MPs demand Zelensky, Trump investigate suspicion of U.S.-Ukraine corruption involving $7.4 bln
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Former CBS News president Richard Salant (1961 - 64 and 1966 - 79) explained the major media's role: "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have." ...and to this very day most Americans haven't noticed they're being brained washed! ~ N. Hooben
Monday, December 23, 2019
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Think gain my friend, if you thought '1984' was far out get a load of this.
Occasionally I
will ride shotgun with my friend Ron while he makes his scheduled rounds at
various industrial stops in the Florida panhandle and southern Georgia…it’s
just one way we keep in touch since we left the radio station some years
ago. On one recent road trip Ron pointed
to various surveillance cameras that were mounted on buildings, traffic lights,
and telephone poles and described the forecasts pointed out in “1984”, a
dystopian novel by George Orwell published in 1949.
Well Ron is
not within earshot at the moment but if he were I would probably say, “Think
gain my friend, if you thought '1984' was far out get a load of this.” ~ Norman Hooben
Driving surveillance: What does your car know about you? We hacked a Chevy to find out.
By Geoffrey A. Fowler / the Washington Post
Dec 17, 2019
Behind the wheel, it’s nothing but you, the open road — and your car quietly recording your every move.
On a recent drive, a 2017 Chevrolet collected my precise
location. It stored my phone’s ID and the people I called. It judged my
acceleration and braking style, beaming back reports to its maker General
Motors over an always-on Internet connection.
Cars have become the most sophisticated computers many of
us own, filled with hundreds of sensors. Even older models know an awful lot
about you. Many copy over personal data as soon as you plug in a smartphone.
But for the thousands you spend to buy a car, the data it
produces doesn’t belong to you. My Chevy’s dashboard didn’t say what the car
was recording. It wasn’t in the owner’s manual. There was no way to download
it.
To glimpse my car data, I had to hack my way in.
We’re at a turning point for driving surveillance: In the
2020 model year, most new cars sold in the United States will come with
built-in Internet connections, including 100 percent of Fords, GMs and BMWs and
all but one model Toyota and Volkswagen. (This independent cellular service is
often included free, or sold as an add-on.) Cars are becoming smartphones on
wheels, sending and receiving data from apps, insurance firms and pretty much
wherever their makers want. Some brands even reserve the right to use the data
to track you down if you don’t pay your bills.
When I buy a car, I assume the data I
produce is owned by me — or at least is controlled by me. Many automakers do
not. They act like how and where we drive, also known as telematics, isn’t
personal information.
Cars now run on the new oil: your data. It is fundamental
to a future of transportation where vehicles drive themselves and we hop into
whatever one is going our way. Data isn’t the enemy. Connected cars already do
good things like improve safety and send you service alerts that are much more
helpful than a check-engine light in the dash.
But we’ve been down this fraught road before with smart
speakers, smart TVs, smartphones and all the other smart things we now realize
are playing fast and loose with our personal lives. Once information about our
lives gets shared, sold or stolen, we lose control.
There are no federal laws regulating
what carmakers can collect or do with our driving data. And carmakers lag in
taking steps to protect us and draw lines in the sand. Most hide what they’re
collecting and sharing behind privacy policies written in the kind of language
only a lawyer’s mother could love.
Car data has a secret life. To find out what a car knows
about me, I borrowed some techniques from crime scene investigators.
Jim Mason hacks into cars for a
living, but usually just to better understand crashes and thefts. The
Caltech-trained engineer works in Oakland, California, for a firm called ARCCA
that helps reconstruct accidents. He agreed to help conduct a forensic analysis
of my privacy.
I chose a Chevrolet as our test subject because its maker
GM has had the longest of any automaker to figure out data transparency. It
began connecting cars with its OnStar service in 1996, initially to summon
emergency assistance. Today, GM has more than 11 million 4G LTE data-equipped
vehicles on the road, including free basic service and extras you pay for. I
found a volunteer, Doug, who let us peer inside his two-year-old Chevy Volt.
I met Mason at an empty warehouse, where he began by
explaining one important bit of car anatomy. Modern vehicles don’t just have
one computer. There are multiple, interconnected brains that can generate up to
25 gigabytes of data per hour from sensors all over the car. Even with Mason’s
gear, we could only access some of these systems.
This kind of hacking isn’t a security
risk for most of us — it requires hours of physical access to a vehicle. Mason
brought a laptop, special software, a box of circuit boards and dozens of
sockets and screwdrivers.
We focused on the computer with the most accessible data:
the infotainment system. You might think of it as the car’s touch screen audio
controls, yet many systems interact with it, from navigation to a synced-up
smartphone. The only problem? This computer is buried beneath the dashboard.
After an hour of prying and unscrewing, our Chevy’s
interior looked like it had been lobotomized. But Mason had extracted the
infotainment computer, about the size of a small lunchbox. He clipped it into a
circuit board, which fed into his laptop. The data didn’t copy over in our
first few attempts. “There is a lot of trial and error,” said Mason.
(Don’t try this at home. Seriously — we had to take the
car into a repair shop to get the infotainment computer reset.)
It was worth the trouble when Mason showed me my data.
There on a map was the precise location where I’d driven to take apart the
Chevy. There were my other destinations, such as the hardware store I’d stopped
at to buy some tape.
Among the trove of data points were unique identifiers
for my and Doug’s phones, and a detailed log of phone calls from the previous
week. There was a long list of contacts, right down to people’s address, emails
and even photos.
For a broader view, Mason also extracted the data from a
Chevrolet infotainment computer that I bought used on eBay for $375. It
contained enough data to reconstruct the Upstate New York travels and
relationships of a total stranger. We know he or she frequently called someone
listed as “Sweetie,” whose photo we also have. We could see the exact Gulf
station where they bought gas, the restaurant where they ate (called Taste
China) and the unique identifiers for their Samsung Galaxy Note phones.
