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Paul Merrell

Ron Paul fans furious over Rand Paul's drone flip-flop | FP Passport - 0 views

blog.foreignpolicy.com/...ver_rand_pauls_drone_flip_flop

war & peace Rand Paul drones domestic drones

shared by Paul Merrell on 25 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Ron Paul's vibrant fan base is in open rebellion today over Rand Paul's perceived reversal on domestic drone strikes. The Kentucky senator, whose famous 13-hour Senate floor filibuster did much to strengthen his ties with his father's hardcore following, told Fox Business Network on Tuesday he's OK with drone strikes on American citizens who, for instance, rob a liquor store. "I've never argued against any technology being used when you have an imminent threat, an active crime going on," Paul said. "If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and fifty dollars in cash. I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him."
  • While it's true that Paul has always made an exception for "imminent threats" -- a 9/11-like moment -- the liquor store scenario struck many libertarians as a very low threshold for domestic drone strikes, especially considering Paul's Senate floor remarks, which if you recall, took a more anti-drone stance. Here's Paul on the Senate floor: I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court. Now, a phalanx of Ron Paul and libertarian forums are revolting at the senator's perceived reversal.
  • Update: In response to the backlash, Sen. Paul released a statement about his views on domestic drone strikes. "Armed drones should not be used in normal crime situations," Paul said. When asked if he was retracting his hypothetical about an armed liquor store thief being killed by a drone, his spokeswoman Moira Bagley told Foreign Policy "not retracting." Here's the full statement:
Paul Merrell

MAJOR DEVELOPMENT: Rand Paul, Ron Wyden to Introduce 28 Pages Resolution in Senate | 28... - 0 views

28pages.org/...-28-pages-resolution-in-senate

war & peace 9-11-Truth 28-pages Paul Wyden Senate

shared by Paul Merrell on 29 May 15 - No Cached
  • The growing, nonpartisan drive to declassify a 28-page finding on foreign government support of the 9/11 hijackers is about to take an enormous step forward with the introduction of a Senate resolution urging the president to release the material to the public. Dramatically compounding the issue’s visibility, the resolution is being introduced by high-profile Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul of Kentucky. A spokesperson for Senator Paul told 28Pages.org that Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden will cosponsor the resolution, which will serve as the upper chamber’s companion to House Resolution 14. Wyden is a member of the Senate intelligence committee.
  • ones, Lynch and Massie introduced H.Res.14 and have been championing the issue—and seeking like-minded senators to lead the cause in the upper chamber—since December 2013. Aided by Graham, who co-chaired the joint congressional 9/11 inquiry that wrote the 28 pages as one chapter in a far larger report, their success in securing the leadership of Paul and Wyden represents a critical milestone for the 28 pages movement. As Paul and Wyden seek cosponsors for the resolution, there are 11 senators whose support should—on principle, if not politics—be automatic:  Patrick Leahy (VT), Barbara Mikulski (MD), Harry Reid (NV), Barbara Boxer (CA), Patty Murray (WA), Dick Durbin (IL), Jack Reed (RI), Chuck Schumer (NY), Bill Nelson (FL), Tom Carper (DE) and Maria Cantwell (WA). 
  • What do these 11 Democrats have in common? Months after the December 2002 release of the congressional intelligence report that holds the 28 pages, each of them signed a 2003 letter to President George W. Bush protesting his decision to redact the 28 pages and urging him to release them. In part, that letter read: Unfortunately, because all but two pages of the entire section have been deemed too secret for public disclosure, the American people remain in the dark about other countries that may have facilitated the terrorist attacks. It has been widely reported in the press that the foreign sources referred to in this portion of the Joint Inquiry analysis reside primarily in Saudi Arabia. The decision to classify this information sends the wrong message to the American people about our nation’s anti-terror effort and makes it seem as if there will be no penalty for foreign abettors of the hijackers…Protecting the Saudi regime by eliminating any public penalty for the support given to terrorists from within its borders would be a mistake.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Among those 11 natural candidates to join the Paul-Wyden resolution, one stands out: Schumer led the 2003 letter-writing effort. At the time, he said, “The bottom line is that keeping this material classified only strengthens the theory that some in the U.S. government are hellbent on covering up for the Saudis. If we’re going to take terrorism down, that kind of behavior has got to be nipped in the bud and shedding some light on these 28 pages would start that process.”
  • Former Senator Graham and House leaders of the 28 pages movement who’ve read the 28 pages argue that their release is vital to the ongoing struggle with terrorism. According to Graham, “the 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11 and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier.” He has also said the U.S. government’s shielding of Saudi Arabia’s role in funding extremism helped pave the way for the rise of ISIS. The House’s Lynch made a similar point in a 2014 story written by the Boston Globe’s Bryan Bender:
  • Paul Merrell on 29 May 15
     
