Day: October 10, 2017

HERE’S WHAT 100 FBI AGENTS KNOW ABOUT THE LAS VEGAS SHOOTER~EX FBI AGENT/MARINE POINTS TO ISLAMIC JIHAD

HERE’S WHAT 100 FBI AGENTS KNOW ABOUT 
THE LAS VEGAS SHOOTER
BY BOB ADELMANN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

It’s been a week since Stephen Paddock shot and killed nearly 60
people at a concert in Las Vegas and wounded another 500 before taking
his own life. Since then, 100 FBI agents
and other investigators have been combing Paddock’s background to try
to determine a motive. After spending thousands of man-hours searching
his computers, residence, hotel room, vehicles, and banking connections,
and checking into his mental health records, criminal behavior, and
finances, they have uncovered an immense amount of information. They
have interviewed hotel employees and viewed hours of videotape from
hotel surveillance cameras. They’ve learned a lot, but they still don’t
have a motive.
And now they’re asking the public for help. Today the FBI will post
billboards near the scene offering rewards for any information that
neighbors, bystanders, or other observers might be able to provide in
their quest.
They have learned that Paddock’s father’s photograph appeared on the
FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” posters in the early 1960s. Once Benjamin Paddock
was incarcerated, neither Stephen nor his two brothers, Eric and Bruce,
had any more contact with him.
Paddock’s teen years were uneventful. He played varsity tennis in
high school, leaving behind an unremarkable record. He graduated from
California State University with a business degree. His few friends
remembered him as quiet, well-behaved, and facile in mathematics.
He took a job with the U.S. Post Office as a letter carrier and then
became an agent for the Internal Revenue Service. After that he went to
work for Lockheed (later to become Lockheed-Martin) auditing defense
contracts.
He married and divorced twice, leaving no children. He started
dabbling in real estate, buying up cheap houses and renting them out. He
caught the California real estate boom in the early 1990s and rode it
for all it was worth. In 2014 the real estate partnership he was in was
liquidated, leaving him a multimillionaire.
Along the way he learned to gamble profitably, treating it not as
entertainment but a business. He found that video poker worked best for
him and he would spend hours off in the corner of a casino playing, and
winning. The casinos in Las Vegas knew him well, especially when he
started costing them money. They eventually stopped comping him his
rooms and meals.
That’s where he met his girlfriend Marilou Danley, a Filipino who worked at casinos in Reno and Las Vegas.

He was generous with his money, and used some of his comps to treat
his brother Eric and a nephew to $1,000 dinners in Las Vegas. He sent
$100,000 to his girlfriend while she was in the Philippines to help her
buy a home. He even sent cookies to his mother in Florida on her
birthday.
He was an odd duck, but not dangerous. He drove a car wearing gloves,
even in the summer, and kept the window shades pulled while he was at
home. The investigators could find no footprint on social media, no
criminal record, and no political ideology for the Las Vegas shooter.
He owned two airplanes and had a pilot’s license.
He was prescribed Diazepam (Valium) by a local doctor in June, but
suggestions that this somehow influenced his behavior were denied by Dr.
Michael First of Columbia University. First said that although some of
Diazepam’s side effects could cause aggressive behavior, the extent to
which Paddock carefully planned his attack over many months indicated
that there were “deeper issues” involved than just simply taking
Diazepam. Investigators searching for those “deeper issues” remain in
the dark.
When police examined his 2017 Chrysler Pacifica they found 50 pounds
of Tannerite, a patented target explosive used for long-range shooting.
When a high-velocity round hits a target many yards down range, it
explodes, indicating a hit and eliminating the need for the shooter to
go downrange to inspect the target visually. Some investigators have
raised the possibility that Paddock had so much Tannerite in his car
that he hoped/planned/expected that it would explode if police were to
target it. Again, speculation.
Some investigators got excited when they thought officers saw flashes
coming from the fourth floor of Paddock’s hotel, which Snopes quickly
put to rest, as there were no broken-out windows on the fourth floor.
The flashing light was a strobe light that had been flashing for hours
before Paddock started shooting, and the police and SWAT team heading up
the stairs to the 32nd floor most certainly would have heard gunfire as
they hit the fourth floor. Another dead end.
Investigators remain stymied when checking on claims by an Islamic
terrorist group that Paddock was one of their “soldiers.” They could
find no credible evidence that this 64-year-old white man had somehow
been radicalized and assimilated into the Jihad.
Nothing more appears in the media about the mysterious “Antonio” — an
alleged hotel employee who claimed that he served Paddock and a guest
one day before Paddock rented his room at Mandalay Bay. But they did
learn that Paddock had been casing Las Vegas for at least two weeks
prior, having found that he had rented a three-room suite at the Ogden
luxury condominium complex overlooking the concert area for two weeks
before he took his perch at Mandalay Bay.
They wondered how anyone could move dozens of rifles and ammunition,
using 10 suitcases, into his hotel room without anyone noticing. What
investigators learned is that that happens all the time: Media crews
supporting various events bring video and audio equipment by the case
into rooms, so Paddock’s efforts went unnoticed.
They got excited when they discovered a note on the table next to his
body, but were disappointed to learn that it was essentially
undecipherable, and not a much-hoped-for suicide note. Investigators
said the note was “significant to the gunman” but to no one else.
They also got excited when they learned that there is a public
shooting range not far from where Paddock lived in Mesquite, especially
when they uncovered video footage of him driving down the road to the
range. But further investigation proved fruitless: Paddock never fired a
single round from any of his rifles at that range.
One thing missing was any evidence whatsoever of any interest by
Paddock in things spiritual or eternal. He never attended church, so far
as the investigators could tell, nor did he ever express an interest in
God or His creation and purpose. Paddock was completely and totally a
secular man, living for the “now.” When something snapped — and that
something remains unknown — Paddock had the resources to inflict
terrible damage and horror on people he didn’t know and never would
know, for purposes that investigators are still unable to discern.
 Related articles:

