Winter Patriot Community Blog

I am taking a break from all my 'participating' in Canadian politics. As I wrote in my last blog post, there is a pro-democracy movement underway in Canada right now. Along with many ongoing projects and initiatives, Canadians across the country are sharing information and discussing the anti democratic and primarily secret actions of the current Progressive Conservative government. This is primarily taking place on a Face Book Group named CAPP (Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament). Currently, there are over 225,000 members, over 28,000 links, 142 videos, thousands of ongoing side discussions and numerous initiatives underway. The most visible face of the movement right now is 'flash rallies' that take place whenever the Prime Minister or his Cabinet Ministers show up in public. I am not a fan of Face Book and there is a whole lot of 'cat herding' going on over there however, surprisingly, so far it is working. The only way I can describe it to you is raucous, as in boisterous, rowdy and disorderly. I have no idea how much longer this will last and it is obvious (to me at least) that there are disinformation specialists at work there along with obvious trolls (provoking endless emotional responses) and the more subtle types who seek to create division and centralize power etc. All in all an interesting experience...only in Canada, eh!

I am not sure if there is anyone left out there to read this but here is a roundup of some of the articles I have been reading lately.
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McJ's News Roundup - Feb. 11, 2010

President Peace Prize is busy spreading 'peace' around the world - notably near the Russian and Chinese borders and neither of these countries seem to want to get with his peace program.

Veiled Threats Directed against Russia: U.S. Expands Missile Shield Into Black Sea
by Rick Rozoff

Dmitry Rogozin, Russian envoy to NATO was quoted as saying "The U.S. is using Iran's actions to globalize its system of missile defense....Our military shouldn't believe some promises or intentions. We need to go on the assumption that a foreign military potential is approaching our borders."
Retired Colonel Igor Korotchenko said "Russia must warn Romania that if the elements of the U.S. missile shield are placed in the country they will become a target of Russia's preventive missile strikes."

Russia is all for nuclear strikes against potential aggressors

''The President informed the members of Russia's Security Council yesterday that he has approved two documents - the military doctrine and the Fundamentals of the state policy on nuclear deterrence until 2020,'' presidential press secretary Natalia Timakova said.
...
"The seizure of strategic initiative, dominance on the ground, at sea, and in aerospace will be the decisive factors in attaining goals,'' it said.

''Military actions will be characterised by the growing significance of high-precision, electromagnetic, laser, and infrasonic weapons, information control systems, unmanned aerial and autonomous sea vehicles, and guided robotised types of weapons and military hardware,'' it said.

China threatens U.S. sanctions over Taiwan arms

China threatened to impose sanctions on U.S. arms firms and cut cooperation with Washington unless it cancels a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, in an unprecedented move signaling Beijing's growing global power.

China's hawks demand cold war on the US

More than half of Chinese people questioned in a poll believe China and America are heading for a new "cold war".

The finding came after battles over Taiwan, Tibet, trade, climate change, internet freedom and human rights which have poisoned relations in the three months since President Barack Obama made a fruitless visit to Beijing.

..."This time China must punish the US," said Major-General Yang Yi, a naval officer. "We must make them hurt." A major-general in the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Luo Yuan, told a television audience that more missiles would be deployed against Taiwan. And a PLA strategist, Colonel Meng Xianging, said China would "qualitatively upgrade" its military over the next 10 years to force a showdown "when we're strong enough for a hand-to-hand fight with the US".

The Crotch Bomber has mostly dropped off the MSM radar however there is good news for Michael Chertoff, Perv Scanner sales are skyrocketing!

Christmas day crotch bomber tied to Israel, FBI

The Christmas Day "terrorist" is the latest in a series of staged incidents meant to make The Clash of Civilizations appear plausible and "the war on terrorism" rational.

The storyline does not hold together. Not even a little bit. As usual, the source of this media-fueled fear campaign traces directly to Tel Aviv - with a supporting role by the FBI
...
Israeli-American Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security (aka the rabbi’s son), now promotes firms that manufacturer highly intrusive body scanners that are terrific for spotting crotch bombers unless, of course, an Israeli firm is in charge of security.

