'BOT ROAST II' - Cracking Down On Cyber Crime

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

It's the season for online shopping and spending, and you'll be glad to know that we've stepped up our fight against one of the most serious cyber security threats just in time for the holidays.

That threat involves what are called ‘botnets'-armies of personal computers taken over by cyber criminals and used on the sly to commit all kinds of mischief, from identity theft to denial of service attacks to massive spam campaigns. Bah, humbug.

In June, we announced the first phase of Operation Bot Roast, which pinpointed more than a million victimized computers and charged a number of individuals around the country with various cyber-related crimes.

Today, we're announcing part two of this operation, with more results:

• Three new indictments, including two this past month. In one case, we uncovered a denial of service attack on a major university in the Philadelphia area and then knocked out much of the botnet by disrupting its ability to talk to other computers.
• Two previously charged criminals who pled guilty, including a California man who is a well known member of the botnet underground.
• The sentencing of three others, including a pair of men who launched a major phishing scheme targeting a Midwest bank that led to millions of dollars in losses.

Our investigations spanned the country, including our field offices in Cincinnati, Detroit, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C., which worked closely with a great many partners, including the Secret Service and Immigrations Customs Enforcement.

And these cases spanned the globe, involving information sharing and coordination with international colleagues like the New Zealand police. This week, authorities there conducted a search of the residence of the supposed ringleader of an elite global botnet coding group who goes by the cyber name of "AKILL."

The collective toll revealed so far in our operation has been significant, both at a national level and a personal level. To date, we've uncovered more than $20 million in economic losses. In one case, a victim confirmed damages of nearly $20,000 in denial of service attacks via botnets.

Resources

- How to Protect Your Computer - Botnet Consumer Alert - OnGuard Botnet Guide - Home Computer Security Guidelines - Botnet Tips - FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center

Our work continues, but not without a familiar message for every consumer and computer user: please practice safe cyber security.

At a minimum, that means using and updating anti-virus software, installing a firewall, not opening unknown e-mail attachments, and using strong passwords.

There are plenty more tips and guidelines here for you to learn more (see the inset box).

And, as always, we encourage you to report cyber frauds and attacks to your local police, to your local FBI office, or to our Internet Crime Complaint Center.

---

[Or an easier, safer way is to install a Linux Operating System (OS) or MAC instead of following the "mindless herd" and using MicroSHAFT's (MS) Win XP or Vista OS.

Your need for a Firewall and Anti-Virus Programs are virtually Zero. The time spent per week running these protection programs is extremely minimal. The only reason to do so with Linux or MAC is to protect MS Win Users that you email to, etc., because both Linux and MAC are impervious to 99% of all viruses! And both have built in protection that you do NOT have to fool with!!!

Of course that's only my humble, Expert Opinion (backed by many years of intensive research).

But don't forget the Internet has been, and now is, powered by UNIX, the BIG Brother of Linux. And Linux is now being used with tremendous success and safety in place of Unix on the World Wide Web!
Also many of the higher quality Web Hosting companies use Linux.

Oh yes, someone in the audience is asking for my recommendations.

I recommend the following in order:
(1) Ease of use (2) Compatibility with MS programs
(3) Business Applications (4) Ability to run Proprietary Programs.

Operating System	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	Cost
Linspire 6.0	A	A+	A	A-	$49.95 *
Ubuntu 7.10 1	A	A-	B-	B-	Free
Freespire 2.06	A-	A	B	B-	Free
1 Server Edition available

They all have a HUGE amount of FREE HIGH QUALITY Programs available for use. Installing 90% of programs is a no-brainer. Even your computer illiterate Great-Grandma can easily do it with NO HELP from you!

If you have a MS only program that you can't live without, don't fret. You can get MS Windows Emulator programs that will allow you to run your programs. Win4Lin and Wine are two such programs. Both have improved tremendously over the last several months. MACs have their own programs.

* Price allows use on multiple computers without having to call and get a CODE in order to allow use after 30 days as per MS!
This OS is much less expensive than MS plus additional programs are usually FREE or at a lower cost than MS.

In addition, you can buy Computers with Linux OS, and more programs than you'll ever use, already Installed and very INEXPENSIVELY! And did I say these machines are fast? The Linux & MAC systems are very FAST!!!

Today it's a Win-Win Situation for the Consumer.

