Free speech has been on the chopping block for a long time. Journalists are already silenced and have to ask the government for permission before running stories while alternative media is censored and blocked by Google’s search algorithms. But now it’s getting worse, and Congress isn’t stopping it.
The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) wants to make it a whole lot easier to throw journalists in jail if they say or write the wrong things. According to Tech Dirty, the CIA is pushing for an expansion of a 37-year-old law that would deter journalists from covering national security issues or reporting on leaked documents (such as those Julian Assange posted to Wikileaks and is rotting in a jail cell for).
https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/why-everyone-should-be-outraged-at-assanges-arrest_04232019
Thanks to a disillusioned CIA case officer’s actions in 1975, there are currently a few limits to what can or can’t be reported about covert operatives working overseas.
In 1975, Philip Agee published a memoir about his years with the CIA. Attached to his memoir — which detailed his growing discontentment with the CIA’s clandestine support of overseas dictators — was a list of 250 CIA agents or informants. In response to this disclosure, Congress passed the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA), which criminalized disclosing the identity of covert intelligence agents.
The IIPA did what it could to protect journalists by limiting the definition of “covert agent” to agents serving overseas and then only those who were currently working overseas when the disclosure occurred. It also required the government to show proof the person making the disclosure was “engaged in a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose” covert agents. The law was amended in 1999 to expand the coverage to include covert agents working overseas within five years of the disclosure. –Tech Dirty
The CIA wants all of these protections for journalists removed, including the word “overseas.” This would allow the CIA (and all other intelligence agencies) to designate whoever they want as “protected” by the IIPA in perpetuity, and jail those who report about things the government wants to keep from the prying eyes of the public.
Under the proposed law, any journalist who, say, revealed the names of “covert” CIA officers that had engaged in torture or ordered drone strikes on civilians would now be subject to prosecution — even if the newsworthy actions occurred years or decades prior or the officer in question has always been located in the United States.
In fact, the CIA explicitly referenced the revelations of the agency’s Bush-era torture program in its argument to Congress for IIPA expansion. The New York Times’s Charlie Savage obtained the CIA’s private memo in which it lobbied members of Congress. Under the memo’s “justification” section, the CIA wrote:
“Particularly with the lengths organizations such as WikiLeaks are willing to go to obtain and release sensitive national security information, as well as incidents related to past Agency programs, such as the RDI [Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation — a euphemism used to describe the CIA’s illegal torture program] investigation, the original congressional reasoning mentioned above for a narrow definition of ‘covert agent’ no longer remains valid.” –Gen Medium
Democrats, such as Adam Schiff, are helping make sure journalists rights are trampled and the public doesn’t get any information the government doesn’t want them to have. When you take a good look at his record, Schiff has always favored the secrecy of intelligence agencies over journalists’ rights.
No administration should have the power to prevent journalists from publishing illegal acts undertaken by the government. Ever. For any reason.
The problem I have with this is most modern journalists aren’t exposing illegal government activities, they are exposing activities that they politically disagree with, but are legal.
They rarely expose illegal activities if it is something they politically agree with, such as Hillary Clinton’s illegal email activities.
Since “Journalists” are essentially propagandists, they should be treated as such, and should be destroyed at every legal opportunity to do so.
I fear the Government and don’t trust it at all, but it is a known enemy. Journalists claim to be working for the “people”, but even when you show them trust, they will betray and attack you if it furthers their political agenda. That is a far worse enemy, much more difficult to fight, and protect yourself from.
rellik
Journalists, a profession that Julian Assange has is an enemy for reporting government activity and an enemy? They’re the only means we have to know what is going on. Reminder, the government has the legal means to take your wealth, freedom and life. Your confused on what or who is the greater threat.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
There are no exemptions in the above.
K2,
Perhaps my first and second sentence weren’t clear.
I was referring to the selective reporting that is so prevalent.
I’m all for the 1st amendment!
