Update no.602

Update from the Heartland

No.602

24.6.13 – 30.6.13

Blog version:  http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

To all,

The follow-up news items:

-- The fugitive Snowden [599 & sub] fled Hong Kong just ahead of extradition [601] and appears to be somewhere in the transit lounge of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, as his WikiLeaks handlers try to negotiate his asylum in Venezuela, Ecuador or some other antagonistic country.  The United States ramped up pressure on the international community to deny entry by Snowden and return him to the United States for prosecution.  Russia’s President Putin rejected the U.S. request while he confirmed that Russia has no interest in harboring the fugitive.  Meanwhile, the company that supposedly performed the background check for Snowden’s security clearance – USIS – is under investigation by federal authorities.  USIS began in 1996, as U.S. Investigative Services, Inc., and re-branded itself in 2006 as simply USIS.  In 2009, a holding company named Altegrity was created over USIS and another company HireRight.  Providence Equity Partners owns Altegrity.  In some tasks, the profit motive has NO place.

-- The U.S. Justice Department indicted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev [592] on 30 counts of using weapons of mass destruction, killing four and wounding dozens of other innocent citizens.  While murder charges in Massachusetts do not carry a death penalty, the federal charges filed this week do.  The prosecutorial negotiations have not been concluded or been made public as yet.  I suspect the Federales will take the first crack and seek the ultimate penalty.

--The House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a resolution that says Internal Revenue Service Director of Exempt Organizations Lois G. Lerner [597] waived her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination last month by claiming innocence during her congressional testimony into the inappropriate screening and scrutiny by the IRS with respect to applications for tax-exempt status.

-- The Senate passed its S.744 bill [597], provisionally titled: the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act by a vote of 68-32-0-0(0).  The bill goes to the House of Representatives where it is likely to have a more difficult go and where passage is doubtful.  The House may pass their version, which would then send both bills to a joint conference committee for reconciliation.  This silly, divisive notion of border security first or immigration reform first is complete nonsense; we need both.  The Senate S.744 is a good attempt.  There is always hope saner minds will prevail.

As is so often the case, this has been a busy month and a more significant final week of the Supreme Court’s session.  A series of far-reaching decisions were issued and now added to my reading list.

·      Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. [569 U.S. ___ (2013); no. 12-398] [600] – patenting naturally occurring DNA sequences was declared unconstitutional.

·      Maryland v. King [569 U.S. ___ (2013); no. 12-207] -- an important 4^th Amendment case regarding the collection of DNA samples on citizens after their arrest.

·      Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin [569 U.S. ___ (2013); no. 12-345] – an important reverse discrimination case the Court sent back to lower courts with instructions.

·      Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder [569 U.S. ___ (2013); no. 12-96] – portions of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965 [PL 89-110, 79 Stat. 437] were deemed no longer needed and struck down.

·      Hollingsworth v. Perry [569 U.S. ___ (2013); no. 12-144] – the infamous California Proposition 8 equality case sent back to lower court with instructions.  I really need to read this decision to appreciate the Court’s position.

·      United States v. Windsor [569 U.S. ___ (2013); no. 12-307] – the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 (DOMA) [PL 104-199; 110 Stat. 2419] declared unconstitutional.

·      The Court agreed to hear arguments the President’s recess appointment authority, which should be interesting with respect to the balance of power in the federal system of governance.

For those who have listened to my yammering over the years, I have been and remain a state’s rights citizen; I urge autonomy at the lowest possible levels of governance.  However, this Grand Republic was NOT founded as a bulwark for independent state action on all issues.  Granted, the boundaries between federal and state authority have been blurred over the years; yet, there is one aspect that has remained constant – each and every citizen’s fundamental right to “Life, Liberty and [his/her] pursuit of Happiness.”  I cannot miss the opportunity to add every citizen’s fundamental right to privacy to the listing.

In the wake of the SCOTUS Hollingsworth ruling, inequality proponents in California sought an immediate injunction against non-heterosexual citizens seeking marriage.  Their appeal was rejected.  The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco, lifted its stay of a 2010 federal district court order invalidating Proposition 8.  As a result, non-heterosexual marriages began again in California.  The full breadth of the Court’s decision rests in the words of the rulings.  More to follow, I am certain.

