Photo credit: AP | Emergency workers arrive the scene of a train collision, Friday, may 17, 2013 in Fairfield, Conn. A New York-area commuter railroad says two trains have collided in Connecticut. The railroad says the accident involved a New York-bound train leaving New Haven. It derailed and hit a westbound train near Fairfield, Conn. Some cars on the second train also derailed. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Denis O’Malley) MANDATORY CREDIT News 12 Brooklyn
(FAIRFIELD, Conn.) — Two commuter trains serving New York City collided in Connecticut during Friday’s evening rush hour, sending 60 people to the hospital, including five with critical injuries, Gov. Dannel Malloy said.
About 700 people were on board the Metro-North trains when one heading east from New York City’s Grand Central Station to New Haven derailed about 6:10 p.m. just outside Bridgeport, MTA and Bridgeport officials said.
The train was hit by a train heading west from New Haven to Grand Central on an adjacent track, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. Some cars on the second train also derailed as a result of the collision.
Amtrak, which uses the same rails, suspended service indefinitely between New York and Boston.
Lola Oliver, 49, of Bridgeport, was riding one of the trains when the crash threw her from her seat.
“All I know was I was in the air, hitting seats, bouncing around, flying down the aisle and finally I came to a stop on one seat. And I just gripped it because I felt the train sliding,” Oliver told The Associated Press. “It happened so fast I had no idea what was going on. All I know is we crashed.”
Oliver, a cardiology technician at Stamford Hospital, was treated at a hospital for cuts and bruises and released.
Investigators Friday night did not know what caused the first train to derail. Malloy said there was no reason to believe it was anything other than an accident. The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to investigate.
“We’re most concerned about the injured and ultimately reopening the system,” Malloy said from the scene about three hours after the crash.
The governor said that most people were not seriously hurt. Among those critically injured, he said, one’s injuries were “very critical.”
A pit bull saved a woman from a fire in her Long Island, New York home on Friday, barking to alert her as the flames began to spread from the front to the back of the house.
Jackie Bonasera said she was drying her hair in an upstairs bathroom of the home on Gabriele Drive in East Norwich when she heard the dog barking. She ran downstairs and saw the flames on the side of her garage.
She was able to escape the house.
“I ran out of the house and my neighbors came running over, and then I thought about the dog – I’m like, ‘He saved my life, I have to save his,’” Bonasera recounted. Read Full Article and Watch Video Here
Azamat Tazhayakov (left), Dias Kadyrbayev, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (right) in a photo taken in Times Square. The picture, which appeared on Tsarnaev’s page on VKontakt, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, is believed to be from November 2012.
By Pete Williams, Richard Esposito, Michael Isikoff and Tracy Connor, NBC News
Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were accused Wednesday of removing evidence from his dorm room as new details about the case emerged in court papers.
Criminal complaints against the trio revealed that Tsarnaev cut his long hair after the April 15 attack but before the FBI released his photo and that he allegedly told friends a month earlier that he knew “how to make a bomb.”
The court papers also suggest that the 19-year-old suspect was practically blasé when one of the friends texted to say he looked like the man in the FBI photos of the bomb suspect.
Among his replies: ‘lol,” according to the complaints.
Attorneys for the three suspects that were arrested for allegedly assisting in the Boston Marathon bombing maintain their clients’ innocence and say that they were shocked by the attack.
The complaints were filed against Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, who were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice, and Robel Phillipos, who was charged with making false statements.
The three friends, who are all 19-years-old, allegedly went to Tsarnaev’s dorm room after the FBI photos came out April 18 and left with a backpack that contained fireworks tubes that had been emptied of their explosive powder, according to the documents.
The backpack was later tossed in the garbage, though the suspects’ gave conflicting statement about whether that happened before or after Tsarnaev had been publicly named as the bombing suspect following a night of bloody mayhem.
As the allegations against them were unveiled, Tsarnaev’s three friends appeared in Boston Federal Court Wednesday afternoon. None of the charges suggested they had prior knowledge of the dual bombings that killed three and wounded more than 200 near the finish line of the race.
FBI
This May 1, 2013 FBI handout image released in a criminal complaint, shows fireworks tubes found in a backpack that was disposed of by friends of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev — who are from Kazakhstan and were detained more than a week ago on immigration charges — did not seek bail and were ordered held until a May 14 hearing.
Phillipos is being held until a detention hearing Monday. As he was read his rights, Federal Judge Marianne Bowler admonished him, saying, “I suggest you pay attention to me rather than looking down.”