Stephen Paddock: Another Mass Shooter on Psychiatric Meds
Many Unanswered Questions About Las Vegas Shooting
_____________________________________________________

 Guandolo Moment: Facts That Point to Jihad in Vegas

This new special edition of The Glazov Gang features John Guandolo, a former FBI agent, combat veteran Marine, and now the president of Understanding the Threat.

John focused on Facts That Point to Jihad in Vegas, unveiling why ISIS’ claim of responsibility is deadly serious.

Don’t miss it!
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USA LIBERTY ACT: MORE OF THE SAME OLD SURVEILLANCE STATE GAMES

 http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists//watchwomanonthewall/files/2013/08/Foreign-Intelligence-Surveillance-Act-govt-surveillance.jpg
USA LIBERTY ACT: MORE OF THE SAME OLD SURVEILLANCE STATE GAMES 
BY C. MITCHELL SHAW
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
 

Every time Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA) is set to expire, the surveillance hawks prop it back up, give it
a fresh coat of paint, and promise to (really, this time)
protect the privacy of American citizens. And every time, the “reforms”
succeed in refueling the surveillance machine so that it can continue to
bulldoze citizens’ rights in the name of national security. With the
surveillance programs authorized under Section 702 set to expire on
December 31, 2017, the surveillance hawks are at it again.

On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)
and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), along with Reps. Jim
Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), held a press
conference to announce the introduction of the USA Liberty Act (a
misnomer not to be confused with the equally misnamed USA Freedom Act,
though — given that they both promise “liberty” and “freedom” while
empowering the surveillance state to strip Americans of those very
things — your confusion would be easily forgiven).

Section 702 is deservedly one of the most controversial portions of
FISA, since it authorizes the collection of massive amounts of data from
a wide variety of sources with so little real oversight and almost no
real restrictions. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) aptly
describes Section 702 as:

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) is a statute that authorizes the collection,
use, and dissemination of electronic communications content stored by
U.S. internet service providers (such as Google, Facebook, and
Microsoft) or traveling across the internet’s “backbone” (with the
compelled assistance of U.S. telecom providers such as AT&T and
Verizon). Section 702 sunsets on December 31, 2017.

CDT also acknowledges that the “restrictions” that ostensibly keep Section 702 in line are inadequate to the task, stating:

Unlike “traditional” FISA surveillance,
Section 702 does not require that the surveillance target be a suspected
terrorist, spy, or other agent of a foreign power. Section 702 only
requires that the targets be non-U.S. persons located abroad, and that a
“significant purpose” of the surveillance be to obtain “foreign
intelligence information” (the primary purpose of the surveillance can
be something else entirely).

That is an accurate (if incomplete) assessment, since, while many
claim that the powers granted by Section 702 are abused, the reality is
that they are designed for abuse. The surveillance hawks love Section
702 because it allows that abuse.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) — an organization dedicated
to defending digital liberty in an age of nearly ubiquitous surveillance
— describes the surveillance that takes place under the authority of
Section 702 as “warrantless” and “suspiciousness.” EFF’s description
goes on to say:

The U.S. government uses Section 702 to
justify the collection of the communications of innocent people overseas
and in the United States by tapping into the cables that carry domestic
and international Internet communications through what’s known as
Upstream surveillance. The government also forces major U.S. tech
companies to turn over private communications stored on their servers
through a program often referred to as PRISM. While the programs under
Section 702 are theoretically aimed at foreigners outside the United
States, they constantly collect Americans’ communications with no
meaningful oversight from the courts.

The type of surveillance conducted under Section 702 was first
brought to the attention of Americans as part of the Snowden
revelations. American citizens, outraged by what they learned, demanded
reform of the surveillance state. The surveillance hawks promised reform
and in June 2015 delivered the USA Freedom Act — equal parts smoke and
mirrors. As this writer reported in December 2015, when that act took effect:

The USA FREEDOM Act, like the USA PATRIOT
Act of 2001, is a misnomer. The name is a not-very-subtle manipulation,
designed to hide from the American people the real nature of the law.
The architects of the USA PATRIOT Act used the word “patriot” to
persuade Americans that the “patriotic” way to confront the specter of
terrorism was to trade liberty for security. It took the one but never
delivered the other. Likewise, in the USA FREEDOM Act, the use of the
word “freedom” is designed to convince Americans that their freedom is
being returned to them by “reforming” the surveillance state. In fact, no such reform is taking place.

