Security: Colour it Green

The Government of Canada is currently engaged in a  process of seeking input in what it calls its "Green Paper' on a revised security apparatus in Canada.  This is, possibly, the new Liberal government's, 'promise' to reevaluate the legislation set in place to 'protect Canada from terrorist attacks' after 9/11.  That has done a remarkable job,  as there haven't been any notable terrorist attacks in Canada since 9/11.  But that's no reason for not 'plugging the holes', that haven't been noticed yet, in the legislation.

                                                                        As if, eh?
 
 But is that real evidence of the effectiveness of the current legislation, or the ability of our security services to stay on top of a burgeoning threat?

 Well, if you listen to the head honchos, "No!"

The straight poop on a National 'Necessity'

Let's face it, right now we're defenceless, eh?  


CSIS has been remarkable in saying - when it does make public utterance - that the 'threat' is growing and developing and becoming ever so much more robust. So robust that CSIS is about to 'pop'?

And coming out of the blocks on that public consultation-green paper 'thingy' is Canada's premier police service, and its 'Big Stick of Solictiude'. To-day our RCMP 'commish' - took to the airways and media hubs, in class 5 dress-down office (casual) uniform, to decry the fact that the Force is to-day faced with new investigative hurdles due to cell phones and the 'innernet', that requires them to seek to acquire all basic data, everywhere, in Canada,  and require your internet service provider to store all your business for the future reference of police.

                                               'We just can't guarantee your protection' -

                                                                      Nor can we.
  
He showed up, as is his wont, with a Powerpoint presentation that shows just how far Canadian police are behind other civilized nations in tracking the business of the ordinary joe - New Zealand is waaaaay ahead  (having almost all its 'security' list spots 'checked' while the poor Canucks have none!)  If there had been a study of how much more effective New Zealand police were, as a result, I'm sure he would have presented it, No?

But isn't New Zealand famous for the case against "Kim DotCom" - the multimillionaire internet data thief?  After a court case lasting more than a half decade now, he's out 'on bail' and, of late, now able to travel internationally.  Obviously he has a good lawyer, a kazillion ill-gotten Kiwi dollars and  his case must have started in the 'old days' when police actually had to work to find evidence and prove something.  Back in the 'bad old days' when they had to warn you that you could give them evidence to convict yourself.  Or, 'horrors', when they had to show a judge that they had 'a case' to get a judicial warrant to  allow  them to search you,  or your house, or  to  play 'sneaky pete' and 'spy' on you to get evidence. But I divulge.

Commissioner Paulsen went on to enumerate a number of 'real' police case files that were hamstrung because either somebody had their rights protected, or refused to turn over their passwords or encrypted their communications.  He outlined a case of a child abuser who was thought to have files of his own children being abused on his 'locked cell phone'.  Now wherever would they get that impression, if they weren't finding images of his children somewhere else? And wouldn't they serve for a conviction?  Paulsen must have more knowledge of criminal behaviour than the rest of us, but even watching the movies would indicate that any crook who deliberately kept any kind of records of his sculduggery was a stiff sentence just waiting to happen. The real sharpies do everything viva voce and on the QT.  Having it all down in unencoded communications just seems like a big 'break' for the stupid.

He outlined some very expensive electronic wizardries gone wrong because of 'electronic tricks' the police never thought about and he decries electronic solutions tried,  that forced the police to go back to using 'less expensive' undercover agents (any of those I've heard about weren't cheap either) because the 'gizmos' were just too dang expensive.

Even though he had a heart-rending appeal about being 'stuck' and how somebody on-line had 'screwed-over his favorite niece' (probably those assholes from Nigeria), what Paulsen failed to do is make a convincing case about more data making police more effective, or Canadian citizens more secure.

Police 'mistakes' largely haven't happened because of things police didn't know, as much as from things they did know - and deliberately chose to ignore, or misinterpret. More information isn't going to prevent human nature.  And it's that 'lowest common denominator' part that should be the major concern. For the problems aren't going to be caused by the 'good' police, they're going to arise in the few 'bad apples that inhabit every organization'. If recent stories about policemen downloading official files to their home computers,  or worse still,  civilian employees accessing police databases for unknown personal reasons - as both happened this past week  - aren't a 'heads-up', then things like 'computer hacking' and guys like Snowden should be. For there is no indication that police and security can keep the information they already collect secure.

the green paper - backgrounder one page

To prepare Canadians for possible change - and the 'waffling' ( 'I really hate that sheeyat!  But I think it's really necessary') of Security Minister Ralph Gooddale over a recent CSI court case indicates there will be 'changes' - the Federal government has prepared a substantial website on the topic - with an overview of the proposed areas of legislation and a 'background document' to accompany each of the the feedback formS - multiple.

I took a glance at one page 'backgrounding':  'Information Sharing' - which outlined a bunch of info sharing scenarios. The ones that involved security interested me. A number of individuals interacted with a nefarious "Mr. A" to endanger Canada, possibly, in a number of  different ways. The document concludes with a synopsis of their faults and the actions to be taken.  But it, for me, begged a fundamental question: What about "Mr. A"?

If what he was doing, in each of these cases, wasn't prosecutable under the current law,  then the whole national edifice, and its National Security Act IS in trouble. Rather than develop a sledgehammer to nail every one of the B to L 'perps' in the background 'scenarios', and the very real prospect of  everybody else in Canada, why not just go after the  "Mr. A" who was also part of the endangerment of Canada?  Unless, of course, he's a CSIS 'operative', or a paid informant.  Somebody a pay grade or ten above duty counsel or  legal aid, would have to be protecting the hell out of his Charter Rights and Freedoms.

TorStar opinion piece

Omniscience is not a power I would trust to any security organization, just like omnipotence or any other attributes of what we used to call 'God'.  They're just not that good at much, yet.

Dudley on Steroids - CSIS

The old joke going around was that, when the government of Canada announced it was developing an in-house spy agency, there was a mass-transfer from the Mounties, and that for years afterward members of the RCMP, looking to pad the pension, could 'serve' for a few more years in Canada's super-sleuthing  agency.

Since then, we're led to believe,  CSIS has weaned itself away from the Mountie intelligence mentality and developed its own stable of thoroughbreds - selected and trained  'ab ovo', as civilian agents.  Government-related university profs and 'Law 'n Security' instructors must be collecting millions in finders' fees.

Recent developments, coming as a result of leaked information elsewhere, indicates that the civilians are no more scrupulous than were the RCMP when it came time to seeking that ever-elusive 'actionable intel' and, given what appears to be a hefty dose of organizational paranoia about a defense against terrorism, are almost criminal in their efforts to protect the rest of us.  While the old saw about 'setting a thief to catch a thief' is probably more accurate in theory than in practice - or so we would hope - the notion of setting a spy to catch a terrorist doesn't make any sense at all.  But then if spies aren't 'cutting it',  perhaps some 'patriotic terrorism' might be in order.

One thing that is evident, however, is that a basic requirement to 'do' CSIS well, is to have a tenuous grasp on truth, on honesty or on what is legal. Spies historically, don't consider these things to be qualities.

And so when the Director of CSIS spoke to the media recently, telling the Canadian people that he thought his agency's gathering the personal communications and information of virtually every citizen in the country, and then keeping it for well-over a decade, was, in his, straight-faced civilian opinion, "legal", for no one had told him not to that caused some political huffery-puffery from the Justtice Minister - veteran Ralph Gooddale and while he was naturally 'appalled', he couldn't think of anything he needed to do about it.  The media gave more blowback (or at least the 'radical media' ), but that, apparently, is going to have little effect on how CSIS continues to conduct its business. The business of keeping us safe.

But let's take a look at that 'safety' they've been keeping us in.

