It Looks disturbingly like the LAPD used Tampered-with Evidence to discredit Ted Rall and get him (and his work) dismissed (i.e fired) from the LA Times. Ted Rall
Ted Rall, at work
Nicholas Goldberg, LA Times Editorial Editor----Villain?
Austin Beutner, LA Times Publisher----Super-Villain?
Charlie Beck, LAPD Chief----Working in-Collusion with The LA Times to punish a critic of LAPD?
youtube Video is here (please copy/paste to browser):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=26&v=Xpdjb-owu_o
The story started in late July, 2015, when LAPD gave an audiotape of an arrest of Rall in 2001 for jaywalking to The LA Times. With regards to the arrest, Rall had previously recounted certain acts by the arresting officer that were denied by the LAPD. Supposedly, the tape verifed LAPD claims, and proved Rall a "liar" about the incident, which was grounds for his firing.
The LA Times dismissed Rall in a public editorial in their paper, with no further investigation of the only "evidence" they based the dismissal on----The audiotapeitself.
Within a few days after his dismissal, a professional expert (sound engineer) was employed, by Rall. The Engineer's work verified the tape had been tampered-with, and as such, would be inadmissable as evidence in court, or in any legal process. Further, the newly clarified audio tape seems to solidly support Rall's side of the story, and contradict the LAPD's side.
Excerpt from post linked-to below (from Phil Ebersole's Blog):
"Ted Rall, one of my favorite cartoonists, was fired last Monday from his job at
the Los Angeles Times after somebody produced an audiotape indicating
he had lied in a column about his bad treatment by a Los Angeles police
officer when arrested for jaywalking in 2001. He [Rall] said the tape consisted of about 20 minutes of talk and 6 minutes of
unintelligible noise, so he asked an audio technician to try to restore
the original tape. Lo and behold! – the tape indicated that Rall was
telling the truth." Read the rest, plus a couple good links for more info, here:
The Cole Smithy FilmBlog has an excellent write-up on the case, and do a great job as investigative Suspicionists, in the opinion of this Blog. Bully for Cole Smithy!! (link below)
Excerpt: "Nicholas Goldberg, LA Times Editor of the Editorial Pages, and investigative reporter Paul Pringle
are both intimately attached to the scandal, and were both directly
involved in Rall's dismissal from the LA Times, for which Rall has been a
weekly contributor for over six years. Neither Goldberg or Beck has
responded to media requests made by repeated email and phone calls.
Fishy, fishy.
The world is about to get an up-close and personal look at what
passes for investigative reporting at the LA Times, and it ain't pretty
or professional." Read MORE at this link:
First, the LA Times' increasingly Corporatist leanings have been detectable to some readers (including this one). Perhaps Rall is way too "leftist/dissenter-ist" to be desirable any longer to The Times ownership, who perhaps needed an excuse to get him out of their paper without some of The Public objecting? OK, that's my opinion.
But nonetheless ... The question to ask is -----Did the LAPD have it in for Rall, after his series of ferociously-biting cartoons on police violence and malfeasance, including at least one specifically mentioningLAPD (see below)?
Here are some samples of Rall's recent work, which is protected by the US Constitution, even if it may be unpleasant for some people (including law enforcement personnel) to see:
And this one, specifically naming the LAPD:
.......................................................................... So is this what America has come to---You criticize the police, and you pay a price (whatever they can come up with, apparently). Sorry, but satire, even insulting, biting satire, is protected by our Constitution and Laws. If it weren't, let's face it ---- Rush Limbaugh and his like would have been fired decades ago, as well as John Stewart, Bill Maher, Lee Camp,and at least 50,000 comedians and activists.
The LAPD and LA Times really look corrupt and complicit in this stench-ridden case where a talented, although admittedly controversial cartoonist and writer, was wrongfully dismissed.
*Please Note opinion from source site ("so what we have here...") superimposed over chart above), and keep separate from factual info. ........................................................................
On some levels, the issues and speculation that have accompanied the preparation for the upcoming, massive Jade Helm (AKA "Jade Helm 15") military-training operation in a number of western states including Texas, are amusing ---- The supposed "takeover" of Texas (already a very Conservative, pro-corporate, pro-military state), mass-shootings, and the Chinese invasion
angle, especially. Alright, those parts, and other spinoff-ideas, are dumb. Fair enough. Over-the-top, paranoid web sites on Jade Helm are numerous and easy-to-find, and I won't link to any here.