Outside the courthouse, Harlan Protass, a lawyer for Tazhayakov, said his client “has cooperated fully with the authorities and looks forward to the truth coming out in this case.”
Tsarnaev friends had money and ‘Terrorista #1′ license plate, classmate says
Vkontakt
From left: Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A photograph from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s page on VKontakt, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, appears to show him in Times Square. It is believed to be from November 2012. New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said authorities knew of two trips by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to New York in 2012 but said he did not know whether those visits were related to any plot against Times Square.
By Miranda Leitsinger, Tom Winter and Erin McClam, NBC News
Two of the three people newly arrested in the Boston Marathon investigation are Kazakh friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and one drove a BMW with a novelty license plate that said “Terrorista #1,” according to people who knew them.
The two were pictured in a 2012 photo with Tsarnaev in Times Square that was posted to VKontakt, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. Authorities say Tsarnaev and his brother, suspected in the marathon attack, discussed driving to New York and setting off more of their explosives there.
The Kazakh men, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, were charged Wednesday with conspiring to destroy or hide a laptop belonging to Tsarnaev and a backpack of his containing fireworks.
Another man, Robel Phillipos of Cambridge, Mass., was charged with lying to investigators. All three appeared in federal court in Boston Wednesday afternoon.
Both Kazakh men are 19 and were in the United States on student visas, the Justice Department said.
Stephen Troio, who said he lived on the same dorm floor as the two men during his freshman year in 2011, said that they showed “lack of emotion” and “lack of personality” and that nothing stood out about them but the BMW.
“They did have a lot of money,” Troio told NBC News. “He wrecked like three Beamers and then bought another one.”
A photo attached to the criminal complaint shows fireworks recovered from a backpack.
Criminal complaints against three college friends of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contain new details about the case:
A month before the April 15 attack on the Boston Marathon, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told college friends Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev over a meal that he “knew how to make a bomb,” Tazhayakov said.
When Kadyrbaev texted Tsarnaev on April 18 to say that he looked like one of the suspects in video just released by the FBI, the 19-year-old responded with messages including: “lol,” “you better not text me” and “come to my room and take whatever you want.”
Among the items Tazhayakov, Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos say they found in Tsarnaev’s dorm room was Vaseline, which Kadyrbayev said he believed was used to “make bombs.”
At a New Bedford, Mass., landfill, the FBI recovered the backpack containing the fireworks, the Vaseline and an assignment sheet from a University of Massachusetts class Tsarnaev was taking.
BOSTON Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhohkar Tsarnaev was moved from a hospital to a federal prison medical center, while FBI agents searched for evidence Friday in a landfill near the college he was attending.
Tsarnaev, 19, was taken from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he was recovering from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during a getaway attempt, and transferred to the Federal Medical Center Devens, about 40 miles from Boston, the U.S. Marshals Service said. The facility at a former Army base treats federal prisoners.
CBS News senior correspondent John Miller told CBS Radio News that transferring Tsarnaev gets the hospital out of a delicate situation.
“There was some tension there,” said Miller. “There were many victims of the Boston bombing in Beth Israel hospital who didn’t want to be in the same hospital with one of the people allegedly responsible.”
Miller reports Tsarnaev’s transfer was done in early morning hours in the dark of night to avoid any security issues.
“A hospital is a place where the United States Marshals Service can keep a prisoner under guard, but it’s not the ideal situation they would have in a prison hospital environment,” Miller said.
The facility, on the decommissioned Fort Devens U.S. Army base, treats federal prisoners and detainees who require specialized long-term medical or mental health care.
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Should NYC have been informed of bombers’ plans sooner?
On Thursday, New York officials said Tsarnaev and his older brother and fellow suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev planned to attack Times Square.
“The surviving attacker revealed that New York City was next on their list of targets,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “He told the FBI, apparently, that he and his brother had intended to drive to New York and designate additional explosives in Times Square.”
Also, FBI agents picked through a landfill near the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where Tsarnaev was a sophomore. FBI spokesman Jim Martin would not say what investigators were looking for. An aerial photo in Friday’s Boston Globe showed a line of more than 20 investigators, all dressed in white overalls and yellow boots, picking over the garbage with shovels or rakes.
