Archive for the ‘General Stanley McChrystal’ Category

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THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG: a bin Laden story.

Now everyone knows when it comes to fowl stories Tubularsock is on top of his game. Some even go as far as to say that Tubularsock is for the birds. Whatever!

Tubularsock just loves a good story and as luck would have it it is, THE SAME OLD STORY.

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So let’s start at the beginning.

Mohammed bin Laden and his tenth wife Hamida al-Attas fucked and had little Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden.(an interesting fun fact is that Bin Laden’s name was as long as his 6’ 4” body when he became an adult. Could that have been some kind of sign?)

Osama’s dad had 58 children from 22 wives but as Sharia Law requires he only had four wives at a time. Damn rules!

Now like any good Moslem dad Mohammed divorced Hamida soon after Osama was born. ( Which may or may not tell us something about what Bin Laden was like as a baby.)

And Bin Laden’s mother then married a man named Muhammad al-Attas, who worked at the bin Laden company. (Sure, Tubularsock wonders just how many of the 22 wives ended up with bin Laden company employees. Just one big happy family. Just imagine the Christmas party, oops.)

Ok. Let’s fast forward ……… is this fun or what?

There is enough agreement that Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born. In fact Tubularsock has not seen any documentation to date to question that this did not occur.

The problem? How did, when did, and who did die and was it bin Laden at all. There’s the rub!

So what is clear is bin Laden was born from there on, a story but “facts” ….. NOT SO MUCH!

It has been reported that Osama was 6’4” or maybe 6’6” tall. Or maybe less. It occurred to Tubularsock that math and measurement was an early achievement of the Arab World but no one even thought about getting out a measuring rod?

Remember The Navy Seals AFTER THE SUPPOSED KILLING of Bin in his bedroom laid down beside his crumpled bloody body to judge how tall he was ….. wow, those Navy Seals are kinky fuckers and none-too bright.

With all the equipment that they carry no one thought a measuring tape could be handy? Very poor planning if you ask Tubularsock. (you may have noticed no one has asked Tubularsock)

And after the unarmed old man in his bathrobe is blown apart by massive gun fire THEN they start to wonder if it was Bin or not? (side note to self: don’t hang out with Navy Seal bat-shit-nut cases)

In terms of personality, bin Laden was described as a soft-spoken, mild mannered, left handed man who used a cane.

Because Bin never exhibited any Fred Astaire moves it was assumed the cane was for health reasons. His bodyguard CONTENDED Soviet chemical weapons were to blame for his malady but reporters SPECULATED that kidney disease was the cause.

The CIA BELIEVED that bin Laden had Marfan syndrome or kidney disease.(Wright, Lawrence. The Looming Towern. New York: Vintage, 2006.)

The CIA THOUGHT that the possibility of kidney disease was credible. They concluded that bin Laden did not need dialysis, but does suffer from kidney stones.(Robert Windrem. “CIA is looking for a few good doctors.” NBC News, Dec. 29, 2004.)

On July 1, 2002, Time Magazine reported “. . . that physicians who analyzed photos of bin Laden determined that he PROBABLY suffers from secondary osteoporosis, which is often related to diabetes and kidney trouble”. (“Bin Laden Alive as of Late December”, Reuters; Sun Jun 30, 2002.)

Are you getting the picture? CONTENDED, SPECULATED, BELIEVED, THOUGHT, PROBABLY these are descriptive words for we don’t know shit about bin Laden’s true health condition.

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Now David Ray Griffin, who Tubularsock has very high regard for concluded that Osama bin Laden died in late 2001 or 2002. But when you look closely at Griffin’s claims his evidence is based on rather weak information, if you ask Tubularsock. (you may have noticed no one has asked Tubularsock)

David Ray Griffin states the following five things from his article “Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?” to show that Bin Laden is dead:

“1. The CIA up until mid-December 13, 2001, had regularly been intercepting messages between bin Laden and his people. At that time, however, the messages suddenly stopped, and the CIA has never again intercepted a message. (maybe he figured out he was being listened to?)