    I suspect that Mr. Obama won't be eager to make the Saudis the patsies  for what it really looks like Israel's far right government and some colaborators in high levels of U.S. government made happen on 9-11.  Heavens! The Saudis might start selling selling their oil in something other than U.S. dollars and bring down the Western banksters house of cards. 
Paul Merrell

Rand Paul backs Snowden, bashes Clapper - POLITICO.com - 0 views

www.politico.com/...den-bashes-clapper-180571.html

surveillance state NSA Clapper Snowden amnesty Rand Paul

shared by Paul Merrell on 06 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Sunday went to bat for NSA leaker Edward Snowden — and took a swing at Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, while Sen. Chuck Schumer advocated a tougher line on Snowden. "I don't think Edward Snowden deserves the death penalty or life in prison; I think that's inappropriate, I think that's why he fled, is that's what he faced," Paul, a possible 2016 contender for the Republican presidential nomination, said on ABC's "This Week." "Do I think it's OK to leak secrets and give up national security [information] that endangers lives? I don't think that's OK, either. But I think the courts are now saying he revealed something the government was doing that was illegal." Paul, who's pushing a class-action suit against the National Security Agency over its data collection tactics, has said that Snowden and Clapper should "share a prison cell," charging that Clapper lied to Congress. "Maybe if they served in a prison cell together, we'd be further enlightened as a country over what we should and shouldn't do," Paul said.
Paul Merrell

Rand Paul Wants to See Evidence of Syrian Chemical Strike | LifeZette - 0 views

www.lifezette.com/...vidence-syrian-chemical-strike

war & peace U.S.-foreign-policy Syria Idlib-gas-attack Rand-Paul

shared by Paul Merrell on 17 Apr 17 - No Cached
  • Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on Friday that the Senate Intelligence Committee needs to review the evidence linking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to a chemical-weapons attack that prompted Thursday night’s missile strike by the U.S. On the surface, Paul said, it makes no sense for Assad to use chemical weapons. He was winning the six-year-old civil war, had the support of Russian troops on the ground, and, just days earlier, received a public statement from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that regime change was not America’s goal.
  • “He’s either the dumbest dictator in the world, or it may be more confusing,” Paul said on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”
Paul Merrell

Ron Paul Slams Cruz And Hillary: They Are Both "Owned By Goldman" | Zero Hedge - 1 views

www.zerohedge.com/...ry-they-are-both-owned-goldman

Auction 2016 ron paul Sanders Hillary Cruz

shared by Paul Merrell on 09 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Now that Rand Paul is out of the race for the White House, Politico's Eliza Collins reports that his father Ron Paul, who ran in 2008 and 2012, isn't impressed by Ted Cruz's attempts to pick up the "free market" libertarian banner. “You take a guy like Cruz, people are liking the Cruz — they think he’s for the free market, and [in reality] he’s owned by Goldman Sachs. I mean, he and Hillary have more in common than we would have with either Cruz or Trump or any of them so I just don’t think there is much picking,” Paul said of the Texas senator on Fox Business’ “Varney & Company" on Friday.
  • Surprisingly, the elder Paul seemed more attracted to the views of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is giving Hillary Clinton a run for her money in the Democratic primary. “On occasion, Bernie comes up with libertarian views when he talks about taking away the cronyism on Wall Street, so in essence he’s right, and occasionally he voted against war,” the former Texas congressman said when asked if there was a candidate who was truly for the free market. "It's hard to find anybody -- since Rand is out of it -- anybody that would take a libertarian position, hardcore libertarian position on privacy, on the war issue and on economic policy," Paul added. “So I always say: You can search for a long time, but you’re not gonna find anybody in the Republican or Democratic primary that even comes slightly close to ever being able to claim themselves a libertarian,” he concluded.
Paul Merrell