Has Canada been attacked by terrorists? Well there are the two headcases who killed soldiers - CSIS would point to them.  But then, CSIS didn't know about them until the NSA told them. And that after a search of Canadian police records - for these two were known to Canadian police - and not as terrorists. Apparently while they can and do collect everybody's phone conversations, CSIS can't scan Canadian police databases to identify anyone. Only one of these is 'known' to be a 'pledged' member of ISIS because he said so on a suicide tape left behind in his stolen car. The other one might have been too, but the police were interviwing him on a regular basis - just a day or two before he went mujheddin. The junior jihadi , subject of a separate blog, is another other-than-glowing example of CSIS in action. There was the notorious plot to transport explosives from Canada to attack California, but aside from 'knowing' the pair arrested at the US border lived in Montreal, CSIS wasn't able to add much to that investigation - they're in a US jail. Then there were the 'Toronto 16', the 'Niagara Train bombers', and a couple of cross-border terror plots - all successfully-prosecuted but involving paid informants and a robust police presence to 'flesh out' and  to assist the miscreants bringing their plans to fruition.  The British Columbia 'pressure cooker bombers', whose case was tossed a month or so ago when evidence before the court indicated that they were a couple of simpletons caught up in what looked like a security service 'practice exercise' - is another example of potential criminality in the line of duty.

That's about it for 'protection' - for Mohammed Arar didn't do anything but get paid damages for ISIS assistance in getting him renditioned. and a couple of other similar exercises were quietly dropped. If we've been saved from anything else it must have been so brutally frightening that CSIS is sworn to secrecy and can't reveal the danger we were in.

I'm no expert but,  given the evidence so far,  CSIS like its American cousin is punching well below its weight class for the money being spent. If it's punching at all.

In this aspect of National security, Canada may have labored and brought forth a malicious mouse.

The Fat Lady Sang - but the Tuna was Distasteful

It's all over for another 4 years. America's quadrennial exercise in what 'real' democrazy looks like, has gone 'pppffffftttt!!', again. And today, significant parts of the world are examining the nature of the latest wet fart.

Hilary lost.

Despite close to a billion dollars wasted to 'prepare the way' she has found out, as has the incumbent President, that people don't really like him after all. And Hillary is even less charming.  Sure she has half of Hollywood weeping - theatrically? - and dropping Xanax to 'keep it together'. Little (actually she's fairly tall) Mylie  'have yew seen mah titties'  Cyrus - runny nose and all - took to her twittersphere to bleat out her plaints that the 'laydee' had lost.   Maybe if she twerks at the Inauguration Ball  - she could probably wrangle a date - Donald won't be able to resist snatching her cat.

Lesser lights took to the streets like one might have hoped Americans would have when any of the past two administrations announced they had 'some bombs' to assist the 'humanitarians' in any number of places. But this wasn't about other people - this was about the the LGPBT(x) community, the angry blacks, the  multiculturals, the millennials, potentially-deporteds, illegal immigrants, he-males and she-males of every hue - lighting-it-up for  reason and equality in the face of an unreasoning, unequal victory for the Trumpster.

Mike Moore on the election

I was reading to-day that film maker Michael Moore had foretold all this last July. Obviously he wasn't getting any attention from Hilary or her million-dollar team. Apparently he was right, when the real smart guys are, now, admitting "I've never been more wrong in my life!"  That has to be cold comfort for those who've been "hurt".  If there is any good that could come out of this, for people in foreign lands if not in America, it's that Hilary most likely won't be back. She can go ruminate on life and fate with that other doyenne of changed regimes, Madeleine Albright,  and swap stories about the potential of Henry Kissinger's tallywhacker.

Speaking of 'dicks',  I made comment on the National Catholic Register  site,  that this election was as close to public pornography as a nation could get and still keep its pants on.  Sexual innuendo and accusations of sexual misdemeanors and misbehavior were either flying, or barely concealed just below the surface. These people running for the highest office in the land, if not the world,  not only have feet on clay - they have the 'gonadtropism' of a high school fresh-person.  And why not in America?   A place where french vice was made to look tame and smut is still a growth industry?  Don Trump was outed as a  'pussy-grabbing', contestant-molester - I could see him replacing that famous Ukrainian politician Oleh Lyushko helping 'the girls' out of their bras and checking for silicon enhancements as part of his TV expose.  A ccouple of Trump's former contestants accused him of barging-in while they were slipping into something competitive - without using those little hands to knock and using those big eyes to get what he could 'for free'.  His wife  Milupa, was targeted too - nude photos from her modelling days appeared,  as well as the story that she'd been paid illegally for posing in America.

Not to be outdone Yoko Ono went online to state that she and Hilary had explored some sapphic charms. And some quiet references were made about Hilary's current sexual status which doesn't, apparently, include Bill.  One of the 'bonuses' supposedly coming with Hilary, was that ex-President knocking around the house,  who might advise and give her sage advice from his 8 years' experience.  But Bill was tarred with his past 'sexcapades' and during the last week of the campaign his 'relationship' with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein - and a potentially embarrassing Mossad-generated blackmail video of Willie Jeff pleasuring a 14 year-old was threatened as another (Putinic?) leak.  That probably would have been 'over the top',  so a lesser story about the Clinton Foundation paying $3 million to get Chelsea married was leaked two days before the voting. This and the fact that Chelsea's  husband has the same kind of business record as Trump equalized any damage coming from that financial scandal/failed business thing.

Yes the dirt was dealt and an awful lot of little kids awoke to find that a 'bad man' had beaten an 'awful woman' - requiring the services of some heavy-duty counselling. For this IS America, the land where the good are rewarded, most of the time,  and evil-doers, particularly those not in America, get their just desserts. The Gamins will take a while, or a good lunch at Chucky Cheese, to get over this.

What variety of idiot thinks US politics are suitable viewing or study,  for children?   "Mommy and daddy are engrossed in election issues"  almost seems  inappropriate in comparison to  "Mommy was the cowgirl and daddy was the handsome sheriff. We didn't need a horsie, Maisy."

And they wonder if counseling might be in order?

Jesus wept!  But who believes in that fairy tale any more?

 One of the larger issues, aside from temperament  or the receding  American dream,  is the notion that we might be on a course to try out those nifty nuclear weapons our granddaddies invented.  'The free world'  is facing challenges from a number of bad things,  but one of the worst, apparently, is the Russian leader, Putin, who just doesn't seem to be doing things the way he should.  He's the man who has made President Obama sad and is probably, single-handedly, responsible all that grey hair and face wrinkles he's developed. For you see the bloom is off their 'Bromance' and has been since the Prexy did a 'Mr. Bojangles'  in Libya,  after conning Putin into buying a little 'assistance mission' there.

The acrimony was carried over into the election,  where President Obama announced to the nation that Russian 'hackers' were trying to interfere with the election process. Not to be outdone candidate Clinton upped the ante by declaring that 8 national 'security agencies' had determined that the Kremlin was actively-engaged in getting 'their man', Trump, elected to the Presidency.

 That the out come has really occurred begs the question why?  Why did candidate Clinton, knowing that Putin's goons had electronically stolen 'the voice of the American people' not call 'Foul!', instead of meekly conceding defeat?  Where was Willy Jeff and his member when a 'strong support' was needed. He was lip-sucking and nodding wisely while she folded.  This 'saga' of the election is being ignored by all the pundits wondering, 'What on earth happened?"

 They haven't, apparently, figured out that 'Putin did it'.



Next Time:  The Trump Presidential Internship

The US Election

US elections have never impressed me. They're too much like English elections - all sound and fury and signifying more of the same. At least back in the 'good old days' you got a free drink for casting a ballot - either way,  and there were some election day 'shenanigans' to be had. Now all the fun is gone.

 America has always had this 'royalty' thing, where they consecrate whoever gets the electoral nod with having odorless shit for  four, or eight years. The 'Office of the President' is a holy place.  So in times past, if the candidate was a rum-tugger - as quite a few have been - or a skirt chaser as another few have been,  or even if he had some 'unique personal habits' or a 'delayed sexuality' as more than a few of the rest did, then 'polite' society would keep it under the bonnet o' freedumb.  Much like royal families tended to dress up their obvious weaklings in extra padding, or hide them away if the opportunity arose.

The last 'good' election was that one which swept JFK into office, not so much because I was aware of the nuances,  but more so because my dear old Catholic Mom was so excited, as so seemed to be a large number of 'ordinary' Americans, that a young man, a Catholic, an 'irishman' and a war hero were taking the helm of America's ship of state. It was only later, after some patriot had brained him, that we found out his Daddy had used mob connections  and some of the family millions to possibly play 'jiggery pokery' with the election process.  Kennedy won that election to the joy of everyone and, if he ran true to his secret form, celebrated by dipping his wick in a party volunteer, or two, before wiping himself off on the hotel-room drapery.  He was the last boy scout.

