is really going on in the Middle East. It worked. Indeed. Under a heavy fog of deception Obama was reelected.
Hillary Clinton and the cover-up
If you don’t address the Iranian and Syrian connection to the nation-state attack in Benghazi, you can’t get to the Clintons. Hillary’s starring role is definitely in the Benghazi cover-up because nine months later it still has not been “officially” confirmed whether Ambassador Christopher Stevens was wearing his State Department hat or his CIA hat at the time when he was murdered. What is undeniable is Hillary was one of the first top administration officials to publicly falsely blame the Youtube video. She, with President Obama, appeared in a paid advertisement costing $70,000 to disavow the Youtube video that aired in Pakistan. She lied to Tyrone Woods’ father face about the death of his son. Her State Department self-investigation, the Advisory Review Board (ARB), blamed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and a lack of funding for the Benghazi attack to conceal the truth. Hillary’s friends, Admiral Mike Mullen and Tom Pickering, who headed the ARB, as reported in the fix was in, didn’t bother to interview the Turkish Counsel General who Ambassador Stevens last saw before he was killed—neither have the Republicans thus far. Pickering finally admitted on NBC’s Meet the Press what I and others, like Doug Hagmann, have been reporting for months that the ARB was a rigged travesty. As Pickering put it, “The Accountability Review Board was there to look at the question of security. We did not examine talking points after the fact. It was not in our remit (emphasis mine).” Indeed. A lot was not in Pickering’s remit.
The next time someone, be it in the media, President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry or members of Congress, like the insufferable Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.S.), say the U.S. needs to overthrow Syrian President Assad for humanitarian purposes, ask them what they think will happen next. Are they really so stupid to actually believe that freedom, democracy, unicorns, peace and lollipops will take over Syria after Assad is removed or will another vacuum be created for the Muslim Brotherhood to fill? A vacuum that will be filled by massive bloodshed, ethnic cleansing, genocide that could set the entire region on fire with American and NATO troops being dragged in to serve the interests of someone else who are using America’s military might to create the United States of Islam. You already can see it happening in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Wake up America. Wake up the useful idiots now. The Obama administration has picked a fight with Iran and Russia in Syria which could trigger World War III. It intensified with the Obama-Clinton regime’s gunrunning out of Libya into Syria. As the WSJ reported, Hillary’s State Department provided the “diplomatic cover” in Benghazi. Do not be deceived. Benghazi was a nation-state attack.
By their fruits you shall know them.
You have been warned.
Thanks to Rare for the link.
Thanks to Freedom Outpost for link.
Thanks to Western Center for Journalism for link.

Related posts:

1. Benghazi Exclusive: State Department Denies Libya Weapons Buyback Program Exists
2. Benghazi Exclusive: Libyans Couldn’t Protect Americans they didn’t know were in Libya
3. Exclusive: Benghazi insider speaks out and backs up Fox News Whistleblower
4. Obama and Hillary’s Benghazi aftermath: Libya on the verge of implosion
5. The Fix is in Part IV: Benghazi Cover-up: The Hand Shake … Update Kerry FBI FOIA request denied

The Truth Comes Out: Former IRS Director Admits Taxes Are Voluntary

Tuesday, May 28, 2013 18:15

(Before It's News)

Steve Miller, former Director of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), admitted at a Congressional hearing that the taxes collected by the IRS are not mandatory – but voluntary.
When questioned at the House Ways and Means Committee (WMC) hearing last week, Miller told House Representative Devin Nunes that “America’s tax system is ‘voluntary’”. When Nunes remarked for clarification that the US tax code is a “voluntary system”, Miller said, “Agreed.”
House Representative Xavier Becerra commented that the ruse of the IRS is kept as a public confidence in the system scheme to keep Americans paying money to the IRS.
Miller confirmed this is so.
The shuffle at the IRS has landed Danny Werfel as the new acting director.
As his first message to those employed at the IRS, Werfel said that amid the mistrust of the public brewing against the organization, it is the mission of all employees to “help America’s taxpayers understand and meet their tax responsibilities.”
Werfel invoked the tragedy at Oklahoma to coerce his underlings into believing that they are doing a great work. He said: “. . . as the nation comes together to support the victims of the devastating tornados in Oklahoma, we should all feel a sense of pride that IRS is actively supporting the recovery effort and doing our part to help.”
President Obama anointed Werfel as a replacement for Miller who was asked to resign just a month before his term as acting director of the IRS was complete.
Werfel has a history working for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and an analyst for the Department of Justice (DoJ). Obama describes Werfel as having “proven an effective leader who serves with professionalism, integrity and skill.”
Senator Orin Hatch commented on Obama’s choice of putting a businessman in place at the IRS: “If I was the president I would find the very best businessman I possibly could who’d be willing to take it over and have the authority to be able to straighten the mess out. I don’t know whether Werfel has that kind of dimension or not, but I hope he does.”
Lois Lerner, director of the Tax-Exempt division at the IRS during the targeting of Patriot groupsrefused to speak to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, claiming her right of the 5th Amendment.