I wish I got $10 for each person that I got started to use Linux. Or better yet $1 a month for each user. I'd be sitting pretty right now. That would pay all my expenses. Sigh ... --- Ed]

---

For more information:

- National Press Release
- First Botnet Takedown
- FBI Cyber Investigations

Tagged: anti-virus software, Cyber Crime, denial of service attacks, e-mail attachments, FBI, identity theft, indictments, firewall, spam, phishing, strong passwords.

It's The Sun, Stupid

By Steven Milloy

When the international global warming alarm-ocracy gathers for its annual convention on the balmy island of Bali next week, is there any chance that the delegates will look up at the big yellow ball in the sky and ask, "Could it be the Sun, stupid?" New research suggests that would be a great question for them to consider...

Read the full column at FoxNews.com

Read more enlightening articles from the Junkman here and read Junk Science here.

Tagged: Bali, Geophysical Research, Global Warming, Steven Milloy, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chang (IPCC).

Impact Annapolis NOW!! Keep Jerusalem United!!

Posting a cartoon every weekday leaves no room for me to simply share news, ideas, and other stuff with you. So welcome to 'Sunday Mail: Letters from Dry Bones', the new, once-a-week Dry Bones feature.

Last Minute! Americans: Impact Annapolis NOW!!

Americans have a way to send a loud and clear message about what is happening in Annapolis right now. CCJ (the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem) has set up a fantastic system to enable Americans to call the White House, the State Department and/or the Israeli Embassy. The CCJ is subsidizing both the system and all of the calls, so it's completely free!!

If you are in the States just click here and then type in your name, state and phone number. In moments your phone will ring and you will be connected to the White House, State Department or the Israeli Embassy.

There's even a suggested script for a short, effective message... and please let us know how it goes!!
Free Annapolis Phone Calls.

On November 26th, world leaders will congregate in Annapolis to once again seek concessions from Israel and declare that Jerusalem should be divided, with part becoming the capital of a new, Hamas-controlled Palestinian terror-state. Israel should not be pressured by the United States, least of all while facing terrorism, rocket attacks, and hate, and while its kidnapped soldiers remain hostages.
Keep Jerusalem United

--- Read More Dry Bones Cartoon-Blogs by Yaakov Kirschen

[We, the people, can stop this insane debacle. All it takes is making your voice heard. It will take only 90 seconds of your time to Keep Jerusalem United.

Remember, this isn't just about Israel; this will affect America greatly in a negative way! Israel is our ONLY True Friend and Ally in the Middle-East. The Palestinian Terrorists are NOT!
--- Ed]

Tagged: Annapolis, Hamas, hate, hostages, Israel, Israeli Embassy, Jerusalem, Palestinian, Palestinian terror-state, rocket attacks, State Department, Sunday Mail, Terrorism, U.S.A., United States, White House.

Thanksgiving Special Edition

THE FOUNDATION "Tomorrow being the day set apart by the Honorable Congress for public Thanksgiving and Praise; and duty calling us devoutly to express our grateful acknowledgements to God for the manifold blessings he has granted us, the General... earnestly exhorts, all officers and soldiers, whose absence is not indispensably necessary, to attend with reverence the solemnities of the day." -George Washington (December 17, 1777)

Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell, 1943

PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE

The necessity of Thanksgiving

In this era of overblown political correctness, we often hear tales of Thanksgiving that stray far afield from the truth. Contemporary textbook narratives of the first American harvest celebration portray the Pilgrim colonists as having given thanks to their Indian neighbors for teaching them how to survive in a strange new world. This, of course, is in stark contrast to the historical record, in which the colonists gave thanks to God Almighty, the Provider of their blessings.

The "First Thanksgiving" is usually depicted as the Pilgrims' three-day feast in early November 1621. The Pilgrims, Calvinist Protestants who rejected the institutional Church of England, believed that the worship of God must originate freely in the individual soul, under no coercion. The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England, on 6 September 1620, sailing to the New World on the promise of opportunity for religious and civil liberty.

For almost three months, 102 seafarers braved the brutal elements, arriving off what is now the Massachusetts coast. On 11 December, before disembarking at Plymouth Rock, the voyagers signed the Mayflower Compact, America's original document of civil government predicated on principles of self-government. While still anchored at Provincetown harbor, Pastor John Robinson counseled, "You are become a body politic... and are to have only them for your... governors which yourselves shall make choice of." Governor William Bradford described the Mayflower Compact as "a combination... that when they came a shore they would use their owne libertie; for none had power to command them..."