Since then 'feet of clay'  have been the most prominent features of America's 'Chief Magistrates'. Some of them have been crooks, or rogues or charlatans, some ordinary men out of their depth or mere bumblers. And one has been a professional actor.

If the Adams,  Jeffersons, Washingtons and Lincolns were more than mere mortals - their like has not been seen again.  But hey, we've even managed to dish some dirt on some of them, too.

In a nation that has managed to 'cope' with 'Father Feltus' and CBS exposes of wannabe kiddie-porkers from every walk of life,  what kind of a surprise would it be to find out that one of the two latest candidates thinks about, and speaks of his ability to 'grab the girls by the pussy'  because "he's a star" and "they let you do that".   I would hope that the past decade has proven to him that while you can still grab them by anything you like, most of them will run to the media - on the way to the lawyers' office.   But, hey, there is still the 'star power' of the oval orifice - one of the greatest 'analgesicks' of all time - and Melania has to sleep sometime.

 Would we be any less shocked to hear that the other candidate has a predilection for getting money? Most 'decent' Americas share that attribute.  Granted Croesus might have been a 'proto American' but many of them have well-outpaced him, wealth-wise. The shocker here is that the Russians have hacked into somebody's secret emails again and now Wikileaks is trying to disrupt the election by printing things the US media 'didn't know about'  - like State Department  approval for selling-off US uranium production to a Russian oligarch - and somebody's 'charitable foundation getting a hefty donation from him. Apparently Putin's got more to come.

 But none of this changes the fact that America  - not Putin - has set itself up for a choice between  'bad and worse', or possibly 'dumb and dumber'.

Bomben auf Bashir !

US-NATO’s War On Russia: The Winds Howl Before The Storm

A piece from a Canadian lawyer Chris Black got my attention amid the increasing calls for somebody to do something to stop the city of Aleppo, or the part of it that is still controlled by Jihadi terrorists, from being destroyed.  Turns out this is the part of the city frequented by MSF and a number of western NGOs -  one of which brought us the saga of the 'White Helmets'.   Strange that, for all the concern about 'trapped civilians' nobody is calling for their release to join the rest of the civilians of Aleppo, in non-rebel held parts of that city.  Just what does it take to make somebody a human shield?  Our bombs?

Aleppo is one among a number of Syrian cities that have 'fallen' (for we westerners don't think that any of them, legitimately, belong to anybody unlike ourselves) in whole or in part, to either the government forces of Bashir Assad or to one of the numerous 'Islamic fighters groups'  opposing him. Save for a couple of small villages near the Jordanian border, which are controlled by a US-funded and supplied - 'moderate militia'.  Most of the other 'moderate militias' were eliminated by the more powerful forces, or in most instances,  simply took their US weapons, equipment and supplies directly over to ISIS.

Most of those Syrian cities have to varying extents been destroyed - some of them completely - in fighting that has seen the liberal use of high explosives of all kinds and by both sides. Again we in the west have a myopia that makes us, or our media.  think that the destruction is all 'one-sided' and that Bashir has taken into his mind to wipe all other Syrians out.  Or that's what we're told by the media and the government sources they quote.  That would of course be Assad and the Syrian supporters who have kept him in power, much like the government of Ukraine is supported by a 'majority' of Ukrainians fighting-off a russian-inspired insurgency and invasion. Well not quite.  Ukraine is 'good' because we back that government (that took over after a coup), while Syria is bad  because  we don't back Assad (who got himself elected). What it's all about us that Assad is stopping the Syrian people from having a happy, 'free' and, as it turns out, fundamentalist Islamic life.  Stupidly they insist on having their country back, without the rebels. That's just not gonna happen. Nobody can go back from liberty.

So to-day we hear their are voices being raised around the situation room table in the White House action bunker - and they're calling for a kinetic solution. They want America to stop the bombing of Aleppo by increasing the bombing on Damascus. They're the same 'voices' that didn't say anything about the raid last week that scuppered the ceasefire - until they said 'sorry' afterwards.  And if the advisory panel of retired intelligence workers, that has been calling the shots correctly, as least, as long as the anti-war movement has been correct, there is nobody with a pinch of horse sense speaking out against them.  The ONLY thing that could be stopping it is Obama's fear of making his foreign policy legacy even worse than it is.  He spent some time, yesterday,  talking about his 'domestic legacy' to the next guy.

The foreign policy legacy probably keeps him up nights.

Recent developments. Get the proxies busy.

A spate of calls for a war crimes investigation by the World Court  is being spearheaded by the pacifists of France.   Meanwhile the Brits are debating the merits of having the RAF fly top cover for the fighting citizens of north-east Aleppo.  The US is 'all up' for a war crimes trial in a court that neither they, nor the Russians recognize.  And it would probably be 'all up' for an Article 5 duty to protect a NATO ally,  if it gets attacked while flying top cover for the fighting citizens of north-east Aleppo.

 And then there's Mr Obama and his foreign policy legacy.

True Colours

This past week marked the 75 anniversary of 'Babi Yar' - aside from Auschwitz, probably the single other 'iconic' representation of the Holocaust.  It was to that ravine in the northwest part of the Ukrainian city of Kyiv that Sonderkommando 4(a) , assisted by German police and army  units and  number of the new mobilized Ukrainian 'auxiliaries'  marched what Jewish people they could find (they reported some 32 000 over two days) left in the population of that city.  German forces had suffered some significant lost time and lost lives besieging and then assaulting Kiev. They lost more in street fighting and from a number of sabotage attacks in the weeks after they occupied the city. German newsreels of the time made much of local indignation at finding a number of 'patriotic' corpses executed in the recently evacuated NKVD headquarters, and also referred to the Ukrainians' 'natural thirst for revenge' on Communists, and Jews.

From the moment German forces stepped into the Ukrainian SSR , eager Ukrainians were offering them the traditional welcome gifts of bread and salt and volunteering to show them Russian positions or  help track-down Russians left behind in the retreat.  Although there was little love lost between them, the Germans realized that gift horses shouldn't be looked in the mouth and, with the large number of Russian weapons being taken every day, a 'home guard' force might be useful. Those 'ersatz' Ukrainian 'hilfe' units were morphed into auxiliary police units as the invasion pressed east and by the time Kyiv was taken, Ukrainian  'police auxiliaries' were ready to take over those duties among the Ukrainian population if nothing else.

The fall of the city led to a 'squaring of accounts' with any Communist party  'apparatchiks' who hadn't fled east. The Ukrainians among them were killed quite efficiently. So when the einsatzgruppe appeared with their own 'special handling' assignment, it didn't take long to get some help.  But given the Jewish population - some 133 000 -  there was going to be a substantial need. Happily, elements of the 6th German Army were 'resting' in the area and they would help too.

 Babi Yar was itself a godsend when it comes to such things, a short march from the city centre, the deep ravine had been used in previous times  as a burying ground. The Jewish cemetery was there and the sandy loam soil meant that pick and shovel should suffice for earth moving requirements. The physical formation of the gully meant that preparatory activities could occur out of sight, if not out of sound of the final solution. The victims could be herded in close quarters to the execution site with little chance to escape.  There are no recorded escapes after the victims arrived at the site, although some survivors escaped by playing dead among the corpses and clawing their way out of the gully after dark. Some victims were shot on the march to the site.

At the site the sonderkommando personnel attended to the actual shootings while army personnel formed an inner cordon. Ukrainian volunteer 'helpers' escorted the march, guarded the prisoner preparation and formed an outer cordon to see off any of the  curious. Who the volunteers were was not recorded.

At the site the victims, already separated by gender, were relieved on their belongings, forced to undress 'for disinfection', they were told they were being relocated.  They were taken in groups to the 'finger ends' of the gully and either shot into prepared pits or told to lie down on the feet and legs of those ahead of them and them shot individually by SS personnel told-off for that purpose. The sonderkommando report of the 'aktion' and some photographic evidence supports this.