 2. On December 26, 2001, a leading Pakistani newspaper published a story reporting that bin Laden had died in mid-December. ( oh! a leading Pakistani newspaper, then it must be true)

 3. Osama bin Laden had kidney disease. He had been treated for it in the American  Hospital in Dubai in July 2001, at which time he REPORTEDLY ordered two dialysis machines to take home. (see below)

 4. In July of 2002, CNN reported that bin Laden’s bodyguards had been captured in February of that year, adding: “Sources believe that if the bodyguards were captured away from bin Laden, it is likely the most-wanted man in the world is dead.” (maybe they were on break)

 5. The United States has since 2001 offered a $25 million reward for any information leading to the capture or killing of bin Laden. But this reward offer has produced no such information.” (until now)

But when you look at all five of these examples and follow them out they are all based on conjecture NOT HARD FACTS. Even Number 3, the Dubai hospital information can be called into question if you look at it.

The one reported “fact” that bin Laden was in the American Hospital in Dubai in July 2001 and according to CBS News “. . . was being given kidney dialysis treatment in a hospital in Pakistan . . . the night before the 9/11 attacks” was first reported by the French newspaper Le Figaro.

The story was drawn from a leak from French intelligence (according to The Guardian) and not only provided bin Laden’s hospital visit but also the story that the CIA Bureau Chief “. . . was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards”.

The hospital “emphatically” denied that bin Laden was admitted to the hospital and the CIA denied that their bureau chief visited. Oh gosh, just who can one believe?

And then there is the kidney dialysis treatment itself.

CNN reporting on Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, speculation that bin Laden had likely died of kidney failure was then supported by CNN’s medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta who proceeded to evaluate A VIDEO with some earlier photos of bin Laden and concluded “. . . that he appeared to be in the last stages of kidney failure”.

From this Tubularsock would not go on record that bin Laden died in 2001 or in 2014 either. But what is clear is that whatever story the United States Government comes up with will be and is A LIE. That is the only FACT Tubularsock can draw from all of this bullshit.

Oh, but there’s more ……. wouldn’t you know.

According to Salon, in the article, The Many Deaths of Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011 Justin Elliott writes:

“The false reports of Osama bin Laden’s death began almost immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, and persisted at a rate of at least once or twice a year, every year. The reports — generated by (usually anonymous) statements by American officials and a dizzying array of foreign sources — often generated international headlines.

Here’s a sampling:

July, 2002 FBI counterterrorism chief Dale Watson tells a law enforcement conference of bin Laden: “I personally think he is probably not with us anymore, but I have no evidence to support that.”

August,2002 Popular conspiracy-mongering radio host Alex Jones announces, citing high-level Bush administration sources, “that bin Laden died of natural causes and that his family has given the body to the CIA.” Jones added, “they’re gonna roll him out right before the election, he’s on ice right now.”

May, 2003 French military analyst announces that bin Laden was killed in an American air raid in Tora Bora shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

February, 2004 Iranian Radio reports that bin Laden was captured in the Afghan-Pakistan border area “a long time ago” — but the official announcement was delayed because “Bush is intending to use it for propaganda maneuvering in the presidential election.”

April, 2002 The Israeli press picks up an account from a radical Muslim London newspaper: “We now report that the al-Qaeda organization has announced the death of Osama Bin Laden.”

September, 2006 French intel document says that Saudis believe bin Laden had died of typhoid in Pakistan.

June, 2008 Citing two unnamed officials, Time magazine reports that a recent CIA study has concluded bin Laden has long-term kidney disease and “may only have months to live.”

April, 2009 Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari tells the media that his country’s intel services “obviously feel that [bin Laden] does not exist anymore”’

But even here Justin Elliott shows bias by starting off his report with “The false reports of Osama bin Laden’s death . . .”

An interesting link that Tubularsock found in these travels to find bin Laden is:

http://www.newsmine.org/content.php?ol=9-11/binladen/death/fbi-%20says-bin-laden-probably-dead.txt

You will discover here that Osama bin Laden has spent more time dead than living. Which in itself is an amazing feat for this amazing man.

So all the attack toward Seymour Hersh and his article on the re-death of bin Laden on May 11, 2011 is just another bin Laden death. The only thing it lacks is the Dairy Queen sightings with Elvis.

But it could be the true death of bin Laden or it could just as easily NOT be his final death.