The USA Freedom Act was not a reform; it was merely the next piece of
sleight-of-hand in a shell game being played by the surveillance state
with American citizens as the victims. Predictable and systemic abuses
of Section 702 powers are well documented and — while they appear to have reached a peak in 2015/2016 — have not halted, even with the advent of the USA Freedom Act.

The problem is that warrantless surveillance is — regardless of the
reasons given — a violation of the Fourth Amendment guarantee against
unreasonable searches. As Dr. Ron Paul explained,
“There is no ‘terrorist’ exception in the Fourth Amendment. Saying a
good end (capturing terrorists) justifies a bad means (mass
surveillance) gives the government a blank check to violate our
liberties.”

After passing the cleverly misnamed USA Freedom Act off on the
American people in a successful bid to keep the surveillance machine
running at full steam, the surveillance hawks in both the intelligence
community and Congress knew that they would need another piece of crafty
legislation to keep the game going once the sunset provision for
Section 702 came up again. That crafty piece of legislation is the USA
Liberty Act. The name — and the content — of this bill are an insult to
the intelligence of the American people.

As the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) explains:

The Project On Government Oversight has
pushed for reforms to be made to FISA that adequately protect American
citizens’ civil liberties while keeping the country safe from harm. This
piece of legislation fails to accomplish either of these goals and we
are specifically concerned with three areas of the newly unveiled
legislation.

The three areas of concern for POGO are:

1. Whistleblower Protections for Intelligence Community Contractors — about which POGO says:

As written, the bill lacks teeth to
enforce the provisions against retaliation for blowing the whistle, and
we call on the sponsors to add stronger enforcement mechanisms to this
bill for both contractors and federal employees through the committee
process before sending it to the Floor for a vote. Until these employees
feel comfortable blowing the whistle because they know they will be
protected from retaliation, Congress is creating an incentive to go
outside of proper reporting channels.

2. Exemptions for Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) — about which POGO says:

This draft bill purports to exempt the
essential oversight board from the Government in the Sunshine Act, an
exemption that would allow the members of the board to meet in secret to
discuss issues under its purview.
We are sympathetic to the argument that
open-meeting laws may complicate the ability of the board to complete
its mission, but a full exemption from transparency laws is not the
responsible way to address this problem. We urge the committee to work
with civil society to find a common ground that promotes adequate
transparency without hindering the work of this oversight board.

3. Surveillance Program Still Puts Americans’ Civil Liberties at Risk — about which POGO says:

While this draft bill attempts to provide
a fix for the backdoor search loophole, it does not go far enough to
ensure Americans’ civil liberties are protected. By allowing an
exception for foreign intelligence searches with an overly broad
definition of such searches, Americans may still find their Fourth
Amendment rights violated.
We applaud the inclusion of reporting to
Congress of an estimate of the number of Americans’ communications that
have been subject to “incidental” collection under section 702, but we
encourage the committee to make this report available to the public. We
also encourage the committee to consider further provisions to increase
public oversight over these programs.

CDT, EFF, and POGO are far from alone in their concerns about the
continuance of the Section 702 game under the so-called USA Liberty Act.
Tom’s Hardware — a website that devotes its attention to tech news
about new gadgets and computer parts — weighed in on the topic with an
article titled “USA Liberty Act: New ‘Foreign’ Intelligence Law Will Legalize Spying On Americans.” The article points out that, “although the bill does aim to curtail some illegal NSA activities and abuses
that shouldn’t have happened in the first place, it also codifies into
law the bulk collection of Americans’ data. It also codifies the NSA’s
ability to share data with other domestic agencies.” The article goes on
to say:

President Obama also expanded some executive rules
last year that allowed the NSA to share raw intelligence data without a
warrant with 16 other agencies. Because the shared data is raw,
Americans’ data can be seen by agents from any of the 17 agencies,
without any judicial approval. Such broad access may also put this data
at risk from cyber attacks.
It’s not clear if the new USA Liberty
Act, which does require a warrant when Americans’ communications content
is accessed by the other 16 agencies, including the FBI, overrides
those rules. The USA Liberty Act is also much more relaxed when it comes
to metadata (phone or email records, etc.), requiring only a
supervisor’s approval for access.
What is clear is that until last year,
the so-called “incidental” data collected on Americans through foreign
intelligence programs was supposed to be minimized and then
automatically purged. However, President Obama’s expanded rules now
allow 17 agencies to scour through that data before any minimization or
purging happens.
Meanwhile, the USA Liberty Act seems to
imply that data will be kept long enough that there will be enough time
for domestic agencies to get warrants from judges or other type of
approvals to obtain it. In other words, the supposed “incidental”
collection is starting to seem less incidental and more purposeful.

And there is the rub; the NSA and other intelligence agencies have
made it so normal for the exceptions to outnumber the rules that it is
obvious to all but the most casual of observers that the rules are
designed to give way to exceptions.

The American people deserve better. And all Americans who are
concerned about preserving liberty should call and write their senators
and representatives and tell them to vote “no” on the USA Liberty Act.