News reports suggest that the stock of body-scanning firms soared $3 billion in value after this latest “terrorist” incident. Imagine the glee among clients of the Chertoff Group.

Meanwhile the U.S. has been transformed from the wealthiest nation to the world’s largest debtor. Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz projects a $3 trillion tab for a war based on fixed, flawed and outright fabricated intelligence—every cent of it borrowed, including $700 billion in interest.

Invasion of the Body Scanners

The concept of "stimulus" may soon take on new connotations in the days ahead. The federal government is poised to emplace full-body scanners at airports across the nation, capable of peering under a person's garments.
...
This is essentially a form of high-tech voyeurism masking as security, and it portends more such incursions into liberty and privacy. How did it come to this, and so suddenly at that?
...
This new paradigm of high-tech security by way of scanning devices has become lucrative in recent years, and promises to become even more so in the near future. However, as Mother Jones Senior Washington correspondent James Ridgeway noted in his blog Unsilent Generation, "the TSA has a dismal record of enriching private corporations with failed technologies, and there are signs that the latest miracle device may just bring more of the same.
...
Beyond the lack of guaranteed functionality, a number of additional critiques have appeared questioning the untested nature of these technologies and whether they are in fact safe for widespread use. As an article from NaturalNews (recently reprinted by Truthout) observed:

"In researching the biological effects of the millimeter wave scanners used for whole body imaging at airports, NaturalNews has learned that the energy emitted by the machines may damage human DNA."

The Olympics are about to start just down the road from me. I won't be attending the festivities. The torch was trotted around town here last week but I didn't make it out to see it. However, one of my daughters did get to meet Arnold Schwarznegger's buddy our provincial premier, Gordon Campbell, at a restaurant in town where she was working. He was here for the big celebration.

In related news, the Terminator will be taking that same torch for a run on a prominent part of the last leg of it's trip. To add to this, yesterday the torch took a detour over the Peace Arch into the US. All this comes as a surprise to Canadians, nobody here seems to have known any of this was going to happen.

Arnold Schwarzenegger will carry the Olympic torch

Despite zero Canadian heritage, Schwarzenegger will join Canadian heroes such as Steve Nash (two time NBA MVP), Walter Gretzky (father of Wayne Gretzky), and Michael Bublé (singer my mom really likes).

Even more perplexing is that Schwarzenegger will carry the torch on Friday morning, a scant twelve hours before the Opening Ceremony begins, meaning that an Austro-American politician will be a major figure during one of Canada's finest moments."

Schwarzenegger unworthy to carry our Olympic torch

John Furlong and VANO C should be ashamed of themselves for embarrassing all Canadians by allowing an Austrian-born American with no connection with this country or with the Olympics to carry our torch.
...
How Schwarzenegger, a national symbol of American violence and mindless U.S. media culture was deemed suitable to carry the Olympic torch for our Canadian ceremonies simply boggles the mind.

On a more serious note, the bills for this two week party for the rich, famous and connected are piling up, with cost overruns through the roof and security costs at the top of that heap. Turns out it was more expensive than they estimated to turn our beautiful city of Vancouver and the Whistler/Blackcomb resort towns into militarized security zones. Things like military helicopters, navy warships in the harbour, troops stationed on mountaintops and in town, snipers, private contractors, the US Department of Homeland Security, RCMP, local police, bylaw officers, high tech crowd control weapons, spy balloons, enhanced airport security and extra border controls don't come cheap! At least everyone will be safe, right?

Olympic security estimated to cost $900M

"It would be nice if we could do it for less, but our approach has not been to set a budget and then deliver security for that budget," said Peter van Loan, the federal minister in charge of Olympic security.

The province initially estimated its contribution for providing security for the Games would be $87.5 million. As recently as last July, Hansen announced the entire security budget would be $175 million.

And then of course there is this to think about along with the fact that the head electrical inspector for the 2010 Olympics was mysteriously let go about two weeks ago.

Could Vancouver 2010 be the next 9/11? (UPDATED 5pm EST 2-7-10)

"...an attack during the Olympics while it is being highly guarded would be the perfect way to bring in more police state measures and to more fully integrate the US and Canada into a functioning North American Union; I will provide some evidence of this taking place already but there may be another motive at work here to expand the “war on terror” into more nations while blaming an attack on their scapegoat for everything, Al-Qaeda; however, the question remains, is that what will happen? In more recent news, it looks as if Iran may be the one to take the blame."

