Police said that victim, who taught at a Southwest Austin middle school, may have committed suicide.

By Tony Plohetski, Sue Banerjee
Friday, April 18, 2008
Austin American-Statesman

Austin police said Thursday that they are leaning toward a ruling of suicide in the death of a middle school teacher and activist whose body was found Wednesday in Lady Bird Lake with his hands and legs bound and tape over his eyes.

Police identified Riad Hamad, 55, at a news conference Thursday and said the binding of his limbs and the placement of the tape was consistent with Hamad having done it himself.

Austin police homicide Sgt. Joe Chacon said family members told investigators that the Clint Small Jr. Middle School teacher had “several stressors” in his life and had talked about possibly killing himself. Police said that they think Hamad walked from his car to the lake, based on evidence they gathered at the scene.

“The car was found on the south shoreline with no signs of mysterious activity,” Chacon said.

Police said that they found Hamad’s car along Lady Bird Lake on Tuesday and searched but did not find him.

Joggers found Hamad’s body about 2 p.m. Wednesday near Comal Street and Nash Hernandez Sr. Road. Investigators said they found no signs of trauma or a struggle.

Debbie Russell, president of the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter, sent an e-mail Thursday to dozens of activists throughout the city saying that Hamad’s death had been ruled a homicide. Russell said in a later interview that she wrote that e-mail after she thought she had heard media reports that Hamad had been killed.

She said in the e-mail that Hamad had recently been under investigation by the FBI — federal officials confirmed the investigation — and described him as “NOT a terrorist but a peaceworker.” Hamad was serving as an official for the Austin chapter of the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund.

FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said that Hamad had been a “person of interest” in a criminal investigation but that he could not elaborate.

Read the rest of this article »

Police initiate search for guns

By David C. Lipscomb
March 13, 2008

The Metropolitan Police Department yesterday announced a new crime initiative that will include officers going into high-crime neighborhoods to search homes for illegal guns.

“The premise is that residents can have the trust of the …department,” said police spokeswoman Traci Hughes.

Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced the program and said it focuses on parents or legal guardians who think their children have a gun in the house and are uncomfortable with searching for it themselves.

Miss Hughes said that residents would be given amnesty for illegal guns found in homes after they are tested for links to crimes. But she said police would investigate the source of the guns if they were found to be involved in a crime.

Police initiate search for guns - - The Washington Times, Americas Newspaper

GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com — Update

By Kevin PoulsenMarch 11, 2008

A new web service that lets users rate and comment on the uniformed police officers in their community is scrambling to restore service Tuesday, after hosting company GoDaddy unceremonious pulled-the-plug on the site in the wake of outrage from criticism-leery cops.

Visitors to RateMyCop.com on Tuesday were redirected to a GoDaddy page reading, “Oops!!!”, which urged the site owner to contact GoDaddy to find out why the company pulled the plug.

RateMyCop founder Gino Sesto says he was given no notice of the suspension. When he called GoDaddy, the company told him that he’d been shut down for “suspicious activity.”

GoDaddy Silences Police-Watchdog Site RateMyCop.com — Update | Threat Level from Wired.com

Washington Times investigator exposes mayhem on the southern border  

Steve Watson

Infowars.net

Thursday, March 6, 2008

An award winning reporter has detailed an ongoing media blackout concerning a major issue of national security on the southern border.

Sara A. Carter, National Security and Pentagon reporter for the Washington Times, spoke to the Alex Jones show today regarding consistent incursions into the U.S. by armed Mexican troops aiding illegal smugglers.

Ms. Carter has won several national prestigious awards for her coverage of border issues north and south, including the 2006 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration, presented annually by the Center for Immigration Studies.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t realize how serious the situation is on the southern border.” Ms. Carter said. “Even to the extent when sometimes some of our own government officials choose to ignore it, even though they know it’s going on.”

“This is a very serious national security issue in many respects and it deals with an array from smuggling humans, to smuggling narcotics, and the whole mix up is that there’s many people within the Mexican government and military that have already been bought and sold out to the drug cartels.”

“It’s very difficult to distinguish between those that are really trying to do the job, and those that are sell outs to the drug cartels. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, I’ve been down in many of the same border cities, I’ve spent an enormous amount of time in Mexico working with intelligence officials and others, and I have many Mexican sources who had said ‘please get the truth out’.” Ms. Carter continued.

Ms. Carter pointed out that although such activity has been ongoing for years, there has essentially been a news blackout in America.

“It is a huge story. It is bigger than most of us even know, and people are afraid of covering the story. We hear reports but we don’t see in depth detail.” Carter said.

Aside from Carter herself it has been left entirely to the alternative media to expose the reality of the situation on the border.

We have covered multiple previous incidents of this nature here at Prisonplanet and Infowars:

Former DEA Agent: Mexican Commandos Killing In South West US To Protect Bush Drug Cartel

National Director of Minutemen Calls Southern Border “Warzone”

The Secret Border Wars

Report: Armed Mexican Troops Invade US

The mainstream media cautiously began reporting on the issue two years ago when Sara Carter uncovered Department of Homeland Security documents and maps showing that Mexican military has crossed into the United States 216 times in the past nine years. In the documents U.S. officials claimed the incursions are being made to help foreign drug and human smugglers into the United States.

Many incidents have seen Mexican troops fire on U.S. border agents.

Ms. Carter also exposed how the U.S. Border Patrol is “tipping” the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups participating in apprehending illegal immigrants.

Her award winning articles are grouped together here.

In the following MSNBC report from last year, Sara Carter details how one particular incident saw Mexican troops crossing the border along Rio Grande with mounted machine guns pointing at border patrol agents, deputies and Texas highway patrolmen:

In today’s interview with Alex Jones, Ms. Carter also spoke of shockingly commonplace incidents of Mexican troops are aiding the kidnapping of American citizens across the border:

“Many of those people have not been found, I’m gonna tell you something, I was down in Nuevo Laredo and I was there when Betty Flores was still the mayor, I remember having a one on one conversation with her and I said ‘look, there have been Americans in Laredo that have been kidnapped, and taken into Nuevo Laredo in Mexico and there’s still no sign of them, nobody has done anything about it, what are you going to do?’

“Basically the answer to me was ‘well we believe a lot of those folks were involved with the cartels anyway’. Well that isn’t true.” Carter said.

She also delved into great detail concerning the different drug cartels of Mexico and their activities on the border with Mexican authorities, as well as reports of groups such as Los Zetas engaging in corruption inside the U.S. as far north as Indiana.

Listen to the entire fascinating interview here (begins 30 mins into the hour)

Award Winning Reporter Details U.S. Media Blackout On Mexican Military Incursions

Continuing developments in the Texas UFO sightings incidents are raising eyebrows.

Several of these new elements are of interest for people curious about UFOs as well as Americans and journalism professionals concerned about the integrity of the news media in the United States.

A case about an unusual and unconventional occurrence such as a cluster of UFO sightings is becoming intertwined with more conventional analysis of U.S. news media ownership and ethics.

Interestingly, the Stephenville case may shed more light on both of these areas.

In addition, other aspects of some surrounding circumstances include foreign ownership of American media outlets, financial interests and media influence, and how these affect media coverage of a wide range of news issues.

Patrol car videotape, news media are factors in Texas UFO case