New Evidence Shows Phylicia Barnes Might Have Been Abducted By Dirty Child Porn Ring

Jul.11, 2011 in Babies

Believe it or not, the FBI is still investigating Phylicia Barnes‘ death three months after her body was found in the Susquehanna River.


And it looks like they’ve made some progress and might even have a couple of suspects in the 16-year-old’s death.

An FBI agent with Maryland’s child exploitation task force filed three search warrants seeking access to the 16-year-old’s email and Facebook accounts and the accounts of at least three other people.

It’s unclear whether a sex crime was committed. The warrant’s affidavits are under seal, but a former FBI official told the Observer that the agency must have probable cause that exploitation occurred in order to secure the warrants.

“This is not a shotgun approach of putting out search warrants to see if it hits something,” said Chris Swecker, who once headed the FBI in North Carolina and later led all the agency’s worldwide criminal investigations. “This is a focused investigation. They’re pulling on a string. And that string is child exploitation.”

An honor student at Union Academy charter school in Monroe, Barnes disappeared on Dec. 28 while visiting relatives in Baltimore.

The case drew nationwide attention. Baltimore police called it their most extensive search for a missing person in years. Hundreds of volunteers posted fliers with Phylicia’s bright smile around the city. Her family offered a $25,000 reward.

In Monroe, her Union Academy classmates tied purple ribbons around trees at the charter school where she was set to graduate in spring.

Four months later, her nude body was found floating in the Susquehanna River, about 40 miles northeast of Baltimore. Her death was ruled a homicide, but police did not release a cause.
On Friday, the Maryland FBI did not return calls. Baltimore and Maryland police declined to discuss the investigation.

“At the end of the day, we’re trying to get the killer behind bars and behind bars for a long time,” Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. “And we’re going to use every tool at our disposal.”

The search warrants, released June 30, request access to at least seven email accounts operated by Yahoo and AOL. Three include Phylicia’s name or variations of it.

The Observer sent inquiries to each email address, but none were returned.

The search warrants, filed by Special Agent Jacqueline Dougher, also request access to four Facebook pages, including Phylicia’s. Three of the pages already have been taken down.
In the warrants, Dougher cites a “reason to believe” that the search will reveal evidence of child sex crimes or child pornography.

Phylicia’s father, Russell Barnes, did not know of any sex crimes, but said he thought it was connected to his daughter being found nude. He said investigators told him some people interviewed have not been completely honest.

“Other people have been lying and they’re trying to figure it all out,” he said. “They’re doing everything they can to find out who killed Phylicia and that’s what we want them to do.”

We hope they do get justice for Phylicia and closure for her family.
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Miss. authorities to review black man's hanging

Operation Help Civil Rights Founder Wendol Lee & Supporters (left), Brenda Carter Evans & Luell Evans (right). The family members hold artwork made for Fredrick Jermaine Carter, who was lynched in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi authorities are reviewing the case of a black man who was found hanging dead from a tree after relatives claimed the state's deputy medical examiner can't be trusted because he falsified information about a British woman's death while working in Africa in the 1980s.

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety said it began its investigation Monday after allegations surfaced that Dr. Adel Shaker falsified information in the 1998 death of Julie Ward, a British tourist killed on a visit to Kenya. Shaker was a pathologist in Kenya at the time.

Shaker told The Associated Press on Monday that his boss in Kenya changed his report to make it look like Ward was killed by wild animals instead of being murdered. Shaker said top officials in Kenya were involved in the cover-up and he had not been able to do anything about it because of Kenya's oppressive regime at the time.
Shaker said he set the record straight during a British inquest in 2004.

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An Exclusive Interview With Ron Paul And Stalled Debt Ceiling Talks On "The Week Ahead"

Video by Frank McCaffrey

blog.getliberty.org/default.asp

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The Euro’s Last Gasp

By Bill Wilson
While Obama sits here and plays rhetorical games with the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling, attempting to sucker Republicans into increasing taxes, there are strong headwinds from across the Atlantic that threaten the U.S. economy.

Greece’s default is inevitable. And the fate of the euro is in question.

The only real question currently facing policymakers in Brussels is whether banks foolish enough to lend money to a bankrupt socialist government will take losses, or if the European Central Bank (ECB) will simply print more money to bail out Greece’s creditors.

