Pentagon is conducting surprise military drills with increasing frequency
Editor’s note: After this story was posted earlier today, the Sun Sentinel in Hollywood, Florida, reported on a drill and advised citizens not to worry:
People in Hollywood may be startled (again) by the sight of menacing looking figures rappelling from a Blackhawk helicopter over various public buildings. Don’t worry, though, it’s only a drill.
The Hollywood Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security are taking part in a Master Rappelling training exercise, according to a city notice.
The training began Thursday and is scheduled to continue Friday afternoon at several government-owned buildings. But the specific locations are being kept hush-hush for security reasons.
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The Pentagon is conducting surprise military drills with increasing frequency around the country, alarming citizens and acclimating them to the presence of obtrusive combat technology and simulated warfare.
The latest in-your-face training exercise occurred in Plainville and Worchester, Massachusetts.
As usual, most citizens were unaware of the drills until helicopters swooped over their neighborhoods.
“Many residents were surprised and scared Wednesday evening when military helicopters descended on the vacant Wood School into the late hours of the night in a scene that might have appeared to simulate the United States’ special forces attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound last year.” the Sun Chronicle reported on Friday.
“The helicopters were landing around the Worcester Memorial Auditorium in Lincoln Square and buzzing neighborhoods, prompting many telephone calls and e-mails to the Telegram & Gazette from residents curious about what was happening,” another newspaper reported.
Even the cops were clueless. “A police officer sent to close off Main Street at State said he did not know what was going on, leaving the people around there to wonder. Left to their own devices, people thought the hubbub might be that it was filming for a new Sandra Bullock movie or that it was part of a police effort to round up all the gang members or prostitutes in the city.”
“We apologize for any inconvenience or unforeseen disturbance,” said Maj. Emily Potter, public affairs officer for the U.S. Army.
A Plainville bureaucrat who signed off on the U.S. Army Special Operations Forces exercise was miffed the operation went past midnight. “A 6-year-old would have more common sense” than to continue a military exercise in a residential neighborhood at that time, he said.
Black helicopters swooping over residential homes and simulated warfare in the public space after midnight are obviously designed to send a message – the military will do whatever it wants, whenever it wants and the irritation voiced by citizens is not a consideration.
The Federalist Papers are replete with warnings about standing armies and how they are used to deliver tyranny. The framers of the Constitution objected to a standing army because a “standing army in the hands of a government placed so independent of the people, may be made a fatal instrument to overturn the public liberties; it may be employed to enforce the collection of the most oppressive taxes, and to carry into execution the most arbitrary measures. An ambitious man who may have the army at his devotion, may step up into the throne, and seize upon absolute power.”
“Newspapers editorialized after the American Revolution against standing armies, referring to them as ‘that great support of tyrants’ and as a ‘manifest danger to public liberty,’” writes Laurence M. Vance.
Now, as reportage carried by Sun Chronicle and the Telegram & Gazette demonstrates, newspapers are not particularly concerned by the manifest dangers standing – and drill-obsessed – armies pose to liberty.
Instead, editors and reporters are star-struck by the awesome power of war machinery on parade and if there are any complaints to be reported from citizens, it concerns sleeping children past midnight, not tyranny. - infowars
Homeland Security: An Introduction to Principles and Practice
For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America
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Four children killed by Haiti witch doctor
Four children from the same family have been found dead in Haiti after being treated by a witch doctor who claimed to be able to cure them of a mysterious illness, a local official said Friday.
"Three girls and a boy, the eldest of whom was seven years old and the youngest only 15 months, suffered abuse from the healer who was treating them," said Wilfrid Brisson, an official from the southern town of Marbial, told AFP.
"They were then abandoned in their mother's bed."
According to neighbors, the sorcerer -- who was assisted by his brother -- persuaded the victims' mother that the children were possessed by a demon and said he could rid their soul of the devil.
The witch doctor and his brother beat the children repeatedly, in steps they said were necessary to expel the demon, and the youngsters died from the blows, said Brisson.
The alleged killers have apparently fled to the capital Port-au-Prince. An investigation by authorities in Marbial is under way and the children's mother is in custody.
About half of Haiti's population is believed to practice the voodoo religion in some form, though many are thought to also follow other religious beliefs at the same time. Sorcery and spiritual magic have been incorporated into some of the beliefs.
Voodoo evolved out of the beliefs that slaves from West Africa brought with them to Haiti. It is now deeply rooted in Haitian culture.
Western evangelical Christian movements, however, have also made inroads in Haiti. - france24
Voodoo in Haiti
The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis, and Magic
Haitian Vodou: An Introduction to Haiti's Indigenous Spiritual Tradition
NOTE: I have read the books listed above over the years...gave me a much better perspective into the culture of the practice and how to combat attacks used on others. Just wrapping up a case in Brooklyn, NY that involved conjuring by a Dominican disciple who was attacking a client. Lon
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'Cruise Ship' shaped UFO?
Wilsail, MT - 8/4/2012: Camera captured what appears to be similar to a "cruise ship" flying object. We were hiking in the NW Crazy Mountains just beneath Table Rock and I took a number of photos. We had no knowledge that anything was flying in the area but apparently this is a flight path for jets in and out of the airport in Belgrade -- Yellowstone International Airport. During our two day stay I also heard what sounded like a low flying turbo prop at least twice but could never locate anything in the area other than jets far off in the distance. All of the jets we saw on this trip had clearly visible jet streams. This picture clearly shows no jet stream and I was completely unaware that I had captured this ship until downloading my photos yesterday. - MUFON CMS
The Big Book of UFOs (Ufos Extraterrestrial Beings)
Mysteries in the Sky, Vol. 6: UFO Religions like Scientology, Nuwaubianism, Order of the Solar Temple, Raelism, Universe People, Heaven's Gate, and More
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Possible da Vinci painting found in Scottish farmhouse; could be worth $150 million
Fiona McLaren, 59, had kept an old painting in her Scottish farmhouse for decades. She reportedly didn't think much of the painting, which had been given to her as a gift by her father. But after she finally decided to have the painting appraised, some experts are speculating that it may in fact be a 500-year-old painting by Leonardo da Vinci and potentially worth more than $150 million.
"I showed it to him [auctioneer Harry Robertson] and he was staggered, speechless save for a sigh of exclamation," said Ms. McLaren, according to The People.
The Daily Mail says the painting may be of Mary Magdalene holding a young child. The painting is now undergoing further analysis by experts at the Cambridge University and the Hamilton Kerr Institute, who will attempt to uncover its exact age and origins.
Even if the painting is not a da Vinci original, it is believed to at least be from the da Vinci school, created by one of the master's pupils during the 16th century.
A papal bull was found attached to the back of the painting and is believed to have originated from the era of Pope Paul V, head of the Catholic Church in the early 17th century. McLaren says the word "Magdalene," is visible on the faded paper.
McLaren says she hopes the painting is sold to a museum, and she plans to donate a percentage of the painting's sale value after it is auctioned. - yahoo
Leonardo's Universe: The Renaissance World of Leonardo DaVinci
Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image
Leonardo: The Artist and the Man