Top electrician dismissed weeks before Olympics

The City of Vancouver has drawn fire from safety experts after letting go of its chief electrician just weeks before the opening ceremony of the 2010 Olympic Games.
...
"The chief electrical safety officer has all kinds of things to do in a busy time like this. There's all kinds of temporary installations going up, tents and all those activities that have electrical power in them."

Dave Jackson worked with Tsissereve until his retirement in 2007, and said he is one of the best of his profession.

"I was totally surprised to hear Ark had been dismissed," Jackson said. "He's probably recognized as the number one expert in Canada on electrical codes."

Industry leaders have written to Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson demanding Tsisserev be reinstated -- but the mayor says his plate is already full.

And finally from the HFF (that's the Holy F**k File).

A scheme only psychopaths could invent: Israeli mind-scanner planned for airports

As part of stringent measures to beef up airport security, US authorities may use an Israeli-made mind-reading scanner that allegedly predicts whether a passenger is a potential threat or not.
...
the system aims to project images onto airport screens, such as symbols affiliated with a terrorist group or signs only a terrorist would recognize.

Givon said while the WeCU system would use humans to do some of the observing, it would rely largely on concealed cameras or covert biometric sensors that can distinguish a rise in body temperature and heart rate, however slight it may be.

"One by one, you can screen out from the flow of people those with specific malicious intent,"...

As I mentioned in an earlier comment I attended my first rally ever last weekend. A pro democracy rally . Here is a small run down on what has been going on in Canada.

It's been estimated that on Saturday, Jan 23, 2010 more than 25,000 Canadians demonstrated in over 60 cites in Canada and around the world. They were protesting Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Proroguing (closing) of parliament for the second January in a row. What's notable is that it was a spontaneous protest having it's roots on a Face Book group started by University of Alberta student, Christopher White. Within 2-3 weeks it's membership rose to almost a quarter million (the largest and fastest growing FB Group in Canada). Canadians across the country finally began to wake up to the fact that their democracy was under attack.

Last year Stephen Harper prorogued the Canadian parliament to avoid a vote of non confidence in the house that would have brought his government down. This year it was to avoid having to answer the questions of a parliamentary committee. The committee was looking into the abuse and torture of Afghan detainees who were transferred to Afghan authorities by the Canadian Military. The proroguing of parliament means that over 30 bills that were making their way through the house have been dropped and have to be reintroduced, parliamentary committees are ended and must be restarted from scratch and government accountability offices (watchdogs) are closed for business. Making matters worse, Stephen Harper and his ministers then took to the airwaves to tell Canadians that the suspension of parliament was a routine procedure and that we really weren't concerned about what was happening to Afghan detainees. It was a big mistake on his part. It turns out Canadians actually do care. His Conservative government has dropped 10 points in the polls since then, putting them in a dead heat with the Liberal opposition.

This news clip from the Real News Network is a fairly decent rundown of events.

Stephen Harper's official excuse for shutting down parliament (there are a whole list of secondary excuses) is that his government needs to recalibrate their economic plan. No one seems to know for sure what exactly that means but apparently they can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

On a humerous note lots of Canadians have had fun with this piece of history.
Off with his head:
King Charles I dissolved the Parliament of England in 1628, after the Petition of Right, he gave a prorogation speech that effectively canceled all future meetings of the legislature, at least until he could get his finances in order.
King Charles I was subsequently captured, tried and convicted of high treason. He was beheaded Jan 30, 1649. The monarchy was then abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England was declared.

