‘Concussions, Black Eyes…Put in Solitary Confinement, Nude, for Days’: TX Teen Jailed for Facebook Comment Reportedly Suffering Behind Bars, on Suicide Watch

The Texas teenager indicted by a grand jury for making a terroristic threat about a school shooting —which he says was a Facebook joke—has been suffering and beaten behind bars, his father told NPR.

CNN adds that Justin Carter, 19, is “currently on suicide watch in Comal County Jail near San Antonio, Texas” where he’s been locked up since February. If convicted, NPR reports, the third-degree felony carries up to 10 years in prison in Texas.

“Without getting into the really nasty details, he’s had concussions, black eyes, moved four times from base for his own protection,” Carter’s father, Jack, tells NPR. “He’s been put in solitary confinement, nude, for days on end because he’s depressed. All of this is extremely traumatic to this kid. This is a horrible experience.” CNN reports his father saying that his son is “very scared and he’s very concerned that he’s not going to get out. He’s pretty much lost all hope.”

Read more here.

Dem rep: We were “astounded” by what we heard in our new classified briefing about surveillance

A simple case of a liberal trying to impress the lefty base with her innocence about the surveillance state or proof that O and the NSA really are up to more than anyone thought? Well, she’s specific in saying that there are things happening that go beyond what’s been publicly revealed. (Although maybe not for long: Remember, Glenn Greenwald’s promised further leaks.) Read Ed’s post this morning about other members of Congress sounding grim and you’ll see she’s not the only one on whom the classified briefings made an impression. Nor is she the only person lately to refer to data-mining of phone records and Internet communications as the “tip of the iceberg.” Former NSA official turned whistleblower William Binney has used that phrase too in describing what he suspects is the full scope of federal record-harvesting. I think that’s what Sanchez is probably getting at here — it’s the sheer scope of what they’re vacuuming up that would blow our minds if we knew, not necessarily that they’re using technologies we weren’t aware of. Marc Ambinder wrote the other day that it’s 50 companies that are being trawled for data by the feds, not just the big nine identified on the PRISM Powerpoint. Having that fact confirmed probably wouldn’t change the public’s opinion of NSA surveillance much, I suspect, but if some of the companies involved turned out to be, say, insurers with access to people’s medical records — hoo boy.

Here’s the clip via the Hill. Michael Hayden told TPM yesterday that the NSA probably knows by now exactly what data Snowden has in his possession and therefore what leaks are still to come. Maybe that forced the agency to reveal more than they initially wanted to in their briefings this week with Congress: If they withheld something and then the world found out thanks to Snowden,, a lot of angry senators and representatives would want to know why they were kept in the dark. Exit question: How is that we can bug virtually the entire Internet but Clapper’s going around saying things like this about our cyberdefenses?

Read more here.

America Wake Up: ‘We are in the midst of a coup’

This week’s revelations about the federal government collecting massive amounts of communication data on American citizens has the country’s most-listened-to radio voice saying President Barack Obama is leading a coup against the nation.

“What everybody knows and what nobody wants to come to grips with is we are in the midst of a coup taking place,” talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said Friday afternoon. “It’s almost on a par with [when I said] ‘I hope he fails.’ How does that sound now, by the way?”

“What’s wrong with calling this a coup?” he continued. “There’s a lot here to be concerned about.”

“This is the guy, don’t forget, convincing people that this kind of stuff was never going to happen here. … This is the guy who got elected president by telling us that what is happening now was never going to happen when he was president. … He got elected warning us that what was happening now was happening in 2008. … [Now] it’s more sweeping than it’s ever been.”

He pointed out that information gathering has already been used to target political supporters of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election cycle.

“This is clearly an administration that wants to identify its enemies and then take action against them … take them out, whatever,” Limbaugh said.

A caller reminded Limbaugh that even though massive data collection has been employed by the federal government in recent years, it has hardly been used to help protect Americans, as in the case of the Boston Marathon bombing April 15. The U.S. had been warned in advance about the bombing suspects by the Russian government, but took no action against them.

“What good does having all this data do when you’re not going to use it?” Limbaugh asked.

“So why is it really being collected?”

“I dont wan’t to come across as a conspiratorialist. I’m not,” Limbaugh said.

Read more here.

“Who ordered the targeting of conservative groups?”

The big question in the IRS scandal is “Who ordered the targeting of conservative groups?”

A former Justice Department lawyer who served in the Voting Rights Section has a strong suspicion. In his PJ Media column, J. Christian Adams suggests the FBI take a close look at former White House Counsel Robert Bauer.

Adams builds his case by showing how Bauer had the motive, the means and the opportunity.

He begins by noting, “Robert Bauer had the motive to direct IRS policy against tea-party groups. He is a longtime opponent of First Amendment freedoms and an advocate of government-speech regulation. He also can’t stand the work the tea party is conducting to monitor and eradicate voter fraud.”

Adams says just two months after Bauer became White House counsel, the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. FEC caused the Obama camp to fear “the decision might cost them the White House. President Obama boorishly (and inaccurately) addressed the decision in the 2010 State of the Union.”

As for the means, “Remember, Bauer served as White House counsel from November 2009 to June 2011, right during the time this IRS shakedown was hatched.”

Adams said that is particularly important because, “[T]he White House counsel enjoys a position of power like few others. They can make things happen with a phone call. One former West Wing staffer told me that ‘any department’s staff who received directions from Bauer would think they were getting directions from the president. The White House counsel has the power to make policy with a phone call.’”

Bauer’s position gave him the opportunity to renew his feud with tea-party groups, according to Adams.

Read more here.

US Soldier Told Not to Read Hannity, Limbaugh, Mark Levin In Uniform

The US military is now openly discriminating against conservative Christians.

