My thoughts

[Mirrorshades]

You can't unless you know a lab that is willing to test your gear. The last lab that openly tested gear was shut down by the DEA.

I remember reading about this elsewhere. You have to wonder about the DEA's thinking... obviously they'd rather people take their chances with untested stuff, than allow people to verify what they're taking. I suppose it really shouldn't come as any surprise, given their attitudes. Giiven some of the stuff they've done, I regard them as barely qualifying as human.

A couple of people on another board gave me a bit of a tough time in the beginning, because they were suspicious of my motives -- after all, I'm not a bodybuilder, let alone a steroid user. I elaborated on why I feel the way I do, perhaps this is a good a place as any to bring-up what I said about the DEA in that regard. So here goes:

What got me interested in bodybuilding boards was Operation Raw Deal (ORD), where the DEA essentially forced Hushmail to roll-over on its users. As you're likely aware, there is a fair bit of cross-pollination between boards, with many people members of several. I started with one board (WCBB) and that led to another (Procard Bodybuilding) and so on.

Whether rightly or wrongly, I see these boards as part of the front-line in the War on Drugs -- it's almost a certainty that at least, some law enforcement types are reading/posting here. My goal is to help people stay out of their clutches.

Now, you might reasonably ask, "Why do you care, you're not a bodybuilder?" Let me try to explain, it's a little convoluted....

I'm not sure if it's clear from my posts, but I'm a Canadian. Our current government (and our fascist fuck of a Prime Minister) never saw anything American that they didn't like -- and that goes double for the justice system.

Since these guys got elected with a majority last May, they are effectively dictators -- they can ram-through any legislation they want. They're already in the process of implementing American- style mandatory minimum sentences, e.g. a 5 year sentence for possession of 6 pot plants!

I know one of the victims of this insane War on Drugs. When I had relatives in London, Ontario, I used to visit the city every few years, and while there, I visited Marc Emery's bookstore, City Lights. Emery is a dyed-in-the-wool Libertarian, I'm not. Still, his bookstore had all kinds of interesting stuff, and he was a fascinating character to talk to.

To make a long story short, Marc is now half-way through a five-year sentence in an American prison, for selling marijuana seeds. Emery (and his wife Jodie) lived simply -- the vast majority of the proceeds from his seed business went into marijuana legalization efforts. If I remember correctly, he was one of the founding members of the BC Marijuana Party.

I think what really stuck in my craw was a letter by someone in the DEA by the name of Tandy -- they hailed Marc's arrest and conviction as a major victory in the War on Drugs. Specifically, they admitted to targeting Marc because of his political activism, including funding marijuana legalization efforts.

Since then, I've learned that the DEA (and the FBI) have agents operating in Canada -- it's illegal for the time being, but our federal government has been turning a blind eye to it. My better half has just reminded me that, with the signing of the latest border agreement with the U.S., this will effectively legalize DEA/FBI activity in Canada! (Thanks for nothing, Harper, you fascist fuck!)

From a political standpoint, there isn't one hell of a lot I can do -- these fuckers have their majority and, until they're thrown out, they can effectively do what they like. I can't do anything about the fact that the DEA/FBI are operating in this country, so the only thing I can do is to help people by equipping them with the tools to make their jobs harder, if not impossible. It's my way of fighting back.

I was always somewhat suspicious of Hushmail, as they violated a fundamental tenet of public key cryptography by storing both halves of the PGP keypair for the user in the name of convenience.

What did astonish me about the Hushmail debacle was the lengths to which the company was forced to go to undermine their users. A lot of people in the bodybuilding community were using Hushmail/Cyber-Rights/Elite-Fitness as an 'secure' email provider. I saw a press release by a DEA spokesman wherein they claimed they collected 'hundreds of thousands' of emails as part of their court order against Hushmail.

By any reasonable estimation, this was nothing less than a galactic-sized clusterfuck. Most bodybuilders, like the general public, could use good security -- the problem is, they don't know what their options are -- they can't tell the snake-oil from the Real McCoy.

