What happened to Journalist Michael Hastings? Was he Murdered?

What happend to Michael Hastings? The revelation that Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings was working on a story about the CIA before his death and had contacted a Wikileaks lawyer about being under investigation by the FBI hours before his car exploded into flames has bolstered increasingly valid claims that the 33-year-old was assassinated.

Hastings died last week in Hollywood when his car hit a tree at high speed.

According to a prominent security analyst, technology exists that could've allowed someone to hack his car. Former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard Clarke told The Huffington Post that what is known about the single-vehicle crash is "consistent with a car cyber attack."

Clarke said, "There is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for major powers" — including the United States — know how to remotely seize control of a car.

"What has been revealed as a result of some research at universities is that it's relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and to do such things as cause acceleration when the driver doesn't want acceleration, to throw on the brakes when the driver doesn't want the brakes on, to launch an air bag," Clarke told The Huffington Post. "You can do some really highly destructive things now, through hacking a car, and it's not that hard."

It's possible that Hastings car was hacked considering the people he had written about in his past and what he recently had been talking about.

Kathleen Fisher from DARPA recently did a presentation on the ease of hacking a standard American sedan. Volvo started the SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) program in 2009 and they are now reporting that their testing has been "successfully completed." Hacking of a lemmings train like Volvo's, could lead to massive collisions on the roads and there should be major security concerns considering what recently has been learned.

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EMPIRE OF SECRETS - As Revelations of Systemic Snooping Continue to Hit the Headlines, Who is Watching the Watchers?

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised transparency and open government yet his administration is one of the most closed governments in US history, described as being worse than even the Nixon administration.

The technology and information revolution allows the government to cast its net wider than ever before; collecting data, watching, spying and analysing. As revelations of systemic snooping continue to hit the headlines, Empire asks: who is watching the watchers?

Just when more people open up about their private lives through social media, the government becomes ever more intrusive.

With more than 1,300 government surveillance and monitoring facilities in the United States, Empire looks to understand why so many government programmes are top secret. Why is secrecy and surveillance becoming such big business? And, is a national security state anything new?

We discuss whether state secrets really work, the rationale behind them, and examine what the world might be like without secrets.

As Empire explores the ultimate secret of secrets, the implicit conclusion that emerges is that secrecy in government is counterproductive. It is not only terribly damaging to the democratic process, but also, in the long-run, to the very objective of national security.

Joining us as we unpack some of the known unknowns are Oscar-winning film director Oliver Stone, and war reporters Jeremy Scahill and Richard Rowley.

We unravel the psychology of secrets with psychiatrist Justin Frank, the author of Obama on the Couch and Bush on the Couch. We look at the impact of state secrets brought to light with Dana Priest, a leading Washington Post investigative reporter on national security and author of two books, including her most recent Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State.

Click Here for more Empire

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Obama's ARREST and G.W. Bush Trial, Possibly Right Around the Corner

They may be arrested, or Obama may be impeached, but at this point, I don't think it will matter much.  

Their arrests, or at the very least, Obama's Impeachment may also just be a ploy to keep the sheople following the big government; while the Shadow Government of the 1% Elites continue their agenda.   

Right now, there are more and more people that are opening their eyes to what is going on, and unrest is beginning to form.  If the Shadow Government allows these arrests, or trials, or impeachment to occur, that will just be another way to calm the uprising that is beginning to boil in the people's blood.  They will attain control, calm the crowds, rock many citizens back to sleep with their mainstream news propaganda, and continue with their agenda.  

Obama is just a figurehead puppet for them, as many other governmental leaders of countries around the globe are, and until we realize this, their agenda will continue to move forward, no matter who is in the Presidential seat.  

It no longer matters who is in the Presidential seat...  All a President, or Prime Minister, or any other country leader is, is a puppet for the Real Government; the Shadow Government.  The Upper 1%...  The Elites...  These are the sociopaths that are really in control.  They are forming their New World Order, and sadly, most of us don't fit into their 'order.'

Pointing fingers at our leaders is just what they want; that keeps our focus away from them: the Shadow Government that is REALLY in control.  As long as they humor us, with possibly allowing us to take down Bush and Obama, they can continue to commit their heinous crimes against us, in secret, continuing to use us as their serfs, until our usefulness is no longer needed.

This link: http://thehonestintelligence.blogspot.com/2012/10/list-of-elite-that-run-federal-reserve.html will show you some of the sociopaths in charge of the Shadow Government. These are the ones we need to take out; not the figurehead puppets.

Edward Snowden Has Been Formally Charged With Espionage By The U.S. Government... ARE THEY KIDDING?

