Wired’s Spencer Ackerman voluntarily allows himself to be hit with the Pentagon’s pain ray gun.
Some of the device’s limitations are rainy weather, which decreases its effectiveness, and its boot-up time is 16 hours, which means that when they break up demonstrations, they were planning ahead for it.
You can read all the details over on Wired.
Not a lot of people know or care to know about the topic of US soldiers torturing other human beings. Nor do they want to know what happened to them. Made in 2010, None of Us Were Like This Before explores the other side of US torture, the US soldier. I think it’s something worth exploring to try to understand how the torturers (the US soldier) were able to do what they did and how it affected them. It also explores how the Geneva Convention was sidestepped so that the military could achieve its twisted goals. It reminds me a bit of Ordinary Men and is something worth exploring as these men and women have been brought back home with little help to deal with what happened.
It’s worth looking into this story. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with it, but we need to know the story to understand it. We obviously haven’t learned from the past yet, making this story even more important. If every single soldier knew and understood what was happening to them and how they were being manipulated, then, maybe, there would not have been the widespread torture and abuses that have taken place in Iraq and Afghanistan.
From FOX31 Denver:
“To have a passport is privilege, it’s not entitled to you by citizenship,” Priest said.
On the contrary. You are entitled to a passport if you are an American citizen. According to Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, you have the right to travel, to leave any country, and return to your own country. The State Department also says you are entitled to a passport.
He said the issue may be with a microchip embedded in the back of all new passports. “They have no reason in the world to let you travel if it’s been damaged,” Priest said. “It’s like cutting your photo out or something if that chip doesn’t work.”
The problem here is that the RFID chip in the passport is only one part of the security within a passport and should not prohibit travel if it is damaged. Regardless of whether or not you have a passport, your right to travel is also assured in the 9th Amendment.
What will happen if my Electronic Passport fails at a port-of-entry?
The chip in the passport is just one of the many security features of the new passport. If the chip fails, the passport remains a valid travel document until its expiration date. You will continue to be processed by the port-of-entry officer as if you had a passport without a chip.
The State Department goes on to say:
Normal wear of a U.S. passport is understandable and likely does not constitute “damage”. For instance, the expected bend of a passport after being carried in your back pocket or fanning of the visa pages after extensive opening and closing.
A spokesperson for the airline didn’t give FOX31 an official statement, but said it is within the airline’s rights to refuse a traveler for a passport that might not be able to be scanned.
Only the federal government can determine whether or not your passport is valid. An airline cannot legally make this decision.
A Dallas woman says TSA agents repeatedly asked her to step back into a body scanning machine at DFW International Airport. “I feel like I was totally exposed,” said Ellen Terrell, who is a wife and mother. “They wanted a nice good look.”
When Ellen Terrell and her husband, Charlie, flew out of DFW Airport several months ago, Terrell says she was surprised by a question a female TSA agent asked her. “She says to me, ‘Do you play tennis?’ And I said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘You just have such a cute figure.’”
Terrell says she walked into the body scanner which creates an image that a TSA agent in another room reviews. Terrell says she tried to leave, but the female agent stopped her. “She says, ‘Wait, we didn’t get it,’” recalls Terrell, who claims the TSA agent sent her back a second time and even a third. But that wasn’t good enough.
After the third time, Terrell says even the agent seemed frustrated with her co-workers in the other room. “She’s talking into her microphone and she says, ‘Guys, it is not blurry, I’m letting her go. Come on out.’”
At the news conference, the TSA announced that DFW and Love Field airports now have all-new scanning machines. The updated technology shows a only a generic-body outline which highlights potential threats. “With the old technology, we had to have an image room that was separate from the equipment,” says Williams. The older scanners, which create more detailed individual x-ray like images, are still used in 39 airports across the country.
I’m sure that the CBS News investigation and the more than 500 complaints had nothing to do with switching to the newer machines.
This video was created as an example of the importance of filming the police. Video provides transparency, accountability, and an accurate account of incidents that occur. It is no secret that the United States has a serious problem with police abuse, brutality, and corruption. It is essential for civilians to document their encounters with police officers to ensure transparency, accountability, and safety to all of those involved.
Police departments have, for too long, tried to bully, intimidate, threaten, arrest, or otherwise harass law abiding citizens from recording the activities of law enforcement in public. Enough is enough! It is time for all of us to take a stand and expose police brutality when we witness it. Even if the officers behavior is correct, and justifiable, we still encourage the recording of the police activities for the transparency and accountability that is desperately needed in many departments.
If you see something, film something, the freedom of press begins with you!
If you feel the need to upload this video to your Youtubes, please contact us and we will make sure you acquire a high quality version of the film with our info. And please, add our links in the description, thanks
You can find more information here, here, and here.