I used to put in the IFF codes to be used in B-52’s on a Strategic Air Command base. Suppose I felt that was OK to publish? I had access to the entire book’s worth. To save humanity? I’m sure if Julian Assange were around then he would have published it.
But has anybody leaked Hillary’s emails which are available somewhere? NO!
Selective Journalism based on Politics has nothing to do with the first amendment, although the amendment allows it.
I fully agree with you on Government!
As for Journalists, consider me like Diogenes the Cynic.
Carrying a lantern searching for honest Journalist.
” I’m sure if Julian Assange were around then he would have published it.”
Interestingly a similar statement came out of a judges mouth regarding in the Pentagon Papers regarding the plans for D Day which weren’t published. You’re saying that Julian Assange is bad because of not what he has done but rather what you believe he would do. That’s a very unique legal standard absolutely without merit. You don’t know what Assange had and your upset at what wasn’t published because it doesn’t fit your agenda. I may like your agenda and I believe that I do, however you don’t pick and choose with the First Amendment. Assange gave up no military plans; he exposed no foreign agents. He is not Daniel Ellsberg who took the information , he is the NY Times who published it. If what he published is not Constitutionally protected by the 1st amendment God help us because we have then been codified into “Mushroom Status” (kept in the dark and fed only bullshit).
K2,
“He is not Daniel Ellsberg who took the information , he is the NY Times who published it. If what he published is not Constitutionally protected by the 1st amendment God help us because we have then been codified into “Mushroom Status” (kept in the dark and fed only bullshit).”
Interesting point of view.
So if someone were to hack into a data base that happened to have your personal private financial information, I obtained it from them, and published it, you would not hold me in any way responsible as I did not do the hack? That is interesting.
In a strict sense you are correct.
I’m still searching for an honest Journalist, not just a filtered VHF repeater.
Aloha
BTW I understand “Mushroom”.
rellik
Actually Ellsberg was tried and got off because the government, pursuing the case against him way overstepped his constitutional rights in the 4th Amendment. The judge threw out the case. The protection extends to the publisher not the hacker. The legal window the government is attempting is to so connect Assange to the hacker, Manning for instance, showing that Assange was not just the recipient but assisted in the obtaining of the information making him both the protected NY Times of Pentagon Papers fame and the unprotected Daniel Ellsberg. This is liable to be a very tricky legal needle to thread.
Regarding Julian Assange–it was reported early on, years ago, that wikileaks (he and his crew) hacked into..
The Chinese Hackers.
And that’s where they got much of the first info they published.
But we’ll blame him instead. WTF.
Exactly.. rabid communist propagandists deserve death in my opinion
I totally agree. The problem isn’t journalists exposing what the government really does but instead their refusal to actually do their job.
Look at what most journalists write about (and they are nearly all women these days) and it is hot button social issues. They mostly point their fingers at how racist, sexist white men are and that the world is “too white”. They ignore facts like the greatest abusers of women in the world today are black and Muslim men. They ignore the rape and murder explosion in Europe since open borders.
Journalism needs to become journalism again and stop being a pity parade of women gossiping.
Rellik, MSM mouthpieces are definitely propagandists but most people in the alt media are real journalists. Civil war 2 is the only hope I see for this country. Taking down the CIA would definitely solve some problems. As long as we have the kind of govt. we currently have we’re all in danger.
This is what happens when journalism becomes propaganda.
The “journalists” have brought it on themselves. No sympathy.
Maybe if a dozen or so were locked up the rest might find some integrity.
“journalism becomes propaganda”
We’re fed government propaganda from the Gulf Of Tonkin well through WMD in Iraq. Tens of thousands of Americans died and the Journalists are the propagandists?
The Press Is To Serve The Governed, Not The Governors”.
USSC Justice Hugo Black (The Pentagon Papers)
“and the Journalists are the propagandists?”
You bet they are. They are part and parcel to the government’s lies. Willing participants. Perhaps not so much when we were young and the journalists were reporting on the Vietnam war but they learned their power from this. They realized that they could be the 4th branch of government. It is a lot more profitable to be in the club, so to speak. Whatever happened Kevin, they are now the propaganda arm of the government. specifically the Democratic party. I mean, really Kevin, how does the government disseminate it’s propaganda but through CNN, CBS, etc?