Infotainment systems can collect even
more. Mason has hacked into Fords that record locations once every few minutes,
even when you don’t use the navigation system. He’s seen German cars with 300
gigabyte hard drives — five times as much as a basic iPhone 11. The Tesla Model
3 can collect video snippets from the car’s many cameras. Coming next: face
data, used to personalize the vehicle and track driver attention.
In our Chevy, we likely glimpsed just a fraction of what
GM knows. We didn’t see what was uploaded to GM’s computers, because we
couldn’t access the live OnStar cellular connection. (Researchers have done
those kinds of hacks before to prove connected vehicles can be remotely
controlled.)
My volunteer car owner Doug asked GM to see the data it
collected and shared. The automaker just pointed us to an obtuse privacy
policy. Doug also (twice) sent GM a formal request under a 2003 California data
law to ask who the company shared his information with. He got no reply.
GM spokesman David Caldwell declined to offer specifics on Doug’s Chevy, but
said the data GM collects generally falls into three categories: vehicle
location, vehicle performance and driver behavior. “Much of this data is highly
technical, not linkable to individuals and doesn’t leave the vehicle itself,”
he said.
The company, he said, collects real-time data to monitor
vehicle performance to improve safety and to help design future products and
services.
But there were clues to what more GM knows on its website
and app. It offers a Smart Driver score — a measure of good driving — based on
how hard you brake and turn, and how often you drive late at night. They’ll
share that with insurance companies, if you want. With paid OnStar service, I
could, on demand, locate the car’s exact location. It also offers in-vehicle
WiFi and remote key access for Amazon package deliveries. An OnStar Marketplace
connects the vehicle directly with third-party apps for Domino’s, IHOP, Shell
and others.
The OnStar privacy policy, possibly only ever read by
yours truly, grants the company rights to a broad set of personal and driving
data without much detail on when and how often it might collect it. It says:
“We may keep the information we collect for as long as necessary” to operate,
conduct research or satisfy GM’s contractual obligations. Translation: pretty
much forever.
It’s likely GM and other automakers only keep just a
slice of the data cars generate. But think of that as a temporary phenomenon.
Coming 5G cellular networks promise to link cars to the Internet with
ultra-fast, ultra-high-capacity connections. As wireless connections get
cheaper and data becomes more valuable, anything the car knows about you is
fair game
GM’s view, echoed by many other
automakers, is that we gave them permission for all of this. “Nothing happens
without customer consent,” said GM’s Caldwell.
When my volunteer Doug bought his Chevy, he didn’t even
realize OnStar basic service came standard. (I don’t blame him — who really
knows what all they’re initialing on a car purchase contract?) There is no
button or menu inside the Chevy to shut off OnStar or other data collection,
though GM says it has added one to newer vehicles. Customers can press the
console OnStar button and ask a representative to remotely disconnect.
What’s the worry? From conversations with industry
insiders, I know many automakers haven’t totally figured out what to do with
the growing amounts of driving data we generate. But that’s hardly stopping
them from collecting it.
Five years ago, 20 automakers signed onto volunteer
privacy standards, pledging to “provide customers with clear, meaningful
information about the types of information collected and how it is used” as
well as “ways for customers to manage their data.” But when I called eight of
the largest automakers, not even one offered a dashboard for customers to look
at, download and control their data.
Automakers haven’t had a data reckoning yet, but they’re
due for one. GM ran an experiment in which it tracked the radio music tastes of
90,000 volunteer drivers to look for patterns with where they traveled.
According to the Detroit Free Press, GM told marketers that the data might help
them persuade a country music fan who normally stopped at Tim Horton’s to go to
McDonald’s instead.
GM would not tell me exactly what data it collected for
that program but said “personal information was not involved” because it was
anonymized data. (Privacy advocates have warned that location data is personal
because it can be re-identified with individuals because we follow such unique
patterns.)
GM’s privacy policy, which the company says it will
update before the end of 2019, says it may “use anonymized information or share
it with third parties for any legitimate business purpose.” Such as whom? “The
details of those third-party relationships are confidential,” said Caldwell.
There are more questions. GM’s privacy policy says it
will comply with legal data demands. How often does it share our data with the
government? GM doesn’t offer a transparency report like tech companies do.
Automakers say they put data security first. But I
suspect they’re just not used to customers demanding transparency. They also
probably want to have sole control over the data, given that the industry’s
existential threats — self-driving and ride-hailing technologies — are built on
it.
But not opening up brings problems, too. Automakers are
battling with repair shops in Massachusetts about a proposal that would require
car companies to grant owners — and mechanics — access to telematics data. The
Auto Care Association says locking out independent shops could give consumers
fewer choices, and make us end up paying more for service. The automakers say
it’s a security and privacy risk.
In 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act will require
any company that collects personal data about the state’s residents to provide
access to the data and give people the ability to opt out of its sharing. GM
said it would comply with the law but didn’t say how.
Are any carmakers better? Among the privacy policies I
read, Toyota’s stood out for drawing a few clear lines in the sand about data
sharing. It says it won’t share “personal information” with data resellers,
social networks or ad networks — but still carves out the right to share what
it calls “vehicle data” with business partners.
Until automakers put even a fraction of the effort they
put into TV commercials into giving us control over our data, I’d be wary about
using in-vehicle apps or signing up for additional data services. At least
smartphone apps like Google Maps let you turn off and delete location history.
And Mason’s hack brought home a scary reality: Simply
plugging a smartphone into a car could put your data at risk. If you’re selling
your car or returning a lease or rental take the time to delete the data saved
on its infotainment system. An app called Privacy4Cars offers model-by-model
directions. Mason gives out gifts of car-lighter USB plugs, which let you
charge a phone without connecting it to the car computer. (You can buy
inexpensive ones online.)
If you’re buying a new vehicle, tell the dealer you want
to know about connected services — and how to turn them off. Few offer an
Internet “kill switch,” but they may at least allow you turn off location
tracking.