(Foreword - In the following, the words “stocks” and “shares” mean the same thing and are interchangeable. Similarly, “share scrip” and “share certificates” are interchangeable. I have assumed, too, that you, the reader, are familiar with Credit Creation or the way money comes into existence through banking practice. If you are not familiar with this foundational piece of corruption in Western society, you can read about it here – Warring Worlds pt4b )

If I were to tell you that you had been 'shorted' in a deal you made, most people would ordinarily take that to mean you had been cheated. Being shorted is being dudded. So 'shorting the market' or 'short selling' is a very aptly named practice because basically it is cheating the market, i.e. it's fraud. Too many years ago, I worked for the Melbourne Stock Exchange in Australia and 'short selling' was banned there then for this reason because it involves selling something you don't have and that's illegal most places I know. It's really, really simple. (What the situation is now at the MSE I don't know). Back then when delivery of scrip was a lengthy process it was my understanding, and also of everyone I knew, that the short sellers simply took advantage of this lengthy delay. I heard no one talking about 'borrowing' share scrip (certificates) to deliver and replacing them at a later date. The 'borrowing scrip' idea is a relatively new explanation to my ears, at least, and this explanation is, no doubt, necessary now because of the much faster electronic settlement times. But, it still leaves many questions.

So how and why does it operate and how is it all explained away by the industry? The explanation goes like this: a trader considers a stock to be overvalued and expects the price to fall in the near future. So to profit from the situation, the trader borrows shares from someone to sell into the market. When the stock falls in price, the trader buys back the shares to give back to the compliant lender and everybody is happy. That's the story and I don't believe it. I have never believed it because it never made sense; and it still doesn't! Who's going to lend the trader his shares to do this especially when it is perfectly obvious that selling the 'borrowed' shares on the market is going to help depress the price? Why would anyone lend a trader their shares so this 'borrower' could devalue them? It's nuts, of course.

So how do they actually pull it off? Until fairly recently, I didn't know. But then I came across the following articles on the net and all was revealed. The conclusions that I will state presently are not stated in the articles but their reality is undeniable once they are highlighted.

Here are the articles in question and to save my fingers from Repetitive Strain Injury, would you, gentle reader, go have a Bo Peep at them before reading on?

Links-
You don't really own the shares you think you own

The unknown 20 trillion dollar company

WSJ: Blame the 'Stock Vault'?

Okay, so now you know that most stockholders never get their name on their stock certificates. Indeed, they never even sight their share certificates. They instead have an account with their broker that says they are the 'beneficial owners' of the stock. It's remarkably like the situation of having money in the bank; you have an account in their computer and that's all. The name that is actually on the stock certificates is “Cede & Co” (or similar) as in you cede ownership to Cede & Co. Ironic, no? Cynical, more likely. The similarity with a bank doesn't end there. It seems from all the preceding information that it is reasonable, even unavoidable, to conclude that the short sellers 'borrow' shares in exactly the same way a person 'borrows' money from a bank and both come from the same source; thin air. These borrowed shares are invented and exist temporarily in a double entry type bookeeping system until the short sellers buy back shares to cancel these 'virtual' shares. It is essentially the same method whereby banks lend money that doesn't exist and this extra money has a life until the loan is paid back and the extra virtual money disappears again. This seemingly fraudulent practice has been legitimised through the passing of laws allowing this banking practice. It is called 'Fractional Reserve Banking' overseen in the US by the Federal Reserve Board. The same practice involving shares, stock brokers, the New York Stock Exchange in particular and the Depository Trust Company, is not likewise legal as far as I know.

Cede and Co (the registered name on almost all stock) is the nominee company used and owned by the Depository Trust Company (DTC) otherwise known as the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC).
Who owns DTC?
Answer, the New York Stock Exchange.
Who owns the New York Stock Exchange?
Answer, the same Federal Reserve Board mentioned above.
Who owns the Federal Reserve Board?
Answer, American and European banks.
Who owns these banks?
Answer, a very good question!

What is known for sure, though, is that they are not your friends.

So the shares remain in the name of Cede & Co no matter who buys and who sells thus making it impossible to trace particular share certificates through transactions and which shares in the total are pre-existing shares and which ones are the extra 'virtual' ones and which shares disappeared when the short sellers bought back shares to cover those they sold and even the fact that there were extra 'virtual' shares at all. Facilitating this further is the fact that there are no certificates for the shares thus held. They are merely book entries or, more accurately, computer entries.