Upon landing, the Pilgrims conducted a prayer service and quickly turned to building shelters. Malnutrition and illness during the ensuing New England winter killed nearly half their number. Through prayer and hard work, with the assistance of their Wampanoag Indian friends, the Pilgrims reaped a rich harvest in the summer of 1621, the bounty of which they shared with the Wampanoag. The celebration incorporated feasting and games, which remain holiday traditions.

Such ready abundance soon waned, however. Under demands from investors funding their endeavor, the Pilgrims had acquiesced to a disastrous arrangement holding all crops and property in common, in order to return an agreed-to half of their produce to their overseas backers. (These financiers insisted they could not trust faraway freeholders to split the colony's profits honestly.) Within two years, Plymouth was in danger of foundering under famine, blight and drought. Colonist Edward Winslow wrote, "The most courageous were now discouraged, because God, which hitherto had been our only shield and supporter, now seemed in his anger to arm himself against us."

Governor Bradford's record of the history of the colony describes 1623 as a period of arduous work coupled with "a great drought... without any rain and with great heat for the most part," lasting from spring until midsummer. The Plymouth settlers followed the Wampanoag's recommended cultivation practices carefully, but their crops withered.

The Pilgrims soon thereafter thought better of relying solely on the physical realm, setting "a solemn day of humiliation, to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer, in this great distress." In affirmation of their faith and providing a great witness to the Indians, by evening of that day the skies became overcast and gentle rains fell, restoring the yield of the fields. Governor Bradford noted, "And afterwards the Lord sent to them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing caused a fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and rejoicing. For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving."

Winslow noted the Pilgrims' reaction as believing "it would be great ingratitude, if secretly we should smother up the same, or content ourselves with private thanksgiving for that, which by private prayer could not be obtained. And therefore another solemn day was set apart and appointed for that end; wherein we returned glory, honor, and praise, with all thankfulness, to our good God, which dealt so graciously with us..." This was the original American Thanksgiving Day, centered not on harvest feasting (as in 1621) but on gathering together to publicly recognize the favor and provision of Almighty God.

Bradford's diary recounts how the colonists repented of their financial folly under sway of their financiers: "At length, after much debate of things, the Governor (with the advice of the chiefest amongst them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other things to go in the general way as before. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number."

By the mid-17th century, autumnal Thanksgivings were common throughout New England; observance of Thanksgiving Festivals spread to other colonies during the American Revolution. At other junctures of "great distress" or miraculous intervention, colonial leaders called their countrymen to offer prayerful thanks to God. The Continental Congresses, cognizant of the need for a warring country's continuing grateful entreaties to God, proclaimed yearly Thanksgiving days during the Revolutionary War, from 1777 to 1783.

In 1789, after adopting the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, among the first official acts of Congress was approving a motion for proclamation of a national day of thanksgiving, recommending that citizens gather together and give thanks to God for their new nation's blessings. Presidents George Washington, John Adams and James Madison followed the custom of declaring national days of thanks, though it was not officially declared again until another moment of national peril, when during the War Between the States Abraham Lincoln invited "the whole American people" to observe "a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father... with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience." In 1941, Congress set permanently November's fourth Thursday as our official national Thanksgiving.

The Pilgrims' temporary folly of sundering and somersaulting the material as transcendent over the spiritual conveys an important lesson that modern histories are reluctant to tell. The Founders, recognizing this, placed first among constitutionally recognized rights the free exercise of religion-faith through action.

If what we seek is a continuance of God s manifold blessings, then a day of heartfelt thanksgiving is a tiny tribute indeed.

This Thanksgiving, please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families-especially the families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who have died in defense of American liberty.

[Amen, we agree with the above statement. --- Ed]

On behalf of your Patriot staff and National Advisory Committee, we wish God's peace and blessings upon you and yours this Thanksgiving.

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis!

Mark Alexander
Publisher

[We, the writers at PA Pundits and 7.62mm Justice, also wish you God's peace and blessings upon you and yours with a happy, harmonious, Thanksgiving among Family and Friends.]

Permission granted to reprint, post or forward this edition of The Patriot.

P.S. Like many mission-based organizations, we typically raise most of our budget in the last two months of each year. We still must raise $266,482 before year end. If you have not already done so, please take a moment to support The Patriot today by making a secure online donation-however large or small. If you prefer to support us by mail, please use our Donor Support Form.

