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Targeted Individuals Hold Rally At Historic Houston Courthouse Steps

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Attorney Ana Toledo Addresses A Targeted Individuals Rally From The Steps Of The Historic Houston Courthouse On 301 Fannin Street (01/12/2024)

On Friday 01/12/24, in commemoration of the one year anniversary of the filing of TJ v Garland lawsuit, Attorney Ana Toledo led a targeted individuals rally at the steps of the historic Houston courthouse on 301 Fannin Street. The lawsuit seeks to have 18 plaintiffs, who Ana alleges have been placed there by the FBI under an unconstitutional “secret criteria”, removed from the terrorism watchlist.

Ana Toledo(0:02): “The FBI has abused the watchlist, what’s known as the terrorism watchlist for a long time…and 400,000 targeted individuals in the United States, and indeed around the world, have been put on this list. Today marks one year anniversary since we filed TJ v Garland, an extraordinary lawsuit that seeks to remove the names of innocent listed individuals from the terrorist screening database (TSDB) in two secret categories that are not known to the public, and not even to the people that are in them, because the FBI has admitted, they don’t represent a terrorist threat and they are not screened as such. Therefore these innocent Americans, and innocent civilians around the world, don’t encounter problems when traveling...[the list] of all those innocent people that are labeled as suspected terrorists…is distributed through the national crime information center (NCIC), to 18,000 law enforcement agencies, which translates to over 100,000 agents, to over 532 private corporations such as Air BnB, Western Union and many others that retaliate against people that don’t even know are on the list, and 1440 organizations such as universities that could very well deny entrance to somebody to a university of higher education just because unbeknownst to them, they are on this nefarious watchlist.”

Speaking specifically about the TJ v Garland lawsuit, Ana said(2:21): “We urge you to look at the appeal pending before the 5th Circuit[Court of Appeal], TJ v Garland case. It’s case #23-23402. It’s fully briefed and we’re ready for oral argumentation…The single remedy we seek, is the removal of the 18 plaintiffs from the TSDB categories 3 & 4, that are secret categories that the FBI has admitted, they put people on that list under secret criteria. That is not the America we were born into. That is not what the constitution provides. Please be aware, the watchlist in not the entire list. Pursuant to DOJ, the watchlist–the known and suspected terrorist list–comprises 0.5% of the entire list, so if that list is at two million, we don’t want to know how many innocent civilians have been placed secretly under codes 3 & 4, which represents 97% of the terrorist screening database pursuant to DOJ, not pursuant to Targeted Justice.”

Apparently, per Ana, an investigation by the DOJ Inspector-General recently found that the FBI doesn’t even follow its own regulations regarding watchlisting. Ana specifically said: “One of the most nefarious conclusions of an audit report by DOJ Inspector-General, report 08-16, is that the FBI field offices nominate and place people on the terrorist screening database without complying with agency regulations, now let that sink in. Innocent Americans that have never been arrested, tried, or convicted of any terrorist offense, and that by FBI’s own admission, do not meet the reasonable suspicion criteria, are secretly placed on this list. The labeling of innocent Americans, and people around the world, as suspected terrorists, deprives them of basic rights, constitutional and human rights. This has got to stop.”

Ana also took issue with the mainstream media’s strange silence regarding this issue, saying(6:34): “The evidence that the U.S. government is suppressing any dialogue about this, [targeted individuals], any discussion about it, is that despite the distribution of the press release on social media and through email, the press did not come here today. They are not interested in the freedom that second class citizens, targeted individuals, have a right to.”

It’s important to note that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has recently expressed similar watchlisting concerns, and is asking President Biden and the DOJ to address these problems.