The only thing that changes are the broker's accounts and brokers, as you would have read at the links, are allowed to fudge things in the name of prompt settlement i.e. behave as if they have them in one of their accounts when they don't at all – fraud, in other words; shares created out of thin air. If this were not the case, then shareholders would notice that shares would disappear from their accounts and be replaced at a later date. This doesn't happen, of course, just as money doesn't disappear from your (or anyone else's) banking account when the bank lends someone money. The banks create new 'virtual' money whenever they lend and stock brokers and the DTC must, by all appearances, do exactly the same thing with shares to cover short positions.

Getting back to our 'borrowed' stocks and their accommodating owners, we can now see that they can not be borrowed at all but must be newly created. Who can do this? Who are they. They have to be none other the stock brokers who are allowed to do so to a limited degree under the NYSE rules but also the DTC and Cede & Co which is its nominee company that owns most of the real shares on behalf of the 'beneficial' or real owners, the ones that put up the money to buy them. The stocks are sort of held in trust, if you like. Except the trustee is acting against the interests of the rightful owners and without their knowledge whenever they conspire with large short sellers by creating fictitious shares and selling them to deliberately drive down the value of that stock. They can go on creating and selling these fictitious shares until they achieve their desired result; a low share price and driving legitimate owners of stocks that find themselves in financial straits to sell their shares on to a falling market and lose money. These shares are then purchased by the short sellers to cover their sale of fictitious shares at the previous higher prices and the loss suffered by the legitimate owners forced to sell becomes the profit of the short sellers. How is this not theft on a grand scale?

As I noted previously, an individual broker can cover for an individual short seller but this individual trader is unlikely to have the clout to crash the market under a wave of selling all by himself. To do that you need numbers and volume and co-ordination. And to cover the stock and share certificates for that necessarily involves the DTC itself because they are the ones that can 'supply' (actually, invent) that amount of scrip to cover the accounts that allows it all to happen. So the owners of DTC, the NYSE and the Fed have to be involved in, if not directly directing, any crash involving substantial short selling into the market. And they can do it any time they like and there's no one to blow the whistle on them. There's no one to say, “Oi, you pinched my share certificates to sell into the market without my permission!” More to the point, there's no one to say, “Oi, there seems to be a whole lot more “Ajax Hot Air Balloons” shares on issue today than there was yesterday!” If anyone on Wall Street wants to maintain that share scrip is really borrowed from existing shareholders, let them name them and show documentation to prove it.

Yes, folks, shares are created out of thin air when they are 'lent' just like money is created out of thin air when it is lent into existence. Because no shareholder's account at his brokers is suddenly missing shares to cover the short selling before they are bought back, extra shares have to come into existence for the bridging period. When the shorted shares are bought back (at lower prices), the extra ones, the virtual ones, the thin air ones, disappear into the ether from whence they came leaving no trace for investigators to find (assuming they would ever be appointed and also assuming they would be granted access to the DTC's or Cede & Co's books). Neat, huh? It's just like the banks and your money which they issue and control.

So next time there is a major stock market crash, you will know what is going on, who is doing it, how they're doing it and why they're doing it. This leaves the question of what to do about it? Given that these 'wise and honourable men' are the experts followed by the regulators, not much can be expected in the way of reform of these institutions and certainly not of their owners. Public education is the only recourse really, that I can see.

So spread the word and tell anyone who will listen that 'short selling' is fraud and why. And if you have shares (and/or have friends who have), insist on receiving your stock certificates in your hand and registered in your name or the name of your own nominee company. If this is not possible, consider selling those shares and buying others where you can be the 'registered owner' and hold actual share certificates instead of being the 'beneficial owner' as suggested in one of the above links.
The sooner the practice of short selling is eliminated the sooner the economy, which means everybody including non share holders, will be better off.

Has the U.S. supreme court stepped into the limelight as the new power in American "democracy"?

How can fascism be stopped? How can we get the right wing masses to unify with the progressives so we have the footsoldiers on the side of the people? Anyway... I will keep dreaming.

Here's an interesting article with the headline Bin Laden claims airline bomb attempt on Christmas; funny how they even bother to mention "There was no way to verify the voice on the audio message was actually bin Laden"

Open thread, welcome to it.