As the war proceeded Babi Yar was the site of further executions and interments - other Jews, partisans,  Gypsies and Russian POWs were done to death there. In early 1944 as things started to take a turn for the worse, a concentration camp was built at the site with the sole purpose of excavating the graves and destroying the bodies by burning. Some 300 prisoners were kept occupied at this for most of the year. that their hearts or something may not have been in their job is evidenced by the fact that numerous bodies have been disinterred in the ravine in the years after the war.

To-day the ravine is a memorial park in the City - with monuments commemorating the dead of all nations involved  - Russia, Ukraine and the Jews. In all some 140 000 were thought to have met their end in Babi Yar.  It is the largest Holocaust event to have happened on Ukrainian territory.

The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, whose family was killed in Ukraine, attended the commemoration ceremonies for the tragedy, held last week in Kyiv. As part of his  role,  he was invited to address the Rada. He mentioned Ukrainian involvement in the deaths of Jews. Within minutes of the conclusion of his speech the fascists and right wingers who 'no longer have a part in the government'  - Rada Member Oleh Lyashko for one - were haranguing the air waves with charges that the Israeli had insulted the Ukrainian people and "spat in the face of the nation" and making demands for an apology.


Overview

Reaction

And again

 A Little Something Extra

He came. He wept. He pulled his Wa -yir.

It's over!  The long dark night of the Mounties' soul is at an end.  After close to 15 long years the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have gotten to the bottoms of their 'groping the gals problem' and the past is, finally, laid to rest.

Last night, in all his buffed splendor, in class 'B' dress, 'Pat' Bob Paulson,  the comedian general of the farce, took to the news podium in Ottawa to apologize for all the hurtin', and heartaches, and real bad things that the band 'o brothers had laid upon a number of females foolish enough to believe that they could be 'sisters', or any more than a field mattress to while away lonely hours on detachment.  If there weren't any squaws or papooses around - even if there were - somebody might be persuaded to polish one's 'buster browns' with a part of their anatomy.

And Paulsen wept! The simpering big bag of Mother Love pulled out a clean hanky and 'honked his hooter' - for effect - halfway through his 'apology' to 'the girls'.

And so it had gone on, apparently, for almost two decades.

For the problem had first come to light under a former 'commish' - Roly Scagnetti, or something. When he retired, after failing to act,  the government of the day appointed the first civilian 'Big Stick' of the Force. He 'studied' the problem for his term, before turning the 'pole of power' over to the incumbent some 5 years ago. Now, at long last, the jury is in, or rather the judge is,  and his ruling is that the government should cough-up $100 million Canadian smackeroos for him to dole out, without appeal from either side, to a number of injured female RCMP officers, as he deems fit and proper.

Possibly the only griping we might have heard would have been from the injured parties,  for the  guys who did it, or watched it, don't have to pay for anything.

So far there is nobody governmental wondering 'What happened to the perps - the 'pokers' and prodders and on/off duty diddlers who done it?' If these gals have a case,  then they know which Studdly - Duddlys were involved.  What happened to them?  On which homeless street corners can they be found? Or was 'Pat's' main job this past 5 years to see them all, 'safely',  off the force - pensioned and on to greener pastures?  They could all be 'defending the Nation' , now,  in CSIS, for all we know.

Not one freakin' word.

The other parliamentary question might be about the 100 million dollars.

Since the people of Canada trusted somebody, like Paulson, to 'vet' these guys and hire them as 'our servants' - with all the other claptrap about risk of life, and honour and duty that they failed to notice, and the bozos failed to fulfill, why should the long-suffering taxpayer have to pay for somebody else's mistakes. This isn't like making restitution for killing something in Afghanistan.  Why not take the  $100 million out of the RCMP retirement fund?  After all, the notion of 'collective responsibility' is regularly applied by RCMP, at least to some people living overseas. They think its 'fair' for them. So why not a little justice starting at home? If the Mounties weren't 'doing' or 'messing with' or harassing the female staff  themselves,  they certainly knew the guys who were - and failed to report them. All Mounties ought to lose some pension money over this - in proportion - with the top 'dogs' losing more. This was an organization 'culturally' dropping their big stick. The culture should pay the freight.

 If the Mounties don't actually hurt for misbehaving it may be all over. Until the next time.

The immediate effect is a rash of new lawsuits to get around that 'one judge fits all' solution to the problem. 

Aw Ratpoop! We didn't prevent a Jihadi.

From the pages of the Toronto Star another tale of Lake Wobbegone Daze at RCMP HQ.

This one involves a 'known jhadi' who was residing in Canada until 2012 when he went east to 'get some', according to 'the good guys',  by killing Syrians for ISIS. They claim he was already 'subversive' when they found him. He claims that the reason he left Canada was because the RCMP, 'security' and law enforcement had 'identified' him and were pulling-out all the legal stops they could to make his life, in our western version of  heaven, as rough as they could - search warrants, raids on his friends and family,  probably 'advisory' visits to bosses, social contacts and friends lest he slip them a bomb or something.

                                                        You should be able to spot 'em

He did leave the country and may have been in Syria,   but he came back, and that's when the fun started.  For if you're a 'suspected jihadi' before you leave, you might as well be a 'convicted jihadi' when you come back. He was charged under the National Security Act and was "released" because he got a smart lawyer and, well, there wasn't much evidence to lay before the bond court. So he walked and the Dudley Doowrights set out to get more 'goods on him' than they already didn't have.

But that isn't what the Star's story was about. It was about his 'jihadi' weapons collection.

It seems he had guns when the investigation started. He still had guns when he left for Syria and his 'arsenal' was still 'properly secured' at his parents' house ('they' - those security and police forces - can take them if they aren't),  when he came back.  Now despite all the NSA charges,  he was able to go right on out, like any regular Canadian, even while he was out 'on bail',  and buy a couple more guns.

 But what's that got to do with Canada's finest you  might ask?  Well, if you've read some of my other posts on the subject you will already know.

                                                              Gratuitous Gun Bimba

Some while ago - maybe close to 20 years back - a former government of Canada (Liberals) thought it might be a good idea to find out what kind of weapons Canadians had lying around the house. So along with some 'stringent' rules about storing guns,  they required all Canadian gun owners to register their firearms. The National Gun Registry was born - a 'free' service that was soon, according to the opposition party (Conservative),  to start costing Canadian taxpayers "obscene amounts of money" spent to maintain "a new. wasteful, government bureaucracy" in Quebec. But police chiefs loved it - knowing who had a gun before a call went out was a blessing, and it was a source of potential charges under the Firearms Act - should any gun owner be dumb enough to afford police entry. For a decade and a half the cries of "waste" were bolstered by cries about "rights" and when, at long last, the Tories (Conservatives) got into a position of political power, they 'de-nutted' the gun registry. Or at least the 'free' part of it.

 For there was an additional wrinkle that had been added,  as time went by. The requirement of a firearms acquisition certificate (FAC)  - obtained by filing a form, and a fee, to cover a local police force making a determination that you weren't too bug shit crazy to own a gun.  This was was transferred into the hands of,  you guessed it, Sargent Presto of the Yukon and his winder-dog 'fetch'. When the Gun registry went 'poof' a better thing took it's place,  the RCMP gun-owners database and need for a Forearms Possession Certificate (FPC)  (the old gun registry).  The RCMP took over the FAC process from locals - adding a required approval from ones' spouse that you weren't getting a gun to blow her head off.  The  Mounties controlled access to buying, possessing guns and kept tabs on the Canadians who did that.

The Mounties gave the 'jihadi' they were investigating,  a certificate to go out and buy more guns. If he's an 'ordinary' enough Canadian - with all the positive references and lack of criminal charges necessary to buy and own a gun, blessed by the law of the land, then WTF is he doing with charges and a pending investigation?

And if he's as bad as somebody(ies) in the security community think, WTF is he doing with a gun, let alone an arsenal?

If his civil rights protect his gun ownership then they should be protecting him - even more - from arbitrary police investigation and harassment.

 But really,  this is just another story about stupid. If I were that jihadi I'd do whatever it takes to get away from guns and the owner's database. Because there are SWAT squads out there who would take it as point of professional pride, regrettably of course,  to introduce you to you some heavenly virgins.