Not talking about Wikileaks, et al. Hell, the internet is our only salvation.
Stuart
The MSM is not up on potential trial here… they are propagandists and in doing so need no Constitutional protection. Agreeing with the system requires no protection. We’re debating the real journalists, and whistleblowers. Assange the former being a publisher, Snowden the latter who shows us that the 4th Amendment is being run over roughshod and Clapper and company lie before Congress under oath denying it which is a felony.
Does the Bill of Rights beyond the Second Amendment mean anything to anyone? I’m shocked.
I see what you’re saying. I misunderstood. You are absolutely correct.
Re: Assange:
How that plays out will let us know exactly where we stand. I’m not ready to give him up yet. I believe Mr. Trump is the real deal. The fate of Mr. Assange will tell the tale.
Now I’m going to listen to Pink Floyd and drink a little too much wine my friends.
Stuart
Enjoy, we’re on the same Libertarian page here. Even if Trump pardons him it’s a loss for liberty. His case, if he gets convicted which for me with kangaroo courts is a forgone conclusion, will stand, pardon of the individual or not. The case needs to go (if convicted) to the US Supreme Court. Common Law in the Pentagon Papers case should (if the court has legal honesty) protect Assange with the 1st Amendment. If they (A) Refuse to hear the case (more likely) or (B) Rule against Assange (Legal perversion in light of the Pentagon Papers ruling) we see where we stand. Once again a Trump pardon leaves it all in legal limbo to be used on the next person thereby chilling such activity at a time of a different administration.
I wasn’t thinking about a pardon. I wouldn’t be surprised if Assange was the mechanism by which Trump takes down some of these assholes. He’s not going to be prosecuted – he’s the star witness. The only way to assure his safety was to get him under wraps. Hope I’m right. Time will tell.
Now, back to “Comfortably Numb”
Stuart, don’t forget to throw in “several species of small furry animals in a cave grooving with a pict”. I believe it is on the Animals album lol.
Ummagumma
To clarify its my understanding that if Assange is pardoned in event of conviction he has no case before the highest court; the ruling still stands. The “chilling effect” is accomplished. Now I’m not sure that Assange must accept a pardon if given; if he can refuse it so as not to hand the system an “out”. That intestinal fortitude, sheer balls, would elevate him to patriot / libertarian / constitutionalist sainthood. It would be like handing the Magna Carta to the King for signing; a Lech Walesa, a Vaclav Havel in essence saying, “I’ll stand on principle before I’ll bow in fear”.
Kevin2 & Stuart thanks for the informative debate regarding our 1st Amendment. Great points. I fear journalists are very selective about which parts of the Constitution & Bill of Rights they support. I know Demonrats have utter disdain for any of the “Founding Documents.”
Kevin2 & Stuart thanks for the informative debate regarding our 1st Amendment. Great points. I fear journalists are very selective about which parts of the Constitution & Bill of Rights they support. I know Demonrats have utter disdain for any of the “Founding Documents.”
cranerigger
Freedom frightens people, even Adams, our 2nd President, a Founding Father took a dump on the 1st Amendment before the ink on it was not fully dry. Both the right and left “cherry pick” through the Bill Of Rights, granted the left more aggressively. If I’m going to err in judgement it will be to the side of more freedom, not less.
It might exist, in the mandatory, Satanic, Communist curriculum, somewhere.
But, I have never seen the part, where the state teaches you logical fallacies or critical reasoning.
The discussion was never about what counts as a literal fact. It was about spying. They don’t want you to have all the facts — even regarding what you have paid for and what affects you, directly. The misinformation was intentional.
clown
“Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessup: You can’t handle the truth!”
It is just a movie, but it reflects what the Governments,
Media, and Academia that rule over us think and practice.
rellik,
Truth is people can’t handle the truth. Jack Nicholson was right.