Among many doom & gloom aftermath opinions, I illuminate this particular item.

“In Supreme Court Brief, Ken Cuccinelli Warned Of A Slippery Slope From Gay Marriage To Polygamy”

by Michael Falcone

ABC News

Published: June 25, 2013; 8:30am

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/06/in-supreme-court-brief-ken-cuccinelli-warned-of-a-slippery-slope-from-gay-marriage-to-polygamy/

Again, I understand and appreciate the contemporary aversion of Judeo-Christian believers toward polygamy, including the laws enacted to enforce their morality.  Intellectually, I am struggling with why?  What is the public interest in private marriage arrangements that cause no injury? 

The Europeans have always had a more enlightened attitude toward sex.  Germany legalized prostitution a decade ago and has apparently determined legalization was not sufficient.

“Sex Trade: Berlin Votes for Stricter Controls on Brothels”

Der Spiegel

Published: June 28, 2013 – 01:05 PM

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/berlin-votes-for-stricter-control-on-brothels-to-reduce-exploitation-a-908351.html

Likewise, the Netherlands decided more regulation was needed to protect sex workers.  Hopefully, we will learn from those who travel this path before us.  Legalization is simply not a successful state with a formerly prohibited or illegal activity.  The criminal sub-culture that flourishes when free citizens demand prohibited material or services inevitably adapts to legalization in order to maintain its revenue stream.  Effective regulation is mandatory to protect workers, suppliers and support personnel.  We all recognize Judeo-Christian morality confines all sexual activity to adult, heterosexual, monogamous-for-life, happily-ever-after marriage, and for many within that subset, for procreation only.  Whether we like it or not, not all American citizens subscribe to that morality.  We have the right to deny sexual conduct in inappropriate public situations.  We do not have the right to prohibit private activity that causes no injury.  Further, it can be argued that our prohibition of prostitution causes injury.  The legalization and proper regulation of prostitution is inevitable.  Let us learn from our European cousins and go beyond the unstable legalization stage to the regulation state where sex workers and the business can be properly protected and the criminal sub-culture excluded.

News from the economic front:

-- Deputy Director Ling Tao, of the Shanghai branch of the People's Bank of China, indicated the central bank will guide interest rates to a “reasonable range," suggesting a potential end to a cash crunch that has gripped the country’s financial system this month.  On Monday, the overnight rate at which banks borrow from one another decreased to 6.64%, though it remains high compared with its typical range of 2% to 3%.

--The U.S. economy grew at a 1.8% annualized rate in 1Q2013, slower than the earlier estimates of 2.4% growth. The revision was due largely to personal-consumption expenditures, which accounts for two-thirds of economic output, slid to a 2.6% gain from 3.4% rate. The lower revision came from weaker spending on legal services, personal care and health care than previously estimated.

Comments and contributions from Update no.601:

“Interesting Update. A couple of things.

“Regarding Snowden, one of the underreported aspects is how this guy got access to this much classified material.  The answer is in his contractor status - especially as an IT guy.  He knew were 'doors' were and where the keys to those doors were.  Having been a person who supervised contracts (not just contractors) and having been a contractor for a couple years myself, I have a pretty good idea of the situation-which is pretty much across the board in the military and intel communities. Simply said, we have too many contractors in DoD and the IC, and too many contractors doing jobs that should only be done by USG personnel. A lot of reasons for this...mostly supposedly to 'save money', but in actuality, I have seen too many cases where it has only cost the USG more money in the long run.

“On TWA 800, I recalled that there were military aircraft in the vicinity and that the aircrews had seen "something'- I googled and came up with this account of an NY ANG helo pilot (and former Navy S-2 driver) that is interesting -you probably are familiar with it, if you have written on the subject.  I always had a feeling there was more to this.  I guess the new documentary is reviving the missile theory.  I recall reading an account of Major Meyer (other than that below) when he described debris falling from the sky and the helo having to stay out of the area. He recalled seeing bodies still strapped to their seats falling - which meant they had been blown out and up from the plane.