For this particular issue, virtually all of the level-headed concern (and there is some), as well as the more publicized paranoia, wild theories and conspiracy-ideas, seem to be clustered on the Conservative side of the political spectrum.
To the Progressive side, Jade Helm is a non-issue, except for the opportunity to mock "those silly wingers on the other side".
But should it be a non-issue for Progressives and Liberals? Is there more to this issue?
With Jade Helm, the tendency of Liberals to be suspicious and questioning of the military, while Conservatives are as a rule more trusting and deferential, has been reversed. Odd, that.
How did this happen? Does it mean anything?
It is the major media who are energetically putting some of the wacky ideas front-and-center, and presenting them so prominently as to frame, and seemingly discredit the entire issue as rural Conservative paranoia. This apparent "slant" in the reporting compelled me to wonder ---- why are the corporate-media so determined, right from the get-go, to frame concerns about Jade-Helm as, "wacky"?
It somehow has immediately become habit for Liberals and Progressives, led by media, to ridicule Conservative fears about Jade Helm. And many have followed along, as I did for the first weeks this story was out.
Then I decided to look deeper. I
admit to being a political Progressive who constantly questions Conservative or "establishment" ideas. But now, after some re-thinking, I refuse to entirely
write-off the "other side" on this issue anymore, even though some claims are
unequivocally outlandish. Let me explain why.
OK, so first ---- Let's look at what we do know about Jade Helm, putting aside the wild, chuckle-inducing theories the media loves to throw out there so easily. There have long been military-training exercises all over America. The big questions about this one are ---- Is Jade Helm different from the others? Why is so little known about it, and also, what is the purpose behind it? There's not a ton of info out there about Jade Helm, as much of it seems to be classified (except for official disclosures such as in the diagram/panels at top of page).
Jade Helm does not appear to be just another round of conventional "War Games" for combat troops. It is described as a new type of "counterinsurgency"-training for ONLY elite commando-type units (like the team that got Bin Laden, and others), in all branches of the military, operating in different states, practicing local infiltration and reconaissance as well as having military materials necessary to the operation moved-around and made ready as they would be in an actual combat-defense situation.
There is more to it ofcourse, but little else is directly known, except that local law enforcement officers will be notified and prepared ahead-of-time for some public reaction to the exercises on a local level, as they occur (i.e. anticipated citizen reports of "people acting suspiciously" in their communities or surrounding areas). So OK. It's large, it's new, it's innovative, it's to protect the country, etc etc etc.
But I still have some questions.
Sooo ... Who the heck are the
"insurgents" these special military teams are being trained to counter, target and neutralize? Al Qaeda
or ISIS "death squads" loose in the US? Clive Bundy-types? Rightwing
neo-military survivalists? The next version of Occupy? Code Pink? Future
Anti-war demonstrators? And how can training in American towns and communities prepare special Ops for fighting "insurgents" in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or Pakistan? This part is extremely unclear.
One thing is for sure ---- Once the machinery, strategies and protocols are worked out and established, they can be used for other than the originally stated purposes.
As a Liberal, I naturally have a distrust of the Military Industrial
Complex, with its huge political clout, and I share, along with increasing numbers of Americans, an uneasiness with the ever-growing
vastne$$ of the US military, and its oversized budget, in general. Emphatically, I suggest other Liberals who share those sentiments apply them in this case.
If you do, you may find yourself having a few creepy doubts about this
operation yourself, even if the silly "flagship" parts of the story (takeover
of Texas, mass-executions of Christians, "FEMA death-domes" etc), seem
extremely stupid and are easily-mocked.
Think beyond the distracting "dumb stuff" up-front. Have the crazy-sounding, "paranoid" ideas put out by the media, as shown in the statement and image seen below, been distracting people away from any real discussion about this issue?
Effective stereotyping of Conservative fears as silly paranoia encourages ridicule and shuts-down communication between left and right:
Here again:
Although liked and respected by Liberals, has Progressive-leaning TV comedian John Stewart's mockery of Conservative fears about Jade Helm helped close Liberals' minds to the full implications of this issue?
Even Liberal Cartoon Icon Doonesbury has joined in the dismissive guffawing at Jade Helm worries as some form of silly Texan extremism: (By Gary Trudeau/June 14, 2015).