Or, for now at least, you can just buy an old car. Mason,
for one, drives a conspicuously non-connected 1992 Toyota.
______
Monday, December 16, 2019
What Really Happened at NAS Pensacola (A Must Read For Every American)
What Really Happened at NAS Pensacola, and Why
OpEd: Naval Aviator reveals what
really happened in Pensacola. A must read and share.
Posted by DML
If you share just one thing today on Facebook and social media, it should be the essay below written by a naval aviator. It is simply brilliant. Long, yes, but worth every word if you care about national security and clearing of the swamp. Do not fail your neighbor, share this now! — Dennis Michael Lynch
Setting foot on the quarterdeck and dropping your orders to get stamped at Naval Aviation Schools Command is the culmination of years of applications, college, physical training, aptitude screenings, FBI background checks, and performance well above your peer group who had also been competing for the coveted “pilot spot”. If you get there via the Naval Academy, ROTC, or Officer Candidate School, when you get to Pensacola, you have “made it”, but you are also just starting.
Instructors and staff refer to the entirety of the training program as “The Pipeline”. The start of The Pipeline is the front desk at Building 633 in Pensacola. This is where the first reality check for future aviators sets in, as class and flights don’t start the next day. There are only a certain number of seats for each API (Aviation Preflight Indoctrination) class, and there is a waiting list. “A-Pool” is where you wait (a pool of people, not of water). Building 633 is where A-Pool is administered, and where the weekly Friday morning muster takes place, and where the next week’s “class up” list is announced. This is where the terrorist attack took place.
Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API), 4 weeks of academic classes and water survival courses. Pensacola.
Fleet Replacement Squadron: (Learning your fleet aircraft). Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard aviators all go through the same training pipeline through Advanced.
I have had conversations over the last 3 days with at least a dozen current or former Navy flight instructors. Unanimously, the sentiment is that Saudis should be expelled from training in our program. Not only is there legitimate concern for personal safety and national security, there is a general feeling that they won’t be able to put their feeling aside and provide proper training.
Why did the Sheriff Department have to stop the shooting and not active duty watch-standers or military police? In short, because the Sailors at NAS Pensacola were failed by their leadership. After the Naval Reserve Center in Chattanooga was attacked by a Muslim terrorist, then Candidate Trump was critical of the policy of military members being disarmed while on duty. The only reason that the Chattanooga body count wasn’t higher was because the Navy Commanding Officer (an aviator) had disregarded policy and had his personal handgun with him in his office and he confronted the attacker and returned fire. He would later say that he disregarded policy because the safety of his command was his ultimate responsibility. He defended his command that day, and saved lives.
We didn’t learn our lessons with the Fort Hood shooting, The Navy Yard Shooting, and the Chattanooga shooting, so now we have this. Will we finally recognize the threat and allow those who have sworn to defend the constitution of the United States the ability to defend themselves while at work on US soil? I doubt it. Sadly, I think it will take an action similar to what President Trump took with Chief Gallagher to make stubborn and stupid Navy leadership do what is the obvious and correct course of action.
Should we have seen this coming?
Absolutely. When I told my father (a retired Naval Aviator) that a foreign student was responsible, he responded, “I’ll bet it was a Saudi.” A brother is a veteran Naval Flight Officer who trained in Pensacola. His response, “It’s probably a Saudi.” My neighbor from Pensacola who now flies for an airline “Mother F***, you know it was a Saudi!”
For some reason, there is a political push to excuse these attacks as one-off, or that the perpetrator was “radical”. The news is already saying “There is no direct link to a terrorist organization.”…as if ISIS gives out membership IDs and T-Shirts. The Politically Correct folks tell us to not judge an entire religion or culture by the actions of a single individual.
The Factually Correct among us looks at this chain of events and sees no coincidences. The fact that such a large portion of the Saudi contingent knew of the impending attack and chose to participate and none chose to stop it show the truth that many have long known but few in leadership will acknowledge. The actions taken by this Royal Saudi Officer were not at all “extremist views”. His views and actions were well in line with the mainstream Saudi Officer in the unit.
Defenders of Islam will say that it is a “Religion of Peace” and only “extremists” join the terror groups. With sad irony, many critics of Islamic terrorism have observed the rise of ISIS with their pool of men and resources flowing largely from Sunni Saudi Arabia have said that it’s the extremist Muslim who is actually fighting, but the peaceful Muslim is the majority….they just write the checks. The example in Pensacola shows us that it’s the minority extremist shooting his classmates; it’s the peaceful Muslim standing alongside filming.
Students of history will know that these terror attacks are neither random nor motivated by “extreme” thinking. It is an American tendency to think that history started in 1776, or maybe 1492 at the earliest. Our schools teach world history and battles that took place in Europe as being between empires like the “Romans” and “Ottomans”.
They leave the parts out where it was the HOLY Roman Empire that defeated the ISLAMIC Caliphate in Vienna, September 11th 1683. This military defeat and its date are etched into the cultural identity of every Muslim just like the Alamo and San Jacinto are taught to kids in Texas. The only difference is that Texas school children don’t have a religious document telling them that the conquest continues and it is their life-long Jihad to install Islam as the law of the entire world.
The events in Pensacola last Friday are minuscule in the scope of world history. It is, however, a perfect illustration of the war of cultures (and yes, religions) that we currently find ourselves as participants in. While the Politically Correct in Washington will likely downplay the details and work to wipe the event from the headlines to preserve an alliance, the Factually Correct among us are still walking the streets with Saudi terrorists at large.
Those in our military will follow the orders they gave their oaths to follow, though we strongly disagree with them. We will likely continue to risk our lives and work to train people that hate us, and would kill us if given the opportunity. The King of Saudi Arabia can say that the actions don’t reflect those in his Kingdom. The facts make him a liar.
Where do we go from here?