Rand Paul slams James Clapper over NSA 'lying' - Jose DelReal - POLITICO.com - 0 views

www.politico.com/...al-security-agency-101306.html

surveillance state Clapper Rand Paul Snowden lies

shared by Paul Merrell on 22 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • “That Clapper is lying to Congress is probably more injurious to our intelligent capabilities than anything Snowden did,” Paul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Clapper has damaged the credibility of the entire intelligence apparatus and I’m not sure what to believe anymore when they come to Congress.”
  • Paul also said he believes Clapper would need to resign to restore confidence in the intelligence community.
  • “I don’t know how you can have someone in charge over intelligence who has known to lie in a public forum to Congress, to lie without repercussions,” he added. “If the intelligence community says we’re not spying on Americans and they are, and then they say we’re not collecting any data, it’s hard to have confidence in them.” When asked about the prospect of raising criminal charges against Clapper, Paul said that both Snowden and Clapper broke the law. “I think the law is the law; they both broke the law and that one shouldn’t get off scot-free,” Paul said.
Paul Merrell

Rand Paul files suit against Obama, NSA Wednesday - 1 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...s-suit-against-obama-nsa-today

surveillance state NSA 4th Amendment litigation Rand Paul

shared by Paul Merrell on 12 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) and Matt Kibbe, president of the conservative organizing group FreedomWorks, are filing a class action lawsuit against President Obama and other members of his administration over the National Security Agency's collection of phone metadata, a practice they believe violates the Fourth Amendment. In a YouTube video released Tuesday, Paul compared the government surveillance to the warrantless searches practiced by the British military prior to American independence.
Gary Edwards

Seth Lipsky: The Gold Standard Goes Mainstream - WSJ.com - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...4914904577619383218788846.html

GOLD Banksters Federal-Reserve-Bankster-Cartel dollar-destruction Fiat-Empire

shared by Gary Edwards on 31 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Gary Edwards on 31 Aug 12
     
    Excellent discussion of where the Republican Party stands in relationship to the destruction of the dollar and new interest in linking the dollar to GOLD.  Good stuff.  Personally i'm in the Ron Paul camp, hook, line and sinker. excerpt: "In the ferment within today's Republican Party, the gold standard has become almost the centrist position. On the left would be those who favor a system of discretionary activism in which brilliant technocrats, such as Ben Bernanke at the Fed, use their judgment in setting interest rates. A bit to their right would be advocates of a rule, such as John Taylor's rule linking interest rates to various conditions, or one that requires the Fed to target the price of gold but stops short of defining the dollar in terms of specie. In the center would be advocates of a classical gold standard, in which a dollar is defined as a fixed amount of gold. These include, among others, Mr. Lehrman, James Grant of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, publisher Steve Forbes, economist Judy Shelton, and Sean Fieler of the American Principles Project. A bit further to the right would be partisans of the Austrian school of economics, including Rep. Paul. He advocates less for a gold standard than for an idea of Friedrich Hayek, the Nobel laureate who came to favor what he called the denationalization of money and a system centered on private coinage and currency that would compete with government-issued money. Further right are purists such as the radical constitutionalist Edwin Vieira Jr., who would simply price things in weights of gold or silver. A good bit of overlap exists among the camps, but Congress has come alive to all points on this spectrum. Rep. Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican who is vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, is seeking to pass the Sound Dollar Act, which would end the Fed's mandate to keep unemployment down, instead having the central bank focus only on stable prices. Rep. Paul is pressing the Free Competition in Curr
Gary Edwards

Rand Paul's Tea Party Response: Full Text - 0 views

www.newsmax.com/...490118

Rand-Paul Libertarian USA-Constitution

shared by Gary Edwards on 13 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • With my five-year budget, millions of jobs would be created by cutting the corporate income tax in half, by creating a flat personal income tax of 17%, and by cutting the regulations that are strangling American businesses.
  • America has much greatness left in her. We will begin to thrive again when we begin to believe in ourselves again, when we regain our respect for our founding documents, when we balance our budget, when we understand that capitalism and free markets and free individuals are what creates our nation’s prosperity.
  • Gary Edwards on 13 Feb 13
     