“They’re searching for a laptop,” Miller said on “CBS This Morning” Friday, “but they’re also searching for anything else that would have gone out in that same trash, and that could be bomb-making components and other things. The laptop, though, if they find it, would be what they’re hoping to have as a treasure trove because it would show online places, email contacts and so on. Now, they can still get some of that off the servers from the providers.”
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his brother had decided spontaneously to drive to New York April 18, three days after the deadly attack at the marathon’s finish line. There, Kelly said, the brothers wanted to launch an attack with their five pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker bomb like the ones that blew up at the marathon.
Kelly said that the city was notified by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force Wednesday night about the brothers’ intentions.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev traveled to New York at least once last fall. There is a photo of the suspect in Times Square.
Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is seen with friends in Times Square in this undated photo, posted to Russian social media site VKontakte./ Rex USA
17 Photos
Boston bombings shootout
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Boston bomb suspects were headed to Times Square
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Fighting terrorism in New York City
The plan fell apart after the Tsarnaev brothers were intercepted by police in a stolen car and got into a fierce gun battle that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead, Kelly said.
“We don’t know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists had they arrived here from Boston,” Bloomberg said. “We’re just thankful that we didn’t have to find out that answer.”
After much speculation around the mysterious “military contractor” types with black backpacks in the bomb zone of the Boston Marathon before and after the explosions took place, it has been revealed that they were part of an elite government WMD response team.
Originally thought to be Navy SEALs in civilian field gear, or private mercenaries from The Craft due to one member wearing a hat with their logo, the Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Team (WMD-CST) that was on duty in Boston during the attack is run by the National Guard.
“There are two CSTs that are engaged out there (in Boston) in the response… In fact, one of the first images that I saw was the Massachusetts CST was actually right there,” said Wisconsin CST commander Lt. Col. David W. May on April 16th.
Steve Watson of Infowars reports, “CSTs are The National Guard’s full-time response force for emergencies or terrorist events involving weapons of mass destruction, toxic chemicals, or natural disasters. CSTs are routinely pre-staged at large public events to help mitigate risks and assist civilian authorities.”
The National Guard explains the role of CSTs in more depth in the video below:
CST units were originally organized under the 10 FEMA regions but now operate in every US state and territory:
The classified Presidential Directive 39 that created this elite group was signed by President Clinton two months after the Oklahoma City Bombing to have “the ability to respond rapidly and decisively to terrorism directed against us wherever it occurs, to protect Americans, arrest or defeat the perpetrators, respond with all appropriate instruments against the sponsoring organizations and governments and provide recovery relief to victims, as permitted by law.”
The keyword “response force” seems an odd name for units that were clearly working the Boston Marathon prior to bombs going off.
According to a report from Global Security Newswire, New York’s CST was sent to Boston before the marathon:
The roughly 20-person New York unit — based at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn — dispatched five personnel to Boston after receiving a request last Friday from the Massachusetts state government, said Eric Durr, public information director for the New York state Military and Naval Affairs Division.
“Anytime you’ve got a high-key event where there’s lots of people, there’s usually a … unit from a civil support team in the area to provide assistance to first responders,” Durr told Global Security Newswire by telephone. He declined to discuss specifics of how the 24th personnel provided assistance following the Monday attack.
Yet, another report contradicts that and says NY 24th WMD-CST showed up only after the bombing.
“The 24th National Guard WMD-CST team has done exceptional job, not just in New York, but also in Boston where they were on the ground responding to the horrific attack on the marathon,” said US Rep. Michael Grimm (R-C-Bay Ridge-Staten Island) of the unit who “went to Boston after the bombing.”
So what is the official version? Were they there before the event or dispatched after the bombing?
Regardless, it’s clear from the photos that this team was in place prior to the event and their role in responding to WMD attacks would seem to explain the radiation detector one of them was carrying after the bomb exploded:
In addition to drills, however, we have the puzzling presence of the Massachusetts National Guard Civil Support Team (CST) at the event, shortly before the bombings occurred. (See the subsequent reports here, here, and here)
Yet, in examining the drills scheduled to take place in Boston during the attack, it might also prove helpful to examine the possibility of other types of terror drills taking place across the rest of the country, since the event itself did have nationwide reverberations and since such evidence of “coincidental” planning may further point toward the veracity of claims asserting a false flag attack having taken place in Boston.
Two such drills have predictably surfaced in the last several days.
One of the drills, which took place at Three Mile Island just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was “coincidentally” scheduled for the day after the Boston Bombing and did, in fact, take place on the Tuesday after the bombing.