As you may have seen from reading my posts, there are options out there that are not only free, but truly secure -- the problem is that most people don't even know they exist. (The other problem is that they're somewhat difficult to use.)

With any luck, I can help people to secure themselves. I can't kick the DEA/FBI out of the country, but I []i]can[/i] give the DEA/FBI a virtual kick in the ass.


I later elaborated with a few more details I didn't include the first time:

I've never cared for the way the DEA operates, but some of the things they did in the Emery case truly went beyond the pale -- I would barely classify these DEA officials as human beings -- they truly are PIGS.

Marc Emery was not the only one investigated and liable for extradition to the United States -- there were two associates of his as well, Michelle Rainey and and Greg Williams (I didn't know either of them.)

Michelle Rainey suffered from some a severe form of Crohn's disease, which left her in enormous pain. She also suffered from cancer. The only thing she could do to obtain relief from the pain and unbearable nausea she suffered on a daily basis was to smoke marijuana.

The U.S. Feds didn't want Emery to fight extradition; they wanted him to agree to a plea-bargain. They told him that if he agreed to serve a 5 year sentence, they would leave his associates alone. If he didn't agree to the plea bargain, they would extradite all 3 of them, and urge for the imposition of the maximum possible sentence (30 years).

Marc knew damn well that if Michelle went to prison, she would not only die there, she would die in absolute agony, because they would NEVER allow her the marijuana she needed. (She could legally use marijuana in Canada, as she was a medical marijuana patient.) She died in October 2010 of cancer.

Marc was extradited in May 2010 -- one can only wonder at the care (or lack thereof) that Michelle would have received as a cancer patient with concomitant Chron's disease in the prison medical system.

So, here you have the DEA, those smug motherfuckers, ready and willing to send a terminally ill medical marijuana patient to prison where she was guaranteed to die in agony, just over some goddamn fucking marijuana seeds!

The real kicker, however, was the Canadian government (once again under our glorious Fuhrer Stephen Harper), which permitted Emery's extradition to the U.S. It was perfectly within the Justice Minister's power to refuse to extradite Emery (or any of them), if for no other reason than the enormous disparity in potential criminal penalties.

If Emery were to be prosecuted in Canada for his 'crime' all he would have faced was a $200 fine, according to his wife Jodie.

Jodie also claimed (I believe correctly) that this amounted to nothing less than the outsourcing of our Justice system to the United States.

Now, under agreements between both of our countries, is is legally possible for prisoners to be repatriated, so Emery could serve his time in a Canadian facility, where he could be closer to family and friends. The process is fairly long and complex on the American side; on the Canadian side, all that is needed is the Minister's approval.

One Emery supporter who lives in the Minister's riding (what you would refer to as an electoral district) met with the Minister at a BBQ, and pleaded Emery's case for repatriation. The response from the Minister was most enlightening -- he had no problems with Emery being repatriated -- what he was worried about was that Emery might do something to piss off the Americans -- like resume his political advocacy for marijuana legalization.

So, here you have the Minister for Public Safety, elected by Canadians, expected to look out for the Canadian people, who is completely unconcerned with the welfare of a Canadian citizen -- all he gives a flying fuck about is not to offend the Americans.

What is especially galling about this is that what appears to offend the Americans is Emery exercising his Constitutional right to association and free expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in lobbying for marijuana legalization.

This Minister is the very same one who will be responsible for introducing the 'lawful access' legislation expected to come down the pipe later this year, perhaps in the next 3-6 months. (Warrantless wiretapping here we come!)

Now you know a little bit more about why I hate the fucking DEA almost as much as I hate the Conservative government in Ottawa.

Mirrorshades

[usa]

I think Marc got the short end of the stick. I was very surprised Canada handed him over to the US.