1. Immediately allow all Commissioned Officers and senior NCOs (E-7+) who are qualified (military or CHL) to carry a military equivalent or issued weapon while on duty.
2. All Saudi personnel in the US should be restricted to base, and have their quarters searched for weapons. If they had no knowledge, they should be expelled. If they did have knowledge or participated, they should be executed.
3. Suspend training Saudi personnel indefinitely. Only resume the program when the FBI can conduct background checks for each student and officer. Once screened and admitted, Saudi students should be restricted to base and not allowed into the community.
4. Evaluate the “alliance” between the US and Saudi Arabia beyond the fact that they are a client nation buying billions of dollars in weapons and training. Is our strategic relationship with the Saudi government worth the cost inflicted on us by a Saudi population which clearly hates us and continues to do us harm. Do the officers that we train for combat ever actually participate in conflict in a meaningful way that support US interests or relieve demand on US forces? If not, disband the program forever.
5. Be better students of history. Value reality above wishful thinking. Judge cultures and religions by what they do, rather than what they want you to think. Take political blinders off and build and execute policy based on reality rather than wishful thinking.
One more thing... If you think for a minute that Islam is the religion of peace, consider the following:
Posted by DML
If you share just one thing today on Facebook and social media, it should be the essay below written by a naval aviator. It is simply brilliant. Long, yes, but worth every word if you care about national security and clearing of the swamp. Do not fail your neighbor, share this now! — Dennis Michael Lynch
What Really Happened at NAS Pensacola, and Why
December 9, 2019 by David Blackmon
December 9, 2019 by David Blackmon
David Blackmon is a veteran with
20+ years of service, a Naval Aviator who flew combat missions in Iraq, and had
15+ years in counter-terrorism. He also
served as a flight instructor at NAS Pensacola.
I reported to Building 633 at Naval Air Station Pensacola
in October of 2002. Checking in to flight school is a point in time for each
future aviator that is never forgotten. Nobody becomes a Naval Aviator by
accident.Setting foot on the quarterdeck and dropping your orders to get stamped at Naval Aviation Schools Command is the culmination of years of applications, college, physical training, aptitude screenings, FBI background checks, and performance well above your peer group who had also been competing for the coveted “pilot spot”. If you get there via the Naval Academy, ROTC, or Officer Candidate School, when you get to Pensacola, you have “made it”, but you are also just starting.
Instructors and staff refer to the entirety of the training program as “The Pipeline”. The start of The Pipeline is the front desk at Building 633 in Pensacola. This is where the first reality check for future aviators sets in, as class and flights don’t start the next day. There are only a certain number of seats for each API (Aviation Preflight Indoctrination) class, and there is a waiting list. “A-Pool” is where you wait (a pool of people, not of water). Building 633 is where A-Pool is administered, and where the weekly Friday morning muster takes place, and where the next week’s “class up” list is announced. This is where the terrorist attack took place.
The Naval Aviation Training “Pipeline” at a glance:
A-Pool. Pensacola.Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API), 4 weeks of academic classes and water survival courses. Pensacola.
Primary Flight Training (150ish hours in a T-6 Texan):
Pensacola or Corpus [Christi]
Advanced Flight Training (Jets, Props, and Helicopters)
Wings are earned at completion of Advanced. Pensacola (Helicopters), Corpus
(Props), Kingsville & Meridian (Jets)Fleet Replacement Squadron: (Learning your fleet aircraft). Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard aviators all go through the same training pipeline through Advanced.
It was just after 0700 last Friday when my phone starting
ringing. A relative’s best friend called her in a panic because her husband
wasn’t responding, and she wanted to know if I knew anything. Luckily, he is a
doctor at the hospital at Corry Station, about 3 miles away and nowhere near
the shooting and I was able to put them at ease for his safety.
I had a group chat with about 20 officers still in the
area. Friends and co-workers were exchanging information, all of them aviators,
many still on lock down. Some of them were directly in charge of the response
and involved in the investigation. All of this is available now in open media,
but this is what I know.
The Saudi terrorist checked in on Monday and seemed
“normal”. He held the “dinner party” on Thursday
night with more than 10 Royal Saudi Air Force Officers in attendance. At this
party, they watched videos of mass shootings, mostly Islamic propaganda. The
next morning, Friday, he systematically attacked building 633 while one of his
fellow officers followed and filmed while several other Saudis waited and
observed the attack from a car.
The attacker started at the Quarterdeck (front desk), and
the 3 killed were on duty at the time. Ensign Watson was the duty officer, was
shot 5 times and still managed to call first responders and evacuate the
building and personally directed them to the location of the shooter prior to
dying of his wounds. The other 2 killed were also in the immediate vicinity of
the quarterdeck. Many of the wounded were as well, some being wounded as they
tried to climb out of windows.
Per Navy policy, none had weapons to defend themselves with. The first responders that confronted the shooter were from the local sheriff’s department. Two were wounded in the gun battle, and the terrorist was killed. Three active duty Americans were dead, 8 more wounded, 2 deputies wounded. Many of the wounded were shot through the doors of classrooms on multiple floors of building 633. Most of the base remained on lockdown well into the afternoon as the base was systematically searched for the missing Saudi terrorist officers. By day’s end, 6 additional Saudi Arabian officers were in FBI custody, and several were at large in the community and a man-hunt is still underway.
Per Navy policy, none had weapons to defend themselves with. The first responders that confronted the shooter were from the local sheriff’s department. Two were wounded in the gun battle, and the terrorist was killed. Three active duty Americans were dead, 8 more wounded, 2 deputies wounded. Many of the wounded were shot through the doors of classrooms on multiple floors of building 633. Most of the base remained on lockdown well into the afternoon as the base was systematically searched for the missing Saudi terrorist officers. By day’s end, 6 additional Saudi Arabian officers were in FBI custody, and several were at large in the community and a man-hunt is still underway.