The Harrisburg drill, “the first simulated test of a terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant” was designed to simulate “an attack by a group of eight armed men” on the facilities according to a statement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spokesman Peter Herrick Jr. as reported by Michael Sadowski of Yahoo! News.
It was stated by Alan Brinser of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency that “Tuesday’s test involved more than 1,200 participants in 76 municipalities and 15 school districts.” Brinser also stated that the site of the next drill has not yet been publicly released.
According the Yahoo! News report, the drills were scheduled in accordance with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) requirement “that the country’s 65 nuclear power plants test their preparedness for terrorist incidents every two years.” The requirements went into effect in November, 2011 and have been in the planning phase ever since. The full history of these requirements can be read here at NRC: Backgrounder on Force-on-Force Exercises at Nuclear Power Plants.
The second drill taking place on or around the day of the Boston Marathon Bombing was located as far south as the Carolinas and, interestingly enough, was supposed to encompass almost entirely the same scenario as that which took place in Boston the day before the South Carolina drills were supposed to take place. The North/South Carolina exercise, however, was planned at least a year before.
These drills were scheduled to take place over two days and envisioned a bomb detonation at Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Will we ever learn the full truth about the Boston Marathon bombing? Personally, I have been looking into this attack for days, and I just keep coming up with more questions than answers. At this point, I honestly have no idea what really happened.
Why was a bomb drill being held on the day of the attack? Why have authorities denied that a bomb drill was taking place? Were Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev acting alone? What was the nature of their previous contacts with the FBI and other federal agencies? Why did the FBI at first deny that they had been in contact with the Tsarnaev brothers previously? Why was the investigation of a mysterious Saudi national with familial links to al-Qaeda suddenly dropped shortly after the Saudi ambassador held an unscheduled meeting with Barack Obama? Why did Michelle Obama subsequently visit that mysterious Saudi national in the hospital?
If you are looking for answers to these questions, I am afraid that I don’t have them at this point. But what alarms me is that the mainstream media seems to be afraid to ask any of the hard questions that they should be asking. They just seem to swallow whatever the authorities tell them hook, line and sinker without following up on any of the things in this case that simply do not seem to make sense.
So what kinds of questions should they be asking? The following are 17 unanswered questions about the Boston Marathon bombing that the media appears to be afraid to ask…
#1 Why were runners being told that a bomb squad drill was taking place during the Boston Marathon? The following is from an article by Natural News…
Alastair Stevenson is a veteran marathon runner who has competed in dozens of marathons around the world, including the London Marathon. He’s very familiar with the security typically found at marathons, and he immediately noticed something odd about the Boston marathon security.
“They kept making announcements on the loud speaker that it was just a drill and there was nothing to worry about. It seemed like there was some sort of threat, but they kept telling us it was just a drill,” he was quoted as saying by Local15TV.com.
In the interview, you’ll hear Stevenson say:
“At the start at the event, at the Athlete’s Village, there were people on the roof looking down onto the Village at the start. There were dogs with their handlers going around sniffing for explosives, and we were told on a loud announcement that we shouldn’t be concerned and that it was just a drill. And maybe it was just a drill, but I’ve never seen anything like that — not at any marathon that I’ve ever been to. You know, that just concerned me that that’s the only race that I’ve seen in my life where they had dogs sniffing for explosions, and that’s the only place where there had been explosions.”
#2 Why did authorities deny that a bomb squad drill was being held?
#3 According to The Mirror, the FBI is reportedly “hunting” a 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were allegedly a part of…
A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.
“They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”
If that is the case, why are authorities in Boston adamantly insisting that the two brothers were acting alone?
#4 CBS News is reporting that the FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev back in 2011. The mother of the two Tsarnaev brothers insists that the FBI had been in contact with them for up to five years. At first, the FBI denied any previous contact with the two suspects. Will we ever learn the true scope of the previous relationship between the FBI and the Tsarnaev brothers?
#5 Debka is reporting that the Tsarnaev brothers were “double agents” which had been “hired by US and Saudi intelligence to penetrate the Wahhabi jihadist networks which, helped by Saudi financial institutions, had spread across the restive Russian Caucasian.” Could this possibly be true? If so, will the American people be told the truth about these links? #6 According to their uncle, there were “mentors” that “radicalized” the Tsarnaev brothers. So precisely who were those “mentors”?