[Chicken_Hawk]

I for one would like to thank you for your efforts as it seams that people are generally ignorant of what big governments are capable of. Most of us bbers just assumed that "hushmail" was safe, because they said it was. And while your efforts are often ignored, they are definitely appreciated by a few, including myself. It's sad as I feel this community is ripe for another ORD and if we were prepared and educated we might fair much better. That being that, I am still going to do my best to take full advantage of your diligent efforts and watch my own ass!

So thanks,
Hawk

[Mirrorshades]

I think Marc got the short end of the stick. I was very surprised Canada handed him over to the US.

If it had been any other government, I would tend to agree with you, but not with this bunch of Quislings. After all, these guys have ties to the Republican party in America; people from the Republican party have been coming up to 'advise' them. If they'd had a majority when Bush was in office, we would have been neck-deep in Iraq, along with you guys. As it was, then-Prime Minister Chretien threw Bush a bone, by sending our troops into Afghanistan. We don't have a huge military, like the U.S. does -- while our people are very good, there are limits to what we can accomplish. We finally pulled-out last year, after some 10 years, and over 155 military and civilian dead. (In my opinion, they all died for nothing -- their government literally threw their lives away for nothing.)

The last Prime Minister we had with any real balls was Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau was from the Liberal Party, like Jean Chretien. The Prime Ministers who have been most subservient to American interests generally have come from the Conservative Party. In the late 1950s, when (conservative) John Diefenbaker was Prime Minister, he cancelled the Avro Arrow. The Arrow was a sophisticated supersonic interceptor designed and built by the A.V. Roe company on the outskirts of Toronto.

The Arrow was on the verge of full production, and was a better aircraft than anyone else had on the drawing boards, including the United States. Not only were the capabilities of this aircraft enormous, but so were its costs -- so much so, that the government was petrified at the prospect. Diefenbaker and then-President
Dwight Eisenhower convinced Diefenbaker that planes were 'obsolete' and convinced him to take American Bomarc missiles instead. (Eisenhower wanted nuclear warheads installed on these, which Diefenbaker refused to accede to. If they had been installed, they nukes would have been under exclusive American control.
Needless to say, if they had ever been used, we would have been the unlucky recipients of the blast/fallout.)

What really did it with the Arrow, though, was the Conservative government's orders that every single plane be destroyed, along with all the plans, models, etc. Although this was over half-a-century ago now, there is still bitterness over this. Some people have speculated that the CIA lobbied the U.S. government to pressure the Diefenbaker government to have the Arrow utterly obliterated, as the Arrow was the only plane that could match, or even exceed, the performance of the American U2 spy plane.

After the Arrow contract was cancelled, the A.V. Roe company pretty-much folded, shedding all its 14,500 employees. Many of them went south to work for NASA; while others headed to Europe to work on the Anglo-French Concorde. The Canadian aircraft industry never recovered from this blow -- instead of having our best and brightest working at home producing our own aircraft, like the U.S. and the U.K., we forced all this extraordinary talent to go abroad. Instead, we have become mere passive importers of foreign technology (primarily American.) Our current Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, is hell-bent on acquiring American F-35 stealth aircraft -- an aircraft manifestly unsuited to our conditions -- only an idiot pilots a single engine fighter over vast uninhabited expanses which comprise so much of the country. (The current fighter, the F-18, has two engines -- even if one fails a pilot can still limp home on one. In the F-35, they'll have no option but to ditch, meaning that we'll likely lose both plane and pilot.)

See: Aykroyd and the Making of The Arrow - The Canadian Encyclopedia

Mirrorshades

[LITTLEMAGS]

MS, i dont think you know HOW much you are appreciated with presenting such good information..great read and insight!

[killswitch604]

You bring some incredible information here, bro, and you are a major asset to the community and this board. The War on Drugs is what has motivated me to become so politically active, and I can only hope more people wake up to what is really happening everywhere.

[Mirrorshades]

You bring some incredible information here, bro, and you are a major asset to the community and this board. The War on Drugs is what has motivated me to become so politically active, and I can only hope more people wake up to what is really happening everywhere.

