Archive for February, 2010
FBI Knew Austin Attack Was Coming
Paul Joseph Watson for prisonplanet.com:
A trusted source has told this office that the FBI knew Austin was going to be attacked today and had dispatched officers from its Dallas headquarters yesterday afternoon to be in place for today’s incident.
The source claims that a confidential memo was circulated yesterday detailing that a building in Austin was going to be the target of an attack today. He was told this by an informant who works in the Dallas FBI office.
Four FBI agents hurriedly left the Dallas office yesterday to be ready and on the scene for the aftermath of the incident, according to the informant, who was shaken when he saw events unfolding today and put two and two together.
We cannot confirm the accuracy of the claim but the source is known to us and has no motivation for inventing the story.
The fact that pilot Joe Stack changed his manifesto at least…
Hypersigils Reconsidered
Via Technoccult:
I’ve been thinking recently about Grant Morrison’s “hypersigil” concept, but considering as not an occult/magical practice, but as as a cybernetic phenomena. [...]
The way I see it, the online persona, fictional self, or avatar one creates can create feedback loops to reinforce behaviors and perceptions and have a create significant “real world” changes in a person’s life over time.
In the case of Grant Morrison, he was also shaping his persona in the letters column of The Invisibles, in interviews he gave, and his public persona at comic conventions.
Man Arrested for Using Olympic Torch to Light Up
Think it was just a cigarette, but I guess you can’t mess with the Torch:
Are Buzz Agents Among Us?
Christine Loman writing for Buzzsaw:
In the summer of 2001, 40 beautiful women whispered “save me” into the ears of men in San Francisco, dropped business cards into their pockets and promptly disappeared. The question, “Is it just a game?” was found scrawled in red lipstick on bathroom mirrors. Men dressed in black suits and dark sunglasses stood on the corners of busy streets during rush hour with cardboard signs that read, “The truth is majestic” and “They are watching you.” The bottoms of donut boxes sent to office buildings read, “Who feeds you your information?”
All were part of an advertising campaign mirroring the content of a new video game called Majestic. The brainchild of San Francisco-based Ammo Marketing, the campaign succeeded in generating press and users to Majestic. Part of this success, according to Martin Howard, author of We Know What You Want: How They Change Your Mind, may have been due to the use of buzz agents in the campaign.
The Manifesto Of Austin, Texas Crash Pilot Andrew Joseph Stack III
UPDATE: When I initially posted this story, the pilot’s name was reported as “Joseph Andrew Stack.” I have updated his name in light of current consensus reporting.
Various new outlets are reporting that a plane intentionally crashed into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. While the details are still being uncovered, it appears that the man who owned the plane, Andrew Joseph Stack III, left an online manifesto detailing his decision.
It’s also claimed that Stack set his house on fire before crashing his plane.
Here is the reported manifesto of Joe Stack below. Draw your own conclusions.
If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.
Glenn Beck Helps Turn Anarchist Book Into Bestseller
Judith Rosen for Publishers Weekly:
The old saw that there is no such thing as bad publicity could be behind the success of The Coming Insurrection, published under the pen name the Invisible Committee, which rejects the official Left and aligns itself with the younger, wilder forms of resistance that have emerged in Europe against immigration control and the “war on terror.” Published by Semiotext(e), a small California press, best known for works of French cultural theory by Jean Baudrillard and Michel Foucault, the book has spent much of the week on Amazon’s top 10 bestsellers list, alongside better known titles like Game Change and The Help.
True, when Semiotext(e) launched its Intervention series last August with an English translation of The Coming Insurrection, it hit #24 at Amazon. After that it settled back to more typical numbers for a book with a 3,000-copy first printing, distributed by an academic press (MIT). Plus…
Plane Crash in Austin, TX: Intentional Act?
Small plane crash into Echelon building in Austin, TX, housing IRS employees. No fatalities reported yet:
According to Alex Jones’ PrisonPlanet.com:
UPDATE: NTSB Investigating Austin Plane Crash As An Intentional Act
Comment: How long before this is blamed on a Tea Party acitvist/Ron Paul supporter or 9/11 truther?