    Outstanding statement about what made America great, an dhow are government is destroying that greatness.  This is the full Text of Sen. Rand Paul's Tea Party Response to Obama's State of the Union Address: I speak to you tonight from Washington, D.C. The state of our economy is tenuous but our people remain the greatest example of freedom and prosperity the world has ever known. People say America is exceptional. I agree, but it's not the complexion of our skin or the twists in our DNA that make us unique. America is exceptional because we were founded upon the notion that everyone should be free to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. For the first time in history, men and women were guaranteed a chance to succeed based NOT on who your parents were but on your own initiative and desire to work. We are in danger, though, of forgetting what made us great. The President seems to think the country can continue to borrow $50,000 per second. The President believes that we should just squeeze more money out of those who are working. The path we are on is not sustainable, but few in Congress or in this Administration seem to recognize that their actions are endangering the prosperity of this great nation. Ronald Reagan said, government is not the answer to the problem, government is the problem. Tonight, the President told the nation he disagrees. President Obama believes government is the solution: More government, more taxes, more debt. What the President fails to grasp is that the American system that rewards hard work is what made America so prosperous. What America needs is not Robin Hood but Adam Smith. In the year we won our independence, Adam Smith described what creates the Wealth of Nations. He described a limited government that largely did not interfere with individuals and their pursuit of happiness. All that we are, all that we wish to be is now threatened by the notion that you can have something for nothing, that you can have your cake and ea
Gary Edwards

Watch The Ron Paul "Plan To Restore America" Press Conference Live | ZeroHedge - 0 views

www.zerohedge.com/...-america-press-conference-live

Ron-Paul Libertarian Austrian-Economics Ayn-Rand-Libertarian

shared by Gary Edwards on 18 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Gary Edwards on 18 Oct 11
     
    Video of the Ron Paul Press Conference:announcement by Ron Paul of his Plan to Restore America. The Texan reveals the details of the only plan that has any sense of making even remote sense from a mathematical standpoint.  Ron Paul introduces his plan, and then answers questions.
Paul Merrell

Paul vows to end NSA program if elected | TheHill - 0 views

thehill.com/...-to-end-nsa-program-if-elected

surveillance state Rand-Paul 215

shared by Paul Merrell on 08 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he would end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone records on his first day in the White House if he is elected. "The president created this vast dragnet by executive order. And as president on day one, I would immediately end this unconstitutional surveillance," he said in a Kentucky speech Tuesday announcing his presidential bid. 
  • Paul has split with most of his party over the issue, even Cruz who has also pushed for reform. Paul has rankled some NSA reform advocates by opposing a bill to end the program because he does not believe it goes far enough to dismantle the authorizing authority.   <A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_mfw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fthehill07-20%2F8001%2Fdffbe72d-f425-4b83-b07e-357ae9d405f6&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A> He has filed a lawsuit against the government over the program and has promised not to vote to renew sections of the Patriot Act that authorize the program and are up for renewal in June. The Kentucky senator dusted off an old line in the speech Tuesday, saying the phone records of law-abiding Americans should stay private. "Warrantless searches of Americans phone and computer records are un-American and a threat to our civil liberties. I say that your phone records are yours. I say that phone records of law abiding citizens are none of their damn business," he said, later joking "is this where we light up the phones?""I believe we can have liberty and security, and I will not compromise your liberty for a false sense of security," he added later.  
  • President Obama has advocated for ending the government's bulk collection of Americans' phone records as well, but he has resisted ending it unilaterally.  The courts renew the current program every 90 days. Advocates have called on the administration to end it by simply declining to have it renewed.But Obama has resisted taking this route, calling on Congress to act.
Paul Merrell

