Fascism and Philo-Semitism: a Look at the Department of Homeland Security

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Fascism and Philo-Semitism: a Look at the Department of Homeland Security

At DHS it’s a surveillance Eye in the Sky…
and staggeringly disproportionate
grant awards to Jewish organizations

Do fascism and philo-Semitism go hand-in-hand? It is an interesting question, and one could point to plenty of evidence in support of the affirmative side of the question. Take for instance Janet Napolitano. According to Wikipedia, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is a Methodist, and is also “of half Italian ancestry.” The article doesn’t specify what the other half is, but does give us the following:

Janet Napolitano was born on November 29, 1957, in New York City, the daughter of Jane Marie (née Winer) and Leonard Michael Napolitano, who was the dean of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.[3] She is of half Italian ancestry[3][4] and is a Methodist.[5] She was the eldest of three children; she has a younger brother and sister.

Some have speculated (here for example) that Napolitano’s mother was Jewish, but regardless of her origins or any religious beliefs she may or may not hold, Napolitano seems to have a deep love for Jewish people and holds their concerns rather dear to her heart. She has even diverted considerable resources from her departmental budget to ensuring their welfare and security. Of special interest is a DHS initiative called the Nonprofit Security Grant Program—designed to provide “target hardening” and “security enhancements” to American nonprofit organizations that are deemed “at high risk of a terrorist attack.”

Ironically, perhaps, it was a Jewish news organization, The Forward, that uncovered what appears to be striking preference given to Jewish organizations in doling out NSGP grant monies.

“The grants have been of tremendous value to this community. It is really unprecedented,” said Paul Goldenberg, national director of Secure Community Network, an umbrella organization devoted to addressing security needs of Jewish communities, an organization whose board of directors includes representatives from major Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee and the ADL.

Goldenberg’s remarks were quoted in a Forward report published September 29, 2011 which found that a whopping 73.7 percent of NSGP grants between the years 2007-2010 went to Jewish organizations. Or to put it in round numbers, out of a total of 995 grants distributed, 734 went to Jewish groups. In August of 2011, just before the article came out, the DHS announced its grant recipients for the year 2011, and this time around Jewish nonprofits emerged even bigger winners—with 81 percent of the awards.

Acknowledging that the grant awards amount to “disproportionate distribution,” The Forward gives us a small sampling of what the money was used for:

The Akiba-Schechter Jewish Day School, in Chicago, put in new lights around its building and parking lot and now has a state-of-the-art video surveillance system with 12 cameras. Congregation Brith Shalom, in Bellaire, Texas, now has blast-proof doors and windows. In Baltimore, the Bais Hamedrash & Mesivta school installed a new gate to the parking lot and placed cameras throughout the building. Earlier this month, Congregation B’nai Israel of Staten Island put new shatterproof windows into its 40-year-old building.

State of the art surveillance systems, blast-proof windows, and gated parking lots—while increasing numbers of Americans find themselves living in the streets. It would suggest—would it not?—that postmodern America is now being run in the interest of one ethnic group, to the exclusion of all others. Goldenberg is correct. It is unprecedented.

If you think Napolitano might hold any grudges against The Forward for making this information about her grant program public, you’d be wrong. On June 4, 2012, the DHS secretary met with The Forward’s editorial staff and did a podcast interview that can be accessed here in which she affirmed her belief that Jews face special risks the rest of us don’t have to worry about.

“Unfortunately there are risks attendant on the Jewish community that are not attendant on all other communities,” she said. She did acknowledge she knows of no “specific, credible threat” against American Jews at present, but then she added:

But I would also say that this is a world where we always need to be leaning forward, and we need to be thinking proactively, not just reactively, and that applies particularly strongly to Jewish institutions.

And, as if to demonstrate her proactive thinking, Napolitano mentioned her department’s If You See Something, Say Something campaign—a DHS program that encourages Americans to report “suspicious activity” to their local authorities—and she took pains to note for The Forward staff that the program’s promotional materials have been translated into…yes…Yiddish.