Independent investigative journalist Dan Dicks of Press For Truth produced a video detailing his interview with the Boston bombing suspects’ aunt where she identifies a naked, cuffed, clearly alive and well detainee seen in video aired by CNN, as her nephew and Boston bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Tamerlan Tsarnaev would later be announced “dead,” with injuries covering his body from “head to toe.” The aunt is reportedly in fear for her life.
As an increasing number of inconsistencies and outright lies accumulate regarding the FBI’s handling of the case, protection must be provided to the suspects’ family. Members of the alternative media with the resources and the ability to provide protective watch over family members, seems a prudent measure to both protect innocent lives and to further pursue the truth.
The FBI Has Now Lied Big, TWICE
The FBI originally feigned ignorance over the identity of the two Boston bombing suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as they appealed to an unwitting public to help them “identify” and “find” the suspects.
The Tsarnaev brothers’ family, immediately after their identities were confirmed by Boston police and the FBI, claimed that the FBI had contacted the suspects years ago and had monitored their activity for years since.
But her biggest suspicion surrounding the case was the constant FBI surveillance she said her family was subjected to over the years. She is surprised that having been so stringent with the entire family, the FBI had no idea the sons were supposedly planning a terrorist act.
She would say of the FBI to Russia Today:
They used to come [to our] home, they used to talk to me…they were telling me that he [the older, 26-y/o Tamerlan] was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him. They told me whatever information he is getting, he gets from these extremist sites… they were controlling him, they were controlling his every step…and now they say that this is a terrorist act! Never ever is this true, my sons are innocent!
I strongly believe they were just puppets and executors of something of bigger scale.
There certainly were mentors. I was shocked when I heard his words, his phrases, when every other word he starts sticking in words of God. I question what he’s doing for work, (and) he claimed he would just put everything in the will of God. It was a big concern to me. He called me ‘confused’ when I started explaining to him, make yourself useful to yourself and to your family and maybe you’ll have extra to share with everybody else.
It wasn’t devotion, it was something, as it’s called, being radicalized. Not understanding what he is talking (about). He is just using words for the sake of the words and not understanding the meaning of it.
CBS News reports although the FBI initially denied contacting Tsarnaev, the brothers’ mother said they had in an interview with Russia Today.
The FBI would then be forced to concede that indeed it had interviewed the suspects, in 2011, two years before the Boston bombings. Finally disclosed on April 19, 2013 in an official statement that can be found on FBI.gov the FBI would state:
The two individuals believed to be responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday have been positively identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, now deceased, and Dzhokar Tsarnaev, now in custody. These individuals are brothers and residents of Massachusetts. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a legal permanent resident and Dzhokar Tsarnaev is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Charges have not yet been filed against Dzhokar Tsarnaev and he is presumed innocent.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, age 26, was previously designated as Suspect 1, wearing a black hat. Dzhokar A. Tsarnaev, age 19, was designated as Suspect 2, wearing a white hat. Both were born in Kyrgyzstan.
Once the FBI learned the identities of the two brothers today, the FBI reviewed its records and determined that in early 2011, a foreign government asked the FBI for information about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The request stated that it was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups.
In response to this 2011 request, the FBI checked U.S. government databases and other information to look for such things as derogatory telephone communications, possible use of online sites associated with the promotion of radical activity, associations with other persons of interest, travel history and plans, and education history. The FBI also interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and family members. The FBI did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign, and those results were provided to the foreign government in the summer of 2011. The FBI requested but did not receive more specific or additional information from the foreign government.
However, the case was not “closed,” as the FBI claims. It is now revealed that the “foreign government” that asked the FBI for information on Tamerlan Tsarnaev was Russia, and that Russia again contacted the FBI 6 months ago after the suspect traveled to Russia’s Caucasus region and was apparently in contact with terrorists, long-revealed to be supported, funded, and coddled by the US.
Yeah, this makes sense: A 10-year-old suggests a bully should be shot with a water pistol, so the police confiscate his father’s firearms and the State revokes his concealed-carry permit.
It happened in New York, a State that is notorious for the difficulty it causes its residents who want to legally carry a gun and that recently suspended the U.S. Constitution and passed draconian gun restrictions. The father posted news of his plight April 1 on the Longislandfirearms.com forum.
Submitted to Family Survival Protocol by Invisible Mikey
Latest example of anti-Second Amendment hysteria reaches new level of absurdity
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 9, 2013
In the latest example of anti-gun hysteria, police in New York State confiscated a man’s firearms and revoked his pistol license after his son threatened to use a water pistol against bullies who had taunted his friends at school.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Commack resident John Mayer is now pursuing legal action after Suffolk County Police visited his home and threatened to embarrass him in front of his neighbors before confiscating Mayer’s handguns and rifles, firearms worth around $6,500 dollars.