So it might be helpful for a quick “fill in the blanks” historically for you and this little video made by Tubularsock in 2007 may help you recall what all this Afghanistan business was all about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZFn407MpZc

If you ask Tubularsock ……. I LIKE BIN LADEN AND ALWAYS DID. (BUT NOBODY ASK TUBULARSOCK)

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Oh wow! Let Tubularsock sit down right now! Sorry, but this is the most underwhelmed Tubularsock has been for some time.

The CIA report has been released and man, like almost 500 hundred pages of information we already know.

It’s regular bull shit in and regular bull shit out.

How many of you already know the United States tortured prisoners and lied to everyone about it?

Unanimous. Well I’ll be damned!

The Wall Street Journal’s website published an opinion piece in which former CIA Directors George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden and Deputy Directors John E McLaughlin, Albert Calland and Stephen R. Kappe defend their agency’s record.

They said that the CIA report was “. . . a one-sided study marred by errors of fact and interpretation . . . and had missed opportunity to deliver a serious and balanced study of an important public policy question”.

Well Tubularsock agrees. No really. Tubularsock has agreed with assholes before so it isn’t the first time. So to settle this question about your-side vs their-side crap Tubularsock suggests ………. LET’S RELEASE ALL 6000 PAGES rather than the 500 pages that are “marred by errors of fact and interpretation”.

What do you say to that boys?

If Tenet, Goss and Hayden (fucking assholes all) and the other lackeys REALLY wanted “a serious and balanced study of an important public policy question” wouldn’t they be the first to demand the release of ALL the pages?

There is not a question that if those 6000 pages were released that we would find out what Tubularsock and you know already, that the United States IS A TERRORIST STATE and needs to have a regime change NOW!

But alas …… not going to happen.

Nor is anyone going to be arrested and tried for breaking American and International Laws. NO.

So here we go again ……… If one of those BLACK, BLACK, BLACK African leaders had done even 3000 pages worth of outrageous disgusting shit then fucking John Kerry and fucking step-and-fetch-it-Obuma would be right in front of the world leaders calling for removing the tyrant to save the people.

But the WHITE MAN does it ……… all’s good. What laws?

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WINNING HEARTS

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From a series of informed sources who are not authorized to speak on this issue but have nothing else to do today in the bloated government bureaucracy has presented an outline of the influence of the new Secretary Of The Inferior on the Obama Administration.*

The Tubularsock News Team has also sent our stealth photographer into the mix and has documented photographic evidence of all the rumor and innuendo.

As we like to say at the Tubularsock News Team break-room, “If a picture is worth a thousand words then this story is worth ten thousand words!”

Rather than be accused of conflict of interest we have turned our investigative journalism over to the tabloid, The New York Toast.

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From the very beginning fear in the Administration was palpable. Could a “commoner” be able to bond with the elite?

Well, our inside sources all concurred that the new Secretary Of The Inferior fit like a hand in a glove.

Lunch

The new Secretary Of The Inferior was asked by the press how he felt to be at the left hand of The President of the United States and he clearly stated, “no, the steak tartare please”.

The more comfortable the Secretary Of The Inferior became the more cautious distrust  appeared within the West Wing. In fact, down right suspiciousness of his intentions were felt and cloaked in plutocratic innuendo.

This type of approach to an obvious “outsider” was lost on the Secretary who felt that they liked him. But he started to isolate himself in the President’s office.

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That suspicious attitude became more prevalent within the President himself.

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However the Secretary Of The Inferior and Michelle became more ……..

Say ………… ahh, shall we say “friendly”?

Not being sure of the Secretary Of The Inferior’s intentions Obama started to take him with him whenever he traveled.

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Plane Wave

And then one day the President and the Secretary Of The Inferior were scheduled to fly to the Asian Conference in Kuala Lumpur.

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Stolen

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Now in any Presidential Administration lots of stuff gets stolen. Paper clips, ball point pens, computers, ground-keeper tools, ballistic missiles, large sums of cash, larger sums of cash, cash of larger sums than that and one’s integrity.

The biggest surprise is that anyone noticed.

Immediately Congress formed two committees, one in the House and one in the Senate. Each committee member and staff took it upon themselves to fly to Kuala Lumpur to see where Air Force One should have landed if it hadn’t been stolen.