So, over a 5 day
span, the terrorist checked in, acquired a handgun with 4 extended magazines
and ammunition, posted a manifesto online condemning the US as a “nation of
evil” along Islamist and anti-Semitic lines, planned and executed his attack
with at least 3 accomplices. At least 10 Saudi Military Officers knew of the
plan, and either participated or did nothing to stop it. Each one of these
individuals had passed the screening process to come train in the United
States. That brief recount of the chain of events begs a series of
questions, some of which are easier to answer than others.
Here are some of the most obvious questions, and my best
effort to answer them…
Was this terrorism?
Absolutely!
Much has been made of the lack of a formal declaration by
the Military or other Federal Authority, but I understand the delay. Not only
is a long term alliance involved (more on that later), but there are several members of the Royal Saudi delegation still at large
within the United States. If you declare all of them terrorists, it makes
the possibility of an orderly surrender virtually zero. On the off chance that
these guys were at Waffle House at the time of the attack and are freaked out
and hiding, it’s appropriate to not label them terrorists, yet. Congressman
Gaetz has appropriately called this terrorism and called for a review of entire
program.
Why are we training Saudis in Pensacola?
While the brightest light is on the Saudis in the program, we train aviators from multiple nations in Pensacola. Germany, Sweden, and Singapore also have a large volume of students train in Pensacola. The obvious comparison to this incident is to the fact that the majority of the 9-11 highjackers were trained in Florida. It is an important distinction to note that all of those individuals were civilians and had no interaction with any military training program.It is equally important to note that 10+ members of the Royal Saudi Air Force knew of a planned mass murder of American military, and either participated in it or agreed in principal to allow it to happen.
Saudi Arabia is currently our strongest ally in the Middle East. We base troops there, we stage equipment there, and we get our fuel for operations from there. If we are going to be involved in the Middle East, we need an ally like Saudi Arabia.
Why are we training Saudis in Pensacola?
While the brightest light is on the Saudis in the program, we train aviators from multiple nations in Pensacola. Germany, Sweden, and Singapore also have a large volume of students train in Pensacola. The obvious comparison to this incident is to the fact that the majority of the 9-11 highjackers were trained in Florida. It is an important distinction to note that all of those individuals were civilians and had no interaction with any military training program.It is equally important to note that 10+ members of the Royal Saudi Air Force knew of a planned mass murder of American military, and either participated in it or agreed in principal to allow it to happen.
Saudi Arabia is currently our strongest ally in the Middle East. We base troops there, we stage equipment there, and we get our fuel for operations from there. If we are going to be involved in the Middle East, we need an ally like Saudi Arabia.
We were also allies with Iran, until the Islamic
Revolution there resulted in the famous hostage situation. Then we were allies
with Iraq, until Saddam fired on the USS Stark (killing 37 sailors) and
subsequently invaded Kuwait. So now we are allied with Saudi Arabia, for now.
What is it like training an international student?
Each nation is different, and it was interesting to see some stereotypes play out and interact with different cultures. The Swedish and Norwegians were your typical Vikings. The Germans were often humorless, focused, and smart. The Singaporeans were incredibly disciplined, and this group of students policed itself in an impressive manner. Any Sing who did poorly on a flight or test would have other students ensure they did well the next time around. I’d gladly fight alongside any of these guys any day of the week. I stay in touch with several of my students as their careers advance.
Each nation is different, and it was interesting to see some stereotypes play out and interact with different cultures. The Swedish and Norwegians were your typical Vikings. The Germans were often humorless, focused, and smart. The Singaporeans were incredibly disciplined, and this group of students policed itself in an impressive manner. Any Sing who did poorly on a flight or test would have other students ensure they did well the next time around. I’d gladly fight alongside any of these guys any day of the week. I stay in touch with several of my students as their careers advance.
The Saudi students have an entirely different reputation
and structure to their training. While all of the other nations employ a form
of meritocracy to be in the flight program, the Saudi students are typically
the child of a Saudi sheik, politician, or member of a rich/important Saudi
family. They all drive luxury vehicles, and flaunt their wealth to the other
students and instructors. It isn’t unusual to see a Saudi student wearing
designer shoes that cost thousands of dollars in their uniforms instead of
their issued shoes or boots.
The Saudis do not stand any of the squadron watches (Like
assistant OOD, where the flight schedule is executed), while other nations
participate fully in squadron functions. The Saudis also have a cadre of senior
officers in Pensacola, ostensibly to monitor and aid the progress of the
students. They employ a number of former/retired (US) Navy pilots to serve as
tutors to the Saudis, and also to provide instruction on how to properly
interact with their US instructors and inside of American society. The retired
officers also act as a liaison to the American command structure.
Our instructors are told that we can only instruct the Saudis in flying. Issues regarding discipline, respect, or military bearing, etc., all have to be referred to the liaisons. Those issues are rampant among the Saudi contingent, and are well known among the chain of command. While there are certainly some Saudi students who have been respectful and disciplined the norm is an aloof, arrogant child who seeming feels superior to his instructor.
Our instructors are told that we can only instruct the Saudis in flying. Issues regarding discipline, respect, or military bearing, etc., all have to be referred to the liaisons. Those issues are rampant among the Saudi contingent, and are well known among the chain of command. While there are certainly some Saudi students who have been respectful and disciplined the norm is an aloof, arrogant child who seeming feels superior to his instructor.
American and non-Saudi international students are
expected to show up to the pre-flight briefs ready to explain all of the
concepts required in the flight to the instructor (proof they study and paid
attention in class). Saudi students often come to briefs
unprepared to meet that standard, and expect the material to be presented to
them anew. The norm for the Saudis is to pass the student regardless of
performance, unless they are simply a danger to themselves, then they get
referred back through the liaisons.