Twelve Jews paying rapt attention to a "half Italian" Methodist: Janet Napolitano speaks with staff at The Forward

ISIS and Irises: Big Brother Approaching FAST

But what of non-Jewish Americans? What perchance does the Department of Homeland Security have in store for us? Hi-tech surveillance is one thing. DHS is presently testing a new video surveillance system called ISIS (Imaging System for Immersive Surveillance) that will give government authorities 360^o crowd monitoring capabilities with instant, high-resolution video capture.

Eye in the Sky: ISIS cameras may be
mounted on roofs, ceilings, or
truck-mounted telescoping masts.
According to DHS, the camera "sees it all."

The system employs “image stitching” technology, bringing together images from multiple video lenses, making it possible for Big Brother to zoom in on individual objects or faces in a crowd but without losing clarity in the remaining field of view. The controllers of ISIS will have at their fingertips a resolution capability of 100 megapixels, described as the equivalent of “50 full-HDTV movies playing at once, with optical detail to spare.” A software system called “video analytics” will provide additional surveillance capabilities, including the setting up of “exclusion zones”—with alerts being flashed the moment such zones are breached—while yet another app will make it possible for operators to:

pick…a target—a person, a package, or a pickup truck—and the detailed viewing window will tag it and follow it, automatically panning and tilting as needed. Video analytics at high resolution across a 360-degree field of view, coupled with the ability to follow objects against a cluttered background, would provide enhanced situational awareness as an incident unfolds.

A second generation model of ISIS will feature custom sensors and video boards, longer range cameras, and higher resolutions, while future plans call for equipping it with infrared capabilities for recording events at night. “We’ve seen that terrorists are determined to do us harm, and ISIS is a great example of one way we can improve our security by leveraging our strengths,” says Dr. John Fortune, of the Infrastructure and Geophysical Division of DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate.

DHS is currently testing ISIS at airports but has plans for expanding it to “other critical venues.”

But ISIS only barely scratches the surface. DHS employs more than 240,000 people, and its budget for the year 2012 was $57 billion. With that much money and manpower, a government agency headed by a raving philo-Semite can go a long way toward trampling the remnant of privacy and freedoms in America.

Napolitano lays a wreath at the Holocaust Museum

In 2010, DHS began testing iris scanners, and the devices are now used in certain situations at some border point entries. 2010 of course was the same year the introduction of invasive pat downs and naked body scanners at airports began causing an uproar amongst the US public—but now the DHS is treading into areas that once might have been thought of purely as the domain of science fiction. Imagine having the ability to detect “malintent,” i.e. whether or not a person may perhaps intend to commit a crime or terrorist act at some point in the future. This is what DHS is working toward with its new Future Attribute Screening Technology, FAST. The matter has been discussed at the website End The Lie, where writer Madison Ruppert describes it as follows:

This program collects and stores “physiological and behavioral signals” for analysis, which are then used to determine if an individual could possibly commit a crime in the future or if they harbor malicious intent.

Like the rest of the DHS programs, this requires no probable cause, let alone suspicion of criminal activity.

The data is collected secretly and according to documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), includes, “video images, audio recordings, cardiovascular signals, pheromones, electrodermal activity, and respiratory measurements.”

CNET reports that, “blink rate and pupil variation are measured too”, according to an unnamed government source.

FAST reportedly will also measure changes in voice pitch, as well as eye movements, including pupil dilation and blink rate, and changes in speech rhythm and intonation.

Disclose.tv - Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST

Worth noting is a scientist quoted by Ruppert who expresses doubt the technology can actually work. Yet the technological advances the general public knows about are usually ten or twenty years behind those the government works on in secret. Moreover, it’s not hard to imagine a future in which FAST, or technology like it, could be combined with civilian drones, some of which are no larger than insects, as well as a future in which “malintent” could be defined as something as facile as planning to attend an Occupy Wall Street protest or harboring the belief that Israel commits war crimes. Such possibilities tell of a future in which vast populations are controlled by a small number of people… and they also form the making of a totalitarian state such as has never before existed.