But are Liberals missing something on Jade Helm? Are they being played on this issue?
Always publicizing and framing questioners of Jade Helm as pursuers of some extreme conspiracy, as in the dramatically sci-fi--themed panel just below, seems to encourage craziness, and keeps too many other people laughing at something they should perhaps think more deeply about:
OK, where's the cui bono?
You shouldn't have to be a raving conspiracy-theorist to see some potential sense
of threat behind these rather mysterious, but BIG, military special-forces exercises, which involve some degree of what is described as "local infiltration" and surveillance. Authorities will say it is for "National Security", public safety, blah blah blah, as would be expected. However, others believe the cui bono would be for the governmental/elite interest$who would desire to have more security-state measures and preparations put in place -- in anticipation ofmass civil unrest,possibly in response to an economic collapse or controversial new war. The current uncertain social-economic-political atmosphere in America, as the background for the exercises, would suggest this possibility, and the overall picture grows slightly more ominous when seen in light of the current trend in America towards the militarization of local police forces across the country, which has been well-documented, along with many examples of excessive violence used against citizens, coast-to-coast. Additional context can be added by considering also the NSA's mass-collection of metadata on average Americans, as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, who, by the way, would still be immediately imprisoned for decades were he ever to re-enter the United States. Also, Progressives would be foolish to forget the police-state-like suppression of the Occupy Movement just a few short years ago ---- A policing policy which was certainly a cui bono for financial and corporate elites made uneasy by Occupy's decidedly anti-elite message. Here, Noam Chomsky talks about that suppression:
Remember? NYC Police arrest Occupy Movement members:
Liberals and Progressives need to put Jade Helm in this context, away from the lunatic raving, and see this as a potential preparation for dealing with political resistance coming from the masses. Including the Left-leaning masses. This is the frightening possible cui bono for The Authoritarian State that many fear is emerging in America. Plenty of
smart people on the Left, like Chris Hedges and others, have warned
about the shift in our American system to a more militarized,
potentially repressive state, in order to enforce the corporate-run
order in a society of more and more purloined resources and wealth,
taken away from the American People by ultra-wealthy elites. That isn't conspiracy theory. That's just the big
picture, seen clearly.
So OK, maybe Jade Helm is just a standard training exercise, nothing to see here, etc.
But at least think it through before writing it all off right away just
because it is presented as a "right-wing" fear-point with some
outlandish spin-off ideas. Military know-how and expertise, such as is being refined in Jade Helm, could be used just as easily against an anti-war movement (should one arise) or a new version of Occupy, just as easily as it could be used to go after some hypothetical terrorist cell we're all supposed to be so scared of.
I pose this question: If you are a Liberal, and say, Jeb Bush
were President and this operation was being planned as is, would you still
feel the same way about it? ........................................................................ Does Jade Helm violate The Posse Comitatus Law?
1st, a Reminder: Posse Comitatus Act -- A United States federal law (passed, 1878) prohibiting members of the military from
exercising powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property. (Editor's note: presumably, the prohibition would include the actual arrest and detainment of citizens, or a law-enforcement assault of any kind. Apparently, the law does not prohibit practice or training, just actual enforcement.)
On Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act
Below (in the view of The Suspicionist Blog) is a more balanced analysis, undistracted by inane sidelights, of the Jade Helm operation and its possible implications: Excerpts from link to article on the Blog, "Who-What-Why" below: "Jade Helm presenters have stated that troops will “infiltrate” towns
and cities, and rove among the civilian population, both in uniform and
in civilian clothes. Roy Boyd, chief deputy of the Victoria County
Sheriff’s Office, told the Houston Chronicle:
“They’re going to set up cells of people and test how well they’re able
to move around without getting too noticed in the community… They’re
testing their abilities basically [to] blend in with the local
environment and not stand out and blow their cover.” Elaborating further, Thomas Mead, a contractor hired by USASOC, said in a presentation to the Big Spring, Texas, City Council
in March that special forces “operators,” as Special Ops soldiers are
called, will enlist local roleplayers as informants. Mead told the City
Council that operators will be looking for “someone who gives a little
nugget of information for them to build an intelligence picture.” It
is these kinds of activities, resembling counter-insurgency, that set
Jade Helm apart from the previous exercises that the Army cites as
similar to Jade Helm. This argument hinges on what is meant by
“similar.” The scripts in those previous exercises called for Special
Ops “operators” to assist local insurgents or “freedom fighters” in
resisting tyrannical authorities. In Jade Helm, the US operators will
apparently be working to suppress an insurgency. This will
involve activities more in keeping with law enforcement, such as
information-gathering from locals, moving about undercover in
communities, and assaults on selected “targets.” Residents have been
told to expect “increased aircraft in the area at night.” Critics
of Jade Helm note that the military is not intended nor designed to
function as a law enforcement body, and that soldiers are not trained to
evaluate the legal nuances of probable cause or to safeguard the rights
of civilian detainees." .............................................................................................................. "The media have done a grave disservice by repeatedly mis-characterizing
Texan citizens as hysterically complaining of a 'takeover' of Texas. In
fact, the video record shows questions from the audience at the
military’s city council presentations to be calm and reasonable. At no
point does anyone accuse the Army of plotting to 'take over Texas,' a
recurring catchphrase in the mockery of Jade Helm critics. At a Bastrup
County meeting, one man expresses concern over 'increasing indications
that the military is getting a little too involved in civilian law
enforcement.' " Link: Does Jade Helm violate Posse Comitatus?
