The Raw Story

Sunday, 25 January 2015

United monsters of America: Infographic shows the location of strange beasts

The map, created by artist Mark Adams, reveals the imaginary beasts that are feared the most in each state.

From the Jersey Devil to the Mothman, the US is filled with fictional creatures that have come to life in the nation's imagination.

Now one artist has decided to draw these cryptids by hand, revealing the beasts that are feared the most in each state.

'The map is a bit of a declaration of optimism and wonderment as to what might be possible on planet Earth,' artist Mark Adams told Dailymail.com.

Big Bird, for instance, has become notorious in Texas where witnesses have reported seeing an ape faced, winged beast with blood-red eyes.

Reports of the creature hit their peak in the early months of 1976 after a local radio station offered a reward for the beast's capture.

Louisiana, is famous for the Honey Island Swap Monster

Neighbouring state, Louisiana, is famous for the Honey Island Swap Monster. The creature is 7ft (2 metres) tall, with grey hair, yellow eyes and a foul stench.

Native Americans call this creature 'Letiche', and legendary tale suggests the beast came about following a train wreck in the area in the early 20th century.

A travelling circus was on the train, and from it a group of chimpanzees escaped and interbred with the local alligator population, according to the tale.

'I personally found myself drawn more to the carnivores and predatory cats, beasts like Shunka Warakin and the Ozark Howler,' said the Philadelphia-based artist.

'Creatures that likely exist in other less-hostile parts of the world, but for some reason are considered to be too far out to survive in North America.'

Perhaps the most famous of all the legendary beasts in the US is Bigfoot - a large hairy ape man that is alleged by some to live in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

While Bigfoot is more famous in Washington, last year a large footprint unlike one from a human was in the woods in Mississippi - raising suggestions that the creature it belongs to is Bigfoot.

The large print was found by Peyton Lassiter in Vicksburg on August 12 - nine months after another local man, David Childers, saw a large grey figure running through a wooded area nearby.

The Jersey Devil is most feared in New Jersey

Other monsters in the map include the Mothman in West Virginia, the Jersey devil in New Jersey, the Beast of Busco in Indiana and the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swap in South Carolina.

'I love to think that there could be a cougar roaming the mountains of rural Arkansas, or a dire wolf wreaking havoc on the plains of Montana,' said Mr Adams.

'This world is an incredibly diverse place full of mystery and magic, and I for one like to think opposable thumbs and the ability to 'reason' doesn't immediately entitle us to a sense of certainty that we've got it all figured.'

THE LEGEND OF MOTHMAN

Mothman is a moth-like creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967.

Some ufologists, paranormal authors, and cryptozoologists believe that Mothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or an unknown cryptid.

The Native Americans had stories of giant terrible birds called thunderbirds. These thunderbirds could easily swoop down and carry away a man.

In their depictions, they look similar to the descriptions of Mothman.

On November 12, 1966, five men claimed to see a man-like figure fly low from the trees over their heads while digging in a grave. This is often identified as the first known sighting of what became known as the Mothman.

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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Sibel Edmonds on Gladio B and the Paris shootings

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ANDREW M. LOBACZEWSKI

Scientists living under an oppressive regime decide to clinically study the founders and supporters of evil regimes to determine what common factor is at play in the rise and propagation of man's inhumanity to man.

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Former Alaska governor and tea party darling gave confusing address at the Iowa Freedom Summit, rambling after her teleprompter froze

The Republicans' 2008 VP nominee had previously said she was 'seriously interested' in a 2016 presidential bid, but sounded not-ready-for-prime-time

Head-scratching lines included: 'The man can only ride you when your back is bent'

Called President Obama an 'overgrown little boy, angrily shouted 'Screw the left in Hollywood!' and yelled that jihadis should 'get the hell out!'

Republican firebrand Sarah Palin is rarely at a loss for words but became unmoored on Saturday in Iowa after her teleprompter froze and left her without portions of her prepared speech.