Note to parents: Our Family Thanksgiving Quiz provides a great opportunity for kids to learn more about the Christian foundations of our great nation.

(Publisher's Note: Regarding our Thanksgiving edition, as with our Easter and Christmas editions, we take leave from the rigors of research and analysis of contemporaneous news, policy and opinion in order to focus on an eternal message, indeed a Christian message. To our Patriot readers of faiths other than Christianity, we hope that this edition serves to deepen your understanding of our faith-the faith of our Founders.)

Tagged: Christian, Faith, God Almighty, Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, Thanksgiving.

Gun Bills Blocked By PA Judiciary Committee

[Thank God for that!

For any of you who think gun control is the answer to Crime and to School Shootings, please buy the Window sticker shown here.
I'll even pay for it if you will display it prominently on your front door or in your front window.
(This may be the answer to increasing the intelligence of our gene pool : )

If there wasn't such an obsession with curtailing our rights to own and carry guns Columbine, Virginia Tech & other Massacres would NOT have happened!!! See a thoughtful, well researched article, that achieved International recognition, by our own editor - "The Truth, nothing but the Simple Truth" ---Al]

By Jan Murphy / of The Patriot-News, 11/20/07 10:58 AM EST Updated: 11/20/07 7:22 PM EST

Gov. Ed Rendell may have left the Capitol with a clear conscience last night.

But it was the state's hardcore protectors of the right to bear arms who went home with smiles on their face, after they beat back a Rendell-backed attempt to push through three of the gun control lobby's centerpiece bill through the House Judiciary Committee.

[Damn straight, we're "Hardcore" in believing in the rights of Citizens as provided for by our Constitution. ---Al]

Despite a rare direct appeal from the governor to let their "common sense and backbone" send the bills to the House for a full floor debate... committee members killed two centerpiece gun control bills today, despite hearing a direct appeal for the legislation from Gov. Ed Rendell

[Our home grown "Mafia" Governor].

"What you had before the committee today was feel-good legislation, not good legislation," said John Hohenwarter, state liason for the National Rifle Association...

Gun control opponents see these measures as impeding their freedom to bear arms.

[Same thing Hitler & other Tyrants did to their people before running roughshod over the Citizens]

For more on this story, see Wednesday's (tomorrow's) editions of The Patriot-News.

Read More at PennLive

Tagged: 2nd Amendment, Bill of Rights, Columbine, Ed Rendell, Gun Control, John Hohenwarter, Massacres, National Rifle Association, Virginia Tech

Watch Out!!! Nefarious PA Is After eBAY Sellers!

The Nefarious, Money Grubbing, State of PA is now gunning for eBay Sellers!

Just like they did the poor mid-wives, thus causing a dangerous situation for expectant mothers!

Do they care? Nooo, So a few people die, so what it's all about GREED!

PA, sadly, is all about grabbing YOUR MONEY to spend to benefit those in Government.

Now, I am ashamed to say, the State of PA is trying to kill the Goose that laid the Golden Egg. In this case it's eBAY.

eBAY, with it's No Tax has been a BOON to our economy.

(Except, in more recent times, for those with stores in States that buyers reside) That should be rescinded.
Even the "More Taxation" Liberal Democrats under Clinton realized that eBay was their salvation. eBay saved their butt and made Clinton look good even though he messed up the economy.

But Now the Greedy, Out-Of-Touch-With-Reality, Imbeciles in PA Government want to change that.

Read Ebay sellers pushed to get auctioneer licenses

by Ford Turner / of The Patriot-News

... Barry Fallon, who ran a business called iSold It on eBay in Lower Paxton Twp., has been summoned to appear before the state Board of Auctioneer Examiners. He could face a fine of at least $1,000.

The state claims that people like Fallon — those who accept things on consignment from other people and sell them using the California-based Web site eBay — are auctioneers and must obtain traditional state auctioneers’ licenses.

The enforcement push means that online sellers would have to serve apprenticeships with traditional auctioneers or take college auctioneering courses.

It has rankled some Internet sellers. They don’t need to master a rapid-fire price chant, said Robert Musser, the president of a Lancaster-based business that sells items on eBay.

“It is a waste,” he said. “It doesn’t advance our skills.”

The examiners board is dominated by traditional auctioneers. It's stance toward eBay sellers “is kind of like having the buggy whip manufacturers decide whether to allow new automobiles to be sold,” Fallon said. “... They are seeing us as competition, and they don’t want us around.”