Mayer also had his pistol license revoked and was told it would only be restored when his son reaches 18 years of age and moves out of the home.
The police visit stemmed from a March 1 incident at Pines Elementary school in Hauppauge. Mayer’s 10-year-old son discovered that some of his friends had been bullied by other boys and there had been a scuffle on the schoolyard. Mayer’s son discussed a plan with two other boys to bring a water pistol, a paintball gun and a BB gun to the home of the bullies involved in the incident.
Despite the fact that the boys involved do not even own any of the guns mentioned, when the school principle found out about the conversation he suspended Mayer’s son for two days and filed a police report.
“What the school did was atrocious,” Mayer’s lawyer, James Murtha told the Hauppauge Patch. “He’s a good kid, who has been discriminated against severely by the school district.”
A few days later, Mayer received a call from the pistol licensing office informing him that his pistol license had been revoked and that police would visit his home to confiscate his weapons.
“I attempted to explain that this must be a mistake, no wrong doing occurred on my part. My son has no access to any of my guns. The officer that came to my residence saw that all my guns were secured. Pistol Licensing was not interested in my side of the story. They were only interested in what happened with my 10-year-old son in school,” said Mayer.
According to Mayer, he was harassed by police who also threatened to interrogate his 10-year-old son without Mayer’s permission.
Suffolk County Police and the Hauppauge Public School District have refused to comment on the matter besides releasing glib statements.
Mayer is now pressing charges against both Suffolk County Police and Hauppauge School District in federal court.
This is merely the latest of a long list of incidents involving hysterical reactions to so-called gun “threats” made by children in schools since the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in December.
Connecticut’s governor signed tough new gun ownership rules into law, four months after a gunman opened fire on an elementary school in the state, killing 20 children and six adults. The measure passed in the state assembly makes Connecticut the third state after New York and Colorado to tighten gun laws in the wake of the December 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. More than 100 makes of rifles – including the Bushmaster AR-15 used by killer Adam Lanza in the Newtown school – were added to an existing, but now vastly expanded ban on military-style weapons. In addition, ammunition clips holding more than 10 rounds must now be registered, while new sales of the large clips are banned.
John Bacon and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY2:59p.m. EDT April 4, 2013
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy signed the nation’s most far-reaching gun control bill Thursday, the ceremony in Hartford concluding several emotional weeks of debate and compromise since the state was rocked and the world stunned by the mass murder of children in Newtown.
“This is a profoundly emotional day for everyone in this room,” Malloy, a Democrat, said moments before signing the bill. He added that he hoped the state’s bipartisan effort would provide an example for Congress.
“When 92% of Americans agree that every gun sale should be subject to a background check, there is no excuse” not to make it federal law, Malloy said.
The Connecticut law adds more than 100 weapons to the state’s ban on assault weapons, limits the capacity of ammo magazines and requires background checks for all weapon sales, including at gun shows.
It also establishes the nation’s first statewide registry for people convicted of crimes involving dangerous weapons. Access to the registry would be available only to law enforcement.
Nicole Hockley’s 6-year-old, Dylan, was among the 20 children who died when Adam Lanza began shooting inside Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14. He also killed six adult staff before killing himself. Hockley said she appreciated the bipartisan political effort that led to the law.
“While I am grateful for the progress being made, I wish more than anything that I was just back at home waiting for both Dylan and Jake to come home from school,” she said.
Hockley said her effort to press the law forward was one way to honor her son’s life. “We want Newtown to be known not for tragedy, but for transformation,” Hockley said.
Hmmmm, very interesting development and of course I had not hear d a peep from the MSM. Or was it just that I missed it ?
It makes you wonder how they will explain this. Was it t e US that planned a false flag to justify all the killing an warmongering.
Was it Saudi Arabia again involved in a terror plot against the US?
Were they working together to create a false flag to facilitate the erosion of our Rights and the destruction of the Constitution?
Rahm Emmanuel said ” Never let a good crisis go to waste”. I supose if one does not occur on its own then in their twisted minds it is perfectly acceptable to create one…….Reminds me of another false flag that led to all these illegal wars. Lies , murder, genocide all under the guise of defense of our Nation, A War on Terror that is being perpetrated by the real Terrorists and the subjugation and destruction of this Nation.