Link: Is Jade Helm a Psy-Op? ........................................................................
The next link below is to a very strong-opinioned article on Jade Helm from a site called,beforeitsnews.com.
While The Suspicionist Blog does not necessarily endorse the opinions and views expressed on that site, it is included here because it gives significant added information, and helps to give a broader perspective on Jade Helm:
NOTE: All videos included here are for *visual examination* of the blast. Any opinions given in the videos are the views of the source site, and not opinions or views endorsed by The Suspicionist Blog. More Yemen Blast videos:
Is it Nuclear?
YOU Decide...
Other Big Explosions for comparison:
The resemblance to this late-50s-era tactical nuclear weapon is compelling ... (video)
Small nuke test explosions
For comparison, here is a huge *conventional explosion* (non-nuke) at an ammo dump in Russia:
For further comparison, here is a "Vacuum Bomb", One of the largest conventional aerial bombs ever made:
A huge amount of rocket fuel goes up in this amateur video of the 2014 failure of an unmanned NASA Antares rocket :
More examples of nuclear explosions -- Excellent silent videos of 50s tests:
............................................................................................. ............................................................................................ For many more examples of nuclear explosions to compare, check out the "Trinity" movie, with more US Military films of numerous nuclear tests in the 40s, 50s and early 60s, including air-bursts. Note: Many excerpts of individual tests from the "Trinity" film (and other sources) are available free on youtube.
Here is some explanatory text from a site linked-to below. It purports to represent an "analysis" by "experts". Since I cannot vouch for the absolute authenticity of the analysis, I include it here with the caveat that it is that site's writer's own opinion and point of view that is being represented, and the reader must use their own judgement as to the accuracy/veracity of the information: link: Yemen Nuke info and purported analysis
Quote: Globemuslims ---- "Veterans Today website posted a report, prepared by Gordon Duff and Jeff
Smith, on the bomb which fell on Naqm mountain in Yemen last week.
A
video received from Yemen, believed to be taken May 20, 2015, of an
explosion, when analyzed by nuclear weapons experts is, by very high
probability, a neutron bomb that could only have been an Israeli
attack. The analysis:
A. Its not a conventional 2k lb bomb. It’s much bigger.
B.
Its either a very large MOAB bigger than 4,000 lbs. or; ???? Max weight
for an F-15 / 16 is about 2,000 lb payload per bomb rack making the
deployment of a MOAB impossible.
C. Its appears to be a small
neutron bomb. The size, color, lightning effect and duration of the fire
ball being suspended in mid air and the very large mushroom cloud is
the main give away. The CCD cameras imaging device was "scintillating”
(detecting Neutrons) That is the white pixel flashes in the video. When
the photo has white pixel flashes in it, that is because it is being hit
by neutrons from the nuclear fireball blast. It overloads the ccd’s
electronic circuit producing white flashes.
If the radiation is
too high it will burn out the chip. They have big problems with this in
Japan with the Fukushima robots cameras failing due to very high
radiation counts.
D. Delivery is most likely by an IDF F-16 with a
Saudi paint job on the plane. They are not even hiding their use
anymore, they just don’t publicly admit it and the IAEA does nothing or
says nothing. That is the true war crime. The UN just ignores it unless
the US, France or GB complains…….. Russia and China say nothing.