That decision will have major ripple effects. If bondholders take losses on Greek debt, American financial institutions like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and AIG are said to be on the hook for honoring credit default swaps sold to insure against Greece’s default on its €340 billion debt.

If, on the other hand, the banks are bailed out, and the ECB buys back the Greek bonds with printed money, then it is the central bank that is on the hook for any Greek default.

At that point, a Greek default would in principle lead to the ECB’s insolvency. The European Central Bank (ECB) is already on the hook directly for over €120 billion in Greek debt, including tens of billions of Greek debt it accepted as collateral when making other loans.

So, whether the ECB further intervenes at this point or not, a Greek default would hurt the ECB — and the euro — most of all.

Even if U.S. financial institutions foolish enough to insure against Greek default were still to be the ones on the hook to honor the swaps, nobody expects the global banking ruling class to really take any real losses on sovereign debt, no matter how richly deserved. The assumption is that these institutions cannot afford to honor the credit default swaps. So, who would bail them out?

The Federal Reserve, as usual. As in 2008 and 2009, the Fed’s emergency facilities would once again likely bail out financial institutions all over the world deemed too big to fail. Or, perhaps the newly minted, FDIC-operated, so-called “orderly liquidation fund” under Dodd-Frank — really, an unlimited bailout fund — would be invoked.
Get full story here.

New Editions to the Endangered Species list: Toucan Sam, Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit

By Rebecca DiFede


Recently, First Lady Jill-of-all-trades Michelle Obama added another job to her ever-expanding repertoire: poacher. When speaking to reporters at an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on May 11th, she unveiled her "Let's Move" campaign to stop childhood obesity which included getting rid of popular cartoon characters in the marketing of unhealthy foods (such as sugary cereals) and using those characters to only promote healthy alternatives (perhaps a donkey who eats veggies?).

Madame Obama claims that this program is meant to lower rates of childhood obesity and diabetes by encouraging kids to eat healthy and watch their weight, however she is missing one key fact: the foods that children eat are the choice of the parent, not the child. If a parent wants to buy their children Fruit Loops, they will, regardless of advertising. And by the same token, if a parent only wants their child to eat granola, it doesn’t matter how “Gr-r-reat” Frosted Flakes are, their child won’t be eating them.

This war on the General Mills characters (and any other animations related to the sale of children’s foods) is only a reprise of a previous war on Joe Camel, the popular cartoon camel who once adorned magazine pages and TV ads selling Camel cigarettes. This campaign was done to help prevent kids from smoking, however it goes without saying that juveniles are no less inclined to smoke cigarettes now that Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man have gone the way of the Dodo.

Michelle Obama’s campaign is not only patently ridiculous, but also a gross waste of our country’s time and energy. We need to be focusing on the economic crisis and the debt ceiling, not trying to stop kids from being “coo coo” for coco puffs.

In the weeks following this announcement, a campaign to combat this graphic slaughter was created, known as the Sensible Food Policy Coalition, which is ironically being headed by known Mao Ze Dong enthusiast and former Obama Administration communicator, Anita Dunn.

One main reason that changing the marketing strategy of so-called unhealthy products to children will fail in preventing them from becoming obese or contracting diabetes is because of the simple fact that kids do not like the taste of vegetables, preferring a sweeter snack. Not only that, but because of their parents insistence that they are “good for them”, they become rebellious and refuse to eat them (as we all did as children), and that wouldn’t change, even if Tony the Tiger suddenly became a fruit lover (eat gr-r-rapes!) or the Lucky Charms Leprechaun sang “catch me lucky carrots, they’re magically lowfat” (it’s just not as catchy).
Get full story here.

45 killed,as US drone strikes in Pak's north-west

At least 45 militants were killed in Pakistan's restive northwest in one of the deadliest strikes by US drones, signalling Washington's resolve to step up assault on terror groups in this country despite growing strains in ties with its key ally. Theunusually heavy barrage of three missile strikes in a span of 12 hours, targeting militant hideouts in north and south Waziristan took one of the largest death toll in the controversial unacknowledged air campaign. 

The drone attacks commenced on Monday night when unmanned air craft unleashed nine missiles into a suspected militant compound and a vehicle in north Waziristan, killing 25 militants, local officials were quoted by TV channels as saying. Few hours later, the drone struck again in nearby South Waziristan firing missiles and killing five militants.
The drones reappeared early this morning over the area firing two missiles at another compound in North Waziristan killing 15 militants. 