And she carped about Democrats' view of Obamacare.

'What will they do to stop causing our pain, and start feeling it again? Well, in other words, um - Is Hillary a New Democrat or an old one?'

'Now the press asks, the press asks, "Can anyone stop Hillary?" Again, this is to forego a conclusion, right? It's to scare us off, to convince us that - a pantsuit can crush patriots?'

Democratic National Committee Communications Director Mo Elleithee issued a terse reaction to the Republican's embarrassing 35-minute meltdown: 'Thank you!'

Palin's more lucid moments included a hint that she might actually launch a White House campaign.

'If you want something said, you ask a man,' Palin boomed. 'If you want something done, you ask a woman.'

Then, waving a 'Ready For Hillary' sticker, she mocked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

'Now I'm ready for Hillary,' she told her uneasy audience 'Are you? Are you coming?'

[embedded content]

Eventually Palin returned to one of her time-worn themes: 'lame-stream media' journalists who haev classed her as a low-grade intellect selling weak sauce since Arizona Senator John McCain tapped her as his running mate nearly 8 years ago.

And in a fit of pique, she seemed to be blaming her fellow Republicans for letting her get clobbered.

The 2016 election, she said, 'is war for the sovereignty of the United States of America. We don't sit on our thumbs next time when one of our own is being crucified, and falsely accused of whatever the hit accusation of the day happens to be: racism, sexism, whatever.'

Her appearance at the gathering of grandees came not long after telling the Washington Post she is 'seriously interested' in a Presidential bid come the 2016 race.

In a different interview the previous day she also said she was especially keen on running to make sure a woman is on the slate, saying 'America has had enough of seeing that ... sign on the Oval Office door saying, "No Girls Allowed".'

But days earlier she told a different interviewer that 'I don't give a flying flip' if a woman is elected president.

Palin spoke at the Iowa event alongside a host of others whose names have been floated as potential GOP candidates, including Ted Cruz, Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee.

Her position near the end of the lineup indicated that the event's hosts, Citizens United and Iowa Congressman Steve King, hoped the Alaskan would be a showstopper.

She nearly stopped the entire show as Saturday brought something progressives have waited nearly a decade for: the moment when conservatives stopped laughing with Palin and started laughing at her.

When the substance of her speech arrived, she hit Obama over his executive order mainstraiming millions of illegal immigrants, and claimed Democrats have a worse record for waging a 'war on women' than conservatives.

Despite frequent references to 'real solutions' she would propose to solve America's problems - which she said include a bloated government and a president who refuses to listen to Congress - Palin did not elaborate on what those fixes might be.

But 'we get honest on national security,' she riffed. 'We give hope to the people that we need not - we will not - succumb to evil, and we call it as it is, we address it.'

'That must be, by the way, that 800-pound elephant in the room of the White House that the radical left won't even name.'

Palin, however, named it.

'It is any Muslim who would choose evil, whose loyalty to a death-cult perversion is so darkened and has deceived their soul that they actually think they're welcome here to transform here. No!'

'What we do is strengthen our military,' she said. 'We respect our troops and let them - our troops as our gatekeepers - we let them tell jihadists, "Uh-uh, this is our house! Get the hell out".'

Armed people in uniform speaking fluent English with no accent have been spotted in Mariupol in the aftermath of the rocket hit, fuelling allegations that foreign private military contractors are serving among Ukrainian troops.

The port city in eastern Ukraine, under Kiev's control, saw a surge of violence on Saturday, when several rockets hit a residential area in the east of the city, reportedly killing 30 civilians. Numerous videos from the scene showed destruction in the aftermath of the attack, for which local militia and Ukrainian troops blamed each other.

But among footage shot in Mariupol, there are some videos showing armed men in military uniform, who speak English fluently.

One video uploaded on YouTube is apparently raw footage of a local news channel MSN (Mariupol News Service). One episode shows a man passing resolutely by the camera.