No reasonable person looking at the people standing behind Attorney Ana Toledo at the downtown Houston courthouse steps, would conclude that these were the kind of people the terrorist screening database was originally meant to weed out. Sadly, however, it’s normal people like these–your mother, sister, uncle, cousin, who maybe said the wrong/inflammatory thing on social media or elsewhere, or complained about some corruption in high places–who end up getting ensnared by these watchlists/targeting lists, and are then punished in ways regular Americans will never comprehend, up to and including using military assets. Its a total travesty that needs to be fixed and those responsible held to account. In other words, the grave injustice here is not just the malicious watchlisting, but also, the unconstitutional torture that goes with it–organized stalking, financial sabotage, assaults/experiments using DEWs, remote neuromonitoring…the quintessential weaponization of government, which in many cases, constitute violations of the Geneva Conventions against Torture(CAT)

Bottom line folks, this rally at the steps of the historic Houston courthouse marks a watershed moment for the struggle to free targeted individuals in that it officially takes the fight from the dark corners of social media, where often severely shadowbanned TIs anonymously scream from X(formerly Twitter), Facebook, Reddit, Tik Tok and other social media platforms, to real life activism. Put another way, it is very different, much more effective when real, normal people show up and cogently make their grievances known in public. It becomes very hard for the abusers to use their tried and true defense–“Oh, TIs are just a bunch of loons on social media.”

Hopefully we get to see more of these rallies and importantly, a meaningful response from authorities regarding the serious allegations Attorney Ana Toledo and her Targeted Justice are making. Oh and the mainstream media, both nationally and locally(Houston), it’s about time you started doing your jobs. The public deserves to get answers to these serious questions regarding the abuse of the watchlisting system.

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Bombshell Intercept Report Exposes DHS’ Mission Creep From Fighting Terrorism To Disinfo

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A very interesting segment on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson show(10/31/22) featured a bombshell Pulitzer-worthy report by The Intercept’s Lee Fang, which revealed that the Department of Homeland Security(DHS), has for five years now, been collaborating with Twitter, Facebook, and other social media companies, in determining whose speech needs to be suppressed. This of course flies in the face of the “private company” defense usually used to justify questionable speech infringement practices by the social media giants.

More importantly, Lee Fang’s bombshell also touched on the apparent “mission creep”(his words) of DHS, where over the last five years, the powerful agency had unilaterally(without congressional approval) shifted from its stated focus of combating terrorism and terrorist groups like Al-Qaida, to combating disinformation online.

Asked whether the Biden administration was working with tech companies to censor people, Lee Fang responded (1:10): “Yeah, that’s right Tucker. We looked at really hundreds of documents that paint a vivid picture of the FBI, the DHS, closely collaborating with top social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook, to censor various forms of content under the banner of fighting disinformation, and the story shows a couple of things, one, it shows what you just mentioned, a very cozy relationship between the government and these tech giants. There’s those monthly meetings that you just mentioned, but also, just very cozy emails and texts, not a very adversarial relationship. We looked at one text where a Microsoft executive texts Jen Easterly, the top disinfo director at DHS, appointed by[President]Biden, basically saying that the private sector needs to get more comfortable with the government closely collaborating on reports, talking about the expanded role for DHS in censoring a really broad collection of topic areas of policy and political topics.”

Lee Fang then touched on what I believe is by far, the biggest bombshell from his piece, and that is, the “mission creep” aspect. Fang said(2:11): “Just broadly speaking, the story also just looks at the mission creep of DHS. This is an agency that was founded in the aftermath of 9/11 to combat foreign terror threats of Al-Qaeda and the like, but over the last five years, it’s kind of evolved in its mission, its move towards fighting disinfo, and their justification is disinfo radicalizes the homeland, it can lead to disruptions in public health, or political violence…”

Even given DHS’ understandable explanation for going after online disinformation, no reasonable person can ever conclude that Congress would have approved the same powerful tools/tactics used to counter terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, to be applied against U.S. residents for basically saying the “wrong things” on social media. Sadly however, this is exactly where we find ourselves today, with DHS’ speech police designating people they deem “misinformers” as terrorists, and then mercilessly destroying their lives and livelihoods using among other things, the military. This is shameful conduct which most Americans have always associated with third world dictatorships.