I hope everyone is paying attention, because if things continue the way they are that final exam is going to be a doozie!!
~Desert Rose~
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 24-year-old who tried to blow up a plane using an underwear bomb on Christmas Eve, 2009, entered a plea of guilty today in Federal Court a day after testimony began at his trial began. The underwear bomber, who has been linked to Al Qaeda, was unapologetic for his actions.
‘Underwear bomber’ involved in a plot to attack jet was in fact working as an undercover informer with the CIA, it has emerged. Photograph: Yahya Arhab/EPA
A would-be “underwear bomber” involved in a plot to attack a US-based jet was in fact working as an undercover informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged.
The revelation is the latest twist in an increasingly bizarre story about the disruption of an apparent attempt by al-Qaida to strike at a high-profile American target using a sophisticated device hidden in the clothing of an attacker.
The plot, which the White House said on Monday had involved the seizing of an underwear bomb by authorities in the Middle East sometime in the last 10 days, had caused alarm throughout the US.
It has also been linked to a suspected US drone strike in Yemen where two Yemeni members of al-Qaida were killed by a missile attack on their car on Sunday, one of them a senior militant, Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso.
But the news that the individual at the heart of the bomb plot was in fact an informer for US intelligence is likely to raise just as many questions as it answers.
Citing US and Yemeni officials, Associated Press reported that the unnamed informant was working under cover for the Saudis and the CIA when he was given the bomb, which was of a new non-metallic type aimed at getting past airport security.
The informant then turned the device over to his handlers and has left Yemen, the officials told the news agency. The LA Times, which first broke the news that the plot had been a “sting operation”, said that the bomb plan had also provided the intelligence leads that allowed the strike on Quso.
Earlier John Brennan, Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser and a former CIA official, told ABC’s Good Morning America that authorities are “confident that neither the device nor the intended user of this device pose a threat to us”.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks out for gun reform at a press conference. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
The television ads are set to run in 13 key states during the congressional recess and are aimed at influencing an upcoming Senate vote on gun reforms.
Announcing the move, Bloomberg – the co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns and one of the US’s most high-profile advocates of tighter controls – said: “These ads bring the voices of Americans – who overwhelmingly support comprehensive and enforceable background checks – into the discussion to move senators to immediately take action to prevent gun violence.”
But pro-gun lobby group the National Rifle Association (NRA), accused the New York mayor of attempting to “intimidate senators”.
The new ads feature a man holding a gun on the back of a pickup truck. In one, he says he will defend the second amendment but adds that “with rights come responsibilities”. He goes on to urges viewers to tell Congress to support background checks.
In the other ad posted on the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website, the man says “background checks have nothing to do with taking guns away from anyone”, rather they are aimed at preventing criminals and mentally ill people from owning deadly weapons.
Last Tuesday, Senate leader Harry Reid said than the ban would not form part of a bill members are due to vote on, as it did not have the support needed to force it through Congress.
********************************************************************************************************* Politics prevent relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy
Jaime Betancourth, 20, was displaced from his Far Rockaway Beach 47th street home after Hurricane Sandy, he now lives in the Park Avenue Hotel.
Checkout time has arrived for homeless Sandy victims living in hotels.
The city is moving to relocate some 777 displaced families — about 1,900 people — out of hotels and into alternate housing by April 30, said Seth Diamond, the head of the city’s Department of Homeless Services.
Bryan Smith/for New York Daily News
Debris piles line Beach 118th Street in Far Rockaway following the effects of Hurricane Sandy.
Those who can will move back home, while others will go to relatives, said Diamond. The city has also set aside 400 New York City Housing Authority units and 150 section 8 vouchers for Sandy victims without other options.
Joe Marino/for New York Daily News
Sandy victims who were displaced are relocated multiple times to fleabag bedbug run down SROs.
Read Full Article Here
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Watchdog: Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund has raised $32M, doled out $0
Sandy fund: It’s not speed, it’s doling it out right
Mar 11, 2013 |
First Lady Mary Pat Christie’s Hurricane Sandy NJ …: New Jersey first lady Mary Pat Christie at the Morristown office of the charity she chairs, the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund. Staff Video by Bob Karp
‘We have a very, very thin staff, really hard workers. We get everything we can on a pro bono basis,’ Mary Pat Christie says at the Harding office of the charity she chairs, the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund. / Bob Karp/staff photographer
“I have taken excruciating steps to make sure that we give the money out in a really judicious way.”