William Taylor III, attorney for Lerner, requested in a letter that preceded her arrival, asking the OGRC that she be allowed to refrain from appearing before the committee. Taylor claimed that be forcing Lerner, it “would have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.”            

The OGRC wanted Lerner to comment as to why she provided incomplete data to the DoJ during their investigation of the discriminatory targeting of Patriot groups; asserting that she was either fully or partially to blame for the unlawful activity.
This week, when Lerner did show up at the hearing before the OGRC, she emphatically claimed: “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

House Representative Trey Gowdy told the committee that since Lerner made a statement at the hearing, “she just waived her Fifth Amendment right to privilege. You don’t get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross examination. That’s not the way it works. She waived her Fifth Amendment privilege by issuing an open statement. She ought to stand here and answer our questions.”
According to sources , the employees that were directed to target Patriot groups had different upper management to answer to; therefore muddying up the chain of command and further convoluting how to calculate who is actually responsible for disseminating the directive.
With these new assertions, the original story of rouge employees targeting Patriot groups without being told to do so is making less and less sense.
Since it is policy that if a tax-exempt application is not processed within 270 days it causes an internal “red flag” that draws attention and explanation, these applications should have been dealt with within that time frame automatically.
In Cincinnati, Ohio, the directive to target Patriot groups has been linked back to Cindy Thomas, program manager of the Tax Exempt division of the Cincinnati IRS.
Further refusals of cooperation have manifest with the IRS refusing to produce documents requested by MWC chairman Dave Camp and Sander Levin. Earlier this month Camp and Levinwrote to the IRS requesting records of all communications between the IRS and the US Treasury so assist in understanding the discrimination of Patriot groups.
The scandal is unraveling onto itself which is why there is talk that a special prosecutor will be employed to independently review the evidence and piece together the actual timeline of what happened and identify who was involved and at what level.

The Student Loan Delinquency Rate In The United States Has Hit A Brand New Record High

By Michael, on May 29th, 2013

 

37 million Americans currently have outstanding student loans, and the delinquency rate on those student loans has now reached a level never seen before.  According to a new report that was just released by the U.S. Department of Education, 11 percent of all student loans are at least 90 days delinquent.  That is a brand new record high, and it is almost double the rate of a decade ago.  Total student loan debt exceeds a trillion dollars, and it is now the second largest category of consumer debt after home mortgages.  The student loan debt bubble has been growing particularly rapidly in recent years.  According to the Federal Reserve, the total amount of student loan debt has risen by 275 percent since 2003.  That is a staggering figure.  Millions upon millions of young college graduates are entering the "real world" only to discover that they are already financially crippled for decades to come by oppressive student loan debt burdens.  Large numbers of young people are even putting off buying homes or getting married simply because of student loan debt.
So why is this happening?  Well, a big part of the problem is that the cost of college tuition has gotten wildly out of control.  Since 1978, the cost of college tuition has risen even more rapidly then the cost of medical care has.  Tuition costs at public universities have risen by 27 percent over the past five years, and there appears to be no end in sight.
We keep encouraging our young people to take out all of the loans that are necessary to pay for college, because a college education is supposedly the "key" to their futures.
But is that really the case?
Sadly, the reality of the matter is that millions of young Americans are graduating from college only to discover that the jobs that they were promised simply do not exist.
In fact, at this point about half of all college graduates are working jobs that do not even require a college degree.
This is leading to mass disillusionment with the system.  One survey found that 70% of all college graduates wish that they had spent more time preparing for the “real world” while they were still in college.
And because so many of them cannot get decent jobs, more college graduates then ever are finding that they cannot pay back the huge student loans that they were encouraged to sign up for.  The following is from a recent Bloomberg article.