E. This is now the second known use of nukes in Yemen by Saudi Arabia…………..
Post Script:
A. The range of the camera is calculated to be about 4 to 5 miles from ground zero based on shock wave timing.
B.Saudi
has no F-16’s. The aircraft reported to be used to drop the bomb in
Yemen were F-16’s. Photos and acoustic signature confirms that the jet
engines noise is from a single engine jet fighter of the F-16 type."
=============================================== =============================================== Yemen blast-- Vast, lingering Fireball, starts to form (it will soon evolve into a straight column, as seen in next photo) ----
The blast, a few moments later, seen from a different angle in this photo, isolated and magnified ---- showing the intensely-glowing, deep-yellow superheated column up in the air below the mushroom cloud----
(Suspicionist): It could possibly have been a new and yet-unseen (until now), conventional "air-burst" weapon, far-larger than ever deployed before. Another possibility is that a bomb or missile made a "bulls-eye" hit on a huge depo containing many thousands of gallons of rocket or missile fuel, which were somehow drawn suddenly up into the air by a powerful convection current to feed the intense orange-yellow flame seen in the video. Maybe. "Bunker-Buster"-type bombs are huge and need a very large aircraft to be delivered by. Supposedly, no such aircraft were ever spotted over Sana'a ---- Only aircraft of the F-16 Class, or similar (a much smaller aircraft), which might imply a far smaller bomb or missile was used (and more likely a nuke). In the video, a sizeable initial explosion and fireball with its own small mushroom cloud, is seen on the ground directly below where the MUCH-LARGER suspended "flame-ball" suddenly explodes overhead, a second or two later. Then, the subsequent mushroom cloud forms high above, with an odd, sustained "straight-line" translucent glow extending downwards, almost like a giant "flashlight" below the cloud, that at least suggests nuclear/radiological to the eye. Also, the original smaller fire is still seen, underneath the superheated column high above in the air ---- The smaller fire seems to be an entirely separate and discreet explosion from the main big blast, and not a part of the big blast at all, as it would have been absorbedwithin it.
As far as magnitude goes, all I can say is, under my own best estimate (in the absence of "experts") ---- If Hiroshima was a 15 kiloton blast and Nagasaki was a 20 or so, then this must be far smaller -- Perhaps in the 1 to 5 - kiloton range. But it must also be asked, ---- Sana'a is a city at high elevation--about 7,300 feet, where evaporation of volatile fluids suddenly released from pressure might possibly be enhanced by the surrounding lower air-pressure (relative to sea-level). Just a guess. Continuing on that line, could it perhaps have been a large underground liquid-fuel tank that was ruptured by a conventional penetrating missile, sending rapidly evaporating gas high into the sky, where it exploded into flames and kept feeding the fireball/superheated column for a good ten seconds or longer, before the fireball disappeared, leaving the big mushroom cloud? Can a convection current of that type form in this instance?
Scientists could answer that better than I could. But where are they? Meanwhile, I'm doing the best I can here.
Disturbingly, to my eye, the fireball displays the long duration and persistent deep-brilliance seen in the smaller nuclear explosions. It would take a huge amount of fuel to do that. Perhaps Yemen has a few of the world's biggest fuel/ammo dumps ever? It would seem so. Still, another detail I find disturbing is the fact that the entire glowing-fireball stage, which lasts for easily over 10 seconds, occurs at least hundreds of feet, and perhaps a thousand or more feet, up in the air, and not near the ground where any fuel or ammo stores would be located. It seems to tower above the mountain. So I ask: What fueled the intense, long-lasting fireball so high in the air, high above any ammo or fuel storage buildings or tanks that would have been ignited on the ground far below? As far as I know, only some kind of nuke could do that.
The cui bono?
Saudi Arabia? US Neocons? Israel? and/or ????
Could it actually be a nuke?
If so, this is the news-story of the decade, or should be.
One final note: It certainly behooves the Yemeni Government to verify whether this was a nuke or not. That particular cui bono is their's, should it be absolutely verified, as world opinion would turn more to their side, and against their adversaries, for the use of unconventional weapons. If it was a nuke, the fact can't be hidden for long against honest investigation by experts. However ... If scientific verification never comes, then this explosion should be dismissed as a huge, and rare type of conventional explosion. ---- June 3, 2015. ............................................................................................ ??????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????