We are paid to move them through the pipeline and deliver
them having completed the syllabus. We
can’t make them study. One friend had a Saudi student refuse to recover an aircraft
from a spin, and simply threw up his hands and stated “If Allah wills it, it
will recover.” This was during out-of-control flight, with the aircraft falling
several thousand feet per minute. The instructor took controls, recovered from
the spin, and returned base. That student eventually graduated.I have had conversations over the last 3 days with at least a dozen current or former Navy flight instructors. Unanimously, the sentiment is that Saudis should be expelled from training in our program. Not only is there legitimate concern for personal safety and national security, there is a general feeling that they won’t be able to put their feeling aside and provide proper training.
Why did the Sheriff Department have to stop the shooting and not active duty watch-standers or military police? In short, because the Sailors at NAS Pensacola were failed by their leadership. After the Naval Reserve Center in Chattanooga was attacked by a Muslim terrorist, then Candidate Trump was critical of the policy of military members being disarmed while on duty. The only reason that the Chattanooga body count wasn’t higher was because the Navy Commanding Officer (an aviator) had disregarded policy and had his personal handgun with him in his office and he confronted the attacker and returned fire. He would later say that he disregarded policy because the safety of his command was his ultimate responsibility. He defended his command that day, and saved lives.
The next ideation of the NDAA (National Defense
Authorization Act) included provisions to allow commanders the discretion to
allow CHL holders to bring their personal weapons onto base to defend
themselves in similar instances. Tragically, no US commander has had the guts
to implement the allowances granted by law.
We didn’t learn our lessons with the Fort Hood shooting, The Navy Yard Shooting, and the Chattanooga shooting, so now we have this. Will we finally recognize the threat and allow those who have sworn to defend the constitution of the United States the ability to defend themselves while at work on US soil? I doubt it. Sadly, I think it will take an action similar to what President Trump took with Chief Gallagher to make stubborn and stupid Navy leadership do what is the obvious and correct course of action.
Should we have seen this coming?
Absolutely. When I told my father (a retired Naval Aviator) that a foreign student was responsible, he responded, “I’ll bet it was a Saudi.” A brother is a veteran Naval Flight Officer who trained in Pensacola. His response, “It’s probably a Saudi.” My neighbor from Pensacola who now flies for an airline “Mother F***, you know it was a Saudi!”
For some reason, there is a political push to excuse these attacks as one-off, or that the perpetrator was “radical”. The news is already saying “There is no direct link to a terrorist organization.”…as if ISIS gives out membership IDs and T-Shirts. The Politically Correct folks tell us to not judge an entire religion or culture by the actions of a single individual.
The Factually Correct among us looks at this chain of events and sees no coincidences. The fact that such a large portion of the Saudi contingent knew of the impending attack and chose to participate and none chose to stop it show the truth that many have long known but few in leadership will acknowledge. The actions taken by this Royal Saudi Officer were not at all “extremist views”. His views and actions were well in line with the mainstream Saudi Officer in the unit.
Defenders of Islam will say that it is a “Religion of Peace” and only “extremists” join the terror groups. With sad irony, many critics of Islamic terrorism have observed the rise of ISIS with their pool of men and resources flowing largely from Sunni Saudi Arabia have said that it’s the extremist Muslim who is actually fighting, but the peaceful Muslim is the majority….they just write the checks. The example in Pensacola shows us that it’s the minority extremist shooting his classmates; it’s the peaceful Muslim standing alongside filming.
Students of history will know that these terror attacks are neither random nor motivated by “extreme” thinking. It is an American tendency to think that history started in 1776, or maybe 1492 at the earliest. Our schools teach world history and battles that took place in Europe as being between empires like the “Romans” and “Ottomans”.
They leave the parts out where it was the HOLY Roman Empire that defeated the ISLAMIC Caliphate in Vienna, September 11th 1683. This military defeat and its date are etched into the cultural identity of every Muslim just like the Alamo and San Jacinto are taught to kids in Texas. The only difference is that Texas school children don’t have a religious document telling them that the conquest continues and it is their life-long Jihad to install Islam as the law of the entire world.
The events in Pensacola last Friday are minuscule in the scope of world history. It is, however, a perfect illustration of the war of cultures (and yes, religions) that we currently find ourselves as participants in. While the Politically Correct in Washington will likely downplay the details and work to wipe the event from the headlines to preserve an alliance, the Factually Correct among us are still walking the streets with Saudi terrorists at large.
Those in our military will follow the orders they gave their oaths to follow, though we strongly disagree with them. We will likely continue to risk our lives and work to train people that hate us, and would kill us if given the opportunity. The King of Saudi Arabia can say that the actions don’t reflect those in his Kingdom. The facts make him a liar.
Where do we go from here?
1. Immediately allow all Commissioned Officers and senior NCOs (E-7+) who are qualified (military or CHL) to carry a military equivalent or issued weapon while on duty.
2. All Saudi personnel in the US should be restricted to base, and have their quarters searched for weapons. If they had no knowledge, they should be expelled. If they did have knowledge or participated, they should be executed.
3. Suspend training Saudi personnel indefinitely. Only resume the program when the FBI can conduct background checks for each student and officer. Once screened and admitted, Saudi students should be restricted to base and not allowed into the community.
4. Evaluate the “alliance” between the US and Saudi Arabia beyond the fact that they are a client nation buying billions of dollars in weapons and training. Is our strategic relationship with the Saudi government worth the cost inflicted on us by a Saudi population which clearly hates us and continues to do us harm. Do the officers that we train for combat ever actually participate in conflict in a meaningful way that support US interests or relieve demand on US forces? If not, disband the program forever.
5. Be better students of history. Value reality above wishful thinking. Judge cultures and religions by what they do, rather than what they want you to think. Take political blinders off and build and execute policy based on reality rather than wishful thinking.
That is all. ~ David Blackmon
_____________________________________
After thought: It is highly
suggested that all Americans view the video posted here.