http://www.100megspop3.com/bark/800WitMeyer.html

“I can believe that it was a test gone bad.  Twice when I was on the MARDET on CHICAGO, I halted firing my 5"/38 mount or didn’t commence firing when told to do so when the target area was fouled.  Once was on a surface shoot and a fishing boat came into the area-- I halted fire and the CIC demanded to know why. I responded fouled range and they said impossible, radar said the range was clear.  After going back and forth, I (as politely as I could) suggested that the Ops officer step outside (the ship was buttoned up at GQ) and look.  He did and was surprised.  Another time was with an air shoot and an A-4 wandered into the area and was checking us out. I gave the fouled range command and again, CIC was unaware of the intruder...  As I recall, sometime later, a Navy LT, the son of an admiral, was killed off the CA coast when he wandered into an AA missile exercise and was shot down.  And a few years later, a helo that was filming a missile shoot from a carrier was shot down when the missile lost the drone and zoomed in on the helo.

“I also found this, which you likely are familiar with.”

http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/CRASH/TWA/sandersbook.html

http://www.100megspop3.com/bark/800WitMeyer.html

My reply:

Jan,

            Thx for taking the time to share your perspective.

            Re: Snowden.  You illuminate an important and germane point; the utilization of contractors has gone too far.  It may be understandable and acceptable for some jobs like janitors, groundskeepers and such, but not for critical or action jobs.  We have had this discussion before, e.g., Blackwater (now Xi).  Yet, beyond that, it is simply mindboggling to me how a contractor can have the kind of access necessary to even know a door exists, let alone know where the particular key is to open that door.  I always believed there was a valid, vital reason for Sensitive Compartmented Information – only those with a bona fide need to know had access.  If an IT contractor had access to a SCI-PRISM data file, then he’d damn-well better be as trusted as DNI, DCI, DNSA, et cetera.  Clearly, in the Snowden case, the system failed miserably.  Further, truth be told, I suspect Snowden has just enough access to allow him to hack SCI rooms from the inside without being granted access, which to me is even worse.

            Re: TWA 800.  As I recall, we talked to Fred Meyer several times during our research phase; he certainly convinced us.  We spent a fair amount of time in the witness data.  There were too many disassociated witnesses from absolute novices to highly experienced professionals, from a wide variety of observation points, with too many common elements, to ignore the whole lot.  Any professional accident investigator will tell you that eyewitness information is rarely accurate or definitive, yet, that information is vital to connecting the dots.  For reasons still unknown, in this particular instance, the NTSB virtually ignored or suppressed the witness information, perhaps because the FBI retained that data.  Most of us who have been around this particular event remain convinced there are facts not made available to the public.  There may have been good reason for the USG to suppress those facts in the circumstances of the day, but those facts must eventually be made public, just as the tragedy of Operation TIGER at Slapton Sands became public.  I eagerly await this documentary to what others who had access to the raw data may have.  I expect to learn more.

            Re: “test gone bad.”  We have always acknowledged the possibility.  The military certainly has numerous weapons that would easily handle a soft target like a B-747 climbing through 13,000 ft.  Yet, the recovered fuselage reconstruction simply does not display the array of damage that an SM-2 Standard missile would do to a soft target.  Using a ManPADS in that circumstance would be a far more personal action, not a random or mistaken identity accident . . . quite like your experience aboard Chicago; you “saw” your target, just as a ManPADS shooter would “see” his target.  If so, he had to be close to the track, which on the water; a small missile would not have made it to that altitude from the shoreline.

Thx for yr comments.  Always appreciated.

Cheers,

Cap

 . . . follow-up comment:

“I think the theory was that the missile hit on the plane was a non-explosive-the missile reportedly went through the fuselage- causing damage that led to the explosion. So it wasn't a missile that would have caused the 'normal' missile damage.  There were a lot of military and naval assets, air, surface and sub-surface around the area at that time.

“Also on Snowden- the same question as to PVT Manning, how did a private first class clerk get access to all the data he did?  It wasn't compartmented but was secret.  Again, good to tear down some walls within the IC, but to allow a clerk in a tactical military unit to have access to diplomatic correspondence is ridiculous.  (A number of cables I authored are among the trove he let out...thank goodness none of mine from Moscow are in there.)

“I think Booze Allen is in a lot of trouble-- and if this doesn't directly lose contracts they already have, it will cause them to lose a lot of business that they might have gotten had this not happened.  Hopefully, the USG will cut back on contractor use in the military and the IC.”