It was verified that there was NO, they repeated NO, Air Force One on any golf course in Kuala Lumpur.

Senator John McCain was unable to say, “The terrorist have been part of this Obama Administration for some time and the Ukrainian people need all ….. no, I mean Palestine has to be considered ….. no, I mean  …”

The CIA, NSA, DIA, NGA, NRO, AFISRA, MI, MCIA, ONI, OICI, I&A, CGI, FB/NSB, DEA/ONSI, INR, and the TFI were all called into service but many of them were out of the office so a message was left with their respective receptionists. **

All of these agencies work separately and together to conduct intelligence activities and are under the I.C. which is headed by the DNI, who reports to the President.**

The FBI, DOS, DSS, IRS-CID, TIGTA, USMP, DOD, DCIS, CID, OSI, NCIS, DOJ, ATF, USDI, USDA, DOC, HHS, DHS, USCG, FPS, CGPD, CBP, ICE, USSS, SPS,USCP, USPIS were also all put on the case. **

It appears that the USPIS (United States Postal Inspection Service) may have not been necessary however Senator Diane Feinstein insisted that it was not because her husband was well invested in post offices that the agency must play a role. It was because of “. . . her keen concern to protect every woman and child of this great land”.

As Senator Feinstein did not say, “That plane could have been easily packed up in a pre-postage-paid-priority-mail-express-package and shipped to the Russians for all we know!”

As a result over seventeen million dollars will be allocated to throughly inspect ALL the P.O.Boxes in every post office within the United States.

Representative Robert Fuckoff (R) Ohio demanded that for national security concerns he would pursue drafting a bill to create an inspection team to investigate all “general delivery” windows of every post office in the United States.

During an impromptu stop over at the employee’s break room at Postal Inspection, Inc. Rep. Fuckoff stated, “This twenty-seven million dollar allocation bill will ensure that inspections would be conducted on all “general delivery” locations. What better way is there to protect our citizens from terrorists who want to harm our home-land?” 

When the maimed-stream media asked about the rumor that his family was involved in Postal Inspection, Inc. Representative Fuckoff stated, “Those accusations have been made before!” 

……………………………………………

A Special Blue Ribbon Committee was appointed immediately if not sooner by the President to “investigate the disappearance of Air Force One and The Secretary Of The Inferior” and to report back to him. The President insisted that the Committee’s work would be totally transparent and would be held in secret for national security reasons.

The maimed-stream media didn’t pursue the definition of transparent assuming the President is a Constitutional Scholar and knew the definition better than they.

Congress announced that it will immediately take up the issue of funding the Special Blue Ribbon Committee as soon as they return from their inter-session break and before their fall break. This leaves “. . . a corridor of six full hours” stated Senator DipStick (D) from Louisiana. 

Conspiracy

First there were the sightings.

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(UPI) “They were ALL there”, said Jimmy Insano from DelRio, Texas. “Right out in front of the Dairy Queen! Elvis, bin Laden, Kennedy and the Secretary Of The Inferior!

“I didn’t see no plane or anything like that …… but I didn’t go in the Dairy Queen. Sure, it could have been in there.”

 The heat in DelRio at times reaches 135 degrees in the shade.

(The Sun, UK) “The chances of Air Force One being snatched from the sky by an alien space craft isn’t as far fetched as it may appear” says Jay Jay Johnson. “There have been sightings recently as far away as Denver”, he continued. “Space IS the final frontier, you know, and if and I’m saying IF, The Secretary Of The Inferior had been sent with a message to give to extraterrestrials, then why not?” Jay Jay Johnson concluded.

(New York Times) It was reported today that the Malaysian Government was asked by President Obama to assist in the tracking of the missing Air Force One. Critics say this new development has created perhaps a “hint” that the President isn’t sincere about finding the Secretary Of The Inferior.

President Obama’s new Press Secretary Josh Earnest, stated at todays news briefing that “. . . he was earnest that the President was earnest about the search for Air Force One as well as The Secretary Of The Inferior”.

This confused the White House Press Corp because they thought the President was not Earnest because Josh Earnest was Earnest. And Josh Earnest stated that he was earnest and the President was earnest as well. The White House Press Corp reiterated that Earnest was Earnest and Earnest was not Obama.