The Rain from Spain falls Mainly in Ukraine

It's getting wet again in Ukraine, the wet season that used to precede the mud season, and if the wreckage and remains of MH17, still ungathered in the fields around Hrabove,  are getting another washing, the fate of the jet has received another, unsurprising, laundering too.

The JIP announced its long awaited (since last year) finger-pointing report on not only the latest clarification of 'what happened', but the indication of  'who dunnit'.

What happened?  Nothing new there: "pro-Russian", not anti-Kyiv,  forces got a Buk system from Russia - drove it all around Donetsk and Lugansk regions for a day and, for want of something better to do with it, parked it in an obscure corner of east central Donetsk, and used one of the four missiles they had,  to down a Malaysian Airliner. Then they drove it back, to the flat bed truck they had used to drive it into the regions, packed it up without any attempts to hide the cargo and drove it around the two regions again, through a 'highly fluid battle zone' ( a government armored thrust the day after the crash, cut across the Buk's withdrawal route twice),  perilously close to Government "fortifications of dignity" at Debaltsevo and east to Lugansk, where, apparently it went 'poof' or unobserved,  back into Russia.

One Russian response:

'Who dunnit'?  Aside from Putin, the 'Seps on the radio and telephone', and members of a Russian rocket regiment - 100 souls in all, who had something to do with the BUk, the truck, the escorts, command structure or all of the preceding,

And how do we know all this?  Well although there really isn't much proof by way of actual witnesses, or physical evidence of anything but the crashed plane, great minds - or at last 6 of them -  have  mined the repositories of knowledge - Facebook and YouTube.  They found and connected a plethora of 'dots'.  Not the JIT - they've done little but interview experts and have free lunches - but the 'experts' they have interviewed have made all things clear. Or clear enough to make a cartoon movie to help us all 'get it'.

So who were the experts?  Well no Russians were needed. The info came from  the Ukrainians, who if they weren't possibly suspected, would have been the prime investigators. The Dutch were the lead, on-the-ground investigators, retrieving remains and  wreckage,  dealing with the dead and reconstructing the downed aircraft.  The EU waded-in and, as usual, so did the Americans.  The Brits deciphered the flight recorders.  Most of the 'saga' was unearthed through the army of a half-dozen "independent investigative journalists" associated with a website called Bellingcat and its whiz-bang, unemployed, blogger-proprietor. The Malaysians, who actually got to the site first - more than a week before anybody official appeared - got the bums' rush.  But at least now they're being assured that given some more time - 3 short years - and a little help from concerned citizens in Russia, they may be able to sue Putin at the Hague, if the gallant EUkrainians don't do it first, maybe.

Within an hour of the jet hitting the ground Ukrainian sources were accusing their 'russian'  separatists of downing the aircraft, claiming to have phone intercepts of at least two rebel leaders discussing the crash and celebrating having downed 'another' Ukrainian aircraft. Surprising, insofar as either the Ukrainians were only starting to tap into the dissident area's 'national' cell phone grid, or that the separatists hadn't tweaked to the fact that their using a cell phone was probably going to be overheard in the State Security Office, too.   This is a unique eclat compared to the rest of Ukraine's ATO.  Even more so because the Seps weren't talking about the other military matters, (or stopped), and  that resulted in nasty military 'surprises' all over the east (Saur Moglia within three weeks,  and Ilovaisk, within a month of MH17). On those things the Seps were maintaining telephone silence?

Maybe MH 17 cost Kyiv it's 'victory'. After it the Seps dummied-up and the Ukrainian army of liberation was mauled in a series of 'sneak attacks'?

That notion of the Seps doing it and Russia being responsible became the 'lingua fanca' of anybody sensible - for it was as understandable an act for Russia,  as was annexing Crimea and invading the Donbass.  Putin was just being the 'total ass' that President Obama was telling the world he was. He was on the 'outs' with goodness and civilization and downing a planeload of tourists would prove that to everybody. 

Question was 'how sick is Putin?' The answer comes back, "He's not."  For it wasn't a falling out of over Ukraine that iced Putin, it was a veto at the UN - of another of Obama's increasing number of 'humanitarian' interventions, this time about Syria.  Ukraine 'just happened' and Putin wasn't cheering the US on to another victory.  In the absence of evidence forcing a change, the chorus just do better repeating the refrain: "Putin did it."

In so many words - although the JIT was careful to say they weren't accusing Russia of actually ordering the shoot down or nodding approval at the target acquisition radar, saying they gave the Seps a missile and the Seps used that missile  to do it,  is much like the same thing. Add to that, that at least 80 of the dirty rotten suspects are members of the Russian Armed Forces and you have a slam-dunk  closed case, chapter and verse.   Hell,  you could make an animated short subject film about it all. And they did.

But the greatest part of the saga, and the detail of the cinematographic reconstruction is straight from the on-line archives of Bellingcat.

Bellingcat is a web site registered in great Britain started by a 30-something blogger  called Elliot Higgins. In 2012,  Higgins - unemployed and playing stay at home Daddy to his daughter  - started blogging about the developing War in Syria.  He developed an 'expertise' identifying weapons depicted in YouTube postings, providing what he called 'proof' of Syrian government's use of 'barrel bomb's, cluster munitions and poison gas. Using a synthesis of Google Earth/Google Maps to fact-check posts made on Facebook and other social media, some of his 'revelations' involved locating the sites of ISIS' beheading western and other hostages and identifying the situations around other outrages.  When the Ukrainian incident began Higgins became interested in that as well - looking for evidence of Russian involvement in the Donbass. After MH 17, he formed Bellingcat with 6 assistants to investigate the downing of that aircraft. He is credited with 'debunking' satellite imagery presented by the Russians, claiming it had been 'photoshopped'. His 'work' has been largely accepted by investigators because they have very little of their own.

Bellingcat's singular failing - subjectivity

While Bellingcat's work comes off as  "professional and decisive", it remains open to a number of challenges. First is the notion that anything can be taken from internet sources without being adapted in some way, or that things posted on the internet are pristine or uncorrupted. It is increasingly evident, that, aside,  from the obvious sensitive information, some can be 'staged' including manipulation of attached, metadata identification. One  of these, for instance, involves video footage of the Buk missile system being transported through eastern Donbass on the day of the aircraft downing. The videographer who filmed that claims he made the video 12 days before the incident. Something that doesn't jibe at all with the Bellingcat narrative presented by the JIT.   Bellingcat's reaction to this is that he's wrong and they're right - the video was shot according to their 'investigations'.

One of the other gaps in Bellingcat's narrative is in relation to the transport truck, which originated in Donetsk   but was apparently driven to Russia to fetch the Buk, and then driven all around both Donetsk and Lugansk regions, including those two cities, after being 'stolen' by separatist forces. After it reaches Lugansk, on the way back to Russia, it disappears completely from the story and Bellingcat's ambit, as does the  Buk unit itself.


The most notable aspect of the report? The extension of the 'investigation' for another three years.

Suppose They Gave an Election and Nobody Came?

Well nobody, or at least very few of them, cast their ballots in yesterday's Russian election. Consequentially, Putin's party will run the Duma for another term - and he'll still be the President.  What's special about any of this is that the election has totally made all the world's other cares go away - as we are directed to focus on what we can't do to help the poor, downtrodden non-voting Russians.

                                                   Walking it the doggie 'Putin  huylo!'
                                                 "Sic it nasty coppers Putin-huylo, sic it!"
                                     
 We could hope they'd hit the streets, fill a square or two with the detritus of protest and, hopefully, the blood of more martyrs for democracy, human rights and free markets ... and give us something to be gladder about.

What all this does do  is  take our minds off the need to respond to a couple of terror attacks in America. One of those targeted a Mall - the place where George Bush told the American public they were going to 'win the war on terror' by shopping.  Another thing they hate us for is Piggly Wiggly's open 24/7 and The Gap.  A 'jihadi' stabbed nine full-grown American men, causing a panic in Minnesota, until he was 'stopped' by an 'off-duty', ex-police chief who maybe shouldn't have been carrying a gun in a 'gun free' Mall.  Why would Americans need 'gun free' Malls, if the President declared them a war zone?

But I diverge.