Rand: 'Good Chance' Hillary Lied To Congress About Benghazi | The Daily Caller - 0 views

dailycaller.com/...-congress-about-benghazi-video

Auction 2016 Hillary emails Benghazi Libya lies

shared by Paul Merrell on 10 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday on “America’s Newsroom” there’s “a very good chance” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lied to Congress about not knowing anything about arming the Libyan rebels, despite new information potentially showing otherwise. According to a new report, the government knew about arms being sent to the Libyan rebels at the time, which Paul says is “an important issue” because many of those who ended up with the arms “are not friends of America.” “I find it very hard to believe Hillary Clinton didn’t know,” Paul told host Bill Hemmer. “In fact, she was the biggest cheerleader for sending these arms, and redistributing these arms into Syrian rebels. The reason this is an important issue, many of these people who received the arms are not friends of America. Many of them are linked to al-Qaida, al-Nusra and some of these weapons may well have would up in the hands of people who became ISIS. So this is no small fact.”
  • “Well you dropped the L-word. Was she lying, senator?” Hemmer asked. “I think there is a very good chance,” Paul said, “because I think there is no way that Hillary Clinton did not know about this. Her private emails show that she was the one supporting arming these people.”
Paul Merrell

Paul Offers NDAA Amendment to Drive Release of 28 Pages | 28Pages.org - 0 views

28pages.org/...t-to-drive-release-of-28-pages

war & peace 9-11-Truth 28-pages legislation

shared by Paul Merrell on 07 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • Following through on intentions he announced earlier this week, Senator Rand Paul today offered an amendment to the pending National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would require the president to declassify 28 pages on foreign government links to the 9/11 hijackers. The language is identical to S.1471, the bill Paul introduced on Monday with Senators Ron Wyden and Kirsten Gillibrand. In a story on Paul’s new move, The Hill’s Julian Hattem said the proposed amendment “heightens the profile of the fight and may increase the stakes for the opponents.”
  • While there are a growing number of vocal champions of the declassification of the 28 pages, those who want the 28 pages kept under wraps have worked quietly and effectively out of public view. As we wrote earlier this year, “It’s likely that among the most powerful of those unseen opponents of 9/11 transparency are two strange bedfellows: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—which has fueled the growth of terror, and the U.S. intelligence community—which is charged with thwarting terror.” Paul’s amendment to the must-pass NDAA could force some of those opponents—and, more specifically, their Senate allies—out of the shadows.
  • However, the language may also offer President Obama an opportunity to continue his administration’s refusal to release the 28 pages, as it says he is not required to declassify sources and methods if that release would “result in imminent lawless action or comprise presently on-going national security operations.”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • In 2003, Bush invoked “sources and methods” when defending his decision to classify the pages, saying “Declassification of that part of a 900-page document would reveal sources and methods that would make it harder for us to win the war on terror. … It would help the enemy if they knew our sources and methods.” Among many who have read the 28 pages, Congressman Walter Jones denies that declassification would harm national security in any way, pointing to other motives for the secrecy. “There’s nothing in it about national security. It’s about the Bush administration and its relationship with the Saudis,” Jones told The New Yorker.
Paul Merrell

Rand Paul: Do not let Elliott Abrams anywhere near the State Department | Rare - 0 views