It is because of DHS’ mission creep, that Yours Truly believes Lee Fang’s bombshell piece deserves a Pulitzer. Simply put, DHS’ mission creep, which at the very least should have been run through Congress for approval prior to enforcement, has not only seriously impacted the lives and livelihoods of many U.S. residents who have nothing to do with terrorism, but has also robbed them of their rights under the first amendment.

Congress needs to immediately step in to not only address DHS’ mission creep, but also to hold the officials involved accountable, preferably, via referral for criminal prosecution given the way their unconstitutional actions upend innocent people’s lives

It’s also important to point out here what history has taught us, and that is, not everything the government labels “misinformation” is necessarily so. Often times, there are topics the government simply doesn’t want out there, being discussed in public. One recent classic example is directed energy weapons. For decades, government agents, and their surrogates in the mainstream media, went out of their way to label people who expressed concerns about these weapons as delusional conspiracy theorists. In 2022 however, we not only have the same directed energy weapons being openly discussed by the same mainstream media channels who denied their existence, but also, the government considers the threat so serious, that Congress swiftly enacted a handsome compensation scheme for victims of such attacks.

Bottom line folks, as host Tucker Carlson correctly stated, this bombshell piece by The Intercept is not only a great story, it’s also a huge public service for which Lee Fang deserves a lot of praise and reward. The only question now is whether Congress will do its job, and rein in Mission Creep DHS, and its unconstitutional speech police.

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Parler Notified FBI 50 Times About Potential Violence On January 6th

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Rep Jackie Speier (D-CA) made a bombshell revelation on MSNBC’s All In show(06/15/21), that the conservative social media network Parler, sent as many as 50 emails to the FBI, trying to warn them about potential violence on January 6th. Shockingly, none of Parler’s alarming emails made it to FBI Director Chris Wray’s desk. Rep Speier is a member of the House Oversight Committee which has been investigating Parler for it’s role in the January 6th DC insurrection. The documents Parler provided the House Oversight Committee, clearly show that the conservative social media network did its part as far as notifying authorities, and that it was the FBI who dropped the ball.

Rep Speier told host Chris Hayes: “I was stunned when it became known that Parler, a conservative social media website, contacted the FBI with emails fifty times, and those fifty emails never reached the Director[Chris Wray]. One of those emails talks about ‘Congress has to hear glass breaking, and doors being kicked in, and blood being shed. This is the time to get violent. We are at war.’ Now, if Parler…thinks these are alarming and sends them to the FBI, and it doesn’t get elevated, then we’ve got a serious problem within the FBI in terms of assessing intelligence.” How some intelligence analyst at the FBI decided that this was not serious enough, either for a concrete plan of action, or to be brought to Director Wray’s attention, is certainly grounds for a congressional investigation.

Prior to this bombshell revelation by Parler, the FBI had largely been spared from the public’s criticism of the intelligence failures that led to the insurrection. Most of the blame was pinned on the Capitol Police, the military(National Guard), and to some extent the Department of Homeland Security. This Parler revelation totally changes the ball game, and redirects the focus towards the FBI.

It bears pointing out that even before the Parler bombshell, people like Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) were already raising a lot of questions as to why the FBI was not able to stop the DC insurrection, and the bureau’s involvement in other scandals that plagued the Trump administration.

Bottom line folks, with every passing day, it becomes clearer and clearer that the January 6th DC insurrection was a totally preventable incident. All the warnings were out there for any curious person to pick up on. Why the people whose job it is to prevent such incidents from happening, either deliberately, or through negligence, ignored such clear warnings, is an issue the U.S. Congress must absolutely get to the bottom of. Congress owes this to the families who needlessly lost loved ones on that fateful day.

