Archive for the 'Department of Homeland Security' Category

Via WRSA, Ray Kelly is being considered for the new top cop of the DHS, and there is this directly from Kelly himself.

“I don’t think it ever should have been made secret. I think the American public can accept the fact if you tell them that every time you pick up the phone it’s going to be recorded and goes to the government … ”

First of all, this reminds you of what kind of person you have for president.  Obama isn’t ignorant of Kelly’s views, he knows full well what he believes, and that’s why Kelly is being considered.

Second, the DHS shouldn’t even exist as an organization.  It’s existence is an obscene, repugnant, despicable blight on the face of America.  So the fact that Kelly is being considered for the top cop of the federal government shouldn’t surprise us.  Obama isn’t going to appoint someone who does away with this monstrosity.

Finally, I will remark that God hates totalitarianism in all of its forms – Communism, Nazism, Fascism, Fabian Socialism, and whatever else – and God hates totalitarians.  There are no accidental totalitarians.  They all know what they do, intend it, and want all power to themselves.  They all usurp His authority.  Their end will draw nigh, sooner or later.  And then, eternal judgment.

Or perhaps the proper title would have been “You the Extremist and Tannerite.”  David Codrea.

An “Unclassified/For Official Use Only” Federal Bureau of Investigation WMD Intelligence Analysis Section Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center intelligence bulletin issued Tuesday “assesses with high confidence recreationally used exploding targets (ETs), commonly referred to as tannerite, or reactive targets, can be used as an explosive for illicit purposes by criminals and extremists and explosive precursor chemicals (EPCs) present in ETs can be combined with other materials to manufacture explosives for use in improvised explosive devices (IEDs).”

[ … ]

“The term extremists,” the bulletin explains in a footnote, “includes international terrorists, homegrown violent extremists, domestic terrorists, and lone wolf offenders operating in the United States or abroad.” Previous Gun Rights Examiner reports have demonstrated the federal government applies those terms liberally to include groups as innocuous as “preppers” and “Constitutionalists,” among others.

Good Lord.  Seriously?  Really?  Western Rifle Shooters reacts:

Boo!

Tannerite!

Hold me close, Uncle Bob — I’m a-skeered.

Boo!

On a serious note (because the FBI is so unserious these days), note what is not happening in all of this.  The FBI is not chasing down illegal aliens crossing the border.  They are not targeting the Mexican drug lords.  They are not eradicating MS-13.  They are not burrowing down deep into organized crime in the inner cities.  The folks who work in the field offices might get killed doing those things.

No, those things are hard to do.  They would rather wring their hands over “extremists” and Tannerite.  So there you have it.  Your tax dollars at work.

Read it at Examiner.

From Instapundit:

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Why Are The Feds Loading Up On So Much Ammo? “According to one estimate, just since last spring DHS has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm. That’s sufficient firepower to shoot every American about five times. Including illegal immigrants. To provide some perspective, experts estimate that at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, DHS is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war.”

Wicked fascists.  If you’re in this line of work, you ought to go home tonight, fall on your knees, beg God for forgiveness and then turn in your resignation.  You will answer for your sin of totalitarianism one day.  God does not approve of your world view, and He manages the economy of His creation by spheres of influence and authority, the Church, State and Family, all accountable to Him and none with the authority to override the other’s domain.  You have usurped God’s natural order.

Shame on you, now or in eternity.  Beware.  God will not be mocked.

Prior: So Why Does DHS Need 1.6 Billion Rounds Of Handgun Ammunition?

From Market Daily News:

Paul Joseph Watson: While the Obama administration sets out to eviscerate the gun rights of American citizens in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, earlier this week it was announced that the Department of Homeland Security has awarded a company a contract worth over $45,000 dollars to provide the DHS with 200,000 more rounds of bullets.

This new purchase adds to the staggering figure of 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition already secured by the DHS over the last 9 months alone.

A solicitation originally posted on the FedBizOpps.gov website on December 17 on behalf of the DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Center advertised the need for 200 cases of 13–40 Cal, 180 Grain, Jacketed Hollow Point bullets, with each case containing 1000 rounds, to be delivered almost immediately as soon as the contract is awarded.

So I’m just asking.  And don’t tell me that the DHS needs all of this ammunition for training.  You do the math.  Assume (as an enveloping case) that the DHS consists of 15,000 agents who need yearly qualification.  Divide 1.6 billion by 15,000, and you get more than 100,000 rounds of handgun ammunition per agent.