Posted by Norman E. HoobenOne more thing... If you think for a minute that Islam is the religion of peace, consider the following:
Islam’s view of Western ideology, “It is written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged their authority are sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.” ~ Tripoli’s ambassador to London in March 1785
 |
In April 2013, President Obama authorized the C.I.A. to begin a program to arm the rebels at a base in Jordan, and more recently the administration decided to expand the training mission with a larger parallel Pentagon program in Saudi Arabia to train “vetted” rebels to battle fighters of the Islamic State, with the aim of training approximately 5,000 rebel troops per year. ~ New York Times
|
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Scituate Harbor Under Attack (it was once upon a time)
 |
| Above collage prepared by N. Hooben |
The Army of Two:
The Massachusetts Girls Who Turned Back the British Navy
The War of 1812
lasted nearly three years. It was fought in four different theatres: the
ocean’s shipping lanes, along the American coast, on the western American
frontier and the Gulf Coast.
It made heroes, like Andrew Jackson, and changed the political
landscape of America by destroying the Federalist Party. But for all
that, one of the most interesting stories of the war might still be the time
two young girls turned back the royal British Navy at Scituate, Massachusetts.
By
1814, Britain’s Navy was engaging in a war of harassment along the coast. A
ship would zero in on a small town or harbor, sometimes soldiers would ransack
the town for supplies. Other times they would burn the boats in the harbor.
In Scituate, in June and July of
1814, British ships invaded the harbor three times to burn some fishing vessels
and steal others. The local militia stood guard against any troops intending to
land.
The Army of Two
For much of the summer, the
militia stood guard, but by September the men had gone home. And that was the
state of play one day when Rebecca (21) and Abby (15) Bates, daughters of Scituate Light lighthouse keeper Simeon Bates,
observed a British ship making directly for the harbor. It seemed that the
fears of the residents had come true, but no one was ready to repel the landing
force.
With their father away, the Bates
girls dispatched their brother to run for help. Then they came up with a plan.
As the British ship drew near and began offloading sailors onto barges, the two
struck up their fife and drum. Hidden from sight, the two girls sounded for all
the world like an approaching army force.
Suddenly, the idea of harassing
the boats in Scituate or coming ashore to cause even more damage didn’t seem so
appealing. The sailors returned to their ship and departed, leaving a relieved
town of Scituate.
Over the years, some questioned
the facts of the story, but the Bates sisters never varied from their version
of events, and later in life they took to retelling it and providing affidavits
attesting to its accuracy.
And over the years, the story has
been retold in children’s literature, including an 1874 issue of St.
Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls and several books.
This story was updated in 2019.
Note from Norm: A
more detailed version of this story can be found in THE HOME UNIVERSITY
BOOKSHELF, Volume IX, ‘BOYS AND GIRLS WHO BECAME FAMOUS’
THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY, INC. – Educational Publishers,
New York – Copyright, 1938
Thursday, November 21, 2019
My rant...and more corruption exposed (You can't make this stuff up!)
As I've said on numerous occasions, the Democratic party has been on a castle coup to overthrow the United States government almost since its inception. They have used numerous means to accomplish this task and on many occasions they actually used the ignorance of the Republican party to assist them with their goals (Republican Paul Ryan comes to mind as we speak.) We can go back to President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, who once spoke openly about getting control of the judges (especially those on the United States Supreme Court) so they can control the people or begin at the Carter Administration who invented the Senior Executive Service to bypass the patriotic rank and file members from attaining leadership positions in their respective fields (the recent scandals within the FBI and the IRS leadership offers more than substantial proof) and who in their right mind would believe that Barack Hussein Obama did anything to promote unity in the American populace; he would be the definition of "Divide and Conquer"...the country is currently divided into more segments than ever before in its history thanks to Obama and his left wing Democrat cohorts. And let's not forget the Clintons, John Murtha, John Kerry, John Brennan and the current crop of Congressmen who are enriching themselves at American's expense yet preach socialism to the common folk believing that if they promise them goodies they'll get their vote.
Now before I go on I must say what I've been saying in numerous comments on Facebook and Instagram, "Talk, talk, talk...and nobody is doing a damn thing about it. This thing should never have gotten this far... Obama, both Clintons, Brennan, and Kerry should have already been hung and about 800 others incarcerated in GITMO. The American people are stupid for allowing this to go on and on with no end in sight." and " Trump's biggest weakness: He's afraid to put Obama and Hillary in jail for their most obvious crimes.
Trump's biggest problem: Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and both major political parties.
Trump's minor problem that has a solution yet will not act on finding the answer: Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself."
So that's my rant for today...the next article is simply more proof of the corruption in Washington, DC. ~ Norman E. Hooben
(by the way, the Obama White house crashed my computer for writing stuff like this and nobody in the press wanted to interview me...and Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.)
Source for the following:
At a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Wednesday, MP Andriy Derkach announced that deputies have received new materials from investigative journalists about international corruption and the participation of Ukrainian officials in it.
"Last week, November 14, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), unnoticed by the media, announced a new suspicion to the notorious owner of Burisma, ex-Ecology Minister Zlochevsky. According to the suspicion, the Yanukovych family is suspected, in particular, with legalizing (laundering) of criminally obtained income through Franklin Templeton Investments, an investment fund carrying out purchases of external government loan bonds totaling $7.4 billion," Derkach said.
With reference to the investigation, he emphasized: it was money criminally obtained by the "family" of Yanukovych and invested in the purchase of Ukrainian debt in 2013-2014.
For his part, MP Oleksandr Dubinsky from the Servant of the People faction said that according to investigators, "the Yanukovych 'family' illegally obtained $7.4 billion and laundered the funds through an investment fund close to some representatives of the U.S. Democratic Party in the form of external government loan bonds."
Meanwhile, Derkach said that several facts indicate Franklin Templeton Investments' relationship with the U.S. Democratic Party.
"The son of Templeton's founder, John Templeton Jr., was one of President Obama's major campaign donors. Another fund-related character is Thomas Donilon. Managing Director of BlackRock Investment Institute, shareholder Franklin Templeton Investments, which has the largest share in the fund. It is noteworthy that he previously was Obama's national security advisor," Derkach said.