12:42 p.m.: The pilot of the plane had set his house on fire beforehand, stole the plane and crashed it intentionally, a federal official told CNN.
12:40 p.m.: Federal officials said two F-16 fighter jets were launched as a precaution after the crash, though terrorist intent was not indicated.
UPDATE: NTSB official told Fox News that they are investigating Austin, Texas plane crash as an intentional act, and said it appears the pilot set his own house on fire and then got in his plane and flew it into the building. An NTSB spokesman, however, told FoxNews.com that “we can’t confirm any of that.”
An IRS office is located inside the building, NTSB told Fox News.
PleaseRobMe.com: A Burglar’s Best Friend On The Internet
PleaseRobMe.com uses keyword searches to compile a running real-time thread of tweets in which people advertise that they are out of the house (and what they are doing). Searchable by location, it’s the most valuable tool on the internet for tech-savvy burglars. Or, at the least, an interesting display of people’s eagerness to unthinkingly spout personal information across the internet.
Disinfo Reviews ‘Voodoo Histories’ (And Discovers That We Are To Blame)
I recently caused something of a stir here on the disinformation® site when I posted a New York Times book review of David Aaronovitch’s Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History.
I actually didn’t write anything to suggest how I felt about the book, and indeed I hadn’t laid hands or eyes on a copy at that time. The next day however, his publisher messengered over a great looking hardcover, so I cracked it open.
Imagine my surprise at learning, on page 3, that it was us, The Disinformation Company, that was (at least partly) behind his animosity to so-called conspiracy theories. He writes:
“… in music and DVD chains across the United States and Britain, among the limited number of books on sale, the young browser is likely to come across oversize paperbacks with titles such as Abuse Your Illusions, You Are Being Lied To , and Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies.
“Checking in at a rather substantial thirty dollars each, these books consist of bite-size essays by different authors dealing with myriad (and, frankly, random) subjects, from the oil industry to crime, via geopolitics….
U.N. Rejects ‘Militarization’ of Afghan Aid
From NYT:
Senior United Nations officials in Afghanistan on Wednesday criticized NATO forces for what one referred to as “the militarization of humanitarian aid,” and said United Nations agencies would not participate in the military’s reconstruction strategy in Marja as part of its current offensive there.“We are not part of that process, we do not want to be part of it,” said Robert Watkins, the deputy special representative of the secretary general, at a news conference attended by other officials to announce the United Nations’ Humanitarian Action Plan for 2010. “We will not be part of that military strategy.”
The American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has made the rapid delivery of governmental services, including education, health care and job programs, a central part of his strategy in Marja, referring to plans to rapidly deploy what he has referred to as “a government in a box” once Marja is pacified.
Mr. Watkins did not…
Stopping Soldiers from Becoming Murderers
From Time Magazine:
Adapted from Jim Frederick’s book Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death
On Nov. 5 of last year, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist known by his superiors to have job-performance problems and by others in the government to have Islamist sympathies, opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 43 more before he was subdued. Defense Secretary Robert Gates quickly ordered a blue-ribbon panel to conduct an investigation into how such an atrocity could occur. Gates emphasized the importance of accountability. “One of the core functions of leadership is assessing the performance and fitness of people honestly and openly,” he said. “Failure to do so … may lead to damaging, if not devastating, consequences.”
Demanding accountability is admirable, but it marks something of a change for the modern armed forces. There is a military maxim that a commander is responsible…
Nothing On T.V. Is Real: The Ubiquity Of Green Screens
This fascinating video reel shows the extent to which today’s scripted television shows are based around green screens. When Ugly Betty waits for the bus on a New York street corner, she’s actually standing in a green box. T.V. is even less real than you thought.
Bank of America Forecloses on Home with No Mortgage
I think the family’s lawyer in this case has it right when he says that this can only be explained by “the arrogance of the bank.” View the source article for updates.
From Examiner.com:
Maria and Charlie Cardoso, who reside in Massachusetts, had been renting out the Spring Hill, Florida home they purchased in 2005 with cash. However, Bank of America, who had no connection to the property, took it anyway, ignoring complaints by the Cardoso’s that they had the wrong house.
