-------------------------------------------------1. NBC article
2. La Times article
3. Comment
4. Dept. Home Security info.
NBC Los Angeles
Men Detained After Clash at Pro-Israel Rally
Several men were detained by police after a clashes at pro-Israel rally in front of the Federal Building in Westwood Sunday
| Monday, Jul 14, 2014 |
Several men were detained at a pro-Israel peace rally in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles Sunday after pro-Palestinian protesters also turned up and the two sides clashed.
Witnesses in Westwood said there was a scuffle between men who drove past the protest, displaying a Palestinian flag and pro-Israel protesters.
A man who said he was in the truck said the flag was ripped away. When men from the truck attempted to retrieve the flag, there was a confrontation.
As several of the men tried to leave the scene, at least one gunshot was fired at the truck by a Department of Homeland Security agent, police confirmed to NBC4.
No one was struck by the gunfire.
Several men who were in the truck were then detained by the Los Angeles Police Department.
The shooting will be investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, assisted by the FBI, according to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
SOURCE - NBC Los Angeles - here.
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LA Times
Federal officer fires weapon at pro-Israel rally; no one hurt
Police in riot gear respond to clashes at a pro-Israel rally at the Federal Building in Westwood on Sunday. (Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times)
JULY 13, 2014, 11:40 PM
A federal officer attempting to break up an altercation during a pro-Israel demonstration Sunday at the Federal Building in Westwood fired a single shot but no one was harmed, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.
The rally, which drew some 500 people, was breaking up about 5:45 Sunday evening when pro-Israel supporters and pro-Palestinian supporters began to clash, said sheriff's Deputy Juanita Navarro.
An officer with the Department of Homeland Security sought to intervene and fired his weapon once, Navarro said.
Sunday’s rally followed a similar one staged Saturday in support of Palestinians.
Pro-Palestinian protesters critical of Israel's bombing of settlements in the Gaza Strip arrived at Sunday’s rally, and some in the crowds began yelling at each other, authorities said.
Two people were arrested.
SOURCE - LA Times - here.
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COMMENT
Wow. Don't know if this kind of thing is common or not.
Homeland Security sound like they need their butts kicked. Boats at double retail price and missing? WTF?
The 'mill' degree is also super dodgy.
What's wrong with the US?
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PS -- apologies if this is overkill of information. Find it useful learning tool ATM.
FACT CHECKING
US Homeland Security is a Federal Govt agency created after 9/11.
Head-quartered Washington DC @ former naval facility.
CRITICISMS
Waste
Bureaucracy
Ineffectiveness (inefficiency?)
Lack of Transparency
Wasting big
... up to $2 billion of waste and fraud after audits[SOURCE: wikipedia, unless otherwise indicated]
... revealed widespread misuse of government credit cards by DHS employees
Purchases including:
beer brewing kits
$70,000 of plastic dog booties (deemed unusable)
boats purchased at double the retail price (many of which later could not be found)
iPods ostensibly for use in "data storage"
Diploma mill computer science degree
... under fire after the media revealed that Laura Callahan, Deputy chief information officer at DHS with responsibilities for sensitive national security databases, had obtained her advanced computer science degrees through a diploma mill in a small town in Wyoming.
Poorly supervised body
Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff:
“...too much oversight results, ironically, in too much autonomy for the department.”Mixed message to lack of supervision of the body:
"... So either the department has no guidance or, more likely, the department ignores both because they're in conflict.
And so the department does what it wants to do." [Chertoff]
Data mining (ADVISE)
Anti-terrorism data mining tool called ADVISE scrapped.
Cost the agency $42 million.
Pilot testing of the system had been performed using data on real persons without:
"the ADVISE tool could misidentify or erroneously associate an individual with undesirable activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism."Fusion centres
Terrorism & response centres created by govt & partners in private sector.
For intergovernmental agency sharing of info - CIA, FBI, Dept Justice, US Military.
Plus state and local govt.
Criticisms:"potential to be used for secondary purposes unrelated to counter-terrorism, and their links to violations of civil liberties of American citizens ..."
"...labeling broad swaths of the public as a threat to national security."
eg. labelled "Muslim lobbyists as a potential threat".
eg. Analyst thought that:
Pro- and anti-abortion activists were worrisome.Homeland security contractor watched:
Environmental activistsMaryland State Police
Tea Party groups
Second Amendment rally
Placed in a Federal terrorism database:
anti-death penalty; and
anti-war activists
Centre in Missouri considered:
“.... all third-party voters and Ron Paul supporters were a threat...”MISSOURI
- Targeted supporters of third party candidates.
- Pro-life activists.
- Conspiracy theorists
as potential militia members.TEXAS
Anti-war activists.
Islamic lobby groups.
American Civil Liberties Union criticisms.
Risks to privacy presented by the Fusion Centre program:
1) justification for Fusion Centres,VIRGINIA
2) ambiguous lines of authority, rules, and oversight,
3) participation of the military & the private sector,
4) data mining,
5) excessive secrecy,
6) inaccurate or incomplete information,
7) mission creep.
Published ‘terrorism threat assessment’
Identified certain universities as “potential hubs for terror related activity.”
Identified historically black colleges.
Identified hactivism as form of terrorism.
MAIL MONITORING
“...Grant Goodman, "an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape bearing the words “by Border Protection” and carrying the official Homeland Security seal."
“The letter was sent by a devout Catholic Filipino woman with no history of supporting Islamic terrorism.”
“A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection "acknowledged that the agency can, will and does open mail coming to U.S. citizens that originates from a foreign country whenever it's deemed necessary":
The Department declined to outline what criteria are used to determine when a piece of personal correspondence should be opened or to say how often or in what volume Customs might be opening mail.
“... Mother Jones remarked that "unlike other prying government agencies, Homeland Security wants you to know it is watching you".
“CNN observed that: ‘ ... the heels of the NSA wiretapping controversy, Goodman's letter raises more concern over the balance between privacy and security’.”--------
Mother Jones is a nonprofit news organization that specializes in investigative, political, and social justice reporting. [Mother Jones]