[embedded content]

The man holds a carbine in his hand and is wearing a tactical vest. As the correspondent points her microphone with a request to comment, the man covers his face with the other hand and says, Out my face, out my face

The other piece is longer and apparently shows another armed man in uniform sweeping the area for unexploded munitions. The man behind the camera is apparently a guide, as he speaks in English with a clear accent. But the person he films speaks as if her were a native speaker.

"May be exploded, may be not, so blow up in situ he instructs at a crater left by an artillery hit.

[embedded content]

The footage then shows a building with shattered windows signposted as the No 42 kindergarden in Mariupol. The building is in Kiyevskaya Street where the barrage hit.

The video description claims the person is an American member of the Azov voluntary battalion, but offers no proof of this. The uniforms features a round blue-and-yellow patch on shoulder, but its details are indistinguishable as is the man's face.

The presence of foreign volunteers among Ukrainian voluntary battalions is no secret. Earlier media reports said many of them have right-wing leanings or even Nazi sympathies.

However, so far claims of private military contractors (PMCs) like the infamous Blackwater working in Ukraine remain unproven. Such a presence would indicate a more substantial military support for the Ukrainian government by its foreign backers, since governments usually keep an eye on PMCs working in politically challenging environments.

If a Western government didn't want a PMC to sign a contract with Ukraine, it would find a way to put leverage on it. Finding such specialists complimenting Ukrainian troops would suggest the actual support for Kiev is a tad higher than the purely non-lethal assistance officially offered to Kiev by the West.

New England is braced for "paralyzing, crippling blizzard-like conditions" as the second East Coast winter storm in as many days threatens to dump up to two feet of snow in some areas, forecasters said.

Boston and New York City will see high winds and possibly "significant" snow accumulations as an Alberta clipper moves through the Ohio Valley Sunday and off the Mid-Atlantic coast Monday before intensifying over Long Island and New England through Wednesday.

"This is going to be a big one, historic," Weather Channel coordinating meteorologist Tom Moore said. "There could be paralyzing, crippling blizzard conditions. They're going to be talking about this one for a while."

Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C. were already set for a messy Monday morning commute with up to three inches of snow expected overnight Sunday.

The warning came after millions of Americans across the Northeast awoke Saturday to some of the most significant snowfall so far this winter, leaving New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in a sloppy mess of snow and sleet.

A Nor'easter delivered more than five inches of snow in New York City, while residents of northern New York were digging out of as much as nine inches, NBC New York reported.

New Jersey State Police reported 126 traffic accidents, and a parking garage in Secaucus collapsed under the weight of the snow and a plow, police said. The plow driver suffered minor injuries in the accident, which created a hole that was 50 feet by 50 feet, NBC New York said.

Moore said New England was "going to take a bit hit, for sure" in Monday's storm, but it was uncertain exactly how much snow would fall at the western end of the system, over New York. "It could be minor snowfall, it could be a real dumping of between 10 and 20 inches, it just really isn't clear at the moment."

He said the storm was going to intensify "into a monster" as it moved northeastwards during Monday.

"The combination of the slow movement and the snowfall could create blizzard-like or blizzard conditions," he said.

Michael Palmer @MPalmerTWC

Classic set-up for memorable, potentially historic blizzard SE New England Mon/Tue. 2 ft. of #snow poss for Boston.

10:59 AM - 25 Jan 2015

In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, social media was filled with predictable tag lines, hashtags, and memes. It was the result of a general public who had briefly tuned in to current events or the fact that there was a country outside of their own expressing "sympathy and solidarity" with the victims of the terrorist attack. All this proved, however, was that the culture creation machine was well at work at producing feel good messages and that a simple Tweet was quite enough to make the majority of people contented that they had done their patriotic duty.

Critical thinking? Not necessary.

