by U.S. Desk

In light of the recent popular protests in various parts of the world — particularly in Egypt — some conspiracy theorist have hinted at the possibility of the U.S. government using FEMA camps to hold potential protesters.

Some of these theories suggest that the government is prepared to turn FEMA camps into “concentration camps” holding “civilians” deemed a potential threat to the US government.

Such claims prompted Press TV to take a closer look at FEMA and its activities:

FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by a Presidential Order on 1 April 1979. Fas.org.

FEMA had one original concept when it was created,  to assure the survivability of the United States government in the event of a nuclear attack on the nation.

It was also provided with the task of being a federal coordinating body during times of domestic disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes.

Some people have referred to it as the “secret government” of the United States. It is not an elected body, it does not involve itself in public disclosures, and it even has a quasi-secret budget in the billions of dollars. The National Governor’s Association asked President Carter to streamline the nation’s disaster response mechanism. Endrtimes.blogspot.com.

Like the George W. Bush effort to bring agencies under the umbrella of Homeland Security, Carter created FEMA to combine the efforts of dozens of agencies. But just as Homeland Security has done with Katrina, the new FEMA bungled its first tests with the Washington Post reporting, “The new anti-disaster agency is on the verge of becoming a disaster itself.”

Prior to 1950, the federal government stayed out of local disasters for the most part, with only an occasional congressional appropriation when absolutely necessary. But in that year, Congress gave the president the power to declare disasters and dispense monetary aid. Newsmax.com.

Controversy surrounding FEMA

Not surprisingly, with the advent of FEMA, the number of national disasters began to balloon. However, it was not until Hurricane Andrew in August of 1992 that FEMA began to morph into what it now is. A lot of money went to the victims of Andrew, but politicians were beginning to see the potential in natural disasters. A community college got a new parking lot. Miami Beach got new art deco lifeguard stands. The then-governor of Florida, Lawton Chiles, obtained $25 million for a new prison that had nothing to do with the hurricane. Newsmax.com.

FEMA was not created under Constitutional law by the Congress. It was a product of a Presidential Executive Order.

FEMA has the power to suspend laws, move entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant and hold them without trial, it canseize property, food supplies, transportation systems, and can suspend the Constitution. Endrtimes.blogspot.com.

In 2004, the federal government used hurricane aid money to pay funeral expenses for at least 203 Floridians whose deaths were not caused by last year’s storms, the state’s coroners have concluded. Sun-sentinel.com.

As of 2008, FEMA had only spent about 6 percent of its budget on national emergencies; the bulk of their funding had been used for the construction of secret underground facilities to assure the continuity of the government in case of a major emergency, foreign or domestic.

Executive Orders associated with FEMA

Here are just a few Executive Orders associated with FEMA that would suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These Executive Orders have been on record for nearly 30 years and could be enacted by the stroke of a Presidential pen:

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with publicfunds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a 15-year period. Endrtimes.blogspot.com.

* EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. ­It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months. Dmc.members.sonic.net.

­por Víctor Franco Alonso

Facundo Cabral

Poetry has been left without soul, the song is filled with dismay, the man’s freedom is totally restricted.

On July 9, at 5.20 in the morning, South America started to mourn in unison the murder of the genius and troubadour, Facundo Cabral, in Guatemala City. In fact, tears haven’t stopped and won’t stop anytime soon. The singer-songwriter died due to multiple gunshots fired by a band of strangers when he was on his way to the city airport in a vehicle steered by Nicaraguan businessman Henry Fariña.

The news of his death woke his followers up, like a dagger stuck in the heart and within few minutes all the international media echoed the event. It has been debated whether the crime entails political aspects or links to drugtrafficking. In statements to the newspaper El País, the Nobel Prize Laureate in 1992, Rigoberta Menchú, claims that it is the case.

No soy de aquí, no soy de allá, Cabral used to sing in one of his most well-known performances. He was from nowhere and loved to seize the days as if they were the last ones. “Blessed who doesn’t change the dream of his life for the daily bread”, he highlighted in an interview with the Argentine newspaper El Litoral.

He was born on May 22, 1937, and according to his own words, his mother gave birth in the streets of La Plata, province of Buenos Aires. Cabral had a very complicated childhood, and in one occasion when he escaped home, he arrived in Buenos Aires. There, he evaded the police fence that surrounded President Juan Domingo Perón, in order to ask him for a job for his family. He got it. During his teenage years, he fought thousands of battles, quitting his studies at an early age and being involved in quarrels that would deprive him from his freedom for about a year. Nevertheless, in his nomadic life he found light when he placed his fingers on a guitar.

It all began there.