The Toronto Star, usually a font of wisdom, but of late just another member of somebody's publishing cartel, took the world outrage about 'Russian election cheating' to a  'higher level'. Along with the ballot-stuffing and double voters and bad stuff busting out all over Russian polling places,  the Star accompanied the standard pap with visual proof that "disorders" had accompanied the polling.






Ukrainians celebrate the Russian election
by lynching a Jew (just pretending - that only happens to gypsies).

  

Striking a blow for democracy in Kyiv

  

                                                  Giving a kick for democracy in Kyiv

They were right,  disorders had accompanied the Russian election, but not in Russia.  Ukraine, the unfriendly neighbor to the west,  had announced, early last week, that it would not brook any Russian elections on EUkrainian territory. While they were understandably incensed that the vote went on, as planned, in "occupied" Crimea - which is 'de facto' a part of Russia - they also turned out the security forces to guard the Russian embassy in Kyiv from the 'protestors' who were scheduled to appear. The right-wing Volkstrurm Frontline Fighters Association   that doesn't exist in dignified Eukrainia, did appear with their EUkraino-doggies and 'slava EUkrinies!!'  and prevented any unpatriotic Russian expats from getting near the election booth inside. Not only that,  those 'security forces' actually arrested a 'Russian' for "voting irregularities" - a Ukrainian crime covering a Russian election. The forces of freedom in the democratic west should be so observant. 

                                            A Russian caught election-rigging in Kyiv

Probably most people in the world and, from the amount of ink expended on the subject, very few members of the western media, were aware until this morning,  the Russians were having an election at all.  Like how could anybody,  threatening world peace in eastern Europe, holding massive military manoeuvres to threaten EUkrainia, backing-up the Chinese and Assad  in world trouble spots,  or making the poor, recently-discovered yet massively acclaimed  "White Helmets" of Aleppo  starve in the rubble of the city they helped destroy,  take time out for an election?

Everybody on earth - shy a bad dose of hydrocephalus - knows that a real election is taking place in America. It has been for almost a year now. And we also know, again from those media sources which we trust for the 'truthiness', that the evil 'Merlin of Moscow' has been 'hacking' into  the US electoral system to such an extent that he has, single-handedly, or with a division of militarized computer geeks,  successfully reduced the slate of candidates and left Americans with only two choices for 'Commander-in-Chief'.  We know as well, and perhaps more importantly, that there is the imminent likelihood that his 'hacking' will do to America what his election shenanigans have done in Russia, elect one of those Korean War era  'mongoloid candidates ' to sit in the Oval Orifice!

Putin's apt to calling-up on November seventh to say, "Congratulations Mr. President on the big win."  And really meaning it.

The White Hats

Coming to an HBO/Netflix outlet near you, the saga of those who so willingly go into deadly places to rescue innocent victims.  This is waaay better than the 9/11 firefighters who survived - the white hats apparently never complain about being 'used' or developing and work-related illnesses. Aside from the white hard hats and sharp, da-glo rescue vests and perhaps the 'team' T-shirts these could be rescuers from anywhere, but they're not - they're ours.

If there is any particular skill that Syrians have developed over the past 4 years, aside from moving themselves away from danger and hopefully into the EU, it is digging the stay-behinds out of the rubble that four years of war fighting and aerial bombardment  have spread over much of the country. Whammo! Some humanitarian, or otherwise, drops some ordinance and faster than one can say 'open sesame' they're hauling kids of every age out of the wreckage. The news and various 'reportages' (now there's a new word)  are filled with the stuff. It's the photo-op, human interest material that we don't get from dead babies or relaxing tank crews. But until the 'White Helmets', it was rarely done professionally, neither the rescue screws,  or the videographers who filmed them. But that's all changed thanks to a few bucks from western NGO's - there are 'professionals' - both in the rubble and recording them -  in Dolby and HD. Western organizations - usually affiliated with the distaff (ie non-Assad) side of the Syrian struggle -  sponsor these guys. And sometimes, it seems, they hold back until a video recorder is in place before they go to work. The photography, too, seems to bear the mark of a 'professional staging', sorely-lacking when the world was being 'sold on' Assad's poison gas offensives.  Hell,  we've now got a poster child for what Assad's done to the poor democratic jihadis.



And very soon we'll have an HBO/Netflix extravaganza to sell America on everything right and pure being done for America's interests in seeing Assad off.  Up close and personal we're gong to get to know those great guys who don't pick sides, who'll rescue a Christian or a Shiite, or a stray European.  But we won't see them 'back off' as they did when some 'rebels' were forced to saw the head off a 12-year-old 'government spy'.   But heck,  that happens, apparently,  on all sides,  except when the government is using barrel bombs. 

I was watching the trailer last night to the haunting strains of a tune all Syrians would no doubt recognize from American radio: 'When the Saints Go Marching In'.  Maybe they have saints in Islam, the Sufis do, but they aren't the 'stoic' kind of Moslems who want to turn Syria back into a theocracy.  But this subject isn't for Syria, it's for America and we'll see the kind of stuff a Nobel Prize was designed for.

 In a 'sop' to the bloodshed they didn't complain about,  the American glitterati universe is a-twinkle with 'the word' that the 'White Helmets' merit  what Obama got for nothing. A campaign is being organized to develop another international coalition to ensure the Nobel panel doesn't mistakenly award the gong to somebody else.  But I wouldn't bet that,  if successful, these 'concerned citizens of Terra' would want to  challenge the orthodoxy that this war doesn't need to stop until Assad goes.
 The White Hats will last as long as their funding,  and continue after the real money goes back home. For White Hats don't 'win' anything, even saving lives  - except perhaps a public outcry, in America, for more 'rescue' bombardment on other Syrians with no hard hats.

Ooopsie daisy!

Only yesterday, after mistakenly eradicating some 85 of Assad's soldiers in an airstrike on a town that had been besieged by ISIS for more than a year, America ambassatrix to the UN, and gender non-specific sorority sister,  Sam Power, spent 25 minutes railing about the evil that is Assad and comparing the Russians with terrorists. She forgot to mention the evil that is ISIS, the intended targets outside that bombed town and the other reason President Obama said he needed to start bombing Syria in the first place - other than mentioning that America was 'all over them'.

This stunning cu*nt is a cunning array of stunts herself.  Being serious about Syria?  Hah!

America isn't trying to save Syria from ISIS terror, that's a made-in-America 'prawduct', They're trying to change the Assad regime. That's been the truth all along.  Even though it took inventing ISIS it still hasn't happened. America needs another 'ground swell of opinion' calling for war, in order to go in and get that job done. The target has been 'prepped' for four long years, but you know what? America will still be fighting an 'insurgency' in Syria and Iraq, and Afghanistan  and Libya and Yemen as long as America exists.  There are more Moslems, living to-day, who hate what America 'stands for' than when Bushco announced they existed. The Long War is some really new shit and something Americans have never experienced, even thought about before or are prepared for. It will hit them someday,  at the Mall,  and prevent them from being the 'winners' Bushco II told them that shopping would make them .

Ain't none of this going to end well.


PS At the Mall?  I must have been getting the Raelian vibes again - Minnesota = stabbings

Yay for Our Side! We prevented a Jihadi!

A neighborhood in the small Ontario town of  Strathroy, Ontario got a rare treat when representatives of Canada's security services - except perhaps the armed forces - 'took down' a real, live terror threat. Terrorist  Aaron Driver aged 21 was shot and killed after one of two bombs he had made exploded in the taxi he planned to take to a Mall attack.

Driver had previously been charged with being interested in terror and was on a 'peace bond' to avoid doing things on the internet and  reading jihadist material. Police had requested that judicial order, I would imagine, because the judge couldn't convict him of something that would have required a jail sentence, or probation. So when the mandated period for wearing his "locator anklet" expired,  the jihadi-in-waiting left Winnipeg and moved in with a sister in Strathroy.  Obviously he was aware that he was being watched - which explains perhaps that the authorities were not aware that he was back on-line and doing things he wasn't supposed to be doing. It was the Islamic-style pre-suicide attack tape he made, and posted,  that got somebody's attention.