 . . . my follow-up reply:

Jan,

            Re: missile.  Kinetic energy is a powerful force; it does not take much mass travelling at high speed for the momentum transfer to cause dramatic damage, especially on a soft target.  We look for those signs of a kinetic, non-explosive impact . . . like a bird strike or hail.  We found none.  The data to support a non-explosive, kinetic impact are not present.  An SM-2 is too big.  A ManPADS is actually too small to bring down an aircraft the size of a B-747; it might take out an engine or cause a significant fuel leak, but unlikely to take out an aircraft with vital elements spread for far apart.  If it was a ManPADS, it was a lucky shot.

            Just an interesting FYI: I fired an inert, training, AIM-9 at a ground “armor” target.  The missile mass hit 12 inches of rolled, homogenous, steel armor plating at motor burn-out, traveling at roughly Mach 2 (1500 mph) at impact, and put a complete hole, 4 inches in diameter, through that massive plate.  The crowning on the backside was permanent evidence of the molten steel sprayed behind that plate.  Yes, kinetic energy is indeed a powerful force.

            Re: Snowden.  Good point about Manning . . . another very good example.  Clearance, access and need-to-know must have changed substantially from my days in the military segment of the IC.

            Re: Booz Allen.  Indeed!  I suspect they will pay a mighty penalty, directly and indirectly, for what Snowden has done.  I understand the BCI work-ups are also done by contractors as well.  I don’t remember the name of the company that cleared Snowden, but I suspect they have some serious splain’ ta do.  We can only hope for sufficient reform to move contractors back to their proper place, as supplemental rather than primary support for USG operations.

Another contribution:

“A comment in response to a blog comment:

“Just because a person is acting out of conscience does not mean the actions are not treasonous. A perfect example would be the Rosenbergs. By all accounts Julius and Ethel Rosenbergs acted "out of conscience" to transmit the atomic weapons secrets to the Soviet Union. For whatever reason they acted, it was treasonous to the United States, their home by birth. They were the only person sentenced to death for acts related to the Cold War. The federal judge who sentenced them said one of his reasons for doing so was the impact of their actions on the Communist nations in supporting the Korean War with its 50,000 American dead. He felt the Russians would not have been so bold had they not had nuclear weapons to prevent nuclear retaliation by the US. The Rosenbergs were not sentenced for treason, they were sentenced for espionage.

“Also, for those who argue that treason can only occur in time of war, I would simply ask them to go make that argument to the veterans in the Rehab wards of any VA Hospital.”

Comment to the Blog:

“We shall all have a long slog through the PRISM/Snowden/etc. event. I will stand on ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely.’

“The TWA 800 analysis is far beyond my background.

“Your reference to a ‘Crown Court’ implies overseas prosecution, and I suspect it might be British. It would be good to see the British get back the backbone they lost with Tony Blair, particularly by bringing well-earned prison time to LIBOR offenders. We know from recent experience how unlikely it is that the United States will take strong steps against ‘malefactors of great wealth.’

“I see I am not the only reader who differs with you on the ‘war’ and related matters. I still fail to understand how you can rely on checks and balances that have neither transparency nor accountability. I see no way to show that the checks and balances within PRISM and similar programs actually exist at all. Assuming ethics or even good will by the intelligence community stretches my credibility beyond the breaking point. History supports a far more skeptical set of assumptions.”

My response to the Blog:

Calvin,

            Re: Snowden.  Indeed, this is long from over any way we cut it.

            Re: TWA 800.  It is within the capacity of some of us.

            Re: LIBOR.  Yes, the Crown Court is quite British.  Yes, the British are not bashful about prosecuting criminals.  Perhaps I am naïve, yet, I believe the U.S. will also prosecute some of the perpetrators of this massive conspiracy.

            Re: war.  No, you are definitely not the only one who disagrees with me on this topic.  Perhaps the good that may come from the PRISM disclosures might be Intelligence Community (IC) reform to create the proper protections to allow the IC sufficient range while protecting citizens from the political or prosecutorial violations without due process.

My very best wishes to all.  Take care of yourselves and each other.

Cheers,

Cap                        :-)