Eleven percent of student loans were seriously delinquent -- at least 90 days past due -- in the third quarter of 2012, compared with 6 percent in the first quarter of 2003, according to the report by the U.S. Education Department.  Almost 30 percent of 20- to 24-year-olds aren’t employed or in school, the study found.

Everyone agrees that we are now dealing with an unprecedented student loan debt bubble, but none of our leaders seem to have any solutions.
The two charts posted below come from a recent Zero Hedge article, and they are very illuminating.  The first chart shows how the amount of student loan debt owned by the federal government has absolutely exploded in recent years, and the second chart shows how the percentage of student loan debt that is at least 90 days delinquent has risen to a brand new record high...

How is the economy ever going to recover if an increasingly large percentage of our young college graduates are financially crippled by student loan debt?
And things are about to get even worse.
If Congress takes no action, the interest rate on federal student loans is going to double to 6.8 percent on July 1st.  That rate increase would affect more than 7 million students.
And debt burdens just continue to increase in size.  In fact, according to one recent study, "70 per cent of the class of 2013 is graduating with college-related debt – averaging $35,200 – including federal, state and private loans, as well as debt owed to family and accumulated through credit cards."
This is one reason why there is so much poverty among young adults in America today.  As I mentioned in a previous article, families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.  For much more on the student loan debt bubble and how it is crippling an entire generation of Americans, please see my recent article entitled "29 Shocking Facts That Prove That College Education In America Is A Giant Money Making Scam".
And of course delinquency rates remain very high on other forms of debt as well.  For example, delinquency rates on home mortgages have typically been around 2 to 3 percent historically.  But as you can see from the chart below, the delinquency rate on single-family residential mortgages is currently close to 10 percent...

So are we really having an "economic recovery"?
Of course not.
Things are good for those that have lots of money in the stock market (for now), but for the vast majority of Americans things continue to get worse.
And we continue to forget the lessons that we should have learned from the financial crisis of 2008.  Right now, we are seeing a resurgence of cash out financing.  But this time, people are leveraging their inflated stock portfolios instead of their home equity.  The following is from a  CNN report...

The recent run-up in the market, financial advisers say, has led to a resurgence of the type of loan not seen since the end of the housing boom -- cash out financing. But this time, though, people aren't tapping their inflated house for money. These days stock portfolios appear to be the well of choice.
Financial planners say in recent months clients have taken out so-called margin loans to buy real estate, fund small business acquisitions, or to provide gap financing before a traditional loan could be secured from a bank.
"No one wants to be out of the market for 90 days," says Mark Brown, a financial planner for Brown Tedstron in Denver. "People just don't want to sell right now."

We are a nation that is absolutely addicted to debt.  We know that it is wrong, but we just can't help ourselves.
We are like the 900 pound man that recently died.  He knew that he was eating himself to death, but he just couldn't stop.
In the end, we are going to pay a great price for our gluttony.  Everyone in the world can see that we are killing the greatest economy that ever existed, but we simply do not have the self-discipline to do anything about it.

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hehe come on folks who doesn't want a 24/7 'surveillance'  device in your living room ,bedroom ,game room ,bath room,parlor, sun room  & ???????????????  room .   Ah Oh   yea 'it'   ONLY  comes "ON"   when you say ...".xbox on "  LMMFAO  (that's~  laughing my mother fucking ass off )   how do I know that's true .....cuz billy boy said he only wants 2 do gods work    ....can i's get an  ...amen ,amen! yea .YEA amen.   good god !                      hehe wonder Y his 'god' NEVER tells 'him' to slash his prices & maybe since  'god' bee~lessed  him wit sooooooooooo much $$$  ....give it away fer free ?    instead of 'buyin'   shares in MON~ass~satan ~to   Oops i mean he's doing gods work ! ....i just wonder which god ?   me thinks it's the 1 wit an "S"  on the back of  his  uni   :O             how do i know ? ....well  i did stay  at an  Holiday  Inn Express last night  :o              