After forty-five minutes the Earnest – earnest conundrum was tabled until a later date.

(FOX News) Donald Rumsfeld was asked to comment on the incident and stated: “we know, there are known knowns; there are things that we know that we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

And he continued, “The missing Secretary Of The Inferior is the ultimate in unknown unknowns, if you ask me.”

And of course, Dick Cheney was asked for comments on this new international mystery but was unable to make it to the interview because he had “left his heart in San Francisco” and hadn’t noticed until his flight was over Wisconsin. Which at that point had to turn his flight back to the West Coast.

 

 

 

Mystery

 

 

 

footnotes:

* To catch up with The Secretary Of The Inferior refer back to: blog post, NEW EMPLOYMENT, NEW ECONOMY.

** Those are all investigating agencies of the United States Government. Tubularsock doesn’t have time to make that much shit up!

All photographs may look like they have been altered in some way. They have NOT! However they are a different angle from the original photo.

Photography is in the eye of the beholder.

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Tubularsock was ask by the blog site Deconstructing Myths to contribute an article to their Mic check guest blogger series.

The opportunity is simple: To open information up to a broader audience than Tubularsock presently has and to present that information within a forum of enlightened and creative people .

 Deconstructing Myths is the creation of Jeff Nguyen, a multi-talented  fellow with the stated goal of  “. . . shed[ing] light on some of the important issues of our time.” And to find “collective solutions” to the problems found in our world today.

But the largest focus of Jeff’s work to is “. . . to deconstruct the myths many of us have been raised on through the powerful influence of the media and teachings of the dominant culture.”

That works for Tubularsock!

 

So the bottom line is simple …………. to read this Tubularsock blog post you too will have to travel to:          http://deconstructingmyths.com/

 

And I want to thank Jeff for this great opportunity ………… I am sure all of you will agree, “Tubularsock needs all the help he can get!”

 

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Now let Tubularsock go way out on a limb here only because Tubularsock always likes to be closest to the new leaves.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier held prisoner in Afghanistan, was freed by the Taliban. 

The deal was simple: Five Tortured Afghan detainees from the U.S. torture-prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for One not-tortured American soldier. Cool!

Now, the limb part, is Tubularsock is making a big assumption here. And that assumption is that the Taliban DIDN’T torture Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is still under a cloud from his departure from the ranks back in 2009 because the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s capture remain something of a mystery.

Some have speculated that he willingly walked away from his unit but Tubularsock has one of those Tubularsock hunches that the Sargent was lit on a combination of alcohol and Afghan Gold and just found himself captured ……… bummer.

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Now Tubularsock can hear you doubters, asking how would Tubularsock KNOW the obvious. Come now, really? Let us see ………

But the bigger the bull-shit the less likely we’ll ever know and here it comes from the Commander-in-Chief himself ………. Bergdahl’s recovery “. . . is a reminder of America’s unwavering commitment to leave no man or woman in uniform behind on the battlefield.”

Aren’t we so fucking noble!

It could be that on that Memorial Day visit Odroner made to Afghanistan to outline the direction his administration will be taking in that war that they just needed one more solider to be withdrawn from the forever battle and so they worked out this deal because they thought 22,200 withdrawn troops looked better from a PR perspective than 22,199.  

And it’s not the 9,800 troops that are going to stay there that you should be looking at anyway. They aren’t worth shit.

What you should be looking at is the number of mercenaries/contractors that will be remaining. Most American still don’t understand that removing troops does not reduce exposure and death to the Afghan people. That’s if the American public cares about that anyway. Using contractors to supply or enhance weapons is not unusual. But expeditionary warfare, stabilization and reconstruction operations, and intelligence services are tasks that most Americans believe are the sole job of the government or the military. It’s not. It’s all about privatization and profit. NOT ending the conflict.

That is why it doesn’t matter how many Taliban and remnants of al-Qaida are killed. There are ALWAYS more. And in many cases we supply THEM with weapons and training as well. Constant war requires it!

In fact according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR), an auditing agency created by Congress to provide oversight on government spending in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2013, almost 70% of the 4 billion dollars spent by the State Department for “rule-of-law” projects, like training and equipping the Afghan police force went to one corporation …. Dyncorp.