rare.us/...here-near-the-state-department

Trump-administration appointments Abrams Rand Paul

shared by Paul Merrell on 08 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • I hope against hope that the rumors are wrong and that President Donald Trump will not open the State Department door to the neocons. Crack the door to admit Elliott Abrams and the neocons will scurry in by the hundreds. Neoconservative interventionists have had us at perpetual war for 25 years. While President Trump has repeatedly stated his belief that the Iraq War was a mistake, the neocons (all of them Never-Trumpers) continue to maintain that the Iraq and Libyan Wars were brilliant ideas. These are the same people who think we must blow up half the Middle East, then rebuild it and police it for decades. They’re wrong and they should not be given a voice in this administration.
  • One of the things I like most about President Trump is his acknowledgement that nation building does not work and actually works against the nation building we need to do here at home. With a $20 trillion debt, we don’t have the money to do both. I urge him to keep that in mind this week when he meets with Elliott Abrams, the rumored pick for second in command to the Secretary of State. Abrams would be a terrible appointment for countless reasons. He doesn’t agree with the president in so many areas of foreign policy and he has said so repeatedly; he is a loud voice for nation building and when asked about the president’s opposition to nation building, Abrams said that Trump was absolutely wrong; and during the election he was unequivocal in his opposition to Donald Trump, going so far as to say, “the chair in which Washington and Lincoln sat, he is not fit to sit.” Why then would the president trust him with the second most powerful position in the State Department?
  • Elliott Abrams is a neoconservative too long in the tooth to change his spots, and the president should have no reason to trust that he would carry out a Trump agenda rather than a neocon agenda. But just as importantly, Congress has good reason not to trust him — he was convicted of lying to Congress in his previous job. His conviction for deceiving Congress over secret arms deals, better known as the Iran-Contra scandal, show that his neocon agenda trumps his fidelity to the rule of law. The Constitution directs Congress to approve or disapprove of war. It would be a mistake to appoint anyone to the State Department who was previously convicted for defying Congressional authority. Nation building in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen has not and will not work. Mr. President please, please do not open the door to the people who sip lattes while sneering behind your back. They are bold enough to come begging for work while continuing to laugh and deride your every remark concerning foreign policy. Don’t let them in! The neocon trademark is to conduct war in secret to avoid congressional scrutiny. This is exactly what happened during Iran-Contra. Despite legislation that prohibited sending arms to Nicaragua, Abrams and other neocons surreptitiously funneled money from sultans in Brunei to sheiks in Iran, converting the cash into weapons that were then sent to authoritarians in Nicaragua.
  • Paul Merrell on 08 Feb 17
     
    Politically, Trump may have to appoint Abrams. If so, Trump should make sure that Abrams has neither staff nor authority. A closet for an office should suffice.
Paul Merrell

The NSA is still violating Americans' rights, despite what James Clapper says | Rand Pa... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...ting-american-rights-rand-paul

surveillance state Clapper Rand Paul 4th Amendment

shared by Paul Merrell on 22 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Director of Intelligence James Clapper now says the National Security Agency (NSA) should have been more open about the fact that they were spying on all Americans. I'm glad he said this. But there is no excuse for lying in the first place.
  • But Clapper is being somewhat disingenuous here. Part of the reason our government does some things behind Americans' backs is not for security, but because certain activities, if known, would outrage the public. Spying on every American certainly falls into this category. I also believe it is blatantly unconstitutional, and bringing these activities to light would immediately spark debates the NSA would rather not hear.The notion that if the NSA had informed us they were monitoring every American would somehow make it OK, does not make it OK. Explaining why you are violating the Fourth Amendment does not invalidate the Fourth Amendment.
  • Americans have a right to know when their rights are being violated, but that's where my agreement with Director Clapper, or at least agreement with his latest statement, ends.The Fourth Amendment states that warrants issued must be specific to a person, place or task and this provision of the Bill of Rights exists explicitly to guard against the notion of a general warrant, where government can plunder through anyone's privacy at will.The NSA's metadata collection program is a general warrant for the modern age, reflecting the same kind of tyranny our nation's founders fought a revolution to make sure would never happen again.It shouldn't happen again, and I will keep fighting to protect the US constitution I took an oath to uphold.It's time to trash the NSA's mass surveillance of Americans, for good.
Paul Merrell

Rand Paul: Why I'll Fight Gina Haspel and Mike Pompeo Nominations | The American Conser... - 0 views