Thank goodness it only took less than a day to identify the masked man in the video, locate him in Canada, mobilize a force from three police organizations, stage for a raid and stop him before he killed himself and perhaps innocent people. The bomb that exploded will require having to replace the backseat of the cab he was taking to his 'attack'. He was uninjured enough to want to ignite the second bomb - that action got him shot. The cabby was 'shaken-up' as, no doubt, was the police sniper.

Security forces did their job.

 But they might not have been able to do that without some help from the 'FBI' or whatever body (probably the company of which  Snowden is an alumnus)  that keeps an eye on Canadians for our security forces, while our security forces, and the other 'five eyes' nations keep an eye on Americans. You see national laws protect citizens from national security snooping, but foreign spy agencies can act at will.  That's only bad if they're the kind of spy agencies that don't share what they find out.   If they do share, what they're spying on, they're called 'allies'.

I've mentioned before, a friend with 'connections' to US security being 'warned' that he was in contact with a possible 'subversive writer' .... moi?   But that was years ago when America was up  to its testicles in Iraq.  Things have gotten better.

So, if some 'representative' of US national security is browsing this screed (I tagged it with 'bomb' and ]jihad]), I still think you could have more useful employment.

But I digress.

Last year when terrorist  Michael Zehaf-Bibeau popped onto police scanners wearing a bandanna and holding an antique  - and what looked a hell of a lot like a .22 calibre - 'Winchester' in a photo taken by a tourist at the War Memorial in Ottawa, it didn't take much more than a hour for US 'authorities' to identify him from their 'records'. Later investigation revealed that Canadian police 'knew' him from some 'dust-ups' in homeless shelters ion the West Coast.  They certainly didn't know him while he was shooting-up the parliament buildings.  But America did.

Here again America was able to inform Canadian authorities that a video had been posted but, we are told, not much else for a nation wide effort ensued, as reported,  to identify the masked man. Police in Winnipeg, again reportedly, made the connection and he was tracked to his residence in Strathroy.  Concerning ere is apparently, the fact that a security agency that could identify a flop-house pugilist in less than an hour couldn't identify someone who, by virtue of the police charges alone,  should have been in the terrorist database in the USA.   Or don't self-radicalizing people get identified?

I'll bet the recently exonerated pressure cooker legislature bombers from BC are on the no-go list and  will always have a tough time 'going stateside' or, even, jaywalking in Canada.

As it is another 'terrorist' bites the dust. Chalk another one up to 'the fight for freedom, peace and justice'. And all the other things that make 'them' hate 'us' so much.

By the way, this story went 'poof' just as quickly as it appeared.  No post mortems, no exposes of the perp or how he got that way.  Important enough to serve as another part of the saga of why it's really important to kill 'them'  'over there'.  A typical false flag profile.

There are more 'victims' to-day than ever before.

Help Arthur Silbur?

Read Arthur's Story

 Some people have it worse but for Arthur Silber  this is  very bad.

 I don't know the guy from Adam but I'm imagining going around the block in his shoes.  Maybe, by giving a little we can help him see beyond next week with an easier mind?

Please give it your best consideration?

How Crazy Can It Get?

An elderly couple in Rome , Italy, were reported to police, yesterday, who attended to them in a suspected case of domestic violence. It turns out all the shouting they were doing was a 'cri de coeur' from a pair of septuagenarians feeling very alone in an increasingly frightening world.  It seems the female half of the partnership was in the habit of 'keeping up with world news' and tried to keep her husband 'in the know'.  The police responded by reassuring the oldsters and cooking them some pasta.

The daily news would terrify anybody. Not simply for what happens, but for the increasing evidence that those 'in charge' may be profoundly negligent, malignant or just plain stupid.

As evidence of this is the latest result of Olympic doping scandal.

It has been two years since the last Olympics,  in Sochi, where it is now claimed, on the evidence, of a pair if defecting athletes, that Russia engaged in a "national program" of fudging lab tests and test results,  to cover-up the already wide-spread allegation that most of its competitors were 'doping'. As a result of this, and a Canadian lawyer's investigatory report,  a number of Russian athletes were banned from current Olympic competition. A substantial number of others - who were claimed to have tested positive for doping at other venues since -  have been admitted to competition.  That's not the stupid part. The banning of the complete Russian Para-Olympic team is the stupid part.

These athletes weren't involved in the Sochi doping - or at least no evidence has been offered of that - but the international organization seeing to 'para-olympics' took a 'brave (politically correct)  stand' that the IOOC couldn't,  or wouldn't,  and sanctioned the Russian team, as a whole,  for what, apparently, their dope-testing apparatchiks at the other Olympics did.  "Russia Lets the Disabled Down" said the headlines. And then the 'good guys'  'nailed' the cripples.

(I have to interject a note:  In the light of the recent Rio paralympics it was announced that, in the prior summer paralympics (London)  there was evidence of "large numbers" of the Russian team displaying characteristics of doping.   But maybe that's something that happens in populations of special needs people? For apparently it has also come to light that a number of Olympic Athletes have permitted to compete even while on restricted medications "prescribed for medical reasons" - one of note was the multi gold winner in gymnastics, Simone Biles, who is on a regular regimen of anti-HDSD medications that would otherwise disqualify her.  Another interesting fact coming out of Rio is that the Paralympics competition in the 400 m run for men, exceeded the gold medal performance at the Olympics. )

What's really stupid is that the IOOC would trust any host nation to be 'responsible' for dope testing  that's just asking for some shenanigans.  If it's important,  the IOOC should have its own, separate, drug-testing entity, funded out of the proceeds the IOOC already receives from all aspects of the Olympic games.

That, apparently, is too hard to do.  Or too expensive. Or something.  But not too  stupid. That continues.

But while they're passing out the imbecile awards, you get gob-smacked by the realization that cretins deserve awards too.

 In a Florida city of Punta Gorda , yesterday, a 'local initiative' to help  citizens  better understand how their city government works, resulted the the shooting death of a 79 year-old woman when a police 'live role-playing enactment' of a 'fire/no fire'  situation went amiss. The woman was one of two participants who volunteered to act out parts in a "Citizens Academy" demonstration.  The police officer who made 'a mistake'  (by bringing a loaded gun to a 'dramatic recreation' do ya think?) and fired the shot that killed her, is now suffering 'emotional stress' and is off work on administrative leave.  It goes beyond a mere loaded gun. What part of drawing it, pointing it at a civilian and pulling the trigger was deemed to be 'smart', or even 'better helping citizens to understand why police fire their weapons'? Was she threatening life and property? Was she holding a jihadi car bomb or beheadment sword?

I would imagine the other participating citizens, and police officers, might be feeling a little stressed too.  Not to mention the mayor, the city 'fathers' and the municipal legal team. One could only wonder how her family is taking the 'accident'.  I have a pretty good idea what the story might do to that Italian Grandmother.

Punta Gorda Citizens' Academy 

Forcillo's Fate

Another legal drama almost played out to-day in Toronto. Its 'star' was another of  'Tronna's finest' who felt enough fear doing that awesome job of defending, protecting and serving society, the one that we honor and reward cops for doing, to draw that pistol we provided to him and unload most of a  clip into a 'threat'.  If anything the drama proves that 'police lives matter'.

The  story in summer 2013 when a 17 year-old called Sammy Yateen got  load of dope into himself (or so toxicology reports)  and went for a tram car ride on his own, somewhere he normally didn't go, and something his folks said he normally didn't do.  Whatever was on his mind on that night,  something happened that made him expose himself and start threatening the others on that train with a pocket knife  ( it had a 3 inch blade which made it legal to carry, but not, perhaps, as impressive a the "10 centimetres" the defense team described) he happened to have with him. The result was that, while nobody was hurt, many were frightened, including the driver who, after seeing his tram evacuated tried to reason with Sammy but left, as well, when police arrived.  The first police to arrive   realized that Yateen was in a state that was not conducive to reason, and that he had that knife. They waited for back-up, which, and as usual, duly arrived - Officer Forcillo was one of them. By the time the incident ended,  there were 23 police officers on the scene -  including at least one ranking officer.

Yateen refused to surrender and while police maneuvered and decided on a best approach to ending the situation - which was by now the focus of a number of  bystanders, one of whom deployed his cell phone camera.  The videoed part of the interaction lasted 3 or 4 minutes out of the 12-15 that the whole saga lasted. There were to be 4 such video sources entered in evidence including one on the tram itself.