There are bad people in the world and someone has to shoot them between the eyes. This Liberal movie was brilliant in that, of course, nobody should be killing privates because of…. anything and made our guardians on the edge look like psychos.
A better illustration of the way the world is would be “Nighthawks”.
Just sayin’
Stu,
Unfortunately my “Nighthawks” was on VHS, I saw it years ago, don’t remember it all that well.
I’ll dig around for a more modern copy.
ThankX!
BTW,
Judging from the comments today, the Libertarians kind of took over!
this site has absolutely nothing to do with preparedness or survivalism or homesteading or self reliance. its just a bunch of articles designed to get people bitching bragging and egg them on to say controversial shit that will end up in nsa data centers to be used against you later. im gonna go as far to say its fishing for people with revolutionary aspirations. ive not learned anything new from the comments not cus people arent posting shit that can help others increase their chances of survival. its cus those posts arent being put up and therefore there is no dialog going from other commenters. shtf plan means having a plan if there is info shared that isnt making it to post that isnt helping the survival community. mac peoples comments can spawn new discussions and new articles. the gov fear mongering just dont work no more. people wanna know what they can do in their little world around them to help them help themselves and pass on knowledge to others when the situation permits. if i tell my neighbors how to do a garden there is less chance of them coming after mine and others stuff.
asshat, well said. It appears Mac has been detained by the black ops guys and is no longer running the site.
Granted we have beaten the shtf plans for some time now but there is always someone who knows, or learns ,a new solution or product or a fact and when it is shared here we all benefit.
Those days are, for the most part-gone.
In England young white Anglo-Saxon female children have been and continue to be seduced, abused, raped, tortured, destroyed by gangs of Middle Eastern men. No one denies these provable facts. Perpetrators have received millions of dollars toward their legal defense for these crimes. The little girls receive nothing. And journalist, Tommy Robinson, whose so-called offense was merely that he reported the facts, is rotting in prison. He begged the USA to grant him protection. Apparently he got none.
America is teetering on the brink of becoming like England, a captive of the Marxist Central Bank controlled denatsified, defanged, declawed, disemboweled, neutered, feeble, pathetic sorry excuse of a Country.
.
Honeypot
You are correct.
Our Constitutional protections with bold language of “Shall Not” have been legally interpreted as “Well Maybe”. The “No Rights Are Absolute” in effect relegates “Rights To Privileges”. This then uses not the “Rule of Law” but the whim of “Public Opinion”. When the agents of totalitarianism control the bully pulpit and bullhorn the desired outcome is in their favor.
HP,
There is a difference between us and Europe. We have guns.
Where I live has no Mosques. It has the highest per capital number of churches in America. Not all Christian. Our local boy scout troop is sponsored by a Hongwaji mission.
If you fit in here you can stay. If you don’t you will leave.
One way or another.
???
“There is a difference between us and Europe. We have guns.”
Certainly we have a lot more but I imagine the number of military grade arms in illegal circulation and still in hiding in Europe left over from WWII is far greater than most realize. Regardless guns in civilian de-facto guerrilla hands don’t defend one against a modern army. What they do it to make an area ungovernable. The VC lost every battle above company size and “won” few even at platoon level even using the ridiculous measure of “body count” victory employed. The US held every piece of ground it occupied while occupied, once the measure of victory. The government of SVN however did not have political control of the countryside. The US officer, admiral or general said to his NVA counterpart at the Paris Peace Accord completion, “You know we never lost a battle”; The reply, “That is true and also irrelevant”. I’m not discounting the usefulness and necessity of an armed civilian population but it, by itself, is no panacea for freedom
rellik
Something goofed up. The above was written by me in a reply to you.
Speaking of walmart and their shortage of canned veggies, you know they lowball the shit out of their suppliers right? Maybe the suppliers have had enough. I hope all of them tell walmart to shove it! Oh but then the pathetic knuckledragging zombie retards will have to shop elsewhere lol. Fuckin’ morons deserve it all!