Here we are well into winter and still no sign of our Winter. I hope all is well with you WP wherever you are!
Filling in quite inadequately, I wanted to pass along a link I saw today about first-hand eyewitness accounts of the attempted bombing.

Quoted word for word:

Flight 253 passenger Kurt Haskell: 'I was visited by the FBI'
By Aaron Foley | MLive.com
December 31, 2009, 9:41AM

Following up on a visit from FBI officials about an eyewitness account first described to MLive.com, Michigan attorney Kurt Haskell described the visit in comment sections across MLive on Wednesday.

Haskell and his wife, Lori, were aboard Flight 253 when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to destroy the plane. They say another man tried to help Abdulmutallab board the plane in Amsterdam.

Haskell had two detailed posts in two different stories. Here is Part One, originally posted here (Nothing below in the indent has been changed. Only links have been added.):

Today is the second worst day of my life after 12-25-09. Today is the day that I realized that my own country is lying to me and all of my fellow Americans. Let me explain.

Ever since I got off of Flight 253 I have been repeating what I saw in US Customs. Specifically, 1 hour after we left the plane, bomb sniffing dogs arrived. Up to this point, all of the passengers on Flight 253 stood in a small area in an evacuated luggage claim area of an airport terminal. During this time period, all of the passengers had their carry on bags with them. When the bomb sniffing dogs arrived, 1 dog found something in a carry on bag of a 30 ish Indian man. This is not the so called "Sharp Dressed" man. I will refer to this man as "The man in orange". The man in orange, who stood some 20ft away from me the entire time until he was taken away, was immediately taken away to be searched and interrogated in a nearby room. At this time he was not handcuffed. When he emerged from the room, he was then handcuffed and taken away. At this time an FBI agent came up to the rest of the passengers and said the following (approximate quote) "You all are being moved to another area because this area is not safe. I am sure many of you saw what just happened (Referring to the man in orange) and are smart enough to read between the lines and figure it out." We were then marched out of the baggage claim area and into a long hallway. This entire time period and until we left customs, no person that wasn't a law enforcement personnel or a passenger on our flight was allowed anywhere on our floor of the terminal (or possibly the entire terminal) The FBI was so concerned during this time, that we were not allowed to use the bathroom unless we went alone with an FBI agent, we were not allowed to eat or drink, or text or call anyone. I have been repeating this same story over the last 5 days. The FBI has, since we landed, insisted that only one man was arrested for the airliner attack (contradicting my account). However, several of my fellow passengers have come over the past few days, backed up my claim, and put pressure on FBI/Customs to tell the truth. Early today, I heard from two different reporters that a federal agency (FBI or Customs) was now admitting that another man has been held (and will be held indefinitely) since our flight landed for "immigration reasons." Notice that this man was "being held" and not "arrested", which was a cute semantic ploy by the FBI to stretch the truth and not lie.

Just a question, could that mean that the man in orange had no passport?

However, a few hours later, Customs changed its story again. This time, Mr. Ron Smith of Customs, says the man that was detained "had been taken into custody, but today tells the news the person was a passenger on a different flight." Mr. Ron Smith, you are playing the American public for a fool. Lets take a look at how plausible this story is (After you've already changed it twice). For the story to be true, you have to believe, that:

1. FBI/Customs let passengers from another flight co-mingle with the passengers of flight 253 while the most important investigation in 8 years was pending. I have already stated that not one person who wasn't a passenger or law enforcement personnal was in our area the entire time we were detained by Customs.
2. FBI/Customs while detaining the flight 253 passengers in perhaps the most important investigation since the last terrorist attack, and despite not letting any flight 253 passenger drink, eat, make a call, or use the bathroom, let those of other flights trample through the area and possibly contaminate evidence.
3. You have to believe the above (1 and 2) despite the fact that no flights during this time allowed passengers to exit off of the planes at all and were detained on the runway during at least the first hour of our detention period.
4. You have to believe that the man that stood 20 feet from me since we entered customs came from a mysterious plane that never landed, let its passengers off the plane and let this man sneak into our passenger group despite having extremely tight security at this time (i.e. no drinking even).
5. FBI/Customs was hauling mysterious passengers from other flights through the area we were being held to possibly comtaminate evidence and allow discussions with suspects on Flight 253 or to possibly allow the exchange of bombs, weapons or other devices between the mysterious passengers from other flights and those on flight 253.