Dyncorp is known for it’s well-documented history of corruption investigations and subpar performance and yet the governments contracts flow in regardless of the fact that in 2010 the inspector general for Iraq  along with the State Department found that Dyncorp could not account for $1 billion spent training the Iraqi police force.

Oh well, business is business.

Now the exchange deal went down in Qatar. The same little country where we are currently “training” fighters to over throw Syria. Sweet.

But this wasn’t the first time the U.S. dealt with the Taliban on this exchange. In 2011 a deal was being worked out but in early 2012 Sen. Diane Feinstein made the negotiations public because in Congress, there was bipartisan opposition to any release of Guantanamo prisoners.

This all changed because of a small change in the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed last December, made it only a requirement that the Defense Secretary notify Congress when releasing Guantanamo prisoners.

Before that change, Congressional sign off on any Guantanamo releases would have been needed but they gave up that power either knowingly or not. Depending on which of the Congressional members actually read what they were passing.

But now they can bitch but say they are powerless!

Now the Five Tortured Afghan detainees from the U.S. torture-prison at Guantanamo are, of course, “the worst of the worst” and are Taliban commanders. The deal requires that they can not leave Qatar for a year after their release. Tubularsock feels better all ready.

And the great thing …….. none of them hold a grudge or anything, right?

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A Poppy for . .

 

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TUBEHEADING ISSUE

Well Tubularsock was minding his own business, no really I was. I was going off, a few blogs back, on how some people’s deaths appear more than just coincidences. Now if I tell you that a key witness in some mob trial gets offed most people would say, “why sure, that’s not a surprise”.

But if I tell you that some former CIA agent, or military special ops officer, or some journalist dies suddenly and unexpectedly the response is more likely, “well people die all the time, why make a case out of it”.

So. Back to Tubularsock minding his own business. In that recent blog about interesting and untimely deaths I received two comments. One was from Doggy Dix a person who has a fast mind and sharp wit and he informs me that a journalist was killed in LA that ties into my Blog post. He couldn’t remember details but Tubularsock had enough to go on to research for the details but could not find anything on the subject.

Then a blogger (Deconstructing Myths by Jeff Nguyen) who follows Tubularsock occasionally filled in the missing information. The journalist was Michael Hastings and he was the Rolling Stone reporter who embarrassed General McChrystal. Hastings died in a suspicious car crash in LA last month.

So Tubularsock checked into this incident and what was the first thing that JUMPED OUT when I Googled it?

CAR HACKING!

Now Tubularsock is not one to be interested in cars in general. I live in a city and my primary mode of transportation is my two wheeler. So when it comes to cars I have a very limited interest.

However, CAR HACKING now that’s another story. I had never even heard about CAR HACKING before and so my direction was charted and thus my story unfolds.

So of course being a modern man I googled it specifically!

And ….. Was Michael Hastings’ Car Hacked? Richard Clarke Says It’s Possible was the first thing that jumped out from the list of articles.

But knowing Clarke’s general take on things I decided to check out other information first and so the first article I was drawn to was from Popular Science  and the article was The Science Of Car Hacking by Kelsey Atherton. And right from the get-go something seemed to be amiss ……… the focus of the article was one of trying to dissuade the idea that Michael Hastings’ car was hacked.

“Limitations first: hackers cannot magically gain control of a car. While cars are increasingly computerized, not every system involved in driving is hooked up to external controls. Let me repeat that for clarity: in almost every car currently on the road, it’s impossible to hack the steering. A hacker trying to kill someone via car can’t just take over and pilot the vehicle into a tree or off a cliff.”

Now if Richard Clarke says that car hacking is possible and Popular Science says it’s not likely then is Popular Science trying to mis-direct the reader? And if so then why?

The main reason I believe is that the Bonnier Corporation that owns the Popular Science magazine and 39 other American magazines is a Swedish holding company.  Its headquarters are located In Winter Park, Florida. They are a conservative company and are not interested in ruffling any U.S. governmental agency.

So the focus of the article is away from any possible controversy. And the article was written with this in mind. Not that the article isn’t true to some degree and information was provided that hacking may be possible but just highly unlikely.