The Space Shuttle Challenger and Climate Change
From The Huffington Post:
On January 27, 1986, the night before the Space Shuttle Challenger was to be launched, a phone conference took place between NASA managers and Morton Thiokol, the manufacturer of the shuttle’s solid rocket motors. Engineers from the rocket company told NASA that it would be too cold (26ºF) to launch since the previous coldest launch (53ºF) showed burn-through problems with the O-ring seals and therefore there was no data to show that it was safe to launch. The NASA managers asked if they could prove that the rockets would fail at low temperatures and, of course, it could not be proved. NASA then held a private call with the rocket company’s managers, with the engineers excluded, and got them to agree to say it was OK to launch. The Challenger exploded the next day, 73 seconds after launch.
Of course, the NASA managers had asked the wrong question…
Yes, They ARE Missing Dubya! Shopping Site Reports Spike In Sales Of Bush Items
Hard to believe, but supposedly true, as reported in the Daily News:
Apparently someone really DOES miss Dubya.
Items featuring a smiling former President George Bush and the question, “Miss Me Yet?” are doing a brisk business as sales of pro-President Obama items lag, reports the Web shopping site CafePress.
Demand for the items spiked after a billboard featuring the ex-commander in chief appeared alongside a rural Minnesota highway last week, stirring up buzz.
CafePress spokeswoman Jenna Martin said sales of Bush-related products virtually disappeared after Obama replaced him.
But last week, she said, 10 of the firm’s top-selling 100 designs were “Miss Me Yet?” items, moving to the tune of up to 500 orders a day…
[continues in the Daily News]
Iran’s Coming Of Age
Photo of Sohrab Arabi was taken on the day that he was to disappear.
On 16 February 2010 – the week of the anniversary of the revolution of 1979, marked by a huge official demonstration in Tehran – an anonymous video of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan on 20 June 2009 was given the prestigious Polk award. John Darnton, curator of the Polk awards described this record of the shooting of an innocent young student passer-by as the “iconic image of the Iranian resistance”. He added: “This award celebrates the fact that, in today’s world, a brave bystander with a cellphone camera can use video-sharing and social-networking sites to deliver news.”
A few days earlier, the award for the World Press Photo of 2009 was given to an intimate photograph taken (by Pietro Masturzo) on one of the heated nights that following the election, when residents of Tehran would climb to their…
Why Does The West Love The Dalai Lama?
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama. Photo by Luca Galuzzi – www.galuzzi.it
A US president is again choosing to meet the Dalai Lama despite Chinese opposition. BBC News asks why this Tibetan spiritual and political leader is such a popular figure in the West:
To the Chinese government and to many of its people he is an inciter of violence and a defender of a brutal, backward, feudalistic, theocratic society.
But to many politicians and people in the West, the Dalai Lama is a kind of smiling, spiritual and political superhero.
His monastic robes, beaming countenance and squarish, unfashionable glasses are the stuff of a thousand photo opportunities. To some he is in a league of international personalities that contains only one other person – Nelson Mandela.
He is well-known for his contact with Hollywood supporters like Richard Gere and Steven Segal.
Those who have met him describe an intense personal charisma.
There is a “wonderful smiling face, cherubic…
The Ten Commandments We Always See, Aren’t The Ten Commandments
The following is the first chapter from my bite-size Disinformation book 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know, published in 2003.
For more on me, check out this website, The Memory Hole.
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First Amendment battles continue to rage across the US over the posting of the Ten Commandments in public places — courthouses, schools, parks, and pretty much anywhere else you can imagine.
Christians argue that they’re a part of our Western heritage that should be displayed as ubiquitously as traffic signs. Congressman Bob Barr hilariously suggested that the Columbine massacre wouldn’t have happened if the Ten Commandments (also called the Decalogue) had been posted in the high school, and some government officials have directly, purposely disobeyed court rulings against the display of these ten directives supposedly handed down from on high.
Too bad they’re all talking about the wrong rules. Every Decalogue you see — from the 5,000-pound granite behemoth inside the Alabama State…