Napolitano with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak

And should worse come to worse, DHS is fully prepared to use deadly force. Earlier this year, the department contracted for delivery of 450 million hollow point bullets for .40 caliber weapons. More recent disclosures show it soliciting contracts for “personal defense weapons”—designed for maximum concealment and close-quarters combat—that will be capable of both automatic and semi-automatic fire and will come equipped with flash suppressors and/or muzzle brakes. Requested are a total of 7,000 such weapons, which in turn are to be field tested with at least 4,000 rounds of ammunition each, and if the guns pass the field tests, presumably additional contracts will be awarded.

From Israel to the ADL:
Travels with Janet

In 2011, the NSGP grant initiative was funded to the tune of $19 million. The following year things changed a bit. The budget was cut to $10 million and the guidelines were adjusted in such a manner that would, at least in theory, reduce the built-in favoritism enjoyed by Jewish organizations. Previously in the guidelines, preference was accorded to “nonprofit organizations with religious affiliation,” giving Jewish groups a rather significant advantage over other nonprofit organizations. This, as well as a change in the definition of “terror threat,” perhaps resulted in some leveling of the playing field, however, as The Forward noted, “Even with the new guidelines, Jewish activists contend that the program will still provide funding for the community’s security needs because of the increase in threats against Jewish institutions mainly from groups close to Iran.”

Moreover, it seems Napolitano is just as steadfast in her devotion to Jewish interests as ever, indicating in her June 4 interview with The Forward that she was quite unperturbed over the fact that the lion’s share of the NSGP grant money had been awarded to nonprofits serving those interests.

“The fact that it ends up going to many Jewish organizations doesn’t in itself bother me,” she said. She also informed her interlocutors she had seen no indications the money had been misspent, and that she felt the program has been a success.

With Shimon Peres

Like most powerful Washington officials, Janet Napolitano is ever eager to meet with Israeli leaders and spend time in the Jewish state. During her tenure as Homeland Security director, Napolitano has made at least two trips to Israel—in January of 2011, and again in May of this year. In her most recent visit she signed an agreement with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman expanding the Global Entry program to include Israel. Under that program, travelers from a small number of select countries are given expedited passage through US Customs ports upon their arrival in the US. In the past, a reciprocity condition was placed upon countries seeking to join the program, however, in the case of Israel that requirement was waived.

With Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

While in Israel, Napolitano also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, issuing the standard and by now rather hackneyed line about “unshakeable bonds” between the two countries—a talking point that seems to be especially in fashion with the Obama administration this election year.

“The United States remains steadfastly committed to Israel’s security. The bonds between our two nations are unshakeable, lasting and critical to both our peoples,” she said.

In a video, here, former Jew Brother Nathanael Kapner alleges that the actual power behind DHS is not Janet Napolitano herself, and that the real license remains in the hands of former DHS director Michael Chertoff, along with Joseph Lieberman, who heads the US Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. To this there may be some truth. Wikipedia’s article on Napolitano records several verbal gaffes and inconsistencies that would not seem indicative of a strong leader. But be that as it may, Napolitano seems to have earned her stripes as far as the ADL is concerned. On April 29^th this year the Jewish organization awarded her its William and Naomi Gorowitz Institute Service Award. Previous recipients of the award—designed to recognize “outstanding achievements in combatting terrorism, extremism, and injustice”—include Chertoff and former CIA Director George Tenet. In her acceptance speech, Napolitano stated that the ADL has “helped to train senior leaders at DHS” as well as “thousands of law enforcement officers in communities around the country,” and she vowed to continue her patronage of Jewish organizations:

And all of our work to collaborate with the public and non-profits is clear in DHS’ relationship with the American Jewish community.

It’s a partnership that didn’t necessarily begin with this Administration, but I’m proud that we have built upon and expanded it under President Obama’s leadership.

We have depended on this partnership recently as we’ve witnessed a number of high profile domestic and international events that have directly impacted the Jewish community, both here and abroad.

It’s also a partnership we have leveraged to make communities across the country better prepared to deal with threats that may originate within this country or abroad…

I met with Jewish community leaders at the White House last week, and we’ve stayed in close contact over the past several months to address the issues I just mentioned.

And we are working closely with the FBI to hold coordinated outreach and briefings to the Jewish community; and to identify potential targets and address any vulnerabilities.