Seriously Mr. Ron Smith, how stupid do you think the American public is?

Mr. Ron Smith's third version of the story is an absolute inplausible joke. I encourage you, Mr. Ron Smith, to debate me anytime, anywhere, and anyplace in public to let the American people see who is credible and who is not.

I ask, isn't this the more plausible story:

1. Customs/FBI realized that they screwed up and don't want to admit that they left flight 253 passengers on a flight with a live bomb on the runway for 20 minutes.
2. Customs/FBI realized that they screwed up and don't want to admit that they left flight 253 passengers in customs for 1 hour with a live bomb in a carry on bag.
3. Customs/FBI realize that the man in orange points to a greater involvement then the lone wolf theory that they have been promoting.

Mr. Ron Smith I encourage you to come out of your cubicle and come up with a more plausible version number 4 of your story.

Haskell continued his comment in a different post on MLive.

For the last five days I have been reporting my story of the so called "sharp dressed man." For those of you who haven't read my account, it involves a sharp dressed "Indian man" attempting to talk a ticket agent into letting a supposed "Sudanese refugee" (The terrorist) onto flight 253 without a passport. I have never had any idea how it played out except to note that the so called "Sudanese reefugee" later boarded my flight and attempted to blow it up and kill me. At no time did my story involve, or even find important whether the terrorist actually had a passport. The importance of my story was and always will be, the attempt with an accomplice (apparently succesful) of a terrorist with all sorts of prior terrorist warning signs to skirt the normal passport boarding procedures in Amsterdam. By the way, Amsterdam security did come out the other day and admit that the terrorist did not have to "Go through normal passport checking procedures".

Amsterdam security, please define to the American public "Normal passport boarding procedures".

You see the FBI would have the American public believe that what was important was whether the terrorist in fact had a passport.

Seriously think about this people. You have a suicide bomber who had recently been to Yemen to but a bomb, whose father had reported him as a terrorist, who supposedly was on some kind of U.S. terror watchlist, and most likely knew the U.S. was aware of these red flags. Yet, he didn't go through "Normal passport checking procedures." What does that mean? Maybe that he flashed a passport to some sort of sympathetic security manager in a backroom to avoid a closer look at the terrorist's "red flags"? What is important is that the terrorist avoided using normal passport checking procedures (apparently successfully) in order to avoid a closer look into his red flags. Who cares if he had a passport. The important thing is that he didn't want to show it and somehow avoided a closer inspection and "normal passport checking procedures." Each passport comes with a bar code on it that can be scanned to provide a wealth of information about the individual. I would bet that the passport checking procedures for the terrorist did not include a bar code scan of his passport (which could have revealed damning information about the terrorist).

Please note that there is a very easy way to verify the veracity of my prior "sharp dressed man" account. Dutch police have admitted that they have reviewed the video of the "sharp dressed man" that I referenced. Note that it has not been released anywhere, You see, if my eye witness account is false, it could easily be proven by releasing the video. However, the proof of my eyewitness account would also be verified if I am telling the truth and I am. There is a reason we have only heard of the video and not seen it. dutch authorities, "RELEASE THE VIDEO!" This is the most important video in 8 years and may be all of two minutes long. Show the entire video and "DO NOT EDIT IT"! The American public deserves its own chance to attempt to identify the "sharp dressed man". I have no doubt that if the video indicated that my account was wrong, that the video would have already swept over the entire world wide web.

Instead of the video, we get a statment that the video has been viewed and that the terrorist had a passport. Each of these statements made by the FBI is a self serving play on semantics and each misses the importance of my prior "sharp dressed man" account. The importance being that the man "Tried to board the plane with an accomplice and without a passort". The other significance is that only the airport security video can verify my eyewitness account and that it is not being released.

Who has the agenda here and who doesn't? Think about that for a minute.

Well the stockings are hung, and all that, and it is now Christmas here in BC.... I have written a hundred blog posts in my head over these past few months but just haven't managed to get them out and onto this screen.

Missing you all...my cyber friends
And wishing you...

...and other good things to eat and drink.