Within hours of the attacks, social media was flooded with "I stand with Free Speech" and "Je suis Charlie." Americans, unaware of anything that happens outside of their own borders (or within) were happy to retweet and share familiar sounding memes while the French were happy to indulge themselves in the fantasy that they are a free people.

Yet with French President Francois Hollande's speeches extolling the virtues of free speech and expression, the reality of the matter is that the "Je suis Charlie" meme should have carried the tagline "Je suis Hypocrite."

The French government and French society in general is by no means a society of free expression. While Christianity and Islam are regular targets of derision and attack by magazines like Charlie Hebdo, other religions are considered more equal in such utopias.

For instance, in 2009, an 80-year-old columnist for Charlie Hebdo was actually put on trial on charges of "inciting racial hatred" for making a joke that then-President Sarkozy's son was converting to Judaism for financial gain. For all the talk of standing with free speech, the gentlemen making the joke found himself standing quite alone.

Indeed, even the act of "denying the holocaust" is a punishable thought crime in France. While the suggestion that the Nazi regime did not inflict unspeakable crimes against Jewish people is anti-historical in and of itself, a nation of true free speech would not punish the expression of the thought by criminal proceedings.

It is also illegal to sell "Nazi paraphernalia" on the Internet in the free country of France.

But the uber-PC speech censorship is not only silencing any criticism or insults against Jews and Judaism. Last year, Bob Dylan was "formally investigated" after making comments that were allegedly "inciting racial hatred."

Dylan's comments were relatively simple. He had said in an interview with magazine, that "If you got a slave master or [Ku Klux] Klan in your blood, blacks can sense that. That stuff lingers to this day. Just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood."

Dylan's remarks were largely addressing the issue of how race and racial tension can hold a nation back and linger long after the perceived wrong has taken place. In France, however, where everyone stands with free speech, his statements warranted prosecution.

Even Brigitte Bardot was not immune to the PC police when she stated that Muslims were destroying the country by "imposing their ways" upon the French people. Bardot was fined and convicted of inciting racial hatred.

Of course, the fact that the policy of unfettered immigration is destroying French culture is undeniable. However, in France, as in many other police states, you are only free to question and hurl insults at pre-selected targets.

Note also that French comedian, Dieudonné, in the midst of all the "I Stand With Free Speech" hysteria, made the mistake of believing that there was such a thing as Free Speech. In a Facebook post, he stated, "Tonight, as far as I'm concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly." He was promptly arrested.

We have yet to see the prevalence of "Je suis Dieudonné" anywhere in Western society and social media outlets.

In fact, as of January 15, it has been reported that the French government has opened nearly 54 criminal cases for "condoning terrorism" and it subsequently "ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism."

Even the president of France himself, Francois Hollande, has demonstrated high levels of hypocrisy in terms of the question of free speech and expression. After giving the tired nods to his country's resolve to continue to support and promote freedom of speech and expression (Americans should be familiar with these types of speeches), Hollande stated that many of these third world "Muslim" countries, particularly the ones experiencing protests, riots, and violence as a result of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, were reacting in such a way because they simply do not understand the concept of free speech and expression.

"I'm thinking of countries where sometimes they don't understand what freedom of expression is because they have been deprived of it," he said.

Yet nearly in the same breath, Hollande stated that those individuals who engaged in their freedom of expression to burn the French flag as a form of protest should be punished. When asked about the protesters who burned the flags, he responded, "They have to be punished. Because when it happens in France, it's intolerable - but it is also intolerable abroad."

Of course, in the aftermath of a tragedy, particularly one that the entire Western population was forced to witness on virtually every television channel, there comes the paranoia regarding future terrorist attacks, rampant militarism, fearmongering, the promotion of a greater police state, and, of course, the social media memes and hashtags commemorating the dead people and the dead values of their nation.