The legal clout behind the examiners board is wielded by the Pennsylvania Department of State.
[These are the same CLOWNS that fined & forced a licensed Mid-Wife out of business unless she gets a PA LICENSE!!!]

Spokeswoman Leslie Amoros said it backs up 27 licensing boards, including those that deal with nurses, landscape architects and barbers...

The purpose, Amoros said, is to maintain the integrity of the professions [And give us a cut of the money. --- Al]

“Our position is that brokers who accept goods from sellers on consignment and then sell goods on eBay and retain a percentage ... must have an auctioneer license,” she said...

... They include Mary Jo Pletz of Walnutport, about 20 miles north of Allentown.

Pletz said her daughter, Julia, was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor when she was 6 months old. Pletz, a dental hygienist, quit her job to care for Julia. For at-home work, Pletz started selling other people’s furniture, clothing and antiques on eBay.

By last Christmas, she had sold 10,000 items. A few days after the holiday, she said, a representative from the Department of State came to her house and told her she was breaking the law.

Pletz has shut down her business and faces action by the auctioneer examiners board. She said she and her attorney have been unable to determine whether her potential fine is a flat $1,000, or $1,000 for each item she sold — meaning a fine of $10 million.
[These greedy, Scrooge, bastards have no heart.]

At least two bills awaiting committee action in the Legislature were designed to deal with eBay auctioneering. Their outcome will have broad implications.

While there are 2,100 licensed auctioneers in Pennsylvania, the lead sponsor of a state Senate bill, Sen. Rob Wonderling, R-Montgomery, said there are more than 15,000 state residents who make most of their money by trading and selling on the Internet.

His bill would remove any requirement for licensing residents who use online trading platforms. Those who demand they have licenses, he said, do not understand the modern, electronic economy.
[Ahh, someone using the brains God gave him]

“The bureaucracy, and those special interests that are encouraging the bureaucracy, are lacking in common sense,” Wonderling said. [Amen, to that]

Another bill in the state House of Representatives would require online sellers of other people’s items to register, pay a fee of about $100, and secure a bond that would cost about $50, according to state Rep. Michael Sturla, D-Lancaster, the lead sponsor. The bill would not require anyone to go to auctioneers’ school, he said. [It figures, a Democrap would want to make some money off of the 'Golden Egg Goose]

Sellers should register with the state, he said, because the eBay system allows sellers to submit bids on their own items, driving up prices in a false manner.

[Boy, is he ever full of Horse Manure here. Just try that on eBay and see how long you have an account. I think this is called a smoke screen. Throw people of with a lie and hope most won't know it. --- Al]

“There is a consumer protection issue here,” Sturla said.
[You mean a Money Making Issue for our PA Gov't Overlords]

Linda Artz, who sells crafts online from her Dillsburg shop, said, “Don’t tell someone like myself I have to be able to run a live auction. ... That has absolutely no place in what we are doing in the eBay realm.”

Artz said the state’s enforcement push is about money.

“I really think it is a revenue thing, a way to put their thumb on people,” she said. [You tell him girl. You got that right!]

Jihad Jane The Hezbollah Spy

Pat Dollard

"Prepare to have your opinion of this war changed forever."

Posted By The Bashman.

Meet Jihad Jane…Nada Nadim Prouty. I’ll just call her a bitch.

Background checks, including lie-detector tests, failed to uncover Nada Nadim Prouty’s bogus marriage and fraudulent application for citizenship.

This woman had been given access to detainees in Iraq, she has allegedly given information to Hezbollah, her brother-in-law is a fugitive for funneling his restaurant profits to Hezbollah, and she is married to a State Department guy who has been a bigwig in more than a couple of U.S. embassies in the Middle East.

From the NYP:

November 18, 2007 — FBI fraudster Nada Nadim Prouty not only used a sham marriage to get jobs with access to secret terrorist intelligence - her current husband is a State Department employee who has held sensitive posts in Middle Eastern embassies, The Post has learned.

Her third hubby, Gordon Prouty, 40, now works for the State Department in Washington, a spokesman confirmed Friday night. He had been stationed at American embassies in Egypt and Pakistan.

A Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd, refused to comment on Gordon Prouty’s job, or say whether he was under investigation along with his criminal wife.

“He’s not charged with any wrongdoing in this case,” Boyd said.

But the revelation surprised national security watchdogs.