She also gushed about the “particularly strong partnership with our friend and steadfast ally Israel,” and talked of how she has increased cooperation with the Jewish state to “unprecedented levels.” A video of the speech is available here and includes opening remarks by ADL Director Abe Foxman, who praises the “paramount concern” Napolitano and DHS have shown for “the issues at the heart of ADL’s agenda.” Moreover, this wasn’t the first award bestowed upon its great friend by the cuddly Jewish organization. Foxman informs us that in 1998 Napolitano, while serving as Arizona Attorney General, was recognized as the ADL’s “Leader of Distinction”, and in 2007, as governor of the state, she was given the ADL’s “Torch of Liberty” award.

With Israel Reserve Chaplain Jacob Goldstein

And maybe one day they’ll hand her even yet another, for Napolitano does very much seem to stay busy on behalf of Jews as she attends to her daily duties. As recently as June 11, just one week after her meeting with The Forward’s staff, she met with community leaders of the Jewish Federations of North America, vowing—much as she did in her April speech at the ADL—to continue her indulgences of Jewish organizations.

“Homeland security begins with hometown security, and our nation’s faith-based organizations play a critical role in keeping our communities safe,” she said, apparently disregarding removal of the words “nonprofit organizations with religious affiliation” from the NSGP guidelines. “DHS works closely with communities all across the country so they are better prepared to deal with threats that may originate within this country or abroad.”

Where Does it End?

It’s very much worth noting that these symptoms of philo-Semitism exhibited by Napolitano are not limited to her alone, but can be found throughout much of the Obama administration—from the endless pandering to Israel by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, to the Justice Department’s arrests and subpoenas of pro-Palestinian activists. And if we go to Whitehouse.gov we can even find a section entitled Blog Posts Related to the American Jewish Community.

All of this would suggest that America is becoming more Jewish by the day, by the hour even, and the more Jewish it becomes, the more fascist it becomes. If fascism and philo-Semitism go hand-in-hand, does that lead us to conclude that most Jews are by nature fascist? One thing I’ve observed over the course of a lifetime is that Jews change their colors like a chameleon. When I was a kid growing up in the sixties, Jews played key roles in both the civil rights and anti-war movements. But then as Jewish power in America expanded and solidified, Jews, practically en masse, crossed from the left to the right side of the political divide. Like a chameleon, the colors changed. Such questions as war or racism, and whether these are evils that must be opposed, are of hardly any matter. They are trivial considerations. For chameleons the key question is and will always be, “Is it good for the chameleons?”. This simply is how the reptilian mind operates. The fact that the reptilian mindset has taken over the chain of command in the USA should not surprise us.

Does Napolitano care about the security concerns of all Americans, or only Jews? Is she the Homeland Security director of America or Israel? Is she concerned that America’s wars and atrocities in one Muslim country after another, whatever these may do to advance the interests of the Jewish state, pose a security threat to every single person in the US? These are questions that all Americans, even the Shabbes Goyim among us, would do well to consider before the technology to control us advances any further.

***

Update 1:
Since I finished writing the above story, the recipients of NSGP grants for 2012 were announced. Recall that above I mentioned that NSGP funding had been cut this year—from $19 million down to $10 million. So what to do when a program like this undergoes a budget cut? The answer DHS seems to have come up with is to give an even higher percentage of the money to Jewish organizations. In a July 2 story, Haaretz reports that this year 97 percent of the grant monies, or $9.7 million, will be awarded to Jewish organizations. “The Department of Homeland Security has demonstrated a great commitment to protecting at-risk communities,” said Kathy Manning, chair of the Board of Trustees of The Jewish Federations of North America. “These effective security grants are vital to the ongoing protection of deserving institutions, enabling us to work, worship, gather and learn without fear.”

Update 2:
The mainstream media do not seem to be covering this story (not surprising), but here is more at the JTA.

Update 3:
If it is true that the Jewish community in America faces so many alleged threats, then perhaps the Obama administration would care to address the question of why this is. Does President Obama dismiss all this as mere “irrational anti-Semitism”?