Millions of French people hashtagging #JeSuisCharlie and "I stand with Free Speech" was nothing more than an insulting joke being played upon a public that has been subjected to a relentless police state and surveillance apparatus, the use of its people as cannon fodder for NATO imperialism, and the total eradication of whatever concept of true free speech and expression France may once have laid claim to.

But, of course, Americans should not look down on the French for their hypocritical government, lack of freedom, and lagging economy. And they don't.

In fact, they find solidarity with them. They find solidarity because their television sets and the personalities on their screens tell them to do so.

After all, America is also hated "for our freedoms" and hated because we are such an "exceptional people." Americans are glad that the French have finally re-animated their militarist spirit and are once again willing to traipse around the globe, slaughtering innocent men, women, and children for the good of international banks, corporations, and geopolitical interests.

In the meantime, a few more Tweets of "I stand with Free Speech" and "Je suis Charlie" will erase the memory of Charlie Hebdo and all the inconsistencies of the official story out of the minds of the Americans and the French. That is, until the incident is needed to drum up support for war or further police state measures waiting to be put into place. Then the Western public will be asked to stand with Charlie in the Middle East, or Africa, or even Russia.

They can stand with Free Speech in these far off places as well. Just so long as they do not do so at home.

Barry McDaniel and 15 Reasons to Investigate Stratesec

One of the men who led Stratesec, the World Trade Center (WTC) security company, has recently resurfaced on some small business websites. This is Barry McDaniel, the U.S. military executive who served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Stratesec from 1996 until 2002 and then briefly became the company’s CEO. The new websites provide rare photos of McDaniel and an opportunity to review some of the many reasons why he and his Stratesec partner Wirt D. Walker should be investigated for the crimes of 9/11.

Although McDaniel has been largely overlooked by investigators, Walker has been the focus of much investigation due to inquiries into his familial relationship to George W. Bush. The familial relationship is distant, unlike for Stratesec director Marvin Bush—brother to George W. and Jeb, but Walker’s background reveals many deep state connections.

Despite playing a central role in security for 9/11-related facilities, Stratesec was not investigated at all by U.S. authorities after 9/11. The company was a subsidiary of the Kuwait-American Company (KuwAm), foreign-owned and led by Walker and a young member of the Kuwaiti royal family. As described in my book Another Nineteen , there are many reasons to consider Stratesec, KuwAm, and their leaders as suspects in the crimes of 9/11. Here are a few.

Stratesec had unparalleled access to several of the facilities that were central to the events of 9/11. The company had pre-9/11 security contracts with the WTC complex, United Airlines, which owned two of the planes that were destroyed on 9/11, and Dulles Airport where American Airlines Flight 77 took off.

KuwAm was linked through its directors to the terrorist network BCCI. One of KuwAm’s principal directors, Hamzah Behbehani, came to the company after working for a BCCI partner bank from the 1986 until BCCI was shut down. Furthermore, KuwAm was ostensibly funded by Kuwaiti royalty, which had significant BCCI connections. The Chairman of Kuwaiti Airways, for example, was Faisal al-Fulaij, BCCI’s principal nominee. Al-Fulaij was deeply involved in the operations of BCCI and its U.S. subsidiaries. Kuwait’s Finance and Oil minister was Abdul Rahman Al-Atiqi, a major investor in BCCI.

Stratesec held its annual company meetings in office space leased by the governments of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, both of which benefited from the response to 9/11. The offices were at the infamous Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC.

Wirt Walker’s activities ran parallel to those of two known CIA operatives—Ted Shackley and Robert Sensi. All three men had unusual business relationships with Kuwaiti royalty and were involved in aviation and security operations. Like Walker, Sensi had an address in Oklahoma City.

McDaniel had expertise in the acquisition and distribution of military ordnance. He had worked for the D.O.D. as the Deputy Director for Readiness at the U.S. Army Material Command where he was responsible for procuring and fielding all of the weapons systems for the Army. This background made him well suited to the job of acquiring and distributing explosive materials.

