Category Archives: Politics: Tinfoil

Crazy Times

When a government uses psychiatrists to lock up dissidents you really have turned a corner towards Stalinism. But this is not a charge one would wish to make lightly. And, of course, people with psychiatric problems would say that there’s a big conspiracy against them, wouldn’t they?

So here’s another item I would have dismissed as clearly ridiculous five years ago. Now, well, one’s first reaction is doubt: could it be true? Have we sunk so low? For starters, I remember this story — Soldier Who Reported Abuse Was Sent to Psychiatrist, so as far as I’m concerned, this gang’s track record in the area of abusive psychiatry is not so good. And we won’t even talk about the mis-use of psychologists and/or psychiatrists at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and in other military prisons.

So what to make of this story about Susan Lindauer?

The Arctic Beacon: … Lindauer, 42, the cousin of former White House Chief of Staff, Andy Card, was released in September from a New York correctional facility after spending a year in jail … after Federal Judge D.J. Mukasey of the U.S. District Court, S.D. New York, ruled against the government’s motion to keep Lindauer locked away under forced medication, saying “there is simply not enough here to warrant a finding by clear and convincing evidence that Lindauer is substantially likely to be rendered competent by forced medication and substantially unlikely to suffer effects that will impinge upon a fair trial.

The ‘Arctic Beacon’ — whatever that is — reports that Ms. Lindauer made the following statement:

I was accused of acting as an Iraqi Agent for the purposes of lobbying against the War, (not spying). I am a Democrat. My cousin, Andy Card, is the former Chief of Staff to President Bush. A year ago, the Court ordered me to surrender to Carswell Prison, which sits on a military base outside of Fort Worth, Texas– one of the most god-awful places I’ve ever imagined in my life. Truly sadistic staff. Very ugly people.

There I was declared incompetent to stand trial. Please note that I was denied the most basic right to a Competency Hearing, where I could have called long-time friends and associates to testify in my defense.

Since they had no behavioral evidence, or witness testimony from friends and family to support their request for forcible drugging, they told the court that I am “secretly delusional.” Nobody knows about it, they said– not even the court-ordered psychologist in Maryland, whom I was required to see for 18 months after my arrest. (He had no idea).

They pointed to fiction writing, and old religious writings that I had used in my approach to Libya, when we were trying to start negotiations for the Lockerbie Trial in the mid-1990s. Much of that was more than 10 years old. Moreover, they had plucked paragraphs, and spliced my writing all to hell, so that it does not even read like the originals.

That’s forensic psychiatry for you, folks! it’s a scary business, apparently lacking much in the way of integrity. As “Dr.” Vas told me at Carswell. “I’m going to tell the Judge you made it all up. And who do you think he’s going to believe– you or me? I am a doctor.”

Yes, truly frightening.

Thankfully, the Judge ruled against the Prosecution last week. I was released after serving 11 months in prison. But who can say if it’s really over? For all I know, the Prosecutor is planning a new line of attack right now.

But guess what? It turns out that the claim Ms. Lindauer has delusions seems to have some real foundations, at least if From ‘Spy’ to Psychotic in the Seattle Weekly can be believed. Ms. Lindauer’s belief that the government was spying on turned out to have a basis in reality — the FBI was after her. But Ms. Lindauer’s arrest wasn’t for dissidence so much as for taking some money from the Iraqi government and playing along with an agent posing as a foreign spy — although, given her general irrelevance, it’s unclear if she actually did or even could have done the sort of things she’s charged with doing or attempting, nor is it certain what she thought she was doing.

So while the Judge’s decision releasing Ms. Lindauer is real, and it’s always possible the reporter from the Seattle paper got snookered, I’d have to say that much in Ms. Lindauer’s statement has the look of tinfoil. Which is a relief.

But I sure do miss the days when I could say that sort of thing confidently without checking first.

[timestamp corrected]

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil | Comments Off on Crazy Times

ESPN Fakes GOP Crowd Cheers, Dem Crowd Boos ?!?

Please, someone, say it ain’t so!