“My God, she’s married to one of our people,” said Mike Cutler, a former US immigration special agent.

Nada Prouty, 37, admitted last week she faked her first marriage to a Michigan man in 1990, enabling her to get US citizenship that helped her secure jobs with the FBI and CIA. Her star as an agent rose, and officials trusted her to grill al Qaeda sympathizers.

She also confessed to sneaking into government databases for secret information on her sister and brother-in-law, both linked to the Middle East terror group Hezbollah.

One of the agencies credited with busting Prouty is the State Department’s diplomatic security service.

Gordon Prouty was a foreign service officer under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In 1999, he transferred from Cairo to Islamabad, Pakistan, a State Department document shows.

The duties of a foreign service officer can include investigation of people applying for visas to enter the United States and protection of American citizens abroad.

Prouty returned to the United States in 2001, records show. He currently works in the State Department’s office of resource management. Co-workers said he was in the office on Friday, but took a “holiday leave” until after Thanksgiving. He did not return calls.

It’s unclear how or when Prouty met Nada, who divorced her second husband, Andrew Alley, in 2000. Records show the Proutys shared their current address, a townhouse in Vienna, Va., as far back as September, 2001. They have a daughter in preschool.

“Maybe he didn’t know what she was doing behind his back,” Cutler said.

Harvey Kushner, a criminal-justice professor and terrorism expert at Long Island University, said it’s likely authorities are looking at the Prouty marriage. “If they’re husband and wife, it would be important to see what involvement he had with records, his travels, his behavior, his contacts,” Kushner said.

Full NYP article by Susan Edelman and Jill Culora here.

• Read & See more Pat Dollard reports.

Tagged: , Gordon Prouty, Hezbollah, Nada Nadim Prouty, State Department, U.S. embassies.

Boycott Redacted!!!

Your Boycott Starts Here

Visit the official "Boycott Redacted" website, where the mission is to picket and boycott the movie "Redacted". This website was created by volunteer defenders of this country and its soldiers, to fight the treasonous propaganda of the film's producers, Brian DePalma and the Dallas Maverick's Mark Cuban. Please regularly check the Events list below for details on picketing near you.

Boycotters

Many organizations that have ties to the military, such as Veterans groups, military families and the many groups and individuals who support our troops, have thrown their support behind this boycott. Read their passionate Testimonials. We thank them for supporting this boycott and speaking out about this travesty.

Feel free to download the "Boycott Redacted" logos from the Media Page for your blog/website, Sign the Petition and pass it on to everyone you know to sign!

Common Objections You May Hear, and How To Answer Them:

1. You haven't seen the film, how can you make such a judgement?
Because the writer and director of the film, Brian De Palma, has said all we need to know about this film. He has said:

"I wanted to make a film that would nauseate the American people." and "The message must be put forward and hopefully the public will respond and pressure their congressman to vote to stop the war." -Reuters Press 8/31/07

Propaganda: n. Information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause.

By definition, he has made a propaganda film.

"I’ve done something that is, it just can’t be done. You can’t ever say anything critical about the troops." -Reuters Press 8/31/07

By his own admission, he has made a film critical of the troops.

Criticize: v. To judge unfavorably or harshly. To put a negative value upon.To have an opposing and antagonistic view of.
Therefore, we do not need to actually see the film to know that it is a film that judges our troops in an unfavorable manner and is propaganda designed to get the viewer to act politically. By his own admission Brian DePalma has said that is what the film "Redacted" is, an anti-troop propaganda film released during a time of war.

Who would say we are not at war?

2. But It Is Based On Actual Events. How could this be giving aid and comfort to the enemy?
Because this film, when viewed by moderate Muslims in the Middle east, will stir them to hatred for American troops, and solidify the convictions of those already taking up arms against our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the globe. This bolsters their conviction that they are right and we are wrong and evil...this, we believe, borders on aiding and comforting the enemy.

3. This is a Freedom of Speech Issue.
Absolutely. But with this freedom comes a greater responsibility. To abuse this freedom in such a manner that would put our troops at risk while they are engaging the enemy in combat operations anywhere in the world is unconscionable. At the very least DePalma and Cuban should have waited until this war is over.

4. Mark Cuban Has Given Money and Set Up a Charity To Help Wounded Vets.
We applaud this. Yet, even though this may be true, it does not excuse what he is doing with the film "Redacted". In fact, he spent more on "Redacted" than he has given to aid the troops.

Read More ---