McDaniel had links to the Iran-Contra crimes and to companies that conducted covert operations, like Sears World Trade and The Vinnell Corporation.

The timing of McDaniel’s unusual career move to become COO at Stratesec matched the timing of work at the WTC that provided opportunities to plant demolition-related devices. The fireproofing upgrade project began in 1996, when McDaniel arrived, and was ongoing at the time of the 9/11 attacks. The floors of impact had just been completed shortly before the attacks.

At the WTC, Stratesec focused on electronic badging, security gates, and the closed circuit video systems (CCTV). These security controls could therefore have been set-up to be bypassed as needed.

At Dulles Airport, Stratesec had managed airfield access and electronic badging, as well as the security video system that later provided unique and critical evidence implicating the alleged hijackers. The 9/11 Commission Report referenced the security videotape from Dulles in three separate footnotes. The Dulles video was used to implicate all of the accused Flight 77 hijackers. Neither Logan nor Newark airports had such security videotape evidence to provide— only Dulles.

KuwAm and Stratesec were led by directors and investors who were linked to deep state entities and who benefited from the response to the 9/11 crimes.

After Kuwait stopped funding Stratesec, the company’s primary stockholder was a shell company whose principals were convicted of money laundering and conspiracy. This was the company called ES Bankest that illegally transferred nearly 200 million dollars from a Portugese bank to various operations like Stratesec. ES Bankest’s owners, brothers Eduardo and Hector Orlansky, and their partners, were indicted shortly after Stratesec closed.

A stock purchase made by Walker and his wife, the week of 9/11, was flagged by the SEC as suspected 9/11 insider trading. Walker and his wife were never investigated, or even questioned.

KuwAm’s subsidiaries, including all three aviation companies and Stratesec, went bankrupt shortly after 9/11 and there are reasons to believe that they were fronts for covert operations. These reasons include some of the facts described above and that these companies were always able to maintain strong cash flow despite dismal business performance. They appeared to close only because Kuwaiti government funding dried up after 9/11.

KuwAm’s three aviation companies were operationally located in the same Oklahoma City offices—in the same isolated airport hangar—that have since been occupied by Zacarias Moussaoui’s flight trainer.

After 9/11, McDaniel started a “defense solutions” and police state equipment company with Dick Cheney’s old partner Bruce Bradley. When independent investigators revealed that remarkable association, the company’s website was taken down.

Considering these things, it’s a good idea for investigators to remain alert to the activities of Walker, McDaniel, and their associates. Photos of the elusive men are not really necessary and there are still no public photos available for Walker. But McDaniel’s face has finally made an appearance on the web, along with a few other details about his activities and associations.

McDaniel’s current colleagues are a noteworthy bunch with experience in hotspots around the world. They include Kallyan Chakravorty, a former officer in the Indian Army who lists Skylink Aviation on his resume. Skylink is a Canadian company that provides aviation services in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Pakistan. It looks a like a CIA airline but is owned by a Libyan-Israeli named Walter Arbib.

The internet resume McDaniel uses today says that he has been “providing logistical service and construction solutions on most post conflict areas of the world including Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.” He’s just a guy who happened to be the right person to put the security system together for the WTC before it came crashing to the ground, and just happened to have expertise in explosive ordnance. He also happens to be linked to the Iran-Contra crimes, and happened to be business partners with a close colleague of Dick Cheney. Or maybe there’s more to it than that.

The Raw Story

Focused on providing independent journalism.

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Sunday, 25 January 2015

United monsters of America: Infographic shows the location of strange beasts

Sibel Edmonds on Gladio B and the Paris shootings

Sarah Palin reverts to incoherent babblings during teleprompter freeze

Military-clad English-speakers caught on camera in Mariupol shelling aftermath

New England threatened by 'historic' snowstorm with possible significant snow accumulations

France: Je suis hypocrite?

Barry McDaniel and 15 Reasons to Investigate Stratesec

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