But it wasn't so much the saga, as the finale, that involved officer Forcillo. He was to be the 'subject officer' charged with shooting Yateen - at total of 8 times (one shot missed).  The other 22 police officers present were designated  the 'witnessing officers'  for the subsequent  SIU investigation.  For while  the world very quickly became witnesses to the 55 seconds of Officer Forcillo's part in the drama, and saw what happened, what he was seen to do was to remain 'alleged' until a court found him guilty - and that part of the saga has taken three years.   What the world saw, and that the court heard, was that Yateen threatened Forcillo from inside a streetcar. That resulted in Forcillo being one of three officers to draw their weapons and to be the only only to be threatened enough to open fire. Forcillo did that. A first volley of four shots dropped Yateen - possibly inflicting one of the fatal wounds. The second volley of five shots - fired seconds later - finished him off. Other officers standing near, or beside, Forcillo, including another one pointing his/her weapon,  did not fire.  Another officer then deployed a taser to 'render Yateen receptive to medical intervention'.  After which officers stormed the tram, Yateen was removed to be pronounced dead at a hospital.

Then it was officer Forcillo's turn.

Unlike ordinary people in such situations,  Forcillo wasn't jailed during the investigation or before, or after,  charges against him were laid.  He was suspended from work as a policeman - a harsh sort of necessity - but he received normal pay and emoluments until he was sentenced to jail yesterday, after which the Chief of Police 'suspended him from duty (in accordance with the Police Act) without pay'. (something that should have happened 'in accordance with the Police Act' on his conviction?).  His Police Association hired, and paid for, a team of 'specialist' lawyers who did their best to convince the court that Yateen had, essentially, signed his own death warrant and coerced an innocent policeman into executing it.  The court didn't buy that. The public, or the greater part of them, didn't either. Perhaps some of the 22 witness officers didn't, either, the court heard from very few (none?) of them.

In passing a sentence of 6 years, one year more than the mandatory sentence for the crime charged (attempted murder), the judge hauled out the old saws about violated trusts and duties and the needs to be held 'accountable'. But Officer Forcillo literally got away with murder. He was charged with trying to kill Yateen, not actually doing it as attempted. In the best of all possible worlds manslaughter might have been conceivable  ... but even a crack defense team couldn't rationalize  that second volley and the pause before it. Forcillo said he saw the dead man move to  "threaten him",  the tape sadly didn't agree.

Never having shot someone, or having been in any sort of position where I might have shot someone,  or even having life the stressful life ascribed to policemen, I know  disqualifies me from sharing the ideation that led Officer Forcillo to off-load, but I have felt threatened, and stressed, in my work and  I  have fired a gun, in fun.  I know from personal experience, that one good shot very often deserves another - just because. To diverge to another case recently in the news of a handicapped man and his care-giver confronted by police in Florida, after the caregiver was shot while lying on the ground with his arms extended, he asked the policeman who shot him why he'd done that. The answer was, "I  don't know."  Possibly that might have been Officer Forcillo's honest answer, but he was otherwise advised and they almost got him off  'scot free'.

What they did get him was treated differently from any other felon - until yesterday. For he is no longer 'on the force', and not protected by 'the brotherhood'. Other than never, perhaps, having to spend a day in a jail's 'general population'.  Maybe he never will, police are rarely punished for things they do 'on duty' except theft, drinking and sex - which again require almost boilerplate proof,  or dissing a superior or breaking the brotherhood bond,  which don't.

The sentence is supposed to send some sort of message to police. But Forcillo is the first policeman to have been convicted of something that happens all too regularly are 'part of a hard job'. To many people he's a scapegoat. To some who believe he did go too far they wonder of 6 years isn't too much - it won't bring back the dead kid and Focillo has already had an ordeal in court.  But that was his choice and his right and it was designed to prevent a harsher sentence - or exonerate him completely. And that's all something that wouldn't happen to a security guard or licensed gun owner who did the same thing

As he was being taken to 'protective custody' in cells below the courthouse, his lawyers were announcing there was to be an appeal launched in another court this morning that might see him freed to celebrate the long week-end and to put his finances in order, if he hadn't already done that.  He's now, almost officially, another 'bad' cop.

Hopefully a 'bad'  cop with a partial pension.

My Two (almost) Favorite Topics: Again

Gays and the Gardai - or Tronna's rebutylhydrated version of an  'Ulster constabulary' - (no feckin' pl'eece services in Hogtown) and the annual paean to promiscuity - the Gay Pride parades.

Was a time in 'Toronto the good' when the one would regularly  rough-up gatherings of the other.  Hallowe'en was a good night to catch somebody 'in flagrante delicto', dressed-up a like a bombshell, and if you couldn't throw the book at em for some kind of turpitude , at least you could make sure they 'tripped' over their crinolines.  Toronto gays still commemorate the 'bathhouse raids' and the heavy-handed police 'presents' that turned the tide on outright harassment.

Over the years the Toronto police have come a long, long way. From the Chief participating in the parade a few years back, when the Mayor wouldn't,  to the LGBTSMFP members of Toronto's finest prancing and capering down Church Street, as their granddaddies might have done  behind King Billy's horse in  Julys of yesteryear. Not only prancing and capering - but smooching, holding hands and - unless it was another police force - popping the question (diamond and all) to that significant same-gendered  other,  in front of an admiring crowd.  Wonder if they would qualify for a 'police wedding'  like the RCMP jobbie - with 'orses,  and  the riot baton, honour-guard salute?

The gay thing is, again, as much traditionally 'proud'  as it has been ,  an exposee of pulsating,  ambidextrousity,  pulchritude, kitsch and too much make-up  - only now extending to a whole week of 'celebrating'.  It will be interesting to see where this goes when more 'mainstream ' gays get involved with 'their families'. I imagine that, even for the cause, there are some things their offspring shouldn't be seeing.  And what happens as time goes by and age takes it's toll?  The octogenarian gays might need their own less-exciting celebration, they would be more frightening in gold lame short-shorts  than a legion colour party - much like the gradually-changing veterans day parades that once graced the CNE on Warrior's Day -  today the handful of wheelchair-bound stalwarts and the cadet corps to push them.   Mind you,  there are a couple of newer generations of peacekeepers - now carrying the torch of sacrifice - while the current lot of real combat vets don't want much to do with the BIG show.

It was one of those growing number of 'mainstream groups' that caused the uproar and offended Toronto's finest,  at this year's gala.

Black Lives Matter 'activists' participated in this years' doings to publicize their 'agenda', which has something to do with the undiminished frequency with which some of Toronto's finest deal with some 'malefactors' - usually black or psychologically-troubled ones - and  with what used to be called 'extreme prejudice'.  The Toronto force has had a couple of 'bad incidents' this year where somebody videoed what looked, to the untrained eye - and, in one cause, a supposedly unbiased court - for all the world like unwarranted overreactions in which citizens found themselves shot dead by police.   Those Black Activists actually brought the Pride parade to a standstill briefly on a couple of marching days and, in the last instant, had the organizers sign a commitment to remove the 'official' police presence from the parade. No more float from the Metro cops - and that hurt.

 Not the gay cops marching, no, the pain was felt by the 'Nellies;' in the Police Union who took it all to heart and let the media know about them 'shocks' and 'dismays' - hurt feelings and all. That some guttersnipers could rise up and bust a perfectly good community-building exercise, was just almost as much as seeing a member get sentenced to a term in jail rather than just being allowed to retire to an early pension.  But such, as some people say,  is life.

Now the ple'ece SERVICE (catch the change?)  are demanding an apology - or two.  

Somebody should be asking,  "For what?"

I'm pretty sure the gay community could get along very well without 'Jock' ( my daddy was pl'eece chief so this is genetic, eh?) McCormick  and the  cops who 'hang out' at HQ.  Maybe if they hadn't 'tapped the goodness' out of  all that extra funding they were given to stop  the gun violence - which is back again - in spades - annual budget increases and all - they might have more respect, or pride.

They still have  the same old bunker mentality. Somebody IS out to get them.

 The Black Lives Matter - 'activists'.