The MP said that the presidents of Ukraine and the United States should combine the efforts of the two countries to establish facts of corruption and money laundering with the participation of citizens of both countries.
"President Zelensky must pick up the phone, dial Trump, ask for help and cooperation in the fight against corruption and fly to Washington. The issue of combating international corruption in Ukraine with the participation of citizens, businessmen and U.S. officials should become a key during the meeting of the two presidents," he said.
Derkach said as a result of the meeting, it is necessary to build interaction between the Ukrainian investigating authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain information about the organizers of the bond issue, clients and beneficiaries of investment funds for each purchase, interrogate fund officials, etc.
As reported, on October 9, 2019, Derkach published official correspondence between NABU and the U.S. Embassy, according to which the first deputy of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Gizo Uglava, through his assistant Polina Chyzh, for a long time provided the U.S. Embassy with information that negatively affected the course of events in Ukraine and the United States.
Derkach said Chyzh received instructions from the representative of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine Hanna Emelyanova to provide information on the case involving Zlochevsky.
Derkach also announced the amount of money transferred to representatives of the Burisma Group, including Hunter Biden. According to documents, in general, in favor of Hunter Biden, Alexander Kwasniewski, Alan Apter and Devon Archer, Burisma paid about $16.5 million.
According to Derkach, ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin repeatedly appealed to the NABU Director Artem Sytnyk in the framework of criminal proceedings for Burisma, but constantly received formal responses. The activities of Shokin, according to the MP, irritated then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during his fifth visit to Kyiv in two years. The visit on December 7-8, 2015, was devoted to solving the issue of Shokin's resignation for the affairs of Zlochevsky and Burisma, he said.
"The subject of pressure was the $1 billion credit guarantee that the United States should have provided to Ukraine: Biden himself acknowledged the pressure in his speech to the U.S. Foreign Relations Council in January 2018," Derkach said.
Now before I go on I must say what I've been saying in numerous comments on Facebook and Instagram, "Talk, talk, talk...and nobody is doing a damn thing about it. This thing should never have gotten this far... Obama, both Clintons, Brennan, and Kerry should have already been hung and about 800 others incarcerated in GITMO. The American people are stupid for allowing this to go on and on with no end in sight." and " Trump's biggest weakness: He's afraid to put Obama and Hillary in jail for their most obvious crimes.
Trump's biggest problem: Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and both major political parties.
Trump's minor problem that has a solution yet will not act on finding the answer: Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself."
So that's my rant for today...the next article is simply more proof of the corruption in Washington, DC. ~ Norman E. Hooben
(by the way, the Obama White house crashed my computer for writing stuff like this and nobody in the press wanted to interview me...and Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.)
Source for the following:
"Last week, November 14, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), unnoticed by the media, announced a new suspicion to the notorious owner of Burisma, ex-Ecology Minister Zlochevsky. According to the suspicion, the Yanukovych family is suspected, in particular, with legalizing (laundering) of criminally obtained income through Franklin Templeton Investments, an investment fund carrying out purchases of external government loan bonds totaling $7.4 billion," Derkach said.
With reference to the investigation, he emphasized: it was money criminally obtained by the "family" of Yanukovych and invested in the purchase of Ukrainian debt in 2013-2014.
For his part, MP Oleksandr Dubinsky from the Servant of the People faction said that according to investigators, "the Yanukovych 'family' illegally obtained $7.4 billion and laundered the funds through an investment fund close to some representatives of the U.S. Democratic Party in the form of external government loan bonds."
Meanwhile, Derkach said that several facts indicate Franklin Templeton Investments' relationship with the U.S. Democratic Party.
"The son of Templeton's founder, John Templeton Jr., was one of President Obama's major campaign donors. Another fund-related character is Thomas Donilon. Managing Director of BlackRock Investment Institute, shareholder Franklin Templeton Investments, which has the largest share in the fund. It is noteworthy that he previously was Obama's national security advisor," Derkach said.
The MP said that the presidents of Ukraine and the United States should combine the efforts of the two countries to establish facts of corruption and money laundering with the participation of citizens of both countries.
"President Zelensky must pick up the phone, dial Trump, ask for help and cooperation in the fight against corruption and fly to Washington. The issue of combating international corruption in Ukraine with the participation of citizens, businessmen and U.S. officials should become a key during the meeting of the two presidents," he said.
Derkach said as a result of the meeting, it is necessary to build interaction between the Ukrainian investigating authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain information about the organizers of the bond issue, clients and beneficiaries of investment funds for each purchase, interrogate fund officials, etc.
As reported, on October 9, 2019, Derkach published official correspondence between NABU and the U.S. Embassy, according to which the first deputy of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Gizo Uglava, through his assistant Polina Chyzh, for a long time provided the U.S. Embassy with information that negatively affected the course of events in Ukraine and the United States.
Derkach said Chyzh received instructions from the representative of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine Hanna Emelyanova to provide information on the case involving Zlochevsky.
Derkach also announced the amount of money transferred to representatives of the Burisma Group, including Hunter Biden. According to documents, in general, in favor of Hunter Biden, Alexander Kwasniewski, Alan Apter and Devon Archer, Burisma paid about $16.5 million.
According to Derkach, ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin repeatedly appealed to the NABU Director Artem Sytnyk in the framework of criminal proceedings for Burisma, but constantly received formal responses. The activities of Shokin, according to the MP, irritated then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during his fifth visit to Kyiv in two years. The visit on December 7-8, 2015, was devoted to solving the issue of Shokin's resignation for the affairs of Zlochevsky and Burisma, he said.
"The subject of pressure was the $1 billion credit guarantee that the United States should have provided to Ukraine: Biden himself acknowledged the pressure in his speech to the U.S. Foreign Relations Council in January 2018," Derkach said.