www.theamericanconservative.com/...s-and-mike-pompeos-nominations

Rand-Paul appointments war & peace

shared by Paul Merrell on 19 Mar 18 - No Cached
  • when it comes to our place on the world stage, we are at a crossroads. We can continue to build on our recent successes by reaffirming America’s role as a trusted, powerful nation guided by principle. Or we can throw it all away by allowing neocon interventionists to infiltrate our leadership and make America the purveyor of destruction. For decades, we have failed to bring about real peace thanks to a foreign policy guided by the idea that war and intervention are the answers. “Blow up and rebuild” has been the battle cry of those determined to keep us perpetually in conflict.
  • People already distrust the CIA. So why on earth has this administration picked someone to run the Agency who was instrumental in running a place where people were tortured and then covered it up afterwards?
  • Unfortunately, Haspel is just one of many potential neoconservatives being considered to serve in our country’s top leadership roles. The current CIA director and the president’s pick to become the next secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has defended torture in the past. Further, he’s been a stalwart defender of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) unconstitutional spying programs and has even written in support of expanding the information government can collect. I could not support appointing him as CIA director in 2017, and for those same reasons, I will oppose his nomination to be our chief diplomat now. Just as troublesome are recent news reports that John Bolton is being considered for a senior administration position. Just recently, Bolton advocated for a preemptive strike against North Korea. If he had his way, our nation would be embroiled in dozens of armed conflicts in every corner of the world. I want to be clear. This issue is much bigger than a simple disagreement over policy—and far more consequential. These are dangerous appointments.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Allowing the failed foreign policies of the past to have a place in this administration, and sanctioning the infiltration of our government by those who eagerly await the next opportunity for war, not only says we don’t learn from our mistakes, it will result in a world with far more enemies than opportunities for stability and peace. If we are to avoid a future that is war-torn and mired in endless conflicts, we must do better than appointing these flawed nominees. I find them unacceptable, and I won’t support them. I hope the president will reconsider, too.
Gary Edwards

The Empire Takes a Hit: NSA Update - 2 views

........................................................................................ NSA Conversation with retired lawyer and Open Source legal expert, "Marbux". ...........................

Federal-Reserve-Bankster-Cartel NSA

started by Gary Edwards on 15 Jun 13 no follow-up yet
Paul Merrell

Ron Paul slams US on Crimea crisis and says Russia sanctions are 'an act of war' | Worl... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...ea-russia-sanctions-act-of-war

war & peace Ukraine Crimea U.S.-foreign-policy ron paul

shared by Paul Merrell on 16 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • The former Republican congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul has launched a scathing attack on what he calls a US-backed coup in Ukraine, insisting the Crimean people have the right to align their territory with Moscow and characterising sanctions against Russia as “an act of war”.He also said providing economic aid to Ukraine was comparable to giving support to rebels in Syria knowing it would end up in the hands of al-Qaida.The libertarian guru’s remarks in an interview with the Guardian are almost diametrically opposed to those of his son, the Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul, who has called for stiff penalties against Russia and declared: “If I were president, I wouldn’t let [Russian president] Vladimir Putin get away with it.”Ron Paul, who retired from his Texas congressional seat in 2012, has always adopted a sceptical view of US foreign interventions. He said that although the US had not been involved in any military overthrow of the government in Kiev, it had facilitated a coup in the sense of “agitating” elements who wanted to usurp Ukraine’s former president, Victor Yanukovych.
  • “That is our how our country was started,” he said. “It was the right of self-determination, and voting, and asking and even fighting for it, and seceding. Of course libertarians were delighted with the secession of the various countries and units of government away from the Soviet Union, so yes, we want the people to make the decisions.”He added: “The people of Ukraine would probably have a loose-knit association, with a rather independent east and west, and an independent Crimea. It would work quite well.”
Paul Merrell

Ron Wyden: the future of NSA programs is being determined now | World news | theguardia... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...ates-obama-end-data-collection

