Under the Radar: Where to Start?

Daniel Ellsberg, Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, David Swanson, Medea Benjamin, Mike Malloy and over a hundred others were arrested in front of the White House today to protest President Obama’s torture of Bradley Manning.

All photos by twolf.

FDL will be livestreaming the demonstration at Quantico tomorrow now.

Here is the text of the advisory:

   Subject: Possible threat to MCBQ

   Ladies and Gentlemen,

   There are substantiated indications and warning of possible denial of service attacks on MCBQ by supporters of Wiki-leaks and PFC Manning. It is possible that these attacks will be timed to coincide with protest activity that is scheduled to take place in the vicinity of MCBQ on 20 Mar. Possible threat courses of action could include denial of service attacks on phone, email, and internet services, and could include harassing phone calls (i.e. bomb threats) and mail disruption (i.e. suspicious packages). Additionally, though there is no direct threat, it is possible that actual physical penetrations onto MCBQ property may be undertaken to cause infrastructure damage, vandalism, or harass USMC personnel.

   The Base has been involved in detailed response planning with local, regional, and national authorities and is appropriately postured to minimize/mitigate likely threat activity.

   Because the exact intent of the protest groups is not known, nor the form of attack they may undertake, MCBQ commands and activities should carefully review their OPSEC and physical security posture.

   Recommended actions for MCBQ tenant commands and organizations:

   Develop alternative communication plans (i.e. installation command net and cell phones) to ensure the ability to communicate with MCBQ emergency services during a denial of service attack.

   Review MCBQ bomb threat procedures (attached).

   Review MCBQ procedures for suspicious packages (attached).

   Area commands shall ensure Installation Command net radios are fully charged and accessible.

   Ensure Command Duty Officers are briefed on the threat and know the proper response to threatening/harassing phone calls

   Ensure non-essential fax machines are turned “off”

   Remind all personnel to be alert for suspicious activity and report it immediately to the MCBQ Security Battalion using the Eagle Eyes hotline (703-432-EYES).

   Building managers should ensure building perimeters are regularly inspected and that all unmonitored exits are locked when not in use (consider limiting access to a single entrance and mandating ID checks).

   Remind personnel to avoid posting or discussing aspects of any MCBQ response on Face-Book or other social media forums.

   Remind personnel, to be aware of phishing (both email and telephone) attempts to gain information about MCBQ personnel or operations.

   Additional information concerning protest activities, to include any gate closures, changes to Force Protection Condition, excepted traffic delays, etc., will be distributed via a MCBQ FROSTCALL later this week.

   Pete Streng Director of Operations

Tom Miller, the Attorney General of Iowa, revealed more about the proposed global settlement with the mortgage lending industry over foreclosure fraud. He said that the AGs were about to enter into negotiations with the banks over the settlement, but that he had some bright lines.

   State attorneys general, who soon will enter settlement talks with the nation’s largest mortgage servicers after revelations of flawed foreclosure paperwork and other shoddy practices, will accept nothing less than wholesale changes to the way those companies treat troubled homeowners, the group’s leader said Wednesday.

   “We’re trying to shift the servicing industry from [being] a dysfunctional one to a functional one,” Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who’s heading up the 50-state coalition, said in an interview. “If we can get something that changes the direction of servicing, then that’s what we’ll do. If we don’t, then we’re not going to settle.”

Were you raped? Was it incest? And other questions the government’s tax cops would have to ask women who’ve terminated pregnancies.

Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?

In testimony to a House taxation subcommittee on Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, confirmed that one consequence of the Republicans’ “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” would be to turn IRS agents into abortion cops, that is, during an audit, they’d have to detemine, from evidence provided by the taxpayer, whether any tax benefit had been inappropriately used to pay for an abortion.

Sixty-four Senators, half from each party, expressed their desire to have the President take up tax and entitlement reform this year, as part of budget negotiations. The filibuster-proof majority in favor of these efforts doesn’t mean that a resolution can be worked out – both sides have a very different conception of things – but it does mean that the debate is likely to begin. And it begins with the Obama economic team at least interested in cutting Social Security, with the political team trying to hold them off.

   The letter was circulated by Sens. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who were able to get a supermajority of the Senate within 24 hours. It urges Obama to “engage in a broader discussion about a comprehensive deficit-reduction package.” […]

   “Specifically, we hope that the discussion will include discretionary spending cuts, entitlement changes and tax reform,” the letter states.

   “We need the White House to be engaged,” Johanns said in a press call explaining the letter. “There is no question that tackling tax reform and entitlements is tough. … We won’t have any chance unless the president joins with us in the good-faith effort.

   “The ball is very clearly in the president’s court,” Johanns said.

   “We want to work toward a comprehensive plan,” Bennet said. “This is about keeping the conversations going, keeping it alive.”

n case you thought we were living in an open democracy, here’s a press release from the Federal Reserve on a recent round of stress tests commissioned to test banks.

   The Federal Reserve on Friday announced it has completed the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR), its cross-institution study of the capital plans of the 19 largest U.S. bank holding companies.

   As a result of the CCAR, some firms are expected to increase or restart dividend payments, buy back shares, or repay government capital. The Federal Reserve on Friday will discuss the reviews and its decisions with firms that requested a capital action. All 19 firms will receive more detailed assessments of their capital planning processes next month.

Notice who will not be receiving any instructions on the relative health of the 19 banks tested – the general public. The Fed will not release the results of the stress tests or even the methodology behind them. It will merely say that “some” firms can increase their dividends or buy back shares or repay the government. Within minutes of this announcement, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, BB&T, BNY Mellon and US Bancorp announced dividend increases. SunTrust Bank announced a buyback of shares.