This face has become a hero's face for American's rights of privacy

Edward Snowden, former intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency, has been charged with espionage, by the U.S. Government.  

So...  ...they are charging him with doing his job well?  

After all, he worked as an intelligence analyst for the world's biggest spying agency that is spying on not only everyone in the USA, but inadvertently the whole world.

espionage
es·pi·o·nage [es-pee-uh-nahzh] noun
...the act or practice of spying.

Example sentences: 
1. Cobb runs a dream team of mindbending espionage agents, true inside operators.
2. It is difficult to provide evidence of espionage, given its secretive manner.
3. The disclosure comes amid heightened fears of state-sponsored espionage.

Origin:
late 18th century: from French espionnage, from espionner 'to spy', from espion 'a spy'

Espionage, or in layman's terms: spying was his job!

An N.S.A. spokesperson astonished his audience when announcing the espionage (spying) charges against Snowden; completely unaware of the absurdity of the charge, and he announced the charge holding a perfectly straight face.

Photo rights: Fawlty Towers

He said, “These charges send a clear message [that] in the United States, you can’t spy on people.”

He went on to speak of the other charge of theft of Government Documents, saying, “The American people have the right to assume that their private documents will remain private and won’t be collected by someone in the government for his own purposes.”

“Only by bringing Mr. Snowden to justice can we safeguard the most precious of American rights: privacy…”

 
WHAT???

Photo rights: Fawlty Towers

Was this sarcasm, or a complete mockery of the Government he works for?  

Seriously, couldn't they have cooked up something better to charge him with?  Maybe Treason?  Oh... Wait!  That would be what our government is committing on us... when they break our Constitutional laws, by using the N.S.A.'s espionage intelligence analysts in their spying of every move, email, text, phone call, and literally everything that we do in privacy.

National Security State up Against a Whistleblower Revolution

There are nearly 5 million people in the United States with security clearance, and any one of them could be the next Edward Snowden or Bradley Manning. 

So what -- if anything - are intelligence agencies doing to better keep their secrets. And, might more whistleblowing be just thing to convince more Americans that massive domestic surveillance isn't the best way to keep us safe. 

Political Commentator Sam Sacks speaks with former NSA and CIA Chief Michael Hayden and whistleblower Jesselyn Radack. 

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AGENDA: Grinding America Down

 "AGENDA" Trailer - Please Watch...  See below to order FULL MOVIE

This is NOT just another conspiracy theory

"'AGENDA' is the most powerful exposé of the communist, socialist, progressive attempt to take over America produced so far"...Ted Baehr, Moviguide

To order the full movie, go to: AgendaDocumentary.com (quantity discounts available) 

note:  thehonestintelligence is not an affiliate of, and has nothing to do with the site listed above; to purchase the full movie.  We are sharing this information with you for your own information and growth.

A film that finally puts the pieces of the puzzle together. If you've wondered why America has been falling apart from within, you will love AGENDA.  Please share with everyone you can and order a few copies to give to pastors, representatives, and conservative leaders. 

 America needs to see this film!

Must Read! “A Helpless Military: Just What Obama Ordered”

Submitted by Trevor on June 19, 2013

Of all of Barack Obama‘s crimes against the American people this is the worst.

What Obama is doing to the U.S. military puts hundreds of millions of lives and the survival of the entire West at stake.

 by Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady

As incompetence, deception, duplicity and dishonesty become the hall marks of the Obama administration, it is important that we not lose sight of the greatest danger posed beyond these serial scandals: the feminization, emasculation and dismantling of our military. The two most important elements of national survival are the media and the military; one keeps us free and the other keeps us secure. We know the media are failing – God help us if the military does also. We may be able to fix the government in 2014. Fixing the military is more problematic.

Let’s begin with Benghazi. It is incomprehensible that any commander, let alone the commander in chief, would go AWOL during a crisis such as Benghazi, but he was. In the midst of the massacre of our ambassador and three heroic Americans, President Obama was nowhere to be found. He did manage to surface, too late for the massacre, to meet a campaign commitment the next day. But, before retiring, we are told he turned the crisis over to his underlings, including the military. What we learned about our military leadership during that crisis should alarm all Americans.

The demise of our military of course begins with the commander in chief, but he can’t do it alone. He has to have willing sycophants and he has had them in the civilian and military leadership at the Department of Defense. The indifference of the people and military inexperience in Congress are contributing factors. The military disasters are a form of gradualism. Look at the changes under Mr. Obama. We cannot focus on these changes enough.