If you can stomach it, check out FEAR: Forfeiture Endangers American Rights -- some of the stuff in there was enough to make me blanch, and I don't frighten easily.

Here is an excerpt:

The Spring 2007 edition of Justice Policy Journal features a 31 page treatise, Civil Asset Forfeiture: Why Law Enforcement Has Changed its Motto from "To Serve and Protect" to "Show Me the Money," in which Jared Shoemaker examines the negative impact on law enforcement goals and practices when police agencies aggressively pursue civil asset forfeitures as a means of supplementing their budgets, as well as how police agencies' addiction to forfeiture revenue leads to disregard for individual due process rights, sometimes with tragic and life-altering consequences for innocent individuals.

The perversion of law enforcement priorities was also the subject of an empirical study published thirteen years ago. Sociologists Mitchell Miller (University of Tennessee) and Lance H. Selva (Middle Tennessee State University) received the 1994 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Award for their undercover study and critical analysis of asset forfeiture's impact on police procedure. Based on twelve months of covert observation from within narcotics enforcement agencies, Drug Enforcement's Double-Edged Sword: An Assessment of Asset Forfeiture Programs described forfeiture as a "dysfunctional policy" that forces law enforcement agencies to subordinate justice to profit.

The Double-Edged Sword undercover researcher observed agencies abandon investigations of suspects they knew were trafficking large amounts of contraband simply because the case was not profitable. Agents routinely targeted low level dealers rather than big traffickers, who are better able to insulate themselves and their assets from reverse sting operations. The report states: "Efficiency is measured by the amount of money seized rather than impact on drug trafficking."

A reverse sting operation, where the officer becomes the seller who encourages the suspect to commit a crime, "was the preferred strategy of every agency and department with which the researcher was associated because it allowed agents to gauge potential profit prior to investing a great deal of time and effort." More importantly, the narcotics units studied preferred seizing cash intended for purchase of drugs supplied by the police, rather than confiscating drugs already on the street. When asked why a search warrant would not be served on a suspect known to have resale quantities of contraband, one officer responded:

"Because that would just give us a bunch of dope and the hassle of having to book him (the suspect). We've got all the dope we need in the property room, just stick to rounding up cases with big money and stay away from warrants."

In one case an agency instructed the researcher to observe the suspect's daily transactions reselling a large shipment of cocaine so that officers could postpone making the bust until after the majority of the drug shipment was converted to cash. This case was only one of many in which the goal was profit rather than reducing the supply of drugs reaching the street.

Thirteen additional years of policing for profit have now entrenched agencies in a dependency on forfeiture revenue that continues to subordinate the pursuit ot justice to the pursuit of profit.

Mirrorshades

[killswitch604]

If you can stomach it, check out FEAR: Forfeiture Endangers American Rights -- some of the stuff in there was enough to make me blanch, and I don't frighten easily.

Here is an excerpt:




Mirrorshades

Makes sense when you look at how law enforcement operates now. My buddy is a criminal defense attorney who also competes, and he swears he's never seen a bust for AAS possession if it was just for personal use. He had a client who had his house raided for marijuana and the cops found some AAS there. The cops just took the steroids for themselves and the guy was just charged with the marijuana. My buddy isn't too worried about getting busted for personal use, but I still am, regardless of what he says.

[Mirrorshades]

Makes sense when you look at how law enforcement operates now. My buddy is a criminal defense attorney who also competes, and he swears he's never seen a bust for AAS possession if it was just for personal use. He had a client who had his house raided for marijuana and the cops found some AAS there. The cops just took the steroids for themselves and the guy was just charged with the marijuana. My buddy isn't too worried about getting busted for personal use, but I still am, regardless of what he says.

If I were in your shoes, I'd tell him: "Ok, then if I get busted for possession, you'll defend me for free?"

Mirrorshades

[killswitch604]

If I were in your shoes, I'd tell him: "Ok, then if I get busted for possession, you'll defend me for free?"

Mirrorshades

LOL. I didn't believe what he said, and I'm still extremely careful about everything.