If each qualifying agent shot 1000 rounds per day, he could practice for 100 days at that rate before needing more ammunition.  This shooting rate is something nearing equivalence with Marine infantry and Army special forces doing pre-deployment workups for combat.

You do the math.

You know my view.  The Department of Homeland Security should not exist.  Furthermore, they and the TSA are helping to turn the U.S. into a police state.  But as I have followed this story it becomes more troubling each time it is updated.

Following controversy over its purchase of around 1.2 billion bullets in the last six months alone, the Department of Homeland Security has put out a new solicitation for over 200 million more rounds of ammunition, some of which are designated to be used by snipers.

A series of new solicitations posted on the FedBizOpps website show that the DHS is looking to purchase 200 million rounds of .223 rifle ammunition over the next four years, as well as 176,000 rounds of .308 caliber 168 grain hollow point boat tail (HPBT) rounds in addition to 25,000 rounds of blank .308 caliber bullets.

As James Smith over at the Prepper Podcast website highlights, “It is the type of ammunition and not necessarily the quantity that is troubling.”

Smith points out that the DHS’ acquisition of .308 rounds is of concern because they are set to be used by well-trained snipers.

“All of the sniper grade ammunition is being used by trained, or in-the-process-of-being-trained snipers,” writes Smith, noting that the math adds up to 135,384 potential kills for the snipers to make, using the 176,000 rounds of ammunition, basing the figures on the fact that United States Army and Marine Corps snipers in the Vietnam War expended 1.3 rounds of ammunition for each claimed and verified kill.

[ … ]

The DHS’ decision back in March to purchase of 450 million rounds of .40-caliber hollow point bullets that are designed to expand upon entry and cause maximum organ damage prompted questions as to why the federal agency required such powerful bullets and in such large quantities merely for training purposes.

So there are a couple of problems that need to be pointed out here.  First, personal defense rounds (hollow point, jacketed hollow point of any brand, e.g., Gold Dot, Hydrashock, etc.), are not used for range time.  They are too expensive.  You use FMJ or metal case rounds.  Second, you need to watch this video of Travis Haley (former Recon Marine, Blackwater, now on to greater things) in al Najaf fighting the Mahdi Army.

Travis Haley is a legitimate bad ass.  The DHS doesn’t have anyone like him, a point I will readily concede.  Nonetheless, he is using a 5.56 rifle with good glass to take out fighters at 800 meters.  No one in DHS needs to shoot targets at this distance or anywhere near it.

The DHS doesn’t need .308 rounds for any legitimate purpose.

Here is the scoop on keywords.

The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.

The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as ‘attack’, ‘Al Qaeda’, ‘terrorism’ and ‘dirty bomb’ alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like ‘pork’, ‘cloud’, ‘team’ and ‘Mexico’.

Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.

The words are included in the department’s 2011 ‘Analyst’s Desktop Binder‘ used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify ‘media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities’.

Department chiefs were forced to release the manual following a House hearing over documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit which revealed how analysts monitor social networks and media organisations for comments that ‘reflect adversely’ on the government.

However they insisted the practice was aimed not at policing the internet for disparaging remarks about the government and signs of general dissent, but to provide awareness of any potential threats.

Hmmm.  Reflects adversely on DHS and response activities, huh?  The words in the long list include terror, response, al Qaeda, organized crime, Mexico, Hazmat, North Korea, Sinaloa, gangs, trafficking, and so on.  All of these are words I use regularly, and I know I get regular visits from the DHS.

But this issue of reflecting adversely on the DHS is really bothersome and scary.  So let’s cover our positions again.  As long as we:

Continue to seek negotiations with the Taliban, the very enemy who harbored al Qaeda, and as long as we allow the porous border with Mexico to potentially allow Hezbollah fighters to ensconce themselves in America after crossing …

And as long as we:

Send in fat ass agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Gibson Guitar (led by a noted Obama critic) wearing Tru-Spec tactical pants and drop holsters, and send in DHS agents to raid flea markets, release Taliban fighters, raid the Department of Defense budget as a piggy bank for social programs, let our Secretary of Defense worry over anthropogenic global warming …

And as long as we:

Ask our TSA agents to feel up little boys and girls, and investigate old women’s sanitary things, and as long as we want the TSA to be a federal jobs program for goobers, hicks, rednecks and other incompetents, well then …

We aren’t prepared for Taliban / al Qaeda / Hezbollah / Iranian Mullahs versus America.  There are even some very basic homeland threats for which are are ill prepared.  But the list goes on, and we’ve discussed all of this before, haven’t we?  Is the DHS listening closely enough?  Was I clear enough?