Todd Starnes at FOX News Radio reported:

A veteran member of the U.S. Army Band said he is facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors like Mark Levin and David Limbaugh, and serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at his promotion party.

Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers, a 25-year Army veteran and conservative Christian based at Fort Myer in Washington, believes his outspoken opposition to gay marriage prompted higher-ups to take a closer look at his beliefs. The recipient of an Army Commendation Medal and a soloist at the funeral of former First Lady Betty Ford, Sommers said his core beliefs are enough to mark a soldier for persecution in today’s military.

“It seems like with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – that the Christians have been the ones who’ve had to go underground and in the closet – for fear of retaliation and reprisals,” Sommers told Fox News. “Christians feel like they can’t be forthright with their faith. They have to hide.”

Ret. Navy Commander John Bennett Wells is representing the master sergeant. He said there is no doubt in his mind that the U.S. military is discriminating against Christians – and specifically his client.

“There’s no question about it,“ Wells told Fox News. “Because he is religious, because he feels that homosexual conduct is wrong for religious reasons, he is basically being persecuted.”

Orwell’s ‘1984’ has arrived

The FBI wants back doors to all communications equipment and software. The NSA is grabbing trillions of phone records of American citizens. And reporters’ research apparently is a subject of interest at the Department of Justice.

All of this and more has triggered a surge of renewed interest in a recent video by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in which he declares that “1984,” the George Orwell novel about ultimate government disinformation, manipulation and control – is here.

“Dystopian novels were just that, bad utopias,” he said, “but not practically possible. One could always sigh in relief that such surveillance, such invasion of privacy, was not technologically possible.

“Until now.

“Now we have the technology. Drones that measure less than an inch, weigh less than an ounce and hover noiselessly outside your bedroom window are not a dystopian future but today’s reality,” he said.

“The individual who feared ’1984′ when it was written in 1949 need now shout from the top of his or her lungs, for technology had made the unthinkable, thinkable,” said Paul.

What are the recent developments that prompted the interest?

The National Journal raised questions over confirmation that Verizon, which has more than 100 million Americans as customers, secretly has been handing over documentation of its telephone calls to the National Security Agency.

“Calibrating the appropriate level of outrage will probably occupy us for most of the day,” the report said.

WND reported that the FBI wants changes made in industry requirements so that the agency would possess a back door to all communications software and hardware.

Read more here.

IRS Scandal: Armed Police ‘Escort’ Reporters Through Cincinnati Office

Monday afternoon, ABC News released a chilling report that details what journalists have faced while trying to get some answers from the Cincinnati IRS office, which is where a majority of the Tea Party targeting took place.

According to ABC, an “armed uniform police officer with the Federal Protective Service” “escorted” reporters through the public building. ABC says if the intent wasn’t to “scare off” employees who might talk, “it was the effect.”

ABC News is also hearing conflicting reports from Cincinnati IRS employees and the IRS Headquarters in Washington. A Washington spokesman told ABC that press queries are “referred to the press office,” but that “people have First Amendment rights, they are entitled to speak.”

An employee in OH said that is not the case and that staffers have been threatened with their jobs if they are caught talking to the media:

Read more here.

OBAMA LIED! White House Knew of IRS Targeting Conservatives Back in June 2012 (Stole Election)

Barack Obama condemned the IRS scandal earlier this week saying,

“I have got not patience for it… I first learned about this from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this.”

But now we know… The Obama administration knew about the IRS targeting scandal in June 2012 – before the November elections.
The New York Times reported:

The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was auditing the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of politically active organizations seeking tax exemptions, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.

At the first Congressional hearing into the I.R.S. scandal, J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that he informed the Treasury’s general counsel of his audit on June 4, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin “shortly thereafter.”

It remained unclear how much the disclosure would affect the broader debate over the I.R.S.’s problems. Complaints from Tea Party groups that the I.R.S. was singling them out became public in 2012, through media accounts.

Mr. George told Treasury officials about the allegation as part of a routine briefing about ongoing audits he would be conducting in the coming year, and he did not tell the officials of his conclusions that the targeting had been improper, he said.

Alarming! DOD Launches Urban Assault Training In Chicago Suburb, Frightened Residents Describe “A War Zone”

The residents of Tinley Park, IL are freaked out. And it’s by the scary behavior of our own government.

The Department of Defense has been conducting another urban assault military drill this week within a populated southwest Chicago community. And just to make it especially frightening, they’re raining their hours of terror upon the locals in the middle of the night. Residents are being woken up to the sounds of flash bangs, and explosions, with visuals of police lights, and Blackhawk helicopters circling low overhead. The DoD’s response to the frightened and angry residents? Tough!

According to the Chicago Tribune,

A Department of Defense training exercise that included explosions heard miles away scared some southwest suburban residents late Tuesday and early this morning.

Residents said they heard “bomb” noises from about 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tinley Park police received about 25 calls from residents who were either fearful or angry, especially in the wake of the bombings in Boston last week.

The urban warfare training at the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center was expected to use small explosives to blow doors off hinges, local authorities said. A second training exercise at the former mental health center is planned for tonight, this time with helicopters, police said. …

Erin Lonergan, 25, lives about a mile from the training site. She heard the explosions while watching a movie with her family.

“They were happening every 15 minutes or so,” Lonergan told the Tribune. “They were quite loud.”

Lonergan said she was scared because of the time of night and the bombings at the Boston Marathon last week.

Read more here.

Gov’t Following ‘Stalinist Model’ for Detaining Veterans Under NDAA

The lawyer who helped secure the release of Brendon Raub, a former Marine forcibly incarcerated in a psychiatric ward by authorities in Virginia for political posts on Facebook, told the Alex Jones Show today that there are currently a further 20 cases in his county alone that are similar in nature to Raub’s detention.

See the video here.