He had enough stories in his back and in his head to share with someone whom only by barely touching the breeze of his songs would be captivated.

The honesty of his words could be sensed, the words of someone who lived with the basics and who turned the street into his school. A fervent believer, he didn’t trust governments or ideologies, but liberty and equality of men, who he believed was good by nature. He never silent his ­feelings and vindications, which forced him to exile during four years. UNESCO declared him World Peace Messenger. He shared stage with artists such as Alberto Cortez, Julio Iglesias, Pedro Vargas or Neil Diamond.

Nevertheless, he wasn’t a person who would easily settle and wanted to give even more to his public. “I turn the face to the enemy, the back to a good comment, because whoever takes compliments starts to be dominated”, Cabral asserted to El Litoral in one of his famous phrases.

Curiously, in his last concert he said goodbye to his followers, in order to rest in his homeland from the cancer that struck him; he wouldn’t go back on stage. This time he retires definitely from the world that gave him so much and that took away from him so much as well. In any case, he does leave a legacy of indelible and incomparable lyrics and emptiness. May he rest in peace, the genius, Facundo Cabral.

By Miriam Reimer

The recent class-action lawsuit brought against Taco Bell raised questions about the quality of food many Americans eat each day. Chief among those concerns is the use of cellulose (read: wood pulp), an extender whose use in a roster of food products, from crackers and ice creams to puddings and baked goods, is now being exposed. What you’re actually paying for — and consuming — may be surprising.

Cellulose is virgin wood pulp that has been processed and manufactured to different lengths for functionality, though use of it and its variant forms (cellulose gum, powdered cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, etc.) is deemed safe for human consumption, according to the FDA, which regulates most food industry products. The government agency sets no limit on the amount of cellulose that can be used in food products meant for human consumption. The USDA, which regulates meats, has set a limit of 3.5% on the use of cellulose, since fi ber in meat products cannot be recognized nutritionally.

“As commodity prices continue to rally and the cost of imported materials impacts earnings, we expect to see increasing use of surrogate products within food items. Cellulose is certainly in higher demand and we expect this to continue,” Michael A. Yoshikami, chief investment strategist at YCMNet Advisors, told TheStreet.

Manufacturers use cellulose in food as an extender, providing structure and reducing breakage, said Dan Inman, director of research and development at J. Rettenmaier USA, a company that supplies “organic” cellulose fi bers for use in a variety of processed foods and meats meant for human and pet consumption, as well as for plastics, cleaning detergents, welding electrodes, pet litter, automotive brake pads, glue and reinforcing compounds, construction materials, roof coating, asphalt and even emulsion paints, among many other products.

Cellulose adds fi ber to the food, which is good for people who do not get the recommended daily intake of fi ber in their diets, Inman said. It also extends the shelf life of processed foods. Plus, cellulose’s water-absorbing properties can mimic fat, he said, allowing consumers to reduce their fat intake. Perhaps most important to food processors is that cellulose is cheaper, he added, because “the fi ber and water combination is less expensive than most other ingredients in the [food] product.”

Indeed, food producers save as much as 30% in ingredient costs by opting for cellulose as a fi ller or binder in processed foods, according to a source close to the processed food industry who spoke with TheStreet on the condition of anonymity.

Inman said that in his 30 years in the food sciencebusiness, he’s seen “an amazing leap in terms of the applications of cellulose fiber and what you can do with it.” He said powdered cellulose has a bad reputation but that more of his customers are converting from things like oat or sugar cane fibers to cellulose because it is “snow white in color, bland and easy to work with.”

Most surprising, said Inman, is that he’s been able to remove as much as 50% of the fat from some cookies, biscuits, cakes and brownies by replacing it with powdered cellulose — but still end up with a very similar product in terms of taste and appearance.

“We’re only limited by our own imagination,” Inman toldTheStreet. “I would never have dreamed I could successfully put 18% fiber in a loaf of bread two years ago.”

He said cellulose is common in processed foods, often labeled as reduced-fat  or high-fi ber — products like breads, pancakes, crackers, pizza crusts, muffins, scrambled eggs, mashed potato mixes, and even cheesecake. Inman himself keeps a box of Wheat Thins Fiber Selects crackers, manufactured by Kraft Foods(KFT_)’ Nabisco brand, at his desk, and snacks on them daily, clearly unmoved by the use of wood pulp in its ingredients.

“Most consumers would be shocked to find these types of fi ller products are used as substitutes for items that they believe are more pure,” Yoshikami said. “We would expect increased disclosure to follow increased use of cellulose and other fi ller products as the practice increases in frequency.”