Our military is suffering unprecedented rates of suicide and PTSD. Obama’s sequestration will cut benefits to veterans as well as damage readiness. (There has been a 2000 percent increase in backlog for veteran assistance in four years!) We now have a quad-sexual military with all the health, readiness and moral issues that come with exalting sodomy. Sexual assault is at an all-time high. Women will be tasked to lead bayonet charges. As a result of the sex scandals, Congress is now looking to curtail the military’s ability to discipline, another tribute to the lack of leadership in the military and lack of military understanding in Congress.

Billions of defense dollars are unaccounted for. Christianity is under military attack, and Bibles have been burned to appease Muslims. (References to God and Jesus are forbidden at Arlington, chaplains will be forced to perform homosexual “marriages,” and Bibles and religious item are forbidden to the wounded at Walter Reed, etc.)

We have a new doctrine for crisis: “Don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on.” Therefore, no Normandy or Inchon. In other words, don’t go until the crisis/massacre is over. Their default position is don’t go, period. The military leadership, after the terrorist massacre at Fort Hood, outrageously lamented the effect it would have on diversity – and equally outrageously labeled it workplace violence denying the victims and their families the benefits they deserve.

There have been unprecedented security leaks, and China is electronically in bed with us. They even lost the graves of our warriors at Arlington. I could go on, but it should be clear that all of the above is the result of a leader who knows not the difference between a corps and a corpse and is both indifferent to and unknowledgeable of military readiness. And as bad, the military leadership is complicit in these disasters. (As a further tribute to their ineptitude, they have actually considered combat-level medals for warriors not shooting and desk-bound computer operators, medals that were the laughingstock of veterans.)

But given that the president tasked the military to act in the Benghazi crisis, what did they do? Indefensibly, they did nothing, they did not even try! No obstacle, no doctrine, nothing can defend not trying, never mind the risk, to save fellow Americans. Were they under orders to sit on their a– and let their fellow Americans die? In my 34 years of military service involving many crises, I never knew of one without an after action report (AAR), in which each and every action was put under a microscope to identify those responsible for the results be they good or bad. Congress, the media, someone should demand the AAR on Benghazi. It must exist. Who ordered the stand down? Who said sit on your a–? Why no hearing on this?

Just as the way forward for America is a return to the morality and values of the past, so too must the military return to the readiness standards and common sense of the past. We can survive in a relatively valueless society – but only with a strong and ready military. Sadly the military is mirroring society – the goal of Mr. Obama and progressives – and will soon be impotent. Once the progressives have a helpless military they no longer need to explain why they didn’t go; they can say we are unable to go. Progress is not the path we are on; true progress is the path to our past. The other scandals may be more glamorous and outrageous (such as lying about Benghazi before the coffins of those massacred by terrorists, enemies’ lists and assaults on the First Amendment) but what Mr. Obama is doing to our military is more grave.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, retired from the U.S. Army, is a recipient of the United States military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. He is the author of “Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam The Legend of Dust Off: America’s Battlefield Angels.”

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ICIJ Releases Offshore Leaks Database Revealing Names Behind Secret Companies, Trusts

Photo: Shutterstock

Readers can search information about the ownership of more than 100,000 offshore entities in tax havens and discover the networks around them.

Secrecy is no longer acceptable

When Bernard Madoff built his $65 billion house of cards; when food distributors passed off horsemeat as beef lasagna in Europe; and when Apple, Google and other American companies set up structures to channel their profits through Ireland — they all used tax havens.

They bought secrecy, minimal or zero taxes and legal insulation, the distinctive products that tax havens market and that allow companies to operate in a fiscal and regulatory vacuum. Using the offshore economy is akin to acquiring your own island where the rules that most citizens follow don’t apply.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists publishes today a database that, for the first time in history, will help begin to strip away this secrecy across 10 offshore jurisdictions.

The Offshore Leaks Database allows users to search through more than 100,000 secret companies, trusts and funds created in offshore locales such as the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands and Singapore. The Offshore Leaks web app, developed by La Nación newspaper in Costa Rica for ICIJ, displays graphic visualizations of offshore entities and the networks around them, including, when possible, the company’s true owners.
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• Read the Offshore Leaks Database FAQs
• How we built the Offshore Leaks Database
• Video: See the Offshore Leaks Database in action
• Search the Offshore Leaks Database
• Get in touch with ICIJ

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Attacking Apathy

The data are part of a cache of 2.5 million leaked offshore files ICIJ analyzed with 112 journalists in 58 countries. Since April, stories based on the data — the largest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever obtained by a media organization — have been published by more than 40 media organizations worldwide, including The Guardian in the U.K., Le Monde in France, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany, The Washington Post and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

ICIJ’s investigation — called Offshore Leaks by the Twittersphere and the public —has shaken the political and economic establishments from South Korea to Canada, sparking investigations, resignations and a renewed sense of urgency among world leaders that this is the time to rein in offshore abuses .