Daily Kos: ESPN FAKED STADIUM CHEERS FOR BUSH SR.: For several years, ESPN has been manufacturing fake cheers and fake boos for politicians. It’s a very simple rule. If you are a Democrat not named Joe Lieberman, ESPN will play a tape of boos previously recorded and insert them into the audio after the Democrat is announced. If you are a Republican and ESPN is expecting boos, ESPN will play a pre-recorded tape of cheers unrelated to the Republican.

I’d really, really like this to be tin-foil. There’s something pathetic and offensive about the idea that the propagandists are taking over the national pastime. And yet, in our debased discourse, one no longer knows how low we can go. Circuses indeed!

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil, The Media | 3 Comments

Help Me Parse This

The Iguana is sometimes ahead of the curve, but is also willing to embrace tin foil at times, so I’ve parked this in that category for the time being. But I have to confess that I don’t even quite follow what it wants to mean.

Cosmic Iguana – Voice of the Evil Doers: NO ARABS ON FLIGHT 77. Maybe someone can explain it?

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil | 3 Comments

Keylogger Paranoia

Almost had some great tinfoil today, via Dave Farber’s list, which reports that an anonymous (Russian?) website claims there’s a keylogger built into Dell laptops. Comes complete with pictures of the chip and FOIA refusal to comment from DHS!

Alas, follow-ups report that both engadget and snopes.com say this is utterly false, as do people who’ve actually taken Dells apart.

So just worry about this instead.

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The Guns of June

In a week where we learn of a systematic effort to spy on journalists (who’s next, Howard Dean?) via Patriot Act-authorized National Security Letters which bypass all judicial process, it does not pay to dismiss any potential act of military madness too quickly as tinfoil.

So, although the source is not the most reliable, I bring you US military, intelligence officials raise concern about possible preparations for Iran strike, RAW STORY’s allegation that the US is moving two air craft carriers into range in order to be able to bomb Iran. (For an alternate view that the bombing could be carried out from land bases, see US spells out plan to bomb Iran in the UK Herald.)

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Capitol Hill Blue Claims It Received a National Security Letter

Capitol Hill Blue is not a particularly reliable source, rating only a little better than the Washington Times when it comes to, say, reporting on the White House. But you would think they might possibly be credible when reporting on things they have personally witnessed.

Today CHB is alleging that they received a national security letter

In recent weeks, the FBI has issued hundreds of “National Security Letters,” directing employers, banks, credit card companies, libraries and other entities to turn over records on reporters. Under the USA Patriot Act, those who must turn over the records are also prohibited from revealing they have done so to the subject of the federal probes.

“The significance of this cannot be overstated,” says prominent New York litigator Glenn Greenwald. “In essence, while the President sits in the White House undisturbed after proudly announcing that he has been breaking the law and will continue to do so, his slavish political appointees at the Justice Department are using the mammoth law enforcement powers of the federal government to find and criminally prosecute those who brought this illegal conduct to light.

“This flamboyant use of the forces of criminal prosecution to threaten whistle-blowers and intimidate journalists are nothing more than the naked tactics of street thugs and authoritarian juntas.”

Just how widespread, and uncontrolled, this latest government assault has become hit close to home last week when one of the FBI’s National Security Letters arrived at the company that hosts the servers for this web site, Capitol Hill Blue.

The letter demanded traffic data, payment records and other information about the web site along with information on me, the publisher.

Now that’s a problem. I own the company that hosts Capitol Hill Blue. So, in effect, the feds want me to turn over information on myself and not tell myself that I’m doing it. You’d think they’d know better.

I turned the letter over to my lawyer and told him to send the following message to the feds:

Fuck you. Strong letter to follow.

If this is true, how serious it is depends on what the server was doing. If it’s a machine dedicated solely to serving a somewhat scurrilous publication that is a thorn in the side of the White House, I think this is a big deal. If on the other hand the server was operated as an ordinary business and has lots of clients and there’s reason to believe one of the others is the target, well there’s a good chance that this is just what has come to be business as usual in US2006. (And then of course there’s always the possibility they’re plain making it up.)

I hope someone gets to the bottom of this.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Politics: Tinfoil | 7 Comments