DHS trains for U.S. militia with ‘Uncle Sam’ hats

While two brothers reportedly motivated by Islamic fundamentalism were carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing, the city was hard at work planning a mass casualty terrorism-training exercise in which the perpetrators were American militiamen whose logo includes Uncle Sam hats.

The Boston Globe revealed the plot of “Operation Urban Shield,” a simulation by the Department of Homeland Security costing $200,000. The program was slated to take place last weekend to train local Boston law-enforcement agencies to work together to thwart a terrorist threat.

The Boston newspaper reported officials from a dozen agencies had been meeting for months to plan the simulation and had already recruited students from Northeastern University and the Boston Police Academy to play the parts of terrorists and witnesses.

While the vast majority of all terrorist attacks worldwide are carried out by Muslims, the DHS program decided to train for a different set of antagonists.

According to the plans obtained by the Boston Globe, the terrorist threat in the exercise was a fictional group called the Free America Citizens, described as “a home-grown cadre of militiamen whose logo would be a metal skull wearing an Uncle Sam hat and a furious expression.”

One official told the newspaper the goal of the simulation was for detectives to figure out the motives of the Free America Citizens group.

Now that an eerily similar plot was carried out to deadly effect by the Chechen Muslim brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the “Urban Shield” drill is reportedly retooling some of the stimulation.

However, it was unclear whether Islamic ideology would play a part in the future drill.

Read more here.

Alleged Teacher Goes Ballistic, Beats Christian Ministry Workers With Her Purse Following Church vs. State Debate

Follow The Tea Party Patriots Audit The IRS Live Here………..

http://www.livestream.com/teapartypatriotslive?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks

Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes Discriminates Against Conservatives

The Common Core State Standards Initiative has created a fair bit of angst among critics who view it as a poor — or even dangerous — plan to amend the nation’s educational schema. Considering this dynamic, it’s no surprise that some concerned Florida parents are planning to protest a national Common Core conference that is slated to be hosted later this month by The Center for College & Career Readiness.

But when FreedomWorks, a non-profit organization, agreed to help these parents by providing a grassroots training to accompany their protest, the conservative organization charges that a hotel abruptly canceled its reservations. The hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes, however, is denying these claims, stating that the anti-Common Core initiative’s goals had nothing at all to do with the decision — and that the decision was based on crowd-control concerns.

Read more here.

Patriots’ Star Aaron Hernandez’s Home Searched After Killing

Investigators searched the North Attleborough home of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez today following the killing of a man police call an “associate” of Hernandez, ABC News has learned.

Massachusetts State Police and prosecutors arrived at Hernandez’s $1.3 million, 5,600-square foot home, which is outfitted with a home gym and a swimming pool, just before 5 p.m. and spent hours with him inside the mansion.

Two Hernandez friends tried to leave house at the time of the search, but they were stopped by a state police car at the end of driveway. Crime scene investigators later searched the car the men tried to leave in.

During the search, Hernandez received a hand-delivered package from the prominent law firm Ropes and Gray around 7:30 p.m., with the deliveryman telling reporters swarming the sidewalk outside that it was addressed to “Mr. Hernandez himself.”

Read more here.

FBI director admits domestic use of drones

The FBI uses drones for domestic surveillance purposes, the head of the agency told Congress early Wednesday.

Robert Mueller, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, confirmed to lawmakers that the FBI owns several unmanned aerial vehicles, but has not adopted any strict policies or guidelines yet to govern the use of the controversial aircraft.

“Does the FBI use drones for surveillance on US soil?” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Mr. Mueller during an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Yes,” Mueller responded bluntly, adding that the FBI’s operation of drones is “very seldom.”

Asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) to elaborate, Mueller added, “It’s very seldom used and generally used in a particular incident where you need the capability.” Earlier in the morning, however, Mueller said that the agency was only now working to establish set rule for the drone program.

Mueller began answering questions just after 10 a.m. EDT and has also touched briefly on the recently exposed NSA surveillance program that has marred the reputation of the United States intelligence community as of late. Mueller said 22 agents have access to a vast surveillance database, including 20 analysts and two overseers.

When Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) asked Mueller later in the morning if he’d consider being more open about the FBI’s surveillance methods, the director decried being much more transparent that the bureau already is. Mueller said the FBI has and will continue to weigh the possibility of publishing more information about its spy habits, but warned that doing such would be to the advantage of America’s enemies.

Read more here.

Capitol Hill Police Block Tea Party Activists from Immigration Rally

Capitol Hill police are trying to block activists attending Wednesday’s “Audit the IRS” rally from also attending a nearly day-long press conference on immigration, hosted by Reps. Steve King and Louie Gohmert. The IRS rally is on the west side of the Capitol, while the immigration event is on the east side. Organizers for the IRS event were told by Hill police that “your people” can only assemble on the west side. Organizers were told to remove the activists from the immigration event.

Capitol Hill police left a voicemail for Kevin Mooneyhan, Deputy Executive Director of Tea Party Patriots, saying that “your people” only are permitted to assemble for the event on the west side of the Capitol. The activists’ presence at the immigration event on the east side, supposedly violates the terms of the Tea Party’s permit. Mooneyhan was instructed to move any activists who planned on attending the Tea Party rally away from the immigration event.

Keep in mind, the immigration event is hosted by sitting members of Congress. The notion that citizens can’t attend an event featuring duly elected Representatives in a public space is absurd.

“The Capitol police are violating our rights to assembly and association,” Mooneyhan told Breitbart News. “How does our permit limit the rights of individuals to attend public events. It’s intimidation.”

Read more here.

‘The Refugees Will Collapse Europe’: Beck Outlines How Syria Crisis Could Have World-Changing Implications

With President Obama’s announcement that the United States will begin arming the Syrian rebels, many might think that the bloody civil war might soon come to an end.

But Glenn Beck argued on his television show Tuesday that the suffering is far from over, and that both Europe and the United States may face dire implications.

Beck began by showing current photos from the Middle East, saying progressives on both sides of the aisle who supported the “Arab Spring” are responsible.

“Who killed 98,000 people in [Syria] since the Arab Spring?” he demanded. “Who’s responsible? The president of the United States, the Center for American Progress, Samantha Power, Bill Kristol, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, all of the progressives that said let’s open up this Jeffersonian can of worms.”

Read more here.

Google Challenges Obama Administration Over Spying Program Gag Order

Google on Tuesday sharply challenged the federal government’s gag order on its Internet surveillance program, citing what it described as a First Amendment right to divulge how many requests it receives from the government for data about its customers in the name of national security.

The move came in a legal motion filed in the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and was aimed at mending Google’s reputation after it was identified this month as one of nine U.S. Internet companies that gave the National Security Agency access to data on its customers. Revelations about the program, known as PRISM, by a former NSA contractor has cracked open a broader debate about the privacy of American’s communications from government monitoring.

The publication of such data requests would answer questions about the number of Google users or accounts affected by U.S. intelligence activities. But it wouldn’t answer more critical questions on how much data is being disclosed, including whether information belonging to Americans has been swept up into investigations on a foreign targets.

“Google’s reputation and business has been harmed by the false or misleading reports in the media, and Google’s users are concerned by the allegations,” according to the company’s motion. “Google must respond to such claims with more than generalities.”

Google has previously disclosed the number of data requests it receives from civilian law enforcement.

Read more here.

What Do We Get For Expensive Taxpayer-Funded Trip to Ireland?… Ungrateful Teenagers!