EU Commissioner Algirdas Semeta said the ICIJ’s investigation has transformed tax politics and amplified political will to tackle the problem of tax evasion – knocking down what the EUobserver called “a wall of apathy” in Europe that had thwarted previous attempts to attack offshore secrecy.

“I personally think Offshore Leaks could be identified as the most significant trigger behind these developments  ...  It has created visibility of the issue and it has triggered political recognition of the amplitude of the problem,” he told EU Observer. 

Semeta said the need for tax transparency overrides the principle of data privacy.

During a visit to the White House in May, British Prime Minister David Cameron made a strong pitch for tackling what he called “the scourge of tax evasion,” one of the central themes of next week’s “G8” meeting, in Northern Ireland, of leaders of eight of the world’s wealthiest countries. “We need to know who really owns a company, who profits from it, whether taxes are paid,” said Cameron, who is under pressure from the international community to address the role of Britain’s crown dependencies and territories in the offshore economy.

Anti-corruption advocates are pushing Cameron to persuade the other G8 leaders to support proposals that would require owners of shell companies to register their holdings in public registries.

ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks Database reveals the names behind more than 100,000 secret companies and trusts created by two offshore services firms: Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL). TrustNet and CTL’s clients are spread over more than 170 countries and territories.

The Offshore Leaks web app allows readers to explore the relationships between clients, offshore entities and the lawyers, accountants, banks and other intermediaries who help keep these arrangements secret.

While the database opens up a world that has never been revealed on such a massive scale, the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database is not a “data dump” – it is a careful release of basic corporate information. ICIJ won’t release personal data en masse; the Offshore Leaks Database doesn’t include records of bank accounts and financial transactions, emails and other correspondence, passports and telephone numbers. The selected and limited information is being published in the public interest.

Pressure for Change

ICIJ’s reporting to date has revealed the offshore dealings of politicians, oligarchs, rogue nations and even religious leaders. While many of the arrangements are perfectly legal, extensive reporting by ICIJ and others show that the anonymity granted by the offshore economy facilitates money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and other crimes.

Even when it’s legal, transparency advocates argue that the use of an alternative, parallel economy undermines democracy because it benefits a few at the expense of the majority.

After 17 months of reporting, ICIJ reporters and partners are still digging into this massive trove of financial information. The Offshore Leaks Database gives ICIJ an opportunity to reach journalists and regular citizens in every corner of the world, particularly in countries most affected by corruption and backroom deals. ICIJ believes many of the best stories may come from its readers when they explore the database.

As it fields tips from the public, ICIJ will continue to work on in-depth, cross-border investigations with its network of reporters and media partners. At the same time, ICIJ will continue to reject demands from governments that it turn over all of the files in its offshore trove. ICIJ is an independent network of investigative reporters — not an arm of government.

Some of the same governments that at one time requested ICIJ and its partners to hand over the full cache of files later announced that they have been working on a gigantic leak of offshore documents similar to those obtained by ICIJ. U.S., U.K. and Australian tax authorities said they will share the data with other governments.

The release of the Offshore Leaks Database happens at a time of economic turmoil. Many countries are still fighting the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, putting leaders around the world under unprecedented domestic and international pressure to make sure tax revenue is not lost to offshore havens.

Within days of ICIJ’s April release of dozens of stories based on the secret offshore files, French president Francois Hollande called for the “eradication” of tax havens. Europe’s largest economic powers – the U.K., France, Spain, Italy and Germany – announced that they will start exchanging bank information.

The surprise was even bigger when tiny Luxembourg, long known as one of the world’s most secretive tax havens, said it will share information with tax authorities about European and U.S. citizens with bank accounts in the country.  Another “onshore” European tax haven, Austria, saw the country’s most powerful banker, Herbert Stepic, resign in May in the wake of an Offshore Leaks story that revealed he used companies in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands to conduct property deals he did not report to his employer, Raiffeisen Bank International AG.

Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron is trying to clean up his own backyard: the 10 crown dependencies and overseas territories that serve as tax havens. He has summoned their top ministers to London this weekend to try to convince them to share tax information widely with governments around the world. In a letter to the territories, Cameron told them that the time has come to “knock down the walls of company secrecy."

Semeta, the EU tax commissioner, said the change in EU politics – after years of stalling – is due to “a perfect storm” of events, including ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks.

“Secrecy is no longer acceptable. We need to get rid of it,” Pascal Saint-Amans, tax policy director for the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, told The Toronto Star. “If the rules make it possible, then we'll change the rules.”

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