It was the second largest death toll in drone campaign. In 2009 a missile attack killed 70 militants in south Waziristan.
The stepped up drone campaign follows on the heels of Obama Administration's announcement that it was suspending more than one-third of the massive USD 2 billion military assistance to Pakistan. 

The three attacks in quick succession indicates that White House has no intention of stopping the drone campaign that has contributed to tensions between Washington and Islamabad. 

Washington has called Pakistan's semi-autonomous North West Tribal Region as the most dangerous place on earth and the global headquarters of dreaded Al Qaeda and is pressing Islamabad to launch a full scale military operation in North Waziristan region to strike at Haqqani network faction of the Taliban. But the Pakistan military claims that its troops are too over stretched by operations against Taliban in other areas to undertake such an offensive, but analysts believe that Islamabad is hesitant to cross militants with whom it has historical links and who could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.

The Dangers of Syria

July 12th, 2011 by Curious 

 

The hostile relations are being whipped into a frenzy in Syria this week, following the dubious decisions by American and French Governments to criticise Assad.

I don’t recall the environment in Libya being as febrile prior to NATO campaign. However, I don’t believe as much support rallied for Gadaffi in Libya either.

The damge to embassies in Damascus is indicative of a metaphorical threat more than anything. I have commented before on the bizarre comparisons between Libya and Syria, and yet the complete dichotomy of action taken by the UN, NATO and the EU.

I have also deliberated the risk of following action in Libya with action in Syria.
Syria have yet to divulge the extent of their nuclear weapons programme to the UN. Such an outstanding requirement poses a dangerous threat in a tempestuous and unstable country on the border of more tempestuous and unstable countries in the Middle East.

Even without the potential damage of nuclear weapon power-mongering, there is the danger that the West’s verbal criticisms alone will spark a collaboration between dictators.

With the assault on French and US Embassies, this threat seems to be even more realistic.
Syrians absconding to Turkey would not be followed by Assad’s forces, but Assad combined with Gadaffi, and even Bahrain, Yemen and others, would make a formidable foe.

We have already seen Gadaffi threaten Europeans. Now we see the breaking of diplomatic relations.
Given that Assad has been gesturing to make changes to the country, which is more than Gadaffi did, the heavy criticism and calls for Assad to stand down were an unnecessary blow to diplomatic relations. Rather like Libya, the anti-establishment groups are demanding the dictator must go, and to support them, is to ruin any potential for a diplomatic resolution. If you don’t believe me, look at Libya again.

The West is establishing a dangerous precedent that could mean even more tenuous relations in the Arab Spring.

Barack Obama: A Mediocre President

Posted by Robert Rapier
In 2008, I believed all year long that Barack Obama would win the presidency. Even when Hillary Clinton was still the favorite to win the nomination, I thought Obama’s charisma would ultimately win him the Democratic nomination, and then the presidency. The night before the election I wrote that I thought he would capture more than 300 electoral votes (he got 356) and would beat McCain by more than 100 electoral vote (the margin of victory was 192 electoral votes). On the night of the election, I wrote a post congratulating him. I was happy to see him elected. But in the same post I also predicted that he would disappoint many.

There is no question that Obama inherited a mess of an economy from the previous administration. And if McCain had been elected, I would probably be writing the same story about him. I think that 100 years from now, history will look back on Obama as having broken important racial barriers. His election inspired hope around the world. But it seems that the ability to give a charismatic speech does not necessarily translate into being a good president. I believe history will judge Barack Obama as a mediocre president.
Naturally Republicans are going to view Obama negatively, but he has come under harsh criticism within his own party. Jon Stewart summed it up like this:

(CNN) – Count Jon Stewart among the legion of frustrated supporters of President Obama.

Appearing on Fox News’ The Bill O’Reilly show Wednesday, the liberal comedian said he thought Obama would do a better job when he voted for him in the 2008 presidential election.

“I think people feel a disappointment in that there was a sense that Jesus will walk on water and now you are looking at it like, ‘Oh look at that, he’s just treading water’ … I thought he’d do a better job,” said Stewart.

Stewart, who maintains he ultimately does not regret his vote for Obama, said he is “saddened” the president hasn’t done more to change the structure of Washington.