Reports Of Xbox One's Handling Of Used Games Mobilizes Playstation Fans

from the opportunity-is-knocking dept

We recently discussed the somewhat mishandled release announcement for Microsoft's new gaming machine, the Xbox One. While a big part of the problem was a lack of firm answers to gamers' questions, it's clear that something is going to change in how the new Xbox handles used games. The rumors vary, but we know that the used games market that has existed for the past several decades is going to be altered to come under stricter control of Microsoft directly. Reception of this news has been cold, but it isn't just Xbox fans reacting.

No, the ultimate effect of Microsoft's actions may end up being a highly mobilized Playstation fandom and a massive opportunity for Sony if they want to grab it. You see, famousmortimer of the popular gaming message board, NeoGAF, decided to bring the wants of the customer to Sony's attention through a simple Twitter hashtag, #PS4NoDRM.

I can say, for sure, that the past week's PR nightmare for MS has not been lost on Sony and they, in fact, do have a used game 'solution' working and have been going back and forth for months on whether to use it. This past week is pushing them strongly into "Yeah, let's not use that."

He then suggests that readers politely tweet several high-ranking Sony executives, indicating that they want a free and open used game market, and including the aforementioned hashtag. While he later went on to say that he didn't expect any of this to become much of a movement, that's exactly what it became. Not only did something like 14,000 tweets with the hashtag go out across Twitter, it has become big enough that even the mainstream press is reporting on it.

The campaign has reached dozens of news sites including NBC News. Even now, people are tweeting messages with the hashtag in hopes of getting Sony's attention.

"It's much larger than I ever imagined," Dodd told me this afternoon. "Honestly thought the post would go about 2 pages." As of right now, the NeoGAF thread has 105 pages and 467,690 pageviews.

Several Sony executives have replied with encouraging tweets, suggesting that, at the very least, they're seriously listening. And listen they should, because that isn't just the sound of gamers typing on their keyboards ringing over the Twitterverse. It's opportunity. Real opportunity.

Imagine what happens if Sony issues an official response to this campaign. Imagine further that this response acknowledges the fans, thanks them for all of their interest, and firmly states that, on its system, the used game market will go on unhindered. Let's say that a company that has an unfortunate reputation on consumer rights flips the script completely in the gaming arena and positions itself as the consumer's choice compared to Microsoft. What would the market's reaction be? It would be huge.

Finally, if you believe that used games don't harm game sales, but rather spur them along by creating added value, then this should represent the easiest no-lose choice in the gaming business's history. Now let's see if Sony hears opportunity knocking through those corporate walls.

The Aftermath Of Napster: Letting Incumbents Veto Innovation Slows Down Innovation Drastically

from the hard-to-count-what-we've-lost dept

Last fall, law professor Michael Carrier came out with a really wonderful paper, called Copyright and Innovation: The Untold Story. He interviewed dozens of people involved in the internet world and the music world, to look at what the impact was of the legal case against Napster, leading to the shutdown of the original service (the name and a few related assets were later sold off to another company). The stories (again, coming from a variety of different perspectives) helps fill in a key part of the story that many of us have heard, but which has never really been written about: what an astounding chill that episode cast over the innovation space when it came to music. Entrepreneurs and investors realized that they, too, were likely to get sued, and focused their efforts elsewhere. The record labels, on the other hand, got the wrong idea, and became totally convinced that a legal strategy was the way to stem the tide of innovation.

The Wisconsin Law Review, which published Carrier's paper, asked a few people to write responses to Carrier's paper, and they recently published the different responses, including one from a lawyer at the RIAA, one from another law professor... and one from me. This post will be about my paper -- and I'll talk about the other papers in a later post. My piece is entitled When You Let Incumbents Veto Innovation, You Get Less Innovation. It builds on Carrier's piece, to note that the stories he heard fit quite well with a number of other stories that we've seen over the past fifteen years, and the way in which the industry has repeatedly fought innovation via lawsuits.