MARY PAT CHRISTIE
The Sandy relief fund chaired by New Jersey first lady Mary Pat Christie has raised more than $32 million so far. But four months after the superstorm, none of that aid has reached storm victims yet.
In an interview, Mary Pat Christie pointed to the logistical challenge of starting a charity from scratch, the relief fund’s focus on addressing long-term recovery needs, instead of short-term relief, and her own “methodical” approach to putting the proper resources and safeguards in place, as reasons for the delay.
It was never the intent for the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund to quickly provide monetary aid directly to storm victims, she noted. Instead, the plan was to lend support to reputable nonprofit groups that will be providing victims with financial assistance and other services in the months and years to come. The relief fund plans to distribute $1 million in grants this week, with another $5 million to follow several weeks after that.
“I have taken excruciating steps to make sure that we give the money out in a really judicious way,” Mary Pat Christie said.
“You want accountability, you get accountability when you go through a methodical structure,” she said. “So, in three years when I’m still distributing money at Hurricane Sandy Relief, ask me if we’re doing enough.”
Mary Pat Christie’s defense of her charity’s performance, however, comes on the heels of the pointed barbs her husband, Gov. Chris Christie, has hurled at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Speaker of the House John Boehner, among others, for what the governor sees as inexcusable delays in helping the state’s residents, businesses and communities still reeling from the Oct. 29 storm. Christie famously called Congress’ holdup of Sandy relief “disgusting.”
‘Let’s move it’
The deliberate pace of Mary Pat Christie’s 4-month-old charity contrasts with the Robin Hood Foundation’s rapid turnaround of the $67 million raised by the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief.
To date, Robin Hood has awarded more than $50 million in grants to dozens of nonprofit groups, with nearly 40 percent of the funds earmarked for relief efforts in New Jersey. The foundation expects to commit almost all of the remaining concert money by the end of the month.
(Reuters) – Both chambers of the majority Democratic Colorado legislature approved a package of four gun-control measures on Wednesday, capping months of debate in a state that has experienced two of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
The most controversial of the bills that are now headed to the desk of Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper is a ban on ammunition magazines with more than 15 rounds, which the governor said he will sign into law.
The passage of the bills could push Colorado to the forefront of a national gun control debate reignited by several mass shootings last year, including the December massacre of 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The sponsor of the Colorado magazine-limit bills, state House Representative Rhonda Fields, told fellow lawmakers in a floor debate on Wednesday the proposal was about “saving lives.”
“These are weapons that should be used in a theater of war and not in our local theaters,” said Fields, a Democrat whose district includes the suburban Denver movie theater where a gunman killed 12 people in a shooting rampage last July.
Colorado was also the site of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, where two teenagers shot dead a teacher and 12 other students before committing suicide.
Other bills included in the package of gun-control laws approved by Colorado lawmakers included a measure to make firearm buyers pay for their own background checks and a ban on online certification for concealed-carry permits, both of which Hickenlooper has said he supports.
Another measure would bar gun purchases by people convicted of domestic violence crimes. Hickenlooper had previously said he was undecided about that until he could see the final version.
One remaining gun-control measure to require background checks for all firearms transfers was sent to a conference committee on Wednesday, so that both chambers could hash out differences between the Senate and House versions.
The proposals that won final approval on Wednesday had received little Republican support.
Republican House minority leader Mark Waller issued a statement after the bills’ passage, calling Democrats “out of touch” with their constituents.
“More than 200,000 Coloradans are out of work but Democrats are more concerned with passing legislation that will send hundreds of jobs out of our state without any increase in public safety to show for it,” Waller said in a statement.
Waller was referring to Magpul, a Colorado-based manufacturer of ammunition magazines that has vowed to leave the state and take away its hundreds of jobs if the magazine-limits bill becomes law.
The Colorado legislature’s action follows the passage in New York state in January of a sweeping gun-control law that bans assault weapons and magazines that hold more than seven rounds of ammunition, requires gun owners to register most guns with the states and requires universal background checks.
President Barack Obama has put forward a number of federal gun-control proposals in the wake of the Newtown killings.
On Tuesday, a divided U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee advanced to the full Senate a measure endorsed by Obama that would require criminal background checks for all gun buyers.
Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is seen with friends in Times Square in this undated photo, posted to Russian social media site VKontakte./ Rex USA
Image: Wikimedia Commons