To that end, TheStreet rounded up a list of popular foods that use cellulose. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, and we suggest consumers read food labels carefully. Still, click http://www.thestreet.com/story/11012915/3/cellulose-wood-pulp-nev-er-tasted-so-good.html.

­(Please note the following lists are not exhaustive. Some companies list all ingredients on their Web sites. Other items were found in a local grocery store near TheStreet’s headquarters on Wall Street in New York City.)

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ATF emblem

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by Kurt Nimmo

Evidence indicates that the ATF not only provided weapons to Mexican drug cartels and gangs but also trafficked guns to criminal gangs in Honduras, including the murderous MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, known to work with the Sinaloa drug cartel.

inaloa, the largest drug trafficking organization operating in Mexico, has worked closely with Wacovia Bank. Last March, the bank revealed in court it had laundered nearly $400 million through a network of exchange houses, or casas de cambio, between 2004 and 2007. MS-13 is known for it brutality, including the murder of 28 Hondurans when gang members sprayed a bus with automatic gunfire in 2004.

New revelations about the federal operation – dubbed Castaway – came to light after Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and acting ATF Director Ken Melson. “In recent days, it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ have participated in the act of ‘gun walking’ beyond the acts conducted within the scope of ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’” Bilirakis wrote to Holder and Melson.

The story broke on July 6 when journalists Mike Vanderboegh and David Codrea ran a story on Operation Castaway in The Examiner. “Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tampa Field Division, ran a gun-running investigation that was walking guns to Honduras using the techniques and tactics identical to Fast and Furious, it was reported to these correspondents this evening via private correspondence from a proven credible source,” the journalists wrote.

The ATF did not respond to the story when it was posted on July 6. The information also found its way to Chairman Darrell Issa of the House Committee on Oversight and Government ment Reform and Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Member Charles Grassley.

The corporate media has yet to give Operation Castaway the coverage so far afforded to Operation Fast & Furious. Media Matters, the propaganda operation funded by the globalist George Soros, claims reportage on the growing scandal is some sort of right-wing conspiracy and defends the mendacity of government bureaucrats who have made excuses  for the illegal operations.

Obama has said AG Holder was not aware of Fast & Furious, so it is safe to assume the Holder and the Justice Department will claim they know nothing about Operation Castaway as well. As noted by Joseph Alan Sánchez writing for Infowars.com on Tuesday, the U.S. has shipped weapons south of the  border for over a decade.

“For at least a decade now, covert operation specialist Celerino ‘Cele’ Castillo III has been telling the world that the U.S. has been shipping guns south of the border on a regular basis as a sidebar to revelations of drug running from South America into North America. And now in the summer of 2011, the BATF is under fire for observing the sale and distribution of machine guns into Mexico. Congressional testimony in recent months is revealing a calculated plan called Operation Fast and Furious,” writes Sánchez.

Adding weight to Castillo’s accusation, one of the kingpins of the infamous Los Zetas drug running gang, Rejón Aguilar, told Mexican federal police earlier this month that the group purchased its weapons directly from U.S. government officials.

For his truth telling efforts and his Iran Contra whistleblowing, Castillo was convicted in 2008 on federal charges of dealing firearms without a license in a case marked by numerous irregularities and peculiar coincidences that raised the specter of a frame-up. Despite the denials, congressional Republicans believe the Fast & Furious scandal reaches the highest levels of the Justice Department.

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They have asked the attorney general’s office to turn over a sweeping trove of emails, documents and other material to determine Washington’s role in the “reckless” operation that allowed U.S. semiautomatic weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels, according to the Los Angeles Times. It should be obvious by now that the ATF is a renegade federal agency. Hearings should be held immediately calling for its decertification and the systematic disarming of its agents.

“Let’s transform them back into the stamp clerks (suitable for affixing labels on wine and whiskey bottles) that they once were. Then the only harm they can inflict on the body politic would be paper cuts,” writes Charles Heller, Executive Director of Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

“Take away their badges. Badges are symbols of honor from a country as great as ours. BATFE Agents can carry business cards, like any other overpaid, tax consuming, foot dragging bureaucrat. Let’s convert these morally challenged individuals from jackboots to fur boots, or at least gumshoes without guns,” Heller concludes.

In addition to providing weapons to violent drug cartels favored by bankers, the Fast & Furious operation was cooked up to make it appear ­Americans legally selling firearms are engaged in criminal activity.

Democrats have wasted little time blaming the Second Amendment for the violence spawned by Mexican drug cartels and gangs using weapons provided by the U.S. government. In June, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings, tried to affix blame on law-abiding Americans.

His effort, however, was doomed to failure – at least in the “rightwing” media singled out by Media Matters and its patron, George Soros – when news of the complicity of the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and a renegade ATF hit the streets.

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