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Sen Joni Ernst Busted Again Talking About Cuts To Medicare, Medicaid, SS

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Sen Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)

An audio recording of Sen Joni Ernst(R-Iowa) telling a group of GOP donors that there needs to be “changes”(read cuts) to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security has surfaced. You’ll remember that Sen Ernst made similar remarks at a town hall in September 2019 where she said Congress needs to meet behind closed doors to address these programs–essentially gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in secret.

In the latest audio, a person at the GOP event can be heard saying, “Even without the additional spending we’re already going bankrupt…the biggest driver of that being entitlements. It is interesting hearing your classmate [Sen]David Perdue. He’s been pretty frank about the changes that need to happen with Medicare and Medicaid. Are you on the same page with him on that?

Sen Ernst responded, “I think we [Republican Senators]all are because we all understand our non discretionary spending is growing like this. Everybody focuses on the discretionary spending because that’s what we have control over in Congress. The rest is on auto pilot and it’s out of control. So we have to figure out ways to honor the commitments that have been made and make changes for the future.”

For the record Sen David Perdue(R-GA) has been very vocal about his desire to reign in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security spending in an effort to address the ballooning federal deficit. Sen Joni Ernst has also flirted with this idea previously but unlike Sen Perdue, is afraid to say so in public. Why won’t Sen Joni Earnst, who is up for reelection in 2020, look Iowans in their eyes and tell them that she wants cuts to their Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits?

Bottom line folks, Americans elect politicians and send them to Washington with the understanding that the said politicians will in turn look out for their interests. All national polls indicate that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security remain very popular programs among Americans, including Iowans. Where, as here, Sen Joni Earnst appears hell bent on gutting such programs, she owes Iowans an explanation–publicly. Simply put, Sen Ernst should tell Iowans in public, what she says all the time at private GOP gatherings and that is, she wants cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs. Iowans deserve a Senator who will level with them.

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Mitch McConnell Confirms GOP Plans To Cut Medicare, Medicaid & Social Security

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all but confirmed what most Democrats including Yours Truly have always suspected, that the GOP’s ultimate plan is to gut the three key entitlement programs Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security using the argument that they are the biggest contributors to the national debt.

Asked by a Bloomberg host what the GOP plans to do about the record $779 Billion deficit, Sen McConnell responded, “Its very disturbing and its driven by the three biggest entitlement programs that are very popular, Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. That’s 70% of what we spend every year…there’s been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of those programs. Hopefully at some point here we will get serious about it, we haven’t been yet.” Translation? If the GOP wins both the House and Senate this November, expect drastic cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

While it is a fact that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are indeed the biggest contributors to the national debt, what Republicans conveniently leave out of the debate is that this was true even before they passed their massive tax cuts that favor the rich. As a matter of fact prior to the GOP passing the massive tax bill, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office(CBO) warned that the tax bill would severely worsen the national debt problem. So Republicans knew their tax cuts for the rich would balloon the already high national debt, rammed them through anyway, and are now trying to shift the blame to the working poor by arguing for cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Several mainstream media outlets confronted key GOP members of congress about the wisdom of pushing through the massive tax cuts knowing full well that it would worsen the national debt problem. The answer given by House Speaker Paul Ryan, a well known deficit hawk was that there was nothing to worry about because the tax cuts would spur massive economic growth which would take care of the deficit problem.

It appears now given Sen Mitch McConnell’s recent comments to Bloomberg that Speaker Ryan was lying all along. The GOP knew full well the tax cuts would create a massive national debt which they would then use as an excuse to gut the three key entitlement programs–Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security–a lifelong goal for GOP Super Donors Koch Brothers.

Bottom line it is not a surprise that the GOP is now going after Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The important thing is that there is a surefire way of stopping the corrupt GOP dead in their tracks–voting in midterms 2018. Simply put, Democrats must campaign heavily using the argument that the GOP wants to gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, programs that have predominantly helped the poor in order to sustain their reckless tax cuts for the rich. Now that is a winning campaign message for Dems both for the House and U.S. Senate.

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