Now Richard Clarke who was the former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism says, “What has been revealed as a result of some research at universities is that it’s relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and to do such things as cause acceleration when the driver doesn’t want acceleration, to throw on the brakes when the driver doesn’t want the brakes on, to launch an air bag. You can do some really highly destructive things now, through hacking a car, and it’s not that hard.”

By far the best informed source I found was Darlene Storm’s article Car hacking: Car cyberattack a possible theory behind journalist’s death at Computerworld Blogs.

Darlene Storm covers the entire story of Michael Hastings and links you up to two major studies done on car hacking. The one I liked best was the Comprehensive Experimental Analyses of Automotive Attack Surfaces a joint study done by the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington in 2011.

In that study you’ll discover that any computer control in the car could be hacked, including the “engine, lights, radio, wipers and electronic display.” And these all can be accessed through wireless devices in the car like cellular, Bluetooth, radio and even the tire pressure monitoring system.

Also according to the study:

“Perhaps the most important part of the long-range wireless attack surface is that exposed by the remote telematics systems (e.g., Ford’s Sync, GM’s OnStar, Toyota’s SafetyConnect, Lexus’ Enform, BMW’s BMW Assist, and Mercedes-Benz’ mbrace) that provide continuous connectivity via cellular voice and data networks.

These cellular channels offer many advantages for attackers. They can be accessed over arbitrary distance (due to the wide coverage of cellular data infrastructure) in a largely anonymous fashion, typically have relatively high bandwidth, are two-way channels (supporting inter- active control and data exfiltration), and are individually addressable.” 

Hastings was driving a 2013 Mercedes C250 coupe with all the bells and whistles. The more expensive the car the more susceptible to hacking!

The Comprehensive Experimental Analyses of Automotive Attack Surfaces joint study is actually a fun read if you like that kind of shit and by the time Tubularsock was finished he knew way too much. It did make me feel a bit more secure because when I do have to drive it’s in a RED 1987 Suzuki Samara and so I’m used to the horn, wipers, accelerator, and radio all working on their own without my control. So what’s the big deal?

The LA police department is treating this as a routine car accident but Tubularsock looks at it like Sherlock Holmes and routine is so boring.

So Hasting’s Mercedes C250 coupe was coming southbound on Highland Avenue and it was “. . . going really fast and all of a sudden I seen it jackknife”, according to Luis Cortez a witness to the scene in an interview with KTLA.

So we have high speed (acceleration) ………. we have jackknife (brakes)

“The car was going so fast, the engine was found more than 100 feet away from the crash.” according to The Los Angeles Times from information they gathered from Gary Grossman and his neighbor in the area.

So we have high speed ………… we have jackknife ……….. we have ejected engine

Another neighbor described hearing a huge explosion drawing him and several others outside their homes.

So we have high speed  ………. we have jackknife ……….. we have ejected engine …….. we have explosion

The car fire was so intense that it took the LA coroner two days to identify Hastings’ body.

Hasting's car fire

So we have high speed  ………. we have jackknife ……….. we have ejected engine …….. we have explosion ………. we have intense fire

Hastings had sent an email hours before his death stating, “FBI Investigation re: NSA”, “go off the radar for a bit.” AND He “was researching a story about a privacy lawsuit brought by Florida socialite Jill Kelley against the Department of Defense and the FBI.”

So we have high speed (acceleration)  ………. we have jackknife (brakes) ……….. we have ejected engine (?) …….. we have explosion (foul play?) ………. we have intense fire (?) …….. we have intrigue (plenty)

Now according to Clarke, the “expertise to trace such an (cyber) attack” is beyond  the expertise of the LA Police Department and “I think whoever did it would probably get away with it.” Clarke emphasized that he was not saying that there was a cyberattack only that a cyberattack on the vehicle would have been nearly impossible to trace ‘even if the dozen or so computers on board hadn’t melted’.”

Ok, ok …………. Tubularsock says maybe yes, maybe no.

Sherlock Holmes says ………… why not check the cell phones records and see if any calls were made to that car’s computer system at the time of the accident. I’m sure the LA police are capable of that! What is there to lose?

Now really, aren’t you just curious?