Genius
Being were off topic I would like to pass on for those interested that Sams Club has Mobil 1 for sale at $28.00 for a 6 quart box. It comes out to $4.50 a quart. Without going into a long dissertation as I have some knowledge about its properties its super stuff. The sale ends 7/30 or so. Its all I use in the auto, oil guns with it too.
K2,
Just to put my last two cents in. I get Mobil1 10-40 from Wally mart in 5qt containers. That is an oil and filter change for my vehicles. they don’t burn or leak so 5 qts is good for the 10,000 mile oil change interval. It is $28 in Hawaii, surely cheaper on the mainland.
Otherwise I would use Shell Rotella. which is cheaper, but I can’t get it in 10-40. I have high mileage vehicles in a place that never gets much below 60 degrees. You mainland guys should do fine with 5-30.
If you run anything except synthetic in your vehicle you are nuts.
rellik
At the risk of being repetitive the readers might take interest in this. Having worked in a Mobil Oil Refinery next to the Mobil Research Lab that invented Mobil 1 I was privy to some information from let’s say, “the horses mouth”. They tested Mobil 1 for 200K and the engines were still in factory tolerances. I ate lunch in the Research cafeteria that was like a 4 star restaurant in quality with ultra cheap prices. A friend / classmate in their auto lab introduced me to an engineer he befriended and I got to know “Ginger” (actually Jinder) a Sikh who has PHDs (that 2) from Cambridge Chemistry and MIT Chemical Engineering. I asked him about Mobil 1 and why its so good. This guy could talk at my level and said. Petroleum oil is a good lubricant by accident, Mobil 1 is a good lubricant on purpose. It does the following far better than petroleum based oil.
1. It clings to parts for start up when wear is greatest
2. Its viscosity changes far less with high and low temp
3. Gasoline does not dilute into it destroying its lubrication properties.
I do know that the best petroleum lube stock in 1980 would be un-saleable today when pitted against modern petroleum based oil let alone synthetic oil. They took the paraffin’s (wax) out of oil back then by refrigerating it. In the mid 1980s they chemical reconfigured the complex paraffin molecules in a hydro-dewaxing process.
Hope this wasn’t too boring.
CIA is a private army for the central bankers and biggest power brokers in the world . They are part of the problem and have no solutions. They are involved and operate some of the largest criminal organizations in the world.
Anonymous
You’re 100% correct. They stage events and problems to justify intervention. The KGB were rank thug amateurs by comparison.
If the CIA and the other three-letter agencies are worried about secret stuff being leaked to journalists and publishers they need to do a better job of keeping the stuff secret. Truth be known, they aren’t worried about the enemy du jour finding out about this stuff because the enemy du jour probably already knows it anyway (they spy on us, too). What the three-letter agencies are worried about is US citizens finding out this stuff and starting to dig into stuff the three-letter agencies don’t want to explain can’t defend and they especially don’t want Congress finding out this stuff. Like, where is all that so-called “black budget” money going…
“Like, where is all that so-called “black budget” money going…”
Unfortunately, we will never know. They have codified this type of expenditure out of the public eye forever. The FASB has passed a rule (FAS 56) that says government does not have to disclose what it spends taxpayer money on when it comes to “national security”. See, there they go again with the “national security”. Much like the nebulous “public safety” meme they throw out there, it can mean whatever they choose it to mean. We are all “mushrooms” now…hat tip Kevin2.
Nobody does a thing about it in public obviously afraid of consequences for speaking truth to power. It’s that bad and don’t look for the situation to improve. The peoples voice does not matter and the rapid pace to shut free speech down completely is far advanced. Mr Trump is 100% in on the plan, otherwise he would not be president. Similar to the 5G push to kill off and sicken the population, approval of all genetic manipulated foodstuffs recently and anything goes predatory capitalism. I also believe that every statement printed on the Web is overseen by government spies.
After a few convulsive electro shock sessions, and a good thrashing with a whip or cane.