“I thought we were in such a place [in 2008], much like the Tea Party feels now, that the country … needed a more drastic reconstruction – I have been saddened to see that someone who ran on the idea that you can’t expect to get different results with the same people and the same system has kept in place so much of the same system and same people,” he said.

Stewart has elaborated that one of his biggest disappointments is that many people who were responsible for getting the country into our current financial state have been left in place to fix the problems they created: “I thought he understood the corrosiveness of the system that existed, and I thought he was going to do more to blow the system up.” New York Magazine just published a sharp critique of Obama’s policies on this very topic, namely that his “failure to demand a reckoning from the moneyed interests who brought the economy down has cursed his first term, and could prevent a second.” The article noted:

“What haunts the Obama administration is what still haunts the country: the stunning lack of accountability for the greed and misdeeds that brought America to its gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression. There has been no legal, moral, or financial reckoning for the most powerful wrongdoers. Nor have there been meaningful reforms that might prevent a repeat catastrophe.”

But while Obama has given the financial system a free pass for losing huge sums of money and requiring large taxpayer-funded bailouts, there is one system that Obama has tried to blow up. He has essentially declared war on our domestic oil companies since taking office. This is not surprising; he had campaigned on this theme as well. That was the largest beef that I had with then candidate Obama; that he was so willing to marginalize and demonize the companies that provide over 90% of the nation’s transportation fuel. It is hugely ironic that the billions in taxes paid by the oil companies helped make some of these bailouts possible (as I noted in this story) — yet the oil companies are the ones Obama has chosen to attack.

I expressed concern throughout the presidential campaign over Obama’s energy policy proposals. I felt that he was exceedingly naive, and that campaign naivety has shown up in his energy policies as president. Policies — such as his recent decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) — run counter to many of his other positions (e.g., reducing dependence on oil, promoting renewable energy), and increase the risk of future supply shocks. Many observers have already pointed out that oil prices are now higher than they were prior to the SPR release. As this article succinctly put it (subscription required), during a financial crisis you can print more money, but “you cannot print oil.”

As a former Democratic state representative recently said to me “I think Obama’s problem is that he is largely uninformed about energy.” It would be nice, though, if he took some time to inform himself. We know that he has an affinity for visiting renewable energy companies. I wonder if he has ever thought about visiting an oil refinery? He might learn that they make his trips on Air Force One possible.

I think the result of being uninformed is that Obama believes that if he marginalizes our domestic oil companies, that this will lift the fortunes for renewable energy. In fact, far more likely is that as our domestic oil companies are placed at a competitive disadvantage to their foreign competitors, they will curtail production and shelve marginal projects, and we will look to oil imports to fill the gap. That is why I am against policies that I believe will place our domestic oil companies at a disadvantage; this will ultimately weaken the U.S. (I am not, however, against policies that raise the price of oil across the board; those are the kinds of policies that I believe will truly incentivize renewable energy).
 
But as I scan the Republican field, I don’t see anyone who can beat Obama in the 2012 elections. Palin? Bachmann? No way. (I made my feelings about Palin clear here, and I thought it was a huge mistake for McCain to put her on the ticket. Blame him for unleashing her on the public). Romney? Too liberal for even large segments of his own party, particularly the far right. The Tea Party faction will support Palin or Bachmann, but some of the more moderate Republicans would likely abstain before voting for them.

So what does this all mean? I think Obama gets reelected in 2012, and we must endure mediocrity until at least the end of 2016. I am a firm believer that past performance is a good indicator of future performance, and thus we are unlikely to see any dramatic changes in his policies. Further, unlike his first two years when he had a Democratic majority, he now has to work with a Republican majority who will oppose him at every turn.
That also means 5 more years of naive and counterproductive energy policies. We will probably be treated to more futile releases from the SPR (I wonder when he plans on refilling it?), and a country that is weaker and more dependent on foreign oil at the end of his term.

But Osama bin Laden was eliminated on Obama’s watch. At least that’s something.

Brother of Afghan President Karzai killed by bodyguard

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the controversial king of Kandahar and younger half-brother of the Afghan president, was shot dead by one of his bodyguards on Tuesday.

The assassination sent shock waves through the country, throwing into doubt the already brittle stability of Kandahar province where the Taliban have murdered dozens of police officers and government officials over the last two years.