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Tube kick

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Tubularsock isn’t going to fuck around with this  ……….. here it is ……….. I watched the Jan. 8th Daily Show with Jon Stewart and it blew me away. I hadn’t watched him much because he has become so corporate and this show points it out once again. He did this hard core presentation on gun violence which had several funny and poignant points. The main gist being that assault weapons must be reigned in from public use to avoid these mass killings.

He then put down the “lunatic fringe” for the position that their guns are needed to protect themselves from the “government” itself. Like that isn’t a real possiblilty.

Tubularsock finds that if you look at the Patriot Act that our representatives  “technically” are supposed to protect the public interest signed into law several times and add to it the fact that the government can spy on your phone calls and emails and then add to that the ability of the President of the United States (or his representatives) having the authority to kill or detain a citizen and hold them in secret detention forever without any legal recourse for the individual, well who’s the lunatic, Jon?

And here is the best part. The second segment of Stewart’s show was an interview with a true lunatic himself, General Stanley McChrystal. A true war criminal if we ever had one but now we have him murdering minds at Yale and pimping his book on the Daily Show.

And of course Corporate-Jon is right there with him asking his opinion on gun violence.

Wow. That is rich. A man who would gut a child and torture a women and kill a family with his Special- Forces-mentality is ask about gun violence!

It is a sad commentary on “American Values” if we had any. We don’t!

Now roll all that in a ball and save it so you have room for this next bit of toxic information.

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The new film, Zero Dark Thirty, which has just been released fictionalizes the killing of bin Laden. It pushes the issue that it was done by torturing which helped to get his location. It’s out and running, grab your fucking flag and see how it wasn’t done!

It’s an apologist film by the CIA helping to rewrite history in a way to convince the American public that torture is “sometimes” necessary and that those who torture really aren’t sick, perverted psychopaths but true heroes just saving America which in reality may be one and the same thing.

The film representatives defend the torture fiction saying, “it’s only a movie” and the public can decipher fiction from fact.

Please explain THAT to all those people in this country that still believe that Iraq had something to do with 911.

Give Tubularsock a break here, will yah!

Now Tubularsock could have saved Columbia Pictures a huge sum of money if only they would have just bought Tube’s Cliff-Note-Movie Version of the killing of bin Laden.

It goes like this:

WARNING: This is the true version of the killing of bin Laden.

A bunch of heavily armed young trained animal-minded-Special-Forces with helicopters and night-vision-goggles land in the yard of a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

They all jump out and shoot their way to the third floor of the house with pretty much no resistance.

They burst into a bedroom and blow away an old man in his pajamas watching porn.

Quickly they all start masturbating on the American flag at the sight of their heroism.   

They take the old man’s riddled and bloody body and (this is the fictional part) washed it with the kindness of a mother’s love, wrapped the now clean, bullet riddled shiny body in a clean and well pressed white sheet (which the Seals always carry for these occasions) and then covering the body with great respect in order to conform with Islamic tradition of covering a dead body carried it lovingly and respectfully into their helicopter.

Once the body of bin Laden was lovingly placed in the helicopter they then grab all the porn tapes they could carry and rushed back to their helicopter and flew out of town. Later dumping the body (this is another fictional part) in a very respectful way into the ocean.

Mission completed they fly back to their unknown location thinking themselves as heroes and calling themselves DEVGRU which is another name for Seal Team 6 because they can’t count higher than that number.

The End

Now that bin Laden is dead this time or maybe last time or perhaps the time before that because … bin … has been reported dead several times before this time that he’s dead.

America broke out in joyous revelry knowing that all al Qaeda would disband and turn in their jehad. Wow. Isn’t it just great. And for a Black President too. It may have been the first time in recorded history that a Black man killed a Brown man for the good of the White man. Isn’t America great?

Now roll all that in a ball and save it so you have room for this last bit of toxic information.

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With all the killing that America does around the world it is very difficult for the American public to understand why gun violence in this country is so rampant.

But, thank the Gods that, Tubularsock can clear that up for you in an easy example that, of course, you’ll agree with because it is as clear as the nose on your face.

And it goes like this:

What is the difference between what Adam Lanza did at Sandy Hook Elementary

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and what this U.S. Marine does every day?

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SIMPLE!

The U.S. Marine gets a medal for it.

Now you see how easy the truth is when you look at it honestly.

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