surveillance state NSA Wyden Obama Snowden 1.7-million-docs perjury Rand Paul

shared by Paul Merrell on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Privacy advocates pressed Barack Obama to end the bulk collection of Americans’ communications data at a series of meetings at the White House on Thursday, seizing their final chance to convince him of the need for meaningful reform of sweeping surveillance practices. A key US senator left one meeting at the White House with the impression that President Obama has yet to decide on specific reforms. “The debate is clearly fluid,” senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a longtime critic of bulk surveillance, told the Guardian after the meeting. “My sense is the president, and the administration, is wrestling with these issues,” Wyden said. Other groups were meeting presidential aides on Thursday afternoon, including the representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic) and the Open Technology Institute. Expectations were mounting that Obama will propose changing the National Security Agency’s controversial database of all domestic phone call records.
  • Wyden, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, said he viewed the coming days and weeks, ahead of an announcement by Obama about the future scope of surveillance, to be decisive for the debate triggered by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.  “What I’d say to Americans is that the future of these programs is being determined now,” Wyden said. “For those like me, who believe that security and liberty are not mutually exclusive, this is the time to weigh in.”
  • Speaking after the meeting with legislators, White House spokesman Jay Carney described the conversation as an opportunity for Obama to “solicit their input”, rather than brief them on his decisions about the future scope of surveillance activities.  The White House held meetings on Wednesday with the leadership of the intelligence agencies, including NSA director Keith Alexander and director of national intelligence James Clapper, as well as with Obama’s privacy and civil liberties advisory group. On Friday, Obama’s staff is expected to meet representatives of major technology firms, ostensibly to continue deliberations.  Shortly before the legislators’ meeting began, two of the attendees, House intelligence committee leaders Mike Rogers of Michigan and Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, issued a statement describing a classified Defense Department report that they said alleged that Snowden’s leaks –which they said totaled 1.7m intelligence files and impacted intelligence operations of all military branches – could “gravely impact” US national security. 
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  • A spokesman for the Defense Intelligence Agency, which spearheaded the report, said the report was an “initial assessment”, and the work of the Information Review Task Force was “ongoing”. But neither the House intelligence committee leaders nor the DIA would provide additional information substantiating the allegations of Snowden’s impact.  “The report is classified and is not releasable,” said the DIA spokesman, who would not agree to be quoted by name. The classified interim assessment was delivered to the House and Senate intelligence committees on 6 January, and the DIA spokesman said there is no deadline for a final report, nor a mandate to make such a report public. 
  • Snowden's attorney, Ben Wizner, described the report as an attack on the journalism produced by the Snowden disclosures. "In truth, Mike Rogers is only indirectly attacking Snowden. He’s directly attacking the journalists who have reported on these revelations. There is not a shred of evidence that any adversary has had any access to any document other than those published by journalists, and they haven't contradicted that," Wizner told the Guardian. "We shouldn’t have any confidence in the accuracy of this innuendo. The government has shown time and again they have very little idea of what Snowden had access to."
  • Speaking outside the White House after a separate meeting with Obama, senator Rand Paul also stepped up his calls for government leniency toward Snowden, contrasting his treatment with Clapper, who has admitted misleading the Senate about surveillance. "Those who call for some sort of frontier justice for [Snowden] need to understand the laws needs to apply equally," Paul told reporters. "James Clapper by all accounts committed perjury which is punishable by five years in prison and if you want to throw the book at Snowden, it's a little hard to say 'Oh, but we're not going to do anything about James Clapper lying to Congress.'"
  • Asked if he was making a direct comparison, Paul added: "It's not my job to compare them or contrast what they did, but what James Clapper did has greatly harmed the credibility of the intelligence agencies ... he has really greatly damaged the intelligence community. It's arguable." After meeting with Obama, Wyden saw the debate over surveillance winding toward a conclusion. “This is crunch time. The decisions are going to be made in the very near future,” Wyden said. “The president made clear he wanted to hear from us. I’m going to keep urging members of Congress and the public to stand on the side of real reform and end intrusive surveillance practices that in effect violate the liberties of our people without making us safer.”
  • Paul Merrell on 12 Jan 14
     
    Wyden  says it's time to get involved. Wyden is one of my senators and is about to get an email informing him that if he believes Barack Obama is the person who will decide this issue, he'd better think that over a bit more.  
Paul Merrell

Paul starts new drone war | TheHill - 0 views

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war & peace drone attacks Senate Paul judicial-appointments

shared by Paul Merrell on 06 May 14 - No Cached
  • Sen. Rand Paul has warned Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that he will place a hold on one of President Obama’s appellate court nominees because of his role in crafting the legal basis for Obama’s drone policy.Paul, the junior Republican senator from Kentucky, has informed Reid he will object to David Barron’s nomination to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, unless the Justice Department makes public the memos he authored justifying the killing of an American citizen in Yemen.ADVERTISEMENTThe American Civil Liberties Union supports Paul’s objection, giving some Democratic lawmakers extra incentive to support a delay to Barron’s nomination, which could come to the floor in the next two weeks.Barron, formerly a lawyer in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, penned at least one secret legal memo approving the September 2011 drone strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric whom intelligence officials accused of planning terrorist attacks against the United States.
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