You can read the whole paper at the link above (or, if you prefer there's a pdf version). I talk about the nature of innovation -- and how it involves an awful lot of trial and error to get it right. The more trials, the faster what works becomes clear, and the faster improvement you get. But the industry's early success against Napster made that nearly impossible, and massively slowed down innovation in the sector. Yes, a few players kept trying, but it developed much more slowly than other internet-related industries. And you can see why directly in the Carrier paper, where entrepreneurs point out that it's just not worth doing something in the music space, because if you want to actually do what the technology enables, the kinds of things that are cool and useful and which consumers would really like... you'll get sued.

Take that away and you get less trial and error, and slower innovation (and less interesting innovation). Look where we are today, fifteen years later. We've basically reinvented radio and put it online. We're barely getting past that stage. You can read the whole paper for more on that, but I did want to highlight one key section in the paper: which is how the content industry always completely downplays the importance of the technology and services. Any time there's a successful new service -- whether it's iTunes or Netflix or Spotify or Pandora or YouTube -- you'll find stories about the incumbents trying to denigrate and mock it, or even outright kill it. They talk about how those services are "nothing without our content," and they get angry if any of those services make any money.

This is ridiculous. Yes, the content is important, but if it was just the content, then those services never would have become successful in the first place. The reason those services are successful was because they actually innovated and provided convenience, access, ease of use and other nice features that were missing before. Too many copyright maximalists simply can't bring themselves to admit that you need both the content and the services working together. When you trash those services, and attack them or try to saddle them with ridiculously high fees, you break down what works, and you actually drive more people to infringing alternatives. Here's a snippet from my discussion on this point (with footnotes removed):

Throughout all of this, a unique pattern emerged. The labels would always massively overvalue their own content, while simultaneously undervaluing the various innovative services. Phrases along the lines, “without our music, they’d be nothing” were heard frequently in arguing why it was all about the content. The truth, however, is that it was the combination of the two that were important. Yes, the services needed the music to work, but so too did the labels need these new services to adapt to a changing marketplace. This should have been obvious from the fact that people would flock to these new services, yet failed to show up to the record labels’ own attempts to innovate or provide something new. However, as soon as any service showed any kind of promise, even if “licensed,” the labels would seek to kill the golden goose by claiming that the rates were unfair, and the innovators were making money unfairly off the backs of the copyright holders (by which they meant the labels, not the musicians, of course).

Take, for example, the brief heyday of music video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. For a year or two, the recording industry fell head over heels in love with these games, because people were playing them quite a bit, and they were (briefly) willing to pay a slight premium to get access to music from well-known bands and musicians. Rather than build on that, the industry did two things: it focused all of its attention on those kinds of games, absolutely flooding the market and making people get sick of the game genre, and demanded much higher royalties.

The viewpoint seemed to be that there could be almost no benefits for the innovators. Nearly all of the benefits had to accrue to the labels, or it would be seen as a problem. In fact, the one exception that got through was iTunes, and that was quickly seen as a “problem” by the labels, even as it was dragging them, kicking and screaming, into the marketplace for digital music. The view is one of an extreme zero-sum world, where if someone else is benefiting, it must mean that the labels were losing out. They didn't even hide this view of the world. Doug Morris, then head of Universal Music (now head of Sony Music) explained to a Wired reporter that investing in new innovations that weren’t paying money upfront meant that “someone, somewhere is taking advantage of you.” As laid out in the article, Morris was uninterested in technology, and didn’t even know how to hire a competent technology person, so his focus was on making sure everyone paid up immediately. Anyone making money in the music world without first paying a massive cut were dubbed “thieves.”

I find this tragic. If the entertainment industry had recognized early on that the tech industry wasn't an enemy, but a provider of wonderful new tools and services that helped to expand their market, we'd be much further along. Getting these things right takes time and experimentation, but the legacy players refuse to accept that. They want a perfect solution that fully replaces their old business 100% (or more) without any disruption -- and they want to accrue all of the benefits, without any going to the actual innovators. That, of course, doesn't help anyone, least of all the actual content creators.

There's so much innovation and opportunity available in the music space -- it's just sad that we've only made baby steps since Napster, when we should be leaps and bounds further along.