This is a quote from Casey, who was Pres. Reagan’s intelligence director, “We’ll know our disinformation programs are successful when everything the American people believe is false.”
Knowledge is power. TPTB and officialdom despise freedom of speech (and the rest of the 1st Amendment), and equally despise a well informed public. They are waging a multi-front war against Amer. citizens. One front is to control ALL information; by suppression, lying, distorting facts, propagandizing, hiding, blackmail, misdirection, and imprisoning. A second front is to dumb-down the Amer. people combined with a form of social regimentation. The goal is to ultimately control all thought, belief, and behavior.
Intelligence agencies, political parties, political institutions, NGOs, and highest levels of gov’t have been co-opted by neo-cons, Zionists, etc. The will of the American. people is no longer important. We don’t want more wars, we don’t want to be involved in the constant turmoil of other regions, we don’t want to keep running up even more national debt for wars (many trillions in the past 20 years) with nothing good to show for it. We already have way too many serious problems domestically.
Another weapon used against the people is a two-tier system of justice. Time and time again officials have been show to be lying and engaging in highly illegal activities. But it appears as long as one is part of the club (party affiliation is not important) you can get away with anything.
The last 30 years has shown our intelligence and “security” apparatuses are primarily more for working more against the Amer. people than against foreign powers, even colluding with foreign powers against Amer. individuals. Pres. Kennedy stated he wanted to “break up these apparatuses in a thousand pieces and scatter them to the wind”, because they were found to be working incorrigibly in opposition of real Amer. interests.
I’m late in logging in. Mercy, what ever happened to those who believed in individual liberty, the inalienable Creator-given rights (of ALL of mankind) delineated in the Declaration of Independence, our Bill of Rights, laissez-faire free-market capitalism? Like the Left, our agenda trumps our principles.
Kevin2, it looks like you are one of the last liberty-minded guys standing. Would you please shut off the lights as you leave?
Montana Guy
Like everyone I have personal bias. I fight it when I look at the application of the Bill Of Rights / US Constitution. Its predecessor, the Declaration Of Independence if given oratory in public, would get someone on one or more letter agencies list. Its nauseating but simultaneously fascinating watching the politicians and bureaucrats eviscerating the word and intent of the Constitution and logic of the Declaration Of Independence, in effect stating, “We need to take your freedom to keep you free”. I distain both the right and left for their actions.
The CIA likely now understands what Mitchell & Jessen did to the reputation of the Central Ignoramuses Agency with their reverse engineered SRE programme. Clearly, anyone that was in any university getting a degree at that time would disavow the entire agency and their penchant for torture. Moreover, since the fallout of the George W. Bush Torture Regime it is more than highly likely that very few extremely bright academics would ever work for them now.
What the Central Idiot Agency is really worried about is their own status & job protection in the wake of the public outcry for redress in the case of their illegal practices of torture. What is most disturbing about the Central Ignorance Agency is that they are losing the talent game and cannot manage to get the brightest minds out of universities because they completely destroyed their reputation with the George W. Bush Torture Regime.
Bottom line is that the CIA can lick my balls in deference to my superior intellect over their own. And I’ll bet petro-dollars to donuts that that is what all serious academics think when they look at the CIA.
Up yours, CIA.
RW
The CIA and the rest of the intelligence/defense agencies have this country by the balls.
What happened to “Draining the swamp”? This is more like “Saving the swamp, and making sure it festers, forever”.
Clearly, very few of you understand anything about civil liberties or freedom of speech and how any civilians, regardless if they are journalists or not, should be able to discuss any classified information they have. It’s not their job to protect classified information.
What about national defense you ask? What about the huge amount of corruption in the defense/intelligence agencies? That corruption is hurting our nation so much more than any of these whistleblowers, leaks, journalists, etc…. Do you have any idea how much of your tax $$ goes to paying bureaucrats who sit and do absolutely nothing productive for years in the intel/defense agencies?
WHAT HAPPENED TO DRAINING THE SWAMP?